Monday, October 12, 2009

A Walk in the Park

Here is the full version of "A Walk in the Park", which the 7 minute version was submitted to the 2009 Secret City Film Festival, 7 Day ShootOut contest. I didn't place, but I really enjoyed making the film.

I registered on a Thursday, wrote the script Friday morning at McDonald's, shot footage in the Smokey Mountains on Saturday, and finished shooting at Ijam's Nature Center and my parent's backyard on Sunday. I had beautiful weather to work with until Sunday night. It was raining cats and dogs, but my actors and my trusty old HVX-200 with a garbage bag as a rain cover finished the shoot that night.

I edited non-stop after work Monday through Wednesday. Wednesday night, my friend Brian Greer and I edited till 5:20am until we had a good enough cut to submit. The cut that I posted is finished for the most part, although there are some edits and sounds edits I would like to improve down the road. Technically this is my third movie. The first one being "Box Man" (Comedy/Parody), the second "Zombie Musical" (Comedy/Musical), and lastly my first (Thriller) "A Walk in the Park"

Some lessons I learned from "A Walk in the Park" is that I really need a boom mic/boom operator, because my wireless lavs gave me hell. I was really happy with the cinematography I had achieved given by my limited resources. There are only two scenes that I wish I could do over, okay maybe 3, but overall I was happy with what I got. I guess the most valuable lesson I learned from all this, is that you don't need a high-end camera to tell a story. As long as you have good composition, close-up shots, and your wide angle master shots you can make a great movie.

I want to thank Greg Knox, Kathryn Hale, Scott Norwood, Gavin Norwood, and Jeff Macht for acting in the movie with such a short notice. I'm pretty sure they had as much fun as I had. And I would also like to thank Brian Greer for the opening title graphics and music. He made the opening so much better than what I had before. Lastly, I want to thank my fiancee for her love and support. I don't know what I would do without her.




Thursday, June 11, 2009

Vegetarian Zombie Musical

We won First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2009, 10 Hour Marble City Film Festival! My team had a blast making the film. Kudos to Chris B. for writing the lyrics!!