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Let me begin by saying a bit about myself. I am 22 years old and I dropped out of college at the age of 19. I can't stand school; I hate learning on other peoples' terms. A good friend of mine continued pursuing his education in Mass Communications, which involved a lot of film work. He and I have worked on little film projects for the last 3 years together.
Now, onto the story. This friend, named Mike, works in the video department at Fresno State University in Fresno, California. He was mentoring a high school student (named Ethan) from Fresno State's High School that's meant for kids who get really good grades and wanna go to college, etc. Ethan was wanting to submit an application to USC's film school and the NY Film Academy. As such, he needed a project on his portfolio that showed he had some experience in filmmaking. This is when Mike called me up to talk about working on a short film.
I had just purchased a Canon Rebel T2i DSLR camera and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get familiar with the workflow and really work on a full short film that had a proper screenplay, shotlist, etc. I agreed to help and we decided to shoot a screenplay and use a shotlist that Mike and I had worked up over a year ago. There was only one problem; our deadline was december 1st and it was already mid-October. Regardless, we decided to setup a shooting schedule and we started the pre-production process immediately.
I'll spare a lot of the production details. The basics here are that we were under the gun to get this film done (planned, shot, edited) in about a month of time with new equipment that we weren't entirely familiar with. We also did not have the equipment to do certain shots such as a dolly or a camera stabilizer so some of the shots turned out shakier than we had wanted.
The film itself is a bit experimental. It contains no dialogue and tells a story through images and music. I played all of the guitar parts, recorded and mixed all the audio, wrote the screenplay, assisted on the shotlist, produced the film, and also did a bit of directing and editing.
Overall, I'm satisfied with the way the film turned out. I have gotten positive reactions to the film and now I'm posting it here to see how other people react to the film.
Feel free to leave comments/criticism. I am open to criticism and appreciate honesty so I can better my art in the future. Again, I know it's not a perfect film and having overcome the challenge of shooting without dollies, stabilizers, etc. I now know that these items are essential to making a good film.
Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2098TO8R41Q&hd=1
Be sure to watch in 720 or 1080p if possible. Again, leave comments/criticism. If you want to know technical details about the equipment used, etc. feel free to ask. Thank you!
