There are now a lot of Actor/Writer/Directors/Producers/Anything-else-I-need-to-be because now, more than ever, the internet is in the actors favor. Actors are a dime a dozen now a days and the one of the many ways to stand out is to create your own work. Some do it out of love, some do it out of necessity, and some do it just to get a reel. For me it was a bit of everything. In addition to being an actor, along side my wife I am also a writer, producer, director, prop person, cinematographer, grip, etc. We both decided that we wanted to take on the path of filming as our career. To tell new and continue stories that we love. Our first one out of the gate? A LOST fan film, continuing a story from the TV show LOST. I wanted to share with you the ups and downs we had making our fan film, LOST: The Arrival, in the hopes to inspire you to not have to wait for someone to hire you. You can make the work for your self. It is just a matter of pulling in all your resources to make it work.
About 5 years ago, I purchased some fun photo/filming attachments for my iPhone. I took my new toys to work with me and played around with it. I had planned on filming something with all of this as a new wave of iPhone short films and full length films were starting to hit the industry. I was security guard at a shack at an undisclosed location where nothing was happening that day as it was a weekend. I set up my equipment and started filming stuff. I made a 43 second short of me typing and added some Radiohead to it and it came out really cool. Like a post-apocalyptic search on the internet for the meaning of life.
I then started to shoot close ups of other things that I do daily. I mashed them all together and happen to put the LOST end title music to it.
I came home and showed my wife the little shorts I did. She thought the first one was cool and got ecstatic with the second one with the LOST music. We are both fans of the show LOST and when she saw the short, she said that it got her really excited about it again. It got her mind going a million miles a minute about LOST and the questions it raised. When she saw this video, she thought is the Dharma Initiative starting up again?! She then had this brilliant idea of how to continue a story that was presented in LOST that felt like it needed a sense of closure for us. She began writing all her ideas down. She told me "We are going to make this!"
We had our first taste as film makers as I had written a separate short film and began shooting that. However, we were about to have a baby, and he came half way into it and production stopped and never continued. A lot of things slowed or stopped for us when we had a baby (not in a bad way. When you have a baby, they take priority no matter what.) We agreed that we would not continue the film and we would just move on as we now had to work and take care of our baby. My son was the best thing that ever happened to us. All our decisions after having him was so that we can make sure we all have a happy life together. For many reasons, we decided to quit our job and relocate to Seattle. So in that transition, I began to write down ideas for the next film we wanted to make when we got to Seattle. I wrote a few things, but my wife really wanted to make the LOST fan film. So we both began writing and collaborating ideas for it.
Collaborating with my wife was awesome. We definitely had our ups and downs on ideas that we had for the one project. Sometimes we came up with good ideas, sometimes bad, sometimes we argued over an idea that we thought was perfect and the other did not find as perfect. We fought and cried about how and when we should make it and of course we had to do a lot of research on the LOST show and how our story would make sense and be able to answer any of the questions that it may present (if you know anything about LOST, it brought up a lot of unanswered questions). But what I got out of creating something with her was the fact that she was very creative, a natural writer, and understood film making more than she thought. This is particularly important as an actor for me to have someone like this on my side because she understands it all and our end goals are the same.
We still had an incomplete project when we finally moved to Seattle. Our goal when we moved out of CA was to give ourselves a lifestyle that would allow us to make strides forward in our perspective careers. At the time, my wife was venturing into a catering business (she is a certified chef) and I was to give more time to acting in a smaller market. Our second primary goal was to get this LOST project done! We picked up on the writing again, but things still didn't seem to click or feel complete. It started to become hard to continue when my wife started to vend at the local farmers market and we both had to work full time during that period (I was her sous chef). It also was difficult as we had to take care of my 2 1/2 year old son with little to no help at times as we had no family and a few friends with opposite schedules. After the farmers market was over, my wife had an epiphany. She did not see her career in food but saw herself creating stories and telling them through film. This epiphany jump started us to continue our LOST story.
We got to a point where we had half of the story complete and the other outlined. We kept waiting for the whole thing to be complete, but we finally said "Screw it! If we keep waiting it will never get finished. We have half of it complete, so lets at least film that and go from there." So we did. I began to story board and make props. My wife was in charge of location scouting.
This is where pulling in all your recourses comes to play. Lost takes place on an island. So we needed an island setting. There were some beaches near us, but nothing that looked tropical. When we couldn't find what we were looking for, we changed the location of our story, while keeping the atmosphere and story the same. We knew LOST was also set in a tropical jungle. Our best friends mom happened to live on an a piece of land who's backyard happened to be a literal forest (it passed perfectly as a tropical jungle).
