Itslav - the Film that Fell apart

http://ilivetodayav.ning.com/profile/BenjaminAndrews Short Film project for my Digital Filmmaking class at Antelope Valley College. This film is an incomplete project where all of the action sequences have been faked and large portions of the film are omitted. I hope to eventually go back and complete this film as originally written some day. Special thanks to all the friends that helped me throughout the process of trying to make the film.

Like all great projects the process of making this film started with a lot of momentum and energy. I had big plans for this one, this was going to be the one that I would take to film festivals. I wrote the script before the start of the class, had the whole thing storyboarded out shot by shot by the second week and convinced the teacher to let me use the top-notch equipment available in the class. I started out very passionate and in control of the situation, I was extremely organized and began casting calls. I had a great internet response to these casting calls and confirmed around 35 auditions. After 3 weeks, only 2 of the 35 ever showed up. I cast Bobby Sosa, who had walked in to audition for someone else's project for the lead role of Itslav and Brian Morrisey as the Boss, who both did a great job in my opinion. Begrudgingly I took the role of Markus Kent on myself and decided to attempt to fill the remaining roles with friends.

Despite the disappointments I faced in the casting process pulling off the film didn't feel out of reach... but then I lost my filming location on the first day of filming. From there things went down hill. I lost my confidence in the project and in myself as director. I slipped back into my old habits of being satisfied with the first take because of time pressure. At this point my personal life was also shaken up. I started a new job and my girlfriend of three years broke up with me. The semester became more about survival than about excelling. 

Most of my energy went into my new job while my school work, particularly working on my short film project began to fall to the wayside. Over the course of the semester I shot and edited 40 or more videos for my job and became pretty burnt out when it came to trying to organize for and shoot my own project. Not the most inspirational of stories, but its the truth of what happened. I learned a lot while making this short film and was able to use many of the things I learned early on in the class at my job. I still came out with a final product at the end of the class, which stands as a shadow of my original vision and a reminder of my human limitations.