Sunday, April 12, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: The Critical Reflection
I'm not going to sugar coat it; this process was not easy. Editing was tedious and a pain in the butt, while trying to find a replacement for our lead actor was just a huge annoyance. We found our selves going from plan A to plan Z too quickly, but we pulled it off. Listen to the entire process in full detail to feel our pain.
The Shopping Cart Diaries: The Final Project
With great honor (honour for our friends in the UK), I present to you "The Shopping Cart Diaries." Feel free to laugh at our amateur skills and acting abilities, but most importantly have fun with the film, for the production crew here at Little Sombrero had a blast making this masterpiece.
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 9
Before I introduce you to "The Shopping Cart Diaries" film, I'm going to tell you a little secret:"The Shopping Cart Diaries" is a short film.
I know, I know. You're entire world was probably just shattered and now you don't know what to do with yourself. Let me explain.
While trying to figure out the direction of which our film was going to go, we watched countless trailers, films, and TV shows to help us decide on the style of our film. In a sea of stupidity on the internet, we found greatness. That beacon of hope was a little 15 minute long short film called "Foureyes." In the best of our abilities to articulate our feelings of watching such a cinematic masterpiece, all I can tell you is that we "ate that sh!* up."
"Foureyes" is the tale of a young boy who starts wearing glasses right when he is entering puberty. It is awkward, choppy, yet so well done. The angle was so raw, so real, and we wanted our film to be just like it. In the same style we knew our idea could only be stretched out to 25 minutes tops, so that is exactly what we planned for. Enjoy the first two minutes of twenty five. I am Emily Gitten, and I thank you for coming along on this journey, but the cart stops here.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 8
My first true entry on this blog talked about our production team's struggle to define the genre of our movie. By definition our movie is still an independent film as we are not affiliated with a major studio and our whole idea is completely obscure and difficult for the public to ingest at first. Yet, as I watch our movie over and over again it appears more like a comedy. You can tell we had a blast making it, in fact maybe we had too much fun producing our little baby, but that's what our teacher told us to do. And as the great products of the American education system that we are, we followed her orders to a tee. We never intended for it to be a blatantly obvious comedy, we were actually aiming for the whole charming indie film thing. But we're not disappointed, because the best comedy just naturally progresses from life's imperfections to pure comedic gold. I mean Seinfeld was a show completely based on that concept. Nothing but life has to happen for pure comedic genius to be discovered.
I'm more convinced than ever that our film is more of comedy than typical indie film, but I think the comedy itself is derived from our amateur skills, or lack of. We're not a RomCom, yet we don't necessarily fit into the Slap-Stick or Parody category either. We're simply just funny, yet that opinion of comedy is left up to the individual viewer. For now, I'm defining us as Independent Unintentional Slap-Stick, for we don't forcefully elicit laughter from the audience, but we'll make you laugh from our actions unintentionally. If you find us funny, I will finally feel complete.
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 7
When it comes to marketing an indie film, simplicity is key. After looking at multiple film posters from movies like "Submarine" all the way back to the notorious film "Rubber" we noticed that most indie film posters pretty much follow the same theme. Tasteful minimalism, warm hues, some form of artistic appeal in graphics or text.
With a formula that simple there was no way we could have screwed this up. Using Google owned Canva to create our poster for free! (Yay for sticking to the budget!) We picked warm hues thinking that it would contrast with the simple image on our poster. The clean lines of the graphic are very industrial and bleak , just how our character's life is "all work and no play" before he embarks on his journey. Also warm golden yellow just warms the heart.
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 6
In our last few segments of The Shopping Cart Diaries: The Blog, I think it is time we address the elephant in the room, well blog since we're all here on the Internet. Brace yourselves because this post is about race.
Race one of the most seemingly taboo subjects to talk about is one of the central components of our movie actually. We casted an Asian American actor as our lead. (GASP!)
In the media Asian Americans are some of the worst represented racial groups, which is surprising as Asian Americans are cited as one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States. Asian Americans are always viewed as being incredibly smart, having "tiger" parents, and being well overtly Asian in the way they speak. Our lead, Aaron, is nothing like that. In fact in our movie Aaron is just an average guy who works a mediocre job at the grocery store. To take things even farther Aaron's character is perceived as being adopted since his mother, played by yours truly, is white.
Asian actors hardly break it into the mainstream, and if they do it is either as a minor character or a kung-fu fighting action hero. Aaron is a quirky, lovable goof in a comedic indie film. As no one is Asian American on the production team, we consider ourselves pioneers in this realm. Even though new shows like "Fresh off the Boat" portray Asian American characters as the protagonists, they still fall victim to one of the industry's most stereotyped races.
