Making a short film takes a surprising big amount of work. That's what I learned as I crafted my 11 minute film Frat Material.
It all started in February with an idea. Wouldn't it be funny if someone that didn't seem like the kind of person to be in a frat decided to make their own. While I liked the idea, I wasn't sure how to make a story from that. And so I pondered it. For weeks. Finally, my Film Production class due date for an idea sheet and treatment was approaching and I began to flush out the plot.
By the end of March, I had written my first draft of the script which I showed to a variety of friends for feedback.
I was now well into pre-production. Next up, I had to find and secure shooting locations. I found a cast and a crew and arranged shooting times that work for everyone. I worked with my graphic designer and interior design consultant to make some props and to figure out the layout of the set. I purchased what I needed and I had everything ready for our weekend shoot.
The whole film was shot over the course of 3 days in early April. The first day was just an hour shoot. I needed shots of the main character making posters for the frat since we would be hanging them up in our next set of scenes.
Our second day shooting began at 8:00 on a Sunday. I had rented a spot at my college and we spent the first hour setting up and trying to help a student clean his dishes so he could leave the space. And of course, there were audio issues.
But, once that was taken care of, the shoot went very smoothly. We had different call times for different actors to arrive and we stayed right on schedule. We wrapped the day at 4:00 and were all cleaned up by 4:45.
The following Friday was the last day of shooting. I had a different cinematographer do the opening shots of the film and then we did one other dialogue hallway shot. In the evening, I did a few pickup shots on my own and officially wrapped production.
But that was just the beginning. Next I had an immense amount of editing to do. First just finding the best shots and angles and stringing them together. Then finding the right music, adjusting audio levels, adding titles and doing color grading to make the final product as crisp as possible.
Finally, it was time for the showings. I shared the film with my Film Production class, presented it to my friends and all my actors. Finally, I published on youtube for the world to see. Looking back, writing, directing and editing my own short film was such a good experience and I look forward to more opportunities like this in the future.
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