Robert's films have been shown at some of the most important film festivals in the world, such as Anne Arbor and the BBC Film Festival, and had a full house at his retrospective last year at Case Western Reserve's Cinematheque. The first few days of filming are always rough on a film crew, but once everyone gets in the groove, everything becomes almost second nature. Although The University of Akron doesn't have a film program, it does have a video production track in the communication department. Students who study video camera recording or media production techniques learn some of the basic skills it takes to work on an independent movie. Of course, you will still be far off from knowing all of the essentials and lingo, but it does help.
Production can last anywhere from a couple days to months, or even years.
Peace by Piece took one month, but thousands of man-hours. This marks the 14th movie that I have worked on, but the first full-length feature. I have learned things from this experience that I will never read in books, formed friendships and received other job offers. Recently, I was hired as the DP on a new feature film by another Cleveland filmmaker, Tyrone Gooden. After meeting new filmmakers on that shoot I was also offered a job as the editor for a short horror film entitled The Legend of Hillbilly Jack.