Maylynn Ton's Blog

New Character Analysis Main and Side Character Analysis      It is a little confusing after changing our plot, so of course, I need to reintroduce everything. I need to explain our new characters, so you don't sit in confusion about who these characters are. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure it out too, but it will naturally change as we go with the flow. Main Characters Hailey (Protagonist)      Hailey is the main character of our film and it is centered around her. She is a round and dynamic character as she grows as a person as the film progresses. For her appearance, she has pigtails and glasses with a yellow shirt with cartoon characters, jean shorts, knee-high socks, sneakers, a butterfly clip, and different colorful bracelets. Moreover, she has a backpack full of dolls with a cat keychain as her prop. It is clear that she is young from her childish and bright outfit and that she loves playing with toys from her props. From the opening sequence, it...

Wishlist How Our Dream Project Would Look      Sometimes I wish I was a random rich person who owns a multi-billion dollar film business, so this film would look so amazing that it would blow away Cambridge. This will be a blog about what my dream project would look like and things I'd change about our high school budget opening sequence if I lived in a world where I had a major movie production budget. Actors      I would absolutely hire actual actors, but too bad we are poor high school students who cannot afford to pay someone a few thousand dollars to act in our short opening sequence. Firstly, for our main character (Hailey), I would probably cast an actual little girl rather than have me as the actor because I am a sixteen-year-old teenager. At least I look somewhat young! I think I would try to cast someone similar to Mckenna Grace when she was younger because she is such a well-known child actor that it would definitely bring some attention. On the ...

Specific Camera Shots/Angles These are fire!      There were NUMEROUS different camera shots and angles in our opening sequence, but there were three specific ones that we picked that looked absolutely amazing in our final project. These ones were kind of made up on the spot, while we were at the playground, and we were so excited to have these in our project. They were so genius and we felt like real film directors. Overhead Shot      We wanted a shot where you could see the main character (Hailey) playing with her dolls, but also, to make it clear that she is alone, we chose an overhead shot. As a result, this allows the audience to establish what she is doing and also see her surroundings, making it clear that she is alone and vulnerable. The shot isolates her and makes her seem smaller and weak, so it evokes feelings of apprehension that she is a young child who can be kidnapped at any time, especially with all the missing children reports. Plus, it...

Editing Post 2 Locking in      Editing is the last obstacle of our final project until we reach our Creative Critical Reflection (CCR), but that is a later problem. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet up in person after school to edit because of our schedules, especially with having to finish every single aspect of our project including other assignments. Thus, Jason and Jaden (our main editors) met up after school because they live near each other to edit the rest of the video and we all met up at school to discuss and fix certain parts of the video. Moreover, we were able to also FaceTime and video call on Discord to make changes to our final project. We tried our hardest to make sure everyone was involved in the editing and was able to give their own opinion and advice. As I mentioned, we changed to CapCut for our editing because Adobe Premiere Pro was extremely difficult to use, so it was hard to implement our suggestions. Nonetheless, editing went smoothly and I am...

Day 2 of Shooting Success!      I am so incredibly happy that Day 2 of Shooting was much more successful than Day 1 because it was stressing me out so badly. My stress was relieved and I was allowed to breathe, so thanks to my team members for helping me achieve this. Day 2 Overview      We definitely did SOOOO much better on Day 2 of shooting. The first day was a huge disaster because we weren't even sure of the location of our filming and couldn't even act out the serious plot. However, we changed our plot and our actor (it's me now), and we are all good. Basically, we shot at the playground to finish all of the shots at our main location first, which was at Miramar Regional Park. Plus, we used the surrounding area, where nobody was there like the sidewalks, roads, and lake for some extra shots just in case we needed them for the title sequence. All of us were there including two of our friends (Logan and Isabella). They came along with us for emotional s...

Representation Is it stereotypical?      Hello, guys! Today, we are going to talk about our film's representation. Representation and Challenges      Overall, the representation is very stereotypical with a few challenges. For example, it illustrates a little girl who gets kidnapped and it is very typical of a child to get kidnapped and this is emphasized by her pigtails and outfit with her brightly colored styling as she carries around dolls. Additionally, the antagonist or masked man is wearing a black outfit and a mask, which is very common for a kidnapper or villain, making him look suspicious assumably due to this representation. However, the representation was a bit challenged just by chance because all the actors were Asian and it is presumably stereotypical for an Asian to be smart and stricter. Therefore, it is surprising that an Asian parent would allow their child to go to the park alone without supervision and someone would expect they would...

New Costuming FRESH OUTFITS!      What's up, followers? With a new plot, we had to make all new costumes. However, we already started filming, so luckily, we got the outfits locked in and created in real life. Hence, this blog will summarize and analyze our new costumes and their importance to our characters! Hailey (Protagonist):      Hailey is our official new main character and a little girl who will sadly be the subject of a kidnapping. She wears a bright yellow shirt, jean shorts, knee-high socks, white sneakers, a yellow butterfly clip, colorful bracelets, glasses, and she has pigtails. Additionally, she wears a grey backpack with colorful patterns, a cat keychain, and a bunch of dolls inside. We REALLY wanted to make it obvious that she was a child by giving her a childish outfit and props. In fact, we gave her a yellow shirt and butterfly clip because it is largely associated with sunniness and playfulness to emphasize that she loves to play with do...

