Arizona-based film company Running Wild Films has completed its goal to shoot a film a week for one year. Now, Running Wild will screen the films at the 52 Films/52 Weeks Festival this weekend from Friday, February 7, through Sunday, February 9.
The festival will be held at Mariscos Vuelve a la Vida.
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Running Wild Films was founded by Travis Mills and playwright Gus Edward.
Mills says that the inspiration behind the project to make 52 films in 52 weeks came from director John Ford, who did a film a week when he first began directing. According to Mills, taking on that sort of challenge is one of the best ways to improve as a director.
Mills always wanted to make movies at a fast pace, do adaptations of short public-domain stories, and do a project that would "stand out."
"From the beginning, we set a standard of making movies at a fast pace with small budgets, while focusing on good storytelling," Mills wrote on the company's website.
All 52 films are adaptations of classic public domain short stories. Their scripts were written in 2012 and filmed every week in 2013.
To pay for the project, the team started a Kickstarter at the end of 2012 in hopes of raising $10,000. They passed their goal by $2,000.
With $12,000 to make 52 films, each film got a little over $200, and all the cast and crew worked for free.
The cast comprises local actors, and all filming was done in Arizona.
On average, the crew would spend two or three days of the week filming, with the rest filled with editing and pre-production to organize the next week's film.
Mills, who is involved with Running Wild Films full-time, addressed the highs and lows of taking on this project.
"Some weeks were easier than others; sometimes we'd be scheduled to shoot on a weekend and it rained or actors dropped out," Mills says. "Week per week we just got used to the feeling of making a movie every week. This is my craft."
All profits will go toward making more films.
The team of five has finished three feature-length films and is in the midst of a fourth, with plans to start a fifth in April.
According to Mills, this film will be the company's first paid project and festival-goers can look forward to seeing a teaser trailer on Friday night.
The team will also announce its next big project for 2015 on the festival's closing day.
The festival will be accompanied by a pub crawl on Saturday night hitting Bliss Rebar, Carly's, and Lost Leaf.
All-access passes can be bought for $52, while an opening-night pass goes for $15, Saturday passes are $30, and Sunday are $20.
A screening schedule and film trailers are available on runningwildfilms.com and the facebook.com event page.
The films will be available on Vimeo on Demand next week.
