Final Product

So, after three long months of work and planning, my group and I have finally come to the end of this project. This project has had a lot of ups and downs and my group and I have had to learn to adapt and move on quickly.

Through these past few months my group and I have been developing and building onto one film opening idea: a poker movie. Even with this concept it has changed and adapted frequently until we were able to come up with our (what we thought would be) final film opening idea.

In the begging our idea was grand, we wanted to create a poker scam movie. In this film a young, scrappy, sarcastic ex millionaires son and his two companions run a poker scheme against the mob which sent his father to jail. However, this idea was very extravagant and complicated to be honest. There were a lot of components which made this idea unattainable for us to accomplish. One of the biggest ones, which our teacher explained to us, was casting. This idea required a mix of an older and younger cast and because we are younger people it would be harder for us to acquire older cast members. Our teacher also pointed out to us that in poker it is not typically common for older people to play poker with younger people.

So, we had to readjust our idea. We knew we wanted to keep it poker related because this way we could keep the same setting; a ragged garage with a poker table set up in the middle. This setting would allow us to have more control over props and set design as well as lighting and mis en scene. So we decided to switch it to a high school poker tournament. This way we could keep our original set design and then all we have to do it find younger cast mate (which is easier for us) and create some new background scenes to introduce the characters. And, for about a month and a half, this has been the idea we have been developing and working on.

Then, out of nowhere, corona hit the US. This pandemic has really changed everything. Everyone's daily lives has been ripped from under them and we have all had to readjust to this new reality were living in. So, as a result our original project idea did not work anymore. We had planned out some scenes that needed to be filmed in school. These scenes were what was going to give the bulk of the background and general idea of the film. Without these scenes all we had left was the poker game which we could film in the garage but then we ran into another problem. We could not find enough people who were allowed out of their house to film for us.

We were running out of options and honestly, motivation. But we have been working on this project for too long and too hard to just give up now and we knew we had to come up with a new idea, and fast. When this project had started, one of my group members, Dean, had been researching a lot on action movies so he decided to take the lead on our new idea. Our biggest concern for this new idea was finding something that we could do in a place that was actually open to the public and required a small cast. This was not an easy task but what we were able to come up with really worked with the situation we are in. Our idea only required a three person cast and Dean was able to find an outdoor area we could film at. It was honestly not easy to switch up our idea so quickly and with so little time left but once we finally got to production it was smooth sailing and I'm really pleased with our results and what we were able to create and honestly, while this project has had its ups and downs and there were a lot of problems and things I could have done better everything worked out in the end.

Sciolism

Week 5.2

Hi everyone, this week has been a roller coaster to be honest. This pandemic has really shifted and changed everyone's daily lives. I have been out of work now due to the virus and it has been stressful for me to try and find work now. Luckily I have been able to land a good babysitting gig with a nice family. They have been having me come over every day to watch their baby, while they work in their offices from home.

I have been having a very hard time focusing though. It has been really hard for me to sit down and do any school work with everything on the news and social media. Writing this script has been a tough process, I have been having to force myself to just be able to sit down a little bit everyday to get some progress done throughout the week. I just cant seem to concentrate and my anxiety has been very bad as well. It really sucks, I wish this wasn't happening. I wish the world wasn't going through this. But, we all have responsibilities and life still has to move on and now were in the end zone of this project and I cant afford to be in the mental state I am in if I plan on helping finish this project with my group.

Our script is nearly finished. I am having a hard time with figuring out how to end the script and now, due to school being cancelled until mid April (hopefully) our entire school scene is kaput. We now can no longer film in school so we need to figure out an entirely new beginning credit scene. I also have found that in a lot of poker movies the main character is also used as a narrator, which helps further along the story and it also gives more insight on the poker games as well as make the games more interesting to watch. However, I am not sure if it is the right move for us to have a narrator, this is something to be further discussed with my group.

What has been happening these past couple weeks has been a lot to process and shift into and I hope that everyone is still successful with their projects and I hope that now I can start to get out of my head about everything happening in the world and focus on what needs to be done.

Week 5.1

Whats up everyone! This week I am going to be heavily focusing on getting the script done for our film opening. However, I realized I don't know too well how to properly write a script. So, first things first, I need to look up how to script write and learn :)


From what I have been able to gather the process of script writing starts with clear idea of a storyline: Make sure you have a setting, protagonist, and antagonist.

