The Half of It (2020)- Opening Sequence

 

The Half of It (2020, dir. Alice Wu)- Director's Commentary on Opening Sequence

The Half of It- Opening Sequence

As I mentioned in my introductory post about my portfolio project, I'm using existing teen dramas discussing issues of parent-child relationships and LGBTQ+ youth as guidelines for some of the genre conventions and choices within the sub-genre of teen drama. The Half of It (2020) is a film that personally and deeply resonated with me the first time I watched it- and the second time. It focuses on issues of social alienation as a LGBTQ+ teenager, and (as so much of adolescence also focuses on) the mortifying ordeal of being known. 

So, after revisiting the film's 1 minute, 47 second opening, I watched Alice Wu (the director) comment upon the purpose of the opening sequence. Notably, as in Lady Bird (2017, dir. Greta Gerwig), another film I have reviewed here, much of the film revolves around illuminating the coming-of-age of a young woman, rather than a young man. However, Ellie Chu is not very much like Lady Bird (the titular character of Lady Bird) at all. Ellie's journey through the movie of finding a voice, finding love, and overall developing agency is established first through the opening of the film, with a quote from Plato and a stop-motion animated sequence. Wu explains that many of the opening shots- the water reflection in particular- pay homage to later, critical, shots in the film that develop Ellie's crush on popular girl Aster. However, I wanted to go with a more realistic opening sequence, since The Half of It is a bit more of a romance film and I believe my subject matter will be a little more darker. In addition, I want a more sudden opening to mimic the sudden change in Charlie’s life. But- not from the immediate opening of the film, but from the director’s commentary- the use of social media in the film being represented by onscreen text stuck with me. While I don’t anticipate social media or texting being represented within the first two minutes of my production, it certainly will be in the rest of my production, so I’ll keep that in mind when designing my text and overlays. 

Yours always,

Clover Fields

Lady Bird (2017)- Review & Analysis & Inspiration

In my as-yet-unnamed portfolio project, I intend to explore parent-child relationships, being a teenager, and the difficult realities of adolescence. But, to be quite a bit more frank and quite a bit less lofty, I envisioned a first line of dialogue and a car, filled to the brim with a tense parent-child relationship. Which immediately brought me back to the (extremely memorable) opening of Lady Bird (2017), which is just over three minutes in length. 

This is a film that I have seen probably four or five times in its entirety; but I really wanted to note and record some of the technical details that I want to include in my film opening to achieve similar dramatic effects. Additionally, I watched a few of writer-director Greta Gerwig's commentaries and interviews with news magazine Vanity Fair about the writing, direction, and production process behind Lady Bird. 

To begin with, I thought the voice-over of the initial dialogue in order to keep the focus on the initial two-shot was really effective in establishing a sort of tentative, intimate tone to the relationship between Lady Bird and her mother, and in my storyboard, I think I will also use a similar technique. My current plan for the opening shot of my piece is a close-up on Charlie looking out of a window, and their best friend’s mother saying something to them. However, while I think the complete stillness of the shot works well in the excerpt to establish a sense of being frozen, static, or unchanging, I want to establish that Charlie is hanging onto a sense of home or stability while going through a transitional period, so if possible I want to have as little actor movement as possible but with the movement of the car reflected in the actor’s eyes and possibly in the shot if windows are included.

Also, not only did I appreciate the Joan Didion quote as setting up a major theme of the film, which is Lady Bird’s relationship to her hometown of Sacramento, but I noticed that other coming of age films also use quotes onscreen. Such as in The Half of It, artsy quotes about love, life, place, angst, and other themes from well-known works of literature seem to be popular as the first thought in a teen drama or coming-of-age film. I think that my quote should set up a theme of loss and relationships changing; for that reason, I want to open my film with a quote from Richard Siken’s poetry collection The War of Foxes, from the poem The Worm King’s Lullaby.

“Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.”

Yours always,

Clover Fields

Sources:

Nast, C. (n.d.). Greta Gerwig Explains the Inspiration Behind “Lady Bird.” Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/greta-gerwig-explains-the-inspiration-behind-lady-bird

Nast, C. (n.d.). Greta Gerwig Explains Why Creativity is Mysterious. Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/toronto-international-film-festival-greta-gerwig-explains-why-creativity-is-mysterious#intcid=_cne-watch-pages_0c321820-7a8f-492b-b226-0e6a1d07396f_similar2-3

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The now-named main character of the as-yet-untitled project- or, meet Charlie

 

Friends, Readers, here it is: the premise.

