The Wrong Path?

So something happened recently that got me thinking about film making as my hopeful profession.

One of my younger cousins just got accepted (and a scholarship to boot!) to a film program for her undergrad.  She tells me she plans on doing documentaries and I want to help her out as much as I can.  But it got me thinking and contrasting my own personal journey into film with her's.

I went to college for biology, and my professional life since then has consisted of veterinary emergency rooms and stem cell research labs.  I make my money in a world where film is seen as a neat hobby.  I am very fortunate that I surround myself socially with actors and directors and other creators of art who support me and regard me as a professional.

But now I find myself asking the question.  Have I gone the wrong way somewhere along this path?  As a part time film maker and full time scientist am I missing something?  I am certain that my cousin is going to come back in four years knowing things I may still have not yet discovered.  Names for parts of the camera, theories on film composition, possibly even connections I would not have ever had the chance to make.  However, what are the things that I am learning that she might need to wait another 4 years before she starts in on?  As an independent producer I have learned most of my lessons by screwing up and needing to scramble to fix it.  Or by sopping up knowledge from someone I am working with who already knows better.

My film crews have consisted of a number of people educated in film making and those who have made media production into their day job.  They in many cases know a lot of things that I don't  But there are many things which can only be learned by doing and no one is going to tell you.

So here are a few of the things I have learned by taking the 'wrong' path:

Bribery - No one does anything for free.  They might do it for near free but they want something and they want to feel rewarded.  Even if you are making the most amazing film the world has ever seen, you need to reward your actors and your crew with more than 'experience' and that most foul promise 'exposure'.  If you cannot afford to pay your actors and crew, make sure that you at least put down money for food.  Good food.  Catering at the early stages of your professional game is going to be the MOST important thing you spend your money on.  If it is cold, have hot cocoa and coffee ready, if it is hot freezie pops and ice cream.  If you set a goal people are excited about, like lunch, your cast and crew are sure to give their best to get to it sooner.

Equality - Sure, it is YOUR film.  You wrote it, you are directing it, you are producing it, whatever.  You might be the best person for every job on your film.  If you could maybe you would even star in it as well.  But that is too much.  If you do all of those things you are sure not to do any of them very well.  So you have to share ownership of the film (not necessarily in the legal financial sense, but in the artistic sense).  You get better work out of people who have control over the work they are doing.  If you tell your director of photography exactly what you want and you only need him for hitting the button or racking focus you are not using him to his potential.  Talk and plan, but leave the final decision in his hands.  Because he is concentrating on only that one thing he can see things you can't.  And the end result is a better product.  Not only that, but you have one less thing to think about and you can concentrate on the things you need to be doing. 

Doing - There is a delicate balance between 'doing' and 'planning'.  If you just jump right in and start filming without a plan you are going to take longer and screw up more.  But there is never an end to the planning that you can do.  At some stage in your career planning will become the lionshare of your work.  There will be so many things to prepare for before shooting begins that there is no way that you can shoot from the hip so to speak.  But anyone reading this blog is not likely to be there yet.  You probably are lucky to have a half dozen people on your production crew.  And you can easily shoot that scene on the fly because you only need to move three lights and a camera to make it work.  Face it, the first films you make are going to be all about training yourself.  So it is ok to jump in a little bit half cocked and start making it happen.  Been working on an idea for months?  Actually schedule your shooting days and rent your equipment.  You will learn more from the practical experience than you ever will by sitting in a room and just planning.

Write within your means - This is the biggest thing I have had to come to grips with.  When I have an idea I want to let it run free and become HUGE.  I want it to be the biggest most exciting thing ever.  But I can't afford to produce it.  You can tell a great story in a single room with a single shot.  The key is just to train yourself to think that way.  If you don't have the costumes and props and locations you want for your perfect script... write the script that calls for your living room and modern clothing and a conversation.  If you want to do a documentary but cannot gain access to the President of Peru... why do not a documentary about the mom and pop shop down the street and find out how they got to where they are now.




Finally... the most important lesson that I have learned from all of my films and all of the time I have spent in the creative field:

You are not alone

It may seem like it sometimes.  That you are the only person trying to make this crazy scheme work.  That you are fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of footage you produce.  That rejection letters are piling up and you feel like the world will never see your films and you will be forced to work in your dull dank office job the rest of your life.  It is not just you.  There are other people out there doing just the same thing.  Probably right in your community, probably right down the street.  Go out to your local film festivals and go out for drinks afterwards.  I have found more talented people to work with through clinking glasses at a bar than I have at all of the 'networking' events I have ever been to.  Talk about what you are doing, find out what they are doing and try to help.

Almost every major city will have a 48 Hour Film Project there, do it.  Make friends, use it as the opportunity to screw up, to try new things and train yourself and your team.  Go to every film festival you can, and don't be shy about talking to the film makers.

Good luck.

Editing is Pain

For a minute here I want to change gears and talk about the writing side of film.  This probably applies to other kinds of writing as well, but primarily I write short screenplays so that is where this is coming from.

I have been working on a script for my next short for a little while now.  Usually I write something and almost immediately get to work on filming it never looking back.  It is great and rapid fire and has helped me learn a lot about producing and running a team.  But it has resulted in so-so stories and dialogue.  Fun certainly, and things I am proud of and that I hope the other people who worked on them can be proud of too.

But today I am working on the script for Robo-Butler.  I wrote the first draft months ago and made some minor alterations and changes for the weeks after that.  Already it had more thought and time go into the writing than any of my previous projects.  Then it went into a drawer, and by drawer I mean I un-starred it on GoogleDocs while I concentrated on other things.  Now I revive it in preparation of producing it in the new year and I have realized one thing.  It all has to change.  All of it.  Every last scene needs a major overhaul.  Had the holiday season not happened right smack dab in the middle of my production process I would already be done this film, and only now realizing the glaring flaws that need correction.

So in response to realizing that my entertaining fun story needs to have all of the dialogue cut and replaced with images that get across every feeling and word just as vividly what have I done?  Buckled to writers block.  The kind where you decide that you have other things you need to write, like blog posts.  Because it feels as though I am going through the script and removing all of my hard work.  Lines I loved, moments I cheered for when I came up with them.  They are all gone and being replaced.  Editing is like not just leaving your baby up for adoption, but deciding their circulatory system is just not good enough and replacing it by hand yourself.

But this has revealed to me something far more important.  I was about to set my baby out into the world with a flawed circulatory system!  What a callous and careless parent I was to this story.  It is not easy to go through and fix the problems, but it would be harder still not to find them until the opening screening in front of family and friends and the public.

Every time I make a film I come to that day and the same thing happens.  There is something new that I did not see that I think "Why didn't I fix that?"  I hope that feeling never goes away.  But I do hope that by working on my scripts over a longer period I can be sure that it takes until a 3rd or 4th viewing before I can find those problems.

Lets Get Steamy...

Oh baby, you know you like it when I wear leather... and goggles.

So my recent obsession has been Steampunk.  I cannot seem to get enough of it.  Since I started work on The Schlonburger Certainty Postulator its been a continuing influence on my artistic endeavors.  I will admit, those endeavors have been limited largely to working on my next film.  Perhaps you have heard me talk about it, and if you have seen me in person or online since I started work on it... you certainly have.  Robo-Butler: A Steampunk Story.

