That Crazy Retro Movie: An Introduction

That Crazy Retro Movie

An Introduction 

Before the actual blog about the making of Forget What You Think You Know is posted, I decided that there needs to be a short intro. { There doesn't need to be, but there is. }

I'm not the type of person that particularly likes to talk about past projects. With a handful of short films, several Willow Creek retro promos and one feature on my resumé, I find myself falling more and more into the category of: It Is What It Is and That's That. Several times I tried recording a commentary track for my feature, ENOLA, but it was only meant as a way for me look back and hear my thoughts. Ultimately the idea was scrapped because I didn't want to force my future self to sit through 130 minutes of endless ..."info", because no matter how insightful or honest it could potentially be, one thing would be for sure: it would have been self-indulgent naive crap -- oh, and also because I hate hearing myself talk. 

But something changed now. I'm feeling open to talk about the latest project, Forget What You Think You Know, only I'm not sure where it's coming from; perhaps because the reaction after the release of the movie was pretty positive, or because friends and retro fans have expressed interest in it, or because it took me 3 months to make. One thing is for sure, I could not have made this movie without the amazing support from my awesome fiancé Jenn Lillemo, Mr. Retro Greg, master head projectionist Dave Hilsgen, Willow Creek projectionist (my brother) Corey Ayd, and Rogers 18 theatre manager Mike Wedel. I believe in true and total collaboration when it comes to filmmaking, which is why this project was so very different -- different in the sense that the scope was going to be far greater than anything I worked on before (even my feature film). But because nobody was going to get paid for this project, it was going to be hard to ask people to sacrifice a lot of their time late at night for the sake a small movie very few people knew was being made. In the end it was almost a one man show, and that, dear readers, is a very hard thing to say, especially for someone that believes in collaboration. It is what it is, I suppose.

If you haven't seen that crazy retro movie, you should watch it here before I talk about how it was made. I will be posting a whole bunch of pictures later this week, or early next week, so be on the lookout.

That's that.


-Justin Christopher Ayd | WC12