Palmerston North film director Caleb Rayner has learnt his skills from YouTube and on the job. Photo / Arlo Macmillan
Why do we love people when we know we are going to lose them?
It's a question filmmaker and writer Caleb Rayner asked himself while working on the script for his latest project, Empty Ceilings.
He says the 10-minute film answers the question through the beauty that connects love and grief, through memories.
Empty Ceilings is told through the eyes of 19-year-old Mary's journey of acceptance of losing a partner.
Rayner is just 19 but brings solid experience to the project he is crowdfunding for.
Since he left Palmerston North Boys' High School at the end of 2020, Rayner has worked as a cinematographer and editor for Lamp Studios in Whanganui.
He has learned his filmmaking skills from YouTube and on the job. Working for Lamp has given him the opportunity to practise what he is learning and to work with more expensive gear and a crew. Film is more about your skills and what is in your head than what you have on a piece of paper, he says.
Rayner, who has lived in Palmerston North all his life, has been creating films for seven years and stories for much longer. Storytelling is connected to a core part of who he is.
When he was 12 he created a YouTube channel, he made a short film for the DigiAwards, and at 17 was the cinematographer for a website commercial.
He learned much from Palmerston North Boys' High teachers Chris Burton and Sophie Coetzee (nee Boucher). While at school he directed and wrote a play with another student and in Year 13 did media studies.
Rayner was in Manawatū Youth Theatre's Alice in Wonderland, acted in Boys' High/Girls' High productions and was in the ensemble in Act Three Productions' Mamma Mia.
He sometimes feels like he is fighting upstream as people question why they should give him a chance. He has learned from a crowdfunding campaign he did in Year 10 he needs to show upfront he has skills, which have come from years of practice and failure. He has also realised from that previous attempt how much work he has to put in before going out to the public.
Rayner wants young filmmakers to realise they don't need to be from a big city, have rich parents or parents involved in film. The challenge is to think outside the box, which is what filmmaking is about too. The first test is not about the camera but more about the quality of the story.
Rayner says film is a powerful medium that gives people the opportunity to rewatch and process what they have seen. Film allows you to feel so many different emotions from the safety of your living room.
Visuals will age but a powerful story won't. He points to Shakespeare, whose stories are so essential to us as humans they remain key pieces of literature centuries after they were written.
"Losing someone we love is one of the hardest things we go through in life and everyone goes through it at one point in their life," he says. "It's part of being human and it's part of being vulnerable enough to love."
As well as directing and being the cinematographer, Rayner is co-producing Empty Ceilings with Lamp Studios' owner Abby Kingi and Shayden Lowrey of Sailboat Films.
From hiring actors to gear, filmmaking is expensive and he hopes to raise $8000. He is investing his own money and getting favours as well. If people don't have the money to donate Rayner would appreciate them sharing the campaign at boosted.org.nz/projects/empty-ceilings.
You can watch Rayner talking about his project here.
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