Read more about “A Blind Date”

The Origin Story

This film was obviously made as a final project for my Cinema and Television Production class, but it was actually meant to be made for another project in that class instead. The project before this was a group project, and actually, the majority of the people who worked on this film were in my assigned group for said project. When we first met up to write the script for the group project, we came up with this idea, that we thought was genius and funny, about this couple going on a blind date but they were polar opposites and in the end, it turns sour. We turned in our script to class and our professor thought she would love it, but we misread the instructions in terms of blocking and lighting, so we had to write a whole other script, which ended up being "Bad Dream" (2023), and we had to save this script for another time. 

Now for the final project, we could choose who we wanted to work with, and my previous group from the group project banded together to make this film come to life. I spent most of Thanksgiving break rewriting the script and getting feedback from my professor. And once I came back to Chicago after break, I went in full swing spending the last few weeks of the semester getting ready to shoot in late November/early December to meet the class deadline. It was easy to coordinate the cast and crew, and once shooting came by, we were so prepared and everything went very smoothly, we even wrapped earlier than anticipated!  

What I Learned

The first big lesson I learned throughout this experience (that my professor kept emphasizing throughout class because of this specific film) is that I have to write scripts for locations I know I could easily access. As much as I, and everyone else who was involved in writing the original draft on the script, wanted to film this scene in a restaurant, it just was not viable. I tried to film in the dining hall of the building I lived in, but they rejected my film permit, but allowed me to film in my floor's social lounge and hallway. And I knew with such a small production and no budget, no other restaurant in the area would allow me to film. Once I realized I could not film this in a restaurant, I had to get creative and rewrite the entire script. I knew I would have access to my building's resources because one of my friends had filmed one of her films there in October, so coming up with which location do I utilize and how do I shape a story around it became my main focus. I spend the first day I came back from Thanksgiving break to change the script, and it took me about two hours of writing, and getting it looked over by friends, until I finally felt happy to move on to the next stages of development. In the end, the film took place in three locations: the social lounge, hallway, and Kevin's room (which was my room). Everything was very accessible because the majority of the people in the crew lived in the same building, with the exception of the cast, and all the locations were super close to where we held our "basecamp" (my room). In the end, we all had a lot of fun squeezing in together in my room making a silly goofy little film. 

Another lesson I learned throughout this experience was something I did not realize until after my film premiered, but it was working with actors and getting them in the right headspace to perform. My second semester, I took Acting and Directing Workshop (CINE 128) and I learned a lot about helping actors unleash their best performance by using different methods. I did not realize any of this until the Take One Film Festival where my Acting and Directing professor was coincidently in attendance and she pointed out Kevin's performance to me. She realized that he did a great job pretending to be a frat boy, and I realized, our combined efforts, my direction and his excitement to act, made a fun performance come to the screen. The actor was one of the people who was present in writing the original script of the film, we even cast him as the role we were writing it, so he had the advantage of understanding some of the subtext of the character. I gave him a very basic premise on how to play every scene: as a frat boy. I did not ask him to, but he started method acting a bit on set with us to prepare to be on camera. Some other adjustments I gave him in some of the scenes where he was sitting on the bed with Desdemona was to pretend like he watched a lot of media conspiracy theories as well. And for some reason, despite only not being an actor and only acting in one other film that I directed ("Bad Dream" (2023)), he did a very good job both times. Also, throughout the film, all of the actors were willing to improvise a few lines, which did end up making the final cut of the film! 

The final lesson I can say I learned throughout the process of making "A Blind Date" happen was thinking fast on my feet. Since this was a very basic production and we did not do as much casting for this project besides asking around my class who wants to be in my project, the actress who originally was supposed to play Desdemona bailed on us at the very last minute. We were all on set waiting for her and setting up, fifteen minutes quickly turned into almost an hour of waiting, so we had to recast her quickly with the actress who was originally meant to play Kevin's roommate. Luckily, she understood the premise of the film and I quickly gave her some directing notes, she was able to grasp the role really well and gave a very good performance. Even though casting in a meticulous project, and I do not see myself having these issues in the future because of such processes, it taught me that even under pressure, I can think quickly on my feet. This was able to help me when I directed the final episode of "A Spoonful" and had to make some fast decisions while everyone else was waiting for me on set. 

Fun Facts

--The script went through seven (7) different revisions until the final version

-The actress who played Desdemona was originally going to be Kevin's roommate but our original actress did not show up at the last minute so we had to quickly recast

-The person who did end up playing Kevin's roommate was our Production Designer

-Our lighting person had to leave two thirds (2/3) of the way of filming to go to Indianapolis, but luckily we were not changing any set ups after she left

-The film was originally supposed to take place in a restaurant

-Filming wrapped two hours earlier than anticipated

-Desdemona and her roommate Juliet (not pictured) are named after Shakespeare characters

Film Credits

Directed, Produced, and Written by: Natalija Plavšić

Story by: Natalija Plavšić, Mara Tanneberger, Faith Jones, Diego Tellez, Kennedy Tetour, Ender Holohan

Edited by: Natalija Plavšić and Mara Tanneberger

Director of Photography: Ender Holohan

Production Designer: Mara Tanneberger

Sound Mixer + Boom Operator: Faith Jones

Gaffer + Grip and Electric: Kennedy Tetour

Featuring

Kevin - Diego Tellez

Desdemona - Madeline Francis

Kevin's Roommate - Mara Tanneberger