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Creating “Loon”
By Sabi Lofgren, writer/director of Loon
(from the 2008 Newport Beach Film Festival)
As a child, I experienced the ups and downs of moving around the country quite a bit. Each new move would bring forth a series of demanding emotions - feelings of loss as established friends moved on with their lives, isolation and uneasiness. It was rough being the "new kid" in school during crucial periods of growth and social establishment. I would soon come to realize, though, that each new location brought a different geographic landscape, new people, new cultures and a regional history that I would in time learn to appreciate. I found myself enjoying the fun little idiosyncrasies that made each new community unique, and soon learned to appreciate each new locale. So I set about creating Loon, a family film about a young teen who experiences a similar move during a crucial period of growth.
Carson Lind is torn away from his best friend just as he enters his teenage years. He is forced to leave his beloved Minnesota behind and move to Florida when his eccentric parents dream up the "Casa Minnehaha," a stereotypical Mexican restaurant with no regard or concern for culture or history. As Carson begrudgingly tries to accept his new situation, he discovers that their new restaurant is, in fact, housed in an old Spanish casa with its own colorful history and a spirit who is not too thrilled with the new restaurant. With the support of a new friend, he soon realizes that he must stand up to his parents' cultural ignorance in order to preserve the integrity of his new home. |
Loon was to be my graduate thesis film at USC, and, with a desire to graduate on time (or at least close to it), I knew the schedule would be tight. Having spent the entire summer of 2006 writing and rewriting (some forty-odd drafts) and still not quite being satisfied, I would move into preproduction in the fall, principle photography in the winter and post in the spring. I was actually on track to graduate in the spring of 2007 - if I could only complete the film! With everything else going on, I decided to propose to my girlfriend of seven years, hoping that everything would be complete by summer '07, so I'd be done with school and be able to get married! I soon found myself producing not only a thesis film, but a wedding!
In the fall of 2007, more rewrites continued as I began the casting process and looked for tricky locations, such as the historic Spanish mansion, a hockey rink and a Minnesota lake. I took out another loan and contacted as many family members and friends as I could think of, asking for donations. I was amazed at the contributions, small and large, that came from people I hadn't seen in years. It was truly encouraging. We jumped into production, hoping that the money, the film and the food would all last! My dear fiancée (normally an elementary school teacher) suddenly became an associate producer, spending her winter break getting food donations and setting up craft service instead of relaxing like all the other teachers at her school. Aside from the hurricane-force winds that wreaked havoc on our first day, establishing the exterior of the historic "casa," and the subsequent beach erosion that made us quickly improvise our beach scene, the production ran pretty smoothly. Everyone seemed to enjoy "production on ice" as crew members skated around in between takes and everyone gawked at the camera sitting on a dolly with ice skates! After all the initial stress, the actual filming of the movie was a pure joy.
Then came post production, and it suddenly occurred to my mentor, my editor and myself that we lacked an ending! We edited all spring and I soon realized that the prospect of completing the entire production that semester would be impossible. I signed up for the thesis again for the summer of 2007. I hoped to goodness I wouldn't become a repeating thesis student who wanders the halls of school like a ghost, continuously signing up for more semesters of the thesis, extending the production into several years. I rewrote the ending of the film and gathered the cast and crew together for a nice round of pickups. We got new establishing shots, a new beginning and, most importantly, an ending! All of this was done a mere couple of weeks before the wedding.
The completion of Loon could not have been done without the incredible dedication from a team of eager filmmakers, a truly impassioned cast, the love of family and friends and, of course, the unyielding support and dedication of my mentor. Without any of them, the project would have remained a mere dream and I'd probably still be roaming the halls of school, going a bit loony. More info on Loon can be found at www.loonmovie.com
Photos courtesy of the filmmaker. |
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