Libby Blood (Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Writer) received the 1st Place Award in the PROFESSIONAL Category for her short film, “Lucy”, in the Summer Shorts Film and Video Contest (2017), hosted by StudentFilmmakers.com. Interview published in HD Pro Guide Magazine.
Libby Blood grew up in her family-owned, hand-built, Movie Theater giving birth to a life-long passion for storytelling. Because of this she started making films at a young age. She has made countless films, documentaries, spot feature news stories, PSAs, promos, commercials, music videos, and short films. In the past 8 years, her work has been in over 25 film festivals around the world including the prestigious Festival de Cannes with her short film, LUCY. Blood has been honored with more than 65 awards including Orange County Film Festival’s and Newport Beach’s ‘Filmmaker of the Year’. Libby is the Senior Editor for SVN Student Filmmaking online magazine as well as one of the five members of Cypress College’s Advisory Board for the entire media program there. Blood also does the cinematography for upcoming Sony reality television productions and all commercials for TSL Electronics, and Anjali MD Skincare. She is a cinematographer and edits for Nick Cannon’s Celebrity High TV, Mouthy TV, and handfuls of independent productions. She has edited forMTV, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), John Deere, Long Story Short Media, Glamour Magazine, and Sony producers.
Libby’s dream is to edit animated features. Blood works in Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere. She is also Certified in Apple’s Final Cut Pro.
HDPROGUIDE: What inspired the story for “Lucy”?
Libby Blood: I’ve grown up with my younger brother Luke who has autism. As a result of the closest person to me having this disorder I’ve been able to become very close to the disorder as well. Lucy is the visual representation of what I think people like Luke go through on a daily basis.
HDPROGUIDE: Can you tell us about your story’s setting, when and where your story takes place, and the significance?
Libby Blood: Lucy is set in 1939 France for multiple different reasons. This was a time when autism was first being discovered. As a result the average person only thought of it as a problem and something to be frowned upon Isolating Lucy and people like her even more. It’s also set in France to symbolize the language barrier people with autism face. Communication is like a whole different language to them.
HDPROGUIDE: What were the some of the most important parts for you in regards to pre-production?
Libby Blood: Pre-Production is so important to me when it comes to taking on a project. When the right kind of planning is done for a project it’s potential skyrockets. As an Editor today, post production is very important to me as well. This is where the love and true story telling comes in i think and needs to be taken seriously.
HDPROGUIDE: Can you share with us a “Challenge and Solution” in regards to the making of “Lucy”?
Libby Blood: There were countless challenges that had to be overcome when making Lucy. One of which was when we were filming the flood scene on our set. it was 3am and we set everything up to flood our set. When we went back to watch the footage our cameras had malfunctioned and stopped recording. We didnt get it and had to clean up and shoot it again because of our major time crunch on the film. With this and many others, the making of ended up taking on much of the same theme as the film itself. When things got hard we had to buckle down and power through much like Lucy. “My barriers are not my limits; they are my stepping stones to greatness.”
HDPROGUIDE: If you could share your Top 3 Tips related to filmmaking, what would it be?
Libby Blood: Pre-production, story, and pre-production. When you have a story you believe in and the time to plan it right, magic can happen.
HDPROGUIDE: What are your thoughts about being selected and winning one of the top placements in the contest?
Libby Blood: I am so incredibly honored to be recognized. It means the world to me that people are seeing Lucy and that they are seeing the significance to it. That’s what it’s all about after all right? I can’t thank Summer Shorts Film and Video Contest enough!
HDPROGUIDE: By the way, what did you shoot and edit with?
Libby Blood: I shot with the Canon 5D Mark ii with a prime 50mm f1.2 lens as well as others like a 100mm macro and 16-35mm. At the time i edited the film on Final Cut Pro 7.
