Assignment #1: Movie Idea and Basic Description

Due today is a short paragraph describing the movie we want to make. After some consideration and discussion with a few friends, I decided to go with "Puzzle to My Heart". Although my dream ideas sound more professional, experimental, and fun, I think for now I'll stick with "Puzzle to My Heart" as it has a smaller cast, one location, and is already written. Should my muse decide to get her rear in gear and inspire me to write one of the other scripts I have in mind, then perhaps I'll switch to one of those. I still have time. Here is the assignment:

“Puzzle to My Heart” is the story of a puzzle-obsessed Stacks librarian who discovers a code in a book and follows it to a series of books, each with a coded clue inside. You see, she never met a puzzle she didn’t love. The code takes her on a journey of more codes in order to learn the identity of the person who created the greatest puzzle she would ever solve. Little does she know that the creator is someone she overlooks on a daily basis. This is an intellectual love story with a surprising twist.

The First Set of Auditions

So this past Saturday I went to the theater department's play auditions. I stayed for the first group of students. What ended up happening was they got about an hour ahead of schedule since the students didn't take the full time to audition that they had. They ran out of students to have audition and had to make calls to students to come in sooner than their scheduled times. Of the first thirteen I saw, I picked two males that I thought could fit roles in my movie (Lee Becker and David Wettle) and two females that could fit roles in my movie (Carmella Losi and Brianna Kowitzkiss). I am a little worried because Brianna is a bit older and may create imbalance if I get David to act, who looks younger. This is assuming I go with the "Puzzle to My Heart" script which will be set in the library at school.

I came up with another idea inspired by a dream I had last night and a discussion I had with a friend of mine about "nightwalk" which is a type of storytelling that takes place in a daydream and then reveals something significant about the character (his definition, not mine).

"The Goners"
And even in dreams, there's no such thing as safety.

It would be about a girl who gets kidnapped in her dreams and can't tell whether she was kidnapped in real life or if she had died.

Taglines and Ideas

Three movie ideas and their taglines.

"The Reason"
Everything happens for a reason. She was his.

"Puzzle to My Heart"
She never met a puzzle she didn't love.

"Hush"
They say dreams can't hurt you. Said dreams beg to differ.

Expectations and Ideas

As of this moment, I know that the following are requirements for this semester's production:

• Marketing plan
• DVD of the final video
• Professional DVD case with cover art, synopsis, movie stills
• Trailer
• Production stills
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• Interview with the director (me)
• Press release
• Budget plan
• Production Journal/Blog

I should provide a little more information about this project. We are supposed to work individually to produce a video between ten and fifteen minutes in length. Having graduated from the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts high school, I was used to working by myself on videos and films, doing all the writing, casting, directing, cinematography, editing, and producing by myself. Over the last two years of college, I got into the habit of working in small groups of four wherein each person was assigned a duty (editor, writer, director, producer).

Working in a group has given me great insight into the phenomenon known as "delegating responsibility". Now that we're back to doing independent work again, I feel more in the zone because I learned which students in my class were best at certain aspects of production that I am capable of doing but not the best at. Therefore I can ask specific students if they would be willing to take a certain position within my production group.

So far I've asked Joe W. to be my cinematographer and he agreed. John S. also agreed to work with me on writing and playing piano music, as we aren't allowed to use copyrighted music for this project. I may ask Gabe S., John D., or Travis C. to assist me with editing since all three know how to use Final Cut Pro more effectively that I do.

I admit that I'm a bit nervous about making a professional DVD and treating this project like I'm preparing to submit it into a film festival. You see, over the winter break, I wrote a nine-page screenplay titled "Puzzle to My Heart". It's the tale of a puzzle-obsessed girl who works in a library, the co-worker boy who admires her from afar, and the puzzle she met and then fell in love with. Not that interesting of a story, is it? So with all the expectations of this project, you can see why I'm hesitant to use that script. I have several other ideas, you see. One involves a twist of dreams and reality, another a fabulous female indie character, and the last telling the story of a mime's dreadful curse.

With so many ideas competing for one slot, it's tempting to go with the idea I already wrote to save myself work, but then I feel like I might miss out on an opportunity to create a truly great movie from one of the other ideas. Due Monday is a paragraph about my movie concept, including a logline (definition: a movie's description in thirty words or less). I can scrap the idea after I pitch it and choose another concept, but I can't pitch all my ideas and then work on the one that receives the most feedback.

A Brief Introduction

If you're reading this blog, then you are doing so because of one of the following:

1. You are interested in seeing all the work and thought put into a movie from start to finish.
2. You are my professor.
3. You obviously have nothing better to do with your time. 

Now that we've discovered your motives for reading, hello! Welcome to the most fabulous, wondrous, amazingly entertaining blog known to mankind. Okay, that's an exaggeration. Welcome to what will likely be the least glamorous portrayal of a non-Hollywood production ever found on the vast reaches of the internet. I am not responsible for the very good chance that I may destroy, stomp on, mutilate, or any other way, shape, or form cause destruction to your ideas that film-making is at all glamorous and/or game-like. This is a serious business we're running here, folks. 

That being said, my name is Alyssa Ricigliano, I'm 19 years old, a sophomore in college, and a Television and Film Arts major focusing on the writing and directing of films. The class you will be observing through my eyes is called TFA 420: Producing Short Films II. Through this blog, I plan to show you the ins and outs of film-making from a student's perspective. This documentation will be the most thorough example of student production, working from A to Z to provide you with as much information as possible so you can truly see how a movie is produced, from conception to culmination.

Don't be afraid to enjoy it. It's not like you had to write any of this.