Staying Organized

As much as I would love to just get started with shooting the film, the logistics needed to be worked out first because there is a lot of moving around of furniture. I once heard someone say that 90% of independent filmmaking is moving around heavy furniture, and they are definitely not wrong.



I want to use my time as efficiently as possible and also I need to make sure I keep continuity for certain shots. I needed to get organized, so I started by numbering all of my shots.

Some shots are virtually the same and only require me to change outfits quickly and then do the same shot again so I would label them like "8, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3.



Then, I took all the shots and put them into Excel into a shot list. I've used a template before that I stole off of Celtx or StudioBinder or something. I'm not a big fan of it because there is so much going on and most of the columns are made very clear on the storyboard. This stuff is more for big shoots with a crew, so everyone is on the same page (especially the script supervisor.)

I created my own simplified shot list. It helps me understand how long it will take me and check off when I finish them.

This project is quite the undertaking because of the immense number of setups that I have to do and the fact that I have to film myself. The total time that it should take to shoot is about 1035 min or 17.25 hours. That time includes set up times but it doesn't include how long it should take me to design the "set" which is going to take probably a day or two.

I divided the shoot into four sets with different shots to maximize efficiency and then split the sets up over three days.

Storyboard

I went a little crazy with the storyboard. There's some stop motion, timelapse, fades, etc. It's really disorganized but I understand it.

A funny thing I did, which I mentioned a bunch of posts ago was about messing around with my aspect ratio. I plan on changing it about three or four times, switching between 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1.

For example, the opening shot and closing shot are the same, but it opens in Cinemascope and closes in Academy ratio. It de-romanticizes his Minimalist lifestyle at the end because the small field of view takes the focus away from his environment onto the character himself. This is supposed to be a really pretentious way of hitting on the themes I discussed in previous posts.

I labelled a shot at the end tricky because I'm not sure I will be able to pull it off because there's a bunch of mirrors involved, but if my logic doesn't fail me, it will be a really cool shot.

"The Minimalist" Script

I finished writing the script for my idea and gave it a really on-the-nose title: "The Minimalist." I'm pretty proud of the way it came out and I'm excited to get to work on the storyboard.

I named the main character Ricardo because nobody watching will actually know the character's name, I'm acting in it, and the film is largely a critique on myself and my own stupidity.

I came up with a pretty cool idea while writing (in my head, I'm certain nobody will find it interesting). Ricardo at one point gets rid of instruments in his room. I thought it would be cool if while he is getting rid of them, the music starts to lose the instruments as well. So, when he gets rid of his drums, the drums in the score also abruptly disappear. I'll probably have to become a sound engineer overnight to pull this off...

I am unsure of the ending. I like how it ends visually because it really hits on the theme.

The "theme" or "moral" I am trying to get at is that Minimalists believe that in our consumerist society we are told that buying more stuff will make us happy. Minimalists argue that having less will make you more happy. My argument with this film is it doesn't actually matter because both sides of the aisle still place too much emphasis on materialism. The character in my film got rid of everything he owns, hoping to feel complete and enlightened, but we find out he doesn't. He cares about whoever the person in the photo is and their absence is what makes him feel incomplete.

Showing the main character alone in an empty space but still holding on to the photograph is pretty powerful and I feel like it could be tainted by the voiceover. However, if I do not include the voiceover it may be a little too ambiguous as to what the photograph means to the character.

The Art of the Voiceover

I felt like my script required voiceover narration. I'm drawing additional inspiration from Matt D'Avella's YouTube videos because they usually tend to have voiceover narration. I find it strange that I am trying to take conventions from nonfiction videos and trying to fit them into a fiction piece, but I think it will work really well.

If there's one thing I hate, is when voiceover is essentially like the narrator in a book. I like when people have fun with narration. I recently watched two movies that had pretty creative narration techniques:

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

This movie always comes to mind when talking about breaking the fourth wall, and it works perfectly. It's playful and exposes the inner-workings of Ferris's mind. 

2. Y Tu Mamá También

This is one of the beautiful uses of voiceover narration I have ever seen. It caught me completely off guard the first time I saw the film because I was on my phone and everything fell silent for a split second before the narrator spoke. I thought my headphones had disconnected or that I was getting a phone call. It was pretty trippy and it serves as a way to keep the narrator away from the story being displayed. The narrator would talk about random stuff that did not actually narrate the scene but give more context to the characters, setting, and history. 

