Er, several words on tone.
Tone can make or break a film. It's not genre specific necessarily. It's not that any one tone is wrong. It's just that if you don't strike the right, resonant tone throughout the film you end up with a big ol' mess. Sometimes this mess can be unwatchable. Sometimes it can just be comical. I aim to make neither.
When Girl-Morgan and I were brainstorming she asked a lot about what tone I was after. Fortunately we speak the same language and have seen the same films so I was able to say things like "Ring-ish, with a little Evil Dead in there" without translations or subtitles. Tone wise I'm not sure where we are now, which is something I need to wrangle a bit better before filming starts.
The easiest way for me to think about tone is to compare zombie films. Roderick Kills is not a zombie film, but the zombie genre has a rich and varied tradition to look at. There is nearly every kind of zombie flick out there, if you care to look.
Serious Zombies: 1968s Night of the Living Dead isn't slick or polished or modern. The thing is older than I am, but it's kinda the old American granddaddy of zombie movies (while admittedly not the first). It's not a happy flick, this is serious business. If there's a character in the story you like even at all, rest assured that they're going to die. It's dark, and crude and manages a low budget success that should be an inspiration to low budget film makers everywhere.
Funny Zombies: 2004s Shaun of the Dead is funny. If there's someone out there who thinks that this is supposed to be serious, they need help. It has classic lines, classic characters, and a lot of zombies that are apparently willing to wait patiently to eat them while two childhood best-friends argue. There are other funny zombie films (not all of them intentionally so). I thought New Zealand made Black Sheep was funnier, and more consistent. But Shaun of the Dead had some amazing cinematography. That's where it wins for me. In the beginning there's a series of composed shots that roll across the screen that are each perfect and charming. Even when they yield predictable visual punchlines, there are fantastic panning shots and the composition tends to be gorgeous.
Retro Zombies: 2006s Fido is pretty funny too, but it's more like the Pleasantville of the zombie genre. It's period, from the cars to the clothes to the music. It misses some opportunities, but the points it wins for style puts it into the good column.
Sci-Fi Zombies: 2002s Resident Evil took the video game franchise into the film world. I personally found the games scarier than the movies ever were, but I still get some solid enjoyment out of this sci-fi tinted zombie flick. It has a demented AI computer, and lasers that cut people into tidy little cube shapes, oh, and zombies.
Hardcore Zombies: For my money 2002s 28 Days Later kicks all their asses. It's hard and gritty and scary. It's not a happy film either, but it is a good one. It's also character driven. Just so good on every level for me.
I could go on for days, but I think you get my point. I think I may have to push it to come up with romantic zombie film... maybe that's what my next project should be?
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I love it when a plan comes together
Ok, technically nothing much as come together yet, but I'm tired and needed a title for this post.
This was an interesting week. Between my day job, freelance work, and insomnia I began thinking this film thing was a crazy dream. But now I'm back... well the freelance work is still hanging over me, but that's nothing new.
I've gone through the script several times now. I wanted to make sure that I can actually film everything, have it look at least pretty good, and not damage my deranged "power-crazed demagogue" mystique. I think we're mostly safe. Mostly.
I'm going to request a few changes to the script (Girl-Morgan can expect that email this weekend). There are exactly four points of requested change that I have. The thing is that they're mostly so silly that I feel a little dumb asking that they be made. Seriously... "floorboard" needs to be "baseboard." Urm... do I need to bother her with this crap?
Things get changed in shooting all the time, we all know that (or should). I think the point right now, for me, is that I'm now going to be rounding up the rest of the people to get them to commit to the project. If I expect someone to commit I want to be able to get them their lines, and what to expect in the character up front as best I can. I figure that comes in the form of the script.
I love the plot and the dialog and the flow. I think girl-Morgan got what I was after pretty quickly. Reading her numbered points from earlier today (scroll down, they're there) tells me that she gets exactly what I'm after for this thing.
We agreed in some fundamentals. There is nothing "chosen one" about the people who are affected in the story. There is no destiny drawing the people together. Thing A causes thing B to happen, just like in real life. I think that "destiny" is a lazy story writing device most of the time and while we have no budget, I see no reason to be lazy. (I'm well aware that some of my favorite story tellers use destiny as a device. They're better than I am, so they can get away with it.)
The layout of the apartment building is different than it is in the script, but that's part of movie magic. Right? It's all in the angle you shoot it at. If you don't turn the camera around no one will kno
w that the spooky room isn't across the hall from the laundry room. Easy enough to do. There is one case where I just can't do what's in the script without getting another location for the added shots. Since I was growing gray hair just securing this location, I'm not so sure that I want to try and get another. So, there's another of my four requested changes.
I think my next job is going to be taking my five different colored highlighters and highlighting everywhere that there is a new character in yellow (including extras), a prop in pink (including furniture and set dressings), a location in green, costumes in blue, and special lighting or effects in orange.
Then I can take the new, brightly colored script and make my lists. From my lists I have my shopping lists. I'll have a shopping list of characters I need actors for. I'll have a shopping list of props. I'll have a shopping list of sets, and effects.
With the set and character lists I'll combine them and come up with a rough shoot schedule. The rough shoot schedule wont have any actual dates on it. I's more about being practical. It's about what things we can shoot in the same day. If a person only appears in two scenes and both scenes happen in the same place, it makes sense to shoot those scenes one after the other. It frees up the person so you don't need to ask them to come back, and it frees up that location. I need to be particularly careful with how much filming I do at a time in the common areas of the building. I have promised that I wouldn't bother the regular tenants of the building so I can't be shooting more stuff in the hallway every time they turn around. Luckily the most troubling that the hallway scenes will be is a towel fight, and the occasional pounding on the door.
My assistant producer and I are hoping to shoot primary footage in January. It's after the holidays so people are more likely to have free time.
