Covid-19

As of today, schools have been canceled in our area. Covid-19 has had a huge impact around the globe and it has begun to make its way into the US. People infected with the virus continue to increase every day and it has become a real problem everywhere. Mr.Trump has even declared a travel ban on many European countries. The Ymca which I work at has been closed till late March. This will really impact our project since many places have begun to shut down and lock up, which they should. The point is to stay isolated as long as possible to control the virus spreading to many places.

As for me, I am not allowed to leave the house and I will not be able to attend Pearse's birthday party. I feel insanely terrible for not being there for my friend since we have grown very close but it is a precaution I must take. I hope this clears up soon so we can get back on track with our projects but for now, I won't be able to film anything till this problem clears up.

Wash your hands!

Filming Dates

In order to meet up and start filming, we needed to know when everyone was available so I created a group chat on iMessage to text everyone at the same time. Then Pearse sent a google doc questionnaire that asked everyone when they would be available to film. After many hours of pressuring everyone to answer and make sure they replied we finally got our results which are down below.

We got good results, out of all the 7 options 5 of them got 80%. This is pretty good cause we don't need everyone to attend every single day and we can map out what scenes to film each day. With that said we will be filming March 22nd and the 23rd. After we will look at our footage and review if we need to reshoot or anything else.

Cast

For choosing our cast we decided it would be best to give our actors easy roles that they could learn and portray with no problem. So we actually came up with the idea to let them play themselves. Now their lines will be scripted but what they are saying would more or less be what they say in real life. I will be acting and Pearse decided that he will be filming so he won't. So here is our cast: 

Stevie- Irina Blanco (She wanted a name change)

Raul- Raul Passarini (me)

Diego- Diego Machado

Sara- Sara Briones

Locations

Based on our screenplay we have decided to film in 5 different locations. This is a drastic jump from last year which we only filmed in one location. I think it will be fine since we will have 5 minutes to develop a narrative but we have to make sure the scenes that are flashbacks are somewhat quick but add to the narrative. So here are our 5 locations:

1. Stevie's Bedroom: This will be our main actor's room, which will be a female actress, so it will be either Pearse's sister's room or Irina's room (Irina is a top prospect for the main role). We want the room to look like a real teenage girl room, no dolls but also still messy and filled with teenage girl decorations.

2. Volleyball Court: For the volleyball scene we decided to use the courts at the Ymca Regional Park. Usually, they are filled but if we go early enough we can find an open court to film in. But it will be a bit of a challenge since the sun is going to be shining HARD.

Volleyball Courts at the Ymca

3. Dining Room: For this scene, we are still in between my house and Pearse's house. We have still not decided but we have to find a place with good lighting, which I believe could be either house. We will figure this out later.

4. House: The house we don't use for the scene above will be the house used for this scene. We just need to switch locations to make sure the audience knows it is a different scene.

5. Field: For this scene, we are looking at Everglades Holiday Park and Vista View Park as the main two locations to shoot. I also suggested Markham Park but the other two locations are more atheistically pleasing. Both of those parks will look awesome on camera and filming in the sunset will turn out really cool for our scene.

Vista View Park

Final Script

Here is our final script. We have been working hard on getting it done by researching various sources on how to do it. Click the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15oUiYEjHb9s7jX9McK7mvr9PWsMKFVv3/view

Permission Update

After a while of trying to find contacts to send emails to, I got so tired. I don’t know why it is so hard to find someone to contact and try to get permission. After a while of searching for someone to contact Sony, I found an email that could lead to a reply. Even if the person that receives it can’t help us by giving us permission they could probably redirect us to someone that can. That’s why I wasn’t too stressed about finding a specific email just simply finding one that can help us. Below is a screenshot it the email:


For the song “We Are Young” by Fun. I had no look finding anyone from Fueled By Ramen to contact. I will try to ask my teacher on tips on how to get permission because I am a mess. However, in a world with social media, I usually don’t give up so easily. Instead, I searched up every single person from the band on Instagram and sent them a direct message individually all saying the same thing. And just a few hours later I received an answer from one of the original band members himself (my friends can testify that I started screaming with joy). Not only did he answer back but he also gave his permission to use the song (under certain terms). Here are the screenshots:

Although he did warn us there might be chances that it could be taken down or flagged I still think this shows we are on the right track. I call this a win!

(I still haven't found a way to get in contact to ask permission for "Stereo Hearts" but I will keep trying)

2010 Throwbacks!

I began my search by searching up “throwbacks 2010s” and the memories were endless. From the old Justin Bieber songs that I refused to let anyone know I listened, to the old Drake songs that made me release my inner street side. All these songs just made me feel so happy and thankful for the life I have had. And that’s the feeling we are looking for. I felt it the most in some songs specifically starting with Khalid’s song “8teen”, “We Are Young” by Fun., and “Stereo Hearts” by Gym Class Heroes. I would like to analyze all these songs individually.

“8teen” - The pros about this song is that it talks about a stage our target audience is in, has been in, or is going to be in. The con with this song is that it doesn’t have the same emotional attachment as the other ones. It is very recent and wasn’t as big of a hit when released. However, it is still an amazing song and I would love to work with it.

“We are Young” - I can’t say anything bad about this song. It is such a classic to me and I love it more than anything. I know I seem biased but no song makes me as happy as this one. I remember this song clearly playing in my eighth-grade dance and I was having the time of my life with all my friends. I know every single lyric to this song.

“Stereo Hearts” - The pros to this song is that it holds a huge attachment to my generation. It is equally as big of a hit as “We Are Young” in my opinion. The cons are that it talks about love rather than growing up or this specific time that we look to represent in our film.

All of these songs would work perfectly in our movie and I hope I find a way to get permission to use them.