What a ride. Since my last post, so much has changed.
I was devastated on Thursday after my friend flaked on me. I had just posted episode 1 and intended to enter a 1 minute film contest. I spent all of Friday promoting my video and finding avenues to reach other actors.
Then two things happened –
#1 – another filmmaker pointed out that the audio on my video was only playing through the left headphone
#2 – My flaky friend texted me that he would be able to film on Saturday.
For the rest of the weekend, I went to work. I convinced my friend to come down on Sunday, as I had no film or props prepared. During breaks between developing a script and working I combed through my video over and over again sprucing up the audio. A major drawback of youtube is that once the video has been published, you are not able to tamper with the audio. You can trim the length of the video or add one of their music tracks, but that’s the full extent of your power.
After amassing a whopping 60 views, 4 likes, and 5 comments, I knew I had to take the video down. I finally got the audio right yesterday, changed the name of the series to “Mountain Cult”, and republished it yesterday. I’ve included a link below in case you’d like to check it out.
For the shooting on Sunday – oh man was I overwhelmed. I wrote the shift during my work shift Saturday night. I got zero sleep and barely had it completed by the time my scene partner arrived. It was my first time shooting outdoors and presented an entirely new set of challenges. I’ll have to do a separate post about all that.
But as it turns out, my friend really enjoyed the process. He’s going to make the trip again next week so we can finish up the scene. I got some incredible footage that I can’t wait to share with you.
On top of that, my younger brother is going to come and shoot with me on Tuesday. We should have the majority of the day to work. I want to film all of episode 2 that day. So far, the most I’ve been able to complete in a single day of shooting is 3 pages, which amounts to 3 minutes. I want each episode to be 5 minutes, so that’s the length of an episode’s script.
I have a strong idea for what the episode will be about, so I’m excited to write the script. But still, I currently feel very overwhelmed. My two favorite camera angles from yesterday feature shakiness from a handheld camera in one shot and a tree blocking me from the scene in the other. I also think I need to purchase a lens filter for future outdoor work – we were hampered by my sony a6300 overheating, which I believe was a result of filming in direct sunlight.
Anyway, I’m grateful for anyone who’s been keeping up with my journey. I know it’s laughable on the surface but I take great pride in every youtube view I get. I haven’t felt so passionate about a hobby in a very long time. I’m loving the fact that I’m in charge of how much success I can have – I write the script, direct the action, perform the acting, do the editing, promote the video, and recruit the actors. I’ve always felt that the pursuit of an objective is more fun than the actual attainment of it. I hope that you can feel some joy in following my journey as well, because nothing about this is easy – but that doesn’t mean I’m not loving every minute of it.
Thomas M. Watt 