UPDATE:
At the end of my first semester at UF, the professors asked the class to pitch a film idea as part of our final project in one of the classes. We could choose any idea were interested in, as long as we did enough research to make the pitch possible. I chose to pitch the debutante idea.
My preliminary research told me that debutante balls are not generally big on websites. Most of the information about balls that are still going on come from newspapers who print stories about the balls. All in all, this was a pretty good ruler to use to identify possible debutante balls because I needed to find one that would be open to the media. What better way then to find one that was already inviting the media into the balls.
I was still in the process of scouting out deb ball and I found information about the National Debutante Cotilion and Thanksgiving Ball in Washington, DC. I decided to use this as the location of the film for the purposes of the pitch. I choose this ball because women come from all over the country to participate, which I found fascinating. Also, the time frame of this particular ball worked well with the production time line, allowing ample time to shoot before the ball and edit after it's over.
The fact that DC is so far away was an impediment, however I have family in the area, so I'd have a place to stay if I went to film there. Inevitably, the reason that this film did not get made was because there was a film about this ball done in 1989 by Ted Reed called "Coming Out." Although it would have been possible to make a film that is different from Mr. Reed's, I decided to look for other locations for the film simply because there are others out there that need exploring.