Why do you as a reader of this blog care about this though?  Well, because I am 'finally' producing for an audience.  And it is an audience who includes ME.  Science fiction has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  When I had the flu in grade school I used to sit and watch the entire Star Wars trilogy back to back EVERY DAY.  It was the edition where Leonard Maltin did interviews with George Lucas before each one.  I remember because during that part I would go into the kitchen and have a bowl of cereal.  Thats right, first thing I did in the morning was go downstairs and put in the movie.  Second thing was breakfast.  That was the best week of being sick ever.  Since then I have been a Trekkie, a Whovian (Jon Pertwee was the man), a Whedonite, a Whovian again, a Smeghead, and tons of other things that were much more effective sex prevention methods than abstinence only education.

Now I am a Steampunk.  Not a long term one, not someone who has been with it since the 1980s when the term was coined.  And there is a lot left for me to learn about it.  But lets talk about this genre and WHY I have selected it.  This has to be one of the most free and somewhat nebulous genres out there.  It is in an infantile stage right now and so its tropes and conventions are limited and still in flux.  This makes it a fantastic playground for me as a writer and film maker.  It is well within my capabilities to produce props for it, the schlock and hammered together appeal of the aesthetic means that I don't need a huge budget to make something that is Steampunk.  I need a trip to the thrift store, a good eye, and some silver gold and black spray paint.

But best of all the thing I have discovered... is that Steampunk has a rather phenomenal community.  Which to me, is an audience.  I know that if I make films in this genre (and they are good) I have the reach and capability to bring it to people who want to see it.  This is extremely exciting to me.  Instead of making things and just hoping I could put it 'out there' onto YouTube or random festivals, I have a target.  There is a group of people who can talk to me and tell me what they like and don't like and I can make films that cater to them.

It is scary to narrow my focus down like this.  To go from making films of any and every type to focusing on a specific genre (and even within that genre an even more specific focus).  But it has been extremely heartening to me so far to see how excited people are about it.  I can't wait to see what happens when I get involved in this community.  Sometimes its good to be on the fringe, because at least them you aren't alone.

Project Twenty1 Screening

Last week was the screening for The Schlonburger Certainty Postulator (for information on the film check the links to the right).  This was my first experience with a film festival as a participant.  I went up to Philadelphia for the whole weekend and managed to see just over 50 short films and one feature film while I was there.  It was a fantastic and fun experience, even though when I got there I did not really know anyone.

Let me say, I had met a number of the people who were there before.  At the kickoff event I had done my job going around and networking, but it is not as though I really 'knew' any of them that well.  So here I was in Philly sitting around not really knowing a soul.  But the thing I rapidly learned was that people at these festivals are really eager to talk to you if you were involved in something there.  The first day I ended up largely talking to other heads of teams who I recognized from the kickoff event.

My film showed during the first screening group, which was at 1pm.  I am glad that it did, otherwise I would have likely waited until later to actually show up at the event and missed a lot.  But at the same time that came with a big drawback.  I was not able to talk to people BEFORE my film to get them excited to come see it.  Now maybe this is my own fault.  Had I come up the night before I could have gone to the opening party and schilled to my hearts content.  But, that would be another hundred some odd dollars for a hotel room, and another meal (at least) eaten out.  One of the big things that I learned is that for people to come up to you and talk they need to be able to tell you were involved in the film.  Since I was not IN the film no one recognized me.  But the second day I wore the goggles from my movie all day.  Suddenly I found that there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to me about my film and find out who I was.  After all, I am not from around there and the film community there seems to already we really familiar and tightly knit.  So big lesson, wear a prop that is iconic to your movie!  Instantly you will make friends.

I also found that one of the best parts of the festival is that there is a group of film makers who have NOTHING else to do on a Saturday night besides sleep and be ready for the next batch of films on Sunday. These are the out of town film makers.  We all had hotel rooms nearby and were there more or less by ourselves.  It was a great opportunity to talk and get to know each other and have a few rounds of drinks.  I was downright amazed at the people I met, they were literally from all over the country.  I definitely made some new friends that night as well as found some film companies that I will be keeping an eye on for some fun and smart films in the coming months and years.  As I see their work crop up I will be sure to post about it so others can enjoy their work.

By the way, as far as my film...  The Schlonburger Certainty Postulator was nominated for Best Visual Effects, and won the Audience Award for its screening group.  I suppose that makes it legit now?  At the very least the recognition, and the praise I received personally, have encouraged me towards two different things.  A new version of SCP (with some little editing clean up) has been uploaded to Withoutabox and I will be submitting it to festivals in the next few weeks.  But the second and more important thing that I am doing, is starting work on my NEXT film:

Robo-Butler: A Steampunk Story

Movie Review - Fright Night

So this hurricane came up the coast and decided to knock out power to my house Saturday night.  So naturally when it was still out Sunday the thing to do was to go out and enjoy air conditioning and electricity elsewhere.  And what better place than the local Gigagoogolmultiplex Cinema?  So I caught Fright Night in 3D.  In general I would say that 3D is a waste of time.  I mean, I paid $16 for a ticket for a movie that was under two hours long, and the 3D usually just feels disorienting for the first 20-30 minutes of a movie.  But in a blood splatter-fest like Fright Night, I decided it would be fun.  Also I was too late to watch it in 2D.

Firstoff... I am going to have spoilers in this review.  If you want to avoid them...stop reading.  If you think that a movie like Fright Night is something that will be ruined by reading a few spoilers, you should also stop reading.  The experience of this film is obviously to watch it and have fun, even on a first viewing it telegraphs every plot turn so that by the time it happens you go 'well.... duh'.  Anyhow.

Now Fright Night originally came out in 1985, it was about a kid who was convinced his neighbor was a vampire but had no hard evidence and then of course, had to fight him when it turned out he was.  Funny and scary, just like a horror movie should be.  This remake assumes that we all know about the first one, and that the neighbor is obviously a vampire.  Unfortunately the way that they played it out in this film was extremely boring.  We see all the evidence that he is a vampire right off the bat, and we all believe he is from the get go.  The protagonist's old best friend (the super nerd he is) is fittingly portrayed by Christopher Mintz-Plasse.... AKA McLovin from Superbad.  He should really look into changing his name to something more easily remembered, and spelled.  Very early on we have him just flat out say "Dude is a Vampire!" and we don't doubt him for a second.  Partially because he is at this moment in the film the most endearing of the characters.  When he goes to try to spy on the vampire, rather than Colin Farrell's 'Jerry' denying that he is a vampire he right away admits to it and murders our over delving nerd.  Ok great, now that we have that out of the way we can move on with the plot right?  WRONG.  Now we need to go through the whole thing again with our protagonist, while he awkwardly stares at Jerry and suspects him, never saying anything.  Of course now everything thinks our hero is being paranoid and strange, and he doesn't want to admit what he thinks.  This note plays.... for a while.  No.  Not a while.  For a frikkin' fortnight.  Its almost a whole little movie into itself.  Its painful and awkward more than suspenseful and dangerous.

The vampire continues to simply play up that he is a vampire.  When given the chance rather than being friendly and normal, he seems to intentionally act creepy and weird.  Stopping to have a long awkward monologue hinting at the things he plans to do to kill our hero.  The thing is, we don't for a second think he is warning him to back off, and there won't be a problem.  Instead its pretty clear he is just threatening him and confirming that he is evil.  Really?  The best idea he has for maintaining himself as hidden as a vampire is to threaten some 17 year old kid?  Instead he could just discredit him, or avoid the question entirely.  If he plans on killing him, maybe he should do it right away instead of letting him get away time and time again so that he can eventually get his wits about him enough to be a threat.

