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BIGGER

December 2022

A coming-of-age story that revolves around Elena, a Latina teen dealing with body image, living in a dysfunctional Latinx household, and finding her own voice and following her dreams amidst it all

"Bigger" is Melissa's fourth and latest film of 2022 extending into early 2023. It is her most ambitious and successful project thus far, with the largest cast and crew she's worked with, and the most amount of locations shot in. She began the casting process in the summer of 2022, taking an entire month auditioning over 80 individuals in a carefully thorough process and locking in all key cast in October 2022, with a solid two months of table reads and rehearsals before production began in December 2022. She additionally spent a sufficient amount of time on production design, renovating the same bedroom from the prior "Perfect" set as well as designing and dressing a living room, kitchen, and college's cafeteria and poetry club room.  She collaboratively worked with core crew members for location scouting, equipment rentals, shotlist creation and shooting schedule for the production.

Melissa also dedicated time during the entire process of "Bigger" from preproduction to after postproduction for promotion of the film on various social media platforms, creating the hashtag #BIGGERThesisFilm, using character portrait stills, behind the scenes photos, cinematography stills, teasers, trailers, countdowns, a commissioned movie poster for the film, and constant posts and stories to raise awareness about the film as well as connect with other NYC creatives. She has currently submitted "Bigger" to many festivals, some of which have already selected the film for various awards and recognitions (see below for more information).
 


 

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KEY CAST
 Anani Santos as "Elena" 
Milagros Colon as "Carmen"
Rebecca Escobedo as "Valentina"
Hannibal Romero as "Julio"
Shenisha Mitchell as "Aaliyah"
Marquis Ellis as "Jay"
Alejandro Buritica as "Chris"
Lauryn Savela as "Tanya"
*Please refer to end credits of film for all names of cafeteria scene extras*


CREW
Writer, Director, Editor, Producer
Melissa Morales
Associate Producer
Christine Grobelny
1st Assistant Directors
Christine Grobelny
Nicole Zambrano
Gabriela Ruiz

2nd Assistant Director
Kayleigh Keane
Director of Photography
Celeste Ortega
Assistant Cameras
Nyoman Cerrens Widhianta
Alexa Whyte

Colorist
Celeste Ortega
Gaffer
Harry 'Mydonsy' Huang'
Grips
Jorge Aguilar
Tim Savin

Cure Elliott
Omar Garcia
Paola Muñoz

Sound Mixer
David Reid
Boom Operators
Michael Suarez-Villao
Drejon Blocker

Script Supervisors
Alejandro Buritica
Danna Johnson

BTS Photographers
Graham Burdick
Alexa Whyte

Production Designer
Melissa Morales
Production Assistants
Adalia Rivera
Valerie Cepeda
Jana Planas

Composer
Steve Cosquillo
Movie Poster Artist
André Manguba

Official thesis film "Bigger" written, directed, produced, edited by Melissa Morales

Behind the Scenes Set Photos

(click around the shape!)

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Official Movie Poster for "Bigger"

"Bigger" Current List of Awards and Recognitions

_Bigger_ Current Lists of Awards & Selections
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