Li'l Film Fest 10 Entry - "SUNDAY"

I'm superstitious when it comes to filmmaking (among other things) and did not want to post this until after I knew whether or not "Sunday" was accepted into the Li'l Film Fest 10. I'm very thankful that it has been selected and now I present to you the story behind how it came to be.

Back in March, one of my filmmaking buddies invited me to a local film fest to see his movie screened. I thought it was a cool experience and mentioned that I'd like to participate in the next one. Live from Memphis hosts a quarterly fest every year with a required theme and a 5 minute time limit. The event is called "Li'l Film Fest". The theme that my friend's movie, "Journeyman", was a part of was "Memphis - Fact or Fiction?".

When he sent word about the next fest (#10), I was very excited. The theme was "family" and you can imagine the ideas my dark and disturbed brain immediately thought of. However, all of those ideas seemed too easy, too cliche. So, I turned to a script idea that I've been working on that fit the theme of family perfectly - and was not horror. However, it turned out that there was no way to write a 5 minute script without jeopardizing the story, which I was NOT about to do. I was bummed.

But... all was not lost. Dolan, my brother-in-law, saved the day by coming up with an idea that could benefit from a shorter time limit. Oddly, it wasn't really horror either. He wrote the script, sent it over, and I immediately went to work storyboarding. "Sunday" was literally put together in about a week. I would have preferred to have had more time, but circumstance didn't work out that way. Considering the time that went into production, I am pleased with the outcome.

We filmed "SUNDAY" on a rainy weekend in May. The production went well. All of our actors were prepared and hit their marks as expected. Jake, our nephew, shined once again. It was a good experience. I missed a couple of shots due to how rushed we were, but that's how it goes in the world of amateur filmmaking!

Craig got the footage edited and we scored it within a couple of hours. I even mailed our entry with a few days to spare! Today (6-10-09), I learned that our little movie was chosen to be screened in the fest! I'm very excited. This is the first time this has happened for us in our very young filmmaking endeavor. There will be awards given at the fest, but I can honestly say that I'll be happy just to be there. I can't wait for my friends and family to come out and support our efforts and see our movie on the big screen!

A big THANK YOU to all of our awesome cast/crew!