Gifts Like White Elephants

If the title of the post seems familiar, it's because it refers not only to the short film I made a year ago and also the Ernest Hemingway short story "Hills Like White Elephants" which was adapted for the short film. I bring this project up because it seems to be at the end of it's run. Just as I feel like many more projects are arising for me, almost on a daily basis, I feel like it is extremely important to me to remember this project.

First of all, Gifts Like White Elephants would not have happened if it weren't for Luke Sorge. By far one of the best writers that I've had film classes with, or even that I've ever had the pleasure knowing, Luke wrote this script when I was beginning my sophomore year of film classes. I remember the class he wrote it for and hearing it read aloud and having an unexplainable fascination of the script. It wasn't until the following semester when I had another class with Luke and began to develop a friendship with him. The class was a Director's Workshop where we all had to act and direct. We also had a production class together and wanted to team up for the final project for that class. So, after many meetings in the car ride from the Workshop in Lowry, the script for Gifts was mentioned and I immediately decided that's what we'd do... and of course Luke obliged, though I think he was frightened by my enthusiasm.

I was to direct, so I did many different breakdowns for the actor for the Workshop class, and Luke was one of the main characters, along with Hannah Fergesen, who starred as the girl, Jig. It was a simple script; two characters, one location. And we rounded up a small crew and used my Mom's house to shoot. We only had one day scheduled for shooting, and it was a nine page script. My initial idea was to shoot the entire thing in one continuous shot, but when we were setting up, it became obvious that wouldn't happen. We got the lights set up for that idea though, and went with the same lighting set-up the whole day. That's when things started going wrong.

We started shooting in HD, but the hard drive and computer we were using crashed about 5 minutes into shooting. We were already about a half hour behind because some people were late, and this set us back about another hour and a half. We just sat trying to figure it out, and the longer we did the more anxious I got. Finally, once we were almost 4 hours behind, we decided to put some tapes in and go to two hand-held cameras. The shot list was out the door, and I went from just directing to operating a camera simultaneously. This was what saved the shoot as well as made the film so much fun for me to work on.

We also had a few other snags, like the window being kind of blown out because we had to hide that it was snowing outside when the script takes place on a hot summer day. This also caused us to set up a crazy tarp contraption to protect the lights. All in all, nothing really went as planned, but it allowed the production to be completely organic in how it aided the story. And, we ended up finishing only an hour off schedule, so we made up 3 hours of shooting. We all patted ourselves on the back and enjoyed a big dinner that night.

The film ended up getting praise from my professors for the performances, which were really good even to me. This was a surprise because I had never spent that much time with actors. Directing became a whole new world for me as I watched the actors bring a whole new meaning to the story through their interpretations of my direction. After some debate, I submitted it to the Denver International Film Festival, where it was accepted and premiered. I got even more positive feedback after the screenings there and still have people tell me they saw my film there. At one point, I had to do some interviews and somebody asked me if I had any advice to fellow filmmakers or film students, and what I said was just to 'submit, submit, submit.' You never know where your film will end up and where you might go to follow it. There may be some gratification in posting on youtube or myspace or facebook, but it's much more fulfilling to be in a theatre crowded with people who paid to be there, watching your film projected on a big screen, and getting serious feedback from people who care and appreciate films.

Although I am an advocate for submitting, the few other festivals I've submitted to recently responded, and unfortunately, Gifts didn't get into those festivals. I'm still considering one or two other festivals, but nothing is certain at this point since I've got a full plate. So, if you're reading this and are interested in the film, you can visit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1365609/ or email me at tikireel@gmail.com for more info. This film was a milestone for me in terms of how I will approach film making as a director in the future and I hope that it is just the beginning of a career of valuable learning experiences through film. Thanks to Hannah and Luke for their hard work and helping me learn the actor's process.