Melissa Parker found herself in a bit of a pickle. The Los Angeles LDS Singles Film Festival (that we do every year) was upon us, her movies were shot, but she didn’t have anyone to edit them. When she asked me to help, she seemed to think I was doing her a favor. It was such a delight to work on, though, with Corbin Frost, the director, sitting behind me tweaking my cut, that I think she had it absolutely backwards. What a delightful project. Here are the two movies we churned out:

We had extra fun applying aging effects to the footage of several of the shots (the baby doing pull-ups and the explorer/archaeologist are the obvious ones. We did a little bit of discoloration and scratches/grit on the baptism and praying over the car as well). Gotta love After Effects and all the tutorials you can find to do stuff with it online (I used this).

Director

Corbin Frost

Writers

Melissa Adrina Parker & Corbin Frost

Producer

Melissa Adrina Parker

Cinematographer

Duncan Rawlings

Editor

Matthew Stumphy

Production Designer

Kenny McNett

Composer

Laurel Bogner Plewe

Cast (in order of appearance)

 

Most Interesting Mormon

Adam Johnson

Narrator

Keith Paugh

Eavesdropper

Victor Vaile

Investigator

Martha Howe

Missionary Companion

Brandon Stanford

Toddler

Justin Plewe

Wife

Trina Talbot

Monk

Amery Ken Thao

Pretty Girl

Stefani Batson

3 Nephites

Curtis Bridenstine, Eric Newnam, and Eric Gerace

St. John

Agostino Marfello

Stroller Kids

Grace and Audrey Erekson, Brody Orton and Milton Bird

Archeological Tourist

Victoria Von Roth

Crew

 

Co-Producer

Orchid Cameron

Costumers

Stefani Batson, Martha Howe, and Julie Hinton

Sound Recorder

Meghan Stettler

Grip and Electric

Curtis Bridenstine and Mike Hammari

Production Assistant

Kelly Flanagan

Special Thanks

Lon-e and Krista Parker, Kristen Johnson, Joyce Norton, Alex and Sarah Lowe, Dave Broadbent, and Mike Mahoney

This was the opening video played at this year’s Los Angeles LDS Singles Film Festival on August 13th at the Santa Monica Stake Center. The shoot was on the evening of August 8th (and carried over into Aug 9th). I was the gaffer, which means I was responsible for the lighting. Enjoy the video below, as well as some production stills I snapped.

How an Epic Movie is Made

Created and performed by

Julie Hinton and Rob Moffat

Orchestrated by

Stephen Anderson

Recorded by

KC Blake

Edited by

Jeff Dickson

Filmed by

Parker Mann

Makeup by

Charity Rawlings and Melissa Parker

Costumes by

Stefani Batson and Melissa Parker

Lights by

Matthew Stumphy

Every year the Mormon singles of the Los Angeles area get together and have a film festival. The movies are usually very short (the rules of the festival for the last several years have limited them to 4 minutes) and pretty silly. Most people just try to throw together a couple of gags and call it even.

This time around, however, an innovative young man called Kenny McNett decided to break new ground and make a serious movie. He tapped me to be the DP, and we spent a Saturday (or at least a good 16 hours of it) shooting his film. To fit it into the four-minute limit, it was written as two movies, the first with something of a cliffhanger ending that is meant to be continued. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Directed by

Kenny McNett

Written by

Samuel Douglas Miller

Story by

Kenny McNett & Samuel Douglas Miller

Produced by

Kenny McNett & Samuel Douglas Miller

Cast

 

 

Samuel Douglas Miller

 

Verona Masongsong

 

Kenny McNett

 

Meghan Stettler

 

Sean Summers

 

Casey McDonald

 

Corbin Frost

 

 

Director of Photography

Matthew Stumphy

Editor

David Broadbent

Art Direction & Production Design

Kenny McNett

Asst. Production Design

Mike Hamill

Sound and Grip

Mike Hamill

Music

Stephen J. Anderson

Re-Recording Mixer

Justin Wikke

Makeup, Hair, & Special Makeup FX

Melissa Parker

Smoke Effects

Jeff Dickson

Stunt Choreography

Verona Masongsong

Script Supervisor

Melissa Parker

Craft Services

Kelly Flanagan

Stung Driver

Jihan Zencirli

Special Thanks

Los Angeles 1st Ward YSA, Santa Monica 3rd Ward YSA, Lisa Bigelow, Tim and Stephen, Hailey and Rob

Late Night Worker Gallery