So after a lot of pre-production -- rehearsals, prop-making, location-securing, wardrobe selections, and lots and lots of fundraising -- we finally kicked off the ELENA VANCE 6 day shoot on December 26th. After the first weekend (12/26 - 12/28) we regrouped and then attacked the final weekend (1/2 - 1/4). And then it was all over.
The ELENA VANCE crew is the finest crew I have ever worked with, and the production values on this movie are also the best I have ever had on a shoot. More than ever I felt the joy of the on-set experience, and I am truly starting to understand just how collaborative cinema is. There are filmmakers who come up with their vision, and then see every part of the process from that inception to the finished film as different means of diluting the purity of the initial idea. This is not the way to go about making movies. For writers, nothing comes between their initial idea and the piece of blank paper in front of them. There's no point trying to be that bullheaded when it comes to filmmaking. The only way to go about things is to surround yourself with a crew of people who are exceptionally talented at what they do, make sure all of these people understand the beating heart of your idea just as well as you do, and then release the reins and watch them come up with a barrage of creative concepts that you never would have thought of and yet are even more true to the original vision than what you would have done on your own. What a sentence that was.
Anyway, I knew all that to be true about movies a long time ago, but it wasn't until ELENA VANCE that I managed to gather together a large crew of wildly creative minds. It made everything so easy and the on-set experience became blissful. Having an amazing production designer made a world of difference; just wait until you all see what Darcy did to create Elena's bedroom. Extreme Makeover Cinema Edition. This movie also featured the best sound operators I have ever had on a movie, the best lighting, the best script supervision, the best production assistants... I am still floored by how smoothly everything went. And to top everything off, the rain held off (for the most part) until the final day of the shoot... and it made everything look so much better for that day.
Anyway, now is probably not the time to thank all the people who made my movie possible, but I've got one quick story that can serve as a microcosm of the entire wonderful experience. On Day 5 we were preparing to shoot one of the first scenes in the movie, a scene which introduces Beraly (played by Cami Ottman), the younger sister to our main character Terry. From the beginning Darcy and I had discussed how she should be wearing a prissy church-style dress her mom made her put on, but that in order to endure it she also wears her boots and her crazy wooly hat. Just before shooting I told Darcy that I figured Cami could lose the hat for this first scene and just have it for the Peacock Lane scenes... and with that, Darcy launched into a detailed description of who Beraly was and why she should be wearing the hat in the first scene. After a few sentences I cut her off so that I could quickly surrender. That's what I'm talking about: the key to a successful movie (not that I know much about success yet) is surrounding yourself with people who are so talented and see the vision so clearly that they can actually dictate to you what your vision is, as crazy as that sounds.
All these great BTS stills are by the amazing Larry McFarling, by the way. =)
So many more stories to tell, but right now I've got to go watch the Seahawks game.
So here we are, 2 hours from the ELENA VANCE shoot.
ELENA VANCE is a 25 minute suspense-drama about an introverted high school student and his dueling obsessions with a beautiful classmate and a dark mystery. My biggest influences when writing it were the Antonioni films L'AVVENTURA, L'ECLISSE and BLOWUP, the Argento film THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, the Coppola film THE CONVERSATION, and De Palma's reworking of BLOWUP, which is of course titled BLOWOUT.
It's a personal project for me... I wanted to make a movie about how big and scary the world can seem to a kid approaching adulthood. It's also about institutional oppression, family, the nature of love... all that wonderful profound stuff.
When I was watching IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE with Michelle on Christmas Eve, during the final scene I found myself reflecting on all the amazing, generous people who have made ELENA VANCE possible. There was a point about a month ago when I was really starting to freak out, wondering where the funding would come from and who could step in to help produce this unwieldy beast. Since then so many people have come forward to contribute time and money and creativity, and ELENA VANCE is on the path to success. Now we just gotta shoot it. =)
So stay tuned, blog posts should be up every night as we barrel through the six day shoot. And when I have more time, I'll back up and start from the beginning: how the project started, who all is involved, and how any of this is even possible.
- Bryan
Hey everyone! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays.
Friends have been telling my that my elaborate Facebook posts belong in a blog somewhere instead... so that's what I'm doing. Since I'm gonna be on set directing a movie 24 hours from now, I figure now's the time.
