_posted in dayedayerocks | film | filmschool | 19 January 2011

Kickstarter Production Still    photo credit: Shirley Kim

A few weeks ago I sent out an email to a few classmates asking if they'd be interested in helping me put together a video for a Kickstarter Campaign. It was the first Saturday back to school, and one of only four free weekends we'll have free until the 4th week in March. We were already griping about our class schedules, along with all the rewriting, preproduction, casting and location scouting we all have to do. With all that I wasn't expecting too many people to be able to make it and who could blame them if they didn't.

I spent the night rewriting my script of items I was hoping to talk about in the video, as well as finalizing the content on the Kickstarter page. By this time I had resolved the issues I've had with asking people to monetarily back my work. My contribution to most projects have always been my time and skills. In the long run, when you measure that time/skill combination in dollars, you've given so much more than you could have monetarily. It's time you'll never get back and time that you stole from one part of your life to give to another part or to someone else. That's serious business.

The morning of the shoot I drove around to a few different markets to find some colorful food, bought breakfast for my crew and picked a few people up. By call time we had a full crew. Seven of my classmates and one 2nd year MFA were up for a shoot. It's a great thing to be surrounded by creative and talented people, it's a tremendous thing to be surrounded by people who are also supportive and willing to give something as precious as time.

Six hours later we had great conversations about the differences in Jamaican and Indian curries, how many rolls of film we're going to buy for our next films, watched a classmate struggle through cutting scallions, cooked a meal together, filmed my talking head and just had a ton of fun. Thanks guys. I owe you some time/skills combination in the future.

_my Kickstarter Crew

Director : Dehanza Rogers
Directors of Photography : Dylan Chapgier & Alejandro Salinas-Albrecht
Assistant Camera : Eben Portnoy & Vanita Shastry
Assistant Director : Iyabo Kwayana
Gaffer/Grip : Shadae Smith
Sound : Ryan Moody
Editor : Dehanza Rogers
Production Design : Shirley Kim & Vanita Shastry
Still Photographer : Shirley Kim