The would-be filmmakers thread - Page 13

Thought some of yall could use that.

Been an animation kind of day. Also read this Wired piece on the making of Phineas and Ferb.

Holy Crap. Looking at this thread made me realize that I have spent over three years getting my animation project off the ground. It's changed form so damn many times that it's not even funny. Ah, well...

Yesterday actually marked the 8th anniversary of the day I started work on this script here:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20164332,00.html

It is on its seventh director (a guy I have loved working with), went through another draft this past summer with said director and, as of this past weekend, has inched another few feet closer to the screen after one of its intrepid producers locked down another piece of the foreign financing puzzle. Yeah, you could throw your hands up and scream, "It'll never get done!!" or, you can ignore every confidence-shattering blinking light that screams "It'll never get done!!" and just keep moving forward until someone pulls the script from your cold dead hand.

I don't know if "Country'll" ever get made, but it won't NOT get made because I gave up trying to get it - and any number of other projects I like - there.

Oh, I'm moving ahead, I'm just stunned that this has been an over-three-years project. It seems like just few weeks ago that I came up with the concept.

I didn't know you wrote "The Messengers". I did a few weekends helping out the sound guys on that back when I was working on "Corner Gas". Good movie. Fun to work on.

Yeah, was one of a parade of writers. I think Derrickson & Boardman were actually on the crew sheets. Was writing "Country" at the time for the producers and they were like, "Hey, you wrote a horror script. We need someone to do a couple of weeks on this other thing." Cut to six months later.

And fucking great crew on that thing, coming right off "Tideland." I was only on set for a couple of days, but they knocked it out of the park. The directors, on the other hand...

Yeah, I recall the signs on the studio saying "Untitled Pang Bros Project" and thinking that was odd. Particularly since word was that they were kinda lost and not terribly good with the crew. My job was mic op for getting ambiences that the sound guys wanted so I never had to work with them.

That was a golden time for Saskatchewan crews. We had three TV series, including the most successful series in Canadian history, a mini-series, three features and at least two more features coming down the pipe. But the bottom fell out of the economy, Tideland bombed and then we were relegated to third class work again. Fun while it lasted, though.

ETA: John Corbett was one of my favourite people to work with ever. Bought drinks for everyone.

Weird, a lot of the Pangs' stuff is pretty decent. Was it a language barrier thing?

Hah - I managed to be part of the Corbett bar-hopping party wagon one of the nights I was there and I'd imagine one of the reasons he kept buying people drinks was because he never had to pay for any of his own and was obviously getting a bit embarrassed at the attention. Seemed like the entire city of Regina were "Northern Exposure" fans, though you'd hear people yell, "Hey, Aidan!" all the time, too.

And I saw a really cool SaskFilm ad on the back of the Hollywood Reporter back in February, big bright photo from the "Messengers" set alongside the poster with the posters for "Just Friends," "Downloading Nancy," "Sleepwalking" and "Tideland" below it. As it had been what, five years since "Messengers" was up there, I figured that meant something not-quite-right had happened with the local film biz.

SaskFilm does a great job of promoting themselves and Regina has a very nice soundstage but they're fighting a tough economy, a government who doesn't give a shit and too many stereotypes.

In reality, Saskatchewan should be doing way better than Alberta. The crews are better, the tax incentives are amazing, they have a soundstage* and they have one of the best post house in Canada there. But Alberta always gets one huge movie every 18 months that keep their name in the press. Plus, good will for Brokeback and Unforgiven go a fair ways to producers. How many Oscars was that?

* The one in Calgary was closed because they wanted to build condos on the land. Now they're trying to get a new one built up at Calgary Olympic Park but politics and stupidity keep getting in the way.

We need a large sound stage/big studio space in New Orleans in a bad way. Only reason we really lose big shows is because we don't have enough studio/sound stage space.

I'm surprised you guys don't have one, Casey. Can't be lack of land, is it cost?

Not sure what it is. Two of the attempts have ended because of corruption. Couple of others were announced but never came about. There is plenty of space for a large one out in the suburb area of Harahan/Elmwood where a lot of vendors are already set up. Typical NOLA behind the times thinking I think.

i moved to hollywood in 2000 and am just now getting my first feature funded for me to direct...in germany.

so yeah, ten years is about right.

I'm interested in just how you managed to get investors.

Wanna know a little more about what goes on in post? Here's John Purcell explaining how dialogue editing works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d5XIzKlWFk

Checked out the first part. Not sure I can watch much more of that guy.

