CCR Draft

 Deciding to make a short film was one of the easiest aspects of this project. As someone who is aspiring to go into the field of journalism and video production, being able to complete a short film with the proper guidance excited me. I wanted to make this film as fulfilling to myself as I could. The first part of my planning process started with targeting an audience.

In my original drafts, the short film was much different to what the final outcome is. I wanted to target a demographic that I am a part of and know gets very little representation— teenage lesbians. Though the scripts I had written with this audience in mind didn’t end up working out due to scheduling errors and casting issues, the act of creating something with a specific demographic in mind aided me in planning for what I ended filming and editing.

My end product, “waiting room,” is aimed at high school seniors, in this weird precipice before graduation but still stuck in the haze of college applications, not knowing what the outcome will be. There’s countless coming-of-age movies, but they rarely tackle the actual stress and anxiety that these high schoolers face. As a high school senior myself, I know all too well the stress that this waiting game can induce, and I also know the calm façade that many keep in order to look put together. It is only in the late hours of night, or in those moments in time when a safe enough space has been created that high school seniors will allow themselves to share this overwhelming anxiety and ask for others to share their own experience.I tried to reflect this with the darker scenes in the beginning, others attempting to reach out and the subject withdrawing, feeling as though isolation would be better than a crowd. I wanted to make something that I know if I watched, I would feel seen. I wanted to know that if I could make a short film even a fraction of the way that I envisioned it in my head, that it would represent others like me; I wanted to represent those that curl into themselves, that feel overwhelmed and anxious, that feel as though the ways will close in around them. Because what I need, and what those like me need, is someone to remind them that there’s light at the end of the tunnel; that there are so many others that feel all the same cauldron of feelings that comes with college applications.

In terms of the ideal ‘brand’ for the film, I decided to leave that aspect for when shooting scenes. Though I story boarded, a few of what I think are staple shots in my film came to mind while actually filming. These scenes show a more intimate part of life and allow for introspection. I think these shots, namely the one with my main character brushing her teeth and the first desk scene, make the rest of the film feel very up close and personal. This, along with the coloring, allowed me to work a sense of branding into the film. It looks and plays out similarly to other coming-of-age films, a sense of intimacy to the main character that is respective to the genre but with such a familiarity to regular life that it makes audiences connect faster and in a different way. I wanted this intimacy, this bond that’s created between the audience and the main character, to be the source of the branding. 

One thing that I believe works to both establish a strong point in the brand and to connect with the audience is the monologue that is used throughout the majority of the film. This monologue makes the film feel more like a conversation or a friend’s reflective process rather than just watching a character act out a certain role. While in the writing process of this monologue, I tried to reflect on all the late night conversations I’ve had with different types of people and hone that feeling to make an intimate and introspective script. In looking back, I think I could’ve added more dialogue to make the film feel more like a true production. Having scenes with more cast members would have been ideal, as I had planned in my original scripts, but I think that I did the best with what was available to me. Limiting the cast added to the connection with the audience, limiting the number of ‘extra’ in the process of connecting with people once more— a journey that I relate to and many others do as well. Going on this emotional journey with the main character one on one allows for the audience to truly form a connection instead of allowing them to get caught up in the world around the main storyline.

I think my product overall follows major conventions, but one that I broke and I think served me well was the lack of dialogue. Though I would’ve preferred that the film have more dialogue, using a monologue instead of having the film be dialogue heavy helped to separate my film from others. This broken convention allowed me to better establish my brand and as an added bonus made post production a much simpler task. In talking with my Digital Video Production teacher, I was reassured that using a monologue wouldn’t end up harming my end product. The different types of shots I used followed conventions in storyboarding, but due to practical shooting difficulties, a few of the shots ended up being framed differently than imagined. Though some of this was able to be changed in post production, some of those quirky differences in convention add to the coming-of-age style of the film. Thankfully, most of the research on the actual topic of the film came from studying human behavior surrounding me and my peers, so I had easy access and could make it a very intimate experience. 

Ultimately, I do wish I could change quite a bit of my end product, but I am extremely happy with how it came out considering the circumstances. I have my original scripts saved so I can use the knowledge I’ve gained from this experience and maybe one day can make a short film that I can reflect upon with great pride. I take this experience as a great learning opportunity and hope that I truly do absorb all that I’ve come across in this course.