October 18, 2015
I had unexpected help today for the film. Ms. Hall, my music teacher, gave me a few pointers, ideas, and inspiration during my latest lesson.
For this lesson, I brought in the musical score for the theme of Hugo (It’s called “The Thief”). After playing it for a little bit, our conversation turned to film and the role of the producer, director, music director, and composer. She told me that the producers and employers aren’t going to be looking for a film degree, but the works I’ve done (which is about what anyone remotely in the industry will tell you.) I told her I was currently working on a film for a school project (this one in fact!) I told her about my characters Monty, Maddox, and Romaine (her name escaped me at the moment and I called her Rosemary instead.)
She even suggested that Monty have braces, representing his imperfections. It would also be a sign he of him going insane as the Vocelyne takes its toll on him. She remembered a story about old braces picking up radio waves so that the people wearing them can hear music. I was thinking it would be a great way of tying in the soundtrack to the story, as Monty lost his mind and becomes more electric, the music he was hearing would be more modern and out of control. I liked the idea, but we might be incorporating too many things into the film. I don’t think I would include it if Monty’s electrical arcing is enough. It’s a definite no if the actor we choose for Monty doesn’t have braces. Regardless, I loved the suggestion.
She liked the names Jack and I gave to the characters and how they went against their common stereotypes. Monty seems like a name of a person who is less academically inclined and more likely to get into trouble, however, he is a child intellectual prodigy. Maddox seems like the name of an all around star, but instead he is struggles with most simple tasks. We have a character that lives past their name and one that doesn’t quite live up to it.
One of my favorite contributions Ms. Hall gave to me was about Monty and Maddox’s relationship.
We already had a lot of conflict over living up to one’s potential, one brother being an example of an overwhelming performance and the other being underwhelming. Jack and I imagined that they were fraternal twins, opposite sides of the same coin if you will. Ms. Hall suggested that one of them be adopted. Looking at it, there are lots of practical and story related reasons for doing so:
Don’t have to have the actors look alike
More conflict added between Monty and Maddox if one of them is the biological twin
I was thinking this was a great idea because then the story could go two ways. One: Maddox is the adopted brother. Comes out of a broken family and now has to be the rut of a new family. The parents will most likely favor Monty (though they may try to hide it), their golden and biological son, making Maddox the odd man out in the family. On the other hand, Maddox being the biological son would have its own set of conflicts. It can create a jealousy in Monty leading him to try to squash Maddox as the preferred child. (We assumed that Monty would be a part of the family first and through an unrealized pregnancy, Maddox would join.) We would go against the stereotype that the biological child would be the brilliant one, adding to Maddox’s woes. Once again, the parents may subtly prefer Monty (enough to give him his own laboratory), but feel more obligated to love Maddox because he is their true son. This is the version I like the best.
Of course it being a piano lesson, we had to talk about music somehow. Ms. Hall brilliantly incorporated it by talking about the songs that would go with Monty and Maddox as characters. When went through their characteristics and personality traits and she suggested songs that would go with it.
Maddox:
Traits:
gentle
uneasy
Song Suggested:
Vivaldi Four Seasons: Spring
Monty
Traits:
Practical
Motivated
Song Suggested:
Bach
Goldberg
Variations
Vivaldi Four Seasons: Winter
With all of this random help I’m getting, I feel like my project was meant to succeed in some way. I hope with all of the opportunity and potential this film is getting, I hope I will be able to deliver.
October 19, 2015
Went home excited to practice piano for once. I work for 30 minutes on learning “The Thief” from Hugo. Afterwards, I looked into the songs Ms. Hall suggested. I realized the Vivaldi seasons were classical pieces that I’ve heard of before and I’m not sure it will fit as well with the film. I still appreciate Ms. Hall’s suggestions, though and I’m trying to meet with Jack to talk about them.
October 20, 2015
Ever since my last piano lesson with Ms. Hall, I’ve been wanting to meet with Jack to discuss the points she brought up. Yesterday I wasn’t able to meet because my siblings had piano practice that day and I had to leave school early. We weren’t able to meet today because we had to work on the first show for the DEC.*
Just so I would remember what we needed to talk about, I added a section in our Sophomore Project Outline called “We need to talk about”. I started venting all of my thoughts and woes in that section for about ten minutes:
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT:
Story
Maddox’s character
Monty and Maddox’s home relationship
Story issues and practicalities
Monty being intelligent enough to create Vocelyne
Who the story is really about, Monty or Maddox?
Ditch the clubs, it’s about Maddox
Stressed from the work and don’t have time for annoying slow brother, it’s about Monty
Since Monty is the one that rampages and Maddox saves him, I feel like it’s really about Maddox.
Plot reasons. Monty needs to get to his clubs during overworked schedule, yet has time to spend on making scientific advancements?
Fear of having too many things to keep up with for the short film Juggling a lot of story elements for a short film. (If we move forward on all of these, we should reevaluate once the first draft is done)
Monty’s clubs
Monty and Maddox’s brotherly relationship and struggles
The creation of Vocelyne and what it does. (This extreme scientific advancement seems to only be a footnote in the story. Add this too early and we don’t have as much time to develop the other two. Add it too late and it’s like what? there are superpowers?
Monty makes this revolutionary substance and… uses it to get to his clubs? Weak usage.
The science behind the Vocelyne. (Seeing how we are taking chemistry)
Creates Vocelyne and injects it with defibrillators (needles makes it to direct of a parallel to steroids or heroin and directly drinking it is boring and overused.)
How does Monty research the science behind the Vocelyne. Does he test it on Madox?
I’m thinking in exchange for being a guinea pig, Maddox gets tutoring from Monty
Changing the name of Vocelyne (if we are naming the movie after the substance, we probably want to make the name a little more easier to spell. Can it have a nickname: Liquid Lightning?)
Monty’s rampage
How are we going to pull this off?
Pre- Production
Timeline for the project
Look at my estimated trajectory and adjust as necessary
VFX Test Days
10 Grade Project Specific Due Dates
Figuring out day we stop working project (in case it’s earlier than April)
Production
Essential production equipment
Start thinking about how we are recruiting crew members and cast
Future:
Cataloging the equipment
Post Production
Miscellaneous
Using this space for project meetings
Questions for Teachers
When do we stop working on the project
Does final evidence check mean project is complete?
Do the dates you’ve journaled count as individual process journals or is it the entries count?
I hope we will be able to meet tomorrow or Thursday. The first draft of the script is due on Halloween, that’s in a week and four days, and we’ve only finished about three pages of the script. I hope over the weekend I can really get cracking on it.
Speaking of story, the way it seems to be going, Monty is starting to look like the antagonist. Making Maddox the protagonist standing up to his stellar brother creates a true underdog story. I think that’s pretty interesting and pretty cool.
*The DEC: Decatur High’s Broadcast Television show