Amateur filmmaker ready to unveil latest creation

Local News

July 20, 2007

By Wade Coggeshall The Hendricks County Flyer Fri Jul 20, 2007, 05:56 PM EDT

Plainfield — Christopher Francis has aspirations of one day being a feature-length film director.

For now, though, he’s striving to give you 10 minutes of cinematic frisson.

The 2002 Plainfield High School graduate is debuting his second short film, “Ecclesiastes,” at 8 and 9 p.m. Sunday at Key Cinemas, 4044 S. Keystone Ave., Indianapolis. Admission is free. The evening includes a meet-and-greet with the cast and crew. Attendees also can order a copy of the film on DVD — featuring bonus materials — for $10.

Francis describes “Ecclesiastes” as a political drama with action. About 10 minutes in length, it follows two main characters — a politician from the Midwest trying to revolutionize the energy market and the assassin hired to kill her.

“It tells the story of these two characters and how their separate lives intermingle,” Francis said. “They both have something they feel they need to do.”

Francis, who wrote and directed “Ecclesiastes,” said the idea for the film came from competing in a contest on the website www.dvxuser.com (for the video camera he uses — a Panasonic DVX 100A).

“This is mainly just for entertainment, but it is kind of a jab at the current energy situation,” he said. “But it might be from watching too much ‘24’ lately too.”

This is the first film project that Francis used a cast and crew beyond his friends. Many of the actors and actresses came from an acting class in Carmel that his friend teaches.

Francis has dabbled in filmmaking from an early age, but didn’t start taking it seriously until later in life.

“I know a lot of directors you read about say they’ve been making movies since they were 3 years old with their parents’ Super 8 camera,” he said. “I definitely didn’t go that route. We’ve always had a video camera. Once every couple of years I’d try to do something with it. But I’d get frustrated because I knew exactly how I wanted it to look, and I didn’t know how to achieve it. That was before you could edit on a computer.”

His high school got computers with editing software during his last semester there. Francis did a video project, this time with the ability to edit it.

“As soon as I did that, I was hooked,” he said.

He used his graduation money to buy the same computer and a video camera. He graduated last December from IUPUI after majoring in new media, with a focus on video production. For about the past year and a half, Francis has produced narrative films like skateboarding videos — in other words projects that didn’t have a plot or actors. His film “Your Name is Miracle” was named best documentary at this year’s Indiana Actors.com Film Festival.

Francis knows he’s not yet ready for Hollywood.

“The way I look at filmmaking right now is that I’d rather put all my time and effort into making a five- to 10-minute video as good as I possibly can, as opposed to trying to do a full-length movie that’s not going to be good,” said Francis, who considers Wes Anderson his favorite director. “No matter who you are, your first couple of projects aren’t going to be good.”

And yet Francis’ first short film, “Temporary,” won three awards at Indianapolis’ 48 Hour Film Project earlier this summer. But he still says “Ecclesiastes” is “10 times better than my last film.”

Francis is soon moving to San Diego, Calif., to join his best friend, who’s studying acting there. He knows it’s not Hollywood. But it’s a lot closer.

“I’m going to go out there and see what I can do with more resources,” he said.

For more information on Francis and “Ecclesiastes,” visit his website at www.chrisfrancisvideo.com.

wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com

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