Nothing But Net
Nothing But Net Synopsis: Adam, a likable guy was having trouble hitting his shots, on the court and off. After coming up short going "1-on-1" with his girlfriend Carol, his best buddy Ben set him straight. Now, he's hitting nothing but net.
The Nothing But Net project arose as a way to experiment with producing and directing a series of different types of shots or scenes, including sports action, dramatic moments, simple and complex scene blocking, dolly, crane and steadicam camera movement, and coordinating multiple camera and lighting setups.
Shot in 2 Days: What was intended initially to be a small, easily manageable project ended up involving orchestration of a 25 member production team and utilizing over 20 principal actors and 10 or so background players. Even so, the strategic goal of shooting within a single weekend in late October, 2005 was met (though in a perfect world, we probably ought to have shot 4-5 days to perfect the shots and get all the coverage we needed).
Nothing But Net was shot on miniDV 24p format using Panasonic DVX100A camcorders by Director of Photography, Kevin Hackenberg of Get-Kinetic, and Camera Operators, Mike Grasso and Ariella Furman. The 2-day volunteer weekend shoot was executed at three primary interior locations and two exterior locations in the greater Philadelphia area, including the Main Line YMCA in Ardmore, the Well Grounded Cafe in East Falls, and along Kelly Drive near the Schuylkill River.
About 75 Philadelphia area actors were invited to and attended formal auditions out of a much larger pool of interested submissions. Cast chemistry was developed early on through the friendly social atmosphere associated with the casting process, including a call-back barbeque. For this initial directorial effort, small rehearsal sessions were held for certain core principal actors, including several basketball rehearsal sessions.
Post-production was a lengthy do-it-yourself learning process over several months. When completed, Nothing But Net (14 minute runtime) was selected for inclusion in the Philadelphia Short Filmmakers League "Philly In Shorts" program of eight short films, which had theatrical screenings at the Prince Music Theater in April, 2006, and at the Cannes Short Film Corner in May, 2006.
Since those screenings, NBN has been officially selected and theatrically screened at the 2006 Evil City Film Fest in NYC, at the 2006 Delaware Valley Film Festival in Hatboro, PA, at Mocca Cinema at the Mocca Lounge in NYC, at the Fortress of the Arts' Festival of Shorts in north Philadelphia, and at Rembrandt's Independent Short Film Screening Series near the Philadelphia Art Museum.
A streamlined 9-minute version was edited at the end of 2007, and this shortened version of NBN was submitted to additional festivals. The new shortened version of NBN premiered as an Official Selection at the 2008 Appalachian Film Festival (WV) and screened subsequently as an Official Selection at the 2008 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival (PA) and at the 2008 Washougal International Film Festival (WA), with a repeat invitation screening at Rembrandt's.
Nothing But Net (and its cast and crew) is listed in the Internet Movie Data Base, and NBN trailers and clips can be viewed online at the WinGateFilms YouTube Channel and at the WGF MySpace page.