I'm on track.
This was an interesting week. Between my day job, freelance work, and insomnia I began thinking this film thing was a crazy dream. But now I'm back... well the freelance work is still hanging over me, but that's nothing new.
I've gone through the script several times now. I wanted to make sure that I can actually film everything, have it look at least pretty good, and not damage my deranged "power-crazed demagogue" mystique. I think we're mostly safe. Mostly.
I'm going to request a few changes to the script (Girl-Morgan can expect that email this weekend). There are exactly four points of requested change that I have. The thing is that they're mostly so silly that I feel a little dumb asking that they be made. Seriously... "floorboard" needs to be "baseboard." Urm... do I need to bother her with this crap?
Things get changed in shooting all the time, we all know that (or should). I think the point right now, for me, is that I'm now going to be rounding up the rest of the people to get them to commit to the project. If I expect someone to commit I want to be able to get them their lines, and what to expect in the character up front as best I can. I figure that comes in the form of the script.
I love the plot and the dialog and the flow. I think girl-Morgan got what I was after pretty quickly. Reading her numbered points from earlier today (scroll down, they're there) tells me that she gets exactly what I'm after for this thing.
We agreed in some fundamentals. There is nothing "chosen one" about the people who are affected in the story. There is no destiny drawing the people together. Thing A causes thing B to happen, just like in real life. I think that "destiny" is a lazy story writing device most of the time and while we have no budget, I see no reason to be lazy. (I'm well aware that some of my favorite story tellers use destiny as a device. They're better than I am, so they can get away with it.)
The layout of the apartment building is different than it is in the script, but that's part of movie magic. Right? It's all in the angle you shoot it at. If you don't turn the camera around no one will kno
w that the spooky room isn't across the hall from the laundry room. Easy enough to do. There is one case where I just can't do what's in the script without getting another location for the added shots. Since I was growing gray hair just securing this location, I'm not so sure that I want to try and get another. So, there's another of my four requested changes.
I think my next job is going to be taking my five different colored highlighters and highlighting everywhere that there is a new character in yellow (including extras), a prop in pink (including furniture and set dressings), a location in green, costumes in blue, and special lighting or effects in orange.
Then I can take the new, brightly colored script and make my lists. From my lists I have my shopping lists. I'll have a shopping list of characters I need actors for. I'll have a shopping list of props. I'll have a shopping list of sets, and effects.
With the set and character lists I'll combine them and come up with a rough shoot schedule. The rough shoot schedule wont have any actual dates on it. I's more about being practical. It's about what things we can shoot in the same day. If a person only appears in two scenes and both scenes happen in the same place, it makes sense to shoot those scenes one after the other. It frees up the person so you don't need to ask them to come back, and it frees up that location. I need to be particularly careful with how much filming I do at a time in the common areas of the building. I have promised that I wouldn't bother the regular tenants of the building so I can't be shooting more stuff in the hallway every time they turn around. Luckily the most troubling that the hallway scenes will be is a towel fight, and the occasional pounding on the door.
My assistant producer and I are hoping to shoot primary footage in January. It's after the holidays so people are more likely to have free time.
I'm on track.
"Melodrama and sweet champagne, and a garbled plot from a scrambled brain."
I finished the screenplay a couple of weeks ago. Boy-Morgan seems happy with it. He'll have a few changes based upon the logistics of our location, but, seeing as the only one he's mentioned thus far involves changing the word "floorboard" to "baseboard" due to a carpeted foyer, I'm not too worried about jeopardizing my artistic integrity to satiate a power-crazed demagogue.
Both Boy-Morgan and I are pretty easygoing and non-buttheady, which has made this collaborative process run like a dream. The script is, I would say, about 75% Boy-Morgan's ideas--before I got involved, he already had a firm idea of the setting, the tone, and the rough plot--combined with 100% my screenwriting knowhow. I'm making that BFA in Filmic Writing work for me, one way or another.
(Off-topic: I could be wrong, but I don't believe USC's film school uses the word "filmic" in that particular degree program anymore. I think the department heads sat down and said, "Hey, you know, 'screenwriting' is a perfectly good word" and changed it. And wisely so.)
By mutual agreement between myself and Boy-Morgan, the script is under standard feature length. Once filmed, it'll probably about an hour long. This helps greatly in sticking to the "no budget" part. Too, our focus is on being clever and entertaining, and a witty script with short scenes that move at a breakneck clip is a good step in that direction.
(Also, we've both been influenced heavily by Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which clocked in at a zippy forty-five minutes. We, too, are aiming for zippy, though our film will have fewer infectious musical numbers. A shame, really.)
Here are the key things I kept in mind while penning a no-budget film:
1. Boy-Morgan is probably not going to find professional actors willing to work for free. In fact, he's probably going to bribe his friends, neighbors, and coworkers into joining the cast with promises of free doughnuts and coffee. Thankfully, we're in good shape with our prospective lead. Boy-Morgan has worked with her before on his short film, and she's exactly right for the role: energetic, smart, and adorable. Boy-Morgan also assures me she has great enthusiasm for the more goretastic parts of the film (a dip in a bathtub filled with blood and body parts will be involved), which is good news indeed.
However, the rest of the cast is a blank spot. So I planned the script accordingly. Most of the humor, for instance, comes out in the dialogue and doesn't hinge upon elaborate visual gags or crackerjack comic timing. My goal was to make the dialogue strong enough to carry the film, if necessary.
2. The bulk of the film is set in one location--an apartment building--with a couple of additional small scenes that aren't terribly location-dependent. Boy-Morgan could, if desperate, shoot them in his own living room or on the sidewalk in front of his house.
3. Since budget is always a priority, I avoided writing scenes requiring hard-to-find props or tricky special effects (though I did include a disappearing-into-thin-air scene which already has Boy-Morgan tearing out his hair. Here is the fundamental difference between Boy-Morgan and myself: he actually cares about making stuff like that look, y'know, convincing. Whereas, as anyone who has seen the student films I made at USC knows, I myself do not.)
