We filmed p.2

 So as I said in the last production post, I was pretty confident that going into Thursday's filming, everything would go more smoothly. And yes, while we got up into the final confrontation between Bob and the wife, after going through the raw footage I have come across a huge dilemma. Let's see if you can spot it!

yours truly as "LEWIS"

I'll give you a hint - it's not the lighting. What's that? Yep you got it! The mics are EXTREMELY VISIBLE in some of these shots. This is where its made super obvious that I'm an amateur who is figuring stuff out as they go along. Right now it looks like I'll be relying on extreme close ups through zooming in post, but honestly it might even help elevate the claustrophobia and tension I aim on creating, so maybe my ignorance and stupidity is actually a blessing in disguise! Also, backing up a few shots, you see that one shot with kind of bad lighting where Alejandro is clenching his teeth, this shot was completely improvised on the fly. I had this vision I attempted to convey in my storyboard of jumpcuts being used from an eagle eye perspective as Bob drags the body out of the stall after hiding it from Lewis.

one of the many outtakes

the final shot

 While we did remain faithful to this aspect in the end, after thousands of interruptions from either me completely losing composure or Alejandro or Lucas breaking character because of how purely chaotic getting the shots were, we also had the idea of getting a POV shot (maybe not a POV because his eyes are closed because he's "dead") looking at Alejandro's face as he desperately tries to drag the body out of the bathroom stall. I think this shot came out pretty well and also would be a cool front postcard design, something like this:

Another notable moment was the creation of the teacher's wife's contact card. I didn't think it would be that big a deal and I told Alejandro to set his phone to a black screen but he opted to use a skull emoji with heart eyes which amused him quite a bit. 

Maybe there's some deeper symbolic significance I'm unaware of but we definitely had a good laugh, which brings me to my final point: We didn't finish :((((( which means we are officially behind schedule. This is all part of the trial and error that comes with learning to effectively do something, but the time we lost breaking character and getting distracted added up and while the actor for the wife was present, we didn't get to finish filming her parts. Fortunately, this upcoming monday we are able to go back to the office building once more to film the final sequence, and finally wrap filming.

Music Production

 Today, I decided it was time to finally record the original composition I discussed into Ableton Live, the DAW I use. Because of the limited edition I have, I could only record up to 8 tracks, which kind of limited my production ability as I prefer to double track everything I record. I think it turned out really well and I even edited the first minute or so footage and put the track over it to see if it aligned tonally, and I personally think it worked great, but you can have a listen down below if you wish.

I'm contemplating adding something more to it in its reprise, because I'm planning on bringing the track back at the end of the short film after the climax where the wife is defeated. I think a good way to make it feel even more conclusive would be to add drums that don't overpower it but just drive it forward. For example, when the drums kick in at 3:30 of "Dimensions" by Arcade Fire. 

The song itself is beautiful and emotional but the drums coming in after building so well for the past few minutes feels so conclusive and impactful and I feel doing something similar in my track could work really well. I unfortunately don't have access to the materials necessary to play let alone record drums, but after reaching out to my friend Jacob, he said he would see what he could figure out. I'm still not 100 percent sure and I'd have to do the sight test after I edit everything, but exploring my options would prevent me from being too rabbit-holed into one specific tone I'm forced to end on.

We filmed p.1

 So as I previously discussed in our first day filming we just brought the 2 main actors, my partner Alejandro and my friend Lucas who's playing the dead body, as well as my friend Pedro who let use his camera. I've never really filmed a full complete narrative of this length so I wasn't sure how long it would take, but I was relatively certain we wouldn't get farther than the main set up when Bob first discovers the body. 

Unfortunately, despite being scheduled to film at the school district office from 5-9, we didn't really get started until about 6:30 because PEDRO forgot his SD CARD and I had to stop at WALMART to GET ONE. 50 dollars and 90 minutes later, we filmed for the next 2 hours and it honestly went pretty well. We remained relatively faithful to our script and storyboard, but there were some surprisingly cool improvised and spontaneous elements that I think turned out pretty well. 

To provide some examples, I knew I wanted to assert that Bob was a generally unpopular custodian, especially compared to his fellow custodian Lewis, which is why the teacher's wife would view Bob as a perfect subject for framing. While I planned on making this clear in their conversation when Bob has to get Lewis away from the bathroom, I feel like it had to be introduced early on, and with my mother on site, we figured out a way to do just that. Basically, she would play another teacher leaving the building, Bob would say "Bye Ms. Bernstein (not her actual name)", and my mom would just straight up ignore him, like Bob was basically a ghost who's not really respected by anyone. Again, this wasn't in my script or storyboard at all, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Another thing we improvised that I absolutely loved was this two shot from a sort of eagle eye point of view looking down at Bob and the apparently deceased teacher. In the moment, we all immediately jumped to the similarity to the iconic shot from the Breaking Bad episode "Crawl Space".

