Revealing my Film's title; Among Other Things

 Hey everyone! Editing is nearing completion, there's only 40 seconds left that I need to edit in sounds! Here, take a look at a screenshot of my adobe screen!

Production is coming along swimmingly! For today, I'd like to reveal a piece of the film, and explain my creative choices!

(Blogger compresses the video, so it's of a worse quality. I promise that when I upload the final product to YouTube, it'll look nicer. Also, this isn't the finished product, and it's likely that this segment will change in the future!)

I'm actually really proud of this segment. First off, the music design was a challenging part for me. I tried to learn music theory, but it's a bit difficult to do so in the span of two days. Instead, I opted to play rudimentary notes to not only serve as background noise, but to match Theo's current tone. You can't tell in this snippet, but in the past shots, the only audio was AC white noise and a somber music piece (it sounds really nice, I'll share it with you all soon!). Not only does the quiet help build suspense in what's going to happen and why Theo is despondent, it also matches his current, somber mood.

The singular high pitched music note that plays when Bakari (whose voice was provided by my lovely friend Luke, he'll be cited in the credits) asks "are you still moping around?". Alongside Theo's smile, this high note breaks the silence of the call between Theo and his father, showing that he can feel emotions, it just has to be with the right people. After this, a rudimentary melody is played as more shots of Theo's messy house are shown. This creates a relaxed feeling, as the audio juxtaposes the cold, quiet noises of the AC in previous shots. This helps signal the audience that Bakari's voice and presence calms Theo, creating a relationship between the two characters. I got this idea from my storytelling blog post, where I wanted to "make the audience work for their meal", in which case, I think I succeeded.

In the last moments of this piece, the calming rhythm brought by Bakari is interrupted by an out of tune key when Theo's girlfriend messages him. This interruption is very sudden, creating a sense of panic. I put this in because the following scene has Theo panicking as he stumbles to a picture of Bakari and him. Truthfully, I'm proud of this segment, and I think that I did a pretty nice job for one of my first major short films.

Lastly, the film's name. I'd like to introduce all of you to...

LifeLine

A WillowsWood Production

The thought process for my film's title isn't as complex as it's been for other things such as characters. First off, it shares a likeness to the term "landline", and if it were a real movie, the motif of the landline being Theo's inner struggles and conflicted feelings would carry over from the film's opening. If the landline would have such a major role in the film, I thought it would be poetic if the film's title would be similar to that word. In addition to that, a lifeline means something that someone depends on in their hour of need. When you're depressed, you need help, and throughout the course of the film, my vision is for Theo to slowly open up to his friends, a therapist, and eventually, his girlfriend. They will guide Theo to becoming more emotionally available, or in other words, they would be his lifeline. That's why I selected it for my film's title.

Thanks for tuning in guys! Tomorrow, I'll have more to reveal about the film and maybe even about the CCRs!