Now, there is a point in this film where things turn around.  Exploding strippers can have that effect after all.  Suddenly no one is pretending they don't know what is going on.  Our rivals are clearly identified and know where they stand with one another and the fight is on.  At this point the movie becomes interesting, with a clearly defined conflict and risks we start to care about what happens to the characters, and know that the time for 'letting him get away' has passed.  Enter David Tennant.  He honestly is one of the bright spots of the movie.  Particularly because of the build up we have before seeing him.  Not just in the movie itself, but the advertising campaign outside of it.  We are led to believe he is a very serious man, a vampire hunter, an expert on the occult and not someone to be trifled with.  Instead we get a bit of a silly wimpy fellow who likes to play dress up.  Its an absolutely delightful destruction of a perceived hero.  Nearly every word out of his mouth serves to belittle his expected status and serves as a much needed comic force in the film.  His performance was hilarious, and the writing of his character was exactly what the film needed to get us involved again.

The film began to pick up from here and ended up a really enjoyable ride at the end.  When conflict is clearly defined and goals are known the plot can move forward and characters can play.  But when the script isn't quite sure what is going on just yet, everything drags.  At its core this movie is an action horror film, its about fights and chases and blood splattering out of the screen and assaulting everyone wearing one of those Ray Ban looking 3D sunglasses.  When it embraces action humor and blood splatter its a good movie.  When its pretending to be suspenseful, or brooding, or contemplative it falls flat.  This is not just the fault of the writer, but the main character did not have the chops to take relatively bland scenes and make them interesting.  It was not until the end of the film that he began to be interesting, but fortunately he was surrounded by some actors who knew what they were doing and made his shortcomings less evident.

So lesson of the day... know your conflict and make sure that's what your scenes are about.  Don't just spend the first third of your film rehashing "I think he is a vampire and no one else does".  We get that note right away, move on to something more interesting.


PS... its weird seeing the nerdy kid from Superbad with facial hair isn't it?  Even if it is just scruff.

Certainty

So I was bad.  I posted up only one of the two things I wanted to in the last week.  And the reason is related to the post I never got around to.  July 30th, Saturday, marked the start of Project Twenty1.  For those of you who don't know what that means, it is a film competition based out of Philadelphia and is a part of the Philadelphia Film and Animation Festival.  62 teams this year gathered to compete to make a film in 21 days.  So everyone embracing the theme 'It Starts with a Crash' has gone out and started to make their films.  Most of the teams are in the Pennsylvania area, but there are a few of us off in weird places (like Washington DC, or Hong Kong).

So since then I have been busy writing the film instead of writing blog posts.  Shame on me indeed!  So I am going to give a little tiny bit on the Launch event (instead of the full post detailing my adventures and parking ticket that I had intended), and then a whole bunch on what you are really here for.  Stuff about the film and the trials, tribulations and terrific things related to it.

The Launch event was great, it was in a place right in the middle of Philly called Lucky Strike.  It was a bowling alley bar sort of place and packed with film makers.  This is the first time I have run out of business cards at an event.  And never have I been so behind on going through the cards I have gotten before.  Everyone was massively friendly and one of the things that has made me respect this competition even more... it seems a lot of teams are helping each other.  As one of my friends likes to tell me 'A rising tide lifts all ships' and it seems the people here (the festival organizers and the film makers) realize that.  It was wonderful that even as an outsider to their community I was welcomed in and I feel like I am the DC branch of that group now.  Thanks to all of the people I met for selling me on the notion that this is NOT going to be my last Project Twenty1 film... not by a long shot.

Now, onto the film itself.  My last post detailed the fun of hanging out with people who are letting their passions out, so I tried to do the same.  My Project Twenty1 film, entitled 'The Schlonburger Certainty Postulator' has been an amazing experience so far.  Being used to the 2 day time frame of the 48HFP, having a whole week to work on my script, and edit it, and let other people check it for errors, see if jokes worked, etc was FANTASTIC.  Turns out that editing means I get to put in MORE jokes and enjoy playing with science fiction for longer.  I will admit that there are a number of post its around my computer where I have detailed 'speculative science' that makes the science fiction of the film work.

Now, done with the script lets talk about what my team consists of.  My usual sound and video guys, Pete and Boz, are back in action.  Besides that, everyone is new.  Monika, a student at GW and Collin who attends UMD wrap up the rest of my crew.  The cast at current includes Grant and Justin, both professional actors and performers in the DC area (I am so glad they didn't have shows they had to be at during my shoot dates.)  We have a couple more people who will be involved come next weekend.  But at our core we have three of us who have worked together on a handful of projects in our assumed roles (myself as Director and general lord of bossiness) and then a bunch of people new to the fold.  We learned a few important lessons during the shoot.  One, I was wrong about how long the shoots would take.  Its all twice as long.  But well worth it.  Second, when its hot and you are using lights that make it hotter and keeping people in lots of costume.... provide freezy pops.

We also got the chance to try out some things we had not done before.  Usually because we decided they were too complex or too difficult and we did not want to get bogged down on them in a short period of time if we only had a day to shoot.  But having 2 full weekends to shoot our film (and 5 days between in order to plan our effectively) meant there was nothing wrong with trying some really exciting shots.  For example, shooting from moving vehicles while running down the road, or doing a scene that hinged entirely on a green screen shot working right.

That is not to say everything worked out perfectly.  In setting up the MANY lights needed for the green screen shot one of my lighting fixtures was knocked over by getting caught on an errant leg and shattered.  Unfortunately I had no replacement, so we rigged together some work lights and made things work anyhow.  Then during one of our outdoor running scenes the goggles that the main character wears (as seen in the photo above) were partially run over by a car.  But... we think we mostly fixed them.  (And I am waiting with bated breath to hear back from the company that made them to see if I can drive to their factory to get more instead of waiting for the shipping).  We obviously liked to cut things close, such as when we only brought enough eggs to break them once for a shot.  But in the end, we all had a really good time.

The footage is still being gone through from that weekend.  Because we are shooting in HD I still need to make proxy versions and full res versions of every shot, and of course with a secondary sound system everything needs to be synced manually.  With somewhere in the vicinity of 150 different takes that is going to be a long process, and I won't bore you dear blog reader with updates on that.  But rest assured, there are at least two more weeks of hearing back from me on whats going on with THIS project.  Let me close with a few other fun pictures....

Let your nerd flag fly

I was lucky enough to go to Otakon (well, only for one day) this year and I snapped a few pictures.  For those of you who do not know what it is, it is an anime convention.  One of the largest of its kind, as I understand something like 25,000+ people attend it each year in Baltimore.  It is much like other conventions, its got screenings and panel discussions and workshops and of course, people who come in costume.

These costumes are serious business folks.  Sure, some people have stuff that is little more than what you would pick up at a Halloween store in November, and many people don't dress up at all.  But some of these costumes really are very impressive.  But what is more impressive is how unabashed everyone is while they are there.  These are people who absolutely love something and they are gathering by the thousands to celebrate it together.  They are being whoever they want (even if just for a weekend) and it doesn't matter what barriers there are like the magic isn't real or that the character they love is a different gender.  They are just going out there doing what they like and everyone around them understands and accepts it.  Its really absolutely fantastic in every way.  That is really what inspired me to post this.

