Making movies is no day at the beach. That doesn't stop a group of teenagers armed with cameras and sound equipment from trying today at Fort De Soto Park in Tierra Verde.
FreshFilms is running a nationwide contest for teens wishing to shoot their own short movies, in teams categorized as cities. The team working at Fort De Soto is the Orlando team, although one member -- 19-year-old Ashley Crouch -- hails from St. Petersburg. The Orlando group spent the past week in that city for pre-production. Now they have 12 hours today, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., to complete principle photography.
This year's themes are comedies and superhero flicks. Orlando is charged with the latter, in a short film titled How I Met My Mermaid. The group planned to film at Cocoa Beach today but changed theri minds at the last minute, believing Fort De Soto had more of what they needed for settings.
When completed, How I Met My Mermaid will be posted online with other teams' movies at the FreshFilms site, and later broadcast on DirecTV. Online voting for the Viewers Choice Awards will be open to visitors from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2. In addition, they'll be viewed by FunnyorDie.com masterminds, director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) and writer-producer Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost).
The contest is sponsored by Slurpee soft drinks and Airheads candy. With such a tight shooting schedule, the sugar rush should help.
Steve Persall is the movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times. He was conceived behind a drive-in movie theater his father operated and raised in projection booths and concession stands. He doesn't care how you did it up north.
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