UMENI NENI SVOBODNE (Art is Not Free): 35mm Short Film

In Spring 2018, I had to opportunity to spend a semester abroad at Prague’s Film and TV School and Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU). It was a busy semester studying and practicing the filmmaking process. I was in the Narrative Film Production program, where students paired up in groups of four to shoot an analog 16mm Czech-language short film through every stage of production—from pitching to filming to the final edit—while under the guidance of the FAMU film faculty. At the beginning, I was the Editor of our film, Umeni Neni Svobodne (Art is Not Free).

As the project evolved, necessity dictated that I perform the duties of the Storyboard Artist, Set Designer, and Creative Director, having designed and assembled a convincing art gallery, bedazzled 8 aloe plants, shattered over 30 wine bottles, drew an entire storyboard, and babysat a pig for three days straight. The production of this film had more drama than the script itself, plagued with conflict, chaos, and confusion.

We spent 95% of the semester in pre-production: agreeing to a budget, creating props, finding costumes, writing the script, storyboarding — it was a group project with a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and it all had to be approved by the Czech film faculty. We were also assigned a FAMU alumni as the Producer. This Producer (who will remain unnamed) was vague about the budget, and would often make executive creative decisions and alterations to the film without telling us. This will come back later.

As they say in the biz, “the studio got involved,” and our group had to compromise some nuance in the story to make it align more comfortably with the sensibilities of our instructors. It was difficult to set boundaries with the judges, juries, and executioners of the program, so I took this as a lesson in negotiation and creative problem solving.

For instance, I chose the set of an art gallery because we could use the school’s building for the entire movie, eliminating the need for a location budget. With limited time and materials, I created set decorations with garbage, cutting down the prop budget. I nailed discarded curtains to the wall, crushed dozens of glass bottles, and created several collages for the scene decor.

This resourcefulness on my part was needed because a large portion of the budget was spent on a boar’s head from a local butcher. Our team intended to source a mask from a local puppet shop, but the aforementioned Producer insisted on a real one. I found this out on the day of the shoot.

As the editor, my role on the shoot was to handle the props and provide production assistance. The Czech film crew that was hired by FAMU exercised some creative control of their own, and the camera OP and director of our group did not see eye to eye. Feelings were hurt, shots were rushed and out of focus, audio was missing, and barely any of the shots matched the storyboard I drew. We were also the final group to film, so I only had 48 hours to spin straw into gold and create something watchable. Our film’s grade would determine our individual grades for the entire semester, so the stakes were high and it was up to me to stick the landing. My job as Editor was about to turn into something closer to Crisis Unit Lobotomist.

Over the weekend, I locked myself in my room and trimmed 3 hours of footage into a 6 in a half minute film using Adobe Premiere. I synced the audio and added music, titles, and sound effects. With so much unusable footage, I had work around the lost footage and construct a workable narrative in a language that I had virtually given up on learning.