After I postponed the shoot to find a cinematographer, I knew I was going to have to deal with the backlash of scheduling. I conveniently had everyone I needed at that time. But I thought of the old quote "haste makes waste". Even though I could have made it then, what would be the point if it wasn't worth a damn. I'd reschedule for the Summer when people would be free again.
In addition to the challenge of searching for a talented cinematographer in ARKANSAS, I had also received news via email that my actress would now be too busy to play the role of Christina.
What's this? One of your friends dropped out of the movie?
Before I'm bombarded with the "I told you so's" in reference to depending on your friends. Let me point out that she wasn't a close friend of mine.
She's a girl from my hometown that not only had the exact look that I wanted but she also wanted to become an actress.
Here's a better question, did I ever audition her?
No, I didn't. But before you judge me remember what I've said about wanting to work with non-pro's and it giving me the authentic feel I wanted. Plus almost all wannabe actors that have experience usually suck. Watch most low-budget movies or any College theatre and you'll know what I'm talking about.
I tried to work it out with her, and see if I could change the schedule to suit her needs but she wasn't having it. Which led me to believe it may have been something else.
Maybe...having to KISS ME?
Whenever you have to do a kissing scene it's always awkward but you learn to make it work. In my acting experience I've had to kiss a girl that I completely hated, kiss a guy, make out with an ugly girl for about a total of 20 minutes, and grope a girl I barely knew. And two of them were smokers (as if that could make it any worse).
But you find a way around it to make it less awkward every time. Some of those required a lot of imagination.
This time though, it was more awkward than ever. Because I wrote the scene and was casting it. It's like "Hey you, you should be in my movie...where you end up kissing me, because I wrote a part where you kiss me and I picked you to do it".
You're probably thinking I'm thinking too much about it, but people think about that kind of stuff. Especially actresses.
So who knows, that may have been it or maybe not. But whatever,,no point in wasting time there. I knew I needed to move on if I was gonna have this thing ready for Summer. I searched all over for a good way to cast actresses.
I used mandy.com, craigslist.com, backstage.com, nowcasting.com, and a few others I don't remember.
Backstage beat them all.
It's funny. All this time I'd spent auditioning and trying to get cast. I was now on the opposite side and you learn so much from it.
Another crazy thing is all the beautiful actresses trying to be cast in the movie. I can imagine all the losers that use their position to get those girls in another position. And believe me, from what I've heard, it happens a lot.
I wasn't finding anything in state or anywhere close. In fact the three of the best actresses I found lived in the New York/New Jersey area.
I wanted a Hispanic actress since it would add more to the almost all white cast. Plus it would show another part of small town southern culture, the thriving Mexican community (not exactly just a southern thing).
I actually saw an Asian girl on Backstage that fit the look despite the fact she wasn't Hispanic. She also had a lot of experience, was currently living in Memphis, and was into experimental film making. So I asked her to audition for the movie.
I first interviewed them over the phone to see if they were someone I could get along with and had the personality I wanted in the character.
Then I had about ten of the actresses audition via YouTube since they all lived so far away.
After looking them all over, one stood way out from the rest. The Asian girl I mentioned. Not only was she exactly what I wanted, she was able to have fun and improv too. Not to mention she was confident enough to burp in the beginning of the audition.
I talked to all of them and sent them some direction and had them do it again. To see if they could take direction. Even though she did it right the first time.
I knew I wanted her for the role, but I acted like she was one of the dozen I was in talks with. Then after about a week I let her know I chose her and that was it.
Not only that she was super easy to work with. To get her here I offered a plane or whatever, she chose the Greyhound. I guess she was used to it with the touring she'd been doing with her Musical.
Great actress that fitted what I wanted, was local-ish, and completely fell within the budget.
I know I was actually using a non-non-pro. But sometimes a cheap SAG actor can work and seem natural. And she was awesome.
So that's how I cast her. That was just casting one character. I couldn't imagine having to cast every character. Another reason I'm glad I cast my friends.
Look how it worked out though. I would be able to get a DP, got a better actress, and still be able to get everyone together for the movie.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
What Else?
Hey, hey, hey new blog for the day.
So let's just check where we are now. I wrote a script, got a job where I make sort of make money, formed a game plan, and barely dodged a scam deal on a camera.
So after all that I was still working as a substitute I was finally able to get the money to buy my camera for Christmas. Well, my my grandparents threw in an extra $1000 to help me out for my Christmas gift. But a lot of people get money from family members to make a movie so I don't feel bad about it. The Duplass bros. got $10, 000 from their parents to make their movie.
Anyway, I had the camera now. And some tape. So I was experimenting with the camera, filming things, learning how to white balance and the iris and all that crap.
Now I mentioned earlier that I had all the actors committed. Now let me tell you a little story about that.
I told you I was going to cast my friends in it. But how easy was it to that. Well, pretty easy actually. Once you let anyone know you going to make a movie and it's actually happening instead of just some pipe dream coming out of your mouth. EVERYONE wants in on it. Especially the people you don't want anything to do with.
The toughest part of the casting, besides making sure they don't suck is making sure you can schedule them and they show up. Now the business model for this is to always pay anyone that's going to be on your cast and crew, that way they'll show up and not come up with excuses. I actually didn't follow that model but I've got better friends than you so it worked out.
So Winter Break would be the perfect time to get everyone together to shoot the movie. My friends wouldn't have school and all that mess. So there it is.
Got a script, camera, actors, crew(mostly), got a schedule, ugh....what else?
Audio!
I need a mic, but what kind?! I heard the biggest problem with low budget movies is the audio. So many people with bad audio in movies. It's one of those things that you only notice when it's bad.
So I get all kinds of message boards, buy a $90 DVD on audio, and then more research. Be careful with the people giving you advice. If you ask an audio guy for advice on audio, he'll know what he's talking about, but he'll take his job too serious and try to act like it's the most important part of the movie. He'll tell you all this shit about hiring about four people to do sound, getting a mixer, blah, blah, blah. Fuck that. We're taking about a no budget movie. So I rented a no budget movie off of Netflix and looked up his crew and even emailed him. I didn't notice any problems with his sound and he told me he only used a DP and a Boom guy for his crew.
I will advise you to research your stuff, but don't go overboard. Know your mics, keep you mic as close to the person as possible without getting in the shot, and avoid echo and static as all costs. You can't fix that in post.
So after buying over $500 worth of audio equipment, and making my own boompole. I think again. What else?
I heard I needed an Anamorphic lens because all movies needed to be 16x9. My camera was 4x3. So I went through an ordeal on eBay to buy an Anamorphic lens for my camera. After a long ordeal where I didn't get the bid I just said fuck it, I need this camera before Winter Break is over so I chose Buy It Now and got it for $500. But I kept thinking....what else.
I need to make sure my footage doesn't look like crap! I've studied lighting through different websites and I wasn't taking to it at all. I decided to ditch my original realism idea with natural lighting and get some good lighting in the movie. Because nobody wants to watch your movie if it doesn't look like a movie.
