Project Profile: “Crazy in Love”
An interview with student filmmakers on the creative process and IB Film.
“Crazy in Love” was one of our highest scoring student films productions submitted by Stanton students for 2015 assessment cycle. A good deal of the success behind the film lies with its careful planning and meticulous post-production — qualities on ample display in both the final product and the accompanying documentation.
In this project profile the film’s creators (Jedd M., Riley B., Sophie H. and Jenna L.) look back on their final product and how they got there.
JA: What is you movie about? Why did you choose this subject matter, techniques, themes etc?
JM: Our movie took a different twist to the whole idea to the romantic film. We incorporated what can be argued as a psychological thriller-aspect to the movie in order to subvert traditional conventions about love. We didn’t want to have a traditional plotline and [because] we had such great actors so we wanted to see how far they (notably Anoosh) could push their limits.
And thus, in order create an unconventional film, we had to use some different techniques as well — there are some scenes that feature the subject three times in the same frame, and many of the shots are combined into one. All in all, we just really felt like a dark approach to love was the most fitting as it is rarely explored and deep down inside, everyone can relate to at least one failed love relationship that produced unrealistic expectations.
SH: [We drew] from two different genres: romantic and psychological horror, we split the film into two distinct sections. The first section was the romantic date and the second was the mental hospital. We like to classify “Crazy in Love” as an unconventional romantic movie because it has a horrific twist at 00:4:24.
We modeled the cute homemade romantic date on (500) Days of Summer and the unexpected psychological horror aspect on the movie The Shining. We wanted to create a feeling of shock at the realization. We liked the feel the voiceover in (500) Days of Summer gave to the movie and decided to also adapt it to the first half of our film.
JA: Tell me a little about how you formed your PP team and chose roles? What advice would you offer for students as they are forming teams?
JM: We chose our roles based on what we had prior experience in and what we enjoyed. I really wanted to be sound editor because I spend a little too much time listening to film scores and I felt like it would help our group.
If you have prior experience behind a camera, or if you know how to play an instrument, or how to edit music, please bring that up when [choosing] roles. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to complete your role if it is something you know how to do and are thoroughly engaged in.
And if you are fighting over a role with someone else, just remember who has the most access to the materials necessary and how is more equipped, ability-wise.
RB: I was the editor for this production. My role, as editor, included working with the sound editor as well as the director to make sure that all of the elements were mixing together cohesively.
I chose this role because I love how powerful editing can be. In other words, a scene can have so many different meanings based on how it is edited together; a fact that fascinates me as an artist. The post-production process is my favorite because I am taking all of the footage that we shot in the field and putting it together to make an actual movie.
SH: I was the cinematographer for this production [and] was behind the camera while filming, deciding the look of each shot, the angle of the camera, and the lighting, all of which was imperative to the desired “feeling” of the film.
Part of my role included planning for the production by working with the director as well as location, set, and costume designers and others in order to develop a cohesive look for the film. I chose this role because of my interest in photography. I am an avid photographer and have participated in student art shows and contests and wanted to test my skills with the moving image.
JA: Reflect a little bit on the planning and pre-production process. What worked and didn’t work for you? What would you do differently?
JM: Planning was honestly the hardest part about making the film. We knew we wanted to twist the romantic genre, but we weren’t sure how exactly we were supposed to go. We spent maybe a total of three hours discussing our plan of action, but perhaps the most helpful thing was actually just sitting down with the group alone and just talking. Even if our ideas sounded silly, we voiced them, and eventually we were able to combine parts from here and there to have a basic idea.
I would definitely have a computer in front of me during this process though, as sometimes some ideas go forgotten and they end up being really, really good.
SH: Both of our actors were good friends of ours so we were able to quickly contact them and figure out where our schedules overlapped. We had some initial difficulty finding days that we could all be available, but originally decided on three open days. We used the entire first day filming the opening getting‐ready‐for‐the‐date shots and the shots for the stalker idea so in the end we also had to add a fourth day of filming in February to complete all of the boy’s scenes in the mental hospital.
