BULL-FUCKING-SHIT!

Let’s just take the very basics of what this filmmaker proposes and point out the holes (which are as big as the Grand Canyon). I’m gonna run with his premise of shooting a $5,000 feature in 10 days.

#1 – Write a realistically shootable script. This is good advice. Take it.

#2 – Rent, don’t buy, a camera. Again, good advice. Let’s say you get a camera with a few lenses and a memory card for $100/day. For 10 days that $1,000, so $4,000 left in the budget.

#3 – Pay your crew. He says you should pay a DP/camera operator and a Sound Mixer $100/day each, more if they have their own equipment. Let’s say that they both have their own gear and will do the job for $150/day each. This means we don’t need to rent a camera. Great, our budget is back up to $5,000. At $150/day, for 2 people for 10 days, these two crew positions will cost you $3,000. That leaves $2,000 in your budget.

#4 – Have actors supply their own wardrobe. Again, good advice.

#5 – Sign a SAG Ultra Low Budget Agreement. Okay, so let’s say that’s 2 actors at $100/day. For 10 days that’s $2,000. Congrats, you’ve spent all of your $5,000.

#6 – Get production insurance. A wonderful idea. All my filmmaking friends tell me this’ll cost you around $2,000 but let’s say you get the deal of the century and only have to pay $1,000. You film now costs $6,000.

#7 – Don’t write music into your film unless you own it. Again, another bit of great advice.

#8 – Edit your film yourself. I’m just gonna run with the fact that you probably own your own computer and are gonna use iMovie, which came with your laptop. I’m not even gonna add the cost of getting a hard drive.

#9 – Keep the hours short, the days few and the food delicious. Yes to all three, but how much is that food gonna cost you? Let’s say you’re feeding five people (director, DP, sound and two actors) for 10 days. Let’s say it’s coffee & bagels in the morning, lunch and light snacks throughout the day. But that food has to be “delicious”, right? So I’m gonna optimistically say that a delicious lunch, coffee and snack is gonna cost $20/day per person. That’s $1,000.

Congrats, you’re now $2,000 over budget.

Like I said, BULL-FUCKING-SHIT!

But optimistically (which is really hard for me), you might be able to shoot your film for $10,000, right?

For all the insiders, do you remember your 2-minute film? Do you remember your shoot? Please share.

Thank you for attending our orientation webinar yesterday. I hope you found it informative.

I took at look at your links and they’re really create & good, but I had a difficult time assessing what kind of a job you’re capable of doing if sent out on a XXXXXXXX project. Do you have any links to your work that are more XXXXXXXX-style (b-roll over interview) that I can take a look at? If not, do you think you could create something like that for me to look at? Please let me know.

So after watching an interview driven documentary short…

… and a verite/observational documentary…

… plus a spec spot that I directed, wrote, shot, edited, sound designed, color corrected and animated…

… they’re not sure if I can produce a 30-60 second video that’s interview driven yet intercut with b-roll (for the record, I taught at class at UCLA [proper, not extension] for three quarters where the students produced this exact kind of work) so they want me to shoot something for them to take a look at?

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So this is where you help me help you. I need to produce a 30-60 second short that promotes something so why shouldn’t it be your small business/services/cause/whatever?

Did I mention I’m willing to do this for free?

But wait, there’s a catch (a few, actually):

1. I will come out and shoot for an hour, two max.
2. Half the time will be spent interviewing you (or whoever runs the organization/business in question).
3. The other half of the time I will be shooting b-roll.
4. I am willing to travel a short, reasonable distance from my home (let’s say 20 miles). Any further than that and you have to pay for all associated travel expenses upfront. I might be willing to forgo this expense if your business/organization/cause is super cool (e.g., I’d do this for Tippi Hedren but only if she lets me in the cage with the tiger).
5. As I’m doing this for free, I retain final cut.
6. I will retain all master tapes.
7. I will upload the piece to my Vimeo account where you can grab the embed code and repost the video.

If you’re balking at my terms, remember that 1) I have a track record of high quality films, 2) I’m a professional using this piece to seek more work so it will be of the highest caliber and 3) I’m doing this for free for you.

Time for me to hear your pitch.

Allow me an indulgence as I send a big shout-out to Dan Billet, Karina Bustillos, Curtiss Frisle and Michael Perkins for lending their voice talent; an extra shout goes to Dan for also acting in the film.  I’d also like to thank Laura Emanuele for all her behind-the-scenes help.

If you’re curious, I posted a debrief where I get into the technical nitty gritty. Also, be sure to leave a comment.

