Errand is my passion project that I put sweat and tears into. When I started my Independent Study I was very excited to dip my toes in a creative medium that I had never had any experience. I thought that my school was the perfect place to create something new. So I began my adventure by writing my first script and creating plans for the characters. I knew from the start that I wanted the film and characters to have a certain look I got help from my teaching artist at Freestreet Theater, Zandra Starks. She helped me out with the storyline and plot, after our meeting the film started getting clearer. After I finished my script I began storyboarding with the help of SR; we began with the “first act” of the film. Next up was casting, where I ran into my first hiccup. I created a post on social meeting with a call for my second character, Oliver. I got many requests and replies (way more than I expected). In the end, I landed on one person to play the role who I thought fit the role perfectly. Sadly, that person fell through and that was the first time I felt real frustration with this project but after talking with my crew, I reached out to Joe, who is now the Oliver that we know and love today.
After casting, and the first draft of the script was completed my next job was location scouting. I landed at my local grocery store. I began taking pictures of the space and getting color palettes so that I could begin costuming. I decided that I wanted Oliver’s clothing to sort of match the colors of the store since his character stays there for the film while I wanted Lyviah’s clothing to stand out. Next, I had a table read meeting with the cast where we made sure the costumes fit, got notes on the script, and went to the shooting location to take promotional photos for the film. The weekend after that we began shooting. On Saturday. we filmed “act one” which was the kitchen scene and the runaway scene. And on Sunday, we filmed “act two” this is where the next frustrations began. Due to a mix up with the store, there were a lot of customers there on the day we shot. Combine that with all the noise of a busy store, we did not get the perfect audio I so much desired. I was very upset with the way that those scenes came out and since they were the most important part of the film, I decided that I needed to reshoot. Unfortunately, Joe was not able to shoot for the second weekend and the date for the premiere was quickly approaching.
I ended up rewriting the script but I wanted to keep the visuals that I already had so, I wrote the second script to be narration for what already happened. We took footage of Lyviah getting out of bed, walking her dog, and playing in the park. In editing, the next week at school Shanet and I recorded the narration. It took about a week to edit. I came into school early and stayed late. I had to get this all done before Friday because that was the day of the premiere.
During editing, I finally saw my film come together and I finally felt proud of what I created.
Friday, March 22, 5:30 had finally arrived I had butterflies in my stomach all day. I was so happy to see all of the people who came to support me. Earlier that day, my friends and I set up the Open Concept room at school. We rolled out the red carpet and set up silver platters with crackers and cheese and waited for people to arrive. I gave a short speech that thanked my actors and everyone who helped me and we went into the Amp to watch my film.
After watching my film and hearing the laughter from the audience, I felt so proud of what I had done. I was very nervous about the outcome but I was so happy that it turned out well.
"Going Up In The Country" Copyright 1970 UMG words and music by Canned Heat
"Sunshine Go Away Today" Copyright 1971 Atco Records words and music by Jonathan Edwards
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