So made the difficult decision to postpone the shooting of the movie and hire a cinematographer to give the movie a great look and run my crew. For if hire a talented guy with experience he can make me look like I know what I'm doing.
Pretty smart huh? Yeah. I'll go ahead and answer that one for you.
But when you postpone a movie, people's schedules come into play. So was it a good decision?
So let's just check where we are now. I wrote a script, got a job where I make sort of make money, formed a game plan, and barely dodged a scam deal on a camera.
So after all that I was still working as a substitute I was finally able to get the money to buy my camera for Christmas. Well, my my grandparents threw in an extra $1000 to help me out for my Christmas gift. But a lot of people get money from family members to make a movie so I don't feel bad about it. The Duplass bros. got $10, 000 from their parents to make their movie.
Anyway, I had the camera now. And some tape. So I was experimenting with the camera, filming things, learning how to white balance and the iris and all that crap.
Now I mentioned earlier that I had all the actors committed. Now let me tell you a little story about that.
I told you I was going to cast my friends in it. But how easy was it to that. Well, pretty easy actually. Once you let anyone know you going to make a movie and it's actually happening instead of just some pipe dream coming out of your mouth. EVERYONE wants in on it. Especially the people you don't want anything to do with.
The toughest part of the casting, besides making sure they don't suck is making sure you can schedule them and they show up. Now the business model for this is to always pay anyone that's going to be on your cast and crew, that way they'll show up and not come up with excuses. I actually didn't follow that model but I've got better friends than you so it worked out.
So Winter Break would be the perfect time to get everyone together to shoot the movie. My friends wouldn't have school and all that mess. So there it is.
Got a script, camera, actors, crew(mostly), got a schedule, ugh....what else?
Audio!
I need a mic, but what kind?! I heard the biggest problem with low budget movies is the audio. So many people with bad audio in movies. It's one of those things that you only notice when it's bad.
So I get all kinds of message boards, buy a $90 DVD on audio, and then more research. Be careful with the people giving you advice. If you ask an audio guy for advice on audio, he'll know what he's talking about, but he'll take his job too serious and try to act like it's the most important part of the movie. He'll tell you all this shit about hiring about four people to do sound, getting a mixer, blah, blah, blah. Fuck that. We're taking about a no budget movie. So I rented a no budget movie off of Netflix and looked up his crew and even emailed him. I didn't notice any problems with his sound and he told me he only used a DP and a Boom guy for his crew.
I will advise you to research your stuff, but don't go overboard. Know your mics, keep you mic as close to the person as possible without getting in the shot, and avoid echo and static as all costs. You can't fix that in post.
So after buying over $500 worth of audio equipment, and making my own boompole. I think again. What else?
I heard I needed an Anamorphic lens because all movies needed to be 16x9. My camera was 4x3. So I went through an ordeal on eBay to buy an Anamorphic lens for my camera. After a long ordeal where I didn't get the bid I just said fuck it, I need this camera before Winter Break is over so I chose Buy It Now and got it for $500. But I kept thinking....what else.
I need to make sure my footage doesn't look like crap! I've studied lighting through different websites and I wasn't taking to it at all. I decided to ditch my original realism idea with natural lighting and get some good lighting in the movie. Because nobody wants to watch your movie if it doesn't look like a movie.
So made the difficult decision to postpone the shooting of the movie and hire a cinematographer to give the movie a great look and run my crew. For if hire a talented guy with experience he can make me look like I know what I'm doing.
Pretty smart huh? Yeah. I'll go ahead and answer that one for you.
But when you postpone a movie, people's schedules come into play. So was it a good decision?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Watch out for the CAM SCAM
Now when I started researching the DVX100, I found it was hard to find. It had been upgraded to the DVX100b by the time I started looking for the camera. I looked around all over the web for the cheapest price. Cause as cheap as $2500 is for a movie camera...it's still $2200. And boom, I found it. $800!
My blog title is kind of a spoiler but pretend you're just as naive as I was and stay excited with me.
Now this sounds too good to be true, $800! I check up on other websites and I find about eight other websites that are just as cheap with the DVX's. And to think I was about to spend $2200 for one from NewEgg.com.
So according to the website at hand I could get all types of extras for adding a few hundred more dollars. Things such as a battery, some lenses, a camera bag, an AC/DC charger, and even a few tapes.
So I'm saving my money up for this camera, which wouldn't take long. Letting my cast and crew know we'll be ready to shoot in a matter of weeks. I'm also rushing to get everything ready so not only can I get the film shot during Winter Break, but the quicker I get it done the quicker I get the hell out of Warren, AR.
Just in case you were wondering how I was earning my money, I was subbing at the schools. Mainly the middle school and high school. Yeah, in case I didn't have enough stress with the movie I have to relive my year of being a teacher all at once. Shitty pay but better than any other job around, and it was never boring. I'd just plan and research my books while I let them do busy work and gossip. Just in case anyone reading this plans to ever teach, don't. If you're still desperate enough to do it call up Sir Richard Branson and tell him you'd like to sign up for the Mars Colonization, since you're life on Earth is worthless.
But I was making enough money, with moving in with my grandparents I had no overhead so all the money was going straight to the production untouched. Soon enough I had the money by Christmas, and called to order it on Black Friday. Called up the number, guy answers non-Chantilly with a Jersey accent. And if you want to imagine what he sounded like, just imagine some short, fat, balding, cigar smoking, guy who spends his spare time eating at a cheap Strip Club Buffet. I've got a weird imagination, I know.
I ask him if today is the last day to take advantage of the Black Friday sale, and he says "You bet". I told him my bank wasn't open that day, and was wondering if they could hold it one more day. He starts laughing and says "Can't help you chief". Completely unprofessional but for some reason I'm still talking to him (cheapness).
So I endure and ask him about the battery deal, and say "Even if I don't get the deal with the 2 hour battery, that's an extra battery anyway. The normal package comes with a battery already attached right?" Guy says "Nope, just the camera, battery's another $200."
As naive and dumb as I am, I still said "$200?!"
Jersey guy "Look you gonna buy something or not?"
I hung up.
Yayyy!!! I didn't fall for it.
I saw another website that had the same deal as them at the same price and ordered from them. So I get it cheap anyway. Boomshakalaka!
I don't even call this time. I just order it off the Internet and wait for my camera. I let the school and kids know that I'll only be around for a little bit longer.
Things work out sometimes. So I thought I'd check up on the company I ordered from while I had some free time.
You know where this is going.
Turns out there's all kinds of complaints on these people. They run a little shop out of Brooklyn. But it can't be the same people I dealt with before!?
It can! They've got over 30 different websites and phone numbers, and there were plenty of horror stories from previous dumb people that fell for it on a forum. The company even had an award on eBay, and they were con artists!
