Blog Week 5

This week went really well and we are starting to get things rolling as far as production and fundraising. This week at our Crew Meeting we talked more about our Indiegogo Campaign and getting things lined up for that. We talked about possible perks, what we are funding for, goals, and Campaign images. Kebba is working on the content of the Indiegogo page and hopefully we will go live October 1^st.  We also did a final revisions of 2 of our scripts and we will revise the third one this Tuesday. Kebba and I also met with our actors for our Mom Scene this week. The experienced actors gave us a lot of feedback, suggestions, and resources. We casted the moms and did some read-throughs and script revisions. This next week we will focus on getting everything prepared for the scene to shoot next Sunday. This past Saturday was our first day of production and filmed our teenage/ opening scene. We had a lot of obstacles like noise issues and we ended up starting later than scheduled. However, the shoot went surprisingly well even with all the obstacles and hoops we had to jump through. Right now we have solid rough cut of the scene, which we will work on this following week to get another rough cut lined up for next week. This next week we have a lot to focus on. Our Indiegogo will launch next week and we also have a scene and an interview we are shooting this weekend that we have to get ready for. Overall, my crew is pretty much kicking ass.

Blog Week 4

This week went really well and we accomplished a lot. As far as the scenes, we have met with our scriptwriter multiple times and will have the final drafts of our scripts by our Tuesday meeting this week. Last weekend my crew went to New Hanover High School to get some B-Roll as well as getting more shots for our ending. Along with getting some test shots, our crew also met with our subjects and actresses (2 different meetings) for our teenage segment of the documentary. We are scheduled to shoot the scene this weekend and the interview along with the Grandmother’s scene the following weekend. Our project requires a lot from the producer, having to schedule and cast 10 actresses and 9 subjects is a lot of work. So far Kebba has done an awesome job staying on top of things and getting all the necessary logistics in place. The meetings with our teen actresses and subjects went extremely well. All of the girls seem very excited about the project and the teenage subjects already started talking about past friendships and women shaming they have personally experienced. Along with getting our production underway, my group has also been brainstorming distribution and possible marketing items. We debated about crowdsourcing and the best program to use as well as the necessary content for the page. We are also beginning to do some production design for our scenes in purchasing necessary props.  Overall, this week has been very productive and we are all super excited and prepared to begin production this weekend.

Crew Bios

Mariah Smallwood, Director

Mariah Smallwood is the Managing Director of Visions7 Film Festival & Conference and functioned as a Co-Director of Hospitality for last year’s event. Mariah loves making schedules and treats her spreadsheets like they are her babies. Along with running a film festival, Mariah is currently working on her Senior Thesis Documentary titled Circles (2017). Mariah has also worked on various film shorts like You Mean Chickens? (2015) as the sound mixer and as a makeup artist for Open Mic (2016) and The Rite Side (2016). Mariah recently worked on the narrative short film, Baby OIl (2016) as the Co-Producer and Unit Production Manager.  Her personal interests include pop culture, gender studies, and how societies function. She hopes to utilize these interests to create films that document social interactions and how they shape individuals. All while finishing up her education at UNC Wilmington, Mariah is still searching for the perfect puppy(s).

Rebecca Firth, Producer

Rebecca Firth's ambitions lie in traveling the world, experiencing diverse cultures, and filmmaking that creates change. After backpacking around South Korea, Rebecca knew she wanted international culture to be present in her film career. She has been involved in several short films, including Gilded (2014), Healing (2015), and Amateurs (2015). Outlast (2015), a short film Rebecca casted, recently showed at Cucalorus Film Festival. Rebecca interned at EUE/Screen Gems Studios and worked in the Department of Development and Fundraising for Visions Film Festival & Conference. Rebecca recently produced her first feature-length narrative, One Summer Night, and she can't wait to see what her future holds.

Hugh Stephens, Director of Photography

Hugh Stephens is an aspiring filmmaker with a wide range of skills to draw from. He has multiple credits to his skills as a Boom operator and Sound mixer (Issues(2016), Good Will Hunting (Student Project)(2015), The Warrior(Student Project)(2015)); as well as having a background in camera, lighting, and grip from his experience as a Director of Photography (The Sunny Side(2016)), internships (Cinepartners inc.), and various other experiences as a Swing (Resilience(2016), The Cleansing(2016)). He has additional talents in storyboard artistry and sound mixing.

Matt McFarling, Sound Mixer

Currently residing in Wilmington, NC, 21 year old Matt McFarling has done a variety of work in the art of filmmaking. Whether it be directing (Bygone Barns, 2016), acting (Entrapment, 2016), or sound design (Resilience, 2016), he loves to collaborate and is always looking for new ways to contribute. Matt is also the current marketing director for Visions Film Festival and Conference, a volunteer Young Life leader at New Hanover High School, and the first ever media intern at Christ Community Church.

