Coming Soon

Coming Soon: "My Friend"

“My Friend” is the short film I developed for my senior thesis.  It is still a work in progress but I’m hoping to complete it soon.  When I started work on it in August 2019, I never could have anticipated how it would turn out.  I’ve made a lot films during my time at Drexel and by now am no stranger to the production process but there’s always something that throws you.  While I expected to be thrown, I did not expect a global pandemic.  The world seems like a totally different world now then it was then.  In a way working on the film has been one of my only constants.  This page will serve as an insight into my production process.

The Pitch

Above are the notes I had with me when I pitched this project to my classmates.  The aim of the pitch was to be a couple minutes long, to describe the plot of your film and why you want to make it.  “My Friend” is a personal story for me, not that it’s autobiographical by any means, but it is informed by personal experience.  For my thesis film, the last film I’ll make as a student, I felt like it was time for me to tell one of my own stories.  Deciding that now was the right time to tell this story or that I even wanted to tell it at all was an important decision.  But ultimately it goes back to my feelings about film and about myself as an artist.  If I want to have a voice in this world and if I expect people to listen to it and I feel it’s my duty to tell stories that are meaningful and relatable.  So that is what I set out to do.

Projected Timeline for Project

  • August 2019

    Begin brainstorming an idea for the script.   

  • September 22, 2019

    Settle on a topic and start writing the script.

  • october 1st, 2019

    Confirm all above the line positions.

  • November 1st, 2019

    Begin securing below the line positions.

  • November 6th, 2019

    Pitch project to class

  • December 1st, 2019

    Finish 1st draft of script and start sending it out for feedback.

  • January 1st, 2020

    Put up casting notice.

  • January 30th, 2020

    Callbacks.  Have crew finalized.

  • February 6th, 2020

    Have all parts cast.

  • February 10th, 2020

    Location scouts.

  • February 21st, 2020

    Have shooting script finalized.

  • February 29th, 2020

    First weekend of shooting.

  • March 6th, 2020

    2nd weekend of shooting.

  • April 21st, 2020

    1st cut finished for screening.

  • May 8th, 2020

    2nd cut due for screening.  Finalize cut to send to audio post and color.

  • May 31st, 2020

    Final cut due.

The Script (click here)

This is final draft of the script.  It went through eight different revisions before becoming this version and it continued to change throughout the shooting process.  I never get too attached to the exact wording of things like dialogue and would much rather the actor say what feels natural to them.  As long as the intention of the script remains true that’s all that matters to me.  

Casting

As a student production, we have to try to cut costs wherever we can.  One of the ways we do that is by working with non-union actors.  Backstage.com is a great way to connect with actors who are looking for work.  Many of them are looking to build their acting reels and thus are willing to volunteer their time.  We cover the cost of transportation, housing and meals during production for both the cast and crew.  Below is our casting notice.  Click the button at the bottom to check out Backstage for yourself!

A casting notice from the website Backstage.com
Backstage

Fundraising

This is the video that we put together as part of our fundraising campaign.  While our campaign never actually went live due to the timing of the pandemic, a lot of work was put into making it and researching fundraising sites that might be helpful to other filmmakers.  We wanted the video to evoke the feelings of the film and the message we were trying to promote while still keeping some things a surprise.  It was made before we had actually shot the film so went to our beach location and shot some footage that we could use to put together a teaser video.

Kickstarter

  • Well known
  • Trustworthy
  • Easy to use = good for first time user
  • If you don't reach your goal you don't get any of the money
  • Variety of projects could make it easy for ours to get lost

IndieGoGo

  • More artist focused
  • You get to keep any money raised even if goal is not met
  • Relatively easy to use
  • Site keeps 5% of all money raised
  • Lack of urgency could discourage some people from donating

Seed&Spark

  • Just for filmmakers
  • Very professional
  • Has the highest success rate of funding out of the 3
  • Must reach 80% of goal to keep funds
  • Must take a course and project must be approved by site moderators

We ended up choosing IndieGoGo as our platform.  Though we didn’t get the chance to launch it, our campaign is ready to go.  I ended up entirely self-funding the film.  We may potentially use the campaign later to raise money for festival fees.  To learn more about IndieGoGo, click here!

Production

A behind the scenes photo of a film set on the beach
A behind the scenes photo of a women directing on a film set
A cast photo of young women acting on a film set
A behind the scenes photo of a boy holding a slate on a film set
A behind the scenes photos of a crew shooting on a film set

Production took place over two weekends, February 29th-March 1st and March 6th-8th 2020.  Since we are students and most of our actors have other jobs, it makes more sense to shoot over weekends then try to work around everyone’s weekday schedules.  We ended up with 17 crew members, 7 cast and 5 different locations to coordinate.  It wasn’t the largest production I’ve run but that was because we made a conscious effort to keep things like crew size to a minimum in order to keep costs down while also not sacrificing the quality of the work.  It’s always a rewarding experience to see your work brought to life.