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Written by Jared Fiel
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
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With the writers’ strike continuing, the dead space that TV has become over the last few months will soon invade the movie theaters.
So, unless you want to see “Celebrity Weight Loss Dancing Choir Survivor Race” on the big screen, you will soon be out of cinematic entertainment options.
But thanks to some enterprising auteurs right here in Northern Colorado, you can get your fix for screwball parody comedies and even high action/drama right at home through YouTube.
Tucked among the videos of teenagers doing stupid tricks on skateboards and personal monologues about leaving Britney alone, you can find a whole slew of great cinematic entertainment on YouTube.
Connor Anderson, 17, of Greeley, has been making movies since he was “way younger and smaller” using an impressive cinematic breadth of knowledge to create some impressive films.
“I always liked watching movies, and I always liked entertaining people, so making movies seemed like an obvious combination,” he said.
Anderson has uploaded a couple of his creations on YouTube. The highlight is “History of Film,” which is a chase scene that begins in the silent film era and travels through a war movie and a Japanese karate flick.
As in all of his movies, Anderson stars with a friend. In this case, it was Aaron Mull. “My friends are my actors,” he said. “So, if I need a larger cast, I start making more friends.”
He has a larger cast for his showcase piece “Braveheart: The Musical,” which took “Best Comedy” and “Best Overall” in the Loveland Silver Spoon Film Festival in May. Anderson hasn’t loaded that one on YouTube yet, because he’s too busy making new movies.
“I prefer putting small things on, so I don’t have to wait for an hour for it to upload,” he said.
That wait isn’t daunting for Brendan Eason of Fort Collins. He is in the middle of editing a major movie he wrote called “Requiem.” A trailer for the movie is on YouTube now and he plans to debut it to the world in May.
“Requiem” is a “Tolkein-esqe” story about a young soldier trying to lead his family to safety from a war-torn country. Heavy stuff, indeed.
The movie is Eason’s first attempt at film, although he has been involved in an area theater group called Lost Marbles Theatrics for a few years. That experience also helped Eason with a good source of actors.
He said persuading his friends was easy. “Convincing my friends’ parents was a little more difficult as I had to work out all of the schedule issues and even convince them I knew what I was doing … which I didn’t,” he said.
Family helps, too. “Since I wasn’t quite old enough to drive friends when we were filming over the summer, my mother drove us up into the mountains quite a few times. My brother was our cameraman and did a fantastic job,” he said.
Both Anderson and Eason have high hopes of taking the experience of their YouTube creations and making a career out of making movies.
But Eason wants to maintain his indie roots.
“I would love to make movies for a living. I imagine I would prefer to stay in the independent market as compared to Hollywood, but I’ll just have to see what happens.”
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