Next Steps

Many people ask, "When will the film be finished?!"

If I've learned anything while working on the film over the past three years, it's that the time line continues to change. So I have taken to answering, "Soon!"

We are working on a zero-dollar budget with many wonderful volunteers, which means progress is slow-going. My background in design has proven that you can have two of the three following things: fast, cheap, and great.

You can have a great product fast, but it's going to cost. Or you can have a great product for cheap, but it's going to take a while. We're in the latter category. It takes a while to make a film. In our case, it's taken a little more than three years. But we're almost finished.

Image credit: http://welearned.net/2011/01/how-would-you-like-your-graphic-design/. 

So what are the next steps?

The film is in good shape, and we've started showing it to our cast members. We'll keep showing it at private screenings to cast members and other select groups over the next few months. These private screenings will help us make sure the film raises/answers the questions we want it to, and gives us a chance to iron our the kinks.

In the meantime, we have a few things left to wrap up. We'll add the final music to the film over Memorial Day weekend, finalize the end credits and put those in place, correct the color differences in the film, and work with our sound engineer to normalize and fix any audio problems. I also want to find more B roll, if possible. I've done a bit of research but need the time to continue looking into ways to get footage that will help us tell this story visually. That takes a bit of time, which is tough to find while you're working on so many other aspects of the film.

The process is a slow-moving one, but that's not entirely a bad thing. It's taught me a lot about the filmmaking process, and the team you need in order to make it happen efficiently. My mantra has been, "The next film will be so much easier." Each day I learn a lesson about how to make the next film better and more efficiently.

It seems almost unfair to have this much fun working on a project!