Lessons and Farewell

        Hey avid readers! It has been months in the making of writing these 40 blogs, but the time has finally come for me to say goodbye. Media Studies has been such an exciting journey to learn new skills and find a new perspective as I watch movies, it will be a class that I will remember after I have graduated. There is much I would like to talk about in this final post, so let’s dive right in.

          Movies have always taken a great presence in my life, I remember some of the earlier films I’ve watched such as The Land Before Time and Cars. Movies are not just entertainment, they are stories that find millions of fans to sit down and watch them. The thousands of films that have been released to the world have created such an impact in the media and how we absorb it. In general, the skill of moviemaking has improved drastically since the time of The Wizard of Oz or Citizen Kane, both great movies I have watched about 5 years ago. In today’s age, we have higher expectations of quality of video, audio, and script for a film, which technology has been capable of producing.

 

          As I was taught the art of films in Media Studies, I have been able to get knowledge on how shots are created and the thoughts behind each of them on the plot of a film. These shots are usually incorporated into the movies I watch in my life, especially the over the shoulder shot for conversations. The lighting is another factor in conveying the type of tone you wish your reader to feel, such as having low-key lighting to create a horror movie, or rather high-key lighting for some feel good film. We also have what type of sound you want to include in the movie, such as a diegetic sound for the characters to hear that sound playing in the background, or rather a non-diegetic sound to intensify a scene. There are a variety of ways directors implement these tools to create the type of movie genre they are expressing. 

          All in all, the main lesson I can take away from Mediastudies is to enjoy watching films. After taking the class I can point stuff out about a scene that makes me appreciative of the hard work they put into its production. For example, the other day I watched the first Creed movie, released in 2015, which followed the story of Adonis Creed in his boxing career. During Creed’s first fight he goes against his opponent, Leo Sporino, in a continuous shot that lasted 4 minutes, which is crazy! The choreography, lighting, props, setting, audience, and consistency of the actors to produce this scene must have been such a venture, especially considering if you mess something up you would have to restart from the beginning. I highly recommend watching this movie, it is incredibly exhilarating. Without Media Studies, I don’t believe I would have been able to thoroughly take away from each scene of the film. 

       As a final note, I wish to thank my teacher, Mrs. Wozniak for helping to teach me the aspects of producing a film. I have relished the time I had in her class and plan to recommend this class to lower-classmen. I appreciate the time she took to go through each aspect of the films, as well as giving us examples of when they are used in a film. Her love for production is echoed in how in-depth she is in teaching us about the topics of the lesson plan, which helps us understand and enjoy the material much more. 

      It has been an honor providing you, my readers, incite into my mind and feelings about my time in the classroom and the final project. I bid you farewell, thank you.

What if Our Budget Was Unlimited?

 

        It has been a long journey my friends, especially working with what little stuff we have to produce a 2 minute scene. There are many limitations, such as casting, quality, accessibility, convenience, experience, knowledge, equipment, and props. However, let us think about what it would be like to have an unlimited budget to create such a film. What would that be like?

       Well, I want to approach this topic by the way we would create the story, in the boardroom. With an unlimited budget, we could afford to pay a group of writers and people to help advise us on what we should do differently to improve the plot and shots. Additionally, we could afford better editing software and equipment to film, such as a crane and tracks for the camera movement. This would allow for us to reach heights and positions we could not achieve with our iphone alone, such as when we went for an overhead shot of Ricky on the ground next to the Offsides title. We could emphasize this scene much better with this budget. Not only that, but audio equipment would suffice such as hidden mics in the shirt to capture voices better. We do not favor background noises such as the wind affecting our recording, so it would be in our best interest to seek better audio quality. 

     Similarly, better audio would pair good with better quality, such as a 4k camera to capture the shots in pristine manner. Lighting is another issue we could not tackle, but with editing, as well as purchasing spaces for proper lighting, we could achieve the original vision we had for scenes, such as when Ricky was in front of the mirror. We could convey his anxiety much better if we could have had that lighting, but for now it is a good thought.

