Behind Rothline Entertainment is a mini-documentary about my father’s production company, Rothline Entertainment. He established the company over two decades ago for film and video creation as a hobby. He now creates several videos each week with the ever-changing social media platforms. Many include his Marty J. Maxwell comedy skits, while others include tales of urban legends. I wanted this documentary to be goofy and show his personality while featuring his videos.
Unlike previous projects, I challenged myself by limiting the documentary to less than 90 seconds. I tend to focus more on details, so this particular challenge is intended to make me focus more on split-second decision-making and problem solving rather than complete perfection.
Storyboarding Process
Since I wanted to keep this video short, I created a video introduction but chose to improvise the script after recording the interviews. Instead of a fully-scripted dialogue, I plotted the main graphics I wanted to feature in the storyboard. Then, I guided the storyline with a few questions:
When did you first realize you wanted to create videos?
What made you decide to create Rothline Entertainment?
What led you to creating urban legend and horror parodies?
What does your creation process look like?
How do you come up with new videos?
How do you get into character?
How long does your pre-production process take in comparison to your shooting and editing process?
Production
The production process for this video was simple compared to most video projects. Since the majority of my footage would be existing footage, the only key pieces left to film were the interview and b-roll footage. Although my goal was to remain under 90 seconds, the full video length turned out to be 3 minutes 30 seconds.