Every filmmaker has stories from back when they were first starting out in the “biz”. One of my first stories dates back to the tail end of 2005. This was a few months after the escapade that was HILL-BILLY HUNTIN', and I was still in my first year of film school. I had enrolled in the Professional Video Editing class that was one of the last required classes in the program.
The class had a grand total of 15 students, and since we had to work in groups, it easily broke down to 5 people per group. I had enrolled with my good friends Geoff, Dayna and Danielle, but I didn’t get paired up with of them. Geoff and Danielle went into group B, Dayna joined group A, and I was stuck in group C.
I would like to think that my group was the rag tag team in that class, and I don’t think I’m wrong in my assumptions. The members of my team broke down like this; we have Colin – the stoner, David – the surfer, Kristyn – the emo/scene chick, Ryan – the editor, and me – the writer.
Our first assignment was simple, create a 2-3 minute long silent film. At the time I wasn’t confident in my script writing abilities, so I opted to just work on the crew and see where things go. Colin chose to come up with the idea and direct the first project. David would server as Camera Op/Director of Photography, while the rest of us would do the rest. The idea Colin came up with was about a man who was in such remorse for causing the death of his daughter, that he sells his soul to the Devil, only to have the daughter come back to life as a soulless being. The film was titled “Soulless”. We spent a couple weeks shooting this silent horror film, and when it was done, I was embarrassed that my name was even attached to it (even though Ryan did a good job editing).
The next project was another 2-3 minute long short film that had to have at least 27 edits in it (ie: cuts between scenes – like showing 2 characters talking). I decided to sit down and write a short comedy about Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman having a union meeting. This was the first real script I had written in quite some time, and I was really nervous to show it to people. I was very fortunate that the majority of the class loved it, and my group decided to move forward with production. I stepped into the shoes of Producer, Director and Star. I chose to play Dracula, while I got my friend Marky to play Frankenstein, and Geoff jumped on board to play the Wolf man.
I used the workshop in my movie theater as the location, as in the script Dracula was on the run from the INS after filling out his Visa application wrong. Frankenstein had found Judaism and converted, while the Wolf man had sunk to an all time low and was a pizza delivery boy.
At the same time I was gearing up for this short film, I was approached by Dayna’s group leader, a man who became a good friend of mine, Mike. The short that they were shooting was about a man in limbo, being tormented by the fact that he willingly gave AIDS to several women before he died. The script was written by another group member of theirs, and they wanted someone who actually knew how to format a script properly give it a rewrite. I gladly accepted the assignment, and spent a couple hours reworking their script and giving it a fresh coat of paint. Mike was pleased with the outcome, and I went back to work on my own piece.
All of us showed up at the theater one afternoon before I had to work, and we set up for the real quick shoot. I had gone out that morning and purchased face makeup for us to use on myself and Marky (thank god it was Halloween time), and I had made sure to have all the other ducks in a row taken care of before we started rolling.
Since this was my first time directing a group of people, I was really nervous and hoping that I didn’t fuck up too bad. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I had to apply my makeup myself (we had no makeup artist), and I could wear my glasses, which pretty much made me blind. So I had to trust David (who was the Director of Photography again) to get all the shots right and make sure they looked good… That didn’t happen.
All of the footage taken on that first day came out looking like shit. It was over exposed, and pretty much useless. We only had another week of time left before the project was due, and I had to quickly reschedule all of the cast and crew to come back and reshoot. Luckily, the people had the time, so we cranked it out, and got it done in just a few hours. Then the footage went off to Ryan for editing.
I got a call from Geoff a night or two later, and he told me that his group still hadn’t shot anything yet. He asked for my help to get a script in order that we could shoot and have a project to turn in. So, for the second time, I was asked to write another group’s script.
I came up with the idea of two brothers who barricaded themselves into a room after the Apocalypse. The short was called “The Room”, and it was about one brother (me) who goes insane and kills the other (Geoff). Geoff liked it, and we set up a shoot day for early one Saturday morning to get the thing done.
That was a fun morning, we got to trash Geoff’s room, and I got to finally show my skills as a dramatic actor. Only one member of Geoff’s group was able to show up and work the camera, he had told us that he knew how to use it, so we didn’t question him when he set the camera up that day. So we quickly got the thing on tape, and after I made Geoff bleed (accidentally), I was able to finally sit down and take a load off. That was until Geoff called me later on that day to tell me that his camera guy had the settings wrong, and we were shooting in LP mode and not SP mode. Because of the different shooting modes, Geoff wasn’t able to capture the footage to the hard drive, and all those hours were lost to one guy not paying attention.
Later that night, I ended up back over with Mike’s group at a church to help them wrap up production on the short about the guy in Limbo. It was during this time where I came up with the idea that would change the way things were done at school.
I was outside smoking a cigarette with the audio guy Glen, and I made the suggestion that we all join forces and create one big project that was one big story, but broken down into 3 different parts (ala Pulp Fiction). With all the members from group A on board, Mike and I decided to present it to the class. I will always remember the day we got all the students into a meeting room, and I laid out my plan for the short films. I would write all 3 pieces, Mike would produce the whole project, and Geoff, the other Ryan and I would each direct one piece.
...Part 2 coming on St. Patty's Day
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