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How did Joel Guelzo complete a feature-film with a bootstrap budget and a handful of willing and talented family members and friends? He talks on this episode of The Friday Habit about the people that helped Norman become what it is today.
Show Notes
When Joel started the creation process for Norman in 2012, he didn’t have many resources besides an idea and a dream. He thought at the time that he was working on a short film, but after the first few weeks of shooting it became apparent to him and the actor who played Norman that the film had the potential to be feature-length, so they shifted their mindset to fleshing out the story more. Most Saturday mornings for about 3 years, they could be found at another friend’s house, which was the main filming location, working on various scenes until Joel’s vision had been brought to fruition.
Along the way, Joel was met with a lot of push back from people who wanted to know why he wasn’t doing things a certain way, but he was committed to his process and he is very pleased with the end result. He attributes the film’s success to the collaboration and buy-in from everyone involved in the film, from the actors to the musician who wrote the score to the other members of the crew (like Ben, who did some design work) that each contributed their own parts. Joel ran the film with an open-door policy, constantly showing the actors and crew the footage from various cuts for feedback. Joel worked very closely with his brother Jonah who is an audio engineer during post-production to make sure that every sound heard during the film was exactly right. Joel’s wife Joy, who works for Ben at Knapsack Creative, has always been extremely supportive of Joel’s ideas, which Joel says is such a blessing.
Looking back, Joel affirms his decisions to make everything as high-quality as possible along the way – not cutting any corners – because the cumulative effect of all of those decisions increased the overall quality of Norman by 15% at least. Now that the film has been released, Joel anticipates several more months (if not longer) of promoting the film and he hopes to use any proceeds to help fund a future film. For listeners who are working towards their own goals, Joel encourages you to announce what you are doing and surround yourself with accountability, to learn what you are bad at and ask for help with those things, and to carefully consider the details because they really do matter.
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