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. 

Drawing it out

Ok, so I'm still trying to figure out an ending for my script, but in the meantime, so that I don't get too behind, I'll storyboard what I have so far, and maybe that'll give me some more inspiration and ideas as to what I can do for the ending. 

I'm not a great drawer, but as long as I understand what I'm looking at, its fine. But before I begin drawing, I want to make my shot list first so I have the full, in-depth step-by-step filming checklist that I can draw my shots from. I think this will be way easier than trying to draw it from the script. At least for me. It divides the workload of trying to figure out what shots I want in a scene and exactly what I want them to look like. 

For the shot list, I'm going to make a spreadsheet to organize everything in a way that will be most useful to me when filming. I categorized each shot into shot #, type of shot, subject, movement, and short description. Here's a screenshot of how the spreadsheet is laid out. Whenever I get to a new scene, I change the color to differentiate the scenes easily.

From this shot list, I can begin making my storyboard. Since I have the shot list, I don't have to draw out every single shot, but just the major ones to aid me later when filming so I can recall what I had in mind for each shot. 

This is what I've got so far, it's not every single shot, but just the main ones I feel the need to draw out. Most of the other ones are basic closeups or medium shots used in conversation, so I don't need to draw that out, as long as I use my shot list. Now the only thing I'm really missing is the ending. 

Group meeting

Today in class, we were put in group to discuss and receive feedback on each others projects so far. The activity is meant to get input from peers and help us move forward in our process, and know is the perfect time for me because I've been stuck trying to find an ending for my script. My group members were Victoria, Mariano, Daniela, and Manuela. I hyperlinked all of their blogs so you can also check out what they are working on. 

For my idea, the general consensus was that it was a funny idea and had a lot of potential, just need to figure out where it was going. There were a few ideas thrown out from my group members, including having him poop, then he eats again and then has to poop again, starting a cycle. Another recommendation I got was trying to figure out a location I wanted it to end on, and then writing around that, but I much rather prefer and believe in writing and then finding a location, not the other way around if possible. 

A point that was brought up that really stuck with me was whether I wanted the ending to be more grounded in reality or some absolute crazy nonsense that will lead to the protagonist pooping. An example that I brought up during the meeting of a crazy ending was that they ran into a cult when they run out of gas and they are about to sacrifice them, and the only thing that will save them is if one of them defecated, because the cult is a poop cult. Something insane thing like that. As ridiculous as something like this sounds, I don't think that this whole conflict should be settled as easily or as basically as him finding a bathroom. I think that it would feel anticlimactic. But I'm not sure if some absurd idea like this would be too much and start to detach itself from the original premise. I'm also not sure if this is necessarily a bad thing. But overall, I think it definitely did help me narrow down my vision towards ending my script. 

Another idea that they gave me for the social media was a post centered on Eduardo, who the story is based on, and I thought that was really funny and really liked this idea. They brought up the idea of making him a complete character and I thought that was fun.

Overall, this helped me get a sense of where to go next with my script, and you'll hopefully be seeing the finished product soon. 

Writing is fun!

For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been trying to chip away at writing the script as it is such a daunting task for me. But when I get in my grove, I really enjoy it. I've been using Writer Solo, a free script writing program which is really good, its super easy to format and I've been loving it so far. 

Here is what the text formatting options look like, allowing me to easily switch to whatever I need.

I have been slowly writing, but I've sorta hit a bump in the road. The issue I've hit right now is creating a different conflict. My teacher brought up a good point when I brought the idea to her, as she said that the whole poop joke will get old quick and dragging it out for 5ish minutes would be a lot. I would need something else to happen, some other event, another conflict, but it still has to fit into the story and now I have to find a way for the story to conclude with this. 

Another issue I'm having is figuring out what will lead the characters to just go home. Because in the real story that its based on, they went into a bunch of stores and were denied at all of them, but its difficult to get a shop or location to film at so I have to find a way to write around this. I think I just need to find a new conflict that will solve both the repetitiveness of the poop and also let me get around filming in a location and going back home.

