All Components

 Here is the short film and the postcard

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FGlLEJ_9pj_rn-9RRYhxHI_4q5M5SAkV?usp=sharing

Here is the "Instagram"

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGjUD7wufM/unwj5_QNLdiodYtI4a2TbQ/edit?utm_content=DAGjUD7wufM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Critical Reflection

Over the course of 9 weeks, I have had to develop a 10-minute short film alongside marketing material for the film, including the social media and a postcard to be passed out at film festivals. Throughout the process, I've had to overcome obstacles in all aspects of production, whether its pre-production and writing, filming and directing, editing and post-production, or marketing for the film. Through all of this, I've been able to create a piece that I have become really proud of. 

Early on in the process, I researched different aspects of the production process that would help me later on, such as researching the comedy genre, other comedy short films, and other short films' social media accounts. I implemented many of the conventions I observed from the article in the comedy genre research post. In particular, I used timing to my advantage, with the cult scene having a lot of awkward silences between Bryan and the cult member, either to build up tension or play off a joke. Another convention that I implemented was playing with expectations, with the gas station being locked, leading to the homeless man encounter, and the random and sudden cult member kidnapping when Bryan goes into the woods. I kept these different aspects of what makes a comedy in mind when writing to assure that my comedy would actually be funny. In terms of production, I focused more on studying other comedy short films, and I adapted the production techniques they used to create comedic bits. I specifically used two techniques from the short films Crazy Camp Cult Movie, with the inspired use of wide angle lenses for certain moments, and When in Poughkeepsie, with whip pans to elevate a conversation. One of the last processes I directly applied my previous research to was my social media page, with certain posts being inspired by other short films' social media posts I was researching. For instance, my storyboard vs actual shot posts were inspired by The Lake in The Sky social media page, which did the same. Overall, my research affected all parts of my production process, including the marketing and distribution for the film. 

The shot from Crazy Cult Camping Movie vs my shot of Bryan eating.

These learned techniques and inspiration aid me in sharing my product with my intended audience. My target audience mainly consists of male teens or young adults with a shared interest in comedies and absurdist humor. The primary way that I engaged with this audience throughout the production was in my writing and characters. When writing the script for this film, I wrote the piece with male teens in mind, specifically my friends Bryan, Andre, and Aiden. Being familiar with how they speak in real life, I wrote the characters as if the actors were in that situation to best play to their strengths. While doing this, initially for the sole reason of making writing an easier process for me and making the lines easier for each actor, I ended up writing the piece in the voices and perspectives of male teens, which inherently appeals to an audience in the same age range. Using the same language and speech pattern as the target audience helps them connect and empathize with the characters and, therefore, the overall film. The characters being all male teens also helps, as the target audience can empathize with the characters, further connecting them with the production. My promotional material also engages with this target audience, especially with the first initial posts with the characters' heads in toilet bowls, appealing to the humor that my target audience would have. Later posts, like the physical DVD of the film or CD of Hot Biscuit being available for purchase on the website, engage with the audience differently, prompting them to engage with the film through physical media. 

A still from the scene of
the boys in the parking lot.

While primarily targeting an audience of teenage males, my piece mainly represents the social group of young teenage boys, as they make up my main cast of characters. Although never specified in the film, Bryan, Aiden, and Andre are all teenagers between 16 and 17 years old. I did my best to represent these characters through their dialogue and actions. As I mentioned prior, when writing, I had these friends in mind and wrote the scenes as if they were actually the ones living through the experiences, aiding my writing and easing the acting process for my friends. However, doing this also inadvertently created an accurate representation of teenage males and how they speak, as I attempted to make the dialogue as authentic to the real actors as possible. I also represent this group through the characters' actions. This is apparent in the opening scene, where the characters are standing in an empty parking lot, eating fast food while arguing about absurd hypotheticals. As a teenage boy, I can say that this is an accurate representation of what is done in our free time. I incorporate a running gag of the boys singing to a ridiculous pop song, as the genre typically caters to a younger audience and is representative of music that teens listen to. One can also argue that I represent homeless people in The Dump. In one scene, I have a homeless character screaming and harassing the teenage boys. This radical image of homeless people is not an accurate depiction of their social group and contributes to harmful stereotypes and preconceptions about them. However, I was using the character more for comedic purposes rather than trying to accurately represent this social group.

What sets this course apart from AS level is the ability to create a complete identity and brand for your piece outside of just the production itself. This was an interesting and, at times, challenging task to balance while also trying to make a short film. I had to constantly think about the tone and brand of the film and how I could convey this in my promotional material, mainly through social media. Since my short film is a comedy driven by a ridiculous yet tense plot, I attempted to reflect this in my branding. For instance, I embrace the ridiculous nature of the plot through my initial posts, with the important contributors to the project being introduced through toilet bowls and behind-the-scenes photos being displayed on bathroom mirrors. This not only fits the more comedic aspects of my film but also fits in with the plot centering around the main character having to poop. On the other hand, I take a more intense and dramatic tone with other aspects of my brand. For example, the font I use in my film and the majority of my promotional material is a big and bold font that’s aggressive and in your face.

