Visual Pitch for "Slit and Commit"

A Visual Pitch by David Lassiter.

(It's tight, believe me. And it explains what we're working for far better than I can.)

In attempting to find a visual design that would match and underscore the themes of the film, I found that this script deliberately juxtaposes two different worlds and styles, maybe best summed up by the way it is both a high school comedy and a deeply disturbing noir. It is fun and full of fresh energy but also has a really cruel and vicious undertone, which was my basis for beginning to construct a visual motif. This film seems to balance personal desires and private lives against public personas and actions. Whereas the cafeteria scenes and the parking lot are defined by characters' public personalities, a lot of the drama of the narrative happens in more private spaces like Miles' bedroom and the girls' bathroom. And similarly, these two distinct "zones" also help define the tone of the film, alternating between outright comedy (albeit dark) and intensely personal drama (or potentially pitch black comedy.)

1. The visuals of exteriority

In order to convey this contrast visually, these two spaces will be treated differently. The cafeteria/hallway/parking lot (i.e. public) spaces will be shot with a clean, smooth, slick style which mimics the desire of the characters to appear "cool." Missy is the cool kid, and Beth later becomes the cool kid, so in these sequences, it will be important to shoot them as such, employing long lenses to give the characters power in the frame and also beauty/classical lighting in order to evoke the stylized world in which they imagine themselves. Also, carefully placed slow motion shots will help to add glamour to the popular kids, making them look attractive and appealing. It is critical to uphold this illusion visually so that Beth's desire to inhabit may seem justified.

In this vein, since we see this world "through" Beth when she perceives Missy and her group as being cool, the visual design should convey that same slickness of appearance which Beth wants to embrace, but which we also can ultimately recognize as a shallow facade. To create this pseudo-dreamworld, we will also employ a perpetually moving camera, complete with long and fluid takes which help to evoke the fast-paced atmosphere of high school (and again, add to the "slick" world the characters try to inhabit) but more subtly link all the characters in the same frame, showing that they are in fact far more similar than we may initially think.

2. The visuals of interiority

By contrast, the scene in Miles' bedroom is arguably the darkest moment in the film, or at least an incredible shock in contrast to previous moments. And more importantly, it is an extremely painful and human moment, and as a result, it will be important to treat this scene more naturalistically, both in terms of framing and lighting. Medium lenses will help make close-ups on Beth feel more intimate and personal. Likewise, the lighting will illuminate the space just enough to show the horrific scene, but maintain a dark, brooding, interior tone which mirrors both Miles' and Beth's emotional states. In terms of film stock, this scene will be shot with a grainier, grittier textured film which helps to separate it visually and emotionally from the clean look of the public domain.

Likewise, the bathroom scenes between Beth and Missy provide far more intimate looks into their private personas than any other moments in the script. Here, as with Miles' bedroom, the visual style would tend towards naturalism, using realistic, potentially gritty and unflattering lighting (appropriate for a bathroom) which would help evoke the girls' true personalities. Using wider lenses for close, intimate framing, effectively strips them of the "power" they have in the outside world. At the same time, hand-held camera would help to underscore the more humanistic elements of the conflict. Yet since stylization is a crucial part of the script, these scenes, like in Miles' room, would employ a contrasty, semi-noir/gritty lighting to underscore the darker intentions, allowing darker areas of the frame to have a certain weight.

3. The convergence of the two.

Thematically, one of the critical revelations of the script is that Missy and Beth are not that different - in fact, they are very much alike, having simply gotten to their respective social standing through random circumstance. Thus, whereas at the beginning of the script, we associate the "slick", clean look with Missy and her crew (i.e. using long lenses, dramatic frames, stylized beauty lighting, smooth dolly moves, glamorous slow-motion shots, etc.), when Beth becomes the popular girl, she begins to inhabit that same space and we begin to apply that visual treatment to her as she begins to transform into Missy. Simultaneously, while we initially frame Missy using these techniques, the more we see of her, the more we apply the "interior" (gritty, naturalistic, medium-wide lens, stripped down lighting, handheld or static framing) look to her, to the point where she ends up dead in the bathroom.

Likewise, we have to keep in mind that in any film, but especially shorts, cohesion is essential to creating a unified through-line, and too much visual flip-flopping can become distracting. Therefore, a big part of selling the visual (and implicitly thematic) tone of this film will be to use elements of both spaces in each, namely , allow a certain amount of darkness to infiltrate the "exterior" high school spaces, reminding us that we are in a black comedy (pun INTENDED). Likewise, in the grittier "internal spaces" a certain degree of slickness (eye beauty lighting or dolly/steady-cam) will help to sell Beth's final decision to embrace her popular, exterior personality.

An important visual trope is the onscreen relationship between Beth and Missy and in order to emphasize their underlying similarities, it will be crucial to use symmetrical and mirrored framing when placing them in the frame, especially when they face off in the bathroom. Likewise, placing them in the same frame together (i.e. in two shots or over-the-shoulders), we can suggest that as much as they hate each other they are inextricably linked and forced to inhabit the frame together.

In my mind, the final scene is the perfect example of this fusion between the two visual worlds. At the beginning of the scene, we believe that we are about to witness another suicide and thus imagine ourselves, to a certain degree, back in Miles' room: the gritty lighting and handheld camera will help to sell the humanistic/naturalistic elements of the conflict and help us care deeply about Missy while simultaneously acknowledging Beth's struggle to be popular but still a human being. But as she begins to talk to Missy and realizes she has the upper hand (after her cathartic confession, her last human moment of the film) the camera will become smooth and dramatic as she approaches the gun, finishing with a truly epic close-up frame of her pointing the gun contrasted with a frantic, gritty handheld shot of Missy. When Beth exits the bathroom and begins practicing her wave, we cut to slow motion to indicate her complete transformation into her "exterior" personality and simultaneously showing her descent into her stylized dream-world.

A Semi-Relevant Article!

The only magazine I read regularly is Newsweek (and no, I don't read the whole thing because that takes too long and involves reading about world issues when all I care about are things that happen in America. These colors don't run).

It was only a matter of time before I found an article on suicide that would be generally applicable to our movie. Here's why:

The article is basically about how parents wanted warning labels on certain anti-depressants stating that they may increase the appearance of suicidal thoughts, but now that there has been an upswing in suicide counts, they believe that the warning labels are actually putting the idea of suicide more readily into teens' heads and they want the labels repealed again. I thought it was a really interesting idea, not just that trying to help someone can have the exact opposite effect, but that in just a few years, a few sentences on some pill bottles can have such an impact. I've always read that a lot of mainstream magazines do not publish details about how a person committed suicide because it was found to make suicide more accessible to readers, but when you find a suicide reminder on medicine that's supposed to make you stop thinking about suicide? That sucks.

The link to the article is here, but in case that doesn't work slash you don't want to click it in case it's porn (I make no promises), you can read the text here:

Trouble in a "Black Box": Did an effort to reduce teen suicides backfire?
by Tony Dokoupil

July 16, 2007 issue - Seventeen-year-old Michael didn't want to end up crazed and suicidal like the Columbine killers. The Massachusetts teen had read that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were taking antidepressants when they rampaged murderously through their Colorado high school in 1999, and he didn't want to snap as they had. "He'd say it was like there was an evil guy on his left shoulder and a good guy on his right, but the evil guy just kept winning," Michael's mother, Lorraine, recalls. Despite his pain, Michael feared that antidepressants would "put him over the edge." Lorraine wasn't so sure. After consulting a specialist, she persuaded Michael in January to try Prozac, one of a family of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. By spring, the "good guy" was winning: Michael made the honor roll for the first time.

Lorraine can't know for certain whether Prozac saved Michael's life, although she's convinced it did. These days, however, fewer parents or doctors are following her lead. According to a new study in The Journal of American Psychiatry, the number of SSRI prescriptions for pediatric depression (ages 5 to 18) tumbled more than 50 percent between 2003 and 2005. In a troubling parallel development, the number of teen suicides jumped a record 18 percent between 2003 and 2004, the most recent year for which data exist.