Race one of the most seemingly taboo subjects to talk about is one of the central components of our movie actually. We casted an Asian American actor as our lead. (GASP!)
In the media Asian Americans are some of the worst represented racial groups, which is surprising as Asian Americans are cited as one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States. Asian Americans are always viewed as being incredibly smart, having "tiger" parents, and being well overtly Asian in the way they speak. Our lead, Aaron, is nothing like that. In fact in our movie Aaron is just an average guy who works a mediocre job at the grocery store. To take things even farther Aaron's character is perceived as being adopted since his mother, played by yours truly, is white.
Asian actors hardly break it into the mainstream, and if they do it is either as a minor character or a kung-fu fighting action hero. Aaron is a quirky, lovable goof in a comedic indie film. As no one is Asian American on the production team, we consider ourselves pioneers in this realm. Even though new shows like "Fresh off the Boat" portray Asian American characters as the protagonists, they still fall victim to one of the industry's most stereotyped races.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 5
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!! (*queues music*)
People of the Internet, we have finally entered the final week of our production process! (By force, not choice.) Our little project of joy is coming to an end, but first we have a little bit of catching up to do. First and foremost our storyboard is now available and it is charming and adorable, and please don't scoff at our artwork. Like I always say we are amateurs and we are good at it, too.
Not only are we great at being amateurs, but we are known to defy traditional filming techniques and ideas. Our plot at the center is a coming of age story, and typically such plots are reserved for characters of the middle aged cohort, as society believes that young people don't have the capability to discover themselves at such a young age. Well society, I have some words for you. Not necessarily school appropriate, but they sure are words. Our entire cast is 18 years of age or under to give the film a youthful, teenage sucker punch that coming of age stories are missing. Most coming of age stories, just from personal knowledge and experience with the genre, are fairly serious in tone. No one at Little Sombrero Studios can be serious if their life depended on it. I mean we shot some of our scenes using a Selfie Stick as a monopod! We were told by a mysterious little media studies teacher to have fun with our work, and trust me we did.
So without further ado, consider this the unofficial preview of "The Shopping Cart Diaries". Our film, our storyboard, our vision in its purest form.
People of the Internet, we have finally entered the final week of our production process! (By force, not choice.) Our little project of joy is coming to an end, but first we have a little bit of catching up to do. First and foremost our storyboard is now available and it is charming and adorable, and please don't scoff at our artwork. Like I always say we are amateurs and we are good at it, too.
Not only are we great at being amateurs, but we are known to defy traditional filming techniques and ideas. Our plot at the center is a coming of age story, and typically such plots are reserved for characters of the middle aged cohort, as society believes that young people don't have the capability to discover themselves at such a young age. Well society, I have some words for you. Not necessarily school appropriate, but they sure are words. Our entire cast is 18 years of age or under to give the film a youthful, teenage sucker punch that coming of age stories are missing. Most coming of age stories, just from personal knowledge and experience with the genre, are fairly serious in tone. No one at Little Sombrero Studios can be serious if their life depended on it. I mean we shot some of our scenes using a Selfie Stick as a monopod! We were told by a mysterious little media studies teacher to have fun with our work, and trust me we did.
So without further ado, consider this the unofficial preview of "The Shopping Cart Diaries". Our film, our storyboard, our vision in its purest form.
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| Truly a Picasso in the works... |
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| Please, please comment if you can read it. Will work for appreciation! |
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Thursday, March 19, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 4
Obama said it in 2008; I'm saying it now. It's time for a change.
As I love to say in every post, we are amateurs, and as the great amateurs we are, we make some creative mistakes. What? People make mistakes? Yeah, they do get over it, well don't get over it do what you want with it.
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| My feelings exactly. |
We were running our idea past our teacher, and all was going smoothly until we started talking about characters. For those of you who are new to this blog, let me fill you in! This is Little Sombrero Studios, our film is called "The Shopping Cart Diaries", it's a coming of age story that involves a journey in a shopping cart, and we wanted one actor to play all of the characters. Unfortunately the last component of our film that I just mentioned is now on the chopping block.
What? That sounded so cool, why aren't you sticking with the one actor concept? In the process of developing our narrative we understood that the idea of a journey in a shopping is bizarre, but still quirky and intriguing. What we learned from our refreshingly honest, super knowledgable teacher is that people can only handle a certain level of weirdness in the films they watch. As we are the weirdest of the weird, we thought it was just right. But movie production is not just for us, it's for audiences to enjoy and to be able to respond to. Oh well, the adventure continues.
Friday, March 13, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 3
There is a time and place for everything, but in the world of quirky films, time seems ambiguous.