Some of the other promotional material also features a specific wide shot on Bryan’s face eating a burger, which is also in your face and encapsulates the tone of the film pretty well, being both intense and comedic at the same time. I use this still most prominently in the postcard. The trailer I made for the Instagram also has a much more intense and dramatic feel to it to emulate the more intense moments like the homeless or cult scene, as well as the stressful nature of the plot overall. While the film is first and foremost a comedy, it also has dramatic aspects to it, and I try to represent both of these aspects in all facets of my 3 components. However, this creates a dilemma in my branding, which alternates from taking a sillier approach to an intense and dramatic one. If I were able to go back and do the project again, I’d likely try to create a more comprehensive and clear theme throughout the branding. While I do have the fun and silly bathroom Instagram posts, these are only a couple of posts, while other content like the storyboard vs. actual shot comparison or announcement of the YouTube release deviate from this aesthetic, making the social media and, therefore, the overall branding feel disjointed.

Considering all these different aspects of the piece, I have completed what I set out to do 9 weeks ago, to successfully complete a short film and most importantly, be satisfied and content with the final product. 

Final thoughts

This has easily been one of the favorite things I’ve worked on in a long time. I haven’t had too many chances to fully create my own full-fledged ideas just because of school and time and whatnot, but I’m so glad I have this class that enables me to set apart time for this because…man…this has been great. Not without its challenges, I had one of the worst shoots I’ve ever had with this project, but it’s all worth it. Writing this was fun and challenging, filming was the most fun I’ve had filming anything. Editing was so damn draining and challenging, but so so rewarding. With the other components, it challenged me to go beyond just the production and create a real brand and identity for this film outside often the film itself, which is new to me, but a welcome addition. But yea. This has been fantastic. Oh, let’s not forget blogging too. I honestly really enjoy this part of the project. It helps me stay motivated and on top of my work, and it’s honestly just enjoyable to me. I’ll be sad to end the course if I’m being honest, I wish there was another level I could take. But I’m glad I was able to go through it, and come out the other side as a better creator.

Preparing for critical reflection

 Before going into the critical reflection head first, I wanted to go over the necessary components and my approach for each part as it’s been a while since I’ve seen these questions and I have different things that I don’t want to forget to bring up.

So first, “How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?” The main focus of this question is research and genre. So here I would be talking about all of my earlier posts about research into genre, short film comedies, other films’ instagrams, etc. I’ll talk about how I adapted the different techniques that I saw in other comedy films such as the wide angles lens from CRAZY CULT CAMPING MOVIE or the whips pans in WHEN IN POUGHKEEPSIE. Also a lot of inspiration from social medias, such as the DVD and the storyboard/actual shot comparison. Need to talk about how I mostly conformed to the genre.

2nd: “How do your products engage with the audience?” I think this questions is simple enough for my piece. I need to describe the target audience, mainly teens and young adults, mostly male as all the characters are male and they’ll relate to the characters and their interactions with each other the most, and their shared interest being comdies…especially those that are a little bit more absurd lol. Then I’ll explain the ways that I intentionally engaged with this audience through my techniques, which would be the characters and dialogue, being written with teenage boys in mind, immediately connecting the audience to the boys. Aspects of the social media also draw in a younger audience that has this sense of humor, particularly with the main actors being introduced inside of toilet bowls. 

3rd: “How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?” This is probably the most interesting question for me as it is really what sets it apart form AS level, being able to create an identity for the piece outside of the piece itself, mainly though social media. I would describe the goofier and sillier brand that I aimed to create, mainly through not only the ridiculousness of the plot, but also through the social media posts like the previously mentioned toliet bowl portraits. I can talk about the how I also develop a more intense and in your face branding for other aspects of the production to invoke the intenseness that the short film reaches at points. For improving the branding of the piece, I would talk about making the Instagram feeling a little less disjointed, as I had just said, there are a few different things going on and I would have liked to streamline it a little bit, but it just wasn’t my main concern throughout the production process.

4th: “How do your products represent social groups or issues?” In my piece, the most represented social group would be young teenage boys, and I would talk about how I represented them in my piece, with dialogue, props, how they act throughout etc. I could also bring in the homeless character if I’d like, and talk about how I exaggerated this notion of homeless people being crazy and unhinged in order to make a gag out of it. While this isn’t very representational of homeless people as a whole, I used it for my personal purpose of making a funny bit. Overall, I’d evaluate whether my representation of teenage boys is successful or not and why that is.

With this outline, I can confidently go into the critical reflection making sure I hit all of the points that I want to.