What a tentative thing a premise is. What a canvas of possibility. I'm a little giddy from the idea having popped into my head. In the next week, I'll take you on the journey of storyboarding (on paper) and scripting (in Celtx) this premise. But, without further ado:

My main character's name is Charlie. This name means a lot to me: it's short for Charlotte and Charles, and its gender-neutrality is important to perhaps the central conflict of the film: Charlie is in love with their best friend, Christine. Charlie also does not have anywhere else to live except her spare room. The tension between Charlie's gender identity, and Christine's religious parents, is one of the limiting factors preventing Charlie from confessing their feelings to Christine.

I think this has plenty of the hallmarks of a dramatic teen movie. 

Again, I'll elaborate more upon this when I post about the storyboarding and scripting process, but the idea that popped into my head was this: a car with Charlie in the backseat, a hopeful quiet stilted conversation with Christine and her parents, an entryway and a bag, stairs, and finally- Charlie, alone, in a room that is not theirs but maybe could be. Then, the title. (Which is still yet to formulate in the noggin.)

This specific experience is, I admit, drawn from my own. Charlie is also a bit of a self-insert- I am, again, drawing from my own experiences. But in a way, I think Charlie should be a bit more distinct. I have not casted any actors yet, but I want to consider mostly minority actors for Charlie and mostly white actors for Christine, since a large part of the tension in the story is Christine's fairly generic Americanized upbringing, in contrast with Charlie's childhood and adolescence as a racial minority in addition to being queer. 

Yours always,

Clover Fields

"Write what you know!"- or, why I chose a serious topic

If I said I was once told, "Write what you know," it would be a lie. I have not been once told that. I have been told that many times- by workshop instructors, slam poetry professionals, creative writing experts. Most recently, I was told that by my AICE Media instructor. I consider myself to be a fairly average person, but I am also aware that multiple events in my life could and do qualify as fairly abnormal. I reveal the following information about my life not to evoke pity, but because they inform what will become my script, my storyboard, and my portfolio project. 

Between late March 2020 and late summer 2022, I was technically homeless as the result of a domestic disagreement, and bounced between short-term living situations, some with my guardian and some without. I have experienced physical, emotional, and psychological abuse from multiple parental figures in my life. I do not consider myself a victim; I consider myself an artist. That being said, here is the plot of the film I would like to use my story as somewhat of a basis for.

The main character (more to come- for now let's call them MC) is a queer teenager who has been kicked out of their house, and must accept the "charity" of a friend's parents in order to have a place to sleep. The opening of my film will establish MC, as well as their friend and their friend's family, and the conflict between MC and their host family's religious beliefs. 

Unfortunately, this tale is not a unique one- LGBTQ+ youth make up a disproportionate sector of the homeless population in the US. As in the Trevor Project's research study "Homelessness and Housing Instability among LGBTQ Youth", 28% of LGBTQ+ youth report experiencing housing instability or homelessness; 16% report sleeping away from parents or caregivers after running away from home; 55% report having run away due to mistreatment or fear of mistreatment caused by their LGBTQ+ identity; and the rates are also higher for transgender youth compared to cisgender youth, with between 35-39% of transgender youth experiencing this compared to 23% of cisgender youth. (The Trevor Project, 2022). The cultural significance of LGBTQ+ youth experiencing a higher rate of homelessness cannot be underestimated when taking into account the overall story of LGBTQ+ youth in film.

Based on the previous film research that I've done (review of Lady Bird (2017, dir. Greta Gerwig) to come soon), issues that the teen drama and slice-of-life drama genres often cover are both highly individualized and universal. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Gerwig reflected, "[...] I started from a place of knowing that the more specific I made it, the more universal it would feel". Therefore, I feel comfortable representing a highly specific individual's story, because it's within the genre conventions of drama- in fact, it goes all the way back to Greek tragedy- for my protagonist to be both an everyman and highly individual. As I move forward and enter the writing and planning phase of production a bit more, I plan to feel out the individual character traits of my MC a bit more- in essence, flesh out why they are the main character. But, again- big things are coming on that front.

