LONDON BRIDGE HAS FALLEN

 Woah. This feels weird, doesn't it? The last post...ever. I feel like I shouldn't be doing this. It feels wrong. 

Well, before I get my goodbyes in order, here's the link to the project: FINAL PROJECT EVER

I can't believe I'm never gonna have to do an assignment again. That's how this works, right? Anyways. 

This has been a blast. Truly. From the bottom of my heart, I genuinely am grateful for this blog. THIS MEANS SOMETHING TO ME, MAN. 

how it genuinely feels to finish this film

This project really allowed me to go wild and direct how I want. I'm incredibly grateful for that, and incredibly grateful for my crew and teacher. You guys are da real MVPs. 

But at the end of the day, there must always be night. 

So that's it. Goodbye.

I've laid it all out 🫡

Critically Reflectin

 W*TCH! tells the story of Claire, a high school girl who hasn't always been the most popular. On her quest to make new friends and reconnect with an old one, she runs into some dark places, literally. At its core, the story is about finding what's true to you, whether it be witches or not.

After a lengthy idea phase where we flip-flopped about a thousand times on an idea, we settled on what was kind of a throwaway pitch. We knew we wanted to show the trouble that comes with making friends in high school. It's something all of us experienced, and while there was nary a witch to raise the stakes of our problems, we all felt like anyone we tried to talk to could be harnessing some innate evil power within them.

For some inspiration on this sort of evil, you can only find in the halls of a high school, we researched Mean Girls, a drama/comedy that follows a new girl trying to make friends with the popular crowd, only to find they're much more mean than she thought. Cady Heron, the "new girl," is a major inspiration for Claire.

Jennifer's Body pushed us further. What excited us about that film was its refusal to make the monster anything other than a teenage girl at the peak of her social influence. That idea, that the scariest thing in a high school is the most popular person in it, became the backbone of Andreina's character. The Craft and Heathers also influenced us to be campy and theatrical without losing dramatic weight, which was essential for a story that features tarot cards and a girl passing out in a living room.

The standard teen drama is often shot vérité to highlight the turbulent time it portrays. We chose something more deliberate and composed, while reserving chaos for the more emotional points. The black void sequences, which have no real precedent in mainstream teen drama, were kind of conceived from our want to challenge expectations.

W*TCH! is fundamentally about the social world of high school girls and the invisible power structures that run it. Through Andreina, we explore how social hierarchies are maintained not through brute force, but through charm, manipulation, and the slow erosion of identity in those beneath them. Andreina isn't just a bully. She's a witch, quite literally. Her use of tarot cards to assert control over Claire and Sarina is a supernatural manifestation of something very real: the way girls at the top of a social ladder can make others feel like their fates have already been decided for them.

Both Sarina and Claire’s arcs are the most grounded representations of a real social issue in the film. Sarina is someone who strayed from her true self, from her real friendship with Claire, because of outside pressure. Claire's desperation to be liked, her willingness to sit with strangers, to follow Andreina to a house she wasn't sure about, to pull a tarot card she didn't want to pull, these are all small, recognizable acts of social survival. We wanted audiences to see themselves in the characters, develop a relationship, and learn lessons with the characters that they could take home.

The most evident way we allowed the audience to take these lessons home was Claire's fourth wall breaks.

Originally inspired by Fleabag, where speaking directly to the audience is a coping mechanism for loneliness, our early drafts had Claire treating the viewer as her only friend. But as the script evolved, the fourth wall breaks shifted into something more like a running inner monologue: her anxieties, her hopes, her commentary on a situation she can't fully control. For our target audience of Gen Z teenagers, that voice is immediately familiar. Whenever Claire speaks directly to the camera, she is transported to an empty black space, with earthquake sound effects and wind beneath her voice. The void represents the turbulent nature of her mind, layered with sound to let the audience feel what she feels. A constant unsteadiness, overwhelmed, and alone.

To get the message out to potential viewers, we created an Instagram account. Our social media presence on Instagram was styled entirely around tarot cards, with each crew and cast member introduced through a custom tarot card graphic against a deep purple or red starry background

. Each post had a gothic theme and its own witchy song to match. The motif is tied directly to the film's central supernatural set piece, where Andreina uses tarot to assert her dominance. By carrying that imagery into our marketing, we created a cohesive universe where the branding and the story meshed with each other. Some of our posts specifically targeted the target audience of younger girls, with a us posting that if you liked Mean Girls, you should watch W*TCH. This immediately got the audience familiarized with our vibe. 

