Phillip Lehn pens a memoir how-to on filmmaking

When Burke County native Phillip Lehn finished writing his book, “The Next Chapter,” he decided to double down, developing the screenplay and eventually creating the film of the same name.

As the feature found its way onto theater screens earlier this year, taking home multiple awards in the process, Lehn took it one step further, writing a book about the process of making the film.

“I went through a time in my life where I’d given up film and my passion,” Lehn said, taking a few minutes of his lunch break to discuss the book from his car. “Whenever I had returned to it after some hard life lessons and a divorce, I wrote a book during the hard times. I met the right people who reinspired me and I made the film. It was such a good time in my life, I wrote it as a memory, a keepsake.”

“The Next Scene” is a 673-page memoir-slash-how-to, where Lehn walks readers through the who’s, the why’s, and the how’s of writing and creating an independent film.

“Some books are written for people who have done it before and it reads like that,” Lehn said. “This book (The Next Scene) reads as, ‘This person’s done it before, but it’s told in a narrative way that’s easier to pick up.’ Whenever there is a lesson, there’s a story and an example of how I did it, to help simplify it and make it digestible.”

The book is uniquely Lehn — a winding narrative that makes readers feel like they’re kicking back with the filmmaker while he recounts the process with friends.

“Initially, (the process) was ‘Write it all out to the best of my memory,’” Lehn explained. “I have an elephant’s memory that I can just go back. I remember all the things I shouldn’t. … The tidbits of filmmaking advice and tips only came after the second run-through when I was looking for edits.”

Since he wrote, directed, and acted in the film, his suggestions span everything from budgeting to acting and even scene location. According to Lehn, many local businesses are happy to let you film on location, you just have to ask, be polite, and “hope for the best.”

“If there’s a high school student or a college student and they’re wanting to work in film, but they just don’t know what to do because they have zero dollars, but they do have a camera, that’s fine,” Lehn explained. “Zero dollars is the best place to start. It makes you think on how to find a solution, and the book can maybe act as a guide, if they can make it through the whole thing,” he said, chuckling.

“Really, at the end of the day, you’ve got to start somewhere, even if the actor is holding the sound mic, just underneath (the camera frame),” he continued, referring to times on the set of “The Next Chapter” when resources were so limited that he filled the roles of actor, director, and sound guy all at once.

Lehn isn’t slowing down with the release of his book, available by searching “The Next Scene” at lulu.com/shop, as he is already in preproduction for his next film.

Although he’s already cast most of the acting parts and secured several locations for shooting, he invites other creatives to reach out for collaboration on other projects in the future at philliplehnmedia@gmail.com.

“I’m not saying my way is the correct way to make a film,” he said, “but it does get finished and it is finished.”

The next film goes into production in October, just after Lehn marries the woman who played his on-screen love interest, Katherine Tevepaugh.