(19) Stop Motion Characters

Hello! :D

As I stated in previous posts, today marks the first week in which I'm going to start working on the stop motion scenes! >:D I'm using today in order to draw out everything I need for the animations, essentially I'm making the 'frames' of my animations today. 

Drawing out the Character! >:0

In case I never fully explained how it works, I wanted to take the time and dedicate this blog to talk about what my plan is for completing the stop motion portions. When I talked with Yejin a couple of weeks ago, they said that when it comes to drawing out my frames, I need to consider how many parts I will need for a single shot, and do everything I can to simplify the motion that is needed in that shot. Taking the time to actually draw out every single frame like they do in animation studios will take me months to get it done, so I need to work on a more realistic scale (also I'm doing all of this alone, which adds to the level of difficulty). 

They also said that in order to bring "life" into my animations, I really have to focus on the emotions within my characters and give emotion to any other objects I include as well. I decided to bring out a lot of detailing within the eyes and eyebrows of my characters to do this. :)

My goal is to finish up all of the drawing by tonight and so I can plan for how I want to set them up tomorrow. I'll keep you guys posted! :D

(18) Production Day Postponed

Somtimes, life gets in the way at the most inconvenient times. 

If you have been keeping up with my posts you would know that today was the day that I was supposed to film with my boyfriend. Unfortunately, he forgot that he had a very large project due tonight so today I need to help him out instead. There's a lot of parts and it'll probably take us the whole day to finish it, so therefore my filming day is postponed. 

Because I want to take the next week to work on stop motion I suggested that we moved the filming day to next Sunday, but next Sunday marks the first day of Passover so he is unsure that he'll be available. After talking back and forth I guess our only option is to film on Tuesday the 30th. While I'm really apprehensive about moving the film date so late because that will reduce my time to edit, this change is necessary since I'll need the time to film and I do not want to rush the process. 

However, not all is lost since this does give my boyfriend some time to understand how the camera works and test it out a bit! Hopefully this will make the day we do film easier and we won't waste as much time dealing with equipment. :) With that being said I need to make sure that in this upcoming week I have to work really hard and get as much of the stop motion animation done, I'll let you guys know how it goes. :0

(17) Website Research (pt. 2)

Okay, so in my last blog I defined what grief is and how it can look like, and so in this blog I want to talk about what are the steps people can take in order to heal. :0

When it comes to addressing grief, I feel most people are unsure of what to say or what are the steps you can take to heal. In my own experience I remember that I just wanted to desperately move on with my life and forget about it. Of course, that ended up backfiring and I dealt with a flurry of unresolved emotions a couple months later. 

While I feel that I'm much better at confronting my feelings and letting myself process them, it's still hard for me to talk about what I'm going through with others. Grief is a very touchy subject for everyone, and it can be hard to know how or where to get support or what to say to someone who is grieving. I'm hoping that having information on those topics will help individuals feel more comfortable with addressing grief and help open conversations about it. 

The first rule of thumb for people who are grieving and people who are supporting a loved one is that patience is key. Grieving takes time, and it's crucial to not place any judgements or rush yourself into feeling better as that can cause more problems later on. Many professionals advise to take the time to find activities that can help you relax or that help you release your feelings in a healthy manner. Things such as keeping a journal, meditating or listening to music are all healthy coping mechanisms. If you find yourself delving into unhealthy coping mechanisms (i.e. projecting your anger onto others or abusing substances) you should seek a therapist as soon as possible. Group therapy sessions or seeking for a support group is another good option for someone who does not have access to a therapist. 

If you are someone who is trying to support a grieving person, there are a few do's and don'ts that you should keep in mind. For starters, do not console someone with cliches such as "they're in a better place" as that minimizes the emotions they are going through and can make your support appear to be superficial. Acknowledge their struggle and provide support with statements such as "I'm here to listen if you want to talk". 

Under no circumstances should you ever try to compare a person's experience with your own. It can devalue a person's own pain and in almost all cases mourners are not interested in hearing about another loss. Instead, focus on your friend's grief and their experience. Offer to listen about their feelings and show that you are open to talking about their grief. Giving support through silence is just as helpful; being in their presence without saying anything still shows that you care. 