Practically, our production was far from smooth. We spent three weeks stuck in the idea phase. We filmed our first scene before the script was finished, writing in voiceover and an opening sequence after the fact to make it feel cohesive, a challenge we think we pulled off. We wrote an entirely new scene after already calling a wrap, one that gave Andreina a clear motive, established how Sarina got involved, and led into the seance. It turned out to be one of the most important scenes in the film. If I were to go back a month, I would’ve loved to lean a bit more into the comedic aspects of the film, as well as focusing more on the witchiness of it all, but such is life. 

At its heart, W*TCH! argues that the people who truly know you are worth more than any popular crowd. The reconnection between Claire and Sarina in the black void, two old friends reaching through the dark to find each other, is our core theme. True friendship survives. Real people find their way back. All of this chaos, somehow, produced something we're proud of. W*TCH! is a story about finding your way back to the people who really know you. I think the film found its way back to itself, too.

I HEAR THEREFORE I AM PT 3: THE RETURN

 REAL LAYERS KNOW WHAT TIME IT ISSSSSSSSSS

ok audio in da film.

HOLY FORK BRO OH MY GOD I TRY HARDED THIS

this is just the seance 

So after doing a basic line edit, I ran into a problem. The film was lowk terrible 😭. Like it wasn't awfullllll, but it sure as hell was not what we imagined. But, ya boy got to work. For the last 42 hours, I have not slept (I slept), I have not eaten (I ate), I have not drunk (I'm fairly well hydrated), I haven't even gone to the bathroom ( I like to keep regular), because I have been sound designing. 

I wanted to create a very spooky atmosphere behind this film, especially during the seance, so I opened up Epidemic Sound and got to work.

I met God, and they're Epidemic Sound

I went clip by clip, imagining what sort of vibe I wanted, and went through trial and error until the right one stuck. I really wish there was a way to show you how much I downloaded, but trust me, it's a lot. 

I scrubbed through my timeline again, carefully adding each woosh, impact, glimmer, and sparkle to the exact moment I wanted, and then I edited the sfx. 

One of my favorites was the earthquake SFX added to all the void scenes to show just how unstable Claire was. Just like her voice, I added reverb to this to make it feel like the void was this vast place, and Claire was a very small part of it. 

reverb effect

I won't spoil the rest, but I'm really proud of it. I think the sound design made them film what it is, and I'm super excited for you to listen

i have no critiqes but I must reflect

 ok lets go over some of the CR stuff (BOOOOORING AMIRIGHT CAMBRIDGE??? Cambridge? Cambridge, you good? Oh, you didn't appreciate my joke, ok I'm sorry) ( I don't like the French if that helps? I like Manchester United. Are you a Red Devil Fan? I probably got a City fan oooooo I swear if I get a City fan and they give me a C OOOOOOO you will not want to face me) (ok I'm done)

Bang Bang reflection gang, let's go. The essay has to be around 1000 words and answer 4 important questions: 

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

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

How do your products engage with the audience?

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

light work no reaction

So first 

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

The research we did falls into two phases, because our idea changed so dramatically mid-process. When we first landed on the fourth wall break as our core device, we looked at Fleabag to understand how to write a character who talks directly to the camera. We took specific notes on how that relationship between Claire and the audience should feel, less like a performance, more like she is confiding in her only friend. That informed everything about how Claire speaks in the void sequences.

When the story shifted into high school drama territory, our research shifted with it. Mean Girls became our primary reference for how to write the main trio and balance comedy with real social stakes. 

We took a lot of notes on how those characters were written, and adapted a lot of it into Claire, Sarina, and Andreina. The Craft and Heathers gave us a guideline on how to be dark and campy simultaneously. Jennifer's Body gave us the central idea that the most popular girl in school could also be the monster. That realization is what made Andreina click as a character.

The research helped us know which conventions to challenge. The standard teen drama is shot naturalistically and handheld. We went the opposite direction, choosing composed and deliberate framing, and built the black void sequences as something with no real precedent in the genre. 

ok next 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

W*TCH! is about the social world of high school girls and the pressure that comes with it. It happens very often that teenagers make decisions they don't agree with just to fit in, and that can leave others feeling abandoned. That is the central conflict of the film. Sarina is the clearest example of this. She changed, not because she wanted to, but because of pressure she couldn't escape. Claire's entire arc is built around recognizable acts of social survival: sitting next to strangers, following someone she isn't sure about, pulling a tarot card she doesn't want to pull.

