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Movie pitch update

I never really posted anything about the movie pitch, so I decided to write a little about how it went down. I arrived on time to the place and was very nervous, but nothing too out of control. When I got to go in, I pitched my movie and did it within the time frame required, which was 7 minutes, I even had time to explain some extra features I had thought about before the pitch. I didn’t know any of the teachers, and they appeared to be very serious with no questions. Over all I felt like the pitch didn’t go too bad.

At the end, I found out yesterday that Famine’s Way didn’t make it to the greenlit list, and although I am very sad, I still want to see how far I can go with my idea.

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Character exploration

As the quarter goes along, I have met very incredible pleople, and spent a very lot of time with them. I took inspiration from some of those people, mostly personality and the way they express themselves, and found the perfect individuals to use as example for Milo and Luis. I then procided to do a few sketches that could evolve into the characters for Famine’s Way. The characters still look very old compared to what they are supposed to look like in the movie, but as the exploration continues, their looks will change to fit the movie.

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Pixar Prompt - Thief’s Perspective

Once upon a time there was a boy who lived by himself in a raggedy little house by the river.

Everyday he would go to school after waking up, and sometimes he had a fish or bread to eat before school, although many times he would go with an empty stomach.

One day he woke up and couldn’t find anything to eat, so he went to school hungry. During school he saw the empanada kid from his class selling empanadas before the recess, but he didn’t have any money to buy one.

Because of that his stomach couldn’t take it anymore, and he waited for everyone to leave for recess so he could steal an empanada from the empanada kid’s bag, but since there was none he took the money.

Because of that after school hours he had money to go buy something to eat at the store, but while walking there, he saw the empanada kid’s mom scolding the kid, so the guy felt badly. About stealing the money.

Until finally the boy realized how much of a bad thing he had done stealing the money, and followed the empanada kid to his house, and gave him the money back with a growling stomach. The boy walked away, and the empanada kid cough up to the boy and shared an empanada with him.

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Beat images - first batch

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Thursday, April 19, 2018

Today we had some more people presenting their films. I feel like at this point many of us has very stron projects. I am scared about my project. When I presented mine I was expecting more critics about it, but all I got were suggestions on how the people on the film should look.

I don’t help myself either, since I didn’t do the 6 beats illustrations of the events that were supposed to be happening.

I guess the cat I wanted to add wasn’t that welcomed, and with good reason, it would have been a though addition. It is hard to keep the film simple when the back story of my characters have so much to say, but I can’t really use any of that for my movie.

I do feel like my characters are more 3 dimetional in their personalities. I understand Luis more, and also how Milo behaves, so I think I have a pretty good image of how they are going to end up playing at the end.

I try to visualize the characters as muchas I can, but illustration is not my strength. I am trying to see if a friend can help me visualize my character better.

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Some drawings to find out a little about the characters; the name of the project is subject to chance, it is kinda complicated to write.

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Bios

Luis Alfredo Dominguez Moreno:

Luis was born in a small town called Supia in 1996. He moved to the suburbs of a city called Capri with his mother Clara Moreno Herrera, and his Grandmother Mariana Herrera Lopez at the age 5, because guerrillas took over the small farm house they owned.

He never met his father, but that never bothered him, and instead, he always tried to take care of the family he has. Luis loves playing soccer every day, and also running, mostly because of a very often nightmare he has where he can’t run fast enough and something keeps chasing him.

Luis’ best friend is Milo. They become best friends one day when Milo tried to steal money Luis had earned from selling empanadas at school. This was a very big issue for both of them, since Luis found out Milo lived in extreme poverty by himself under a bridge with his cat Lucas, and they were hungry with nothing to eat. Luis loves animals and when he found out Milo had a cat, that was enough to make them friends, and forget about the whole problem they had gone through. Luis also doesn’t really like eating meat, although his grandmother sometimes makes him eat chicken or fish, but Luis still pretends to eat it and instead save the meat to give it to Milos cat. He also brings food to Milo sometimes; his grandmother often cooks extra for that one reason.

Luis’ biggest dream is to one day not be financially poor, and be able to give as much to his mom and grandma as they have given him, that is why he tries his best to sell food at school, even though it is prohibited.

He also loves science, and he invites Milo every weekend to his house, and take over the kitchen, to make all sorts of crazy experiments from a book they stole from the library. Luis and Milo’s dream together is to one day go visit all the planets they can visit and teach how to play soccer to different alien species.