Possible conflict ideas I have right now are maybe the boys running out of gas in a secluded location. I'm not sure how the story would end here, but if I go this route, the protagonist will probably have to poop in the wilderness, which I can play around with in terms of comedy. I also have this idea of the protagonist having hallucinations or visions due to how bad he has to poop. But idk, I think I'll just have to fully envision each idea and see where it would lead and end and see what I like and don't like.

Also something that I've been keeping in mind while writing is having the characters talk like real people and leaving some words out, which is something I learned from writing my script last year. People don't talk like how we write, especially teens, so writing for them gets a little tricky because it goes against how I've been taught to write. But just keeping this idea in mind helps a lot with making the dialogue more realistic. 

I'll keep coming up with stuff and writing and continue to fill you in. 

Starting my social media

 So this will be a short little post, and any posts from here on out until maybe the end of my project regarding my social media page will probably be shorter since i’ll just be talking about the posts for that week and how they contribute to my brand and project marketing. But idk, i might write a bunch for one week and minimal stuff for the other. I’ll go with the flow. 

But anyways, I created my social media page for The Dump, and now I have to figure out what I should post for the week. I think I’m just gonna post a video of a slow push on a toilet and then a coming soon text after. After this, i’m just gonna do some meet the directo and actors. Once I get to this point, I’ll be in the production process and will be able to post behind the scenes and stuff like this. 

Next, I’ll be talking about my process writing the script and my ups and down with that.

Other social media pages

 The first social media page I want to look at is the page for Forever Young, a film I've referenced and talked about in my previous blog posts. I think their marketing, and especially distribution, is really solid and works to elevate the piece not only before but also months after the film has already been released.

While not necessarily focused on the short film Forever Young, as the account is for the production company, RainCity Productions, their only film as of right now is Forever Young so it works out. The first few posts were just a teaser and a trailer of the film, which I will likely end up doing, but much later on when I've already filmed and am in the editing process. After they announced that the film was on YouTube, they began posting other stuff, such as the film being premiered and winning awards at the All American High School Film Festival and good reviews on Letterboxd. The posts that stood out to me the most tho were the announcement of the score being up on streaming services as well as CD to accompany it ANDDD a DVD with an exclusive new sound mix and color grade. I think this is soooo goddamn dope. Since they made their own score, they have it up on Spotify and other platforms (and its honestly good, like I listen to it on my free time lol), and on a CD, adding exclusivity and interactivity with the audience, I loooove it. The same goes for the DVD, it only had 50 copies, creating exclusivity for the item and its tailored for fans of the short, having special new features. I would looove to do something like this, even if it isn't a real CD or DVD, just a post about it could be really cool. Apart from that, the account also has some BTS photos. I could use a fake film fest post and fake reviews before releasing a big trailer, but probably after a teaser in order to generate more hype and generate some more posts on the page. 

Another social media page I want to look at that is more focused on a single short film is the page for The Lake in the Sky. The page is completely focused on promoting the film, even down to the profile picture. The first few posts teased the film and explained the backstory behind how the creator came up with the idea. It contained some other teases and looks into production, with actors and a teaser for the trailer. They also posted some BTS and well as storyboards vs the actual shots, which I thought was really really cool and a good look into both the pre-production and production aspects of the film. Then the page goes into more basic stuff like trailers and film festivals that they have entered. But another interesting thing the page does is have a "meet the composer" post, which introduces the composer of the film. I could maybe do this with myself, like a meet the director/writer/editor/whatever near the beginning of my social media lifespan.

This gives me a good starting point to jump off from as I have other ideas for starting my social media project before I actually start filming and have limited things to post. I think that once I start production, filling up my social media page will get much easier as I have more content to post.

hahahaha

Alright, one more time. I’m gonna be looking at the comedy genre this time tho. Again, I’m using StudioBinder as a reference like I usually do. The article defined comedy as any work intended to incite laughter and amusement. 

The article lays out what makes something funny, with the most prominent techniques that I could use being timing, expectations and subverting them, misunderstandings, and flawed plans. 

With timing, a lot of it depends on the delivery, which I emphasized the importance of when watching Crazy Cult Camping Movie. The article highlights that how actors deliver their lines can affect how the audience responds, making a joke funnier or making it fall short.

