12:12 was a project to create twelve short films, from start to finish, in twelve months. Was I crazy?
The project began on April 16, 2014 and concluded on April 16, 2015 with a screening of the twelve films at Sydney’s Chauvel Cinema.
By then, the project had pulled in over fifty actors, five cinematographers, four producers, four production designers, five sound recordists and six composers. People were involved in Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Singapore and New York.
The initial motivation for doing this was an attempt to accelerate my development as a film-maker. I’d made a number of short films but they'd taken years to make. I knew I wanted to make full-length films eventually, but there were still so many things I wanted to try first.
So I thought, what if I made a number of films quickly and wasn’t so precious about them? What if I gave myself a really tight deadline, so I’d be forced to just make them and move on? This way, instead of making two films in four years, I might be able to make something more along the lines of, say, twelve in twelve months.
With this approach I felt I wouldn't have to play it safe and I could try things that might not work. I could take some risks, explore different ways of telling stories and new ways of working with actors and crew.
So that’s what I did. I built a website, I sent out word to the network of friends and film industry people I'd met along the way and promised them all that in one year’s time, with their help, we’d have twelve short films. I was committed. Fear of a very public failure drove me on.
And what a year it was. Easily the most intense of my life, but by the end of it I had learned bucketloads. And sure enough, there were twelve shiny new short films at the end of it.
Plus I met so many amazing people along the way.
You can find out more about me, JJ Winlove, and my other films, here.
