Hey ThinkTalk fans! This is Christian Tintle. I'm a production intern, a senior Media Studies major at Catholic University and a huge Redskins Fan. When I started college I thought I wanted to be a writer, maybe an investigative journalist. But it didn't take long to figure out that I'd rather be behind the lens of a camera or messing around with editing software. I'm in my last semester of school and have to figure out how to turn my fascination with filmmaking into a career.

As a production intern, I’ve primarily been helping our video editor, Tsekwi, cut our TV shows for distribution using editing softwares like Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop. In addition to getting technical experience, I'm helping with the creative process of developing new video content for thinktalk.com. Stay tuned for the ThinkTalk intern staff’s semester project, How To Lose An Internship in 10 Days. It’s a series of comedic TV spots we are producing that will have you (we hope) rolling with amusement.

Since I began working at ThinkTalk as an intern, I’ve been watching our absoulutely stellar interviews with world-famous filmmakers at the Director’s Cut on thinktalk.com. These people fascinate me, because they’ve been able to accomplish exactly what I’ve dreamed of; they get paid to tell stories on the big screen. I get so much inspiration from people like Danny Boyle, Jared Hess, and F. Gary Gray. Hess is an example of the kind of success that even your earliest and most independent projects can earn you. His short student film, Peluca, was the inspiration for the cult-sensation Napoleon Dynamite.

In this career path I’ve chosen, I get extremely excited at the prospects of realizing my dreams of being a filmmaker. I’m getting to the point where I’m nearly ready to make a daring leap into the world of cinema. My friend’s former classmate was recently was awarded an internship at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. I believe I have the motivation and the creative vision to achieve something that extraordinary, so I need to seize any opportunity to get filmmaking experience.

That brings us to this past week. I was fortunate to be extended the opportunity to produce and direct a short film for a nationwide student film festival. Every year for the past three years, Campus MovieFest has brought a plethora of filmmaking equipment to Catholic University, lending cameras and laptops to any student team that wants to participate. Each filmmaking team is given a week to shoot and edit their piece. All films must be no longer than five minutes in total runtime. This year, there were over 40 groups that participated at Catholic alone. Winners from the Catholic leg of the festival will advance to a regional round of competition, and the winners of those competitions will be screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The better part of my week was consumed by this project. It was my first attempt at producing a film for a company outside of school. It was laborious and challenging at times, but the finished product is something that my friends and I will be proud of for a long time.

This was, in essence, my first experience on a film set. I’ve produced a couple of projects for my film classes at Catholic over the past couple years, but this project felt far more professional than my previous experiences. My good friend Daniel McMahon and I wrote the script over the course of last weekend. We imagined a story of envy and betrayal, featuring a close-knit group of mobsters, who ended up being played by some friends. Dan and I meticulously planned our shots and designed our set, and felt quite prepared for the big shoot on Monday.

Monday was nothing short of thrilling. Almost every one of our first casting choices agreed to participate. Ryan Bixby, another great friend of mine with whom I’ve worked with in the past, added a depth and believability to the script by delivering a hilarious performance within an otherwise dark film. He also helped to coach the rest of us less experienced actors. My friends Ryan Banks and John Feltz rounded out our motley crew. Not only that, but three other friends of ours, Brian Orzechowski, Tony Feltz, and Bob Schonen, came to help out with the camera and microphone work. The excitement that Dan and I had been feeling during the pre-production process transformed into pure exhilaration during the shoot. We shot a scene in a cemetery, and the weather was damp and dreary; which was exactly how we envisioned the scene looking. The rain held off just enough to allow us to shoot through it. I improvised a rain protector for the camera with some grocery bags. Every single guy nailed his part. My friends were literally cheering me on throughout our whole 12-hour shoot. I truly felt like I was doing what I was meant to do, and it’s one of the most indelible experiences of my college years. I never could have imagined the level of enthusiasm that accompanied our shoot, and I owe a lot to my team for that.

I was able to use a camera that I checked out from my school’s media lab. The Sony HDV-Z5N Camcorder allowed me to shoot on high definition mini-DVR film, which gave the footage a professional cinematic look. It really looks fabulous. I undertook the daunting challenge of cutting 45 minutes worth of footage into a tight, five-minute sequence. I had to cut out some of my favorite footage, and realized some cinematographic errors in the eleventh hour that disappointed me slightly, but all in all, I think we have a very good chance at placing high in Campus MovieFest. We will be competing against a lot of talented filmmakers. The screening is Wednesday, March 3rd. Check out our film at the Chamber Films Ltd. group page!