Planning - Costumes for the Film (#26)

     Today I  will be showing the costumes and ideas I have for my film opening. The costumes are from Pinterest. 

Alana's Costume!!

    To start, Alana's costume. For a reminder, Alana is the protagonist of my film opening. I will be acting as her for my film opening. Her outfit will be either a matching PJ set or casual sleeping clothes, like pants and a T-shirt which is shown below. 

    I chose to do something similar with this because the main point of my film is that Alana forgets about the homework , remembering it before she is going to bed. So, it would make sense that she is in some sort of pajamas. 

The Nun's Cousin's Costume!!

    So I think this could be hard to pull off but this costume is based off the nun, (hence the name), but to find some that scary during the Christmas time, it will be hard. I got this, I just have to trust the process and you should too (please 😓). :)

        You may be asking, why is the nun my inspiration. Well The Nun has always been my favorite horror movie has horror films/movies are my favorite genre to watch. Something about the thrill is exciting for me, so I've always loved those types of movies. I'm not totally sure where I will get this outfit, but I will believe that I can figure it out soon! 

Reflection

    I hope that I can find these costumes or something similar to what I want to execute the outfits I envision near perfect. Soon production starts and I am a bit nervous but, I'm okay!  The costume I'm most worried about is The Nun's Cousin's costume, due to it not being spooky season anymore, but hopefully I can find something. I got this! Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!! 

Dad Joke of the Day:

         Why are spiders so smart? 

                    Because they can find everything on the web!

References

Where I got the costume pictures.

    Bri ౨ৎ. (2025, January 25). H&M | Online Fashion, Homeware & Kids Clothes | H&M US. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4574037117048317/

    Lee, J. L. (2025, June 6). crop top and sweatpants outfits. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/2040762328494811/

    Powers, D. (2025, September 16). Reaper Outfit Male. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1196337404877233/

Me trying to find The Nun's Cousin's Costume

Planning/Research - Taking Inspiration (#25)

     Hellooo viewers! Today I will be watching short horror films that have similar lighting, camera work, and ideas as mine to show how I plan to try to incorporate these features in my two minute film opening. All of these videos are from YouTube and they are about 5-8 minutes long each.

The first video

This one is called "Never Left | Horror Short Film" by CIAK COMPANY

    As seen in this clip (this is the end of the full video), it ends abruptly but has a impactful ending to the film. I want to end my film opening on a cliffhanger.  The lowkey lighting in this film ending, is something I'm planning to include for my two minute film opening. I want the lowkey lighting because in horror films, that is one of the many things that horror movies/films include the most, especially in jump scares and important parts of the movie/film.

    As you can see in this scene it is a POV shot of the main guy looking to the antagonist. This is one of the shots I plan to use many times in my film opening to emphasize important turning points in the film opening. I annotated this scene because it is similar to a scene I have in mind for my opening film, towards the end, (refer to blog #23, numbers 9 and 10) for those scenes. 

The Second Video:

This one is called "Ignore It - Short Horror Film (Award Winning)" by Grimoire Horror

    There wasn't a clip from here that I would take inspiration from to add to my film, but here is a scene annotation. 

    As seen in this shot, the entity or antagonist is being reflected from the girl's glasses. The reason this stood out to me, is because I wanted to do something similar, but instead of reflecting over my glasses, I reflect off of my glass sliding door of The Nun's Glasses, showing the POV of Alana.

The third video:

This one is called "Double Vision | Independent Horror Short Film" by Isabella Kiser

    The clip you are about to see, is a minute long, (not the full film). 

    In this clip, the double of the protagonist is getting closer every time she close her eyes, turn off the lights, or is just not looking at the doppelganger. I plan to use this also for my film, (look at blog #23, number 9). I want to use this technique or feature, because as it happens the audience never knows how close each time the antagonist is going to get, which creates suspense. I want to have at least one suspense factor in my film to help the atmosphere of the film opening, leaving the audience in suspense as I plan to end in a cliffhanger. 

