Long Gone Geek
eating, sleeping, filming, blogging, refilming, and rerefilming
Sunday, April 6, 2025
and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeee
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
dia dos (im fluent in spanish see)
So you know how A New Hope was a really really good movie, and then Empire Strikes Back was somehow even better? Well that wasn't the case for me. Not to say to went badly. It actually went pretty much just as well. What am I even saying anymore...
So I picked up Wesley at around 3:30, then took him to my dad's office. This was for two reasons: I need my dad, and I need to film at an office. Now, I needed my dad to play the role of the boss. So here's the thing, I've never seen my dad act in anything before. When I had asked him if he was willing to act, he just said "Actually, I used to be a thespian". No clue what that means. But when I asked if he could play the role of an annoyed boss, he just went "Oh that will be very easy, I'm annoyed all the time".
He pulled off the annoyed and disappointed boss really really well.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
i have become victim of a terrible attack
So, the second day of filming is tomorrow. Here is the plan: I'm going to pick up Wesley and take him to my dad's office. There, we can film the opening scene where the boss is talking to Brian. Then, we'll go back to my town's city center to film the rest of the outdoor scenes, the ones that Isabel aren't needed for. Next, I need to give Wesley a black eye.
If you remember, my film ends with Brian having a black eye from his encounters in the film. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with using makeup, especially doing something like making a black eye. So, I will punch Wesley in the face really hard, and if I time it right, by the time I get back to my dad's office, the bruising will appear.
And so that's the plan for tomorrow, I'll upda-
oh. what's that?
Okay so apparently it's unethical to sucker punch my actors (who aren't getting paid) in the face. I guess I'll need to find someone who A. knows how to do makeup, and B. is willing to use their makeup on this random dude I've recruited to act for me. My mom said she could probably do the eye, but doesn't want to use her makeup on some random kid. But then she tested it out...
Thursday, March 27, 2025
WE FILMED (part of it)
I filmed today. And nothing caught on fire. Hell yeah.
I had to pick up Wesley, who doesn't live in my town so it was a twenty minute drive to his house and another twenty minutes back. We met with Isabel in front of the restaurant at around 10:30 (they said come at 10:45), and went inside. So Lucille's opens at 11am, so we were pretty surprised to see customers waiting to be seated. Apparently, so where the employees, because they were like "why are you here this early". Then the manager saw us and said we could film anywhere. We sat down at a booth and set up.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
oh god im filming tomorrow

I sent this off at 4:38pm, before I even left the restaurant(yes it was a late lunch). Anyway, now it was time to go buy some items to make props. Well, there's only one real prop I needed. I needed to make what looks like a bunch of cocaine. I went to Publix, and bought two big bags of flour, then some Ziploc bags and saran wrap. I then started filling up the bags with flour and wrapping them in plastic. It's probably not a good idea to post my reference image for a few reasons, but I'm pretty happy with the result.
Sunday, March 23, 2025
actors
So I kind of got myself into a teeny little situation. My plan was to film during my spring break, which is next week. However, because I took so long to write the script, I never solidified any actors for the film. I didn't want to ask anyone to act without having a full storyline to give to them, so I probably should have just finished the script earlier... oh well.
I never really realized how many people travel for spring break until I started looking for actors.
As you can see I was very prepared, sending the script and everything. And she said yes!!! I'm really happy she did, because I know she's a really talented actress, she played a lead of one of the school's shows recently.
Now I just had to find a day they could both do it...
Saturday, March 22, 2025
fixing ma script
Okay, I worked on that one bit of my script that was terrible. Let's compare the before and after.
So to fix this, I employed this hyper effective super cool strategy.
Step 1: highlight
Step 2: delete
So then I spent a bit rewriting and came up with this.
I just think that this conversation flows a lot better between the two. It was kind of hard to write, since this is such a strange exchange, but I think this feels about as natural as it can.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
second group meeting
I have my second group meeting today, and I finally have a finished script!!! It needs some work, but I'm posting it here for my group to view. NOTQUITEWRITE.
Okay it's about an hour later, and the group has reviewed my script. It was a lot of fun watching everyone's face and trying to guess what absurd part they were at. And the general consensus was... they didn't hate it!!! They really liked the ending and now it kind of tied things together, which was the goal so I'm happy with that.
