So I completed my first true short, currently called “White Heads”. It took a ton of work for 4 mins 30 seconds, much more than I anticipated. I screwed up a few things during filming that I wasn’t able to make up for in the editing room –
#1 Using a BB gun
#2 Shooting a continuous scene in 1 location on 2 separate days (lighting)
#3 Using an action sequence that had subpar emotion from the actors (myself included)
There were other things that could’ve been done better, but these are the things that stand out to me. My number one takeaway from this experience was that the importance of getting good shots in person cannot be fully made up for with solid editing. I spent hours upon hours on an ‘action sequence’ only to make it look less corny than it was on film.
I’m not going to lie, I felt some major depression around the time I was completing the video. I had a new scene partner who was going to film with me on Wednesday before completely flaking. On top of that, the video has well under a hundred views. I anticipated this and am okay with it, but I’m figuring out that viewers don’t respond well to self promotion (cue the dislikes).
I really felt deflated because I was hoping to edit this weekend. My original plan was to create a few of these episodes with friends, build up a foundation of viewers, than recruit people who actually want to act. I’m realizing quickly that I don’t have the patience to deal with anymore flakes.
So I have to go and find real actors. And by real, I mean community college kids taking an acting class. That means I have to get out of my comfort zone and reach out to others. Unfortunately for them, they will find out that my production team consists of me and my camera. On top of that, I don’t feel it would be wise to pay anybody as of yet. I can afford maybe $40 for one days work of an actor. But I’m also not a fan of dumping money when it doesn’t need to be dumped.
In the meantime, Film Riot has posted a quarantine challenge for a 60 second short film due by April 2nd. I plan to submit to that. My new goals for the coming week are going to be A) learn about search engine optimization in order to organically build and audience and B) reach out to aspiring actors who would be interested/comfortable developing this web series with me. I’ll keep on updating you as I’m a big believer in persistence, even when you’re feeling hopeless. If you’d like to give my short film a view, a like, or even a subscription, I would be overjoyed. Here it is, please feel free to tell me your thoughts and any advice is always much appreciated.
Thomas M. Watt 