 

      The budget would allow us to pay for a wider group of actors, as well as ensure they show up to the set more often. Our biggest struggle by far was attempting to get a cast together, but most of the people we know were busy on days we needed them, which required change in casting often. Thus, the budget would change how we went about the story in a big way, such as implementing background characters like cheerleaders or observers of the football game. We could also provide the team with more players to reenact an actual football game rather than a scrimmage. I would love to put these shots to use in a situation such as that. 

     The last thing I would like to touch up on is regarding costuming and props, which we know are important aspects for the audience to know who is doing what on screen. The distinction of the players would come from their jerseys and custom numbers, as well as the coach’s uniform to tell the audience he is coaching the blue team. We could also afford football helmets to go along with the jerseys.

     All in all, this is all wishful thinking and perspectives on what parts could be improved with a decent budget. Thank you viewers for tuning into this blog post, I will catch you next time!

 

Other Film Project Ideas?

            What's up avid readers! Today I want to open up some ideas about what other ideas I would have taken on for our film project. There are endless amounts of ideas for a film, some even approach the possibility of zombies on a train or an ex assassin coming out of retirement to avenge his dog. Creativity in a plot is what attracts the viewer, while writing and production keeps the audience seated. 

           Samurais

      Football is cool, but the idea of samurais could set up an intense, action packed opening sequence involving two masters of blades fighting it out to kill one another. I would definitely pursue this idea, if it was not for the limitations in our equipment. Here is what I would imagine the scene to play out, two samurais with robes on, no helmets, approaching each other with the white lighting shining up above them. The rest of the background is nearly pitch black with only the two windows in the room shining moonlight from the outside. See where this dream is already impossible? I feel any other scenery other than this moment would not work for the type of tone I want to achieve, so this idea is in the gutter.

 

      

   Bowling

      This is a popular choice among Davin and myself, where we could include a montage of us scoring or missing pins. I could imagine how easy it would be to film with the ambience of other bowlers, as well as adding rock music layered in to create a sensational opening sequence. However, that dream falls flat once I realize how difficult it would be to even achieve that. For instance, being able to find ways to film the bowling ball would be impossible considering we cannot walk onto the bowling track to get close ups of the pins or ball itself, nor get multiple angles for a montage. The only way would be to rent out the bowling alley. Additionally, we would have to each pay to play in the game, adding to the fact that we have limited tries to get perfect strikes or play it out how we want to. This idea is just not suitable for our project.

        Workout

      My last idea for a video project would include us working out, similar to a Rocky movie where we have a montage of us striving to better our bodies. Where this already dies out is Davin simply wouldn't favor doing this idea, although I would be down to do it, and show off how many pull ups I can do in a row (35). Even so, it definitely would have been easier to film and create. However, Davin and I agreed producing a sports movie, so American football was our best bet. 

     These ideas still have a place in my heart, because they would just be so cool to film. I certainly think you would find excitement in them, as well. Thanks for tuning in to this post, I'll catch you guys around. 

The Mind behind the Shots

 What’s up viewers, in this blog post I want you all to take a peek into what had gone through my mind while in the making of the Offsides. I want you to find out about how my perspectives had shifted as we produced the project. That being said, let’s dive right in!

The beginning

        When we started the plans for the film we understood what we wanted to create. We wanted an action-packed, football scene about a young man who ultimately gets defeated. The original plot for this scene was to have this young man, Ricky Schmidt, imagine he wins a scrimmage against resilient opponents, but when he wakes up from this dream he is utterly broken by them. He lies in defeat, with no one to help him. The genre would be a sports-comedy that would encapsulate a story of a boy trying to find a career in the sport. However, things had changed as we realized this project would be much too ambitious, even in terms of how many people we looked to cast. Oh were the days of expecting 15 people to show up to the park for the filming of the project. We scrapped the idea of a daydream sequence and pursued to build a strong relationship in Ricky’s team, as well as set up the red team, who would pose as their antagonists. 

           The middle

        My perspective had shifted from a sport-comedy to more of a dramatic one with slight humor to keep the audience intrigued. Rather than having two scenes that differed in their lighting, where the daydream would be presented in a high-key lighting, while the reality would be cloudy and dreary. Finding the right tone of the movie would be impossible, especially attempting to get the cast to the field on a cloudy day with the right attire as the day before, so I decided to keep it simple and have natural outside lighting. At this time, I was really focused on how we would shoot everything, so I set up shots such as mid-shots, close-ups, and wide-shots paired with transitions. We really began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but our train derailed suddenly once we came to a realization. The easy part was creating the story, the hard part was getting people to show up on filming. Thus, we made severe changes to the plot of the scene.

