When it comes to making scripts, revisions are often made. With our first script, we realized we weren’t detailed enough, and the ended was rather abrupt. We wanted to make our second scene in the daylight a little longer, and give the character’s some lines, as well as incorporate a few different camera shots. Sofia was tasked with the script revision, as she already was comfortable with writing the first script, so we knew she would be perfect at adding new parts.

Above is our second draft of the script, and potentially our final one. As you can see, we also came up with a title of our film. We were all fans of films with short titles, like It, Hush, Vertigo, Saw, and Old, so we wanted to give our film a similar title. We all had different ideas, but then Zulai mentioned the film Gone Girl, and then said we could use the title Gone for our movie. We all loved this idea, so the title of our film was final, Gone.

All revisions and additions were made towards the end of the script. In our first draft, we realized that our characters, Sophia and Tony, didn’t have many lines (or names) and this wouldn’t give the audience any proper background on what our characters were like. We decided to change this by incorporating an argument into our second scene, this can show the audience that our characters are a couple, who tend to argue, and sometimes it gets violent. We told our actors that the dialogue we wrote in can change and can be improvised to make it seem more natural, so we also may revise our script accordingly. Zulai and I had a good idea of adding a shot from outside of the car, where you can see our characters arguing through the front windshield of the car, but you don’t hear them, the audience just hears the sound of traffic. Then, mid argument, Tony raises his arm as if he is going to hit Sophia. This is where we plan to end the scene, but if we do need more footage, we will write up a third draft for our script.

We understand that domestic abuse in relationships is a serious topic, so we plan to execute our film accordingly. We have also talked to both of our actors prior to writing this into the script to make sure it is okay with both of them. Joel and Ariya, our actors, both agreed they are comfortable in playing these roles, and will take it seriously. We wanted to incorporate the last scene of Tony about to hit Sophia to show our audience what Sophia’s life can be like, and this way they can link that Tony was the one who shoved her out of the car in our opening scene.

When it comes to casting, it’s important that we not only pick people who are talented in acting, but also people who have a schedule that is flexible, and works with ours. Since we are filming on late nights, and school nights, we needed actors who could accommodate to those specific needs.

For the role of Sophia, our female lead, we needed someone who would be comfortable with doing something a bit… uncomfortable. In our opening scene, we have our female lead get pushed out of a car after slamming to a stop. We made sure to inform anyone auditioning for this role that this scene would take place. We also wanted the girl to have that “popular” girl vibe, and we wanted her to be able to seem fun and lively.

For the role of Tony, our male lead, we wanted to cast someone who gave off a mysterious vibe, and could be serious on camera. He wouldn’t be on screen too much, but when he will be on screen, he needs to remain serious, and he should be able to get angry on camera (just acting of course!)

Above is our first audition tape for the role of Sophia. This tape was actually made by Zulai, one of our group members. She wanted to audition for the role because she had an interest in acting, and she would be there for all film days of course. At first, we thought this would be a great idea, but then we realized that if she was in front of the camera at all times acting, how would she help us film? We also then realized she may be late to certain film days due to tennis, and if that was the case, she definitely wouldn’t be able to act in it. She’s great behind the camera, so we would love to make use of her technical talent, rather than have her act for us.

Above is our second audition tape for Sophia, and this was made by one of our friends, Ariya. She has plenty of acting experience (Into the Woods, Heathers…etc) and she has managed to get lead roles in almost everything she auditioned for. Her availability is perfect for us, because although not said in the video, she can film late into the night on school nights, and she also lives near our filming location, which is perfect! We decided she would be a great fit for the role, as her previous experience is great, she has a flexible schedule, and she is comfortable with more thrilling daredevilish tasks and scenes.