I know it’s frowned upon to share defeat but it’s the reality of working as a creative in the movie industry. Recently, I suffered two hits.

First, the spec commercial I made for the Amazon “Make-Your-Own-Ad” contest wasn’t chosen for one of the top 5 spots. I have no idea how many entries there were but I would assume a lot of people would take a shot at $20k.

Second, I topped out at the second round of the Austin Teleplay competition. They did send a letter saying that making the second round means I was in the top 10%. Someone even took the time to send me a hand written note with the form letter congratulating my courage for writing on a new show (the recently canceled TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES).

Obviously I’m bummed but if I dwell on the negative while trying to hack my way into this industry, I’d have committed suicide a long time ago. No, instead I take great pride in the work I’ve done, add it to the portfolio and move on to the next short (an actress from my Amazon spec pitched me an idea) and spec teleplay (I’m pretty sure it’ll be a FRINGE but I’m considering a DOLLHOUSE or possibly an EASTBOUND & DOWN).

As I say to my colleagues, I must heed as well: Chin up, gather your strength and keep moving forward.

Vacation? Bull! I worked my ass off this summer (and I managed to have some fun, too). What did I do this summer?

1. I wrote my first TV spec for the now canceled TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.
2. I found an editor for my feature.
3. I shot a live-action/stop-motion spec for Amazon.
4. I went to my first Comic-Con.
5. I went to my first Tiki Oasis.
6. I shot the first material for my multi-medium project.
7. I directed scenes for an actor’s reel.
8. I saw The Kills, Neko Case, Death Cab for Cutie and Andrew Bird in concert.

I’d say that’s a pretty damn productive summer.

Still, there’s always room for improvement. Next time I’d insist on walking through set with the actors and DP to nail down our shots and angles so we don’t waste that time on set. Also, we really could have used a few more qualified hands.

As I said before, I’m not editing. If the editor is reading this, you should know that we shot:

I can’t wait to see what the final product looks like.

Now on to something new. I think it’s time to start writing a new feature script.

Also, it’s about listening to those tiny, nagging voices. It is because of one of those voices that I sent one of my actors a little bit of background homework and this video:

F**k the Queen, God grant me a good night sleep.

First, I made a shot list from my crude storyboards. It breaks down like this: each actor gets 4 shots pointed in their direction, plus there’s the wide and at least 2 inserts. Total number of shots = eleven.

Second, I made a schedule (which is just a list arranged by time). I call us at 8 a.m. and wrap us by 2 p.m., taillights by 3p.m. I give us two hours from call to unload gear, walk through the scene with the cast & crew, light the set, dress the set and rehearse.

I then have roughly 90 minutes to shoot out each actor. Following the math, that gives us 22.5 minutes per shot on an actor. That’s 22.5 minutes to set up the camera, adjust lights, rehearse the shot, shoot a take, give an adjustment, tweak the lights, shoot, and so on.

I then leave 45 minutes to shoot the wide and inserts; this is also a buffer in case we’re running late (it shouldn’t take that long to shoot a wide and two inserts).

I feel confident that this is a doable schedule. We’ll hustle but it won’t be insanity.

So here’s the question of the day: is it better to shoot the wide at the start of the day or at the end? If we shoot at the start, it can lock us into a particular blocking, blocking we might grow out of. If we shoot at the end, we adjust the wide to the blocking we like but then we have to recall which takes we like. I know, it’s sorta a “chicken, egg” question when all you care about is eating your chicken omelet but these are the things you agonize about during prep.

Thoughts?

First, the shooting style. It’s all about long lenses either hand-held or very lose on the tripod. I don’t think we’ll be snapping the zoom ala BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I think that’s just too edgy for this scene.

Also, we’re using the Sony DSR-450WSL. We’ll be shooting anamorphic DVCAM 24p. 24pA, with it’s 2:3:3:2 cadence, seems like one unnecessary hoop for the editor to jump through if this is ending up on 1) the web and 2) DVD.

But I’m willing to hear arguments otherwise.

I also started storyboarding and of course there are too many shots, at least a dozen if not more. While we are in one location and I know where to put the 180 degree line, that’s a lot to shoot in 3-4 hours when the scene is acting intensive and the client wants as much coverage as possible. One solution is to shoot long takes (2-3 beats per shot) with coverage that evolves. I’m talking about an OTS that becomes a stacked 2-shot and then a close-up. That should help the actors organically build their performance while cutting down on the number of times we have to stop and adjust the camera.

Still, I wish I could have an hour on set with my actors the day before the shoot so I could walk through all the camera positions but I have a feeling that won’t be possible. So it goes.