People These Days follows the relationship of siblings, Greg and Isabel, as they deal with the family betrayal that turns their world upside-down. In the film, Greg visits his sister for the weekend after finding out that their father cheated on their mother-- and the woman is pregnant.  When Greg arrives, Isabel attempts to divert the focus from the scandal at hand by dragging her brother to a party. Greg, who is insistent on addressing the situation, tries to open up about his feelings, but his sister deflects his every attempt to talk. Greg soon finds himself standing alone at the party, his frustrarted and damaged feelings becoming overwhelming. And so Greg takes to the street: spatially confused, emotionally raw, and very drunk. As he listens to voicemails left by his mother and father, feeling extremely caught in the middle by all members of the family, Greg  lets out a scream into the sky. When he returns to Isabel’s apartment, he finds her asleep on the couch. Isabel wakes up and sees that he is still upset; her attempt to avoid the familial drama only hurt her brother. Luckily, she knows just the thing to help Greg blow off steam and begin to process the situation. The siblings go to an alleyway behind Isabel’s apartment and throw plates, watching them shatter onto the ground. When they have done enough, the siblings sit down together on the curb. As they look up into the silent night sky, together they begin to accept that with maturing comes accepting that those who may be idolized, are in fact fallible. 

Elise Felber, the writer, and director of People These Days, is a Senior at Boston University studying Film & TV. With the main focus in screenwriting, Elise is excited to direct this film and move her story off the paper and into real life. She grew up in New Jersey and plans to move to LA after graduation to continue working in film.  

Willa Pisarski is a Junior at Boston University studying Film & Television and is the Director of Photography for People These Days. Her passion for storytelling started with acting for the Blue Roses Theatre Company in her hometown, Schenectady, New York. She then branched out to film while at BU and has fallen in love with the craft. Within filmmaking, her passions lie in directing and cinematography, so working as DP for PTD is a dream come true. Post-grad she plans to work on set in NYC.

Asia Gordon is a junior at Boston University studying Film and Television and the Producer of People These Days. Asia is from Northern California and loves working with various people and moving parts and therefore is very excited for the opportunity to produce People These Days.

Kiera Stolecki is the Sound Mixer for People These Days. She is a senior studying Film and Television with an interest in production and development. She is very excited to see how sound will play a role in the film. Kiera is finishing her senior year in Los Angeles next semester and plans to stay there post-graduation.

Amaris Navarrete is the Production Designer for People These Days. As a Film and Television student at BU and a senior, she is very excited to start working on this short film. While production design is not her passion for film, she would rather direct or write, it does tap into her aesthetic sensibilities. Having taken many production classes, Amaris plans to return to NYC and start working on sets after graduation.

Camera Department: Boston University has been so helpful in getting us a lot of the equipment we need for the set, including our camera (Sony F3) as well as the lens (Canon Xeen). There are so many other things we would love to invest in to make this film as amazing as possible. We would love to use your donations towards renting an RTMotion MK3.1 Wireless Follow Focus, Quasar LED Kits, and more to bring the brilliant story to its full potential.

Production Design: While this film may not seem like it needs too much to make a convincing production design a lot more goes into than one may think. In order to recreate a person’s living space, one must make sure everything in that space embodies the character, which may not already be on location or in the crews own homes. Our film also includes an element of fantasy in the party scene that needs to contrast with the reality outside of the party greatly. Everyone wants to make a great party, real or fake, so most of the money here would go into lights and decorations to contradict with the reality outside of it.

Transportation: This film requires the cast and crew to film at various locations. That being, we attend a university in a city with lovely public transportation, none of us have a car, therefore, we need to rent a van to transport everything. Apart from being able to transport the team to the various locations, we additionally do not have enough hands or muscles to transport all the equipment to each location. A van rental will be crucial to our production.

Craft Services: During the long and hard, yet still fun, hours that our cast and crew will be working they will get hungry. It is recommended that humans have three meals a day with a few snacks in-between. To produce the best picture possible our team will need to be well fueled for the most optimal and beautiful short film.