Here at Little Sombrero we are #blessed to live in suburban America (sarcastic YEAH!). Indie films, the feel good quirky ones, tend to take place in suburban enclaves, so removed from city life, that even time hasn't reached them. Unfortunately in our case, the identical housing and constant back drop of strip malls makes our little slice of paradise look like a dystopian resort.
Without a diverse range of architecture at our disposal, we thought we could dodge the bullet by using older models of cars to create a vague time period, but none of us own a "Little Miss Sunshine" VW van, and we don't plan on buying one either. That's when we bring in the shopping cart...
The shopping cart component of the "Shopping Cart Diaries" helps take our story out of time and place. It isolates our story from the current time, creating a classic timelessness that will last for generations. We aren't just creating two minutes of an exam; we're creating two minutes of a legacy.
Here at Little Sombrero we are #blessed to live in suburban America (sarcastic YEAH!). Indie films, the feel good quirky ones, tend to take place in suburban enclaves, so removed from city life, that even time hasn't reached them. Unfortunately in our case, the identical housing and constant back drop of strip malls makes our little slice of paradise look like a dystopian resort.
Without a diverse range of architecture at our disposal, we thought we could dodge the bullet by using older models of cars to create a vague time period, but none of us own a "Little Miss Sunshine" VW van, and we don't plan on buying one either. That's when we bring in the shopping cart...
The shopping cart component of the "Shopping Cart Diaries" helps take our story out of time and place. It isolates our story from the current time, creating a classic timelessness that will last for generations. We aren't just creating two minutes of an exam; we're creating two minutes of a legacy.
Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 2
We needed a character. Not just any character, but an outcast, a dork. Someone so loveable it hurts, but still relatable, because, you know, relatability is key.
Male leads seem to fit that description, more than women, so we opted for a male lead. Using one of our friends as our go to actor, we started to formulate the look of our character. Like most quirky film protagonists, his life sucks for someone who lives in the first world. He works a mundane job in retail, possibly lives at home with his parents, and follows the same hum drum routine day after freaking day. Sounds typical so far? Right?
Male leads seem to fit that description, more than women, so we opted for a male lead. Using one of our friends as our go to actor, we started to formulate the look of our character. Like most quirky film protagonists, his life sucks for someone who lives in the first world. He works a mundane job in retail, possibly lives at home with his parents, and follows the same hum drum routine day after freaking day. Sounds typical so far? Right?
That was our fear. We created the same character that Michael Cera's career is built upon. A younger version of Steve Carell's "Vin" from "The Forty Year Old Virgin." Then with a small tweak of his condition and little trip back to sophomore AP Psychology a brilliant yet risky idea popped in our noggins. Have our male lead play every character in the movie.
The idea is fresh, but not terribly new. Taking nods from Australian ABC's "Summer Heights High" and the BBC's "Orphan Black" we're studying and working on how a group of amateurs can pull this off. Wish us luck and stay on for the ride!
Friday, March 6, 2015
The Shopping Cart Diaries: Entry 1
The goal of any Indie director is to make it to the festival level. With a two minute time limit, that is obviously not in our future, but as the dreamer I am, I can't help but want to strive for that goal. So as the saying goes, "Monkey see, monkey do" I too can learn a thing or two from some hotshot Sundance filmmakers.
Like director Charlie McDowell, we began with a fraction of an idea, and we're still building upon, so I guess we are doing something right. But after this point we have no idea where to go.
We could follow steps two through five, but step four requires only fifteen days of shooting and then a large fancy screening in Utah, and we just don't have the budget for that. Considering the actual size of our project, we don't actually need any sort of budget at all. I guess no skiing for this creative team.
Realistic or not (Or nah?) McDowell does offer some great advice, and according to him making an Indie film doesn't seem so hard. But we are as amateur as amateur gets and maybe that will add some charm to our overall production, but it all work out...hopefully.
The Shopping Cart Diaries and the genres we define ourselves as
I thought I knew everything about the action thriller genre, until I realized that "Girls with Guns" was considered a subgenre of action thriller in its own right. Don't get too excited here at Little Sombrero Studios we aren't going for "Girls with Guns", we're not even doing action thriller. As three quirky friends sat around a computer movie database we toyed with film noir, turned down comedy, but secretly thought about doing a British comedy. We were lost.
We considered emulating the style of Sofia Coppola, with the story of an excessively powerful and criminal suburban high school cheating ring, but we couldn't follow through the story. Taking inspiration in coming of age stories like "Little Miss Sunshine" and the narration style of "Trainspotting" and an oddball idea that was lurking in my back pocket, we created "The Shopping Cart Diaries."
As three strange teens ourselves, we decided that an Indie coming of age story only seems natural as we are all seniors and adulthood is upon us. Staying true to who we are, we hope you join us on the journey.
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