Making Indie Films

Do you use a matte box when you shoot? If so, go ahead and post your favorites in the comments.

I have had my eye on the RedRock Micro (www.redrockmicro.com) Matte Box, but at $599 for the basic bundle, it is getting up there.

It is a beauty though…

I’m not sure if technically LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is an indie movie. Sure, it stars top notch indie thespian Ryan Gosling. Still, with a veteran commercials director like Craig Gillespie at the helm and a script from a SIX FEET UNDER series writer, you might imagine that any indie allusions end there. However, the reason that I have singled out Lars and The Real Girl is because of its independent spirit and more importantly the fact that if somebody WILL bankroll this kind of project then there is hope for all of us.

L-A-T-R-G concerns a lonely man, who for reasons of mental dysfunction, buys something that approximates a Real Doll off the internet and parades it around town to friends and relatives as his girlfriend. Yes! This film is about a man who buys a live size sex-doll (for what of a better word) and treats it as a real person. It looks funny from the trailer - however, this is still a movie whose central prop is a live size sex doll. It’s not something off HBO late night, but a real movie schedule to be in theaters at the weekend. It’s being released by MGM no less.

While Wes Anderson is quirky (yes quirky - don’t you hate that word?) and held-up by many as the doyen of indie cross-over. I say that this movie about a Real Doll is much more independent and subversive. I think it shows us that we can be different and contemporary and at the same time deal with more marginal issues or cultural artifacts. I found L-A-T-R-G to be quite an inspiration in some respects. It actually made me more confident in sending out the latest draft of my script.

Today’s exercise is simple. Find yourself a movie (about to be released) that inspires you - a movie that gives you a sense of possibility and makes your own project seem plausible. Savor the sense that you can and will be inspired to succeed.

Meanwhile here’s the L-A-T-R-G trailer for your edification…

Much the same as painting or creating any work of art, your script or your movie will never be finished to your sense of perfection. There will be things wrong with it, scenes you still want to tinker with, shots that you hate, dialogue glitches that you just can’t edit out. Still, despite those errors (that seem gigantic to you), there will come a point where you have to abandon the creative process. YES! Abandon the project and MOVE ON. I don’t mean leave it half-finished - NO! I just mean finish it to the best of your ability and get it out there…

If it’s a script, clean it up and start showing it to actors or money. If it’s a movie, stick the head and end credits on that sucker and start sending it to festivals. All of your work is completely useless unless you put it out there in the world. So, what I’m suggesting, whether you’re near to finishing or just stuck - finish the thing up and start getting feedback - at the very least. Remember this truly isn’t rocket science or the cure for cancer. You will not be totally judged on this piece of work, anyway - but it will be viewed more as a building block in a body of work. YES! A body of work. You can have that, but first you need to finish what you’re working on right now and get it out there.

That is my mission for the next 48 hours. To finish up and to get stuff out in the world. You need to do the same… Meanwhile, here’s a nice little interview with Wes Anderson and Adrian Brody about THE DARJEELING LIMITED…

Still in rewrite deadline hell, so a personal reminiscence about documentary filmmaking will have to suffice today…

Recently I flipped on the TV and came across a fantastic ’80s New Wave documentary entitled MADE IN SHEFFIELD. As the title suggests this 52 minute retrospective dealt with the rise of early electronica in Sheffield, England in the late 1970s and charted the rise of THE HUMAN LEAGUE, HEAVEN 17, CABARET VOLTAIRE, ABC and the lesser known but equally interesting ARTERY. This was the pop music of my youth - stylishly re-presented through a series of candid interviews by director Eve Wood. Despite catching the odd typo in some of the captions - there was something very honest and touching about this film. Apart from Phil Oakey, Martin Ware and a more current Jarvis Cocker, most of the interviewees never quite retained any great fame or mass appeal after their bubble burst. I think a great many of them are back in Sheffield. Still, the music lives on. Some of it as the greatest British pop albums of the 80s. Who can forget “Penthouse and Pavement” from Heaven 17, or The Human League’s “Dare,” or ABC’s “The Lexicon of Love.”

After remembering my youth so fondly, imagine my surprise when later (on USA Network) I heard “Don’t You Want baby..?” used as the jingle for the current CHIPS AHOY commercial. Like I said - the music lives on - unfortunately inscrupulous Ad Execs have turned the Human League into four animated cookies driving a funny car. Ah, well… At least that means a few well deserved sheckels for Phil Oakey and co.

