Rook Studios Presents…

Rook Studios hopes you enjoy Bookworms!  

Along with going against what a stereotypical couple usually is, we also went against how a romance film should look. During our genre research, we saw that many romance films have very ‘flat’ shots. They were very level, and to me, had barely any visual interest. Any visual interest came from mis en scene. We wanted to shoot a film that would be visually interesting. I had also made it a goal to use more interesting shots and transitions. Many romance scenes looked like the stills to the left, very flat, with both people very close to each other. Our cinematographer wanted to take inspiration from a series outside of our genre: Arcane. The series does contain a (not completely confirmed) WLW romance, but that’s not its main point. Aside from being LGBTQ+, both Vi and Caitlyn have character development, importance to the plot, and a mission, goals they want to accomplish. This point was also brought up earlier during research.   Our cinematographer also wanted to include shots from...

First off, we wanted a romance. The one thing we knew off the bat was no, we are not going to be writing a straight romance. The romance genre is dominated by straight relationships, so we wanted to do something different.  After we recasted our actors, we had an interracial couple. This is also not as common, the genre (and this applies to other genres) use white characters as leads. Our couple challenged that convention of ‘straight white couple.’ Our non-binary character Adrian also challenges conventions.  They are a more feminine presenting person. However, their femininity does not invalidate their identity as a non-binary person. I wanted to stress this in the film. I thought the easiest way to do this was to have them dress more feminine, but also establish their identity as a non-female person. We pinned a non-binary pin to their bag, which is visible in the first few seconds of film.  I’m proud of Adrian’s characterization on the film. It was also a nice way to ...

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The rough cuts that were created using Picsart^ Part 2 can be found in the next post!

Our cinematographer was able to come up with really great looking shots. She played around with one scene, and re-shot it using multiple different angles, framing it differently each time. She did this for multiple scenes.             This one close up shot was filmed twice, in two different ways. The angled one was done after shooting the first one (right). We shot it straight-forward first, considering that the whole scene was very flat; not a lot of angles at all (we wanted to stay within our genre. Romance films are very level and flat). The second was shot because: 1) our cinematographer wanted to get an angled shot, just to see how it would look, and 2), in case we needed ‘filler footage.’ Now, looking back at the footage, I say we merge both. We could start out with the shot on the right, and straight cut to the one on the left. We shot another scene on an angle, so it would be a nice transition. It would go something like this: The angled shots prov...

  We wanted to try and use an axial cut! Not only do they look cool, in this scenario, it also helped with the feel that time has passed.  Our characters are walking from one place to another, which can be seen in this rough-ish cut. The one part that is bothersome is the change in lighting, which gives one pillar a more shaded look than the other. This can, however, be fixed with color correction post-production. We filmed an axial for our last draft of the film, which actually ended up being one of the better shots. So, we decided to keep the same look for the newer version.

On Saturday, me, my cinematographer, sound designer, and actress, along with additional assistance, arrived at our designated filming location to begin last minute brainstorming. We started out by getting smoothies. Then, the real work began.  Within an hour and a half, we had, dare I say, a decent plot?  We settled for one of our characters being a little too obsessed with the other. It seemed like a softer way to film a story about stalking, so it made us feel a little better. Along with a plot to go by, we had new cinematography to go by. Our actress and cinematographer spent about twenty to thirty minutes creating a new storyboard for the beginning scene of the production.  We used the fountain as our main location for the first scene of the film. It looked nice, and it provided a pretty background. The issue with filming at the fountain is the noise, which will have to be dialed down post-production. We intended to, as much as I dislike voiceovers, use a voice over t...

After about three and a half hours of filming, me and my crew wrapped up filming, thinking we had gotten everything we needed.  On the next day we had our Media Studies class, our editor looked through our editor’s log, and created a rough cut from our footage.  We only had 57 seconds of decent footage.  Two minutes exactly is the requirement for this project, and we barely had half of that. We went in without a fully developed story as well, hoping longer takes would make up for it. We then spent the next few days brainstorming, which mainly happened after school hours, and coming up with not that many ideas.  Our cinematographer contacted some of their writer friends, who helped come up with some ideas. While some ideas focused more on the representation of queer relationships in media, others were a little more creative. One friend suggested a stalker plot. One of our characters would have been stalking the other, which would then develop throughout the film. It w...

This weekend on Sunday, me, my sound designer, and  my cinematographer, along with our actor, started production of Bookworms. We did have multiple technical issues, among other issues while filming.  To begin with, our editor was away for a school trip, so we were down one member of our crew. This wasn’t as major an issue as some of the others we encountered; this was an easy fix. Our sound designer was supposed to complete the editor’s log. I ended up completing the list, as our she ended up being tasked for something different. I had rescheduled filming around two different times, due to our actor’s schedules. Earlier last week, I had spoken to our original actors, and we were all in agreement that it would be better to recast. I had chosen two other actors from our previous film. One of them couldn’t make it to film, so I worked with Sienna (a returning actress) to try and find a replacement… while we were both on the way to our location. I mentioned that our sound designe...