 Juan Camilo Delgado Campos (Milo):

Milo was born in 1997 on a small town called Alejandria. Milo grew up with his grandmother Elisa Campos Lopez. His mother died when she was bringing him to life, and his father left him with his grandma when he was only 1 year old. He has an older brother called Brayan, but he got into a gang, and he never came back home, so Milo doesn’t really know if he is still alive.

Milo lives under a bridge with his cat Lucas. They both are very attached to each other and met the same day Milo decided to live down there. His “fort” which is what he calls his place, is very well constructed, and even though he doesn’t have many belongings he has many accommodations to keep his things organized. He feeds himself with fishes he catches from the river, and sometimes Lucas helps him, But some others times there is not fish, so he has to find other ways to get food. On one of those days of hunger, he saw Lucas in a very bad shape, and ended up having to steal money from a kid in his school, this kid being Luis. Luis caught him and almost got him in trouble, but Luis understood why Milo had taken the money, and instead became very good friends with him, and gave him some empanadas, of course, after getting his money back. Empanadas was what Luis sold at school, and Milo always wanted one, but never had money for them.

Milo does almost everything with Lucas and Luis, they are the most important people in his life, and he knows money would never be a problem with them to his side. His biggest dream is to go to space one day and explore the stars, but he also loves to dance, and wants to be the best dancer, so he can teach aliens how to dance one day, although Luis wants to teach them how to play soccer, because he thinks dancing is not as fun.

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Character Background

Luis Alfredo Dominguez Moreno:

·       Luis was born in a small town called Supia in 1996. He lived there with his grandmother, mother and sister until he was 5 years old. They had to move out of the house they had because the Guerrillas had taken over the house.

·       His mother’s name is Clara Moreno Herrera, and his Grandmother’s name is Mariana Herrera Lopez

·       Sadly Luis did not get to grow up with a brother or a sister, but he became friends with a neighbor in Supia, his name was Santiago, and they would play all the time, ever since babies, but when Luis and his family had to move away, they never saw each other again.

·       Luis has brown eye, just like most of the people around him. His mother would tell him stories about his father having gray eyes, but Luis wouldn’t really believe, since a person with grey eyes was something he had never seen.

·       His hair is brown and curly, but not the kind of curly that defies gravity.

·       Luis’ greatest fear is to not be fast enough. He often has dreams in which he is running at his top speed, but when he looks around, he doesn’t move much, and there is always something chasing him, so when he wakes up he goes to run around the house, or just practice soccer with his friends as much as possible.

·       Luis is very skinny. You could almost see his ribs from under the skin. He is not unhealthy and he always has food at home, but for some reason he doesn’t gain weight.

·       Luis has a high pitched voice, not to the point where it is annoying. He hasn’t gotten to his teenage years yet, so a very childish voice is something to be expected.

·       He looks up a lot to his grandmother, and don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t love her more than he loves his mother, but over the years his grandmother became more of a friend and a voice for reason to him. So the quote his grandmother always says and he follows the most is, “if you are going to do something, do your best, or don’t do anything at all.”

·       Luis loves to listen to the vallenatos, which is the national music of Colombia, but he tries to not listen to too much of it because the music is too romantic for his wellbeing.

·       Luis has never had a partner, but he doesn’t believe in having more than one, he feels like it would be too much work, so staying with one would be his choice.

·       Luis lost his father when he was a 1 year old boy. His father died in a motorcycle accident.

·       Luis loves how the river sounds, especially when he throws big rocks to a deeper part of it.

·       If Luis found a $20 dollar note on the ground, he would react depending of the situation. If there was people around he would ask if someone lost it, but if it is just abandoned in the ground and no one is around, he would just take it home, because like his mother says, “to the ones that wake up early, God helps them.”

·       Luis is a very accepting boy, he doesn’t look at anyone weird for being different, but he hates when other kids smell bad, he got a bad smelling kid kicked out of his class by the teacher once.

·       Luis has never been drunk, he is still a small boy, and doesn’t really find much interest on getting drunk, since in the past he has seen how drunk people have destroyed families.

·       Luis doesn’t stay up all night. He goes to sleep at 9pm so he can go to school at 5:30am the next day. His mother is very strict about bed times, and he doesn’t really mind.

·       Luis has not been arrested, but he was taken to CSI in his school for selling things during school hours, which is prohibited.

·       Black and white reminds him of the cow friend he used to have back in Supia, and he naturally loves green, because he loves being outside playing in the grass and going up trees.

·       Luis loves playing soccer with his friends in rainy days.

·       In case of a zombie apocalypse, Luis would go looking for his best friend Milo. He has 5 machetes, and they have come up with ways of making explosives before in Luis’ kitchen.

·       They over use the word “Parce,” which translates to the English “Mate,” or “brother” in some cases.

