movie making on my own

“The Legend of Milon Blocker” is a no-budget indie film made by yours truely. It’s a five minute short made for Memphis’s Li’l Film Fest and is currently in post-production. Anyway, on to what the title said this was about:

1. Never schedule a shoot for less than 3 hours

You don’t have to be shooting for 3 hours. Just plan at least 3 hours time free for set up, shooting, and take down. It took about 10-20mins to set up and we weren’t even using lighting equipment. Since I’m starting out I decided to take advantage of that big ball of fire in the sky. We did no more than 3 scenes a shoot but all of them took 3 hours, even the ones that were scheduled for 2 hours. Thus those scheduled for 2 got rushed at the end. The best thing about making a 3 hour rule: if you finish early, your actors will be happy. No one is happy when things go late.

2. Schedule a get together to look over costumes

This way you aren’t worrying to death about unknown factors. We should have set something up to meet at a home or a church and looked over what the costume possibilities were. The great thing about indie no-buget projects is the community. So use it. Ask for things from friends and have friends ask their friends. Have the actors and crew ask their friends and you have a whole network of friends.

“Milton” had several scenes that were set in the 1800s and we were able to get convincing costumes. Granted, the 1800s is good in the fact that the fashion of the time was very simple. When it came to guys you could tell them to wear Sunday church clothes and it’d pass for 1800’s garb. Even without the sepia cast over those scenes the costumes didn’t look too unconvincing for 1800s minus the brief moment you see a zipper. So ask around and get everyone together some place to see what your options are. Don’t leave things up to chance like a moron.

3. Bring an assistant

Specifically bring an assistant that can help set up and who is camera or sound learned. It helps to have another set of ears and eyes while shooting. Even if you are gung-ho about doing things Rodriguez style (meaning having a one-person crew). One of the few great things about doing something no-budget is that you get the privilege, as creator of the project, to be the one playing with the camera.

A person to supervise sound comes in real handy. It’s not as easy as you would think to screen for possible visual clutter and audio clutter at the same time. Especially when you aren’t very experienced. I was happy to have Leslie, our co-producer, around most of the time we were shooting because she would warn me of inferring noise. Noise I was oblivious to because I was busy focusing on getting the shot to look right.

4. You cannot pay enough attention to what’s happening in the background

This is something I knew and was stupid about. However, since there are cars going by in the background of Lord of the Rings I won’t beat myself up too terribly. There were about two or three shots in “Milton” where you can see these nice suburb houses in the background of what should be an 1800s setting. Thankfully I was able to use other shots, trash the ones with the houses, and still have the scene make sense.

Paying attention to the background is something you have to be anal about with yourself. Ask yourself with every shot, “What’s in the background? What all can I see in the entirety of the frame I’ve just set up?” It becomes instinct after awhile. I don’t make as many errors as I used to. Also, remember if your actor is moving in the shot, what they covered up at the beginning of the take they aren’t covering up once they start moving. I know, that’s so obvious. I still forgot.

Pictures taken by the wonderful Leslie K. Nelson

Pictures taken by: Leslie K. Nelson

1 GB of ram makes all the difference.

I’ve been suffering through editing on my dad’s computer for the last few projects. His computer has 384 MB of ram. It makes me want to hurt small fluffy animals waiting for the computer to do…well anything. I was reading a blog the other day that said if your computer has less than 512MB of ram it has Alzheimer’s disease. I agree with this idea wholeheartedly.

My local library now has laptops you can checkout for two hours. I’m so happy I could die. The laptops have a 1GB of ram and a firewire port. What used to take me an hour to save on my dad’s computer now take 3 minutes. I could faint and die it’s so awesome. I had been very upset and worried thinking that taking the files in as AVI would make them near impossible to save in the two hour time limit. But this thing, zip zam flam. It should be possible to get all I need done within a few sessions. Milton, now called The Legend of Milton Blocker, should be pieced together by Sunday. It’s looking pretty decent.

I am also happy with the actors we got for this. They were all wonderful. Best talent I’ve worked with in my life…not that I’ve been working with loads of talent.

BTW, if you live in the Memphis area, the li’l film fest screens March 21st at 2pm at the Brook Museum of Art.

Question of the week: 2/12/09

What is your favorite movie and why?

My favorite (as of this moment): Dog Day Afternoon

This movie is filled with a hundred great things. Two specifically really make the movie. One, the story actually gets in there and explores the characters. Movies rarely do this successfully. Two, Al Pacino’s performance as Sonny is fantastic. It feels odd to say this, considering the current Al Pacino is very mediocre. However, in the 70s he was awesome. The chemistry between him and John Cazale was really something. They could just look at each other, no words, and you, as the audience, still knew exactly what was going on. There are so many little moments in this movie where the look on Al’s face is priceless.

