When you don't have money but regardless you want to produce something worthwhile, something that speaks to your ambitions of making indelible motion pictures, then the penalty is always time and pure sweat equity. Well, at least it has been in my case.
afilmabout.us is my experiment in visual storytelling - crafting compelling visual narratives within a set of limited circumstances using limited resources, but with an overriding ambition to make unforgettable motion pictures, and in the process become a better storyteller.
When I started this project my goal was to build a team that would produce 8 short films for $2,000 per title in one year. Each film would be a snapshot of who we are as filmmakers at that precise moment - warts and all - so that by the end of the production cycle we would have a road map of our storytelling growth. The company would use equipment owned by the filmmakers, who would also write/direct/edit/score everything themselves. Because my particular trade is post-production, I'd develop scripts that would lean heavily in that direction, to relieve some of the burden of production value during shooting. As supervising producer for the project, my unifying idea behind all these proposed shorts was nothing more than "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
As vague as this notion was I wanted to work with other talented filmmakers to make this happen. I was able to attract the incredible talents of Peter Haas, a working editor I had the good fortune to go to college with, Larry McGovern, an engineer by trade and a stellar grip and AD, and Ron Moreno, as hard-working an actor as anyone could want to meet. The four of us made up the core filmmaking team, each bringing a passion and commitment this kind of no-budget endeavor really requires.
In some post-KLF fit of whimsy, I believed that if the same people were involved in all the projects that were developed under the afilmabout.us banner, then our true, undiluted collective creative voice would emerge irresistibly from that body of work... maybe not discernible close-up, but step back a ways and you'll see it.
And this is still probably true, but in the last eighteen months the "we can do it" bravado has given way to a more sober reality about our initial targets. My personal goal was to grow as an independent producer - learn the mechanics of "proper" film production, which I initially believed specifically meant working with SAG actors.
What I actually learned from my producing experience was (1) the scripts I was writing were too ambitious for the scope of production within my immediate means, (2) not every person who displays emphatic enthusiasm when volunteering their services just for credit and experience are going to pull through for you, so you better have a back-up plan, and (3) you simply can't ever, ever give up.
I know now, for example, how much it will realistically cost to produce the 11 page screenplay called "Footcandles." I also know that the sci-fi scripts we've been developing are a tad out of our reach at the moment - but that won't always be the case. These days I write scripts intended to be affordable and compelling (to me, anyway) and that can be shot efficiently with the tools that we've already developed - the proof of that being the more contained but no less dramatically ambitious short script currently entitled "On The Table."
"Undone," the web series that started it all, is in the last leg of post-production. I'll tell the story of that long, long production cycle some other time. But as the final stages approach it's tempting to frame that as an ending, but that's not the case. As it was always intended to be - it's a beginning.
2010 will be a very different year for afilmabout.us
...this was all intended to be a preamble to a discussion about another short film anthology project I had the good fortune to see, a project called "Wonder..." - but that'll have to wait till next time. So until then... good night, and good luck.
Posts