Setting: School, Garage.

Protagonist: The three people organizing the tournament and the students participating in it.

Main Characters:                                                                                                  

   Julian (Male): Main protagonist                                               

Rose/Rosita (Female): Secondary protagonist                         

August (Male): Supporting character                                       

Antagonist: The law.

Then, I need to create a general outline of my script: All of the events need to be in order of how I want them to be in my script.

Outline:

Setting: Classroom                                                                                     

*Sound bites of the poker chip and other diagetic sounds*                       

Opening shot of poker chip between Julians hand.

Close up shots between the poker chip, Julians face, his work, the clock.

Close up shot of the clock as the bell rings.

*Bell rings*                                                                                                 

Setting: In the school halls                                                                          

*Montage music starts*                                                                               

*dietetic sound of students in the halls*                                                      

Mix of close ups, mid shots, tracking shots, extreme close ups;

Julian will be interacting with different students and receiving money

from them as their fee for signing up for the tournament.

Transition shot into the next scene

Setting: Garage                                                                                           

*Montage music fades out*                                                                        

Mix of close up, mid shots, and extreme close ups;

Introduce the characters and show off their poker skills.

The game comes to an end.

At the end of the game the players talk about the upcoming tournament.

And with that, I can start to format and write my script which, for this I was recommended the website Celtx. However, before I start to write my script I want to watch a few tutorials on how to use Celtx and the format that is supposed to be used for script writing.
These are the ones I watched:

How To Format A Screenplay - 5 Basic Elements : FRIDAY 101\

How to Format a Screenplay: Screenplay Formatting 101

Advanced Screenplay Formatting Tips : FRIDAY 101

Week 4.2

Hey readers! This week is going to be rough. Now, time is starting to come to an end and we really need to get our grind on. One of my group members, Dean, is leaving for a week for competitions (Good luck CBTV!) so its going to be up to me and Emil to work really hard this week to get as much done for this project as possible so that way when Dean comes back we can go right into filming. But, I feel like there is still so much to do before we can even film and I'm feeling scared and overwhelmed.

So, I just want to keep this a simple blog and just make a checklist of some things that we need to get done this week:

• Script: I think this is definitely something that needs to be TOP priority this week. Especially while Dean is gone I think it would be best to get this finished before he comes back home. 
• Title: Now, with our adapted version of our original film opening I don't feel like our original title- Bad Beat- fits the idea anymore. So, we definitely need to find a new title.
• Font: Of course, if your going to have a good title you need a fitting font that goes with not only the name, but also helps set the tone of the movie. 
• Casting: With our new idea, we have been able to eliminate possible casting problems which could have come due to the fact that our original idea had mainly an older cast. Now, our new idea will help us be able to find a cast our age (obviously, since we know more people our age) However, with our new idea we have come to another problem in terms of the size of our cast. This is due to the fact that we want to include the montage at school. Because of this we will need a larger cast to play the small extras that we need. 
• Props: We definitely need to make a list of props that we will need for the film opening. If we can figure out what we need early than we will be able to make sure that we have all of it before production. 
• Costume: Just like with any piece, it is important that our cast fits the personalities of the characters they are acting. A big piece of a characters identity is their clothing and style. So, this week we need to try to develop our characters more so we have a better idea of how we want their costumes to be

Week 4.1

Howdy! During class today I had some very productive conversations with my other classmates whom I am not working with on this project. We all got into small groups and were able to have open conversations about our project and be able to receive advice and constructive criticism from my other classmates.

I found this experience to be really nice. For one, I don't think I have ever talked to one of the girls I was in a small group with until today so now I've gotten to know more people as well. I also was happy with the attitude everyone had going into these discussions as well. I felt very comfortable to open up to everyone and take criticism and advice from them because I know they are not judging and only want to help me and my group improve and further develop our project.

