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Title: 11thHour
Producer: Sami Haque & Hasan Shaikh
Type: comedy/drama, 24mins
Director: Ross Heran
Language: English
Sami Haque and a group of Muslims have made a film that has been making big waves in his community. Haque received close to 1,800 downloads a month and shares the experience here. The subject of the film is death and changing your ways before it's too late. This topic is very big among the youth, who, according to Sami, are a market not touched by media.
“A man that decides to change on the 12th hour dies on the 11th.” This simple quote was first introduced to me during my high school years. I found it intriguing because like many at that age, I felt I had many promised years ahead of me, not realizing that death could hit at anytime.
During college I wanted to expand on this idea and had great hopes of turning this message into a short film. I asked Hasan Shaikh, an English major from a neighboring university, to co-write due to his experience and knowledge with film. Being new to the screenwriting or even film world, we found ourselves hitting many stops during our writing processes. We both knew what we wanted out of this film, but we knew that comedy would really bring in the audience’s attention. We decided to follow a format that would mix both serious learning moments and comedy in almost a rollercoaster effect.
Once the script was written, Hasan and I set out to find someone to direct and shoot the film, since we both had no prior experience in shooting. After much interviewing, Ross Heran, a junior film student, was chosen for the job. Ross brought a great deal of advice to make the film run smoothly and look good. We then quickly started to audition actors for the roles. What was initially planned to take a week, ended up taking much longer due to a lack of interest in many applicants. While this process went on, I collectively searched for places to shoot. Many phone calls were made and e-mails sent out to find free locations.
Once shooting began, it was one road block after another. There were times that shooting would go late into the night, scenes needed to be improved; there was even a time when we lost three hours of footage due to misplacing of the tapes. As we began to almost give up hope in ourselves, we found strength within ourselves to push this project out. When it came to editing, shooting almost seemed like a breeze. Much like a jigsaw puzzle, we began to piece together the film and have it ready to be presented. We finished the day of our deadline, which turned out to be an entertainment night held by our Muslim Student Association (MSA).
The response was electrifying. The entire audience of 300 was on their feet as the credits rolled by. Since then many have viewed and given comments on the film, ranging from “it was a great comedy” to “it really put my life into perspective.” In sha’ Allah (Allah willing), we hope to be making more films in the future too, so we can reach out and give back to the Islamic community.
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