for Leuna
Last night was the awards ceremony for the Reno 48 Hour Film Project; essentially teams of professionals and amateurs compete against each other by making a four-to-seven minute film in 48 hours. All work must be completed in that 48 hours, and they ensure that rules are followed by having the teams randomly draw two film genres (we can pick one or use both) and then assigning a mandatory line of dialogue, a character, and a prop.
This year our team drew, “road film,” and, “silent film,” and we chose to make a silent film. Per the rules we were allowed to use music and sound effects but could have no dialogue and no NAT SOUND — sound from the camera. So, that’s how we developed and produced our film, below.
It’s not perfect — we made it in 48 hours. We laughed, and we cried. We ate and we starved. What we didn’t do? Sleep. From Friday morning (thanks to an OSHA class) to Sunday night I personally slept only six hours. I can’t speak for the rest of the team, but I know the lack of proper rest was pretty universal.
The awards ceremony went off without a hitch. They rescreened the films, the audience voted for audience choice and they announced the winners. They announced the 3rd and 2nd place films and the best in show. They announced the category awards and then the audience choice award. At the end of it we walked away with the, “Best Use of Prop (Guitar),” award, and the, “Audience Choice,” award. The biggest accomplishment, in my opinion, was submitting a finished film — I would’ve been happy walking away with nothing, so I am thankful we walked away with something.
It was an emotionally challenging night for me — my journey to this point hasn’t been smooth. My parents wanted what was ‘best’ for me, so they pushed me to be something ‘normal.’
“Be a doctor like your cousin, Hunter,” my mother would tell me, or, “Be a lawyer like your other cousin.”
I can’t fault them. Both of my parents were career educators and the film industry is notoriously plagued by crushed hopes and dreams, predatory individuals, and fraud. But I had one person who truly believed in my crazy dream.
My Grandmother was always there, telling me to be who I wanted to be. She bought me my first editing software — Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Pro 7. I learned to edit on FCP7 in high school, and quickly became proficient, and I LOVED IT.
When it became apparent that I needed a better camera, she bought me a Panasonic AG HMC80 — a camera that I will still occasionally use today (when the job calls for it).
My Grandmother believed in me. She passed away in 2018 at 96 years of age.
She saw me become a ‘filmmaker’ in high school, and then she watched me graduate. She met my now-wife, and then watched me graduate from college. She watched me get my first real job, and start a business and fail at it.
“Better to do something and fail than to have not done it,” she’d always say.
She saw me win my first award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and she saw my first TV ad air. She saw me travel around the world learning and getting better at my craft.
The two things she wasn’t able to see was my first film screening (as a professional), and my first film festival awards (as a professional).
Last night was the keystone of my career: this strange experiment where I quit a perfectly good job as a high school teacher to be a storyteller — a filmmaker. Is that even a job? Well, once again, my team and I are now ‘Award Winning’ filmmakers so we must be doing something right.
I only wish my grandmother was here to see it: a dream of a 14-year-old boy realized 13 years later.
So, thank you Leuna. I did it for you.
