(23) Group Meetings (pt. 3!)

Hello everyone! :D

As you can probably tell by the title, today in class we did another group meeting to discuss any issues that we may have and to offer people advice on any problems they could be running into during the production stages. I talked with my classmates about the stop motion portion of my project and I was telling them about the supplies I would need in order to film it. One student suggested that I could use a light box as a diorama :0

Here's a photo of the specific box that my classmate recommended me! 

It's usually used for photography, but since it has a light source at the top of it that means it could provide me an ample amount of light necessary for my production! I ordered one off of Amazon and I also ordered some play-dough as well in order to hold up my animations. Ellie advised me to utilize play-dough in order to hold up figures since it's very malleable and it is not as 'blocky' as other kinds of supports. Hopefully it'll work for what I need to do (fingers crossed!). 

Also, through the meetings I COMPLETELY forgot that I need to create social media sites in order to advertise my film. Through some discussion I concluded that Twitter will be the best application for me to advertise it since other social media sites since I can include text information without any images. 

I'll keep you guys posted on how my work goes! :D

(22) Taking It Out to the Real World

Hello! :D

I think I've talked about the idea of distributing my project to individuals who are going through grief, but I never considered actually doing it (until now). I was talking with my therapist about my project and she told me that she knows of a program that offers counseling to grieving teens in Miami Dade. Since she know the main organizers of the program she offered to help me and see if I could actually distribute it! :0

Because this is a school project I only thought of my distribution plans as concepts, but maybe this could actually happen. It would be so so cool to see my project out there and see it impacting people, I'm definitely going to look into it once I'm finished! 

The only problem is that the music I'm planning to use within my project is copyrighted, and while I reached out to the artists to get permissions for their songs, I never got any replies back. Not one. If I was only planning to show this video to my peers only (and the Cambridge graders of course) I don't think it would be an issue, but now that I have a chance to actually get my project out there copyrighted music is a big issue. I'm going to try and contact the artists and distributing companies again, but I'm unsure that I'll get a response.  I'm wondering if this means I'll have to look for copyright-free music if I want to actually distribute it, but I'm not sure if I have the time to sift through hours of music...

Hopefully there will be a resolution to this issue soon, I'll keep you guys posted if anything new occurs. :)

(21) New Idea!!!

Hello everyone, I have some good news! :D

After talking with my cousin about my plans, we bounced off ideas and I think I know what to do for the mise-en-scene for the stop motion animations! She said that instead of trying to capture the stages on a planet, I could go more abstract and try capturing the 'headspace' I'm in when I am experiencing a stage of grief. Instead of having a scene where there's a lot going on, I can keep it isolated and using lighting to highlight the feeling of what is happening. In a way, the scene will be the insides of my mind. :0 

I like this idea since I feel it'll add onto the mystery that is grief. It can feel very isolating to go through the motions of it alone, and I feel that I'm showcasing my feelings in a more accurate manner by doing this. Plus, after my cousin brought it up I think that portraying planets might be confusing for audiences to grasp what is going on. 

After deciding what I'm going to do I went to the internet to find some photos that I can use as a reference. I want to use lighting and simple figures to emulate that I am trying to depict the way my mind is like when I'm going through those stages. 

An example of some lighting techniques I could use :0

Okay, I know this is Spongebob, but this episode where Squidward is in the Nowhere dimension is a great reference as to what I want the scenery to look like!

In the next blog posts, my plan is to sketch out my plans and go get supplies. I need to get this done ASAP since the project is due in only a few weeks. Although I hate being behind, maybe it was necessary to plan out my ideas. I'll keep you guys posted. :)

(20) Change of Plans and Extra Thinking

Hello everyone. :)

Because I'm currently in spring break, my cousin decided to surprise me and my brother and now she'll be staying with us until Sunday. While I'm very very excited that she's here, that also means that now I will barely have any time to work on my project. There's very few things that I let get in the way of my work, but family is one of them. It's been very long since I last saw her and she has a lot of plans for us, so, I guess I'll put a pin on working on the stop motion portion of my project. 

While postponing production will mean I'm going to have to work extra hard later, considering how far I've gotten with designing the characters and going out to get supplies, I think I'll be alright!

Since I'm having to push back the production dates, that means I'm not going to waste the time that I have now and do my best to plan out the editing stage and shell out my production plans even further. One thing that has been on my mind is whether if I'm going to speak out my lines in my script or if I'm just going to have text appear on screen. After talking with some people and doing a bit of googling, I've decided that I'm going to have text appear on the screen. I want the audio component of my project to be strictly music, and I feel like having me speak within the project will make it cheesy (also I think hearing my voice will not make my piece too personal, I still want audiences to see themselves within my film).

I have also been recently inspired to take a different approach for the mise-en-scene my stop motion animations.  I was telling my cousin about my plans and how I wanted to tell the story, and she was asking me a couple questions as to why I was choosing certain elements. I was telling her about my planets idea, but she said "Do you really feel as if you're on a different planet or a different plane when you grieve?". The more I thought about her question the more I realized that she was right. 

I think that by using planets as the settings for the stages was not an accurate description of how it feels to me. This means I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and reconsider some of my ideas, fast. I'll let you guys know what I come up with, I'll keep you guys posted. 

(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