John's brilliant but a little eccentric. Pick up his book if you can't stand watching him.


While I'm talking good post books:

Sound Effects Bible

Foley Grail

I thought some of you might like to look at this Viewfinder thing. Sort of a blacklist for filmmakers.

Kind of a redundant list. Most of the directors mentioned are very successful music video or commercial directors. They wouldn't have a problem getting feature film deals.

That is such a weird list. Sixteen people on the list and with only a couple of exceptions, they're already repped by top guys at CAA and WME. No ICM, no UTA, no Paradigm. Kind of feels like whoever put the list together already knows they're going to break into features so they're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy so that when they all "break" they can be like, "See?! They were on our Obviously Powerful List!"

I found it interesting just to see some of the shorts I hadn't seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCI7jz8YoLo

Spent about 5 years working on this thing, just got the final pieces together to have a final edit. Anyone have any advice on film festivals or anything? I'm new to all of this.

Well, I figured now as good a time as any to present my most recent work:

http://vimeo.com/13693694

Shot on the XL-2 (sadly.) Was my month 2 project at LAFS.

Please guys, watch it and be absolutely brutal. I always ask for this as I feel it's the only way I'll get better.

question for those with any insight on festivals in general...

 

a few friends and i are just about wrapping up principal photography on a short.  in the end, it should be about 20-25 minutes.

 

my question is.  is that too long for festivals to show or even consider?  i ask because a friend whose been helping us out and working with us on the movie seems to think it is.  i argued that it isn't, but obviously i don't know if i'm asking on here.  so, can anyone shed some light on this issue?

 

any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

thanks.

It really depends on the festival. Some festivals have a very tight cap on runtimes for short submissions, but there are some that allow you to submit as long as it's not feature length. We worked on a 45-minute short a few years ago, and it was accepted into a few film festivals.

 

My recommendation? Check out Withoutabox. Create a free account, and check out the different film festivals on the site. If you put in your film's information, and you click on a festival... there's usually a button that tells you whether or not your film meets any of that festival's submission criteria. It's a really useful tool, and it's a GREAT site to get started with film festivals.

 

Hope that helps.

Most of the festivals I know have two categories: Feature and Short. A Short is anything under X and a Feature is anything over Y, so you should be fine. It does vary though, it usually will say on the festival's site. 

I will say, no matter what the festival accepts, shorter is often better. 25 minutes tends to be an awkward narrative length for a short film, and festivals usually like to program more films as opposed to less. If your film is top-goddamn notch, an undeniable force of cinema, then rock your length as long as you want. If you want to increase your odds more pragmatically, I would suggest getting it as close to 15 as possible.

For those who care, I'm about to start pre-production on my next short film and compared to my last effort, I'm going to do it in much more professional way. I've already got a producer interested in producing it, so now I just need to put together a package for her. The goal this time is to have an actual proper screening, maybe rent out a theater, if I can.

Hey man- good job.  You got some good stuff out of the XL-2.  It's a sweet story, and you got some fine acting out of the little girl (especially during the card scene).  Directing children can be a nightmare.  I didn't notice the sound work at all, which is a very good thing. 

My attempt at brutality: with a relatively simple story like this, one with no inciting incident per se, I feel like you need to learn to say more with less.  I would clean up the editing.  A lot of scenes could be shortened.  Also some became repetitive - ie the stuff with him going to visit his daughter.  With a short film that can be told in one or MAYBE two scenes, as opposed to the 3 you have now (right?).  

I wasn't a big fan of the actress playing the agent. Too big.

I got what you were going for with the lighting in his office/work area, and how it changes, but I thought it was too much.  I feel like the change instead being subtler stuff like the set dressing or even the blinds being closed and then opened instead of the extreme cool blue light would have worked better. 

My 2c!
 
 

feeling very accomplished.  our friend just finished editing a trailer for the short we've been working on...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9oG0YSDC7A

 

 

hopefully i'll be upping a link to the finished product in a couple months once we do fine editing and music

 

Feedback is appreciated.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3W7r97h3cM

 

Looks pretty damn interesting.  Good job!

 

Quote:

 

Congrats! Do you know what they're going to do with the finished project? Will we get to see anything?

 

I'm actually curious about the shoot. How did you guys end up capturing your audio? I'm trying to put together a run-and-gun kit for my 7D, and am slowly putting together an audio package. Very interested to hear what you guys used.

Thank ya, fine, sir.

The 2011 Hollywood Reporter Director's Roundtable.

2011 Producers Round Table.

 

At the least these are inspiring. But you might also find some things to use later.