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.

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

Let's talk marketing.

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.    

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.

Truly a Picasso in the works...

Please, please comment if you can read it. Will work for appreciation!