Laughlin family creates memory making movies Published July 5, 2011 By Laura Salazar 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Sitting across from each other, Tech. Sgt. David Reeves, his wife Lina and their daughter Amaris, smile and laugh together as excitement spreads across their faces when they remember scenes from their latest family film, The Newest Adventures of Poofminky and Sparkletoes. "Our movie is about a bad fairy that turns people into stuffed animals for her collection. We are the heroes that fight these dramatic battles in order to capture the fairy. We have a scene where my character is catching bullets in his teeth," said Sergeant Reeves, 47th Comptroller Squadron. Sergeant Reeves and his family began creating movies six years ago after his daughter came up with the idea to turn her dad's fictional book idea into a movie, which took the Reeves family three and a half years to complete. "Filming has taught us patience and perseverance. We faced difficult challenges, but we got something accomplished," said Sergeant Reeves. The script for the movie was written by Sergeant Reeves and Amaris, who sat down together to brainstorm and build off each other's ideas. "For one of the scenes, we were inspired by Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars. We changed lines from the movie to match our scenario, but it's still recognizable from the movie. In other scenes, we choreograph battles to match the beat of a song," said Sergeant Reeves. When filming the movie, the Reeves family uses a green screen to help add special effects. Most of their movie was filmed at home on their ranch in the Del Rio area. "We film on the ranch because there's a lot of open forest land, which is where our battle scenes take place. I once filmed going down the highway in El Paso so I could green screen the fairy in later," said Sergeant Reeves. The father-daughter relationship between Sergeant Reeves and Amaris has been impacted by the time they spent together making the movie. Sergeant Reeves said he calculated the time to be more than several thousand hours. "I have never seen a relationship like Amaris and David's. The movies have brought them very close together. They have one of the best father-daughter relationships, especially with Amaris being 13," said Lina. Last December, The Newest Adventures of Poof Minky and Sparkle Toes debuted at Del Rio's Paul Poag Theater. "When I saw the title of the movie on the marquee, all that was going through my head was how amazing I felt. I couldn't help but smile," said Amaris Reeves. The entire family agreed that their favorite part of making the movies was watching the finished product and the bloopers. "In all seriousness, our favorite part is the bloopers. When you watch them, it's just one laugh after another. In one of the bloopers our mustaches kept falling off because it was so hot outside. In another one, we're playing music on a blade of grass," said Sergeant Reeves. The Reeves family said they hope to continue making movies together and hope to get them uploaded onto YouTube. "I don't think I'll make movies with my kids. I might make short clips, but not entire movies. My dad can help them make movies. I'm sure he'd love to help them with that," said Amaris Reeves. Amaris said she doesn't see herself studying filmmaking in college, but instead plans on becoming an author. "She's wanted to become an author since she was three years old. She has a big imagination that can get her there. Plus, the script writing has given her some experience," said Lina Reeves.