THE WRITING PROCESS
The Make it Make Sense Writer
As a Writer, LaVeta feels strongly that the Cast, Crew, and the audience all believe in the world that she creates. All parts of the story must make sense. Every line serves a purpose to the film that gets the message across about who each character is, their relationship to other characters and the overarching message about human trafficking.
There were many revisions made to the script. RED LIGHT originally started out as a short film that LaVeta wrote in 2020. It was shot, ironically, on Saturday, January 9, 2021, two days before National Human Trafficking Awareness Day which is on January 11th. There were about 35 Cast and Crew members on that set. The location was a warehouse that was very cold, but everyone was professional and came together for a common cause, for fourteen hours.
After seeing what was accomplished with the short film, LaVeta realized that she had to write an entire feature length film about human trafficking before presenting it to the world. It took four to five months of writing, reading, and editing the script. There were at least three impromptu readthroughs of the script with the team. LaVeta asked questions to see if what she envisioned was being conveyed through her words. LaVeta was looking for certain emotions that characters would evoke from the audience to bring about their empathy and sympathy, as well as their dark humor.
After the feature was filmed in September and October 2021, her script writing process was not over. During the editing process, she discovered that there were little holes in the story that needed clarity shined on them so the audience would not be completely lost and have a lot of unanswered questions. More scenes were written, and more filming took place in the fall of 2022 through the spring of 2023.
Finally, the writing process was wrapped.
THE DIRECTING STYLE
The Collaborative Director
LaVeta Cameron considers herself a collaborative Director. She writes and she and the actors develop the characters collectively. With an open atmosphere of communication between the Director and the actors both on and off set, the actors are comfortable in furthering the development of their characters. They are directed to live and move as their characters would. Authenticity in the characters is always valued over lines said verbatim by the actors to deliver natural performances on camera.
Cast and other Crew members collaboratively present thoughts and suggestions to the Director. She considers all feedback and makes the final decisions. LaVeta prefers her team to voice their thoughts in the moment either before or during set, as opposed to when the scene is wrapped. She does not profess to be the smartest or most creative person in the room; however, she does always have a vision that she is always open to enhancing in any way to bring about a captivating film. Collaboration brings a sense of unity and familial aspect to the set that bonds everyone together.
THE GRAND PRODUCTION
The Big Set Producer
RED LIGHT was LaVeta Cameron's first time producing a feature length film of this magnitude. Before casting the talent, she went over dates with the Director of Photography, Hunter Thomas Candelaria www.NiteTea.com (Hunter@NiteTea.com) and the rest of the crew to see when they were available to film. Then locations were scouted out and established around the crew's availability. Once the dates were locked in, she put a casting call out asking actors to submit only if they were available on those specific dates.
Currently, RED LIGHT has over 85 Cast and Crew members. Many hours were spent working on the rehearsal and shooting schedules to make sure their availability coincided with the various locations' availability to plan scenes accordingly. Everyone was very flexible and understanding during this process, especially when they had to return when it became evident that more film days were needed. People became invested in the film, their characters, and the message about human trafficking awareness. When it was all said and done, there were 19 days of filming from September 2021 through April 2023.
Although as an Executive Producer and having invested a majority of her personal funds into the production of RED LIGHT, LaVeta realized that it was just not enough to cover the costs of the entire film. A GoFundMe was started to help raise money and many people donated during pre-production. People also donated monetarily during production, as well as in other ways which consisted of providing food to feed all of the people on set. LaVeta is so grateful that everyone wanted to help and be a part of the film in some capacity to help offset the expenses, even during post-production.
LaVeta also feels strongly about the importance of educating the Cast and Crew about human trafficking. During the pre-production process, she held self-defense classes under her business, Storms of Defense (Storm@StormsOfDefense.com), where she and her martial arts family taught them basic safety techniques. The money raised from the classes was put towards the production of the film. Being a part of the film, the Cast and Crew actually did become more aware of their surroundings and were extra careful not to become victims.
Right now, RED LIGHT is in post-production in the editing process. The picture of the film is not locked just yet, but it is close to it. The audio files are organized but not synced because the different scenes are still being moved around in the timeline. Soon the color grading will have to be done, the audio cleaned up, the sound mixed, and music and credits added.
When the film is finally completed, the Producer will be proud to show RED LIGHT to the world and help make a difference in human trafficking.
