The Jeweler

Told with no dialogue, this film shows a jeweler's love for his wife and his journey to make a ring for their anniversary. The process itself shows the Jeweler's reflection upon past events with his wife by showing his dedication to the ring's creation. However, the full impact of this meaning is not known until the end of the film, refracting the viewer's expectations. I chose not to use dialogue due to my lack of budget, requiring that I work within my means. I used my budget on a composer, letting music influence the emotions in the story rather than someone's acting abilities. I came up with the idea while watching NYU application videos, and I decided to combine one of my interests with a depressing story. Once I had the basic idea, I had to figure out how to get my point across within a time limit. My solution was a montage, establishing the character and what is happening in the beginning, then showing his process through a montage of shots. The next issue I faced was finding a jeweler. My first option was my grandfather, though we had no tools or anything at all resembling a jeweler's workplace. I could make do, but finding a real jeweler was the better option. I started with the closest jeweler to me, who said he would think about it, then never got back to me. I assumed that was a no. The next one I talked to just said, "okay." We had never met before, and he was completely fine with helping me. We arranged a date, and filming could commence. However, I was restricted by time. I only had so many days to film as my school did not allow me to leave due to Covid. I live at a residential high school, which requires stricter Covid regulations than a regular school. I managed to film everything in 2 days. The first day was everything at the jeweler's store, and the second was at the cemetery. I had scheduled a third day for reshoots, but it was unnecessary. I was not fully happy with only a handful of scenes, but they were good enough to work with. Editing took me a few weeks, wherein I had to add every sound effect by hand. The only sound effects that I did not need to add were the final scene and the scenes where he is working on the ring. I also color graded everything to get a more vibrant look, then stabilized all of the shots. Finally, all I had to do was wait for the music. I found a pianist on Fiverr that seemed like a good fit for my project, and I started working with him to find the right sound. I told him the feeling I wanted and gave him examples to work with, and he came back a few weeks later with the completed piece. There were only two things that needed altered, then I could add it to the film. With everything in place, my film was finally complete.