Nearing the finish line!

It is almost the end of this project and one could describe my feelings stressed and anxious. As previously described in my last blog posting, we decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro as our editing software. However, my personality tends to lean towards the perfectionist side and to be honest it is difficult not being able to see how the editing process is going.



Eugenia and Rhea had a competition for a club that they are both in and for this reason me and Gabe are not able to collaborate with them on the editing process while they are there. This is stressful since we have little time left and making any changes to the opening after it is already edited will be a difficult process.

However, I must keep in mind that if we use our time wisely any changes that we wish to make will be done. In addition to this Rhea and Eugenia know how to use Adobe Premiere Pro much better than me or Gabe do so really there is no reason to believe there will be any issues. Moreover, my team and I are always communicating, so without a doubt, if there were any issues or concerns they would have been communicated.

This bump in the road has taught me that in some cases patience and trust is key. Especially when working in groups in the real world,  where you never know what obstacles life will throw at you, it is important to keep a focused mindset and plan accordingly to the changes that are thrown in your direction. No matter what, my team and I are focused and ready to work this week. I am determined and excited to see the work that has been done so far.

Editing!

Now that we have finished filming it is time to edit! So how will we edit and what tools are we going to use to aid us in the process? Well, my team and I decided to look into the options of editing software in order to make the most informed decision. 

First, we decided to look at the option of using WeVideo. The benefits of using WeVideo are that we would be able to collaborate on the project individually through separate devices. While this is a unique quality, only one of us would be able to edit the video at a particular time. In addition to this WeVideo is a software that we all are new to and are not perfectly familiar with. Although it is easy to use it would be more desirable to use software that we are confident in using. 




The next possible option was iMovie. Although iMovie is a great tool that most of the members in the group are familiar with, it does not have some features that other software's do. It would be difficult to carry out precise editing on this software and we hope that our opening is as detail-oriented as possible. So while iMovie is user-friendly we want to be able to do more with our project. 



Lastly, there is Adobe Premiere Pro. This software has a much wider range of abilities than the other two editing software that we have listed. The editing done through this software allows the editor to make much more precise edits. The drawbacks to this software, however, are that it is expensive software that not all of my team members have and it is difficult to use. 

When it came to choosing, my team and I had to look at what we wanted to prioritize in our video. That priority is the quality of our opening. My team and I want to make sure that the editing will be clean cut precise and meaningful. In order to achieve this, we decided the best option was Adobe Premiere Pro. Since it would be difficult for all of us to edit the same time anyways we thought it would only be fitting to have Eugenia edit the opening since she is the most knowledgeable on the use of the software and because she already has it downloaded. Of course, we will be able to help her along the way just not from a separate computer. 

Second day of Filming!

Today was the Second Day of Filming! We wanted to make sure the lighting was bright and sunny so we met up at Eugenia's house bright and early. We decided on Eugenia's house because her bedroom is all white and perfect for the setting of a character with OCD.

Filming from a top angle in the Kitchen!

Filming on this day was actually much quicker than it was on the first day. We quickly filmed the scenes in the bedroom and then proceeded to the Kitchen. At the kitchen, we actually needed to do some Stage prep in order to make it look spotless. We removed everything that was possible from the counters and we wiped them down.

Even for the coffee, we decided to pour it in a different container so that the colorful packaging would not throw off the clean environment we were trying to embody. We took shots from various different angles and made sure that we overshot in order to make the editing process easier and the final product look better.

After filming all the scenes we decided to retrace our steps to make the sounds crisper. We went in the room and used a microphone to record everything from the steps on the ground and the patting down of the bed sheets to the scooping of the coffee.

Re-recording small sounds!

Re-recording footsteps!

We finished fairly quickly and got a lot done in a short amount of time. It was impressive to see us all work together so efficiently, after filming the day before my group and I had a better understanding of how to film and work together efficiently. I am glad we finished filming because now we can start editing and if we need to reshoot anything we still have time! We weren't scheduled to finish filming until around Sunday so this is great news! :)

First Day of Filming!

unpacking

We started filming today! We decided to meet up at my house to film because we needed a garage that was extremely messy. While I'm not proud to say it, my garage fit the role perfectly. I had just moved to my house recently so it honestly was a mess, but for once, that was a good thing so that is where we decided to film the first scene of our opening.

Tight Space!

