Making My First Mini-Movie, 'Open'

Falling Again For My First Love, Video Editing. After many years away, I am returning to video editing, and I am at the same time discovering the fun of filmmaking. I’m a former tape-to-tape editor constantly improving my non-linear editing chops. The craft of editing fascinates me. This time I’m all in!

I want to periodically chronicle my progress as an editor and filmmaker using this blog. I am primarily interested in documentary, artistic shorts, and instructional video. Maybe someday a feature length film. In the meantime, I am working on two short documentaries and will continue to shoot and edit mini-movies as I work my way through countless tutorials.

Watch the film on Youtube.

Well I've just finished making my first mini-movie. I've lost track of the time it took to complete this technically challenged project! If I had to guess, I'd say about 40 hours. It was definitely worth the time and effort.

Many years ago I experimented with video editing. My favorite thing about the process was simply sitting in front of a screen and making edits. It's an absorbing task and a bit meditative. I did some editing for local TV news. I loved the quiet and the dark of the editing bay, and I thought maybe that might be my professional path. But news b-roll wasn't stuff I wanted in my brain, and live TV was unrelentingly stressful. While in college, I created a video essay with clips from major films. That was great fun working with such gorgeous footage, and my 10 minute video was shown to a room full of classmates, overall, an amazing experience.

Regrettably I didn't touch editing again for over ten years. I chose a very different direction and experimented with other things. Now I am back to editing to stay. No other vocation fits as well. I recently shot some b-roll so I'd have video to use for experimental projects. I don't have much experience shooting video, so I made tons of technical mistakes while photographing Open, some I decided not to repair, some I attempted to repair but made them worse by doing so. But I know my technical skills will improve over time.

My main goal with Open was to complete a video with a lot of shots to get the sense of workflow and the production process. Even with all of its quirks, my first mini-movie is pretty close to what I initially imagined. The biggest setback was filming the opening living room scene. I got the lighting wrong and I used a camera that couldn't handle the low light. Lesson learned. The low resolution made working with it in After Effects problematic. Additionally, I discovered that adjusting the aspect ratio on my old Sony Cyber-Shot doesn't apply to video capture, which is limited to a single set of nonadjustable presets. So I ended up with pillarboxing around one scene, as it was just too grainy to crop or adjust the aspect ratio in post. Anyway, the next scenes were lit a lot better and I used my iPhone to capture the rest of the film.

This project had many firsts.

First time...

filming a script I've written (my college video essay doesn't count).

directing an actor

working in After Effects and Mocha

editing a fictional narrative

working with an animal

filming in multiple locations

completing a speed ramp edit

setting up indoor lighting

filmmaking with an iPhone

making a mini-movie for Seattle Minute Movies (see more about this in the update below)

I used Mocha in Adobe After Effects to create a composite image of a text message. Lots of tutorials and videos out there, but it took quite a while to get a passable result. Next one should be a lot faster!

In the dream sequence, the main character Jacob imagines living in a storage shed. This was my debut attempt at creating an editing effect known as speed ramping.

So besides handling all the technical errors better, what would I do different? I think for right now I will hold off on making anymore minute movies for a while. Film shorts, yes! Under two minutes, definitely. But I think since I am just starting out, I need a bit more leeway. The Seattle Minute Movie project was fun to do and provided some structure, but I also felt it was limiting in terms of requirements and deadline. I need to get a wee bit better before taking on another.

Update 9-23-20: Not sure what happened. I submitted my film to Seattle Minute Movies via their form two weeks before the deadline. I met all of their criteria. I even made two clips for their Frankenfilm project (which were used) but my film didn't get into their queue on viewing night. Kind of weird as the host didn't seem to know who I was or that I'd submitted a film. And the films that were shown were made by the same men who showed films the month before. One guy showed two films, so maybe it's more of a private club for a few guys, who knows, not really sure what to make of that. But whether I made a mistake in submitting or there's some kind of secret handshake for getting your film viewed and critiqued, it doesn't matter to me too much (at least this time) because the most important benefit to me was the initial idea and motivation to make a film. That being said, I don't want to promote Seattle Minute Movies further. Something's not quite right there, so I'm seeking another group to work with for remote support as a new filmmaker.

I figure I'm no different than other filmmakers in that I've got screenplays I've written (some feature length and some mini-scripts) stowed away in a box somewhere. When I lived in Santa Barbara (a great place to live if you're an aspiring filmmaker!), I went to some screen writing classes and I attended some social gatherings with filmmakers and showed up to script-to-screen sessions. I was always on the periphery though, busy with my day job. Sadly, filmmaking wasn't something I could dive right into then. Now I live in Spokane, with a lot more time. And I guess I also feel braver, and I just can't keep putting this off anymore. I love the process of editing and through making Open, I've also discovered that I love filmmaking too.

The script for the next mini-movie project Rain is completed and ready for production. I'll post the finished video when it's done.

OPEN

Equip: iPhone, Sony Cyber-Shot

Software: After Effects, iMovie

Credits:

Directed by Kai Dailey

Written by Kai Dailey and Christopher Brannan

Produced by Tribart Studio, Spokane, WA

Edited by Kai Dailey

Cast:

Christopher Brannan

Joshua The Cat

Kai Dailey

Project Description:

Experimental fiction film short made for Seattle Minute Movies

Genre: Melodrama | Art Film

Duration: 0:2:04 min

Logline: When a weary office worker comes home to bad news, he tries to shrug it off by taking a walk in the park.

Tagline: Bad news is no walk in the park.

AWS Link: https://aws-website-kailynndailey-lmfyw.s3.amazonaws.com/Open+Final+Cut+Long+Credits.mp4

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzT2ESulK7E