Bend and Not Break

It was awesome working with Tim Hall, Timm McCreary and Christopher Hall. There are 3 elements of the short that I found the most successful. Casting is the first. It made the film. I would like to put in a special plug to Tim Hall. The day we sat down to do a practice reading of the script he already jumped into character and was yelling at Chris at the precise moments. I was impressed with his willingness to jump into the role he was playing so quickly. Of course, I can't claim the genius of casting, for it was acutally Shellena, my wife's idea to cast her older brothers (and brother in law Timm.) (oh and Larry, "Mr. Dorison" was all Tim's idea. I believe he may have been eager for the opportunity to yell at his father-in-law without consequences.

With the casting came a location. Chris & Tim work at Resource MFG, a staffing company out of Salt Lake. Because of their positions there we were able to use the office as the main location for the film. So, the 2nd success of this project was once again, Shellena and Tim's idea.

The final component which I feel credible enought brag about, is the shot composition. I was rather pleased with how it turned out. In the editing process I had all the variety of shots I needed. There was never that painful moment of saying to onself "why did I not get a cutaway of..." or "We should have done this take one more time...". The editing process was smooth and I have received compliments for the variety of shots (Mediums, closeups, wides) as well as camera movement and static shots. Specifically, on a number of occasions, the shot of Chris demanding Tim's badge, with his hand close to the lense; for some reason people really thought that shot was cool/professional/whatever.

My intention is not to brag, and I cannot say this film was wildly successful by any means. The story doesn't exactly function and because of time restraints it leaves a lot of questions in the viewers mind.I only had 3 minutes and I chose an ambitious story. So sew me. But the purpose of a project was as an exercise in using the tools and medium of film. I feel that it fulfilled its purpose of creation.

ps. A special plug to Sammi. She did the sound recording on set and was willing to wake up early and spend a saturday helping out on the film. The sound quality was superb; better than any other project done I've before. That means I spent less time stressing about it in post, than on other projects. So, thanks Sammi!

So in the end I guess I have to say I'm a believer in the collaborative nature of film. Any great director is dependent on a great crew. When we surround ourselves with hard workers we usually develope the same attributes.