It was also important to us that we represented witchcraft responsibly. There are real practicing witches in the world, and while no character in our film belongs to any specific organization, we wanted to honor the practices we were adapting. We used a real tarot deck on set and performed a spread that is genuinely used by practicing witches.

At its heart, the film argues that the people who truly know you are worth more than any popular crowd. The reconnection between Claire and Sarina is the thesis. True friendship survives. Real people find their way back.

okie next 1

How do your products engage with the audience?

We thought about audience engagement at every level, not just in the film itself. On social media, we drew a direct line between W*TCH! and films our target audience already loves. Posts that said if you liked Mean Girls, watch our film did the work of signaling immediately who this was for: teenagers and young women who recognize that world.

Our postcard, designed to be handed out at the Lightning Film Festival, extended the branding into something physical. The front featured our tarot card visual identity, and the back carried a short description of the film alongside details on where to watch it. It was designed to feel like an artifact from the world of the film itself.

Within the film, the fourth wall breaks are the primary engagement tool. Claire's voice in the void is her inner monologue, and for a Gen Z audience, that voice is immediately familiar. Everyone has felt alone, and that is the emotion we are channeling. The montage sequence works similarly; Claire looks like she is fitting in, but keeps glancing at Sarina, whose smile is too wide. It pulls the audience into active watching rather than passive viewing.

ok last one

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

Our branding makes a very clear statement about the film. We built the entire visual identity around the tarot cards used on set, scanning the actual deck to create our graphic elements. Every post on social media is either formatted as a tarot card or features tarot elements, creating immediate recognition across the feed.

Font choice was a big part of this. We leaned heavily into a gothic aesthetic, commonly associated with witches and the otherworldly, that runs through every touchpoint, from the social media graphics to the postcard to the visual atmosphere of the film itself.

Within the film, the black void sequences, the candlelit seance, and the shift in music from upbeat to ominous during the montage all work together to build and sustain that atmosphere. 

I am Jewish Jesus ?

 Just as Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, I, too, resurrected something. My film. Although this one is still Jewish. Sorry. 

Today we filmed the short argument scene I had mentioned before, and it went pretty smoothly. We just did a simple shot reverse shot and got it over with in 20 minutes. However, Quinn wanted to go the extra mile. 

A couple of days earlier, he sent me an Ariana Grande BTS video of her falling in a music video, and it actually looked pretty cool. 

I think you can see where this is going. While we had Claire there, we set up the void again, and I got on the ground, and I started waving Claire's hair 🥀. We got the shot, it looks good, but I look stupid on our social media page, Cambridge 💔. I'm telling you ya'll better like this film because I did not get on the ground and wave this girl's hair for nothing. 

sigh 

But that is an official wrap, so nowww editing is next. 

ok i lied

 That was not a wrap

We need to film more

AHHHHH

Ok, so while telling the story of our film to one of my friends, he kind of brought up a good point: Why do the Witches want Claire, and why do they do anything to Sarina?

I could not answer

How did I not realize this

I am washed 

But I did not fret and got to work. I wrote a short scene that kind of explained that Sarina did not get involved in this willingly, and expressed that to Claire. I also wrote that Andre overheard the conversation, giving her a reason to target Sarina. This also coincidentally expands the relationship between Claire and Sarina's characters, and gives Sarina more of a reason to save Claire at the end. 

The short scene.

I kindly asked Claire, Sarina, and Andre if they'd be able to film again (they definitely want to kill me) and when that could happen.  They all surprisingly said yes????? WOW, people are so nice.  So stay tuned, cause it's crunch time. 

and thats a wrap

 WE WRAPPED FILMING AND DID A SEANCE LESS GOOOOO

Third day of filming went swimmingly, so less recap.

Quinn's dog Bono (we are best friends, right, Bono) 

and I waiting for da actors to arrive

While Aneesa and Nico were out getting some shots for the dead wife montage we wanted to include, Quinn and I created darkness 

Our first attempt did not go well

However, the dead wife crew came in clutch and grabbed us some trash bags to blackout the windows, so when they got to set, we trashed the place. 

blacked out 😛

I know it doesn't look like it, but I contributed more than this. Ok, on to filming.

We quickly shot the flashback scenes we needed, then started Claire's entrance and montage. We wanted to have a huge tonal shift from this more laid-back vibe to the dramatized seance scene later, so we went with a more natural lighting setup for these shots. 

calm setup. 

We bounced the light off the wall to give it a softer feel, and had Quinn's yellow lamp lit up in the background for some nice accent lighting and a nice little pop of warmth. 

