Conceptual Development & Scripting:
Prompted initially by a college supplemental video application requirement, the creative gears leading up to my short film, Dear Dad, began to turn. Following the prompt of creating a two minute visual narrative without the use of voiceover or dialogue to depict a character making an important decision, sparked my creative process. With a twelve day time frame to conceptualize, film, edit, and submit this supplemental piece, my mind raced toward ideas relevant to my own life.
Being a high school senior with intentions of following my desires to expand upon my creative vision via art school or film centered university, I sought to tell the story of a boy in my shoes.
The concepts of the film were birthed upon several storylines converged to depict a boy in the midst of the most nerve wracking time of his life. Every expectation, preconceived notion by parental figures, and personal motivation led up to the pivotal time in his life to pave his path to adulthood. With this character set in stone for my desired storyline, I later shaped the rest of the piece to tell a compelling story while following the guidelines of the prompt.
My inspiration to illustrate the life of a boy with differing aspirations for his future endeavors opposed to the aspiration of his determined father was cultivated out of witnessing the stories of my father’s childhood throughout mine. My father grew up in the blue collar society of New York and fostered his first intentions toward following his dream of becoming a photographer in high school. Headed toward Pre-med at Washington University in Saint Louis, my father’s career was thrown off course when he was granted a scholarship to attend Art Center School of Design in Pasadena. Having previously paid for college at Washington University by selling 6,000 of his hand-printed postcards in the dark room, the beginning stages of inspiration for my film took shape.
Combining the hearings of his stories with my personal desires and experiences throughout my high school career, I adapted the story to fit my creative direction. In addition, I added to the development of the son’s character to be inspired by the creative works of Richard Avedon and his style of portraiture as am I.
The inspiration is seen through the photos that the boy is hand-printing in the dark room which are indeed my own photos I took from my Richard Avedon emulation project.
With the guidance of my high school filmmaking teacher, Dean DePhillipo, my story was conceptualized and finalized in one day. Having the plot solidified, I began the race for finding my actors to best portray the emotion I was going for. The stars aligned and I was blessed to be working with world renowned actor and childhood parental figure/parent of my best friend, Billy Baldwin, after reaching out and pitching my idea and timeline for the project. With a connection to the local theatre department in my neighborhood, I scored the lead actor to play the son via a facebook flyer.
I utilized the week after conceptual development and scheduling, to shoot on a day to day basis of the several scenes in mind. During the course of filming, I honed my directing skills as I learned from and collaborated with both actors. With their insight and knowledge serving as a vital aspect of the creation of the film, my personal visual direction drove the extent to which ideas were received and conveyed. The process of collaboration, learning, and directing was the best takeaway for my future endeavors.
With the content captured, two, seven hour editing days following the shoot led me to the final piece that I humbly and proudly call, Dear, Dad.
*Several versions of this film were created to fit the time frame of various school application requirements