“Honestly” is the first feature film released under the “Vocal Eyes Media” name.

Inspiration and Pre-Production:
My buddy David was on a missions trip to Honduras this past summer and came back to San Francisco with stories to tell. Over a tasty meal of wonton noodle soup, he told me about how his summer was spent ministering to locals through music. But there was also another aspect: a girl aspect. As he was telling me details of his story, I thought that it would be a great short film to create.

So we met up for coffee (Ma’velous SF ftw) for the next several weeks, collecting his thoughts and planning them on a timeline fitting for a short film. We had to convert a few aspects of his story to fit the setting and timeline we had to work with (e.g. instead of the girl leaving for a missions trip, she left for a conference).

Eventually we were presented with the issue of casting. Unexpectedly, our friend from LA, who had just come back from a mission trip of her own in Southeast Asia, came to visit San Francisco for a few days. So we asked her to play the part of the girl in the story.

And it all worked out great.

Production:
I chose Duboce Park in San Francisco as the setting for this story. I passed by this park all the time when I took the N Judah Muni line and it always stood out to me as a family/young couple-friendly environment, nestled in the midst of an urban setting. It was a great day to shoot: overcast in the morning leading to a sunny afternoon, so we were able to simulate several days of story. Not surprisingly, we had a lot of curious people passing by and stopping to watch. Every N Judah train that passed by, all eyes in the train were on us.

With the help of a few of our friends acting as extras and production crew, we shot everything we needed in just 5 hours.

And that was convenient since our female actor left for LA when she was done (wow, celebrity status, huh?).

Production Photos:

Final Product: