A few months ago when re-developing my site, I broke out a DVD of all the student films I made in my teens. I hadn’t looked at any of these things in years. It seems like a lifetime ago I had made this, heck it wasn’t even me who made them, but a younger, different version of me, with different motivations, different inspirations and a different world he was coming from.
Looking at these images, I couldn’t help but marvel and the un-biased creativity. During that time, myself, my friends who helped me and the other people I was in school with were making these film projects purely for the love of making it. That was it. There were no commercial concerns, no Hollywood rules. Nothing but pure creativity and love for the art form.
So I thought it would be fun to pull some images from these early days, and every now and then write a post about them, about the experience, and the motivation behind each project. Always made with little budget, but luckily somehow shot on 16mm film (the school paid processing at the time… an advantage to pre-digital filmmaking) these films weren’t always the greatest, but looking back I can’t help but think they make for some very interesting images and memories.
First up… Night Dancer
I think this truly qualifies as my first film. It was kind of introspective. I was learning how to load, expose and shoot 16mm in an ancient and charming Belle and Howell tri-turret camera as much as I was learning how to convey a mood or feeling, or at the very least organize a sequence of moving images.
For years in my 20s I never let this thing out of the bag. I was kind of embarrassed by it. The makeup, the dried roses, the stalking of a “victim”. But now, looking back, and knowing just how young I was when experimenting with this 5 minutes of moving image (and an audiences time) I realized it is was it is… and that is okay, and it is an interesting glimpse into my mind at 16. Which, for those who knew me then, knew it was a stormy place. As unsure about life, as I was about loading that Belle and Howell correctly.
I had just met a new group of friends through the nightclubs in Denver and Boulder. They were slightly older, and I identified with them much more than many of the people I was surrounded by in school (except for my film class). Among those new friends was Andrea (the girl in the film). She seemed perfect, artsy, pretty and photogenic. Luckily she was open minded to being in a high school kids little arty movie, and we shot it over a couple weeks. I think I shot with her twice, one day shoot and one night shoot. Everything else being shot with various friends in various locations.
Denver was a very kind place to shoot then. You could get any location for free, and often rope passer bys into being in the film, if you needed an extra or another role filled… Sometimes truly making it up as we went along. Fun stuff.
My favorite shots of this little film, are a TILT from some lightbulbs on an overpass down to my “character” running. And a jagged shot at the end, looking up at dead winter tree branches amongst the sky.
The lightbulb shot was done on a weeknight with my good friend Tony. Him and I barely survived high school. And any opportunity we had to get away from everyone, arm ourselves with a camera and dreams, and make some kind of art, was what breathed the life into us needed to put up with the rest of high school life. I have distinct memories of Tony, perched up on dividing wall between the traffic lane and sidewalk, on the overpass, shooting film for the first time, while I passed by underneath.
The tree shot, wasn’t so epic. It was just a tree in my front yard. But by the angle, and the music attached in the final product, you would never know that. And I guess that’s the magic of shooting film, and editing, and adding music. You get to transform things and convey moods. Which is really what its all about isn’t it?