Our May production, Interview Room 3, went very well. Here is a photo of most of the cast and crew (not me, though… I must have been getting lunch or something.)
photo by Judy Garlow
“Interview Room 3” is a police drama that I co-produced that centers on a college student (Morgan) who is brought into a police interview room and finds out that her father was killed. As the two detectives talk to her, we find out there may be more to the story…
After filming Tomboys, which featured a paintball field, we agreed to film a 15-second commercial for them that is going to film at the local movie theater. We stopped by on a Saturday morning for 3 or 4 hours and filmed the following with a bunch of kids:
Our DP Brad shot, edited and narrated it. I think it turned out pretty good! I was the clapper, lol.
(click here for more photos; photos by basselal)
After my previous attempt at directing a film for this film group, I was determined to do much better. By this time, our group had grown, we’d learned a lot of lessons, and we’d improved by leaps and bounds.
As I mentioned before, I’m at a point in my filmmaking journey where I’m mainly figuring out the nuts and bolts of the craft, rather than cultivating a strong artistic sensibility. And that’s ok for now. But I’d like to start moving in a direction–rather than learning how to produce my, or other people’s, work–where I am able to tap into my own creative resources and make something that is uniquely mine. And not so… conventional. When I happen upon the work of someone really interesting and creative, someone like this, I am reminded that this is why I’m interested in filmmaking.
(click on the photo for a flickr set of all the thumbnails; photos by basselal)
Our third film, “Halloweed” is almost done being edited, but it won’t be publicly available as we are going to try to submit it to film festivals. Wish us luck!
I know that I’m not making great art. Sometimes I see videos like this one, this one or this one, and I can really feel how far I have to go ARTISTICALLY as a filmmaker. But… it doesn’t bother me that much. Right now, I’m learning the nuts and bolts of producing films. I’ve always let that hold me back. When I’ve had a good idea, I’ve been hesitant, and afraid… and I often did not know where to start and how I could possibly pull it off. These exercises I’m doing with the film club–one short film per month for a year–are helping me overcome that. I’m feeling more and more powerful every day, and I’m beginning to see that I can make just about anything happen if I really want to do it. Great art can come later, once I’ve gotten over my fear of JUST DOING IT.
As promised, here is our film group’s second video:
I have a lot to say about it, but for now I’ll just say it’s WAY better than the first one for a myriad of reasons. I was not on the creative team for this one (is that the reason? Hehehe!), but I did work heavily behind the scenes.
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Update: (5/4/2010)
So, as you can see, this film was MUCH better than our group’s previous one. Here is a list of things that we did differently that contributed to this: Continue reading ‘Film #2: I Remember When’
One thing I’ve been learning a lot about lately is casting. We (the film group I’m now a part of) have been putting out casting calls in order to find trained actors for our films who are willing to work for free. And it turns out that it’s easy to find such people, because actors need demo reels that show how well they can act.
I went to a seminar a few months ago about how to direct actors, and the instructor said that 85% of direction is casting the right people. If you just cast your non-actor friends, you’ll need like five rehearsals before you can get them play the part well enough. And casting the right people isn’t just about finding people who can act—it’s about finding people with a good attitude, who will help and not hinder your production, and who are reliable and professional.
Even though I haven’t posted in three months, much has happened to me, filmmaking-wise. In December, someone in my part of town started a film club with the goal of making one short film per month for a year. A handful of people showed up to that first meeting, and by the time the meeting was over, we had a script, cast and crew ready to shoot the first film. I was the director. And we shot it a few weeks later. I’m not gonna say it was a masterpiece, but it was quite an adventure, and we learned a lot.
As of now, we’ve shot three films and are doing pre-production on a fourth and fifth. Two are completely done, and I’ll post the second one shortly. You’ll see a huge difference between the first and second film, which shows how fast we are learning and growing.
Here is our first short film, “Scene.”
Here are my some random tidbits of what went on behind the scenes of this particular project: Continue reading ‘“Scene”’
Practicing Film 