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Crossroads for the Arts

Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Eric Melin

Content creation in Kansas City.

SenoReality Pictures

One company that benefits from its films being shot in the Kansas City area is Lawrence, Kan.-based SenoReality Pictures.

“A lot of people in Kansas City and Lawrence work on each other's films,” says cofounder Patrick Rea. “We just all know each other. If someone needs a sound guy, they'll give Ryan a call, or [if they] need me to do something, they'll give me a call.”

Since graduating with film degrees from KU in 2002, Rea and Ryan S. Jones have been staples of the independent movie scene in the Lawrence/KC area, producing an indie feature film and at least 15 short films together under the SenoReality banner.

Rea handles the writing and directing duties, while Jones does almost everything else — although he specializes in sound mixing, sporting one of the only 5.1 surround mix setups in the area. Another partner, Josh Robison, moved to Atlanta last year, but he still edits certain projects and sends them back to Jones for the finishing touches.

The company may not have a fancy workplace, but SenoReality does have an office space — not that they maintain regular hours there. All the editing and sound design is done out of the house that the duo currently shares with another roommate. This means that the office is almost always dressed as a set and is used mostly as a shooting location.

Living in a liberal, arts-friendly town such as Lawrence has its perks, and SenoReality is quite happy to be in the heartland. “There's a lot of local support,” Rea says. “Virtually all of our locations we get for free because we're able to kindly ask them. If you're in L.A., you have to have a permit wherever you go. You can't put your tripod on the sidewalk without someone stopping you and saying, ‘Where's your permit?’”

A partnership with Free State Studios, a local television production company, provides SenoReality with some valuable financial support as well. In 2008, Rea and Jones produced three short films in collaboration with Free State. The first one, Woman's Intuition, won a regional Emmy award. Rea also works part-time for the studio, while Jones somehow manages to hold down a 9-to-5 at Free State working in advertising production. On weekends and at night, Jones is hard at work on SenoReality projects.

Making short films is the best way to get hands-on experience with filming and editing techniques, and it's also very valuable when it comes to trying out different gear. SenoReality's feature, The Empty Acre, was shot with the standard-definition Panasonic AG-DVX100A. After that, the company moved on to the Sony HVR-Z1U. After some Super 16 film projects, Rea shot five shorts with the Panasonic AG-HVX200 using either the Redrock Micro 35mm lens adapter or the Letus35 Extreme lens adapter for a filmic look. A teaser for SenoReality's newest project was shot using the Thomson Grass Valley Viper FilmStream, and Rea just recently shot some 4K footage with the Red Digital Cinema Red One camera.

It's been two years since Rea shot anything on film — and that's mostly because when he started shooting in HD, nobody could tell the difference. The ability to look back at the footage you've shot immediately rather than waiting for dailies to be developed is a huge plus as well. This is especially important for short films that may not have much of a schedule for reshoots or money for more film.

“With [the short] Emergency Preparedness, which was shot in 2006, the last shot of the day we got was only a half a take of it because we ran out of film,” Rea says. “We ended up barely having enough to make that shot work in the film and then we were done. I had no more film.”

Down in the basement, Jones does his sound-design work amid walls covered with DVDs and Indiana Jones posters at a desk that's surrounded by loudspeakers. He just recently switched to MOTU Digital Performer for his audio workstation, and he says he is quite pleased that it doesn't eat his processing power like Apple Soundtrack Pro did.

The film festival circuit is very important for a small studio such as SenoReality, which will be screening its shorts at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, this month. Not only does it gain exposure for the films, but it's also a chance to meet people — if you can afford to go.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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