Hey Stage 32 fam!
As many of you know from my previous posts in the screenwriting lounge, my primary focus is writing psychological sci-fi thriller features. Over the last few months, I’ve been developing a short film concept titled How’s Your Day?—which will be my first self-directed project since my MFA days.
The Concept
The film explores the internal world behind the everyday masks we wear. When someone asks that obligatory question—"How’s your day?"—there's an unwritten social contract to just smile and say "good," even when everything under the surface is unraveling.
Originally, my plan was to network, pitch, and assemble a full crew before shooting. But to be completely transparent, I'm going through a challenging season right now. Putting myself out there constantly for networking isn't always easy, and the reality is I currently have zero budget to pay a team the way I’d want to. Waiting for funding or a full crew means waiting indefinitely on a story that feels urgent to tell right now. It's deeply personal to my own journey and healing, so I’ve decided to pivot: I’m making this a completely self-contained, solo-produced short.
I'll be shooting, directing, and handling the technical pipeline myself, with plans to release it directly across digital platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram). If it resonates and eventually opens doors for collaboration or an expanded cut down the line, amazing. But right now, the priority is taking total creative ownership, building new skill sets as a director, and releasing something raw, gritty, and authentic.
Looking for Advice from the Community:
Because this was written with specific stylistic choices in mind, I don't want to strip away the technical elements that make the narrative work—specifically:
- Overlay Animation & Drawings: Integrating hand-drawn/2D visual accents over live-action footage.
- VFX & Composition: Clean camera setups and simple visual tricks manageable for a solo operator.
- Score & Audio Design: Building an atmospheric, psychological soundscape independently.
For anyone who has transitioned from strictly screenwriting to wearing every single production hat—or anyone who has executed a solo indie short:
- What software/tools would you recommend for lightweight overlay animation and audio scoring on a solo workflow?
- How do you approach lighting and composition when you’re both behind and in front of the lens?
What is one piece of advice you wish you had before taking on a completely solo build?
Appreciate any insights, tool recommendations, or battle-tested advice you can share!
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Hey, @Ryan! Great to see you again. How’s Your Day? is unique and interesting! It's about something a lot of people deal with. That's a great strategy!
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For a solo shoot, I’d keep the technical setup simpler than you think you need. Lock the camera whenever possible, record clean audio separately, and design the shots around what one person can reliably repeat. You can add complexity in post, but fixing inconsistent footage or bad sound is much harder.
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Hi Ryan. First, I'm sorry to hear you are going through a challenging time right now.
You said your score & audio should build atmosphere & lock into the psychology of the story. Did you have any ideas for this? One of my favorite scores is Howard Shore's "The Game" (starring Michael Douglas). In that case, the piano was particularly effective at getting into the characters' heads.
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@Maurice, Thanks man! How's everything on your end? Working on anything new?
I'm excited to work on this project! Honestly, I'm just in a little confused, imposter syndrome type of vibes. Like I said, I haven't really worked on anything since grad school, and it was a little different with grad school equipping you with the team and the equipment. But I'm excited to get something out there! I mean, I feel like as a first time, it maybe doesn't need to be super polished. I feel like this is a part of my healing as well because it's something I actually go through, and it's actually based on me. So I kind of want to get that out there, and I do believe it will resonate with a lot of people if it reaches them.
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Zoltán Varga Thank you so much for that advice! I was actually thinking about that yesterday, stripping away some of those extra elements and just being okay with it. Sometimes the project changes. Not the core concept itself, but how you execute it, and you have to be okay with that as long as the foundation of the story remains intact, which I do think it will.
I just think the technical FX parts and all of that were adding an extra layer, if you will. But if you have any suggestions on recording clean audio separately, or any techniques to expand on "designing the shots around what one person can reliably repeat," I'd love to hear them.
Awesome advice! Thank you!
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Sagar Jethani Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.
I actually love The Game—it's one of my favorite classic psychological thrillers! But yes, originally I was speaking to a composer, some DPs, editors, and others. As I mentioned, navigating this season, I kind of stepped back and went into a bit of isolation, stepping away from social media and networking. I didn't want to string people along while I was getting my head right, even though I was still working on things behind the scenes.
I didn't compose the music myself, of course, but while I was talking with that composer, I actually created a concept for the score. What I did was go through each of my beats and think about how I wanted the score to sound during those moments. I looked up different sounds and instruments on YouTube to see what instruments I liked and how they could blend together. So I created this score concept that I'm going to leverage, whether I end up creating something on my own or however I decide to handle the audio now!
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Maurice Vaughan it wouldn't let me tag you originally lol thanks again!
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Hey, @Ryan. Things are great. It's rough too, but God is giving me the strength to write and do things.
Thanks. I'm writing a Faith-based Sports Action feature script (first draft) and outlining a Faith-based Crime Action feature.
I've had imposter syndrome. It can be confusing and scary to do something at first. Check out these Substack posts by Elliot Grove (film producer and founder of the Raindance Film Festival) when you get a chance. They might help:
https://elliotgrove.substack.com/p/faith-is-what-you-do-when-there-is?r=...
https://elliotgrove.substack.com/p/when-nothing-seems-to-be-happening
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@Maurice - Hopefully everything works itself out in your favor. It's challenging, but being able to continue to write and push through during tough seasons can inspire some really great work.
That's awesome, love the genre blends. Good luck.
Thank you, I'll check them out!
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Maurice Vaughan
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You're welcome, Ryan Wilford. Thanks. You're right. I finished the first draft of my Faith-based Sports Action script yesterday. It was really hard physically and mentally, but God gave me the strength and guidance to finish it.
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@Maurice - That's awesome! Great job. If you end up posting your logline and synopsis here for review, lmk.
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Thanks, Ryan Wilford. Looking forward to seeing them.