Plot Explained/Script Written!

 Hi blog! We officially decided on the plot that we want so here is me describing it to you as well as including our script so that you can look at what we have!

So, our protagonist's name is going to be "Dahlia" and her best friend is "Melia". They have opposite personalities, Dahlia is very quiet, yet driven, and when she is with Melia and she is comfortable, she gets more outgoing, as all close friends do. Melia is an outgoing person on her own though, however she can also be very confrontational and social anxiety fears HER. Anyways, their friendship is the basis of our whole short film, since we want it to capture where we are right now in our lives, and in High School, friendship is everything. 

The two of them are getting ready for Dahlia's birthday party, however the party is the least important part of the day, since Dahlia has to take a breather at her own party before getting comforted by her best friend, only we find out later that Melia was the reason she needed to calm down. Dahlia was talking to Michael, her crush, and Melia was being "annoying" and getting between the two of them. When Dahlia is outside, she finds a seed, which she later plants in her room in a pot that Melia made her.

After the birthday, we have a montage of Dahlia slowly getting more messy as she pushes her friend away, which of course leads to her feeling like her life is falling apart. This montage will include the technique we had planned to go back to the same shot multiple times. In this frame, there is a counter on her white board for how many days old "frank" (her plant) is, which helps us keep track of time during the montage.

To end the montage, there is a scene of Dahlia working in her bedroom on her laptop, before Melia walks in and tries to talk to her friend, who seems very uninterested in having a conversation. They get in an argument about who is in the wrong and Melia ends up storming out of the room from frustration. This scene is then followed by Dahlia feeling very guilty, but also angry about how her friend could not see where she was coming from.

The following day, when frank turns 91 days old, Dahlia calls Melia and apologizes, and they agree that they handled the situation poorly and mutually forgive the other. Melia ends the short film by saying "We are all just growing up", which is what we plan on the title being.

I am super confident in this story and the underlying meaning of how important friendship is during our adolescent years.

Link to the script!

Our Planning for Spring Break!

 Hi blog! So, this is the last week of school before spring break, which was our original planned week to film, but we want to finish developing our mise-en-scene, characters, and script since the hardest aspect of our short film will be filming, with all the time changes, and the editing does not need as much time as we originally anticipated that it would.

Here is our plans for what we want to accomplish over spring break next week!

Renn is going on a trip, so they cannot do too much, however they are going to be in charge of completely developing Melia's character, so making a mood board, deciding what clothes she would wear, etc. Essentially, Renn is acting as Melia's creative director. They are also going to begin working on how we want the print aspect of the project, the postcard to be designed. Although we will need to film before we can officially create it, Renn will begin brainstorming. Here is an example of a short film postcard looks like, to give you an idea.

Vicky will be un New York City (I'm jealous), so once again, she will not be able to do too much, but she plans on working on the shotlist over the week, and having it completely done by the time we get back on March 23. She also has a goal to finish the soryboard so we can all envision the same thing and have our filming day be as smooth as possible.

I am not going on a trip, so I will be working a lot on the project over the next few weeks, and will definitely be documenting the process. I am in charge of Dahlia's character, just as Renn is with Melia, so I am making a storyboard for her as well as designing her room, since the majority of the film will take place in there. I am also going to begin developing our social media page, and plan out what posts will need to be made, and how when we need to get the content for them by (on filming day, prior, or post). I have a lot on my plate, but I am so excited about this project, so I am not concerned at all, as I am having fun with it, so i'll enjoy the process!

We all want to have filming be the DAY we get back into school, so we are going to spend the next two days planning, as our film teacher Mr. Cummings likes to say, 80% of your project is in pre-production.

Citations:

Tupling, A. (n.d.). Postcard ad. MEDIA BLOG – Alastair Tupling. https://alastairwt.weebly.com/postcard-ad1.html

Group Meeting!

 Hi blog! Today I did a group meeting to discuss some other groups plans for their portfolio project, as well as getting some feedback on my own ideas. My group was Nikita, Nico, Andrew, Lauren, Audrey, David, and Me! Here's some stuff that I noted about each idea as well as what I think they could improve on, along with their blogs!

