Stories

By Matt Webb I grew up in Huntington, went to college at Huntington College before it became a university, and even worked in the admissions office at HU for a couple years at the turn of the century (I love that I get to write that!). But when I first moved to LA in 2004…

by cinematographer Jordan McMahon When I got the news that Red was FINALLY relinquishing the never-ending saga of the Scarlet-X, my heart skipped a beat. For months the discussion was what camera to purchase for our feature film Praying The Hours. Up until this point I had only ever held a Red-One so I was…

by producer Rob Bethke Part of the adventure of producing low-budget films is the necessity to step into many different roles—in other words, filling in the gaps in your production crew. I used to fall into the trap of imagining filmmaking as a bit of a power trip, where directors and producers impart their brilliant…

by Director Lauralee Farrer It’s risky to use non-actors to do your storytelling—you have to know that something else about them is compelling: that the camera will find them interesting, that they are going to give something authentic that will be moving, they are going to be brave enough to bring something fresh that no…

by Director Lauralee Farrer When I asked Marcia Whitehead if she’d consider portraying the character of “Compline” shot recently in Indiana, I knew that water would be involved since our story team had already decided we wanted to use water in all its forms (immersion, drinking, ice, rain, snow, etc.) as a metaphor for dreaming,…

by Director Lauralee Farrer While in Indiana we shot a scene that borrowed heavily from the life of singer Marcia Whitehead who portrays “Compline.” It was brave of her to be willing to let us write it into the story. None of us—including her—were prepared for what would happen when that scene was shot. As…

by Director Lauralee Farrer When sixth-century Benedictine monks stopped eight times a day to pray, their intention was to infuse menial work with the sacred by reminding themselves of the presence of God. They believed that being in the service of God can transform a temporal act into an eternal one, and the daily prayers…

by Director Lauralee Farrer Yesterday and today my Google calendar informed me that I had no events scheduled, yet they were two very different days: the first so complicated it was impossible to record all that had to be done; and the second with a single chore—go home. Last night around 11:00 p.m. we shot…

by Producer Tamara Johnston McMahon Jordan McMahon, cinematographer (and my husband) extraordinaire, had the privilege of going up in a hot air balloon for aerial footage of Huntington, Indiana, the other day! It was his first time up and, with the Scarlet-X in hand, of course he was beyond willing. A tight squeeze, Dream Catcher…

by Director Lauralee Farrer We are created in such a way that we cannot see our own faces, but require others to let us know how we look—what expressions we are telegraphing or whether or not we have spinach in our teeth. This is a hint to me that we were made to live in…