As soon as everyone arrived we looked over the storyboard and unpacked the cameras to get ready to film. It honestly was hard to move around in my garage because I live in a townhouse, therefore; the garage was very small. Not only was it small but as previously stated it was very cluttered so moving around proved to be a small issue. In addition to the size and the clutter, the tripod was not exactly helping our case but we made do.

Our attempt to dim light 

We then decided to look at the lighting we were dealing with. Since our film falls under the Thriller genre we wanted to make sure the lighting was low key and that it created an unnerving and ominous mood. In order to achieve this, we decided to use lamps instead of the main light of the garage. At first, we connected a lamp in the garage and it was far too bright so we decided to try and dim it by covering it with opaque plastic bags. While this did work, it was essentially useless because it came to one of my group member's attention that they had a professional light with filters.


It was quite funny to see Eugenia play around with light in different places to make sure everything showed up on camera, but in the end, it was for a good cause.

Eugenia lighting up the set 

We also forgot to consider that someone needed to throw Gabe in the garage for the opening scene, so I volunteered as tribute. However, my efforts were all in vain due to the fact that I am not even five foot and Gabe is extremely tall. So even though I was dressed in all black and you could not see my face it was not working out. Thankfully though, my brother arrived in time to steal the spotlight from me and replace me in my villainous role. Just Kidding! I'm not mad, in fact, he did a great job throwing Gabe in the garage it was quite a performance.

Throughout filming, we were also faced with some safety issues that we did not expect to encounter. For example, when Gabe was falling off the chair we did not want him to lay on the concrete so we incorporated a bag filled with bags to cushion his fall. We then filmed shots with him already on the ground and we plan to use editing to our advantage to put the scene together. In addition to this, we did not want him to get harmed by the chair when he dove to the ground so I masterfully guided the chair's movement so that it seemed realistic but did not hurt Gabe.

Overall we got a great deal of footage to work with. We made sure to overshoot in case we needed it and we got all the filming in that location done. :)

Meet our Actor!

Surprise! It's actually just Gabe! So we were actually going to try to look for an experienced actor. As previously mentioned, my team and I were looking for an actor which could vividly convey the feeling we were trying to provoke in the audience. However, things did not turn out this way.

Due to the fact that Psychological Thrillers depend on the emotion and the build-up of suspense, having an experienced actor was something we were aiming for. So we went on a search for actors, and we asked around. Me and my team posted on our social media asking for an experienced actor who wished to be a part of our production. However, we came across several issues. One of these issues being that it was extremely difficult to find anyone whose schedule matched up with ours.

Due to the fact that my team members are all leaving for spring break and have tournaments to attend to, we have a short window of about three or four days to film and time is of the essence! Not only did they have completely differing schedules, yet many of them did not even live nearby. Finding transportation for them to come and shoot on multiple days was not ideal. Not only did we face this issue of time and location but also several of the actors who were offering help were females.

Of course, nothing is wrong with female actors, however, we already designed everything including the storyboard around a male character. Making changes such as the character's gender would affect several things including costume design and props that we do not have time to change. We then had the bright idea of contracting the help of the Drama Club. However, this was a failed attempt because the Drama Club at our school is also leaving for a trip.

So this was an issue

This is when we learned about compromise. We realized that getting a different actor on such short notice, that looked exactly the way we wanted, that fit our schedule, that lived nearby, and that was experienced, was not an attainable goal. What did we have though? One of my team members is Gabe, and while no, he has never taken any drama classes, he has stepped in for several other projects as an actor. Gabe is also not shy, he fits the character well, he lives nearby, and he has the same schedule as the rest of my team. In the end, I am not worried. I am sure that if we overshoot and we help direct Gabe's acting the end product will be successful! :)

What does this project really mean?

Challenging Conventions

As I near the end of this project I have to start realizing how it would fit into the real scheme of the world. If this were a real film opening what would make my film different from others? How would it make a difference, and what would be its purpose? How am I challenging conventions? Well for starters, no creator of any media wishes for their end product to be mainstream. To make a production and be someone who is creative is to come up with ideas that are new and provide a different perspective and impact others in ways that haven't before. 

However, there is a caveat in this aspiration. That caveat is that my group and I are students and considering this would be our first film opening challenging conventions in an extreme fashion would not be wise due to the fact that we are not an established production company and we do not have a reputation. In order to build that reputation, we must first put out content that generally follows conventions. 

