To Shoot or Not To Shoot?
I think we’ll shoot. Since we’re gearing up to begin principle photography on my next film “The End of All Things” (EOAT) this weekend, I’ve had a few people ask me why I have chosen to make this specific film, now. To be honest with you, I’ve had this film in my head for almost two years now as a film that I really wanted to do, but up until this point I wasn’t confident that I could pull-off a film of this scale on the budget I knew I’d have to work with. My view on filmmaking in general is that you should only make a film that you can viably produce to quality on the budget you’ve got. What I mean is that, if you’re trying to make a Sci-Fi flick with a ton of special effects on a shoe-string budget, there’s no way you’re going to get anything good out of it, no matter how hard you try, you’re just wasting your time and everyone else’s (and this applies to films of any size and budget, not just indie films) just because you’ve got a great idea doesn’t mean it’s plausible right now. Keep in mind that I’ve got nothing against big-budget movies, I love ’em, but I still have the same opinion. The way I see it, if you can’t do it right, then don’t bother doing it at all.
That’s the outlook I have had for a good long time, and when put in the context of “End of All Things” I think you’ll get where I’m coming from. EOAT is a film that at takes place surrounding the events of multiple bombs going-off on a college campus, which by nature, to do it right requires the un-restricted use of a major college campus, about 60 extras, the shutting-down of major campus buildings, streets, a ridiculously large lead cast and crew of experienced hands, and a heck of a lot of physical effects and effects makeup to go along with it. This script in particular also requires the use of metro-busses and simulated traffic accidents, I think you get the point. Now, don’t get me wrong when I say that you can get inventive when shooting on a low-budget, but if you think about EOAT and how inventive you’d have to be to fake all that, it suddenly becomes a different film altogether, which is what I wanted to avoid, and hence, put off the project until now.
With that said, I’m really quite excited about how far we’ve come in a few short weeks since casting was completed. Not only do we have the entire support of the local university (Miami University of Ohio) but we’ve got busses donated, and local officials and police behind it 100%, which is just excellent. We even managed to get the buses on loan to us free of charge, I mean hey, you can’t beat that.Web Link: