Last year I was so set on becoming an actress. However, it was just one of those things that I was kind of embarrassed to tell a lot of people (including my parents). One of my friends wants to start her own law firm, and another wants to be someone in the UN, and I'm just like, "I want to be an actress and then marry Zachary Quinto". You know?
So anyway, RENT, the school musical was starting, and with it, a new idea took root. Everyone's seen those documentaries on like, high schools or whatever getting ready to put on a play. Those films, however, are always about the main cast. The leads. What about the chorus? Where are the ensemble in all this? I decided to show what REALLY goes on behind the scenes.
Which is basically nothing. Which was the point.
If I could be in a doc. with all my friends, I could get a lot of screen time. meaning I could learn to be comfortable in front of the camera.
After a while, I stopped being interested in entertaining the camera and started thinking about the camera itself. What if I sat two people in the lounge opposite eachother at the table, and use the camera and zooming and angles to make it intense. Only, the conversation would be about nothing. For example:
[morgan and ben are both shown at the table][focus on morgan over ben's shoulder] Morgan: Did you do your french homework yet?[cut to ben, camera over morgan's shoulder] Ben: no, why?[close up on morgan] morgan: I was hoping you can help me.[cut to ben and start slowly zooming in] ben: maybe we can do it together after I finish global[zoom out and up, filming from overhead but back farther] morgan: ok. sounds good.[fade out]
Also, I was thinking about a west wing shot. You know, a shot where the characters are walking and the camera moves with them? They could be walking quickly and talking, but talking about nothing. Since all of the shots would be so dramatic, but the dialog so empty, It would be funny.
When I started filming the random shenanigans that went on backstage, I was more interested in making sure the shot looked good then looking good in the shot. When I went home, I would spend hours editing and cutting the film, trying new techniques (using crappy microsoft moviemaker) and time would pass by and it didn't even feel like it was passing.
That's when I realized I wanted to be a director.
I was thinking about the whole thing last night and decided that I had to write it down, so that if I'm a successful director someday, and I'm asked "when did you decide you wanted to direct", I'd be able to remember exactly.