Nikita Albul- #7607

Planning on doing a short film, with the plot being about a guy who is severely depressed, falling into addiction of drugs and alcohol, and ends up ending his own life. Although the plot was not the most developed regarding underlying meaning or symbolism, some of his ideas regarding mise-en-scene were pretty interesting. He also planned where exactly he will film these shots, such as a free office in his house. We discussed some problems that may arise, such as how he will imply drug use without making it too graphic and adding his personal stylistic choices to it. We came up with the idea of doing some shots from behind to imply it. I am excited to see where he goes with this idea.

Nico Restrepo- #4888

Nico is working with two other people who he is confident in their skillset, since they have worked together on multiple projects together throughout the years. Their idea was to lean into the idea that the show "Fleabag" shows, frequent breaking of the fourth wall as a method to convey the main character's thoughts and feelings. Their planned genre is dark comedy, but they haven't come up with a plot yet, so we helped them come up with potentially having a turning point where a character that the protagonist does not get along with also can break the fourth wall. This whole concept was really intriguing. 

Andrew Zamudio- #7558

Andrew is also working in a group, specifically with people that are known for having very stylized productions, so I am really excited to see where this idea goes. Their plan so far is to have a dark comedy that has a character getting posessed and ends up sacrificing their sister, which was way more bizzare when they explained it themself. My first concern that I brought up was how they would show the character being posessed, and we concluded that since they needed something visual, they may wear contacts to highlight the different parts of the story. They definitely have some kinks to work out, but other than that they had a good baseline on where they would film and what shots they wanted.

Lauren Thomas- #7503

Lauren is the only person in our group meeting that was not planning on doing the short film option, she was planning on the film distribution one instead. She was very undecided on what she wanted her story to be about, she mainly only knew the genre, a psychological drama, which is a tall task so we tried to work out a plot that would be attainable. We decided that she wanted to find a way to convey a complex idea but in a simple way with symbolism. We thought maybe water representing insecurity or something along those lines, and the coloration starting light and getting darker. We spent most of the time that we were discussing Lauren's plan fleshing out possible ideas, but we didn't land on one, moreso giving her ideas to play with in her own mind.

Audrey Pangalangan- #7396

Working with one other girl, the idea was to do a short film like most of us, specifically about a therapy session that included nonlinear storytelling and highlights the relationship between a younger brother and older sister. Our main concerns were that the topics she wanted to cover are somewhat hard to talk about without being cheesy, since loss as a whole can be triggering if talked about too graphically. However, I think the story she wants to tell is a really important one, and if she does it well, it will be a truly beautiful piece.

David Gomez- #4840

Once again, working with one other person on a short film, David had a really developed idea, I can tell he had thought about it. He wants to do a short film that involves teleportation, since he is going on an international trip to London and Spain, so the concept was to make a comedy that has a magical Penny that gives him the power to teleport. It was a really fun idea and we spent a lot of time talking about how he would connect the story to the comedy genre, and what jokes he wanted to make, especially since he had the idea of using minimal audio recording, so it would be very visual heavy.

Mackenna Smedley (Me!)- #4440

I presented my idea last, and the original thought was to make a short film that the majority of the shots were from one angle, but we all agreed that there would be very limited technique being shown with that idea. We played with the idea of just constantly going back to the same point of view instead of just staying there, since there could be problems with showing time passing, since that was the basis of my plot, which takes place over 90 days. I really liked this idea, since it would give a better flow and we could show off our skills that we learned about composition better. We played with the idea of the room gettin progressively messier to show the character's headspace throughout the 90 days as another way to highlight time passing. Andrew recommended that since we need a plant for our film, we should look up what different plants represent, and decide which one we want to use based on which meaning connects the best to our storyline of personal growth. I got a lot of specific little details, and after discussing them with Vicky and Renn, on top of the comments they got in their group meetings, we felt much more confident in specific aspects of our short film.

