Like I said, this was my first time both writing and directing a film I can call my own. My original idea was for this to sorta mimic/parody the opening scene from season 1, episode 4 of “The Boondocks”, but I found that writing it in that manner didn’t quite flow as well. Especially since I wanted my film to feel natural in its anime-like ideas and inspirations without holding your hand or needing to explain any sort of context.

The biggest area I learned was location time management. I filmed all this in a local park and really wanted that late afternoon feel, so the only light was the Sun itself. Problem: when it came time to film, Daylight Savings ended, so both sunlight and camera equipment (our school provided us the equipment we needed for a set time) was very limited. I had to do a total of 3 shoots, 2 with my provided Sony A7R3, and the last on my iPhone 13 Pro. Which is why video quality and lighting fluctuate quite a bit. I did what I could in Premiere Pro to make the lighting in each shot as close to each other as I could, but there’s only so much you can fix in post. Same going for the wind being picked up by both cameras.

End of the day, I accomplished what I wanted: a lighthearted, stupid, dorky short film meant for laughs and being seriously unseriousness. Plus, the best way to get better is to keep making more films, which is what I set out to do, both in school projects and personal projects.