In the dim yellow light of his birthday candles, Ethan searches for something real to hold on to. A one take scene exercise in blocking with camera.

I did a oner! And it was really fun. I wanted to use my sophomore year apartment as a setting for a coming of age film, partially to commemorate the location where I did so much growing and the times I had with friends there, and partially because I was feeling really confused about who I was becoming.

Some thoughts: rehearsals were key. We did 3 rehearsals including a full day before we shot the film. We were planning to time the thing around sunset so that it would start as the sun goes down and end in pitch black. However I ended up wanting to do more takes and decided it was better to nail the performances than get that lighting cue.

Another thing I learned: the 1-page-per-minute-of-running-time trick DOES NOT WORK WITH ONE TAKE FILMS. I wrote a seven page script which ended up being about seventeen minutes because it was in real time. Big RIP.

I hired Pete Orlanski for sound who I hadn’t met before but I felt like I needed a professional to do that job. We ended up hiding Pete and his big sound cart behind a door in my dorm room and I just swore to frame him out the whole time. But yeah he was hiding there adjusting the wireless mics the whole time. Getting those tracks pre-mixed made his fee well worth it. Never skimp on sound when you’re doing something this complicated. There were actually many friends hiding in convenient places to help clear, re-set, or haze the set when the camera was elsewhere.

All in all I’m so proud of the amazing and hard working cast and crew.

Ashley Noel Long

Brian Yoon

Collin Lapinsky

Grace Sallee

Laura Holliday

Written, Directed, and Shot by Me

Sound - Pete Orlanski

Score - Logan Nelson

Thanks to Alex Currie, Lukas Dong, and Yuchi Ma