Hello! My name is Mariana Gamboa and I am the creator of film “Stolen Gardens”, a moving drama and romance. My film follows the story of a woman named Jane who was charged for first degree murder of her step-father and was sentenced to death row. The film starts with Jane as an older woman in prison, the day before she is put the death, being asked to share her true story. The rest of the film goes way back from the beginning of Jane’s life and follows all of the factors that eventually led up to her murdering her step-father. Jane’s stepfather sexually, emotionally, and physically abused Jane’s mother up until she died of a heart attack. And since then, Jane became the victim and had to endure years of pain. When Jane was 17, she fell in love with Leo, who technically saved her from ending her own life. When her step-father caught them together he killed Leo, so Jane eventually takes revenge and murders her stepfather.
When I started this project, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. Since I chose to work alone for this project, my brain had to come up with something fast. I decided I wanted to do a film that produces emotion in the audience. My favorite films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the Truman Show, Into the Wild, and many other dramas made me want to produce the same eye opening feeling I got when I watched those films.
I believe that my films intention is to spread awareness about those who are born into troubled and dysfunctional families. Sadly, those born into these types of families sometimes eventually end up like their parents. My hope is to stop that cycle by spreading awareness of children who are currently in difficult situations. I also intend to challenge the conventions of how society views criminals, which in many cases are viewed without mercy. I hope to give another perception to the audience about criminals and how they are not all monsters by submerging the audience into the story of Jane and feel sympathy for her. Even though there are many people who are certainly guilty of their crimes, many are unaware that they are all human and have a story to tell, just like Jane.
Part of my inspiration for this film was a film called “The Florida Project” directed by Sean Baker, which is about the childhood of kids in lower class families living in motels. This inspired me because it portrays a very real aspect of life that I believe isn’t shown enough in cinema. Sean Baker also believed that this topic wasn’t shown enough and wanted to spread awareness.
My target audience is technically anyone who is older than 18, as this film would be considered rated R. Since there are many people out there who have gone through such things as domestic violence and abuse, I am hoping that this film can be relatable to them and make them feel less lonely. My product engages with the audience in a way that makes them feel emotion for old jane by using some genre characteristics of Drama, such as extreme close-ups, sentimental music, and nostalgic themes.. This way the audience is able to travel back to janes memories and feel sympathy for her. Since i also wanted the film to be relatable, I purposefully made the Jane fall in love at a young age so most of the audience can relate to the nostalgia of one’s first love. In addition, since this is only a film opening, I did not plan to spoil the whole story in the first 2 minutes of the movie. Instead, I gave clues about the plot using flashbacks (which aren’t in order) This increases the audience’s urge continue watching the movie to know what really happens. I would distribute this film by first showing it through a film festival such as the Savannah Film Festival, which shows independent film. This way I could climb up the ladder and get noticed by A24.
My production skills have developed a lot throughout this process. Since it’s the first time I work on a film project alone, I was to explore and learn more about filming, editing, revising, and so much more. Since there is a time limit on my film, I had to cut off unnecessary seconds from certain scenes, but still make it so the film told the story correctly. My father, who is an actor and also studied production in college, gave me tips on how I could make my film better. His advice helped me a lot and I believe they will also help me for the long run in future projects.
For this project I used my phone to shoot the scenes, which worked surprisingly well since the iPhones have an incredible lens. I used iMovie for this film. It was the first time i use imovie for one of my project as I usually use wevideo. But it was very easy to use and it wasn’t too complicated. As for the sound, I used the actor’s phones to record their voices on a separate voice note so that the audio could be heard well and I later added it to the clip.
Overall, I am content with how my film opening turned out, and I’m pretty satisfied to have my vision come to life. I hope that this film can move people and make them think about all of the other Janes out there that had to grow up in a painful manner and didn’t get the justice they deserved.
