Revisiting The Hero
Many years ago. (Actually, 14 years ago) Holy crap. That was 14 years ago!?
Anyway, 14 years ago I ventured to make a short film with our awesome HD camera. Can you imagine how awesome it would look? Spoiler: Not as awesome as it would look today. Now, I wish I had some great tale about how I came upon the story of "The Hero", but I can't remember where it came from. I wanted to do a "Damsel in Distress" story, but modernized. I also wanted to do something with a bit more action. I also should stop saying "I", because I wasn't the only one who wanted to do these things. My best friend and cinematographer, Adrian Correia, also wanted to do something with a bit more dramatic flair and action-based. Of course, none of the footage ever made it to his reel but I can't blame him. It simply doesn't compare to what's out there today and the advancements in technology.
"The Hero" was shot in 2002. I think. Again, it's all fuzzy. It was before Up on the Roof productions (at the time) went on to do the feature movie, "Save the Forest". I know that for sure. Woo! I remembered something! Actually, I remember some stuff from the shoot. The car that bad guys are driving actually belonged to our lead actor. (They damaged the gear shift because no one knew how to manually shift - Jeez. Some bad guys they are, right?) Someone called the cops on us because they saw someone running around the neighborhood in pajamas. The fact that I had my godchild learn a few new curse words and probably scarred her for life. But this shoot is infamously known as the place where I had to go behind a bush near the train tracks and make. Let that sink in. Not my proudest moment, but then again, it was. We were shooting that finale and nothing was going to stop us.
I'm proud of this story. It's got a great music theme. The action, while it could stand to be cut down a of couple minutes and we were limited to what we could budget-wise, plays well. All the actors were great. They were able to perform with just a look at times, which is usually better than any crummy dialogue I could've written. When I rewatched it a few days ago, of course all of the choices I made or didn't make came to the forefront for me. I'm never going to watch something I make and not see the issues, but screw that. You shouldn't ignore what didn't work. Just learn from it and keep moving forward.
So here we go. Grab a drink. Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the awesome theme music by Steven Gutheinz. Marvel at that old technology that "executives" and "professionals" shun as if it never existed! (It did! Own it, fools!) And curl up to the hero you don't necessarily need or deserve, but he's the one that happens to be there at the time.
Feel free to drop a comment. Share the post! I like sharing. And if you were involved in this production, let me hear from you. Tell everyone what you remember from "The Hero".