We arrived here in Ames and we're all just hanging out in our hotel rooms (while we wait for the rain to blow over and the sun to go down. The crew we have this weekend is small, consisting of just myself, Victoria, and Zach to help with the camera. Everything is set. I didn't feel entirely prepared for last weekend's shoot and being that Iowa is just a bit farther away than Kasota or Watertown (sarcasm font) I was a bit paranoid in my planning, making sure every detail had been checked.
I can't wait to shoot this farm. I've gone over the pictures I took in July when we first came out here to visit, planning where we'll set up and how we'll capture all the buildings. This place will add a lot of texture to this short movie. We have four small propane lanterns that we'll be arranging in various shots throughout the scene and I'm hoping it will create a unique look for not only this particular scene but also for the entire project.
The deadline for the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah is October 30 which doesn't leave us much time to do quite a bit. We still have work to do on every location we've visited thus far to complete each respective scene, and additionally we have one major scene left to shoot which we have yet to begin. Fortunately, as I've already mentioned, everyone involved has been very available and accommodating in his or her schedules and the next few weeks will be jam-packed with full weekends of shooting and me editing as we go along.
I've been trying to resist the temptation to work on developing the ideas I have for turning this short film into a feature-length movie, which is the ultimate goal at this point as we look forward to film festival submissions. I have several other feature-length scripts at various stages of development but for now this story and this particular genre have really captured my attention. To speak a bit more about "Podunk", it will probably come in around 15-20 minutes and tells the story of two investigators tracking a serial killer from a large metropolitan area into a small rural town. It's meant to be an allegory, and the longer I've obsessed about every little piece of this project the more I find myself thinking ahead to what else I could do with it on a larger scale.
I don't want to think too far ahead because I want to let this short movie have its own life but after almost six months of writing, rewriting, planning, and developing I find myself beyond burnt out on the same idea, so moving feels natural. The feature-length film I have in mind will be less and extension or continuation of the narrative you will see in the short film but rather an elaboration on the theme. I'm excited to finish this short film not only to send it out to festivals (and await judgement...) but to then have license to move on to different territory.
With the end in sight I've begun looking for venues in the twin cities for promotion and exhibition. We want to show this film and have a premiere of sorts at a theater in Minneapolis but we're not sure where. Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you to everyone who has checked out this fledgling blog and thank you for spreading the word about it and our movie. After this shoot I'll post some images so you can get an idea of what we've done and the world we're trying to create.
Andrew.
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