I can play with expectations as well, either meeting them or subverting them. I can meet audience expectations for whatever is happening in a scene, and it could still be funny and engaging because the viewer may know something the characters don't. But also catching the viewers off guard can work really well, and there’s a a bunch of this in Caught Up, but I already talked about this in depth so I'm gonna take about instances of this in Crazy Cult Camping Movie. 

In the clip, the characters are discussing what they think about the situation, so when they ask Gus what he thinks, the loud angelic music and Gus in a trance crying is super unexpected but so funny to me, it takes you so off guard but I think it works so well. 

Misunderstandings are another idea I can definitely play around. Since my characters are teenagers and one is in immense distress, I can have them misunderstand what he is saying and trying desperately to figure out what he wants and coming up with different absurd ideas while the protagonist is trying so hard to concentrate on not pooping his pants, he can't even speak (god I love this idea). Similar to the expectations, the viewer may know what is actually happening, but the characters being in the dark and trying to figure it out is what makes the situation funny.

The last technique that the article outlines that I can use in my short film is a flawed plan. StudioBinder describes it as "when a character comes up with the dumbest plan in the world and everybody knows it but the character." This could fit in really well with what the characters decide to do when the protagonist needs to poop. They could try and come up with some absurd idea to have him poop in public, or something of the sort. I can play around with this when writing.

This is definitely a super helpful starting point when writing, I can kinda write around these techniques when writing my jokes and progressing the story along, which I do need going into the script. From here I'm gonna look into social media pages for short films before starting my pre-production. 

I am the night

So I know I've been saying I might do music research in order to score my own film buttttt, I think I can do that later on when I am actually editing since that is when I would begin to score the piece, and I also think that I could use my research and time on something else that I need to know more urgently...which is knowing how to light an outdoor nighttime scene.

So I took to YouTube to see what I could find in terms of tips for shooting at night and how to light. A pretty solid one I found was this video by Matt Aitia, where he does 2 scenes outdoors at night and just documents the process and production behind the camera, only uses a panel and tube light. I say only but that panel cost $800...

But its fine, I have other resources that give children highly expensive equipment for free. Yayy! 

Anyway, the setup he had was pretty basic, the director and gaffer just played with the existing light in the shot and attempted to make the light as motivated as possible. This is the most realistic setup for me cause outside in the night in downtown Fort Lauderdale....I can't have that much of a set up with me. No outlets or plugs, so it all has to be battery-powered. Unless I want to buy one of those insane portable chargers that has every plug to ever exist. Which I may look into. For the main shot outside in the beginning (at least what I have right now in my head) would be in a parking lot under a street post, with the characters outside their car. I'll outline these scenes more in an upcoming post about a storyboard. 

So I also have to play with locations and location scouting, going out there with a camera and lights, and seeing what it looks like and what works best before I start filming. This also goes with the car scenes that I will have because a lot of that light will (hopefully) come from outside, so I just need to go myself and play around with how I can light a car interior at night. A video I watched for lighting a car was one uploaded by Brady Bessette, and while it wasnt too much help since he was very reliant on the equipment and lighting rig that he has, the example shots did give me some reference as to what I will probably have to work with. 

Here you can see that Brady used the motivated lighting of street lights and the dash in order to light the scene, which is definitely what I will have to play with. I can use things like the dash, streetlights, the radio/screen in the middle, overhead light etc. to try and light the scene as best I can. 

This will probably be the hardest part about filming. I think I have the resources to pull it off, its just planning and making sure it looks natural and real. But I think I'll go into this more on a later planning post when I start location scouting. 

More Shorts

Caught Up

With this short film, they get their humor from subverting expectations. The premise is that this girl is upset about a guy ghosting her and talking to other girls and her friend tells her to get revenge. At first, the film sets itself up as a rom-com, with the story appearing to be the protagonist trying to get her love interest back, but then quickly pivots when her best friend says "we should kill him". This quickly changes the tone of the entire film and turns into pure comedy from here on out, subverting what the audience might have expected from the beginning and keeping them on their toes.

