Mar 15, 2009

Elliot (2007)

It's the most overdue and delayed upload of any movie, edit, experiment or short I made in film school. Elliot, the mockumentary I produced in my final core production class has been withheld for nearly 2 years, all for one reason. When you spend 8 months planning, writing, shooting, re-writing, re-shooting, editing, and polishing a project constructed entirely in the bubble of university-motivated independent film-making, by the time the project is done and the class is over you're not sure if you'll ever be able to watch your movie again.

It has nothing to do with the movie itself, the experience or the people who shared it, but instead with the process of deconstructing and over analyzing your work to the point of endless frustration, and the realization that your movie will never quite be perfect enough. From September 2006 to April 2007 my mockumentary was simply 'in production', a loose term used to cover all the behind the scenes bargaining that goes into creating a movie with little-to-no money and few resources. To be clear, much of the struggle was by choice.

My final film could have been a 3 minute short, but instead I opted for a 38 minute narrative, a fake documentary no less, that required me to create a series of fake articles, covers, notes, and posters to tell my story - not to mention the fake debut novel, The Dirty Sailor. The challenges I created for myself didn't stop there.

I recruited my friends Travess Durk and Taylor Croissant for the two lead roles, but they both lived in different cities which required extra planning to coordinate shooting. Even after production, with a half-hour screenplay I ended up shooting over 6 hours of raw footage that I had to edit, which in the context of a single class assignment meant I was dedicating more time to the project than was required. It may sound foolish, but I can honestly say that my motivation for the movie was based around creating the film school experience I hadn't had yet.

I wanted to be invested in a project that couldn't be made in a few hours. I wanted to rely on other people to help expand the concept. I wanted to be able to share in the class screening process and have my project evolve into something more significant and memorable than the average assignment. But above all, I wanted a bookend for my film school experience. No rushed assignment would've felt fitting.

So what did I settle on? A comedic doc-within-a-narrative about author Warren Elliot and his quest to get into a prestigious national writing guild. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that my love of Christopher Guest movies didn't have some influence on my choice.

Elliot Trailer


So several days ago I finally re-watched, Elliot. My critiquing and concerns had subsided, and looking past the imperfections I felt really proud of what had been accomplished. After revising the movie so many times over the final weeks of that class, it felt good to finally just enjoy it as a viewer.

In previous posts I've made reference to re-editing, Elliot or shortening it, but I abandoned that idea after seeing it again. True, this movie isn't perfect, but it is what it is for a reason. It marks the end of months of hard work and planning, and the culmination of lessons and tests from a final film class. Part of the reason for sharing my work on this blog, my online portfolio, is to show the evolution of my movie-making. Any changes I made now would be more for my sake, and renewing my view of the project, than it would be for serving the movie itself.

What I love about Elliot is the banter. It's an interview movie, meant to feel literary and dialogue heavy without being dry; Warm and witty without being flashy or intense. People in class compared the interviews to Stewart or Colbert, noting the contrast in the delivery of actual information and the personal posturing in character development. In short, I guess it's largely about characters who do whatever they want, because they all just want to be right - and told so, obviously.


At the end of April 2007 I felt happy to put the project behind me and was satisfied with the positive response I got from those in class and my friends and family who saw it. I handed out DVD copies with a selection of features as a memento. I'm pleased once again to be sharing, Elliot with a new crowd.

I want to say thank you once again to all of you who helped me over the course of those two semesters in completing this movie. I hope you feel as proud as I do, because your help made it the positive experience that it was for me.

Elliot can now be viewed for the first time in the playlist below. I've broken the 38 minute movie into 5 parts to make it easier to watch over several sittings if you choose. Take your time, enjoy, like that book on your shelf you've been meaning to read for months, the movie is here to stay.
 

Elliot (2007)
Directed by Luke Fandrich

Mar 13, 2009

Blogging Day 651: Overdue Updates

I could start off this entry by celebrating some arbitrary milestones, although I don't really have any today. It is my 651st day of blogging on Editing Luke though. For those of you who accidentally clicked onto my blog looking for Will Ferrell or the Office Bloopers, I apologize. It was a post I made over a year ago and it still gets me clicks.

I do have some news though, and I thought a quick summary would be the best way of addressing some of the recent questions I've received - or a way of answering the questions I'm sure you're all just too busy to ask.

1. My spin-off blog, 2 Edit, is now retired. Yeah, that was quick. You may have noticed that I started posting some of the entries from that blog here to phase it out. All said posts are now labelled in the 'Memorabilia' category and feature old notes, props, mementos, and souvenirs from my various productions from years past. In short, getting traffic is hard enough and I didn't want to invest more time in something that actually shifted focus away from my work here. Promoting one blog is enough, so I've just decided to merge the concept of 2 Edit into Editing Luke.

2. The Chico Bandito series still has a couple of episodes left and I'm planning the finale for the end of April 2009. It's been a background project for months now and I'm anxious to finish it up and promote the entire thing; Perhaps even merge the episodes into one short for a festival, who knows. To date the series has been quite popular and has received over 10,000 views. To check out Chico Bandito thus far, click here.

3. By the end of this month the Yobi.tv Season 1 finals begin! You may remember that my film The Gizmo Tree was voted in as the top film for week 17 back in December 2008 and became a semi-finalist. Thousands of dollars are on the line for the top films, so I'm getting prepared to promote and campaign for your vote in the coming weeks. For the record, this competition has some of the largest prizes of any festival or contest I've ever been a part of - I'm prepared to work for it.

4. I'm trying to make plans for a brand new short - hopefully a new festival entry for the 2009 circuit. This is an update, because aside from the everyday edits I do, this is a more elaborate undertaking. I'm already soliciting possible actors, working out original music sources, and coming up with concepts. It's really a mixture of these things that determine what kind of short I'll make. If I can find sufficient acting talent, there's nothing stopping me from making several projects. Every year since 2004 I've produced at least one or two shorts that really defined what that year meant for me - both because of the experience of making the movie itself, and because of the subsequent recognition or promotion that the short allowed. I'll certainly be trying to draw on as many people as possible to really up the ante this year.

That's all I've got for now, but I feel a creative kick coming on as my 25th B-day approaches on March 31. Stay productive folks, we're closing in on spring!

Mar 12, 2009

Black Hills Postcard





Date:
May 2007

Associated Video(s):
Story:
This is one of a hundred postcards I picked up while on a road trip from Regina, SK to Rapid City, SD and surrounding area. The amount of driving that my friend Andrea and I did allowed for a wealth of shooting while on the move, and I took advantage of it. Nothing quite like the open road, good music, and a camera to capture the experience.


Related Post(s):