The first person to go was Camila Criscola. She's working on a film about bullying and how it can provoke suicide. She wasn't sure what to have as a title and had considered using "Wounding Words" but Mrs. Stoklosa didn't like it. I suggested that the title should be "Sticks and Stones" like the old saying, although instead it turns out that words really can hurt you. Everyone seemed to like the idea and Camila fist-bumped me. That was probably the highlight of my day since I quite like feeling helpful.
The second person was Ana Jurado and her opening is for a film about a teenage girl trying to decide which half of her life she wants to devote herself to; her more nerdy, school centered side or her music loving side. Pretty basic stuff, but I think it can really appeal to a teenage target audience since that's the time in people's lives when they're trying to figure out who they really are. She also needed to think of a title and she settled on "My Own Way" by the time we got to the end of her part of the discussion. Pretty basic, but I think it does its job.
Third went Sydney Surico with a film about a girl living in the 1970's realizing that she is a lesbian. It's definitely one of the more interesting film ideas we heard at the discussion. Having the story be about self-discovery and setting it in that time period definitely makes it very unique. She didn't have a title when we started the discussion, but by the end she had landed on "Dynamite."
Fourth went Jessica Briceno with her film "Affliction." It's about a teenager dealing with the death of her father and the loneliness experienced in the absence of a parent. I'm not sure how well she can portray something as traumatic as someone losing their father, but I she seems to have a decent grasp of what she's doing. She originally planned on having the first chunk of her opening being a montage of memories with the late dad, but then said she didn't want it to be too much of a montage. We suggested that she have scenes of the main character going about her day with the shots composed in a way that would emphasize loneliness or isolation. A really vivid one we thought of was the girl and her mom sitting at the dinner table at the left and right thirds of the shot with the middle third, the head of the table, being empty. There would also being a shot at the end of the opening showing a family photo with the father, who has been absent for the entire opening, making it fairly clear what has happened.
The fifth and last person to go before me was Oliver Sulla with his film "Valid." It's about a social media influencer struggling with keeping up her online persona and being herself. He had just about everything down but was trying to figure out some of the mise en scene elements to use in his opening. I suggested that he watch some vlogs from female influencers and see if he could find some inspiration there. I also suggested that he start using a shot from the phone or camera recording the main character and then switching to a shot of their set up in the room around them, showing just how artificial her persona is. It sounds like he'll have a pretty good production when everything is said and done.
Last, of course, was me. I'm not going to go over everything we discussed since it's basically everything I've gone over in this blog. However, everyone else at the table did think that our opening is very unique, creative, and that we seem to have everything ready to go through with filming.
(That's me on the left in the back)
I plan on showing off what Sil has managed to do with editing in holograms for our opening in my next post. See you then.
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