It has been nearly a year since beginning work on my graduation film at the London Film School and I am very happy to announce that Vegan Love has now been completed. I have just finished the DVDs and send m
ost of them off to cast and crew members of the film. I have also now officially graduated with a Masters degree from the London Film School. !!!WHOOPEE!!!
During the past year, I have put every ounce of available energy into making my graduation film the best it could be. Most of that time I found myself stretched to new limits of endurance by trying to manage the hectic pace. I made countless mistakes along the way; my only hope was to learn from those mistakes quickly enough not to repeat them the next time around. While far from perfect, I am satisfied with the final product of Vegan Love. Just being satisfied may not sound like much of an accomplishment given my high expectations for the film, but I have reached the goals I had set for myself in making the film. It will now be in the hands of the viewing audience.
I would like to briefly mention what I consider being the biggest lesson gained from making Vegan Love: the difficulty of trying to do everything myself. This advice goes out to film students out there reading this blog for any glimmer of what to expect on their film productions and how to prepare for it. The most obvious problems relate to staying creative when you have to organize the crew and events like the top-tier manager of a large corporation. Let’s say right brain vs. left brain. Some filmmakers (like Robert Rodriguez) work well by doing everything themselves, but most do not. Filmmaking for most is a social activity. It is crucial that you be able work with others. Many times in the filmmaking process (from writing, to production, to editing, to P&A) I became so stressed from trying to do everything myself that I felt I had lost site of the overall intentions of my work. While it was an immensely beneficial learning process, the final film product could have been much better had I checked my ego at the door and delegated out the work to specialists in their areas of filmmaking.
For the blog readers that have personally contributed to my film, I owe all of you a heartfelt “THANK YOU” for all of your help. And, for any of those reading that contributed to the film and have not yet received a DVD, please email me!
I will soon be entering Vegan Love into the film festival circuit. I hope to promote the raw vegan lifestyle from inside the vegan community with an eye toward a feature length film...stay tuned for updates...