Social Media Research

Hi blog! Today we researched social media pages for inspiration on our own, since we are required to make our own for our project. I chose to study Instagram, since I am in charge of our social media on the project, and I am the most comfortable
with that one over others!

Media text: The TELL-TALE HEART– @Changwang.pictures

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Postings of when it is uploaded on YouTube and keeping a count of hour many views it has on their Instagram page. Posting small clips to build up anticipation for the release date. There are also posts of the creator talking about what camera they used. This may have been because of a partnership, but it was a great thing to include. There is a slideshow post that includes several shots that promote the branding but also draw in the viewer to understand the tone of the
short film so they want to watch it. The caption includes these release date and where it is being distributed. One post has a simple question in the caption to make the viewer ponder something related to the short film. There is also many hashtags such as “#visualstorytelling”, “#creativity”, “#changwantpictures. Including not only posts but also reels promotes the account’s popularity, as people are more likely to view the account from the reels than the posts.

Description of how branding is developed (or not):
Posting shots as individual photos to match the tone of the short film to the Instagram page. This short film specifically leans into the black-and-white aesthetic and very eerie visuals. The row of dark images stands out to promote the account, since it is so different from the other posts, which signifies that the branding would stand out amongst others. However, I do wish that there was a highlight related to stories specifically about the short film or maybe even BTS of the making of the Tell Tale Heart. Also, to go with the creator’s consistent color palate of having yellow lettering on their own posts, prior to the short film promotion, they put a yellow heart at the end of every caption, just after mentioning the link in their bio to access the short film.  The account also has branded highlights that have yellow emojis that tie into the creator’s personal color palate as well.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: We will use the idea of posting what equipment we used so that we can connect with other potential filmmakers and come off as a relatable account. The posts of singular shots that were in the short film also helped develop a color palate, and we will do the same so that the colors in our feed are the same as our short film. We want to also take inspiration from the bio of the account, providing a link to the short film, as well as consistent plugs to the production in the captions of the posts and reels.

 

 

Media text: The Writer - @popvisualz

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: This account makes creative reels, such as “if you like these movies: Sin City, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, you might like mine”. This is great because it instantly guarantees that the target audience will be reached, since only the fans of those films or overall film lovers will stick around. The reel then was followed by clips of the making of his own short film, The Writer. This account posted a photo of the official key art of the short film, as well as what film festivals it will be shown at, in this case, “Are You Afraid of Fantasia 2025”. The post with the key art also included a screenshot of the showing information of where the film festival is, what day, and what time, to promote people to attend and watch the production on the big screen. This was especially important since it was not being uploaded to YouTube. There was another reel that showed the reference from another movie to the result in their own short film, which gives credit to other directors for inspiring modern filmmakers, and gets to relate one’s short film to others. There could have been more posts especially highlighting the production rather than the director but given that the short film did not have its own page, it made sense.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): The brand was somewhat developed, the tone that was conveyed in the key art was not developed throughout the feed, making it seem somewhat messy and incoherent. The captions were all simple and did not contain many words besides hashtags, which may have been the goal for the branding, but compared to the messy layout, it was very confusing. There were well-done reels, but they did not directly tie into the themes or color palate of the production, which did make the whole account seem less appealing. The key art of The Writer has lettering that resembles street art, and
this ties into the creator’s aesthetic quite well, but was not developed throughout the rest of the post that it was included in. The artist did pin the main post promoting the film festival, but they should have made the key art the cover photo. There are multiple reels that have the same cover, which does not match the palate of the production. making the feed look repetitive and busy.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: This account gave us a lot of ideas for reels, as well as some good reference for how to plug a film festival. The creator’s face is also very present in the account, which we liked. The hashtags were useful, and the branding was good in some respects, but we will be taking more inspiration from the content than the branding.

