Back a few years ago, I got a taste of what being part of a video production team is like.

My boyfriend at the time was in a film class at college. He and a couple of his classmates were all getting excited about what they were learning and wanted to put it to good use. Zach was great at storyboarding. Signe had a knack for costume design. Caleb had editing software and a camera. Lanchi had connections all over the community. I knew my way around cameras and had an artistic eye for angles and scene composition. All of us were creative and loved crafting a good story.

We met in the back of a McDonald’s and dubbed ourselves Confluence Arts.

Never before had I been part of such a diverse team of creators. All of us came from very different walks of life. Ordinarily, we might not have been as drawn to each other right off, but here, we had a common goal that we were excitedly pursuing. Each of us had unique talents to bring to the team. If any member was missing, we all felt it.

We had a vision for a short film noir project.

Over the summer, we had many exhilarating meetings where we plotted our project.

As the idea grew, we began scoping out locations and shopping for costume parts.

We even managed to contact the man who runs our town’s annual vintage car show and got him to drive one of his 1930’s era vehicles for a scene.

We were so committed to accomplishing our best work that we would go shoot footage at all hours of the night if it meant not getting modern cars and people in the shot.

One day we all got up at 4 am just so that we could catch the perfect sunrise scene. It was a level of artistic commitment that I had never experienced before.

Where are we now?

All over the place. Truth be told, life took over and our film project died in editing. Signe moved to continue her education. Caleb and his wife had several children. Lanchi got busy with work and raising her son. Zach is about to get married and move across the country. I worked several jobs and then got involved with Praxis.

We’re scattered, our project is no more, and I was just notified on Facebook that our Confluence Arts page is scheduled to be deleted. It’s a little sad that our video will remain incomplete and unseen. Yet despite that, I would never say those hours were a waste. Our footage may be lost forever, but the memories are there. It was exciting, challenging, and sometimes frustrating; it was an adventure. Being a part of Confluence Arts was a taste of what a real film studio does. Because you know what? We were a real film studio. For six months, we made it happen.