Editing

I was doing the sequencing for this shot right after the overhead long shot of the desk and had to shorten it so it could fit into the opening. This makes it flow naturally after she puts the eye drops into the glasses. In the future, I want to add darker lighting to the scene to add a different mood. 

In this shot, I had the glasses up close to focus on the eye drops. This emphasizes the importance of adding them. In the eating shot, I want to leave the original lighting for dramatic effect. I want to do the diegetic sounds after I add the piano music. I'm going to record the foley for the next couple of days and add them to the project.

Sound

 We originally wanted Juan's sister, Hermana, to compose a piano piece for us, but since she was busy with piano competitions at the time of this blog, we used copyright-free music. We are still waiting for her to compose and use this music as a replacement in the meantime. 

While editing, I realized I needed to mute the sound on our clips so I could add the music properly. We decided to use Davinci Resolve because we needed to learn animation for the opening title we wanted to have. Right now, I'm also trimming the last seconds of certain clips where Hermana broke character. So far, we don't have to reshoot anything. I also asked Juan how long we should make the vision because it's currently past 2 minutes, but luckily we had an outline where we wanted the first 50 seconds to be Owen writing and mixing chemicals, then when she puts her glasses on is the start of the vision till the 2 minute mark.

Shooting process

I arrived at Juan's house at 7 so we could film at night. We thought filming at night would make it easier for the lighting to show and for the overall mood of the opening. We had a bigger flat light that we needed to dim down by taping 2 pieces of paper over it, and another sunset light we turned to purple. A challenge was moving the desk so that Juan and Juan could film from behind it. We ended up reshooting a lot because we'd get a finger in the shot.

The goggles also kept fogging up, so we had to clean them between takes. We even broke a pair, but I had backup. For future scenes, we had to show time passed, so we changed her hair and lab coat to show that 5 days had passed. 

To do a high-angle long shot, Juan had to go on a stool to get the shot. It was hard to get everything out of the frame in a single take, so it took time. We also used eye drops on the glasses, and it took multiple takes to make sure they didn't splash the camera.

To get the pov shot of Owen getting out of bed we had to make sure we were at Hermana's exact height so we can get her pov accurately. We also had a wardrobe change from lab coat to pajamas and her work was left on the desk showing her commitment. 

Group Meeting 2#

 Contains: Genre, BlogSpot, plot, whether or not they have filmed or not, CCR suggestions

Emma

• Blogcreation4school.blogspot.com
• Mystery Thriller
• A girl is accused of killing her best friend. Raven is taken into the interrogation room, but it starts when she's already in her prison cell, her hair is wet, looks crazy, writing something on the wall, writes the word raven backwards, sounds like never
• First scene in the prison made backdrop, stapling them to the walls to do the bars, and used a dog cage
• 2nd set interrogation room, she steps back and has a flashback when the murder happened, it wasn't her. Another flashback interrogation room used dads office for 
• CCR wants to do an interview with her dad, be the police officer.

Giovanna

• Gifs29.blogspot.com
• A scientist works at the FBI, working on an investigation into the murder of the woman who runs the FBI, who was his missing daughter, who was switched with another baby in the opening
• The director of the science department was killed, and he's working on who killed her
• Didn't start filming yet, start filming this week
• Thriller Mystery 
• CCR some interview
• Can visit the CCR like a visitor in the prison

Benjamin

• Universidadcatalica0.blogspot.com
• About the first scene of a teenage boy, he's in his car, it's the scene of the ending of the story, he's very stressed, with police sirens in the background and blood on his hands 
• Cuts to scene in his room that says a few hours later he texts his mom asking where is he and after that his mom calls him and instead its a man the man says where are his keys under his doormat he checks and its not their, for his parents to be free, the man says to look in a mailbox and it cuts away he looks shocked
• Thriller Mystery
• doesn't know what to do for CCR
• hasn't filmed yet

Amelia

• Amesaicemediastudies.blogspot.com
• Coming of age, originally, too many scenes changed
• It's about a girl who has lived in a small town her whole life; she doesn't know anything about the outside world. She really wants to travel, but feels like her parents are trapping her. They want her to go to college that is really close by. The opening is her being introduced
• She's filmed already
• CCR can be like a college guidance counselor

Cristina

• Crisc999.blogspot.com
• About a DJ who just starts out at 17 and is named Evan, starts out with a flyer for an audition to open for a big DJ, saying 18+. His obstacles are that he's too young, doesn't care, rips out the age 18+ sign, and starts making a bunch of music
• Coming of age
• Tried filming yesterday, but filmed too late. They filmed at the beach with a camera that rotates 360 degrees
• Filmed a few shots, reshoot somewhere other than the car
• Use her sister to be interviewed for CCR

Eli

• Eliwritess.blogspot.com
• Psychological thriller
• The main character is schizophrenic, he's accused of murder, but he saw the psychologist actually did it, the wolf character is someone in his mind
• wants to refilm
• Doesn't know what to do for CCR

Production post

The first paper is her checklist to make sure she's completed everything for her invention. She already crossed out start paper, and then she's going to present it in 2 weeks to a very famous scientist who might be interested in her inventions. The 2nd is to get a hologram diffuser, which she still hasn't done yet, but it is key to her research to get one. She needs to contact Ford Lebenstine (the scientist she's going to present her paper to) so he can sponsor her in further making of this invention. As mentioned in the previous post, she's also extremely greedy and wants financial backing from Ford so she can start selling her invention. The last one on her checklist is a comment to herself to stop using paper because she was born poor and currently doesn't have a good financial situation right now. She's hoping her invention and presentation with Ford can help her become rich. At the bottom are more of her calculations. 

The 2nd paper is the start of the paper she wants to present to Ford Lebestine. 

Production post

These are the notes scattered on Owens' desk as she's working. The notes first clarify that the glasses aren't a form of time travel, just allowing someone to temporarily see into the future. The lens stack shows what specific lens Owens needs to get to create her glasses. She's in the process of testing the lenses, so the first ones were a fail, and the msc ring gets host too fast. She hasn't tried out the yb emitters yet, which is why they aren't marked. People with stress might shorten the amount of time they can see into the future, however its just a theory and isn't 100% accurate yet. 

She'll have to test the glasses on herself because she isn't sure of the results yet, which alludes to what's going to happen in the opening. A few subjects she tested them on describe the future as a memory, which shows her disregard for human life, for greed, like in my character background blog post, and her research into the glasses. She's noticed that the glasses will automatically break if you try to change anything on them currently, and the bottom is some mathematical equations she made to get to that conclusion.

Character background

 Owen is 18, born in 2019. She came from poor parents, determined to make sure she gets rich herself. She dropped out of school in 8th grade to pursue science full-time. Her ultimate dream is to create an invention that will see into the future and sell it for enough money to make her high-class in her world. Her first rendition of the glasses can see 5 days into the future, but eventually she wants the glasses to go to the end of someone's life and show them the most important milestones that change them. 

While she isn't rich yet, it's her ultimate dream to be part of the upper class; her motive is greed, and she doesn't care who gets hurt for money. However, something will go horribly wrong in her first rendition of the invention when she wears them herself and sees her own death. The rest of the film is about her preventing her death, finding out how she died, and eventually learning that money doesn't solve everything. By the end of the film, she will understand that people are more important than money.

Production of company logo

 We first wanted it to be a simplistic design, so we made a circle with the future company name.

After we put a human head in the circle, because our production company solely does sci-fi films. We wanted to reflect that in the design. We still hadn't figured out our company name yet, but we wanted it to reflect the sci fi productions they will create. 

Adding the brain gives the logo a more sci-fi feel. Also, changing the circle around the brain provides depth. By this time, we were still brainstorming our company name. 

When coming up with the company name, I wanted it to feel futuristic and make it known that we only did one genre of films. Headspace feels innovative and futuristic with the logo. 

Audio

  The audio will open with electronic music to represent that this is taking place in the future of 2060. Well, hear the sounds of someone's hand touching something; that something is the glasses. There will be an owl hoot to represent its nighttime and a folley of paper ruffling when he touches the paper. The electronic music cuts out when Owen takes the earbuds out. We hear a hoot of an owl, and then he puts the glasses on. 

The music will then transition to uplifting, intense piano music. The vision will be going fast in some parts, speeding up and slowing down. When showing his daily life, we won't include the normal diegetic sounds that would come from it for dramatic effect. The music slows when we see his death, and then cuts out when he opens his eyes again and takes the glasses off. My partner, Juan, will be making the piano music since he plays piano.

This is a website to find copyright-free music if the music Juan makes isn't composed in time. 

mise-en-scene

Costume

Along with the lab coat, goggles, and glasses, they will be wearing normal everyday clothes underneath. This is to reflect that Owen, at the end of the day, is a normal 18-year-old. Owen is still meant to be a high school student when he has this vision. Its meant to reflect how young he is and how shocking it is to see a boy his age dead.

Set 

The first set is in Juan's bedroom. The desk in his bedroom will serve as Owens work place and where he builds the glasses. The hallway will be cleared so we can use it as the place where Owen died. The dining room will use overhead fluorescent lighting to make it seem harsher. The bathroom is the last one where she showcases our character, Owen, brushing his teeth. 

