(WRITING & MONEY) The team spent the next year writing a script, holding auditions, spending weeks filming, and, editing for six months. Everyone involved in the process learned how much work and planning really had to go into every step if the film was going to be of the quality they wanted. Since this industry is something that most of them want to pursue professionally, the team wanted to push themselves to the limit and see what they could do if they used their full potential. Initially, no one had a specific job. It was a solid three months of collaborating, creating, and tweaking. “It wasn’t until we started filming did we each have our own dedicated jobs,” Cooper explains. “Otherwise, we were always working together.” Everyone would meet as often as possible to discuss the script and story. The script was rewritten from scratch at least three times. When coming up with the idea for the film, they each thought out their own ideas and decided to see if they could combine them. In the end, Nathan thought it would be interesting to make a movie about kids trying to make a movie. The original idea for Take 3 was much different than the final product. Even all of the character names were different. The plot originally revolved around three kids who each tried to make their own movie by filming random shots that made no sense. So, when they were finished, their individual movies were terrible. Ultimately, the kids would decide to put their movies together and all the storylines would add up to create one amazing movie that they would use to enter the film festival. The problem with this idea? The team could not figure out a way to put three different storylines together without it being obvious to the audience. They agonized over different ways to do so, none of which worked. Thus, they had to scrap the idea almost last minute. “Things just change because you either can’t think of an idea or it’s just not going to work,” says Cooper. “There are so many different reasons, and that’s just a part of the process.” At that point, it was all about organizing their budget, planning auditions, and finding filming locations. To raise money, the team turned to Kickstarter. They ended up receiving about $800, which wasn’t enough to fund the whole film, so a lot of the extra money needed for equipment came from their own pockets. “It takes a lot of money, but it really takes a lot of your own money,” Cole explains. “If you’re not passionate about this, then don’t do it because you won’t want to invest your own time, money, and effort into it. Honestly, I paid a lot, more than I was expecting, but that’s what happens...” It appears that passion needs to come from the heart and the bank account, but the outcome is almost always more than worth it.
18