April, 2008

It is amazing when you do something that you truly enjoy.

Early last week I received a call from an Ultimate friend who asked if I wanted to be an extra in an independent film that his brother was filming. I have always loved filmmaking and jumped on the opportunity to be on a set. The only problem was, I had to wait a week until the film date.

The movie, titled, The Weekend Crew is, simply put about about several employees of a movie theater. Of course, in order to do such a film, one needs a suitable movie theater. It just so happens that Kimballs Twin Peak, in downtown Colorado Springs, was just the place. The director of the film, Clint Wehling, had previously worked there for three years, so the owners were willing to let him take the place over for filming.

Because the theater is currently in business, filming had to be done after hours. Which meant, starting at 10 at night and filming straight through until 8am. As Friday rolled around, I became increasingly excited about helping out with this film. I got to Kimballs about 10:30 and by this time, they were all set up. Honestly, I was expecting a relatively low-budget film. Granted, it was, but the budget was much larger than I expected.

They had rented a Panasonic DVCPRO AJ-SDC615 camera from a company in Denver. This camera is quite amazing; definitely a good choice for this type of production. They also had a 5 foot jib arm on set. This was perfect for the venue -- it wasn't too large, and stilled allowed for some really nice shots. Also on set were two light boxes, and few smaller fill lights. A standard boom mic and poll, and a field monitor.

Truthfully, it was amazing working with this cast and crew. I had so much fun and have realized that, even if it is just on the side, I want to do more video work.