My RODE REEL 2020

 

By Giovanni Galindo @giovanniagalindo

    Happy Monday! I haven't been on social media much except to promote the film I'm currently working on Slum Absolution. During one of my daily posts I came across my friend Will Jacob's page Mourning Dove Films and saw he had just released a short film on his YouTube channel. I saw it was part of the Rode Reel competition going on this year.

    Now this competition happens once every year and for one reason or another I've yet to participate in it. It has been one of those things that I forget about and once I remember it, the event has already passed. After watching Will's film Portrait of my Grandfather, I decided this year would be different. Now let it be known, the final date for submissions was October 7th, 2020 and I decided to make this film on September 26th or so. Therefore, there wasn't a lot of time.

  

  I took the day to try to come up with an idea for a 3-minute film. This is probably something people spend all year getting prepared for, but I decided a couple days is all I needed. I somehow came up with a concept I liked. When it comes to micro-shorts I really enjoy vague and mysterious scripts that don't really explain much, thus making the audience make of it what they will. I'm sure some people hate me for that.

    I wrote the script one afternoon and enlisted my friend Tiemo Courtney to be one of the actors on the film. He hopped on board, and so did Anthony Turner. These are both good friends that are part of of Slum Absolution's cast. After they both agreed I did my typical thing and contacted a friend that's never acted before to play the main role of the film. She said yes and so we had all of our cast. Luckily I had an empty location we could film at, which I though would add to the eeriness of the film.

    I emailed everyone the script, and though they didn't really get it, they were excited to be a part of the film. With no way to get together before filming we set a date to film the short with no preparation whatsoever. I got all of my gear charged and ready, really having no other equipment other than my camera and the RODE VideoMicro to capture sound; a requirement of the competition. I decided to try out my new Nikon Z50, an impulse buy which I'm still trying to decide if it was worth it. I'm just a sucker for Nikon products, couldn't even tell you why. 

    Using the new camera gear did provide some complications since the kit lenses lowest F-stop is a 3.5. Everyone in the reviews said the Nikon does great with high ISO and not introducing any grain into the film. I decided to put that to the test and cranked that sucker up to about 1600 or so. While I do think it added some grain I actually think it worked for the color grade we ended up putting on the film.

    We all got together on a Sunday and I really didn't know how long it would take to film this. It's been a while since I shot a short film like this. We ended up being there for about an hour and a half, and that included me packing up all the gear at the end. Fair to say, that was the quickest shoot of my entire life. Granted, if you watch the film you'll see it's very simplistic in nature. Steady shots on a tripod; really just letting the actors bring the story to life with their dialogue.

The cast & crew behind The Mark

    Since I had other projects I needed to focus on, I decided to just take a day and edit the whole thing together and be done with it. It was a long day, since I had to edit, color grade, compose the soundtrack, and do the few voice-overs for the film. I also edited the behind-the-scenes video the same day. 

    I uploaded the film to Rode's site and after a couple days I got the confirmation email that our film has been accepted. Every year there is some great films, however it is still exciting to know that some very prominent filmmakers that are serving as judges this year will be watching my film.

    Entries have now closed and my team and I are just patiently waiting to see if we were selected for any of the judges' prizes. If you'd like to help us out you can vote for our film and we might win the People's Choice award if we have enough votes! You have until the 21st to VOTE!

You can click the link to watch the film: https://myrodereel.com/watch/9214

    Until next time,