Things don't work out sometimes! Fucking bull shit! All this money! All this time! To go to some people who scam people and what's worse is they get away with it and laugh at their buyers like idiots!
I rush to the bank to beg them to stop my transfer. They said it's too late. It's been three days since I made the order. What the fuck! I plead with the staff to find away. One of the younger guys working there tries to help me out and looks it up. He said the money hasn't been received yet, so I could just cancel my card.
Bam, done. Like a movie with a last minute happy ending. Except this is just a blog about some whiny, idiot that fell for the fifth oldest trick in the book. Still similar though.
I get a phone call a few days later. Not the same Brooklyn/Jersey guy, his scam artist nephew or something. He says he needs my CVC 3 letter code on the back of my card.
What? This whole time I went through so much shit and they couldn't even get my money anyway till I gave them the number.
So I then just proceed to fuck with the guy, but it's been so long and it was so random I can't even really remember what I said. Probably was only funny in the moment anyway. Then I hang up on him.
He still calls back then I tell him he's a scam artist and he got caught.
If you want to prank call them, just call 888-450-4111. Tell them you want a buy something, then keep adding on extras and warranties, then tell them to cancel all the extras and you just want the camera. They'll hang up on you and maybe cuss you out first.
And in case you were wondering how they would've got away with the scam, it's easy. They just sell you a grey market version, with no battery, or lens, or mic, or LCD, or eyepiece, or...yeah you get it.
I'll post some of the websites if I find time to find them and feel like it. Which means I probably won't.
Just don't buy really cheap...or really expensive. Just buy from bhphotovideo.com and save yourself time and money.
Moral of the story, I was a lucky idiot.
THE END
My blog title is kind of a spoiler but pretend you're just as naive as I was and stay excited with me.
Now this sounds too good to be true, $800! I check up on other websites and I find about eight other websites that are just as cheap with the DVX's. And to think I was about to spend $2200 for one from NewEgg.com.
So according to the website at hand I could get all types of extras for adding a few hundred more dollars. Things such as a battery, some lenses, a camera bag, an AC/DC charger, and even a few tapes.
So I'm saving my money up for this camera, which wouldn't take long. Letting my cast and crew know we'll be ready to shoot in a matter of weeks. I'm also rushing to get everything ready so not only can I get the film shot during Winter Break, but the quicker I get it done the quicker I get the hell out of Warren, AR.
Just in case you were wondering how I was earning my money, I was subbing at the schools. Mainly the middle school and high school. Yeah, in case I didn't have enough stress with the movie I have to relive my year of being a teacher all at once. Shitty pay but better than any other job around, and it was never boring. I'd just plan and research my books while I let them do busy work and gossip. Just in case anyone reading this plans to ever teach, don't. If you're still desperate enough to do it call up Sir Richard Branson and tell him you'd like to sign up for the Mars Colonization, since you're life on Earth is worthless.
But I was making enough money, with moving in with my grandparents I had no overhead so all the money was going straight to the production untouched. Soon enough I had the money by Christmas, and called to order it on Black Friday. Called up the number, guy answers non-Chantilly with a Jersey accent. And if you want to imagine what he sounded like, just imagine some short, fat, balding, cigar smoking, guy who spends his spare time eating at a cheap Strip Club Buffet. I've got a weird imagination, I know.
I ask him if today is the last day to take advantage of the Black Friday sale, and he says "You bet". I told him my bank wasn't open that day, and was wondering if they could hold it one more day. He starts laughing and says "Can't help you chief". Completely unprofessional but for some reason I'm still talking to him (cheapness).
So I endure and ask him about the battery deal, and say "Even if I don't get the deal with the 2 hour battery, that's an extra battery anyway. The normal package comes with a battery already attached right?" Guy says "Nope, just the camera, battery's another $200."
As naive and dumb as I am, I still said "$200?!"
Jersey guy "Look you gonna buy something or not?"
I hung up.
Yayyy!!! I didn't fall for it.
I saw another website that had the same deal as them at the same price and ordered from them. So I get it cheap anyway. Boomshakalaka!
I don't even call this time. I just order it off the Internet and wait for my camera. I let the school and kids know that I'll only be around for a little bit longer.
Things work out sometimes. So I thought I'd check up on the company I ordered from while I had some free time.
You know where this is going.
Turns out there's all kinds of complaints on these people. They run a little shop out of Brooklyn. But it can't be the same people I dealt with before!?
It can! They've got over 30 different websites and phone numbers, and there were plenty of horror stories from previous dumb people that fell for it on a forum. The company even had an award on eBay, and they were con artists!
Things don't work out sometimes! Fucking bull shit! All this money! All this time! To go to some people who scam people and what's worse is they get away with it and laugh at their buyers like idiots!
I rush to the bank to beg them to stop my transfer. They said it's too late. It's been three days since I made the order. What the fuck! I plead with the staff to find away. One of the younger guys working there tries to help me out and looks it up. He said the money hasn't been received yet, so I could just cancel my card.
Bam, done. Like a movie with a last minute happy ending. Except this is just a blog about some whiny, idiot that fell for the fifth oldest trick in the book. Still similar though.
I get a phone call a few days later. Not the same Brooklyn/Jersey guy, his scam artist nephew or something. He says he needs my CVC 3 letter code on the back of my card.
What? This whole time I went through so much shit and they couldn't even get my money anyway till I gave them the number.
So I then just proceed to fuck with the guy, but it's been so long and it was so random I can't even really remember what I said. Probably was only funny in the moment anyway. Then I hang up on him.
He still calls back then I tell him he's a scam artist and he got caught.
If you want to prank call them, just call 888-450-4111. Tell them you want a buy something, then keep adding on extras and warranties, then tell them to cancel all the extras and you just want the camera. They'll hang up on you and maybe cuss you out first.
And in case you were wondering how they would've got away with the scam, it's easy. They just sell you a grey market version, with no battery, or lens, or mic, or LCD, or eyepiece, or...yeah you get it.
I'll post some of the websites if I find time to find them and feel like it. Which means I probably won't.
Just don't buy really cheap...or really expensive. Just buy from bhphotovideo.com and save yourself time and money.
Moral of the story, I was a lucky idiot.
THE END
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Research before Finance II
In my last blog I talked about the fact that it's not the money that matters, it's what you got. Think in terms of what you need before money. And we got to the part where I had chosen a camera, the Panasonic DVX100. I looked it up and found that the best price would be a little over $2200. That's not that bad, especially considering the fact the camera will be most of my budget.
Camera most of my budget? Huh? What? Who? Yeah!
Stay with me a minute. Now I'm making a movie about true life experiences and real life people I know. So who do I want to play these people?
1)Do I want cheap SAG actors who don't live anywhere near me and judging from the latest low budget horror movie they were in, they're not exactly the thespians I'm looking for.
2)Another option could be hiring actors from a local community theatre or universtiy. As you know from the earlier blogs there is no community theatre within two hours of where I live. And the closest university that has a theatre program is only thirty minutes closer. And it's the same university I graduated from, and believe me I don't want anything to do with that. Trust me, if any of you have ever seen a university play you know what I'm talking about.
Some of you may be thinking "Steven, how could you? Weren't you once a hopeful young theatre actor from Southern Arkansas University at one time?" Well, actually none of you are thinking that but I'll answer it anyway. Yes I was, and that's exactly why I don't want to deal with theatre actors. The theatre program teaches you to be a worse actor in my opinion. Too much reading and getting inside your head. It forces you to think over act. But the main thing is...COLLEGE THEATRE ACTORS SUCK!
3) But no worries inter-pals, I never wanted to go that route in the first place. You see, I had a plan all along. Who better to play my friends, than...MY FRIENDS.
Uh, oh. Typical indie filmmaker mistake alert! Or is it?
Me thinks not. I've always been a fan of non-professional actors (big word for people who have never acted before) in movies. They're is something more natural about them. Of course they're not going to be great at acting in something like Transformers or American Beauty, but for the style I'm going for it will be perfect. Directors like Gus Van Sant use non-professionals a lot, as well as those crazy mumblecore people I mentioned in my last post. While the story and overall dynamic may have been very slow and boring, the acting was completely believable. In fact so believable, normal acting seems so blown up and performance like it's hard to watch sometimes.
With a cast of relaxed non-pro's directed well with suitable material, you're actors will seem so believable people will think they're watching a really good reality show. That's what I always tell people, act like you're on a reality show. That's more real than reality?
Which I was estatic to find out, because I wanted to cast my friends the whole time! Now I found that many people had done this and it worked out well!
So what does this have to do with research and finance? Well I researched some experimental (not to mention award winning) filmmaking and found an easy practical way to cast my movie for free!
Research and Finance. They're both there.
So the camera and actors are accounted for...kind of. Still gotta cast them and all that, but for now will stay with what we got.
But what about all this other shit? Sound, Lighting, Make Up, etc.
Well, you don't actually really need that. You can make your movie right now if you want. Script, camera, and actors are those are the most important ingredients. And if you're making mumblecore you can just skip the script part.
"Wow, Steve, so you've basically taught us to write about our boring lives, buy a $2000 camera, and shoot my stupid friends while they stammer and look into the camera." Say's some imaginary sarcastic reader of this blog I haven't even posted yet.
No, I'm just saying you can do that if you're talented enough. Think a great script and acting are the two most important parts of a movie, everything else is just an add on. But you probably won't be talented enough to pull that off, and even if you could why skimp on the other things when they're so easily obtainable.
If you want your movie to get seen...it should look like a movie. There's no better feeling than when you're watching your first movie and it looks like a real fucking movie you could rent from Blockbuster!
And I imagine it would feel pretty bad to spend all this time on your movie and it looks like some crappy youtube video about a kid falling off a trampoline. Even if it was good people would probably just lose interest because it doesn't look like a movie.
So why did my movie look like the former rather than the later? You'll learn that soon enough, first I'm gonna tell you how I made money and the story behind my camera...in my next blog that is.
Camera most of my budget? Huh? What? Who? Yeah!
Stay with me a minute. Now I'm making a movie about true life experiences and real life people I know. So who do I want to play these people?
1)Do I want cheap SAG actors who don't live anywhere near me and judging from the latest low budget horror movie they were in, they're not exactly the thespians I'm looking for.
2)Another option could be hiring actors from a local community theatre or universtiy. As you know from the earlier blogs there is no community theatre within two hours of where I live. And the closest university that has a theatre program is only thirty minutes closer. And it's the same university I graduated from, and believe me I don't want anything to do with that. Trust me, if any of you have ever seen a university play you know what I'm talking about.
Some of you may be thinking "Steven, how could you? Weren't you once a hopeful young theatre actor from Southern Arkansas University at one time?" Well, actually none of you are thinking that but I'll answer it anyway. Yes I was, and that's exactly why I don't want to deal with theatre actors. The theatre program teaches you to be a worse actor in my opinion. Too much reading and getting inside your head. It forces you to think over act. But the main thing is...COLLEGE THEATRE ACTORS SUCK!
3) But no worries inter-pals, I never wanted to go that route in the first place. You see, I had a plan all along. Who better to play my friends, than...MY FRIENDS.
Uh, oh. Typical indie filmmaker mistake alert! Or is it?
Me thinks not. I've always been a fan of non-professional actors (big word for people who have never acted before) in movies. They're is something more natural about them. Of course they're not going to be great at acting in something like Transformers or American Beauty, but for the style I'm going for it will be perfect. Directors like Gus Van Sant use non-professionals a lot, as well as those crazy mumblecore people I mentioned in my last post. While the story and overall dynamic may have been very slow and boring, the acting was completely believable. In fact so believable, normal acting seems so blown up and performance like it's hard to watch sometimes.
With a cast of relaxed non-pro's directed well with suitable material, you're actors will seem so believable people will think they're watching a really good reality show. That's what I always tell people, act like you're on a reality show. That's more real than reality?
Which I was estatic to find out, because I wanted to cast my friends the whole time! Now I found that many people had done this and it worked out well!
So what does this have to do with research and finance? Well I researched some experimental (not to mention award winning) filmmaking and found an easy practical way to cast my movie for free!
Research and Finance. They're both there.
So the camera and actors are accounted for...kind of. Still gotta cast them and all that, but for now will stay with what we got.
But what about all this other shit? Sound, Lighting, Make Up, etc.
Well, you don't actually really need that. You can make your movie right now if you want. Script, camera, and actors are those are the most important ingredients. And if you're making mumblecore you can just skip the script part.
"Wow, Steve, so you've basically taught us to write about our boring lives, buy a $2000 camera, and shoot my stupid friends while they stammer and look into the camera." Say's some imaginary sarcastic reader of this blog I haven't even posted yet.
No, I'm just saying you can do that if you're talented enough. Think a great script and acting are the two most important parts of a movie, everything else is just an add on. But you probably won't be talented enough to pull that off, and even if you could why skimp on the other things when they're so easily obtainable.
If you want your movie to get seen...it should look like a movie. There's no better feeling than when you're watching your first movie and it looks like a real fucking movie you could rent from Blockbuster!
And I imagine it would feel pretty bad to spend all this time on your movie and it looks like some crappy youtube video about a kid falling off a trampoline. Even if it was good people would probably just lose interest because it doesn't look like a movie.
So why did my movie look like the former rather than the later? You'll learn that soon enough, first I'm gonna tell you how I made money and the story behind my camera...in my next blog that is.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Research before Finance
How would I go on to fund an entire movie with no funds? Well, first I needed to think in terms of what I needed before I started thinking about money. As long as you got what you need, money doesn't matter. Like that guy who just won at Cannes Film Festival with a $70 zombie movie called, Colin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278322). If anybody needs to be writing a blog it's him. But for now you're stuck with me.
