Case Study: The Making of Last Party by Julian Santos

Last Party (2020), feature film
Genre: Romantic Drama
Date: Completed November 22, 2019
Director: Julian Carlo Santos
Producer: Julian Carlo Santos, Scottie Schwefel, and Troy Enoka
Writer: Julian Carlo Santos and Kevin Nittolo
Cinematographer: Maxwell Geoffrey
Production Company: City Bear Media
Case Study: The Making of ‘Last Party’

indieactivity : What is your film about?
Julian Santos : Last Party is a very grounded romantic drama about three college couples, who throw a Christmas party on the last night of the semester. The whole movie takes place entirely over one night and was inspired by films, such as American Graffiti and Before Sunrise. That said, unlike those, Last Party is told in nonlinear order, with the audience seeing each couple’s different perspective on the party. The film originated from the desire to capture the complexities and disappointments of romance in a person’s early 20s. The ensemble nature of the film was chosen to show a broad array of experiences instead of just one core protagonist’s view on love

Related Story: Julian Santos Writer, Director & Producer goes BTS on Last Party

indieactivity : Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Julian Santos : So far, Last Party has been accepted into the New York City Indie Film Festival, the Manhattan Film Festival, the Rome Prisma Festival, and the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives. It is set to be live-streamed on June 5th for the New York City Indie Film Festival (held online this year due to COVID-19) and make its festival premiere at the Village East Cinema in early July for the Manhattan Film Festival.

Early reviews have been generally positive, with one calling it “a magnificent expression of what cinema can do… with just a camera, a bunch of willing people and, obviously, a lot of talent.” It has received some coverage through local Upper West Side publications, as well as New York University (much of the crew are recent grads.)

indieactivity : Dramatic Features
Budget: $30,000
Financing: independent, crowd-funding (Indiegogo)
Production: United States
Shooting Format: 4K Fuji XT3
Screening Format: 1.85 Aspect Ratio
World Premiere (if it applies): Early July at the East Village Cinema (Exact Date TBD by Festival)
Awards: Official Selection – Rome Prisma Film Festival, New York Indie Film Festival, Manhattan Film Festival, and NewFilmmakers Screening Series
Website

indieactivity : Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Julian Santos : Last Party follows three couples at one long college Christmas party that goes awry. The first couple, Caroline and Steven, struggle to define the boundaries of their relationship. Caroline wants something more serious, while Steven is far more interested in seeing multiple people at once. When Caroline sees him hooking up with another girl at a party, she tries to make him jealous.

The second couple is Jun and Ed – the roommates of Caroline and Steven, respectively. Jun and Ed are in the words of another character “practically married,” having been dating for two and a half years. But, when Ed as an international student has issues getting his visa, the future of their relationship is threatened.

Lastly, Charlie – Ed and Steven’s third roommate – has started dating a girl named Laura. Very anxious about the relationship, Charlie goes to Caroline for advice. But, just as he and Laura start getting serious, Charlie begins realizing he’s been in love with Caroline, his best friend, this whole time. Though they all expected a fun night, none of the lead six characters get much, if any, sleep that night. Some of these relationships won’t survive the night.

indieactivity : Development & Financing?
Julian Santos : The screenplay started in 2017 when I was taking an Advanced Screenwriting class in London, studying abroad with New York University. Each student needed to create the first draft of a feature length screenplay, and, actually, I’d already written the first draft of an entirely different romance script called “Stopover in New York” when I came up with the idea for “Last Party.” Pretty immediately excited by the idea of an ensemble film that took place entirely over one night and featured three couples, I wrote the first draft in a single weekend. I got an “A-” on it.

When I got back to the States, I immediately started talking with people about making this film a reality. I’d deliberately written it with creative use of a few locations, so it would be more feasible to film. Now, of course, when I first started talking about the idea of a college student making a feature-length film, a lot of my classmates rightfully thought I was crazy. But, I was determined to forgo the traditional thesis short in favor of doing this.

And, somehow, I was able to convince people that this would work! I brought onboard co-writer Kevin Nittolo to help rewrite the script. Then, in May, when we had a read-through with six professional actors, I think that’s when my classmates started to take me seriously. Mid-2018, right after I graduated, I started officially recruiting crew for a shoot in January. I scheduled it during NYU’s winter break, so even current students could participate.

With the core crew assembled, I moved onto casting in September. I sorted through 1,000 applicants, trying to find my 6 leads. 8 audition sessions later, we found them. The six actors and I spent over 50 hours total rehearsing the piece over the course of October, November, and December, trying to iron a lot of logistics out before we started filming our first scene.

The film found its financing through crowdfunding. In the months before shooting, we set up an Indiegogo page and began to tell people about the movie. To our pleasant surprise, many of our family and friends were very supportive, as well as the occasional stranger. We got the money that we needed and started getting ready to film.

indieactivity : Production?
Julian Santos : Filming took place in January 2019, after over a year of revising the script and a few months rehearsing. We shot a 100-page script for 21 days with only two one-day breaks. The shoot went remarkably well. Crew and cast morale was always pretty high.

