Work from Film School

While in the Czech Republic, I did plenty of work on a couple of projects. We made a music video, which I haven't posted online yet, several photography exercises, and in the second semester, I wrote, cast, and shot a short film.

One of my instructors, Antonio Riestra, did several photography exercises dealing with objects in light. I compiled one of our studio exercises into a video, with some music. I really like the way the photos look this way, semi-animated.

Studio Lighting Exercise - FAMO IFS 2008 from Coleman Richardson on Vimeo.

The main undertaking I had at FAMO was my main film project, A Dinner Party. This took quite a while, and with the way it ended up coming together, it conflicted with a lot of my end-of-school visits.

I wrote a short treatment in December, outlining my basic plot and premise. While I traveled around, I made a few notes. When I returned in early February, I wrote the first version of the script. After showing it to Otakar Fuka, one of the main instructors, I revised it. I showed it to Jeremy Willis, the scriptwriting instructor, and revised it again based on his notes.

After a bit of revisions, I got a production manager, Martin "Saphyr" Rubin, and a cinematographer, Klara Fantova. Klara and I especially discussed how the project would be shot.

Finding English speaking actors in a very non-English oriented country is not easy, to say the least. I interviewed a few candidates (mostly for the female role, Victoria), and found a few people interested. Iain, a good friend from the school and a technical advisor for the project, volunteered his help to play the role of Martin. Daniel Munter, Jeremy's nephew and a good friend, played the role of Tom.

Finding a location was the biggest challenge. Saphyr and I went all over Pisek and Prague looking for possible spots. We eventually found one in Pisek, a bit on the outskirts of town. It was small but easy to shape to our needs. We rented a dolly, which was amazing.

We shot it all in one weekend. We had originally planned for two days, and ended up shooting for three. Other than that, things went fairly smooth. The postproduction process took longer than usual, but now, it's done.

So, without further ado, A Dinner Party:

A Dinner Party from Coleman Richardson on Vimeo.