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Back to a bit of acting...

post #1 of 20
3/2/08 at 2:13am
Thread Starter 
...someone I know through work is a film student, and he's been in production on a short film (end-of-the-world romantic comedy). He's asked me to step back in front of the cameras next week to shoot a pick-up of a newscaster reporting on the "happenings".

I got to see some of his rough footage -- impressive stuff. Great lighting, some terrific practical make-up effects. Some nice gore. He's gotten some impressive production values out of $35,000 and begging, borrowing equipment. Nice location shooting. I'm looking forward to the fun day in front of the cameras after 15-years of no acting whatsoever.
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post #2 of 20
3/2/08 at 2:22am
Good to hear. Hope it goes well.
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post #3 of 20
3/2/08 at 3:39am
$35,000 for a short? Is he shooting on 35mm or are there really expensive effects? Cause that's a helluva budget for a short. To me, anyway.
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post #4 of 20
3/2/08 at 12:23pm
Thread Starter 
Locations in bunkers and mines, zombies attacking survivors in haz-mat suits, LED lit state-of-the-art headpieces, axes to heads, mushroom clouds over cities, jammed freeways ... all kinds of expensive stuff going on.
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post #5 of 20
3/2/08 at 1:10pm
A zombie film? No way! What a unique idea!

Good luck, Blo. But ANOTHER fucking zombie movie?
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post #6 of 20
3/2/08 at 1:11pm
Thread Starter 
Also, this isn't some assignment to be tossed off for a grade. This is his calling card, his demo reel. He's putting his "bank" on this piece for future opportunities.
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post #7 of 20
3/2/08 at 1:17pm
Thread Starter 
And as for the budget ... it's possible that a very famous name, someone known to all chewers for an important role in science-fiction/fantasy film history will be doing a voice-over for the piece. This is the kind of money he's willing to spend.
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post #8 of 20
3/2/08 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, Nick. I agree. Zombies are an overused and easy villain, especially in low-budget attempts. This isn't a "zombie" film ... but there are zombies. Kind of like "Sean of the Dead". The tone and intent of the piece is about more than just the spooks and the scares. It's a relationship film about the two leads (one played by a former commercial actress and a Beverly Hills 90210 guest-star). In reading the script the tone of the film relies upon the performances from those leads -- and I haven't seen their work. The demo he showed me is a few cuts from various set-ups without the post sound mix ... and doesn't let me see the quality of the relationship and humor. But I'm impressed with his cinematography and what he's been able to achieve in production values. The look of what I've seen is impressive. There's one shot in particular which got a "woah" out of me, to his pleasure. A fun bit of grue. It'll be fun to knock out some (what will be very minor in the scheme of things) expository newscaster bits.
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post #9 of 20
3/2/08 at 2:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blofeld View Post
Also, this isn't some assignment to be tossed off for a grade. This is his calling card, his demo reel. He's putting his "bank" on this piece for future opportunities.
I really don't want to be a dick, but this is kind of patronizing. Both Greg and myself (and other Chewers) have recently done films that we hope will be our "calling cards" for way, way under 35,000 dollars, and we're proud of what we were able to accomplish. I'm not speaking for them collectively, but you understand my point. I understand it's a big shoot with a lot of stuff going on, and I do hope it goes well, but c'mon, cut down on the boasting.
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post #10 of 20
3/2/08 at 2:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blofeld View Post
And as for the budget ... it's possible that a very famous name, someone known to all chewers for an important role in science-fiction/fantasy film history will be doing a voice-over for the piece. This is the kind of money he's willing to spend.

Rowdy Roddy? Tell me it's Rowdy Roddy.
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post #11 of 20
3/2/08 at 4:01pm
First off, congratulations, Matt. Hope you got to have some fun.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
I really don't want to be a dick, but this is kind of patronizing. Both Greg and myself (and other Chewers) have recently done films that we hope will be our "calling cards" for way, way under 35,000 dollars, and we're proud of what we were able to accomplish. I'm not speaking for them collectively, but you understand my point. I understand it's a big shoot with a lot of stuff going on, and I do hope it goes well, but c'mon, cut down on the boasting.
This is a stupid post. Matt brings up the budget only by way of mentioning it's not an ultra-lo budget production, then there's a response suggesting the guy might be overspending for a short film, then Matt says the guy wants to use it to open doors. It's not like he decided how much the guy should spend or had anything to do with the guy's choices.

There's no boasting here, Rath. Go be a dick someplace else, and be proud of your summer camp thing all you want.

Sure, you can make a great demo reel for $35, $35,000 or $350,000. That's clear and inarguable. It's a matter of what sort of ingenuity, skill and scope you're able to put on display.
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post #12 of 20
3/2/08 at 4:05pm
All right. Understandable. I'm happy for him, however, I felt that his tone in that one post was condescending, and said so.
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post #13 of 20
3/2/08 at 4:39pm
Hey all. I'm the guy making the movie. You can ask me any questions you want. The budget isn't quite that big, but with equipment deferrals, Sag actor fee deferrals, cost of software, the 12 month planned post, sound studiop time for ADR and mixing, props, and the makeup/prosthetics budget it's probably close. The budget was supposed to be a lot lower but the film school I'm going to crapped out on a verbal agreement with me so I've been renting everything. A day of shooting usually is about 1000 to 2000 a day for lights, camera, grip equipment, transportation, location rentals, food for crew, and other random charges that come up.
Up to now, it's been about 8 months of preproduction with a solid month of actual shooting.

And I feel the same way about zombie films. I had a tough time accepting that my radioactive mutant nuclear winter survivors were pretty much zombies. As soon as I get the New Media Contract worked out with the lead actress I can post some of the stills and footage online.
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post #14 of 20
3/2/08 at 4:46pm
If anyone's curious, I directed a short documentart about my unfortunate stint with minor web fame.

Invasion of the Puzzle People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldUJthYbl4
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post #15 of 20
3/2/08 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boruff View Post
If anyone's curious, I directed a short documentart about my unfortunate stint with minor web fame.

Invasion of the Puzzle People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldUJthYbl4
Isn't that basically the same as notpron?
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post #16 of 20
3/2/08 at 6:46pm
It could be worse...it could be sharks

...again...
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post #17 of 20
3/2/08 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jared Melton View Post
Isn't that basically the same as notpron?
Well not to sound full of myself, but he got the idea from me. Of course I got the idea from the ad campaigns for Johnny Mnemonic, A.I., and the crying minotaur puzzle that Radiohead did for the Kid A album.

http://www.deathball.net/notpron/faq.htm

"How did you get the idea for this?
I was playing thisisnotporn.com, which is a little similar, but still a lot different. From my point of view those levels there are pretty unfair and rather boring.
Well, I did something like that with my own game philosophy (based on fun & fairness rather than on mystery), and it became kinda cool with those unlimited ways of using useless computer knowledge to beat those levels. More and more ideas grew out of this, so it has not much to do with my original inspiration and it's something totally unique on the whole internet (except for all the notpron clones that keep popping up now)."
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post #18 of 20
3/5/08 at 8:44pm
Congrats Blo and his friend. Sounds like a lot of fun!
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post #19 of 20
3/12/08 at 1:12am
Thread Starter 
Shoot was today. Wrapped principle photography. Had fun doing it.
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post #20 of 20
3/14/08 at 2:50am
It was a lot of crazy fun. I now have 314 gbs of data to edit through from the whole project. As soon as I get the SAG new media and internet agreements worked out I'll start posting teasers.
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