Hey y’all! Did you know that I recently made a full short film based on my Emma Lenford books?Which, ahem, you can get started with an entirely free e-book and audiobook combo, by the way… but, personal marketing aside–yep, we made an EMMA LENFORD SHORT FILM!!!
And, by we, I mean me and my best friend, who happens to be a fabulous filmmaker. And, honestly, it was a blast to make.
And, of course, I could drawl on and on and on and on about the film in writing… or, alternatively, I could just show you the film. Because, since a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth… like, a trillion or something.
So, buckle up, kiddos… Here it is.
Scroll on to read the official video description/background, and then get ready to have your mind blown by the ~17 minute comedic short film. Oh, and then scroll down for all the behind-the-scenes deets!
The Film
Emma Lenford fans of the world–rejoice! Kari Lynn M. has partnered with the fabulous filmmaker Madison Krause to bring you a hilarious short film based on the books of the Emma Lenford series, written, of course, by Kari Lynn M.
Staring Kari Lynn M. as Emma, Stella, Miranda, and a couple extra surprise characters, plus the voice of Madison and the imagery of Kari’s dad’s hands, this film takes viewers on an adventure through the mind of the author who brought the world of Emma Lenford to life. Featuring the dialogue and scenes of What the Luck, Emma Lenford?, Chapter 1 (AKA The Shawshank Redemption), you will witness the madness that ensues after our main character, Emma Lenford, is unlawfully arrested for possession of a “highly illegal” drug at the Talket County Jail.
Are we up-playing this mini movie? Perhaps. But we just want you to be prepared. Because this, viewers, is what really happens in an author’s mind while writing this stuff.
The Film Behind-the-Scenes “Deets”
Now, now, now… if you just watched that entire film start to finish, I bow to you. Not only because, well, I, Kari Lynn M., had to play every character in every scene due to a lack of funding to hire real professional actors, but also because, well, you actually watched all of that madness, and I could honestly kiss your feet for doing that!
But, as I said at the top of the page, there’s plenty I could say and share about this film and its filmmaking process, so I’m going to take this space to do just that. Because, of course, everybody loves behind-the-scenes tidbits!
Now, here are the deets.
The Script Was Based on the First Chapter of ‘What the Luck, Emma Lenford!’
So, if you’ve already read the first two books in my Emma Lenford series, you’d probably notice that all of the dialogue from the scenes in this film are practically identical to that which appears in the first chapter of What the Luck, Emma Lenford! (Emma Lenford, book 2). I mean, I basically wrote the whole script just by copying and pasting parts of my manuscript into a screenplay format. So… that was probably the easiest part of the filmmaking process.
Only One Wig Was Harmed in the Making of This Film
Now, unless you really have my profile picture(s) memorized, you probably don’t know that I’m part of the >1% of the world–that is, the natural redhead population of the world. And, although it wasn’t always my favorite thing about my appearance as a kid, I’ve come around to embracing my red hair as I’ve grown up. I mean, it is rare, after all, and it supposedly comes with its own natural anti-anesthetics genetic properties… but, that’s a research post for another day.
So, if you notice in the film, my hair seems to change colors according to every character. And that was, well, on purpose, obviously. However… I only ever used one wig to make it happen.
And that’s because I used temporary colored hair spray, and, let me tell you, that stuff is not as temporary as the bottles say it is. I used three different colors–brown for Emma, black for Miranda, and blonde for Stella… although the blonde bottle didn’t really work on me and kind of just glitterified my natural hair instead. So, maybe Stella is meant to be a redhead after all.
There’s also not as much in the spray bottles as it seems, either. So, I actually only sprayed the front half of my hair for each character. So, like, if I would have turned around, you would have seen a line where the spray color stopped and my normal hair started, so… I could never turn around in a scene. And, about that wig… that was a big black wad of hair that I clipped onto the back of my head to make Miranda’s ponytail. And that thing was heavy.
Oh, and about that crazy old lady character… that was a wad of fake spiderwebs on top of my head. You know, like Halloween decor.
Filming Took a Long, Long Time
So, since I had to spray my hair according to the appearance of every character in the film… we ended up splitting the filming into about four different days because, like I said, that hair spray stuff would not wash out for at least a week. I believe we filmed Stella’s character first, then Miranda, then Emma and the extra characters, and then “my” author character last. And, if you noticed, my hair was at least six inches shorter when I played “myself,” and that’s because I got a haircut in between filming days just to make it all even more confusing for viewers to figure out. I mean, I really wanted to trick y’all into thinking I have a twin or something.
Also, there were no straight faces between shots. Like, it was always either me or Madi, my filmmaker, cracking up. Actually, it was usually Madi laughing and dropping the camera, but we’ll forgive her for it because, hey, it was super hilarious, wasn’t it?
The Orange “Talket County” Jumpsuit Is on Display at a Local Museum…
…that I like to call “my bedroom closet.”
But, for real, that orange jumpsuit should be put in glass case on display someday. I mean,I ordered the thing off of Amazon and Sharpie-d the “Talket County” text onto it myself. Not to mention that it was a men’s jumpsuit and was approximately three sizes too big for me so I had to constantly pull it up around my waist in between shots of filming…
…And so Are the Jail Bars…
…in my parents’ basement, right behind my homemade audiobook recording studio.
The jail bars were another DIY project, though, and were actually made from a bunch of those cardboard cylinders, you know, that gift wrapping paper comes on. I took those and glued them onto a wood plank (which was actually a hardwood floorboard that was just, I guess, laying around), and then I spray painted the whole thing gray. Boom!
Well, that’s all the deets I have to share with you guys today. Let me know, of course, what you thought/think of this funny lil’ short film… and if you’d like to see similar videos in the future!
–Kari 🎥
Kari Lynn M. 