T-Rex and Building a Better Film Scene
If you’ve never been on a movie set, then you have no idea how hard that shit is. Hours and hours and hours of set up, lighting, soundchecks, flubbed lines, missed cues, all leading up to a flash of brilliance that lasts for only a few minutes in the film once the hours and hours and hours of editing is finished. Moviemaking is tedious, which is why the stamina of Fall Films is so inspiring. This Oklahoma-based production company produces 2-3 movies a year, and not just ridiculous B-Movie throwaways, but challenging projects with ambitious goals despite their micro-budgets. They skip the extensive promotional tours through film festivals across the country, haggling with distributors, and begging for investors. Instead, they just make art. Mickey Reece and his crew of true believers are also getting better with each film, their collaborative skills sharpening, and their fan base growing.
Their next film is entitled T-Rex and it premieres Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center located at 3000 General Pershing Blvd in Oklahoma City. The movie was co-written by Reece and John Selvidge, who is also contributing to Issue 4 of Literati Presents.
There are tons of filmmakers in Oklahoma. Some are producing slick and Hollywood-ready pieces like The Posthuman Project, others are making resume pieces in the hopes of transitioning into a career in the industry, but there are many more who just own a nice camera and have a grand vision for their breakthrough film that they will write, direct, and star in once the money comes along. Reece’s vision of pure filmmaking is find a camera, scout some locations, grab some talented friends, pound out an idea and get to work. It is teaching the next generation of filmmakers that producing is better than talking and that big things can still be done with few resources. Oklahoma City can’t develop a legitimate film community unless our community is actually producing film. Fall Films isn’t the only game in town, but they are the most prolific, which is is important to show the next generation of filmmakers that if you want a film community to exist in Oklahoma, you have to be willing to create it yourself.
