Hair and Costume!

So here comes my FAVORITE part of shooting anything ever.
HAIR AND COSTUME!!!
Ricardo deals with much of the shooting, and script writing,  but I excel in planning out and making everything aesthetically pleasing.
First, we thought of the hair. We looked at SEVERAL different options online, looking at men's magazines from the 70's, that 70's show, and looking at old band members from the 70's (like ABBA, Queen, and The Beatles). 
Here were some options that we experimented with:

Eventually, we decided to go with the second one (the side part). However, all these styles were made extremely quickly without proper tools or anything, just really fast and with a comb. 

But come the day of shooting, I am planning on using a round brush, dry shampoo, and pomade in order to make the hair look more voluminous and better than ever.

I also proposed the idea of a mustache prosthetic, which Ricardo quickly shut down because of money :( 

Aside from hair, Ricardo and I spent all day at Goodwill, trying to find vintage clothes. One thing I knew from the 70's fashion (for men), is that usually they wore neutral colors, such as beige or brown. If not, colors were not bright or flashy, and patterns were not over-the-top. This was our inspiration:

and this is what we ended up getting:

We are also looking for aviator-like reading glasses, which we can get at a relatively cheap price

Overall, I am extremely excited, because now we will begin to buy all the props and decorations!

Problems with our actors :(

We waited for a couple of weeks for responses to our post asking for actors and well they were.... disappointing.
Although we looked at many actors, we didn't see any that stood out or had the ability to act well enough for our liking. Here are some shots from our auditions:

None of them really fit the role and Ricardo and I were starting to worry.
Eventually, Ricardo and I decided that it would be best if Ricardo were the one to act in this. Although, he's not an actor, he's passionate enough to deliver the lines, and he has acted before. He's not too bad.
The problem is that now I have to be the person behind the camera, which I have little to no experience in doing. So now we have to take an extra day for me to practice, or risk production being slowed down.
Ricardo also doesn't know how to cry on command, which means I want to get a tear stick, but alas it would cost a lot more money :(

Location Issue

As Ricardo and I began to plan out our shots and schedule, we realized we had come up with a huge problem with the location. Since it is set in the bathroom, and we don't have an actual set to film it in, we will have to manipulate the camera and basically press it against the wall in order for it to work. 

Ricardo's bathroom, the one we are filming in, is long, but not wide at all. The main actor sitting on the toilet basically takes up most of the space already, and we don't have enough space for the cameraman and the camera to fit. 

We have approximately 3 feet of space from the actor to the camera; however, this is tricky to do well seeing as we don't have the equipment to maximize the space. Ricardo currently has a Lumix G7 with a micro 4/3 sensor size. 

The 2x crop factor cuts half of our field of view, so we cannot get the proper width of the shot we need. 

We tested out different angles with Ricardo's 14mm lens, and realized that it would only give us approximately 3.84 ft of width.

This is not enough space. 

We decided to approach the equation from a different perspective, starting with the amount of feet we need, approximately 4 and a half feet. From this, we found that the lens we would need is a 12mm lens. 

The only problem is that Ricardo doesn't own a 12 mm lens, and they are extremely expensive. 

Considering that this is about $150 over our budget, we need to find another solution.

Production Schedule

Unfortunately, Ricardo and I do not have much time to film this due to schedule conflicts. However, we are pre-planning, scheduling, and setting everything up perfectly so that come the day of shooting, we do not have to waste time that can be used for filming setting everything up. We believe that based on productivity of past projects and our extensive prepping, shooting itself should only take one day, maybe two.
Ricardo came up with a schedule for the day of shooting.

There was also the question of time management within the film itself- therefore, we planned out each shot precisely. We will try to stick as closely to this schedule as possible, and we will only change it if we absolutely have to.

Soon, we will start filming and I really hope this works out!

Problems with Casting

Although we have gotten some responses, our original post for casting required only a headshot. However, this was not enough information to determine whether or not those auditioning were good actors.
The introduction to our short film is basically silent, besides some small sounds and words of comfort. Therefore, it would be extremely hard for actors to audition with our own script.
Ricardo and I therefore made them audition with a scene from Revolutionary Road. This scene is extremely dramatic and emotional, that it would completely allow for the actors to show off their skills. It also allows us to see how these actors would portray Trevor's emotional nature as well.
This is the scene we chose. 
We narrowed it down to Leonardo DiCaprio's "monologue", since we are looking for male actors. This is what we provided for them to audition with.

And now, we wait...

Storyboarding

While we waited for the actors to respond to our casting call, Ricardo and I discussed the general idea of the introduction. Then, Ricardo storyboarded the scene.
Although it may be hard to follow, here its is:

This clearly outlined the scene and helped visualize it in our minds better. Now that it is storyboarded, I'm feeling a lot more confident and excited about shooting.

Getting Actors

Our film opening requires only two characters- Trevor and the victim. Nonetheless, we decided to get experienced actors and not use friends and family to act. Ricardo has used a website from the past that allows him to get multiple people who are interested in acting to audition for our movie.

 We used a website called "Backstage", which allowed us to reach beyond friends of friends. We also found an online coupon which helped with paying for this, since its not free.
We first filled out the details of the movie itself....

And then of the roles... 

And now we wait....

Title (no longer) Pending....

One component that horror/ thriller movies have is that ominous title. Usually its not too long and it serves as intrigue and mystery. For example, the movie Split has a one-word title and the movie technically is relevant to the title. However, the word "split" is ominous and does not give too much of the plot away. Short titles such as Saw, Psycho, and Scream all have ominous, and effective ways of striking intrigue in the viewer before they even press play.
The exceptions to this rule include The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, these titles still have a very ominous tone, and therefore are very effective. They also make use of usually frightening words such as "silence", "nightmare", and "Texas" "Massacre".
For our movie title, Ricardo and I decided to stray from the usual one or two sentence titles. Ricardo was heavily inspired by a poem written by Stéphane Mallarmé. This specific excerpt was where he drew the inspiration.

So we introduce to you our film...

When We Keep Silent

We believed this title was effective because although it was long, it still kept the ominous tone as other long titles did, and we even kept the frightening word "silent". It also was not too long, and overall became kind of catchy after a while. 

The poem touches on how it is hard to understand ourselves and the world around us. This ties in to Trevor's story perfectly because it is hard for him to understand his feelings, and it is hard for his victims to understand his unusual behavior.

Furthermore, this title, I believe, is a great fit.