SDCT Productions

I am highly proud to say that a micro-budget production is having such a reach. What started as a conversation amongst myself and the director has turned into a project with a heart, mind and soul. It has become a living-breating entity.

More than that, it is becoming an inspiration. It is bringing people together and strengthening bonds.

As I see it, there are two types of community, geographic and interest-related. These areas often overlap, which is a neccesary component to strengthen and reinforce the foundations. 

We are seeing great stuff happen along the Ohio River in our 'neck of the woods.' We are seeing a rise in the arts in WV and we are proud to become part of this movement. 

What a project needs to invoke to build community:


Interest 

It all begins with similar interests, though it is a requirement for a project to be healthy that the interests come from different perspectives, lest a clique be formed. Once a clique is formed, whether inadvertent or not, it becomes very difficult to get others involved. A project that can't continue to grow is a dead project. If you only give a fire so much air, it is destined to go out. 

The different perspectives and strengths help not only the project flourish, but also the people involved. After all, it is people that make up community.

Opportunity
Community is built when people step in where they are needed. Without a pre-existing opportunity there is no point of stepping up to the plate. When people are given a task, the completion in itself acts as the motivating reward. 

Inspiration

Action begets action. When building community it is imperative to inspire the actions of others. This doesn't stop at your interproject efforts, but instead virally extends and creates seeds to inspire other efforts. These efforts are tied with a thread of like interest. 

We were inspired by the works of the multitude of filmmakers we have interviewed over the years. Filmmakers on all scales brought their best to the table and created the platforms to develop their products. We noticed that there seemed to be two kinds of film projects:
1. those that focused on the project with the end product in mind;

2. those that wanted to have a bit of fun with their friends and make a movie along the way.

We respect both of these styles, but we wanted to take it a step further, bridging the divide. We created Christ Complex with the idea that we can run a micro-budget film like a production with backing. 

We started filming in Huntington, WV - following up the efforts of David Smith. The actors were phenomenal, but Huntington was missing a crucial element that we needed. Surprisingly for a college town, the passion for the arts dwindell. Yes, Huntington has Marshall University, an art gallery/ museum and half, and Rocky Horror. These are all wonderful aspects of this city, but even they do not remain constant in a city where there is such a high turnover. People don't move to Huntington to start life, they instead enter Huntington to experience the waiting room for life. Without the necessary consistency, passion lacks. When passion lacks, interest lacks. Like communication, building the essence of community is a two way street, requiring give and take on both sides. 

Don't misinterpret what I am saying- we loved our actors. They each performed well and were interested in making a quality movie. We were forced to move production to Parkersburg due to budgetary reasons, and it was sad to see the cast and crew go. We approached everyone we could directly to let them know the news, as it was the hardest decision we had to make thus far with production.

Since we moved production to Parkersburg, we have been afforded the opportunity to build with what we didn't have in Huntington. The move was bitter-sweet. We fell in love with our cast, but it was necessary. If given the opportunity, we would have loved to keep them on. One actress even offered to drive up to Parkersburg on the days of filming, which we highly appreciated (can't get more passionate than that!) but we knew the need for her character would extend far into the school year - which would be good for neither her nor the film.

Within months we had put together a team of experts, many of which were strangers to one-another. Our project brings business people to the same table as stage actors. We have  a reporter who has us as a beat, a few amazing photographers, an animator, sound and lighting people, people who are there just to help and many, many more. We continue to involve others and help build this community, as we welcome people of all disciplines on the project. Once we realized that flimmakers need to rely on others to develop their products, we harnessed this. We extended our sites beyond an already-established film-community (a strictly interest community) and began instead focusing on all different professional interests, we took off. The largest difference lies in the passion. People approach others, talk and inspire more passion up here than we ever imagined. People with and without artistic interests are becoming involved. When you give oxygen to a fire, it burns brightly. We are proud to say we are helping the Mid-Ohio Valley catch ablaze. We are feeding off of many pre-existing sparks to develop a new culture, one that will last for many years. 

We have grown bright and many are starting to take notice. We are making this like a major production and having a blast in the process. We are not only utilizing people we know, but developing new relationships - both personal and professional. We have created a democratic system where everyone is in charge, thus everyone has their own reward. We can only grow from here.

I am honored to have such a direct part in West Virginia film. Thank you to everyone that is making this happen.