Project Components

Final Film

CIRCUS MONKEY FILM

Postcard

POSTCARD

Social Media

INSTAGRAM

CR

The short film Circus Monkey is a character led dark drama, that depicts the dangers of oversharing on social media, and the fragility of earning validation through it. Our film follows Diego, our protagonist, who after experiencing rejection, seeks attention from a social media following, and resorts to shock to garner it. Additionally, our character experiences weird sexual thoughts, which instead of processing and working through, he exposes and exploits. With our film we wanted to delve into a subculture of men, incel culture, and depict the dangers of extreme misogyny, and social ineptitude that many young men don't notice, or acknowledge the negative impacts of. 

In the writing process of this short, we were inspired greatly by other productions that dealt with the fragility of men, and the dangers of rejection both from women, and society as a whole. One of the biggest productions we took inspiration from was Spree directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko. The film stars' Joe Keery playing a socially inept guy, who tries to gain online fame by being extremely

obnoxious...oh and also killing people. I utilized this film as a major inspiration because of the protagonist's intentions, in addition to the way the film utilizes a hybrid of aspect ratios to depict this social media obsession. Although the film is filmed like a traditional movie, it will occasionally cut to vertical shots, with overlay showing that it is an Instagram live. I loved the way Kotlyarenko utilized this new medium, and how he used it to provide the audience with exposition, hence why we decided to use it in our film. 

Another huge inspiration was the film The Social Network by David Fincher. This film was written by one of my favorite screenwriters. Aaron Sorkin, and thus I took great inspiration from the script itself when it came to writing our film. One of the first scenes of the film involve Mark Zuckerberg being broken up with by his girlfriend, who tells Mark the reason she is breaking up with him is not because he is a nerd, but because he is an asshole. I always loved this scene, and always thought that, in a way, it catalyzed everything that happens in the film. In our film, the confrontation between Ericka and Diego is meant to have the same impact as that scene. In our case, however, we used the scene to close the film, and to establish that the film was in a way, a prequel to whatever horrors he may commit in the future, so in a way, it does happen in the beginning. Not of the film, but of another story. 

Additionally, I did research on many infamous incels. Amongst them, was Christian Chandler. Chris became popular in the early 2000s over the cringey, and embarrassing videos he would post online, and over his desperate attempts to get a girlfriend. Due to his autism, Chris was not very socially aware, which ruthless trolls abused, and his story serves as a warning story for the dangers of social media. I also took inspiration from his mother, who infamously was too old to realize what was happening, and did not protect Chris. In our story, the mother scene serves to show that Diego grew up with a weak feminine figure, who manipulated him and did not support him, and thus why he is the way he is. Elliot Rodgers is another online incel who we used as inspiration. He made a video from his car, talking about how he hated people and will commit a tragedy, which we used as direct inspiration for the very last scene in the film. 

Our product creates a general sense of branding by utilizing the monkey as an icon. My brother Joaquin, who loves to doodle, doodled us a cute picture of a monkey, which we used in our social media as the profile picture, and in the back of our post-card, making it into our logo almost. Additionally, the film is throughout blue, and we follow this in our social media, and in our post-card, giving it the same depressing and dark look, without it being goofy. We additionally created tiktoks in order to promote the film, and a twitter for the protagonist, both which we used in the film, and thus, furthered the existence of the character beyond the screen, allowing the narrative to continue in real life, and matching to the simple, character focused, and realistic look.

Our target audience is young adults, 15-25. I think our intended audience is men. I would love for this to be a preventative film, for someone in the same situation to watch, and feel embarrassed, or worried, and change from it. But realistically, mostly people who care about character studies will watch this. Regardless, I think young film fans will enjoy our film, which is why we probably would distribute it around student film festivals, like nffty, and All American.

I think we were not very successful in keeping the pacing as slow as I wanted it to be, but I think that’s ok. Although we dramatized it a lot, with music and montages, the film still creates a representation of an isolated, depressed, and socially inept guy. The use of risers throughout, help clarify the points were the character feels like he is going to feel a great amount of stress, or has a deep realization.



Clara, Martina and I all put a huge amount of effort and passion, and overall, are very proud of the fact that we decided to do a film that is more based on story, rather than aesthetics. Diego has become an incredibly big part of our lives lately and although I am excited to publish this film, I’m sad that the process is over. I have never had the chance to work on something this big and long, and I am excited to use the knowledge I learned, and garner it for the future.

