Seeing Things Through

When Christine, Laura and I started this process, no matter how far it seemed, we always acted with the intention of making this film and seeing it through. Yes, we’ve gone through growing pains; there were times when we wanted to forget the whole thing (because everything costs so much $$$$) and there were a few times when we would have loved to duke it out (again $$$$). We were under a lot of pressure because; we put up all our money into this venture, we had a HUGE cast and crew (especially the November shoot) to take care of and most important, we needed to DELIVER. This was our dream and we were one of the few who are privileged enough to pursue it and see it come to fruition. We made a FEATURE FILM!

A friend of mine thinks we spent too much $$$ on the film. He's working on a script and he plans to get our production value and quality with his $900 camera and a 3-4 person crew. I didn’t want to argue with him but I have to say that I was a little insulted. My production value was aided by the equipment we used (HVX 200 with Zeiss lenses, can’t remember if they were super speed or ultra prime) but the majority of it came from the cast and crew’s talent and experience. They made my story come alive and it was their hard work and dedication that gave me the production value I got. My friend is going to shoot his film himself and he’s going to direct it too. I’m not saying it’s not doable because it is. However, if you are going to tackle a film on your own, you need to write it with minimal locations and few actors. A strong team behind you is also key. He’s going to use the film White Red Panic as his model http://www.vimeo.com/1333375?pg=embed&sec=1333375

I saw a little bit of this film and it looks good. However, Love 10 to 1 is a romantic comedy and we have a lot of characters and a lot of locations. Romantic comedies look a certain way, our model for making this film was not a film we saw online. We wanted to make Love Actually meets Sex and the City on an ultra low budget. This was our dream and because we got such a late start at it we felt we had to do this right. If Love 10 to 1 was a horror movie and we would have used The Blair Witch Project as our model then it would be a different story.

People look at Robert Rodriguez and how he got into the industry and think they can do it that way too but he’s the exception, not the norm. Like everyone else who makes a film, I would like to make this a career, I would like to be hired to direct and hopefully this film can open the doors to those possibilities. I started preproduction in my head for my next two films. When my edit is done I’ll focus on pre-pro for the next two.

I have one day of establishing shots and Christine has her scenes with Ma, Grandma & Jenny to shoot. I’m very excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work on that. I need to backtrack, if you read the previous blog that Christine posted – What an exciting addition to our wonderful cast! Emily Kuroda as Ma and Takayo Fischer as Grandma, way to go Christine - please blog about this:-)

I am so proud of the work we’ve done and that from the beginning we set high standards for our film. I don’t know where our film will take us but I’m looking forward to the journey.

xoxo,
Lucy