First Feature

The last feature film I worked on pre-pandemic, Heaven, is going to be released on digital and DVD soon. To commemorate the occasion, I figured it would it be good to go back to the first real film set I ever worked on. Sure, it wasn’t as well known as some projects, like 13 Reasons Why or the red carpet entrance at the 2016 NFL Honors Awards show, but it was the most definitive film experience for me. As my first step into the professional film industry, I learned so much on that set.

That movie was called A Horse from Heaven, or, as the official release was titled later, A Champion Heart.

In order to graduate from the film program at Azusa Pacific University (APU), I needed to work at an internship. As many college students can attest, landing an internship is harder than it sounds, and the working conditions are often less-than-ideal. In film, most interns work at a production office, making coffee runs and reading scripts that producers don’t have time to sort through (not-so-fun fact: the first set of eyes a screenwriter’s script needs to make it past is often the college intern, so your opening pages need to be SOLID to grab their caffeine-deficient attention). I had applied for several internships, but in the competitive LA area, I didn’t make much progress.

Then, in the spring of 2015, I and four other APU students got our internship chance. Dr. Thomas Parham, Star Trek expert and one of my favorite professors (he led my Senior Seminar and Fantasy in Film and Television classes), introduced us to David de Vos, who happened to be shooting an independent family film that summer and needed some extra hands. What better work force than interns who get paid in college credit rather than money?

All joking aside, Dave and the rest of the production leads never treated us like free, exploitable labor. We were part of the team. On many of the other sets I’ve worked on, the atmosphere didn’t feel as personable, like the other guys were there just to get a paycheck. Few people ever said “Thank you,” and complaints about tiny things were rampant. Here, we were like a family, covering for and supporting each other.

We all found areas where we shined. Mine happened to be in the Grip and Electric department, and I loved every bit of it. I wasn’t bound to just that position, of course. If Camera or Production Design needed help and I was free, I’d jump in and help. Apparently, you can’t do that on union sets. If a chair needed to be moved just to run a cable, we’d have to wait until the department in charge of chairs came back from their coffee break and moved it for us.

I got to learn some fun tricks on set. Take the picture below, for example:

This scene in particular was a night scene, and we were filming in the middle of the day. Our cinematographer, Ian Robertson, told me to make that big black thing on the left out of c-stand arms and gaff tape. Once it was in front of the light and we blacked out the bedroom window, we shot the scene. Now, I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to come from this setup. However, later that day, Dave sent me a screenshot of what the camera had picked up. No color correction, just raw footage.

Yeah. Mind BLOWN.

A Champion Heart was about a girl who bonds with a one-eared horse. Wouldn’t you know it, we actually did have a one-eared horse on set: Tux. We didn’t need to shell out for CGI, because one of his ears had to be cut off due to an infection. He was a pretty chill horse, even though he was not trained for film, and he did a great job being mindful of the humans around him. In the opening scene of the movie, Tux was supposed to knock someone over and run the other way. However, while we were filming, instead of going opposite of where the actress, Donna Rusch, fell, he bolted towards her. You could see the moment her expression turned from acting to genuine fear. If had been any horse other than Tux, she would have been stepped on. Most of us were shaken up by it, but Donna just got up and, with a big smile, said, “So, we got the shot, right?” We did get the shot, and that’s the one that made it into the final cut.

Now, of course, not everything was sunshine and rainbows. We had our fair share of roadblocks and mishaps. Our first day of overnight shooting, whoever was in charge of crafty (the snack table) packed up and left in the middle of the night. Another day, my GPS directed me to the middle of nowhere, miles away from set, because my mom begged me to not drive through the mountains again and find a different route. We had a scene where an ATV was going to crash into a shed, with only one take to work with, and I botched pushing the dolly because I wasn’t paying full attention (understandably, I wasn’t allowed to work the dolly again).

However, there was one shooting day that was grueling, but it yielded some interesting results.

We had access to a particular location for only one day, so we had to film as much as we could. The shots weren’t drastic in their setups. There were just A LOT to go through. Furthermore, due to circumstances I’m not privy to, I was the only intern available that day.

We started at 7 am Friday morning and didn’t wrap up until 2 am Saturday. A total of 19 hours.

We stuck it out as best we could. We got stuff done. And the day off afterward was oh so satisfying.

Because I ran that gauntlet with everyone, I solidified myself as someone willing to get the job done. I’ve gotten other gigs, Heaven included, because the rest of the crew saw my work ethic and positive attitude and invited me back. Dave and I coped with the long day with near-endless strings of puns. We’ll still go at it on Facebook every now and then.

Probably my favorite result of that long shooting day was the nickname I earned: Iron Man. Again, my performance that day proved I could tough it out. Instead of complaining, I simply did what needed to be done and helped out in every area that I could. In addition, aside from Dave, the director, and Mandy, our leading actress, I was the only one who was on set every day for principal shooting.

During the Wrap Party, we all received something called Paper Plate Awards. Simply put, they’re little awards drawn up on paper plates commemorating noteworthy achievements. Here was mine:

I’m glad I got to work on that film. It set a really good standard for me and my film career. We may have had a smaller crew and a lower budget than some other gigs, but I felt more at home on that one than I have with most others.

If you’d like to watch it for yourselves, you can watch A Champion Heart on Netflix or buy it on Amazon HERE.

If you look closely, you’ll see me show up three times as an extra. Also, do stay for the credits. We all worked hard on it, and you might see something a little special with mine.