CALL GIRL SHOOT
I always try to push this micro-no budget filmmaking approach to the edge, so my first "Call Girl" short shoot was just too ambitious for a 20 minute film. Basically, I tried to shoot the whole film in one evening and through to the early hours.
It would have been possible if I had started early in the morning in that day, but most of the film is set at night, so I had to go back for another full evening the following week. But at least people could see I had started. I had some images, so I managed to raise a small amount of money to shoot another evening. The whole film took about 20 hours to shoot. That's still very fast by filmmaking standards for making a 20-25 minute film.
I knew this first "City Of Sin" debut film would be the toughest, as I was working with around half the money I needed, but I felt it was important to get this first film rolling no matter what. I had a great cast who were fully behind it, so they helped to make it fun. I also have to thank the small group of online backers and retweeters for helping make it happen.
Vanessa-May Dolphin & Stephen Brady "Call Girl" 2013
This first film will have some flaws, be a little rough around the edges, have some minor sound issues, However, I have started! I would rather be the type of person that gets things moving with work that is a little flawed out of the gate, than have those perfect masterpieces in my head that never leave the gate. I have started the ball, so I'm not going to stop. I'm confident each film will get better through the year.
"CALL GIRL" RELEASE
I had hoped to finish the edit by last night, but once again, I sometimes aim too high. The story for this film didn't even exist just over two weeks ago. Writing it, casting, raising the funds, and shooting in this time frame is not bad. So I'm cutting myself a little slack. Especially when the beginning of this month was a little slow to get rolling because of the holiday period.
This experience has proved to me that I can come up with a fresh idea, shoot, post, and release within a month. I will hit the release date with the next film. If I had £250 more in the budget, "Call Girl" would have been released today. Simply because that's the cost of a sound recorder I used on SCREEN. Without that, my sound has taken double the amount of time to sort out.
Next months goal is to also get one of those H4N recorders. I also want to try and get my own camera in the months ahead. If I have the kit, I will be unstoppable. I'm determined to make this work. I know how to move faster each month, because of the lessons learned on this one. It's doable.
I enjoy creating this way, so I'm continuing with it. This first film could help roll the others. I already have a couple of sponsors interested for the next film, and hopefully people that see the film might give a $1 or few to help fund the next.
The film will be finished by this saturday. It gets released to backers first. The next day, it flies out there to the web! Anybody can see it sunday. No bullshit! I want to build an audience for my work, so this is how I want to do it. I enjoying creating this way much better. This approach ticks a lot of boxes for me, so I plan to give it at least 12 months to see how it goes.
My plan for next month and the future films is to get a crew member that solely deals with all this type of content for me. I give them details what to shoot, questions to ask, and then I will drip out all that content. I'm learning it all as I roll with all this. I will get the hang of it in the weeks, months ahead.
I will release some behinds video this weekend, after I get the edit of the film finished. I will also get some cast interviews released. I had no crew.
Ok that's enough for anybody that is listening to my shit. I hope you are all doing well. I look forward to a little twitter time to see what's happening with everybody else.
All the best
David
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