For the role of Tony, we had 3 people audition. Above is our first person who auditioned- Manny! Although he was eager to help us out, his schedule wasn’t reliable as he worked nearly every day of the week. Also, we knew him personally, and knew that his bubbly happy personality would definitely show when filming, so maybe the role of Tony wasn’t for him. Manny often laughs when on camera and can’t remain serious, which is a vital part of Tony’s role. Due to all of these reasons, we realized Manny wasn’t the right fit.

Above is our second person who auditioned- Joel! Although he doesn’t have acting experience, he is good at being serious, and he does have a very nonchalant demeanor. Even though he can be very serious on camera, he still knows to not be too extreme. He was eager to help our group out, and he was interested in doing something different, like acting! His schedule worked out with ours, as he doesn’t have any sports conflicting with our schedule, and his work schedule is very limited, so he’s available most of the time. He lives really close to where our filming location will be, so everything works out in our favor. Due to all of these reasons, we knew Joel would be the perfect fit for Tony!

Above is our third audition tape, made by Evan! He also has a serious demeanor, and his acting skills would be great for our video! The only issue was scheduling conflict, he lives quite far from where we are filming, and he has a special med program he does, as well as work after. Due to these reasons, we decided Evan wouldn’t be casted as Tony due to scheduling and distance issues.

We were so excited to have many friends audition for these two roles, and we were grateful to see that our friends wanted to help us. Ariya was casted as Sophia, and Joel was casted as Tony. I’m excited to see how our production opening will come out, and I’m grateful to have great actors!

After writing a script, sometimes annotating it is good, it can help the director and camera people get a better understanding of how to film the scene, what the tone is, or what the vision for specific scenes are.

Below, is the title page of the first draft of our script (written by Sofia.) We haven’t decided on a title for our film, therefore it just says “AICE” as of now, but we hope to come up with a title this week. We also have the date our first draft was made, this can help us map out our time, and plan accordingly.

Below, you can see the start of our actual film. We plan to open the film from a fade in from black, and our setting for our first scene will be an empty road at nighttime. Sofia does a great job of describing the noise and setting for our first scene. The “beat” in the script shows there will be a pause before anything happens, so it’ll just be one shot of the road while everything is quiet. Then the action happens, the car is quick, the music is loud, and I made sure to show that with my annotations. I wrote down which shots were important, what audio effects we may need to incorporate, and more.

Then we fade into black and go into our opening credits and title sequence. After that’s done, we fade into a new scene, with a completely different vibe and atmosphere. It’s now daytime, we can see our female lead, Sophia, happy, bubbly, and singing inside of a car, while we are then introduced to a new character, our male lead, Tony.

That was all I annotated for our first draft, but as we finish our second draft and final drafts, I will continue to annotate them as it helps us and our actors get a vision for what we had for specific scenes.

A storyboard serves as a visual blueprint for a film, breaking down the action into distinct panels. Each panel features ordered illustrations that detail camera movements, dialogue, settings, moods, and other key elements. My team and I mapped out the opening sequence of our video, detailing it shot by shot. For a better understanding, one can reference my earlier blog post, “Our Script (Draft One)”

Our storyboard created by me

Under each scene drawing, I made sure there were notes indicating the types of camera shots and elements we’ll incorporate. Our short film will feature a diverse range of camera techniques. In box five, you’ll find details about the camera placements during filming. I wasn’t quite sure how to draw the scenes (from the camera pov) for shots four and five, so that’s why I made sure to incorporate the camera placement.

Although I personally enjoyed making our storyboard, I did struggle a bit with drawing the accurate point of views, but I’m proud of myself for finding a solution that not only made me happy, but also my peers. Additionally, box four showcases our vision for the look of our production company.

Most films have a theme, a mood, or/and a vision. We wanted to make sure we all had the same idea for our film, and if we didn’t have the same idea, we could incorporate all of our ideas together. We decided to create a mood board in Google Slides. A mood board is a mix of photos of outfits, colors, clothes, and more, intended project a particular concept. It’s a visual representation of what the aesthetic, look, and tone of the film would be. This will help us during filming so that we have examples of the look we want to achieve.