However, this does not mean that our film has to be bland or boring, there are small ways in which we are provided creative freedom to step outside of boundaries without scaring away audiences. In the Genre of Psychological Films, the opening scenes usually consist of setting up the beginning of the film, a story which proceeds in chronological order. This can be seen in Gone Girl where there is a voice over of  Nick describing his wife, in the shining where there is a series of establishing shots, and in Split where the plot just starts right away. My team and I wished to do something to challenge these general conventions.

Therefore we decided to start our film opening with a fast forward, bringing the audience to the climax of the story and then sending them back to the beginning. In this way, we wish to capture audiences attention by providing them with a film that is not sequenced in a conventional manner and that keeps them wondering how the character reached that point. 

Representing people with OCD

My group nor I can say that our film is attempting to make a societal statement by releasing this movie. It is most uncommon to say that about any film within the Thriller genre since incidents which occur within these films are often exaggerated for dramatic effect. For example in Split, various articles were written on News outlets such as CNN and The Guardian criticizing the film for portraying Dissociative Identity Disorder in the wrong way by making it seem dangerous and violent. 

In our film, we have carried out research concerning the disorder to make sure we had a strong understanding of what OCD is and how people with the disorder actually carry on with their lives. Although the film will exaggerate various aspects of the disorder since it is a Thriller, we want to make sure it is rooted in factual information of how people with this disorder act. 

By Challenging conventions and waiting to make a film after being well informed of the facts, we wish to make a film that truly is enjoyed by the audience.     

References

https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/health/shyamalan-split-movie-dissociative-identity-disorder/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/12/cinema-dissociative-personality-disorder-split-james-mcavoy 

Production Company Logo!

Very Exciting news! My group has finalized the design for our production company logo! Here is a picture of it:

We decided to go for this logo because we wanted it to represent all of us in some way and each of the letters is the initials of our first names: G- Gabe E- Elly (me!) E- Eugenia R- Rhea. Not only does it accomplish subtly incorporating some of our personality into our film but it also sounds like the words "Gear" hence the G being shaped as a Gear.



I think the idea for it was very creative and the execution of it also looks very professional. I feel the "Gear" is also a representation of how well we work together almost like we were a machine! I am very excited to see how our opening scene ends up looking like! :)

Group meeting... PART 2!

Today in class I had the opportunity to meet up with a group to bounce my ideas off of and to ensure that my project was on the right track. If you guys remember, earlier down the road we had already had one of these group meetings and it was super helpful. This time the group consisted of different individuals from the last one, therefore I was able to get raw reactions to my ideas and a new and fresh perspective.

After explaining what my group and I had accomplished over the last few weeks the feedback I received seemed to be overall positive. Which is a great thing to hear because it means I am headed in the right direction. Or it means that they did not want to voice their real opinions but we are just assuming that they're being honest here.

Although I did not get many suggestions for changes, I did acquire some tips and techniques on ways to improve my opening. The first thing that most people said was to make sure to incorporate quick editing and cuts in order to better depict my character as frantic in the beginning scene. It was also suggested that I incorporate dutch angles and possibly a dolly zoom. By incorporating dutch angles I think it would work by providing a subtle way for viewers to understand his panic.

However, although dolly zooms clearly show disorientation I am not sure if it would be as subtle. It might end up looking slightly cheesy if I incorporate this type of shot; therefore, my team and I will try it out and see how it looks. If it becomes a problem, we could always just scrap the footage and continue with our original idea. By creating an abundance of material to work with and overshooting when filming we will give ourselves sufficient room for mistakes where we can pick out the best shots.

Lastly, it was suggested that in the scene where our character is pushed into the garage, he should quickly and frantically straighten out his clothing and brush off any dirt that is on him. By doing this my peer suggested it would further explain to the audience what type of person he is and reveal his strange priorities. Especially since someone of a normal personality without a disorder such as OCD would be quick to panic because they are kidnapped and trapped, not because their shirt got wrinkled.

I think I benefited greatly from this group meeting and I am looking forward to applying the advice that was given to me! :)

Movie Title!

So... as discussed in one of my previous posts we decided on the title of our movie! Which is super exciting but I wanted to go more into depth now that we finally designed how it's actually going to look.

For the font we decided to go for one that resembles the font that is seen in First Man:

We thought that by using a font that had very clean lines and was spaced out evenly would reflect the content of the movie. Especially since our character struggles with obsessions over perfect alignment symmetry cleanliness and more we thought this would only be fitting.

So my group member Eugenia came up with a similar design to showcase our title Ninety degrees.