Also, there are little monologues in the movie. Good monologues. Thus, that screenwriting rule you hear all the time, “No monologues”, is bupcas. The rule shouldn’t be “no monologues”. Instead, the rule should be “Don’t be boring”. Thus, no boring, pointless, or otherwise retarded monologues. Dog Day Afternoon follows that logic. The monologues are compelling, well written and draw you in. They help you understand and identity with the characters. They have that quiet, lean-in-and-listen-hard effect on the audience.

I also like the way this movie handles the gay element. It handles it with neutrally. There’s no positive or negative argument. Granted, you do get a bank robber bi-sexual, and a mental ward patient for a gay man. Some people tend to take that as a negative view. I was reading this article. The writer makes this long list of movies to show how cultures of different decades viewed gayness and how until recently gayness is stereotyped with insanity and other perverse behavior. I can see his viewpoint but Dog Day Afternoon shouldn’t be listed. These characters are based on actual people. I don’t know how much stock to put behind the writer of that particular article anyway. For one, he calls Sonny dimwitted. While Sonny isn’t a genius, he’s not stupid. He’s a bit spastic, yes. He might also act a little stupid at times, but anyone would if they had “seven thousand fucking cops all around [them]”. Under that kind of stress most people are morons.

The movie gives a neutral view on gayness because it gives the audience characters who happen to be gay, instead of gay characters. Unlike certain episodes of “Cold Case” where they place gay guys with puppies and flowers and try their darndest to get the audience to say “ahhh, what cute ‘ittle gay characters, how could we ever be mean to them”. You shouldn’t be mean to gay people. The point, here, is that it’s more effective in a movie to simply present the character without a negative or positive message on gayness being shoved down the audience’s throat. It’s a movie about people. It leaves the controversial issues where they should be left—in the background.

Besides the above things, Dog Day Afternoon is also a funny and incredibly witty movie. It’s a bi-polar experience: It has light and fluffy moments, deep introspective moments and one really shockingly horrid moment all roled into one two-hour jaunt. In short, it’s all a movie ever hopes to be. Oh, and Al is really hot in his pretty yellow shirt.

–Jess

Question of the week is designed to help get discussion going with the people who live on the other side of the computer screen from myself. I’d love hear an answer from random people, or even not-so random people. It would make my day.

The movie is now cast. Everyone accepted their parts and it looks like we’ll be filming Monday and Sunday, unless we get rained out.

I still need to hunt down a toy riverboat that looks plausible in an 1800s setting. Other than that and some costume details, it looks like we’re good to go.

Apparently, sometimes flyers do work.

I went to an interview once for a freelance design job. Didn’t get the job. However, in the interview the guy mentioned to me that when mailing out advertisements the return rate is about 1%. Basically, this means that for every 100 advertisements mailed, they get about one customer.

I’ve been handing out today.com flyers. Really, not “handing out”, I’m anti-social, so I’ve been putting them on people’s cars. This way I don’t have to bug them at their door. I’ve handed out about 100 flyers so far and I’ve gotten one e-mail from someone. Hence, 100 flyers given out, 1 person returning with some interest.

This is his blog btw, reviewthefacts.net. I don’t know if he’ll be joining today.com or not. However, it still counts as interest and he had to view my blog to be able to get my e-mail.

This 1% rule is why flyers for auditions don’t work. It doesn’t make much sense going around neighborhoods and putting flyers on cars. There aren’t 100 bulletin boards to post the flyers too. So when it comes to auditions, flyers are a no. Unless you know of a bulletin board that actors check frequently. Then yes, defiantly put up a flyer.

Also blogging is the best thing ever. It’s a way to make a little money on ventures you would otherwise see nothing on. This ties in well for the indie filmmaker who is still experimenting. Or the artist who hasn’t made a reputation yet, or the musician or the novelist… The list goes on and on. The idea is simple. You write a blog about whatever your art fix is. Set a blog up with a website that pays money for writing (like today.com). Or make your own blog with whoever you like and use an ad program. You won’t see a lot of money. However, you might make back some of the money spent on props or art supplies. With four posts on here about my Milton project, at a dollar a post, I’ve made back the money I spend on coffee while holding auditions at starbucks. Hoo-ha.

Okay, so I’m switching it up today and making a post not about the Milton project. Information on that project can be found here

this post has a link to the script in it.

Anyway onto my non-related post.

Warning: Rant time.

Why do the makers of television shows think that all fat people are desperate? Especially fat people in high school? I know that most high schoolers, being teenagers, tend towards angst and issues. The fat ones aren’t immune to this. However, they really aren’t any more angst or issue ridden than any other teenagers. Speaking from experience here.

It just really pisses me off the number of jokes that that seem to insinuate that a fat person will fall all over a guy just because he says ‘hi’ to her. That does not happen in real life…unless the girl has other issues. Or the guy is Mathieu Almaric, but that’s something else all together.

Just because someone is fat doesn’t mean they lack self esteem. It doesn’t mean they don’t have standards. And, no, they aren’t going to be “easy to get”, at least no more than any other girl. Sorry guys.

I’ve seen several episodes on various TV shows where the plot goes like this: Jock plays trick on fat girl by pretending to like her and then ridicules her.

First thing, not everyone likes you jocks. No, all girls don’t want to be with you. Some girls are turned on by goths, some by nerds, some by smart dudes, some by artsy guys, some by hippies, some by just-about-any-type-of-person-you-can-think-of. I really find it hard to believe a fat person would be interested in a jock to begin with. Jocks are obsessed with sports, hence why they are jocks. How many fat people do you know that like sports? Think about it.

I know, the rational for the plot line is that jocks are hot. People are attracted to each other on looks. However, they are also attracted to each other on personality. So, I’m sorry Mr. Jock, there are plenty of girls out there that don’t care you exist, no matter how hot you are.

Second thing, fat girls are no more obsessed with sex than anyone else. Do they get less attention than most girls? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean they are going to go to bed with some guy they don’t know just because he asked. It’s like the writers of these shows think it’s perfectly normal for a fat person to have no standards when it comes to males.

It seems every time I see a fat character on TV (with the exception of Meme) they are doing something stupid to get someone to sleep with them. Granted, it might be because you never see fat characters on TV. So, when you do see one, they are only fat to serve the plot. They can’t be just some normal character like most real fat people are.

Whatever the reason, this is the stupidest stereotype ever made. Anyone who believes it needs to be hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

I’ve really gotten into blogging lately. Every time something exciting happens I just want to find the nearest computer and blog about it. I know, I’ve become such a nerd.

Tonight was the second set of auditions. We’ve had a total of ten people audition now. That’s counting both nights. I’m also seeing a few people monday at 4pm. So, at the very least, I know I won’t have to run around begging people to act in my movie. This is a good feeling.

I remember doing the auditions for “Logic”, a previous project of mine. Out of two days and a total of four hours, only one person auditioned. Needless to say she got the lead. Good for her, bad for me.

I think the difference is that instead of just flyers and putting an ad on craigslist, I also put up an ad on the Memphis ecallboard yahoo group. It could also be the change in location. However I find it hard to believe Olive Branch (where we are auditioning now) is a more lucrative area to find actors than Midtown Memphis (where we did the auditions for “Logic”). Midtown is filled with artists, actors, filmmakers. There’s hardly a normal person in the whole area.

Also this time, ETA, an acting agency, got wind of the auditions and have sent probably five out of the ten people my way. Go ETA. I didn’t know you existed until a few days ago but you are awesome.

There was also a person that contacted me that called themselves Memphismom. She is the one bringing a few teenagers to audition Monday. In later e-mails I learned she’s friends with the head of ETA. So I don’t know if it’s ETA that tiped her off, or she who tipped ETA off. Either way, it works out good for me. The only downside is I’ve gotten several auditions from children. They’re all cute and they’re all awesome but we only have one child part. Possibly two.

Advice
Some advice, if you are ever holding your own auditions in Memphis, TN for an indie project and you have no name.

One, put up something on craigslist. That does help.

Two, put something up on the Memphis theatre callboard

Three, get ahold of the ETA

The memphis film scene is still small. This means that its actors are starved for parts, which is good for the indie film maker trying to get their start.

Also, in Memphis you have the ability to be a nobody and wander straight into the middle of the film scene. No one cares that you don’t have a name. No one gives you funny looks. Most are even happy to see you.

—Jessie

I did the first set of auditions tonight. Five people showed. If this is an indication of what tomorrow night will bring than the future of this film bodes very well.

I was about as nervous as the actors I was auditioning. Perhaps even more so. It’s really kind of funny. Also interesting because I’ve been in the actor’s shoes before. Now I know the audition process from both sides of the table.

Anyway, on another note, from now until Sunday is the Oxford film festival. Doesn’t look like I’ll have the funds to go. But for those of you that do, here’s a link to the list of films they are screening: Oxford Film Fest Link

Make Out with Violence is an awesome movie. I saw it at the indie fest in Memphis last November.

Oh and random. I got a call from savedarfur.org. They’re trying to get funds to do some lobbying. I don’t know why lobbying is so expensive. However, I would urge people to pester the hell out of their congressman to do something about the Darfur crisis. Seriously people, it’s been how many years now? Five? WTF is going on?