Blog Week 3

Even though we didn’t meet this past week as a class, my crew has come along way as far as getting everything ready for the interviews and scenes. This week we have tried to get a lot of the pre-production aspects for the short scenes out of the way so we can focus on the interview and doc aspects of the film. We made a casting call for women in each scene and we have gotten a lot of responses. We have confirmed actresses for our teenage scene, and are currently going through numerous headshots for our mother and elderly women scenes. We have gotten drafts of our scripts from our scriptwriter and have made revisions and are currently waiting on the final. After we get the scripts finalized, we can start contacting our actresses, meeting with them, and getting the shoot on the schedule. As far as subjects, we have already confirmed our teenage subjects, but are still weighing options and deciding on who our middle and elderly age women will be. We as a group have also started scouting out possible locations and getting those places reserved. After getting a lot of the logistics figured out, I can now sit down and really focus on the pre-production project. As a group, we have talked a little about the pre-production project while starting to get out schedules in order. However, this week our meetings will heavily focus on this aspect of the film so we can start production. Overall, I am really impressed with my group and the amount of enthusiasm and dedication they are putting into the project. As of now, I believe we are all on the same page and excited to get the wheels rolling!

Bios and Interview

Janet ---> Mother, 42

Bio:

Janet lives a complicated life. She grew up in a household with 6 younger siblings, hogging all the attention but loved watching them waddle around in her old out of fashion hand-me-downs. While having to raise herself, Janet also had to raise her siblings while her mom worked 14 hour days. Janet swore to herself when she set off on her own that she wasn’t going to end up like her parents. She desired for a husband in which she can rely on, trust, and have as a partner and companion. Flash forward 20 years, 5 years after her divorce to a husband who was never there, emotionally or financially. Forced to provide for herself, Janet has had a successful career as a CEO for an organic food company. Along with running a company, Janet manages to juggle the lives of 3 children, with no child support. Even as a powerful woman in her field,  Janet still struggles with her self confidence. She covers up her insecurities with designer clothes, golf outings, and gossiping. Janet is known for being the gossip queen around town, but why does she have the need to fill that position when she has so much going for her?

Questions:

1. Tell me about a time, past or present, where you have talked bad about a friend behind their back.
2. Tell me about a time that you may know of, past or present, when your friend was talking bad about you behind you back. Do you regret it?
3. Have any of your friendships crumbled due to backstabbing, gossiping, or rude remarks?
4. Why do you think so many women naturally talk bad about their friends? Is it constant pressures from society or for selfish reasonings?
5. Do you think women shaming women is just an issue for young people, or women as a large demographic? Explain.
6. As a mother of 3, do your children’s friendships remind you of your own back when you were their age? Explain.
7. From observing your children’s friendships compared to your own, what is the difference between boy friendships and girl friendships? How are they similar?
8. Looking back at your high school days, do you think your friendships have changed overtime? Why do you think that is?
9. Due to past hardships and struggles, do you find it hard to trust and rely on your friends? Why?
10. What advice would you give to high school girls struggling with friendships and experiencing women shaming issues?

Velma ---> Grandmother, 74

Bio:
For years Velma was on top. From running a family restaurant with her late husband, to raising 5 beautiful children who went off to do big and better things. Velma isn’t like any old grandma, she considers herself hip. She tries to stay connected with the youth and the pop culture. She is surprisingly tech savvy for her age and always has the latest iPhone. However in her non-virtual world, Velma is lonely. Her husband recently passed and her children all moved away for bigger and better things. She has trouble getting involved with the community and women of her age. Envy fills Velma when she sees other women always helping out with community festivities, forcing her to talk down about those people. While from the outside Velma has it all together, but interior she is lost, unmotivated, and weak as the rude remarks fill her up with satisfaction and self worth.

Questions:

1. What would advice would you give to young girls who are talking bad about their friends for selfish reasonings?
2. Describe your friend group and how you fit in or what is your role in your circle.
3. Tell me about a time, past or present, where you have talked bad about a friend behind their back.
4. Tell me about a time that you may know of, past or present, when your friend was talking bad about you behind you back. Do you regret it?
5. Have you had any friendships broken because of bash talking, gossiping, or friend shaming in general?
6. Do you think women shaming women, or friend shaming, is just a phase when you are younger, or do you still see this occur now?
7. How do you think men compared to women deal with competition vs friend relationships?
8. How are you friendship circles different or similar from friendships you have had throughout your lifetime?
9. Do you find it difficult to get plugged in to new friend groups? Why or why not?
10. Why do you think women shame other women? Competition? Men? Jealousy? Status?
11. What would you say to young girls now dealing with friends talking behind their back?

Blog Week 2

This week we have done a lot of planning and getting ready for our skits. We have been meeting with our scriptwriter, Michael Moore, to go over the visions and details of the skits. We just got our first draft over the weekend from him and are meeting Tuesday to go over revisions as a group. Our group meetings in general have been going very well. We keep each other updated through the week on our tasks and status, leaving time in our meetings to collaborate and brainstorm.  Our project requires a lot of Producer work especially trying to find 9 subjects and 11 actresses. The group as a whole has been and will continue helping Kebba out in reaching out to people. From posting casting calls to reaching out to friends and co works, the group collectively has been working hard in trying to pull pre production together. We also did our 100 List collectively as a group instead of just leaving it to our Producer. We saw this method very beneficial because everyone came up with different things we weren’t thinking about and it helped everyone get on the same page.  As we prepared bios and possible interview questions, we as a group created certain personality types that we want to set out for. When writing the interview questions, we had to keep in mind to stay cohesive and be able to tell a story. We kept an eye out to make sure the questions went together and were personalized to that expert. Each expert was chosen for a reason and to highlight a different aspect of women shaming. We also tried to prevent from asking, “Yes” or “No” questions and giving the subjects room to talk and state their opinion. Overall, so far our pre production for Circles has been going very smoothly and we are excited to keep getting everything ready!