24 Dec My Love Affair with Filmmaking (Part 2) – The First Film

Make sure to read blog 1 so this blog makes more sense…

So how do you go about doing something you have never done before?

The only film classes I had taken at this point were the two classes in undergrad. Was I really ready to take the leap and pursue filmmaking as my full-time career or was this just a quarter life crisis of some sort?

Test Yourself

In my experience, the best way to answer such questions is to put yourself through a series of tests. My first test was to make a film. Considering that I had not touched a camera in 2 years, this seemed like a logical first move. I did not know exactly what kind of film I wanted to make until I researched online for film competitions and found one (Calma-Sutra of Tea) that would award one winner a $40,000 scholarship to a school of his/her choice if they created a commercial to promote tea drinking.

This sounded like the perfect test. Thus came my first film, “The Rookie,” on my first YouTube channel cchen428. The only minor problem… I did not own a pro camera and did not know anyone who did, except for the Craiglist guy I had emailed about a month ago.  Side story: I had considered buying a consumer camera from Craigslist from a UH film student, Orlando Briones. Though I did not end up purchasing his camera, I admired his talent. He sent me links to some of his work and I had continued to keep in contact with him, asking him questions about filmmaking.

I still had not met this guy in person, but online he seemed like a really nice person, patiently answering all my questions from a complete stranger. I really had nothing to lose at this point so I decided to write my script and pitch the idea to Orlando. Somehow Orlando liked my script (or took pity or both) and said he would film it, for free! I then ran into my second problem. I had never directed or produced a film before. Remember, I only made documentary films at this point and the last non-documentary film I made was a fake commercial in high school for an English class.  Luckily, I learned a lot from my experience on the 48-hour film set. I took what I had observed first hand and mimicked it.

By some miracle, Orlando turned out to be the best person to work with for my first film. The footage turned out awesome. Except now I ran into my next problem. I needed to edit the film and did not have anything to edit my film with.  I had been editing on the Rice University campus for all my projects and did not own a decent computer or editing software. No problem. I used my old Rice ID and managed to sneak into the Digital Media Center (DMC) and borrow their editing stations. It helped that the guy working at the DMC had seen me working there a lot before I graduated. I knew he suspected I was no longer a student, but from one filmmaker to another, he did not say anything and let me do my thing.

I edited my film, learned about coloring (from my new official friend Orlando) and then submitted it. I wish I could say that I won $40,000, but I did not. The experience did however teach me many things about filmmaking, business, and myself that I have continued to apply even now. Here is what I learned:

Lessons Learned

1. Just do it. You can plan and plan and plan but if you do not put any form of action into your planning, you will never have a product. The only way to learn is to learn from your mistakes.
2. If you do not have the proper resources, ask around, you will be surprised by who will help you out (even the random Craigslist guy you meet online!)
3. Be nice to everyone… you never know how people that you randomly meet will affect your life later in the future.
4. Surround yourself with people who are much more talented and experienced than yourself. They make you look good; but most importantly, you can pick their brains and absorb everything they know. Orlando is an extremely successful filmmaker. I am so thankful that he took pity on me and helped me start my own career. You never forget people like that.
5. When making a career change, it is a good idea to research. In my case, I had taken classes, jumped on a set, and started making my own films.
6. Sometimes, it is okay to not ask for permission and ask for forgiveness later.  If you get in trouble, never be afraid to pull the “I’m a student card”.  Take this advice with a grain of salt.
7. Facebook is an amazing marketing tool. After I made The Rookie, I pestered every single person on my Facebook list to watch it.

The biggest personal lesson I learned from the experience was that I still loved making films. In fact, I loved it even more than I did before. That was a good indicator that I was on the right track. At that point I was still operating as simply Christine Chen, the filmmaker. Moth to Flame is coming, so make sure to continue reading! To be continued…