Behind the Scenes on the Macbeth Shoot

I got to help my sister Avery out on her first movie two weeks ago.

When I was in high school, I didn't really start making movies until Mrs. Downey's AP English class in the 11th grade. Mrs. Downey would assign a project where we had to adapt a scene from the Shakespeare play we were reading at the time (either Macbeth, A Midnight Summer's Dream, Hamlet, or Henry IV) into a short film.

Up until this time, I had been dying to make a movie of some sort but hadn't had the resources or the help. Now, I did. So these classroom movies were kind of a kicking off point to my filmmaking career.

Now, my little sister Avery is in Mrs. Downey's class and has the same assignments. I tried to give her some guidance on the project, such as the importance of planning, what not to do on set and how to put things together in post. I was around when she was filming to make sure things went smoothly and I helped edit the film. I also let her use all of my film equipment.

Here are some behind the scenes pictures from the shoot.

First shot of the movie.

Avery working sound.

Matthew in his ghost make-up.

The back of the slate. We had all the numbers and letters ready to go for the multiple shots that were filmed.

And here is the short film that resulted from all this. The kids in it are all high school kids so the acting is pretty bad. And there are some technical issues here and there. Still, it's not bad at all for a first film.

Watch Avery's Macbeth adaptation below.