|
About This Site:
I am always trying to look up towards the future and keep in mind what it is I want to accomplish, where it is I want a go,
and what people I want around me. Life, like time, moves forward constantly and I plan to make the most of it!
Welcome to my personal website which displays information about all of the work that I have produced during my career
as well as information on where I'm going in this crazy industry known as the Film Business.
A Little Bit About Me
The first movie I ever recall watching as a kid, were the three original Star Wars movies. And I can't even tell you how
hooked I was on them. Not only were they great stories, they were visibly and cinematically amazing! To this day I credit
George Lucas as an inspiration in helping me choose the movie industry as a career. I can only aspire to make as much of
an impact on our culture as he has.
So about two years into my college life, I was introduced by a friend to a man who would soon become my partner in crime,
Steven Lee. At the time I was also collaborating with my good friend, Angela Luevano. Steven showed me some of his work,
which I have to say I found quite delightful. You see, at this point in Steven's career, he was just enjoying the idea of
making something entertaining. Remote controls and umbrellas played the roles of shotguns as he saved the world from cracker
and shoe thieves. Hahaha, so nonetheless I saw potential in this guy, and I thought if we worked together we would have a
lot of fun and create something even better. Thus, Dealing With Deception began to come into fruition. I had a lot more
fun making these movies than my studio and story restricted school projects, and learned a lot more about myself.
Making movies is more than a hobby to me. It's life. It's what I do. I find nothing more enjoyable than expressing
myself through a series of pictures and music, and I love having an impact on people. As a kid I would fool around with the
video camera sometimes with friends just for the fun of it, but it wasn't until college where I started to learn the skill
sets necessary to create a legitimate story with fluid cuts. Through a series of student films I began to understand more
about the aesthetics involved, and how to truly captivate your audience. Hitchcock, for example, is not just a name, but
a style.
I think it was late 2003 when the two of us finally sat down and discussed our story. To be honest, we had the story idea
in place, but we never had a script or any idea what kind of genre this was going to be. We wanted action and drama, and
what we ended up with was an action/comedy/drama. Considering we improvised all the lines as we went, it's amazing that we
were able to create a fluid story at all. But amazingly enough, an hour long movie was the end result. About five months
later we would premiere this to over 100 people, and the resounding applause told us that we had indeed made something at
least entertaining. Truth be told, there are some defining moments in this film that I am really proud of achieving, and
I found it quite liberating to remove myself from the studio environment.
We would take a little break after Deception, at which point Steven and I would engage in silly short parodies on MTV Cribs
and fighting over cookies. Although entertaining, we knew that we wanted to get serious again and try another legitimate
short. After finishing another student film I was editing, I got together with Steven and said, ok let's do another one,
but this time I wanted a script. Steven agreed to do this, and I think he's glad he did because in the end it definitely
showed as both The Rose and Retrospect received acclaim from our friends. I'm still amazed that we were able to make two
other shorts because at this time I was also working on a very time consuming and important documentary on the adoption of
my brother and the attachment disorder he suffered from. But, we managed to get it done.
With The Rose, which I wrote and directed, I wanted to see if I could tell a story without dialogue. So in a sense I was
thinking music video. I was delighted to see, through The Rose, just how compelling body language can be in communicating.
The music of Rodrigo nicely assisted the story with a romantic Spanish guitar. Steven was behind the camera the whole time
and co-produced this with me. We started at 10pm on a Friday night and wrapped that night around 3am.
Next up would be Retrospect. At first we weren't sure whether or not we would have time to create this one, as I was graduating
in two months and Steven was increasingly busy with ROTC and school work. But, our passion took over and away we went once
again. And I'm happy we did this, because by far it was our best work. Steven directed this one and I sat back in the producing
chair and performed behind the camera. The script drove this and we really went out of our way to make this as good as we
could. 90% of the dialogue in this movie was professionally voiced over in the recording studio giving us optimal audio.
We also went out of our way to design shots ahead of time, as we had done on The Rose, to be more artistic with the camera.
So you will see in both of these films long "Scorsese" like shots, rack-focus shots, as well as high and low angle
perspectives. Both of us also wanted more legitimate action, so we had bullet wounds and I employed the use of Adobe After
Effects to create bullet flashes. In the end, I am proud of what we accomplished in this film.
Now school is over and both myself and Steven have parted ways. I am currently living in West Hollywood, California, pursing
a career in the film industry. I am working as a Production Assistant at a company that creates movie trailers for Warner
Bros., DreamWorks, and many other exciting companies. I like this company a lot and am happy to see that hard work and persistence
will probably allow me to move up the chain. Meanwhile, I continue to pursue my own creative ambitions. I'm currently co-producing
a short with a friend out here from TCU (More info to come once the screenplay is finished being written). My goal is to
ALWAYS have something in production, no matter what. If I cease doing that, than I cease being me.
Steven and I continue to stay in contact, even 1500 miles away, bouncing ideas off each other and giving pointers here and
there. I'm confident though that I will see Mr. Steven Lee out here on the West Coast because he has two very important things:
passion and drive. I look forward to working with him once again. The future is an open highway.
I have been lucky enough to work with Hunter Davis out here in LA, who besides being a fellow TCU graduate, is also ambitious
about independent filmmaking. Some of our movies include, Lull & Beer Pong: Behind the Glory. You can see more about
what we have been up to under "Current Projects" & "Portfolio."
Meanwhile, I continue to move forward in my real job here in Hollywood. I am currently working as an Assistant Editor,
which is a very technical job, as well as an editor in some capacity cutting down TV spots and trailers.
-Chris St. Pierre-
|
