Creative Critical Reflection

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Final Project

POSTER

Meet Veronica (character establisment)

In film, and in storytelling as a whole, beginnings are always connected to endings. When I started writing my blog, I introduced my initial ideas with a quote by poet Jane Kenyon. Now that my creative point is coming closer to its end, I realize that I have been saving the post about my main character for last. I think I have always known who Veronica is. I take that back I don't know who she is, I probably will never know. However when writing a screenplay there needs to be some sort of character written down. And I guess I simply was not ready to put it down on paper. Talking candidly about oneself is probably one of the biggest challenges encountered in writing. Dani Shapiro, the author of my favorite book Still Writing, mentions the Ayurveda in a chapter about storytelling:

According to Ayurveda, we become what we surround ourselves with. And so it stands to reason that we have to be discerning about what we surround ourselves with.

At a first glance, this phrase refers to the people we surround ourselves with, but I think that it can also refer to objects. In film, when we tell stories through images, objects are a great tool to instantly perceive a character. Thus, to establish Veronica I utilized many objects on camera that are representative of who she is. The two maps, the Surrealism and Bossa Nova books in her room, the lonely lighthouse, the red velvet dress, and the bright yellow raincoat were all chosen with a purpose. If I were to produce the complete film, I would make sure these objects appear along with many others perhaps to signal clues, or signal development and change.  

As I mentioned in my first post, the main purpose in this film, besides passing the AICE Exam, is to create a self portrait. Since the beginning I thought that through self portraiture, I could effectively create a significant and substantial piece. Considering that two minutes is not enough to tell who someone really is (not even a lifetime), I've always wanted to be insightful and explore the hidden world inside "self," along with one's personal dreams and desires.

Not only inspired by myself, Veronica is also inspired by other characters in film, characters that I have felt related to. There is nothing more touching than experiencing connections with fictional personas. To be mirrored by someone on a screen is truly a especial moment. Im not necessarily talking about the obvious matters like a short temper, or bad habits like smoking cigarettes and biting your nails. Im talking abut the less obvious, the hidden, the all-embracing essence of a character that one feels strongly linked to.

The characters of Jordana and Oliver, from Submarine, for example are two characters that inspired me to create Veronica. These two characters are so unconventional, Richard purposely accentuates their flaws. The movie definiatley underlines Oliver's mean and selfish personality and Jordana's frigid and unemotional persona, along with her skin eczema. The fact that Ayodae is able to make audiences fall in love with these two pretty unlikeable characters is very interesting to me, not only because it creates a bigger sense of reality within the story, but it also brakes conventions. I am used to watch sainted and misunderstood protagonists in coming-of-age films, but Submarine is remarkably especial because of its eccentric characters, who tell each other romantic phrases like this:

I could drink your blood [Jordana], you are the only person that I would allow to be shrunken down to a microscopic size and swim inside me in a tiny submersible machine. -Oliver Tate 

This phrase is that magical in the film where you find out why the title is Submarine. The idea of letting someone know you so well, that they could swim inside of you and examine every corner of your interiors is beautiful to me, and it is the biggest declaration of love that I have seen on film. Ever since I saw Jordana wearing her distinctive red coat I knew that one day I would create a character with a colorful coat as well. 

gifs from Richard Ayodae's Submarine

I have written about everything except about Veronica. So all there is to know about Veronica is that she is 17, lives in a lighthouse in Miami, and her biggest desire is to find the 95th hue of the color blue (apparently there are only 94 hues in the electromagnetic spectrum). Veronica will take on a journey to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the quest for the mysterious color. In her journey she will encounter people and obstacles that will cause her to change and grow, and realize that the color is located back home. Ultimately she escapes to reconnect with herself back home. Some might think that Veronica is an idealized version of myself, but  I think that Veronica is actually an accentuation of my flaws, an over exaggerated version of what I believe makes me who I am, just like a cartoon. 

stills from Hues of Blue

me

After effects; entering lighthouse

This post is dedicated to my experience with After Effects. I really wanted to make Veronica's character to look like she lived inside a lighthouse. As I mentioned on a previous post, not only do I consider lighthouses to be extremely romantic and poetic, but a lighthouse would visually communicate the idea of being trapped, like a princess in the tower of a castle. Since I had prior knowledge using PhotoShop and After Effects, I was able to create this impression.

When one is familiar with the program, it is not very difficult to create this effect. Everything consists of layering images in the correct order. And then cropping and masking certain fragments of the images to control what portions are shown and when are they shown.

The first layer of the composition consists of an image I took of the clouds, this  layer created the sense that Veronica's room is located very high up.

The second layer of the composition is the video of Veronica inside her room, but I hid it to create the lighthouse on top. So on the image above, the lighthouse is my third layer, and I had to crop the window, where the video of Veronica is added. The image of the lighthouse is actually an image I took from the window located on the first floor, but I elongated it to make it look like the structure that is higher up.

Symmetry was a very big challenge, I had to make sure everything was balanced to make it look realistic. After layering the images, I unmasked the room scene and then I had to animate the whole composition to slowly go larger in scale, this effect made it look as if the camera was getting closer and closer inside of her bedroom.

Here is a video that I found very helpful when I had trouble arranging my layers and animating them.

