Perfect Fit

A while back, I caught a friend's Facebook post about a 7 day film festival. Basically, each team had 7 days to put together a short film about 7-15 minutes long. The film would have to incorporate "secret items" that would not be known until the first of the seven days. So, basically, we had 7 days to write, rehearse, film, edit, and score a short film.

I contacted Marty and said I would love to be involved, especially with the writing part of it. The timing also fell perfectly in line with my layoff. Friday, July 31st was my last day, and we started the film on August 2nd.

I sent out a small list of ideas for shorts, and went over some of the ideas they had as well. One of my ideas was to play on Romeo and Juliet, but from a modern trans-perspective. We met in a small park Sunday afternoon and went over the "secret items" that had to be included. Basically, they made him pick his favorite films and then we had to incorporate at least one of them into the movie somehow. He picked Dune, Screaming Queens, and one other trans-film. The initial goal was to have a poster of Screaming Queens in the background for a shot or two, but things changed over time.

We went with the Romeo and Juliet theme with the trans-perspective and decided that an MTF and an FTM would fall in love, but their fellow trans-friends wouldn't be very positive about their relationship. The two would meet, would tell their friends who they are dating, but their friends would disapprove but agree to meeting the other. We would find out that they are actually coworkers that know one another before the final meeting of all parties.

I spent all of my first unemployed day working on the script, and by about 6pm, my mental energy was running out. I made it to the dinner portion of the script, but I couldn't figure out a way to end it. I called Marty and told him I was at a loss on how to move forward...and likely out of steam.

"Tell a joke," says Marty.

Hmmm...yeah, a joke. I remember the remake of "Look Who's Coming to Dinner" where they make a joke in which you think one thing, but then get the other. The joke asked, "What do you call 300 white guys chasing one black guy?"....the PGA tour.

Marty and I then scoured the internet in search of a good trans joke we could use to break the tension. Neither of us could find one, but my mind slowly churned one out...which we incorporated into the film.

Marty asked me to include some Dune quotes after I submitted my initial drafts with some Star Wars references in the dialog. Star Wars has way more memorable lines than Dune, and when asked to remove the Star Wars lines, I just couldn't find a good way to move the dialog forward in those areas...so, we kept the Star Wars references, while also throwing in the Dune ones. (I told Marty to just tell them my movie was Star Wars.)

A short scene or two were eliminated before the final product...in order to keep things going and not slow down the action. In fact, we couldn't find a large grocery or drug store that would allow us to film our initial opening scene (where our FTM and MTF leads were buying feminine products), so we shifted it so they were both trying to rent Dune...which also worked well with our Dune quotes.

I totally should have recorded what happened behind the scenes, as we had a lot of fun working on it all. Marty said he went from "steady-cam" to "jiggle-cam" any time he laughed during filming. There is also another version of the final scene were Sponge Bob shows up...which is absolutely hilarious, but I don't think it made the cut.

The final draft of the script was pushed out Tuesday with filming starting Wednesday. We wrapped filming Thursday night and Marty then had the remaining task of putting all the scenes together, along with the score. I think he did a fabulous job of putting everything together and have no idea how much sleep he lost while making it. And, while he didn't have Hollywood resources to tap into, I still think it's a fun little flick. I even got to act. If you look closely, you'll see that I play the bartender.

Below is the final product for the 7 Day Film Festival: