The Making of a Short Film - Part 4

The following events all occurred at more or less the same time bringing us finally to the present. I was (and still am) getting the itch to make something soon. The probability of shooting The Last Defense within the next year was looking slim and I didn't want to wait that long before doing something. At about this point I had a chance conversation with Jimmy(he's the one on the left), who I have known for over sixteen years. What I didn't know is that we both share a love for the movies and an interest in making our own film(though the fact that he manages a movie theater should have been a hint). So with Jimmy's support (and hopefully others) we are going to make our first short before the end of the year. For our fist film we have selected a very short script with a shooting title of The Bag. It's about...well, a bag. Anyway, we had our first "meeting" last week where we decided on the story, potential casting, and locations. It looks like this will be a two day shoot sometime in the early part of December.

I was still looking for some equipment to use and came upon an employee of our small local T.V. station. She offered to let me borrow one of their 3CCD cameras (as opposed to a 1CCD, which most consumer cameras are). I had since lost the interest of the professional videographer who had volunteered before. So the opportunity to borrow a high in camera to use myself was great. Unfortunately my excitement didn't last too long as I soon received a call telling me that her boss had been transferred/fired/quit and I would not be able to borrow the camera. So at the present it looks like we will be shooting our first short on my Panasonic PV-GS19 (not a high in camera). The picture quality I think will be fine it's the sound I'm worried about. Though I think with some advise from Jimmy and with some if not all of the sound recorded separate it will turn out better than O.K.

Also at some point during this time frame I purchased a computer specifically for editing and the Adobe editing software to go with it. This was a major purchase for me and I was pretty psyched about it. Now, some of you might ask, "Why didn't you by a better camera instead of the computer and editing equip?" The answer is because I can possible borrow or even rent a high end camera for a day or two. Whereas it is much more difficult if not impossible to borrow or rent a computer for the weeks that it would take to edit.

So, now Jimmy and I have a new script, we've got the locations, and a potential cast. Hopefully my next Making of a Short Film post will be after we have had our first day of shooting. I'll let you know how it goes and in the meantime all of you who stop buy and don't say anything, leave a comment once in a while so I know your there.

"The best education in film is to make one." Stanley Kubrick


Also be sure to check out Jim Live and listen for a recent film indie event.