·       Luis has the pajamas his mom always gets him every Christmas, they are always red of blue, and they are basically a t-shirt with shorts that match, and that is what he uses to sleep.

·       Luis does not have a tattoo, he is still too young.

·       Luis loves to be in sporty shorts and tennis. Almost always ready for soccer, but in school he has to use jeans and a polo shirt.

·       Luis hates when people say “things are supposed to be the way they are and there is nothing anyone can do about it.” Makes him feel like he is stuck in a situation and can’t do anything about it. That is why he sells things at school, because he doesn’t want to be poor forever.

·       Luis does not have enemies, but he has had bullies. He fights them all, and always ends up getting beat, but for some reason they stop bothering him afterwards.

·       I would be friends with Luis, because I relate a lot to him, coming from humble beginnings and all, but truly Luis might be more of the outgoing and brave boy I never purposely was.

·       Luis gets disgusted by the taste of lentils. To him that is the most disgusting thing he could eat, but still his grandma still makes him eat them so he can grow big and strong.

  Juan Camilo Delgado Campos (Milo):

 ·       Milo was born in 1997, in a town called Alejandria.

·       Milo grew up with his grandmother, Elisa Campos Lopez, but she died when Milo was 8 years old. He never actually met his mother, and his father left when he was 2 years old.

·       Milo has a big brother, Brayan, but he is into a gang, and almost never pays attention to Milo.

·       Milo has brown eyes, just like Luis.

·       Milo has straight spiky hair.

·       Milos greatest fear is to not be able to find the daily amount of food for his cat Lucas.

·       Milo is very skinny, and has tanned skin.

·       Listening to Milo is like listening to a very shy boy. He actually doesn’t talk a lot, but he has a normal tone of voice, maybe a little more mature for his own age. Noting too low or high pitched.

·       “New day, New opportunities.”

·       Milo loves to listen to rock music, mostly pop rock.

·       Milo feels like being in a relationship is unreachable for him, because of his reputation, and because he is extremely poor and doesn’t have anything to offer to a partner. He does like a girl called Sofia, and he believes that if she ever has to be with him, he would never ever cheat of her.

·       Milo lost his whole family. And he considers his brother as a lost member as well even though he is still alive, and all because his brother is never home, and by home, I mean he lives under the bridge of the town.

·       Milo loves the purr his cat Lucas makes. That is the only comforting notice he has around when the nights are lonely, and hunger takes place with no alternative.

·       If Milo found a $20 dollar note, he would feel blessed and buy food immediately, with no question. He would divide the food with Lucas.

·       Luis is humble to the bone, and doesn’t blame anyone for anything, except his brother. Other than that, he is just more focused in surviving and trying to learn than trying to judge others.

·       Milo has been drunk before, and it was because his brother was trying to be funny and evil. He just wanted to see what Milo would do if he was drunk. Milo was only 7 years old.

·       Milo loves to play with Lucas, and sometimes stays up the whole night doing so. Sometimes he stays up all night trying to catch some fish, so he and Lucas can have something to eat in the morning.  

·       Milo has been arrested before, for stealing bread from the store, but that is about as much he has done. In school he is always on trouble with bullies.

·       Orange was his grandmother’s favorite color, and she liked to have orange skirts on and also orange blankets on the bed. Orange warms up Milos heart, that is why he loves to look at the sunset over the bridge with Lucas.

·       Milo doesn’t really like rainy days, because the river gets stronger and always messes up his things, so in rainy days he always has to move everything away from under the bridge, and hope to find a tree big enough to stay the night.

·        Milo thinks he would wonderfully survive because he has 5 machetes hidden on a bag in the woods, inside a tree.

·       Milo overuses the word “parce” a lot with his friend Luis.

·       He normally uses the same shirt he used during the day, and changes his jeans into sweat pants. He likes using shorts more, but sometimes the night is too cold for them.

·       Milo has a heart on his ankle. He made it himself playing around with a needle, without knowing it would stay forever. No piercings.

·       Milo is comfortable into anything he is able to get, he doesn’t have that many clothes and he takes great care of the ones he has.

·       He doesn’t like when people says, “things are supposed to be the way they are and there is nothing anyone can do about it.” Pretty much the same thing Luis hates.

·       Milo is hated by many kids at the school, mostly because everyone thinks he is a bad kid.

·       I would very much be friends with Milo. I never lived in extreme poverty, but I feel like I could relate to him in many ways of thinking and acting. Milo is very independent, and takes decisions according to his situation, and that is pretty much how I live now.

