Kevin Foughty’s Blog for this God Forsaken Project

This is my CCR. I may sound tired in it but that’s because I had to wait until 11 p.m. to start the voice over because I do not live in a quite house and people don’t tend to listen to me. So, I’ll have a script in the post below.

Boy, this is ROUGH.

So there are some continuity errors in the rough cut, meaning that we need to re-shoot some of the shots (yay) and there is still some editing that needs to be done but, I think Nick can somehow salvage this abomination that is an insult to both God and man.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, here is our abomination:

We (as in Susan, Fares, Nick and I in case you were wondering) met at the PHSC east campus this week and we talked about where we would will film our project.

The first place we looked at was the student center which houses a pool table (which should not be brought up to Nick as it will cause him to have flashbacks to when I demolished his ass at a game of pool that very day) and some computers that we can use as props. (Susan has a video showing the area on her blog so check that out).

The computers could be used to show the detective trying to get work done and the pool table can be used to show that the hacker does not care about the task at hand.

These are some photos of the student center, specifically the computers.

Another place we could film was the group study rooms found in the library at PHSC. The areas look like office areas which would help with the aesthetic (especially the Noir aspects of the film) that allows us bring our own computers and not worry about getting the consent of other people who may up in the frame. Susan did speak to the libraian because she is more extroverted than the rest of us and we have permission to film in one of the study rooms, we just need to make sure the PHSC logo isn’t in the frame and no one that isn’t in the film is in the film.

Finally, if we decide to break the continuity to show the simulation glitching, we will most likely use the pavilion that is just outside the library and the student center. It is a beautiful little set piece the is very different from the study room and the student center.

I made some hopefully final changes to the script to accommodate for the new location we are shooting at (one of the group study rooms at PHSC). I also put the damn thing in Studiobinder.

Here is the link to the script or just read in here.

Establishing shot of room

Cut to a man (Detective played by Fares) taking notes (Chiaroscuro is used)

Inner Monologue from Detective: “Precision simulation hired me to investigate who hacked into their simulation and bring them to justice. Ever since the first attack, it has been glitching –

(cut to frozen clock) time will move erratically, you will be in a place you don’t remember going to. On the bright side, after this job, I’ll quit: I may be young but I’ve put in too many hours to keep working this dead-end job. My partner for this job is a felon and a hacker and once we’re done with this job, Precision promised to wipe his slate clean. He seems like the kind of guy that is too ‘goody two shoes’ to even commit tax fraud, but I was shocked when I heard that he …”

Sound of gunshots offscreen “Damn”

Frame pans to show Hacker (played by Kevin) playing a game

D: “Could you keep it down, I’m trying to concentrate.

(Shot reverse shot sequence starts)

H: “My bad man. Hey, can I put some color back in this world; all this black and white is making me depressed?”

D: “Sure, whatever.”

H: “And then I said, let there be color!”

Chiaroscuro gone in next cut; color present

H: “There, much better. Now, did you find any information on our culprit?”

D: “Well, we know that they’re good at altering this simulation, so they must be good with computers.”

H: “Way to go, Sherlock, I mean do we have a witness or, better yet, a name?”

D: “We do have a name: Bostrom. That’s all we have though: no face, no age, and no location.”

Cut to D and H leaving the room

D: “They may be on to us, let’s get out of here.”

Title card appears with sound of the door shutting.

While we were attempting to film, we were trying to set up various things and we ran into some problems, some we were able to work, others not.

For example, the microphones Nick bought need to be connected to a 3.5mm headphone jack in order to work. However, we planned on shooting on Susan’s iphone 11, which lacks such 3.5mm headphone jack. Nick’s phone does have one so we decided to use his phone to record the audio. This might be a pain later on for Nick because he will need to take the video from one source and align it with the audio from another source.

Also, when we first attached the gimbal to Susan’s phone, we panicked a little because we could see a piece of the gimbal in the viewfinder. This was a little heart attack for us because it would be in every shot we took. That was, until we realized Susan’s phone’s camera was set to ultra-wide and not the standard lens. Once we put it back on the standard lens, that piece was no longer in the view finder which was a great relief for us.

The moral of this story is, while technology can be a great thing, it can still end up as a pain in the ass.

My group gave me some advice on the costuming that makes a lot more sense than my original idea. Originally, I planned on using the symbolism that colors and their brightness to show the differences between the Hacker and the Detective. However, when they said they expected to see me in a hoodie, and then explained to me that that is standard hacker wear, I thought “yeah, a hoodie would be better than a button that’s too big on me.”

