Science fiction and fantasy stories are some of my favorite genres of film. For me, they are the best ways to explore hard-hitting concepts or far out ideas that otherwise would not have been considered. In other words, these genres are a powerful vessel to ask the "what if's" of our universe and beyond.
What would happen if a person that could morph his appearance into anyone he wants, has finally lost grasp of his own true identity? Millions of people suffer from self-identity issues every day, but how would it affect as a Shape-Shifter?
In “The Someone”, I explore the humanity of a person with an extraordinary ability that isn’t able to use it to lift himself from his misery. I hope the audience will see how the Shape-Shifter fails to use his gift, and then discover that in retrospect, the path to healing a self-identity crisis can be achieved through one’s own validity.
I have used this short film to explore and pose these kinds of questions and now I intend to further explore this depth and venture some of the answers in the feature length version of the film.
As a film director the very early stages of his career, I have had to come up with some creative solutions to problems that arise on set during the making of “The Someone”. For instance, in the punching scene, the main actor accidentally really punched the other actor in the face! It was so bad that their eye started to swell instantly. Fortunately, both actors were professional about it and I was able to use this opportunity to get the close-up shot of the Actor’s real black eye. So when you see that close-up shot in the film, just remember the real pain my poor actor had to go through, too!
There was another more technical problem that affected the film that is enough to give any Director nightmares. I came home after shooting and realized that some of the footage was corrupted. Yes, it happened to me. Any kind of reshoots with this budget was impossible, so I had to create a list of small pickup shots on the night before the last day of shooting and hope that the edit would work without the reverse shot in this particular scene. You may catch that scene when you watch the film and wonder if it was just a ‘Director’s choice’ to stay on one shot without cutting the reverse. No, I had to do it, but it still looks pretty cool and I’m happy with it!
Hélder Pedro
Writer, Director – The Someone
Watch the Behind the scene’s video