    Reflection

    Watching these videos show, in action, what I plan to have in my film opening. I want to have most, if not all of these features in my film to create the feeling I want to have in my film opening. This was a cool experience, to see the different ways people create a horror story in a short story. We will see soon enough if I was able to execute these wishes and plans. 

Dad Joke of the Day:

Since it is the Christmas season, I have the right one. 

    What do you call a singing elf,

                A wrapper. 😹

Planning - "The Homework Grave" Opening Credits Ideas (#24)

     What's up guyss! Today I will be playing around the opening credits. I want to experiment with a few fonts and designs to figure out which on fits best with my film and the vibe I want to go work. 

    A horror Opening Credit Sample

I watched this video to see an example of a traditional horror film, opening credits to see what I can do and getting a few ideas. It helped me a little bit to understand the effects of what a horror credit can do for a film.

    Here is one of the first examples I did:

    This one, even though it's a first example, I like this one. My friend, Veronica, recommend that I try with this font and style when I implement my video into Canva, I should overlay this on the video. However, I think this font is basic and not a first choice for my horror film opening. 

   Here is another example:

    At first I wasn't sure how to feel about this example, but after watching it a couple times, I like it better than the first example. To me, it feels like it matched better with my film and gives the feeling I want. This is definitely a first choice, and I hope it goes well with my film opening.

Reflection

    Playing around and experimenting with opening credits has helped me to understand and look for the different types of horror film openings. I will continue to look for examples, and play around with fonts and styles for "The Homework Grave", my film opening. I think I might change the title of my film opening. I don't think this fits the film, the more I say and talk about it to others. That decision might be part of a different blog. 

Dad Joke of the Day:

I went to buy some camouflage pants,

        but I couldn't find anything!

Planning - The Vision/Plot Idea (#23)

     Hellooo viewers. Today I will be explaining my idea/plot for my two minute film. My two minute film has a horror genre.

    The Idea

    The film is about a girl, Alana, who slacks off in school and waits the last minute to do work, basically a procrastinator. The representation behind the film is the consequences of procrastination. I chose this representation for my film to reach people, mostly students, who procrastinate, pushing them to do the opposite. The "consequence", The Nun's Cousin, is characterized as a figure in all black, who terrorizes Alana for doing work last minute.  I have personally don't procrastinate often, but from experience, doing so has so many consequences. For example, students or people will get a bad report or grade, because they rushed the work or job, trying to meet the deadline. As someone who has gotten a bad grade due to me rushing a last minute assignment, it reflected badly on my overall performance and grade. 

The Plot

    Here is the plot, with timestamps:

1. Alana, who's on her phone, remembering she has work to do. (10 seconds)
2. Alana gets up from her bed and goes to her desk. (5 seconds)
3. Alana gets her computer and workbook and starts working on assignments. (10 seconds)
   
4. Alana puts her head down as she works, slowly dozing off. "Five minutes only," she says before falling asleep. (7 seconds)
5. Here is when the nightmare starts: Alana "wakes up" and the camera cuts to movement behind her, outside in the dark backyard. (5 seconds)
   
6. Over the shoulder shot of Alana looking behind her, confused. She looks away, brushing it off and the movement happens again, so the she continues to look back as it happens many times. (20 seconds) As she continues to look back she gets more scared and worried.
7. Alana says, "What is going on?" As she says that, the movement, being The Nun's Cousin, becomes more apparent and Alana panics getting getting her things. (5 seconds)
8. As she is packing up, The Nun's Cousin, makes their way inside, slowly as the lights flickers. (5 seconds)
9. Alana rushes to the door, dropping a few things on the way, as The Nun's Cousin continues to make it towards her. The Nun's Cousin is only moves when the flickering lights, are off. (15 seconds)
10. Alana makes it to the front door but before she makes it out the Nun's Cousin is behind her. The nightmare ends here and she wakes up, for real this time. Alana looks around.  (7 seconds)
11. Alana gets up from her chair and checks around outside, in the backyard, seeing nothing. (10 seconds)
12. Alana comes back inside and continues her work, and eventually puts her head down, falling asleep. (10 seconds)
13. As she is asleep, the lights flicker and the figure shows up behind her. (5 seconds)

The end.

