Long time no post! I have a treat for those who actually read my posts. A few months ago I was approached by a few friends about the National Film Challenge. It is an annual event sponsored by those that brought us the 48 hour film project, as well as the KDHX Community Media. The idea behind this challenge was to give filmmakers one weekend to put together a short film. When Michael and Sunny from Down the Block Films, of which I am proudly a part of, told me that they wanted to take part, I gladly joined them as head editor for the project.

As soon as Sunny signed up for the challenge we began our recruitment phase to gather team members from our friends and colleagues. We called forth our former classmates in the film majors at UCSD, assistance from those who studied film at community colleges, and even those from our college fellowships.

Once we had picked out our team and assigned the major roles (director, editor, producer, actors…) we began to prepare ourselves for our film. We began to watch movies to get story ideas, examine shots, study edits, and of course, to enjoy a decent movie.

The difficulty with this project is the fact that we don’t find out until the challenge begins what are genre will be. This means the screenplay is created on spot, the shots are planned out, everything is shot, cut, edited, and finalized within this one weekend.

My task of editing left the last half of the film to me. What I love about being an editor is the amount of control I receive in affecting the story. Through the use of color, tempo, and sound, I have the ability to affect how the viewers will perceive the film.

Hopefully I did a good enough job, though sadly enough we did not make it to the top 15. And now without further ado, our short film, Measure of a Man.