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. 

Genre Research

The first step to coming up with my idea is to pick a genre. Last time, I tried to create suspense and anticipation in my audience with my film opening, Bungled. This time, being able to create a full short film, I’m more focused on creating a compelling, engaging film with a beginning, middle, and end. And this is extremely basic for a short film and kinda a given, but it’s still important to keep in mind. With this in mind, I’m leaning towards creating a drama, with a focus on a character-driven story. It’s what I have had the most experience in making with the short films I make every Saturday for STN.

A drama is defined as a film genre that tells a serious story about characters facing a conflict. So super broad. But it keeps me contained to a more serious plot and that’s what having a genre is important for, to create a structure to keep myself and my story organized.

A resource I often use when researching different aspects of the film is Studiobinder, which is what I used when researching the genre more in-depth to get a better understanding of what I would be making. A quote from the studiobinder article is:

“Through compelling narratives and vivid portrayals, drama not only entertains but also stimulates deep contemplation and introspection.”

I think this is an important idea to keep in mind moving forward as it encapsulates what a drama means. It’s not just a compelling story, but also a way to share my thoughts and ideas about the world and different concepts.


The Studiobinder article explains that there are different types of dramas, with some of the most prominent ones being tragedies, comedies, and melodramas. Although there are many more different sub-genres I can go down, tragedy and comedy are the ones that call to me the most. The article explains that a tragedy showcases a protagonist’s downfall, evoking strong emotions of pity and fear. I looooovee this idea and playing with how a character will go to extreme depths over some event/inciting incident. And comedy is pretty self-explanatory. Although I could implement elements of comedy, I want to keep a darker tone for my piece this time around. The comedy would have to be dark or dry.


This overview gave me a clearer insight into the genre of drama, and also gave me a few ideas for my short film, which is what I’m gonna talk about in my next post.

Schedule for the next few months

 To keep myself as organized as possible in this rough and complicated process, I have to make a schedule for the next 2 months and have goals to accomplish each year.

Week 1:

• Choose my project (already did this)
• Make a schedule (what I'm doing right now)
• I want to choose my genre for the short film or a basic idea of what I want to do with it

Week 2:

• Want to develop my idea more and focus on short films in the same genre or that capture what I'm going for (might split these two)
• Look at more short films and dissect their production more in-depth
• Depending on my idea, I want to learn how to do something that I will need for my project. As of right now, I want to look into how to create my own music for my short film and develop this skill throughout these weeks until I feel comfortable making my own to use. Music is one of the hardest parts of making a piece and being able to make exactly want I want, hitting specific beats, conveying the exact mood I want would be ideal in making my piece what I want it to be. But again, this may change depending on my idea and what I need in order to fulfill my vision.

Week 3:

• Look at other social media pages for short films. I have one in mind that I saw at All American High School Film Fest (Forever Young). This project also recently released the project on DVD and also made a CD from the soundtrack that the creators MADE. So stuff like this would be good to look at
• Begin planning out the short film EXTENSIVELY: first want to tackle basic storyboard with the big main shots scattered throughout the 5 minutes, getting a rough idea of the progression throughout the school. I would make a basic outline along with this storyboard to get a clearer idea of how I want the story to go and how I want it to look.
• Want to begin writing the script cause this is lowkey the hardest part for me. Making dialogue sound good is not very fun for me. But I'll try and get it started early so I can do some tweaks. 

Week 4:

• Finish up writing the script. Once I have this ready I can start making a super in-depth storyboard with every, single, shot. This is super important to me because first and foremost, I am a cinematographer. It's what I want to do and what I love the most. And with this piece I really want to push myself to making every shot eye-candy. It will NOT be easy, but I'll try my best.
• From this storyboard, I can make a shotlist which is crazy helpful on set, I used it for my film opening, Bungled, and holy crap what a godsend. I can also start looking at shooting schedules and seeing when my actors are free. 
• In these week, I'll be meeting with my classmates in groups and get some feedback on my idea and also get feedback on theirs. I'll be talking about this and what changes or realizations it led in terms of my project

Week 5:

• I will hopefully be starting production around this time, or at the very least start collecting props or other things I may need for the film 

Week 6: 

• God I hope I'm filming by now
• Hopefully starting to edit as well
• Also gotta start look at the critical reflection

Week 7:

• Should be editing in full force
• Chip away at critical reflection

Week 8:

• Wrap up editing

Week 9:

• Write my final thoughts on the entire process
• Post my critical reflection

This is great...but I'm not gonna be looking at my blog every time I want to see what I have to do...so I'm making a google calendar!! 

This is way more accessible to me and will help me keep on track way more than just making this big schedule and never looking back at it again. So next I'm gonna start looking at what genre I want to do and the basic ideas I might have...

So many options, so little time

Starting the portfolio project for this year and I'm excited. I have way more freedom this time around which I appreciate a lot. Instead of just a 2-minute opening, I can do a music video, doc, movie trailer, or full short film. 

That

is

bliss.

I pretty much already know that I'm either gonna do the documentary or short film cause those are just the ones that interest me the most. The movie trailer is like...ehhhhh cause if I'm doing all that, I may as well just make the short film ya know. And the music video sounds fun, but I would have to find an artist I know, and while I do know some musicians, they're mostly just wannabe Miami electronic artists soo....idk about that one...

For the documentary, it would have to be something that truly interests me or something that I am passionate about: like homeless people having such an insanely negative stigma around them when a lot of them are just everyday people, or furries that get so much hate both online and in person for just doing what they love and it being the form through which they express themselves. I think these groups getting such a bad rep is crazy and just sad and I would love to be able to give them a platform to highlight how they are no different from everyone else and let viewers see them in a light that is often not seen in the media. This is similar to what I did with my doc I made earlier in the year, A War At Home, as me and my partner, Gabi, gave Yousef, a Palestinian student, a platform to discuss his perspective of the war between Israel and Hamas. However, both of these are pretty hard to accomplish as I do not know a homeless person OR a furry...and finding both of these is kinda difficult. I have tried...

Heres a shot from the All American film

This is a reason that I lean towards the short film option heavily. I also just love this stuff man. I love being able to make short films and other projects that I am so passionate about. With the short film, I have full creative control over every piece which is so damn liberating. I first experienced it with my film opening last year, and having so much control over your vision and being able to execute it (to the best of your abilities..😅) is so so cool. Since then I have made a bunch of short films, all in groups. I went to New York in October to compete in the New York All-American Film Festival where I made a 5-minute short film with a crew. I'll put the link here. Over the past few months I've also been making short films every Saturday to practice for another competition I have at the end of February and that has given me so much practice and time to hone my skill. But this would be the first time I'd be creating something on my lonesome again and that is so exciting. I love being able to make something from scratch on my own. I love being able to make something that evokes emotion in someone else. To be able to do that with something that you have created is, pardon my french, fucking incredible. It's why I do this. So I think I'm gonna do the short film package. 

So that means I'm gonna make a ~5minute short film, along with a social media page to market the film, as well as a post-card advertisement, so this should be an exciting 2 months.