Fares should up to the Jiffy dressed with dress pants and a dressed shirt (with a blazer in the back of his car just in case.) I showed up with vans, faded jeans, and a light green button-up shirt. Nick was the one who suggested that I wear a hoodie when we film. The only issue I have is: I don’t have a hoodie. However, Nick has some hoodies with the names of schools on them. Since one of them is MIT, we decided that I will try that one on Monday to see if it fits. If it does, I will wear that hoodie for shooting. If not, I will run to Walmart that day and pick one up.

A have a black bag which will also help with the hacker aesthetic because, as evidenced by the photo above, backpacks are another staple in the hacker attire. Depending on the color of the hoodie (I think it’s grey but I am unsure), I will either wear a pair of dark jeans or a pair of light grey pants. If I go to Walmart and pick up a bright colored hoodie, I may have to wear something else but that is unlikely because dark jeans go with everything (in my opinion.)

This is the third rendition of the script. As we are now filming at PHSC, some changes had to be made. I assumed we are filming it at the student center because there are a lot of props that we could use there. I left what shots Susan had included for the second edition out because I don’t know if she plans on changing them. Anyway, here is script number 3

Cut to a man (Detective played by Fares) sitting at a computer, he appears busy. (Chiaroscuro is used)

Inner Monologue from Detective: “Precision simulation hired me to investigate who hacked into their simulation and bring them to justice. Ever since the first attack, it has been glitching – time will move erratically, you will be in a place you don’t remember going to. On the bright side, after this job, I’ll quit: I may be young but I’ve put in too many hours to keep working this dead-end job. My partner for this job is a felon and a hacker and once we’re done with this job, Precision promised to wipe his slate clean. He seems like the kind of guy that is too ‘goody two shoes’ to even commit tax fraud, but I was shocked when I heard that he …” (Cut off by Hacker speaking)

Sound of billards being hit by cue ball

Frame pans to show Hacker (played by Kevin) at pool table

D: “Could you keep it down, I’m trying to concentrate.

H: “My bad man. Hey, can I put some color back in this world; all this black and white is making me depressed?”

D: “Sure, whatever.”

H: “And then I said, let there be color!”

Chiaroscuro gone in next cut; color present

H: “There, much better. Now, did you find any information on our culprit?”

D: “Well, we know that they’re good at altering this simulation, so they must be good with computers.”

H: “Way to go, Sherlock, I mean do we have a witness or, better yet, a name?”

D: “We do have a name: Bostrom. That’s all we have though: no face, no age, and no location.”

Cut to another establishing shot; D and H are in the same position, but at place

D (as he is getting in the car): “They may be on to us, let’s get out of here.”

Title card appears with sound of the door shutting.

Just kidding; we’re not

We (as in the group and I) attempted to film today (2/23/2020) at the local Jiffy. However, we were unable to do so because we had to wait until the store closed.

And then wait for another 3 hours for them to close and shut everything off.

This gave us the wonderful opportunity that we may have never gotten if things went as planned. We now plan on filming at Pasco Hernando State College (the east campus because why in the hecky would we drive all the way to New Port Richey to film). We chose this place because of how convenient it is: it is really close to the school and most of the time we are unavailable, it is because we have a class there. Also, it is beautiful in some areas but it has a lot of diversity within its structures.

For example, in the student center there is a pool table and some computers, with a great view of the outdoors. We can use the pool table and the computers as props to show the difference between the hacker and the detective (the hacker will be playing pool to show he is not too focused on the job whereas the detective will be on the computer trying to figure out where to go next for their next clue.

Also, I am pretty sure it is public property so we would not need to ask permission to film there. However, if it isn’t, we can guerrilla tactics and film on a Friday when the campus is a desolate wasteland. This would be fitting as James Cameron did something similar when he was filming The Terminator.

Nick – being that he is good with computers – created the storyboard using Storyboard That (a free service that can be used to create comics and storyboards). Given we still are unsure of where we are going to film – although a gas station is what we are hoping for – the setting is subject to change. Also, since the script isn’t finished, the shots are kinda basic in the storyboard. We are hoping that, unlike how the storyboard depicts it, the change isn’t a subtle color change and more noticeable (I didn’t notice for like 30 minutes but that might be because I am a bit of an idiot)

However, the storyboard does show what we (by we I mean Nick since he is doing the editing can hope to achieve) – a technique found in Sin City and in Schindler’s List where there is only one color in a monochromatic setting. We haven’t talked about this possibility yet as I have just had either a stroke of genius or just a normal stroke that just kinda formed into an idea but that’s besides the point. If we can pull this off, it can further show the difference between the two characters; by having the detective remain monochromatic when the chiaroscuro fades and the hacker can have color remain whilst in chiaroscuro.