I want the voiceover narration to be pretty unique. I don't think I'll come up with something as groundbreaking as what Alfonso Cuarón did but I can try.

I was thinking about making the narrator himself a Minimalist. Saying the least amount of words he can to get his point across. That would be an interesting way to give it more personality, so instead of saying something like, 

"I got rid of everything I didn't need. I searched through hundreds of papers I never read and blah blah blah"

He will say, 

"No value. No point in keeping"

That was kind of a stupid example, but that's the direction I want to go in.

Doing a 180

As mentioned In my last couple of posts. I have to pivot because of the

 

So  I came up with a new idea:

It's about a guy who learns about Minimalism and starts getting rid of virtually all of his stuff in his house. At first, it could start off with him getting rid of his old clothes or cleaning up his closet or something simple. Then it can escalate until he is left sitting in an empty room.

I had a good idea for a visual where we can have an overhead shot of the main character sleeping on his bed and then him saying something along the lines of "I don't need a bed this big" and then jump cut to a smaller bed. Then he says "The floor is not that uncomfortable" then the bed completely disappears and he is left on the floor with no pillow. Then he says "Who needs a pillow when I have my arm." And the pillow poofs out of existence.

This demonstrates how much his Minimalist lifestyle is getting out of hand. It might seem a little crazy to get rid of your bed, but I have done this before. I still have a bed, but for a good month I just slept on the floor and it wasn't that bad. It helped out with some back pain and I always felt well rested. I could definitely see myself just not getting a bed if I ever have my own place because I seriously consider it to be an unnecessary luxury.

After we see him get rid of his stuff, he stumbles across one thing he didn't get rid of and it's a photograph of a girl, which we can assume he has some kind of emotional bond with and she is no longer in his life. We see him try and get rid of the photograph, but he just can't get himself to do it.

This is the criticism I'm trying to make. I equate adopting an extreme Minimalist lifestyle almost like running away from your problems, the same way that Minimalists describe consumerism.

Research on Minimalism

I'm a self-diagnosed Minimalist. I don't buy things I don't need. I'm constantly decluttering my life. I dress the mostly the same everyday. It's a pretty joyless life... sometimes.

I don't blindly adhere to every principle of Minimalism, and I definitely have a lot of criticisms of the movement. I really want to make my short film about this subculture and expressing, in a way, my own experiences with this lifestyle.

I rewatched the documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things on Netflix to prepare for writing the script and it gave a lot of valuable insight into the Minimalist subculture.

This quote really sums up the entire premise of the doc:

"People will inevitably come up to us and they'll be like 'Now I'm not a Minimalist like you. I have this book collection, and I love books, and I've got this nice big library, and I love the way the books smell, I love turning the pages, I love how they feel, I love lending them out to my friends...' and I'm like 'Hey. Keep your books. It sounds like you get a lot of value out of your books.'"

Minimalism is about making sure that you keep things that give you value. My criticism of the Minimalist movement has always been that getting rid of stuff will not make you content the same way that buying a ton of crap won't make you happy either. Minimalism isn't the magic potion for fulfillment that it is often branded as, but rather, a path towards it.

I turned to the director of the documentary, Matt D'Avella, who is an incredibly popular YouTuber, for some visual inspiration.

He is part of the "Self-Help" genre of YouTube videos, which I usually equate to scam artists and phonies, but this guy seems pretty genuine and I really dig his style. 

His most popular video 'A Day in the Life of A Minimalist' is quite literally the core of my inspiration for this.

He opens with a satirical depiction of a morning for a Minimalist. He shows an empty bedroom, no toilet paper, a kitchen drawer with just a fork, knife, and spoon. He then proceeds to say "This isn't what my day actually looks like. I'm not that much of an asshole."

I loved that line, and I thought... what if I make the film about a person who takes it way too far and becomes the person Matt is poking fun at with the segment. I would not have to leave the house, so it is perfect for Corona season.

Website Ideas

I understand that the website is a huge component of our final project, so  I decided to do some research to get some inspiration for our website.

