"Sweetheart" by StrataTek Studios

Charlie Anderson

Charlie Anderson

Not so clever
A documentary of two highschool sweethearts who lost contact after school and then found each other 50 years later. After spending countless days together talking about friends, families, and lost loved ones, these 2 people found that they still had the love they once shared as teenagers burning deep within them.

A true story of Bernie who got remarried to his highschool sweetheart, Kitty, after 50 years.
 
I don't know why this didn't come to me earlier, it's such an amazing story!

Inspired by my Grandpa and my new Grandma. They've been married for over a year now and each side of the family has really come together and formed a new special bond.

PRODUCTION NOTES:

Shooting with the HVX200, M2, and Zeiss Primes. Shooting the interviews with my Grandparents on Sunday (I'll be hungover as hell as it's my birthday this Monday but I'm celebrating on Saturday), and also getting additional interviews on Sunday as well, possibly later on in the week.

UPDATE 1/28

Shot the interviews with my Grandparents and I definitely learned a lot about my family. I had some issues with my firestore AGAIN with importing clips longer than 8 minutes which is annoying as hell. I'll be posting some screen grabs as soon as I get home. I'm not making a "poster", at least I'm not in the mindset to do one yet but I have a sig already made up which I'm definitely liking.

UPDATE 1/29

Screen grabs so far...nothing "amazing" but I think they looks pretty cool. These are untouched, straight out of the camera.

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Hooray for macro lens!
 
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That's an awesome story Charlie! Sounds like me and my wife, but only like 5 years passed since high school and us getting back together. Kinda lacks the impact that 50 years has I guess :) Good luck with it all!
 
That does sound like a great story. I think people underestimate the bonds that we establish early in life. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sounds like the best story so far. Good luck.
 
Don't take this the wrong way, but if you do not completely botch this, it has winner written all over it. I love this idea. So simple and real and different that anything else anyone is doing.

Can't wait to see it.
 
There goes Mark again with the "don't take this the wrong way" line! :grin:

Charlie, this story DOES sound amazing. How wonderful for you to learn, experience and shoot this. I hope that your film comes out as you envision it.

Your grabs really look nice. I love the simple and apropos setting you have. And that macro lens has a great effect!

Good luck! Can't wait to see this.

-Ted
 
Thanks! I was thinking to myself that no one has submitted an idea for a documentary and I had this great story of my grandparents that I just had to tell, so why not for Love Fest?

Got 2 more interviews to do this week and next, have a meeting with Brandon Walker to do a simple soundtrack composed of piano music (we did a music video for him, Chinese Food on Christmas). I was planning to edit this but I realized that I could get someone a lot better to edit it, so I'm getting in contact with a friend at school who's kick ass at editing docs.
 
Mark Harris said:
Yeah, cinematography and camera tricks don't sell this. The content does.
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I was thinking the same thing and I was originally going to scan in some pics to do some AE work to make things a bit interesting, but I decided to just use a macro lens instead. I think that really makes things a LOT interesting. I'll probably do a bit of AE work, but I like the way the macro lens really makes the pictures pop out, especially when you can actually see the dots in the images.
 
Exactly, besides, if you do not really capture the PEOPLE on screen, all the AE in the world will not save you in something like this.

Good luck!
 
Hey Charlie I'm from Howard County. It's good to see another Marylander enter the fest. I have a bunch of friends at Towson too and I read about "chinese food" in the local paper. I'm looking forward to your film.
 
smashedburrito said:
Hey Charlie I'm from Howard County. It's good to see another Marylander enter the fest. I have a bunch of friends at Towson too and I read about "chinese food" in the local paper. I'm looking forward to your film.
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Awesome! I live in Towson, I just graduated too. Who do you know there? Any in the film program? It'd be kickass if we knew some of the same people haha

I'm DPing 2 shorts out of Ellicott City in March, you should try to make it out!
 
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