Meet David Daudelin, a independent filmmaker based in United States and a member of the StudentFilmmakers Filmmakers Network. See David’s Network profile to connect.
Shot on the Sony HVR-Z7U.
StudentFilmmakers Magazine: What inspired the story for “Only Way Out”?
David Daudelin: The semester before I made the film, I happened to see a student I knew, and she didn’t look very good. It stood out to me so much that I sent her an e-mail asking if everything was okay. She responded saying she thought no one cared about her and it would all be over soon. This message was sent around 4:40 AM, and I didn’t get it until about 8:30 AM when I woke up. I replied to the e-mail trying to encourage her, but didn’t hear anything back. I also went to the office where she worked and heard that she’d sent her boss a similar message. So I was praying for her, as well as many other people and two days later I saw her and talked with her and she didn’t do it.
SFM: In your own words, tell us about the story.
David Daudelin: Not to give away too much, the story is about a student in deep despair who decides to end his life. He writes a short letter to his friend, delivers it very early in the morning, and heads out to do it. When his friend wakes up a short time later and sees the letter, he rushes to stop him before it’s too late. At the end of the movie, I relate an incredible true story which unfolded while I was making it.
SFM: Did you use storyboards?
David Daudelin: No. As the director, producer, DP, and often actor in my own films, I can afford to be more informal with the script. For Only Way Out, I came up with the story, selected the soundtracks for it, and then listened to them over and over again. While listening to them, I envisioned the specific scenes for the movie to fit with the score. I then chose locations for those scenes and conveyed the information you’d find in a storyboard to the cast/crew who needed it when we were shooting.
SFM: What cameras did you use to shoot “Only Way Out” and how many cameras did you shoot with?
David Daudelin: I used two cameras for the movie. My main camera was a Sony HVR-Z7U, and the camera I used for the underwater footage was a Canon Vixia HG20.
SFM: How many people did you have in your crew? Who served as DP, camera operator, director, and editor?
David Daudelin: I only had one person specifically as a crew member – a friend of mine named Timothy Esposito. Greg, the main actor, also helped out with things, and for the pool scene Thomas Hunton, the younger brother of one of my friends, came out to serve as a lifeguard. I performed the other roles except camera operator for some of the scenes.
Timothy filmed most of the scenes where I’m acting, and Greg filmed the rest. Even though Timothy is a Computer Science major with no former experience in filming that I know of, he has a natural gift with the camera and in my most recent narrative short film, Crosswalk, he did the majority of the filming. The motion in his handheld shooting is amazing.
SFM: How did you shoot the pool scene?
David Daudelin: When I looked at how much a full underwater case would be for my small Canon camera, it was pretty expensive, [I think over $1,000]. Instead, I got what is essentially a heavy duty plastic bag with a glass window for the lens that cost about $80 and it worked great.
SFM: Could you share a tip or piece of advice when it comes to potentially dangerous scenes like the pool scene. What safety tips can you share?
Independent Filmmaker / Student Location: United States networking.studentfilmmakers.com/profile/DavidDaudelin David Daudelin: The pool scene isn’t as dangerous as it might seem because the suicide method depicted in the movie doesn’t work. Greg had to swim down, I’d shoot for about 5-10 seconds, and then he’d swim back up again. We did this many, many times to get the prolonged sequence depicted in the film. In the end, I actually didn’t include most of the footage taken for the real scenes. It didn’t convey the right emotion for the first part of the underwater sequence so I used some of the unintentional footage captured while he and I were trying to get in place to film.
SFM: Could share some camera movement techniques used in “Only Way Out”?
David Daudelin: Throughout the movie, I changed the camera techniques to convey the emotion shown at the time. At the beginning of the movie, there are a lot of still shots. In other parts, I used simple pans on a fluid head tripod to convey a smooth progression. When the action became more intense, I switched to a completely free, handheld camera. When I shoot like this, I often try to get into the emotion and let the camera movement reflect the intensity of the scene.
SFM: Did you experience Murphy’s Law on set?
David Daudelin: Actually, I had an amazing experience which was the opposite of “Murphy’s Law” while shooting Only Way Out. I really wanted the outside setting to be rainy for the movie and with the deadline I was on for the project and Greg’s school schedule, I didn’t have the freedom to wait for the perfect day. Eventually, I decided to just go ahead and shoot it one morning when the forecast looked like it might rain. It turned out to be a mix of rain and snow like you see in the movie which was unusual for April when I filmed it and I think looks better than just rain. After I put the film together, though, I showed it to a friend and he noticed that there was an inconsistency where I was wearing the blue bag in some scenes but not in others. One of the scenes where I didn’t have it on was an outside setting. Now I had a problem because it was unlikely I’d get another day like that with snow in April. In the end, I decided it wouldn’t be too bad of an inconsistency and went out one day with Timothy to re-film while it was at least overcast. As we got ready to shoot, it began snowing just like before. If you watch it, you can see the scene we re-filmed where I’m running with the blue bag and it perfectly matches the previous weather.
SFM: You’ve created videos that won first place in video contests, and “Only Way Out” won the Jersey’s Best Short Film Award. What advice can you share for submitting to contests, winning contests, and creating award-winning shorts?
David Daudelin: One thing I’ve learned about this is to be persistent. Before winning first place in the three video contests in 2009, I made a video which was ranked nearly last in another contest. Only Way Out was also rejected by many other festivals so I’ve seen that even if some people think your film isn’t good, there may be other places which like it.
SFM: What are you working on next?
David Daudelin: I just recently finished two 3-minute “short short films” for a video contest – one a drama titled, Crosswalk, and another one which is a documentary/ news video titled, Behind the Mic at WRNJ about my local radio station. You can watch these and some of my other videos, including Only Way Out, at www.lafango.com/ SinceAllElseFails.
Also at that link, you can watch a preview of a fifteen-minute short film I’m currently working on titled, “Nels” which I’d like to finish by December.
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