Postcard

I haven't been very worried about this aspect of the project as it is just putting a poster on a 4x6 card and putting film festival information as well as information about the film on it. Definitely not as complicated as some of the other print materials like the documentary's magazine. 

I went into the postcard already having two potential poster materials, creating them mainly for YouTube thumbnails since that is my main source of distribution as that is the most accessible platform for me and has a huge audience for short films like these, especially as my target audience is younger teens which is in line with a large percentage of YouTube users. Anyway, I just put my two thumbnails on a 4x6 postcard on Photoshop, and began adding the necessary information I needed. 

The only dilemma I had was that since my posters were 1920x1080, they didn't exactly fit the 4x6 outline I had to use, so one of the images looked low-resolution and cheap. So I opted for a different image since that poster wasn't exactly my favorite anyway. I needed something aggressive and in your face to call the attention of people, but also something representative of my film and the tone that it would have. And I thought...what better frame than my favorite shot in the whole piece. Bryan eating the burger! 

This has become a reoccurring theme, but I love that.

For the back side of the card, I wanted most of my information because I wanted the front to be clean and direct. On the back, I used a frame of the boys scared of the homeless man and lowered the opacity slightly to put the focus on the info I was going to write. This included my name as the creator/director, the film festival I would be handing this out at (and I picked the LA comedy film festival as my film is a comedy and provides me exposure in one of the best cities for production), the theatre, date and time the film would be showing, and where to find more information about the film, including my social media page as well as my YouTube channel where it would be posted so that I could reach as many people as possible. 

With this out of the way, I can set my focus on reflecting on the product and my process as a whole through my critical reflection and my final thoughts on the project overall.

Creating identity

 I need to create the identity for the piece, and I mainly do this through the social media. And this has been kinda difficult for me. How do I make an identity for this film? Because its not as straightforward as some other films that my peers are doing, like a superhero film, or a comedy about breaking up with a boyfriend that takes on a much more lighthearted and silly tone. For my comedy, it has a much grittier feel to it, but is still inherently ridiculous because of the plot, having the whole story focus on pooping. So how do I portray that in my social media?

At first I thought about taking an approach I've seen in one of my favorite artist's promotional media, Jpegmafia, who emulates different technologies' UI to promote his concerts or merch. 

Here, you can see the Apple UI that he is emulating here, specifically the Mac OS UI.

I thought about taking this approach since my target audience is mainly teenagers and they would be attracted to a familiar to these UIs and whatnot. But then I was like...wait...this lowkey has nothing to do with my piece. So then I switched it up and started thinking of silly ways to relate my social media back to my film as a whole. But I also found this difficult as there are a lot of moments in my film and I didn't really know what to choose to market it. But I decided to go for the broad bathroom aestethic since its called The Dump, keeps the content of the film ambiguous, but is still funny and fits in line with the humor and kinda tone of the rest of the film. So what better way to introduce the actors than having their faces inside toilets. 

Isn't he beautiful?

I tried to follow this theme in as much as I could, my other prominent "edit" being putting behind the scenes photos in the refelctions of bathroom mirrors. But for things like trailers and teasers, I couldn't really fit this same theme, unless I wanted the entire trailer or teaser to be in the oval format of a toilet hole lol. This kinda goes for the rest of the posts as well, like the DVD or CD announcement, which just...wouldn't really fit in this whole bathroom aesthetic. I'm just doing as much as I can with this and the rest of the post will be more normal.

I also had to create little short teasers and trailer for the social media, which didn't take me too long. The teaser is just the full raw clip of Bryan eating the burger, which is probably my favorite shot in the entire piece, and I think it conveys the funny and absurd humor and tone that is present throughout the film and works as a good teaser for the film, not giving anything away while still capturing the essence of the film. The trailer is way more traditional, with title cards and tenser music since I made the trailer way more suspenseful than the sillier teaser cause overall the film has more of a tense tone with ridiculous moments building upon that tension. So I opted for a more suspenseful trailer, that shows enough to get the audience intrigued and interested, but not enough to give the story away. I think I did pretty well with these two little edits, and the film distribution project I did before this project definitely helped improve my skills going into this has I had to make a both a teaser and trailer for an already written story. 

The only thing I have left to do is the silly fake music video for Hot Biscuit, and I will be done with social media and can move onto my postcard and critical reflection.

Finishing editing (ssooound design)

Picking up from my last post about editing, I just had to finish editing the last few scenes and focus on sound. I cut up the scenes relatively fast, but then that's when I got to the real deal...the sound design. One of the most important parts about bringing the whole piece together. I had a line edit ready without too much sound design and honestly, I started getting a little scared. Seeing it all together, I just wasn't sure that it was hitting like I wanted it to. I felt like the acting could have been a little better, and I could have done a better job directing and getting better takes, or that some of the jokes weren't hitting as hard as I wanted them to and that some moments dragged on because of this. I got a little discouraged at this point, but I kept editing cause I had to finish it regardless of my personal feelings towards it. 