           The End

 

       The final struggle to finish our project was ultimately getting people to get to the park, so we made changes. These changes ended up being the thing we needed to really create a well thought out story. Our second storyboard would crunch too many storylines and sequences together that appears rushed and out of place at times, but with time to reflect I created a story that focused on developing the character of Ricky and the people around him. This way, we would have a good flow to go off of, as well as not need as many people to show up for production. The best part of this is the amount of shots we can now include during one scene, such as one where characters converse with each other to help develop the plot, allowing for the audience’s attention to be focused on a certain actor or object. 

          Concluding Thoughts

       

       I am glad that I went through with the changes to make the movie seem much better to watch. The mistake I have learned is that a good dish takes time to marinate to really taste delicious. The entire focus on Ricky throughout this 2 minute segment will allow viewers to understand his pain and struggle rather than watching different plot lines erupt during the scene. Thank you readers for continuing to view my blog posts, even after the film has finally been released. Your thoughts will always be appreciated. See you next time.

Special Thanks to our Cast

 It is good to see you again, avid readers! The premiere of our film has wrapped up and now we await the reviews. We hope you enjoyed the scene, but now we want to give special congratulations to our cast and provide you guys with insight into their performances and roles. We could not have done it without them, so please give them a round of applause!

      * Nicholas Nelson as Ricky Schmidt

      * Nicholas Williams as Kelvin Alonso

      * Emir Delossantos as David Beck

      * Davin Williams as Coach W

      * Lazaro Alfonso (Yours truly) as Coach B

         Nicholas Nelson performed wonderfully as the protagonist of our film, who certainly captured the expressions and mentality that Ricky Schmidt conveys in the plot. The moment he walked onto set he understood what we wanted from him. Not only that, but he gave me a few pointers on what the characters should do or say as we filmed, which aided heavily into changes we made dialogue wise. It was great filming with him and he is such an amazing guy.

      

        Nicholas Williams is an outstanding friend who had put himself up to the task as the role of Kelvin once we could not meet up with a previous cast member consistently. He allowed us to ensure this project would get finished, even assisting us with recording shots and entertaining the crew while I yanked my hair out trying to decide how to improve the shots I wanted to create. I appreciate you man, you really helped us big time.

       Emir Delossantos is a close friend of mine who had always made time to film with us, even if we had to reschedule due to complications. He was consistent in his venture to show up to help us and we want to give him the proper thanks for that. His cooperation with both Nicholas’s helped the process of filming the shots they were in, even more so bringing life to David’s character. Thank you, Emir, for being there when we needed you.

      Davin Williams was both a pivotal voice in the dialogue, as well as the editing front for the film. I have regarded him in a high manner for months since we have started working together, but I sincerely compliment his efforts towards finalizing this project. Without him, I would not have been able to have this project fully realized. Thank you, I wish to work with you again in the future. Till then, let us enjoy the completion of our movie, “Offsides.”

The One Known as Davin Williams

        Good evening readers! Welcome back to my blog, where today I want to showcase our efforts to editing our final clips of the opening sequence to our film, "Offsides." Before I move along, however, I want to acknowledge how much work my partner, Davin Williams, has put into editing this scene. He is the glue that holds our project together, where I provide him the pieces of the puzzle and he can manage to put them together. As a personal message to him, thank you, for agreeing to work on this project with me. 

        Editing

    If the clips are the material, then editing is the glue. With Davin's knowledge on how to properly put a video together, he has allowed for our final project to be fully realized. Over the weeks we have worked to see where we could cut down pieces of clips, where we can include voice lines, and where we could include new shots to complete the puzzle. Through editing, Davin could realize where these factors come into play for our own film, which has caused numerous revisions to the scene we want to produce. He has a perspective much different than my own, because he can see the full picture through his editing software, which he uses Animotica. 