Equipment

Hey blog, 

Let's talk gizmos and gadgets. 

The equipment we used was rented from Becon TV, the district's news station which rents out equipment to students.

For this short, I wanted to take out absolutely every type of equipment we might need. I did not want to risk audio, or not having the right lense. This is what we took out and how we used it. 

Sony a7- 

I have used this camera before only for films and special videos, because it is a more complicated camera for me to use, but it does look really good, and much better than Canons. So I decided to use it this time. 

Additionally, we used a cage, with add ons like a wheel for focus and handle bars to do the handheld shots we wanted. 

We also had a RGB light kit, that we used to create the blue light in the room. 

We used a boom mic, boom pole, and adaptor, so the boom could be connected to the camera, and we wouldnt stumble with the xlr. It made the filming process much easier. 

Filming Day 1

 Hey blog, 

Let's look at some filming, 

The first day of filming was a bit of a mess. Clara was out of town for a college orientation, and we did not count with the help of our dear friend, Lauren, so, it was up to me to film :(

I hate filming. Not only am I bad at setting up shots and lighting them, I get so extremely overwhelmed, and I struggle to piece together the film by shots. Normally, I have Ren, and when we film I focus fully on directing the acting, and the mise-en-scene, but NEVER the shots. So, I had to try my best. 

The lighting was an issue- since the room we were filming in was so small, there was little room for depth, and thus everything looked kind of flat. I was getting very frustrated filming because our tripod was very weak (I will make a blog post around our issues with equipment), but I was also getting frustrated because the time I was using up setting up each shot, was time I should have been directing Jack's acting, and I was not focusing on him at all, which made the performances lack a bit of tact. Like, although Jack was embodying the emotions, they weren't being specific enough. 

Watching back the footage, I actually liked a lot of it. I think I did fine with the lighting, and managed to get some interesting shots. However, I did wish I could have focused on the acting because that was lacking. 

We managed to film a very small amount of footage from act 1, filming the mom scene, the porn montage, and some shots at the beginning, but not really getting into the thick of it. 

At the end, we had to refilm a lot of it. It is vey hard to do this on my own, and Martina let me take complete control, which although I understand, was really stressfull, since I did not have anyone to confirm that my shots where good, and didn't feel out of place, which made me overthink. 

Luckily, the footage turned out all right and Clara came back, so I didn't have to film alone anymore!

To take advantage of how little we could film, due to time, we decided to record the tiktoks that will go in the film. This was much more fun, since they were filmed on a vertical phone, and I could focus on the performace(which Jack slayed.)

Social Media

Hey blog, 

Let's talk social media, 

Our short has themes that surround social media. The whole thing is a big PSA about the dangers of becoming too comfortable on social media, and the consequences that socially inept people suffer on these platforms. Thus, it is extremely ironic that we had to support our film with social media. 

I knew I wanted to find a creative way of making the social media, play with the fact that Diego's social media is awkward and weird. 

I took inspiration from the marketing used for the movie "Spree."  The marketing team created a Tiktok, twitter and Instagram accounts for the protagonist of the film, where he would post the same content we see him make in the film. Not only does this make people excited to watch the film, but it creates more depth to the character, and gives the impression that this character lives a life outside of the film, and that they are a normal person. 

Chris Lilley, an Australian comedian known for character comedy, also creates social media accounts for his characters when it makes sense for the character. This expands the lore of the character without necessarily having to go through the whole production process and create more episodes. It is also much more casual than the shows he makes, and makes the character feel extremely real, which is hilarious considering all characters, even the ladies, are played by Chris himself.

So I knew that I wanted to incorporate Diego himself into the social media. 

We started by creating an Instagram, well Clara did. After posting a title graphic to reveal the title, we were a little stuck since we had to come up with ideas on how to promote the film, without having filmed yet. 

On our first day of filming, I had an idea. I thought it could be both cool, and smart, to make some "template" tiktoks. That being,  Tiktoks I will use on the montage of the film, in addition to using them as marketing, and to create a brand based on tiktoks. 

Additionally, we made a twitter,  @Diegofuego, a twitter that belongs to our protagonist. Twitter is not just based on what you post, but also what you interact with. 