Updated Storyboard The Worse Struggle      Hello...I've missed you guys. Storyboarding makes my brain hurt, but WE FINISHED IT! Let me explain our updated storyboard. Feeling regarding our storyboarding and initial storyboard      Honestly...I can't draw or like comprehend a storyboard completely. It's kind of a leap of faith and I hope for the best. I don't think me and my members know how to draw either, but we got the hang of it eventually. I am a bit indecisive about how to plan our opening sequence, which makes storyboarding harder. Nonetheless, things can be changed and it's just a tiny outline, so I've calmed down internally. Basically, we changed our entire plot, so it can't be completely compared to our old storyboard with our plot about two brothers. Our initial storyboard was definitely so much harder to film because of the elaborate fight scene, the passing transition where he goes back into the present, and the random cut to the clown scene. As...

Group Dynamics Don't worry! It's been fine.      Our group had many ups and downs. Before we switched to our new plot, I actually wanted to rip the hair out of my scalp. However, I feel like everyone is now pulling their weight and we equally have important roles after splitting our jobs, such as doing the Foley (Afifa), editing (Jaden), and acting (Me and Jason). Additionally, we have had help from our friend Logan because he has a camera and is skilled at filming. I definitely had hesitations about working with them at the beginning as we did not have any direct roles, so everything was vague. Plus, I felt more obligated to do everything instead of having assigned jobs and asking them to do things. Fortunately, we communicated and fixed this issue.      In fact, I had a strong urge to work alone for about a week because I had no idea where this project was going or how it was going to get done in time for submission. I am a HUGE control freak and I hate w...

Plot Changes Out with the old, in with the new! How did it change and why?      BOOM!!! BOOM!! BOOM!! A MILLION THINGS have changed since the last time I saw you guys! We completely changed our plot for our opening sequence. BUT – don't worry I won't leave you in the dark. I will be explaining all of it – big or small. Funny story – I gave my group the ULTIMATUM, which was I either leave and do the project alone or we change the plot (I feel a little bad now). I was rolling around in bed at 2AM because I was so stressed that we could not act or execute our shots properly. I search high and low and far and wide to no avail. I was at a dead end at what to do next, and I felt the best decision would be to start from scratch. I expressed my concerns, and it FREAKED them out, but we compromised and brainstormed...A NEW PLOT! This has been the best thing to bless our group. What's the plot of the new opening sequence?      Let's start from the beginning! The firs...

Lighting OOOOOO Let the light in... Lighting Choices      Fun fact: we actually got a light from the BECON TV guy! In more detail, for the beginning scene of our opening sequence when Hailey (our main character) is seen playing with her dolls, we mixed natural lighting from the window plus our actual light to make it bright, using high-key lighting, making this an active choice. We want to make sure that it is clear that it was a normal sunny day and that she's happy, childish, and innocent for our mise-en-scene. The brightness of the lighting evokes a cheerful and content mood as she is playing with her toys and dressing up her dolls. We kept it consistently high-key lighting as her dad drove her to the playground and she walked around, having fun. In fact, we wanted to make sure the contrast of this scene and the kidnapping scene greatly contrast with each other and evoke different moods. As the sun starts to dim, it creates a three-point lighting as the sun shines ...

Editing The time has come Editing Process and Details      Let's discuss the process of editing! Thanks to Jaden, for our editing software, we have Adobe Premiere Pro because he has Comm Tech. As a result, Jaden is our primary editor, but we will all help him along the way. Don't worry! However, I would say we aren't completely done with filming, but we have most of our shots, so as we edit, we will find missing components and will film for more shots to fill in our blank spots and make it more cohesive. In fact, this was one of our issues with editing because we found a substantial number of issues with our filming (we definitely need more and longer shots). The longer the shot, the more control we have over editing and the length of the clips. Hence, we will meet again to discuss the shots we are missing or need refilming and return to editing. Additionally, we exceeded our time of two minutes because we made it too long with the room, car, and playground scenes (MOSTLY...

Title Sequence Trial and Error! Hi, guys!! We each created our own visions of the title sequence and picked the best one. Come see our decision-making process! My Vision Mine (1)      My title sequence is definitely on the simpler side. I wanted to go for a more symbolic piece, so I used Canva to quickly craft a draft with many different layers and colors. For the font (Manslava), I went for a messy handwriting look with the main title colored yellow to represent the main character (Hailey Davis). She consistently wears yellow throughout the opening sequence, symbolizing energy, playfulness, and optimism. Moreover, the title "Gone" repeats diagonally, which is connected to the yellow O to demonstrate another twisted side of the story (another dark route). Additionally, the red slide illustrates the quick downfall and conflict of the opening sequence as it begins light-hearted and happy as she plays with her dolls and goes to the park, where she quickly gets kidnapped by a...