By the way the guy who directed Colin, Mark Price, was another former Student of Dov Simens. I need to stop bringing him up before I really start annoying people.
What's the most important thing in order to make a movie? The one thing that seperates theatre from film... a camera. Wow, I'm really breaking new ground here aren't I. But seriously, it's the number one thing. So I need to pick out a camera, and one that doesn't make the film look an old home movie.
Now everything else is debatable, no matter what you think. If you wanted to you could film some old G.I. Joes being chewed up by your dogs and call it a movie, you could. Burn it on a DVD you can call anything a "Movie" and say it's artistic in some manor.
So with everything else being debatable depending on type of project I wanted to make I decided to research movies that were close to type of movie I wanted to make. Clerks and Swingers were the two movies that were the closest to what I wanted. I knew I wouldn't be working with a budget like Swingers so forget about that. Clerks seemed more around my budget, so I checked their imdb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/fullcredits#cast). Financing a crew for a feature film didn't seem as intimidating. Notice how a lot of the cast and crew are listed multiple times under different titles as well.
And I'd be shooting on DV, which meant I'd have it way easier than our indie forefathers. They all had to hassle with buying expensive film, renting out expensive film cameras, loading the film, watching dailies, and having to be so frugal throughout the entire process that they had to shoot almost entirely in master shots. Clerks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94wGndbOIPk) and Stranger than Paradise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpQ3HrmjjSc) are perfect examples of this. Can you imagine paying for all that money for film and during this scene someone misses their line or something? That's a lot of expensive film wasted. That's where the ol' "Cat in the Window" shot comes in. Notice in Clerks how Kevin Smith literally put a cat in a window during that scene. That kind of coverage covers your ass. But when you're shooting DV you have plenty of tape so you can get as much coverage and as many angles and takes as you want with no worries.
Which was good for me because I wanted to get a lot of footage. Since I wanted my movie to a true slice of life movie, I wanted to tape people having mundane conversations, hanging out, improving, and you can't do that when you have to be frugal. But if you remember the previous blog I brought up a movie called Hannah Takes the Stairs (http://www.hannahtakesthestairs.com/). That movie was obviously digital and it seemed like it was similar to the movie I wanted to make that was shot in a very realistic manor almost as if it was a documentary.
So with my new Netflix account I rented lot's of low budget movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs that were part of film movement called mumblecore. Which are no budget movies shot digitally with mostly non-professional actors without a script. I watched them and learned something very valuable...IT'S BORING! I was at one time thinking of doing something akin to that so that it would show how life was truly lived, but the thing is that it's very, very, boring. Hannah was the longest 90 minutes of my life, Funny Haha(http://www.funnyhahafilm.com/) was better but still boring, but The Puffy Chair(http://www.thepuffychairmovie.com/home.html) was actually good. So if want to make a mumblecore movie, try to follow the Duplass brothers example.
Either way all these movies won at Film Festivals, such as SXSW and Sundance. Like I said earlier, even if you make a bad or boring movie it can still be considered art and win festivals. Just make the movie that you would want to see. The point is I watched a lot of low budget movies to learn before I make mine. You actually learn a lot from watching bad movies. Because when you watch good movies it's hard to see what they're doing right because they make it look so easy, but when you watch bad movies you can learn things to avoid.
I looked up The Puffy Chair to see what type of camera they used and in an interview they talked about the DVX100(http://thefilmlot.com/interviews/INTduplassbros.php). So that was it. That's what I would save my money for. Now you're probably thinking "great you got a camera, but how did you pay for actors, lighting equipment, all this other stuff". Worry not my friend because we're getting to that, it's just that this blog is so long I think it's best if we continue that in the next blog. So stay tuned for part two.
By the way the guy who directed Colin, Mark Price, was another former Student of Dov Simens. I need to stop bringing him up before I really start annoying people.
What's the most important thing in order to make a movie? The one thing that seperates theatre from film... a camera. Wow, I'm really breaking new ground here aren't I. But seriously, it's the number one thing. So I need to pick out a camera, and one that doesn't make the film look an old home movie.
Now everything else is debatable, no matter what you think. If you wanted to you could film some old G.I. Joes being chewed up by your dogs and call it a movie, you could. Burn it on a DVD you can call anything a "Movie" and say it's artistic in some manor.
So with everything else being debatable depending on type of project I wanted to make I decided to research movies that were close to type of movie I wanted to make. Clerks and Swingers were the two movies that were the closest to what I wanted. I knew I wouldn't be working with a budget like Swingers so forget about that. Clerks seemed more around my budget, so I checked their imdb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/fullcredits#cast). Financing a crew for a feature film didn't seem as intimidating. Notice how a lot of the cast and crew are listed multiple times under different titles as well.
And I'd be shooting on DV, which meant I'd have it way easier than our indie forefathers. They all had to hassle with buying expensive film, renting out expensive film cameras, loading the film, watching dailies, and having to be so frugal throughout the entire process that they had to shoot almost entirely in master shots. Clerks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94wGndbOIPk) and Stranger than Paradise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpQ3HrmjjSc) are perfect examples of this. Can you imagine paying for all that money for film and during this scene someone misses their line or something? That's a lot of expensive film wasted. That's where the ol' "Cat in the Window" shot comes in. Notice in Clerks how Kevin Smith literally put a cat in a window during that scene. That kind of coverage covers your ass. But when you're shooting DV you have plenty of tape so you can get as much coverage and as many angles and takes as you want with no worries.
Which was good for me because I wanted to get a lot of footage. Since I wanted my movie to a true slice of life movie, I wanted to tape people having mundane conversations, hanging out, improving, and you can't do that when you have to be frugal. But if you remember the previous blog I brought up a movie called Hannah Takes the Stairs (http://www.hannahtakesthestairs.com/). That movie was obviously digital and it seemed like it was similar to the movie I wanted to make that was shot in a very realistic manor almost as if it was a documentary.
So with my new Netflix account I rented lot's of low budget movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs that were part of film movement called mumblecore. Which are no budget movies shot digitally with mostly non-professional actors without a script. I watched them and learned something very valuable...IT'S BORING! I was at one time thinking of doing something akin to that so that it would show how life was truly lived, but the thing is that it's very, very, boring. Hannah was the longest 90 minutes of my life, Funny Haha(http://www.funnyhahafilm.com/) was better but still boring, but The Puffy Chair(http://www.thepuffychairmovie.com/home.html) was actually good. So if want to make a mumblecore movie, try to follow the Duplass brothers example.
Either way all these movies won at Film Festivals, such as SXSW and Sundance. Like I said earlier, even if you make a bad or boring movie it can still be considered art and win festivals. Just make the movie that you would want to see. The point is I watched a lot of low budget movies to learn before I make mine. You actually learn a lot from watching bad movies. Because when you watch good movies it's hard to see what they're doing right because they make it look so easy, but when you watch bad movies you can learn things to avoid.
