Friday will be a homecoming of sorts for Morgan Nichols.
Born in Concord and having spent the first five years of his life on the family farm in Contoocook, Nichols has a close attachment to the area. While he has spent most of his life outside of New Hampshire, currently living in Maine after spending the remaining part of his childhood in Kennebunk, Nichols still has a lot of family in the state.
And when his latest feature film, How to Make Movies at Home, is shown at Red River Theatres as part of the SNOB Film Festival this Friday at 6 p.m., it will be the first time one of his creations has filled the screen in a New England theater.
“Concord has a special place in my heart,” said Nichols
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How to Make Movies at Home is a movie about how to make movies at home, according to the film’s official trailer. Set in a small Maine town, the film portrays the ups and downs of a group of young adults who have spent their entire lives making movies together.
Over the course of How to Make Movies at Home, audiences receive a five-minute history lesson about the evolution of film, while learning all the ins and outs of shooting, setting and producing a movie in a do it yourself style.
“It’s pretty unlike any movie that’s ever been made before,” said Nichols.
Not only does the feature length comedy tell a story, but you will learn just about all you need to know about putting together a film of your own.
“Woven through the movie are real lessons in making movies at home,” said Nichols. “It’s really a fully functional how-to.”
Nichols’s film received raved reviews while on the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers in September, which included 10 screenings in 11 days and mostly on college campuses.
“They really responded to the film,” said Nichols. “And when someone comes up to me and says thank you for making that film, that’s how you know what you did was worthwhile.”
How to Make Movies at Home was also recently shown at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Kansas on Oct. 19. It was the third time Nichols had taken one of his feature films to the Kansas festival and is hoping that his trip to Concord will turn into something similar.
“I’m hoping playing at the SNOB festival will be the beginning of another great relationship,” said Nichols.
Nichols had not applied for inclusion into the SNOB prior to this year, but his acceptance makes How to Make Movies at Home one of six feature length films on display at the festival and will also be shown on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Since the age of 8, Nichols has been making movies. And while his creativity has grown and budgets have expanded, Nichols has held on to that same childhood enthusiasm for film making. So far, he has created three feature films, including the likes of Jesus Freak and the little Death, and upwards of 60 short films and there is no plan on stopping.
“Making a lot of films with no money has kind of been my life,” said Nichols. “There hasn’t been a year in my life that I haven’t made a film.”
Nichols has held various jobs in each of his movies, but has never been responsible for so many as he was in How to Make Movies at Home. Not only did Nichols direct, produce and edit the project, but he also wrote the screenplay. All seven drafts of it.
“Next time I’d like to have a little more help,” said Nichols.
The idea for How to Make Movies at Home came about in 2007, not long after the finishing touches were put on the little Death. And it has been a work in progress ever since. The first version of the screen play took place in Los Angeles, as did the three ensuing drafts, but something just wasn’t right.
After crunching the numbers and realizing he was going to be way above the kind of budget he envisioned for the film, Nichols scrapped the original idea and wrote his screenplay for a fourth time – this time set in Maine. Nichols took two more cracks at it before it was finally ready for filming in 2011.
“The writing process took a long time,” said Nichols. “I realized that I’d much rather make this in my home state of Maine.”
It took all of three weeks for Nichols and his crew to create his latest masterpiece, but like the previous few years, there were a few tweaks to the script along the way. And looking back, Nichols would have liked a little more time.
“If someone said you can have an extra $10,000 or an extra week, I would have taken the extra week,” said Nichols.
Some of the scenes for the movie brought Nichols back to his childhood. There were parts shot in the library he went to growing up and trees he used to climb as a kid. And many of the characters show some resemblance to the movie’s creator.
“Most of the characters are based off of me,” said Nichols. “My feeling is that movies are like dreams and all the characters represent a part of you.”
Once filming was done, Nichols took to his editing station before the final product was done in April of this year. And while there was a sense of accomplishment when the finishing touches were made, Nichols admits he was not the biggest fan of the movie right away.
“When it’s your film that you’ve been working on it from scratch and seen every frame thousands of times there’s not a lot surprise,” said Nichols. “I really didn’t start loving it until it had been done for a few months, but now I’m starting to love it.”
In order to make the film, Nichols held a kickstarter campaign that raised about $25,000 and that almost covered the entire cost. Over the course of his career, Nichols has used less than $100,000 to fund all of his projects.
Nichols said he can’t wait for Friday night, and he’s hoping anyone who wants to learn how to make a movie at home should feel the same way.
