My Movie Bomb

I'm not too proud of one movie I made. It was my first one with a big budget. By big budget, I mean I look back now at what I paid for it and I haven't personally or professionally paid that much to film something since then. You could say it was a big lesson for me. Actually let's say HUGE lesson. I wrote a short and filmed it with local actors. The best part of that whole process was just getting behind the camera and forcing myself to do it. That took balls. Unfortunately, having the balls to do something doesn't always mean it's going to turn it. It didn't turn out. I think I just finished the short just so people could see it. I let them into my shame and dropped the pride I carried for too long.

The short I filmed I knew little of directing, acting or filming. I was stepping out for the first time more to share my passion then to share my lack in talent at that time.

I failed. Big time.

I look back though and I think about what I learned: - storyboarding and plenty of pre-planning for your shoot - good ideas are cheap, its the time behind them that is expensive - how to sequence shots better - better camera angles and techniques - strong actors make strong characters - people are willing to back you up if you have the passion and vision for something - post-production quality for myself has improved immensely; I'm not amazing now, but a lot better than I was then

Out of the video below, the best thing that someone said to my face about this whole movie short idea I had was this, "The best I've seen for the least experience" Kind words that still make my stomach jump and make me wish I had learned more before filming this short. Oh and by the way I'm not linking to the short for you or embedding it in this post. I don't like it. At all. The story was there but production value was equivalent to finding a sneaker behind a dumpster.

I wish I knew what I know now while I was filming back then. If I do a premiere again, which I honestly doubted I would ever do again after that embarrassing premiere release, I think I will pull all the stops out. I'd go nuts on it and make people in Decades Coffee Shop want to watch it again and again and again.

What did I learn from my embarrassing failure? A lot. But it's not going to keep me down. Next time I'll nail it. I'll nail it because I have something to prove to myself.

Here's some clips from the evening (by the way my good friend is dressed up as Frankie "his alter ego" and filmed this for me) I dusted this DV tape off just for a reminder for myself and to share with you.