sakshialevelmediablog

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Final Product

Name- Kamath Sakshi Sachin

This link below is for our final product-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JymdOQCvtNWsWhLwnrhhf0VT-aLBxd7w/view?usp=sharing

Hope you like it!!!!

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Biblography

These are the links to all of the references and pictures that I took off the internet:-

priliminary taks-

https://cdn.kbizoom.com/media/2022/03/20011428/Kim-Min-Kyu-A-Business-Proposal-0503221.jpeg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCie6G-TvfLZ0MvZmhAfeWswhy4xHatJTF2w&usqp=CAU

https://images.justwatch.com/backdrop/246476687/s640

https://sm.ign.com/ign_in/screenshot/default/tomo-chan-is-a-girl-main-pv-still-15_2psm.jpg

https://images.ctfassets.net/iyiurthvosft/featured-img-of-post-216730/a82cc7b2c376099484f311442db005f3/featured-img-of-post-216730.jpg?fm=jpg&fl=progressive&q=50&w=1200

https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Holiday-Cast-Where-Are-They-Now-Feature.jpg?w=1600&quality=86&strip=all

https://media.glamourmagazine.co.uk/photos/622602eacd858ce919e584f1/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/FRESH%2520070322%2520.jpg

https://static.zoomnews.com/thumb/msid-95909860,width-900,height-600,false/95909860.jpg

https://www.pinkvilla.com/files/styles/large/public/7-times-we-related-to-lara-jean-covey-from-to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-film-series-4.jpg?itok=kP-ShI8t

https://cdn.britannica.com/82/152982-050-11159CF4/Daniel-Radcliffe-Rupert-Grint-Emma-Watson-Harry.jpg

https://occ-0-114-3211.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/E8vDc_W8CLv7-yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8/AAAABT6-eLIbMTaKE_ki-eek9Gj9Ajk6GWu_zZSH9J2t9GIxEdQu-El3QyK__RSc8D-28EB3jtUChO97h22v-I-PvIjabOHlivFiab_r.jpg?r=18d

https://i0.wp.com/www.trendingetc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/FRIENDS-Vs-The-Big-Bang-Theory.jpg?resize=1000%2C600&ssl=1

https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/2020/05/1140-forrest-gump.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSXrTgDUWYihDV0qpxsdLxot_GQmpVTEoL2Sg&usqp=CAU

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2008/12/29/1230571236323/Owen-Wilson-and-Jennifer--001.jpg?width=465&quality=85&dpr=1&s=none

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPrcXiOsu-bENMGQOjTZyTnuN6qxZKk6RN4w&usqp=CAU

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS5H3DUez6-CBqWQPEi-F1qzbPGgj75AF1c9A&usqp=CAU

https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2015-12/3idiots_640x480_71449027608.jpg?ver-20230324.111

research and planning 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F10-Things-Hate-About-You%2Fdp%2FB0063T7JGU&psig=AOvVaw2dKNeJa_n56_RnugkGQMD5&ust=1682213752458000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCIiPwKHUvf4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt3631112%2F&psig=AOvVaw3bblW1Lra5e89eVELrQ9Sg&ust=1682213838024000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCIjW0cvU vf4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

https://pin.it/1UHqveQ

https://pin.it/5enRK9e

https://pin.it/1D3QjPh

https://pin.it/5aqg0lO

https://pin.it/4Kycw7K

https://pin.it/pqJYpIq

profile picture

https://pin.it/37itIpZ

https://pin.it/2g5Pb6i

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Creative Critical Reflection

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

How do your products engage with the audience?

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

The link below is to the document that answers these questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11HSpktrZS4K2dOyS63MnHjDKOaxKmh2B/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=109782999945822716173&rtpof=true&sd=true

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Music

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

These are the following links to the songs that we downloaded online and used for our project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjYsjyu7TIY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rLz5AZBIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3GSHb0RP6o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWn759ywBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8HHCsc-cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T90ISUd2YXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIS8KbfVIcE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=592d2YXoBrQ

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Post Card

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production  

So, I designed the postcard. I wanted to use Jaden’s pictures for the postcard for two main reasons- one being that we had already used Jiya’s pictures a lot for promotions and stuff so I didn’t want it to be repetitive and second being that when you first see the postcard with no context to our film your mind straight goes to thinking that he may be the bad guy(given how we shot the picture in dark and used his shadows in the shot as well) and then when you actually go to see the film there is this twist wherein you realise it’s all about this twisted girl and her twisted ways to cope and trying to get closure of her past. 

So, in the group, we discussed which picture to use of Jaden’s. Originally rutvi and I wanted to use the standing picture of Jaden’s as I liked how we could play with the negative spacing. But then Aaryaa didn’t agree and proposed another one because it looked more aesthetic. By the end of it, I liked that one too because it did in fact look better on the horizontal frame and because it helped make it more intimate. 

