It was the middle of the lockdown. May or June, 2020, I believe. I was outside with my son, working in the backyard, tired as hell from lifting stones for a deck we were building, when he asked: “Daddy, when are we going to finish that ice zombie movie?” We had made a few YouTube videos by this time, the last one being a sort of Indiana Jones, searching for treasure in a cave kind. Afterwards, talked about our next project but soon following bad news struck, COPA would be seriously hampering the efforts of creators in the child content sector. So, making more films for our Adventures of Keese & Nicko seemed defeating at the time. But on this day of pain and sweat, I thought: Why the hell not. We strapped up our space suits. We picked up some Nerf guns (the dollar tree kind) and we grabbed my camera. What followed was a fun space shooter about a boy and his dad in space, seeking revenge on the destroyer of Earth, King Corona.
(See poster below)
It was a blast to make. We looked up how to incorporate the old matte painting technique from classics like Star Wars. We dusted off some old model ships from the shelf, and we improvised the hell out of a story. The result… it isn’t Shakespeare, but it’s as fun as ever to watch and make. The main protagonist wears socks for space boots and his old Elmo alphabet box is the time bomb we use to blow up the ship. Soon after, we knew we needed to make more.
I’ve rarely felt more productive. On my journey to make sure that I never sit my butt down in another paid office chair, I wanted to share with you artists out there, young and old, and even you parents looking for something to do to both have fun and bond with your kid over, we’ve got to start doing something about our ambitions. If you’re itching to start a film career, if you’re dying to see what your creative DNA is made of there’s only one way to find out.
Here’s a list for those of you who need things simpler:
- Pick up your camera
- Shoot something
- Edit what you shot
- Analyze it
- See why it sucked
- Plan out your next project instead of winging it
- Learn about every facet of field you’re trying to perfect (and you should be trying to perfect it)
- See if you can get some help this time so that your audio doesn’t suck @$$
- Schedule things this time so you can actually get every shot you want
- Pick up your camera
Thank you for reading this blog about how to get started filming. Please watch the totally awesome Adventures of Keese & Nicko, in particular, the new even more awesome series:
The Revenge of King Corona
Enigmaw Studios 