But then I started doing the sound design. And slowly but surely, everything felt like it was coming together. The jokes were landing more with little subtle sound effects that emphasize the moment more, like riser or small "booms". Music or ambience sound effects in the background of scenes made moments feel less awkward and help each scene flow better. J-cuts and L-cuts also helped the dialogue flow better and helped with the pacing a bit too. 

The most tedious scenes to edit were definitely the gas station and probably the beginning. The gas station just has a lot going on, with me having to add different foley like the locked door, the car starting and coming to a stop, the boys walking through grass, the homeless man banging on the car window, etc. Theres also other non-diegetic sounds like risers to transition from scene to scene or the tense music when the homeless man is confronting the characters. With the beginning, there's quite a bit that I have to add that is subtle, but works to elevate the scene, like the layers of stomach grumbling, the constant sound of the running car, the tense and foreboding ambience in the background once the poop kicks in, and so forth. 

Once I started put all of the sound together, it really felt like the piece I was trying to make. My fears were subdubbed by the joy I felt that it actually came together, and pretty well at that. There is naturally some things that I would like to go back a do over, but overall, I'm really really happy and proud of the piece that I have created. The best part has been showing other people to get fresh eyes and opinions on the piece. 

I think a big reason why I was so discouraged and uncontent with the piece before the sound has a lot to od with that I've just seen it so many times throughout the editing process and I already know all the jokes, all the beats, every moment that is going to come, so it isn't necessarily as funny as it was when I first wrote and filmed it. I was also just exhausted by the process up until that point and just needed to step away a bit to come back to it with a fresh state of mind. 

Anyway, other people coming into the piece blind has been one of the best parts about the entire process, as they not only provide great a valid critiques or suggestions on stuff that I would have never thought of, but can also help me determine whether certain jokes are hitting with different people, how the pacing is going into it blind, and so on, which is something that I can't determine as well anymore since I've seen it so much at this point. And peoples' reactions are the best. Especially at the cult scene, they are so disgusted, it's fantastic. 

Here she is. My magnum opus. 

But yea, overall, I am quite pleased with the final piece and will now primarily be focusing on wrapping up my social media and reflect over the process as a whole through my critical reflection. 

Fake it til you make it

 So for the social media, I’ve made a list of all the posts I will “post”, and I am just creating the posts on canva, making the posts seem like they were uploaded to a social media site.  The posts will go as followed:

1. teaser
2. meet director
3. meet bryan
4. meet andre
5. meet aiden
6. meet Eduardo
7. poster
8. Cult filming - day 1 bts 
9. Storyboard vs shot
10. poop ensues filming - day 2 BTS
11. storyboard vs shot
12. homeless filming - day 3 bts
13. storyboard vs shot
14. small teaser
15. trailer
16. out on youtube april 9th
17. Limited DVD available 
18. CD of HOT BISCUIT
19. Website available with DVD and CD listed for purchase
20. film festival it will be at (same as postcard)
21. bloopers
22. Out Now on Youtube

Most of these are pretty easy and not very involved…except for the few that are very involved, like Eduardo’s post or the trailer. For Eduardo’s post, I had a recording of a zoom meeting in mind, just us talking about the events that led up to me creating this script, but that takes time to record and edit, and time is something I am running out of, so I’ll just have to see if I can do that. If not, worst case I just have a basic post explaining that the story is based on him in the description or something lame like that. Other stuff like the bloopers and trailers is also time consuming, but this isn’t something I can just not do so I really have to find the time to make these. Mainly the teaser and trailer. These don’t have to be super involved, but enough to get the job done if it comes down to that. 

Another idea that I want to do is have a short little snippet of a music video for Hot Biscuit to promote the song as a piece with the short film since it’s the main reoccurring joke throughout, but again this would take up a lot of time that I’m not sure I have. 

Anyway, here’s the template for all of the social media posts. It’s basic, but it works and gets the job done. I’ll let you know if I am able to get my creative ideas done or just have to fall back on my lame plan Bs. To be honest, I’ll probably create the more creative ideas anyway and actually post them to a social media page just to promote the short outside of the confines of this project because it’s something I’m genuinely proud of and want to show off.

Edit time

I've been editing what I've filmed so far, little by little, as I film each scene. So I have the cult scene roughly edited already, just without extensive sound mixing. The same goes for the first scene with the boys in the parking lot and the first scene in the car. I have those scenes cut up, just no sound yet. 

After wrapping up filming, I started editing the gas station scene, mainly just because its my favorite. From here on out, I would be focusing a lot of creating a soundscape for each scene, whether its dietetic sound like car doors closing or Bryan's stomach grumbling, or other sound effects like risers. 