Over the past few months while I have been making short films I have been trying to do what I thought people would like.  Doing competitions and gearing my film to that audience.  I think some of what has come out of it has been pretty good, there is also some which does not do much for me.  Now, there is a very valid argument that if you want to make it in the film business you should be making things with your audience in mind.  Target it to an age demographic and a specific niche market.  Of course there is nothing wrong with making something that you can market and sell.  This is the hope right?  That someone will want to buy that film you made and give you gobs of money and hire you to work on more films with a bigger budget.

That idea has led me down the wrong path for a bit, and the people at Otakon helped point that out to me.  They know who they are and what they are doing, and they were proud and happy about it.  No one was embarrassed to be checking out and mangas or to be dressed as pokemon.  They thought it rocked.  Because well.  It does.  Sure its not entirely my thing, but it is their thing.  And you should never be subverting what you like thinking its going to get you farther.

I have not been making the films that would really excite me.  I am a comic book / sci fi / fantasy guy.  Sure I like other stuff too, but that is what gets me excited and into the movie theater.  I should be doing the same right?  The lesson is really just to let your Nerd Flag fly.  Embrace the things you like and make those, you ARE the niche market.  Why not serve yourself before trying to serve the public at large.  Thus, as a result of this anime inspired soul searching my next movie (which I am suffering from partial writer's block at the moment, and hence putting up blog entries) will be a big goofy Sci Fi Comedy.  Go nerds.

Its not the size of the boat.... its how good at sex you are

There have been a number of people who have asked me what sort of camera they should get and what I would advise.  I also run into a lot of people who tell me they would love to do film, but its so expensive and they can't afford to get a camera.  While I understand how daunting the task of getting a whole big set up can be (all told what I have spent on film is probably swiftly closing in on 5 digits).  But my first films, bad as they were, did not require that much equipment.

The first thing you need to be doing if you want to make film is to have content to shoot.  Its not just about flashiness, effects, and perfect shots.  Those HELP but at the core you need a talented cast, a great script, and some hard work.  So what camera and equipment do you need to get?  Step one is to have SOMETHING to shoot on.  If you have the cash, I would suggest picking up a DSLR.  I started using one in March and I have been loving it.  I use a Canon Rebel t2i, and I still just use the kit lens for most of my shots.  The reason I went with the t2i instead of something else was for sound.  The t2i was the cheapest camera I could find that would shoot in full 1080p AND had an external mic input.  Its not an XLR input, but with the Sennheiser MKE 300 shotgun mic I have (which uses a mini output) it was just fine.  One of the problems I have found however is that I have no control over the sound levels, its all controlled automatically by the system.  So if you can, I suggest using a secondary sound recording system.

One of the reasons to step up from the Rebel t2i to a more advanced camera such as the 7D is that the 7D gives you more control over your sound levels.  As much as I like things which work automatically, I am a manual guy as much as I can be.  I don't trust the camera without my hand guiding it.

But what makes for good shots is not just the power and punch of my camera.  It helps sell the quality of my shots to an audience, but ultimately it is about the content I am providing in the film.  The writing, the acting, the story and the selection of shots.  I tell people all the time that if I gave Stephen Speilberg a camera phone and told him that was all he had to make a film with, that even if I had his equipment and studio space he would end up making the better film between us.

Someone recently alerted me to a short film that I think defines this fantastically.  It was shot entirely on cell phone, but the concept and choices made make it a pretty spectacular little film.  You can check it out here.

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

So the take away?  Get any camera that shoots video, and learn how to use it.  Then just play and produce what you can.  You will soon find out what things you really want and as you come to an effect or a shot that you realize you can't do, that is the time to buy the equipment for it.  This stuff is expensive, you can't afford to just start out with buying a Red Epic and a dolly and crane and a thousand lenses.  Master the basics of visual storytelling and build up around that.  Wait until the film you make that you say to yourself "man, I really need a slow even pan to make this shot work" before you invest in a dolly.  There is too much for you to learn to try to learn it all at once, let it come step by step and just do what you can with what you have before you think its time to funnel money into it.

Drug Dealing for film

That is right, Event Videography is like the pot of the film world.  First I come and I shoot a single event for you and then the next think you know you are smoking crack out of a DVD case.  And by crack I clearly mean promotional videos, performance reels, and DVDs of your creative work.  And by smoking I mean putting into a DVD player.  At least that is how I 'hope' it works out.

Right now I am playing pusher to a bunch of theater companies in the Capital Fringe Festival.  I have provided them with some videography services they never knew they needed on the cheap.  It means I get to see a whole bunch of great shows at no cost to me, and it also means that I am filling up that new 2 TB hard drive I just bought a lot faster than expected.  This year the deal I have cut for a lot of theater companies is that for nearly free I will come in to their show and film their performance.  I collect the footage for them and provide them with them in an electronic format so they can do whatever they would like with it.  This makes great fodder for future fundraising, remounting of shows, advertisement for the show and for the theater company as a whole, as well as providing a small reel for the creative minds involved in the production.  (I would not suggest an actor use this as part of a film reel, film and stage productions are VERY different things.)

A great deal of the success of a show (especially when it is a part of a HUGE festival like Fringe where there are a lot of alternatives) is a result of the Marketing Machine.  Its not just about making videos, but handing out postcards, putting advertisements in the right places, landing radio interviews, the whole gamut of self promotion.  Obviously not everyone can do all of these things, cost and ability might prevent it.  However, anything you can do to promote your show you should be doing.  This is why I was really surprised to see that of roughly 160 shows that are a part of Fringe this year in DC, only 10 of them decided to put together a video promo.  Maura Judkis, a writer for the Washington Post, has compiled them together in her blog.  I strongly suggest taking a look at them and seeing what worked and did not work.  The promotional trailer I produced for 'Tales of Courage and Poultry' is included in that lot.  They have been taking footage of their shows for a couple of years now and so when the time came to make a promotional video they had a ton of stuff to work with.

So why haven't the other theater companies done the same?  There are a number of reasons.  First they are really busy trying to put on their show and a lot of times anything that could go wrong, does go wrong.  Taking on the extra work of producing and distributing a video seems like an awful lot of effort when you are already spread thin.  Additionally it requires equipment, editing software, and a skill set which they might not have.  All in all its a battle that is usually not worth their time.  Unless they are lucky enough to know someone who can do it for them on the cheap.

So film and video would never have entered the radar of many theater companies.  But if someone comes to them and offers to do it very cheaply for them, what have they got to lose?  Now they are hooked, or so one can hope.  They get to see how video can help them and realize it should be something they plan to use from day one.  Are they just going to want a video documentation of their show?  Well that would be nice... but why not step up to make it even more useful.  Make that fundraising video, and that promotional commercial, and then provide a DVD of the show to donors.  The crack, heroin and PCP of the video promotion world.

Thats my method right now anyhow.  Make some contacts with some of the most fantastic groups in town, give them a leg up.  And once that leg up pays off, keep them hooked on the services that got them there.  Plus, I get to meet a ton of great performers and technical people who maybe will work with me on my own projects one day.  At this point I am really happy with how this model is working out.  And I really hope that none of the people reading this are in DC and going to start doing the same.  If you are... pretend you did not read this.  Maybe I should not be posting all of my plans for potential success in such an open and public place?  Maybe I should just keep them on Facebook and Google+.

Oh so much to say

Well, its been busy which is good for me, and bad for you dear reader.  Yes, I know its just one of you, and I am ok with that.  We share something special.  Shhh, no, don't talk.  Because I can't hear you.

Anyhow, its been a little longer than I would like between posts but there is a lot going on.  So expect a couple of new posts in relatively short succession.  I have three topics to cover:

Winning and award and how that changes things.

Opening a film and realizing its not your best work.

Making friends through free work, or drug dealer marketing.

This post is going to be on the first of those topics.  Wisp, my short film which I created for the 'Films for the Forest' Festival in Austin Texas has come home with an award for 'Best Narrative' and with it bragging rights and a copy of Adobe Premiere CS4.  Pretty sweet deal over all for a weekend of work and a budget of 'a quarter tank of gas'.  But from this what have I learned?  First, an award (no matter how small) offers credibility as a film maker.  People do not need to even see the film and judge for themselves, nor are they likely to look up the festival and judge how big and important it might be.  Lets look at the example of Wisp.  I do think its a very good film and I am extraordinarily proud of it (so much so that it has been entered into the DC Environmental Film Festival as well).  But its not everyone's cup of tea.  The festival it was entered in was only in its second year of existence.  Last year in their inaugural competition there were 11 entries, 9 of which received an accolade of some form.  There were three categories, and each has a first, second, and third place winner.  But very few people realize that.  I submitted my film to a festival where last year there was an 81% award rate.  This year it was quite different, fewer prizes, more entries, and a definite increase in the level of competition.

But that was a ramble wasn't it?  The point is, now when people talk to me about my films its not just 'Yeah they are on YouTube'. I can tell them 'I have won an award for my film making'.  Since they are not going to do the research to judge for themselves they now consider me to be credible and worthy of their time.  Its amazing to me how much more interest I have from people who would like to be involved in my films.  Which means I have a more talented and deeper pool of people to work with.  Which means (in theory) my films will only improve as more and more talented people bring something new to the table.  Its like how Spider-Man never got to do any Team Up comics until he was Amazing.  Only right now I am have less super powers and would probably end up on a sillier team.

So in the end, what do these awards do?  They help me recruit.  I am not going to get into another festival just because of past accolades (I would know, I was a judge for the DC Shorts Festival this year and there were a few times that we denied something that had gotten previous festival praise).  The big danger is to start taking myself too seriously as a result of getting the award.  It is very hard not to think you are awesome after someone just told you that you are.  But most importantly you should always bear in mind where you actually stand on things.  Just because you are wearing a golden suit and can fly for a little bit, does not mean you are not still just Aunt May.

Now, I do want to say, that after re-reading this post it makes it sound like I feel I am 'fooling' people into working with me.  That is not the case.  I do think that the films I produce and the work I do is worth doing for everyone involved and I always hope that it can be mutually beneficial to the entire cast and crew.  We are all learning and every time we do a project it gets better, we bring in new people with new perspectives, and eventually some really great stuff will come out of it.  Somewhere is that distant horizon where I am a full time professional film maker.  And the people working with have become experts.  But right now I need every little artificial leg up I can get.  Because it doesn't matter how amazing or great my films are right now if no one sees them.  Its the monster of marketing.  Success is not determined simply by the quality of the product, but rather the quantity of people who see it.  As a small independent producer I have to fight tooth and nail to get my work shown beyond the realm of my Facebook friends.  Having a film win something is just one little step in the right direction which opens my films to a slightly larger audience.

My hope is that the take away from this post is that getting an award is just a step on the way.  Its a way in which a third party has given their stamp of approval on your work which makes other people stop and take notice.  Progressively it should get easier and easier to market and distribute films if they continue to receive accolades.  But it will always be a battle.  Even big Hollywood movies keep trying to ride their own coat tails.  "Starring Academy Award Nominee" is a sought after line in the marketing material.  It just slowly starts to help level the playing field if you can put 'Award Winning' next to your name.  Thats right Charlie Sheen, I'm 'winning' too.

The Game of Marketing

Anyone who thinks marketing is just a case of internet work is soo missing the most fun aspects of it.  I will admit, I spend a lot of time thinking about it and trying to work on it.  Marketing myself as a film maker, marketing my films, marketing my marketing skills.  All of that stuff (and meta-stuff).  In fact, this whole website is a testament to the fact that I have decided to take it a little bit seriously.

Anybody can hang around and make films (and they can be awesome) and just show them off to a few people and have a great time doing it.  And then you can post about it on facebook and a few more people will see it.  And then on your twitter feed, where a couple more people will watch.  Then make a blog post with screen shots to get people interested and have a few more views.  Oh, and don't forget to let your YouTube subscribers know, and your old friends who still use MySpace because they are kinda lame and never moved from Live Journal to blogging (its not THAT big of a jump, lets not kid ourselves).  But that was a ton of work sitting alone in a room in front of a softly glowing screen while old daft punk plays in your iTunes because you never bothered to take it out of your playlist.

This is the WORST part of marketing.  Its sooo boring.  Its the work part that you hope to one day have an unpaid intern for (they will also know more about FacebitterSpace than you could hope to know, what the heck is this 'Groups' business all about?).

The BEST part of marketing involves drinking.  Good old fashioned talking to people and throwing back alcoholic beverages, turns out you seem cooler with booze, and that same strategy that you use to pick up the hot redhead that you have no business talking to is the same one you use to make some new friends for your films.

Last night I was pulling double duty.  I was doing marketing for the Capitol Fringe Festival show I am in 'Tales of Courage and Poultry' and taking the chance to meet the people behind a lot of the other fringe shows that will be going on as well.  Thats right, I was networking.  How very 'DC' of me.  But these are the people I know I want to be involved with and want to see my work.

So what exactly did this entail?  Well giving away stuff.  We had postcards (that look like the image to the left) with all show dates and pertinent information on the reverse to hand out.  So right into the midst of any interesting conversation I would go hang out for a bit, talk to everyone there and give them a copy of the postcard and a little bit of information about the show.  Now, here is what is important.  Don't just go and give people your card and then ditch them.  That makes you a jackass.  I didn't just give away my card, I made a ton of new friends and used the postcards as a vehicle to do it.  Even if they think you are just doing it to not be a jackass, they will probably be glad that you respect them enough to treat them as people and not just targets for handing out promotional materials.  Giving out ten postcards to people who don't care sucks.  Giving one out to someone who you made connect with you and your work, totally worth snubbing the other nine.

But more importantly for you film people out there, I then also gave the directors, actors, and marketing directors that I met MY business card for GuyLoki Films.  The actors its obvious, gotta have talent right?  And nothing wrong with finding some new people at the bar for my next film, at least I know they will enjoy drinking after the shoot is over.  But why do I want the directors and marketing people?  Well because they DON'T do film.

Thats right, they are not going to be in anything I make, they are not going to become my crew.  But they have a show and its going to need promotion.  They are going through the exact same thing I am right now.  They have content, they are proud of it, they need to get it out there.  And what better way then putting together a short video with them?  This is a win win situation.  They are going to get an edge on their promotions that most of the other theater companies probably won't.  I am going to have a new business contact who is hopefully going to be pleased with my work and start paying attention to the rest of the work I am doing and sharing it with their friends.  "Hey check out what that guy who made our promo video just made".  So hopefully, I get to bolster my resume, hone my skills, AND make some friends in the creative world.  More than that, I start to branch out to people who are not just in the film world.

