Manhattan Upper West Side, May 17th 2016

It's friday. So I'm just waiting for Sam to come home. It's nightime.

He spent the entire day at the movie shootings.

His movie is a biopic about Audrey Hepburn.

Sam seems to like Old Hollywood actresses. I like that.

But you've got to think about what you can create. Don't make something out of something already existent.

He might arrive tired, of course, but I want to talk to him about my video.

I want a 5 minute video for my auditions.

I can't be here laying on the bed or in the couch eating and watching tv shows.

When there's the city calling me for many opportunities.

I hear the door being opened. It's Sam, he has lot of dark circles under his eyes.

Elliott – Here, I prepared a soup to you and I put two tea bags on the fridge so you can put them on your dark circles.

Sam – Thank you Elliott. You're really kind.

Elliott – You deserve it though.

Elliott – I've been thinking about my video. I want it to be five minutes lenght.

Elliott – I don't want a video that is too long.

Elliot – I don't want a short movie neither a movie.

Elliott – A video, kind of like a more lenghty commercial.

Sam – Okay and when do you want to start shooting it?

Elliott – This weekend.

Elliott – Here I have some sketches about the sets.

Sam – Okay let me just eat this soup and put the tea bags on my eyes.

Elliott – Of course.

Elliott – I hope everything on the movie shootings is going alright.

Sam – There's a few bad moments. But that is expected in every production.

Elliott – I want to watch the movie so much.

Elliott – The girl you casted resembles Audrey so much.

Elliott – That was a great casting.

Sam – Thank you.

Elliott – Do you know any palaces or mansions in New York to shoot videos there?

Sam – Not that I recall.

Sam – But hey what about shooting in the Dakota building?

Elliott – That's a good choice. Why didn't I think about it?

Elliott – It's the perfect place for the kind of video I want to make.

Sam – Are we going to enter the dark area again?

Elliott – Yep, pretty much.

Sam – Fuck the dark circles, show me your sketches and tell me about the concept.

Elliott grabs some papers with sketches and words. Sam joins him in the couch.

Elliott – So the first scene is set in the Central Park at night.

Elliott – The camera focus for 20 seconds on the lake in a way that you can see a full moon above the San Remo Looms.

Sam – Okay that seems really good. Keep on.

Elliott – The next scene is me, wearing all white climbing up a staircase in the Dakota building.

Elliott – I see a open room full of light. When I get there I feel a dark force around me.

Elliott – The room is a wing. There's lof of chandeliers.

Sam – Good, I have to edit some of it to look very dark.

Elliott – Yes, there's only a white dimmed light when I arrive there.

Elliott – But as I'm going upstairs, the room has to be all lighted up.

Sam – Okay, I guess we have to either edit a lot or have a room full of chandeliers.

Elliott – The floor has to be dualistic. Black and white tiles.

Elliott – I'm wondering getting the dark force get into me and then bam.

Elliott – Next scene I'm in another room dressed in red.

Elliott – Then you do some suspense stuff by shooting me getting outside of the room I was dressed in red.

Elliott – And shoot a bit of the wing. Then you shoot me running from the wing, still dressed in red.

Elliott – I'm feeling guilty as I didn't want the dark force to consume me.

Elliott – Last scene is me outside the Dakota, wearing all black.

Elliott – I'm staring with an evil look at my old self laying on the lake dressed in white.

Sam – That sounds like a ritual.

Elliott – That's the point.

Elliott – But I want everything to be subtle.

Elliott – I don't want to title it with something that calls the attention to the obvious.

Elliott – I want a title that blinds everyone from the message that is supposed to be processed unconsciously.

Sam – Okay. Let's do it now.

Sam – That might be a five minute video but there's a lot of shooting and editing.

Elliott – Thank you for your help.

We take the bus first to ask Oscar to let us shoot something in the building.

Oscar lets us shoot there but we had to pay a fee to him. Sam offered to do that.

Then we headed to Central Park to shoot the first scene without getting caught.

Elliott – So get your tripod right in a way that you can capture the San Remo Looms.

Elliott – Shoot a little of the lake as well.

Sam – Okay. The moon could be edited between the two buildings.

Elliott (wondering) – I guess so. Good idea.

Elliott – You can start from the lake and go way up until focusing a bit on the San Remo Looms.

Elliott – Then on the sky above it.

Sam – I'm thinking of adding fog.

Elliott – Yes, that's really good.

Sam shoots the first scene and shows me it.

I told him to shoot once again because he did it very fast. It must have 20 seconds of lenght.

Sam shoots again. He shows me the footage again and this time is perfect.

Not perfect because it needs editing but you got what I wanted to say.

He dismantles his tripod and puts it into the bag.

He puts his camera on his neck and we head to the Dakota building.

We enter the building and we ask Oscar to shows us a wing where there's a staircase to it.

He leads us to the third floor, opens the door and turns on the lights.

The wing is so beautiful, so classy. Out of a palace or castle.

We go downstairs, to the second floor and we start to shoot the second scene.

This time we shoot it until it makes a 5 minute lenght video.

I didn't told you but in the way to the Dakota we bought three different outfits.

A white one, a red one and a black one.

I dress the all white outfit and climb the staircase while Sam is shooting me going upstairs.

It only can be seen my back side. Then we arrive at the wing.

Sam shoots my feet walking in the dualist floor.

Then he proceeds to shoot me walking but this time I'm facing the camera.

I'm fearful and feeling a dark force. I look up to the chandeliers.

Sam shoots the chandeliers that have black candles in them.

He is thinking of making a figure floating around the chandeliers.

We stop the shooting. He shows me and it's perfect.

Sam opens the costume bags and I wear the all red outfit and go to a room in the wing.

Sam enters the room and shoots me, I'm posing like I'm a powerful creature. With a fierce aura.

The room is going to be edited to be lighted in red lights.

Sam shoots as he gets out of the room and starts running.

Then he shoots me running out of the wing, still dressed in all red.

A suspense type of song is going to be added to this scene.

This time I don't want to see the footage.

I just I take the red outfit out and dress the all black one.

The next scene is set outside of the Dakota building.

I'm standing a bit far from the building and I'm dressed like a widower.

I'm mourning happily, it sounds mad I know.

You're probably wondering who I am mourning.

I'm mourning my old self.

Then we go again to Central Park and I stand before the lake.

Sam shoots my evil face and I'm looking with indifference at someone in front of me.

I go to a porta potty to change my clothing to the white one again.

Sam has a lime green float for me to get in to float on the river.

I really hope we don't get caught shooting without permission.

People are gathering already. But it's New York, so anything could happen.

Sam starts the old me death scene.

I'm going to float as I'm dead, like Ophelia from "Hamlet".

Then we go again to the Dakota building right to the wing with chandeliers.

And this time I'm wearing all black again with a crown on my head and I'm walking with power.

Then I face the camera with a joker evil mad happy kind of look.

The end of the video is supposed to be a black background with the title of the video.

The title of the video is Goth Night and of course we will add my name and Sam's name to it.

I'm looking forward to the editing part and see the final project.

This is my breakthrough.

Well I had a lot of breakthroughs. In and out of NYU.

But this is my come back after my fall. Literally.

I feel like some artists that went through meltdowns.

Like Britney Spears. When she had that fall in her career and then came back.

Sometimesit takes a great fall to know where you stand.