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.