[TWP02] Attractive

For those of you who watched TWP – 01 – Luck, and thought to yourself, “That was funny. I can’t wait to see some more funny videos from these people.” Well, 02 – Attractive is much less funny. I think that’s a good thing though. We all have very different styles and therefore, many different types of wonderments will be made.

Check out TWP – 02 - Attractive

I started thinking this script though Christmas day, sitting by the fire talking to my mom, but I didn’t write it until early January. Once I started writing it down, it just all poured out. I wanted to make an introspective piece with a guy really trying to figure out what it is that makes this girl like him. I really didn’t know how it was going to go as I started writing it, but as I went along, I knew that I wanted it to end with my character delivering my favorite quote about true love. It is from Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness”. I love that quote and say it all the time.

Almost every line in the conversation comes from actual conversations I had with an ex-girlfriend. I am positive that I tried to cheer her up once by saying that she looked good, not great, but good (I don’t remember it working…). And I can’t give a compliment to save my life. Before anyone reads too deeply into this video, I don’t have low self-esteem, but I really am this self-critical. It’s just my way.

When I was discussing with Jeff how we were going to shoot this one, I fell in love with the idea of just having 1 long walk and talk shot. This sounds like it would make things simple, but it was far from that. It is extremely difficult to hold a Flip Camera steady while walking backwards. We made some special shock-mounted holders for the cameras, and we practiced around the house and the street outside, just getting used to the movement. All in all, Jeff did a great job keeping the frame and not being too hurky-jerky.

Eli shot with the other camera and picked up the opening shot. I think that it’s really a nice way to get into the scene. Alison did a great job making sure that Jeff didn’t get run over as he crossed the street (we had one close call). Maya, who is the girl in the piece, was really amazing to work with. She brought a lot of specific characterizations that really fleshed out the script to bring it all alive. Thanks Maya.

-Bryan