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.