Yours always,

Clover Fields

Sources:

The Trevor Project. (2022, February 3). Homelessness and Housing Instability Among LGBTQ Youth. The Trevor Project. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/homelessness-and-housing-instability-among-lgbtq-youth-feb-2022/

Nast, C. (n.d.). Greta Gerwig Explains Why Creativity is Mysterious. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/toronto-international-film-festival-greta-gerwig-explains-why-creativity-is-mysterious#intcid=_cne-watch-pages_0c321820-7a8f-492b-b226-0e6a1d07396f_similar2-3

Representation research (film industry demographics)

A few weeks ago, I was watching an anime with a friend, and I remarked on how the deuteragonist's (black) hair was portrayed with a blue undertone, and how I felt seen as a person with a similar East Asian hair type. My friend responded, "It's like appreciating American media for representing white people." Which is, to an extent, true; but growing up in America, even in a fairly diverse area, the media I interacted with most as a child felt very Eurocentric. As an Asian-American artist and creator, I am viscerally conscious of the lack of faces resembling my own in the media I consume. In addition, as a nonbinary queer person who uses they/them pronouns, I have yet to consume a piece of mainstream media or film where a character uses they/them pronouns. Which is stunning, given the nearly two decades I have been alive, and the (generously) decade and a half that I have been a consumer of media. 

In the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Reports for 2020 and 2021, the UCLA Film Department observed an upwards trend in minority representation, both behind the camera and in front of it. From 2018 to 2019, female-directed top-grossing films increased from 7.1% to 15.1% of the films studied; minority-directed top-grossing films decreased from 19.3% to 14.4%. In 2020, "[...] women and people of color are still underrepresented in critical behind-the-camera jobs. Women made up just 26% of film writers and just 20.5% of directors. Combined, minority groups were slightly better represented as directors at 25.4%. Just 25.9% of film writers in 2020 were people of color." (Wolf, 2021) Although all four general trends studied (representation in lead actors, total cast, writers, and directors) have improved from 2011, when the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report started, systematic biases are still present within the media industry. As media creators, we have a responsibility to accurately represent our target audience- not only to make our media enjoyable, relatable, and targeted, but also because representation within media is a shorthand for whose stories are worth telling. Therefore, in the writing, production, and casting of my portfolio project, I aim to tell a story with a backdrop of casual representation.

Recently, films such as Parasite (2020) and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (2022) and TV series such as Squid Game (2021) have brought more American attention to Asian and Asian-American directors, actors, and productions. In addition, Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was the first all-Asian Hollywood film in 25 years- and also happened to be the highest-grossing rom-com in 10 years (Lamberson, 2021). These numbers are heartening as to how well my production would/will be critically received if I were to prioritize highlighting Asian and/or Asian-American lead actors.

Reader, I think it's time I outline some of the actual content, plot, and characters of my production. That's for a different post, though.

Yours always,

Clover Fields

Sources:

Wolf, J. (2020, February 6). 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report: A different story behind the scenes. UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2020-hollywood-diversity-report

Wolf, J. (2021, April 22). 2021 Hollywood Diversity Report: Audiences showed up for diverse films in theaters, online. UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2021-hollywood-diversity-report

Report outlines integrated strategy toward diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. (n.d.). UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/strategy-for-diversity-and-inclusion-hollywood

Lamberson, N. (2021, May 28). Celebrating Asian American Representation in Film | Copyright: Creativity at Work. Blogs.loc.gov. https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2021/05/celebrating-asian-american-representation-in-film/

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Portfolio Introduction

This blog post marks the official start of my Cambridge AICE Media AS portfolio project.

Needless to say, I'm a little terrified; but I'm excited, too. 

When I first elected to take Media Studies, it was under the influence of my friend and mentor Sabrina. I have looked up to her since we first met. (Which is ironic, since she's 4'9" and the shortest person I know.) When she first convinced me that this class would be a good fit, she told me that she had faith that I would love creating my portfolio project. Now, as February trickles by and April looms, I, too, have faith that I will. 

In honor of Sabrina, my two-minute film opening is (tentatively) an exploration of the modern teenage queer experience. When I met Sabrina, I was going through one of the hardest times of my life; with the world of film and media that I now find myself following her footsteps in, the story that I want to tell is at my fingertips, and it looks somewhat like my own.

This week, I'm planning to do research into the coming-of-age and teen drama genres. Films I plan to watch are The Half of It (2020), and Ladybird (2017), both coming-of-age films that deal with topics of romance, sex, friendship, and connection. I'll write up my analyses and what I glean from them. 

I also want to do research on statistics of Asian-American representation in LGBTQ+ issues in film, as well as female and female-presenting leads versus male and male-presenting leads; more on that in a separate post about representation.

In the coming weeks, I also want to conduct interviews of local LGBTQ+ youth and their stories, specifically any stories about housing insecurity or a lack of parental acceptance. My personal experiences will inform the script and storyboard as much as any other; but as my representation research has only confirmed, stories about queer teenagers are not as common. So, I aim to consolidate those portions of my experience that others can find meaning in.

