Getting Ready For Filming 🎥

Next week will officially the week of filming, after I get back from traveling. After a long time of planning, organizing, and prepping, we are so close to filming the comedy short film. I booked the location, the cast is ready, and now it is time to enter  director mode. I have been doing a lot of things  to get ready for our shoot day at Global Impact Workspace.

Coordinating the Cast & Crew

One of the most important parts of this final week has been making sure everyone is on the same page. My cast consists of five unique characters, each with their own role in the comedic chaos of the film. I have assigned my friends to play the different roles and made sure they set out time to film.

The script is finalized and now the focus has been on translating the script into a shot list. I created a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown that includes:

• Camera angles and movements
• Blocking (where actors stand/move)
• Props needed
• Estimated time per scene

This will help me manage the production better,

Planned-Out Shooting Schedule:

3:30 – 3:45 PM: Arrival, set-up, changing/getting ready

3:45 – 4:15 PM: Receptionist + Ashley scene; Christopher scene

4:15 – 4:45 PM: Waiting room scene with nerdy interviewee

4:45 – 5:30 PM: Interview scenes with Kate

5:30 – 6:00 PM: Final boss reveal scene and wrap-up

This is obviously subject to change, I will only know how this all plays out when I get there. 

Here we go!!

Location Scouting 🗺️ 🧭

Today’s blog post is all about location scouting, which is one of the most essential parts of my production. The location doesn’t just serve as a background—it sets the tone, shapes the blocking, and defines the mood of the entire film. For my short comedy film, I needed a location that felt believable as a professional office setting but also had the flexibility to support comedic timing and character movement.
Obviously, this is an amateur production, so I do not expect the location to be perfect, but I believe it works well enough. 


After some searching, emailing, and organizing, I secured the perfect place: Global Impact Workspace in Pembroke Pines.

Finding the Right Location

At first, I considered a few different options: empty classrooms, home offices, and even makeshift setups. There was no way to make any of these options look like an actual office, though. The film follows Ashley Lawson who is trying to hold it together during a very unusual job interview. That interview, plus her interactions with the receptionist, the nerdy guy, and eventually her unexpected boss, all needed to happen in an environment that felt as real as possible.

The vibe I was going for was corporate. Something that looked professional, but still had room for all the shooting to occur.

After trying to find an office space from people I knew, I decided that the best case scenario was to just book an office space.

The Location

After contacting them and checking availability, I was able to reserve Private Office Suite 358.

The space is located at 9050 Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Pines, FL 33024, and it’s a private suite, which makes it work well for filming. It has a clean layout and looks close enough to the kind of place where an interview for a financial analyst job might happen.

This location will serve as both the reception area and the interview room in the film. I plan to use creative camera angles and blocking to differentiate the two spaces visually, even though we’ll be filming them in the same general room.

Booking this room was literally $150 😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍  😍 (i'm not okay)

Here are some photos of the space we will be filming in:

Now that the location is locked, it is full speed ahead.

Finalize dat scripttttt😋

After weeks of brainstorming, outlining, and reworking scenes, I finalized the script for my short film. This script has gone through so many versions, tweaks, rewrites, and comedy edits. What started as just a silly idea about a disorganized girl going to a job interview has now turned into a narrative with personality.

How I actually finalized the script:

Revisiting the Structure

First, I had to go back to the basics. I laid out the entire story, making sure everything made sense logically. The film had to have a clear beginning, middle, and end, but also had to feel natural.

• Beginning: Ashley enters the office, a little chaotic, clearly not ready for a professional setting. She bumps into Christopher Matterson, who she doesn’t realize is important, then meets the receptionist and has her first awkward moment. 
• Middle: Ashley waits with the other interviewee—this nerdy, over-prepared guy—and their interaction sets the tone for the vibe of the office. Then the actual interview begins with Kate Carson, our very serious-looking HR interviewer.
• Climax: The questions Kate asks get more and more bizarre. It starts off normal, like “What are your strengths?” but quickly spirals into “How can you help our company if you are dead?” 
• End: Just when Ashley thinks it’s all over, she’s told that her new boss wants to meet her. In walks Christopher. She find our that that is her superior, which ends the film with a bang,

Once I had this structure firmed up, I went into line-by-line edits.

Polishing the Dialogue

Comedy is all about timing and delivery. I had to read the script out loud so many times just to make sure the rhythm felt natural.

Ashley’s lines needed to reflect her Type B personality: laid-back, slightly chaotic, and not afraid to say things without thinking. For example:

“Hi, I’m here for the—uh—the job thing.”