It's been a cool experience, writing a horror film, though I've discovered this genre might not be my strong suit. As you might expect, the vast majority of our characters meet brutal ends, and damn it, I like these characters. I spent some time instilling life and personality into each one; I felt guilty about turning them into pulp. If I could have somehow written that rare horror film in which everybody lives, I would have. But I suppose that would have completely defeated the point.
Both Boy-Morgan and I are pretty easygoing and non-buttheady, which has made this collaborative process run like a dream. The script is, I would say, about 75% Boy-Morgan's ideas--before I got involved, he already had a firm idea of the setting, the tone, and the rough plot--combined with 100% my screenwriting knowhow. I'm making that BFA in Filmic Writing work for me, one way or another.
(Off-topic: I could be wrong, but I don't believe USC's film school uses the word "filmic" in that particular degree program anymore. I think the department heads sat down and said, "Hey, you know, 'screenwriting' is a perfectly good word" and changed it. And wisely so.)
By mutual agreement between myself and Boy-Morgan, the script is under standard feature length. Once filmed, it'll probably about an hour long. This helps greatly in sticking to the "no budget" part. Too, our focus is on being clever and entertaining, and a witty script with short scenes that move at a breakneck clip is a good step in that direction.
(Also, we've both been influenced heavily by Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which clocked in at a zippy forty-five minutes. We, too, are aiming for zippy, though our film will have fewer infectious musical numbers. A shame, really.)
Here are the key things I kept in mind while penning a no-budget film:
1. Boy-Morgan is probably not going to find professional actors willing to work for free. In fact, he's probably going to bribe his friends, neighbors, and coworkers into joining the cast with promises of free doughnuts and coffee. Thankfully, we're in good shape with our prospective lead. Boy-Morgan has worked with her before on his short film, and she's exactly right for the role: energetic, smart, and adorable. Boy-Morgan also assures me she has great enthusiasm for the more goretastic parts of the film (a dip in a bathtub filled with blood and body parts will be involved), which is good news indeed.
However, the rest of the cast is a blank spot. So I planned the script accordingly. Most of the humor, for instance, comes out in the dialogue and doesn't hinge upon elaborate visual gags or crackerjack comic timing. My goal was to make the dialogue strong enough to carry the film, if necessary.
2. The bulk of the film is set in one location--an apartment building--with a couple of additional small scenes that aren't terribly location-dependent. Boy-Morgan could, if desperate, shoot them in his own living room or on the sidewalk in front of his house.
3. Since budget is always a priority, I avoided writing scenes requiring hard-to-find props or tricky special effects (though I did include a disappearing-into-thin-air scene which already has Boy-Morgan tearing out his hair. Here is the fundamental difference between Boy-Morgan and myself: he actually cares about making stuff like that look, y'know, convincing. Whereas, as anyone who has seen the student films I made at USC knows, I myself do not.)
It's been a cool experience, writing a horror film, though I've discovered this genre might not be my strong suit. As you might expect, the vast majority of our characters meet brutal ends, and damn it, I like these characters. I spent some time instilling life and personality into each one; I felt guilty about turning them into pulp. If I could have somehow written that rare horror film in which everybody lives, I would have. But I suppose that would have completely defeated the point.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
It's the most wonderful time of the year...
Today I hit a Halloween story, and a couple cheap-o stores for props and ideas on the spookier side of horror film props. I've always felt that Halloween is the best holiday ever. Kids get to dress up like whatever they want, and adults get to dress up like kids. It's all about candy and pretending you're someone else. It's fantastic and what's not to love?
It's also a damn handy time to be in pre-production for a no-budget horror film. The most I spent was $19 for an entire foam human skeleton. It's a smidge undersized, but it never appears in the same shot as a real person, so it's pert near perfect.
Beyond that I picked up faux cobwebs for a long locked up room, a baggie of severed fingers, and plastic jars that will stand in nicely for glass ones in a pinch. It's friggin' perfect. I'll also be hitting the after Halloween sales on the back end to see if anything super cheap made it through the season.
Ok, so technically $19 for a skeleton isn't "no-budget," but compared to the usual horror film budget, $19 is non existent. I still maintain my no-budget cred. Just don't tell the actors. You know, the ones I'm not paying? ok?
It's also a damn handy time to be in pre-production for a no-budget horror film. The most I spent was $19 for an entire foam human skeleton. It's a smidge undersized, but it never appears in the same shot as a real person, so it's pert near perfect.
Beyond that I picked up faux cobwebs for a long locked up room, a baggie of severed fingers, and plastic jars that will stand in nicely for glass ones in a pinch. It's friggin' perfect. I'll also be hitting the after Halloween sales on the back end to see if anything super cheap made it through the season.
Ok, so technically $19 for a skeleton isn't "no-budget," but compared to the usual horror film budget, $19 is non existent. I still maintain my no-budget cred. Just don't tell the actors. You know, the ones I'm not paying? ok?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I turn my camera on
One of the wonderful things about progress is that what was once daunting and out of reach, is now pretty quick and easy to get.
Girl-Morgan's credentials include a degree from USC in "Filmic Writing." (Insert snide comment about how "Filmic" isn't really a word here. I'm sure she's heard them all.) In our discussions about the film making process we compared the camera side of making my three minute film with her film school experience.
Apparently her class was one of the last ones to be saddled with filming in Super-8. I wasn't there, so the particulars of Super-8 aren't well known to me, but it sounds like it was a pain in the butt. You had to buy the camera's used, and then you were lucky if the damn things worked. Then only a couple of the students had projectors, which were always on loan to someone else in the class. Then there was the film, purchased straight from Kodak. Apparently it was about $17 to buy a three minute reel, and about $17 to develop the reel. So figure about $34 for every three minutes for film costs alone. This is ignoring little things like a splicer, and splices, and incidentals.