Best part though.... I did it all while drinking. 

Audiophile: Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project

So this past weekend in Baltimore they held the 48 Hour Film Project (which is native to DC, but has spread like a film making plague over much of the world).  Of course, I produced it down here in the D of C. This is the 5th 48HFP I have produced as Team Leader, but there is one in there that I wrote and edited and provided all of the equipment for.... so I count this as my 6th.  They have ranged in size and scope from a production team of just me and a second editor, to a crew of thirty where I didn't have to do anything the whole weekend but put out fires.  This year it was a total cast and crew of seven. Here is how we broke it down this time: I was head writer, director/DP, and worked on editing. My friend Cyle (who you can find featured on my Promotional Video page) was my other writer. Pete, a guy I knew from college and has worked on a few of these with me was my lead editor. Boz, dude who went to school for film and audio design was my sound recordist and audio technician as well as editing. Colleen, who appeared in Polite Company was one of my cast as well as doing Make Up (as she did for PC) Justus, a member of Washington Improv Theater who I know through performance training sessions (also in PC) acted. Graham, an old college friend / current housemate / all around actor guy took on the last cast position. Friday night I went up to Baltimore to pull a genre out of a hat.... I got 'Thriller/Suspense' and then wait around to find out what my three required elements (prop, line of dialogue, and character) would be.  After having a great time talking to people at the Kickoff event (and handing out a few business cards so I looked legit) we all got our elements and ran to get started, here is what they were: Wayne/Wanda Hooper, collector A hula hoop The line "That's not how I would have handled it" For the first time in all of the films I have made for the 48HFP, as soon as I got those elements a story came to me right away. Suspense/Thriller with Wayne the 'collector'?  Come on, that just makes it easy.  But I went with it and had a car ride home to think about how that concept would inspire me and where I wanted to take it.  I would tell you... but I would rather you watch the film when it is posted here. So Cyle and I stayed up for a bit working and reworking the script until he had to go to bed and I took another few hours hammering it out.  I managed to also have time to meet with two of my three cast to start preparing them for their roles and identify what props and costumes they should bring with them in the morning.  I got to bed at about 4:30am or so (which is also when I sent out the script and instructions for the morning in an e-mail to my cast and crew). Unfortunately here we started to run into trouble.  One of my actors ended up being extraordinarily late, about two and a half hours.  So instead of meeting at 8am and having some time to prepare and get stuff moving for a 9am shoot, the first shot didn't start until 11am.  This might not have been a problem, except that I was going to lose my main character actor at 6:30pm for a show he had in town, and another actor from 1pm to 3:30pm for an audition he had out of town.  So we rapidly found ourselves behind an eight ball. However, I failed to take into account in my planning how long makeup and costume alterations would take and setting some of the locations.  So 11am quickly became 11:30, and with some trouble getting the scene right from my Director's seat it took a little longer to shoot than I had planned.  But we got it in the can and moved on.  Sent the footage down to my editor who started working on running everything that needed to be done on it and putting it together. Now to set the crawlspace inside my basement.... which required moving EVERYTHING that was stored in the basement into my bedroom, then hanging curtains, bringing in lights, all of that jazz.  Here is where having only a skeleton crew set us back some.  We didn't have enough people to just go down there and do it, the rest of the production had to stop to make it happen.  But massive points to my cast and crew for diving right into the work with no complaints.  We got it cleared out and broke for lunch while I continued to tweak the setting. The second sequence was probably the highlight of the weekend for me.  Let me explain the crawl space in my basement. Its probably about three feet tall, eight feet deep and 5 feet wide, it has exposed insulation and pipes running through it and crossing through the space.  Its cinderblock-ed in and completely unfinished in every way.  It was a result of an addition being put on the house, so the access to it is more or less accidental and through a window.  Yes, a window in the basement that rather than looking outside, looks into this dark dirty cobweb-laden little pit that has no discernable purpose but to keep people trapped in between savagely beating them.  After I showed it to them everyone had this little bit of excited nervousness about doing some scenes in there.  We all know it would look and play great, but it gave us a great deal of challenges and plus it did not seem like a pleasant place to be in the least.  How do we get good sound in a little room with no access and no space, fitting a boom op in there during a wide angle shot would be impossible.  But once we got in there it was a ball.  Boz rigged it up with hidden mics for some of the scenes so we would not need to use a boom, we brought in lights and hid them in corners.  It was all quite a bit of fun.  Although there were a few shots where I was just looking in, after that I dove right in after my actors.  In fact, they made the comment that while we had spent time and effort trying to make them look dirty, by the end of the shoot in there I was far dirtier than either of them.  For some of the camera angles I needed I was just lying down in the grime and dirt to get what I wanted and was covered head to toe in dirt and cobwebs and sweat.  But some fantastic stuff came out of it... although.... it took more than twice as long as we had hoped.  Again... schedule pushed back, against a wall that was not moving. We finally got out of there and prepared for our third sequence, the hypodermic needle was set, so were the pliers.  We were all ready.  But we had about an hour to shoot some of the most complex and most intense acting we had for the whole day.  Climax scenes will do that to you.  Justus and Graham did a great job really throwing themselves into it and we fortunately in that hour managed to snag the most important shots... even though we did not get all of them that I wanted we got all of them that HAD to happen for the scenes to work.  But in an effort to speed things up we did not capture sound on some of the scenes which had no dialogue.... this came back to bite us later when we had to foley it and things could not match up quite right (and we didn't have the time to fix it). After not having gotten some of the shots I desperately wanted, I was bummed and exhausted after writing all night, shooting all day, and knowing I had to edit coming up.  I felt forced to cut a final sequence from the film right then and declared that we did not have enough time to shoot it before we had to let our final actor go and I called myself on a break.  Fortunately, Boz snagged the camera and the actor and had the energy to make the scene happen despite me.  And it came out beautifully. So with filming concluded, and the first two sequences of the film already done in a rough cut, we were in good shape as it had only been 24 hours so far.  It was only 7pm Saturday night and Boz started collecting B roll while I chilled out and took a shower and a mini nap.  Everyone went home and we all got a good nights rest.  Although I again stayed up late sorting out some stuff with the editing so that when everyone came back in the morning we had a functional rough cut of the whole movie (given, Pete had gotten through the first two thirds of the movie already, I had very little to do and it was shot in an organized and planned fashion). So 9am Sunday morning Pete, Boz, and myself are ready to edit, rough cut in hand and spend the whole day working at it.  There are not any really fun stories to tell in there.  We edited, we got .... most .... of what we wanted done on it and I didn't have the break the speed limit to get it in on time.  So I guess it was a success.  But... we will see.  Its still a week and a half until it shows and I am not looking at the film until that time. But that was my weekend... in a VERY large and detailed nutshell.  I will toss some screen grabs and production photos from the film up here in the post as well so you can see my creepy little space and fawn over my actors.  Until then.... time to prepare for the next film shoot for Project Twenty1.

X-Men First Class

So what is a film blog without talking about stuff that I have seen in theaters right?

Ok, let me start this off with a VERY serious warning.  I am going to spoil things for you.  I will ruin the movie in its entirety.  I will probably not do it for a couple of paragraphs, just long enough that I am hoping you will have time to pull yourself away.  Just be ready for

SPOILERS

Not yet, but maybe that will scare off the spoilaphobes.

Now then.  I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.  One of the things that most impressed me was the way in which it was a period piece as well as being a superhero film.  In fact, the superheroyness is not even the real focus.  Which is what makes for a good super hero movie really.  When its about relationships and coming to terms with being a part of a world that might not feel welcome to you, THAT is a movie I want to see.  Now add in people who can fly or blast energy or control metal and I am a fan.  But what I really liked about this movie was that it was about forming a team.  (Obviously)  You get a whole bunch of mutants together and have them try to get along, learn about this whole 'we have powers' thing and set up some very interesting friendships.

Now as far as the period piece aspect, it is set in the early 60's.  There are a lot of moments that are pulled right out from old TV reels with presidential addresses and news broadcasts.  This contextualizes it very well and also leaves you knowing some of what to expect.  After all, we all know our history, we know what things happened in the early 60s and what the world was about.  The Cold War between the Soviets and the US, fears of Communism, turning the point towards the hippy filled 60s.  It makes everything that happens a little bit more interesting putting it into that historical context.  I will also say that it visually embraced the style of villian you would expect for a film set in the 1960s.  Think Bond villians who hire interior designers.  Everything has a bit of lavish luxury to it.  But when you are a bad guy with money and resources to spend, I suppose that is how you do it.

The acting was for the most part pretty solid.  Most notably for me was James McAvoy (right front) as Charles Xavier.  It was delightful to see the character at the cusp of fun (but brilliant) student and taking on the responsibilities he did and becoming the Professor X we know.  Although he always has a bit of an arrogant 'I know everything' about him, he is delightful in the ways he does not abuse his power and his interpersonal relationships really engage me.  It makes sense for a telepath to be so feeling to those around him, and I think that McAvoy did a very solid job of showing the care and compassion that is trademark of the adult character.  Michael Fassbender (left front) also makes for a really impressive counter to McAvoy.  In a character that is all about rage, vengeance, and 'Us vs Them' he still makes us really care for him and see the humanity in him.  The rage and anger comes from a place of vulnerability which is subtle and difficult to portray but Fassbender does a very convincing job of showing that motivation and making us sympathize with someone who eventually will be ready to wipe humanity off the planet.  I will say that his Irish upbringing showed during a critical moment though.  During a very well performed and heartfelt speech given at the climax of the film he seemed to slip into an Irish accent a few times.  I can't fault him entirely for it... someone on the production team should have probably noticed it really.  Or maybe I am just too critical, who can say.

Now then....

SPOILERS   (Really this time)

How about that cameo?  That was expertly done on almost all counts.  Bringing in Hugh Jackman for just a single moment at the bar was inspired.  It made sense in the story, it made sense with the character's timeline, and it was just damn funny.  Which honestly, that sequence needed something to spice it up.  The "lets go get a team together" montage was a little bit long and a little bit boring.  Some moments were great, but it was just a little slow and sorta lame.  But then there was a hilarious pay off which lets me forgive it.  Why is it that so much fan service is bad?

Also, I really must admit... combining the emergence of mutants to the Cuban Missile crisis was extraordinary writing.  Because it is something we all knew was coming.  As soon as it was hinted at we knew it was not going to go away and that it was hugely important.  Of course, it came closer to a nuclear war than what actually happened, but that was through interaction Kevin Bacon.  Who as we all know, is doing his best to destroy the world.  But that brings up something that I did not entirely like.  I am not sure how much Sebastian Shaw knows about how a nuclear war works... but for the most part radiation kills most life (including mutants).  But he seemed to be totally sold on the idea that this was going to make the whole world mutants and kill the humans.  (Umm, first X-Men movie anyone?  Mr Singer... step up your evil plot game a bit).  In fact it would just kill a lot a lot of people including most of the mutants.  I know 'science' and 'reality' are not entirely welcome in super hero movies.  But still... seriously?

Now, as to the characters selected.  Some AWESOME choices, Beast most of all.  Running through his transformation to big blue was fantastic and made him a terribly interesting character.  I love how he struck out so badly with Mystique, as a nerdly guy in that situation just might.  But some characters I was not a big fan of.  For example, Angel.  Thanks Grant Morrison for making her.  All she does is fly and spit.  And now she is around for the sequels.  While I thought her introduction was a bit of fun (I mean, strip club after all) she didn't do anything else.  I was very much hoping she turned to the Bacon side of things to double cross them.  But instead it was just instant character flip flop which got Darwin killed.  Darwin by the way could have been a really interesting character to keep around.  He is a grab bag of fun things which means he would be a potential avenue for creative storytelling.  But, alas.  Instead he had to eat a Havok-smoothie and explode.

All in all, I liked the movie.  And you should go check it out.  Guess I need to make it out to all of those other nerd movies this summer too.  Thor, Green Lantern, Kung Fu Panda - The Kaboom of Doom.

What the iPad Needs

Ok, so this is kinda film related.  New technologies are great and I love how much they help me streamline a lot of things.  And I keep wanting to get myself an iPad, but its still not good enough to warrant it.  I mean, how great would it be if I could use the iPad as a monitor when I am filming on location?  So I just wanted to put down my wish list for what the iPad could be... maybe in a few more generations.

1.  Full HD support

Make it capable of watching stuff at 1080p 30fps.  Right now the limit it has is 720p, and thats great, but it means that it cannot handle watching my footage as I take it.  Nor could it even be used to double check footage as it is collected.  I know its a little tiny machine and its wrong for me to make demands on it.  But you know what, they get these things right and I will buy one.  Until then, no thanks.

2. SD card support... (or at least USB)

I know Apple loves it when their stuff only talks to their stuff, but seriously.  Let me at least plug a jump drive into this thing.  Even better would be an SD card slot.  Let me take my cards directly from my camera and pop them in so I can do on the spot dailies for my cast and crew.  How awesome would that be?  Not only that, if it has a USB drive I can hook it up to a hard drive and would be able to view all sorts of video.  Not just look at the stuff from that day but all the stuff from the shoot to date if I wanted to.

3. Switchable Battery

If I am headed out on location I fully expect that I am going to burn through all the battery life this bad boy has (especially if it gets the ability to check my footage as I would like).  Some days I just can't sit around near an electrical outlet and things that have a set time before they die away from a power source.  Everything should be able to have a backup switch of some batteries.  Why not the iPad?  I don't care if its a separate block you plug into it (maybe this already exists).  But until I can be sure its going to be dependable for the WHOLE shoot, I can't risk using it for any of it.

Alright... maybe that is all I really need to make it worth the money to me.  Maybe.  But those are sticking points.  Get on your game Apple and make the iPad able to replace my netbook with me on set and I will like you a lot more.

Deluge

Nature VideographySo if there is one things I have learned, it is that once you start opening yourself up to work on projects, you can never really stop.

I have spent a long time making films as an idle past time that cost me far too much money.  When an opportunity presented itself I would make something and little more.  However, this year I made the decision that it was time I started to take myself seriously and do it right.  So here I am, busy as a bee working on things.  So what did I do different now than before?

I set a goal of producing 10 different video projects this year.  I figured that should not be too hard, I would do a 48 hour film or two, make a couple of shorts, make some promo videos for Kickstarter for some friends.  So I spent the last few months looking for things to do, trying to talk myself up to people and get them interested in making films.  Well, it turns out everyone is interested in it.

