We Lost

Well, we didn't win the contest, but at least we had fun seeing all the other films at the Tower Theater. I really wasn't disappointed that we didn't win because I thought there were a few entries that were legitimately better than ours; however, I was a little disappointed with the one that did win--it was not my favorite. Oh well, good for him/them.

Despite all the funny films, probably the funniest part of the whole Really, Really, Really, Really Short Film Festival was when an old lady in front of us got hit in the face with a DVD. They were throwing them out as prizes and she tried to catch it, but instead it glanced off her hand, hit her in the face, and broke her glasses. What made it even funnier was that the DVD this nice old lady was trying to catch was The Full Monty, the "Fully Exposed" edition. Classic!

I finally posted our short film on you tube:



Let me know what you think. Hopefully sometime this week, I'm going to cut together an extended version with some of the footage I wasn't able to use due to the time constraints. I learned that in "the industry," cutting out good scenes for the sake of run time is often referred to as "killing you babies." I guess the beauty of director's cuts is that you can resurrect them. :)

In the top 25

For most anyone who reads my Blog, this is probably old news as I’ve been so excited about it that I’ve probably told you already anyway, but the 61-second film we made for 101.9’s contest (see previous post) qualified as one of the 25 finalists today.

I don’t know if that’s saying much because I have no idea how many entrants there were, but they made it sound like there were a lot. At the very least, it was cool to hear my name on the Radio (they even pronounced it right—miracle) and to see it posted on 101.9’s contest page. I took a screen shot since I’m sure that page won’t last forever:

Please come to the Tower Theater (900 E. 900 S., SLC) this Wed. at 7:00 pm to vote for us and help us win. Even though I don’t think we have much of a chance, it would be really fun to get a big gang of friends together at the theater.

I ended up being a little disappointed in the final product, but I’m usually my toughest critic in anything I do. And when I say I’m critical of myself, that is exactly what I mean. I have no problems with anyone else’s work. I was a little disappointed in some of my camera work, some things I failed to shoot, and a couple of the edits. The rest I thought was great.

I know I’m still a long way away from my dream, but it’s been fun to work on a couple projects. My journal of things I’m learning and things I’ll do better next time grew a lot. I really don’t think we’re too far away from being able to do something that I’ll feel satisfied with.

The one thing I do feel bad about is that since my name was the one on the entry form, it’s the only one that’s displayed on 101.9’s site and was the only one read on the radio. In reality, everyone that worked on the project deserves just as much credit as I do. With that in mind, thanks a ton to:

• Elwon Bakly for the original idea and his sweet acting and voice skills
• Wes Lapioli for awesome music, sound, and acting (oh, and bringing donuts to the shoot)
• Eric Ristau for sweet radio voice recordings and lots of really helpful FinalCutPro advice
• Jake Sabey for color balance and acting
• Dominic Bakly for a good kick to Elwon’s Groin
• Alexandra Bakly for chasing Elwon even though it wasn’t scripted
• Aaron Vaughn for creative input
• My Wife for supporting me and giving valuable editing feedback
• The Wives of Elwon, Wes, and Jake for letting them spend a Saturday shooting
  
• Mikal for taking cool pictures of our final scene
• Steve for giving me a lot of crap for forgetting to call him to come help
• Doba for being awesome and letting us use some of their equipment
• Canyon Park security for just walking on by when Elwon was trying to break the doors of building E off their hinges
• Jonas and Sidwell for early screening and feedback
• And everyone who offered good feedback or words of encouragement.

Wow. No wonder acceptance speeches get to be so ridiculous. We only made a 61-second film and it hasn’t even won anything, but even at that, I feel like a LOT of peoples helped in the process of making this silly little short. I hope that list didn’t come across wrong. I’m just trying to give out credit where it’s due. You guys all rock. Good work!