I used a Cannon Vixia HV30 HDV camera. It's shoots on cute little mini DV tapes, which you can get from Amazon for roughly $20 for a two pack. Each tape holds about 63 minutes.
There's no developing cost, I just hook the camera up to my computer and the iMovie HD that came bundled with the thing automatically imports the video from the camera. It has to run the tap in real time as it imports so it's not the quickest import ever, but it's super easy. Walk away from the computer for an hour and come back to find it all magically on the computer.
I'm not counting the cost of the computer in this equation cause I already had the thing for graphic design. Lucky me.
For my three minute film I shot over 70 minutes of footage. Part of that is because I had these big sprawling 60 minute tapes. Part of that was trial and error as I figured out what the hell I was doing. Regardless, I consider it sort of my film school experience so I'm going to compare it evenly to the costs I would have run up were I in film school with Girl-Morgan.
So let's do the math for a second for film alone. Say I shot it on Super 8, at an assumed cost of $34 for every three minutes, it would have been $816 dollars for film alone. Ok, I spent $20 on film. I'm not sure how much a used Super 8 camera cost them, but I got my Cannon HD DV for $750.
There were other minor expenses, like colored cellophane wrapping paper as make shift lighting gels, and a bottle of Whiskey as a gift to the actresses. Say $40 total. Where I maybe lose my edge is that I added on a couple extras that I felt might make the shots come out better.
I wanted audible dialog. I've heard no-budget shorts where you could barely make out the dialogue. Generally speaking people aren't going into the sound studio to re-record their dialog for a no-budget film. Hell, I don't even have a sound studio to bring them in to. So I forked over $160 for the external stereo mic for my camera. It works pretty good. It attaches right onto the camera, so it'll pick up any extra noise you make with the camera, but the people you're pointing it at end up sounding pretty crisp and clear (barring any passing automotive traffic through the shot).
I also wanted to be able to get a wider angle shot sometimes, so I shelled out another $180 for the most excellent wide angle lens made for the camera. The camera is kinda tiny, so this lens nearly doubles the weight of the thing. In reading the reviews it appears that some people think it makes the little thing a little off balance. I think it makes it awesome.
Still, with all my expenses I can't help but feel like this is a better day to be a film school student. At least cost of filming-wise.
Girl-Morgan's credentials include a degree from USC in "Filmic Writing." (Insert snide comment about how "Filmic" isn't really a word here. I'm sure she's heard them all.) In our discussions about the film making process we compared the camera side of making my three minute film with her film school experience.
Apparently her class was one of the last ones to be saddled with filming in Super-8. I wasn't there, so the particulars of Super-8 aren't well known to me, but it sounds like it was a pain in the butt. You had to buy the camera's used, and then you were lucky if the damn things worked. Then only a couple of the students had projectors, which were always on loan to someone else in the class. Then there was the film, purchased straight from Kodak. Apparently it was about $17 to buy a three minute reel, and about $17 to develop the reel. So figure about $34 for every three minutes for film costs alone. This is ignoring little things like a splicer, and splices, and incidentals.
I used a Cannon Vixia HV30 HDV camera. It's shoots on cute little mini DV tapes, which you can get from Amazon for roughly $20 for a two pack. Each tape holds about 63 minutes.
There's no developing cost, I just hook the camera up to my computer and the iMovie HD that came bundled with the thing automatically imports the video from the camera. It has to run the tap in real time as it imports so it's not the quickest import ever, but it's super easy. Walk away from the computer for an hour and come back to find it all magically on the computer.
I'm not counting the cost of the computer in this equation cause I already had the thing for graphic design. Lucky me.
For my three minute film I shot over 70 minutes of footage. Part of that is because I had these big sprawling 60 minute tapes. Part of that was trial and error as I figured out what the hell I was doing. Regardless, I consider it sort of my film school experience so I'm going to compare it evenly to the costs I would have run up were I in film school with Girl-Morgan.
So let's do the math for a second for film alone. Say I shot it on Super 8, at an assumed cost of $34 for every three minutes, it would have been $816 dollars for film alone. Ok, I spent $20 on film. I'm not sure how much a used Super 8 camera cost them, but I got my Cannon HD DV for $750.
There were other minor expenses, like colored cellophane wrapping paper as make shift lighting gels, and a bottle of Whiskey as a gift to the actresses. Say $40 total. Where I maybe lose my edge is that I added on a couple extras that I felt might make the shots come out better.
I wanted audible dialog. I've heard no-budget shorts where you could barely make out the dialogue. Generally speaking people aren't going into the sound studio to re-record their dialog for a no-budget film. Hell, I don't even have a sound studio to bring them in to. So I forked over $160 for the external stereo mic for my camera. It works pretty good. It attaches right onto the camera, so it'll pick up any extra noise you make with the camera, but the people you're pointing it at end up sounding pretty crisp and clear (barring any passing automotive traffic through the shot).
I also wanted to be able to get a wider angle shot sometimes, so I shelled out another $180 for the most excellent wide angle lens made for the camera. The camera is kinda tiny, so this lens nearly doubles the weight of the thing. In reading the reviews it appears that some people think it makes the little thing a little off balance. I think it makes it awesome.
Still, with all my expenses I can't help but feel like this is a better day to be a film school student. At least cost of filming-wise.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Let it bleed
Now with the script in hand I'm needing to get down to business. (I keep using this "business" word. It's getting annoying.) One of my utmost concerns? Finding a good, realistic, but affordable recipe for fake blood.
I suppose I must admit to being a fan of fake blood. I think that the blood Alfred Hitchcock used in Psycho was fantastic! The way is ran down the drain? Beautiful. It's also chocolate syrup. Since I'm filming in color, not black and white, I'm thinking that's not going to work so well for me.
In his book "If Chins Could Kill," Bruce Campbell gives the secret recipe for the blood used in Evil Dead. He also goes a little bit into the side effects such as turning a shirt set out to dry into peanut brittle. (Oops, should I have mentioned that there was going to be a spoiler there?)
Still a little looking around on line, and the karo syrup pops up in an awful lot of the recipes, or corn syrup if you will. So I suppose I need to consider if I really want to purchase a bathtubs worth corn syrup and red food coloring?
Some alternate recipes get a bit more scary. There are some more "professional" ones that involve developer of some kind. I've been in dark rooms and the smell alone as kept me from taking up old school photography in any way shape or form. So why would I want to splash that on my actors? The funny thing is, based on previous experience, I could probably get them to do it. Those wacky actors are up for anything for their art.
I think there's something to be said for lots of blood in a horror film. But I'd like to not poison any actors in the process please.
Other props I need to start scoping out include a complete human skeleton, a convincing looking old trunk, fake dust, crates, and turn of the century era tools (my assistant producer is all over the tools). For some reason, over all that I'm worried about the blood. I may be obsessive. Dunno.
I suppose I must admit to being a fan of fake blood. I think that the blood Alfred Hitchcock used in Psycho was fantastic! The way is ran down the drain? Beautiful. It's also chocolate syrup. Since I'm filming in color, not black and white, I'm thinking that's not going to work so well for me.
In his book "If Chins Could Kill," Bruce Campbell gives the secret recipe for the blood used in Evil Dead. He also goes a little bit into the side effects such as turning a shirt set out to dry into peanut brittle. (Oops, should I have mentioned that there was going to be a spoiler there?)
Still a little looking around on line, and the karo syrup pops up in an awful lot of the recipes, or corn syrup if you will. So I suppose I need to consider if I really want to purchase a bathtubs worth corn syrup and red food coloring?
Some alternate recipes get a bit more scary. There are some more "professional" ones that involve developer of some kind. I've been in dark rooms and the smell alone as kept me from taking up old school photography in any way shape or form. So why would I want to splash that on my actors? The funny thing is, based on previous experience, I could probably get them to do it. Those wacky actors are up for anything for their art.
I think there's something to be said for lots of blood in a horror film. But I'd like to not poison any actors in the process please.
Other props I need to start scoping out include a complete human skeleton, a convincing looking old trunk, fake dust, crates, and turn of the century era tools (my assistant producer is all over the tools). For some reason, over all that I'm worried about the blood. I may be obsessive. Dunno.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Script in hand, location in mind
This last weekend featured a very entertaining "meeting" with the building manager of the location, as well as the arrival of a finished script in my email box. Both are very exciting.
The "meeting" also featured a series of regulars from the location who either wished me luck, wanted to see the film when it's done, or insisted that they were perfect for a particular part regardless of not matching the ethnic origins of the character in question. Oh, and there was booze involved.
The building manager, a fine man, was assured by my promises that I wouldn't be disturbing regular occupants of the building. He's protective of them and that's sort of his job as building manager.
It went well.
Then I got home to find the script in my in box. Fantastic! Because I'm now at the beginning of a work week for my day job I haven't yet read it all the way through, but I've read the star and the end and both pretty much nail the characteristics that I was looking for. There's humor and blood and snark.
Sure the snark may sort of fit in with the humor, but I prefer it to be listed separately due to its importance.
Now I just need to read it all the way through.
Have I ever mentioned that I think girl-Morgan is a fantastic writer?
The "meeting" also featured a series of regulars from the location who either wished me luck, wanted to see the film when it's done, or insisted that they were perfect for a particular part regardless of not matching the ethnic origins of the character in question. Oh, and there was booze involved.
The building manager, a fine man, was assured by my promises that I wouldn't be disturbing regular occupants of the building. He's protective of them and that's sort of his job as building manager.
It went well.
Then I got home to find the script in my in box. Fantastic! Because I'm now at the beginning of a work week for my day job I haven't yet read it all the way through, but I've read the star and the end and both pretty much nail the characteristics that I was looking for. There's humor and blood and snark.
Sure the snark may sort of fit in with the humor, but I prefer it to be listed separately due to its importance.
Now I just need to read it all the way through.
Have I ever mentioned that I think girl-Morgan is a fantastic writer?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The end is in sight...
So, the script: I finished a draft, printed it, and took it up to the Farmer's Market with me this morning, where I sat with a cup of coffee and an apple fritter and marked the hell out of it. The little fellow in the photo there was pretty indifferent to the script, but he was most interested in my fritter.
I have a difficult time rewriting entirely on a computer. I tend to overlook typos and continuity errors, things I can catch easily if I have a printed-out version in front of me. I do some of my best work by marking up a hard copy. I filled the draft with so many squiggly, incomprehensible handwritten notes that on some pages it was difficult to see the printed text beneath my scribbles. When I got home, I input my changes into the document, then read it through twice to see if it made sense. Then I set the script aside and finished watching the rest of season four of The Wire (they killed Bodie! You bastards!).
The script is very close to being done. I'm going to sleep on it tonight, then take another pass or two through it tomorrow morning to see how it flows. If it passes muster, I might send it off to Boy-Morgan as early as tomorrow afternoon. And then... I guess the bulk of my role here will be mostly done, even as Boy-Morgan's ordeal is just beginning. Lucky fellow.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Never work with children or animals
I just want to be clear that for this film I do not plan to work with either.
There are a couple funny outtakes from my 3 minute film that feature one of my cats letting it be known that she wasn't willing to perform. I framed the shot ahead of time on the tripod, and had Alison hit record on the camera for me. That way I could hold the cat off camera and deliver her into the scene on cue.
I should probably explain that she's the cat who has multiple veterinarians afraid to deal with her. She's unruly and only does things on her terms. She's a bit of a bitch, really. I'm one of the few people who can handle her. She's a Tortoie-tabbie mix, which should be enough for anyone who's had one.
Sadly she's also the only cat I have that doesn't hide the instant company comes over. It's not that she's social. She's just not afraid of much of anything.
So after one cat failed to do more than hide on the back stairs we tried the queen bitch kitty. In one case she simply hissed at my actress, Kara N., and walked off. The second time we tried a little tuna juice on Kara's fingers (brave girl that she is). While the cat was happy to sniff Kara's fingers, the cat was also happy to take a swipe at her.
It was an awesome stand against being made an actress against her will. Nothing usable came from those shots. I've learned my lesson.
There are a couple funny outtakes from my 3 minute film that feature one of my cats letting it be known that she wasn't willing to perform. I framed the shot ahead of time on the tripod, and had Alison hit record on the camera for me. That way I could hold the cat off camera and deliver her into the scene on cue.
I should probably explain that she's the cat who has multiple veterinarians afraid to deal with her. She's unruly and only does things on her terms. She's a bit of a bitch, really. I'm one of the few people who can handle her. She's a Tortoie-tabbie mix, which should be enough for anyone who's had one.
Sadly she's also the only cat I have that doesn't hide the instant company comes over. It's not that she's social. She's just not afraid of much of anything.
So after one cat failed to do more than hide on the back stairs we tried the queen bitch kitty. In one case she simply hissed at my actress, Kara N., and walked off. The second time we tried a little tuna juice on Kara's fingers (brave girl that she is). While the cat was happy to sniff Kara's fingers, the cat was also happy to take a swipe at her.
It was an awesome stand against being made an actress against her will. Nothing usable came from those shots. I've learned my lesson.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Double Happiness
Great things come in threes. For now I'll take twos without complaint.
I've heard from the building manager directly and I'm "meeting" with him Sunday to discuss things in a bit more detail. Apparently this "meeting" is to involve wine, a barbecue, and a good chunk of people. Hey, any reason to throw a party right? My kinda people here.
The second great news is that while my friend the musician isn't sure she has anything I'd want to use for the film currently, she did imply that she might be able to come up with something. She went so far as to say that it sounds "awesome." Who can argue with "awesome?" Not I!
The business side of making a film is dullsville. I love the people. I love creating something. I hate worrying about contracts and being sued and chasing monkeys in the rain. So when the business side can deal more with people than with paper it puts me in a good mood. Now I just need to get people so sign that piece of paper that says they wont sue me. HA!
As a third point of general interest I'd like to agree with Girl-Morgan when she says that Bruce Campbell is awesome. He's been in a slew of reputable if not always good films. He's an author (the autobiography is a must read if you ask me), and lives on a lavender farm in Oregon. What's not to love?
While I've never had the pleasure of meeting the man I have to say I like him.
I've heard from the building manager directly and I'm "meeting" with him Sunday to discuss things in a bit more detail. Apparently this "meeting" is to involve wine, a barbecue, and a good chunk of people. Hey, any reason to throw a party right? My kinda people here.
The second great news is that while my friend the musician isn't sure she has anything I'd want to use for the film currently, she did imply that she might be able to come up with something. She went so far as to say that it sounds "awesome." Who can argue with "awesome?" Not I!
The business side of making a film is dullsville. I love the people. I love creating something. I hate worrying about contracts and being sued and chasing monkeys in the rain. So when the business side can deal more with people than with paper it puts me in a good mood. Now I just need to get people so sign that piece of paper that says they wont sue me. HA!
As a third point of general interest I'd like to agree with Girl-Morgan when she says that Bruce Campbell is awesome. He's been in a slew of reputable if not always good films. He's an author (the autobiography is a must read if you ask me), and lives on a lavender farm in Oregon. What's not to love?
While I've never had the pleasure of meeting the man I have to say I like him.
Bruuuuuuuuce!
While Boy-Morgan has charged ahead with dealing with the nuts-and-bolts aspects of pre-production, I've pounded out a rough draft of the script. Overall, the pacing and dialogue are pretty much right where I want them, but the action/gore scenes are in sketchy, skeletal shape right now. The goal for today is to bear down and bring them to life. It's a matter of finding the right level of nitwit energy to bring to the script, so I've been looking to other films for inspiration. First and foremost, of course, there's the entire Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell oeuvre -- Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell is my personal spiritual guru.
Other influences: Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, which is useful to examine for our purposes as, much like our film, the action is contained chiefly to one set: the Edinburgh apartment shared by the lead characters. It benefits greatly from John Hodge's witty, tense, meaty script, as well as from a triumvirate of fantastic actors: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox.
Street Fighter: I will go to my grave insisting Street Fighter is a hidden gem of a movie. Sure, it's somewhat half-assed, but it's got some great lunatic energy, it's relentlessly self-amusing, and the actors all look like they're having a blast. Plus I admire any film that goes to great time and effort to set up a fleeting Godzilla visual gag. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been taking a long look at Battle Royale: grim, bloody, poignant, and awesome. And finally, the influence of the gleefully cheeseball 1977 Hardy Boys television series with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson should not be underrated. In fact, Boy-Morgan and I first met, lo these many years ago, when he contacted me to comment about an essay I'd written about the show. Roderick Kills features a couple of earnest and cheerily oblivious young investigators, who somehow manage to find themselves involved in a wildly improbable mystery and who muddle happily about in search of a solution. Frank and Joe Hardy would recognize the protagonists of Roderick Kills as kindred spirits.
With a little luck and focus, I should be able to finish up the script this weekend and submit it to Boy-Morgan for his consideration.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Sounds of Silence...
...was going to be the title of my blog post, but I just got an email a moment ago that changed that.
I had sent out a small batch of emails to various people inquiring about various things to no avail. I was met with the resounding sound of crickets. I suppose that's to be expected when you're asking people to do things for free.
But the good news is that I just got this email stating that the man who manages the building I'd like to use as the location is interested in the film. His primary concern is not causing any disruptions to the normal denizens of the building. I couldn't agree more. Once we talk about the film I think other concerns, such as blood stains, may pop up as well. But really I'm a positive karma believer.
That is, when it's all said and done I want everyone involved to be happy that they helped me. To that end it wouldn't serve my goals to be a jerk about filming in building where I'm lucky to be let in the door. Dig?
Despite the fact that first drafts don't make Girl-Morgan none too happy, I think so far everyone has a smile on their face when we talk about it. Or at least seem interested. Or, maybe they don't look actively sea sick?
A secondary point to his email is that I think there's a part in the film that he would be perfect for. His reply reinforced this conviction. It's entirely a separate issue mind you. If this was being filmed in a different building, I'd still have a picture of him in my head as this character. Hopefully this is a match made in heaven.
I'm to schedule a day to meet with him and get drunk while going over the this-n-that of the film. Good times!
I had sent out a small batch of emails to various people inquiring about various things to no avail. I was met with the resounding sound of crickets. I suppose that's to be expected when you're asking people to do things for free.
But the good news is that I just got this email stating that the man who manages the building I'd like to use as the location is interested in the film. His primary concern is not causing any disruptions to the normal denizens of the building. I couldn't agree more. Once we talk about the film I think other concerns, such as blood stains, may pop up as well. But really I'm a positive karma believer.
That is, when it's all said and done I want everyone involved to be happy that they helped me. To that end it wouldn't serve my goals to be a jerk about filming in building where I'm lucky to be let in the door. Dig?
Despite the fact that first drafts don't make Girl-Morgan none too happy, I think so far everyone has a smile on their face when we talk about it. Or at least seem interested. Or, maybe they don't look actively sea sick?
A secondary point to his email is that I think there's a part in the film that he would be perfect for. His reply reinforced this conviction. It's entirely a separate issue mind you. If this was being filmed in a different building, I'd still have a picture of him in my head as this character. Hopefully this is a match made in heaven.
I'm to schedule a day to meet with him and get drunk while going over the this-n-that of the film. Good times!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Taking care of business
Today I staged a three pronged attack on pre-production type items.
1) I contacted a musician/songwriter friend of mine to see if she has any music she'd like to donate for use in the film. This one is pretty unlikely. Not because she isn't totally sweet and wonderful, but because when you're putting all you have into making music it's not in your nature to give it away for free. When I was in a band I wasn't anywhere near likely to just give someone one of my songs. No way, no how.
But I love what I've heard of her music when she was in a punk band, and she's a sweetie, so it's worth a shot, right?
2) I contacted an old friend who I know has had an interest in film making before to see if he'd be into acting in the thing. I have two out of 13 actors cast right now, but since the script hasn't been finalized and I still don't have permission to use the desired location I figure there are bigger fish to fry.
3) I sent the sample contracts I got a hold of off to a family member, who is a lawyer, to see if she thinks they'll work.
Now I have non-film related freelance work to. It's a full life.
1) I contacted a musician/songwriter friend of mine to see if she has any music she'd like to donate for use in the film. This one is pretty unlikely. Not because she isn't totally sweet and wonderful, but because when you're putting all you have into making music it's not in your nature to give it away for free. When I was in a band I wasn't anywhere near likely to just give someone one of my songs. No way, no how.
But I love what I've heard of her music when she was in a punk band, and she's a sweetie, so it's worth a shot, right?
2) I contacted an old friend who I know has had an interest in film making before to see if he'd be into acting in the thing. I have two out of 13 actors cast right now, but since the script hasn't been finalized and I still don't have permission to use the desired location I figure there are bigger fish to fry.
3) I sent the sample contracts I got a hold of off to a family member, who is a lawyer, to see if she thinks they'll work.
Now I have non-film related freelance work to. It's a full life.
All-Weekend Screenwriting Party!
I’ve spent this weekend pounding out a rough draft of Roderick Kills. Like Boy-Morgan, I’m fond of our working title. Doesn’t that sound so much nicer than Untitled Horror Film? It’s apropos (not to give away too many plot secrets, but we do indeed have a character named Roderick and yep, he sure does kill a lot). It’s a complete sentence in two words. It’s catchy. It’ll look good on a poster. We’re not committed to it yet, but we both like it.
I blazed about halfway through the first draft yesterday. If I focus, I should be able to finish today.
Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Boy-Morgan said we’re doing this for fun. He’s right, mostly, though I’d argue there’s nothing fun about writing a first draft. In the history of first drafts, I’m pretty sure no one has ever enjoyed this part of the writing process. We had fun brainstorming, bouncing ideas back and forth through email (in which most of our paragraphs started with, “You know what would be cool?”). I also enjoy rewriting: there’s a bizarre sort of pleasure in rearranging awkward phrases and dialogue into a more pleasing order.
First drafts suck, though. No getting around that.
I’m writing it in Word. I have the Final Draft software, specially designed to make screenplay formatting quick and easy, but on some level it irks me. Like bread machines (baking bread is simple, and you sure don’t need a separate appliance to help you do it), Final Draft creates a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist: sure, it’ll format your screenplay for you, but seriously, how hard is it to press the Tab key?
The script is shaping up pretty decently, I’d have to say. Boy-Morgan and I collaborated on the plot, and I’m sticking to our ideas, so the finished product shouldn’t come as any sort of horrible surprise to him. Our plot is solid. It’s clever. It’s icky. It’s scary. It’s funny. We’re both probably far too fond of in-jokes and self-amusing running gags (references to One Day at a Time and Rice-a-Roni abound. Rice-a-Roni is inherently funny, especially in a film set in San Francisco. I defy anyone to tell me otherwise), but if that’s our worst flaw, I’d say we’re in decent shape.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a first draft in need of completion.