After we finished those scenes, it was on to the next scene. For the seance, we wanted a very dramatic, classically evil vibe. We lit the room purple and red, while pointing a white key light at each person's face when they were on camera to highlight them. 

squad

also squad

bono in da light

This scene took a while to film, but we needed to take the time to do so because it's the climax of the film. We had to do the scene around 4 or 5 different times for each character, nailing the deliveries I wanted each time. Huge props to our cast, because you volunteered to do this. I do not know why. 

But once we were done, I got to say the best 3 words in film: That's a wrap. 

Editing next less goo

2nd filming day goated W less go we're back haha cmon

 YEAHHHHH we goated 

We had our second day of filming, and it was actually a success. Today we wanted to get all the void scenes and flashbacks out of the way so we could focus on the seance another day. We also shot the beginning scene of the film, a short scene we added in a rewrite that we thought would entice the viewer more. We also needed to shoot around the fact that one of our core four had to work today, so we needed to get everything without her. 

first scene W 

Once we finished setting up the set for Claire's bedroom (Quinn's sibling's room, who's in college), we got to work on this behemoth backdrop that we had to set up again from yesterday. We used this for the void.

Crew dub

The actors all showed up late, but once they got there, it was a pretty smooth shoot. We wrapped around 7ish and sent them home for the day. Tomorrow, though, is where the fun begins. So... put on your little red horns, light a nice candle, and say your prayers, because we're doing a seanceeeeeee

socially aloof

CAMBRIDGE WE DID IT WE WENT VIRAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA 😍

We started our social media, and issa good one

wowza

I know it's a bit of a late start, but hey, we're now, aren't we? 

We had the cast and crew all gather to take pics on this black backdrop Quinn has, and we made cool little character posters. 

Aneesa and Nico had a great idea to put them on tarot cards as a promo for the film, and I LOVE IT!!!!

raw pic

how it was posted

Quinn put some filters on it, and then I clicked post. It's really fun seeing our promo coming.

they'll never know 🤫

ok we finished (da script)

 After a very turbulent process, Quinn, Nico, and I got together to fix the script. 

 

We decided to shave off the extra couple of characters and focus a lot more on Sarina. We decided to make the fix because we thought the cast would get too bloated, and with 4 characters that already need developing, any way to shave off a few would really help. This also means we kind of had to shoehorn in some VO and void scenes to explain Sarina and Claire's relationship, but I think it works. We also made the void a more pivotal plot device, having it represent Claire's mind. Claire and Sarina's relationship also gives a bit more of an emotional backbone to the story, and also gives us an easy out to explain how the witches are defeated (power of friendship with yet another win). 

 I think this was the best we could get out of the script, so enjoy. 

da script (final)

more of da script

Nicolas Restrepo, I love you.

Nico locked in on a lot of the script today, and I think it's looking pretty good.  He added a crush character to give Claire some more emotional attachments, and while I wasn't loving the idea at first, I think it's worth a try to see it through. 

We're also going to test out a void sequence, which could be cool, so sit back, relax, and read some of the script. 

we are perchance back

 soooo... 

We're injecting moral dilemmas into da film

just pondering

A big problem with our writing is that it feels very clichéd. It's always good to introduce tropes, but we don't want to just stick to what's already been done. Our original idea for where we would take the story is having Claire be drained of her life force by the witches, so they can keep being popular and pretty. However, this is a very common trope found across the witchy teen genre. 

Instead of that, we're going to have Claire be given a choice. She must decide to either join the witches or become popular, and finally have friends, or she can not join them and stay true to her morals. 

This decision allows for a more interesting character exploration of Claire, and gives her much more of a choice in the finale. 

 I like where this is going...

we are unprepared

 We filmed our first scene today, and we were kind of unprepared. 

We finished the first scene of our script yesterday, and because it's a teacher planning day today, we knew we had to take the opportunity of there being no kids in school to film. My mom is a teacher at the middle school right next to us, so we used her empty classroom to film. 

Because we filmed before our script was done, we had to make a lot of decisions on the fly. We also color-coordinated the characters. Claire, our lead and the "innocent" one, wore white, while the other, more evil ones, wore red (red cuz evil)

It's grey for an amazing reason (log footage)

Our first scene focuses mainly on introducing Claire as a shy, nervous, wannabe popular girl who is running late to school. For the first time. EVER. Claire was a natural in her role, and Andre, our titular "popular girl," was also at home in the character. 

I'm really happy with how this scene turned out, and I think we're starting off on the right foot. 

Now let's finish dat script.

