Hello everyone! I've been on this site for years now and after reading, studying, experimenting and learning as much as possible, I put out my 1st short film a few months ago called Trying My Best to Love You. Of course, it being my 1st short film, I learned A LOT of things the hard way...the extremely hard way. The hard way that makes you spend 1 1/2 years on completing a 10 minutes short.
For the tech heads, I should mention that I used a Panasonic HVX200 to film with, trying to use mostly natural available light. We had two small clamp lights that were 150 watts each I believe and that was pretty much it. I did not use any sort of 35mm adapters, it was all straight from the camera (color corrected, of course).
But I wanted to share it with you all. Here is the film and below, I will post more information on the conception of this film and the hard lessons I learned.
Here are some notes regarding the creation of this film:
“What did I do wrong?” How many times have you asked yourself that question? More importantly, how many times have you asked this question when a certain male/female went from being completely engaged with you to ice cold, unable to even speak with you? I’ve definitely experienced this several times before and it’s quite common in the dating world I imagine. The first initial thought is whether you ****ed up, whether you said something wrong and you start tracking back in your mind “was it this, was it that” until you realize that most of the time, it has nothing to do with you, it was more than likely a change on their part. The hard part is being unable to confirm this; the person won’t return your calls/messages or they keep making excuses. Or maybe they pretend that everything is fine…except for a gigantic change in their body language. They no longer go in for the kiss and instead settle for a polite hug. This initial idea is what kick started this film project for me.
Robert represents, to me, your classic lover: wanting to please the other person, wanting to know what his weaknesses may be so he can fix them. As with many people, he wants straight answers for his questions. He wants to go through a checklist on what to do right and what not to do at all. He wants a plan. Of course, the problem is, love isn’t quite so simple. Many people can’t explain why they feel attraction for another person; why they fell in and, subsequently, out of love; why the fire is no longer there. Robert may be a bit naive about this or simply doesn’t care, he just wants answers. He wants to know what works. And what better way than to ask a girl herself, right?
The next topic is of course the friend zone, which can always be a tricky thing to maneuver through. There can be a fine line between a lover and a friend, both typically encompassing some sort of intimacy in one way or another. How one side bleeds over to the other definitely interests me along with that unspoken tension. It always seems to be a guessing game with one of the persons typically having strong feelings or emotions that they cannot control. Does the other person feel the same way? And if they do, would they be brave (or some would say, stupid) enough to take a chance? Is it ever easy to go back to being friends after an attempt at love has failed?
The production of this film goes back to November of 2009 when I wrote a first draft of the script. At the time, production had already started on our web series (Random Acts of Randomness) but this series consists mostly of comedy skits; I wanted to create something that had more of a self contained story, that was a bit more serious in subject matter. Having all of those above thoughts/questions in my mind, I wrote a few drafts and after reading through them I immediately pictured Caitlin Corbitt playing the role (who had been an actress friend of mine for several years). I found the proper location and next thing I know, we were off and shooting.
And of course, there is the musical climax of the film set to a song I wrote called “Something There”. I originally wrote it as a duet with the two of them, cutting between them at various outdoor parks. It was going to be a more folky, acoustic version of the song with simply a guitar and their two voices. After shooting the narrative part of the film, however, I thought that it would work better as a full expression of his love for her, a way for him (and him only) to go out on a limb and show exactly how much he really cares about her. After brainstorming, the idea came to me of using painting as another medium of the arts to express this in a more experimental way.
I went out and gathered tons and tons of art supplies; paints, watercolors, tapes, stencils, a million different brushes, sponges, sprays, you name it. I wanted to have no limits when it came to creating these pieces, a complete stream of consciousness, flow of thought. Over the course of 3 months, myself along with Josh Beekman, Stephen Landry and Darele Ray, created roughly 700 paintings to be used for this sequence. The living room in my apartment had been converted into a mini-art studio with newspaper covering all areas of the tables and floors; every waking moment was spent creating these works until it was all finally wrapped up.