The process hasn't been too bad, I'm a pretty experienced editor, so its not difficult for me to edit a piece, but with this its a lot about the timing of each cut and making sure the pacing is good since I don't want the piece to feel like its just dragging on and on. However, even though I know how to edit and am pretty good at it, the process has been draining. I've never worked on a project this big. The biggest piece I've had to edit prior to this was my documentary, and that was a little over 5 minutes. For this, its looking to be 8 to 9 minutes. That may not sound like a lot, but to edit all of that, and go through each scene and each shot extensively making sure that the pacing is good, the sound makes sense, and every shot is colored correctly, it just becomes a bit of a grueling process. Don't get me wrong though, I do love editing, but its just a lot. 

What I've been doing so far to keep myself organized is having different sequences on Premiere for each scene, and I divided it up into Poop Ensues, Homeless, Gas Breakdown, Cult, and Final scene. This has helped me divide up the workload and make the editing process more approachable. 

Here are the sequences for what I've edited so far, and I'm not even done with either of these yet, but its mostly just sound now. I still have to edit the Gas Breakdown and Final scene, which shouldn't be too bad. Im excited that its coming together. While I edit, I have to work on my social media and my promotional postcard for the film that I would pass out at film festivals, so I will be talking about these 3 things moving forward, as well as starting my critical reflection soon. 

“GIT OUT”

Now that I am done filming, I can safely say…that’s a wrap. This time shooting went by pretty smoothly. The only sorta hiccup is that it just took way longer than I thought it would, but everyone pushed through so that we can wrap up filming since Saturday night was the only time everyone could.

We started off with the gas station scene with the homeless man. Before that, I called the gas station that I had in mind just to make sure that everything was good to go. I really should have called sooner but I didn’t think it was a big deal since I was just filming outside and not inside the actual gas station, so I called the day of, and when I explained the situation and said I was a high schooler doing a project blah blah blah, they just hung up on me. I sorta freaked out but I know that my friend Santi, who is currently doing AS level, filmed at another gas station near me, so I called them hoping they’d let me film too. He also just filmed outside, so I assumed it would be fine, and thankfully they said it would be fine. 

Anyway, we got to the new location and began filming chronologically. First with the boys finding out the gas station is closed and then heading on to the back. Filming the first part was a little annoying since they’re were usually people coming in or out or there were loud ass cars in the back or trucks going in reverse, etc etc. But once we got that done, we moved to the back to one of my favorite scenes.

I honestly am really grateful that the other gas station hung up on me, because this one was actually perfect. On the side of the building where the homeless man would be was a grass path and a single, ominous light shining down on the perfect spot for the homeless man to be sleeping. My friends and I immediately reworked the scene to fit this and made the homeless man be sleeping and suddenly awake as the boys passed by him. 

This was so much fun to film. Like I thought, my brother was perfect for the role, I think he killed it. And the boys had pure fear in their eyes throughout, it was so amazing. My favorite part is probably the shots of the boys running back into the car, cause the way Andre starts freaking out is so so perfect and so funny to me, and then my brother Derek banging on the windows is just a great touch throughout the scene. 

When we filmed the other scene, it was just in the car for the most part, with Bryan tweaking out and concluding that he’d go poop in the woods, and then finally him coming back from the cult member. These weren’t hard scenes to film, they just took time to film cause I had to light each person for their scenes, and then have some shots outside the car, come back, light the scene again and so on and so forth. We were also all just tired because we had just filmed the homeless scene beforehand and it was getting very late. But we did eventually finish.

Filming this piece has been so much fun, not just because the script is ridiculous and I’ve been getting to film with my friends, but because I’ve been successfully, with some bumps here and there, able to make my script and idea come to life. It’s been a great time and I’m excited to put everything together and edit. I’ve been roughly editing the scenes I’ve filmed, the cult and first scene, but I haven’t touched sound design or really refined the cuts. So I will be getting to that.

"...poop..."

 Shooting went pretty great this time. No real issues, I just did a little less than I liked but its fine cause I can just make up for it tonight, which is hopefully the last day of filming. 

I picked up from the very beginning, and I'm pretty much filming chronologically from here on out. So it was the eating scene in the parking lot. Unfortunately, the location I wanted wasn't available BUUUTTT on the way to get the edible props (just a Mcdonalds burger and drink) my actors pointed out a good location that would work great, so we went with that. 

Heres us at McDonalds getting our edible props

So once getting to the backup parking lot, we set up and started shooting. I had them practice in the car on the way over, pretty much doing a little table read, so that once we go to the real deal, it would be quick and easy. I forgot my printed out shortlist and script (again) but its fine since I had it on my phone. Just feels so much more conclusive when I actually check it off on paper. But everyone's lines went pretty smoothly. I haven't directed people in a while, so it was fun and also challenging to explain how I wanted the lines delivered and how the actors should react throughout a scene. I've gotten so used to working with actors that just know exactly how the character would speak and react, and I've taken it for granted to be honest. Even with the cult member, Wesley, he picked up on the lines immediately had was perfect with the role. With my friends playing the other two roles, Andre and Aiden, I definitely have to direct them much more in the way that they say lines and how much emotion they needed for any given scene. So that was definitely a challenge for me, but I think they did well. I'm gonna put it all together soon, just to make sure everything is ok and we don't need to reshoot anything. 

