I really don’t like working with other people, which is why I was thrilled to give the most important presentation of my summer by myself. Standing in a room of 30 people, I began:
“Like many households, a fundamental difference divides my parents. They scream at each other; it scares me, and I wish it would stop. This conflict centers around a question I would like to capture in a short film: How do you wipe your butt?”
To my relief, people laughed. This was the beginning of the pitch for my short film, “Wiped Out.” Continuing my pitch, I described how a perfect romantic couple (and their stuffed penguin son) falls into a disastrous argument after they discover that they wipe differently. John envisions Jane completely mummified in toilet paper, surrounded by fire, punting his precious penguin son. Jane imagines John chasing her and licking his hands slathered in peanut butter.
After everyone in the program made their pitches, we voted on which films would be produced. Only a quarter could be made. I was fortunate enough that people voted for mine. I was allowed to choose my role in the production of “Wiped Out.” I chose to direct.
Initially, I was very protective of my creative vision for “Wiped Out.” It was my baby, and like many parents, I thought I always knew best. When the writer took the script in a totally different direction than I had envisioned, I cried a little inside. However, I soon found out that the writer’s script was better than I could’ve ever imagined, adding depth to characters where there was none and rivaling the campiness of the “Barbie” movie. Although I initially questioned the director of photography’s preferred location for the film, his argument about the superior lighting in the Sculpture Garden helped us discover that the classical sculptures offered thematic anatomical details. Initially, I disagreed with the editor’s choice of a modern-sounding score over classical pieces like “Hall of the Mountain King,” but after a few listens, I was proven wrong.
On the day of the shoot, I realized I needed to trust the actors to make their own decisions to bring their characters to life. Their choices would lead to a stronger film. Our actors knocked it out of the park. Their decisions to aggressively inhale the scent of the bouquet, come back on screen for a bottle of wine after their breakup, and overall willingness to be the butt of the joke really gave the screenplay a life of its own.
I don’t remember much from the day of the screening. I was both exhausted from all the work we’d done in the previous weeks and excited for the culmination of all our efforts to be shown on the big screen for the first time. I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if people would laugh, but my fears were quickly assuaged as raucous laughter erupted when the camera panned to the rear end of a statue.
At the reception following the viewing, one of the TAs came up to me and said, “I’m not supposed to say this, but ‘Wiped Out’ was my favorite film tonight.” In the end, I learned that collective effort leads to a stronger product. I thought I knew best for the film, but my ideas were only a launching point. My collaborators’ innovation and new perspectives caught me off guard. I’d been wiped out in the best way possible.