·       Milo is disgusted by people that hurts animals. The only meat he eats is the fish he hunts by himself, and even then, he feels sad about it.

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TWO SIDES, ONE COIN

FADE IN:

INT. SCHOOL CLASSROOM – DAY

LUIS, early teens, dressed on a school uniform, sits on his chair, with his notebook and pencil out.

 He doesn’t pay attention to what the TEACHER says, and plays with the dust particles visible from the light coming through the window.

 The Teacher CALLS Luis back to pay attention in the class.                    

 The School’s bell for recess RINGS, and all the other kids start to leave. A GIRL approaches Luis and offers him money.

 Luis takes out a green box from his backpack, and a few napkins. He opens the box and offers an empanada to the Girl. She takes one, gives the money to Luis and leaves. Luis puts the money and box into his bag, then goes on to recess.

  EXT. SCHOOL PLAYGROUND – DAY

  STEADY SHOT – SERIES OF JUMP CUTS:

 -Luis runs back a forth with many other kids, chasing and kicking a soccer ball.

 -The bell RINGS again. The kids begging to walk back to their classrooms.

 END OF SERIES OF JUMP CUTS.

  INT. SCHOOL CLASSROOM – DAY

 Luis goes back to his sit, but realizes his bag is open and the box is out. Puzzled, he looks in the box, and inside the bag, and finds out the money he had collected is gone.

 Other CLASSMATES notice Luis looking around desperately and gather around him.

 The Teacher walks in and wonders what is going on and one of the kids inform her what had happened. She then, tries to help Luis look for his stolen money, by making everyone jump repeatedly, to see if anyone had and excessive coin JINGLING.

 Luis sees everyone jumping, but he also notices a boy from the other side of the room half jumping, tightly holding his pants pocket. The Boy, around the same age as Luis, looks at him, and immediately looks away startled.

 The Teacher stops the activity then apologizes to Luis for not being of great help, but also warns him that selling things during school hours is prohibited. Luis nodes and goes back to his sit, but this time with fixated eyes on the Boy.

 EXT. SCHOOL’S FRONT EXIT – DAY

 Luis stands on the side walk and patiently waits, constantly checking who comes out of the school doors. The Boy comes out, and Luis waits for him to walk by him.

 The boy walks by Luis, and Luis stops him. Luis questions the Boy about the money, but the Boy denies anything about it. Luis loses his temper, and pushes the Boy.

 The Boy falls on his back, and a fair amount of coins fall out of his pocket.

 Luis looks at him and threatens to tell the teacher, and starts walking toward the school’s front door.

 The Boy CRIES for Luis to stop, gathers the fallen coins, and offers them back to Luis.

 Luis stops and looks at the Boy, reaches for the coins, then the Boy’s stomach loudly RUMBLES. The Boy holds his stomach with pain. Luis takes the coins, and the boy proceeds to sit on the sidewalk border.

 Luis looks at the coins and stands still for a moment, then goes to sit with the boy, takes the green box out, and offers an empanada to the boy.

 The boy smiles at Luis, and takes the empanada.

                                                                                                            FADE OUT. 

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Pixar prompt for Movie Idea #2

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS a boy who sold empanadas during school hours

EVERYDAY he sold empanadas to all of the other kids in his school

ONE DAY someone stole the boy’s money while he was on recess from class

BECAUSE OF THAT the teacher tried to help the boy find out who had stolen the money, but she couldn’t find anyone.

BECAUSE OF THAT the boy saw who stole it ,and the boy confronted the thief. The found out he had been stealing because he was poor and hungry.

UNTIL FINALLY the boy gets his money back, but shares empanadas with the thief.

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Thursday, April 5, 2018

Today we saw more movie ideas from the students that couldn’t present the last time. There was this one idea about racism DeAndre presented, and I really love the passion he has to get rid of racism.

We also saw examples of treatments, and we have to create one with our movie idea. It is pretty much like writing a small script with no dialog, with actions, places and events. Hopefully it won’t befome too difficult.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2018

That tuesday was the day we presented our movie ideas. I presented both, the one I had about the lizards, and the other one, with the two kids living in poverty. I believe everyone liked both ideas, and that made me really happy, even though I took too long trying to explain the second one. I go some criticts about my lizard idea saying that it might not feel okay for it to end without everyone feeling like there was going to be an after for the lizards, but I still feel like the point is to let people wonder about that “now what?” Question with the lizards. People is way too afraid to no have an after. I liked many of the ideas presented, and one more time I liked the ideas from the guy with the key lime pie video, specifically the idea about the guy rebuilding himself with meat. It sounds very experimental and makes me wonder about the possibilities. I have so many more ideas, related to the one about poverty. They are not the same, but they could tackle issues similar to it. I must write it down and see what comes out from it.

