By Aaron Rubin / LA Film Fest Guest Blogger

The LA Film Fest’s Spotlight on the Craft series of panels kicked off with the Canon-sponsored case study of Life of a King. The generous moderator, Canon Industry Advisor Naida Albright, shone a light on how the filmmakers were able to finally bring the inspirational true story of Eugene Brown to the screen after ten years of development. Boasting a full line-up of the primary creative team, the panel featured writer/director Jake Goldberger, producer Tatiana Kelly, cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard and editor Julia Garces.

Life of a King originally came into being after co-producer Jim Young saw the story of Eugene Brown on TV. Deeply moved by this story of a man who had changed his life after eighteen years in jail, a man who was now trying to keep inner city youth out of trouble, Young knew that Brown’s story had “movie” written all over it. But it was hard to get access to Brown because of the limited nature of information at that time. So hard, Young had to hire a private investigator in order to get Brown’s phone number and meet him in person.

Director Jake Goldberger also shared his respect for all the actors who believed so strongly in Eugene Brown’s story, they worked for far below their regular rates. He said that, while he had long dreamed of having Cuba Gooding Jr. play the part, the realization of that dream was nothing short of a masterstroke by their casting director, the highly esteemed Mary Vernieu, who found a way to get a copy of the script into the Academy Award winner’s hands. On reading the script, Gooding was immediately sold and agreed to work on the project.

Just because they had an A-list star, it didn’t mean that making the film suddenly got easier. The hardest part of making the film was the production schedule itself. Instead of having the time and resources to luxuriate in the decision-making process on set, the hard working crew had to squeeze the entire film into an insanely tight 15-day schedule. Talk about high pressure.

It Takes a Village to Make a Film. That, and the Right Cameras

Goldberger was quick to point out that the film would never have happened if it wasn’t for all the help they received from talented cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard, a veteran of fast and loose documentary style shoots thanks to his experience on the camera teams for Borat, Bruno and Religulous. Schwartzbard suggested shooting the film on the Canon C300 because of its incredible versatility and its ability to shoot great footage in natural lighting, even at nighttime.

In order to maximize what little time they had, they shot almost every scene with two different C300s. The A Camera was outfitted with compact Zeiss prime lenses and the B camera primarily used an 80-200mm zoom lens. Goldberger and Schwartzbard shared stories of how they crafted the look of the film long before they shot a single digital frame, which is why most of the film was shot between 3200 and 6400 ISO—to give their digital video the grainy look of 16mm film. Both the director and cinematographer said they were inspired by the film Half Nelson. They also watched big budget films about inner-city schools as well to see what they couldn’t afford to do, and also to try and avoid cliché.

One of the biggest advantages the film had was an editor who worked at lightning speed. Julia Garces, a former assistant to Sally Menke, made a point of looking at all the dailies once they were deposited in her Dropbox account as soon as the day was over. This enabled her to start working on a rough cut right away, and also ask the filmmakers for additional shots and coverage that might be missing or helpful to add, saving time, money and potential reshoots. In fact, Garces had a rough cut ready for Goldberger to see just ten days after production had wrapped.

Overall, it looks like Life of a King is going to be a really great film, with emotionally resonant performances, a great script and a lot of talent across the board – both in front of and behind the camera. See for yourself today at the LA Film Fest, where it’s screening at 7:30 pm.

In addition to the free Life of a King screening today, the LA Film Fest’s final Spotlight on the Craft panel, Dolby’s The Sound of Your Story: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Case Study is also today, June 22 at 3:30pm. More information is available here »