I like this shot a lot and I'm glad it came to us in the heat of the moment because obviously the high angle would reinforce Bob's lack of control in the situation but it also places him and a literal dead person in the same light, showing Bob too is dead in the sense that his life is kind of over as he's responsible for someone else's death and will face the consequences if he doesn't act quickly. It would be cool as the back of a postcard but it does kind of give the whole thing away about someone dying so hopefully some more shots will come to us that could be used on the postcard later on.

Also, to further establish a sort of moral grounding and motivation for Bobert's actions, because I was unable to print out a picture to put in his wallet before the shoot, I opted to just use a picture of my brother from when he was around 4 years old as Bob's wallpaper on his phone, as it works as a small detail that subtly provides some moral background to why Bob goes to such extreme lengths to hide the body. 

Overall, we only got up to around a minute or so into the film's exposition, but this first day provided much needed icebreaking and warming up to one another so that on Thursday I'm confident everything will go much more smoothly and we can get the filming process out of the way.

Shooting Schedule/ Costuming

 As I outlined in my schedule, this upcoming week is spring break which me and Alejandro plan to make great use of to tackle what seems to be the most intimidating aspect of our film. My mother who is an employee for the school district in which I attend, knowing we needed access to a school building over break, offered her office building which is literally a shut down elementary school which works perfectly. 

Whilst scouting the location, I met the head janitor, Claudia, who generously said she would allow us access to her supplies while we filmed. Up to this point I’ve kind of overlooked the prop side of things but this really fixes that hole without me having to do a whole lot of extra spending and research so I’m incredibly thankful.

Me (Lewis), Alejandro (Bobert), Alejandro’s girlfriend Claire (Teachers wife), my friend Lucas (Teacher), and my friend Pedro (Camera operator) all agreed on Tuesday and Thursday of spring break to film. On Tuesday we plan on filming from the start through Bob’s interaction with Lewis, and on Thursday we plan on filming through the end.

Alejandro's costume is a pretty straight forward depiction of a custodian, as I already own a jumpsuit as part of a past Halloween costume.

For my costume, I'll aim for something a little less stereotypical to present myself in a cooler, more respect light to make the difference in other's views of Bob vs Lewis clear.

The teacher will wear relatively stereotypical attire, with a formal dress shirt and dress pants, and the wife will wear something very outlandish to create uncertainty as soon as she appears on screen.

Cruella from 101 Dalmatians comes to mind as a sort of inspiration and I feel this can be recreated in a different light. My mother owns a leopard print fur coat which I feel would work well when paired with black glasses. Seeing someone who presents themself as innocent and clueless wearing something so bold would create an immediate juxtaposition forcing the audience to question what the teacher's wife actually wants.

Storyboard

 Attached below is the storyboard for One Body Problem. As was the case in AS level, developing the storyboard helped me get in the mind of a director and bring the script to life to visualize what exactly the character would be doing and how it would be illustrated, and even get inspiration for ideas not present in the screenplay.

I doubt that in the end the final product or even what we do on filming day will be completely faithful to the storyboard, but nevertheless the storyboard alongside the script gave me a strong foundation I can hopefully elaborate on and improve upon if more ideas come once we film.

Postcard Research

 Hello blog viewers. As a key part of this project I'm undertaking involves a print component, specifically creating a post card for our short film, today I'll be researching some do's and dont's when it comes to making one.

THE FRONT:

This short film is a thriller and revolves around a girl who shows people an image of what she claims to be a portrait of god, although no one, including the protagonist, can ever see anything besides a black void. However, one day things start appearing for her out of the darkness. I don't know if its super clear from my picture but if you look close, you can literally see the figure she starts to see later on. While it's a pretty terrifying visual that would likely intrigue an audience, especially with the consistent color scheme and bold font, it pretty much just gives the whole twist away which I'm not a huge fan of. There's a visual later on in the film of what happens after her whole encounter with the lord which I think is equally visually engaging, but also creates even more curiosity cause we don't know what the heck we're looking at. One thing I can definitely take from this post card however is the use of a concise, consistent color scheme and stylized font.

I have quite a similar issue with this one. After doing some research, I stumbled across a short film which astonishingly has the same central conflict as mine, a custodian forced to hide a body after someone slips and dies. I thought this would be a golden opportunity to get some inspiration, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of this postcard. One, I think the font is uninteresting and is hard to read against the white background. And two, it gives the entire conflict away before someone receiving the postcard even starts watching the film.

