Preface: Last month, in August, we were invited to screen our previous short film, Life With Wifey, at a pop up event in Los Angeles called The Great Film Club. This new community of filmmakers showcases short films every month, so it was a great opportunity to watch our finished film for the first time on a big screen in front of our peers. I’m proud of our little team, who in just less than a year, took an idea from script to production to screening. High-fives all around.
Activating creativity: Okay, so since I was traveling down to LA again, of course my mind immediately went to how can I collect my filmmaker friends and make another film? Here’s a breakdown of my producer-brain going into action and what happened next:
- How much time do I have in LA? Half a day on Saturday.
- Who are my talented friends? Syra and Matt.
- Are they free and down to make a film? Yes.
- Is Richie, my cinematographer friend, also free? Of course he is (why wouldn’t he want to hang out with me??)
- Can I write something with two characters and a limited scope in mind? Of course!
- Do we have a budget for crew, equipment, production design, etc? No.
- Do we have time for a story that requires multiple setups? No.
- Okay, what should we do? Let’s shoot on iPhone!
- But where do we shoot? In an apartment!
- How do we overcome all these roadblocks? Limitation breeds creativity! Let’s do it in one take!
Head nods happened all around and we got to work. Read my 5-page original screenplay here and then watch the final product below. I hope you enjoy it!
Logline: Two parents just got the day off. Now what?
Learnings:
1) I tried to be the boom operator and direct at the same time. I did such a terrible job that I wanted to fire myself. I’m being hard on myself, but don’t do two things at once is the learning here.
2. I need to stop making films in the middle of the summer and find a more comfortable season to film in. That, or our next film takes place in a refrigerator. Even Ringo the cat was feeling the heat. Here he is, giving me some feedback that he was getting tired of my shit.
3) Laughing and making art with my friends is the key to my happiness. Here is a selfie of the four of us!
Afterward: Please follow Syra, Matt and Richie. They are some of my most talented, funny, charming, and humble friends. And tell me what you thought of the film (I’m trying to get better as a filmmaker!).