The First Day of Shooting is a grungy documentary about four friends in their 20s who set out to make a short, no-budget horror film with the working title of "The Dream Part II."  Fresh from film school, "The Director" takes the project seriously, but the rest of his friends seem more interested in reclaiming, however briefly, their happy-go-lucky adolescence, when they made short films all the time with boundless energy, no money, and ketchup for blood.  Even "The Writer" of "The Dream Part II" is skeptical of art's ability to do more than entertain.  Is "The Director's" greatest obstacle cameras and lighting, or that his friends can only muster a single, one-night burst of enthusiasm?

I started out filmingThe First Day of Shooting intending it to be a bonus feature on the DVD for "The Dream Part II," which was being shot by my friend Steven Michael.  He was naturally in charge of "The Dream Part II" because he was The Only One Who Went to Film School.  But FDoS took on a life of its own.  It starts out like it's about the making of a movie, but really it's about how this group of friends has changed over time.   Their dreams used to be the same, but the years have pushed them apart.  That's the core of the movie's conflict.  Some of them want to get the film done, but some of them just want to goof around – crack jokes, play with light switches, and show up late – one last ‘hurrah' for adolescence, because just around the corner is the "serious" work of adulthood.  FDoS becomes an examination of that period in our 20s when we start to reconsider how feasible our dreams and ambitions actually are.

I hope FDoS works as a catharsis for artists everywhere struggling with a lack of willpower, either in themselves or those around them.  I also hope it's more universal than that.  I hope anyone can watch it and remember when they had different, possibly grander ambitions than they do now, and wonder what would have made them happier.

There are two reasons why The First Day of Shooting hasn't gotten into many film festivals.  The first is that I shot it on Hi8 video, because Steve was using the REAL camera to shoot "The Dream Part II."  Hi8 means smeary video and bad audio (infinitas gracias to our audio sweetener, Adam A. Johnson, for scrubbing the audio as much as humanly possible).  The second reason is that the conflict of the movie is so very subtle that it barely comes out.  The opposing forces of childhood ambition and adult resignation never erupt the way the viewer hopes they will.  Everyone is too laidback and nice to each other.   (When I think about all the fights and arguments I wish had happened, it makes me think that someday I'll make a completely fictional version of The First Day of Shooting. . .)

The closest we get to articulating the central conflict of FDoS is a discussion between "The Director" and "The Writer's Girlfriend."  It doesn't even qualify as an argument.  He says he wants to "make something that will live longer" than he will.  He's talking about children – the most popular and reliable way of creating a version of yourself to cheat death – but he could just as easily be talking about art.  His comment is directed at "The Writer's Girlfriend," who asserts she never wants children.  She was also the last to show up, the first to leave, and, presumably, the least interested in art or anything else that will live longer than she will.  That's hardly a crackling battle between two diametrically opposed forces of will.

But I'm glad I made the damn thing, even if getting a lot of the technical-computer-stuff to work right was torture, and I'll be forever grateful to my friends for letting me put them under the microscope.

-Peter Kovic, July 2010