We got permission to film there, so we set it up immediately. Our friend babysat our son the day we filmed. But, in the fact that my son takes priority in responsibility, we had to shoot the scene before his nap time so we can keep our routine with him. Talk about learning on the spot, we had to adapt to a lot of things while filming in the jungle. It was only my wife and I shooting. We had to account for sound, filming on an iPhone (that is work in and of itself), lack of equipment and use of make-shift equipment and rigs, certain props and costumes not working, and certain points of the story had to be changed due to what was provided for us at the location. For instance, in our story we had our character go to a marked location in the jungle and start to dig. He finds a container and walks back to his bunker. Well, we couldn't find a good spot for the dig and we didn't have a shovel. But what we did find is a tree stump that had a hole in it that the container fit in perfectly! And it looked better and was better action for the filming. Another example was a track shot following the characters feet as he walks. My wife was following behind me originally, but when we played it back you could hear her footsteps on top of mine. So to fix that, I had to hold the monopod behind me with one hand and walk. It came out decent enough. Along with the stress of getting done before my son's nap time and making adjustments, we had to film pretty fast. We actually got done a half hour early.
Next we needed a location for the main set of this characters story. We needed a bunker looking location. We couldn't find one for the life of us. I had asked my storage unit place and they said yes, but the we had to think about if anyone would be moving that day and the sound. So we didn't use that. This was one of many points of us thinking we cannot continue. We asked our friends and no one could come up with anything except one. She had access to an undisclosed location that may have what we are looking for. We went to look, but it only had offices that didn't fit the bill. Until, she stumbled upon a door to the attic and said "you can look up there if you want, it is just storage." So I did. IT WAS PERFECT!! The atmosphere was creepy, lonely, and had a lot of character. We made arrangements to film the next week.
Filming at this location presented the same challenges as the last and this time my son was being babysat at the location by our friend and her daughter. We were more prepared this time as we had all the shots planned out. We decorated the set and had the equipment ready in an hour and we shot for 3 hours. It went surprisingly smooth. It was interesting as I was more on camera and my wife was cinematographer and director. She did an amazing job. I am proud of her.
So we had half of our story in the can. Now we had to complete the second. We finally made a cohesive story for this half and were ready to shoot it. We sent out a casting notice but because of the small acting market in WA, we only got three submissions. We picked one and interviewed him. He was a good fit. But when we set up a shoot day with him, he was unable to do so because he did not have a car to get to our location and had to work that day. UGH! Now, what do we do? We asked all of our friends and posted on Facebook if anyone knew someone that had some acting experience or was willing to act and fit our description. It didn't pan out. Another point that we thought it was over. We kept saying we "we wish we had our friend Burt Culver near us." He was a perfect fit and we knew he had the acting chops to pull it off. Then we had this crazy idea; what if we flew down to CA to film this last part? Long story short, we made a decision to completely move back to CA and we would finish our project there.
Almost the time we set our bags down we contacted Burt. He was interested in the project and said yes! Now for the location. LOST was also known for its Star Wars References. My best friend happens to living in a bachelor pad with tons cool collectibles and decor. He agreed to let us use his apartment! Things started to fall in place perfectly! On film day, it was just me and my wife and Burt and things ran smoothly...a little too smoothly. It was the last shot of the day. I needed a close up of the character typing on the computer. We went in my friends office where he has most of his collectibles. His prized possession, a life sized Darth Vader bust, was next to the desk. As I am filming, I backed up and tripped, hitting the Sith Lord and chipping his breathing apparatus. Super glue would not be a solution for this as it was badly and unevenly chipped. This was a $2,000 piece. We finished filming, but with dread as I had to now fess up to the damage and was deathly worried it would ruin our friendship. I made the call. He thought it was a joke at first; I wish it was. After his initial shock, he understood and said to not worry about it. But I wasn't going to let it go like that. I agreed to buy him a new one. It was the right thing to do. So now our $100 budget for the film turned in to $2,000. YIKES!
We got past that day and just began to edit. We were working on a 2009 MacBook Pro iMovie. After completing 2 scenes, it started to work VERY slow, almost became unworkable. Great! Another hurdle! I dumped my hard drive and rebooted the computer clean and it still didn't work. My wife and I mulled over a few ideas. The bottom line was we needed a new computer and ASAP! So there we go, buying a new Mac Desktop, adding to the budget another $1800. So now we have gone from $100 to $3900. But let me tell you, editing was a breeze! We had to do some creative editing for the first half we filmed in Seattle since it was a little rougher as we were learning. My cousin's husband happens to be 3D artist and was able to make the title scene in the LOST style for me. In a week we had it fully edited. We finally put it out there for the world to see. It was a great feeling. In one day we got 300 views and through the month we would get over 800. Sure it may not be a viral sensation, but that means in one month we got 800 people to watch or rewatch our fan film. We hit all the social media outlets and contacted fan sites, pop culture sites, etc. We got rave reviews from the hardcore LOST fans and we are proud of that.
We are very proud of our work and what me made together. I hope that this shows you that despite the hurdles and challenges presented to us, we persevered and pushed through it. We had a goal and we were going to do anything to make it happen. There were a few times we thought it was over, but we had to just keeping going. I encourage all actors, even if it is just one time, to make a project of your own. Write a scene for yourself or for your reel. Start filming anything! If you have a smartphone, you have filming equipment already! So be creative and go out there and make cool stuff and push through and adapt to the challenges! Use all your recourses, friends, relatives, friends of friends! You never know what help they may be able to provide for you. You just have to ask.
I now present to you the finished project! If your not a LOST fan, then just watch to see what a two people, an iPhone, and learning on the go can do.
***Please choose 1080i in the settings for the best quality of the Youtube video***
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