Video Production
Have you ever wondered what your feelings would say if they could talk?
In Touch is a light-hearted short film focused on giving a voice to some of our feelings such as Hunger, Sad, Love, Sleepy…
I was interested in creating something different from the conventional narratives that we usually see. I was also interested in the challenge of building so many different moods and environments with very few resources.
This project involved writing the script, creating a storyboard, a color palette for each character, a shot list, a schedule, gathering all the elements for production design, including a shooting location, renting equipment, shooting, and editing.
I shot In Touch in a week, between work and school hours on a Canon 5D. I used two different lenses a 20 and a 70-300 zoom lens. One for a wider shot and the other for the closer shots. I set the camera on a tripod and recorded the audio separately on my phone with my headphones microphone. Not the most high-end equipment but the most available and the cheapest.
The shooting was the most challenging and exhausting part. I’d spend hours getting ready, taping a backdrop to the wall, taping bags of chips, or sticking stars to the wall, trying different things, different gels, putting on different costumes, doing my hair and make-up, rehearsing, and then the actual recording would take an hour.
With this project, I wanted to prove to myself that I didn’t need much to make it work, I didn’t need a lot of money, I didn’t need a lot of resources or people. I wanted to keep it as “low budget” as possible. However, in the end, people, resources, money all of that was needed. I ended up having to buy an extra batterie after one of mine gave up. I ended up needing my husband to stand behind the camera instead of doing it myself. I ended up needing people to use a location, I ended up needing people for costumes and set designs. I ended up needing people for emotional support when things got hard.
Things did get hard; challenges arose and I even started disliking the project.
Regardless, I’ve learned once again, it doesn’t matter. I kept going and solved the problems the best I could.
After shooting for a week, I realized I wasn’t as happy as I wanted with the footage, some looked messy, some were straight up out of focus, some the lighting was off, just things here and there weren’t working. I had a day left to fix it, I couldn’t re-shoot all the scenes with issues. So here is what I did, I thought “ok, what can I do to fix this?” A little bit of unplanned creativity is the answer. My ability to solve problems and think creatively is what I am proud of.
During the editing process, I felt a bit drowned and overwhelmed by the project. After cutting different rough cuts and discussing ideas with my mentor, I was able to find a way to make the best out of what I had. I got rid of what wasn’t working and kept only what did.
It wasn’t what I planned but we don’t learn without surprises and challenges.
Thankfully, the lessons are worth it, ultimately that’s what this senior project was about.
Hard work, accepting failure, and moving forward no matter what.
My name is Juliette Cheve and I am The Clumsy Dreamer. This project was a clumsy, challenging dream that did come true.
I hope you enjoy the final result.
A little bit about the process
- Writing a script: I wrote about 4 different versions of the script
- Storyboard: Find a few pictures from the storyboard below
- Shot list: A shot list is a list of the shots needed in a certain order, it works along with the storyboard.
- A schedule: Day and time of the shooting.
- Production design: It includes gathering props for the set, finding a location, renting gear, and preparing the equipment needed for the shooting.
- Shooting: It includes staging, lighting, hair, makeup, costumes, rehearsing, and recording.
- Editing: It includes exporting footage, organizing footage, creating a project on Final Cut Pro, syncing audio with video, cutting scenes together multiple times, adding sound effects, adding music, mixing all the audio together, adding titles, color grading and exporting.
- Creating a poster: Find a few different versions of the poster below until the final result.
