Case Study: FROM PAWNS TO KINGS

FROM PAWNS TO KINGS (2008, 5 min)

“For a hopeful young man, a dual over a chessboard turns into a dual for his sanity.”

HISTORY:  FROM PAWNS TO KINGS was the second film Brooklyn Young Filmmakers produced, and the first film we developed from one of our own student’s script. We did it just to see if we could do it, and before we started officially offering a MAKE A FILM Class. Our Shoot Location was the in-kind basement office Brooklyn Young Filmmakers had at the time in the Whitman Community Center (which closed in 2009) in Fort Greene public housing. We had a couple hundred dollars we could use from a Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant. Our Cinematographer and Editor, Tina Flemmerer, was a college student from Germany who volunteered her services and borrowed camera equipment from the school where she worked. A couple of lights were loaned by one of our students. No one had a vehicle, so our biggest cost was renting transportation to move borrowed set materials and equipment.

HOW LONG WE HAD TO PREP & SHOOT: 14 Hours: The Whitman Community Center, where we were shooting the film, was closed on the weekend. So on a Thursday, during the Center’s open hours (2:00pm to 9:00pm), a small crew rearranged the office to create space and put up the set. The next day, Friday, after another two hours of prepping the set, setting up lighting, and having our first rehearsals of blocking on the actual set, we shot the film from 4:00pm to 8:15pm. From 8:15pm to 9:00pm (when the center closed) we broke down key portions of the set and packed up camera and lighting equipment and craft services. (No hot food on that shoot.) Our office was left a disorganized mess. Since as volunteers, we were only able to be at the office on a part-time basis, it took us weeks to get the office set up again and to do the returns of all the items we had borrowed.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Beautiful summertime weather outside, but hot and stuffy in our basement boiler room office that had no air conditioning. Fans could not be turned on because we were shooting – but there was no quieting of the hum of the pipes overhead. (This was before we knew to use Sound Blankets to muffle the sound — or had any budget for that, or for a better Mic with a Sound Mixer.)

THEMES IN FROM PAWNS TO KINGS

CAST: We cast it entirely with students from are Intro to Scriptwriting and Getting Started in Film Classes. Except for Mr. Salomon, the businessman playing Mr. Humfree in the beginning, who was a Fort Greene neighbor recruited by the BYFC Director. None of the actors had any prior acting experience.

Video & Resources

 

ORIGINAL STUDENT SCRIPT PDF

INSTRUCTOR’S SCRIPT CRITIQUE PDF

FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT PDF

DISCUSSION GUIDE PDF