Pre-Production

I'm using this blog as a way to explain my production practices for making a film. I'm currently in the early stages of pre-production but I will do my best to continue the blog through the film's completion. I don't normally blog because I feel like I have better things to do than tell the world about the things I have already done, but this is special because it may help some people who are new to film production. Here goes:

About four years ago I put together a group of people to make a 48-hour film in North Carolina. The film we ended up making sucked but in the planning stages we kicked around a number of other ideas for films that covered all of the genres in the 48-hour film project's guidelines. One film was about two winemaking brothers who discover that blood makes wine taste great and so they kill people for their wine. We had access to a vineyard, it was a good idea, but ultimately we got a category other than horror (drama) and we made something else. And for that I'm glad because at that time there was no chance we could have made anything decent. We were too young, too inexperienced to make anything meaningful. So the idea sat dormant, kind of swimming around my head for years, waiting for an opportunity to rise again. That opportunity came a few weeks ago while surfing the Alamo Drafthouse website (once again proving the worth of the internet) and the prospect of making a horror film suddenly became real again.

I moved to Texas is 2007 to pursue a film career. I found work soon after moving and gained a reputation quickly for being very good at all aspects of film. I was still very young and inexperienced but I was a quick learner and I already knew how to use Final Cut and After Effects, two programs that have made me a living for the past two years. I found work with people who were willing to loan their gear because they trusted me from my work with them. Moving to a new city is difficult because you leave behind everything you work so hard to establish. In my case my biggest losses were the people I knew who enjoyed making movies with me and access to any and all film equipment. I had just made a 48-film the summer before moving and the success of that film was a driving force for myself and my crew members. Leaving that was rough. It has taken me until just recently to find other people like I who are young, talented, driven, and have experience in the film industry. To me, that is the most important aspect of independent filmmaking. Once you have found the people you can trust to make a movie and you can call a friend, then you have the beginnings of a powerful relationship. Finding gear back home was easy because I had just left school and had made many good friends with professors with keys to important closet locks. I knew that leaving that behind would be equally as difficult to regain.

I currently work at a video production studio. I get to meet a lot of people in my field because of my work. The most important thing for me when I meet somebody new is to impress them somehow, connect with them somehow, interact with them somehow, because in this business you never know when you may see them or work with them again. If you have already made that connection it becomes easier to talk to them again. And soon you talk regularly, either as a friend or as a colleague. For instance my boss is friends with one of the biggest DP's in Austin. When we first met our connection was immediately established that I was somebody you can call if you need any kind of work done on Apple computers or any computer for that matter. It so happened that this DP had just purchased a brand new Macbook laptop and is a veritable n00b at computers. I was put in contact with the DP and we began talking through e-mail and phone about a good time to meet and look over his computer. Now, that time never came for one reason or another, but through those phone calls and e-mails I was able to discuss with him his equipment, his schedule, who he knows, what kind of people he works for, and if he would be willing to loan his camera to me to shoot some test footage of the 35mm film stock I have sitting in my refrigerator that was given to me by my boss from a previous job. Because of the time we later arranged to meet to look at his camera, I was able to meet a person about my age who assembles and disassembles cranes for films. I found out he loves bad movies. I love bad movies. We talked, laughed, and the cycle continues.

So connections became my main goal for two years. Over time I met producers, editors, graphic artists, shooters, assistants, PA's, grips and everything in between. And because of my good nature and desire to meet people, I made a lot of acquaintances. It then becomes a matter of figuring out who is a friend and who is a filmmaker, but that's another discussion.


The big impetus for deciding to make this bloody winemaker film was a combination of all the things I have mentioned. Connections, equipment, new friends and lingering ideas all kind of bubbled to the surface once I saw that there was a 48-hour film to be made. The very first thing I did was start asking people if they wanted to make a movie.