Release Date:
September 25th, 2025

Starring:
Jada Ann Chevalier

Directed by:
Steve Sanchez Rosales

Music by:
Rachel Williams

June - July, 2025

Five Years:
The first PinkWhiteBlue Film released on September 25th, 2020; with this date quickly approaching I came up with ideas to celebrate the 5th anniversary. Five years may not seem like much, but it's a fifth of my life that I've dedicated to extracting the thoughts in my head and sharing them with you all. My initial idea was to make a 'behind the scenes video' that would showcase my filmmaking process. The video would also serve as a guide for new filmmakers, as I learned a lot of my craft via tutorials online.

In order to make this video I needed a film to demonstrate. I decided instead of using a previous film, I would create a brand new one froms scratch; a quick two minute film just to showcase my process.

My only idea was to shoot in Coney Island because of its intolerable spectacle and my desire to someday make a 'summer' movie. I got to work on writing a quick script about a person spending a day in the colorful mirage of the beach...

July, 2025

A simple way to create a short film is to make what I call a 'Poetic' short film. You shoot footage of characters living their life, an overlay it with a voiceover of a poem being read aloud. It's ideal for beginners because of how independent all aspects of filmmaking become. The poem can be written and rewritten as many times because the actors don't have to memorize or rehearse any lines; the cinematography can be loose and abstract because there isn't a plot involed; the actors have an easier time behaving naturally because of a lack of dialogue or action; and the editing is allowed to jettison continuity because the film is essentially a montage.

This style of film allows the director to feel the film and not focus as much on the techincal side of filmmaking. It's this genre of film that I started doing as a teenager in the 2010s, and I decided to return to it for this project as a way to teach new filmmakers, and because of how quick this method is; the 5th anniversary deadline was fast approaching.

My biggest inspiration was the work of Brian Wilson. I love how he is able to write a song fit for the beach, but have deep melancholic lyrics on top of it. I took this approach and wrote poetry about a character who is questioning their place in the world and whether it is right to continue. I felt this sentiment reflecting on my five years of work, and all the people that have met and gone. The song that influenced me the most was "'Til I Die" by The Beach Boys.

A neat aspect of the film is the 1960s aesthetic. I always associate the 1960s with airplane travel and vacations to faraway beaches. The problem was that a New Yorker wouldn't view Coney Island as an exotic travel destination, so I made the character British! I already had Jada in mind to play the role and I knew she could do a british accent, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to have be in the film! And the film photographer attribute was because I have a film camera that I never used and I figured it'd be a cool prop.

I rewrote the poem many times; some challenges included timing the poem with what I wanted on screen, timing the poem to a meter, seamlessly expositing Lottie's story with how she was feeling, and of course, making the poem rhyme. Below you can read the shooting script and judge for yourself!

August 22nd, 2025 Final Draft

July, 2025

Jada:
I had worked with Jada before on Walking on the Moon and Chrysanthemum & Esperanza; two collaborations that proved succesful. She's played two characters who have a strong passion for life, so I thought it would be interesting to see her play the weary and despondent Lottie Smith.

We spent a lot of time over tea discussing the character and how she would behave in the film. We also rehearsed the accent and how the poem would be read!

The Costume:
Lottie's costume went through a lot of ideas and revisions. Jada and I worked together to figure out what Lottie would wear on holiday to the beach. My initial thought was for her outfit to reflect the colors of the beach setting. Lottie was depressed but she's trying to fit in to what a normal vacation looks like. She wants her appearance in the photographs to look typical. I then decided to make the costume look more 1960s to match the film's aesthetic. I researched beachwear from that era and didn't find anything to work with.

Once I got the test photos of the beach, I realized that if Lottie was dressed like everyone else she wouldn't stand out on camera or to the audience. I decided to switch the approach and design the costume so it would be what Lottie would wear as a photographer. I wanted an evergreen look that could fit in many situations. An outift Lottie would recycle to wear on the streets of London, or the english countryside.

I based the outfit around a skirt I found at a costume warehouse, it was the perfect skirt for the film and if I didn't find it the costume wouldn't work. It even had these two front pockets which were perfect for an artist like Lottie to carry supplies in. The black turtleneck then fit naturally as the 1960s is known for its turtlenecks. And lastly, I wanted a beehive hairstyle for Lottie but Jada couldn't do it so we settled for the hairstyle seen in the film!

August 20th, 2025

Aquarium Day:
We were supposed to shoot the film all in one day but it rained on our scheduled shoot date :(. We travelled to Coney Island anyways and shot footage inside the aquarium. Because we weren't in a rush anymore we spent a while inside collecting footage and checking out the sealife.

August 23rd, 2025

Boardwalk Day:
This was one of the most fun I've had on a film set because it felt like I was actually going on a vacation at the beach! I think the beautiful waves and weather made for a relaxing atmosphere, and although we were behind on time (as usual) I felt great! Jada and I walked around a small section of the beach and amusement park, to make the shots feel bigger I framed the background at a forty-five degree angle. I tried my best ot give this short film a great depth so the viewer can see as much of the park as possible.

I was very nervous to have a cameo in the short film! This is the first time I've been in a short film, and although I've directed actors in the past, it's a whole lot harder to take that direction myself. I tried my best to act naturally and Jada was a great scene partner to have. It's a great little scene where the protagonist gets to meet the author (in a way).

Wonderful Recordings at Night:
The last thing to record was the poetry voiceover. We did the recording at night by the ocean so the background noise could match with the ambient beach sounds that were recorded on video; as well as so there would be less people and the microphone only picked up Jada's voice.

It was a bittersweet ending to our shoot, and it was the last time Jada spoke in a british accent for our film.

The Score:
I knew from the beginning that this wonderful beach film needed a wonderful score to match! I teamed up with composer Rachel Williams to bring a wall of sound to the film. Because Lottie Smith is british my mind immediately went to the nineteen-sixties, I imagined how air travel was a novelty in those days; so I wanted music that evoked that jet-set, sixties style version of travel. Rachel worked hard on producing different version of this feeling until we decided on the final score you hear in the film!

The Score:
Editing was a breeze, the film is only two minutes long and I already had the edits done in my head. Not many issues there, I believe this is the only film I worked on where I finished editing the film early! I'm very proud of the aesthetic and coloring I was able to do, and the credits with Lottie picking up the camera at the end.

Posting the Film Online:
I posted the film on YouTube and on this website, and I was very happy! That night Jada and I went to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium, lots of fun there.

Five Years in the Making:
When Will the Day Glow? is one of the best film I've done. The cinematography is perfect, the poem is perfect, the music is perfect, and the performance is perfect. Everything served this one vision that I had in my head. I love the beach and I did a good job at expressing that! Most of all, it was a way to relax and have a little vacation after five years of creative work! The future is filled with fear, anxiety, and hardship. But for a little bit, a little two minutes; I was happy :)