Introductions: my name is Bryan Hiltner, I'm approaching Larry Bird's jersey number age-wise, I just got engaged to my love & fellow filmmaker Michelle Vincig, I've worked for Fred Meyer for over a decade now, and my goal in life is to make movies for a living and get really, really good at it.
Now that I'm in my 30s this goal of mine has a greater sense of urgency. I made my first "movie", AJAFEA, while I was attending the University of Oregon in 2001-2002 with three friends who became lifelong collaborators: Greg, Mike, and Jack.
AJAFEA is an atrocious "movie"; everyone involved knows that. In my early 20s I was a whiny, self-absorbed, narcissistic little shit, always feeling sorry for myself and lacking the discipline to do anything about it. I had no idea how to make a movie, and with AJAFEA it shows. However, what is also evident is how many movies I watched and how much I studied them. There are some great visual & narrative ideas scattered throughout AJAFEA, connected by a river of incompetence flowing directly from my immature young mind.
The best thing about AJAFEA is that it gave me a chance to get a lot of terrible mistakes out of my system. As my own editor I quickly learned how weak the script and the videography was, and I think that's the best way to learn: make sure that YOU are the one who has to deal with the fallout from your own shitty decisions. AJAFEA has no real lighting, little scripted dialogue, no sense of pacing, no narrative cohesion... it's a mess that punishes its audience. What it does have is an incredibly creative score by Mike and a mind-blowing monster created by Greg. The screening at the Clinton Street Theater was exactly what I needed; I could see just how brutal an experience it was for my poor friends and family to sit through.
All in all, AJAFEA is a movie so bad and so embarrassing to me personally that I have still not let my fiance Michelle watch it. You can see the trailer below, but that's all I'm letting out in the open for the time being.
After AJAFEA I feel like many of my family and friends thought a bit less of me, and who could blame them? But by this point I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and a humiliating failure was not enough to deter me from The Dream.
My next project was sLipPage, a movie I started writing after my mother passed away, and that was funded with money she left for me. sLipPage is about the struggle to resolve a strained relationship with a loved one after that person has left our terrestrial plain and moved on to whatever waits for us beyond this reality. Even though it was only my second movie, to date sLipPage still boasts the highest production value I have ever had on a movie. We shot on the Red camera with a crew from California, I worked with real actors for the first time... and I was not prepared for any of it. Thankfully friends like Kristi bailed me out and helped organize and fund the shoot. Even though I've made many short films since then (and am about to embark on a new one), sLipPage is not yet finished for a variety of reasons. It's always been difficult to work on something that is so intensely personal, but I must admit the main reasons it has taken so long are (1) I once again had to solve all sorts of script, sound & directorial problems in the editing room, and (2) the visual effects -- of which there are many -- are taking forever to fund and complete. But after shooting the movie I am about to shoot, all my energies will be devoted to finishing sLipPage once and for all. Despite all the struggles, I am comforted by the knowledge that what we have in the can is very, very good.
In pre-production on sLipPage my friend Terell referred me to his friend Michelle as a source for breaking down the script... and, of course, the rest is history. Michelle & I became partners in crime and partners in filmmaking. With the sLipPage shoot under my belt and a very talented filmmaker by my side, I suddenly realized I could start making my own movies! Michelle & I proceeded to make 5 short films in 6 months, with me as writer/director and Michelle as the director of photography. Below are pictures from each of the 5 flicks... check em out on my Vimeo, vimeo.com/beekperson.
After that I made more movies with Michelle as well as one with another local filmmaker, Christopher Jayawardena. To this point I feel my 3 best finished films are -- in no particular order -- PRESENT, THE BIRD MAN WHO LIVES DOWN TARROW LANE, and LET'S BURY THE HATCHET! (DEEP IN YOUR FACE).
And that brings us just about up-to-date. I'm about to embark upon my biggest short film to date, a high school suspense/drama titled ELENA VANCE. Tomorrow we shoot. I'm excited and stressed and also grateful for all the help I've gotten so far, on this film and all the others. All the people involved with the films mentioned in this blog have had a huge role in getting me to where I am today: a man in his early 30s who -- despite toiling 40 hours a week at a job he hates -- still has time to craft the art that makes me glad to be alive.
So stay tuned: more movies to come. =)
- Bryan