    

waffle house is a fine establishment

 Quinn and I eat at Waffle House, yum. 

mmmfmfffmm

ok wedidn'tt just go tWaffle Housese, we fueled up before writing

So before we film tomorrow, we kind of need a script. 

Nico, Quinn, and I all gathered and tried to come up with the best possible scene to film tomorrow. We need something that introduces all our characters well, establishes the tone of the film, establishes the plot, and feels connected to the rest of the story that we have yet to write. 

After like a billion years of thinking, here's what we came up with

(working title)

ok wish me luck filming tomorrow i need it pls ahhhhh ok bye

imma post a card

 A little niche aspect of this project is doing a postcard for our short film. Just our luck that Quinn's sister just made a banger one, so we want to take inspiration from it. The goal of the postcard is to give the audience an idea of what our film is about, who's involved, where they can see it, and how to follow the account on socials. A good postcard incorporates all of these elements in a clean, neat design. 

Quinn's sister's postcard

The postcard is a 4x5 ratio, and has info on the front and back. Immediately upon receiving this card, you know it's about bees and honey. It has a description of the product on the back,  and where to see it in an easy-to-spot place on the card. 

We might want to include film festival logos on the card just to spruce it up a bit. We're also going to add contact info for the directors and the studio so viewers can email them with any questions or to start a dialogue. 

This postcard is a pretty good starting point for us, and allows us to build on its already excellent qualities. 

what time is this seance

 ok so now we have to rush 

but its ok 

we were made for this 

lets do this 

We need to solidify a script by mid-week (hopefully Tuesday), so that we can start filming before spring break. Of course, I'm the only group member leaving (vacationing in the lovely city of Swampscott, Massachusetts, my goats fr), so we want to get the bigger sequences of the film done Thursday and Friday so that when I come back, we don't have to speedrun our final project. 

On Friday, we want to utilize the fact that it's a teacher planning day to film in my mom's classroom. No kids are present, so we have free reign to arrange (bar) the class however we want it. This is especially important because we have a couple of cool shots in mind where we need to block the actors in a specific way to create some cool witchlike symbolism. We want to have the popular girls show up in an arch around the main character (almost in a seance-like stance, but I won't foreshadow). It'd also be good for audio purposes, so we don't have the annoying chatter of kids constantly interrupting us during what is the only reason a class should be used for.

Also, in lieu of a lot of research (which will come later on) for this new style, just think of Mean Girls meeting Ever After High meeting Jennifers Body meeting Bottoms meeting...

Ok that's a lot sorry 

On Thursday, we'll probably do the seance. If you have anyone you want us to summon lmk now because I have to have a chat with the devil about it. This is the biggest scene in our film, and we need to properly plan it out this week to actually execute it. I'm excited to do it, but it needs to be done right. 

Ok 

big week ahead

earned not given

im so scared

im so tired

i will summon the devil for my film 

bye 

trust the process pls

 

We changed ideas

Ok, so like. 

Uhhh 

AHHHHHH

Ok so we went to panera (real layers(ppl who read my blog im trying it out) would know my love of panera) and we realized our story kind of, but also really, actually sucked. Like bad. Like not good. After we all got feedback from our group meetings, which kind of told us we were "trying too hard" and "sucked at film" and "were bad people" for ever thinking any of this (100% true, not lying), we kind of started to shift off the idea. We were thinking about what to do, and started to shift gears towards what was kind of a throwaway idea we had when we first started this project. 

                                    MEAN GIRLS BUT IT'S WITCHES AND META

We discussed a lot of plot details, and we still need to work out some stuff (including solidifying an ending), but here are the plot points we want to hit. 

Beginning:

• MC is introduced asa pure cutie girl type:

• She meets pa opular girl trio (a band of classic prissy hot pink popular girls)

• She takes one of their seats in class, and they sit around her

• They start talking to him in a fake kindness tone

• They invite her to one of their popular girl hangs (mean girls esque)

Middle:

• Hard cut to her outside the door of the hangout

• She talks to the camera while waiting in excitement, but gets cut off when the door opens

• Popular girl briefly questions whoshe'ss talking to, but MC waves it away quickly, but also notices a charm around her neck.ck

• The do classic girly stuff, MC notices the other 2 wearing the same charm

• Popular girls suggest doing a witchy spell casually,lly “it’ll be. It's” it's revealed that they are practicing witches, and have been doing magic for a while (they maintain their prior characterization though)

• They start the spell, MC notices her energy draining, and stops the spell

We honestly like this more, and we're having more fun with it, so let's continue to develop. 

SO 

ONCE AGAIN

BANG BANG FILM GANG

LET'S START AGAIN