"yes yes yes! i am in the midst of my own love affair with this "movement" but i came at it from a slightly different angle.
i made experimental shorts and docs for a decade totally DIY and then was invited to write and direct my first feature a couple of years ago by "the film company" a seattle-based nonprofit film studio. that film was called "WE GO WAY BACK" and won the top prizes at Slamdance 06. it was an amazing experience, my first time on a real set with a real crew (i'd been editing narrative work for years but had always been isolated from the production phase) and i loved every minute of it and learned tons. but i was fantasizing almost immediately about what a more performance-centered filmmaking strategy might look like because the traditional paradigm for making movies is so hard on actors, it seemed to me, especially if you weren't working with seasoned pros.
so i was already envisioning a small-crewed, handheld video, cinema verite approach when i met joe swanberg (LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Kissing on the Mouth) at the maryland film festival last year. i saw LOL there and recognized the exact level of naturalism in the "acting" (can you even call it that, really?) that i wanted to achieve in my work. that was when i added improv into the mix of my new list of ingredients to cooking up a movie. the other inspiring thing about seeing LOL and meeting joe was, of course, that he had just up and made it without having to put an enormous financing structure into place to do it. WGWB was made on a shoestring budget but still cost $200k or so (i didn't produce so don't really know the exact figure for sure.) having been babied through (and protected from) that part of the business of filmmaking the first time, i was incredibly intimidated by the thought of having to figure out how to navigate all of that on my own the second time around. it just seemed like the most incredible luck that a more performance-centered filmmaking method also happened to be a much more AFFORDABLE one as well.
I just finished shooting my self-produced second feature, SEVEN WAYS TO SUNDAY, after holding a couple of house fundraisers to raise enough money ($8k or so) to pay the small, hand-picked crew a little something and feed everyone. i kept this project as low cost as possible by developing it around actors and resources and locations that i already had at my disposal. it was a positively heavenly experience to shoot. i'm just starting to edit.
the whole thing has left me feeling very empowered, especially within the context of a world that traditionally feels extremely intimidating, terrifying, and seemingly designed to thwart the creative process at every turn.
i look forward to hearing more about (and seeing!) your own projects. being in and helping to build upon this amazing community of incredibly creative, resourceful and supportive renegade indie filmmakers is yet another awesome thing about jumping on board this particular bandwagon.
best,
lynn shelton :) "
Posted by Lynn Shelton on Sunday, July 01, 2007 at 8:37 PM
Check out the trailer below:
http://www.myeffortlessbrilliance.com
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