A person who worked part of his life in the fields, who has ambitions to leave a secure job, that makes his father proud and his friends, for a not so sure dream of making a better life for himself. He has to overcome these voices of doubt in order to take his first step towards his dreams of going to college.
I had the idea to enter a short film festival here at the A.I.T.C Film Festival at Fresno City College, but didn’t have a idea of what I could film in such a short time frame of 3 months. The first idea was, it had to be something I could pull off with little to no money and with the only resources around me. Then over several days I envisioned shots in the fields and at the college campus, and the story kept coming back to my personal experiences working in the fields. The time spent working those summer jobs helped me find my passion for telling stories visually, but I was very doubtful of perusing a dream that was very unstable if I could make money or turn into a career, and I went for it, that first step and the support of many positive people that has kept me going towards becoming a great filmmaker.
The purpose if this film was to show other people who have been in similar situations of inner doubt, and that if you take that first step towards something you love you can never wake up hatting to start the day. I know its a really short film, but I would love to expand on the story and show more of the character development of the inner conflict that many people have has they try to find the meaning to life. Descuate also has a meaning to the title (DES-CUATE) translates to “the thinning of plants in order for them to grow.” Meaning the Felipe the protagonist has to thin away all the doubt inside of him in order to grow in life.
Here are some troubles we had along the way of filming this short film; one was that their was no budget, second was that I had no actors who lived in the Hanford, CA area, also my cinematographer had to drive out from Clovis, CA, third thing was we had to film guerrilla style, as in we had no permits or permission to be at certain locations so we had to be quick in and out without leaving a trace. Luckily we had done a lot of pre-production and had a shot list also my cinematographer has amazing gear for filming. I would recommend that you never go cheap on two things a cinematographer and sound person.
My future goals are to continue to write and direct short films and hopefully make a feature one day, with the right team and budget anything is possible. I am hopeful that it will happen one day and I will look back on all I have learned along the way, and say “this is it, this is what my purpose in life is”. In the mean time I would love to talk to other like minded filmmakers and storytellers who are in the similar journey. Let’s write, film, direct, and represent our art.
If you want to get a hold of me send me an email onthehorizonfilms@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram @onthehorizonproductions or @nando.carter
Thanks for reading me ramble on
Website: https://onthehorizonfilms.wixsite.com/othp
Want your film project featured on Local Films? Fill out this form!