Emily Haddad finds out how many people it takes to make a 16 minute film

Posted at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Funding

Emily Haddad is a big fan of IFP Minnesota. After all it did give her the Fresh Film grant last year which allowed her to make "The Egg Timer" which premieres tonight at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis.

The film, which stars local actor Stacia Rice, had a couple of inspirations when Haddad (left) first began writing it five years ago.

"My mother was very sick at the time and I was taking care of her," she said. "Also a story from my grandmother's childhood. It's about guilt and confession."

Haddad tried to produce it a couple of times, but she was never able to gather the resources she needed to tell the story the way she felt it should be told. The she won the grant.

"It was just a wonderful opportunity," she said, not just because of the money, but also because of the way the Twin Cities film community came together to help her. You can read extensive details in the blog she kept over the last year. What is remarkable is the huge number of people who came forward, and were really needed for the production.

"It's a complicated process," she said. "Pre-production, and then the production with the film crew and the director of photography and the actors. Then post-production, people that help edit it and mix the sound track and do graphics and animation."

Haddad counted up all the people mentioned in the credits of the film, which just runs 16 minutes, and came up with over 100 who had helped significantly with the film.

She says it's a shame that there are so few productions being made in Minnesota. "Because we have so many talented people and we need to really to push to allow them to use those talents on more films."

After the screening of "The Egg Timer" tonight at IFP's Fresh Fete, Haddad will enter the film into film festivals around the country. She is hoping not only to get into events around the country but also to screen the film more around Minnesota.

You can hear our conversation, recorded yesterday by clicking on this link" Listen

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