I then started editing it. I used Canva for this. I first downloaded the picture and then used a blank page to add the picture. I then add all of the texts (this includes the one-liner, the title and the AL media project presents) accordingly I then made multiple copies by changing the placements of the texts to see which was the best option. I used a template for the back side of the postcard and just added our names and designations. Again, gave options with colour choices for the back side. Originally, I had also added our contact details and so I had to delete that later. I then sent it over to my group we discussed and chose pages 5 and 7. Aaryaa wanted to add a red tint but I felt like it would be us overdoing it then and would also take away from the red letters that we have highlighted so we just stuck to these.

I then downloaded them saved them on my laptop, uploaded them as images on the app again and then made this other picture which included the front and the back both.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12hsyzCH3bvfcxavbkfnZb3v_UdQBC7Kb/view?usp=share_link

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Instagram

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

To avoid having a lot of people posting at the same time, same things, as well as to prevent miscommunications I appointed rutvi to handle social media so all of the posts went to her and she was the only one who posted on the main account. 

As the director, I had a few posts that I knew I wanted on social media and so I created this list of posts that sort of became the baseline of our planning for social media. Later Rutvi, Aaryaa and I sat down and discussed post ideas, such as types of challenges we can have the actors do, types of reels, interviews etc. then rutvi and  I came up with the idea of creating a calendar to stay on track for posting. Aaryaa helped rutvi take all of the posts divided them and create a calendar for our posts to indicate which post goes up and when. This was particularly helpful as it not only helped us stay on track and ensured constant engagement for our audience, but it also created deadlines for us to come up with the posts.

With each different type of post, I gave Rutvi a template of a sort- for eg for the stories I told her to use the same shape if she was adding more than one picture if it was a mood-on-set type of post. This was to try and ensure uniformity as well as to make it look more aesthetic. From early on we made sure that we use reds, blacks and whites as the main colour for our Instagram and overall brand. 

So for the initial posts, we wanted to start by teasing the film and adding a poster. I worked on these posts I used Canva I tried taking inspiration from some of the templates and mixing and matching elements to make something more custom and unique. One of my main ideas for the teaser was the paper that I spoke about before during the photoshoot. I faced a lot of issues making. I originally wanted to have Jiya’s face as the main thing but then there is a ripped paper effect around her eyes that would actually reveal Rhythm’s eyes. The lining of the face took a while but no matter what I did it looked off it looked like we put a Snapchat baby filter on Jiya. I even tried to add a black-and-white filter on jiya and let the eyes be the only colourful thing but that again didn’t fix much. I then tried scrolling to try and find an effect that I could use and then came across the vertically torn paper effect. This worked out really well, the only thing that was a little hard was to line the face. I added the black and white filter on jiya because I liked how it indicates that she is the one stuck in time because of that moment. I then made 2 more posts like this one of them was a poster so I didn’t add any animation to it. I made multiple variations to give us choice. We choose the one that we like the best and rutvi posted them.

For the introduction to the actors, I wanted to play off of the newspaper that we incorporated in our film to introduce them it would be a simple layout with a catchy smart and funny headline about them and a byline saying that they are playing which character. But aaryaa and rutvi weren’t fully on board with this plan and so we dropped it and went with the Polaroid idea. I like it as the template that we created was still linked to our film, the polaroids being a part of vivan’s room. All I told Rutvi was to add the background as red. When she was done with it I told her to add a black-and-white filter on the actor’s picture to tie it in with our grid a little more. 

We then needed interviews and challenges. When discussing these I had given rutvi all the control over the fun walking interviews while I handled the longer ones. Rutvi had already gotten one of the shorter ones with Jiya and Aaryaa filming a longer interview but the questions weren’t up to the mark as well as some of the questions gave away the ending. Since we needed to fill all of these interviews we needed to call the actors again to school, so we fixed a date that I then informed the actors about. Since we were filming at school I informed our media sir as well as our coordinator about the same. Originally we wanted to film in the studio but since it wasn’t available we went with one of the free classrooms. Aaryaa and I came up with questions for the interview. And then I would ask the questions or interview the actors while either Aaryaa or Rutvi filmed. The fun walking interview was done by rutvi(asked questions) and aaryaa(filmed) the editing for the same was handled by Aaryaa, Rutvi and Samarth. For the crew interviews I came up with the questions and asked them. Rutvi edited and posted all of the videos.

Samarth worked on the merch Rutvi and I explained to him how we wanted the merch to look and then he followed. We also made a list of what items we want for merch. While Samarth worked on the rest of the merch, I handled making stickers. I used our logo as well as used some iconic lines from our project to use turn into stickers. I used our red and black theme to incorporate in my design for the stickers. We also wanted a logo for our film which Aaryaa and Rutvi worked on. They gave multiple options but in the end, we went with a skeleton holding a dead rose. The dead rose symbolises sadness and grief and in a way, both Isha and Vivan’s lives are kind of sad because of how their struggles have a tight grip on their actions. Isha still grieves about the child that that man killed that day by doing what he did and again how sad it is that she is just too broken to understand her feelings. The skeleton hand symbolises the grip that her assaulter still has on her and her actions even though he is long gone and all is him in the past but how it still haunts her.