We made a twitter for our protagonist. Martina takes care of the twitter, and retweets posts that Diego would, like sexual innuendos, video game and computer related posts, and memes. This helps us extend his persona outside of the film. 

Additionally, we are using this twitter in the film as well, so I think it fits nicely. 

As for tiktok, I could not imagine having to keep up a marketing account for the character. I think after we edit all of the tiktoks, we mmight make a tiktok account and post them, but it is unlinkely the account will reach traction, so we're using instagram and twitter. 

Set!!!

 Hey blog, 

Let's talk set. 

Clara and I decided to change the location of the final confrontation, from a supermarket, to a parking lot. 

So, here's what we've decided on location. 

The majority of the film, if not all, takes place in Diego's bedroom. We always knew we would use Maritna's brother's room, since it was the exact type of room we wanted- extremely male, not masculine.

We decide how we're going to fit the calendar, and how we are moving things around. The issue came, with shots. The room was not large enough to put the camera further back, to get very wide shots we wanted to get...

So we got a 14 mm lense! and a bunch of other cool stuff we're going to need- I'll expand on another blog. But, we are very excited and feel so prepared for filming. 
This weekend- stay tuned. 

Wanna Read my Movie?

 Hey blog, 

Let's read a script- 

Here it is in all it's glory...

CIRCUS MONKEY

ACT I

Black screen

Video game sounds are heard, then an aggressive yet whiny voice appears. 

Cut to- 

DIEGO, a conventionally attractive young man, about 19, wearing oversized and decrepit clothing. 

He is in an eerily empty room, with dirty walls, clothes thrown around, and food everywhere. It looks nasty, but inherently male. 

DIEGO

(exhilarated)

Yo, yo, where are you bro? YOO.

Shooting sounds are heard from the screen. Banter from his two friends, Jack and Manny is also heard. 

Suddenly, we hear Diego’s phone ding. 

He casually glances at it. His head returns to the screen, but instinctively returns to the phone, this time with a more startled look. 

He stares at the phone. 

The room becomes silent, with only the sound of white noise being heard. His friends' voices in the computer become waningly muffled, to the point of silence. 

He stares at the phone. 

The phone shows a text from ERICKA, reading-

Hey Diego, I know I ended things with you but I just wanted to check up on you and see how you were doing. If you ever need to talk to anyone I’m always here for you:)

Also, try to go outside and stuff. It’s good for you to get off the computer every now and then. I wish you the best!

The silence is interrupted by his friend’s voice. 

MANNY

Yo Diego

DIEGO
Yeah I’m here

MANNY

You died you dumb fuck

DIEGO

Sorry my, my ex texted.

JACK

You have an ex?

DIEGO
Yes, dumbass, Ericka? We dated.

JACK
Damn my bad

DIEGO

No like, like we dated. Like I had a girlfriend. 

JACK
Ok-

DIEGO

(Condescendingly)
Ya

BEAT

MANNY

Did you see her naked-

DIEGO

Ok I’m hopping off

MANNY

(in a manly banter)

Nah man, don’t get offended

DIEGO

Yeah fuck you both. Fuck you, bye. 

As one of his friends is about to speak, he interrupts and closes the computer. 

The light of the computer is closed, and he is now sitting in a much darker room. 

The shot (wide), lingers on him sitting in the bed alone in the dark. He turns on his phone, illuminating himself a bit, yet not enough to retreat him from the darkness. He stares at the phone longingly, then picks it up and throws it to the wall. 

The phone rings. He stands up.  

Cut to-

(j-cut) 

A close up of Diego shows him on the phone. 

DIEGO

(Sad)

Hey mom

MOM

Diego, I need to talk to you, can you talk right now?

DIEGO

(Almost tearing up)

Um, I don’t know, um, my ex-girlfriend kinda just texted me and- 

MOM

(Interrupting)

Ok, is this story gonna take a while?

DIEGO
I just wanted to- 

MOM

Because your father stopped sending me money again. He thinks I’m using it for botox. 

DIEGO

Did you use it for botox?

MOM

How dare you. I need you to talk to him. 

DIEGO 

Mom I-

MOM

(interrupting)

No I don’t care, Diego what am I supposed to do? He won’t talk to me, the man won’t talk to me. How will I- 

Diego’s face starts becoming red in rage.

DIEGO
(Suddenly and aggressively)

Can you shut the fuck up? 

MOM

No don’t tell me to-

DIEGO

No shut up. Shut the FUCK up. I’m trying to tell you how I feel you conniving CU-

Cut to-

DIEGO at his desk. He has tears streaming down his face, but he looks like he just got done crying. 

He is scrolling on his computer. 

BEAT

He looks around his room with a face of emptiness and sadness. He looks back at his computer and types- 

“Pornhub”

The computer takes him to porn hub. He types in the search bar- 

“Lesbian amateur”

He scrolls around. There are tears running down his face and he looks sadly unimpressed with the videos. 

He sits back on his chair. He’s looking around his room again. 

In the corner, something catches his eye.

It is a funny monkey calendar. 

Experimental music begins. 

MONTAGE

• Shot of Diego’s face becoming curious. 

• Shot of monkey calendar

• Close up of his eyes.

• Close up of monkey’s eyes

• Shot of Ericka’s eyes(picture, vertical)

• Close up of monkey’s hands

• Close up of Ericka’s hands

• Close up of monkey’s smile

• Close up of Ericka’s smile

• Close up of Diego’s  eyes, slowly becoming intensified. 

Beginning of the crescendo

• Shot of monkey- panning from eyes to breasts

His eyes widen, and he stares at it without blinking and with a little fear in his face. 

As the music decrescendos, a medium shot shows him slowly looking down at his pants. 

Title screen- “CIRCUS MONKEY” 

Cut to-

(j-cut)

Diego’s computer screen shows a bit of a violent videogame. 

He is beating up prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto. 

DIEGO

(stands up to celebrate)

Lets fucking goo!! Take that whore, yeahhhh. 

MANNY

Yo, my mom’s calling me, be right back

JACK

Alright I’ll pause it. 

Diego lays back and looks around. 

He looks at the monkey again. He looks a little disturbed at first, but snaps out of it and giggles at himself. 

He giggles again and pulls up twitter on his computer. 

He tweets- 

“Lowkey, not being a creep, but if monkeys are just humans that don’t talk, couldn’t I hypothetically fuck a monkey?”

He tweets it as his friend is coming back. 

MANNY

Alright, let’s hop back

They play in silence for a minute. The only thing heard is the violence of the video game. 

The silence is cut by Jack. 

Close up of Diego’s face. 

JACK

Yo, Diego

DIEGO

What’s up

JACK

What the fuck did you just tweet dog? 

The smile in his face wanes and for a second, we see full panic in his eyes. 

BEAT

MANNY

I just saw it- 

BEAT

They suddenly both burst into intense laughter, and slowly Diego begins laughing too. 

MANNY

(In the middle of laughing)

No but like, you’re kinda…right

JACK

What the fuck dude

MANNY

Like I mean, a hole’s a hole. They got boobs too…

Their voices slowly become muffled, and the laughter of the boys 

becomes intense, as a close up of Diego’s face shows his eyes becoming illuminated. 

MANNY
I gotta go guys

JACK

Lowkey I’m gonna hop off too

DIEGO
Al-alright guys

A wide shot shows him sitting on his bed. He picks up his phone and opens tiktok. 

We see him scroll for a second. He pauses to think. He looks at the wall. He opens the tiktok camera, and slowly puts the phone to his face. 

We see his face on the front camera. He is staring at himself and preparing himself. 

Cut to-

A vertical tik tok video of Diego saying- 

DIEGO

Hear me out. Lowkey, if monkeys are just humans that can’t talk, could I, hypothetically, fuck a monkey? Sorry if this was offensive, I’m just genuinely curious. 

Puts phone down. 

Fade to black. 

END OF ACT I

A graphic of tik tok likes begins popping up. Graphic of comments- 

• “LMFAO WTF” “nahh” “BRO HAS THAT ZOO RIZZ” “not the monkey pussy” “why he lowkey speaking faX tho” “not the monkussy” “yo digital footprint is a real thing”

Harsh cut shows Diego staring at the phone. He is shocked, his eyes are completely wide. 

The look on his face is completely ambigious, and slowly a grin emerges on his face revealing his feelings. A slow zoom on his face signify a change in him. 