    The overall time added up is 1:54. Now just to clarify this is only a sketch of the timestamps, so the time of 1:54 may or may not be exact to the final product.

Dad Joke of the Day:

How does a penguin build its house?

    Igloos it together!

Planning - Group Interviews (#22)

     Hello viewers! Today in class we were able to interview other students to understand their process and ideas for film opening. I interviewed two people, Veronica C and Rafael B, and here is what I learned about them and things I can apply to my film opening. 

For Veronica

Veronica's Blogger Site

    Veronica and I have worked together before. For example, the 30 second video and the 5 shots story,  (blogs #3 and #4) and we talk about our film opening a lot, especially that we are in the planning stage of things. She is doing a coming of age/drama film opening about a student who is obsessive over school. Veronica is working by herself, so everything are her ideas and work! She is currently on blog #25.

     This is the interview notes I gathered with her:

For Rafael

    This is my first time working with Rafael in this class. He is doing a horror genre like myself. Although he doesn't have a set idea like me, I know he will do good work. Rafael told me, that what I'm representing in my film opening is very relatable to him. Which is one of the things that I am aiming for, relatability to the viewers/audience. I am currently at head of him when it comes to the overall number of blogs. I don't have access to his link because I think he is doing the blogs/post on a different website. 

    This is the notes I gathered with him:

Reflection

    Overall, this experience with the interview has opened me to more ideas and techniques I can use. Even though I didn't talk to everyone in class, I overheard things I can use for my blogs and film opening too, so I got a lot of of this experience. Feedback I got for myself is to play around with coloring and lowkey lighting to emphasize the horror/thriller aspect of the film opening, and to try and make the film slow paced to emphasize the procrastination, and not wanting to do work. I plan to apply this feedback to my film opening and planning to make my film/blogs better than ever. 

Dad Joke of the day:

Why don't scientists trust atoms?

    because they make up everything!

Did I cook? I liked this one, I personally laughed, lol. 😹 Bye guys, see ya next time!

Planning - "The Homework Grave" Storyboard (#21)

     What is up? The sky. 😼 I might start adding dad jokes in my blogs, I think that's funny. My bad, let's get on track. Today I will be creating a story board to map out my two minute film opening, with a horror genre. I have decided to call my film "The Homework Grave", as it represents the consequences of procrastination and waiting last minute to submit work on a student or person. 

This was made on Canva, through my school.

    I personally didn't know what to do for my storyboard or how to start it. What helped me understand and give me ideas on how to start, was the explanation was from the Canva YouTube video which my teacher, Mrs. Ortiz has provided for my class. This video can helped me do my storyboard above and I'm grateful that my teacher has gave this to us, because if not? I was going to be stuck 😭. 

YouTube Video link just in case

Reflection

    This storyboard for my two minute film opening doesn't include all of the scenes that I am wanting to include but it contains the main parts and scenes of the film opening. Each part includes the main point, movement, and camera shots for each scene. I chose to do these shots and movement because they show and give a great angle of what is to expect and what to see, for viewers. This storyboard has gave me a great visual as I continue to plan my film opening and has helped my family, as they are going to be acting in it too. This was also very fun to make because it was a way to opening my eyes and mind to the different things and scenes that can make my film opening great, (or good 😓).  

The Name Suggestion Results!

    From my previous blog, (#20), I made a poll for name suggestions to get some viewer interaction for my film opening, and here are the results!

    It looks like most people said I should keep it as "Girl Protagonist" and "The Antagonist". Although that has the most votes the top votes for the girls name is Alana, and for the Antagonist is The Nun's Cousin! Guys, I know most people said no, but I think it is more fun to have names and credit the viewers for the name for a interaction with my two minute film. So I will include "Alana" and "The Nun's Cousin" for the names of the main two characters in the film. Maya Out!

Edit: The name of the antagonist has been changed to "The Figure"