Huzzah!

At last! The script is here, in it's fully-fledged, four paged glory. I have noticed that it might go a bit over, but if that's the case, I'll just have to edit in some magic to end it perfectly. Maybe a fade. Most likely a fade.

Tragedy Strikes

Oh, I almost forgot. My place of work had requested on Monday that I was to cut my hair by saying I was unable to work until I did so. So I did. And I hate it. Time to get a wig for the opening.

Long Time, No See!

Wow, I actually have a chance to blog during this crazy week. Here's the lowdown: this week has been crazy busy for me. Work scheduled me all week (save the weekend; there is a God!) and when I've gotten home late each night, I've had to study for a test the next day. The Senior Crux, ladies and gentlemen. Luckily, Stoklosa gave us a huge chunk of time to work on our projects during class today, so here I am, bloggin' it up. 

I've revised a new script in light of the ABKCO ordeal (seeing as how I wrote the song I didn't even have the rights to into the script), worked out a shooting schedule for this weekend (Saturday and Sunday from 10:30-3), and I finally finished a surprisingly minimal storyboard. Things are looking up for me in light of this busy, busy week. 

Great News!

Aside from the odd, negative news regarding the opening, with the alternative script writing and the new usage of music, I have the best news. A friend of mine has recently come into ownership of a Westphalia (a VW van)! Best part is, we can use it for the opening! We can even drive it on the highway! Thank god she has that amount of trust in me. This makes it mostly smooth sailing from here.

Yikes

Well, here we are back to square one. Sadly, ABKCO has not gotten back to me in a good time frame window, so it seems I;m going to be using copyrighted music. It's not that bad, though. This does not halt the video making process that much. However, I do need to rewrite some lines in the script, seeing as how they use the radio as influence. There really is no rest for the wicked.

Getting There!

On Tuesday, my AICE media class had met in groups to discuss our projects. It went over very nicely! I critiqued some of my classmates projects and actually helped a few of them to get to the production part sooner. My project was critiqued as well, getting some mostly positive feedback (thank god).  The most evident critique I had received from my peers was that I really need to stop overthinking when it comes to the music. Really, it's just two minutes of film, so I barely need the song anyways. It's more of wanting it than needing it at this point. And sadly enough, ABKCO hasn't gotten back to me yet. Better start looking for uncopyrighted music! 

Let's Hope This Works

I just contacted ABKCO Records if I could use the Stones song "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" in the opening, which I thought of using in a film before I had even conjured "Out of His Mind". It's an anxious experience, man. Using the song is an integral part of the script and of the opening itself. All I can say now is let's hope this works. If it doesn't, we're gonna have a whole new opening on our hands. 

Character Biography: Chaz

Charles Luther Isaac Tenant II was born on May 12th, 1957 in Chicago, IL to his father of the same name and his mother, Beatrice Tenant. He is the fifth child out of six in the Tenant household. "King Charles I", as his children call him, is an international businessman in the wine industry. Beatrice is a stay at home mother, which she thinks is harder work than "Whatever Charlie is doing with those grapes of wrath.". Chaz's two best friends for life are Davie Wagner and Brad Jackard. 

Born in Chicago, Chaz's family quickly moved to Naperville after Chaz was born, seeing as how his family was becoming larger and larger every two or three years or so, and the city seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Chaz has dark-brown hair, big, brown eyes, and a brace-toothed grin. When it comes to the braces, his mother calls him a late bloomer and his father calls him lazy. Chaz dresses regularly for the times, sporting sweaters and t-shirts with blue jeans to match and sneakers to finish it off. However, with every outfit he wears an army jacket that he swears is his father's, even though Charles I has said time and time again that he was never in a war. Plus, the jacket's name tag says "SMITH"; but Chaz knows something is up with his old man. 

Character Biography: Brad

Bradley Edward Jackard was born on July 31st, 1957 in Naperville, IL to John and Alejandra Maria Jackard. He is the second child in his family, following behind his brother, Matthew. John Jackard works as a stock broker in Chicago and Alejandra works as a writer, mostly staying at home to complete her many well-regarded novels about the Cuban Revolution and her personal experiences with it. Brad's two best friends are David Wagner and Charles Tenant, growing up through childhood together. 

Bradley is shorter than most at his age, which is used against him when joking around. His dark brown hair comes from his father and his caramel colored skin comes from his mother; being half-Cuban, half-American, he's a nightmare for any Cold War enthusiast. Brad usually dresses in his brother's hand-me-downs, surprisingly by choice. Matthew being an ex-hippie and all, Brad loved the way his brother dressed. Though Brad dresses like a hippie, his temperament says otherwise. When it comes to Brad, the smallest endeavor has catastrophic outcomes with is anger. His ego usually overshadows his feelings, but never his friendships with Davie and Chaz. 

Character Biography: Davie

David "Davie" Marshall Wagner was born on November 14th, 1957 in Naperville, IL, just outside of Chicago. He is the only child to his parents Michael and Martha Wagner. Michael is a chemistry and biology teacher at  Naperville Central High School and Martha works as a nurse at Edward Hospital. David's two best friends are Bradley Jackard and Charles Tenant, who have known each other all throughout their lives. 