MONTAGE

Black screen. Vertical tiktoks show up. Things like "I'm the guy who said he would fuck the monkey, and you know what i have no regrets”

(replying to a comment that says: idk if ur serious but this is fucking hilarious) “nope im serious!” *thumbs up*

“Hey guys… still me, the guy who wants to fuck a monkey! I was just wondering…”

Him playing video games with his friends, ignoring them and going on tiktok. 

Him checking his stats. 

Progressively becoming nastier

Other people are making videos about him.

His friends calling him and him immediately hanging up on them, not hesitating.  

Live stream- gets a bit of hate and he defends himself. Curses, says rude shit. 

"My haters won't stop me." #EFFTHEMONKEY

Progressively, his personality intensifies, and he seems happy. The feeling is ambigious, although he seems happy, and he has support of people, he does not talk to his friends anymore, and there is a very somber feeling attached to the fame he has attained. 

HARSH CUT

END OF ACT II 

 

ACT III

 

Diego is sitting in the toilet. He has a vile shirt on, and his pants are fully down. His genitals are being strategically covered by the sink. His posture is disgusting, and he looks vulnerable and disgusting. 

 

He is reloading his notifications, and they are showing the same three comments again and again. His face is very confused. 

 

CUT TO

 

Diego is eating mac and cheese. Hunched over the table like a hog, he vacuums the mac and cheese like it has legs, and looks at his phone

 

He is more desperate now. He restarts his phone and nothing. He scrolls and scrolls and scrolls and nothing. Shot become shorter, faster, and he becomes more desperate. 

 

He gasps. A wide shot shows him sitting alone again. Only white noise from the air conditioner is heard.

 

He goes to the bathroom and is out of toilet paper. 

He goes to the kitchen and has basically nothing. 

 

He lays down on his bed. His expression changes drastically. He looks at the monkey.  

 

CUT TO

Ext. Parking Lot- Day

 

Wide shot- Diego parks his car in a parking lot and gets out. He is wearing a hoodie and looking at his phone, still scrolling on his phone and looking forward. 

 

He crosses a woman, but her face is not visible. After passing him, she turns around and addresses him. 

 

ERICKA (Off screen)

Diego?

 

Diego lifts his head and quickly turns around. Ericka is standing in front of him.

 

DIEGO

(Winded)

Ericka

There’s an awkward moment of tension, and a two shot shows them staring at each other. Diego looks upset, and Ericka just looks awkward.

 

ERICKA

(Breaking the tension)

How you doing? I haven’t heard from you in a while.

 

DIEGO

I-I’m fine

 

ERICKA

Um- I texted you a bit ago.

 

DIEGO

I didn’t see

 

ERICKA

I- saw the tiktok you made about me

 

BEAT

 

DIEGO

I was- pretty heartbroken

 

ERICKA

I didn’t realize

 

DIEGO

We had something

 

BEAT

 

ERICKA

Did we? We went on two dates Diego.

 

A close up shot shows him become more desperate.

 

DIEGO

(Stuttering)

I just- I just- I don’t get why you ended it. I was such a nice guy. I get it, I’m not the cutest, most macho guy, but I thought you cared about more than that.

BEAT

 

ERICKA

(confidently and boldly)

Diego, if you genuinely believe the reason we did not work out, or the reason girls don’t talk to you, is because of your looks, then there’s something seriously wrong with you. You are the most entitled, and childish man I have ever met.

 

She walks away. Diego is holding back an insane amount of tears and words.

 

As she is walking away, Diego interrupts.

 

DIEGO

(Interrupting)

You’re just another fucking whore!

 

ERICKA

(composed)

Have a good life Diego.

She walks away

 

Ear ringing is heard.

Slow motion- Diego walks back to his car angrily.

He sits in his car and looks forward, breathing hardly and angrily.

He picks up his phone and begins recording himself horizontally.

 

CUT TO

Video being recorded on phone.

 

Diego is not crying, but he is eating his tears. There is a stark silence.

 

 

DIEGO

Hi, it’s me. Monkey fucking guy. I have an update.

BEAT

If this video reaches one million like- I will kill my ex-girlfriend Ericka.

Cut to black

 

Black screen. The sound of tiktok likes is heard and becomes more intense.

 

Title screen – “CIRCUS MONKEY”, Credits.