How it Began.
I began making short films in 6th grade with my friend Kevin Sikes. We used our family’s miniDV camera to make a LOT of films (they are admittedly not great...). Soon thereafter we decided to start our own “production company” called Hunky Spunky Productions. I put “production company” in quotes because it was really just two friends having fun and making short films on the weekend.
Kevin, with the help of his dad, painted one of his walls green, installed lighting, and upgraded our computer and camera. We were high tech. With a camera that now shot on a hard drive and a computer that had the ability to edit video, there was nothing from stopping us from making fantastic films. Well, there was one thing missing- our skills.
Kevin and I were the “exploring” type. There were so many possibilities of things to try. And we did. We filmed pretty much any time we could and whatever genre we hadn’t done. We didn’t know how to use a green screen, but we had one! I remember day 1 of the green screen we decided to try a newscast and have a weather map in the background.
Green Screen Lesson 1: USE A TRIPOD. Because we filmed it handheld, it made the person look like they were floating instead of standing in one place.
It was through this grungy trial-and-error style of filmmaking that I learned more than I ever have about filmmaking. We had no rules, no one to answer to, and no one to tell us how bad the films were. We were filmmaking pioneers!
Filmmaking Pioneers. Kind of.
By the end of 2007, we had already made 19 short films. We made comedies, action films, dramas, fight scenes, and even music videos. And then came 2008. It is a year that has a special place in my heart. It’s the point in our filmmaking career that I began to think “wow, these films are actually decent.” Obviously, I have come a long way since then, but I am still proud of what we did as 15 year olds.
The first film of 2008 was Pac-Attack. We didn’t have any animation software, so we had to improvise.
We used Microsoft PowerPoint to draw a pac-man with its mouth open and another one with its mouth closed. We then recorded the PowerPoint and quickly switched the slides back and forth so it looked like the pac-man’s mouth was moving.
We made the background of the PowerPoint green, so that we could get rid of the background in our software. The “success” of this film drove us to make even more.
Later in 2008, we entered our first film fest. It was the Shawnee Mission East 5 minute film fest. We didn’t win anything, except of course the excitement of watching our film on the big screen.
After that experience, we made our first website. This one didn't last long and had a lot of room for improvement. I wanted to learn HTML and CSS, so as an excuse, I redesigned our website. This one was better, but still looked like a website from the 90s.
Later on, we made Hunky Spunky Production t-shirts and hats. We were spending a lot of time on making films. At one point, I spent 250+ hours on a film- Exposure. It was an amazing time of exploring film.
It’s Getting Real.
Over the next couple of years, we continued to put our skills to the test. We entered 10 more film fests resulting in more than 22 awards. In July of 2010, I filmed and edited my first wedding film. This was a HUGE step as it was my first paid video job. I had won some prizes at film fests, but had never been paid to make a film.
Then High School Graduation came around. It was time to decide what to do with the rest of my life. Kevin had decided he was going to go to Baylor to become a teacher. It was tough to part ways, but I decided to go to Missouri State to study Electronic Arts and focus in film.
During the summer after graduation, I got an internship at S-Group (formerly known as Suede), a local creative boutique that specializes in video production and motion graphics.
I worked 35 hours a week doing primarily motion graphics work. It was an awesome experience of learning and putting my skills to the test.
During college, I made several films for my classes. Freshman year it was Ticket and Closure. Later on in college, I worked on bigger productions like Katie Bauer's Breakup and What Makes Us Human. The classes taught me the technical side of filmmaking- like lighting, sound, and producing.
For the summer after freshman year, I got an internship at Premier Studio, a full service marketing company that focuses on mission based brands. I worked with a team of interns to produce a marketing campaign for a magazine. While there, I also edited a training series for Target.
The couple of years in college were really about collaborating in teams. Before college, I had either worked on my own or with Kevin. In college, I was able to work with huge teams where each person had a much smaller role. This allowed me to get a better depth of knowledge, rather than breadth of knowledge.
Here I Am.
Well it’s been a long journey so far. I am currently up to my 194th video (Yes I am counting. Although I won't keep updating this after I post it). I have designed several websites, filmed many weddings, done 3 film internships, and so much more.
I graduated college and I'm currently in San Marcos, TX, living the freelance life.
There is a lot that I look back at and get embarrassed by. But there is just as many projects that I am really proud of.
I love to look at how far I have come because it excites me to see where I might go in future. I hereby dedicate this blog to the future me. When Future Me sees this post, hopefully he/I will be reminded of how far I have come and how far I will go in the future. To the Future! ...And Beyond! (I guess that doesn't really make sense. Oh well.)
-Brian Schwabauer
Here are some other pictures that I wasn't able to fit in the post:
