Adventures of an Amateur Director: Reading Through (Minus the Lifty Jerk)

Welcome to newyorkmabbie's new series on her attempt to film and direct her first movie! Good luck! —Sparkitors

“I wrote a script.”

“Like for school?”

“No, for fun.”

“Oh…cool.”

“I think I’m going to film it.”

“Seriously?”

That’s the conversation I’ve had with about five different people. It’s always the same.

I’m Mabbie, I’m fifteen, I’m a nerd, I’m clumsy, I’m sarcastic, oh, and I want nothing more than to be a professional screenwriter and director. I idolize Woody Allen and dream of being dubbed “The Next Joss Whedon.” I daydream of waking up at noon, writing indie films in bed while cuddling with my kitten Eleanor Roosevelt (Elle for short) and only crawling out to attend black tie events with my date, Sean Biggerstaff. Recently I decided that if I was to ever honor Mr. Biggerstaff with my presence, I had to pull myself out of dream world and work toward it. The only problem is that it is my first film, which many people expect to turn out like this, when I’m more edging towards this.

Luckily I spend quite a lot of time in the theater department, and was able to rally up a cast of three actors and one guy friend who doesn’t act, but shares similar qualities with his character. To officiate the making of my film, I held a read-through at my friend Buffy’s house since it’s our usual hang-out place and we all felt comfortable there. After twenty minutes of anxiously gobbling the snacks Buffy's mom kept laying out, I finally had most of my cast together; only our non-actor friend was left to show. We started talking about school and scarfing down the ridiculous amount of food when I got a text saying “Is that meeting thingy today? I don’t think I can make it. I’m at the gym lifting.” When I said he shares qualities with his character, I should've told you he’s playing the douchey boyfriend.

The read-through is when everyone gets together and casually reads their lines to get a feel for the dialogue. But it also allows the director or writer to hear the lines out loud for the first time and figure out how natural they sound, and helps them change the script to fit their actors' styles. Mr. Lifty not showing wasn’t the best thing ever —I had to fill in for him, and all his lines sounded cheesy and unrealistic coming from me. I had no idea if it was my writing or my awful acting. Buffy said all her lines like a true play actress…which sounds pretty weird in a film setting.

For the rest of the day, our friend Dearie joined us and we played Just Dance. There’s nothing like watching your friends try to mirror an alien dancing to Funky Town to help you forget that your entire dream is relying on someone who chose toning his muscles over you. The next time the entire cast will be together again is our first day of filming; Mr. Lifty will be seeing the script for the first time that day (if he shows). And if he doesn't make it then? Dearie may have to fill in, and the douchey boyfriend will become the douchey lesbian girlfriend…

Advice from the Movies: “Imagine what you will be, and it will be so.” -Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator

Note: I plan on writing mostly about my experience on making my first film and stay away from the technical side, but if there are any specifics you want me to go into or any other suggestions leave them in the comments!

You heard her! Got any questions?

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