I am very happy with how it came out! I think the font the color and the straight lines all resemble the content that we are going to be relaying to the audience. I think the title in itself is also very fitting especially sing ninety degrees is considered to be the perfect angle and our character aspires for that perfection! :) 

Costumes and Props!

With every good film, it is easy to say that the Mise-en-scène aspects that revolve around it can make or break the visual appeal and the fluidity of the feature. Especially in our case where our opening scene is going to have the purpose of introducing our character, having them dress the part is going to be an enormous part of how the audience perceives and understands our idea.

However, since we have yet to find an actor to fit the role we are working on all other aspects of the project that we can in order to make the filming process as easy as possible. In order to make that happen, we need to be prepared! So my group and I compiled a list of clothing items accessories and props that we would need for our production in order to see what we already had and what we needed to purchase.

Our lovely list:

Props:

• White sheets/ bedding ✓
• White Clock 
• Measuring cup ✓
• Mug ✓

Costume design:

• Button-down ✓
• Striped shirt 
• White/ gray t-shirt ✓
• Dress shoes ✓
• Gray pants 
• Plain sneakers ✓
• Glasses ✓
• Hair gel ✓
• Slippers 

All of our props and costume design items were meticulously chosen and had a reason behind them. For example, in the second part of our opening scene, we wanted to ensure that our character's room reflects his lifestyle and his personality. Considering he has OCD we wanted to go for a very clean and simple look and we found a way to achieve this would be to use white monotonously throughout the room. Especially since white is known for being a symbol of purity and perfection we thought it would only make sense to make this a trend throughout his living space. 

As for the costume design, this is what we ended up deciding on:

We are most likely going to go for the second example in regards to the first scene. At first, we thought that the lines of the first example would be symbolic of the symmetry and perfection that our character obsesses with. However, we decided it would be best to go with the second option considering a shirt with a pattern might be too busy of a shirt for someone who sees perfection in simplicity. 

Overall, I think we are ready to shoot in regards to props and costumes! :) 

Productive Day!

The big Scheduling Dilemma 

Today my group and I met at Starbucks to work on our project! We made a schedule beforehand after considering everybody's individual time commitments. We decided to meet up at 2:00 pm. I was the first one to get there and waited there all ALONE for like 20 minutes. Eugenia and Rhea then quickly followed until Gabe finally arrived after like an hour! Honestly, though, it was all just a big laugh. Gabe is super responsible and he just got confused because I worked at 4:00 pm so he switched up the times and was going to come at 4:00 pm. So from now on, we know we have to communicate better!

ANYWAYS...

Getting Down to Business 

We ended up finishing our Story Board! We decided to start with a flash forward of our character being pushed into a super messy garage (AKA my garage). Then we're going to implement a series of shots displaying his hysteria. Things such as obsessing over things being out of place, garbage being on the ground, and so on. Then we are going to go back to the beginning where our character will be in his bedroom. In this way, we will have more space to establish who our character is. We made sure to pay attention to close details and try to portray our character through actions rather than words.

Storyboard:

Company logo:

 While I, unfortunately, had to leave to go to work at 4:00pm my group was able to come up with our production company's logo. It was super creative considering it included all of our initials combined. I think it ended up looking awesome and I am beyond excited to see it all put together. I am happy we were all able to work on it today, in the end, we got a lot of work done!

That's our beautiful company logo! LOOK AT IT

Here are some more pictures of us being hard at work! 

 

            

Credits!

As we embark on this exciting journey me and my group decided to establish roles. Obviously in, reality, working together is much more complicated than assigning one singular role to each person. Work is often shared and divide. However, when it comes to on-screen text, they must be clear-cut.

We decided to look at the normal credits/ or most important credits which are included in the opening scene of a movie. We found that these included several roles including Top Cast, Supporting Cast, Casting Director, Music Composer, Art Director, Set Design, and so many more. Obviously, we are just four kids. There is no way that we would include all of those credits especially since most of them don't even apply to us. So what did we do? We chose only the most important and relevant ones.

Director:

Gabriel Quiros

Advertising our need for an Actor

We decided to make Gabe Director since he has a really good eye for direction and in general has the skills to oversee the project in its entirety.

Writer:

Elizabeth Jaimes
I am considered Writer as I am the main one who came up with the idea of our opening. I'm going to be in charge of the script and will work alongside Gabe to bring the story to real life.

Director of Cinematography:

Rhea Thomas
Rhea is going to be in charge of the camerawork throughout the film. 

