Follow My Film

I’m incredibly lucky: Gavin Fisher, the director of photography on Girlfriend 19, is also a professional color-correctionist.  Not only is he one of the coolest guys to work with, he is also incredibly skilled and talented.

Color-correction is a lot more than just tweaking colors.  With his set-up, we can make all kinds of adjustments within the film.  I was blown away at the possibilities.  We added light and reduced light.  We created contrast and decreased contrast.  In fact, there were so many possibilities, I was a bit overwhelmed and quickly realized I was not prepared enough for our meeting!

However, in the end, the greatest and most encouraging thing Gavin and I realized is the fact that our footage itself, untreated, looks fantastic.  In fact, there were many times where we simply did not want to touch the image and leave it the way it was!  That’s saying a lot about our production team, from lighting to make-up.  Everyone did a great job and it shows!!!

Below is a photo of Gavin at work in his studio and some
Girlfriend 19 movie stills…

We’re getting incredibly close to completing our final cut of Girlfriend 19!

My two editors, John and Jarrod, and I spent the entire day Sunday working on the film.  They really are a joy to work with in addition to being extremely talented.  And the great thing is that John and Jarrod do not think completely alike, leading to a more diverse editing approach.

I’ll be spending a lot time with Girlfriend 19 this week, taking notes and brainstorming ways to make it as effective as possible.  I will then get together with John and Jarrod again next weekend to edit some more.  Our goal is to complete editing by the end of this month…

Reshoots are quite common during film productions, so it’s no surprise that we needed to reshoot a scene last night for Girlfriend 19.

It’s a rather simple scene where Bethany interacts with a kitchen knife in a dark hallway.  However, because it repeatedly unfolds in Bethany’s imagination throughout the film, it needs to intensify and deliver a big punch.  Our existing footage simply did not do that, so we decided to take another stab at it!

Thanks to the hospitality of my good friend, Tom, Cassidy and I were able to take some time and reshoot our scene with a lot more edge.  Another dear friend of mine, Graham Fisher, was kind enough to take pictures of us in action.

Hope you like them!

While speeding along a bridge in my Mustang late last night, a question flashed through my mind: why am I driving 70 m.p.h. under these conditions without an ounce of doubt?  Not only was the route unfamiliar, but also my visibility was reduced since my headlights beamed straight ahead on the curvilinear bridge.

A lover of analogies (especially road analogies), I couldn’t help but compare driving on the bridge with filmmaking.  Can I make films in the same way I was driving?  No doubt, racing along a bridge at night is risky, but I do it anyway, without a second thought.  However, when it comes to making a film, I worry from start to finish.  I hesitate, doubt, and fear.  Why?  What’s the difference?

Hopefully some day soon I will make films the way I drive my car – full speed ahead, even in the dark unknown.

I’m healthy, of sound mind and financially stable.  My wife fully supports what I do.  I live in a free society with little restriction.  And filmmaking technology is the most accessible it has ever been.  So why is it so difficult to make a film?

I’ve come to the conclusion that the greatest challenge in making films has nothing to do with logistics, legalities, nor finances, rather, it has to do with execution.  In other words, I can have a camera, a cast and crew, and millions of dollars, but if I don’t know what to do with them, I’m stuck.  It’s like having an RV with a tank full of gas and a fridge full of food, but if I have no idea where to go, I’m stuck in park!

In most cases, the movie script is the road map; it tells the filmmaker where to go, and often, how to go.  But what if one doesn’t want a detailed map with a set destination?  What if one simply wants to hop in and drive as the old adage espouses, “Let the path be the destination.”

With Girlfriend 19 nearing completion, I’m considering my next move.  And at this time, I don’t want to write another script, so now what?  Like the RV, I’m eager to hop in and drive, allowing the road, weather and signs to guide me, perhaps meeting a few folks on the way who will sway me in one direction or another.

So, how do I allow the path to be the destination with a camera? Unfortunately, I can not simply hop into a camera and drive off as I would with an RV.  Or can I?