Tag: short film

• March 11, 2019

  The Making of a New Short Film: “As Seen On TV”

  

  There was a time in my life where I could call up a couple of friends with a wild idea, grab my handheld camcorder and make a short film in an evening or a weekend. It was a freewheeling, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style of filmmaking that prioritized creative freedom over everything else — including scripts, plot, lighting, sound — and it’s what allowed Obscure Studios, the film company I founded and ran with a few friends, to rack up well over 100 videos in just two years.

  After moving from Arizona to Washington and away from my cadre of usual collaborators, filmmaking took a backseat to my writing and other creative pursuits. Last year, with the 10th anniversary of our minor hit, Reilly’s Dorm, looming, I had the chance to travel back to Northern Arizona. There, I carved out a couple of hours with my go-to partner in crime, the incomparable Will McDonald, to write and shoot a brand new short film.

  We were a little rusty, but five years between short films can do that. We cooked up a story outline at my favorite coffee shop and the next morning, filmed the opening and closing scenes of the film in the Airbnb where we were staying and the woods behind Will’s house. That afternoon, we set up shop in the basement of Theatrikos, Flagstaff’s community theater and a longtime supporter of Obscure Studios. We rigged up a lighting setup, cobbled together a campy alien costume for me to wear, and filmed the scenes that make up the heart of the film, as well as a quick promo video.

  And that’s all we had time for. We left straight from the theater to catch our flight back to the PNW and dove into a remodel of our house a few days later. It wasn’t until January that I remembered the footage that was waiting on my iPhone’s hard drive.

  Over the course of a few weeks, I pieced together the shots we’d captured that summer day. I was pleasantly surprised to see how good most of it was and how well the pieces fit into place. I played around with audio effects to give my voice an unearthly quality, tossed in a couple of visual and lighting effects, and added a 1914 public domain recording of “Stay Down Where You Belong” by Arthur Fields, slowed down to 10% of its regular speed as the soundtrack (I had originally planned to perform my own synthesizer music, but I quickly remembered that I’m not very musically talented, so only a few notes made it into the final cut).

  Overall, I’m really happy with how “As Seen On TV” turned out. Much of the credit goes to Will, a fantastic actor who’s immediately likeable on screen and blessed with impeccable comedic timing. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my inspiration: my lovely wife who said, “You and Will should really make a movie while we’re in town” and provided both an unplanned cameo and makeup/special effects assistance with the alien goo (aka dish soap).

  Filmmaking is one of those things that demands so much time and attention to detail that you always feel exhausted at the end of a day of filming or editing. But, as soon as you see the final product, a dose of endorphins convince you that the sweat and tears were all worth it and all you want to do is make another and another. Making “As Seen On TV” makes me want to break out my camera and tell more stories, so don’t be surprised if you see more in the coming months and years. I feel a renaissance coming.

  — 30 —

  Jonny Eberle is a writer, photographer and filmmaker in Tacoma, WA. Incidentally, Tacoma would be an amazing setting for a noir thriller, don’t you think? When not engaged in cinematic plotting, you can find him on Twitter. Learn more about Obscure Studios on our fancy website.

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• November 12, 2015

  What I Learned Making a Short Film on an iPhone

  

  When I started making short films more than 15 years ago, a decent, mid-range consumer video camera was about the size of a brick and recorded either to miniDV tape or mini DVD, which was good for 60 minutes of recording. Tapes got chewed up during playback, DVDs got scratched, and in the general the process of making a film was tedious and technical.

  In the time before YouTube, once you had finished your film — provided that you hadn’t lost footage to the magnetic tape gods — you had to connect to a tape deck to transfer your finished film to another format that could be easily shared. Somewhere in a box, there’s a stack of old VHS tapes with handwritten labels documenting my early filmmaking efforts.

  I bought my first digital camcorder when I was 18. It was a hot rod red Canon FS200. It fit in the palm of one hand and recorded video in 720p to an SD card. To me, it was magic — like the leap forward from horse and buggy to the automobile. Suddenly, my media was reusable and my footage could be easily edited and shared from a computer. It was revolutionary. It fundamentally changed the way I made movies and allowed for my film studio, Obscure Studios, to really take off in my early college years.

  Then, a few weeks ago, there was another revolution. Stephanie and I made a short film for Halloween entitled “The Closet.” Instead of breaking out my trusty Canon, I decided to take a risk. We filmed the entire thing with an iPhone 6. Not only were we able to film in full HD, an astounding 1080p, but it acted like a real camera. In low light conditions and noisy rooms, it outperformed my old camcorder handily.

  What’s most amazing to me isn’t just the fact that I can now carry a high quality video camera around in my pocket, but the way technology has allowed the technical difficulties of filmmaking to slowly take a backseat to the creative difficulties. When filmmakers don’t have to spend time and money on expensive cameras to achieve good looking film, they are freed up to tell a great story. No longer are amateur filmmakers in a different class than the professionals. Now, we all have the power to tell beautiful stories without needing a $20,000 camera to do it.

  The easy availability of inexpensive video equipment means that anyone with a story to tell can tell it. And that’s amazing.

  — 30 —

  Jonny Eberle is a writer and filmmaker in Tacoma, WA. You can find him on Twitter at @jonnyeberle.
• December 29, 2014

  Poverty With a View

  Ten years ago, my good friend Ian approached me with an idea for a script. He had an idea to cast our high school friends in a musical and he wanted me to write the script. The resulting epic story of a pirate who gives up his pillaging ways for love, two fighting Siamese twins, a Pope who befriends a squid and a dastardly Canadian plot to destroy the world never saw the light of day, but it did spawn the creation of my film company, Obscure Studios.

  For a decade, Obscure Studios has churned out short films and webseries. We’ve made 150 videos. We haven’t been as prolific since our college days and especially not since a few of us have moved across the country, but filmmaking is still near and dear to my heart. I hope to find the time to create more shorts in the coming year.

  In the meantime, I decided to commemorate 10 years of silliness by finally finishing “Poverty With a View.” This pilot episode for a webseries starring myself, Ian Olsen and Will McDonald was filmed in the summer of 2013 in the weeks before I packed up and moved to Washington. We had originally intended to complete a 12-episode story arc, but ran out of time and only just barely squeezed out the first (and only) episode. It tells the story of three college graduates who discover that the world outside of school is harder to navigate than they ever feared. It’s a comedy that I think resonates with those of us who came into the workforce during the recession. It’s also a little love letter to one of my favorite places, Flagstaff.

  It’s rough. We never had time to grab pick-up shots. But in its flaws, I am reminded of why I love film. It has a special power to pull us into another world. For a few moments, we can walk in the shoes of the characters. I hope you’ll enjoy watching our effort come to life and I hope you’ll stick around for more videos in the future.

  — 30 —

  Jonny Eberle is a writer and erstwhile filmmaker in Tacoma, WA. You can follow him on Twitter. His newest project with Obscure Studios, Poverty With a View, was shot entirely in Flagstaff, AZ except for two shots. See if you can spot which ones and let me know in the comments! Thanks for watching!