The Call – The Process of My Short Film
Creating my film and trying to make an impact has always been a dream of mine. I love entertainment in film, TV, books, and even on-stage performances. I love to create anything that could come alive in my free time, and even others, like reading, and I had some great fun with this. My film is The Call, about the serious topic of domestic Violence. “Peyton and Maggie are a lovely couple in college trying to find their way when their start to change and not for the best. Maggie has gotten comfortable and shows her true identity, and Peyton is dealing with the receiving end of it. Will Peyton reach out for help before it’s too late?” This essay will be about how The Call was made into a reality.
Writing the script and making up the story was quite tricky. When thinking up what I wanted to do, I wanted it to have an impact everyone could know about or relate to. Ideas came and went, and I wanted to be better at what I tried to picture. It took quite a few hours for it to come to me. Domestic Violence Violence is what I want to show to others, but I put a twist on it. People see a heterosexual couple, always when discussing or representing domestic Violence. However, we never see a homosexual couple, specifically a lesbian couple, in these situations, so it was time to type up the script. However, another stump for me was getting the thought to paper and trying to type this up when I had a whole scenario. After taking a break from it, it all hit me coming all together late at night, and I was off to write it all, and I was non-stop.
When I finished the script, there were only two people I had in mind for the roles of Peyton and Maggie: my best friend and her roommate. My best friend was down for it, but I needed clarification on her roommate. What do you say to someone, “Hey, can you be an abuser for a film I created?” It was weird, and I didn’t dare to ask just yet; I could get another pair of friends to do it. I’ve asked around, and people were a little uncomfortable about the idea and rejected the picture, which is understandable. However, when I was walking on campus and saw my best friend’s roommate, I asked her about the role. She was excited to portray the part and to get in contact with my best friend to set it up, and from then on, I had my characters: Pia Denby as Peyton and Masina Tupea as Maggie. Unfortunately, the only role to fill was the concerned friend named Frankie, and I initially thought that the part would be a male, but since it kept coming up empty, I thought I should change the role to a boy or a girl. It was decided on the day of filming that I would portray Frankie since no one else wanted to do it.
Figuring out what day to film when everyone was studying and preparing for finals, they wanted Thursday, and I had to skip a class to get a head start on filming, which was beautiful. When I met them in their dorm room, I gave them the script to memorize and what to say. I was in the producer and director’s chair, telling them how to do the scene and what they should do. During the process, I let them improvise, and we had to change a couple of scenes because I got too into it and thought I could be in those places (i.e., the women’s bathroom). Both of my actresses were fantastic and doing things right. When it came to my scene, I should have practiced it, but I thought someone else would do it. But I felt like I gave myself the most complicated set ever. It was not easy, and you could see it. However, my camera skill was the proudest of this film. It took many tries, but I loved it, and this is my first film. Am I proud of it? Yes, I am, but still embarrassed during my scene. After around 4 hours, we finished taping, and it was a wrap on filming.
I looked through the footage, and it was great—many bloopers but good footage to sacrifice. I decided to bring in a friend to help me edit the footage and make it all it could be. Dylen Ally is the name, and he is studying film and editing, and what better way than go to him for help to make this film unique and hope to take care of my scene. He did make a base edit for me, and I supplied him with all my suggestions of how I wanted the end product to look. Unfortunately, due to him being out of the state and away from his computer, I have to try and finish the film, and I am unsure how it will plan out and make my vision a reality. I went to Bowen and got to work editing my movie with Adobe Premiere Pro. I’m not too fond of this software because I’m not too familiar with it, and it works better with Sony Vegas Pro, but it isn’t working on my personal computer, so I’m stuck with it. It wasn’t easy to understand this premiere pro and how to get exactly what I wanted or, well, close to it. My vision isn’t exactly what I wanted, but that doesn’t mean it got the message across. The whole editing process took 6 hours to be done, and most of that was trying to get it working and what everything was.
This film started as an idea that I wanted to create and came to life. I’m delighted that I finally got the end product done, and I got to thank my two actresses who saved my butt and were phenomenal with their acting. Unlike myself, I spent more time reading my lines and memorizing them. Everything took 3 to 4 weeks to do, and even though it’s not my best work, it is my first work. Now may I present to you The Call.