Little Bill

I’m inspired again. You could even say I’m supercharged. Excited.

This past weekend, my roommate Mike and I made a film. It wasn’t much, just four pages. But it was enough to get my juices flowing again. This past project was Mike’s film — we’ve been making films together for years — and I served as the Director of Photography: I was the Cinematographer, did all of the lighting setups, and operated the camera. Mike wrote and directed.

To be fair to myself, the excitement began a few weeks ago when we held auditions for the film. There was a call for actors, a space rented and readings given. Also, it’s film festival season. That helped fan the flames, too.

Nothing against Mike by any means, but I think what got me charged up to do this was when I found myself thinking that’s not how I would have done it, which is not to say what he did was wrong or bad per se, just not how I would’ve done it. This, of course, sparked my latent desire to actually make a film again.

This is good. I call myself a filmmaker. I’ve even gone as far as to describe myself to perfect strangers (read: girls I’ve met in bars) as a filmmaker-who-doesn’t-make-films. There’s a zillion of us out there. I’d rather be able to describe myself as one who does make films.

And that’s where I am now. I’m making a film. Soon. There are stages to this process, of course, and I’ve just finished the outline. There’s no title yet, and the plot synopsis will obviously stay secret. After this will come exhaustive character studies; script writing; scene breakdowns; location scouting; storyboards; costume, set, and lighting design, finding cast and crew, auditions, and finally filming.

All of this for what will be anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour long. And I’m super excited. It might get quiet here in the meantime, so enjoy my really bad short film, The Blind Date in the meantime.