On a lighter note, I'm really looking forward to developing a main character idea, script, storyboard, and especially the mise-en-scene elements of this film. I personally know so many queer people with wonderfully memorable aesthetics, and wonderfully memorable personalities; and I'm excited for this main character (post coming soon) to take shape fully in my head. And as soon as I know, you will too.

Yours always,

Clover (Fields)

MARZ: Music Marketing (Reflection)

 As I write, the marketing campaign for MARZ has seen its fruition: a 15-minute presentation. My group were the first ones to go on, which was nerve-wracking in and of itself, but the process of the presentation led me to reflect on how the project went overall. It was really cool to see all our hard work pay off. 

To begin with, the research we conducted was used as reference in our presentation visuals. This helped our audience understand what we were basing our choices off of. Although I didn’t produce the presentation slides- my teammate Hailey did- a part of our presentation process was showing the two-minute music video that I co-directed and co-produced with Beatriz, which starred Martin and Zach (with a cameo from Beatriz). Here’s our music video, to the song C’mon Talk by Bernhoft. But our music video was a process that was weeks in the making. 

First of all, we had to understand who our artist was. In my intro post for this project, I talked a little bit about how we decided on MARZ’s name and connection to emotion and spirituality; but as I constructed the mise-en-scene elements of our music video and helped Beatriz design the visual persona of our artist, a bigger picture- or rather, color scheme- began to emerge. We decided that although bright colors suited the background of our images and videos, Zach and Martin should wear primarily neutral and dark colors. Hailey and Beatriz also decided on a darker theme for our presentation. This was so that we could focus on the dark, realistic elements of our artist’s message- namely, we could project the idea that MARZ was a band/duo that wasn’t afraid to talk about real feelings and events. This was key to creating the overall aesthetic of our music video. But our music video had to match the song we were working with; so I began to develop a storyboard. 

(Storyboard, by Clover)

(Set of the RESILE music video)

Zach offered up his house as a shooting location, and we made plans to shoot at his house after school. I also consulted with him about props, namely the instruments that him and Martin would be playing in the video. We decided to develop a promo music video with a touch of storyline to enhance the friendship between our two artist faces. It was difficult to find dates that worked for our whole group; but because of our earlier planning process, only Hailey couldn’t make it, but we were able to successfully shoot and produce the music video. I shot 80% of the music video and directed 100% of the shots. It was difficult to get takes that were in sync with the music for shots of the drums and guitar, as well as Martin singing. However, we tweaked the lighting and got some colorful, dark shots using the lighting that Zach already had in his bedroom to create the final, colorful look of the music video.

Before we shot the music video, we also decided to take some pictures of Zach and Martin.

Zach & Martin

Behind the scenes

Finally, after we wrapped production of the photos and videos that would comprise our social media and music video, Beatriz edited the photos using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and Martin edited our music video using Adobe Premiere. 

Throughout this process, I really enjoyed working with my team. Our creative choices all built upon each other, and it was really engaging to split up different parts of our project and later combine them to form our final presentation and product. I gained experience storyboarding, shooting video, and directing inexperienced actors. Our music video wasn't perfect, but it was very rewarding bringing my ideas to life; I'm sure that'll help on some of my upcoming endeavors (portfolio project?). More on that later.

Yours always,

Clover (Fields)

MARZ: Music Marketing (Planning)

As part of my class' music marketing brand development project, I worked with 4 of my classmates to produce a new R&B artist: MARZ. Before we shot the music video and formatted the presentation to pitch MARZ to our peers, our planning process mostly focused on genre research from similar artists.

We eventually used this research to write practice essays about the current media environment. 

Throughout the research process, I also helped my team divide task load for the actual production of the marketing package. Hailey took charge of formatting the PowerPoint presentation we wanted to use during our pitch; Beatriz drew up ideas for social media marketing strategies; I decided I would direct the music video; Martin would edit; and Zach would help me write, storyboard, and produce the music video. 

Then it was on to ideas: who did we want our artist to be? We struggled with this question for a long time. Eventually, we settled on an artist duo, who Zach and Martin would be the faces of. This artist duo later became MARZ. We went through a couple different iterations of names, some silly, and some more serious. Notable mentions were “Pistols ‘N’ Tulips” and “Leo”; however, we wanted to tap into the spiritual, emotionally connected side of our genre’s target audience, so we eventually went with MARZ, a reference to the Red Planet. 

After our planning, it was on to the production stage; and while that had its own planning challenges, those are for another blog post. 

Yours always,

Clover (Fields)