Overall, my goal was to create something unique, funny, relateable and above all, entertaining. I really hope you enjoy it and play it over and over and over again. Take lots of drugs for the music sequence, that seems to help.
For the tech heads, I should mention that I used a Panasonic HVX200 to film with, trying to use mostly natural available light. We had two small clamp lights that were 150 watts each I believe and that was pretty much it. I did not use any sort of 35mm adapters, it was all straight from the camera (color corrected, of course).
But I wanted to share it with you all. Here is the film and below, I will post more information on the conception of this film and the hard lessons I learned.
Here are some notes regarding the creation of this film:
“What did I do wrong?” How many times have you asked yourself that question? More importantly, how many times have you asked this question when a certain male/female went from being completely engaged with you to ice cold, unable to even speak with you? I’ve definitely experienced this several times before and it’s quite common in the dating world I imagine. The first initial thought is whether you ****ed up, whether you said something wrong and you start tracking back in your mind “was it this, was it that” until you realize that most of the time, it has nothing to do with you, it was more than likely a change on their part. The hard part is being unable to confirm this; the person won’t return your calls/messages or they keep making excuses. Or maybe they pretend that everything is fine…except for a gigantic change in their body language. They no longer go in for the kiss and instead settle for a polite hug. This initial idea is what kick started this film project for me.
Robert represents, to me, your classic lover: wanting to please the other person, wanting to know what his weaknesses may be so he can fix them. As with many people, he wants straight answers for his questions. He wants to go through a checklist on what to do right and what not to do at all. He wants a plan. Of course, the problem is, love isn’t quite so simple. Many people can’t explain why they feel attraction for another person; why they fell in and, subsequently, out of love; why the fire is no longer there. Robert may be a bit naive about this or simply doesn’t care, he just wants answers. He wants to know what works. And what better way than to ask a girl herself, right?
The next topic is of course the friend zone, which can always be a tricky thing to maneuver through. There can be a fine line between a lover and a friend, both typically encompassing some sort of intimacy in one way or another. How one side bleeds over to the other definitely interests me along with that unspoken tension. It always seems to be a guessing game with one of the persons typically having strong feelings or emotions that they cannot control. Does the other person feel the same way? And if they do, would they be brave (or some would say, stupid) enough to take a chance? Is it ever easy to go back to being friends after an attempt at love has failed?
The production of this film goes back to November of 2009 when I wrote a first draft of the script. At the time, production had already started on our web series (Random Acts of Randomness) but this series consists mostly of comedy skits; I wanted to create something that had more of a self contained story, that was a bit more serious in subject matter. Having all of those above thoughts/questions in my mind, I wrote a few drafts and after reading through them I immediately pictured Caitlin Corbitt playing the role (who had been an actress friend of mine for several years). I found the proper location and next thing I know, we were off and shooting.
And of course, there is the musical climax of the film set to a song I wrote called “Something There”. I originally wrote it as a duet with the two of them, cutting between them at various outdoor parks. It was going to be a more folky, acoustic version of the song with simply a guitar and their two voices. After shooting the narrative part of the film, however, I thought that it would work better as a full expression of his love for her, a way for him (and him only) to go out on a limb and show exactly how much he really cares about her. After brainstorming, the idea came to me of using painting as another medium of the arts to express this in a more experimental way.
I went out and gathered tons and tons of art supplies; paints, watercolors, tapes, stencils, a million different brushes, sponges, sprays, you name it. I wanted to have no limits when it came to creating these pieces, a complete stream of consciousness, flow of thought. Over the course of 3 months, myself along with Josh Beekman, Stephen Landry and Darele Ray, created roughly 700 paintings to be used for this sequence. The living room in my apartment had been converted into a mini-art studio with newspaper covering all areas of the tables and floors; every waking moment was spent creating these works until it was all finally wrapped up.
Overall, my goal was to create something unique, funny, relateable and above all, entertaining. I really hope you enjoy it and play it over and over and over again. Take lots of drugs for the music sequence, that seems to help.
)