Mood Boards!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! Today, I'll be creating a moodboard for my future film. I'll be trying to capture the vibe of each of my characters--such as their choices of clothing, aesthetic, makeup style, designated color scheme, and others--in each moodboard I make. This way, you can get a feel for how the protagonists look and potentially act. But, before diving into things, let me give you a refresher of my film's plot:

"A bubbly highschooler makes it her mission to get the school's notoriously gloomy loner to crack a smile. After 4 years of nonstop persistence, though, she accepts her fate: the loner doesn't value her company or her efforts. It was never worth trying in the first place. However, just when she's about to give up, the loner opens the door to her heart."

So, without further delay, let me show you these moodboards!

1.

This is my first moodboard, which I assigned to my "loner" character. As you can see, the colors I used her are very dark, giving the character an edgy, mysterious vibe. The beat-up Converse, alternatively dyed-hair, smudged mascara, (you can't really see the picture because it's behind the clothes, but it's there!) and overall "punk" outfit all further allude to this. The film characters I included in this moodboard are Anna Coleman from Freaky Friday and Tracy Freeland from Thirteen. Both of them have that "teenage dirtbag" vibe I'm looking to replicate with this character of my own. Overall, in observing the dark color palette, parental advisory sign, and the moodboard's generally "emo" appearance, one may infer this character to be rebellious or moody, which is what I'm aiming for!

2.

As you can see, the vibe for my second protagonist is very different. Lots of glitters and pinks are used here, leaning into that "bubbly, fashion-obsessed popular girl" stereotype. I tried to include things unique to my character. She's just a girl who loves iced coffee, lipgloss, shopping, getting her nails done, and having fun! (Hence the magazines and ferris wheel) These are all things that are conventionally labeled "feminine" and may seem cliche. However, I believe "bubbly girl" stereotype is one that's culturally significant, especially in staple 2000s films like Mean Girls and Clueless--which I referenced here. The characters Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan seems to the be star of this blog post!) and Cher Horowitz may be passed on as "ditzy" or "shallow" when truly there is so much more to them. In my film, I plan to use this stereotype for good. I don't want to come across to my audience that being feminine is dumb and superficial. This is something Elle Woods from Legally Blonde portrays. I didn't include her in here as I wanted to incorporate highschool-aged movie characters instead. But, she captures what it means to be hyper-feminine and authentically herself, but highly intellectual and more than just a "dumb blonde." This ties into the message I want to send with my loner character. Women should be able to express themselves however they like, regardless of gender roles, stereotypes, or what other people think.

I had an embarassing amount of fun creating each mood board! Despite these two characters not even having names yet, I'm already beginning to imagine and adore their dynamic based on the images I've chosen to represent them. This goes to show how useful pictures are in storytelling. Even though I featured little to no words in each moodboard, my audience can still get a gist of each character's vibe and personality in simply looking at each photo. And, that concludes this blog post! I'll catch you all in my next post, which will hopefully be sooner than later! Stay tuned.