The Process of Making a Movie

“The Man of Her Dreams” is a movie I have been working on for quite some time. The film’s opening will be available to view by April 9th. Until then, I’m going to share with you all the process and how it all went down. 

    It started with the idea, which at first was of a school girl being the main character, but I decided to change this to a young adult because of how it would conflict with ideas for the film, such as how she dreams of getting married and the choice of limited dialogue. 

    Putting this idea into action this past week, I learned how difficult film making could be, especially since I was the director, editor, cinematographer, and writer all in one. I was responsible for executing all parts of the plan, which meant I had to be specific when telling the actors what to do while filming them, hoping they understand what I mean. 

    This led to doing many takes before I was satisfied with the clip. I shot the cooking scene 3 times: twice before I shot the dream sequence, and once at the very end while I quickly started editing so I can confirm that all clips worked out. That is when I realized I didn’t like the eggs and bacon scene, and re-shot it. A majority of the process was done all in one day because my actors were leaving town the next day, so if I wanted to reshoot a scene I had to know while they were still at my house and before the sun went down soon after. 

    At first, I thought the clip where Angelina (actress for Grey) blinks at the camera was too short and too quick, thinking I was stuck with a lesser product. However, after adding the sound of the alarm, I realized it was perfect the way it was, which was a huge relief. 

    I also had issues with background noise since some shots were outside or in the car. Specifically in the scene where Angelina turns on the car, the air conditioning started blasting loudly. Thankfully, CapCut premium allowed me to cut out unwanted sound from that scene and others, such as the weather report. While my Dad was acting, someone closed a toilet lid, which can be heard in the background of the final take until I edited it out. 

    I was also unspecific when telling Angelina what to wear for pajamas, so when she showed up in Grinch pajama pants and a PINK tour shirt, I became worried. Luckily, this also worked out well as it contributed to her character who is a young adult still learning how to fit in with other adults, later evident by her attempt to be formal in the latter half of the film opening. 

    Another issue I was able to fix was when I asked Angelina to send a mugshot picture of her boyfriend, Landon, who played the man in her dream. I forgot to mention the fact that he should have a wall in the background, so the picture I was sent had the background of the store they were in. Using IbisPaintX, I drew over the background, carefully drawing around him. Since his hair was messy, I had to go back and redraw strands that were out of place using the many shades of brown of his hair. I then drew in the shadow and then the perfect mugshot was born. While it may be slightly obvious up close, I knew it would be fine since I was filming it on a small portion of my TV. 

Here are the before and after pictures: 

I learned a lot from the process. I learned how to edit by messing around with CapCut’s features as well as how to configure a weather report. I learned how to direct and that I need to be more specific and often act out what I’m picturing so that the actors can get a visual of what I want them to do. The main lesson I learned, however, was that the final product isn’t always going to be what you imagined or dreamed of. Being able to recognize the fact that the product is still good is hard when it didn’t live up to your own expectation, even when other people are telling you about how amazed they are by it. Over time, I was able to come to terms with it and agree with them about it being good as well. I grew alongside my project, as it was moving along, so was my knowledge and I. 

This post may not make total sense yet, which is why you should subscribe to my blog to find out what this is all about on April 9th and to see more Lit Littman Posts!