I blazed about halfway through the first draft yesterday. If I focus, I should be able to finish today.
Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Boy-Morgan said we’re doing this for fun. He’s right, mostly, though I’d argue there’s nothing fun about writing a first draft. In the history of first drafts, I’m pretty sure no one has ever enjoyed this part of the writing process. We had fun brainstorming, bouncing ideas back and forth through email (in which most of our paragraphs started with, “You know what would be cool?”). I also enjoy rewriting: there’s a bizarre sort of pleasure in rearranging awkward phrases and dialogue into a more pleasing order.
First drafts suck, though. No getting around that.
I’m writing it in Word. I have the Final Draft software, specially designed to make screenplay formatting quick and easy, but on some level it irks me. Like bread machines (baking bread is simple, and you sure don’t need a separate appliance to help you do it), Final Draft creates a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist: sure, it’ll format your screenplay for you, but seriously, how hard is it to press the Tab key?
The script is shaping up pretty decently, I’d have to say. Boy-Morgan and I collaborated on the plot, and I’m sticking to our ideas, so the finished product shouldn’t come as any sort of horrible surprise to him. Our plot is solid. It’s clever. It’s icky. It’s scary. It’s funny. We’re both probably far too fond of in-jokes and self-amusing running gags (references to One Day at a Time and Rice-a-Roni abound. Rice-a-Roni is inherently funny, especially in a film set in San Francisco. I defy anyone to tell me otherwise), but if that’s our worst flaw, I’d say we’re in decent shape.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a first draft in need of completion.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
What's in a name?
It was recently pointed out to me that I'm working on a film project which currently goes by the title of "Untitled." I don't know about you, but I think it's kinda sorta a lame ass name.
My last film's title was an anagram of what the film was about. It's obscure and no one will ever pick up on it if I don't point it out to them. I'm also immensely self entertaining and kinda don't care if people don't pick up on it cause I know it's there. Still I'm compelled to point it out to those who might appreciate it, or answer if asked what it means.
So then I started looking at film names I like. I love relevant but not point blankly so names. "Lost in Translation," for example, is a perfectly lovely name to me. "Grosse Pointe Blank" also speaks to me. They're seemingly vague in how they describe the film, or several aspects of the film. It's a nifty trick if you ask me.
But this is a horror flick.
I also like short names, that don't take three lines to run across the poster or DVD packaging. And there's a fine history of horror movies with great short names. "Saw," "The Grudge," "The Ring," and other more recent horror movies have fantastic names regardless of my feelings on the actual film. Some older films like "The Fog," "The Thing," and even "Halloween" have titles that aren't all that long (thank you John Carpenter).
I loved "Nightmare on Elm Street," and the name totally fits the film, but it's kinda sorta pushing being too long. When I was in High School I think we just called it "Nightmare" 'cause teenagers are lazy. Ok, that's a vast generalization. I was a lazy teenager. Better?
This has been a bit of a sticking point for us, but maybe we've fixed that now. Maybe.
I was thinking it'd be nifty to have the title be obscure, and an anagram for kinda what the film is about, again. We have a killer named Roderick, and so I was looking at anagrams of "Roderick Kills," which leads to understandably mixed results. That's kinda the charm of anagrams, I gotta tell you.
Looking at my mixed results Girl-Morgan pointed out that she kinda likes "Roderick Kills" itself. I think we have ourselves a working title.
My last film's title was an anagram of what the film was about. It's obscure and no one will ever pick up on it if I don't point it out to them. I'm also immensely self entertaining and kinda don't care if people don't pick up on it cause I know it's there. Still I'm compelled to point it out to those who might appreciate it, or answer if asked what it means.
So then I started looking at film names I like. I love relevant but not point blankly so names. "Lost in Translation," for example, is a perfectly lovely name to me. "Grosse Pointe Blank" also speaks to me. They're seemingly vague in how they describe the film, or several aspects of the film. It's a nifty trick if you ask me.
But this is a horror flick.
I also like short names, that don't take three lines to run across the poster or DVD packaging. And there's a fine history of horror movies with great short names. "Saw," "The Grudge," "The Ring," and other more recent horror movies have fantastic names regardless of my feelings on the actual film. Some older films like "The Fog," "The Thing," and even "Halloween" have titles that aren't all that long (thank you John Carpenter).
I loved "Nightmare on Elm Street," and the name totally fits the film, but it's kinda sorta pushing being too long. When I was in High School I think we just called it "Nightmare" 'cause teenagers are lazy. Ok, that's a vast generalization. I was a lazy teenager. Better?
This has been a bit of a sticking point for us, but maybe we've fixed that now. Maybe.
I was thinking it'd be nifty to have the title be obscure, and an anagram for kinda what the film is about, again. We have a killer named Roderick, and so I was looking at anagrams of "Roderick Kills," which leads to understandably mixed results. That's kinda the charm of anagrams, I gotta tell you.
Looking at my mixed results Girl-Morgan pointed out that she kinda likes "Roderick Kills" itself. I think we have ourselves a working title.
Friday, September 5, 2008
To whom it may concern:
Why would anyone make their own horror film when there are perfectly good horror films already out there, and a lot of them?
I'm going to take a moment and speak for the group (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Because it seems like fun. No one else is going to make the thing for us. So it seems like it's the thing to do. And besides, everyone needs a hobby.
Welcome to the tale of our No Budget Film.
I'm going to take a moment and speak for the group (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Because it seems like fun. No one else is going to make the thing for us. So it seems like it's the thing to do. And besides, everyone needs a hobby.
Welcome to the tale of our No Budget Film.
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