This continues throughout the humor of the film, when the protagonist's mom ask if Nikki's, the best friend, mom is out of the hospital and doing ok. From this the audience assumes that Nikki's mom might be in the hospital for an illness or accident or something health related, but the film quickly disproves this and catches the audience off guard when Nikki says that "her bbl was a huge success". This is so funny and works so well because its the last thing you expect to hear and is so absurd. 

This subversion only ramps up when the two girls ask Tony, the guy that ghosted Claire, to send pics, and they, as well as the audience, is expecting him to send nude pictures of himself as the phrase "send pics" usually insinuates this. But a complete curveball is thrown when he sends a picture of his feet. This is so goddamn hilarious. Especially in my generation since Gen Z tends to believe that feet are gross and should be kept covered. The reveal is elevated with a sting, a zoom into the picture, and the sound of Claire screaming. Again, not only is things like subverting expectations important, but these moments can be elevated with camera work and editing. 

Apart from the subversion of expectations, Caught Up also has a really solid physical gag that made me die when I saw it. When Claire and Nikki are selling Tony fake Adderall, the police show up to stop the sale, and when Nikki runs away the police tackle her so unnecessarily aggressive and fast, you can't help but laugh. 

The main takeaway is just to keep audiences on their toes and don't let them guess what's gonna happen next, keep them engaged and entertained throughout. This goes for both the jokes and the writing. 

The Film AND When in Poughkeepsie

I want to talk about two different techniques from both of these shorts that I can combine to use in mine. 

The Film centers around two best friends that have a falling out over debating whether a donut or a bagel is better. When the two get into their argument, they begin arguing and talking over each other. This overlapping of dialogue creates more tension in the interaction and heightens the intensity of the fight. I can use this when my characters are arguing about where to go and what the best course of action is.

When in Poughkeepsie focuses on a dad and his son on a college tour in the town of Poughkeepsie. In a scene where the two are eating breakfast at a restaurant, the dad makes his son, who is an 18 year old about to graduate high school, order the kid's buffet, which is 12 and under. They get into a debate about whether he is gonna order it or not, and in this interaction the camera whip pans back and forth to increase the pace of the scene while simultaneously elevating the tension of the disagreement. I can pair this technique with the overlapping dialogue from The Film to make the situation as ridiculously tense as can be.  

Overall, I can use the techniques that I observed and dissected from all 4 shorts that I watched in my own short film and try to make it the best it can be. I honestly think that this research into more shorts was super useful and helpful in informing my own decisions moving forward. Next, I'm probably gonna do research on how to create music orrrr redo my genre research...but for comedy this time. 

Watching shorts

Like I mentioned in my last post, I watched a few shorts from the All American Film Fest YouTube channel and examined what they do well and what I can learn from it for my project. 

Forever Young

The first film I wanna talk about is Forever Young, a coming-of-age drama centering on a senior in high school learning to love life again in the suburban Mid-West. Although it isn't a comedy, I still feel a need to talk about its cinematography and music. This movie is pure eye-candy. It looks amazing. It has this film overlay applied to it which immediately creates a warmer tone throughout. It also has a hazy look, most prominently with the lights during the night scenes where lights look blurred and out of focus. This would apply to my idea as it will be filmed primarily in nighttime downtown Fort Lauderdale and I can emulate a lot of the stuff that they do here.

In terms of music, one of the creators of Forever Young, Maxamillion Cope, scored the film himself, mainly consisting of guitars with soft rising synths backing the strings. This works extremely well for the coming-of-age approach that they took for the film. Knowing that the creators scored this film mainly just gave me some inspiration and drive to go through with making my own. Here's a link to their Spotify.  

Here's the short film on YouTube

Crazy Cult Camping Movie

This short is a comedy centering on 4 teens on a camping trip and then they get kidnapped by a crazy cult. Its literally in the title. The film achieves its comedy through not only dialogue, but editing and shots. The characters are 4 male teenagers, so a lot of their lines are stupid jokes like "50 babies or 50 babies with ray guns?!". They really just embrace the stupidity of the situation and the characters. Although dialogue and writing is important, delivery is EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. The delivery these kids have is fantastic, just the way that they say a normal line sounds funny, so casting is important. 