I looked up The Puffy Chair to see what type of camera they used and in an interview they talked about the DVX100(http://thefilmlot.com/interviews/INTduplassbros.php). So that was it. That's what I would save my money for. Now you're probably thinking "great you got a camera, but how did you pay for actors, lighting equipment, all this other stuff". Worry not my friend because we're getting to that, it's just that this blog is so long I think it's best if we continue that in the next blog. So stay tuned for part two.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Writing and Copywriting
I'm still in Warren, AR as of right now. Checking out different editors that have submitted to me but I'm just going to interview them when I get to Melbourne. Gotta make sure it's someone I can depend on and put up with for long hours. As of right now I'm just doing this and letting the movie "INSIDE JOKE' be known to the masses.
So we left off in our last adventure with me back where I came from with no script, and no money. So whatever did I do? As far as Ideas went I wasn't at a loss.
You're probably wondering why I decided to come back to Warren to make a movie? So many people in LA were interested in what it was like living in small town that I knew I needed to make a movie about it. One that was AUTHENTIC, with AUTHENTIC ACCENTS. Please don't believe the accents in Varsity Blues! Plus, how would I fund a movie in LA when I could barely fund myself. To grandmothers house I go!
In a record driving time of 2 days I got back just in time for the Annual Pink Tomato Festival. My best friend, Jacob, was in Warren for a few days before he had to head back to Florida. I agreed to drive JACOB down there and hang out for a few weeks, I deserved a vacation plus I'd be bringing MY BROTHER back who was already down there hanging out with HIS BROTHER. Complicated I know, same reaction the cop had who pulled me over in Alabama when I had to give him my reason for driving cross country. I literally had just driven coast to coast.
So after travelling to Melbourne, FL (bad ass place by the way) to drop off Jacob and pick my brother JOSH, then I go to TX for my sister FELICIA'S wedding, then I'm finally back in Warren to make things happen. The only place left to hook up my computer is a room that's so small and hot it feel's like a boiler room, but whatever.
So I decided to write the story, which is all based off awkward dating experiences and hanging out with my friends. So yeah, it's got a Clerks/Superbad-ish thing going for it. I just decided to take all these true life stories I've been telling for years making people laugh, combine them into 90 pages and make a movie of it.
Now for anyone that writes, you know what it's like to sit infront of keyboard to write. You think too much, and you're mind tries to get you off track and think of a hundred other things you need to do. Don't listen to it. Just type and type anything. It's a first draft, so it's gonna suck and you'll rewrite a hundred times anyway. In Finding Forrester, Forrester say's something akin to "Just type, don't think. You write the first draft with you heart. Then you can go back and use your mind."
That was my mentality, which is probably why the script ended up being around 250 pages. So yeah there were some problems, way too long, too many characters, lot's of people just hanging out talking about things that happened somewhere else, all in one location, and some loose ends.
You may have already learned this stuff from experience or reading a book but I beleive experience is the best teacher and I'd rather learn the hard way than listen to some guy's theory on something. This way you learn the reason for a rule or that you don't care for their rules at all.
But it acheived the following things 1) It was done 2) It was funny 3) Easy to produce 4) Great dialogue. So I registered the treatement with the WGA, and sent the script to the library of congress to get copywrited. And sent the script to a script doctor in LA, who basically told me what I already just named but repeatedly mentioned how much I tortured him with 250 pages in one location, haha.
So I fixed all that stuff over time with several re-writes. And after talking to people, I realized that since I was filming on DV I didn't have to write it as if I was shooting on 16mm. So I added more locations, combined characters for depth, etc.
So I had the legal stuff out of the way and I had a great script that's easy to produce and would get better after every re-write I did periodically from there on in. But how would I finance it and what kind of talent pool would I be working with in small town southern Arkansas. Find out next blog on the Adventures of Steve and Friends!
So we left off in our last adventure with me back where I came from with no script, and no money. So whatever did I do? As far as Ideas went I wasn't at a loss.
You're probably wondering why I decided to come back to Warren to make a movie? So many people in LA were interested in what it was like living in small town that I knew I needed to make a movie about it. One that was AUTHENTIC, with AUTHENTIC ACCENTS. Please don't believe the accents in Varsity Blues! Plus, how would I fund a movie in LA when I could barely fund myself. To grandmothers house I go!
In a record driving time of 2 days I got back just in time for the Annual Pink Tomato Festival. My best friend, Jacob, was in Warren for a few days before he had to head back to Florida. I agreed to drive JACOB down there and hang out for a few weeks, I deserved a vacation plus I'd be bringing MY BROTHER back who was already down there hanging out with HIS BROTHER. Complicated I know, same reaction the cop had who pulled me over in Alabama when I had to give him my reason for driving cross country. I literally had just driven coast to coast.
So after travelling to Melbourne, FL (bad ass place by the way) to drop off Jacob and pick my brother JOSH, then I go to TX for my sister FELICIA'S wedding, then I'm finally back in Warren to make things happen. The only place left to hook up my computer is a room that's so small and hot it feel's like a boiler room, but whatever.
So I decided to write the story, which is all based off awkward dating experiences and hanging out with my friends. So yeah, it's got a Clerks/Superbad-ish thing going for it. I just decided to take all these true life stories I've been telling for years making people laugh, combine them into 90 pages and make a movie of it.
Now for anyone that writes, you know what it's like to sit infront of keyboard to write. You think too much, and you're mind tries to get you off track and think of a hundred other things you need to do. Don't listen to it. Just type and type anything. It's a first draft, so it's gonna suck and you'll rewrite a hundred times anyway. In Finding Forrester, Forrester say's something akin to "Just type, don't think. You write the first draft with you heart. Then you can go back and use your mind."
That was my mentality, which is probably why the script ended up being around 250 pages. So yeah there were some problems, way too long, too many characters, lot's of people just hanging out talking about things that happened somewhere else, all in one location, and some loose ends.
You may have already learned this stuff from experience or reading a book but I beleive experience is the best teacher and I'd rather learn the hard way than listen to some guy's theory on something. This way you learn the reason for a rule or that you don't care for their rules at all.
But it acheived the following things 1) It was done 2) It was funny 3) Easy to produce 4) Great dialogue. So I registered the treatement with the WGA, and sent the script to the library of congress to get copywrited. And sent the script to a script doctor in LA, who basically told me what I already just named but repeatedly mentioned how much I tortured him with 250 pages in one location, haha.
So I fixed all that stuff over time with several re-writes. And after talking to people, I realized that since I was filming on DV I didn't have to write it as if I was shooting on 16mm. So I added more locations, combined characters for depth, etc.
So I had the legal stuff out of the way and I had a great script that's easy to produce and would get better after every re-write I did periodically from there on in. But how would I finance it and what kind of talent pool would I be working with in small town southern Arkansas. Find out next blog on the Adventures of Steve and Friends!
Self Education
So I'm still in post as of this blog, actually pre-post. In about a week I get to go down to Florida and edit the movie, but more on that later.