     Because of this perspective, we have had to do a third day of filming in order to ensure the scenes have a particular flow to them, which relates to the major changes in the previous blog post. We want to make sure every aspect of the project can flourish and produce good reviews from our audience, but with that being said thank you for tuning in today to hear about how the editing has gone. I'll see y'all tomorrow on my own reflection of the project.

A Reflection of Our Project

         Welcome back viewers! We are just 2 blog posts away from finally showcasing our new film, "Offsides," to all of our fans. This has been a work in the making for months, to which we feel we are finally finished with filming and nearly complete with our editing. I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish, but now I want to go over my own reflection of the project we have completed. 

        The Ugly Side

      "Offsides" is truly one of the best projects I have been able to be a part of in my High School years, one that I am personally proud that me and Davin could pull off with all the struggles we faced. Our plans for the project has not only undergone extreme changes, but has even almost blown up in our faces because the lack of resources and budgeting. It is not a lie when I say we have had to scrap out aspects and details from the film, because it was a bit over ambitious and could not meet our budget, which is something I will be discussing in a future post. I also feel that we have not been able to touch up on things such as the audio quality, which is not up to standard with bigger films in theaters, but for a school project it was expected.

       

      I would say one of our bigger worries as the project was going on was how we were scheduling filming and finding people to cast. School is a time for studying and work, where students would not be able to have time to help us with our own project, but because we have such outstanding friends some could show up to film. Of course, we wanted to have a wide casting for the film, but they simply could not show up on the same days, even with all the rescheduling we had done. However, with what little resources we had we managed to beat this obstacle and move on from it.

         The Bright Side

     The film took a lot out of us to put together, including our time and skills. The project put us in various uncomfortable positions, ones which included how ambitious we can be about it. We had to roll with the punches, but in the end we turned up with what we could get. I am proud we could do it, our cast was able to really drive the emotions and dialogue we wanted to include during the scene. They were so cooperative, I again want to congratulate them for their efforts in helping us. 

     Additionally, I would say the flow and shots that I wanted out of the film were captured during the filming, as well as the editing which Davin has such an incredible vision of. This project has provided me experience on what a video project really should be about and to work with what little things you have to produce a fantastic story. Not only that, but now every time I have watched a movie while I underwent this project I could point out such details in a scene that would piece the film all together. I could take some inspiration from those films and integrate it into the shots I envisioned. My last storyboard is such an improvement from even the second and first ones I created, which is something you will notice while observing the film in the future blog post. 

      To sum it up, thank you, audience, for tuning into my blog over the past few months. It has been my pleasure to write up these posts and connect with you guys over my journey into the world of film. I had started with no knowledge of how movies are created, but with this class I could imagine what it takes to produce such a film. Thank you again and cannot wait for you to watch our film for the first time!

Third Day of Filming

            Hello, avid readers! In today's blog I want to talk about how our third day of filming had gone before we were able to finish up shooting our film. There were a lot of moving pieces during this one, as well as a severe amount of changes to the shots we want to include as the scene goes on, changes that definitely will create a much all around flow of the story for our audience.

 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

          Filming at Miramar Regional Park has always been a fun ride to be on, especially with the cast that we have put together to finalize our project. The cooperation we have shown on set has been extraordinary, allowing us to finish up shooting our final shots in a matter of hours. Davin and I could not have done it without our actors, so huge clap of applause to their efforts.

 Major Changes

         This next part Shooting angles is something that will encapsulate the feel and view that the audience takes, so it plays a major role in what we want our film to be about. However, with the allotted time we have had to cut back on what shots should be shown during the scene, as well as improve upon the writing and general flow of the story. We feel that we want to provide the audience a slower introduction to the characters on the screen, rather than getting them into the action as fast as possible. Therefore, the red team will not be making an appearance on screen, which is something we sincerely wanted, but for the betterment of our film we could not allow it. Know this, the changes we have implemented will reduce the pacing of the scene for viewers to understand what is going on on the screen.

  Sound

         Sound will always be a difficult factor into creating a good film, especially with the budget we have to put to use. As a result, we have to resort to using an iPhone camera to record our clips, as well as capture the dialogue. It is not the highest quality of sound, but we are ensuring the audio will not hinder your experience while watching our opening scene.

 That's a Wrap!

