Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Building Memories
Genre: Drama
Date: Early January 2020
Director: Geno Andrews
Producer: Geno Andrews
Writer: Geno Andrews
Cinematographer: Geno Andrews
Production Company: St. Andrews West
Budget: Zero
Financing: Zero
Shooting Format: 1920×1080 (Panasonic GH4)
Screening Format: 16:9
World Premiere: Chelsea Film Festival
Awards: 0+
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Geno Andrews (GA): BUILDING MEMORIES a day-long conversation between two siblings. Evan’s sister, Julia, travels to New York to visit a few of the places they’ve heard about from their mother since they were born. Where their parents met, their first apartment, their first date, where their father proposed to their mother, etc. Julia documents her travels by sending pictures back to her brother. Ultimately this trip down memory lane reveals some powerful aspects about their parents’ past that not only affect the main characters but affects us ALL as well.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing, and sales?
Geno Andrews (GA): This was a simple passion project. I’ve been shooting films since 2001. When my kids got old enough to memorize lines I began creating acting scenarios and loved teaching and directing them both. I submitted to festivals for fun. Got into a couple and quite honestly, that was it for this film. It really was a creative excuse to use my kids in another project and to shoot on two coasts.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
GA: Two siblings have a cross country conversion that includes pictures from their parents’ past that proves to be a powerful walk, for all of us, down memory lane.
Development & Financing?
GA: Originally the story was called SIBLINGS. It was a simple process. Knowing the twist at the end, I just had to set up 4 or 5 scenes to get the audience hooked on the idea we were just watching a sister and brother having a conversation and sending images back and forth on their phones. Once the script was finished, I met my daughter in New York to shoot out her scenes. When I got back I shot out my son’s scenes. By the time I was finished with the shoots and starting editing, the title hit my like a ton of bricks. (No pun intended…)
Production?
GA: The whole thing, like many short SHORT FILMS was all run and gun. The challenge was to shoot around all the faces in New York because obviously I didn’t have releases or permits. The biggest challenge was that my daughter had TOTAL laryngi’s for the two days of filming. Not only that, I obviously could control the sound. SO – we did everything MOS. When her voice came back two days later, I recorded her reading the script into a microphone (several different ways) and then had to ADR those takes against her shots. Very challenging. I know it would work because I had to do that on my feature film when we HAD to shoot an exterior scene of two people talking at a table but directly overhead were HELICOPTERS trying to chase down criminals from a bank robbery two doors away. So the actors just ACTED their lines in a broom closet and I looped the dialogue in post.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
GA: No strategies. Just submitted to about 25 and hoped for the best. It was really TOO BAD that the whole experience was online because of Covid-19 because really the best part of the short film world is being AT the festivals and meeting people in person who see your film on the screen.
The Release?
GA: No official release other than submitting to festivals.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
GA: If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage. Before you start shooting, make sure your script is bulletproof. Too many people get too excited about making a movie and forget the importance of really perfecting a story worth shooting.
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