 

  

Media text: We Were Art Thieves @iphilgood

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: There is several clips included of the short film that highlight moments that leave viewers wanting to watch the whole thing themselves. The caption says, “Our first short film is out now”, and does not state what the title of the short film is, which is not a very strong choice. However, the caption does keep viewers engaged, by mentioning that they plan to do a Q&A soon, which will keep anticipation high for the future content to come. The creator’s vision is clearly established, as they like to appear more professional than relatable, as they compare cameras as a plug for their short film. They also made a very creative reel that says “My favorite cinematic clips from my short film” which leans into the stunning cinematography, which is most certainly the thing that makes this production stand out the most among other short films. I do think that this page could do a better job of posting about the films themselves, as a lot of
the content feels repetitive, and a bit disconnected. But you do get a strong sense of the creator’s style from their page alone.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Looking at their page, and just the cover photos on each post, it does seem cohesive overall. The cinematography is clearly showcased, and the palate is consistent, which is a great sign for the branding. However, the captions are not the most well-correlated to one another. The highlights are also not very easy to understand, as many of them are not related to film at all, and the title is simply emojis, which is not the best idea, considering when people go to the social media page, it should be clear what each highlight’s purpose is. I think overall, the page just lacks purpose as a whole and a lot of the content was not intentional. Although it was very pleasing to the eye, the branding could have been better established than just pretty covers.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: We want to take inspiration from some of the reel ideas, and the amount that the content is shown on the feed, however there was very little behind the scenes, which we noted and will make sure we don’t make that mistake I our own social media page.

Researching Media Texts - 3

 Hi blog! Time for my third and final research discussion post!

The Disney film Turning Red is one that my group and I will take heavy inspiration from. It uses the metaphor of Mei turning into a red panda to highlight the transitional phase during middle school of hitting puberty. We wanted to do something similar to be a metaphor for how despite hardships and stress from every facet of your life, you are maturing as a person. We plan to do this with a plant that continues to grow throughout the short film even when times get hard. Turning red acknowledges the red panda metaphor by directly mentioning things like getting a period and romantic interests, but keeping it lighthearted and not too serious which we found very admirable.

We are aware that with this film being animated, we cannot utilize many of the techniques that are used, since ours will most certainly be a live action, however Renn was throwing around the idea of incorporating some animated graphics into the piece such as animated eyes on the plant pot to make it feel alive or something in that realm. Turning red is also a great piece to research because it is a similar group, as high schoolers and middle schoolers do have some of the same conflicts, such as balancing family life, school and friends, and finding out who you are/want to be all at the same time. We will likely model some of the plot points on issues like what Mei faces, such as a mother that is trying to be involved in their teen's life, but this time, potentially with a graduating senior to put our own emotional twist on it.

Finally, "Bitchin'" is a short film that deals with the impact that society has on the way that girls view themselves as they grow up. This short film included some animation that was very similar to the style that we were hoping to emulate with our own, such as having a consistent style throughout that adds to the live action, rather than being the main focus. This was also a great example because there was nothing about it that seemed extremely out of our budget of being high school film makers, and reminded us that it is possible to make an amazing piece of art without thousands of dollars. 

What I specifically took away from this short film was that perspective matters. "Bitchin'", is from the point of view of a teenage girl, who is making a list of things that she experiences, while having the voiceover be of a child, emphasizing the coming of age genre of growth. This short film plays on hardships that only teenage girls know the experience of, and since my group and I are leaning towards having a female lead, it is important that we give a realistic presentation of what that is like, as this production did.

Citations:

Aston, M. (2023, May 5). Bitchin – a coming‑of‑age short film [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW4rQaKozn0

D23 Team. (2022, March 10). Meet the characters of Turning Red. D23. https://d23.com/meet-the-characters-of-turning-red/

Pixar. (2021, July 13). Turning Red | Teaser trailer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqdHP2dWQ9M

Researching Media Texts - 2

 Hi blog! Time for more research discussion!

Here is a film that we chose to analyze because it inspired the main technique that we are going to be utilizing. It is all going to be shot from the same angle in the same room from the same location. We thought that this idea would be able to tell a unique story in a way that you don't see very often. Essentially it is like the category at the All American Film Festival "Clausturphobic" where the whole short film must take place in one room but to an EXTREME where the camera does not move. We are going to make sure that we put everything into other aspects, because if we don't execute them in an effective way, it could just come across as lazy for not wanting to plan a variety of shots.

