Short Film: Willa

This year I'm starting work on a film adaption of "Willa," a short story by Stephen King. My friend got the rights to the movie through Kings "Dollar Baby" program of sorts. You write him about your film and why you choose that story and such and he'll sell you the rights to make the movie for one dollar. In turn, you can't make a profit from the movie but you can submit it too festivals. January is mostly going to be getting myself up to speed with film terminology and technique; every Monday (and whenever possible) the two of us are going to watch two movies.

These movies will relate to the film to some degree. Whether it is camera handling/angle/format, Anamorphic or Super 35, to the lighting style. Starting in February we'll start group sessions envisioning the style we want. Later on after we scout multiple locations, we'll talk about which location is great for a scene and figure out how to adapt the script to the practicality of each location. Then we'll move on to casting and such.

Come May, we'll start filming. My friend & I plan to shoot this in three weekends: Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Each location should take a weekend, after which we'll have a few months (June to September) for post-preduction. The goal is to complete the film by 2013 for submission to the Cinequest Film Festival, which is held locally in the California Bay Area each year in Downtown San Jose. I believe the deadline for that festival is October, so we'll have about three months to edit the film.

Regarding equipment. He plans to pack extremely light. Using one camera and as few non-natural light sources as possible (i.e. stage lights, lights fixed at locations are considered natural here). Ordinarily it's a pretty easy thing to do, just that the film is primarily set in the night. For the camera, he has his sights set on the RED One MX for it's superior low light performance, but depending on the budget we raise through sites like Kickstarter and other donations, we may have to consider other options. I'm likely going to be the camera operator.

I'm excited to operate such a high-profile piece of equipment. I'll have other tasks to pay attention to as a result of our small production crew, but I'm mostly looking forward to operating the camera. On top of my recording duties, I also need to set the light(s) and ensure nothing is over or under exposed so we can have a higher degree of freedom in post with the camera's RAW video format.

It'll be an exciting year for me!