Silk
Silk was filmed on location in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, MA over the course of two nights in January of '18. Minus the cost of the filming location and equipment that was already on hand, the total budget was $400. It was officially designated 'Ultra Low Budget' by the Screen Actors Guild.
The four cast members, three of whom are SAG members, are all from the Boston area. Seeing as how this was my first project, I consider it to have been an odds-defying miracle that all four of these individuals shared a sincere belief in my vision and were far more accommodating than I deserved. The usual advice for acquiring any skill is to learn by doing, and the success of my future projects will be influenced by the lessons I received from these outstanding actors.
The short was filmed at 24 FPS using a Panasonic Lumix G7 mounted to a homemade Fig Rig with the following lenses:
G Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7
G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S.
There was no additional lighting due to my desire for a naturalistic approach which was permitted by the G7's excellent 4K recording and low-light performance.
Sound was recorded in two ways: onto the camera, and using a Sennheiser shotgun microphone connected to a Zoom H4n Pro. Despite live monitoring of the audio, I was later horrified to discover that the sound of the XLR cable hitting the filming rig was a prominent and indelible audio artifact; I was therefore forced to use the backup audio from the camera.
The primary filming location was a duplex located on Charles Street in Beacon Hill. The first floor and exterior served as the Appleton's home while the second floor was used for Jonah's home. The exterior of my own apartment was used for the exterior of Jonah's apartment.
I had originally planned for a long take using a GoPro mounted to a drone that would have flown door-to-door across Beacon Hill to illustrate the close proximity of the two feuding families. This idea was ultimately scrapped because I couldn't find a drone pilot willing to bend FAA regulations using my personal drone. It would have also required a driver to transport the actor playing Susanoo to just out of frame of the second door so he could walk into the shot as the camera came back down to street level. I spent several days scouting an optimal air route across the neighborhood as well as the quickest course for a driver to take, and I'm disappointed this little bit of guerrilla filmmaking didn't come to fruition.
Editing was completed on a Lenovo Yoga ThinkPad using Adobe Premiere Elements 15. All footage was converted from 4K to 1080p due to hardware limitations.
