With help of incredible actors, friends, and school equipment Behind the Light brings the horror and fantasy that lacks at BYU-Idaho.
Pre-production
After gathering inspiration and receiving feedback from the main idea of “A horror fantasy short-film” the creative brief and script were done after days of writing and editing. Then, the creation of a shot-list with more than 100 shots with descriptive camera movements would help in the days of filming.
Keith Osuna and Adrian A. Taranco were actors who already were meant to be in the short-film, but the casting for the characters of Regan, Laura, and Dani started and rapidly got actors like Kasden Grasse, Abby Bravo, and Tabi Bilyeu casted and landed for the role.
Production
The schedule changed a lot as we were filming because of personal situations with my actors, equipment reservations, and weather because some of my scenes were filmed outside. In total we filmed 6 days for 6 or 7 hours, around 40 hours in total.
As a director I would always make my actors feel as comfortable and ready for their performance, so in set even when we were having fun, keeping everyone in line and in time was important too.
Lightning was always a priority, because I consider light to be another character, as well as music, who would add emotion to the scenes. However, without my actors skills it would not have the effect that it has.
Post-Production
Music Creation
In all my projects I have created the score for copyright purposes, but mainly because I enjoy creating music and I believe every project deserves it’s own score, vibe, soul.
So after some hours I created 5 different songs for specific scenes, as well the music for the trailer.
Editing
For 7 days I assembled my clips, created a rough cut, receive feedback from my mentor, and kept editing to get the best put of every second of the clip.
For sound effects I added only specific sounds that I felt are necessary like ambience, steps, and little details like door opening, the sound leafs being crushed, or the monster growling.
I am not the great at coloring, but in this case I wanted to learn every detail about colors, which my mentor helped me out and I ended up using up to 9 color nodes.
Marketing
If I wanted people to know about my project, I needed their time and attention. So, I created 3 short videos that would grab their attention with the suspense through the favorite social media of my target audience: Instagram and TikTok.
Then, with their attention now in the page I created a trailer for vertical and horizontal platforms. And finally creating the poster for the day of the release.
The social media pages were a success reaching more than 2,000 accounts, 8,000 views, and more than 250 interactions in total which people have message the account asking the place and time for the premier.
Conclusion
As an overall creating this shot-film was a whole new experience where I got to write, direct, edit, compose the music, and create the marketing side. I learned more about thee important aspects of video-production and communication not only through social media, but with real people face-to-face. Now, I am more prepared for future projects ready to handle crisis, challenges, and surprise the world with new creations.
Enjoy the Shot-film: