“American Dream,” written and directed by Rick Dumont, is set to debut at The Shawn Shea Memorial Film Festival on July 17th. It joins a lineup of short films, features and documentaries being screened from July 16th to the 19th.
To say I’m excited about this development would be an understatement. I’m proud to have been a part of this film. It has a powerful message about kindness and empathy for the homeless community, who are often overlooked and even regarded with contempt. So, to play a part in communicating that message—through color—was a joy.
I met writer and director Rick Dumont at a networking event with the Massachusetts Production Coalition—I attend and volunteer at their events often. We had a great conversation about our work and aspirations, and he gave me the chance to try something new. I’m immensely grateful to him for that opportunity.
Learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro’s Lumetri Color tool was a challenge, but one I welcomed. You can read my previous post on that process. But to summarize, I actually started with color correction—yes, correction is different from grading. This was about getting not just each scene, but each individual shot to a shared baseline that best approximated the “natural” lighting conditions at the time of filming.
When it came time to color grade, I used adjustment layers to create filters that thematically captured the duality of hopelessness and hope. Hopelessness on the part of homeless community members stuck in a rut, unable to escape their current predicaments, and the hope they feel when people treat them as human beings and offer them a hand.
Since “American Dream,” I’ve continued honing my color correcting and grading craft—for a fashion music video, belly-dancing reels, and other videos.
Congratulations to Rick’s team! And thank you to Rick for the opportunity to add my own personal touch to the project. Contributing in a subtle way to the mise-en-scéne of “American Dream” was very fun, and I’d welcome the opportunity to do so for other short films.
You can buy tickets to the screening here. Search “Long Shorts Plus One at the Hilton.”
John Buday: Digital Storytelling 