To give you an idea of the look and flava, here is the MADE IN SHEFFIELD trailer…

I also couldn’t resist posting the DON’T YOU WANT ME BABY video clip…

I am tied-up in rewrite hell today, so this post has top be very brief. It’s one of those woods for the trees moments, so I’m just trying to cowboy up. In the meantime, I have to recommend Facebook again. It is a tremendous tool for the Indie Filmmaker. I have just managed to reconnect with so many old friends and colleagues there. On that note I need to send out a big shout to British director Q. His UK crime/gangster movie Deadmeat has been selected to play at the All Black Film Festival in Los Angeles, later this month.

Below is the deadmeat trailer…. Normal posts should resume tomorrow…

Sometimes we are told that our movie would’ve been better if we had newer or better technology. We could’ve used HDV instead of MiniDV. We could’ve used the newest version of FCP rather than the one that we have. The latest Magic Bullet filters would’ve given the thing more of a filmic look, perhaps even more atmosphere. All of the above is perhaps true, but just as equally untrue. Your movie is a complex series of choices. Still at its’ core all that matters is the script, the actors and the way you move the camera. Beyond that, technology is just a necessary evil. Keep that in mind when people make technological criticisms of you or your work.

Above is Michelle Ryan - the latest BIONIC WOMAN - proving that technology might not always be unfriendly. Below is a much more interesting vision of the future, though…

While the tabloids are buzzing about Pam Anderson and Denise Richards posing nude together for Playboy, I am nearing the end of my latest rewrite and it is becoming a hard slog. Not least because I have re-written dialogue where perhaps shifting around beats was more important. But that is sometimes just the nature of doing rewrites. You work and you work just to reach that final moment of clarity. The clarity was there all along, though. All you had to do to find it was to remove extraneous dialogue. That is what I am doing, right now, and I’ve probably got 48 hours of it ahead of me. Still, I realize that momentum is the key - almost like running a marathon. If you can keep the energy up in those last few miles, all the other twenty-something will have been worth it. So that’s what i’m telling you today - in this paragraph-less stream of conscious post. I’m just trying to keep that energy in top gear, because I know it will take me over the edge into a place where I need it to be. In the end, when good sense and logic have failed - momentum is all that you will have. Remember that. When you are in the home straight - keep the momentum up. For that exact purpose I keep listening to JOY DIVISION performing SHE’S LOST CONTROL.

Here is Anton Corbijn discussing the movie of the same name…

Even though everybody keeps on saying that the current popularity of horror movies is on the wane - it might still be a genre to consider for your next indie project, as either writer or director. Last week, while engaging with several industry folks, they all seemed to be asking me “did I have a low-budget horror script for them?” On reflection, lots of people I know remain heavily involved in the genre and are making new monster or slasher pics.

John Gulager of Project Greenlight fame has just started prep on FEAST TWO and THREE in Shreveport, Louisiana. A friend who formerly worked at Franchise is rumored to be putting together a series of horror flicks under the banner Marylin Manson Presents and let’s not forget Rob Zombie’s rather successful remake of Halloween which made bank at the box office, earlier this month. Even in IFC’s rather tawdry THE BUSINESS - the gang win an Independent Spirit Award for their picture called HOUSE OF FEAR.

Remember, like comedy, as long as your horror project creates a visceral response - there are no real rules to it. You don’t actually need much cash or even production value, just something off-beat that is loaded with chills and thrills. I am waiting for somebody to create a Mumblecore horror movie. Yes - a very ‘New Yorky’ and naturalistic look at either murder, madness or mayhem. The new HDV cameras like the Canon XH-A1 or the Sony HVR-V1U are also perfect for low light and close quarter shooting - not a bad option for the fledgeling thrill-meister.

Meanwhile - while you chew on what horror indie to write or direct, you might check out San Francisco’s SHOCK IT TO ME CLASSIC HORROR FESTIVAL which runs at the Castro Theater October 5th thru 7th. Live guests include the legendary JOE DANTE.

Even though it’s off topic, I wanted to treat you to a clip from Matt Mahurin’s terrific New York documentary about a diner/restaurant called I LIKE KILLING FLIES… I managed to catch this doc on The Sundance Channel last night. It’s a must see…

Writing a script or casting or getting your picture off the ground is hard. It will take time and dedication. It is a process. For every overnight success story you might read about people writing a movie in a weekend, or shooting it in twelve days, or getting finance in an afternoon - there are thousands of others who spend months and years and decades doing THIS to finally get that break or their moment in the spotlight. The latter are the unsung ranks of filmmakers, writers and actors who toil in anonymity - dotting the ‘i’s’ and crossing the ‘t’s’ and hoping that this will ALL work out for them in the end.

