Shine, a 168 Film Festival Production

I went out with the missionaries last week for dinner, meeting with an old friend and an investigator. The old friend was from the distant past, recognizing me for my hospitality. It's been a couple years, since I invited her over to our house, having her over for dinner. She is still barely getting established like the last time that I met her; however, she had me over for dinner at this occasion. This blog post is inspired by the presence of the investigator that joined us that night. His name is Max Terronez. He is one of those people that tells a lot of stories, and you may question whether he is for real. He spoke of many real life and charitable situations, but I want to write about his production of a film for the 168 Hour Film Festival, an international faith based production. 

He approached the sister that I received for dinner, asking if she would like to be the executive director. This means that she would simply fund the production of the film, which they claimed was 300 dollars, and 200 went to registration. Max is incredibly creative. This is not the first film that me made for this festival. He told of one, where he had a courting couple walking on the beach, and the walk transitions to different stages of their lives together into marriage, family life, and children until the father is gone. You can see and hear the developing perspectives of their relationship in the dialogue. I believe that the father died of an illness, and Max claimed that a doctor had an issue with the short film. Max was so inspired last year that he wrote this script in 45 minutes, sharing it with the executive director immediately after. She said that script was so great that she wept. Since he is from Santa Cruz, California, he was unable to take advantage of the privileges of joining the initial event in Los Angeles, where he can get crew members from casting calls. Max has worked with big name directors in the film industry, so he called for his own casting call near his residence. His crew was mostly connected by networking. 

The films are supposed to be short. The film that was produced by this team is about 11 minutes. The video depicted the story in a very vague way. If it deliberately told the story, the deep story could not be enjoyed as well. There was only one odd scene that may confuse the viewer. The story is so deep that you have to read between the lines to understand the depths of the cinematography. He told me directly what they are. I am going to write it in this article, but I am going to cross it out to not spoil the story. An obvious part of the story that you don't realize until the end of the story is that the daughter dies of cancer. There is a scene where the father, whose name is Pun, is grieving in a bar, and the bartender tells him that he should leave. This shows his character as a family man of integrity; although, there is apparent family problems that he deals with. After he leaves the bar, Pun calls his father, meeting him at the beach in the next scene. Max said that there were disputes among his crew, questioning the purpose of Pun calling his father, finding the phone number on a slip of paper and he had to identify himself in the call. This shows that he was estranged from his father. I don't recall him with a slip of paper in the film, but there supposed to be. 

Max said that the lack of professionalism of the crew limited the extent of the story's sagacity that he desired. The editor was a wedding film producer, and he was so indifferent to Max's direction that he did not include his name in the credits, nor did he read the script. That part may have been edited out. Directing this film required, Mr. Terronez to have many sleepless nights. One night he was overbearingly encouraging his editor to work into the morning. They dosed off together; although, Max gave into his request to get some liquor to keep him working. At the end, the editor was unable to translate the film into the format that the Apple programs required, and they had to take out the hard drive out of the computer, driving it down to LA to make it before the due hour of the film festival, for they only had 168 hours to produce the film.

The film made in the top 20 out of hundreds, and the daughter got best actress; although, it was funded with less than 100 dollars. My high school music teacher even provided the original score for the film. Other crews boasted special effects and everything that the greatest directors can request. Max Terronez used all his skill to inspire the world in this film, and a side hope was for aspiring directors to keep the industry, making good films. He wanted me to provide information for these interested people to join the next 168 Film Festival; maybe even work with him. The Founder and Executive Director is John David Ware, and his contact information are the following means: email at info@168Project.com, website at www.168Project.com, and phone at 818-557-8507. Max Terronez knows that there are many opportunities in film, and he would like to share them with you. You may even ask me, if you want to contact Max.