Filming An AFI Short

SAG Conservatory partners with AFI to let students have access to professional actors. This is my fifth AFI film and I have been so blessed with each of them.

June Star (Dana Koops) Grandma and John Wesley (Gunnar Koelher)

This one was an adaptation of a Flannery O'Connor Short Story, A Good Man is Hard to Find.
It takes place in 1953 and we filmed at the Diamond M Ranch in Santa Clarita in kind of sparse conditions. Living up to the film's name the location was hard to find on the first day. No running water. One porta potty for forty people.

2 of the bad guys. Edward Dalmas and Keith Barber who plays The Misfit.

Actually this picture was taken after her murdered me.

(The crew far outnumbers the cast on any picture.)
On the plus side. The script by the director Charlie Pollinger was wonderful. The Costumer, Jenna Smolina, was beyond amazing. The makeup people Bree Amanda performed miracles in getting six of us ready in forty-five minutes.
The whole crew was wonderful. After a twelve hour day (fourteen if you count travel) I am beat, but I wanted some kind of post up. Perhaps you will find the pictures interesting.


From the AFI website:The filmmakers at the world-renowned AFI Conservatory learn by doing. Here, tomorrow's storytellers are placed in a hands-on, production-based environment and are trained by a group of dedicated working professionals from the film and television communities.

Located in the heart of the entertainment community in Hollywood, the AFI Conservatory places a strong emphasis on narrative visual storytelling and personal expression. This film program instills the tools that help filmmakers practice their craft and become better storytellers. Classes are broken up into teams that mirror a real production environment. Those teams collaborate on and produce more films than any other graduate-level film school. Upon graduation, about 81% of our graduates report that they are working.

Cinematographer Yair Halper

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