Mark was going to steal the car. His neighbor’s beautiful red and white 1969 Camaro. He had to. It was the only way to Amy’s heart. He strutted up to the car, “borrowed” car keys in hand. That’s when he saw the black duffel bag in the back seat. And heard the click of the gun, pointed directly at his head.
“Cut!” junior Alex Goff yelled. Junior Tyler Stern dropped the prop gun as they wrapped up one of the beginning scenes of the film that started it all, Damn Pretty Thing. This is Goff’s first film he made with his film production company, “Second Circle Productions.” He formed this company with sophomore Fernando Echeverria of Coram Deo Academy. When the two met earlier this year and bonded over their shared interest in filmmaking, they teamed up to co-direct short films to put on their own YouTube channel “2NDCPRO.” They said they coexist well together and push each other to improve.
“We run on the same level of organization,” Goff said. “We always want to have the same thing, like a plot outline and a script. We’re both just really motivated and committed.”
When they released Damn Pretty Thing on YouTube, it had 64,000 views. Also, a few months ago, Los Angeles producer Don Burnett contacted them and said he was interested in promoting the film at festivals. The two are currently working with him to have industry professionals view their film.
“We were super excited,” Echeverria said. “We were surprised, but we kind of felt like it was hard work paid off. We felt that our work on the videos being able to attract attention from someone like that was a major reward.”
Goff has come a long way since he was in second grade making Star Wars videos with his friends, battling to the death with lightsabers. He has now produced three drama films that have been entered in several national contests. Damn Pretty Thing is currently in three contests, FreshTakes Film Festival, National Film Festival and LoneStar Film Festival. They are competing for several prizes including a $5,000 top prize and a Best of Fest prize. Another one of their shorts, The Standby, is in the FreshTakes Dailymotion Mobile Fest and has advanced to the Top 5 competing for $1,000.
Goff and Echeverria find inspiration from several sources, like real life events, books and movies which help them create new, unique ideas that form the basis of their films.
“[Film production] makes you more creative and your possibilities are endless because you’re constantly thinking about the kinds of stories you could create,” Goff said.
One huge role model for Goff is director Quentin Tarantino.
“His films… have a unique feeling,” Goff said. “He has a bunch of diverse genres of films and that’s also what we have and what we’re going for in the future,” Goff said.
Inspirations from films like Quentin Tarantino’s help Goff and Echeverria with their own ideas, which then spiral into the process of filmmaking: creating a plot outline, writing a script, casting actors and setting up shooting dates. After filming for two to four days, Goff and Echeverria take about a month to edit the films before releasing them to the public. Second Circle Productions is currently working on two more that are expected to come out in October and November.
“One is in black and white and the other one I think is going to be my favorite out of all of them,” Goff said. “Bad Moon Rising, the Halloween October short.”
As the leading actress for their second short film, How to Become Somebody Else, senior Jacy Butcher said that she was very happy she took up the offer to be involved in this production and sees great potential for Second Circle Productions.
“It was actually great,” Butcher said. “They keep it professional, but at the same time have fun.”
Costar, senior Jake Herrel, also said he enjoyed working with Goff and Echeverria.
“They definitely took into account the actors’ thoughts on the scene,” Herrel said. “They went in there with what they wanted to accomplish, but they really let us have free reign over the performance, and they were open to ideas.”
Goff and Echeverria both hope to stay consistent with Second Circle Productions and see it improve which will hopefully lead them to what they hope to achieve in the future. Echeverria strives to pursue a career in filmmaking in Hollywood and Goff aspires to ultimately be an influential movie director.
“It would be awesome to change society in a positive way, but on a more realistic scale to just keep going and improve artistically,” Goff said.
As Second Circle Productions continues to grow and produce films, Herrel said he sees potential in the film company and anticipates it going somewhere.
“If they’re doing this kind of work now, then they’re going to be doing some really great things in the future,” Herrel said.
