Introduction
The Zenith Project is the reason I applied to Freestyle Academy. I was on the fence originally, not sure if it was going to be too much work or too little – basically, I was scared. Scared of taking a different path from everyone else. Yet, still, the moment this project was described to me I overcame that fear. The freedom to do anything blew my mind and that is exactly what this project is: Freedom.
Given immense freedom, I feel an overwhelming urge not to blow it. So I pledged that this project would have all of my attention, all of my effort, and be a product of my combined talent. This project would be my zenith.
You are now entering the Twilight Zone.
My film will combine all of the elements that make a Twilight Zone episode memorable and mind-bending. It will be succinct, polished, and professional. I will build tension, develop a world, and blow your mind in just five minutes or less.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Process
Our synopsis. Green = first act, Yellow = second act, Red = third act. This was our first version and not all detail represent our final product.
An early to-do list for set-design. Later this is flushed out to a far greater extent and we acquire the things on our list.
After, we then found a different house, and shot everything in only three days of filming. We were editing down to the last minute. Literally, we were exporting our film seconds before class started. But, we did it and below is our film!
Reflection
For the majority of my two years at Freestyle Academy I have focused entirely on comedic films. I began with a light hearted narrative about an underground parking pass salesman then I followed that up with an internal dialogue about the existence of aliens on Earth and even created an entire film about heisting a lemonade stand. So, for the Zenith, naturally I wanted to produce a mind bending, twilight-zone inspired film with a built in social commentary.
I knew I wanted to create a psychologically impactful piece and, originally, this came in the form of how can learning be optimized. The thing is, this approach was far too positive to be interesting for a film and instead I wanted to focus on the tragedy of the mind rather than its brilliance. As a result I decided to focus on psychological addiction and try to convey that feeling as pure as I could. So, even though I did not involve my research of the mind, I did take that idea and spin it to fit a film that could provide social commentary on human psychology.
In order to create a project that provided commentary on the mind, Max, my partner, and I wanted to conceal metaphor within a story. We spent a week brainstorming, shutting eachother down, becoming frustrated, suggesting entirely different projects, and more before we finally settled on our idea. We were going to replace the drug or the thing the character was addicted to with a harmless music box. One that created a beautiful tune and this tune would transport him to another world. Each time he went he would stay longer and longer until, at the end, we hit you with a twist meant to have a long lasting impact. In a sentence, this music box would be our protagonists escape until he was a part of it. We struggled a lot collaboratively to focus our goals and vision, but in the end we produced a product we are both proud of.
However, given the chance to do it again, I would spend a lot longer on production and a lot less time on pre-production. I would attempt to truly execute every shot I had planned and incorporate a few more clues that could make the film easier to follow and make the film have more impact. I also believe the film is paced a bit too quickly and anyway to make the transitions slightly longer and to add maybe two minutes to the film would make it much more effective.
We have the vision down and the metaphor down, but we just have to hone our abilities to communicate the information in a way that can resonate with the audience while remaining interesting. If we could improve this then we should be able to start producing even more meaningful films!
Overall we learned a lot from the production of this film. We learned our strengths, our weaknesses, and how we have already grown. At the end of the day, it is hard to ask for more than that from a film because the film has now given us so much more than just a final product. I know, for me personally, that I have a strong vision with a beautiful plan for shots and story, but I need to focus on the execution of this vision and I need to learn to focus on details where previously I look too much towards the big picture. A great example of this was an idea for a shot which would pan around the entire home, showing its flaws in spectacular fashion, only to end with a closeup of our protagonist and his face which plainly displays the tragedy of his situation only for him to spin around and crank the music box.
Watching the audiences reaction was super rewarding because we got silence where we wanted it and visible moments of realization on their faces when the twist was revealed. It was equally amazing to hear, after the movie had concluded, that more than a few people watching grasped the metaphor intuitively and even had suggestions to make it stronger which was amazing. The Zenith was just that, not my best film, but the peak of my work. It is my peak because it provided me with a vantage point with which I could see everything I had created and every way in which I had grown. Because of that I am extremely proud of my film and myself while also immensely grateful for the opportunity to study at Freestyle and learn as much as I did. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed my film. Stay tuned.