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Movie Idea #2

THEME: Friendship

GENRE: Crime

LOGLINE: A kid helps his family by selling empanadas at school, but one day after recess, he reaches into his bag to find that his money had been stolen, and he knows who did it.

CONCEPT:

We start the story in a classroom, Luis sits by the window, and plays with the dust particles visible because of the bright light coming through the window. His teacher, who tries to teach notices and scolds him, so he can go back to paying attention in class.

When the recess time comes, a girl aproaches Luis with some money. Luis takes his little green box and shows her the empanadas, she choses one, and they do the exchange. She goes away, and Luis puts the money and chocolates inside the box, then in his backpack. He leaves to play a little during the recess.

Everyone comes back to the classroom after a while, and Luis goes to his place. Someone tries to buy from him, but when he takes out the green box, all of the money is gone ( most of the money was in coins, a lot of them). Luis freakes out and frantically looks for the money inside his backpack, but it is not there.

The class rapidly finds out and starts making question, when the teacher walks in, she is also concerned, and asks what is happening. A girl in the othe side of the room, tells her Luis had lost his money from selling empanadas ( which is not accepted in this school) and Luis rapidly tries to clarify he only sells after school, which the teacher doesn’t believe anyway, but she doesn’t care.

Since the money was mostly coins, the teacher asks all the kids to jump with their bags to see if the coins noice would come from somewhere. Luis looks around as everyone jumps, and sees, Danilo, half jumping and with his hands holding his pockets. (Danilo has a reputation of being sketchy so Luis asumes the worse) The teacher doesn’t hear anything and quickly goes back to teaching the class. Luis sits annoyed and looking a Danilo.

When the end of the school day comes, Luis waits outside for Danilo, trying to not be noticed by him. When sees him, he aproaches him quick, and asks him for the money back. Danilo tries to avoid him, but Luis pushes him, and he falls. All the coins come out of his pocket. Luis looks at him and tells him he would go tell the teacher, but Danilo screams back, grabs the coins and offers them back crying. Luis looks at him. Danilo’s stomach goes crazy making noices and Luis hears it.

Luis takes the money, and Danilo sits on the sidewalk. Luis takes his green box out, and sits by Danilo, he offers him an empanada, and asks him if he wants to come for dinner, telling him his mom makes the best rice and beans in town.

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Movie Idea #1

THEME: Quest

GENRE: Comedy

LOGLINE: 5 lizards have trained their whole lives to get to the other side of the side walk, but can only do it when a human is walking through.

CONCEPT:

The idea consists in a few very passionate lizards ready to embark on the adventure they have been training for ever since they were baby lizards, which is crossing the sidewalk.

One of them gives a speech, and they also have very special equipment for this task, but of course, they know the risks it takes.

One person comes, and they begin crossing, but out of nowhere, a bunch o kids appear from behind that one person and start running toward the lizards, not to catch them, but just running through the sidewalk.

We see a slowmo of frightened lizards getting crushed and losing their tails, then a birds eye view of the battlefield showing a not so dramatic perspective from the human side.

All of them make it to the other side, but many with missing tails and limbs, then they asks themselves what now, but there is not answer.

—This idea came to me because in Florida, lizards decide to go across the sidewalk right when a human is passing by, and some times people step over them, taking off their tails or just killing them, so I always wondered what went through the lizards heads right before crossing.

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Thursday, March 29, 2018

I couldn’t go to class. My roommate was sick and I went with him to the hospital. I had to drive. I don’t normaly drive, I am afraid to.

Anyway, Joseph, who is also my roommate, brough me up to speed, and he told me how much fun everyone had toing the Pixar prompt! Man I wish I was there for that. He told me I had to come up with some movie ideas for the next class, and I have a few I could work on. I can’t wait to be there next class to see everyones ideas.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

On Tuesday, I had the chance to see my classmates, and our teacher. We saw everyones videos, the ones we were supposed to bring for our pre-quarter assignment as inspiration for our future films, and we told eachother why we had chosen that 3 minute short. I got to see some really interesting animations. I liked all of them to be honest, except the one where the girl becomes part of a video game, I felt like the ending was confusing for that one. I really liked the one Joseph showed us, and also the key lime pie short, they were very entertaining. The video I showed might have been a little too serious, but I love the visuals it had, I really wanted to show the other one with the guy in lthe car, but I guess “ Fix Florida” was close to what I want to go for in my future as well. I am really excited, and I hope to get to know everyone better.