Meanwhile, Kate needed to be deadpan. That’s what makes the absurd questions funny. She asks them like they’re completely normal HR protocol.

“On a scale from one to a thousand, how would you rate your time management?”

That kind of humor only works when the delivery is serious. So the contrast in tone between Ashley and Jocelyn became super important in the writing process.

Final Rewrites and Last-Minute Additions

A huge part of finalizing the script was knowing what not to include. I had extra jokes and side plots that I had to take out, but it made the script cleaner and more focused.

Feeling the Vision Come Together

Seeing the script fully finished gave me a new level of clarity. I am now able to better visualize each scene, the timing, and certain abstract comedic concepts. I even added camera direction notes in certain parts, like:

• (Camera stays on Ashley’s blank stare as Kate asks a bizarre question)
• (Cut to Christopher’s face when he sees the new hire)

It finally feels like I have a solid foundation to direct from.

Next Steps

With the script locked, filming is in clear perspective now. The script will also help me when I edit.  

Print Component 💌

We had a lesson on the print component a little while ago!!

Here were my notes from the lecture:

Since I am doing a short film, the print component that I am assigned to do is a postcard. The main purpose of the postcard is for advertising the short film at a film festival.

This postcard will be one of the first impressions someone gets of my film, so the pressure is on to make it visually striking, thematically accurate, and memorable. 

Here is the first draft I made for the post card:

In the empty spaces, I am going to put pictures of the main character, which I am going to take on the day we film. I included the film festival the short film will be presented at as well as the contact information. As I progress in production, I will definitely improve the design. I am still unsure of whether the background should be black or white.

This is just the base of my postcard. I will show it again when it is finished, because I, well, have to. Toodles!

Group Meetinggggg

I was so excited for this group meeting especially because I missed the last one. 

We came into the meeting with the understanding that it would be a safe and honest space. Every person got a turn to present where they were in their project—whether it was scripting, location scouting, casting, or editing—and then the rest of the group offered feedback. 

Feedback I Received for My Project

When it was my turn to share, I focused on three main areas I wanted help with: social media marketing, visual storytelling, and symbolism within my short film. The suggestions I got were extremely helpful:

• Pick a signature symbol or object from my short film and use it as a recurring visual motif. This could be an office item or something that connects to the main character’s energy. Using it in teaser posts would help build recognition and curiosity before the film’s release.
• Post “Meet the Director” and “Meet the Cast” content to humanize the production. This way, the audience gets a personal feel for the people behind the scenes, which adds charm; this is especially important for a comedy.
• Clarify in the opening scenes that my main character, Ashley Lawson, is not getting ready—but is already rushing into a situation unprepared. This distinction is key to establishing her “Type B” personality, and I realized I needed to make that visually clear from the first few shots.

That last piece of advice was especially important, because it’s easy to rely too much on dialogue or exposition. Showing instead of telling is vital in comedy, and I’ll definitely be tweaking my script and shot list to reflect that.

This group session was so incredibly helpful and I am very thankful to my group members.

Here is a photo of us during our session!

Script pt. 2🤩

After getting the foundation of the script locked in, the time has come to move into the second phase of the writing process: rewriting, refining, and making it all good. If part one of scriptwriting was all about generating ideas, then part two is about sharpening every moment so that the final product feels clean, purposeful, and obviously funny.

This part of the process is definitely more tedious, but honestly, it is where the film is starting to take shape. This is me also realizing how critical revision is. 

1. The Comedy Pass

I knew I wanted this film to land squarely in the comedy genre, but writing actual jokes is soooo freaking hard omg. There’s a difference between something that sounds funny in my head and something that actually lands when a cast and camera involved.

So for each freaking line I am doing a dedicated “comedy pass.” This means reading through each scene, line by line, and asking: Is this funny or am I cooked? In some cases, it meant exaggerating a moment more. For example, a lot of Kate's weird interview questions were too tame—stuff like “What’s your greatest weakness?” turning into “Do you consider yourself emotionally available at work?” But then I decided to really push it. The final version has questions like “If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why?” which I hope creates this totally bizarre shift mid-interview that completely throws Ashley off.

I also added physical humor where I could—small beats like the receptionist dropping papers. These little details help sell the awkwardness without needing constant dialogue.

2. Upscaling the Characters

In the early draft, the characters were there, but now they definitely need a little more personality. So now I am going back and adding small quirks to each of them to make them pop more. 

The nerdy interviewee is a background character, but I ma trying to give him an intense “motivational speech” moment that I want to make feel completely out of place. It just makes Ashley even more confused.

And with Kate, I want to make sure her transition from professional HR to unhinged HR felt smooth but surprising. You don’t see it coming right away, which is what will make it funny.

