One of a Kind is a short film I made with several other filmmakers. We spent four months making this film along with a few other films.

In the fall of 2017 I found out about a film festival taking place in May of the following year. I decided I wanted to submit some films to this film festival. I hadn't done any real short film work that I was proud of so I decided to use this opportunity to do just that.

After learning more about this film festival I decided I wanted to try and submit one film to each of the six categories. I reached out to several other filmmakers, photographers, and creators and was able to get some people on board to help create these films.

We began our preparation in the beginning of January by all sitting down for coffee. This gave me the chance to introduce the project and have everyone meet each other. We assigned jobs for each of the films, giving everyone a different job on each film. That way we could all get experience in different stages of the production process. After this preparation it was time to begin pre-production.

The scripts for the films took approximately two weeks to create. Below is the script for One of a Kind, which went through multiple re-writes.

We used a site and app called Airtable to organize all of our pre-production work. Everything from the characters to the props were organized. Below are images from the Airtable for One of a Kind.

Using this program made it so much easier to organize our work, share ideas as well as files, and gave us one thing to use.

Casting for the films was a daunting task, so we began it early. After knowing what roles we needed to fill, I designed this flyer and we put it up around local schools and businesses.

After getting a good amount of responses I began setting up informal interview/auditions for applicants. By mid-February we had almost all roles filled.

For locations we used buildings we had access to, such as schools, parks, and our jobs. This made it much easier not having to get permits or having to rent spaces. With the amount of people we had working together, finding locations wasn't too difficult of a task.

Preparation for filming was different for each film. I left it up to the cinematographer and director of each film to decide how much or little preparation they wanted to do. I was the co-director and cinematographer for One of a Kind.

For One of a Kind I spent a couple weeks breaking down the script, doing a shot list, and a storyboard. I wanted to be as prepared as I could for filming, especially since I had never done anything like this before.

I began with a rough breakdown by highlighting different elements such as props, lighting, wardrobe, etc. Below are a few pages from the script after the breakdown was done.

After breaking down the different elements I began creating a shot list for the film. This consisted of figuring out the camera angles, movement, and equipment I needed for each individual shot. The final shot list had a total of 39 shots in it.

After the shot list was done, I moved onto creating a storyboard for the film. I used the Storyboard Notebook from Plot Devices for that. Below is the final storyboard I did for One of a Kind.

The filming of all of the films took us about a month to finish. We started by dedicating the third week of March for filming all of the films. We ran into some issues in terms of not having enough time and other events interfering with our schedule so we had to find time anywhere we could to film before the submission date.

During shoot days we all were responsible for different jobs. This allowed us to only be focusing on one or two things, making it easier for everyone. As well as that, we were able to get experience in jobs we had never done.

Overall, the production process was a huge learning experience. We had to cancel some films because of unforeseen issues, but that also gave us more time to focus on the others.

The editing of the films was stressful and time-consuming. We had to begin editing before we had finished filming, which did complicate things, but it worked out well. I tried to do as much as editing I could and then as we got more footage, I would edit and add that in.

After creating all the films we could, we ended up with three films, one of which made it into the film festival. One of a Kind made it into the film festival and took 2nd place in the Drama category, which was an amazing honor.

This project was a ton of fun to do and an incredible learning experience. There are a few things I want to take out of this, the first being planning better. I think that planning the films would've helped a lot better. The storyboard and shot list for One of a Kind was a huge time saver and helped avoid complications that happened on other shoots. As well as that, I want to try and spend more time focusing on the individual shots; setting up more complex lighting, focusing more on camera movement, etc. I am so glad for this experience and hope to do more things like this in the future.

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