At this year's 14th-annual City of the Angels Film Festival in Los Angeles, Taproot Theatre Company associate artistic director Karen Lund received the New L.A. FilmMakers award for the short film "Fool4LuV." The film was one of three chosen out of the entire festival to receive the award.
Lund directed the film, which she said was the result of her and Thomas and Lauri Deason - who produced and wrote, respectively - wanting to work on a project together. However, because of other projects, it was difficult to coordinate schedules.
Their opportunity finally arrived last February in the form of the 168 Hour Film Project, which challenges professional filmmakers to complete a film in just one week, or 168 hours. This included hiring the cast and crew, finding a location and editing.
The script follows the story of a single man, Matt Parker (played by Kevin Brady), after he fires his matchmaking fairy godmother, Kyra (played by Kelly Balch), and decides to take control of his love life.
Lund said that this was the only thing they allowed themselves to work on before the competition. Still, participants received a random Bible verse to base their story on only three days before the weeklong challenge began.
The Bible verse that "Fool4LuV" is derived from is Proverb 28:26: "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered."
Thom Deason and fellow producer Michael Kostov not only made the deadline, but they did a very good job, judging from awards the film received at the 168 Hour Film Festival. "Fool4LuV" was nominated for Best Comedy, Best Sound and Best Actor for Brady's portrayal of Parker.
"It's so exciting, especially since it was my first film," Lund said about the nominations. "As a director, you feel like a winner when the people around you are complimented."
More editing
After "Fool4LuV's" success at that festival, the producers entered it into the City of the Angels Film Festival in October. With the festival being months away, Lund said that they were able to go back and work on such things as editing and sound that they initially did not have time for.
The bulk of the work was done in that first week. Deason said that for "Fool4LuV" to hold up at the City of the Angels against the work of people who not only had more time but more money to invest in their projects was a testament to the people involved in the film.
"You can't believe this thing was done in a week," he said. "There's such a wealth of talent in the Puget Sound area that I think is untapped."
Deason plans to enter the 15-minute film in the Austin Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival.
A local effort
Both Deason and Lund agreed that victory would be especially sweet here in Seattle because "Fool4LuV" boasts a cast and crew that is almost entirely from the Seattle area. Only three people working on the film were not from the area, including Deason and his wife. The couple flew up from California to work on the project.
Both actors Brady and Balch have worked with Lund prior to this in stage productions at Taproot. She described the two actors as "likeable, hilarious and gifted artists."
Like Lund, Balch's experience had been limited to stage productions. For their first time working on a film, both women had to learn the difference between stage and film productions very quickly.
As director, Lund said that the main differences were technical, involving lighting, camera angles and the like; Balch said that film acting requires a certain specificity and subtlety that she was not used to.
There were some similarities, though:"You just really try to get the story across," Lund said.
Lund is working on another short film with the Deasons about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which will be shot on location in New Orleans.
There are no plans yet for Balch and Lund to work together on another project, but Balch said she is very willing. "I would work with Karen in either theater or film in a heartbeat," Balch said. "I would be stupid to turn her down."
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