Editor:

Eugenia Scheuren
As Editor Eugenia is going to be in charge of editing the footage together as well as the design of our title. 

Main Actor/ Actress: 

N.A. (For now!)
I already started advertising on my social media to try and find an actor. Considering that our film is a thriller and relies heavily on acting we want to try to find a person that can really portray our character accurately.

Overall:

Overall, I am glad we have established these roles. However, one must take into consideration that we are working on this together and all of us at some point will be working in the position of all of these roles. None of these roles are more important than the other as we are all working together as a team! :)

Reference: 

Bohush, P. (2012, August 1). OPENING CREDITS: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY. Retrieved from: https://newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2012/08/credits

Title!

Today in class we looked at the possibilities there was for our movie's title (it took like all class). We tried thinking of different words or phrases that were related to the character traits that revolve around the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

We decided to brainstorm all of our ideas and write them on a piece of paper and cross them off one by one at the end.

Here's a picture of what our brainstorming process looked like:

As you can see we decided to conduct some research on the factors that go into choosing the perfect movie title. We found that three main ideas that titles tend to revolve around are characters locations and situation or feelings. We took inspiration from examples such as Atomic Blonde. 21 Jump Street, and Get Out. What we ended up going for was a title more related to a feeling. We wanted the title to relate to something that resembled perfection since OCD is a disorder which strives towards that standard. In the end, we decided on Ninety Degrees, we thought it evoked and resembled the aspirations of our character.

References:

Script Reader Pro. (2018, November 22). MOVIE TITLE IDEAS: 3 WAYS TO COME UP WITH THE COOLEST TITLES EVER. Retrieved from https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/movie-title-ideas/

What is OCD?

I figured that if we are going to portray a character with OCD it would be vital to our film opening to research every aspect of it to make certain we are portraying our character accurately and clearly to our viewers. So I decided to find out about the disorder. In this way, my team and I will be better equipped in the story boarding process as well as the Directing aspect of our project.

Symptoms:

(according to google medical information- supported by Mayo Clinic and other institutions)

More about OCD:

OCD I found was a disorder that could interfere with many if not all aspects of life such as a person's work, education, family, and social life. As previously mentioned through the image above people with OCD experience compulsive behavior. I found some common examples of this behavior to be excessive cleaning, precise arrangements of things, repeated checking on things like the oven, and compulsive counting. 

In addition to this, I found some common examples of obsessions within people with OCD. These included fear of germs, unwanted taboo thoughts of things such as religion or self-harm, aggressive thoughts, and having things in a symmetrical or perfect order.

Overall people diagnosed with OCD take part in compulsive and obsessive behavior. Yet, in addition to this several of them also have a tic disorder. Examples of tics include motor tics such as repetitive movement, or vocal tics such as repetitive grunting sounds. 

Common misconceptions:

In addition to all this, I found that some people often consider OCD to be anyone with these obsessions or compulsions. However, the truth is that while several people have these habits only those with OCD experience them in an unconscious way they can not control. People with this disorder also spend up to an hour a day dwelling on their thoughts and behaviors. Lastly, they don't gain pleasure from their actions, while they do experience relief from the anxiety that their thoughts cause, it does not bring them pleasure.

  Reference:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. (2016). NIMH Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/index.shtml

Learning more about my genre

So Psychological Thrillers! If I am going, to be honest, I haven’t watched that many movies in this genre. But my other team members have, so since this is going to be the genre I am focusing on, I might as well learn more about it, right?

So in order to understand it, I decided to take a look at its definition. A psychological thriller as defined by Defintions.net is “a thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states.”

What I found after taking a look at the definition of a psychological thriller was that it focuses more on the psychology and mental state/ delusion of its characters rather than the action or the plot. Therefore, I found that many psychological thrillers can seem slow in action, as they focus on building up suspense and concentrate more on their characters mentality. Psychological thrillers also incorporate suspenseful scores in order to augment the fear factor onto their audience. This genre, in essence, uses scores as a tool to build up suspense and fear.

Although they can be confused with horror movies I found that they are actually very different. One way I found them differing is in the fact that horror movies focus on one scary tangible things while psychological thrillers focus on the hysteria of their characters. In a way, they are therefore considered much scarier since it is sometimes difficult to differentiate what is real and what is over-dramatized. In addition to this, Horror movie director’s often use scares throughout the entire movie. On the other hand, psychological thrillers use scares sparingly and build up suspense. Lastly, Psychological thrillers do not incorporate as heavy of a focus on costume design or makeup design since characters are almost always real human beings unlike the many characters in Horror films which are often fictitious. However, Psychological thrillers do rely heavily on lighting and other mise en scène factors in order to establish a specific tone.

