Short Film: The Greasy Spoon Poem

I had a few student films under my belt, but The Greasy Spoon Poem was my first film where I'd produced it from concept to final film. I wanted to make a film that was very contained and had minimal requirements to achieve a high production value. I took a short poem that I had and worked a plot around it. This wasn't too difficult to do. The poem has it's own conflict, I just had to keep the world of the poem down so I didn't drive my budget up. I stayed with the two locations, a bar and a greasy spoon, that are mentioned in the poem. Later, I was able to find a location that had both a bar and a greasy spoon in the same building. A great place in Seattle called The Hurricane Cafe. I was able to use the location in away that allowed the place to stay open during the shoot. So, the owners gladly didn't charge me for a location fee. They even provided craft services to the shoot for cost to themselves. Again, thank you Hurricane Cafe!

We shot on a DVX100 from Panasonic. By using proper film lighting we were able to achieve a look for the film that really takes us into the protagonist's world. The entire film was shot and put through post production for less than a thousand dollars.

The Greasy Spoon poem has been well received. Especially by creative types. It seems that we all have a personal understanding of the struggle that exists when creativity is brought into a public arena. Thanks for watching the short film. Let us know what you think!

- Mark Brent

Check out my production company's website www.brentcreative.com click here