The only real issue that people pointed out was the first conversation between the two main characters. It was a really awkward conversation that didn't really flow well, and it felt completely unnatural. Which I personally fully agreed with. When I had written it originally, I sort of rushed it because I was struggling to figure out what to say. Now, I know that I should go back and both shorten it, and make it seem more natural. Mateo gave me some good advice, which is to have people read out loud the dialogue while writing it.
My teacher also read the script. She didn't love the second half, and said it had some pacing issues. Which I get, because it kind of does. Her solution was just cutting most of the second half, and leaving the audience to wonder how the two main characters escape. I do not love this route, but I can very easily film for both and decide which is better in editing, so that's what I shall do.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
I FINALLY CAME UP WITH A NAME FOR MY SHORT FILM
I was walking my dog, deep in my own thoughts. I don't know about you, but in the shower and walking my dog are when I have the most random and creative thoughts. Anyway, I was walking my dog, when suddenly the title came to me. "The Write Stuff". Wait no, that sounds just like The Right Stuff. But I kept thinking for a bit and came up with the title "Something's Not Quite Write". Because it's about a writer, get it. I'm so funny. I decided to shorten it down to just "Not Quite Write", because I think the more concise the title the better.
I'm actually really happy with this title. I think so many short film titles are really really boring. If I go search up "short films" into Youtube, some of the responses that pop up are: "The Barbershop", "The Cook", "Tunnel", "The Elevator", "The Loop". Now I've watched most of these, and they're all pretty good, but I just feel that it gets old when almost every title is just "The" + a noun. "The Crush", "The Neighbors Window", "The Wait". It's really pet peevie, because let's be fair, a quick and concise title is a good idea, especially when the point of short films is to be quick and concise. However, I really love it when titles and just a bit more unique than that. One of my favorites has the title "To The DEATH". You have no clue what it's about, but come on that's such a cool title, and it has mystery. Like the title "Alternative Math", you really have no clue what happens until you watch it. When you start watching "The Neighbors Window", you can guess it's going to be about a neighbors window. Okay sorry I'll stop, this is really not that important.
Now that I actually know what the hell I'm calling the film, I can finally make a social media page advertising it. I'm literally writing this blog in real time, so I'm going to go create the account now...
Saturday, March 15, 2025
real estate agents may be on to something...
There is something that is so essential to a short film, and although I may not have the entirety of my plot figured out at the moment, I need to get started on it as soon as possible. There are three L's when it comes to real estate, and they apply just as much to film making. Those three L's are:
L: locationL: Location
L: LOCATION
Phil Dunphy would be so proud of me...
A good filming location can make or break a short film. Having something that is visually pleasing, yet also convincing can submerge the viewer into your story, and a weak location and pull them right out of it.
So, I know I want to try to film in a coffee shop/cafe. Great. Now how many of those exist near me, and how many of those would let me film there? I'm going to try to see if any of these places are closed on a certain day, that would probably be the best time to ask to film.
There's this really cool coffee shop in my town called Watts & Coffee. It was a originally a bike shop, but they expanded it into also selling coffee, as sort of a meeting place for bikers. It's not exactly the idea aesthetic that I'm going for, however, their hours are really appealing. The bike shop it is attached to is open on Monday's, while the coffee shop isn't, meang if I asked to film there, I could hopefully do it on a Monday, which would prevent me from getting in the way of business. \Wednesday, March 12, 2025
scriptwriting is hard
Over the past week, I've been writing the script for the film. Well, I've been trying. It's funny how the script isn't even that long, yet it can take so long to write. I have been employing a technique that a producer who came into our school told me about. It's called "Sit down for ten minutes a day and write". This technique consists of, well, sitting your butt down in a chair with the script open for ten minutes each day until you have something good. Hence the name. Sometimes I'd be able to write three pages in like fifteen minutes, and other times I'd sit down and not be able to write a single word.
This part of the script literally took me like five minutes. It was probably the easiest part, since it was the opening scene and I've been visualizing it for a while.
This part of the script took over like an hour. And the worst part? IT'S TERRIBLE. I really need to go back and rework the dialogue, but I decided to move on, because I knew how the next section was going to go, and I wanted to work on that before I lost the motivation.
The next two pages were fairly easy and really fun to write. It's when the absurdity really starts to kick in, and I really enjoyed writing the main character's reaction to the insane thing that is happening, as well as the ridiculous banter between the two characters.
