Guerilla Filmmaking in St George, UT

This year I was able to take part in the Guerilla Filmmaking competition for Southern Utah media alliance.  Honestly when I signed up for it, I did not have any inclination of what I would be filming with the theme : "We're Family"

I met Brian Grob, a local writer in southern Utah and I sent him the theme and inquired if he would write a story.  He did.  He sent it over and it was this estranged father and son story.  We made some adjustments back and forth and this film was a perfect opportunity to literally "build" a film from scratch.  I took on the role of director and collaborated with a DP named Tyler Wynn, our sound guy Jordan Hurd and the writer Brian Grob and we held auditions to find our actors to bring the story to life, Rich Hill, Daniel Scott (his debut film!) and Amber Bird.  It was great to do rehearsals even for a 5 minute short.  That was the challenge, how can we tell this dramatic piece in 5 min?!

The more I have come to understand the art of filmmaking has been such an eye opening experience for me for understanding life itself.  Yes, there are films for pure entertainment and "time fillers", but, there are also films to challenge status quo, tug at emotions, invoke thought, etc,  We all came together, paid strict attention to our pre-production needs (which is more important than filming the movie itself), finding the right location, a make up artist that can breath more life into our actors (Dawn Weidauer), editing, music and sound design that can create an atmosphere for the finished piece and with hardly any budget, sound and music that is royalty free and public domain. 

Seventy Times 7 | Shor from Dan Fowlks on Vimeo.

We place 1st at the Southern Utah Guerilla filmmaking challenge.  Hard work, dedication and simply letting other people excel at their talents and creativity is the cause of the placement.  That to me is what is takes to be a director, you are a composer of an orchestra that needs to allow others to perform their instruments to make something beautiful.  A wonderful and grateful shout out to Adam Mast who puts on these events and to all the filmmakers who take part in this event in southern Utah.  I always look forward to what you come up with and the work and dedication that are poured into filmmaking!