Week Two

The second week at Charming Stranger started with a bang or, at least, a nike store amount of check marks. The Coven Film Fest team (including Elisha and I) finally selected all of the short films that will be included. As hard as it was to decide between so many well done and powerful films, I could not be more proud of the work we all accomplished. The lineup we have assembled for Coven Film Fest , with varying genres and styles, will be an event all filmmakers will not want to miss. Going more into detail, watching all the submitted films and debating which to include was one of my favorite parts of working at Charming Stranger thus far. As well, I have learned (and continue to learn) an immense amount of what goes into planning a film festival. I find myself very interested in this work for the future.

After the busy day on Monday, Elisha and I had the opportunity to attend CineFemme with Cameo. Being surrounded by female-identifying directors, producers, actors and so on, was a setting I have never had the pleasure of attending before. Not only this, but the meeting was inspirational and so relevant to the work I am completing now with my short film. The dinner discussion this month, which is newly proposed every meeting, surrounded the topic of feedback. I found this conversation be very insightful as it emphasized the importance of asking others for their opinion and or help but also remembering your connection to the work and what you want the final product / message to be. One specific comment I remember being said at the dinner was you must “realize what is your ego in you accepting feedback and what is the other person’s ego in giving feedback.” I think this is really useful to remember when I do future collaborative projects.

The next couple of days, Elisha and I spent most of our time talking to Connie and Cameo about our scripts (then editing them), completing further preparation for our short films, working on the Coven Film Fest trailer and finally, helping out on a music video set both as production assistants. I found each of us to be very productive this week and the experience of working with King Dream (Jeremy Lyons) was really wonderful. I found this music video particularly really incredible to be present for because it is going to be highly changed by special effects and we got to see it in its initial state. I cannot wait to see it’s final product in the near future.

By the end of the week, I began to choose the actors for my short film based on submitted auditions. As well, I finalized the other details within the script and pre-production planning. The process of this short film through a professional setting was more instructive than my prior film experience. In the past most of my work had been gorilla style shooting, experimental and my planning was not needed to be sent or approved by anyone else. However, while working at Charming Stranger Films, I have been so educated on not only the formality of scripts and pre-production but also on tricks to screenplays and script-writing to show and not tell. I cannot believe that next week we are shooting already! This coming weekend, Elisha, Connie Jo and I will be meeting with the film crew and visiting the planned film locations. I cannot wait to keep working on this project and so thankful for all the help and support I have received for it.