Rob Weaver celebrates 1st film with community that made it possible

Presenter: Rob Weaver and friends celebrated Sept. 3 with a Eugene screening of his first action-comedy short. He knew from a young age that he was going to be a filmmaker.

Rob Weaver: I was about seven, eight years old. I held my first VHS camcorder. Yeah, that’s when I knew I was going to be a filmmaker is when I held that camera. 

I’ve been doing this business now for about eight years. This is my first film. I wrote the script, shot it, and at the time while I was shooting it, I wasn’t quite finished with the script. I had to put it on the shelf a couple times. There was some harsh times from, you know, loss of family and, you know, other wild distractions that could kind of throw us off course.

But every time, I was able to kind of pick it back off the shelf, I was able to learn something new, and so that was a blessing. We were able to make this story exactly what I wanted it.

And there was times where shoot dates didn’t work. And we had to fall back a week, two weeks, because maybe one of the actors was sick. And so there was some workarounds for sure that we did. And improvisation too. And a lot of recruitment.

So I think that’s the real secret to making a film. It’s a lot of team building. 

And I would definitely say it’s been my film school all in one big package. I wanted to make it as professional as possible.

And I am thankful and blessed to know some of the people here in town and what they’ve done and where they got their skills and some of the tools they developed. 

And, you know, shout out to Taylor Morden and a few other filmmakers in town who freelance and do this for a living and can keep making really inspiring documentaries. 

So yeah, as a first-time filmmaker, I learned a lot in a short amount of time and, you know, at the same time, I was self-educated on this, you know, from postproduction to master class videos to lighting and sound.

We had a location in Creswell. We did a bunch of alerting the community, handing out flyers to some of the locals nearby the warehouse property. And I’m saying, ‘Hey, you know, I’m putting a warning out. There’s going to be gunshots. You know, they’re going to be loud.  But please know these are props incapable of firing real ammunition. These are Hollywood props.’ 

So, you know, I had to do the wording exactly the way it needed to be worded so it wouldn’t scare any community people out of the area.

And so it became my film school. It took about, I want to say, eight years. Yeah, I wrote the story in 2018. 

And so if I were to, you know, talk about my first production, as a first-time filmmaker, I would have to compare it to a 1980s production, which meant, you know, ‘We’re filming this, but, you know, we have a couple of alternate endings and we just want to see which ending fits best with what we’re trying to achieve in this production.’

And so we did some halts. We ended up shooting, I want to say we first started shooting in December of 2019, and then we just kind of did some followups about every three to six weeks. Like, we would shoot January, February, March, every one of those couple of weeks, on a weekend.

And we just kept pushing through for a couple extra years, and just sometimes starting over. I mean, regutting it and rebuilding it. And eventually we finished it and did a bunch of visual effects and it took a long time. 

My favorite part of the film? I think the warehouse, because we were very confident with how we had it lit. There was some choreography involved, but time was against us and so we created the ultimate tracking shots.

But if I were to say my most fun part was basically going over the lines with the doctor before he did his stunt.

And since this was kind of a low-budget production, it was all about the connection between some of my actors, but yeah, it’s, it’s like, you know, it’s like climbing a mountain. You get new obstacles and you end up talking to new talents and new artists that can contribute.

There’s a reason why there’s a lot of names in films. And it took me and about six other people to kind of help navigate me and get this thing edited, learning from each editor and what they contributed to, the how and the why were answered. 

I spent, you know, thousands of hours on this. If I were to estimate the budget for the film, I would say $14K, easy. 

We have about, I want to say six to seven different cameras that we used, from drones to regular DSLR cameras. You can, you know, really achieve some wonders and a lot of collaboration, and planning was involved. 

I would say I’d spent like two years trying to tell a story in a direction that would engage, and be relatable for everybody. And so I feel like I’ve created a hook for entertainment, especially with some of the shots we got. 

I don’t know how to describe this movie other than like, I don’t know, maybe a double or triple cheeseburger because there’s so much that’s offered. It’s not just a film. 

The story is kind of like about survival, you know, with two friends trying to just struggle and find work and it’s like they’re just trying to fit into the right club. It’s a buddy movie story of, I think, hope, right?

It’s got its own musical compositions in the film, so it’s got its own soundtrack too. So yeah, there’ll be a soundtrack coming out soon that definitely gives out the vibe of the film and its feel. We’ll probably have it on Spotify. 

So it’s a short film, a short story, but could move on to other chapters. We’re trying to just tell good stories and spread inspiration. 

Presenter: Rob Weaver celebrates his first short action-comedy with cast, crew, and the many contributors from Eugene’s filmmaking community.

See also: Rob Weaver action-comedy short to premiere at Art House Sept. 3