 

Therefore, the front of the postcard for my short film should make sure to find an engaging visual that leads to the central conflict and creates mystery but doesn't literally spoil the entire plot. Additionally, I should find a way to make the color scheme concise, only sticking to 2 or 3 colors with a font that matches the visual style.

This album cover for Soothsayer by the guitarist Buckethead has a cool visual of the outline of a body that I think would work well with my project. Setting it in a school setting with a wet floor sign in the background would make it clear that someone died but wouldn't completely spoil who, how, why, or when.

THE BACK:

After searching tirelessly online I unfortunately have faced difficulty in trying to find postcard examples with a front and back, but nonetheless, I have familiarized myself with the conventions and will likely use a more comedic visual on the back to create the dichotomy between thriller and comedy that my short film holds.

This template shows me the necessary info to have in a way clearly presentable way to the audience, including contact information, location, and showtimes. There's also the really cool idea of a QR code allowing for a private viewing with a password which is something I can take into account.

The Script

This has been about 3 weeks in the making. Ever since me and Alejandro landed on the idea, we've been writing out a script, as I feel just forcing myself to write as opposed to sitting around and brainstorming is the easiest way to get a complete idea of what the heck we're planning to do. 

Also, we recently did a project in class centering around film distribution, involving making a trailer, a teaser, a screenplay for a 5 minute excerpt, which yours truly assumed more of a role in, and a distribution plan for a story we were assigned. I found that after around 30 minutes or so of writing screenplays it's pretty easy to enter "flow state". You can probably imagine what this is or have heard it being used online by people who definitely don't know what a real "flow state" is as they've never seen me 30 minutes into working on a screenplay. But basically its where you get so immersed into the plot you see it unfolding before your eyes and your fingers fly and struggle to keep up with your thoughts and what your mind is imagining at that particular moment.

Once I reached about 2/3rds of the way through the screenplay, I had an epiphany to incorporate perhaps the most mindboggling plot twist since The Usual Suspects (1995), which I saw pretty recently and was pretty awesome. But anyway, instead of giving the whole twist away right now I think it's best if you read my screenplay to get the complete effect. You'll notice I took inspiration from thriller-comedies I researched like "Put Your Shopping Cart Away" as I tried to balance out even the most intense moments with some comedic inflections, but to where they still felt honest to the characters. I sincerely hope you find some enjoyment in this script.

 INT. SCHOOL BUILDING- NIGHT

A wide shot a long hallway. The only sounds heard are the buzz of the fluorescent lights and footsteps in the distance. Bobert step into frame, a middle aged custodian, mopping the floor mopily - he's a custodian after all. He looks up at a portrait of himself on the wall labeled "Custodian of the month". Reinvigorated, he mops the floor excitedly and stops in front of the bathroom for a break, forgetting to leave a sign. Melancholic, honest music plays in the background. 

HIGH ANGLE SHOT FROM BEHIND BOBERT IN URINAL CUT TO POV LOW ANGLE SHOT FROM URINAL LOOKING AT BOBERT'S RELIEVED EXPRESSION

Distant chatter and footsteps are heard in the background. A deep, raspy voice draws nearer, and then...

*THUMP* - Music instantly cuts out

He jumps, startled, and his keys fall in the urinal. Bobert's expression goes cold. He slowly steps outside the bathroom. A POV shot of Bobert slowly reveals a lifeless body laying on the floor. He starts freaking out.

                BOBERT

    SSHHHHHITT.

Bobert scrambles to the lifeless body and tries to wake him up.

                BOBERT

        (Whining, nervous)

    Come on man wake up wake up please come on

Bobert continues shaking the lifeless body, to no avail, and glances up at the employee of the month sign. He crumples to the floor, defeated and anguished.

                BOBERT

        (Defeated)

    Awwwww man.

Bobert lies on the floor, frozen and staring at the wall. He pulls out his wallet, opens it, and stares at a picture of his daughter. He begins crying. He looks next to the body to see a live phone call has been ongoing for the past minute with "Bae heart emoji". He scrambles over and puts the phone to his ear.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

        (Crying incessantly)

    Schnookums???? What happened??? ARE YOU OKAY?

Bobert hesitates, what will he do? This is where he decides who he is. He takes a deep breath

                BOBERT

        (Passionately)

    Schnookums - um - uh you're breaking up kkkkkkkkkk - I can't hear you kkkkkkk - Ill be home soon kkkkkkkkk.

Bobert hangs up the phone and sits back against the wall. He doesn't know what he just did but at least he can catch his breath. The jingling of keys and distant footsteps are heard drawing closer. Robert - back literally against the wall - only has one choice. He must hide the body. The footsteps - revealed to be a fellow custodian, LEWIS - steps into frame, he stares at the spot where the body once lied, only to see Bobert mopping the floor as if nothing has happened. Lewis heads towards the bathroom

                LEWIS

    Oh hey Bobby.

