I just wanted to take a moment, and send a congratulations to Drew Rosas…
Drew wrote and directed the feature film Rocky Trails, which will be premiering at the Oriental Theater tonight, May 20th…
Way back in 2009, I got introduced to Drew, through my friend Frankie Latina… Drew was looking for some help working on his film over the course of those three summer months. I got to work mostly as a production assistant on three shoots, and on one of those shoots, I was acting as the boom operator. So I got a chance to learn a lot about working on other people’s projects and learn their own work flow.
Through the course of working on Rocky Trails, I got to see that it is possible to shoot a feature length narrative in only a few months, and it was right after working with Drew I dug up my script for Sweetmint, and began reworking it for a feature film.
As I’m writing this, I am listening to Drew being interviewed on the Backstage with Mark Metcalf Podcast and he is talking about the process in which he made the film, shot only on weekends, for a very very small budget. Using your friends, and paying them through sub sandwiches. Hearing another filmmaker, and even another local filmmaker talk about his process, and realizing that it was pretty similar to my own process (for a first time feature) is pretty rewarding to hear. As if we are all in this school together, and we are all stumbling across the same lessons.
Actually, not long after I heard that Rocky Trails was premiering, I sent Drew an email… basically saying that I’m looking forward to the premiere, and I thanked him for allowing me to work on the project. I also told him a bit more about Sweetmint, and how the movie probably wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for Rocky Trails. And Drew said that making a feature film is better then any Grad School you could ever go to… and he’s absolutely right.
Kind of a funny story… on one of the shoots I was on, working as Production Assistant… we were shooting in an apartment that had wall to wall shag carpeting. And the people who lived there, also had a cat… so lots of cat hair was caught up in that shag, and I got an allergy attack, bad… eyes swollen, nose running etc. So I ran to Walgreens, and picked up the cheapest Allergy meds I could find. Well, cheap isn’t always a good thing… and these meds put me to sleep in almost an instant. So now while everyone is shooting, I’m sleeping in the corner with my head against the wall. So, I guess I wasn’t too helpful on that shoot.
So, Drew… if you are reading this on Facebook, which hopefully you will… Congratulations, and I look forward to your premiere tonight.