Since March when I set this goal I have already produced

1. Kickstarter Promotional Video for 'Love Me! Why Everyone Hates Actors'

2. A short film called 'Decision Point'

3. A short film made as part of the DC 48 Hour Film Project called 'Polite Company'

4. A edited collection of old nature videography shots I did in Belize

Not bad.  Four projects in about 3 months, thats nothing horribly exciting but its a good pace for getting 10 by the end of the year right?  Well it turns out every time you finish a project, the people involved get really excited and start asking "When is the NEXT one?" before you can even catch your breath.

So what do I have upcoming as a result of this?

5. The Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project

6. Project Twenty1 in Philadelphia

7. Promotional video spots to air on local television for 'Love Me! WEHA'

8. A promotional video collection for Faction of Fools after the success of 'Life and Laughter' their most recent performance.

Now these are all things which I have already committed to, either by paying an entry fee or agreeing to do it for another group.  But somewhere in there I need to find a little me time don't I?  Some projects that I am really excited to be working on for my own ends.

So after finding out about a 3 minute film competition in Texas, lets tack on

9. Short film about the movement of air from man to plants and back again, see the photo from that film to the left.

And I am still pushing forward the next two projects too

10. Dr Nanog's Lab Episode 1: What is a stem cell?

11. 'Paper Trail' the short story of a man trying his best not to smear his reputation

So there you have it.  11 film projects between March and the end of August.  Looks like I am on my way to meeting my goal.  What is interesting about this list to me is that a number of them are not 'for' me.  They give me experience and the chance to show people my skills.  But they are not film projects that are geared around my own glorification.  All of the promotional work is for someone else.  Which gives it a great deal more immediacy for me.  I would suggest that if you are having trouble getting yourself rolling on making films that you do what I did.  Volunteer to work for people you like.  That way there is someone looking for a product from you and you have more to answer to than just yourself.  This is part of why when I make films I gear them around competitions and festivals now.  It provides a hard and fast deadline and the pressure I need to help me finish.

This week I will post up an update on the film for the Texas competition, and maybe even come up with a title for it.  Should be some other great pictures to put up (I know there are in fact, I have already begun shooting).

Films for the Forest

I promised an update on the film I am producing to send down to Texas, and here it is.  It is for something called "Films for the Forest".  They are looking for a film between 30 seconds and three minutes in length which revolves around the theme 'Breath of the Planet'.  (Fortunately, this film will also be able to be submitted to the DC Environmental Film Festival at the same time as they are currently open for submissions.)

So what I have come up with is a brief visual exploration and contrast of how we share our breath with the plant life that surrounds us.  But not just that cycle, I wanted to contrast life in the city with life in the wilderness.  So through the narrative device of a girl going out for her morning jog and coming home I wanted to show the kind of undue stress a plant in the city has to put up with in order to try to keep up with all of the CO2 production there.  And also the difficulties it gives us as people trying to live there.

Shooting for this started before writing oddly enough.  Sunday the 22nd I went to the Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC to shoot some stock video of the plant and animal life in a beautiful environment.  Combining that nature videography with the narrative form of this project I feel should give a very interesting visually impactful short.

I have seen this tidbit of advice come up over and over again from some of the greatest film makers out there.  But I always feel it bears repeating.  "If the sound cuts out on your film, and no one can hear your dialogue, everyone should still know what is happening based on what they can see, if they can't you wrote a play, not a film."  I am having an uphill battle doing that in this.  How does one show a plant breathing in CO2 and exhaling Oxygen?  Going through my first round of footage has been extremely interesting for this and trying to find a rhythm of in and out throughout the film has been a great challenge.

However, I couldn't help but go through the footage AND edit it together into something.  So I have ended up double dipping a bit.  Although the footage was shot for the purposes of this 'Breath of the Planet' short for the Films for the Forest film festival, I could not help but make a short nature videography collection.  I was really pleased with how a lot of the footage turned out, and rather disappointed that I am not really able to use all of it.  As always, editing is where I learn the most about my shooting and find my flaws.  The newest lesson learned is to leave a bit more of a handle on all of my clips between camera motions.  There were a few places where I had to cut footage not how I would have liked ideally to overcome a change of camera inertia.  Watch it here.

Writing a short poem also proved more difficult than I had hoped it would be.  My scientific background makes me want to use a lot of terms which simply put, don't play well in poetry.  Carbon Dioxide does not exactly roll off the tongue my friends.  But thats a whole other set of challenges, and again, isn't it challenges that make this worth doing?  If it was easy I wouldn't bother to do it.

So.... Films for the Forest... part two.

I began writing this entry during the week leading up to when I did the lionshare of work on the film which has become 'Wisp'.  After I find out about its inclusion in the festival I will have more information about when and where you can see it.  It is also being submitted to the DC Environmental Film Festival this fall (which actually runs and shows films in March) and potentially also to the Alexandria Film Festival just down the road from DC.  Because of those it might be a little while before its easy to track down.  But I will keep you up to date.

As far as how the film evolved.  Well, it took on a new direction.  I realized that comparing and contrasting like I had planned was rather a massive undertaking.  But the bigger issue it held, was that it offered a poor narrative structure. To boot, it had one undeveloped and relatively boring character.  Just a woman going on a morning run.  There were no stakes, there was no interest.  It was at best cute and visually interesting.  That could also be the description of a Shitzu with a bad hair day.  I did not want to make that film.

Fortunately I realized that what was important to me in the film was the air itself.  The jogger was a vehicle and not the focus.  It was about the way we treat our air.  So changing tack slightly I decided to make the invisible and nearly imperceptible air into my main character.  It became a journey with lessons learned and obstacles and all those things that a story needs to be interesting.  I am much happier with what it has become.

Assuming 'Wisp' is accepted to the festival, it will be streamed along with all of the other accepted entries on June 16th.  On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to live in Texas and can make it there to see it, you should.  Although my big interest in them is film, the work that Rainforestpartnership.com does and that this festival aims to bring attention to is really good stuff.  Please support their efforts both by watching, and more importantly, by listening to what they have to say.

Lets See How This Goes

So, at first I was very reluctant to do a blog.  I felt it was something I would never really have the time to do properly and it would just become this horrible thing on my website that people would look at and go "What, so nothing has happened for you since 2008?  Why no updates man?"  But since then I have realized that I might actually have a little bit of something to offer.

So here I am, a pretty regular guy who suddenly one day decided 'Thats it, I am going to become a film maker'.  Here I will walk you through how I got here and how I am continuing on that journey.  Perhaps you can learn something from my pitfalls or my successes.  Who knows?  I don't expect this to be an easy journey, as it is I am already about 5 years into it and I know I have barely begun.  But already I feel like I have learned a lot and the film maker that I was in 2006 is nothing like the film maker that I am today in 2011.

Let me start with a little bit of a longer post for you today on my background.   I started doing film quite by accident.  During a trip to Belize with my college (I was a biology major) I ended up holding onto a video camera, something kinda prosumer-y but a few years old and nothing amazing.  Honestly I had no right to use it.  I had never used a camera before and didn't know what to do with things like gain, white balance, or you know.... framing.  I took terrible footage, shaky  sometimes out of focus, and always too short.  But I had fun, and getting to see the things I had filmed projected for everyone to see was fantastic.  Why tell people about what I saw when I could just show them through my eyes?

Years, a number of films, and way too much money later here I am.  I have goofed around and made a film here or there for some time now.  However now I begin to realize its something I want to pursue with a real passion and not just when the mood strikes me.  So I am starting down that journey and ready to take some twists and turns.