Directing film on film

At the beginning of the year, before I even got accepted at AFI, I dreamt that I directed a film shot on film. Well, today I shot my first film film, not video film. Oh how nice it felt. The sound of that film rolling. The idea of shooting 24 photographs per second is so much more exciting than magnetic scanned video. One day soon, I shall say goodbye to the video camera and embrace that machine which captures motion on celluloid.

So the big thing of course is that when you shoot on film, you're completely reliant on measuring light with light meters. You don't rely on a monitor for lighting decisions. Of course all that was up to Will Beckly, my wonderful cinemaographer. We're going to be shooting an action comedy together for cycle 2 in February. This was a great start for a working relationship that I know will continue on past the AFI.

So the assigment with this film was to tell a story with no sound and make it visually interesting. We made our story about a guy trapped in a dark room with a streak of light seeping in from the outside. For my actor, I employed the amazing Jemuel Morris. Some of you may remember him from one of my shorts called "If..." This guy can do anything you ask him to do, and he brings a unique breath of life onto the screen. Definitely also someone who I plan to conitinue working with in the future.

I feel like everyone I've met in LA over the past two and a half years has been part of my journey for a reason. Some are such a joy to work with that I can't wait to launch my directing career just so that I can make full feature movies with them as the stars.