Written by Marty McGowan My name is Marty, I’m a filmmaker based out of Reading, PN, about 90 minutes outside Philadelphia. I wrote and directed a film called Ava, a character drama that follows a 17-year-old girl after the sudden death of her closest friend, and the grief that follows.From the day I started writing, to the day it premiered, four years passed. In that time, we wrote, cast, had a pandemic, rewrote, shot, edited, and premiered a feature film that ended up costing less than an Xbox.Keep reading below for how we pulled this off. Part 1: BackgroundIn order to understand how Ava came about, and how we actually made this thing for such an extreme budget, I think it’s important to (briefly) go over my film experience leading up to it, and how Ava came to be.For context, I am 27 years old, entirely self taught, and have made any and all connections I may have through luck and the internet.Before I was ever able to buy a camera for myself, I soaked up as much information as I possibly could. Luckily, YouTube was invented, and a ton of documentaries about the making of films were uploaded to the site, including the making of featurettes for Walking With Dinosaurs, The Alien Quadrilogy, Star Wars, and anything else you can imagine.After I graduated high school, having spent around 10 years of YouTube Universoty, I finally saved up to buy a Canon T3i. Armed with all the knowledge I had...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Monday, 6 May, 2024