Here are the films I researched and the takeaways:

1. Indefinite: Short Film    Genre: Romance

I saw this short film two years ago when it was screened at the 'film festival' we had at our school. I really enjoyed it and it fits into virtually the same genre and style that I was going for, so  I checked out the website. There wasn't anything too unique about the site, but I am definitely looking to steal the idea of adding a page to explain who the cast members are and their stories. Ideally, I would get the cast members to paint their faces or something and point out what these painted faces mean to them and tell their biographies in that way.

2. The Lobster: Feature Film     Genre: Sci-fi / Romance

This film is about a dystopian world where single people are forced to become animals of their choosing. It's quite whacky and bizarre and the website definitely sells that. When I first opened the page, I was greeted with a quiz that asked me a serious of personal questions to let me know which animal I should choose to turn into if I end up alone. 

This would be amazing to include into my website. A kind of interactive quiz that could tell you what kind of designs the user should paint on their face to symbolize their personalities. Or perhaps, something more crazy, like if the user could upload an image of themselves and we digitally 'paint' their faces. It is unfortunate that this is beyond my level of expertise. I am not a programmer and Wix will definitely not allow me this kind of freedom with my website design

3. The Florida Project: Feature Film       Genre: Coming-of-Age

This film's website stood out to me because it is incredibly simple and let the film speak for itself.

It includes just clips of the film being played behind the title with a small quote underneath it. The bottom corner says watch and the top left has a menu page. I really like this design because it isn't littered with so  much information and help draw the viewer into the film. I absolutely hate the font though. 

I am most likely going to replicate The Florida Project's homepage design and add details about the characters in an "about us" page.

Corona Time

The Coronavirus has officially become a major hurdle in this production. There is a possibility that we be may be placed on quarantine and locked inside our homes for several days or weeks.

Our school has been shut down for the next two weeks, which means my partner and I could not meet up for one last discussion in class. Getting people on board to act and being able to shoot in public areas has now become harder and more unlikely given that the government could shut down public areas at any minute now.

We will probably have to create some sort of back-up plan just in case our planned locations go under. Hopefully, we get an extension on the project because if not we're going to make some big changes and fast.

We might have to do a complete shift and change our idea to be about one character locked inside their house so we can feasibly make a decent short film given the time constraints. This is worst-case-scenario and we are waiting to hear back from our teacher and our local governments.

Location Scouting

When I was coming up with the idea I imagined that the location would be a beach similar to Venice Beach in Los Angeles. I have been there only once and it was also a location in the movie Nightcrawler.

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I loved the liveliness and the colorful buildings. The south Florida equivalent of Venice Beach is the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk.

This setting is perfect because there are tons of people there and it is quite a scenic place to shoot. I have been here many times and I knew it would be ideal, but I still wanted to be completely sure that it was the right place. I visited Hollywood Beach and also a couple of piers in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

This is one of the piers I visited and honestly none of them are like Hollywood Beach. Because of the wood, it looks so stale and there isn't much people or a scenery. Hollywood is really colorful and is the perfect choice. 

I looked up permits for shooting in the city of Hollywood and the process is quite daunting. They require insurance plans and a lot of paperwork. We might run into issues over permission to shoot at the boardwalk, but I'm willing to just risk it. Usually security or the cops have no problem at all with you being there as long as it doesn't look too "professional." If it is just me, layla, and two actors with a tripod and DSLR, it shouldn't be a problem.

Adventures in Screenwriting

We wrote our script and it turned out pretty great.

Their names don't matter, but I named the guy Ben so I wouldn't have to keep saying 'man' or 'guy'

This is just a taste of the whole thing, but my partner and I managed to work out the kinks I mentioned in my last post.

1. We established that she leaves him in the end because she is afraid of commitment and feels undeserving of his affection. We need to create a background for this throughout the story… or at least hint at a reason for her leaving at the end.

SOLVED: 

1. We need to add some kind of meaning to each of the face paintings that she gives him. They cannot be entirely random.

SOLVED: 

1. Create a better understanding of what kind of people these characters are e.g. hipsters, homeless, college students, etc.

SOLVED: 

1. I want to make the film with no dialogue, so their intentions need to be communicated nonverbally and there needs to be a good score to accompany it. 

