And...Scene! (Part 3/3)

Day 3 of Filming

Last year, my kids Anaya, Shaun, and Jared, participated in the 6 month Indie Memphis Crew Up teen film program. After putting in over 100 hours of planning, writing, casting, filming, and editing, Anaya (Writer, Director, Actor, Editor), Shaun (Writer, Actor, Boom Mic, Editor), and Jared (Writer, Cinematography) completed their first-ever award-winning short film "Amorphous."

This short film took so much work and this blog series "And...Scene" will give you an idea of how much time and effort was put into this really cool project.

Day 1 of Filming: We had all our teen actors outdoors in the hot southern sun. We were able to find a location at a beautiful home in Memphis that had a gorgeous wooded backyard. We arrived to set up around 7:30 a.m. and finished filming before dinner.

​Day 2 of Filming: The setting took place in the basement of our public library. With one adult actor and all the teen actors filming scenes in the library's stairwell, basement, and office. The crew used the Black Magic camera and lots of lighting to create the overall suspenseful feel of the movie.

Day 3 of Filming: The setting was a conference room with all adult actors. It was exciting for the crew to use the camera dolly and chairs to create different cinematic angles.

The essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments or images in a general sense put together in a kind of alchemy.
Francis Ford Coppola

Once filming was complete, the team had two weeks to edit and submit the film to the Indie Memphis Youth Film Festival. Shaun was the lead editor and used Adobe Premiere Pro as his choice of software.

However, Anaya spent even more hours getting everything just right and to her liking. Let me just say, as an observer, editing is a very tedious process. I am so proud of how they created such a believable and suspenseful product.

In the following video, Anaya shares the job description of an editor and just how important their role is to every film project.

For two weeks during the editing process, the kids' film mentor, Kimel, had no idea how the film was being stitched together. She stepped back during this process, and the kids handled everything.

Anaya, Shaun, and Jared were so happy when Kimel and her mom were able to view the finished product. They sat at the edge of their chairs, screamed, and laughed at just the right spots in the film.

​Kimel's approval made the film ready for submission to the festival. See the pictures below to see Kimel and her mother's first response!

Seeing it on the big screen at the Indie Memphis Film Festival was so exciting. There were about 100 movie watchers who were given a sheet with all the videos in the Crew Up category. Sadly, Anaya had covid and was unable to attend, so I used the Marco Polo App, so I could record live, and she could watch with us in the theatre.

​When their film ended, it received a loud applause which was a great sign. The competition was fierce, and the other Crew Up teams created some incredible films. However, the kids were voted "Audience Choice Award" which was an amazing honor!

​They felt so good to know that the audience selected their movie in first place! It was such an affirming moment, and the kids look forward to making more films in the future!

Click here to watch "Amorphous."  and check out the bloopers! Make sure to like and subscribe to Anaya's film channel and leave an encouraging comment.

Just in case you missed them--please read the first two blog posts in this series to get the full scoop on the film project:
"And...Scene! (Part 1/3)"
"And...Scene! (Part 2/3)"