Props

A cereal bowl will be used for the dining room scene. A toothbrush and toothpaste will be used for the bathroom scene. 

Lighting

We will also be using red lighting to show when Owen dies in the hallway, also taking inspiration from coherence (2013).

mise-en-scene

Costume

Our scientist will wear a lab coat and goggles. They'll have earbuds and be building futuristic glasses.

Set 

The set will first be in Juan's bedroom. It's going to have science notes written by Juan and a science poster on human anatomy, too. We'll show the entire room. For the scene of the vision, we will use the hallway to showcase the scientist dead on the floor, the dining room for the eating scene, and the bathroom to showcase our character brushing his teeth. This will all be done at night, so we don't have to work under a time crunch.

Props

A pair of glasses will be the main prop, meant to see into the future, and is the whole reason for this vision. (cereal+toothbrush)

Lighting

Lighting will be purple lighting to reflect the sci-fi mood of this story. It will change to blue for a split second before we zoom in for the the vision. We will have overhead lighting for the cereal and bathroom scenes.

Character development

Our character's name is Owen, she's 18, and a scientist. Owen in Welsh means young warrior. Our scientist is a pawn in the sci-fi world we have created. Creating glasses for a higher person in the dystopian world, Owen is a young warrior fighting for the oppressed. We wanted the name to be applicable to both genders to emphasize she's a tomboy. She's an inventor, curious to see what happens in the future.

I wanted to include some things that visibly showed she was a scientist, including a lab coat, her notes, and some science posters on the human anatomy featured on the wall. This shows what she's working on as a scientist and what she's interested in in her free time. The glasses and goggles show that she uses them in her free time; she's also making her own glasses to see into the future. She's a scientist interested in anatomy. 

Project idea and major inspiration

Plot Idea

The plot begins with a scientist humming while listening to music on his headphones while creating a pair of glasses. There is dystopian science propaganda on the walls and on the floor. He finishes building the glasses, puts the last piece on, and puts the glasses on. He has a vision seeing 5 days into the future, where it starts out normally with his daily routine, then ends with a date 5 days from now and his death. The rest of the movie is him trying to prevent his death. How did he die? Was he murdered? By who? 

Major Inspiration

The major inspiration for this film's opening is coherence. Coherence is about a group of people at a dinner party that gets split into alternative universes by a comet. They use Enigma Code, something we are also using in our film opening, by purposely leaving plot holes and mysteries so we can circle back to them at the end of the film. In coherence, it starts off by finding a box outside with photos of the characters with numbers written in red marker on the back of them. Then their phones all crack. We end up finding out the numbers were because they used a Yahtzee game to give everyone a randomized number, and the red marker was because there was another identical house that did it in a blue marker. At the end of the film, they find another box, this time with blue numbers, confirming that there was another house. However, the numbers themselves were different, confirming the people in the house weren't from that universe. 

Citations 

IMDb. (n.d.). Thor: The Dark World (2013) — IMDb. Retrieved February 8, 2026, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/

Storyboard

The opening starts with a mid shot of our main character (scientist) humming while listening to music and building a pair of glasses on his desk. There are cuts to the decor on his desk, as well as posters on his wall to show the context. There are going to be instructions on building the pair of glasses written by him. He then puts the last piece on the glasses and wears them. There's a close-up zoom into his face, then we see what his life is like 5 days in the future. Everything at first is normal, he gets up, brushes his teeth, and is eating cereal, then he sees himself dead and a date. The vision ends when he opens his eyes again.

Media Theory Research

 A media theory I want to integrate into my project is the Enigma Code. The Enigma Code is when a narrative withholds information to develop mystery or leave a plot point unexplained. Our plot begins with a scientist building glasses. These glasses can see 5 days into the future; however, the viewer doesn't know.  The scientist then puts the glasses on, and at first, it starts normally, his daily routine of eating cereal, waking up, and brushing his teeth. Then it malfunctions, we see a static, a date on a calendar circled, and a body.

The rest of the film is centered around the main character finding out how he died. Did he get murdered? Is the rest of the film going to be how he solves his own murder? What happens in five days that causes him to die? The Enigma Code allows all these questions to be possible. 

Reflection group meeting #1

Arantza 

Arantza wanted to do a coming-of-age summer before college opening. 2 best friends are spending their summer before college together, except one of them is hiding their chronic illness from the other. Since they're going to different colleges, the girl who's sick wants the 2 of them to spend their last summer together, and when they eventually go off to college, the other friend can find out she died and has an illness all along. Some suggestions to show the best friend was sick and hiding it was a nosebleed that she quickly wiped off before the other friend could see. Arantza wanted to incorporate her bike, so we suggested mounting the bike on her car to show it. 

