We’ve been making films in our own backyards since we were kids and now we want to make a film that teaches everyone else how to do it. We believe that authentic, community-based cinema is more delicious and nutritious than every glossy romcom, sequel, reboot, and remake combined.

H2MM@H is a scripted, full-length film set in the fictional town of Hillport, Maine. The story: a young woman named Jonah and her band of rock&roll filmmakers come face to face with a Hollywood production that wants to film in their town.

Between the humor and drama, there are actual simple lessons explaining all the basic — yet essential — filmcraft that every filmmaker should know. Everyone who sees this movie will come out ready to make their own.

The result: a movie to launch a million more. An essential tool for upping the game of every backyard filmmaker. And a new definition of what it means to be indie.

The ease and affordability of digital filmmaking was bound to produce new methods of creating cinema that are quite distinct from the careful-planning/careful-execution model of old. lo-film is one of those new methods.

It began when Nathan Nichols suggested to his brother Morgan that they should “make movies like we did when we were kids”. This simple suggestion has resulted in 40+ films originating from a few basic rules and guidelines. Although the majority of these were made under the guidance of either Morgan or Nathan, the process has been spreading in recent years.
The Rules of lo-film
If these tenets are not met, it is not really a lo-film.

1) A lo-film is shot in a single day.

2) A lo-film is not planned before that day. Everything, from dialogue to action to plot is improvised as it is filmed. The only element that may be set ahead of time is location, so people will know where to meet.

3) A lo-film does not have a director. Each performer creates their own character and is the sole decider of what that character says and does. Similarly, each camera operator decides what to shoot and how. All filmmakers can suggest and advise, but none may give orders or direct.

4) The credits for a lo-film are always simply this: “a film by” and then all participants listed in alphabetical order. Additional music credits are allowable.

Some lo-film Guidelines
These are suggestions that have been extremely helpful in our experience.

a) We have found it extraordinarily helpful to make lo-films in batches. When you are only making one lo-film it is hard to avoid internal pressure to make it “good”. The pressure to excel actually stifles creativity, so we suggest lo-films be made with regularity- such as every Saturday for several months. When you know you are making another one next week and another the week after, the pressure to make each lo-film good is reduced, and a smooth creative flow is easier to achieve.

b) Stay active. This is true in all filmmaking, but it bears specific consideration when improvising. Film is about DOING.

c) Let your special effects be terrible. Ridiculous special effects have been a cornerstone of the lo-film aesthetic since the beginning, and embracing this allows the filmmakers to be unfettered in their imagination. Yes, a giant caterpillar can attack. Yes, there can be an inter-dimensional vortex. When you don’t ask your effects to be convincing, the world you imagine has no limits at all.

d) Read Keith Johnstone. If lo-film has a bible, this is it.

What lo-film is not.

lo-film is not the partially improvised work of Christopher Guest’s talented ensemble or Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. As entertaining as that material is, adherence to a pre-planned story outline and technical considerations such as staying in the portion of the set that is lit make it quite different from the wholly improvised process of lo-film, where literally anything can happen at any time.

The first batch of lo-films were done in Los Angeles in 2001. We made 17 films on 17 consecutive Saturdays. Although they are not all fully available online, due to music rights issues (or depictions of scandalous activities by filmmakers who went on to become school teachers) most of them can be watched here: CLICK TO WATCH

If you are interested in making your own lo-films and would like additional advice or to be linked from this page, feel free to contact us at hillport.maine.productions@gmail.com.

You won’t be sorry.

This image is from “It’s All Because (The Gays are Getting Married)”, which has been linked all over the web as a brilliant satire on the same-sex marriage controversy.

This short film marks the first collaboration of Morgan Nichols and Laura Lee Bahr as director and and writer/actor, respectively.

See it here.

The concept was adapted by Morgan Nichols to a short film, starring David and Nathan.

David took elements from the film and incorporated them into a comic illustration which appeared in the New York Times.

Currently, David and Morgan are developing the property into a more extensive comic/filmed entertainment project.

See the 16mm film here.