• Blogs
• Forums
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Podcast Show Notes
• Events

 

Crossroads for the Arts

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

Content creation in Kansas City.

Most of the shorts being produced by SenoReality are rooted in suspense, sci-fi, and horror, so Rea and Jones have been traveling to the three Weekend of Horrors conventions put on in cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Austin each year by popular horror magazine Fangoria. These conventions are three-day weekends filled with appearances by cult film directors and stars alike, and SenoReality has been showing its films in a 30-minute block called “Horrors From Kansas,” making appearances whenever possible.

Related Links

Woman's Intuition MK12 T2-TakeTwo SenoReality Pictures, LLC

“When we go to film festivals, we stick out a little more,” Rea says. “It's a good thing, especially when they see our production value is slightly better sometimes. They're like, ‘Wow, you guys are doing that stuff in Kansas?’ and we tell them how much we're doing it for and people become more interested in shooting in Kansas.”

Back in 2002, it was odd for Rea and Jones to not immediately move to Los Angeles after graduating from film school. Students and faculty at the university fully expected them to go, but they were too busy actually making films to ever look up. After getting their feet wet, it just seemed like sticking with the creative community that fostered them was the right thing to do. Some of their friends traveled to the coast, only to come back after not being able to find work. Others have been successful. With the support system SenoReality has built in the Lawrence/Kansas City area, however, the company has no reason to leave.

Although both Rea and Jones agree that getting audiences for their movies — whether it's through film festivals or a DVD compilation of SenoReality shorts called Heartland Horrors — is satisfying, they also both agree that their greatest satisfaction comes from seeing a project through from conception to postproduction. Creating your own work from the ground up can be frustrating and challenging, but it's that very process that makes it so rewarding as well. The only thing Jones says he wishes he could change are the number of hours in a day.

“Sometimes I don't have enough time to work on projects,” Jones says. “I wish that the days were longer than 36 hours a day, but you can't do that. There's just not enough time, and it really irritates me that I can't work on [projects] more.”

“It's like we wish we were Michael Keaton in that movie Multiplicity and we could clone ourselves,” Rea says. “Unfortunately, the dumb one would [probably] be out shooting.”

See SenoReality Pictures' reel at reel-exchange.com/members/83ef381f/profile.

To comment on this article, email the Digital Content Producer editorial staff at feedback@digitalcontentproducer.com.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
© 2010 Penton Media, Inc.