here it is

Not Quite Write

Instagram: @somethingsnotquitewrite

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Critical Reflection

    The short film Not Quite Write follows a writer as he struggles to come up with any ideas. In his desperation to have anything to write about, he takes a few risks and ends up in a very interesting situation. 

    While doing research for the creator of the short film, I viewed many existing short films to get an idea of conventions commonly used in short films. One that was pretty common was the use of only one location. Most of the short films I viewed, such as The Barbershop, One Minute Time Machine, and The Gunslinger, all take place in one single spot. This is likely to keep the plot relatively simple, but even more complex films, such as Eagles are Turning People into Horses, still stay in one spot. This is a convention that I strove to break within in my own film. I felt that a short film that explores multiple locations would both be more interesting visually, as well as leading to a slightly more complex plot. Not Quite Write starts out in an office scene, where the main character, Brian, is getting a lecture from his boss for not having written anything recently. The next scene then takes place in a cafe, where Brian is trying to come up with something. It's there where he meets Alex, who then, after talking for a bit, leave together for the third location, with is outside in the town. After Brian's discovery of Alex's true intentions, and his subsequential kidnapping, that he ends up in the fourth location, the thugs' house. After escaping, we go back to the first location, the office, to wrap everything up. Although some short films that are more complex may have a second location, the use of four subverts the convention of using minimal locations in short films. 

    The target audience for Not Quite Write is the same demographic that I fall in. The film is marketed towards teens and young adults. Characteristics of pieces that often are enjoyed by this demographic are stories that are often intense, but broken up with comedic moments. I tried marketing and stylizing the film much in a similar way to Baby Driver, a film that I had researched it's advertising techniques. I tried to have some mystery behind the characters, for example Alex, who's intentions are not clear until over half way through the film. This is common in movies that apply to the same demographic, such as Baby Driver or Pulp Fiction. The plan for the social media page was to use some humor and trends to attract the online users of the younger target audience. I feel that this was an area that I could have improved upon. I feel that I could have benefitted from playing more attention to current online trends into order to bring in more of the younger audience. 

    The brand that I wanted to create with my short film was one that felt almost a little surrealist. There is no specific place where this film takes place, nor a specific time period. While some scenes in the piece look like they could take place today, such as the outside scenes in the city. Other scenes, such as in the diner, look like they could be taking place in the 50s or 60s. Then, the office could easily take place in the 90s or early 2000s. The purpose of this was to keep the story less grounded in reality, and help make the quite absurd plot feel more fitting. Another part of the brand was common use of less seriousness within the film. The very beginning graphic of the short film states "Warning: The following picture was created by Zachary Golomb in it's entirety". At the end of the credits, a graphic says "dont ask how i came up with this". The plot of the short film is one that is honestly kind of absurd, so I decided to tap into that. I think something I could have improved upon looking back is having more of these elements in my social media. This less serious and more fun theme for my brand is something that markets towards my target audience of younger people very well, and I should have capitalized on that more. 

    Although my film does not really target any specific social groups, it does subtly cover some social issues. The short film features a female lead character in the drug business. This is something that is very uncommon to see in current media. In all of the most popular pieces of media, such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Narcos, and Ozark, this almost never seen. The short film does not have much representation for many social groups. However, the main character, Brian, being a writer does have some real life connotations. It highlights some of the difficulties that writers can face currently. In 2023, there were many long tern writers' strikes due to the poor conditions of writers all across the media industry. Writers all across the United States took measures such as going on strikes for several months, while the writer's guild attempted negotiations. Now, while writers don't tend to take as extreme measures as Brian does in the short film, it still highlights some of the difficulties that people in the profession may face.  

Final Thoughts

 So, after these nine weeks, I have just uploaded the film to Youtube. It doesn't really feel real, after having worked on it for so long, and now I have the link that anyone can go and watch it on. I've been sort of cryptic when anyone asks me what this film is about, I normally just respond with "it's about a writer who can't think of anything to write about". I mean, that is technically the plot, but we all know that a lot more happens. 

So, am I happy with the finished product? Well, it's definitely not of the same quality as any of the short films I had researched in the beginning of this project, and I'm sure I could be torn apart by any critic. However, when I look back, I made this entire thing by myself, and stuck with a plan all the way through. If you look back at my first post talking about this project, I wanted to make something that was kind of the sum of my four years of making videos in high school. My goal was, for the first time for me, properly write out a completely original short film, and follow through completely. I didn't want to make any changes to the script because I ran out of time, or thought something was too hard. And that's exactly what I did. I came up with a plan, then I executed it. So with that being said, I'd say I finished my goal.

I'm really going to miss this class. A Level Media is probably my favorite class I've ever taken, and I will always remember everything I've done for it, and everything it's done for me. With that being said, I guess this will be the last you'll read from me. Thanks for sticking around, whether you had a choice or not. 

on the first day of editing my true love came to me,

12 hours of editing, and a PARTRI- 

anyway,

It's mostly all in one layer at the moment. This is the line edit for all but the last scene(which is probably going to be the most annoying to edit). It only took a few hours, and most of that time was dedicated towards selecting the takes that I liked best. I would have finished tonight, but it's kind of late, so let's just take a look at what I have so far. First of all, I'm not excited for tomorrow night, because editing audio is going to be a NIGHTMARE. I have to balance out pretty much everything, which is expected, but I also just have to edit out tiny little tings that someone made it in, such as me saying three or just loud things in the background. I also have to color grade all of my footage, but that won't be nearly as bad. 

