A spotlight is being cast on a crop of homegrown filmmakers during this year’s Macon Film Festival. For the first time, a “Macon Made Shorts” film block will be showcased Saturday, August 17th from 10:30amNoon at the Hargray Capitol Theatre. The four short films featured in the 14th annual festival were all hardpressed for production in Macon’s fledgling local film industry, but all the filmmakers involved agree on Georgia’s potential. Getting into the field is the first obstacle to overcome. William Adams worked as a registered EMS, a news reporter at the Citizen Georgian, and also had a landscaping job with Real Turf Solutions in Fort Valley, GA. He recalled, “My God… In the middle of the summer heat, I thought I was gonna die. Everything in me was telling me, ‘You can’t do this, you need to quit!’” But after a lot of hard work, Adams is now the media producer for Real Turf Solutions. “It’s worked out great,” he said, “but the time in the field was real beneficial to me as a person.”
Film Festival Preview macon made By Madelyn Reuter
Adams’ role at Real Turf coincides well with his production company, ShadowCast Studios. At only 23 and completely self-taught, Adams has turned his house into a full recording and editing studio with all of the equipment needed for both jobs. He built a professional sound booth out of a towel closet, ran all of the cables and acoustic paneling, and set up his website and online booking system. And if that’s not dedication, he also sleeps on the floor of his studio in a sleeping bag because he likes to wake up and get right to work. On Adams’ short film, The Come Back, he worked with Macon actors Cedric Logan and Donja Harper. He said he owes a lot of credit to Dez Giles who was the executive producer and plays “Big Ron” in the film. Adams hopes to continue working with these friends, build a solid crew, and grow his net worth. He is currently working on another script and has already sent treatments out to his connections. Filmmaker Phillip S. Wheeler of Rectify Productions pulls inspiration from his life in Macon and Centerville. “I want to show what making the right choice looks like, to show what people don’t like to discuss,” Wheeler said. His film, Euphorica, touches on substance abuse, which he has seen affect a lot of people in the community. Wheeler finds that he absorbs his environment and then releases it in his content. His next project, a feature film titled Centerville Hills, has a sensitive, deeper meaning with improved characters, dialogue, and story structure. Wheeler is currently enrolled at Middle Georgia State and studies in their New Media and Communications program. On Euphorica, Phillip worked with a lot of his family, including his little brother and sister and his cousin, Steven Bell. Bell was in the Warner Robins
28 AUGUST 2-AUGUST 14, 2019