Hard to find shortcuts making "No Shortcuts"

-

Well it took 10 months but FINALLY..."No Shortcuts" is in the can. A one-man band short film I undertook in Winter 2021 to give myself a creative project when I had practically no free time is shot, cut, colored, scored, and ready to be submitted to a few festivals. Now looking back, I gotta say it was much more work than I was ready for.

No Shortcuts has practical effects, computer generated effects, sound effects, compositing work and color touches that all together make it happen. Most films require a lot of post work, but science fiction requires an additional layer of care to make them work and not turn an audience off. Much of my efforts worked well, some will be nitpicked. But that's okay, I wasn't going for perfection. I was simply going. I will say I learned a lot about my tolerance for imperfection when tired and/or cold. I also cemented my belief filmmaking is meant to be a collaborative endeavor. Not only to produce a better end product, but get a greater sense of accomplishment. This was fun, but not the same feeling as creating something with other people.

When I conceived No Shortcuts I knew there would be a fair amount of post, but given I only had 30-60 minutes here or there to work on the film, I was not prepared for how long this post run would be. It could've been shorter but being an involved parent, enduring a pandemic, and moving really slowed the whole thing down. On top of that, I never worked on the film before 9pm. Many of the times I tackled the post work I was just exhausted and didn't have the gas to really get moving. But dang it, I cut the film and I have a 14 minute short and a 55 second trailer to show for it.

So what now? Well, I've entered the film in a handful of film festivals, made an IMDB page for it. I know it will get into some and will most definitely get rejected from a couple of the bigger ones (Fantastic Fest... pretty please?), but that's okay. This film was about doing something creative for myself in a year that was slammed with responsibility and very little "me time." 

No Shortcuts is not a Tiny Explosions short film. It doesn't fit that mold and since it was only me, it doesn't seem right to throw it under that banner. With that in mind, I've decided to put it under my freelance nom de plume, Responsibly Wild. Eventually it will live on that YouTube channel, and hopefully one day there will be other Responsibly Wild films, but No Shortcuts is the first. Click on over there and subscribe & click the bell to follow along.

When can you see it? At this point, I'm not sure. I would like to see it on a big screen at least once before I throw it up on YouTube for good. In the mean time, the website for the film still exists and I will eventually add more to that. Here's hoping I can see it at least once in a theater before the end of 2022. Cheers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FCC to the net neutrality rescue

-
This article was first published by  dmcityview.com In case you haven’t heard, the last couple of weeks have been pretty big concerning the future of the Internet. Net Neutrality, a term that means everything and nothing, depending on your web literacy, was for all intents and purposes cemented in the Federal Communications Commission’s book of regulations. The simple explanation on what this means to you is that the Internet will continue to be the fast-moving, cat meme-filled, pornography-laden super highway it has always been — i.e., no changes. The complicated explanation takes much concentration, so grab a cup of coffee and maybe a protractor because, seriously, this is important. At this point there’s no way around it — we all take the Internet for granted. It is the most important and intricate communication tool ever invented, and every time you turn on a web-enabled device you expect it to be there. Well, truthfully there is no “there” to it. The Internet isn’t a place,...
Read more

Tech Talk: Tune in to network TV, but for a fee

-
This article was first published by  dmcityview.com The rise of high-speed Internet and online streaming video over the last decade has definitely shaken the broadcast and pay TV business. While burgeoning Web technology has contributed to lower ratings and dipping revenues, it appears what the TV industry is most afraid of is a tool older than the medium itself, the antenna. Aereo , an online streaming video service, leases customers dime-sized antennas that retransmit locally broadcasted TV content over the Internet. This means someone living in Oregon can lease an Aereo antenna deployed in New York City and watch TV content hours before its broadcast in his or her actual time zone. The streaming video start-up has upset the broadcast TV industry so much, it’s scheduled to defend its legality before the United States Supreme Court in April. Broadcasters are challenging Aereo’s legal right to stream their content online without paying providers retransmission fees. Cable pro...
Read more

Continuing Education and the ISU Futures Forum

-
Image
Last Friday I had the unexpected pleasure of taking pictures for the Iowa State University Greenlee School of Journalism's Future's Forum. A couple week's earlier I was given the photog assignment, but few details except for a handful of choice people to photograph. It wasn't until I showed up that I found out it was a Greenlee event (a school I have a little history with). It turns out the "Futures Forum" is a chance for current journalism students to hear from industry execs, ISU grads in the field and  current  students with unique intern experience. This year's panel was made of a senior editor at Better Homes & Gardens, an Ag magazine exec, an graduate who now works at ESPN and a student who recently interned for Rolling Stone and Maxim. For the majority of the forum I was looking for different photography angles, but after the M.C. held a cheer for the recently deceased and beloved professor, Barbara Mack, and announced the topic, my interes...
Read more