Filming in Rural Colorado For Latest Short

This month, our creative team drove over the hills and through the woods to begin production on our short film The Outsider. This is our first film that we've produced outside of the 48 Hour Film Project – an international competition where teams first compete locally to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. 

Director Scott Takeda explains the framing he'd like while producer Lori Kay Allred laughs with the crew.

“We're ready for the next step," said director Scott Takeda. "We want to tell deeper more meaningful stories and have more time to craft them. For example, we’re shooting this film around my family reunion at the family farm. This is only something that could be done with intense pre-production planning – stuff that was prohibited when part of a competition."

Cinematographer Dave Klein gives us the "thumbs up" as we work to coordinate the next scene.

"Like all of our previous films, we're taking a universal theme and putting our own personal spin on it," said producer Lori Kay Allred. "This film is about wanting to belong and fit into a family. And shooting at a family reunion is how we're making it personal. I don't know how this will eventually turn out, but it's been a lot of fun.  I've been laughing all day with Scott's parents, uncles, and aunts."

Audio/grip Slade Williamson adjusts a light while producers and ADs work to arrange the extras for the next shot.

"If this film turns out how we hope, we want to get it into festivals this late Spring," said Takeda. "We just have...what...three months?  Should be no problem when we're used to having 48 hours total."

"The Dysfunctional Dynamics" Starts Festival Run

Our film “Dysfunctional Dynamics” begins its festival run this month. It premiered at the Denver 48 Hour Film Project showcase in late August where it was one of ten nominated for "Best Film" at the "Best of Denver" finals in September. It also won Honorable Mention for "Audience Favorite."  

"Our director Brock Sherman did a nice job of crafting a story that catered to the audience." said producer Lori Kay Allred. "Our team also won Audience Favorite two years ago with another entry, so I'm happy that our stories affect audiences. And it's nice to be one of the runner-ups this year.

"Now that we've gotten some sleep, we've cut a "directors cut" that I think is a stronger film that we were able to submit under the tight deadlines of the competition. I'm looking forward to seeing how it does on the festivals.

Our first stop is actually in town at the 3rd Annual Film Festival of Colorado. This year, more the festival received more than 330 entries from around the world including Australia and the UK.

"We like this festival because the programmers are very selective," said Allred. "And I'm excited because our film will be showing in the highly desirable slot on Friday night. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how the audience reacts to our longer, more refined cut."

Set Photos From "Dysfunctional Dynamics"

Actor Sydney Ackman goes through final-looks while on set at the Comcast Digital Media Center in Centennial, Colorado (August 2013)

Denver's 48 Hour Film Project competition for 2013 has begun. Our group is one of 43 other Denver-based teams that are competing to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. All teams met during the evening of Friday August 2nd to draw genres out of a hat and to get their required elements. 

Actor Audrey Walters studies her lines during the shoot of the comedic short "Dysfunctional Dynamics." (August 2013)

We drew “Crime” as our genre. Our required elements included a prop (apples), a character (Virgil Gerbins – uncle), and a line-of-dialogue (‘Why don’t you do it?’). Producer Scott Takeda had an art show during the same evening, so we used that location and started shooting immediately after the competition started.

"Thank goodness our screenwriter Robert Palmer works fast," said producer Lori Kay Allred. "In about 5 minutes, he improvised six quick lines for our actors so we could be shooting during a very busy First Friday art walk evening."

We did the rest of our shooting the following Saturday in the comfortable sound stages of the Comcast Digital Media Center. Brock Sherman was our director.

Editor Ryan Welborn begins a rough cut assembly while we still doing principal shooting at the Comcast Digital Media Center in Centennial, Colorado (August 2013)

We are titling our film “The Dysfunctional Dynamics" and have submitted a hurried rough-cut into 48 Hour Film Project for the competition. 

"We're all tired, but we know we've got a better film in the can," said Allred. "So we are now working on a few more days of post production for a director’s cut.  With any luck, we'll have that ready for festivals this fall. We're specifically hoping to get into the Film Festival of Colorado, and possibly Aspen Shorts."