Introduction
The Narrative unit in film class was our largest project in all of film at Freestyle. We started in early October, pitching our early ideas and beginning learning the basics of screenwriting. The projected ended in May, as we wrapped up editing before showing our film at Freestyle Exhibition. Watching this beast of a project come together over almost the entire year made it all the more meaningful and special when we got to see it play at exhibition.
Pre-Production
Synopsis
Callista and Noa, best friends and seniors in high school, are hanging out at Callista’s house when she sits up suddenly. “I’ve gotta find a relationship before I graduate high school!” she tells Noa. Callista asks Noa to help her find the one, and Noa agrees.
The next day, they start scoping out options at school, but Noa decides that no one is good enough for Callista. Just when Callista is close to giving up, Charlie, the star football player, asks Callista out, seemingly for no reason. She agrees to go to dinner with him.
Before the date, Noa is panicking. Charlie’s reputation as a player makes her fear for her friend’s feelings. She supplies Callista with all the necessary weapons: a Swiss Army knife, pepper spray, and a taser. Noa says she will wait in the car.
At the date, Charlie treats her terribly. He steals her food, eats like a slob, and tells her that she looks better without makeup. As they walk out of the restaurant, Charlie attempts to convince Callista to come to his car. When Callista tries to fight back, Noa runs from the car and slams into Charlie. He stumbles back, not expecting the attack. Noa takes Callista’s hand and they run back to her car.
In the car, Callista explodes. Why would Noa butt in like that? Does Noa think that she isn’t capable of defending herself? Does Noa want her to be single for the rest of her life? Noa apologizes, she didn’t mean to make Callista feel that she’s being overly protective and controlling. But what else could she do when the girl she liked began to say that she wanted to find someone else to date? Noa musters up the courage, and asks Callista out.
Screenplay
Shot lists
This was my group’s final shot list. The shot list was arguably the longest and most tedious part of this entire project. After annotating the entire script and marking all of the shots, props, costumes, and locations we would need, we had to decide the details of each shot for all 12 scenes.
Schedule
These are some screenshots from our scheduling and planning document. We found that scheduling scenes with extras was especially difficult, so we figured out a system of scheduling where we could keep track of asking and confirming extras on a single document that had all the filming dates, times, and locations.
Narrative Breakdown
The Narrative Breakdown helped us to make the final shot list. It was a way to visualize all of the shots we would need, and take note of props, costumes, and other shooting details. Here we marked the scene and letter of each shot. We labeled the Master shot, the singles, and the rest of the shots, which were explained in more detail on the shot list.
Stripboard
A stripboard is like a schedule with all of the information about shooting. It includes the location, the amount of time it will take to film each scene, how much time you need to set up, and which characters need to be at filming. It was very helpful in organizing our shooting days.
Production
Some photos from filming!
Post-Production
After finally wrapping filming, we started editing our movie. This was when we finally started to see everything come together.
Final Senior Narrative Film
Here is the final film!
Reflection
The Senior Narrative is objectively the largest and most challenging project in a film student’s entire Freestyle career. This was definitely true for me. My group put our whole selves into this project; we would stay up late together all through winter break on FaceTime, trying to get the final draft of our script done. I grew so much as a filmmaker and as a person. I learned how to organize shooting days: contacting people, finding out when everyone is available, securing a location, providing food and water, bringing costumes and props, all the equipment we need, making sure the actors know their lines, and that we film everything in the most efficient order. It was a lot of work to juggle, but also so, so fun and rewarding.
Narrative Related
These are some projects we did early on in the Narrative unit that are not directly related to my final senior narrative film because the story changed and developed over time.
Pitch
At the very beginning, film students all gave pitches for potential stories. I gave a pitch on a story of a small town girl who visits her older brother in the city and begins questioning her old life and her values.
Link to Pitch Presentation: Mia Staulo Senior Narrative Pitch
Original Synopsis
Once we chose our groups, we began drafting ideas for our actual Senior Narrative project. This was our very first draft! Our story ended up changing a lot from this first draft, which is why I didn’t include it above with our final project process.
At the start of Senior year, Jackson and Quinn both sign up for the collaborative art contest as part of collaboration week, organized by the school. Jackson dislikes working with other people and decides that no matter who he is paired up with, he will just do it himself. They get paired up randomly, never having met. Quinn has a reputation for being popular, and Jackson is more of a loner. Their personalities immediately clash, and they don’t get along. Jackson is determined to win the money to go to art college. He thinks Quinn will ruin his work and won’t take it seriously, because he’s lighthearted and goofy. Quinn believes that his enthusiasm will bring them together.
Quinn tries to connect with Jackson, but Jackson continues to stay closed off and doesn’t let Quinn help whatsoever. Quinn does something that is unintentionally romantic, and Jackson starts to feel conflicted. There are multiple moments where Jackson doesn’t communicate, and Quinn is able to recognize that and helps him. Jackson slowly starts to tolerate him and begins to open up and trust him, now finding Quinn’s presence comforting and natural to be around. Jackson realizes that Quinn is more than just an aloof frat boy. Quinn develops a liking towards Jackson, realizing the time he spends with him is so much more meaningful and deep than partying.
Despite their blossoming friendship, Quinn often gets dragged off to hang out with his friends. Jackson begins to worry that Quinn doesn’t value their friendship. In reality, Quinn’s not excited to join his friends, but he’s peer-pressured to hang out. The second-to-last day before the deadline, Jackson and Quinn decide that they need to stay extra hours to finish the painting. But that evening, they ran out of white paint, and Quinn decided to buy some at the paint store a few blocks away.
His friends call him and pick him up, pressuring him to come to the party. That call kills his phone battery, and he’s unable to contact Jackson. Quinn’s friends arrive at the paint store, and they make fun of him for hanging out with a loser like Jackson and for caring about the contest.
Jackson calls Quinn a million times, but no answer. Jackson assumes the worst and should’ve known from the start that Quinn never thought of him as anyone of importance. Jackson feels betrayed, and his fears were right: he feels like this is proof that Quinn doesn’t care about him or the project. He decides to try to finish the project all by himself.
At 1 am, Quinn regrets letting them take him to the party and leaves, realizing that what he did was terrible, and decides to return to the studio, hoping that Jackson is still there. He finds Jackson an exhausted mess, sleeping next to the almost finished painting. Quinn doesn’t want to wake up Jackson and attempts to finish the painting, but ends up falling asleep as well. Jackson wakes up and notices progress in the painting, and that Quinn is asleep next to him.
Jackson is unsure how to feel; he’s upset at Quinn for letting him down. Quinn wakes up and explains what happened, and shows that he really cares about Jackson. They clear up the misunderstanding and make up, and confess their true feelings to each other. They finish the painting together before the exhibition in the afternoon. At the award ceremony, they won 2nd place and split the prize money! What they really won through this whole ordeal was their relationship.
Side Projects
Dialogue Scene
This was a small scene that we did from a script that Mr. Taylor wrote. We each took turns doing the different jobs: camera, boom, and acting. That is why you can see that the characters rotate. This was to get some practice on set before actually beginning filming for our Narrative!
Acting Scene
To understand how to direct actors better, we practiced acting in small group projects. Karen and I chose a script from Your Sister’s Sister. We had a lot of fun making the characters our own and figuring out the best way to deliver the lines!