preproduction

1.     Script breakdown-

a.     Number of actors required: 3 + one crowd of 5

i.                types required-

ii.              shy, awkward boy (Dylan)

iii.             outgoing, motivated girl (Madeline)

iv.             drunk, flirty girl

v.              a crowd of friends at a party

b.     Number of scenes each actor will be in and total length of their performances

i.                Dylan-5 scenes, about 10-12 minutes

ii.              Madeline-3 scenes, about 8 minutes

iii.             Drunkie-1 scene, about 3 minutes

iv.             Small crowd-1 scene, about 5 minutes

c.      Requirements, number and types of locations

i.                requirements- apartment(3 scenes-living room, hallway, kitchen), field (1 scene), car (2 scenes, 1 night, 1 day)

ii.              number: 3 locations, 6 scenes

d.     Number and types of stunts/special effects

i.                None

e.     special costumes/makeup

i.                none

f.      required props

i.                mitten

ii.              car

iii.             air freshener

iv.             TV

2.     2. Location Scout

a.     Apartment- fridge hum, one available kitchen light, one available over head hallway light, one lamp and one overhead light available in living room. One power strip in the bathroom (near the kitchen), one outlet in kitchen, but the light would be in the shot. *see photo of fuse box. Also a slight hum from the light on the outside of the building.

b.     car-road noise, available light from interior car lights, street lights, and headlights from other cars. Could also possibly light the actors with flashlights that sit at their feet with a colored gel over them.

c.      Field-street noise, dorm noise, available power in dorms right next to it, but I planned on having a low lit scene with only the car headlights as lighting.

10/11. RESPONSE TO REHERSAL/TEST SHOTS+REVISION

We attempted to rehearse the hardest scenes with the camera running, scripts memorized and all. Hearing my script read aloud by 2 people who were not inside my head made me want to change the entire movie. After the rehearsal, I did not feel that the script I had written (if left alone) would achieve the emotional response I wanted. However, I felt that the shots were very effective in portraying the metaphor of a memory.

            I decided that I will still have the actors say all of their lines, but I want the film to feel like a memory. This can be achieved by making the sound go in and out, and one line “I was there and he was there and you weren’t there” will repeat (audibly) throughout the film. I also added more trick shots of Madeline disappearing. The trick shots will be a more effective way of portraying the idea of Madeline disappearing from Dylan’s memory.  

            Overall the rehearsal of the script pointed out the glaringly over dramatic lines in my script, so I am rewriting those lines (even though many of them will be inaudible). For example, I am completely omitting the line where both characters apologize at the same time. It sounded too robotic and way too cheesy. The line where Madeline says “I was in France and he was there and you weren’t there” has been changed to the repeating, jumbled line “I was there and he was there and you weren’t there”.  

In making this film an experiment in both audio and visual aspects, it will appear to be more of a memory of an hour, instead of an extremely literal narrative soap opera of an hour, and the garbled reflection of a memory  is the goal of my film. I want it to be a bit overloaded and stressing, much like the memories we can’t seem to forget. They loop and repeat, and keep us tangled in a few fragments of a situation. Since relying heavily on editing seems to be a negative way to go, I want to make this script sound as natural as possible first, so much that I could make it into a narrative film. This seems to be the most logical way to go about jumbling it up. When I jumble the script up, I want the audio to be a combination of the actors playing out their lines, the room noises amplified, and the lines that repeat in their subconscious repeating.

            To provide contrast to the garbled audio that will be present through the first half of the film, I have decided to make the audio drop to either a silence, or one ringing sound when Madeline disappears and the spotlighting sequence begins. When Dylan is lying in front of the TV at the end of the film, the sound will come back through the TV, and it will be the repeating line "I was there and he was there and you weren't" 

This film needs to become a more abstract representation of the memory of this hour. That is the main thing I learned from my rehearsal. Luckily, I don’t have to rewrite the shots or the script to achieve this, I just need to shoot with both audio and visual editing in mind.