My name is Thomas Colley and I am a Senior Video Major. I heard about the film 12 O’clock Boys several years ago from Larry Jackson, a fellow student and close friend of mine who contributed to the film in various ways. I was later reintroduced to the film last year by Patrick Wright, the head of my department and my advanced editing teacher at the time. He was editing the film and used some of the footage in our class to help teach us the software and processes used to edit. He showed us a rough cut of the film he had been working on and I was blown away. I realized that this film was something I should be a part of. At the end of the year I was invited by Larry to a party the main characters in the film were having and attended. I immediately meshed with them and began filming them. I met Lotfy Nathan, the director and offered my help on the film. We became close and spent the entire summer together working on the film.
Next thing I knew I was hanging out with Pug and Coco (the film’s main characters)nearly every day. Pug, Lotfy and I would go to Wheel Deal to watch the bikes every Sunday. I would follow the pack and be the driver for shoots. I met with Eric Blair and helped on the phantom camera shoots as well. Lotfy went to New York for long periods of time and I would continue shooting and doing what was needed to move the film along. After a while I realized that I had a fair amount of creative control over the completion of the film and Lotfy trusted and relied on me. I drove the NewYork Times photographer to get his pictures and even dealt with a great deal of police interference.
In this short time, the film had become a large part of my life and took on a new intensity. It gained a great deal of recognition from different blogs, magazines, was accepted to a festival and needed to be good. The edit demanded new material be shot to complete the narrative effectively. Releases and legal forms needed to be tight for the festival premier. I handled a great deal of this work, as the film was now my number one priority. I am proud to say that a good portion of the footage in the film has been shot by me and I now have the title of Co-Producer on the film. We just got back from its first premier in Texas at the SXSW Film Festival and have been discussing future projects.