         Our filming has now concluded on this third day and we feel that our efforts to get this out have finally been realized. I sincerely hope you, my viewers, will enjoy this project that we have been creating from the ground up, but for now I will be seeing you in the next blog post. See ya!

Lights! Camera! More Lights!

  Good afternoon my readers! In today’s topic I want to talk to you about the type of lighting we want to utilize during the filming of our opening sequence. As a disclaimer I want to state that these lighting choices may or may not change as time goes on through production, as it may be more convenient to use one lighting over the other in terms of what is available to us. Anyways,  how about we hop into the discussion.

        Lighting in a film requires specific amounts of intensities to establish tones a director wants to put to use for their scenes. For example, an actor on stage requires a 3 point lighting to effectively illuminate the actor’s body on stage, allowing all eyes to focus in on them. That lighting can vary in how bright or dark it may be, depending on the mood and context. Additionally, how cold or warm the light can be, where cold is whiter and warm provides us a more orange color. During the restroom scene in our film, Offsides, I want to utilize this warm tonnage to capture our protagonist, Ricky, in an environment where the shadows are emphasized much more heavily than a white light can do. The orange would blend well with these shadows to expose Ricky’s crumbling mental state, right before loss at a football game. The warm lighting allows all this, as well as making the scene feel more intense and claustrophobic on screen.

Moreover, we encounter the number 1 difficulty in producing our film, the outside lighting. We are preferably filming in the evening where the sun begins to set, which may also be a metaphor to Ricky's complete downfall during this opening sequence. However, capturing the right amount of light to reflect off the cast’s face is an issue, as well as when exactly during a shot we want it. An example is when we have a close-up of Ricky’s face before he runs a play for his team, where we have the sunlight reflecting off his skin to convey sudden hope within him that he can beat the opposing team. It contrasts with the scene in the restroom, where his face does not reflect as much of the light as during this scene. We then want to take away this hope with him being tackled by the opposing team, then revealing him on the ground, this time with no sunlight being exposed anywhere on his body. He is completely overtaken by the shade. 

All in all, lighting tells a tale just as well as the actual story does, so we must utilize it as best we can. However, due to our time constraints and location of filming, we may have some failure and neglect in that department. I am glad I can at least explain the vision I have in my head, rather than it going to waste.

The Ups and Downs

  Good morning readers! This blog will be regarding our group dynamics during these final few stages of our project. So far, it has been an absolute blast working with my partner, Davin, who I have been able to work with on various other projects in the past.  He and I work on similar levels and have the same interests in mind for what we strive to create. From day one, we have been able to cooperate effectively, and that has been a major weapon in our creative arsenal. 

To sum it up, Davin has been pulling his weight to an extraordinary extent. We have both understood what kind of work would suit us best, specifically to Davin he would be the number 1 editor for the job. He has much more experience editing videos for other classes, which allows him to understand how the editing software he uses works, although I do have to input feedback from time to time while he actually puts together the clips. 

My job as one of the directors of this film project is to create a flow for the story we want to present, meaning I will be the primary envisioner of the shots and angles we want to implement into our opening sequence. Although I have taken up this task because I think I have a great sight on how the story should go from point A to point B, I find it challenging to put those shots and angles I imagine in my head onto a real life canvas. For instance, we have come to realize a shot of the three blue team players from a low angle does not effectively create tension, nor make the characters on screen pleasing to look at. 

This proves that I have had to tweak the storyboard a tab bit in order to accommodate for this error in judgment, thus changing that shot to a side view of the three boys staring out into the field. These little changes and realization have culminated into some pretty annoying circumstances during filming, where even lighting can be an issue in itself. An example would be that Miramar Regional Park, the location we are filming at, has bathrooms with cooler, white lights. As we have discussed in our storyboard, I want to have that bathroom scene be filled with orange lighting to capture a darker tone in the atmosphere. These annoyances has made me reconsider time and time again where we should be filming and when we should.

All in all, I do believe the project will end up being successful and that most of the issues we have or are experiencing will be resolved, because Davin and I are dedicated to creating the best movie we can produce, even with its flaws.

Representation in our film

  Welcome back readers! Today I will be discussing the topic of representation. As we know, in today’s media world many film producers feel the need to include various ethnicity’s and genders, so that their viewers can relate to the characters and their issues. Take for example a homosexual man as one of the core characters in a film, which would certainly bring in a whole portion of the lgbtq community to consider watching the movie. Although we do not want to take away from their representation, we also do not want to focus on the character’s romantic preferences during the film. 

We want to focus on Ricky’s issue with overcoming his depression in his life, as well as finding himself through the sport of football. We feel that having a partner to chase after is not something Ricky particularly something he will be interested in, nor be a good character arc for him at the moment. None of the other characters will be providing the audience their romantic preference, as it is not a topic we want to cover in this movie. 

Concerning gender, we have kept the film strictly biological men, at least for the opening sequence, to target an audience of predominantly male. As many know, American football is played primarily by men, as well as advertised and watched by them, with the exception of females being a minority among the fans. We do encourage fans of both genders to go watch this football movie, but the likelihood that more men would be inclined to go watch it is much greater than women going to watch it. 

Regarding ethnicity and race, we have a decent mix of them in our opening sequence. We include a cast with Asian, African-Americans, and Hispanics, all of which allow for representation of ethnicities. We hope this will allow our audience to feel more comfortable watching the movie, as well as relate to it a bit more. That’s it for today’s blog, tune in next time to hear an update about film production!

Title (This title is intended)

  Good evening readers, today I want to include a brief overview on our decisions with our fonts, color, and style of the title and subtitling for our film. The presentation of our title is one of the first things our audience will get to experience when watching Offsides, thus, we want to ensure it sends a certain message to them.

Beginning with the font we have chosen, we want to use one that seems disorganized and informal, one that would convey the flaws that Ricky has as a character. He is not on par with the skillful football players he goes up against, so we do believe that the font style, Amatic SC, would fit this choice perfectly. 

For our color choice we have decided to use the neutral black and white combination. My groupmate and I have found that these two colors would fit perfectly for the character we are following in our film. It is no secret that Ricky is not in the best of mental states, where the only thing that he strives to be good at is something that he struggles with. He struggles to find the light in most things he does, which we want to portray his characterization throughout the film. The black signifies that mental state that Ricky is in, where his life is just bleak and void of color. Additionally, the white coloring of the actual letters hint towards the spirit that Ricky really has within him, the strive to better himself in the sport of football. The black surroundings he has accustomed himself with vs. the undying spirit to yearn for something more.

That is pretty much our title and subtitle style choices summarized, we hope that our audience can figure out the reasons for this as they watch our film. Tune in on thursday where we discuss the representations of ethnicities and gender in Offsides.

Updated Storyboard! Check it out!

 Good morning readers! In today’s blog I want to go over our new and refurbished storyboard for our movie, Offsides, releasing next month to a theater near you. We have made many significant changes to our storyboard since the last time we have shown it in our blogs, regarding shots and the overall story that we are trying to convey. To start off this blog I want to go over all the details we have included in our storyboard:

Shot 1 Editing: Transition from black to mid shot, low-key lighting (orange), handheld camera, shaky, muted sound, heartbeat sfx

Story: Ricky stares at himself in the mirror, pondering over his memories off playing football.

Shot 2 Editing: Transition with standard cut revealing Ricky’s hand in close up, low-keyy lighting, heartbeat sfx, muted sound, shaky frame. Match-cut from Ricky’s hand on sink to him close up of same hands catching a ball.

Story: Ricky’s hand signifies his ability to catch the football and run plays during a football game, also provides audience the scoop on what Ricky is thinking about.

Shot 3 Editing: Mid-shot of Ricky’s back to the camera, low-key lighting, heartbeat sfx continues with muted sound, still shot. Match cut from Ricky’s back to him running across a field from the perspective of his back.

Story: Ricky’s memories persist on screen, showing the audience a scene of him running across the football field to score a touchdown, just to then get tackled by a player.

Shot 4 Editing: Standard cut to dutch angle of Ricky continuing to stare at the mirror. Low-key lighting, muted sound, heartbeat sfx continues. Ricky begins tilting his head downward.

Story: Ricky is still in front of the mirror, reflecting on his memories. He reacts to the memories by tilting his head downward towards the sink to convey anxiety.

