Tag Archive for Martin Vavra

The Grand Experiment: Experience from the FiLMLaB

  There are very few jobs in the world where, when you walk into a room, anyone can say they do without some sort of validation. If you walk into a party, and someone asks if you are a doctor or a police officer or a car mechanic, these titles will instigate follow up questions…

2014 FiLMLaB: Special Thanks

Are you recovered from the Willamette Writers Conference? Recovered is not the right word, at least not for attendees. Attendees usually finish the three day conference, tired, but elated, full of creative energy and invigorating possibility. If you are a conference organizer or volunteer, recovered is exactly the right word. This year was a particular…

The ‘Guests’ of FiLMLaB’s “Unwelcome Guests”

This is it. The final few days before the FiLMLaB premier of 2014’s winning short, Unwelcome Guests, at the Willamette Writers Conference. If you weren’t aware, the conference has moved this year, from our long time post at the Airport Sheraton, to the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel. WW President, Jenny Schrader gave me the grand…

The Benefits of Being A Ghost: A Writer On Set At FiLMLaB

Being the screenwriter on set is fun as long as you know what you’re in for. If this was a Mozart symphony production, the screenwriter would be the composer and the director would be the conductor. It’s up to the conductor to translate Mozart’s scribbles on paper into music for the ears, music created by…

Quiet on the Set!

I was on the set yesterday of FiLMLaB’s “Unwelcome Guests” by Jon Dragt. It was my first FiLMLaB film set—actually, my first film set ever, and it was amazing. Fantastic. Fun! Quite honestly? I loved it. Granted, I wasn’t hauling any equipment, dealing with the drastic changes in sunlight, the rain, stressing over prop malfunctions…