It’s been over three years since we committed down this road, pulling off quite a bit of cinema prowess in the process. There were a couple of false starts and some large roadblocks that tried to stop the whole thing. But it was clear from the start that this would have to be a labor of love if it was going to make it over the finish line.

The actual production took place over a little more than half a year. To pull this one off, we would build a set in our (then empty) warehouse for two weeks, shoot for a day, and plan the next iteration. There was often a huge gap — one to two months – between shoot days, but the cast and crew pulled it off without a hitch.

Post production ended up being our Achilles’s heel. In that we had thought we had lined up a creative agency to take care of it, but alas it didn’t materialize. I then spent the better part of the last two years looking for someone else to take it on. Unfortunately, the skills needed for this section, both illustration and effects composition, proved to be devil in the details as there was no one-stop-shopping for this combination.

Finally, I gave up (or gave in rather). I knew at the beginning of this summer that if I wanted to hit the next festival season I had to make a strong push to finish the film. First I went through and did the final edit on the film, really tightened up the bits and cut out the chaff. Next we revised the perhaps rather lofty ideas we had for the death scene effects to something more manageable. Then I dusted off my meager After Effects skills and composited the piece together. Now it was at a point where I could use it as leverage to attract the talent to help us finish off the film.

I was very fortunate to find myself surrounded with the people that I needed to finish the film at this point. Phil Perkins was working on a show shooting in our studio (what was the warehouse) and I mentioned the project to him. I was looking for a recommendation, but after seeing the film, Phil said he was happy to help us see it through (YES!). I knew that a good score would help really sell the bits, and I had pinged Vivek Maddala who had done a beautiful score for our film Desert Into Fire. Our timing wasn’t synching up however, until we coincidentally found ourselves in NYC in June and met up for a lovely brunch. Besides the wonderful coffee-rubbed hanger steak, we had a great conversation where I believe some of my passion for the film rubbed off on him. Having worked with Elmer Bernstein (Airplane) and been through the composer lab at Sundance, I knew that Vivek would get the film and be able to have the right approach to the humor.

The third element missing was the background visuals for the death scenes. Originally we had designs on shooting these as photo elements and then construct the environments, but it proved to difficult to amass all the items needed. In the meantime, we had expanded our range of friends to include a number of artists and it was in these that we found the perfect match. Josh Ellingson‘s illustration style was spot on to provide the right look and feel for the visual reference we were making (a viewmaster). He just nailed it as well and the motion footage originally intended for a larger story fit these reduced scenes like a glove.

So here we are at the end of the summer and all the elements fell into place (well, at least enough to push out a submission version that is essentially ‘done’). I’ve got a few submissions out now and will continue to plot a path for how it roll itself out to the public. The social media aspect of films has changed a bunch since we started working on it. We have a website, blog, FB, twitter, etc., but they are somewhat legacy at this point and need refreshing/retooling to become more relevant to today’s arena. But hopefully they will give some good traction points for the film as it plays in different areas and takes on new life. A film’s interaction with its developing audience is always an interesting thing to watch and cultivate.

So after a ton of effort focused by a mixture of passion and determination we have the little short film that was too big for it’s britches. A bajillion locations and sets; perfectly tuned name talent; star-league crew helping to pull things together and collaborate; and a minute of effects that almost brought the whole show down. But now the hard pat is behind us and the fun part ahead. As there is no major market for short films, and no real hope of ‘making our money back’ on this, we have nothing to do but enjoy the successes that come. Huzzah!