The stages of grieving don't always look the same from person to person. Sometimes it might take someone a few months to be able to get back on their feet or sometimes it might take years. Some people might have feel more anger rather than sadness and for some it might take a while for them to stop being in denial. The best thing anyone can do to help someone who is grieving is to allow them to grieve. Let them feel sad, let them process their anger. It can be tempting to try and cheer someone up and focus on the positives, but that may only put pressure on a grieving person to 'get better'. Within the media and in American society there is already a lot of stigma over people taking time to grieve, and forcing someone to focus on the positives only adds to that. 

With all of that typed out I think I have enough information to refer to when it's time for me to start putting my website together! :D  I'll keep you guys posted :P

SOURCES:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/ways-to-support-someone-who-is-grieving

https://healgrief.org/how-to-help-someone-grieving/

https://time.com/5118994/advice-for-helping-grieving-friend/

(16) Website Research

Hello everyone! :D

In this blog post I'd like to take the time to organize all of my research that I'm planning to put into my website where I'll showcase my film. As I mentioned in other blogs, I want to have additional information to hopefully give people a chance to learn about what grieving is like. 

For starters, I want to look at basic definitions of grief and how it can manifest in someone's daily life. According to WebMD, "Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something important to you". While we commonly think of grieving as a result of losing a love one, people can grieve over a variety of other instances, such as a break up or a pet passing away. Individuals can also grieve over past periods of their life, like their childhood or their college years. 

Grief can heavily impact a person's productivity and ability to do daily activities such as eating properly or keeping up with healthy hygiene habits. People who are grieving often report feeling as if there is no point in staying healthy or managing all of their tasks. In the case where someone is grieving over a sudden loss their feelings of regret or guilt can make them feel bad to continue with their daily life as if nothing happened. Conversely, some people will try fill up their schedules so they do not have a chance to think or feel pain from their loss. 

A wide range of studies and research show that grief can also manifest itself through physical symptoms. Many people report feeling their hearts literally ache or feel as if their body is very weak. Medical research cautions grieving individuals from exposing themselves to situations where they can contract diseases as the immune response in a grieving person is extremely fragile. In extreme cases, grief can bring up persisting symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts and can trigger other mental disorders such as BPD or Schizophrenia. 

I feel like this is enough information to help give people an understanding of what grief is like. :) I'm thinking that within my website I'll insert a navigation menu and one section will have all of this information on it. I need to figure out whether if I should condense it or expand on it, but for now I think I'll keep it as is. 

I'll keep you guys posted as to what I'll do next! :D

SOURCES:

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/grief-stages/default.htm

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/grief/coping-with-grief-and-loss.htm

https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/grief-stages/20190711/how-grief-affects-your-body-and-mind

(15) Group Meetings (pt. 2!)

Hello!

Okay, as you can probably tell by the blog title today today in class we had some group meetings. :0 In the last meeting I had I did not have a lot of questions or much to say since I was in the planning stage, but if you're an avid reader of my posts you'll know that I have been running into issues these past couple of weeks. Luckily, in this meeting I was able to bounce off some ideas and get some help for the issues I've been running into! >:D

One thing that I had some concerns about was editing softwares. In my experience in using Wevideo I have found that editing music can be really tough, and I have found that it lags or there's a lot of odd breaks. Now usually I wouldn't be so nit-picky about it, but for this project the music that I'm including will really help to drive the story, so I want everything to be smooth. My group partner Autumn suggested that I look at an article published by Oberlo.  It has a lot of editing softwares that I can look into besides Adobe so I'll definitely look into it further!

(Here's the link if you want to see it! :D)

I also presented my website idea to the people within my group and they all agreed that I should do it. I was on the fence before because I wasn't sure if it was necessary or if the idea would be well received, but now that I got the opinion of others so the plan is going in motion! 

Now that I have clarity on what I need to get done I figured that it would be wise for me to come up with a more specific schedule on all of the things I need to get done.  While I feel like I'll be able to stay on track, I'm very nervous on whether if other things in my schedule will get in my way. Spring break starts from 3/21-3/27 so that should give me time to get all of my assignments done and work on the project at the same time, hopefully I'm right.

I'll let you guys know what happens, I'll keep you guys posted. :P

(14) Website Ideas

Hello everyone! :D

I mentioned in another blog post that I was thinking about creating my own website as one tool that'll help me distribute my film. In this post I want to divulge all of my thoughts and make note of things I need to complete if I want to use my idea. ;0

The reason I have been considering uploading my film to my own website in addition to other platforms such as Youtube or Vimeo is because I want to have a site that can display links to my blog and include additional information about my film. Since it's an arthouse film I think it would be nice to have some information out there about my creative choices to maybe offer some clarifications to the film. Of course, I don't want to spell it all out as that defeats the purpose of how an arthouse film should be consumed, but I do want to have something for my target audience that is not well-versed in experimental films. 

I also want to have some information on resources and links that can offer individuals who are grieving some support. I believe that a project or art piece that does not try to change something for the better is not worth anyone's time, and that is standard I hold to my own pieces. If I want to go through with this then I'll need to find the time to find useful information from rebuttable sources and come up with a variety of programs or organizations that might offer some assistance. 

I guess I'll look to Wix as a tool to help me start creating a website, but I'm wondering if there's other applications I could use that I might like more. I think that Canva has a feature that can help build websites and I'm already very familiar with how it works so I'll definitely look into it. I can also look at Squarespace or Weebly and see if I prefer one of those options. 

The moment I begin to think about one small aspect of my project a bunch of other questions and factors come into mind; it always surprises me how many things I need to look at before I get an idea off the ground! I'll do my best to do some research on it for these next few days, I'll keep you guys posted. :D

(13) Updates on the Production Issues

Great news! :D After talking with my godfather I found out how I could fix my issue with the camera. It's a very simple fix too, I can plug the camera into my phone and my phone screen will project whatever the camera is capturing in real time! This will give make the production process of my project so much easier to do on my own and it'll definitely ensure I'm not wasting time by getting bad shots. I also talked with my boyfriend and he'll help me out with getting some moving shots. However, because of our schedules and the time we'll probably need to film, the only day that'll work for us would be following Sunday on the 21st. That date is a later than I would have hoped, but for the sake of getting good footage I think it's good to choose a later date rather than an earlier one where we won't have much time to work together. :0

On the subject of scheduling and dates, I thought this would be a good time to look over my schedule and see how much time I have to get things done. Looking back on my previous plans this would be my fifth week of the project, meaning I have around three weeks to get things done. While that is a constrained schedule, next week is spring break, meaning that I'll have plenty of time to knock out the production process since I won't have school getting in my way. >:P

With that being said, I'll have to work really hard next week to get all of my schoolwork out of the way so I can take the time to focus on my project during spring break and the following weeks after. It'll be hard work like always, but that's never something I can't handle! I'll keep you guys posted on that and tell you how it goes!

(12) Costuming and Mise-En-Scene

I've just realized something that's really important!

I never thought about talking about some other production components such as mise-en-scene and costume design nor have I really put much thought into those two things, so in this post I'll take the time to shell out some planning and research for it. I want to make sure that I cover every single aspect of the filming process within my blogs and I want to make sure I don't overlook the smallest of details, so let's get to it! >:D

For the mise-en-scene of my film I am mainly going to be using my bedroom as it is. Because this film is does have my own perspective and experience within it I plan to not manipulate what my room looks like and keep it in its most 'natural form'. I want to be able to reveal how my bedroom has been a space for me to go through the motions of grief and how in some ways its been a safe-haven. Having a space that is completely unique to me has given me the room to express myself freely, whether it be how I spend my time in my room or even just how I decorate it. 

As I mentioned briefly in some other blog posts, I want to use stop-motion in order to capture scenes and settings that portray various emotions of the grieving stages. I want to focus on using them for the stages with more intense emotions such as anger, denial, or depression. For me, going through those stages often feel like an out-of-body experience. At times they're so overwhelming that I don't feel grounded within my bedroom, and so I want to use more 'alien' sets to depict that. Since my film is an arthouse movie, I have the creative liberty to interpret these scenes in the way I feel about them. 

(I'm not a really great drawer so I pulled some images from the internet that sort of capture what I want to depict within my stop motion scenes :P)

Denial feels like you just got pushed put into the deep ocean without a warning. I feel like it can make you feel very exposed, so I want to set the stage of denial in a deep ocean scene to exemplify those feelings of vulnerability.