Are the two trends connected? Many experts say yes. "All the data point in one direction: antidepressants save lives and untreated depression kills people," says Dr. Kelly Posner, a Columbia University child psychiatrist. She and others cite an unwitting instigator: the Food and Drug Administration—which may have scared parents and doctors away from SSRIs in 2003 when it issued a health-advisory warning of a potential link between the popular drugs and teen suicide. The agency, assisted at the time by Posner, followed up in 2004 with a "black box" warning of an "increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior among children and adolescents." Now, amid fears that it's done more harm than good, there are calls for the FDA to modify and even repeal its black box. "I think the FDA has made a very serious mistake. It should lift its black-box warning because all it's doing is killing kids," says Dr. Robert Gibbons, of the University of Illinois's Center for Health Statistics. (Gibbons was a dissenting member of the FDA advisory committee that voted for the black box.) Others agree, including Dr. John Mann, a suicide expert at Columbia University, who fought the warning on the ground that it would have a chilling effect on treatment. "Short of rescinding, the FDA should shift its balance to reflect new wisdom about the beneficial effects of antidepressants," he says. Drugmakers continue to support the FDA but also suspect its actions have had a dangerous impact.

These new attacks are in contrast to the praise the FDA elicited with its move for more-stringent labeling, which followed searing public testimony from parents whose children killed themselves while taking SSRIs. The pendulum has since swung back. "If I had known how much the label would rattle parents, I wouldn't have voted for it," says Gail Griffith, who was the patient representative on the panel. Today, few doubt the FDA's good intentions, or its conclusion that teens taking the drugs should be closely monitored. Psychiatrists have long thought that treatment can put people at a temporary risk of suicide, but untreated depression is considered the far more lethal course. "You may induce two suicides by treatment, but by stopping treatment you're going to lose dozens to hundreds of kids. You're losing more than you're saving. That's the calculus," says Dr. Robert Valuck, of the University of Colorado Heath Sciences Center, coauthor of the new paper. (The research, partly funded by Prozac maker Eli Lilly, passed a peer review for bias.)

The FDA has already taken steps to modify the box in reaction to reports that its message was being misunderstood. "Our goal was to inform people of a risk, not halt treatment," says Dr. Thomas Laughren, head of psychiatry products, the division responsible for the warning. "But it's still only one year of data," he cautions. In May, his office mandated revisions "to reflect the apparent beneficial effect of antidepressants" and remind people that mood disorders are "the most important cause" of suicide.

The next test for the FDA will come this December, when the CDC releases suicide figures for 2005. "If the rates are up again, it's likely we'll go back to the board of advisers," says Laughren. The agency has repealed only one black box in its history, on the acid-reflux medication Prilosec, pulled in 2003. "But I wouldn't rule it out," Laughren adds. "The evidence is very compelling."


This may be stretching it slash totally pretentious, but I think we can stick this in the movie because I really think it fits. In the new draft of the script, there's not really an explanation behind Miles' choice and, while I'm not sure if that's working yet, I think we have a chance to make this movie a little more relevant very easily - a little prod design magic with a pill bottle (we will not photoshop the name of the medicine really big on a bottle and then provide a close up of it for no reason, because we are not douchebags) and I think we've got something. If not physically, then I think emotionally this article can still be worked into the movie - just this idea that something as small as a black label on a pill bottle can give you ideas that you've normally never considered, like killing yourself or killing someone else. This idea that sometimes you think you're helping, but you're only making it worse. I think we've got a lot of that in the movie - I'm big into bad people and backfired plans. Additionally, suicide rates have been going down from when it was "big" in the 90s, so the fact that there was a huge jump between 2003 and 2004 is a) scary/sad and b) proof that this movie is more relevant than ever. So we should try to not fuck it up too much.

That's all for now. Enjoy, let me know what you're thinking about, and at least tell us about your summers so we can all be bestie friends.