A short film to end 2014
Between work and holidays I managed to film something of my own creation for a change, it had been a long time since I had an opportunity to develop something of my own and as I am looking to make that a regular thing in 2015 I felt the need to dust off the old tool set, and begin working on the skill sets of those I plan on having around in the coming movie project.
Lost and Found was a joke, it began with one of those funny ideas "who makes found footage films?". The idea quickly fell aside after I began developing the script and characters for "The Lonely" a film I plan on starting production soon. The two ideas kind of began to meet and I was given a 24 hour film challenge at the same time. To start production I talked with my one actor Talmage, I had been reading a lot in character building and helping direct actors in their various roles so we talked for a while about who he was and every little detail of his character as if he was this character, I would ask him questions and we took turns answering, figuring it, and building this fictional character. This was a bit awkward honestly, to not be writing out a script and who the character was had me feeling a bit off balance, until we shot the first scene.
We filmed over the course of four hours and twelve hours later the editing was done, but this was such an easy project thats not a big surprise. There are four locations used two outside two inside and this is where I felt most confident in the creative process, honestly after seeing Talmage speak as the character giving him life and real emotion I was proud and felt he did possibly some of the best acting I have seen in a while, but in reality I probably spent more time developing the sets. I started by filming the slamming door, I have a ton of test footage of me slamming a door, of course I was trying my hardest to keep myself and my shadow out of sight. The second and probably most important set was the characters editing area, obviously I edit so I have plenty of equipment, the problem though was that all of my equipment is new and I needed it to appear as if he edits old and new footage I also needed to get my fake footage (primarily door slamming) on the screens, I also created referencing articles to local murders and crime, and material that would reference my script "The Lonely". In keeping it short the entire editing room set was created and I feel as if t was executed great according to the character without being too much, and luckily I had an old VCR and tube type T.V.
I didn't want the piece to seem over produced and staged, so to film I used minimal lighting and rode mics, this gave me clean audio I could manipulate in post when needed to create any blow out or hot spots, and the lighting made it appear as if we just ran in an filmed this characters story with almost no prep. I was attempting to make this look like a documentary spec piece creating an off the cuff realistic feel.
Anyways check out the video below and thanks for looking!
Lost and Found is an idea I have had for several years though between work and this project not being very serious I just haven't managed to get around to doing anything with the idea.