As many of you know, a month or so ago I released my first official short film online. It’s called ‘The Time Capsule’ and even though it isn’t perfect, watching it makes my heart flutter. I’ve been meaning to sit down and write about it but the truth it, I’ve been so busy and it’s been hard to wrap my head around it all. So here we are now, a bit late but here!
Right now, my third official short film is in the works. As crazy as it feels to say this, we will be filming it in SIX DAYS! It’s called ‘Lifeline’ and it isn’t for a class and I wrote it and will be directing it and have been co producing it with my friend and it is taking up literally all of my spare time and it is driving me absolutely crazy but despite all of that, I love making it.
The filmmaking process is hard. There are a lot of things to coordinate and work around and plan for. You have to have a plan B and C and D in case anything goes wrong. Right now, we’ve been struggling to make a schedule that fits everything into the three days, while also figuring out exactly how I want the actors to deliver their lines, what props are needed when, what I’m going to feed the crew, what equipment we want to use, what we want the shots to look like, where we’re going to park cars for locations not on campus (gotta love cities) and how much am I willing to spend to make this happen. On top of that, we’re also just hoping and hoping that there won’t be rain because that’ll ruin it all. Literally all of my spare time in the last week has gone into finagling the details of this to make sure it’ll work out.
Despite that all, it’s so worth it. I love feeling it coming together (even if it is so so slow) and I love the moment when you see your vision on a screen for the first time. I love that a group of my friends are willing to give up three entire days of their week (as well as countless hours beforehand) in order to help make my little script into a reality.
And I know my first film wasn’t that great. I know there were some definite issues with it, and I know this one will have some too. But I’m okay with that. I’m taking a micro budget class this term. It’s half a production class and half a film studies class rolled into one. For the production half, my best friend and I co created a short film together that will also be coming out soon. For the studies half, we’ve been watching the first films from directors who are now Oscar winners and well known, but back then, were just young adults with dreams and no money but a lot of motivation, just like me. It’s so amazing to see how they did just what I’m trying to do, and quite frankly, with just as many issues as I’ve been having.
So, if this post is long and confusing to you, here’s the summary: I’m making a lot of movies, and I’m going to get better at it. See you at the Oscars in, let’s plan for, 2025?
Okay welllll maybe not, but no matter what, I know that I will always enjoy this process. A lot of times when I tell people I’m a film major, they ask what I’m going to do in the future with my degree. Honestly, I’m still not sure. I don’t know if I’ll make it big, but I know I’ll never stop making whatever films I’m given the opportunity to make. As my good pal Walt Disney said, “we don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” So even if this ends up being something I can only pursue in between jobs that give me financial stability, I don’t ever want to stop doing it. It’s pure magic to see your ideas play out on a screen.
I’ve given up this entire weekend to help my friends make a short film. People are giving up their entire weekends next week to help me make mine. Everyone in this field has more passion and drive and willingness to work than anyone I know in other fields. We all love what we’re doing, and we know it’s going to suck when we don’t have steady jobs after we graduate, but when we do get to make our movies, we’ll be making happy. So there.
🙂
Cities and Waves 