MEMOIRS OF A SINNER | An Award Winning 2019 Noir Short Film - Directors Cut
CHAPTER 3
Memoirs of a Sinner
Perry Hernandez, a stand-up comedian from El Paso, is coming to terms with the sins of his past. Perry, writing his final thoughts into his journal, is thinking back to simpler times when he was unaware of the cruel reality we call "life". He contemplates his past decisions wishing he could do things differently but understands that rewriting his own story is impossible. Instead, he writes his thoughts into his journal hoping that whoever reads his stories one day might learn just how precious life is beyond riches and fame.
The requirements
Every summer, excluding 2020, there is a 48-hour film competition held by The El Paso Film Commission. By taking part in the competition you are assigned a film genre to follow, a line of dialog to incorporate, and item to showcase within the film. It required that the production take place in El Paso and the film was to be hand delivered to the El Paso Film Commission.
No time to waste
At the time I was interning at Phoenix and it wasn’t possible to travel back to El Paso. Luckily, we were granted access to film in Phoenix as long as we followed the guidelines and requirements. Our assigned genre was Film Noir and while my team embarked on their 6 hour journey to Phoenix, I collected supplies and researched filming techniques for our genre.
All or nothing
Production was exhausting and post production was daunting. We wrote the narration during setup and modified the script during production. We recorded the voiceover in my apartment and exported the film in the early morning. With minutes to spare, literally, the team made it back to El Paso and hand delivered the film.
Gratitude
We received 3rd place at the awards ceremony! Although I was unable to attend, I was excited to have placed in our very first film completion! I want to thank The El Paso Film Commission for allowing us to participate in the competition by giving us the opportunity to film outside El Paso. I also want to congratulate all the participants who received awards that night. Well deserved!
The adventure Continues...
About a month later I decided to release “Memoirs of a Sinner - Director's Cut”. This incorporated additional clips that hadn’t made it into the original film and newer clips I recorded after submission. Great communication was the ultimate reason this project succeeded.
"Operation: WiFi was written to be a…” continue reading in Chapter 4.