Past Filmmakers

Jennifer & Steven Hendricks
NonSense

1.  How did you come up with the idea for the film?

Our Grandmother (Oma) is always wishing she was young again.  So, we thought wouldn’t it be great to shoot a short film of our Oma wishing she was young again and make it happen on film?  

2.  How long did the production process take?

It only took us a day to shoot the film.  However, it took almost two months from start to finish.  Time was spent on writing the script, gathering and making the props, with most of the time was spent on editing the film.

3.  What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

Since we are new and learning how to make films...we had many challenges to deal with.  We wish we had more equipment such as professional lights and a boom mic, however a teen budget doesn’t allow it.  We decided to make do what we had.  Shoot a few takes of each scene and pick the best scene for the final cut.  Sounds easy.  Not for us...we had problems with our first scene.  Our Oma is 75 years old and had trouble remembering her lines during the take.  To help her, we wrote the lines for her to read on a poster board.  It worked.  Another challenge was for my mother to learn how to speak with a mouth full of prop fake teeth.  She couldn’t eat with fake teeth, so we had our dad eat a chip behind her.  Getting the pet dog to do the exact same thing, didn’t work out to well for us.  In the editing stage we realized that we could have brighten up a scene and a few other things, which could have been fixed with better equipment.    

4.  What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

Watching our Oma act in our short film.

5.  When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

That it is nice to wish you were young again and to win the lottery, but most of us just dream of those things.                                                                             

6.  What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

Family and friends enjoyed it, and our film placed as a Short Film Semi-Finalists in the Moondance International Film Festival 2007.  In the credits of our film we left someone out by mistake.  So far, no one has pointed it out to us.  Do you know who we left out?

7.  What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers? 

Don’t expect your first film to be perfect, but expect improvements to produce better films.  If your heart is in filmmaking, don’t give up.  Filmmaking is like playing a sport.  The first year you’re a rookie, just learning how to play the basics.  The second year your learning more and working on your skills.  Between the third and fifth year your waiting for your mo-jo to kick in.  You’ll know when your mo-jo kicks in...it’s like a switch that turns you on from an OK player to a good player, then it gets better over the years.  As a young filmmaker learn as much as you can in filmmaking and acting.  Don’t take rejection to the heart, and don’t wait for important people to call you...let the call surprise you.  And most of all have fun what your doing, and one day you’ll be that important person calling the shots.    

8.  Please tell us about the next film you plan to work on?

We have a few other short films waiting for production, however before shooting the next film we would like to finish a few more courses in acting and in filmmaking.  Our next film we would like to work on is a PSA short film on teen drunk driving.  We would like to dedicate the PSA short film to our older sister that passed away in a DWI traffic accident.

9.  What are your thoughts on the film industry in NC?

North Carolina is a great state to film in.  NC has mountains, a coastline, four seasons, big cities, small towns, and other great locations to shoot your scenes...most of the people of North Carolina are friendly and some would go out of their way to help in producing a film.  Outstanding colleges that teach filmmaking and drama.  As a teen student we would like to thank all the staff, teachers, agents, casting directors, and filmmakers that helped us and are a part of NC film industry, and without those gifted instructors there would be far less talent in North Carolina.  Thank you!