First of all, apologies to our many fans. Last week was a bit hectic, so neither myself nor Alex were able to make our weekly posts. The important thing is, we’re here now.
Today, I did something a outside of my comfort zone. Although I studied film in school, I never took a production class where I needed to make my own short film. This was mainly due to lack of interest in being a director. The desire to become a director is a worthy aspiration, but not one I have for myself exactly. Directing can be fun, but I have never really considered myself to be the kind of person who tells actors what to do. I will say that I love to be the idea person, but my real goal is to be an animator or production designer. As such, I took classes that would help me along that route. I worked alongside my classmates as an editor, production designer, sound editor, actress and more for our various class projects.
That doesn’t mean to say that I didn’t get the filmmaking bug, especially being among many aspiring directors in classes. Ironically, it was in my final required Media Studies course, not a production class, that I felt the urge to create a film of my own.
Mattie Sue talks about the attitudes of women in the hardcore scene
Before I talk about the film, let me say that I have always been extremely grateful that the RTF Program at the University of Texas encouraged us to think more deeply about the media we might create through our studies courses. There were many students with the urge to just make, make, make who absolutely abhorred supposedly wasting time in these classes that focused on theory rather than practical filmmaking. I was always inclined to defend our required media studies course because I feel we sometimes forgot to think about what our ideas actually mean beyond their face value. In these classes we studied film, television, and media in general through screenings, writing, and discussion, often through critical and analytical lenses so as to understand and explain what it was we as a society consume on a regular basis. I found great value in learning the language and the syntax of–typically cinematic–media and the role it can play in our culture. Not only that, it’s hard not to enjoy classes where you basically just talk about popular culture. Which is completely legitimate, given the fact that popular culture permeates our society so much. More than we are normally proud to admit.
So fast forward from my first and then only short film (a ridiculous, innuendo filled music video made with friends for the intro production class) I made as a sophomore to my final semester of college. Finishing up those credits, I needed one last media studies class and I found myself extremely lucky to see I could take a class entitled Gender and Rock Culture. It was as if my final media studies class would be perfect. As if Rock and roll weren’t fun enough of a topic for a music fan like myself, throwing gender in the mix pretty much sold me.
Avery Allen shares her experiences as a girl guitarist
I wasn’t just excited about the topic. I was actually inspired. A few classes in, I knew that instead of going the traditional and in my eyes easy route of writing a final paper, I would ask if I could produce a short film final project instead. I felt that I had written enough papers in my undergraduate career and had not created nearly enough media. A while before I had a pipe-dream about making a film about Hardcore Punk, since a friend of mine plays for a band here in town. Eventually, though, the idea developed around the class subject matter, and I got in touch with women in Austin’s Hardcore Scene.
After about a month or so of planning, coordinating, seeking advice, and meeting new people, everything was set in motion for a short documentary. I met the talented Jasmine Mayberry, her friend and also talented Avery Allen, and fellow music fan Mattie Sue along the way, and they were generous and nice enough to tell their stories on film for my project. A few weeks of shooting, interviewing, and more planning lead to a few more weeks of editing and post production, and then I had a semi-finished product. Finished enough for my class, anyway, and on our last day I screened the 15 minute film I made. And my classmates and instructors seemed to enjoy it, offering positive feedback as we parted for the summer. Although there was far more to it than that, I won’t spend too much time explaining the project here (but I will probably publish the accompanying short essay I wrote for my class here in the future).
Jasmine Mayberry performing with Hot Rails to Hell
I am very proud of this project. Enough so that I decided to take the risk and submit it to South By South West. At least this one film festival, to say that I wasn’t afraid to try. I have no idea what my odds are for getting selected, but I have seen a pretty broad range of quality from the few films I had the pleasure of watching at SXSW as a volunteer. I submitted a rough cut of the project, but I believe the narrative of these women’s experiences is compelling enough to stand regardless of production quality. And I am hoping that the folks who screen the film submissions will find their stories as compelling as I do.
So there it is. Going beyond my comfort zone: beyond what I know. I took a bit of a risk by even making the film when I was not even in the position to make a film, being in a class that did not have dedicated resources for filmmaking. I definitely came out far better for having tried in that instance. At the very least, I can say that instead of just writing another paper, I made a documentary. Which I had not done before. I have never submitted anything to a film festival, either, let alone seriously submitted to something outside of the academic world. I may have just wasted twenty five dollars on the submission fee, but I know I will be better for having tried. Wish me luck!
Laura began this post earlier in the week, when she actually had physically submitted her DVD. That was on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011.
