Dusty Doering and Chris Doubek shoot a scene along the Rio Grande in South Fork for The Guest Room.

SOUTH FORK — You might think of a short film as something that can be hastily thrown together on a Tuesday afternoon, but for a group of filmmakers who recently visited the area to shoot scenes for a new short film, "The Guest Room, an afternoon’s work is what it takes to shoot just a couple of scenes."

One of ten finalists in The Doorpost Film Project, a second annual non-profit short film contest, Austin-based production company One Spark Films spent this past weekend shooting along the Rio Grande. Scenes were also shot at Clear Creek Falls near Creede and the Rainbow Grocery in South Fork as part of a shoot for the twelve-to-twenty-minute "Guest Room" that took them through three states — Texas, New Mexico and Colorado — over the course of seven eighteen-hour days.

“It might be unbelievable that we’re driving 2,000 miles to film such a short film, but that’s what it is,” joked producer Danny Brough-Stevenson, part of the ten-person film crew.

“A small group of people can span great distances and tell a story and fit it into 20 minutes,” said writer and director Greg Kwedar, co-founder of the 10-month-old One Spark with editor and director of photography Jake Hamilton. Guest Room is the sixth production for the nascent company, whose founders have their eyes set on producing their first full-length feature film within the next year.

The labor-intensive shoot wasn’t all for nothing. Each of the ten finalists, including Guest Room, which tells the story of a lonely middle-aged man (played by Chris Doubek) who picks up a young and adventurous hitchhiker (Dusty Doering) and travels the southwest with him, is up for a $100,000 grand prize in The Doorpost’s contest. A $30,000 second place prize and a $20,000 third place prize will also be awarded.

Production on The Guest Room wrapped Tuesday. Beginning Sept. 1, the film will be made available for streaming and voting for two weeks on The Doorpost’s website at www.thedoorpost.com.

For the complete article see the 07-16-2009 issue.

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