During the discussions it was interesting to see others projects and what ideas they've come up with. So, while discussing with my small group about my project I was flattered that everyone really enjoyed our ideas and plans going forward. I wanted some help getting some clarity on how we should storyboard and plan out our film opening. I explained to my group our general idea; start off the opening in a garage (or some other underground area) with a group of kids in surrounding the poker table after a game. During this scene the characters will be discussing the game they were just playing and then ask about when tournament sign ups are going to be. This will then lead to a montage style during school showing the main character having people come to him to sign up for the tournament before it ends with the final scene of him walking up to his friends during lunch to speak about the logistics of the tournament.

My small group liked the idea and where we want to go with the film opening. However, through our discussion they mentioned that it may be a better idea to flip these two scenes and start with the montage. This will give us a nice flow into the poker game as well as allow us time to do the opening credits during the montage.

week 3.2

Hey readers! This week has been a lot of redirecting and changing for my group and I. After my partner had a discussion with out teacher, she pointed out some complications we might face due to our film opening plot and idea. Due to the fact that our idea is more matured and has a more adult platform she pointed out how this may be difficult in terms of casting. Because we are obviously not adults in our mid 40s or older it would be harder for us to find someone of this age range to cast as our main characters uncle or counterpart. Our teacher also pointed out the unrealistic aspects of our idea as well. Typically, older adults will not play poker with younger people, usually people play with competitors closer to their age. So, our teacher suggested that we still hold onto our main idea but we keep all of the characters younger and possibly try to make it more of a school setting.

With these suggestions in mind, my group and I have been trying to re-brainstorm our idea and better transform it into something cohesive and doable for us.
So far here are some ideas we have come up with:

•  The main settings are going to be at school and in the garage. (for the poker games)
• The protagonists and his friends are going to be setting up an underground poker tournament for the kids in the school. 
• Everyone will have to sign up and pay an entry fee to one of the members setting it up.
• The main characters always going to be fiddling with a poker chip in their hand as his trademark.

We also have developed a general outline of our film opening:

It is going to start in the garage with the main protagonists and some other kids finishing up a poker game. As they are finishing up, the kids are going to be making conversation and one of them is going to ask when the tournament sign ups are going to start. The main character is going to reply saying they start tomorrow at school. This will then lead us into a montage with the opening credits and the reveal of the title before ending the opening with the main character walking up to his friends usual lunch table talking about the amount of entries and sign ups they have had just in the few short hours. 

There is still so much for my group and I to develop on with this idea but so far I am very pleased with what we have been coming up. Our goals for this week are to start script writing and try to have that finished before one of my group members has to leave for competition for a week. I also think it would be best for us to find a new movie title because I do not think our current name idea will work anymore with our newly developed plot idea. However, I would still like the name of our movie to be a poker term as that is the main premise of our movie so, that is definitely something we need to look into as well. 

Week 3.1

To be real with you readers out there, I have been having a hard time keeping up with these blog posts. Mrs. Stoklosa has created a really good outline set up for our class already but I think it would be best for me if I put myself on a more strict schedule. Or rather, more specific schedule that will keep me more updated on these blogs posts as I recognize that they are an important part of this process. So, with this in mind, I want to uphold myself to turning in my blogs on Mondays; to write about the goals for the upcoming week, Wednesdays; to give an update on our progress of these goals, and Sunday; to recap on the past week and whats ahead.

Alright, now to continue with this goal (even though I am starting a day behind but, better late than never) I would like to talk about what my group and I have been focusing on this week. During our last meet up, we were able to get a clearer idea on our movie and plot, as well as our ideas for our film opening. One obstacle we were noticing is we do not really know much about how to pull of poker schemes and what some strategies are. So, we decided that we need to research some more on those.

My first thoughts were to look up ways to cheat at poker. What I found was that the most common types of cheating are switching, or hiding, cards and working with friends. Conveniently, for our film opening we have three main characters which are working together. I also like the idea of hiding or switching cards like in the movie Solo.

While reading further into how to cheat on poker with partners the main component to successfully pull of this technique is to have good signals. The signs need to be subtle, yet repeatable as a way to be less suspicious and undetected by the other opponents. Some suggestions were to make signs like: where the chips are placed, taping on the table, blinking, coughing, or touching your eyes, ears, nose, neck, ect.

There is also the switching cards approach that I think we could incorporate into our film opening as well. My thoughts on this strategy is that our main character only uses this when it is his last option to win the game. He should always have an ace up his sleeve. (note pun)