So I let's start with the decision to make my own movie. Great idea for a number of reasons 1) The crap I was auditioning for anyway was horrible 2) It was such a rat race 3) Always wanted to make my own movie anyway 4) One of my jobs was working at Blockbuster and I saw preview for Hannah Takes the Stairs (hannahtakesthestairs.com) and knew I could make my own movie.
There's those two types than inspire you to do something. One is so inspirational that you feel it's your calling to follow in their footsteps, the other is the kind that looks so bad or easy that you know you feel "I can do better than that". I'll let you guess which one I thought after seeing that trailer.
But one of my roommates had given up the dream of being an actor and decided to back home to Little Rock and be a loser that tries to pick up girls by telling them about how he used to live in Hollywood and the other roommate finally found out he was gay after having gay sex for the first time with his friend now turned boyfriend and decided to move into his apartment. So now I had no place to stay, and the seminar was in a month. So I decided to use the ol' puppy dog eyes on a girl I was seeing to get her to take me in for a month. Wow, those Armenians. She cooked for me and treated me like a king at first, soon as I moved in I was a Pariah. I've waited tables and taught high school students. I can up with a bitch that goes off on me because she can't stand the sound of me clipping my fingernails.
So after a month of her, and driving three times the distance to get to work for a month I've finally got to the seminar. I walk into some big stuido lot (Paramount Lot I think) and find my way to the auditorium. At the risk of sounding like somebody on his payroll, he is the guy to talk to if you want to make a movie. Anyone with common sense should know film school is a waste of money and time, all you get are contacts which you'll be doing anyway when you're doing the real thing. To paraphrase Tarantino (former student of Dov's), "Why spend money on filmschool when you could be using it on...your film?"
That was a bit of a tangent, but that's what I do. Anyway, I'm in there surrounded by a bunch of other people in an auditorium. Some of which were wearing expensive clothes indicating that they're TV actors or low level producers or some shit, there were also a lot of regular looking people, and people who knew way less than I did. Dov walked in before the seminar just checking over stuff and told us to mingle since we're all in the same boat. Who do I have around me? A kid from highschool who earned this trip in some Arts program...wow. I payed $400 and stayed in an apartment with this annoying girl for a month to learn how to make my dreams a reality, this guy doesn't know what the hell it's about and has no fucking idea how to handle all the info he's about to recieve. Guy on my right is some foreigner who kept taking his shoes off and proping them on the seat infront of him stinking up the adjacent seats...one of which would be mine.
So for two days I'm in this auditorium while Dov (webfilmschool.com) is blowing my mind with info for I think about eight hours a day. Trying to take notes while others are asking questions more advanced questions. One guy's a producer asking what the chances he'll get a return in investment on a movie he made starring Mickey Rooney. Dov say's he highly doubts it, I mean it's Mickey Rooney. Another woman is talking about a movie she's making in Hawaii. Dov say's he hates it here because it's like a small town where everyone and their cousin hears about something and they want in on it and hound the production. Just made a movie in Warren, AR so I know what that's about. Where the fuck are these people getting this money from in the first place, I'm wanting to hear about his low to no budget advice while I'm waiting for him to finish off the big budget stuff for all these money bags producers. Another guy asks what should he pay himself as a producer, Dov says "Pay yourself? Take money out of one pocket and put in the other. Ask a stupid question get a stupid answer." Not a person to suffer fools.
He did suffer me though, I asked him a lot questions during intermission about raising money and copyrighting. I got this 1) Whatever movie I'm making, save it for a later project. I'm too green, it's too big, and I'll fuck it up. 2) Judging from what he see's I'm not the kind of guy to raise lot's of money from Dentist's (he'll tell you all about that), just get $10,000 together and make it on DV. 3) He gave me and everyone else his phone # to call him with problems. Which I've used around six times.
So it's all said and done, I've packed, ditched the Armenian, made a two day trip home, and now I've got to come up with a plan to make money and write a whole new script. This might take longer than the three months I intially thought. But I better make it fast...or else I'm that guy that left to the big city and failed and has to come back and live with his grandparents.
People were treating me like a celebrity even though I hadn't really done anything but learn. And I was all cocky with my big ideas and stuff. But it was cool to get away from the city and come home...for about a week. Plus people didn't really know what to say when I said I'm gonna make a movie in Warren either.
So what did I do next? Where did a whole new script come from? How would I raise the money? Where would I find actors? Stay tuned for the next exciting blog and find out.
So I let's start with the decision to make my own movie. Great idea for a number of reasons 1) The crap I was auditioning for anyway was horrible 2) It was such a rat race 3) Always wanted to make my own movie anyway 4) One of my jobs was working at Blockbuster and I saw preview for Hannah Takes the Stairs (hannahtakesthestairs.com) and knew I could make my own movie.
There's those two types than inspire you to do something. One is so inspirational that you feel it's your calling to follow in their footsteps, the other is the kind that looks so bad or easy that you know you feel "I can do better than that". I'll let you guess which one I thought after seeing that trailer.
But one of my roommates had given up the dream of being an actor and decided to back home to Little Rock and be a loser that tries to pick up girls by telling them about how he used to live in Hollywood and the other roommate finally found out he was gay after having gay sex for the first time with his friend now turned boyfriend and decided to move into his apartment. So now I had no place to stay, and the seminar was in a month. So I decided to use the ol' puppy dog eyes on a girl I was seeing to get her to take me in for a month. Wow, those Armenians. She cooked for me and treated me like a king at first, soon as I moved in I was a Pariah. I've waited tables and taught high school students. I can up with a bitch that goes off on me because she can't stand the sound of me clipping my fingernails.
So after a month of her, and driving three times the distance to get to work for a month I've finally got to the seminar. I walk into some big stuido lot (Paramount Lot I think) and find my way to the auditorium. At the risk of sounding like somebody on his payroll, he is the guy to talk to if you want to make a movie. Anyone with common sense should know film school is a waste of money and time, all you get are contacts which you'll be doing anyway when you're doing the real thing. To paraphrase Tarantino (former student of Dov's), "Why spend money on filmschool when you could be using it on...your film?"
That was a bit of a tangent, but that's what I do. Anyway, I'm in there surrounded by a bunch of other people in an auditorium. Some of which were wearing expensive clothes indicating that they're TV actors or low level producers or some shit, there were also a lot of regular looking people, and people who knew way less than I did. Dov walked in before the seminar just checking over stuff and told us to mingle since we're all in the same boat. Who do I have around me? A kid from highschool who earned this trip in some Arts program...wow. I payed $400 and stayed in an apartment with this annoying girl for a month to learn how to make my dreams a reality, this guy doesn't know what the hell it's about and has no fucking idea how to handle all the info he's about to recieve. Guy on my right is some foreigner who kept taking his shoes off and proping them on the seat infront of him stinking up the adjacent seats...one of which would be mine.
