Love Makes Scents: Behind the Jacket of the Director – Generation Justice

“No!” I cried as I took our topic out of the hat. Out of all the Genres of movies to get I got Romance. As though it was choreographed the rest of my teenage crew sunk down in utter irritation or just not pleased at the cliché topic. Within seconds our script supervisor and one of out actresses were spilling out stories of death, lust, destruction, and heart break with a twist of romance. Our crew was called the Guerrilla Film Squad, The crew, except for our Producer, Assistant Director, and most of our Actors, were all teenagers. It was really nice. After twisting and bending our brains into monster pretzels we came up with a story.

To keep our selves ahead of time we wrote down what we felt should be on each page. We had five or so people on computers with a specific page to write, me included. I got page three. Until recently romance has been my toothache, avoidable while a pain to deal with. It was really nice. I wrote what I felt heartbreak and loss felt like for a romantic gardener. His monologue lasted for more than a minute but felt like it took ten or twenty minutes to write. Finally twenty minutes to midnight we finished the script. My little leather, black trench coat and I were exhausted. That night we slept well at my father’s house.

The next morning at 7:30 my bleary eyed jacket and I were ready to work. The Squad met at a Mc Donald’s and began making ideas of how the film was going to go. By 11 o’clock we were at it. The camera was set and the actors were memorizing their scripts. The entire day went according to plan; we even got to shoot during the “Golden Hour”. Finally at 8 we finished. It was nice enough I didn’t wear my jacket during most of the shoot. That night my jacket and I sat and watched a movie before bed. It was so amazing to go to bed before 10.

When it was time for the Showing at the Kimo theatre I was so nervous I left my jacket at home, poor thing. Our movie was better than I imagined. Our director of B-roll, the Florist’s Shop scenes, and music was J. He did a really good job. It was over. The film was in the minds of the Kimo audience and now we wait for the awards. The look on my family, the audience, and our crew’s faces was good enough. Their applause was all the acknowledgement that I wanted. The summer is coming to a close and my jacket and I walk around the art filled streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. There are always sunny blue skies in this land of enchantment, but no matter red or green your Chile is the films shot here will live on.

By: Iemanja Lambert