Once we were done with the first scene, we moved into the car, which is one of the things I was most worried about, mainly in terms of lighting. But I honestly think it looks good. As good as it can for a car scene. It’s just a balance of seeing what looks too dark and what looks like I have a light directly behind the camera. Also another thing I'm sorta scared about is the background cause we were driving around an empty parking lot for safety purposes, so I'm scared you'll be able to tell in the shots, but I think since the attention will mainly be on the characters, it won't be a huge deal. It's also night and just dark as hell out so I don't know. Thats another thing I have to look at once I edit. Here's some more behind the scenes below.

But overall, the shoot went well. It was definitely challenging with just a 4 man crew consisting of 3 actors and me but we managed. It was a blast to film just because of how absurd the script it. There are multiple times when we were just dying laughing trying to record a scene and it just reminds me why I do what I do. 

On the way back, Bryan, the main actor, started playing around with making the fake "hot biscuit" song. Just to preface, he has been making beat on bandlab for years now and is ridiculously talented, he'll make beats from nothing, its crazy. Anyway, we were trying to come up with the flow of the song on the way to the shoot since they had to sing it in the scene, and on the way back Bryan was actually making it. Heres a clip of the below lol. 

We were joking about having the full version of the song in the credits, and I honestly really liked that idea since it ends with them singing the song anyway, so I'll probably do that. 

So, I'm gonna make a rough draft of the edit real quick just to make sure everything is ok and looks and sounds good, and then tonight I'm filming the homeless scene, running out of gas, and coming back from cult so hopefully everything turns out ok. It should be the last day of shooting, so I am excited. 

Group Meeting #2

Another group meeting done. This time, I came with my finished script and a whole scene filmed. This was a different group of people and everyone liked my idea. Quite a bit. Some were concerned for my well-being, but that just how you KNOW you wrote a good script. I loved seeing their faces reading it. Having people laugh at something you made, especially just the script is great. It makes me excited to see everyone reaction to the actual short film. 

They didn't have anything to say in terms of the script or the scene I had shot so far, the only comments I got were on the social media which I have been very behind on. I think instead of using Instagram, I'll just make a "fake" page through something like Canva because I just didn't have much to post for the past 3 weeks, but now that I do have things to post, I don't want to have like 10 post in 2 days, that would just look weird for the marketing of the film, so I'd rather opt for faking it on Canva. 

For the social media, they recommended making a post centering around the song the characters sing, Hot Biscuit. I loved this idea because I just think that would be a really funny thing to add on the social media page and help grow some anticipation and curiosity regarding the film. I was thinking of having a clip from a fake music video for the song. I think that could be really fun and goofy, and have a little world building for this piece that I have created. 

Another idea that was thrown out there was having a Man-On-The-Streets style interview with random people asking them what their strangest poop expeirence was, and I also really liked this as it added some audience engagment and again builds up anticipation and intrigue for the film. 

Here is a picture of us in our groups

I will slowly work on these side projects, but mainly focus on it once I get my filming done, which is hopefully this weekend. 

Cult Filming

Day One

First day of filming...did not go great. It was dark, humid, the lights were attracting bugs. It was just generally unpleasant. Which I guess was expected but it didn't help that so much was going wrong. At first, there were a group of middle schoolers that were coming up and harassing us which was just more annoying than anything. Secondly, my tripod had a loose leg so it kept slipping in shots and I had to hold it with one hand. 

One of the major obstacles I had was deciding how to light the scene. I went in wanting to have the scene be more blue to resemble the light from a blue moon. It wouldn't be super realistic, more of a stylistic choice to represent the night time light, but I liked the idea of it, so I went with it.

This was the very first
shot I recorded, very blue

But it was balance of how blue do I want this and how much "natural" light should I have. My whole goal was to make the light look as motivated as possible, especially in a setting like this, which just gets difficult. As the filming went on, I wasn't sure how I was feeling about the blue and liked it less and less, and I started to light the scene less and less blue with each shot. 

The other major issue was the audio. For some reason, my mics weren't working. The setup I was using was connecting wireless lavs to a shotgun mic to have the audio go right to the camera, but for the life of me, I just couldn't figure out why they wouldn't work. I would be able to hear audio when I didn't connect the lavs to the mic or the camera, but as soon as I plugged them in...nothing. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to troubleshoot the audio before calling my friend Gabi who had another set of mics and lived nearby. Here's Gabi on the right. Thanks Gabi! But then these weren't working either...so I'm freaking out. I was trying to find a common variable to find the issue, and I finally got them to work through the perfect combination of aux cables. It turned out that most of the cables were just not working I guess, I still don't fully know why that is since most of them are new....but whatever. I finally got it to work...kinda cause I couldn't turn down the gain but at least I had audio. 