To start off, we made a slide for one of our main characters. This is our male lead, and we all had a vision for him. While sofia and I had a similar vision, we wanted to incorporate Zulai’s vision as well. I visioned our male lead as a sort of creepy, stalker guy. He’s very mysterious, and we don’t want our audinece to know much about him.

We also made a slide for our main character, we all had similar visions for her, with a little twist. We will find a way to incorporate all of our ideas, and all of our outfits/hair inspo. I personally imagined her as like a “girl next door” vibe. She wears casual clothing, and isn’t too over the top.

We all had very similar ideas for a color scheme, we wanted our first scene to be dark, gloomy, and mysterious, while our second scene was a complete contrast, we wanted it to be bright, as the scene would take place mid-day.

For props, we all knew we needed just about two things, a car, and a phone. The first scene is taking place on an empty road with a car, while the second scene is also in a car, but one of the character’s (our male lead) has a phone in hand.

When it came to the setting for the second scene, we all agreed and had similar visions as well. WE all wanted it to take place in a car, with our male MC driving, and our female MC in the passenger. We wanted the male MC to be serious, while the girl was full of joy, unaware as to what was going to soon happen.

When it came to our opening scene, we also all had a similar vision, and we are all excited to execute it. We wanted this scene to be dark, and we wanted it to take place on an empty road in the night. We wanted our audience to be shocked, and we wanted it to be a scene that was long, but felt quick, and left the audience questioning things.

When it came to characters (personality-wise) we wanted our female lead to be a somewhat popular girl, everyone loves her, but she has a secret.Her boyfriend (our male lead) is abusive, and they argue a lot, making the girl depressed. The male lead is abusive, and he gets angry often, this is an important part of his character.

When it came to writing the script, we all had a similar idea in mind. We all wanted to start with a shocking, intense scene, then after our opening titles, do a complete 180. Starting with a dark, eerie, and somewhat intense scene, then jump to a bright, bubbly, almost like a coming of age film scene is what we wanted to achieve.

Sofia was the most comfortable and familiar with the format of a script, so she took on the task of formatting it and writing the final draft. Zulai and I wrote out what we envisioned for the scene in a separate Google Doc, so Sofia could see what we were envisioning, and write a combination of all three of our ideas. Once she finished formatting it, she showed it to me and Zulai. She helped teach us the format of a script, and how dialogue, settings, and character descriptions are all written in.

Below is what Zulai and I wrote for our “scripts.” We decided to both write a mock script to help everyone understand what we were visioning, and this way we can do a combination of all of the scripts. Sofia also wrote a version of her script, but she wrote it on paper in her journal.

Above is our final script that Sofia wrote. We plan to add more to the second scene in the future, but as of now we want to focus on the first scene. We also don’t have a set title yet for our film, hence the “aice” title. We all are happy with how our work is coming along, and we are excited to see how our final project ends up.

When it came to making our company logo and company name, we hit a roadblock. We were unsure of what we could name our group, as doing the “classic” initials acronym didn’t seem to work well for us. After some thought, Zulai had the great idea of combining our initials, not into an acronym, but into a symbol. Once we did this, we realized it had resembled an hourglass. Once we saw this resemblance, an abundance of ideas came to mind. We realized that in many films, hourglasses resemble time running out, so we wanted to do the opposite of that. Our logo would resemble something timeless. That’s also how we came to decide our production company would be called, “Timeless.” So in our opening credits, it would say, “A Timeless production…” Now, when it came to the logo, we liked the idea of a hourglass, but it still gave us the “time is running out” vibe. We wanted the opposite of this, so we thought the idea of a clock with the hands spinning would be perfect. As the hour and minute hand spin rapidly, it represents that time is passing, but we are still here, a timeless feeling. Below is my scratch sheet with my thought process/planning.

Above is what I had pictured for the spinning clock, it would look something like this, but with a more “old fashioned” clock.