This was my first time ever acting and helping to make a film, and it sure was memorable. When I first got the script inhabited, I was really excited. But after reading it, I think I was more worried than anything else! I realized that the script could be interpreted in so many different ways and it would truly be up to my group to make it into something unique and interesting.

After reading the script, I decided that I wanted to be the script supervisor/editor since I had a pretty clear idea on how the film would play out. I had a real groovy train of thought. I noticed from some of the dialogue that the characters seemed pretty dated, especially spider. So I imagined the characters as being in the 60’s or 70’s. A lot of discussion later, my group and I decided on a pretty wacky and comical theme for the film. The setting was going to be in the 70’s. Blu is a funny stoner who loves Scooby Doo. In his hallucination, he imagines Velma, who takes the role of his conscience in the film and is basically Galvez. But this idea actually caused some problems for us. Sometimes Galvez would have lines directed at Spider, and vice versa. We decided to get around this  by only having Spider address Blu, and anytime that Galvez spoke, the audience would assume that she was talking through Galvez. All of this is supposed to make it seem as though everyone is having one trippy high, but in reality, Spider, Galvez, and Blu are actually “dust in the wind”, spirits from the 70’s that don’t realize that life has moved on without them (think Pink Floyd Time). The only characters in the present are Chris and Kel, who are moving into an apartment that hadn’t been inhabited since the 70’s. With all of the story plotted out and the technicalities sorted, it was time to move on to filming.

My group was lucky enough to be able to film at Douglaston Manor. It was really nice because we got to have a whole bridal suite to ourselves, without any interruptions (and it was apparently haunted too, go figure). Filming was definitely the hardest part of the project. It’s not easy to remember so many tiny lines, going back and forth and I really had sympathy for Noelia and Steven, who played the two major roles of Blu and Galvez. But even though it was frustrating at times, I still thought it was a positive experience because I was with friends and we really were working well (and hard) together. During each scene, whoever wasn’t acting was basically a director, and we all put in our input to nearly every scene. Chris was our cinematographer, and he was probably really frustrated about how many scenes we had to re-do. But I will say that being an actor is not easy, and memorizing lines and saying them in front of a camera isn’t easy, especially for me. In a way you feel pressured to act perfectly and execute things so well that you really trip yourself up. But after 3 long days together, we managed to finish filming! I don’t know much about the editing process, Noelia gracefully worked on it herself with minimal help from the rest of the group.

Overall I had a really positive experience. I loved working with everyone for the most part, and it was fun to design a concept for a film. In the end I thought the movie came out pretty cool, and I do think that we achieved our goal of what we were trying to portray. When I showed my mom the film, she thought it was very comical but I have to admit I was afraid to show it to her because of the language used in the film. I would certainly do something like this again if I were given the chance. Even though it was a long process the payoff was pretty great. I can officially call myself a filmmaker (kinda)!