To Make a Feature Film

by Jose Ordoñez Jr.

Today is the day I can announce that my debut feature film Three Bedrooms is finished! Well, at least it’s at that 99% point. No film is ever truly finished.

About one year ago I began working an idea - a very foggy one for that matter. The film that today stands before me is a completely different work, and yet it is so much better than I had ever hoped it would be. Frankly, some mornings I woke up scared to death to ask for money from friends to support my ever-loving passion project. Some other days, I’d wake up feeling confident about the project, maybe too confident, to the point of raising $1,000 in one day. Pretty impressive what a healthy ego can do. 

“Maybe your idea sucks and you have to get a better one. But maybe, just maybe, you’re scared.”

Making a feature film is an emotional rollercoaster; yet I think is one of the most important milestones in a filmmaker’s career. Yes, I have actually cried tears over this project. Just ask my wife. Sound design is still fresh in my mind and I’m pretty sure I developed some sort of phobia. Making a feature film is so much more taxing than I had originally thought, and I deeply empathize with anyone who’s going through the process. Having said that, if you consider yourself one, I beg you: make your stupid feature film. I say stupid, not in an objective sense, but in the manner that you may be thinking about your idea. You may be saying: “Oh, it’s not worth going through all the hassle.” And you may be right! Maybe your idea sucks and you have to get a better one. But maybe, just maybe, you’re scared. There’s a huge difference. You have to become self-aware and distinguish what you truly think is a bad idea, and what is an idea that you’re too afraid to work.

Fear is a double-edged sword. It can drive away from or drive to. It’s okay to manage your fear to drive you toward something, but don’t let it bite you in the butt.

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