                BOBERT

    Hey Lewis, listen, I just cleaned the bathroom would you mind-

                LEWIS

    Man i really gotta go man

                BOBERT

    I know Lewis, and that's okay but we each have our own designated spots and I would really appreciate it

                LEWIS

        (Clenching, aggravated)

    Alright fine dude whatever.

Bobert waits patiently for Lewis to leave the building before walking up to a bathroom stall.

                BOBERT

    *INCREDIBLY DEEP BREATH* haaaaaaaaaaa

                

EAGLE EYE SHOT

BOBERT clasps the rag-dolled body, and jump cuts detail him desperately attempting to drag the body out of the stall. He eventually gets the body to the school door, reaches to unlock it, but remembers his keys fell in the stall.

                BOBERT

    Ahhh f-

Quick cut to Bobert using the lifeless body to fish his keys out of the stall. Quick cuts form a montage-like sequence of Bobert dragging the body back to the door. Once he reaches the door, bright, blinding headlights pull up through the window, Bobert has to act fast, but he doesn't have enough time. The Teacher's Wife bolts up to the door, pounding agressively against the closed door.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Sir! Sir! Have you seen my schnookums???

                BOBERT

    (Startled) JESUS CHRIST!

Bobert opens the door, he must remain calm.

                BOBERT

    Um uh, ma'am I'm truly sorry I think you just missed him.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Is that so? He should still be here? It says it on his phone?

                BOBERT

    (Starting to lose composure) Yea I'm pretty sure he's gone actually, he only left a few minutes ago I know phones these days are kind of slow to update especially with the locations and everything.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Oh okay Bob, thanks anyway

                BOBERT

    Yea know problem have a great night.

Bobert turns his back only to quickly turn back towards the wie

                BOBERT

        (Suspiciously)

    How did you know that was my name?

                WIFE

        (Stumbling over words)

    Um uh what? Did I say that? I just uh. I figured it respectful to know the names of custodians in town, I mean its truly a disrespected profession these days.

Bobert is deeply unconvinced, and his look shows it. The camera zooms in to his perplexed and suspicious expression.

                WIFE (O.S.)

    (Sinister tone and look)

    I had to make sure it all went according to plan.

Wife steps into the hallway, slowly inching forward as Bobert backs up.

                WIFE

    (EVIL LAUGH ENSUING)

    And it really, really did! I mean who are people going to believe? The harmless, innocent, betrayed

Wife glances over disgustedly at the trash bag the teacher's body is in.

                WIFE

    widowed wife or Bob, the janitor? Seriously!

                BOBERT

    You did this?! He didn't slip on the floor?

                WIFE

    I don't know what the hell you're talking about. This is your fault.

                BOBERT

        (Tearing up)

    Why would you do this to me? I don't understand.

                WIFE

    Who else's life would be better spent rotting away in prison, Lewis?

                BOBERT

    Uh, yea that guy sucks.

The teacher groans and starts making pained noises while moving around in the body bag, this distracts the wife.

                WIFE

    (Enraged)

    No. NO, NO, NO! He's supposed to be dead! Rotting in hell right where he-

Bobert, back once again against the wall, locates the caution wet floor sign, picks it up and hits the wife on the head, knocking her unconcious. He throws the sign to the floor and runs over to the struggling teacher, kneeling down beside the bag and fishing out his head from inside the bag.

                TEACHER

        (Lifeless, breath fading)

    Ugh what the hell? Why are my clothes wet, where am I? Is that my wife?

                BOBERT

    Hey hey teach. Its a long story, basically your wife found out you cheated on her and tried to kill you and wanted to frame me for the murder.

                TEACHER

    What? I told her I was talking to my mom. I just still call her mommy.

                BOBERT

    (Confused expression)

    You call your mom-nevermind teach you've gotta stop talking so much.

Bobert reaches behind the teacher's head, to see his hand now covered in blood.

                BOBERT

(Shakingly)

    You're losing a lot of blood.

                TEACHER

    Man I just want my mommy, tell her I love her.

                BOBERT

    (Tearing up)

    Teach, stay with me please, please!

                TEACHER

    (Slowly and finally)

    You were always my favorite janitor.

The teacher goes unconscious, life leaving his body. Bobert sits with the teacher in his arms, hugging him and crying. He's just as heartbroken as he is disgusted with himself. Cut to caution wet floor sign leaned up against the wall.

INT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAYS LATER

Bobert grabs the caution wet floor sign from the wall, and places it in the middle of the hallway. Melancholic theme music returns. He steps into the bathroom slowly, out of frame.

END