The reason why I haven't posted anything here for more than two months is that something else has taken up all my time outside of work. That "something else" is my very first fiction piece (if you don't count the shelter commercial). Yes, I'm making a movie! or, at least, trying to make one. I had already worked on a short as a "B camera" and assistant to the DP, but I wanted to make my own film. So, the first step was to write it, and believe me, that's a real pain in the ass, specially if you haven't done it before. Oh, I can't even start telling you how much I admire screenwriters now! Well, once that's finished and revised, and re-drafted, and re-revised again and re-written and changed and re-re-revised and..., there comes all the pre-production stuff: casting, scouting for locations, getting props, crew, costumes, vehicles (including a hearse), permits, knocking on a lot of doors, story boarding, finding a composer for the score and whatnot. Now, if you have a decent budget to make a movie, you'll also have people doing a lot of that stuff for you, but when your budget is "0" (zero, or a we say in Spain, "cero pelotero," which means less than zero) and all you have is a friend (Ryan Sims, who co-produces and shoots it) who is as excited as myself about the project, then your life gets awfully complicated and you start wondering over and over again why on earth you even wanted to make a movie in the first place, even if it's a short one.
To be honest, I have to admit that I wrote the story because I wanted to SHOOT it myself, but now I'm perfectly comfortable with just being the writer-director. I've always heard that a movie is the result of a big team effort, but only now I've realized how true that actually is and, after all, I not only absolutely trust Ryan as a DP, but we also work very well together (his wife told me the other day that he's never seen him work this comfortably because it's the first time he's working with a director who happens to be a photographer, too).
Anyway, we finally got started with some 2nd unit photography with actor Tom Kennelly, and these pictures here are a few grabs from the camera's footage (except the last one, obviously). A big THANKYOU goes to Andy Scharein for allowing us to shoot in his house and to Rachael for making Violet, the dog, stay on the exact spot where I wanted her to stay.
I've made the resolution of posting updates here. So, if you're interested in this sort of things, stay tuned. Oh, and if you see someone driving around like crazy or banging his head against a wall or shouting in the middle of the night or similar stuff, don't worry: that's just me enjoying the movie-making process.
