SMALL SCREEN VIDEO
Charles Deemer
In recent years I’ve watched with fascination as the digital revolution made more and more technical tools available to consumers and artists. For Christmas, 2006, I gave my wife a small digital camcorder, so small it fitted into the palm of her hand. The camera had an accessible USB port for uploading an hour’s worth of video to a computer or a website. When my wife showed me her videos of travels and family members, I was amazed that the quality was quite high, at least on the small screen for which these images were intended.
And I thought to myself: one could shoot a short movie with a camera like that.
Small Screen Video was founded to do just this. For some time I’ve been wanting to work with actors again. In the most productive years of my playwriting career, I was the resident playwright for two different theater companies, which gave me immediate access to actors. Indeed, at one point I was commissioned to write a play knowing ahead of time the four people who would be my cast! I like writing for particular actors. I believe the actor is the scriptwriter’s basic tool.
Under the banner of Small Screen Video, I plan to write, direct and produce short dramatic videos for the non-paying small screen market, which includes YouTube and my own website. If quality is high, I plan to include some of these videos in Oregon Literary Review, an electronic journal of which I’m the editor. A number of competitions for small screen videos also have appeared. This is a growing market.
However, my venture is artistic, not commercial. I expect no financial remuneration from my work. No one working with me will be paid, other than with a DVD of the finished product. I plan to do this work because I love doing it. (However, if lightning strikes, rewards will be distributed on a per share basis, a co-op model I used when producing hyperdrama in the 1980s.)
These videos will be short: some will be vignettes only a few minutes long. Others will be developed stories, perhaps as long as twenty minutes. I plan to focus my storytelling around characters past retirement age. This is my own generation, and I believe not enough stories address the lives of seniors. I also think the older generation needs greater representation on YouTube.
So this is my plan. I hope to network with a number of senior actors I can draw from for each project. Several projects are already in pre-production. The first shooting begins this summer, 2007. I am eager to hear from senior actors who are interested in working with me.
Charles Deemer
My background is here: http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/bio.htm
Also see: http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/ssv.htm