In July-August 2009 we shot my short film "The Alchemist Makes Gold" on Super16 color negative film in the woods of Pennsylvania and in a basement in Philadelphia. I wrote the script months before that, but I never did figure how to raise any money, though I really did try to understand the whole process. So we all worked for free and I spent all of the money I had to make it work. Very very low budget. The basement was in a friend's sculpture studio, the woods are where my parents live. A good producer friend acted as a consultant of sorts and got me a 16mm camera for free and film stock.
The shoot was a bit hectic and not phenomenally organized, but we got everything we needed. I have plenty of stories about the organizational messes I was constantly cleaning up, but that can be for another time, this is supposed to be the brief explanation.
So, we completed our 4 days of shooting(we only actually shot for 4 days, though we booked 7 for travel time and prep time.) But, after that, I had 8 rolls of exposed film and no money--again, I didn't necessarily handle the project expertly. So, I had the film in my fridge for a while. 3 rolls were already developed because we had a scare with the camera and were forced to make sure the footage was okay(my cinematographer loaned the money for developing those rolls). Then I read something online that said that film can be damaged if held in a fridge for longer than 6 months, since my monetary situation wasn't changing, I panicked. First, I found a grant source and filled out an application for an arts grant and submitted that, then I created a web site with a description of the project, conflicts and a paypal donation button. From that, I got in $500. I used $320 of that to develop the rolls of film in my fridge, but the left over $200 wasn't enough for transfer. Progressively, that amount raised to $335, which was still not enough. I wanted to do an HD transfer, which is about $1500, and doing even just an SD transfer is about $500. So, I kept trudging along. Time passed and I grew frustrated with things, thought I might stop working freelance and get a 'regular' job and actually save enough money to do the things I want. However, that thought propelled me forward and I started working a lot more in freelance. I became motivated to buy a motorcycle, which will eventually save me money on travel expenses and allow me to visit family and friends and, for Christmas, my parents gave me the last of the cash($300) needed to have the film transferred to SD--which is absolutely a start, and at least I'll have something to show for all the work we put into the movie. The award connected to the grant I applied for is not announced until sometime later on in January, so I don't know anything about that yet. (*UPDATE* I did NOT receive the grant. Bummer!)
So, this PHASE 2 of my Alchemist Post Production is coming up on Tuesday, when we're going to have the film transferred to SD miniDV tapes and I can begin a rough edit of the film!