Since our film sort of highlights sexual assault and how it can affect the survivor, we wanted some informational posts about the same. Aaryaa and I worked on the same. We decided what we wanted these posts to be, I sent her the content and then she edited it. We choose sos and emergency protocol/precautions, basics of consent, sex education. We then started working on the content and added that and made slides for the same.

To bring uniformity to all of these posts I told Rutvi to add a grey filter to the cover page for all of the videos and the informative posts would either have a black background with the text in red or visa versa. I also made cover pictures for the highlight. I also helped Rutvi organise and post some of the highlights.

The link below is to our Instagram:

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Editing Day 4

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

The editing date got overlapped with my pilgramage tour and so I had to miss the editing day as we had already booked flight tickets, this trip was also not really a vacation for us it was more of a serious trip that I couldn’t miss. While I really really really wanted to be there I wasn’t able to because of the circumstances. 

Before the edit day, my group and I had a meeting to discuss some of the changes we might want to make during editing day 4. After day 3 I sat down and went through our project and the progress we had made so far with it. After that, I realised a bunch of places that could have been improved. The first thing I wanted to change was the title from For the Devil to Sympathy for the Devil as For the Devil looked and gave off Disney vibes that obviously didn’t pair well with our project and what we wanted to put across. Going with Sympathy for the Devil would also help with branding, as rolling stones is such a big part of our film. It was the song that connected Isha and Vivan in a way and it’s a song that analyses the dark side of humanity- one which allows itself to too easily give into the cliques of evil, thereby helping it to accomplish the wickedness it craves. This perfectly explains Isha in a way wherein she has fully given in her dark side to get what she craves. It also talks about how everyone has that little bit of evil in them and how one incident can change which side you choose. This film in a way follows Isha’s evil. The next was to add the library scene back in, in the monologue Isha talks about how in the 3rd conversation Vivan asks her out, and with the current edit, we have shown them interact only once. Not only that without the library scene in there, the film also looked sudden as there was very little context about how they know each other and what the dynamics of their relationship are like. So I noted down a couple of places that we could shorten to be able to squeeze in at least a glimpse of them interacting in the library. So to discuss these we had a meeting wherein I explained all of the changes that I wanted to make and why I wanted to make them, and they all agreed. We also decided to increase the volume of the dialogue in the party scene as, in some of the places it was hard to hear what people were saying. We created this list to make sure that we don’t forget what we planned on doing.

As the director, your job bounds to coincide with your teammates’ and you end up collaborating with them a lot. It’s also your job to be on top of everything and make sure everything looks nice and goes well with everything you have to sort of be a problem solver and it’s sort of hard to do that when you aren’t able to be there. Edit day 4 was hard for me in a way because there was only so much I could do with call and barely being able to check in and see what is happening and if things are working or not and how they look and if we can do anything to fix the mistakes, all I could do is trust my team members. On day 4 they completed the colour grading, which Aaryaa and Samarth were in charge of as they were the cinematographer and the editor. While I didn’t really agree with all of the choices that aaryaa made but since it’s a big part of her job there is less control that I have over it and not able to there reduced the chances even more. nonetheless i respect her choices and belive that her choices had reason and meaning behind them. They also changed the title, although I do wish that they could have changed the font type to something else that complimented the film slightly better, the title did look nice and not that bad. They weren’t able to add the library scene as it didn’t fit and it was also hard to edit the parts. They also did increase the dialogue sounds in the party scene. And with that, we were done editing our project.

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Editing Day 3

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

On day 3 we started with sound mixing, adding folley sounds, fixing the dialogues and removing the background noise. While Samarth started working on that we started finding folley sounds from online and airdropping them to the Mac. 

We decided to record one of the foley sounds. So in the party scene where Isha goes into this trans and sees her younger self and gets flashbacks of what happened to her, to show these flashbacks we thought of depicting it through the sounds. so like this, we didn’t have to add anything to the timeline and we still send a message. We tried looking for it but we couldn’t really get exactly what we wanted and so Rutvi, Aaryaa and I went into the adjacent room to record. This was harder than we expected we ended up laughing a lot so we split. my only instructions to them to help them to achieve what we wanted was to tap into your fears to think about incidenets from your life that must have hard or similar. and if that doesnt help to put yourself in the that childs shoes and to think hard about how scared confused mortified she must have been there. Rutvi and couldn’t really give that fear and essence of pain that we wanted. I have been told that I sound like a child on the phone a lot so I did my best and got really close to what we wanted but then when we heard Aaryaa’s voice recording we were blown away by it. She not only sounded like a kid but a lot of the way that she screamed for help and cried it was perfect. So, we ended up using hers, Samarth just made it slightly more high-pitched to make it sound like a child’s voice. 

i wanted the tunes of the instrumental version of paint it back and the beats of it to sort of compliment whats happening more and so samarth linned the beats such that when he falls the sound compliments it and sort of carries you to the next chapter. for the party scene i liked how all of these different parts sounds of things happening not only help you understand whats happening visually but also through the sounds and liked how well they were linned together and mixed together. Eventhough this took a while it was still worth it becasue of how well it came out at the end.