Here also is part of the coming of age genre, however the age group is slightly older, since it has some more intense themes than typical teenage conflicts. Despite this, we all decided that we needed to watch this film to better understand how we wanted to go about the technique that inspired us.

In Here, the whole film takes place in a family living room, but it goes all the way back to what that plot of land looked like during the big bang. This technique can be tricky, because if the camera moves slightly, it ruins the whole effect. Here used this technique beautifully, with every scene being essentially a perfect matchcut of the scene before. Here also inspired how to tell a story from a perspective of something other than a character. Usually, when there are main characters, the plot revolves around what is going on in their head, and we view conflicts and relationships the way that the character does, however in Here, although the main characters are the people who live in the house, we view situations from a direct third-person perspective and see it for what it is. We hope to reach this level of success in our own short film

Since we are on the topic of productions that gave us inspiration, but not necessarily the same target audience, we decided to also analyze the short film, "The Seed".  Although this is not a coming of age, and is more just an inspirational short film, we still wanted to include it because we want to have some uplifting aspects and plants are one of the best ways to do that when it comes to symbolism. 

We already decided that plants are going to play a major role in the plot of our short film, our current plan is to have it take place from the plant's point of view, witnessing the main character's life from the shelf. Like I mentioned, this short film is not the exact genre of coming of age, and the target audience is not likely to be teenagers as our short film will be. Renn, Vicky and I thought it was important to look for opportunities to research more than just the genre of coming of age but also for techniques, since we all have seen many coming of age films before, and finding inspiration for the technical aspects is where the challenge will lie for us.

Citation:

A.C. Matthews. (2018). The seed // Inspirational short film [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPYIRF9RCQ 

IMDb.com. (2024). Here. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18272208/

Sony Pictures Entertainment. (2024, June 26). Here – Official trailer (HD) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_id-SkGU2k

Researching Media Texts - 1

 Hi blog! For my research, I am going to make 3 discussion posts analyzing one full length film that is a strong example of the coming of age genre, and a short film of that same genre. We already decided that our major theme is going to be personal growth even through hard times, specifically the hardships that come with being a high schooler.

Perks of Being a Wallflower is the definition of a coming of age film, especially highlighting the teenage difficulties of feeling like you belong and making a reliable group of friends. Although our film will likely not take place at school like The Perks of Being a Wallflower does, we still take inspiration from the aspects related to friendship and how impactful it can be on a teenagers life in a point that feels really unstable. This film also does an amazing job at developing characters, which is the basis of all all coming of age films. We only plan on having one character in our short film so that we can do our best to focus on establishing every aspect of them. 

The way that perks of being a wallflower tells Charlie's story using techniques of nonlinear storytelling is something that our group especially wants to take inspiration from. The way that this film showcases the teenage experience without making it cheesy or cringy was very admirable. The coming of age genre as a whole is difficult to do in a way that connects with audiences besides the one that is highlighted in the production itself. However, The Perks of Being a Wallflower does so by relating childhood problems to adult ones and how that trauma can bond people. 

As for the first short film that we are taking inspiration from, "Why can't we just be ghosts" is one that leaves you somewhat confused until the end. I would classify this as a coming of age comedy, but it definitely highlights the difficult aspects of being a teenager that we mentioned earlier. Vicky recommended for me and Renn to watch this for inspiration because she saw it when she attended the All American Film Festival, since it won a lot of awards for how spectacular it was, and I have to agree. It beautifully flows with fantastic pacing and just the right amount of humor. 

What I especially took from this production was the way that they presented dynamics between characters without one of them even having to speak. This just shows how well thought out the script was, for essentially one character to carry the entire dialogue on their own. We will possibly need to reference this, as we want to keep the audience engaged with potentially only one leading character, which is a tall task for a coming of age film that relies heavily on how relationships shape a person.

Citations:

8FLiX. (2020). The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Official Trailer (2012) | Lionsgate [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube

All American High School Film Festival. (2025). Why can’t we just be ghosts? – Directed by Patrick Jang [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSbcHcjcYQA