Casting + equipment + location

Hey!! So here is a quick update of some decisions that we have made for filming our opening! These are the last couple of decisions before we actually film it which is so crazy! We are planning on filming on Thursday if everything goes according to plan. 

For the casting process we decided to choose two of our friends to play the parts of the sister, Sydney and Ava Parker. Both of the people we chose are active in theater and are very used to acting. For the older sister Ava, we selected our friend Katie. Like I said before, Katie is in the drama program at our school and was even a cheerleader for many years of her life, just like Ava. Selecting an actor for the main character Sydney was different because we needed someone who knows ASL. We chose our friend Vicky who is in ASL 4 and, like Katie, is in the drama program. We would obviously prefer to have an actual deaf person play this part but we have a very limited pool of actors, so we thought it was important to have an actor who knows the language and respects the culture. 

Our friend Katie who will be playing Ava Parker

Our friend Vicky who will be playing Sydney Parker

For the actual filming part, we are going to be using an actual camera instead of just our phones. My partner has a Canon Rebel T6 camera. We want to use a real camera because the final product will come out higher quality and hopefully look more professional. 

This is not her own personal camera, but this is what it looks like. 

We have decided to film at my partner's house. We will be using her room to film the scenes with Sydney in them because her room fits the aesthetic of our main character and reflects what her room would probably look like. For the scenes with Ava, the older sibling, we are using my partner's brother's room. He was an athlete so he has some trophies and medals. This matches the personality of Ava who is a popular cheerleader and a good student in school. However, we are going to change some aspects of the room so that it doesn't look so much like a teenage boy's room and instead reflects a peppy teenage girl's.

My partner's room that will serve as Sydney's room in our opening. 

Meet the characters

 Sydney

Sydney is a junior in high school. She was born deaf into a family that is all hearing. She lives with her mother Laura and her older sister Ava. Her father left the family short after Sydney was born because he did not want to deal with raising a deaf daughter. Sydney decided that she does not want a cochlear implant. Ever since elementary school, she has been mainstreamed and attended public schools with other hearing kids. She has not met any other deaf people in her life. Her mother still restricts what Sydney is allowed to do and does not let her do the same things that she allows Ava to do. 

Sydney has a more reserved personality than her older sister. Sydney does not leave the house much due to her mom’s restrictions. The only time she really leaves the house is when she goes to school, and at school she is even more quiet. She does very well in school but she doesn’t interact with any of the other students there. Sydney loves to read books because it allows her to escape and live her life through the characters. 

Ava

Ava is Sydney's older sister, she is a senior in high school. Even though they are only a year apart, they could not be any more different. Their mother loves Ava and allows her to do basically anything she wants to do. Ava is always out hanging with her friends or at parties. Ava is also very involved in school, she is the cheer captain and does very well in all of her classes. 

Ava’s personality is very different from that of her sister. While her sister is quiet and wears darker color clothes, she is very social and peppy and wears bright colors. Sydney and Ava do not have the best relationship because Sydney is jealous of the life Ava is allowed to live. Ava always tries to talk to Sydney and build their connection but Sydney ignores her attempts because of her extreme jealousy and resentment for her sister. 

Thomas

Thomas is Sydney’s platonic interest/friend that she will meet later in the movie. He is deaf and is fluent in sign language; his mother is also deaf, but his father is hearing. He moved from Rochester, NY– a city with one of the highest populations of deaf people in the country– to South Florida. Thomas’ parents are Colombian, so he has a strong hispanic background involved in his deaf upbringing, and knows only a little Colombian Sign Language.

Thomas grew up in an environment that was very welcoming towards deaf people. He attended a specialized school for the deaf before his move, so he has not been mainstreamed (up until now) like Sydney. Thomas is sound in his deafness and comfortable interacting with both the deaf and hearing communities. He will be the one to bring Sydney “out of her shell” once they meet; he has a lively personality and isn't afraid to speak his mind.

Sydney's Mother

Sydney’s mother is hearing. She grew up from the town in which they live; her and her husband were high school sweethearts. She was very popular back in her high school days: captain of the cheer team, prom queen, etc. So, she can relate a lot more with Ava than with Sydney. She loves Sydney despite her deafness, but she can’t find ways to relate with her like she can with Ava.

Because of Sydney’s deafness, Mrs. Parker tends to try to control every aspect of her life and shelter her from all the “bad people” (people who look down on deaf people). She babies Sydney and gives her little to no freedom, which will become a problem when Sydney meets Thomas. However, she allows Ava unrestricted freedom to “enjoy her high school years”. 

The script

Saying that we have the script is done feels so official, it's kind of scary to say. It means that we are one step closer to actually filming the opening which is insane because it felt so far away when we first started working on this project. 

There is not that much dialogue within our film opening, and most of this dialogue will actually be signed. We are focusing more on the visual elements to develop the story and the characters. However, we still though it was important to create a script because it will make filming so much easier. It also is just useful in actually putting the story together on a tangible item, instead of just within our minds. 

Here is the script :))

Subtitles

In our film opening, we are going to use subtitles on the screen while to translate what the characters are signing because obviously most people are not going to understand. Subtitles translate a film's dialogue into written text superimposed on the screen, thus allowing you to read along and follow the actors as they speak in their native language. Subtitles are translations for people who don't speak the language of the medium. 

Standard subtitles assume that the person is listening to the audio but subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are written for viewers who can not hear the audio. Closed captioning are quite different from subtitles and are in the same language as the audio. 

In movies, there is usually a standard font used for the subtitles in all films. For most films, they just use "Arial" because it is a simple and safe choice that does not stand out too much. However, Netflix primarily uses the subtitle font "Consolas". 

"Conolas" font

"Arial" font

"Consolas" used on Netflix 

Creative choices

Thinking of the title for our film is very stressful because it is obviously a very important part of the entire opening and film itself. Looking at deaf films, many of the titles have to do with the word "sound" or "quiet" like "Sound of Metal" and "A Quiet Place". We wanted to stay away from this type of title because it felt too cliche and like the easy route to take. We also are trying to create a film that focuses on more than just the main character's deafness and develop their personality as an individual. The title that we are most likely going to choose for the film is "Bird Cage". Our movie is about a deaf teenager being restricted by their family their whole life and breaking free to live the life they always wanted. We thought that this title sounded very interesting and reflected the main message of the movie. 

For the font of the title, we were thinking about using "Daft Brush". After looking through a website full of different types of fonts, this one stood out to us the most for our film. It really reminded us of a coming of age film and thought it sort of portrays some elements of rebellion. 

For the font of the credits, we were thinking about using the font "Zornale Title". It is very basic looking but that is what we want for the credits. We don't want the credits to distract the audience too much from what we are trying to show on the screen. We also thought it was important to differentiate the credits font from the title font, so that the title stood out more. However, while they are different fonts, we are planning on making both the credits and title a yellow color. 

Plans to come

Right now my partner and I are still trying to think of a good name for our film. We are still very deep into the brainstorming process and do not really have any ideas yet, which is really good for us! (this is sarcasm<3). We want to make the title something that is related to deaf people or deaf culture in general. However, we don't want to make the title seem cheesy and seem like the character's personality is only being deaf, which is exactly what we don't want to happen. For the title, we do know that we want to do the main title in yellow, the colors of the credits would probably be in a different color. 

My partner and I are hoping to get our filming started very soon. Our plan is to start filming next weekend, if everything goes according to plan. We would probably film at my partner's house because her room fits the aesthetic that we are looking for. We are still trying to find actors for our film opening. We are asking one of our friends in ASL who is very expressive with her signs to be the main character. For the other parts, we would just ask our other friends who we think fit the traits of the characters. We are thinking of asking an actual adult to play the parental role so that the audience understands. 

Storyboard is done!

Today in class, my partner and I were able to finish our storyboard for our opening. This is a very important step in planning because it will help make filming so much easier. Going into the filming day, we will already know what shots we need to make our story so we will not be stressed about what to film. We might need to add more shots if some don't flow as nicely as we want, or we might have to even cut down some of our shots if the opening turns out to be too long. The important thing to remember is that we need to be flexile during this process because we will most likely run into problems that we need to solve.

Another positive thing about storyboarding is that we can learn and grow the story more. Before, we just had ideas in our head and some bullet points written down. Storyboarding forced us to actually visualize how we want to scene to look in order to draw our pictures and we learned more about how we want to develop the personality of the characters. It also gave us an opportunity to speak to each other about our different ideas that we would like to be implemented into the scene. Creating the storyboard made me realize how excited I am to start filming and seeing it all come together!!