We no longer were going to use the love song that we choose since it no longer fit the vibe also, we edited out the part where we were going to add to the song that got cut out. I originally wanted to add Paint it Black to the stalking scene but since I really like the tune and that complimented the scene more than the lyrics and so we decided to go with the instrumental version. The transition from the party scene to the asking-out scene was very sudden and originally, I had thought to use a fade into darkness and then fade out transition but overall we didn’t like how that looked and so we took a quick 10-second clip of the set without anyone as a way to establish the scene and then got into the asking out part. This was a little more subtle and not too sudden. We also added the title for the devil and stuck wit the black and red theme that we were going for. With that day 3 came to an end.

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Edit Day 2

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

On day 2, we knew we had to remove the huge chunk of the first part and since the party scene was so important, we knew we had to remove the library and the foyer area scene. We decided to open a new project copy and past what we had done last dine and add it to this project and start making changes to this one so that we had our Day1’s work as a backup. as the director it is hard having to cut of huge part of your work, but I knew that in that moment thats what was right for the project and thats what we had to do. 

We started off by removing the foyer area scene completely and then editing and trying to keep as little of the library scene as it was as an important establishing scene. After we reduced a bunch of that scene, we moved on to add the set to the rest of the layout. By the time we were at the stalking scene, we knew that we had to cut off the library scene completely. We also had to shorten the monologue since it was way too long and so I sat down with the screenplay and cut out parts that were not very important while also making sure that they sounded like the speech flowed well. I then helped Samarth go over every shot to cut out the unimportant parts. After that, we started to match the actions and dialogues we ended up using a lot more of the ots and pov shots and less of the master shot. Also, to fit everything we had to reduce the number of shots that we were going to use for the stalking scene which in a way worked out as I like the simplicity of that scene and I think it in a way adds to it. 

While we were doing this aaryaa and rutvi went to get some content for the social media. Since we had jiya in school that day we decided to film one of the interviews we had planned.  Later rutvi was working on posting for social media and editing some of the content while Aaryaa was working on colour-grading. We discussed the colour grading briefly with her. As the director I wanted all of our decisions to have some meaning behind them so it was crucial for me that the colour-grading had meaning behind it. So we sat down and found meaning behind each colour and matched that with the scene while also making sure that it matched the vibe of the scene and the film overall. so we decided to use blue-grey colour as the base colour as the film overall revolves around isha’s struggles with dealing with her past and al

We also decided to change the title with that since it looked way too out of character and didn’t match the vibe of our film very well. and since the title is the first thing that people see we wanted it to be something that resonated with the film more. I also didn’t want to give the wrong message that Isha did this for love or anything like that. so we discussed it more and thought of utilising the rolling stones in a way since it was such a huge part of the film. Aaryaa came up with Paint it Black and while that good suggestion for a title, its meaning would resonate with vivan more than Isha and I wanted the focus to be on Isha. I wanted to go for Sympathy for the Devil and everyone did like it but found it a little too big and so we decided to shorten it to For the Devil and go with that. And with that, we concluded day 2 of editing

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Edit Day 1

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

On the first day of editing Samarth and I started off by going over all of our footage and then saving the final takes. it was easier a lot easier for the first day as Samarth had, had notes for the same but doing this for the second day and the third day became very tedious as we had to look at every clip and pick the right one. We started with the line-up.

While we were doing this Rutvi was working on the social media posts. She came up with some post ideas and added them to the calendar that she had prepared. Aaryaa helped assist her with the same. 

And later Aaryaa and Rutvi were brainstorming title ideas and I would occasionally join them and go over what they came up with. For the title, we needed something that both sounds nice and compliments the film well, while still having meaning behind it. some of the names we discussed were Zap, Remanent, Vestige and Massacre which Aaryaa came up with their meaning didn’t resonate with the film so we didn’t end up going for them. Rutvi wanted something more simplistic like Girl or Her which again took away from the depths of the film also there was already a movie called Her so we obviously couldn’t go with that. Aaryaa came up with Love and Then… which honestly complimented our one-liner very well. It was the perfect way to make the movie come across as a rom-com when it’s a psychological thriller. We really liked this idea and so we ended up adding it to the line up we used red and white as it added to the rom xom feel also red is a colour that we wanted people to associate with our film (a way of branding). so with that, we concluded with day 1.

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Shoot Day 3

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

Since originally we had only planned to shoot for 2 days, we were only given permission for 2 days. So I ended up talking to our media sir as well as our coordinator to come up with a date. This was particularly hard due to the events that were happening, the camera was being utilized there and so the availability of that as well as the studio became an issue. We couldn’t get the confirmation until the next day and an hour before we planned on shooting. I informed both Rhythm and Jiya about the possibility of the same and told them to be prepared for both scenarios. It was particularly difficult managing this and getting confirmation so late because we could use the equipment only for a limited time and being efficient with time was very important. Since I live far, I left way before I got the confirmation because if there was a chance that we could film that day I didn’t want to be late. It was particularly hard for rutvi as she lives also far from school and she had to leave early. Since Rhythm is young, I told her mother not to drop her off I got the confirmation and since she did live closer to school it was also easy for her and we did not have much delay because of it. She was also a littke under the weather and wasnt attending school but was still going to show up to the shoot, I told her to send in a mail to her class teacher and the coordinator about the same. Jiya didn’t want to leave before the confirmation but said she was packed and ready just in case we got the confirmation. I was halfway to reaching school and that is when I got the confirmation.  I quickly updated the group, i told Jiya and Rhythm to leave.