Shot 5 Editing: Smash cut to the outside of restroom. Natural diegetic outside sounds persist for rest of the 2 minute scene. Dialogue present between Coach W and Ricky. Camera follows dolly movement backing up as Ricky approaches it. Natural outside lighting. 

Story: Ricky leaves the restroom after about 15 minutes, to which his Coach berates him for taking so long and holding up the game they are about to play.

Shot 6 Editing: A continuous shot of exiting the restroom, to then have an invisible cut transition from the front of Ricky’s shirt to the back of his shirt. Rikcky walks off onto the field, conveying a jump in time and place. Sunset lighting in background reflecting onto the field, diegetic background noises, extreme wide shot of Ricky’s teammates in background.

Story: Ricky heads onto the field towards his teammates.

Shot 7 Editing: Standard cut transition, low angle shot of the three teammates where Ricky enters a bit later, natural sunset lighting, diegetic dialogue between David (middle) and Kelvin (right)

Story: Ricky arrives at David’s right side. His teammates discuss the about the red team and their inevitable loss against them.

Shot 8 Editing: Standard cut transition, medium close-up, natural sunset lighting, continued diegetic dialogue between the characters, still shot of the blue team from the side

Story: The boys converse about their worry of the red team. Kelvin in particular is fearful of them.

Shot 9 Editing: Smash cut to a shot of one of the red team player’s calf. Shallow focus on the calf, natural outside lighting, loud stomp on grass diegetic sound when foot appears, dramatic sound sfx plays to unsettle audience, still shot.

Story: Kelvin’s dialogue is cut off by the appearance of the red team on the field.

Shot 10 Editing: Standard cut transition, close-up of Kelvin’s face, natural outside lighting where sun is not reflecting off their face to set a more threatening tone, diegetic dialogue from Kelvin, still shot. 

Story: Kelvin expresses his surprise to see the red team

Shot 11 Editing: Standard cut transition, wide shot of the two coaches standing near each other, diegetic dialogue presented by the bluecoach, still shot, natural outside lighting

Story: Coach W, who coaches the blue team, yells out towards his players, before being mocked by the red coach.

Shot 12 Editing: Standard cut transition, extreme close up of blue coach while having mid shot of red coach in background, diegetic dialogue between the two, natural outside lighting

Story: The red coach mocks the blue coach, to which the blue coach rubs it off.

Shot 13 Editing:  Standard cut transition, medium close-up, natural outside lighting, diegetic dialogue coming from the blue coach

Story: the blue coach mumbles under his breath hoping Ricky can pull off the play.

Shot 14 Editing: Standard cut transition, wide shot of the 3 blue team players from the side, natural outside lighting, Kelvin diegetic dialogue

Story: Kelvin positions his team on the field sounding anxious

Shot 15 Editing: Standard cut transition, wide shot of the 3 red team players facing the camera, natural outside lighting, diegetic dialogue coming from the red team players.

Story: The red team forms up and plans out their attack, mentioning how easy they will win.

Shot 16 Editing: Standard cut transition, wide shot of the blue team facing the camera, natural outside lighting, sound of Kelvin speaking begins to fade as the camera pans towards Ricky on the left. The heartbeat sfx enters as the other sounds begin muffling.

Story: The blue team gets ready to run their play with Kelvin as quarter-back and David on defense. Ricky is in the back, ready as the running-back to get handed the ball. During this minute he begins to feel anxious.

Shot 17 Editing: Standard cut transition, close of Ricky, sunset lighting reflecting off his face, muted sound, deep breath diegetic sound originating from him, heartbeat sfx stops abruptly. Fades to black.

Story: Ricky is able to calm himself down and concentrate before he runs the ball, closing his eyes right before the moment arises.

Shot 18 Editing: Starts off clip with black screen, from the first person perspective of Ricky. Ricky’s eyes open and a continuous shot of him running the ball occurs, until Ricky once again closes his eyes when tackled.

Story: Ricky opens his eyes once Kelvin yells out “hut” and begins darting towards him to obtain the ball. He grabs it and runs a few yards before he is stopped dead in his tracks by one of Red's defensive players. Suddenly, he looks to his left and sees one of their players tackle him, causing him to get knocked out momentarily on the ground.