As I'm recording this scene though, the tube lights I have died. And just so you know the light setup I had going on, here's a picture. 

I had the big fat cob light I mentioned earlier on a stand and connected to the power generator I mentioned I was gonna buy (what a lifesaver, best investment I've made in a while), and then on top of that, I had two tube lights, which on their own are crazy bright and powerful, as a more natural yellow light source to mix with the blue on the characters' faces and to also light the trees in the background a bit so that the characters aren't just on black and develop the foreground and make sure it was clear they were in a forest. Anyway, the tube lights which I've been heavily relying on, die since they are battery-powered. Ok, no big deal because I have a backup light kit in my car, so I run back and get it. The only issue with that is that it has to be plugged into the power generator as well. But it's been taking the cob light like a champ, so I decided it would be fine, I was on the last shots I needed anyway. 

So I recorded all of Bryan's shots that needed audio, mainly just the dialogue once he is tied up and begging for his life and finally pooping and all that, and as I record his final shot of him walking away and looking back, the power generator dies. I panic and realize that there's really nothing I can do at that point. The cob light and the RGB panel lights I connected to the generator absolutely killed it and I lost all of my sources of light.

I was completely devasted. Overall, it was just a rough shoot and I was already on a time crunch cause my friends had to get home, and the lights dying just put the cherry on top of the poop milkshake. But I came out planning when everyone could reshoot and moved on. But if I tell you that car ride back home wasn't rough, I'd be lying. I didn't even open the footage that night or the next day. 

Day Two

After taking a day to just sit on it, I opened up my laptop and started editing what I filmed on Friday night...and I was liking it. As I said, during filming I started feeling differently about the blue light and doubting my decision to include it, but seeing it all together, I quite liked it. Although the shoot itself was very unpleasant, everything came out pretty well. There was only one thing I had to refilm and then shoot the cult member's dialogue, which would have been quick. After seeing the footage, I felt way more motivated and confident about what I was making. I went into the reshoot confident as I learned from my previous mistakes and also had much much less to shoot. 

And I was right in feeling so, because the second shoot went much much better, thank god. Wesley, the actor for the cult member, crushed his lines and everything went really smoothly, we were in and out of there within an hour. Here are some more pictures from the shoot. 

So overall, there were some hiccups, but it went alright. I'm editing what I have right now and am gonna prepare for what I need for my next shoot.

Last minute details

Items and Clothes

Before going into the shoot, I still need a few things. First, to be able to light each scene and not rely on batteries and then freak out when they all die and I’m out of luck, I want to get one of those CRAZY portable power banks. 

This would avoid my light from dying in the middle of the shoot. Hopefully I can just rely on these, but I would also bring batteries just in case.

I also need to figure out what the homeless man and the cult member are gonna wear. My teacher made a recommendation for the cult member when I brought the idea to her which I really liked. She suggested having the member wear a Hawaiian shirt with weird mismatched pants or shorts. I really liked the idea of the cult member wearing some goofy, stupid outfit and just elevates the ridiculous and insanity of the situation. For the homeless man, its really just putting like a bunch of coats and clothes on my brother and scuffing him up a bit. I'm thinking something like this, just basic homeless appearance. 

Locations

Last night I went out location scouting in order to find exactly where I'm gonna film and make sure the ridiculous idea would actually be possible. My main concern was the part with the cult member in a dark forest and the gas station with the homeless man. Mainly dark forest, because I have the most PERFECT location for the entire interaction in a trail at a nearby park, but the park closes at 7:30. Just last week, that wouldn't have been a big problem but luckily for me its DAYLIGHTS SAVINGS TIME. This is the second time I've talked about daylights savings on this damn blog. I cannot believe that both daylight savings have screwed me over. Before, it was screwing up my interview shot for my doc. And now, its limiting my time to film at night since it gets darker later now. Usually, I love this. But now...its screwing me over so hard. But its ok. We overcome. And we persevere. 

So I ended up finding a decent location in my neighborhood park. At first I was not expecting it to work, but surprisingly, it worked really well. I took some photos but they don't do justice at all. It’s not as good as the park trail that I wanted, but I think I can definitely manipulate what the camera and viewer sees to make it look like a forest. I can keep most of the shots tighter since it is a tense scene, not only cause of Bryan finally pooping but the whole situation with the cult member. The only issue I might have is the wider shot of the cult member, but if I make it a POV and keep the shot a little darker, I'll think I’ll be ok. On that note, I'm a little worried about the lighting, but I'm optimistic that I can make it work. 