I reached school and helped Aaryaa set up the camera to get it ready by then rhythm had reached and so we went to the front gate to escort her to the studio. I went over her role with her what she had to do and stuff. A little while after we had Jiya come in I helped her get dressed. Since the other groups had also used the studio there were a couple of their props left and so rutvi cleaned that up and arranged the set roughly in the way that it was. I helped aaryaa set up the camera and then we started filming.

We had Samarth manage the lights and have the blue light turned off on cue. I would give the subtle cue to rutvi and she would clap and that would be Samarth’s cue since he had to be in the adjacent room and it was hard for him to hear from a distance. I left Jiya alone for a while to get back in the zone while we set up. We did ots of both, a two-shot and a vertigo shot. We didn’t want to play with the light like we did last year but honestly, it fits the scene very well. removing the blue light and having that switch to just red lights added to the scene not only visually but also symbolically. Red means danger it creates this level of fear that perfectly indicated Isha’s emotions at that moment. The two shot and both the ots went really well and smoothly. I had told Rhythm that we required her to cry during this scene and to help her tear up she used eyedrops and Jiya as she went into the zone started tearing up. Our both two-person shots and the ots shots were relatively easy and quick to film. I just kept on guiding rhythm to pull on Jiya’s dress and make large movements and to tell Jiya to squeeze the cup hard at different moments. The vertigo shot was hard to execute as it required swift and quick movements. Aaryaa tried doing it by herself but it wasn’t as swift as we wanted so we had her sit on the chair and I rolled it while she handled the zoom. This worked way better but still took a couple more tries but we got it by the end. After that, we thanked Rhythm and had Samarth drop her at the gate where her mother would then pick her up.

We had one last insert shot that we wanted to shoot for the newspaper that we made for the in-library scene that we missed shooting. So, we quickly had Jiya change. Originally, we thought we would need Jaden but luckily we were able to take film it in a way without him. I just asked her to walk in sit down open her book and then put the newspaper that was at the top of the book in the bag we took 2 takes for this as in the first one Jiya hurried to do it made it look like she was hiding something but I wanted it to be more subtle and wanted Vivan to notice and so we took another take which was perfect the way we wanted and with this we completed our shoot.

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Shoot day 2- Scene 4

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

After we were done filming the last scene Aaryaa and I rushed to go to the studio for our party scene. By this point the extras were ready and rutvi was helping Jiya till that was happening I first started by explaining to everyone what we were going to do today and then assigned them spots. So we had 3 areas that were dance floor the snacks corner and the ping-pong table. I let the people decide where they wanted to go and then if one area was way too crowded than the other, I moved people according to that. By this point, Jiya had come in on set and I explained to everyone what I wanted them to do when it was sort of like choreography. So basically, I had Jiya come in with Tarunya Ichcha one of the actors great her then Tarunya and Jiya would head to the snack area and meet the group of people there then Tarunya would excuse herself to ping-pong and so would the other group of people leaving her alone with only this one girl who would also leave in a little while when Jaden sees this he would enter and try making conversation with her and Jiya would have to brush him off slightly act disinterested. Tarunya sees this and pulls Jiya takes her to the dance floor and they are having fun. This is until Jiya makes eye contact with Jaden who is glaring at her, this would trigger her in a way and that would put her into this trans where she goes into the mode. I instructed everyone to not engage with her then until I cue Tarunya who puts her arm around Jiya and bring her out of the trans. Jiya then gathers herself and sees Jaden leave. We practised this combo a couple of times until we had it perfectly. I instructed the extras to not look at the camera, to engage with the set like it’s a normal party and not to stare at the actors during takes. we had party music playing for them all along. It was hard to deal with the large crowd and commotion. I found myself yelling to get their attention or going up to them individually but in the end, it was a hard and new experience that was worth it.

We did the master shot first and did that in 2 parts. Both of which went relatively smoothly. The only issues we faced were that Aaryaa was on a bench to get a higher angle and I was with her to check for the framing and how things looked and the party music made me bounce a little so the first take was a little shaky I learned my mistake and stopped. We also had a couple of the extras bump into each other. Then we took a close-up of Vivan to get his reaction to Isha entering. I told Jaden to act disinterested until Jiya enters. We took another shot to show that Jaden leaving and that’s when I told him to sort of shake his head like he was disappointed. We Jiya’s during the dancing part where she goes into that trans. We tried taking a couple of takes and I knew she wasn’t performing to her full ability and so here I knew about one of Jiya’s personal experiences and I told her to channel that to tap into that space and it worked. During this part, I told the extras to not look at her and to leave her alone between takes. I wanted to film this part in the least amount of takes and it worked. I just gave her cues in between to breathe heavily and make movements to squash her cup and she followed them well. After this, we let the extras as well as Tarunya go and thanked them. Next, we filmed a long static shot of Isha stopping Jaden. At this point, it was hard to get Jiya and Jaden to focus but they eventually complied. Here the issue was them laughing but after giving them a moment they were able to focus. And last was another mid-close of their interaction at the snacks corner and that went relatively smoothly and didn’t require too many takes.

