LifeCare+
CAS project
“LifeCare+” is a short film created by Colegio FDR’s High School filmmaking club, Roosevelt Studios. In this comedy mockumentary, follow a group of health insurance employees as they have to work at home during the pandemic so their company doesn't go bankrupt. In the midst of all of this, David Scarn, the manager, is planning a party through "Doom" while saleswoman Catherine Weasly competes with the new intern, Emily Filippelli, for a position as the manager of the Miami branch.
Investigation
Lasted One month
Since Junior Year, I am the Vice-President of Roosevelt Studios. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19, all of our projects had to be on hold until the cabinet could find a way to produce films with social distancing regulations. When the school year ended, I watched a US version of The Office. I have enjoyed it from the very first episode. The Office is a tv series about a mockumentary, which means a fake documentary about the lives of the employees of a paper selling company. As I saw the whole nine seasons, I started to think that we could make a film out of this. When I finished the series after two weeks, I began to see massive character development, which I would use as inspiration for my characters. I started to watch different videos of the character analysis videos and understand why they grew so much in the series and, most importantly, why they are still remembered. Let's not forget that the series aired from 2005-2013. After research, the most significant conclusion on why they were so popular is that even though they were different, one could quickly identify with one of those characters. That is something I used a lot for my inspiration for my characters.
Planing
Three Weeks
I started telling the other cabinets members that I have an idea for a movie when we return to school. They told me to write it and to give a copy of the script to them. So I started writing; first, I created a plotline. I didn't base it on the same first episode from The Office, but I did establish some character traits to my characters. Which was the boss salesmen whom he thinks that he has the respect of everyone, the "girl next door" who is shy but wants to become braver, the sarcastic salesmen who fell in love with the "girl next door," the number one right had of the boss "boss' pet," and of course more unqualified workers for a company. As I kept writing my plot, I decided that there was a better job in another branch for the fight; the "girl next door" needs to try to become brave, and someone else has. I also decided it would be a health insurance company, "LifeCare +," based on the events of the COVID-19 that people were using a lot of health insurance. For my other character, I decided to use a name that is not a horrible person but an antagonist that we hate just because she is not the main protagonist of the story. In the first draft, I thought that "the girl next door" would get the job. Still, for that, that character must have colossal character development. For the 15 minutes, which later became a 22-minute movie, there was no way to show that to the audience. Trying to make my characters relatable was pretty easy because I based them as if they were kids in a classroom by pranking each other like little kids. And make the boss as a father figure which basically in the exterior looks like a person you wouldn't think what he is doing but on the inside, he cares about you. I made many references to The Office for example, for some actors, what they did is that they put the same name for their character; that is why after knowing the cast, I changed the name. For example, we had an actor whose name is Juan Plata. For his character, I put Juan Plateado or another actor whose last name is Montes, so I mixed it with the last name of the character I was based on, which is Halpert, and made Mountpert.
When I finished writing, I realized that we could make it like a Zoom call with everyone there, as if they were in a pandemic, which would fit with the health insurance company theme. As it completely works with the story, then I just put it. After writing the story, I showed why the boss is the boss, I gave it to the cabinet, and they liked it. We began making castings, which we gave excerpts from the script for the actors to read it. After that, we began to make a script reading, which was exciting; after that, we filmed it in two weeks. We talked to the school to publish. They told us that we needed permissions from the fathers' actors because we are minors, and we got it. We edited it in three, and we published it.
Demonstration
Three weeks
After planning all of that we wanted to do, we started to do it. We created logos with our mascot of Harvey the Heart-y, which appears in the film. We put a lot of advertisement on our social media because it would be the first short film from FDR's history to respect social distancing. When we started to film the scenes, we filmed the with me, the director, and the actor one part at a time to see what they were doing to portray their character and tell them to do what I want. Although we tried to film with the whole cast, it failed because as more people were there, the less attention I could give to each role and only concentrate on the main ones. In this way, it was better because the other actor who did not affect the plot but to give a mood of chaos in the "office" those characters began to shine. The whole filming lasted around two weeks or so, and editing it too lasted like two weeks. Because of who difficult it was to put many people in one scene even though we filmed one by one. We post the videos on our Instagram and our Youtube Channel three videos. First of all, the trailer in which the music is "Mr. Blue Sky" because that song talks about having lovely moments in life even though the "sun is not up," which this movie gives. I had to discuss the trailer with many people because I didn't know which scenes were used, so I don't show the ending but captivate the audience, and there Mr. San Roman helped me. Then post the actual movie which everything is down in this post and of cours, some of the bloopers that were the funniest ones I found even though they are not all.
Overall Reflection
Over these months, I was challenging my creativity. I had to create a movie not only for any movie but also for a film during the COVID era, which meant many regulations and not only that the film had to hook the audience. And with a cast of 11 people, it was going to be a massive challenge for me. The mockumentary idea was great because it will help me excuse why they are on zoom and why we see other people entering and going off a session. With a charismatic and relatable character, the audience enjoyed this story with a strong message: "there is always a rainbow." In this experience, I learned many things that my main one was adapting to the situations to get a great result. My situation was an ongoing pandemic, many people in the cast, and almost no help editing. I had to stay on track and not waste valuable time. I also learned to balance my time with this and schoolwork to give my homework on time; meanwhile, I was doing this. And not only me but the actor also had other works to do, so I had even to understand them if they missed a filming day. Which, in a way, this taught me to be a better leader.
A leader to contrast as a boss is that I realized that they don't work for me, but we work together. We all wanted a final product to feel proud. I had to plan and do many things. Still, in this symbiotic relationship of director-actor, they gave me their talents because they could not have made it without them. I am very grateful to work with these people who created Harvey and these incredible characters. Yes, even though I started, they make them live. To conclude, this movie was well-received, and it has more than one hundred views. Many teachers and students told me that they enjoyed it. All the hard work I did for this film was worth it, and now the theater people are going o use some techniques I used to film the new play. Again this showed an impact from this movie, and most importantly, they got entrained and forgot for a while what is happening in the outside world. They were taught a great message for these weird times, which is even though life is going through rough times, there is always a rainbow on the other side.