Lights, camera, kudos: Campus filmmaker receives another award
by Ellen Gladden Jones
Tim Johnson’s rooster collection doubled last month.
The handcrafted 12-inch, tin and wood statue on his desk in the Department of Visual and Instructional Design is an artistic reminder of his second film awarded at the Southern Fried Flicks Film Festival.
Jan. 14, his 49-minute film, ‘Deep Green,’ was named Best Local Film at the festival hosted by the Imperial Theatre. Last year, Tim’s 17-minute satire, “How to Sell Yourself,” was named Best Short Feature Film during the showcase by local and regional filmmakers.
“’Deep
Green’ is really two different movies,” explained MCG’s video producer and
director. “I started off working from an outline –a technique a lot of
big-name directors use – but it just wasn’t my thing so I stopped, chucked a
bunch of the characters, reworked the script, recast and moved on. From that
point, I monkeyed with it for about two years.”
After spending several thousand dollars and hours on this, his lengthiest feature film, Tim has several lessons learned for future projects. Working with “an all-volunteer army,” – his cast of five, over a dozen extras and friends who lent a hand with everything from lighting to underwater photography – brought a unique set of hurdles.
“Scheduling was the biggest challenge,” he said, noting much of “Deep Green” was shot in local restaurants, on the Savannah River and in downtown Augusta. However, some scenes were filmed in Key Largo, Fla. “Trying to get everyone there when you aren’t paying them is a tough boat to row. You learn to be a cheerleader when people are working for free. You can’t be in a bad mood because if you are grumpy, they won’t come back. They are motivated by enthusiasm, and a free lunch now and then also helps.”
His goal is to eventually produce a
full-length feature film, 75-90 minutes long. “You do that by gradually
doing longer films each time,” he said. “A feature is a lot tougher than
doing a 15-minute movie. But unlike [my other films] this is the one where I
think I had the best narrative that I’ve written. It had the most complete
characters because I had time to develop them.”
You wouldn’t know it by his self-deprecating nature, but Tim’s work has received numerous accolades. Last summer, his School of Allied Health Sciences video, “To Teach, Discover and Care,” won a Silver Telly Award, a national award for outstanding local, regional and cable video and film productions. His 26-minute history of the U.S. space program won a 25th Anniversary Telly Award. Additionally, both “How to Sell Yourself” and Tim’s 20-minute black-and-white film noir, “Fantasies,” were accepted to IFILM.com, the world’s largest exhibitor of short films on the Internet. To date, his pictures on IFILM have been viewed over 70,000 times.
“With 20 years of experience under his belt, Tim is a real asset to the entire MCG community,” said his boss, Visual and Instructional Design Director Clare Billman. “His recent award is another affirmation of the great job he does everyday.”
For more information about video, photography, visual design and technical illustration services available from the Division of Visual and Instructional Design, visit www.mcg.edu/vid or call ext. 1-2234.