It Begins

Maria and I study the script to plan the next shot.
Photo courtesy of Catherine Weisheit

Well, the early stages of my short film began today. I had been trying to make up some storyboards to help me get a better idea of how everything would flow, but I just wasn't able to get them right and look how I envisioned them. Some artist, eh? At some point I got the idea to try photo storyboards. Much to my delight, my wonderful friend, Cathy, looked at the screenplay, liked it, and offered to help me out.

Cathy is an incredible photographer and I advise you to check out her work right away at her website: http://www.catherinesgallery.com/

So, today I briefly battled my printer and eventually printed the first copies of my screenplay for us to use. A little while later, Cathy came over to see what we could do. Maria also came over and was kind enough to stand in as the main character during our little shoot. I had fun, I'm pretty sure Cathy did too, but I felt a little bad for Maria. It was basically a lot of me telling her things like "Okay, spill the drink", "Sit on the ground", "Look up the sidewalk", "No, farther down the road", "Can you rub your eyes or something to look teary?", and "Get back on the ground." She insisted it was fine and she took it like a trooper, but I still felt for her.

One especially funny moment was when Cathy was laying on her side in the front yard trying to get a shot through the grass. One guy driving down the street was staring as she laid there in the grass and Maria and I just sat by watching. He just shrugged to himself as he passed.

After a couple rolls of film and a few pauses for each of us to vent about various things, we finished up and Cathy and I announced that was a wrap. I got a taste of directing and took a much needed step in the right direction, so I'd say it was a productive day. Now I just have to wait for the pictures to be developed. I'm not worried though, judging by Cathy's other work, they'll be fantastic. I'll keep you guys posted and let you know when I see them!

Thanks again to Cathy and Maria!

-Jacob