After I watched play, I'm going to have to go back and adjust the clips a lot. The pacing is pretty fast paced, but it's almost too much in a few sections, so I'm going to need to make some scenes just a little bit slower, or else it will just be a sensory overload. Right now, it kind of reminds me of the first few minutes of Flight Club. You know how it starts with Tyler pointing a gun at the Narrator's mouth, to us talking about a controlled demolition in a few minutes, to plastic explosives, to Marla Singer, to Bob's bitch tits, to insomnia? That's the first two minutes of the film. The difference is the movie actually starts to slow down after that, mine seems like it keeps that pace for all eight minutes. It's definitely something I can spend the next few days working on, but it's not going to be easy. 

That being said, I don't have any super obvious continuity errors so far, the transitions aren't too awkward, and I think it's turning out at least a little bit funny, so I'm starting to actually look forward to see the finished product for this thing. 

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 to make the short film. 

Chapter 1: who do we have here

    Today I had five different actors come to my house to film. Wesley and Isabel of course, and then my friends Brian, Phillipe, and Enmanuel. I won't say who, but one of the other three actors was hired mostly because he has a really really nice car. The plan was to have the characters end by walking towards a PORSHE of all cars and it would be implied they drove away in that. That would actually be so cool. My friend who owns this car said his dad doesn't let him bring it around often, but that friend owes me a HUGE favor so I hoped he would have. Unfortunately he wasn't able to bring it, so they drove off in a Mercedes instead. Still cool, but the missed opportunity is depressing. 

    Everyone showed up at around 11, and I started out by filming the outside scene first, the one where Brian and Alex take out the thugs and escape. I started with this scene because I knew that some of the thug actors wanted to leave as soon as possible. 

Chapter 2: We Live on the Surface of the Sun

We've had some pretty decent weather outside for the past week. That did not continue today. Not even close. There is a heatwave in Britain right now. People are passing out in the streets as the blazing sun beats down upon their backs. The Brits have to attempt to tolerate the blazing 78 degree heat. 

Anyway today in Florida it was 87. Not fun. Especially when every scene was either outside, or in my garage. I feel really bad for the actors, especially since I had them wearing jackets because they were supposed to reach into their jackets to make it seem like they had guns. 

You can tell how hot it was because Bryan had ummm, white power, all over his face, and it started sticking to him from his sweat. Flour + water means we made dough on his skin. And it's already seasoned! I'm sorry, that's gross. 

Luckily, right when we were finishing up filming the outside scenes, we were saved. 

I planned for that to happen, trust me.

Chapter 3: My Neighbors Think I'm a Freak

I think the picture itself is enough of an explanation. 

The inside scenes weren't nearly as hot, but inside the garage it was even more humid, so yay. I brought two lights to make sure my garage was bright enough. I think with some color grading, it will be perfect. 

And yeah, after a swift FOUR AND HALF HOURS of filming, we are finally finished. I feel bad, I told Brian it would be an hour. 

Now all I have to do is edit it all together, which I'm excited (and scared) to see how it turns out.

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. 

You can tell because one of his actual employees walked by, and she thought someone was actually in trouble. When I told him he did it really well, he just said "I was imagining I was talking to you". Love you too, Dad.

After that, Wesley and I drove back to the city center outside, where we had started filming last Thursday. On Thursday, Wesley had to be back by 2, so we just filmed all the scenes that Isabel were in so she didn't need to come back for another shoot. 

The last scene that we filmed on Thursday was Alex giving Brian a mysterious bag, and telling him to go drop it off in a corner. So that meant that the next scene was a bunch of walking. Yay. Nothing more fun to film than that.

I probably should have gotten more inspiration for what to do with the scene of him walking. If you have too many scenes of a character walking from one location to another, you just get something slow and boring, like the driving in Taxi Driver (ooh burn!). 

In all seriousness,  I just got a wide shot and a couple of close ups of Wesley walking, so it should look good. I also had some handheld reverse tracking shots, which I was worried would come out shaky, but they actually didn't turn out half bad. I guess I'm just the best (or the $3,000 camera has good stabilization, one of the two). 

The scene after I'm a bit worried about. Brian drops a bunch of what my econ teacher would call "powdered sugar", and as he is picking it all up he gets knocked unconscious. The slight problem is that if he is acting, and I'm filming, we need someone else to punch him. I wasn't about to bring a third person along just for a single scene, so the plan was to have that shot be with a tripod, and I would do the punching. This didn't really work out however. I wasn't able to get the angle that I wanted with the tripod(the shot was too low down), and getting him to stay in frame and in focus without being at the camera was just too difficult. 

My on-the-fly solution was to have the camera zoom onto Wesley's face, which would then cut to black right as his face covers the frame fully. I would then add a smack sound in post. Looking back at the footage, I'm not sure how well it will turn out, but if it's really bad I can always refilm it. I just really don't want to. 

It would cut earlier than it does in this clip, so hopefully it turns out okay. 

After that, we went to my house and did Wesley's black eye makeup, which actually came out really well. I took of picture of it with the camera to make sure it would turn out well on recording. 
 

And yeah it did turn out pretty well. Wesley's looking pretty tuff.

After that was just the ending office scene. All this really starts to feel more real once you record you're ending scene(even if you still have more to record).

Now, all that's left is the scene with the thugs, and I'm done filming. I do have about a week left, so...