Bargaining is one of those harder emotions to put into moods, but if I were to imagine it as a setting I feel like it would be an endless maze. You're trying to escape by making compromises but when it comes to grief there is nothing you cannot bargain your way out. 

I feel like feeling of anger is pretty self-explanatory, and in my head I feel like if anger was a setting it would be like a hot planet such as Venus. It's desolate yet chaotic; your emotions are so intense that it can make you feel very isolated from the rest of the world and everyone else. 

In terms of costuming, I'm thinking of just planning to keep a simple outfit that doesn't obscure my movements. My inspiration is coming from performance art pieces in which subject wear basic clothes and colors to highlights their motions or props rather than drawing attention to their outfits. I also think wearing a simple outfit like basic jeans and a shirt will make it easier to prevent any continuity errors as I'm filming since I imagine it'll take me a few days to film all of the live action shots.  

And with that, I think I explained and shelled out those two components well enough. :D I'll keep you guys posted!

(11) Testing Out the Production Process

Hello everyone! :D

So for these past three days I attempted to start the production process on my own. Since all of the shots that I have are filmed within my house I expected the production process to go by easily. Unfortunately, I ran into an issue. Again. 

While there are some still shots that are easy for me to film on my own, I have loads of moving shots and shots with complex angles that make it very hard for me to film it on my own. I have a tripod that allows me to set up my camera a bit easier, but it's very time consuming for me to be constantly readjusting my camera for 10-20 minutes just for a few seconds of footage.  And on top of that, I really disliked all of the footage that I got today. :( The composition in a lot of my shots were very sloppy; in shots where I needed to be centered I was not, and in shots where I moved a bit I ended up moving out of frame entirely rendering the footage useless.  

I think I centralized I realized the cause of my problems is two things. The camera I have been using has a very small window that shows me what it filming, but because it's so small it very difficult for me to accurately know what I am capturing and how it's looking. In some shots I'm very far away so I cannot see what the cam window is recording so I can't tell if I'm out of frame or if it's out of focus.  Secondly, I don't have an extra set of hands to help me film. It would be easier to do this if I was not the subject of my project, but because I'm putting myself in it I obviously can't hold the camera for moving shots at the same time. 

And so, before I go any further with the production process I'm going to need to fix those two issues. I think I can get my boyfriend to help me out with holding and camera shots, and I'm going to ask my godfather about the camera I have and see if there's a better way I can see what it is capturing. 

This is the camera I have, it's called the DJI Osmo Pocket (maybe I can look at videos about it to help me find a way I can see what I'm recording while I'm filming...)

I also need to look into getting supplies for my stop motion animation, fast. I'll definitely try to knock those things out before next week, I'll keep you guys posted! :P

(10) Storyboard Down and Looking Beyond

 It finally happened! >:D

I'm very very happy to announce that today I was finally able to get the storyboard of my project finished! With that out of the way, I finally have the time to review and finalize all of my plans for this project. After writing up my entire storyboard and then completing a basic outline of my film to go with it, I want to take the time to think about the intended target audience and possible distribution plans could be for my film. I guess this post will be dedicated to looking beyond the production process. :0

NOTE: I'm trying to figure out a way I can scan my storyboard and put it into a google file, the moment I figure that out I'll update this post and put the complete storyboard for you guys to see! :D

Since my film is centralized around my experience with grief, then I believe my target audience for my project would be for young-adults (ages 15-25) who are also going through the motions of grief. Even though my project is personal, grief is an experience that is very similar amongst people who are going through it so I think it will still resonate among my target audience. Since my project is an arthouse film that also means that my film is for audiences who enjoy watching experimental movies/shorts. Because my target audience is so specific I'm going to have to consider looking at distribution methods that will be the easiest for them to access... Maybe I can submit my film to arthouse movie festivals and maybe try to share it with counseling groups that work with teens and adults who are grieving. :0

I'm also wondering if I should create a website that provides additional links and resources that can help individuals who are seeking guidance if they are grieving. I don't think that my piece will be able to have a profound impact if it's just about the stages and it does not attempt to provide additional information about things can can help with grief. I guess I'll look into it later but it's definitely something that I am going to think about as I am working on the production of my project. 

Speaking of production, this following week I'm going to start producing!! >:D I'm very thrilled to see how it'll go, I guess I'll let you know in the upcoming blog posts, I'll keep you guys posted!