Pitch Room
SYNOPSIS
A young screenwriter named Alex uses new simulation technology to practice a film pitch. As he tries to make the pitch, he realizes how cluttered his thoughts about the film are, and keeps getting distracted by memories about Lucy, a childhood friend and later girlfriend. This leads him to want to reconnect with Lucy, whom he mistreated. Lucy is more important to him than the film, an idea that he now realizes was inspired by how important she is to him.
Director's Statement
Pitchroom started with our brilliant writer’s interest in psychology and the stream of consciousness. Draft after draft we bounced ideas of each other and our pre-production team until the idea of a simulation room was agreed upon. I love to make films that depict a realistic character than an audience can relate to. Our main character “Alex” is the everyday American dreamer that shows the struggle to obtain his dream of being a successful screenwriter. Alex uses new and advanced simulation technology to practice his pitch before his meeting with a production company. While in the simulation room practicing his pitch, Alex’s mind veers off into past memories, leading him to a realization that he wants to reconnect with his childhood friend Lucy. I wanted to tell this specific story so I could capture the frustration that Alex’s character felt while practicing his pitch, but also to depict the nostalgia he has for his days as a teen.
Cinematically, I had many visions for this film. I was very inspired by the contrast between reality, the virtual reality, and the memories. I envisioned each point on the timeline with different coloring and different shots. Immediately after receiving the script, I was able to transfer the story from text to visuals. I wanted to use a lot of long shots and shots involving movement to disorient the audience and create a sense of an alternate reality. While the shots were used to disorient the audience, I also wanted to reflect the emotions Alex was experience through form. I envisioned many odd angles, both high and low, to show the transfer of power from Alex to the simulation, to the other characters in the film. Creating a storyboard for this film took lots of time and careful consideration of shot composure, which translated very well on the shoot days.
We filmed January 27th and 28th at a total of 4 locations. Our crew was very diligent and created a wonderful balance between professionalism and creativity. While we did not face many difficulties on our indoor locations, we ran into some obstacles at our outdoor location. The wind was very strong, which made it very difficult for our crew to record useable audio. However, we found ways to block the wind in some shots, and utilized voiceover and Foley to make up for the shortcomings of the actual shoot day. I worked very closely with our director of photographer who transferred my vision from storyboard to screen. His knowledge of the technology as well as shot composure truly helped bring my vision to life.
Our outstanding actors brought our script to life, and with help of our makeup and hair crew, really embodied the essence of our characters.
Another large part of the creative process has been music. Our team was very inspired by techno music and decided to compose some pieces on our own. I composed a few pieces on the piano, which have been editing with logic to add a more synthetic feel to our film. I also wanted our music to reflect the point in time of the film; which changed from reality, to the simulation room, to the past memories. The music and the coloring paired to create a different feel for each time frame of the film. The memories include warmer tones, softer music, and portrayed a nostalgic feel. The simulation room was very blue toned, plays more synthetic sounding music, and creates a more futuristic feel. And the present-day time frame of the film is more neutral and serves as a bridge from the simulation to the memories.
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