After that, we had a couple of close-up shots left of Jaden’s hand being drenched in blood. Rutvi used fake blood that she had but we had to thicken it a little bit so I added the red powder to thicken it. we also poured blood on his wrist to have blood drip down. This we took in soft focus to highlight the arm more. We then took a low-angle shot to show the blood drops falling with the bloody knife in the picture. The last scene that we filmed was Jiya’s reveal we wanted to use dhoop(incense) but we weren’t allowed to use them at school due to the fire detectors. So we just went with soft focus to deep focus to reveal her. I originally wanted her to give me a smirk while looking at where Jaden would have been to mock him but when she did it, it didn’t come off right and so we just went with the first take.

With that, we were done with the second day of the shoot. We packed up everything took down vivan’s set and made that when we left the room looked like how it was before.

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Shoot day 2- Scene 1

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

We again had a huge delay as we had a class photograph scheduled today and it was mandatory. We were also told in the morning that we couldn’t hold back rhythm after school hours and given the delay that meant that we wouldn’t be able to shoot the part scene with her this day and so we had to schedule another day of the shoot. As soon as we were done with this I ran to get rhythm from her class so that we can film as much as we could in the time that we had. After that I got her dressed while Aaryaa fixed the camera. Rutvi was working to get the actors ready and Samarth was helping her with the same. We were also told that we wouldn’t get the faculty room and since we didn’t film the bed area of vivan’s bedroom set we decided to use that. we got her on set as soon as possible and told her to look scared and breathe heavily when we give her the cue and she did just that. we did have to take a couple of takes for her to get it right as she was new to all of this and nervous but we eventually we got it. Aaryaa was facing issues with the pedestal-down dolly in shot that we had planned so we ended up going for a static shot as it didn’t make a huge difference. Samarth accompanied her to send her off.

(The link below is of a shot that we took for this scene that we had to retake since it was shaky we couldn't take pictures as we were rushing to get this scene shot )

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Shoot day 2- Scene 6

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

This was the scene where Vivan stalks Isha to get some answers and also for revenge. We essentially show that Isha walks into the parking lot dark area and then soon after Vivan follows her but when he realizes that he loses her he flips out and gets mad and demands she comes out. He then gets hit on the head and goes unconscious.

So after we were done filming the last scene, Tarunya was excused as we didn’t need her for this scene and the rest of us headed to the parking lot area. I went over the scene with Jaden since he was the centre of focus for this scene. The only note I gave him was to reduce the intonation in his voice as much as he could and that he should sound more frustrated and angry.

We started by taking a tracking shot of jiya that would become static as she passed the entrance and the only issue was of the framing would get a little bit off in between so we had to take a couple of retakes. But this shot overall was very cool as u could see her walk into the darkness. And then we took a master shot and Jaden’s pov and tracking shot. For the part where Jaden falls, originally I wanted to show Jaden being hit but Aaryaa came up with the idea of having it be a part of his pov and have Jaden fall on her slightly and then I would catch them and this would give a more realistic effect like it would be as though he actually got hurt and fell and would also not give out too much. We went with her idea but the only issue we faced here was that it was hard for me to support them so some of the takes we took came a bit off but then we got what we wanted. We also had to take retake the scenes because of Jaden’s voice and the intonation but again we got what we wanted in the end.

After this, we went off for lunch break.

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Shoot day 2- Scene 5

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

So we again came in relatively early since today we had a lot of filming and set up to do. Rutvi started with Jiya’s makeup. Today we decided to film scene1 which is the scene wherein the little girl is drawing and gets scared when she hears this man enter, scene4 which is the party scene where Isha gets a panic attack and sees her childhood self, scene5 where in asks her out and he rejects her and lastly the stalking scene where he follows her but gets knocked on the head.

We were going to film scene 5 first which is the asking out scene. I started off going over the scene with Jiya explained to her what is about and then went over her dialogues. Something that I noticed her issue with this scene was the intonation that she used which she hadn’t for the other scenes which got better as we started shooting, other than that it was a minor issue in her delivery which. Overall, I explained to her how this guy whom she was sweet to out of nowhere asks her out and even when she rejects him nicely, he starts getting mad with her so I made sure to stress on the fact how annoying, disrespectful and scary this can be especially when he starts getting a little handsy with her. And so I told her to start by being nice to then going on slowly increase the level of annoyance that she feels towards him and the situation. I liked what she was doing for this scene overall so I didn’t give her too many notes. By the time we were done with this Jiya was done so she went to change and by then Jaden and Tarunya came on. Rutvi worked on Tarunya while I went over the scene with them. For Tarunya all I told her was to seem concerned when this happens as she always sort of had an indication that this is something that would happen. I also told her to sort of give a mocking smile when by the end of the scene when Isha gets mad at Vivan and sort of mocks him. This was important as it added to his humiliation. For Jaden, I told sort start by being nervous excited and sort of hesitate in the beginning and then progressively get mad at her because for Vivan this felt like a huge betrayal. For him the one person who saw him and that he was the most comfortable with walked over his love. Her saying “We barely know each other” was like a bullet because in his head they are a lot closer. Especially when she says mean stuff to him he feels like betrayal and feels like she lied to him and played him in a way. Vivan is a person that doesn’t know how to express his feelings well when it comes to people, he flips out so that’s why I told Jaden to get a little handsy with Jiya and go through the flowers that he got to not only show the lack of emotional maturity but also to create this tense and scary atmosphere. While this happened, Tarunya had gotten dressed and so Jaden quickly got changed.  And we headed down to the entry area of our school. Rutvi started working on the set for the party scene while we did this and Samarth helped her.