SOLVED:  I have a friend studying at Berklee who is a bass player and a talented composer who said he is willing to score the film for free. 

I Think We Got It!

“The Face Painter” Genre: Romance

A man (20’s) is walking on the boardwalk at a beach and spots a face painter who is finishing painting a child’s face. He is intrigued by her and we cut to him sitting down and getting his face painted.

She’s very enthusiastic about her craft and they share a couple of laughs while she paints his face.
She shows him with a mirror what he looks like and they exchange smiles. He goes to pay her and their hands touch. They are very clearly attracted to each other.

We cut to another day at the beach and he shows up again to get his face painted. We go into a montage of him coming back a bunch of times and getting his face painted. Their relationship clearly begins to grow stronger and they get more and more comfortable with each other.

One day, he stays with her after he gets his face painted and they hang out at the beach. He proposes to her the idea of him painting her face for a change. She is a little uncomfortable with it, but she lets him do it.

He shows her what he painted on her and it brings her to tears. The guy tells her that he has a present to give her and that he will be back. She stays and ponders what he painted on her face.

He comes back and has a new set of face paint for her, but she isn’t there. He anxiously looks around for her, but she is long gone.


This was just a general plot idea, but we have a couple of kinks to work out before diving into the script:

1. We established that she leaves him in the end because she is afraid of commitment and feels undeserving of his affection. We need to create a background for this throughout the story… or at least hint at a reason for her leaving at the end.
2. We need to add some kind of meaning to each of the face paintings that she gives him. They cannot be entirely random.
3. Create a better understanding of what kind of people these characters are e.g. hipsters, homeless, college students, etc.
4. I want to make the film with no dialogue, so their intentions need to be communicated nonverbally and there needs to be a good score to accompany it. 

This story is perfect because it is two people in their twenties, silent, outside in the daylight, and it's overall just a simple story. We have a lot more freedom to squeeze in symbolism and metaphors because we don't have to try and fit in a crazy plot.

I drew a lot of inspiration from Steven Spielberg's first short film 'Amblin''

I have watched this short film probably a dozen times and it is the epitome of economic storytelling. It's a great story and fits the criteria for a cheap production; it has limited actors, shot in the desert (great weather), no dialogue.

Another film I drew a lot of inspiration on was Damien Chazelle's first feature film Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, most especially a scene where two strangers meet while riding the metro.

It has a really rugged documentary style and it manages to communicate the connection the two characters have through subtle nonverbal movements like their hands slightly touching. The still shown above is a not-so-subtle way of showing attraction,  but it's quite unique, which is what I'm aiming to replicate. 

Back to the Drawing Board...

I'm an extremely pragmatic person and I don't like to jump into anything without having a clear picture for how everything will play out and I was very concerned about our idea for 'The Chef."

I touched on this in my last blog post, but low key lighting is a huge pain the ass because I simply don't have the right equipment to make it look good.

This kind of low key lighting is not hard to accomplish but to achieve a more balanced and "naturalistic" low key lighting would require more lights, gels, and a more adept camera in low-light settings.

Another option was to go the quirky route and use high key lighting to almost contrast the dark themes of the film.

This would also prove to be way too difficult to accomplish because it requires a lot of set design. I have created a production-design-heavy short film before and that approach is also quite costly and time-consuming.

This was a set I built last year inside my house. I spent way more money than I am willing to admit on creating this and I definitely feel like all the work I put into constructing the set was not worth it at all. It did not add enough value to the production and I would have saved way more money avoiding this setting all together.

Now I probably won't go as far as to try and build a set in my home ever again, but it production design is something I know will bleed me dry.

Given our super short time frame for this project, we need to streamline the production process as much as we can. We don't have time to do reshoots because our low key lighting was too dark for my camera, and I don't want to spend hours and hours on set design when nature and cityscapes are already out there for us to exploit.

The lemonade mules idea would be shot outside, but trying to get two child actors will be virtually impossible. My last film had one kid in it and it took me about two months to find someone decent that was willing to act in it. It will be way harder to find three.

We need to go back to the drawing board and think about what stories we like but also if it is practical given the resources we have as students with zero budget.

My criteria for a pragmatic production:

• Outside or inside with lots of windows
• One or two actors ages (15-30)
• Limited dialogue