Film Maker Spotlight - Leah Johnston

 

 

Film maker and Photographer Leah Johnston

Part of the goal behind IndieHouse Rentals is to help shine a light on the great work that is being done by independent film makers. There are a lot of people out there do amazing and innovative work with out spending very much money at all. My first of my spotlight series is on actress, director, and photographer, Leah Johnston. I first met Leah as an actress in the short film Desert Encounter, by director Blake Hodges (whom you will see in a future blog) which premiered at the No Budget Film Festival. Leah and I then collaborated on a few projects. She is the leading actress in my upcoming short film, Heart. We also went on to work together in a second short we actually shot yesterday called Shelly, which we performed in together.

Screen shot from upcoming film, Heart.

As a director and photographer, Leah's work is a breathtakingly visual buffet of images. She has an amazing knack for telling stories through powerful pictures which capture so many emotions, they are a challenge to describe. One of the best things I can say about her as an artist, is that she has a very specific voice which resonates through all of her work. Those of you in the creative industry know how difficult that can be and how amazing it is when an artist can make that happen. Her films, her photography, and her writing all speak with the same dynamic, "Leah" voice. They are all richly character driven stories told through a dynamic visual narrative.


Leah's photography Grasping Our Potential



Leah's Photography: Misty Morning Masquerade

 

Leah was recently awarded a grant from the National Screen Institute in Nova Scotia, and will be heading back to her homeland of Canada to shoot her short her next short film. You should definitely take some time and check out her photography and follow all her projects at her website http://www.leahjohnston.com . She is definitely a film maker you want to keep her eye on.

Test shot from Leah's upcoming short film

For more updates, check out our campaign and help support more indie film makers.



Why create a rental house? Practice

Today is the official launch day for the campaign to start IndieHouse Rentals! My name is Peter Berube. I'm a writer and director working in Los Angeles. Outside of my own projects, the focus of my career has been about keeping artists making art. I may not be in the position to pay everyone yet, but I have built the connections and the relationships to keep people creating. Artist need to create! Not just because it's what we do, but because we need to practice. When you first start out, most of what you make is terrible. I cannot put it in better words than Ira Glass and his video about being creative.




So here's the thing, practice is important to being an artist. Film makers just don't get to have as much practice. It takes too many tools and is so expensive to even just play around with an idea. I've been to a lot of short film festivals and have heard so many people ripping apart the entries. A lot of it has to do with lack of experience. This film maker you're ripping on may have never made a movie before because they've never had the means. If they're lucky, they get to scrape together enough money or equipment to make one short film a YEAR! That's not a lot of practice. It makes it a long process to grow into the artist you are when you only get to make one thing a year.

Think about the subtle ways that you grow when you practice. Repetition and experience build skill. Your mistakes become the invaluable lessons you learn. So how do we help film makers get that practice they need?

We make it easier for them to practice. We make it cheaper for them to have the tools, the right tools. That's what IndieHouse Rentals is all about. I know it's a small start. It needs a lot of help. This is the beginning. I'm going to need to practice to get this idea where it can really help people.

Check out the campaign page and let me know what you think.