I Shoot in Three Days. Don’t Panic.

Joey Daoud

Joey Daoud is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His past films have appeared on Netflix, The New York Times, and National Geographic. He is also a YouTube creator across multiple channels with videos garnering millions of views. In his free time, he likes to climb mountains, scuba dive, and brew unique coffees.

Little Boxes-31

I shoot my thesis in three days. I’ve been going with my “everything works out” attitude, and I know it will, but I won’t lie. I’m starting to panic.

I just need a few simple things, such as a cast and locations. Locations look a little more promising than casting. They at least can’t leave Tallahassee for the summer. I should just cast with Legos.

My film is a mix of Mean Girls meets Psycho meets Weeds (new favorite show, but I swear I started watching it after I wrote my script). Whenever someone asks what the film is about I describe it with genre or reference films, such as “a high school dark comedy.”

Unlike my last film (“guy sells his soul for the corner office”), there are two distinct parts to the story which I haven’t figured out how to squeeze into one sentence ((I think any pitch longer than a sentence and you’ve lost them)).

It’s about a girl, Amy Dupree, who’s stuck in suburbia. To earn money for college, she takes the SATs for rich students for a couple grand. Later, a scholarship comes up that would solve a lot of her problems, but it goes to Jenny Hicks, the Rachel McAdams equivalent. To sabotage her, Amy fucks up her SAT test which she was just hired to take.

This was all a flashback, told in a constantly moving Gossip Girl-esque style (yes, I watch GG, among other sexuality questioning material). Start up the next act, Amy’s walking down the street when she’s abducted by Bunny, Jenny’s mom. The film turns into a torture scene and showdown in a suburban home.

So I haven’t quite figured out how to put those two very different halves in one sentence. The best I have is slightly vague. “It’s about a girl who will do anything to escape suburbia.”

Location scouting and auditions today. It’ll all work out, right?

Update: I wrote this earlier today and just finished location scouting and auditions. Things are working out. More TK.

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