Split

One example of such Psychological Thriller films that I looked at was Split. Split is a movie which focuses on the story of Kevin, played by James McAvoy, which has several personalities. The story then revolves around him kidnapping three girls along with a deeper personality inside him that is trying to dominate all the others. This focus on his mental struggle and hysteria is reflective upon the genre. The film also revolves heavily around the acting of the main character because this is what delivers the feeling of hysteria to the audience. The score is also a very prominent part in augmenting the suspense of the movie.

Gone Girl

Another example of a psychological thriller in the film industry is Gone Girl. Gone Girl is a movie focused on the characters Nick Dunne played by Ben Affleck and Amy played by Rosamund Pike. The story focuses these two character’s facade of a perfect marriage when suddenly Amy goes missing and the prime subject is Nick. The part of the film that makes it a psychological thriller is the deep focus on the mental state of each character. Especially in this case (SPOILER ALERT) where Amy was secretly behind the entire set-up and framed her own husband in an elaborate psychopathic manner. Other features that were previously mentioned, such as acting and the score were prime attributes in the delivery of suspense to the audience in this film.

References

• Rennick, L. (2018, April 18). 5 Ingredients You’ll Find In The Best Psychological Thriller Films. Retrieved from https://junkee.com/best-psychological-thriller-films/154593
• TV Tropes. (n.d.). Psychological Thriller. Retrieved from  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychologicalThriller 

Finding an approach

Today I was looking at different approaches to starting an opening and I found this cool video that talked about how to introduce characters.

I will link the video here:

I found it really interesting and valuable to find a resource that was in reference to Spielberg since he has directed some of the most well-known movies in the industry. As I was watching the video I realized that Spielberg's technique of combining what is called the "action method" and "fraction method" was something that I wanted to incorporate into my film opening. I know that I want to create something that would make the audience have to work in order to understand the true meaning. I feel that when I am watching movies such as any of Spielberg's movies I find satisfaction in figuring things out for myself instead of it being "spoon fed" to me. Those movies are the ones that make people actually think hard, and that is a quality I want to be reflected in my own film opening.

By demonstrating characters feelings emotions and qualities through their actions I feel that the audience will receive a deeper understanding of what the character is like. Adding the method of "Fraction" to the equation, which focuses on specific bits and pieces of a frame in order to point to a larger whole of a character, would add another dynamic to my film opening from which it would benefit. So, by incorporating techniques such as Spielberg's I feel I will be able to elicit an authentic response from the viewers and enable them to watch the rest of the movie. Because in the end, that is what first impressions are all about, right? Especially in film.

Feedback!

Good idea- execution needs work

So today I met with individuals from different groups and talked about my idea and what my group was thinking of doing. Honestly, some quality feedback was received. So what I basically understood was that the genre and the idea for the overall movie were good, however, the way in which we planned to execute it might need tweaking.

What my group and I thought of before I met with this "feedback group" was that we would have a flash forward to the scene where the action was happening (the action as in the kidnapping) and then bring it back to his regular life and introducing this character as someone who has OCD. My group and I had an understanding that this would all be presented through visuals and not directly stated. We want the viewers to figure it out for themselves by showing some of his tendencies and his routine.

The feedback that I received was that this might be too much for the beginning and I might have to commit to one or the other (flash forward or introduction of character). This makes sense because this is all conveyed in only a few minutes however, without providing a shocking scene at the beginning I fear that the audience might become uninterested or bored. Then I was provided with the interesting idea of setting it up after the action has occurred where this character is already in an uncomfortable situation. They gave me the example of setting it up in an insane asylum where the character has a plate of food and is meticulously pushing it around so it doesn't touch, or folding their clothes perfectly, and different little tendencies such as the ones previously stated in order to make it clear to the audience that the character has this issue.

Overall, I think my group and I need to straighten out the idea of the movie and its purpose before we go into planning the opening of the film. If this is not done it might be difficult because ideas such as the one of the insane asylum might be difficult to carry out since our original idea was him getting kidnapped, these two events would be hard to connect. I do think it is possible, however. I am excited to share what I learned with my group so we can tweak the issues that were brought up.