The platform she suggested we use is Studio Binder, which makes it easier to write scripts.

 

Andrea

Andrea wants to do a dystopian/apocalyptic film opening. It opens on a woman with torn clothes walking on the side of the road, sorting through trash for food. She finds something expensive, we were suggesting a necklace, and drops it back down, showing that material things don't matter in this world. Theirs also propaganda posters scattered around her. This is set after a war, and Andrea wants to have a flashback, cutting from her as a grown woman eating trash to her as a kid eating food with her family.

The platform she suggested we use is How to get permission from a song.com, which checks if a song is copyrighted. 

Amanda

Amanda wants to do a coming-of-age/sports opening. The opening begins with a pro taekwondo player practicing in an empty gym. She's in class, about to do a hard skill, and fails, flashing back to when she was a kid having fun. She injures herself doing the skill, and the opening ends with her looking at her taekwondo medals. We suggested adding a filter on flashbacks of when she was a kid to show it was a different time. 

Carolina

Carolina wants to do a mystery. It opens with a woman in a mental asylum writing things on the walls. This is actually going to be her partner's garage that they use white panels for. There's going to be a flashback in which we learn she's actually a detective and was falsely accused of being crazy. 

The resource she suggested we use is The Ultimate Film Guide, which is an article on directing.

Eli

Eli wants to do a comedy/psychological thriller. A therapist in a dark room with only 1 other chair, with a single hanging light. She has crazy patients who all went through the same traumatic event, but are all saying vastly different things. It's going to focus on how the patients affect the therapist. In one scene, a patient is going to leave, and the therapist is going to take a deep breath before allowing the next patient in, showing the toll it takes on her. One suggestion was to base it on the 12 Monkeys movie. 

Jp

JP wants to do a thriller/action where a bully gets killed by the boy he bullied. With every stab the bully's victim takes theirs going to be a voice-over of a different insult. We suggested throwing a rock at the bully's head. 

Mateo

Mateo wants to do a mafia wedding opening where it's a wedding entrance for a mobster family, and they cut to a crime the person being introduced has committed that weekend. A narrator with elaborate on everyone's backgrounds.

Suggestions for my film opening

My character becomes paranoid after finding out he died, closing the blinds and locking all the doors.

research/analyze/discuss three credit sequences from sci-fi films

Dune Part 2 (2024)

Research 

Paul fights for the freemen of Arrakis, eventually going from the chosen one to the messiah, and fights against the House of Harkonnen.

Analyze

The music is slow and has religious undertones. It sounds extremely similar to the Quran. The red light going back and forth reflects all the bloodshed that happened to get to this ending. It is a way of honoring them and making sure the viewers don't forget. The screen turning black and transitioning to only instrumentals is for dramatic effect to make the viewers reflect on all that has happened. The final card becomes more impactful because it's the title, and the woman's singing is back, which carries on through the rest of the end credits. 

Discuss 

I feel the music took heavy inspiration from the Quran, and so did the rest of the movie. The woman recites what sounds like religious chanting, which creates a sense of peace and calm not felt throughout the movie. Its meant to reflect on the 

Interstellar (2014)

Research 

Interstellar is about a former pilot named Cooper going to find another habitable planet while Earth is dying. The space crew travels through a wormhole and goes through a hard time while he fights to reunite with his daughter.

Analyze 

The bare piano music is meant to make the audience reflect on what they just saw. The piano music intensifying creates suspense and mystery.

Discuss 

Since Interstellar is such an emotional movie, it makes you feel as though those emotions are still there and getting deeper. As everyone is trying to process the ending, the orchestral music makes it feel like the movie is still going on. 

Star Wars (1977)

Research 

Luke Skywalker joins the rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire and teams up with Princess Leia to take them down.

Analyze 

The ending credits repeat the opening theme, just more dramatic and fast-paced. The blue coloring of the letters is also the same as the opening.

Discuss 

The ending being replicant of the opening makes it feel like it's going on a loop. It goes full circle, starting out with the theme and blue letters, and ends with the more dramatic and longer theme and the same blue letters.

Citations

1. YouTube. (n.d.). Why Blade Runner is a masterpiece [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYqf3UEhkWo

2. YouTube. (n.d.). The Matrix opening scene HD [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZldrrPBsfgY

3. YouTube. (n.d.). Original ending credits | Star Wars (1977) [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIPNormrPwg