January 2009

[quicktime width=”550″ height=”320″]http://blog.dallasgolden.com/Media/LDSFest2009.mov[/quicktime]

Starring:
Ben Thomas
David White
Zach Lonsdale
Austin Nichols
Directed by Dallas Golden

Because Rebecca has already posted about our day of filming, I don’t know how much more you want to hear about behind the scenes, but I’m going to write about it anyway.

We had a concept that we were going to go out and film, but we ran into a major obstacle of the cold weather and the ice outside.  After a long lunch of brain-storming on a new idea, we went over to D.I. to see if we could find something to use as a prop to inspire a new story idea.  Zach and I found a broken TV they were trying to sell for parts and I fell in love with the TV because there was something about it that demanded our sending a projectile through the screen.  Thus the basis of our story was born.  We had to somehow create a need to destroy the TV.   David found a hat that he wanted to use as a TV technician, so we found our need for a TV repairman.   After that we threw everybody else in to satisfy the film requirements of making a sacrifice to the downtrodden by Ben sacrificing his TV money to those who needed it more than he did.

Filming began and we were off to film our outdoor scenes before the sun went down.  Macey’s was gracious enough to allow us to film in their parking lot.  Zach and Austin were great.  About the time we ran out of sunlight, we finished filming our last shot outside.  There were a couple more shots I would like to have gotten, but they weren’t essential so they were easily skipped over.  We headed back to our condo where we made an absolute mess of the house  by moving the furniture around and we banished Rebecca and Brooke to the bedroom to quietly watch Wall-e.

Editing was the hardest part because even though it was fairly early in the evening, it felt like it was midnight.  I was also desperately needing to get to bed because I had to be up the next morning at 4:30.  The editing was finished at around 3:00 and I dropped in bed only to wake up long before I wanted to.

If you are having problems viewing the video, you can watch it on YouTube HERE

Last night Dallas and I had a fun date night.  We went to an event at the LDS Film Festival held at the Scera Theater.  Dallas, my brother Ben, and three of Ben’s BYU friends spent last weekend filming a three-minute short for the 24-Hour Filmmaking Marathon.

Last Friday at 10:00 am Dallas, Ben, and friends met at the Scera to get the theme for their film, a prop, and a dialogue line they had to include in the film.  They had 24 hours to come up with an idea, film it, and edit it together.  The theme this year was sacrifice.  The prop was a match, and the dialogue line was “Let me be your…”

After a couple of failed attempts, they finally came up with an idea that worked.  They started filming at about 3 in the afternoon and wrapped up a little before 8 pm.  Dallas was up late into the night editing the masterpiece.

I think the boys did a great job, especially considering the lack of time and dearth of acting lessons between the boys.  Dallas will post the video when he gets a chance.

Anyway, last night was the screening of all the 24-hour films.  There were 41 shorts presented.  We were quite impressed with the quality of the films.  We had some good laughs.

I’m proud of my boys!

“Ben’s TV” – a striking  short comedy with heart to match.

Coming soon to a theater near you!  Mark your calendar for Thursday, January 22, 2009, 7:00 at the Scera Movie Theater in Orem.  Get your tickets early!  Tickets might be going fast.  Blog release to shortly follow.

Starring:
Ben Thomas as Ben
David White as Super G
Zach Lonsdale as Zach
Austin Nichols as Austin Dew
Directed by Dallas Golden