JA: How did the actual filming process go? What were the biggest “a-ha” moments? What do you wish you knew in advance?
JM: Filming was a bit crazy. We filmed for a day, took a break, and perhaps a month later we decided to completely change our idea so we ended up barely using the initial footage we shot. It basically comes down to thinking about how feasible everything is, as some of our ideas required a lot of technical expertise and outside elements that we did not have any connections with.
The biggest part is to be open-minded.
We were scheduled to film one day after school, and that morning we figured out our entire plan for “Crazy in Love” and we spent the entire school day texting each other ideas, back and forth. Remember to be resourceful and to plan for mistakes (such as a lack of outdoor lighting, which we fixed by using car headlights.)
RB: In order to communicate the constant parallelism in the film, we determined that the shots should mirror each other to create an interesting back and forth element to the film. My role as editor meant working alongside the cinematographer and director to observe the shots they chose, then weave them together in the editing process to create similarities.
These editing parallels come up as the two characters are getting ready for their date as well as when the boy is in the mental hospital versus his bathroom. The editing is quick and cuts back and forth to emphasize the relationship between the two characters, and later the boy’s routine before and after he went insane.
SH: The most important part of our film, in my opinion, was the second half, when the boy is discovered to be in the mental hospital. I allowed for an unsteady camera, as it emphasized the craziness of the scenes. We used the natural doctor’s office fluorescent lighting and, in post‐production, we added a filter to further dull the shots.
As previously mentioned, we tried to use a lot of parallel shots, so when we wanted to overlap him getting ready for the date and getting ready for a day in the mental hospital, I made sure that the shots overlapped enough so that you could see both at the same time when we edited them together, but not so much that it was aesthetically unpleasing.
I had to work hard to create enough variety in the types of shots by using a mixture of OTS shots7, long, medium, and close up shots8 as well as many angles for each scene we shot so that in post production we had many options to choose from when balancing similarity and variation in the visuals.
JA: Post-production can be a lengthy part of the process — what were some of the setbacks and accomplishments that you encountered.
JM: Having a computer with a large amount of memory is perhaps one of the most important components about post-production. Otherwise, your computer would be slow and you wouldn’t have room to even render your clips, let alone export the entire project.
We realized that we totally ignored continuity in some scenes, so we had to incorporate this into the script to make it seem natural.
Again, prepare for the worst and be creative about it. We forgot to tell our actress to wear the same clothes so we incorporated it into the script. Don’t be afraid to take time in post-production to do trial and error — composing the music took roughly three hours because I was never satisfied with the final outcome. Just be patient and your movie will literally unfold over the course of post-production.
The end product will be something you’re definitely proud of.
JA: Looking back, how would do you feel about the entire process?
SH: My role as cinematographer was important throughout the production process. A goal of ours was to make sure we kept the film interesting with the use of different angles on the same scene, so I helped make sure shots paired well for both parallelism and continuity. Also when using the fading transition to show parallelism or the passage of time, I helped select the shots that best achieved that goal based on their composition and lighting.
RB: As editor I could not have [accomplished my role] without the help of the cinematographer, sound editor, writer and director. Our goal as a group was to make an interesting film use by using innovative camera shots and dynamic editing techniques. Any problems or issues that we had proved to not matter because we always thought of long lasting solutions and we made sure that the editing also covered up any mistakes. The post-production process proved vital in making our film the best it could be.
JM: It was such a great experience, and it was all thanks to my fellow group members and my actors who remained focused on the task no matter how tired or how repetitive things got.
It really comes down to being bold and daring.
Don’t underestimate things going wrong and mistakes happening, but also don’t have a negative attitude about it all. These movies are nearly impossible to create just in one day, and if things aren’t looking well from day one, there’s always day two.
It definitely taught me to expect the unexpected and compromise with my teammates.
