My first project outside of school was, let’s say, quite disappointing. A bomb in my book, yet the biggest learning experience I’ve ever received. Originally a short film pitched to my 35mm final project/producing class, it was done on my own time with my close friend and colleague, Kyle Hardesty. Together, we put together the script for this short comedy, yet were denied to produce it on the school’s budget via a nasty pitch session.
You would think, at a well-respected film school, teachers and course directors would reel you into the producing end of the industry – pitching scripts, developing projects for TV, etc. Nope! Instead, they shot everyone down and ripped us apart with no tips or advice for survival. Talk and positive criticism of the script floated around the soon to be graduated class of 110 students, and many were upset that they couldn’t work on it. It came to me that since we planned out so much of what we were going to originally shoot, “what the hell is stopping me?”
I spoke with Kyle about doing the project ourselves. We already had volunteer crew members and a script, but needed gear and some locations. I brought on a production manager, a DP, and even a script supervisor – all students who took roles in their respective areas of what they want to ultimately do outside of school. We kindly asked to use the school’s pre-built bar set, and were granted without a problem.
I spoke with Kyle about doing the project ourselves. We already had volunteer crew members and a script, but needed gear and some locations. I brought on a production manager, a DP, and even a script supervisor – all students who took roles in their respective areas of what they want to ultimately do outside of school. We kindly asked to use the school’s pre-built bar set, and were granted without a problem.
I ended up shooting on two Panasonic HVX’s over the course of 3 days, and I was able to bring in a good friend,Brandon Meyer to star.
Though it didn’t make the cut for the final film project, students claim it was more fun to work on than what was chosen for school. Kyle and I criticize this film all the time. We reference our current struggles to particular moments of building this project, and laugh of the hurdles of what we went through. We even went as far as creating a commentary version of the film explaining everything that was wrong with it. I find this to be more entertaining than the original cut. At the end of the day, I had to learn the valuable aspect of “producing” while skipping producing class.