Carson Blickenstaff – Wonderstone

We had the opportunity to interview Carson Blickenstaff, the director of Wonderstone. Wonderstone is an official selection in the 12th annual Utah Film Festival. 

A company in Kanab, Utah mines, processes, and sells interesting artwork and home décor made from colorful sandstone. One day a worker cuts open a 200-million year old, solid piece of stone and finds what appears to be a fossilized cell phone. Through interviews combined with on-scene video at the factory and with experts, “Wonderstone” follows as the workers extract the object and attempt to find answers to how it got there.

What was the inspiration to make Wonderstone?

This production was produced and written by Jon Smith and SUTV, so the inspiration comes from him as a sort of mentor to me. I was the director for the project.

From idea to completion, how did this production change?  

I don’t think it changed all that much, we had to cut a scene for time, but other than that from script to screen, it was fairly smooth.

What was the biggest challenge in getting Wonderstone made?

We shot and edited most of the film in under 48 hours, we had little time on location and we wanted to be as quick and efficient as possible.

What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?

More time is always a good thing! But I learned a lot about being a director and how to communicate my vision with the team, it was a great experience for me!

If you could have a do over with Wonderstone is there anything that you would do differently? If so, what would that be?

Again, just give ourselves more time, but that was a limitation set on us by the business we were working with, but I think we did the best job we could have and I’m happy with how it turned out!

What do you have next in the works?

Since Wonderstone I’ve made two other short films. A western type film titled “There Are Those Who Dig.” And the other project is called “Fragments,” and it is more in the vein of Experimental Film. The next thing I’m working on is a script for my next short film. It’ll be a sort of Sci-fi/Thriller type project.

How can we learn more about you and your projects?

I post most of my projects on my YouTube Channel @blickenstaff_films or “Carson Blickenstaff.”

What are your Social Media Handles you would like us to use?

As mentioned about @blickenstaff_films is my YouTube handle. You can also connect with me at blickenstaff.films@gmail.com