Pearls of Wisdom
Jacque Rabie - Production Blog
As a part of our Film 3 adapted story project, we're required to blog and document our process.
This is the website I'll be writing about my upcoming short, Pearls of Wisdom
Based off the short story: Graduation Day by Stephen King
November 2nd, 2016
This is my first post. I've just emailed the office of Stephen King to obtain the rights for the film, and was met with an awesome response! While I cannot redistribute the film commercially, it's really cool to be able to adapt a Stephen King story and submit it to festivals. Now onto the script itself...
November 3rd, 2016
Just finished the Beat Sheet for the film! Due to the short story being so dependent on Janice's internal monologue, I had to mix things up and add new scenes in. The adaption is a bit looser than I'd thought it would be, but I think it will yield an interesting end product that is its own unique story, but nevertheless a child of Mr. King's masterful prose.
November 4th, 2016
Script Draft 1 - Done.
November 7th, 2016
Just sent out the casting call to our school's theater department head. Hopefully she gets back to me soon with the names of some students interested in the auditioning for the short!
November 10th, 2016
I got a few Brentwood Students to reply and am planning on auditioning them on Sunday. However to get even more potential actors, I posted it on Breakdown Express and received over a hundred responses! I narrowed it down to just 24 to audition on Saturday.
November 11th, 2016
Many actors cancelled out last minute, but there were still too many to fit on Sunday alone. So now they're spread out over Saturday and Sunday and I had to cancel some plans, but I should be able to do some editing for another project or some common app work during the breaks. I created a schedule on google docs that lists my attendees. A long-time friend of mine from Illinois who has helped me on previous projects, Lauren Nold, is going to sit in on the auditions. Two other friends of mine, Nikolai Stevens and Kate Maloney, may sit in to read for the opposite parts when Lauren is unable to during the long couple of days. With my fifth, and hopefully final, draft of the script all good to go. Production is nearing ever closer. Here we go...
November 11th, 2016
Just to give the potential actors a feel for the rigorous work required on the days of the shoot, I've created a temporary shooting schedule using Adobe Story, the same software I use for screenwriting. Totally reccomend it.
Plus...sneak peek of a cheap little prop I just got in below. Took way too long to make that into a gif:
November 12th, 2016
Testing out some VFX for the film. Still not great, but lets agree that my fourth attempt was a step up from my first...
Attempt One vs Attempt Four
November 13th Update: Attempt Five Screencaps Below
It's almost there I think. Maybe he should be silhouetted a bit more in the final frame, but that can be fixed in post easily.
I'll also shoot with various exposures and focal distances (with pulls) on the day. It's just a static shot with shake added in post.
For the bomb I'm using stock. For the flaring an additive layer of just a yellow tinted solid, that's what sells it with some compositing.
November 13th, 2016
Using a new method I read about for shot listing that Script Supervisors use, I love it. It's time consuming but it makes you think, and it works way better within the context of the script. Shotlists written separately can be too abstract for me to follow on the day of the shoot. I'll likely transfer the info to a excel doc regardless for saftey though.
November 12th-14th, 2016
Auditions! I do my auditions online, as I've found it way easier needing a location. Lauren, being the awesome friend she is, stuck with me the entire couple days to help out. One of my top choices for Buddy is depicted below.
November 16th, 2016
With my meeting with the actors tomorrow and my party (with all the extras) shoot in two days - I have to get ready. Here I am toying around with some lighting setups for the party scene, I don't love it and it is far from perfect but it'll have to do. The whole thing feels jumbled up and out of place, but I'm hoping to really push the idea of an "alternate" 1980s which will both cover for my mistakes and add a bit of mystery and fantasy with it's own lore into the film.
November 16th, 2016
Principal Shooting has wrapped!
Couldn't post updates during the shoot because I was beyond busy over the weekend. Didn't have a free second, but with three days of shooting and 1/3rd of a rough cut all down, I'm on a good path. Admittedly after the first couple days I was pretty let down with what the story was unfolding out to be, but as I'm starting to put it together it is more inline with my initial vision. I don't think it will be as awful as I was thinking yesterday, as it certainly has some strong scenes, but what it will look like when all is said and done is up in the air.
I'd like to thank Jessica Corbett, Matt Lindberg, Chloe Rosenstock, and Varda Appleton for always showing up on time and being extremely friendly and engaged. They are honestly all the best actors I could've asked for. From keeping up our red/white color costume motif, to the awesome lunches and discussions we had, to everything else, they were the easiest bunch to work with ever. Cameron Woodle, Lorenzo Ortiz, and Nikolai Stevens for helping out when they could on the shoot and asking nothing in return. My parents for beyond helping out, being extremely supportive, and dealing with me making a mess of the house. And Mr. Preskill for encouraging me to peruse the idea and keeping me on track
Ultimately I learned that I hate wide lenses, seriously, I swear they make everything look bad, I don't know how most DP's that prefer them do it. And I think that my directing abilities (while still very flawed) are getting way better, and I'm able to run a set and communicate with actors efficiently and professionally. Even if this turns out to be one of my worst projects since I started taking storytelling seriously, it's nevertheless an indicator (especially in terms of planning, editing, VFX, shot selection, blocking, and directing actors) that I've really matured as a filmmaker.
I've attached some early preview screencaps below!
November 30th, 2016
Since I've been gone...I can breathe for the first time, I'm moving on with the movie.
So with Mr. Preskill's help, I changed the initial title: How Much is a Necklace Worth in Dirt? to The Pearls of Wisdom.
The new title has a bunch of double meanings to it, and just flows off the tongue better. Glad we changed it.
I've also completed a few iterations of the edit. I'm on rough cut number 3 right now. A lot of changes to be made, but we're getting there. The ending needs work in its pacing to really make it truly impactful. There's a bunch of mild audio/coloring/framing issues littered throughout as well that I have to work on.
Tomorrow we're shooting the last scene we need to wrap: the graduation scene towards the end of the film. It's only five shots, a quick dialogue scene inside the library, then another scene outside the school that requires an ultra-wide drone shot. Hopefully it'll be that last push to turn the movie from exceedingly average to something interesting.
December 3rd, 2016
Made a bunch of edits, most just technical fixes, but I'm inching ever nearer to a final cut. With finals and more college application deadlines coming up I'm not sure I can spend much more time on this project, but right now I'm at a place where I can almost comfortably say that it's done. I just need to shoot and put in the tv/radio broadcasts, make a few minor edits, and have Mr. Preskill approve it and I should be good to go! It didn't come out totally as I envisioned and I blame that to me rushing into production without really working on the script, but I think the important themes and ideas are present and that for a good portion of audiences it'll be a, if nothing else, entertaining watch. Certainly came out more lighthearted (save for the end) and comical that the script, and I do like that aspect of it.
Below I've attached a screenshot of my timeline for the project as well as my color grading workspace.
