Movie Making Update

On October 2, 2015, I made an exciting announcement on Instagram about a passion project that was finally becoming a reality (if you missed this announcement, you can see it here). Maybe you did not think it was quite as exciting as I did, but nevertheless an announcement was made: the first day of shooting my first short film was commencing! I got a lot of messages asking about the project, congratulating me on doing it, and many many people being curious about how it would turn out. 

If you were too lazy to click the link, here's the announcement photo. Look how artsy that is. Wow. 

We had an awesome cast (Nick Schmahl, Jeff Dimick, Eli Stewart, Jules James, and Adessa Morris), an awesome crew (shoutout to Austin James), and even a script. We spent 2 weekends shooting and another weekend shooting reshoots. Then suddenly, all updates were silent. 

Over the past 4 months, I have periodically received messages asking "how did that whole thing turn out, anyway?" Ok, maybe that was just my mother asking, but it still counts! The questions still remain: what happened to this project? What the heck is this short film about? Is it even still happening? Is this what failure looks like? Why am I even reading a blog post about an indie short film by a writer/director who went to school as a Bible major? 

That last question hurts, but I will answer all of the OTHER questions for you here and give you an update about where in the process we are, and a little idea of what the future may hold when it comes to film projects. 


1) What happened to this project? 

Well, life happened. Immediately after we shot "Just Another Day", a funny thing happened. My camera that was purchased via Amazon.com had a malfunction that inhibited us from getting the footage from the HDV tapes onto my MacBook. You may read that and think "wow, you are using tapes to film it?" and my answer is quite simply "yes". I wish I could tell you it was because I believe that films should be shot on film and all of that artistic stuff, but the truth of it actually is the fact that the camera was the best quality I could find at the time of purchase that was within the budget allotted. 

So, with older equipment comes some issues. Thankfully, the majority of filming was finished by the time we came across this issue. I sent the camera in to Canon to have them assess it and fix it. After they had it for a month, they returned it with a letter that said that they no longer made the parts needed to fix the issue. That was a bummer. 

That meant that I had to send the HDV tapes in to a development company who will take the footage and put it on both DVD and digital copy for me to have. This process will take about 6-8 weeks to complete, so that means editing will be able to begin in a month or so. 


2) What the heck is this short film about? 

Here's the log line for you: A man who fears anything "different" than his regular routines finds a mysterious package delivered to his apartment out of the blue. Insisting it must be a mistake, he embarks on a journey to return it to the sender. Along the way, he must come face to face with his fears, forcing him to ask himself whether "different" necessarily means "bad". 

The genre could be classified as "indie comedy". 


3) Is this even still happening? 

Heck yes! It has to happen. Why? Because of the awesome hard work that went in to putting this thing together. Nick and Jeff (our main characters) worked tirelessly and for long hours, putting up with a demanding director for 4+ days in order to put great characters on the screen. The physical demands put on Eli and Jules and Nick to do their own stunts deserves to be seen. A few technical hiccups are not going to stand in the way of us finishing this thing. 


4) Is this what failure looks like? 

No. That's not nice. Really? Why would you ask that? Come on, man. 


5) What's the future hold? 

On March 1, 2016, we will be releasing some exciting news about "Red Turbo Jacket Productions" (Twitter: @RTJ_Productions), the production company banner under which this short film and other shorts/promos/music videos will be made under. 

Also, I am currently in the process of upgrading our camera equipment and other accessories to help make a better quality product for your viewing pleasure. There are also 2 separate original scripts in the works (1 feature length and 1 short film series to be released Christmas 2016), 1 music video, 1 script revision, and of course Just Another Day editing that are to be worked on this year. 

It is going to be very busy this upcoming year, yet the excitement cannot be understated! Thank you for all of the encouraging messages and conversations surrounding this project in particular. I cannot wait to start releasing some footage and the full short film in about 2 or 3 months to you guys. 

And if any of this sounds interesting to you, enough that you may want to be involved either in front or behind a camera, feel free to contact me on here!