Davie is a tall and lanky boy with shaggy, dirty-blond hair. His bright blue eyes shine out through his thick glasses and he smiles with a gap in his front teeth due to his father beieving that "altering the growth of human teeth is playing God and especially should not be done to children.". His sense of dress usually concises of a rock-and-roll band tee, high-waisted Levis jeans, and ruined chucks. Being his favorite band, he sports Led Zeppelin the most. Davie has no plans for his future, hoping to find something to do when he goes off to college. He says that he really does not have much potential for anything, but he's rather good with a camera. 

His senior year awaits him and being the class of 1975 seems more like a drag than anything else to him. He wants to start his senior year off right with his two best friends in the whole world with a summertime, cross-country road trip to Olympic National Park in Washington, where (as they heard through the grapevine) a whole load of incoming seniors from all over Illinois are meeting up for a whole week to prepare with debauchery and sin. Davie finds this to be the perfect opportunity and with Brad's brother's old van, they head off to "Olympus" to end their junior year and usher in the age of the class of '75. 

Why LSD?

LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or acid, for short) has always been a fascinating topic for me. It's controversial usage and experimentation within both governments and curious people baffles me. How could one tiny strip of a drug change your mind's chemistry practically forever?

Albert Hofmann created the drug from a root grown near Germany in 1938 and found out its psychedelic properties 5 years later. It was introduced as a kind of medication in the late 40s. Funny enough, the Central Intelligance Agency grew curious about the drug and began testing it on individuals to see if it could be made into a weapon for and on the human mind (America at its finest). Even funnier enough, word soon broke out about the acid and started being used recreationally by the counterculture of the 1960s, ultimately beginning its prohibition. 

Of course, I've heard stories and read about what the drug does to the human mind. Whether it be expansion or something else entirely, it changes you. A giggling, tripped out mess of sweat and trembling; LSD is a force to be reckoned with. An excellent use for a plot point, I think that studying this drug during its cultural boom will surely help me with my opening.

Uncanny's an Understatement

I was just browsing the internet like any Gen-Z-er nowadays and came upon the most peculiar photo that perfectly encapsulates what I want my three main characters to look like:

 Chaz, Davie, and Brad in the flesh. Good god, would you look at that hair. 

A Script, He Says!

Yes! I've finished a script for the opening. Although, four pages long, it should suffice for the time limit I'm looking for. I cannot seem to find a way to upload it to Blogger, however, so I will have to summarize. 

The running title for the film is "Out of His Mind", which tells the story of three best friends going on a cross-country escapade throughout America in the Summer of 1974. The three compatriots, David, Bradley, and Charles, head of to Olympic National Park for a congregation of teenage masses to partake in the happenings there. After a stroke of genius by Davie, whom takes sixteen tabs of LSD all at once, he goes ballistic. His trip makes him burst into a feral rage, ripping his clothes off and beating up random teenagers, including Charlie. 

After finding Davie passed out in a thicket of dead trees and flowers, Charlie and Brad know what they have to do. They must venture to Arizona and find Markus, an acquaintance of theirs whom had cured Brad's older brother after he had a massive trip which caused him to go blind during Woodstock. Though LSD has no side effects like blindness or comatose, they know Markus can somehow cure it. 

When they eventually get to Markus and have Davie woken up, he cannot remember who he is. Markus explains that he cannot restore Davie's memory but maybe going backwards on their cross-country road trip could trigger Davie to remember himself and his friends. Charlie and Brad think this is the best idea and head out to redo their trip with a more-than-confused Davie in tow. 

Brainstorming?

To begin, I love the culture and weird ways of life of the late 1960s/early 1970s for teenagers in America. When all these new things were popping up everywhere like great music, the rise of television, interesting social events, (depending on where you stand for the next two) drugs, and sexual endeavors. The world was a whole new place for these kids. A frontier of self-identification, trust in others, civil rights, a never-ending war in the East, and straying away from the dangers America faced at the time (such as one conniving, deceitful President who shall not be named). 

This type of America was one that has never been seen or will be seen again. To me, it was the most fascinating time in American history; what with the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement taking place within the States. This was a time of revolution. This was a time of awakening. This was the time of cultural upheaval, a perfect landscape for creating a film. And that is exactly what I am going to do with this timeline. 

And would you LOOK at the way they dressed. Joggers and Yeezy have nothing on super-tight band tees and high waisted Levis. 

Salutations!

My name is Nate, short for Nathaniel, shorter for Nathaniel Riley Stoughton. 

Welcome to my blog or as I like to call it, my little pocket in the vast expansion of the space-time continuum. Here I will record my every step towards creating my film opening for my AICE Media Studies class. As difficult as this project seems to be, I have high hopes in making a fantastic opening with all the resources at my disposal. 

I take many inspirations from multiple people and films themselves. My main inspiration is Quentin Tarantino, known for his horribly graphic yet exuberant storytelling techniques. The way that Tarantino sets up a film is downright awe inducing. Simple yet smart conversations introduce characters like you have known them all your life. When the plot kicks in, it is brought to you on a silver platter, with an amazing soundtrack as your side dish. What I am looking for, is a Tarantino-esque  opening, complete with his techniques, but straying away from the gruesome violence of it all. 

I cannot wait to begin working on this project and seeing as how I am going to become a film major, this is just the push I need to get started with my future career. I will be writing, storyboarding, filming, acting, and editing (with a little help from a few friends of mine) this short beginning with positive intentions and a kick-ass attitude. Nothing will stand in my way with this opening and you can bet your bottom I will overcome whatever it is that tries. 

On that note, let's get this show on the road!