Production brought up big changes

This weekend I made many changes in my film. First of all the title of the film was changed to "Hues of Blue", no parenthesis around the U. I kept thinking about the emphasis around the U and it just felt like I was stating the obvious and was trying to be clever. Hues of Blue already sounds beautiful and very poetic. So I decided to stay with that title alone.

Also, during the second day of production, many questions were brought up in my mind. It felt like I had a great amount of conceptual messages, but I was not really being able to visibly represent them on camera. I had to do a lot of thinking and create more tangible images that could then illustrate the meaning behind them. For instance the boxes that I created for the desk scene were beautiful but the viewer did not know they were empty, the more I looked at them during editing and the more I asked for my peers opinions, I realized that they looked like christmas gifts, beautiful christmas gifts, but they had nothing to do with what I wanted to say. So I decided to get rid of that scene and shoot again but without the boxes.

Still from new shot

Moreover,  I also made some changes in the story. I think the idea of escaping wasn't really stated in the footage that I had taken two weeks ago. The character Veronica had a map but she never really stated where she was going and why she was going. So I meditated and searched for those questions, and decided that Veronica wants to escape to search for more shades of Blue. In fact shade number 95 in the color spectrum (There are only 94 shades), she will communicate this through dialogue in the opening scene, and it will be a voice over as it is done in Richard Ayodae's, Submarine, when character briefly mentions an question about human existence while he sits in the corner of his bedroom. I made the decision that she will travel to the Pico islands in the middle of the Atlantic to search for this shade of blue. I chose this destination simply because of its remoteness and its beautiful landscapes, and I feel a deep curiosity towards this place. Leaving home to go there just seems bizarre and a little nonsensical.

Pico Island

Pico Island

Moreover, I was thinking about the still shots that I love so much. The stills will essentially establish that Veronica lives in Miami, and I think this will bring up questions about why would she leave Miami, why escape from paradise?

This weekend I also shot at a lighthouse in Key Biscayne, and I though that if I could make it look as if Veronica lived in the lighthouse, the idea of being trapped and stuck could be emphasized even more. In a digital arts program I went last summer I gained a lot of knowledge about Photoshop and some knowledge on After Effects as well, so I was able to create a composition that creates the sensation of her living inside of the lighthouse, I will share a post about that process as well.

This is the window that will be used in After Effects 

Key Biscayne Lighthouse

I am very glad with this decision about finding other hues of blue, I think it is very poetic that my character is determined escape from home to in the quest for an unknown shade of blue. I already know where she will find that last blue... home.

Quiero Agradecer; Music

The otherworldly scenes of Richard Ayoade's "Submarine" are subtly decorated with Alex Turner's voice all through out the film as we are taken on a journey across the hazy atmosphere of rainy Wales. Turner and Ayoade worked together to create a unique voice for the film, and to be frank it made it a million times better. When asked about their collaboration, Ayodae and Turner share that the songs were not written for the film in the first place. Alex wrote the album after reading the novel, not knowing that they were going to become the score of the film. The result however was marvelous, Turner's voice adds an extra dense layer of sentiment that makes the movie utterly special.

"I really like it when you have the music as a sort of opposite. So when they're running around during [the gorgeous lament] 'Hiding Tonight', all the stuff they're doing is quite violent. I like that. I guess it was a bit like that video we made for 'Fluorescent Adolescent' – you have something very violent juxtaposed with the song. You go off in the other direction."-Richard Ayodae for Independent UK 

Back in December when I started thinking about this project I knew exactly the voice that I wanted to decorate my images with. Last Summer my brother and I worked as counselors at a summer camp. There, we met an exceptional group of amazing people, most of which became part of our closest group of friends. Among them, we had the pleasure to meet Simon Grossman a remarkably talented Venezuelan singer and songwriter. We first listened to his music gathered around a campfire but he soon became a constantly present voice on our personal music library.

The raspy texture of his voice is only one of the multiple layers that help build up his unique pieces. I think that what makes him special is that his music is pure and sincere. He did not start making music for others, instead it started solely for himself, for his own escape, and his own method of expression. The lyrical aspect of his pieces is what I love most, with a few simple words, Simon can say so much, and make you feel so much. The combination of organic sounds, and effortless guitar melodies in Simon's music undoubtedly create the concept that Im thriving for in my piece. Therefore, Hues of Bl(u)e will be opened by one of his most recent songs "Quiero Agradecer," (Spanish for "I want to thank.")

This song is very special. When I listen to it I interpret it as being thankful for the little things. Even after being hurt by someone, or left in deep disappointment. The lyrics of the song talk about appreciating the ephemeral instances in life that once felt like magic. No matter how short, being thankful for experiencing certain moments that made you feel out of this world. Then, the song also talks about certain dreams that we must wake up from, grow up, and move on, regardless of how much it could hurt. I feel like the song is essentially a discussion on one of the many problems of human existence and development. Especially when growing up, we constantly encounter ourselve with the cycle of living short periods of magic followed by long periods of distress and disappointment, followed by periods of reflection, where we learn from our mistakes, where wake up, and finally move on.

Enjoy:
Quiero Agradecer - Simon Grossman

Resources: McLean, Craig. "Periscope Up: Richard Ayoade and Alex Turner Unite Their Talents in Hot New Brit Flick Submarine." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.