Casting

Casting wasn’t very difficult due to the fact that we only needed two actors: the student and school shooter. Choosing the school shooter was easy! Zach Tracey, a Junior at Sarasota high school, is tall and wears black clothing. This was the perfect look for our movie. Zach had the same schedule for our filming days as us because of an after school activity he was already in! In his shots, you cannot see his face, only his arms, hands, legs, and feet. I stood behind him to have an ideal position for his height.

Of course the easiest and best option for the student was my parter Elisabeth! Elizabeth has already had experience acting because of theater. In the movie opening she has a flute to represent that she is in a school. I filmed her for the majority of the movie until the POV shot of the school shooter. 

Film day two

 Day two was a very simple day. Elizabeth and I went to my house to film the last and final shot of our movie. This was the waking up scene. I held the camera over face while she was in my bed waiting to wake up. The was a 360 shot, so the camera was moving a lot and it was heavy. In the end everything worked out perfectly! 

Film day one

 On film day one, Elizabeth and I started around 5:30-6:00 after our marching band practice. We started outside and filmed each scene in order. We did lots of reshoots and practiced before filming. We had a Canon camera and gimbal which I used to film Elizabeth. The camera and gimbal where heavy but we didn’t have many technical difficulties besides the mics. We thought the camera would pick up some sound but it ended up picking up nothing. We didn’t use the mics the entire time because they picked up every little sound, so it just wasn’t doable. We ate McDonald’s and we left the school around 8:00!

Genre Project- Thriller

Click here to view my PowerPoint!!

Genre Research

Thriller Mood Board

Research on School shootings

 Our movie, Empty Hallways, is inspired by school shootings, which unfortunately is a reality in today’s society. School shootings are extremely common in the U.S. with 21 shootings just this year. One of the reasons that I chose to create a movie opening based off a school shooting is because more attention needs to be brought about CHANGING the issue, rather than constantly debating it. Lives of innocents are being taken day by day from school shootings, and that needs to stop. Creating a movie based off this subject is difficult because of how sensitive it can be for those who have experienced this in their life. Bringing attention to school shootings are incredibly important and needed for kids, teens, teachers, and parents sending their child to school, to feel safe. Safety builds trust, and people can’t trust school to be safe, they can’t focus on learning.  

Inspiration I used to create the mood and tension I wanted in our movie opening

 The main source of inspiration I used in our movie opening was the movie called, “The Fallout”. If you saw in one of my earlier blogs, I researched this movie in my genre research project. I have watched this movie prior to knowing what our movie was going to be about and it really stuck out to me. There is not a lot of movies having the theme fully surrounding schools shootings and what it can do to those that went through it and their mental health. This movie represents that as well as a how they were feeling and what they did when they went into lockdown for the shooting. I took some inspiration from how the actors executed that scene and what it felt like for them. In our movie opening I want the main character to be frantic and looking for a place to hide, rather then already in a “safe” area. “The Fallout” really helped me understand the tension in schools shootings because I never experienced one myself.

All about me!

 My name is Alyssia Lubrano and I have always loved movies and shows, especially analyzing details about them to fully understand the concept of the media. My favorite movie is Lilo and Stitch because the meaning behind the movie is very heart-warming and thought out. My favorite musical is Grease, the songs, the props, and overall story line is one of the best I personally have ever seen! My favorite show would be The Good place because the plot twists throughout keep me extremely engaged and every time I have rewatched it, I always find something new and interesting about it. I grew up with older sisters who made me watch everything they watched when they were a kid, from Driving Miss Daisy to Annie, so I love older movies. Me and my entire family are from New York, I was raised here in Florida. I have four siblings who consider them connoisseurs of movies. This is my all about me!! Please enjoy my blog!