My first student film (I actually did one Super 8mm one earlier that I’ve included below.) that I wrote and directed and acted in was called, KICKING SAND IN YOUR FACE. I did it while getting my undergrad in film at Art Center College of Design.
Official selection:
Cannes Short Film Corner 2009
CINEQUEST International Film Festival 2009
European International Film Festival 2009
We shot on Super 16mm around Los Angeles. The liquor store location is now a Chase bank in Los Feliz. You can also see us using The New Beverly Cinema as a location years before Quentin Tarantino bought it. We shot a scene in there with the late comedian Brody Stevens, which I’ve always regretted not using in the film (You can see a still frame of him above.) but it just didn’t need to be in there for the story. We had many near disasters including nearly forgetting the camera, and losing shots that we had to work around that ended up making things look pretty cheap and painful to me, but that’s what you run into as a director. You have to figure it out. I learned more from making this than I did during my entire time in film school. It was incredibly difficult and grueling, but I fucking loved it. Enjoy.
This is actually my very first student film that was shot on Super 8mm film and literally cut and taped in editing. I was in the very last class at Los Angeles City College that shot and edited actual film before they switched to digital. I tried to make a little Super 8mm film noir. Enjoy!