Even Ashley—our main character—is getting a bit more in this draft. I included more internal reactions and made her responses feel less scripted, more like how a real person would respond in a spiraling situation. Her awkward laughs, forced smiles, and delayed responses attempt to show her struggle to stay professional when everything around her seems to be falling apart.

3. Trimming 

One of the hardest things about writing for a short film is the time limit. Every line and scene has to serve a purpose. So in this phase, I had to cut some moments that I felt slowed down the pacing.

4. Final Touches and Formatting

Once the content was locked, I focused on polishing the formatting to make it as film-friendly as possible, at least to my pretty limited knowledge. Clear scene headings, short blocks of dialogue, and action lines that paint a visual picture. I added subtle cues for camera direction too.

5. Reflecting on the Growth

Looking back, this phase of writing taught me that good comedy writing is about being intentional. Every joke has to come from character, context, and timing. 

By the end of this process, I hope to feel that the script is ready. It has a clear tone, good characters, and moments that felt unique. I am really excited for when we start to film. 

Starting the Script 😆

Every great film starts with a script. And every great script starts with a spark. For my short film, the spark was a simple but funny idea: what if a job interview slowly turned into complete chaos? That idea became the foundation for my office-comedy short film, and writing the script was the first real step in bringing it to life.

Since the short film leans heavily into comedy, I knew from the start that the writing had to have a very careful balance. It needed to be unpredictable but still grounded enough that the audience could follow the story. 

1. The Concept Phase

Before I even opened a document to write anything, I spent a lot of time just thinking. Trust me 😍. I thought about the genre, the characters, and what kind of humor I wanted the film to have. I knew I wanted an office setting, and from there the idea of a job interview came naturally. Interviews are already awkward and high-pressure, so exaggerating that made for a great base for comedy in my opinion.

I was really inspired by mockumentary-style humor like The Office, where uncomfortable silences and weird characters create the comedic energy. But I also didn’t want the whole film to rely on cliché jokes, and that was really difficult because all of my jokes are corny. I wanted moments that felt original even if they were absurd.

That’s when I came up with this specific idea: what if the main character comes in for a serious interview but everything that ends up happening is mad weird? 

2. Building the Characters

Once I had the general idea, the next step was thinking about the characters. I started with the main character, Ashley Lawson, and immediately knew I wanted her to be a Type B personality. She’s not super organized, she’s a little scatterbrained, and she kind of fumbles her way through things. That contrast makes her a perfect character to throw into an intense, structured environment like a corporate job interview.

Then came the supporting characters:

• Christopher Matterson, the love interest and eventual boss, is there to give Ashley’s journey an unexpected twist at the end. Their chemistry adds a little spark in the beginning that’s fun and subtle because I feel like a lot of people appreciate subtle romance in films that aren't about a romace. I'm not sure that makes sense, but whatever.
• The receptionist is going to be a very funny character. They’re chaotic and unhelpful, and they set the tone.
• The random other interviewee is there to make Ashley feel even more out of place—he’s nerdy, prepared, and intense. He is basically what she is not.
• Finally, Kate Carson, the interviewer, is where the real climax of the comedy happens. Her shift from normal HR questions to absolutely wild ones is what drives the second half of the script.

Each character had to serve a purpose: to push Ashley further out of her comfort zone while also building the overall humor.

3. Structuring the Script

Even though the film is short, it still needs a clear beginning, middle, and end. In fact, having so little time makes structure even more important. I started by sketching a basic three-act structure:

Act I: Ashley arrives at the building, bumps into Christopher, and has a strange interaction with the receptionist.

Act II: Ashley meets the other interviewee, gets called in by Kate, starts answering basic interview questions.

Act III: The questions get increasingly bizarre, Ashley tries to hold it together, and finally, we end with the twist that Christopher is her actual boss.

Once I had the outline, I started writing rough drafts of individual scenes. I didn’t worry about the dialogue being perfect just yet—I just wanted to get the beats of the story down. I have even added placeholder lines just to keep things moving. Editing and polishing will come later.

4. Finding the Right Comedy Style

Comedy is subjective, which made writing even harder. What I think is funny might fall flat for someone else. So I wrote multiple versions of scenes and shared them with my group to test reactions. Sometimes, a joke I really liked didn’t land, which is soooo embarassing and other times, something random I added ended up being hilarious to everyone else.

Conclusion: The Foundation Is Set

This was just the beginning of the writing process, but it was one of the most important parts. Getting the concept, characters, and structure in place gave me the solid foundation I needed to start crafting scenes with purpose and personality.