Furthermore, we had no catastrophic events, like losing a location or key crew member. We even had time to improvise some scenes, some of which ended up in the finished film. Luckily, most of the film takes place in a few locations, so we didn’t need to constantly be transported from place to place. So, as we finished production, we started post-production, knowing that we wanted to complete the film by October to hit certain festival deadlines.

City Bear Media co-founder, Benjamin D. Goebel, edited the film. Having also been the assistant director, he was very familiar with the material, which allowed for the editing process to go smoothly. He was amenable to playing with the non-linear nature of the piece, and we finessed the structure of the film (including how certain scenes would be repeated) in the editing room. Certain scenes were deleted, mostly due to narrative redundancy. For instance, we felt we had overcomplicated one character’s arc in particular, so we wound up trimming some of his scenes for a more streamlined story.

But, eventually, it became apparent that, even though the film was shaping up better than we had imagined, it could be even better if we were willing to invest in shooting some more footage. Having set aside some money for additional photography, I was gung-ho. Kevin Nittolo and I wrote 4-5 additional scenes, on top of rewriting 2 scenes that we felt could be better. The additional scenes served to clarify relationships, and the reshoot scenes enhanced the Charlie-Laura relationship. Admittedly, we could have settled with the film as it was before the reshoots, but, to be honest, some of those additional scenes wound up becoming people’s favorites.

The last vital part of the editing process was test screenings. Often, we’d show the film to friends and acquaintances who had little stake in the project, trying to see if the narrative was clear to them. When it became apparent that the film was working with them, we finally locked the edit. With editing done, we still had a lot of post-production to go through if we were to meet an October deadline. The colorist was none other than our DP, Maxwell Geoffrey, who often grades his own films.

Miraculously, the film wound up not needing ADR. That said, we did round up a lot of our friends in a recording studio to provide walla to make the party really come to life from an aural perspective. (Sometimes, watching the film, I can pick out a few familiar voices). The sound design work was done all by sound professional, Keller McDivitt, who was actually working out-of-state in Texas.

The final piece of the puzzle was the score. I’d worked with indie musician, Jake Tavill, on a music video for his song “One Day Soon.” I approached him to do the film score, and he thankfully agreed. He composed the distinctive character themes, with his work on Laura’s theme being a personal favorite. Many other indie musicians, such as EMIA, Caroline Lazar, Rella, and Total Downer, were kind enough to provide pre-existing songs as diegetic music for the party, giving the titular party an authentic-sounding soundtrack.

indieactivity : Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Julian Santos : We finally started submitting Last Party to festivals in October 2019, and, as said, we’ve already gotten into four film festivals/screening series. Our strategy was influenced by a lot of manual research, seeing which festivals were recommended and reputable. The co-writer, Kevin Nittolo, and I also took the time to visit many of the festivals before submitting, getting to know the culture as well as sometimes meet the festival curators.

We chose to focus on festivals on the East Coast, not having the excess budget to travel all the time. We preferred to screen the film at places where we could actually attend and meet like-minded people. Fortunately, since we got into our first festival pretty quickly, we already had one laurel under our belt, incentivizing more people to take an interest despite the fact that we had a relatively unknown cast for the most part.

But, the story isn’t over! Last Party is still being considered for over 30 festivals; the judging status of many has been delayed by COVID-19.

https://youtu.be/lgUimGIZQGA

indieactivity : The Release?
Julian Santos : Since the film is still on the festival circuit, it’ll be a few months before it’s available widely. We’re already seeking a distributor for either a limited theatrical or VOD release. Though the story is set in New York, it’s fairly relatable to young people everywhere, so it’d be great to reach a wider audience.

indieactivity : Advice from the Filmmaker?
Julian Santos : To close off, I’d say that the whole experience has taught me a lot. Making a micro budget feature film is definitely possible but it’s an incredible amount of work. If you do it, you should be prepared to encounter a lot of unexpected obstacles that you need to deal with, alongside the normal challenges of making a film.

One major thing to keep in mind along the way is that you’re not just making this movie for yourself. Be sure to receive feedback. Not all of it will be 100% accurate, but it can often be telling. Don’t be afraid to adapt if something isn’t working. Additional photography or reshoots are a natural part of the process, in my opinion.

I personally feel that if you’re dealing with a multi-thousand dollar budget, it’s a better investment to create a feature film than a short. Sure, it’ll be more work, but the feature film is really the predominant format alongside television that people enjoy stories these days.

But, at the end of the day, enjoy! In spite of the work, I had the time of my life doing this! I’m glad to have seen a random screenplay idea from 3 years ago be turned into 84 minutes of an actual movie.

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