In Sophomore year high school, I made a film out of a two scenes from The Catcher in the Rye. I was in a group with three of my best friends who also happen to be three of the funniest guys you could ever meet. The project was pretty much us fooling around with a camera and some props and costumes we found in my room. The script was right out of the book plus as many not-so-subtle dirty jokes we could fit into the scene. It was one big joke to us, and we still got a hundred on it!
This film was a bit different. I was again in a group with three great friends, but it was no joke. I learned that filmmaking was actual work. We had to write a legitimate and somewhat original script, put serious thought into setting and costume, and do real work on the cinematography and editing.
I was the Dramaturg. Going into the project, I didn’t even really know what that word meant, but Professor Healey’s description was enough to work with. Being dramaturg, my main role was to work with Marinna, my director, on the script. We wanted to stick to the original script but with a twist. We liked the ability the Greek script gave us to be more creative with costumes and do something we aren’t used to. We struggled, however, with coming up with a twist. In the end we came up with what I thought was a great idea. We took the suggestion of the creationism vs. evolution debate in the beginning of the script and used that as a theme through the whole film. I liked this idea because it made it relevant.
Once we had our ideas down, and the script written, we needed to do some filming. Filming was fun, but COLD. When making our film plans, I did not realize how chilly it would be at the beach in December. Even going to the beach I thought I’d be fine. I had a tough guy attitude thinking the cold wouldn’t bother me. “Nah I won’t be cold” I remember telling my brother, “I’ve been running around in short-shorts and a jersey for the whole semester.” I’d had a cross country race in Boston the week before and thought that I’d experienced the worst. I was wrong. The wind was terrible, and the sand was frozen. The worst part was my feet. I honestly thought my toes were going to fall off at some point. This made driving home quite difficult. Overall, it was a rough day, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for art, and was definitely worth it to use the great setting.
My next order of business as Dramaturg was to arrange for use of the stage in the Little Theater. As a group we felt that it would be great to set up the story of Eros and Psyche as being narrated by Zeus and the Scientist. This was somewhat difficult because my email didn’t always get through and the stage is a popular space. We finally got a time slot, however, and got to filming. First we had to set it up in the context of a conversation between the two characters. We also cut back to the stage to show the conversation and growing conflict between Zeus and the Scientist. I thought this was the most fun part to film. We got to use the stage, spotlights, and actually had to memorize lines. That last part was a little tricky for some (Marinna) but we got through and had a good time and a successful shoot. The only negative was the costuming process. We aren’t exactly experienced costume makers, and my red toga came out looking a bit like a pink prom dress. Getting in and out of my costume was tricky to as there was not a lot of private space. I also almost lost my shirt because it was a black shirt on a black stage with no lights. I was kind of glad no one walked in while I was running around with a bare chest searching for my shirt. Thankfully I found it and did not have to make the walk back to the dorm shirtless.
The last pieces of filming I was involved in were the love potion and final scenes. I like the love potion scene because it involved my only line as Love (our name for Eros): “Drink this, and be with me for eternity.” I thought the close up shot with the cheesy line was very dramatic and soap-opera esque, it was great. The final scenes went well as they were pretty simple and involved minimal action. The only problem was the cold again and finding a baby to use. The secret of our baby is revealed in Marinnna’s video blog!
I am thankful I was not heavily involved in the editing. I helped a little, but that job was left almost entirely to Rebecca and Vanessa. I thought they did great and was quite grateful for the time and effort they put in. It looked like an incredibly tedious job, but I hope Vanessa and Rebecca feel that the results were worth it.
I don’t know if filmmaking is for me. It was fun to make the script and to act, but it was also highly stressful. Everything needs to be right, and you have to overcome a ton of obstacles including cold, busy schedules, and email malfunctions. The project was fun though and definitely a great experience. I learned a lot, had a bunch of laughs, and did something new.