For the first scene in the parking lot, I found a FANTASTIC lot in a mall by me, that has a big, multi-floor parking lot. In the lot, I would go up to the top, open floor with all the lights I had in mind and the open, vast space and emptiness of the lot.

This is like...perfect. But, I also took this on a random Wednesday night when the mall would be empty as hell with no one up on the top floor. For this scene, I'd have to film next weekend, and coincidentally for me, that's the first week of spring break, which means the mall will probably be full. Hopefully this isn't the case as the parking lot is relatively isolated from most of the popular spots in the mall, and its also the top floor, so not many people would be up here. But there's another issue with this, as the top floor was blocked off for cars. I only was able to get up there by parking on the 4th floor and taking the stairs. This would be fine if I didn't lowkey a car in the shot. Cause I guess I could have only the boys up there, but I really want that wide shot of the empty parking lot setting the scene, and if the car isn't in this shot, it brings up questions about why they're here and where the random car they're in in the next scene came from. I guess to solve the issue, I would just need to cut out that wide shot and go straight to the extreme close up of the protagonist eating, which is also a great way to start, but man I reallllllly want that wide. But I'm assuming that it was closed off since it was a random Wednesday, and I'm banking on the fact that it'll be open on a busier day...but still be empty up there. Wishful thinking...maybe but lets just call it optimism. 

In case I can't get up there, I do have a back up parking lot near the mall, so worst case I can just transfer the scene to over there, its just not ideal. 

For the gas station, I'm still looking, but since most close super late, or not at all, and the gas station being closed is a crucial part of the story, I need to get a little creative. I think what I'm gonna have to do to not be out filming super late is just pretend that the gas station is closed and working around it. I would still go late to avoid having too many people at the station. My main concern with this is that the lights of the station would be on inside, making it look like we are pretending an open gas station is closed, which is what we're doing, but the main actor, Bryan, suggested that I just write it in. I can have the protagonist say something like "Its not open. But the lights are still on!" or something along those lines. As long as I acknowledge it and don't pretend like the lights aren't on, then I think this approach might work. 

Alright. This is it. I'm filming my first scene tomorrow. Next time I come on here I'll be talking about how it went, and hopefully I shall come with good news.

Script and actors

Now that I'm done with the script, I'm gonna make it available here. I may make a few changes here and there, but this is pretty much it.

Heres Bryan

For the characters, I already have the perfect people in mind. A few months ago I helped my friend Bryan out with a film that he had to make for his film class. In it, it was me and our friends acting in a car, and as I was writing this, I was always writing with them in mind because they're just so perfect for this role. Bryan was in my film opening last year and I have worked with him in so so so many projects ever since. Its actually a little crazy how much we've worked together, but he's such a great actor and I NEED him to play the main character, I know he'll kill it.

For the other two, its our friends Aiden and Andre, who aren't as experienced in acting, but in Gaslighting short film I mentioned earlier, they did a great job. I wrote the script to fit their strengths and I really just wrote the script to make it sound like them because with a piece like this where its just teen boys, their dialogue should be pretty authentic. 

Like I mentioned before, I'm having my brother play the homeless character. For the cult member, I'm having my friend Wesley play the part and he is so perfect. He can play such a good freak. 

Tell me this isn't a good cult member.

Anyway, my next post will probably just be going over last details before my first shoot. Exciting stuff.

I think I got it

I've written two new conflicts, the boys going to a closed gas station and getting attacked by a homeless man and then running out of gas and the protagonist having to poop in the wilderness and runs into a poop cult. I think the homeless man bit can be really funny and is separated from the rest of the poop idea, giving the viewers a breath of fresh air. With the cult, this would be the climax of the piece and where the protagonist finally poops, and while it's ridiculous, I think it could work pretty well since its a comedy and the situation is just getting more more crazy/intense. I'm just don't think a simple or anticlimactic ending like him just finding a bathroom would fit the ridiculousness of the rest of the piece. I feel like it would soil the rest of the short. 

For the homeless man, I wrote it so that once the boys find out that the gas station is closed, they reluctantly go behind the store to poop in the back, but then a homeless man jumps out at them and starts hysterically screaming at them and attacks them, causing them to run away. For the homeless man, I know that it can't realistically be a teenager playing the role, just because....like no. Sooo time to use my younger sibling privileges to my advantage and use my older brother. Luckily for me, he's been taking acting classes. I also think he can play a meannn homeless man. I mean just look at him.

I think he’s homeless passing. Just scruff him up a bit, get the costume right.

For the cult, filming gets way more complicated. I need to film outside. In a forest. At night. 

(i know i’ve used this before, but i just love this gif so much)

BUT, I sorta alleviate this by only having the protagonist go out and one or two other cult people. For lighting, I'll imitate moonlight with a cob light, which is just a big fat light that is super powerful. Like a straight beam of light. The cult members also have a campfire going, so that will provide a large amount of the light. I’m finally doing this, filming. I’m a little nervous but mostly excited.