29 year old filmmaker from Washington, DC had a passion for film and television at young age. Although Malachi Johnson graduated from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, he is a self-taught writer, producer, and director. Malachi’s passion for film-making has led him to work with other creative artist in the DMV area. In addition to launching his own entertainment company, MANMC Entertainment (Mid-Atlantic Network Media Company) which is the umbrella company for his four other production companies, each with a specific interest and target audience. Blvd Vine catches us with Malachi Johnson to discuss his directorial debut “5D LOVE” adapted from novel “Urban Garden: Twin Flame from author and producer Aisha Washington.
Malachi what attracted you to the script?
What attracted me to the script was the book it was adapted from “Urban Garden: Twin Flame” which was a unique book with a unique story. I love black Sci-fi and novels that tell stories involving genres that are not often seen in the book as well as film community, especially the black community. More sci-fi and Afrofuturism pieces are becoming more popular, and I want to help expand that world and genre.
This is your directorial debut, from pre-production to post production how long did it take to complete 5D Love?
Production start mid-May of 2021 and we wrapped in Early August. When I’m in love with a production, the story, and the cast, Editing becomes a work of art and doesn’t take me long. I edited 5D Love in 5 weeks. I worked on it everyday and made sure it was what Aisha envisioned it would be as well as a touch of my own creativity.
What challenges did you face when shooting?
I think the biggest challenges we faced were finding the right locations for certain scenes in the movie. When one location fell through, another came up even better.
What was your most difficult scene to shoot?
I would say the most difficult scene to shoot was probably the scene at the end where the antagonist “David” played by Emmanuel Kerry went on a shoot out in the neighborhood. We had to be careful which filming that scene and to do it quickly without alarming anyone in the neighborhood.
Were there any changes to the script to accommodate the shoot? And how did you handle dialogue changes?
There were minor changes and added dialogue to the script to help the flow of the story and give it the same feel as the book.
Since you have released your film on streaming platforms, have it created any new opportunities?
Yes, we have done radio interviews as well as received coverage on social media platforms.
What’s next/ what are you two currently working on?
We have recently wrapped up filming for our next feature film “The Soul That Ties Us” which will be released in 2024.
You can watch 5D Love on Tubi and on Redbox.