Since sports day was close there was band practice going on so we had to wait as well as try and find a new place to film this scene as they were practising in the spot we wanted to film in and so we tried doing it near another area but it faced the court wherein you could see kids practising for sports day and it ruined the vibe of the film. We tried filming a couple of rehearsal takes but again it was too loud as well. this is also when we realized that we needed fresh flowers. Essentially we had bought these knitted fake flowers for this scene this was to show the love and extra effort he took to do so and also to sort of symbolize that their love won’t die just like these flowers( flowers symbolize growth in a way so it was his way of saying our love will grow but never die) but in the shots that we took the flowers looked relatively cheap and looked weird overall so we asked a friend of ours to get it while their way to school.  We tried another place but it had stuff written on the walls which was very apparent and so we couldn’t film there as it would shift your focus on the stuff written on the walls and apart from the scene. By the time this happened the band had finished with its practice and so went back to our original spot. It also had this arch thing with wines wrapped around it and so it added to the romantic feel that we wanted.

For this scene we filmed ots of both the actors to get their reactions also this was amazing when it came to the point where Jaden grabs Jiya and turns her which added more drama to the scene. Since all of these were hand-held, I liked how it would make the audience feel like in there with them as well as make the scene a little rawer which compliments the emotions that we wanted to show. We faced issues when it came to the turn little, I helped guide Aaryaa which helped but originally it was too sharky and Aaryaa would end up running into Jaden or the framing would be off where in Jiya’s face would get cut but by the end, we got the hang of it. We also took a long master shot to establish what is happening. We also had to retake the shots a couple of times as the actors would laugh or would forget their lines.

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Shoot day 1- Scene 7

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

We had another delay because of the Saisha backing out and us having to go to meet the actor during lunch since the actors hadn’t eaten lunch yet we ordered for them and the delivery for the same took a long time. We had to pack up early as well so shooting this scene was relatively more chaotic. So while the actors were eating I gave them a brief of what the scene was about and how I wanted it while rutvi was doing makeup on Jiya. we sent Jaden to change into his next outfit and since he didn’t have black pants, he swapped his pants with Samarth who had black pants on. While this was happening Aaryaa was setting up the camera and then when Samarth joined he set up the lights. We played with the different intensities of it but the mid to brightest mode was what I liked the most as it helped bring the focus solely on them. I even tried switching off one of the lights to see if it gave the effect that u typically see in interrogation scenes but the room became too dark after that and the intensity of both the lights was perfect to give off a similar esc vibe. After Jaden was ready, I went to him went over the scene with him told him places where I wanted him to react a certain way and gave him overall notes. I told him as soon as he gains consciousness and understands what’s happening, he should start panicking and shocked. try to break free I told him to give me big movements when it comes to that(moving his hands and legs a lot even though they are tied up) and try screaming. I told him to act confused when she is talking about other men and when he gets the paper thrown at him he needed to act shocked. I told him to try and get away from her each time she tried coming close to him and also amplify that once she gets the knife in her hands, especially at the end. I overall told him to react how he would if he was in a situation like this where in there was no escape.

By the time this was happening jiya was done getting ready I just done I gave her the overall gist of what I wanted. I told her that I wanted her to essentially be in a manic state wherein there is a lot that she is feeling- there is euphoria (killing her victims makes her feel not only like she is invincible in a way but also brings her content and extreme happiness), anger(of what had happened and again what she was reminded by him), sadness(because of what she had been through)- and so I wanted her to switch between these emotions at different times. It sort of goes from her mocking him and her previous victims for being in this state to then remembering her assaulter and getting mad being disgusted and then a switch to being sad and also addressing Vivan and talking to him like he was her assaulter and then getting mad again and then going back to mocking him. I told her to also fluctuate and change the way she speaks when she is delivering the dialogues like when she is talking about herself being and stuff to sound like she is about to cry but not to. I also told her to utilize the same go back and forth go behind him and bend down and look at him and smile when she mocks him, play with a knife and just be free when it comes to her movements. I originally wanted her to deliver the monologue all in a single but since it was too big of a monologue, we had to do it in parts. I gave her a moment to gather herself to know her dialogues and then we started filming.

We did a master shot pov of both Jiya and Jaden and Jaden’s ots. Since the monologue was relatively big this took a little while. I particularly loved how we had Jiya sit on the table while looking at her victim’s Polaroid pictures and then get off the table. Her sitting on the table was to show that she had the power she was the one in charge and having her elevated above him showed how he was now below her in her trap right where she wanted him to be. Her playing with the Polaroid was her way of making her way of entertaining herself while thinking about what was about to happen next with her victim.  We had to initially retake some of the scenes as the actors would laugh or Jiya would forget a few dialogues or because Jaden didn’t look very scared. That’s when I told him to sort of relax the muscles in his face as much as possible and try acting while doing that, this funnily worked as he looked like he went pale and looked more scared. After the master shot to help Jiya with her monologue during Jaden’s ots and pov scene, we had rutvi stand and hold the script open on Jiya’s iPad for her so that she could refer to it when she is outside the camera viewpoint. For the pov scene I helped guide Aaryaa and sort of help her shake the camera during the pov scene to show Jaden’s struggle through his eyes. For the pov scene of Jiya’s the struggle was to have Jiya deliver the lines while following Aaryaa and not get in the way which still worked out pretty well.  I also told Jiya to cut his right wrist since Jaden’s a lefty and also that to first go near the neck to sort of give the illusion that she is going to slit his throat but then quickly go for the wrist. For Jaden’s pov, I like how we went from soft focus to deep focus, it was used to show that he woke up. All of this was sort of rushed and we still had 2 small shots to take one was Jiya’s reveal and the other was shots of the blood on the floor and Jaden’s bloody wrist which we decided to shoot on the next shoot day. and with that, it was a pack-up for day 1.

I later got in touch with Rhythm explained to her the plot and her role and told her to think about if she wants to and is allowed to do something like this- she was. I told hwr to send in a mail to school saying that she is willing to take part. I later explained to her what she might have to carry. I asked her to send me pictures of options of shots and a white top and floral white dress that she had I sent whatever I received to rutvi and then we discussed it. Her floral dress didn’t match the vibe and was too fancy and so we had her carry only the white top and shorts it had a tiger and looked kiddish which helped pull her off as a child even more.

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Shoot day 1- Scene 3

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

Since we had already had a huge delay, I didn’t want to waste any time and so we went to the foyer area to start practising. in this scene, basically isha and Khushi are walking to their class and Khushi is warning isha about Vivan while starting sort of walking in the same direction giving Khushi the idea that he is stalking them while isha sort of blows off the situation. I explained to them what they have to do and got a trial run. Originally, I wanted him to walk and hide when they look. I wanted the scene to have an ominous feel and like Isha feeling like she is being followed and the Khushi being slightly concerned about it again selling it as he is the stalker. Again, the way that the hallway that we were filming was structured there weren’t many places for Vivan to hide to pull this off and so I thought he could maybe act like he is reading the bulletin boards but it just came out looking odd. Since the actors didn’t get a break and we had to refigure things we all took a moment I discussed with Aaryaa what we could do. So we decided that we would just have him walk plainly with headphones on and have him enter a little while later about the time that Khushi calls in creepy and warns Isha.

I explain the same to the cast. Some of the notes I gave Jaden were to walk slowly and to not overtake them like this it still gives the vibe that creepy stalker vibe that we wanted. We again had him wear earphones. For Tarunya, I told her to pull Jiya closer to look sort of concerned when she notices Jaden and then pull Isha in towards her in a very protective way this was like a subtle sign that to Jaden like “Hey I have got my eyes on you I know what you want to do and I won’t allow it”. for Jiya I told her to act like Tarunya is the one exaggerating and that this thing that she is telling you is another dumb rumour that she must have overheard.

We all took a tracking shot of Jiya and Tarunya as well as of Jaden. We also took a pov shot of Jaden. Some issues that we faced were that since we didn’t have a mic that day and we were filming in the foyer area there was too much noise that disrupted the shot we could barely hear the actors and so we had them record their voices on their phones and then later have it sent to us to get a clearer sound and that helped. We had to retake a couple of the shots since Jiya and Tarunya the end of the shot would end up walking into the wall somehow. Something that I found hard was guiding Aaryaa, she was sort of worried to trip and or to bump into the wall at the end and while guiding her helped our pace and rhythm didn’t match and there were times, we were too fast or too slow but by the end of it we figured it out. Another issue was that Aaryaa found it hard to hold the camera up for a long time for Jaden’s pov and so some of the shots came a little shaky and again by the end of it she got the hang of it.

(Since we were filming in the hallway we caught the attention of teachers who wanted to see how and what we were filming)

After this we let the actors take a break as it was around lunchtime and we had been shooting for a long time. This was Tarunya’s last scene so she left for the day. this was also around the time that the actor that was playing Baby Isha sort of backed out. Her sister told us that she was sick and that she might not be able to make it on the day of the shoot. Luckily Jiya knew this other girl Rhythm who went to the same school as us and would be perfect for the role. Since we didn’t have a lot of time we rushed out to meet her. She was amazing and she instantly agreed and so I took her number and told her that I would contact her later.