In our last weekly production meeting, we had a few big pieces of news:

1. We have a major location available for free – a friend’s relative has a huge ranch in Montana that could work very well as our river + woods locations.
   
   It’s a bit pricey to fly everyone out there, but the advantages are: no filming permits needed ($$), and free lodging ($$). In the end, I think we’d save quite a bit of money.
   
   In fact, we may have to rush out there for a scouting trip soon before the winter weather hits and totally changes the look of the locations. Speaking of weather…
   
   

2. If we use this location, we can’t realistically film until April or May because it’ll be too covered in snow. But the other producers and I would rather wait until the location is looking perfect than try to rush anything anyway, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to tack on a couple more months.
   
   

3. We realized we may have a great casting choice for Oliver up our sleeve. It’s too early in the game to say much more than that, or even reach out to the actor. But man, it got me excited to finally imagine a face on this character who will carry the story.
   
   

4. Next month I’ll be putting out the next YouTube video in the Oliver Brody series, this time focusing on the re-writes we’ve done.
   
   I’m going to make sure each video in the Oliver Brody series isn’t just an update vlog, but actually offers value in the form of a practical lesson anyone could use on their own films.

Luck Sucker

This is a story I’ve been tinkering with for a couple of months now, and I think I’ve finally found a simplified, cleaner way to tell the story – plus a better ending. Since I can’t film Oliver Brody for quite a while, this will hopefully hold me (and y’all) over until then.

The great part is I think I can film this for DIRT cheap, and maybe with no crew outside of a PA (and I suppose a BTS shooter for a YouTube video about making it).

I’d probably even film it with my tiny Sony ZV-1 camera, which I bought used for $500, just to showcase the fact that you don’t need fancy gear to make a compelling film. A solid story, good actors, and some tasteful choices along the way will suffice.

Anyway, the outline seems to be working now, so I’ll type it out and find out if I’m still in love with it.

If some planets align, I might be able to squeeze this in next month 🤞. More to come…

Something (??) shot on iPhone

Had an interesting offer recently to make a little short film using a phone accessory.

I thought about it and realized how crazy it is that I haven’t done any videos about smartphone filmmaking yet – since that’s where so many filmmakers start these days. So… hell yeah let’s do it.

What’s the story going to be? I have no idea. But I feel confident I can run through the blueprint course and bang out something compelling I could shoot quickly.

I’ll try to take advantage of shooting on a phone with basically no other gear – so hopefully the story can involve some stealth filming around town, in stores etc. 🤫

This film & making-of will probably come out around the end of September. But shooting this AND Luck Sucker next month might be tough… we shall see.

Favorites this week:

📺 TV: Alone (Hulu)

I had no idea there was a season last year that I missed, and another one this year, so I’m catching up.

If you’ve never seen it, they drop 10 people in the wilderness and give them a bunch of cameras to film themselves surviving for as long as they can. The last one to give up, or get pulled for medical reasons, wins a bunch of money.

You get to see these people all trying different strategies to survive with only a few key items they arrive with. Some are nest-builders, immediately going for a safe/weather-proof structure to live in, while others start by trying to get snare traps or fish nets in place, and others focus on bow-hunting. It’s amazing how harsh and unforgiving nature is, even for these experts. Eventually winter sets in, and it becomes a contest of who can starve the slowest and who can mentally sustain that kind of loneliness.

I always wonder what their full gear list is for cameras/sound out there. I know they have to train the contestants before they’re dropped on how to film themselves. Editing that show must be insane too, can’t imagine how much footage they have to sort through.

💬 Quote: When seriously explored, the short story seems to me the most difficult and disciplining form of prose writing extant. Whatever control and technique I may have I owe entirely to my training in this medium. – Truman Capote

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent

PS – Don’t forget, only 2 days left to get The Instant Short Film Blueprint for 25% off + bonus lessons!