James Dilg, Los Angeles Filmmaker of Revolving Productions “Perfectly Timed” his Debut Short Film

James Dilg drops his debut short film titled Perfectly Timed, about a regular, and ordinary guy, James who goes for a job interview and fortunately grabs the opportunity of a lifetime. Perfectly Timed is a cinematic action and drama that boasts of the excitement of a short chase scene. Perfectly Timed has done well on the festival circuit after it submitted to over 7 festivals. So far a submission moved to the next stage, and a few others are promising.

indieactivity: Give the background of your personal experience with the story, writing production, and marketing?
James Dilg (JD): Well first off the main character’s name is James. That was funny to me, the first time Josh (Joshua Dowdy, the writer) and I met I asked him if he had any scripts written and he told me about Perfectly Timed and that being the leads name. The main premise, a huge point in the film is getting an opportunity to revisit the past. This is something that I’ve thought about many times, if I could go back and re-do something knowing what I know now what would I do differently. Those are just a few, there’s more too haha!

Joshua Dowdy (JD): Joshua in a current self-published author of one novel “The Little Brown Box and is planning the box is second “Beyond Saving” in the fall/winter of 2020. Joshua is also an aspiring songwriter, with very little experience with writing production of marketing, but is researching heavily on ways to formulate a scheme that takes the industry by storm. Storytelling started with the music, but transitioned to the novel, and eventually evolved to screenwriting, which now feels like a natural progression; I cant wait to see what happens next.

The Official Trailer for Perfectly Timed directed by James Dilg and written by Joshua Dowdy

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Did you start writing with a cast (You or any) in mind?
James Dilg (JD): This is a great question for Josh, the one who wrote the short. I’m sure he did, I know generally he writes w/ certain people in mind. When we were casting we definitely visited this department many times. One of the crazy coincidences is that one of our mysterious “suitman” characters looks exactly like Father Time. Josh pointed this out to me when I first met w/ Doc. The guy who filled the role for this character.

How long idd it take to complete the script? (Do you have a writing process?)
James Dilg (JD): It took about two weeks to complete the script, only because it was loosely based on a feature film that was completed and submitted to the Nicholas Fellowship Competition. #FingersCrossed.

How did you develop your film?
James Dilg (JD): We shot on digital so there was no film photography, other than a few BTS photos and some promo stills we used for graphic, which I sent to a lab to get processed and scanned. As far as developing the film itself and the nstory there were many many many hours of phone conversations and josh and I meeting and talking about it. As well as rehearsal.

How was it financed?
James Dilg (JD): By James the director & Josh, the screenwriter Lol.

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Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business you still struggle with? 
James Dilg (JD): Yes, finding funding for projects and getting bigger clients.

How long was your pre-production?
James Dilg (JD): It was kind of an ongoing process, we had a lot of rehearsals w/ our actors, visiting and revisiting the script, I don’t know exactly but definitely months.

What was your rehearsal process and period?
James Dilg (JD): We rehearsed a lot, mainly at the house I was living at. This was my first “Official short film” I was doing so I wanted to make sure it was right. I wanted to get real hands-on experience of working w/ actors and seeing what it’s like to bring real emotion and performance out of them. We just met, discussed ideas, and rehearsed the script. One night I cried a little bit b/c of how great their rehearsal performance was. It gave me big time chills.

You shot the film in days. How long were your days?
James Dilg (JD): We had one main day that was the majority of the principal photography, that day was 12 hours. We started at 6 am and wrapped that day at 6 pm. We had two pickup days to get some that were only about an hour each

Did the tight shooting schedule make it harder or easier? How did it affect performances?
James Dilg (JD): I think it was okay and it actually helped a little. O find that w/ more downtown it can get boring, and energy levels go down. When its Go, go , go its fun and exciting, a great time. Being as how we had many rehearsals and not too many scenes to cover I think the shoot time and the performances worked well together.

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How much did you go over the budget? How did you manage it?
James Dilg (JD): We didn’t go in w/ an overall “This is our budget” idea. We just shot it and did what we had to do in order to achieve it!

How important is marketing? Do you think a project can make any dent without it these days?
James Dilg (JD): Extremely important. Having just moved to LA and shot the film in Montana I wanted to give a real go at marketing this project. I did what I thought was good. We paid big Instagram accounts and celebrities to shout it out, did YouTube and Instagram ad’s and promoted the crap out of it on all of our own social media channels. And yes if a project is impactful enough I think it can make a dent without any marketing.

What was the experience like of working with such a small shooting crew (?)?
James Dilg (JD): It was a blast! Having shot MANY music videos and film projects by myself, having someone to ask to go grab this or setup that was amazing. It allowed me to focus on other aspects of production. I was pretty close w/ most of the people on that set so it was fun, a lot of laughing and good times.

The film looks stunning. How did you get such a good look when shooting so fast?
James Dilg (JD): Following the 180 degree rule for one. Exposing properly, making sure we had the camera settings right, being able to use some pretty good gear for the shoot, shooting shadow-side. Giving my cam ops a good rundown in the morning at the beginning of the day.

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Did you look at rushes? In what format?
James Dilg (JD): Yes, as soon as I got back home, myself, josh our screenwriter/executive producer, and my cam op Greyson sat down and did a little review of the unedited footage.

What were the advantages and disadvantages of the way you worked?
James Dilg (JD): The disadvantage was I think we could’ve done a little bit better if we had just a little more time. We only had so many hours allowed by our locations to shoot at. Had we had a little more time may be an hour at each location I think we could’ve done a little better. One advantage was the thoroughness of rehearsals. Come performance time our actors did an amazing job! Had we not rehearsed so much I don’t think it would go that well.

Joshua Dowdy (JD): The advantages were that we had two creatives working on the project from its conception. James Dilg: Cinematographer and Joshua Dowdy Screenwriter. The benefit that this provides is that James is skilled in producing music videos and Joshua is an author and crafty storyteller, and all this gelled in Pre-Production because both were able to provide valuable input that ultimately brought this project to conception. The disadvantages of this project were, time and distance. James was moving to Los Angelo, while Joshua was still contracted to remain in Great Falls, Montana for an extended period of time.

What else have you got in the works? 
James Dilg (JD): A new short film called “Yes Ma’am”! Josh also wrote this sciprt and will be producing and EPing it. Were planning one shooting in Queens, NY in the wintertime. Really excited for this one! Got some big plans for it.

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