So for two days I'm in this auditorium while Dov (webfilmschool.com) is blowing my mind with info for I think about eight hours a day. Trying to take notes while others are asking questions more advanced questions. One guy's a producer asking what the chances he'll get a return in investment on a movie he made starring Mickey Rooney. Dov say's he highly doubts it, I mean it's Mickey Rooney. Another woman is talking about a movie she's making in Hawaii. Dov say's he hates it here because it's like a small town where everyone and their cousin hears about something and they want in on it and hound the production. Just made a movie in Warren, AR so I know what that's about. Where the fuck are these people getting this money from in the first place, I'm wanting to hear about his low to no budget advice while I'm waiting for him to finish off the big budget stuff for all these money bags producers. Another guy asks what should he pay himself as a producer, Dov says "Pay yourself? Take money out of one pocket and put in the other. Ask a stupid question get a stupid answer." Not a person to suffer fools.
He did suffer me though, I asked him a lot questions during intermission about raising money and copyrighting. I got this 1) Whatever movie I'm making, save it for a later project. I'm too green, it's too big, and I'll fuck it up. 2) Judging from what he see's I'm not the kind of guy to raise lot's of money from Dentist's (he'll tell you all about that), just get $10,000 together and make it on DV. 3) He gave me and everyone else his phone # to call him with problems. Which I've used around six times.
So it's all said and done, I've packed, ditched the Armenian, made a two day trip home, and now I've got to come up with a plan to make money and write a whole new script. This might take longer than the three months I intially thought. But I better make it fast...or else I'm that guy that left to the big city and failed and has to come back and live with his grandparents.
People were treating me like a celebrity even though I hadn't really done anything but learn. And I was all cocky with my big ideas and stuff. But it was cool to get away from the city and come home...for about a week. Plus people didn't really know what to say when I said I'm gonna make a movie in Warren either.
So what did I do next? Where did a whole new script come from? How would I raise the money? Where would I find actors? Stay tuned for the next exciting blog and find out.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
1st Post
This is my first time ever blogging, I probably would never have blogged if it weren't for the fact I thought I could help others. Aren't I just something special.
Either you want to learn from one who's been where you want to go, or you're just interested in the whole process of how it's done and that's it. Well, you're hearing it straight from someone who's living it so this is a pretty damn good oppurtunity for you.
There's better teachers who have more experience and make millions and do seminars, such as my mentor Dov Simens (webfilmschool.com), but here you're learning from someone who's making a movie IN THE NOW and you get all the little things that people don't tell you.
But we'll get to all that later, right now I'm just going to set up a little exposition. I'm from a crappy small town called Warren, AR. If you're town is actually smaller than mine than I'm impressed. We're also landlocked, it's a two hour drive to the nearest mall. People hang out at Wal-Mart for fun. Yeah.
Fast Forward and I've got a B.A. in Theatre from SAU, in Magnolia, AR which is not much better than Warren. So after I get done learning the Meisner technique among others from a university surrounded by cow pastures I leave to make things happen...with my Theatre degree. I choose Nashville, TN since my dad lives there. That way I could find a job to save money and move to New York, plus I could do some community theatre or something while I was there.
Well instead of getting some job at a Sam's Club I ended up getting a job...Teaching High School Spanish! I still don't understand how that happened, did my Theatre degree actually do something for me? Anyway, I was making so much money moving would be no problem, plus I could pay off bills, stock up on my wardrobe, etc. and I was acting in a play at the same time. I was making so much compared to my past part-time jobs that is was almost hard to give it up. But then again, it's teaching so I quit.
I ended up moving to LA since I was and am still young and that's where all the money is. I got an apartment,. two jobs, a manager and joined an improv group, not bad for someone from Warren, AR.
The bad, with two jobs I had no time to do anything else and I was still barely making a living. With the little extra I had I used it on acting classes, headshots, etc. I wasn't getting many auditions either with their being a WRITERS STRIKE. Really bad timing. In my little spare time I wrote my first movie. Never read a book on it, just did it. Why read a book that teaches you to write just like everone else?
Anyway, I missed my flight going snowboarding on Spring Break and tried to kill my nine hour wait by buying a magazine called SCRIPT, there was an add for a guy called Dov Simens who seemed to be the answer to everything. Well, he was. I took his $400 seminar, and knew what I had to do.
I moved back home to Warren, wrote a smaller budget movie, saved money, rewrote, read books, and repeat. One year later I finished it and now I'm getting it edited.
Now you want to know how. That's begins in my next blog, thought I'd just let you know how I got it started.
Either you want to learn from one who's been where you want to go, or you're just interested in the whole process of how it's done and that's it. Well, you're hearing it straight from someone who's living it so this is a pretty damn good oppurtunity for you.
There's better teachers who have more experience and make millions and do seminars, such as my mentor Dov Simens (webfilmschool.com), but here you're learning from someone who's making a movie IN THE NOW and you get all the little things that people don't tell you.
But we'll get to all that later, right now I'm just going to set up a little exposition. I'm from a crappy small town called Warren, AR. If you're town is actually smaller than mine than I'm impressed. We're also landlocked, it's a two hour drive to the nearest mall. People hang out at Wal-Mart for fun. Yeah.
Fast Forward and I've got a B.A. in Theatre from SAU, in Magnolia, AR which is not much better than Warren. So after I get done learning the Meisner technique among others from a university surrounded by cow pastures I leave to make things happen...with my Theatre degree. I choose Nashville, TN since my dad lives there. That way I could find a job to save money and move to New York, plus I could do some community theatre or something while I was there.
Well instead of getting some job at a Sam's Club I ended up getting a job...Teaching High School Spanish! I still don't understand how that happened, did my Theatre degree actually do something for me? Anyway, I was making so much money moving would be no problem, plus I could pay off bills, stock up on my wardrobe, etc. and I was acting in a play at the same time. I was making so much compared to my past part-time jobs that is was almost hard to give it up. But then again, it's teaching so I quit.
I ended up moving to LA since I was and am still young and that's where all the money is. I got an apartment,. two jobs, a manager and joined an improv group, not bad for someone from Warren, AR.
The bad, with two jobs I had no time to do anything else and I was still barely making a living. With the little extra I had I used it on acting classes, headshots, etc. I wasn't getting many auditions either with their being a WRITERS STRIKE. Really bad timing. In my little spare time I wrote my first movie. Never read a book on it, just did it. Why read a book that teaches you to write just like everone else?
Anyway, I missed my flight going snowboarding on Spring Break and tried to kill my nine hour wait by buying a magazine called SCRIPT, there was an add for a guy called Dov Simens who seemed to be the answer to everything. Well, he was. I took his $400 seminar, and knew what I had to do.
I moved back home to Warren, wrote a smaller budget movie, saved money, rewrote, read books, and repeat. One year later I finished it and now I'm getting it edited.
Now you want to know how. That's begins in my next blog, thought I'd just let you know how I got it started.
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