Somos Las Bolas

A story of friendship, love, and table tennis. A boy struggles to find himself while his friends deal with an obcessed ping pong player. Based on a short story by Philip J. Reed, VSC, 'Somos Las Bolas' is an example of how far some will go to win, and how easy it is for others to lose.
Director's Statement:
"Somos Las Bolas" is a production that made it's first spark in an online instant message chat. I was talking to long-time internet friend Philip J. Reed, VSc, who just so happens to be a self-published novelist and also one heck of a talented author. I told him that for the summer of 2006 I was looking to direct a film, and that I was considering adapting one of his clever short stories to film. He was instantly thrilled by the idea, and almost immediately we started discussing how things would be done. It was at that moment I was launched into an 8-month project to create my first serious short film project.
It took almost a month to adapt and produce a treatment and subsequent screenplay from Phil's short story. After the writing it was time to get down to pre-production business. The script was soon cast and eventually a schedule was made. During casting, many small favors were made to secure the use of a Canon XL2 camera for video and an Sennheiser microphone system for the audio. This equipment was lent to us courtesy of Justin Anderson of Crazy Eyes Productions.
Once everything was lined up, production was to begin about a week after Fourth of July. We had nearly three weeks to get principle shooting and voice-over work completed. And for the first week, things went smoothly. Several key scenes were completed successfully and I couldn't have been a happier director. But after that week, things started to go downhill. Working as director, DoP, producer, and even grip, I was hammered down with a weight of responsibility. I was overwhelmed, and soon problems arose that I didn't know how to handle properly. Primarily they were personal problems between the actors. But because of those problems, scheduling conflicts surfaced, feelings were hurt, hair was pulled, and traffic tickets were written. Basically everything that could've gone wrong, went wrong. Surprisingly, somehow we marched on and show as much of the film as possible. Of course, once we lost one of our lead actors things ultimately fell apart.
In the months that followed production, it was my job as the sole editor to piece together the best representation of the script as I could. What resulted from after four months of on-again, off-again work is something I consider to be truly magical. Now, the film may not follow its script much anymore, but it is still something I am very proud of. The music by Scott Morschhauser is truly superb, the performances Jimmy and Abby bot gave are breathtaking.
I must say that I truly find myself lucky to have worked with such talent that filled the set of "Somos Las Bolas." This film means so much to me, and I hope that it can entertain and possibly even touch the lives of whoever watches it, even if only for a brief moment.
Thank You,
Andrew Edmark