Editing is also another big, big factor. Cutting from jokes to reaction shots, letting a line simmer a little, MUSIC and STINGS. For my film, I'm not sure how true this will hold, but for Crazy Cult, stings are pretty important for whenever the cult character are around. The use of super wide lens on closeups is also something I would love to do. I think it creates uncomfortable intensity, but also just elevates the humor when used in the right moments, like in this short. Here is the link to the YouTube video.

Next post I'm gonna be looking at 2 more comedy short films and dissecting their choices and see what I can learn and apply to mine

Change of plans

Ok. So. I think…I’m gonna change my genre. Slightly. In my research of films, I've just been constantly trying to come up with another idea, trying to come up with something, anything, because although I like the radio idea, I think I can do more. I know I can do more. And in my research for a short film, I got reminded of an old idea I had.

Sorry radio idea

The idea is based on a true story. My close friend Eduardo (he’s actually in my CCR from last year lol) told me how he was in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and the immense urge to poop came over him. But he could not find not one single bathroom. He went to a walgreens, a gas station, a McDonald’s, all closed or out of order or some other excuse. At one point he genuinely thought he was gonna poop his pants. At the time he was with his friends in the car and he told them to just go back home and step on it, because at the rate they were going, he had a better chance of making the bathroom if they just went back home….a 25 minute drive. And in that car ride, Eduardo was losing it, rocking back and forth in a fetal position in the backseat of the car while his friend was going as fast as he could. I imagine a pure fever dream happening. I have no idea how, and neither does he, but he made it to our friend Jared’s house and he slid under the opening garage and booked it for the toilet. The toilet had seen better days. 

As soon as I heard this story, I immediately started thinking about how funny this would be as a short film…which says a lot about me. But anyway, I kinda started writing it but not fully. This piece was pretty difficult to write for me cause it just authentic teen talk, which should be my strong suit…but idk, maybe now that I’d have more of a focus on it, I might be able to push through and write it. 

The piece would be more of a comedy…with some dramatic moments lol. So I will look for short films more in that vain, and also redo my genre research and focus on comedy this time. 

I’m highkey really excited to make this. I think this can be really really solid, I just need to put in a lot of work writing. 

I do it for....the plot

From my genre research, I have a couple of basic ideas, but one that I just keep coming back to. I find it pretty difficult to write and come up with stuff, it's definitely my weakness when it comes to production, which is why its important that I push myself to try and do it more often. And a problem I have is that I just get stuck on an idea or two and then fail to branch out or think of new things. But I think I just need to write down this idea and flesh it out a bit in order to see if I want to stick with it or try and move on. 

So from the drama research, I talked about tragedies being a subgenre, and this fit in perfectly with an idea I've had for a while now and I think this may be a good time to put it to paper and try and make it.

Kinda the eerie look I'd be going for

The basic premise of my idea is a really lonely kid who shuts himself away from the world in his room and is looking for an escape, a way to distract himself. He has this radio that he speaks into to pretend that he's an astronaut, or a pilot, or something, and then someone answers back. A girl. They begin talking and then it becomes a daily thing. It becomes something the protagonist looks forward to everyday. It doesn't matter how much his day sucks because at least he'll talk to the girl when he gets home. He begins to conjure up this imaginary relationship, he thinks that their connection is deeper than it is. She becomes all he cares about, its not like he had much going for him before. The protagonist does something to creep her out, maybe asks to meet in person or just says something weird or maybe calls her by something that makes her uncomfortable. Then she stops coming to the radio. A day. Two. A week. A month. The protagonist starts to lose it, shes all he had, what more is there to his life. At this point, I think that he would break the radio and then cry in his bed or end with him alone in the shot, just something to cement this loneliness,  at which the credit would roll. 

I like this idea and I think I can make it stronger. I can definitely flesh this out more and a lot of it is reliant on dialogue so I would have to make it most engaging there. But I don't want to limit myself to this, so I'm gonna sit on it for a little bit and see if I can come up with something else.

In the meantime, I'm gonna watch a few student short films to get some inspo. I'm mainly gonna use All American High School Film Fest youtube channel as my resource since there is just soooo much good stuff there, but I will come back.