The hardest dialogue to write besides the conversation in the diner was the dialogue for the thugs, mostly because it's really hard to not make them sound cringy. "Oh we're so stuff we're gonna beat you up bwahahaaha". Yeah we want to avoid that. So basically, I employed this genius tactic called not having them say very much.
I'm almost done with the full script, so once I finish writing that I'll talk about any edits I need to make.
Saturday, March 8, 2025
group meeting
I want you to picture yourself in my situation. You have just spent the last week away on a trip for a competition you have spent months preparing for. You have never been so mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. Of course, you have become sick after all of this chaos, but you've already missed so much school, so you drag your ass into class the next day.
Yeah so that was me on Friday. I will have to say that I was definitely not in the happiest mood, nor was I especially ready to use my brain a bunch. I hadn't really worked on my project in a week. So just imagine how I felt when the first thing I hear from my media teacher is "Time for group meetings!". :D
Yay! I was hoping I would at least have the entire plot figured out before this point, but I was a teeny bit behind schedule. Luckily, I at least had the basic outline to present to my groupmates, and it ended up being really helpful.
As you can tell I was so ready to be there!!!
Martina started off explaining what she had planned for her short film, and I tried my best to be helpful but I'm going to be honest (and I'm so sorry Martina), I only heard about the last 30% of her plot. However, we all gave her some advice, and then it was my turn.
The first thing Martina asked me after I described my whole plot was what the deeper meaning behind my story was. Sure, a bunch of things happened, but what is the whole reason for all of that to happen? Well damn, that's a really good question. I think it my hatred for short films that got too philosophical, I forget to put a theme into my story. WHICH IS KIND OF IMPORTANT. I'm really glad she asked this however because the group discussed some ways I could maybe improve the story. What was suggested, and I'm really heavily considering putting into my story, is having the boss not like the final story at the end of the film, but the main character goes ahead and publishes it on his own. It would show that the character realizes he doesn't need that company to express his creative talents, and I honestly really like that.
I spent a lot of time trying to describe the mood and tone of my film, and the members of my group gave me some recommendations that they thought would really help me, based on what I told them. Sofia recommended the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Megan suggested How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. They both seemed to really feel that I'll take a lot from those films, so I'm definitely going to give them a shot.
The biggest thing I got out of this meeting was adding a little extra motivation to the character in the plot, or just some way for him to develop himself over the film. I wrote the ideas down to implement them, and will definitely include them while I write my script.
I really wish I could individually credit every group member for their ideas, but I was like half conscious for most of that meeting. Our teacher kept looking at me and just looked so sad seeing me, which meant I must have really looked ill because she's never given me that look before. So anyway, if any of my group members read this, thank you so much for all the help, I think the end result is going to be improved a lot by what you guys suggested.
Anyway, now that I have the outline mostly figured out, I should prooooobably write the script next. yay
Friday, March 7, 2025
DO_NOT_READ.docx
Okay so I'm going to lay out the basic idea I have for my short film. If you are in my media class, I would prefer if you don't read this to avoid spoilers. I mentioned before that I want just a teeny little "ah ha" moment in this film, and that's difficult when people start watching already knowing what it is.
Okay, without further ado, lets go look at what my brain somehow conjured up.
Friday, February 28, 2025
wait I need to be social?
A major part of this project is that we need to advertise it. On the media that is social. As per project directions (raise imaginary glasses), an official social media page and postcard advertisement for a film fest is required. (lower glasses) So it's probably a good idea to look at the social media pages for films to get some inspiration.
It's a good idea to look at socials for films in the same genre that I'm creating. Problem! I don't know what I'm doing yet! I do have a general idea of the genre I want however, so let's look at some films that have a similar mood and genre.
Baby Driver
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
ughhhhuhguhughguhguhgughuhuhuhuhghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bleh
Keep in mind that I only wrote down little notes that I would understand, so most of this list is incomprehensible nonsense. Many people would say that's what the inside of my brain is like. I would have to agree.
and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeee
We did it guys. Today was the last day of filming. It also happened to be the longest, which is fun, but I now have all the footage I need t...

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A crucial part of the planning for the opening is going to be finding good locations for all of the scenes in the opening. Because I live i...
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After nine weeks of hard work, I can now finally present The Accessory . I hope you enjoy. :)
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I was walking my dog, deep in my own thoughts. I don't know about you, but in the shower and walking my dog are when I have the most ra...