“Caro Babbo” (2008) was my first — and so far is my only — experience in filmmaking. I’ve kept it close to my heart and hidden away for over seven years, but this weekend I decided to upload it to YouTube to share.
I had the pleasure of working with a very talented cast and crew. We shot this film in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as part of an assignment for Filmmaking I, a course I took at Tulsa Community College (TCC) with instructor Matthew Edwards.
I took several courses at TCC in the fall semester of 2007 and spring of 2008, after having graduated from the University Notre Dame in 2006.
Caro Babbo on a Student Budget
Like most of my artwork around the time, this project was abundantly cathartic, allowing me to share a part of myself that I had been trying to keep locked away for years.
Transitioning from shooting film photography to working with digital video equipment and editing software was very exciting and quite rewarding. My background in the darkroom helped me to understand the process a little more, as both processes entail a lot of time and effort.
The film’s location is TCC’s Southeast campus and features Sprite and Paris Always, who both play the same character at different ages.
Because this was a student project, it was a low-budget production, as you can imagine. We borrowed most of the equipment, and the props were mostly objects I owned already.
Sadly, we didn’t really know anyone that could make an instrumental track like what we had in mind for the film, so we chose Jerry Goldsmith’s “To Notre Dame” from the soundtrack for the feature film Rudy (1993). In the end, its emotional quality fit quite well with “Caro Babbo.”
Take a listen for yourself.
Working on Caro Babbo was a wonderful experience that helped me to navigate the full cycle of content creation for the first time in video format. To prepare for the project, I developed a script and storyboards that helped communicate to my actors and crew exactly what I wanted to convey on the screen. Watch Caro Babbo on my YouTube channel.