Shot 19 Editing: Fade from black to color, close-up of Ricky’s face, camera begins dollying backwards to reveal Ricky laying on the grass in defeat. The clip becomes an overhead shot of Ricky’s body on the left side with the title: “Offsides” on the right. Opening scene concludes.

Story: Ricky lays defeated on the grass, concluding the scene with him at pretty much rock bottom.

Our storyboard has taken a drastic change to what our vision of this project really is. At first, we believed having our story consist of a dream sequence of Ricky imagining he wins the scrimmage was something we had wanted in our movie, but eventually understanding that makes other scenes mediocre and fills up too much time on screen, we ended up taking it out. Now, we can focus on building characters and making Ricky feel less delusional and more relatable, a person who has never been able to measure up to others expectations. He loses much more than he succeeds.

Additionally, with the new timeline we have been able to reinforce the emotions and tones of certain scenes such as the beginning where Ricky is reflecting on himself in front of the restroom mirror, or where we can now add a few clips of the blue team talking to each other and forming relativity for who they are and what role they will place for the duration of this film. All these little details are now being allowed to blossom for the 2 minutes we have been allotted, and I am proud of what we have created in the storyboard. Now all efforts are going into the filming and editing portion of this project. 

The one about the side characters...

  Good afternoon, readers! It has been an eventful few days of not only preparing our actors to film, but actually having to film. Our day of filming made a few shots of progress, but it has ultimately been worth it in order to gather momentum for the project. In fact, we have been  able to guarantee for even more people to show up for our next filming session this Saturday! Anyways, how about I introduce you guys to our focus for today’s blog, supporting characters. Although these characters are not the most memorable, or do not have as much significance as the protagonist, they do allow the atmosphere and overall tone of the movie to be constructed as it goes on. I would like to introduce you guys to a few!

David Jimblowski is one of Ricky’s teammates on the blue side, who doesn’t necessarily stand out, nor speak too much throughout the film. However, considering our protagonist will not be speaking during the opening scene, it is a necessity that our supporting characters will be able to carry the dialogue in the intro, at least regarding background information. David will be sure to assist the viewers to unravel the situation, but not as much in a big way as our next character.

Kelvin Ronalds is our next supporting character, to whom will speak the most during this entire scene and is a part of the blue team. Although Kelvin takes up the mantle of the team’s quarterback, he is not necessarily the most athletic or confident about his ability of playing football. In fact, these two supporting characters rely on Ricky to do the heavy lifting, although he has experienced failure after failure. The irony is in Kelvin’s inability to be a confident person, which a leader must uphold, thus exposing the true weak points of the blue team in their pursuit to stand against the red team. However, his character clues the audience on to what type of people Ricky associates himself with, which are the losers. Both David and Kelvin wear blue shirts with black shorts, similar to Ricky’s outfit.

The two coaches both appear to exhibit the leadership skills and responsibility to help guide their team, but Coach W, the blue team’s coach, has taken the short end of the stick. His players do not adequately fit the football standards, but he has had no other choice. He expresses his discontent throughout the scene, especially when talking to the other coach. He is jealous of the red team, but needs to keep his composure and professionalism as a coach. Coach Maggot of the red team has obtained top-tier players that serve to pose the main conflict for Ricky and his team, and Maggot guides these players with his intellect, as well as making fun of Coach W in the process. 

The red team players consist of Chad, Brad, and Bryce, the typical jockey names anyone can recognize. They will be obnoxious and act aggressively towards the blue team, but they provide a challenge to lead Ricky straight to rock-bottom. 

All in all, our supporting characters help provide a proper start to the movie Offsides, allowing for some stereotypes such as the jocks and nerds to flow into it, typical of a sports movie. The thing to note is that Ricky really does not fit in either group, he feels lost in what end of the social hierarchy he feels more inclined to be. Football seems to be his only pursuit in life, although his constant failure has only discouraged him from wanting to play. Still, he continues to play through all the shame, which creates a pretty interesting dilemma you can witness by watching Offsides, coming to theaters next month. We hope you can catch a viewing of this film, see you next week where we discuss our new storyboard for the movie!