You and I are those people - the unsung ranks. And on some days, like today, you will wonder what the point is… Well, never fear, because hope is at hand. Much the same as any relationship, the relationship that you have with your work needs to be cultivated. It is part of your life. A BIG part, YES. But nevertheless it is only part. So for your relationship with your work to make sense, you need to balance it out with other activities. Commitment to THE BIG PICTURE called life is key…

Imagine the dating metaphor for a minute… Remember that girl (or boy) that you really liked and you started dating? It was great, first off, wasn’t it? You were excited by those dinners and going to a movie on friday night. But imagine if you did that date every night and it was the same date. After a while you might even find yourself ignoring family and friends and sunshine and rain just to do that friday-night-date 24-7. Yes - I know it’s addictive. Still, the outcome would be obvious - wouldn’t it? Family and friends would stop talking to you and get angry. You’d lose any connection you had with the real world. And as for the date… it would be boring and awful and meaningless - then only a matter of time before you and your dating partner were through… Well - the date is your work and career - and this is what happens to people when they focus too much on their work or putting their movie together. It has happened to me and it can happen to you. Still, as long as you recognize it, YOU CAN and YOU WILL fix it. Remember - you are a human being first and a director or writer or actor - second. To be successful creatively you must be a successful human being first…

I’m not a huge fan of self-help theories - but I think it is sometimes important to listen to advice, especially when it’s good advice. Indirectly, Margie gave me this advice and I’m passing it on to you, in the form of an easy to understand self-help exercise…

Yes - it’s an exercise - but actually quite simple. Focus on your life today - not your work. Take an hour or two off and spend it with somebody important to you. Discuss other things apart from your script or your movie. Take a walk. Go to a museum or park or skating rink. Reconnect with yourself and the world. Do it now - today - before it’s too late. I promise it will improve your quality of life and in turn improve whatever you are working on. You need to regain your energy and enthusiasm. You need to de-focus on what your working towards in order for it to become clear again…

Now go out and do it. Yes - right now - this minute, or you might end up like Jeff Garlin in I WANT SOMEONE TO EAT CHEESE WITH… I like Sarah Silverman - but I’m not even sure if this is funny… As for the pic of Milla Jovovitch up top - well she is number ONE at the box office…

The collaborative nature of filmmaking, especially indie filmmaking, means that networking is an important task and skill. Over the years , if not already, you will have met a great many friends and colleagues in and around the business. These folks might not be huge players, but as a group they quite possibly can take you where you need to go. Remember - this is largely a people business and as the saying goes: ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’

Try to attend industry functions and festivals, if and when you can. Give out cards. Talk to people. You don’t have to SELL anybody - just make them aware of what you’re doing. Their skills and connections might come in handy further down the line. And don’t forget - it’s a two way street - you might be able to help them as much as they can help you.

The same kind of networking can obviously be done on the likes of Myspace and Facebook. I have found Facebook to be very popular with my contemporaries, spanning London, New York and Los Angeles.

I’m not saying you need to go out and ‘hustle’ people in either the real or virtual world. What I am saying is, be genuine and you might well meet or find people who can and will help you.

Despite being rudimentary, to say the least - I thought this social networking video was quite interesting…

Despite the fact Britney faces random drug and alcohol testing, the real lesson today is about screenwriting - and it’s a very personal lesson.

I suppose that the biggest mistake I have been making over the last few months (in doing rewrites) is to think that dialogue is more important than structure. In truth it is ALWAYS, absolutely ALWAYS the other way around. It’s an easy trap to fall into, though - to concentrate on scenes and think by re-working them that the script as a whole will improve. Well, yes - in parts it might - but as a whole the effect will be negligible. The most important thing to remember is that screenwriting is a formula. It follows a three act structure and needs the relevant emotional peaks and troughs to hold an audiences attention. If you haven’t read THE SCREENWRITER’S MASTER CHART - study it carefully and remind yourself that no matter how unique your story, as a screenplay it will have to follow certain immutable rules. Whenever you can - focus on structure. Only when the structure is perfect will changing dialogue add the boost that you need.

Now repeat the mantra - screenwriting is a craft - it is a formula - and it is my job to write that formula flawlessly.

Below is a video of SOUL COUGHING’s ’screenwriter blues.’ It always makes me smile and realize that this business SHOULD BE FUN!

Yesterday I featured the recent Sundance hit RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR - so it seemed inappropriate to miss THE SIGNAL which was also a Park City fave and will be in theaters shortly.

With similarities to Steven King’s CELL and reminiscent of early Tobe Hooper - THE SIGNAL draws on modern digital techniques and mostly unknown actors to create a powerful sense of disconnection and terror.

“It’s New Year’s Eve in the city of Terminus and chaos is this year’s resolution. All forms of communication have been jammed by an enigmatic transmission that preys on fear and desire driving everyone in the city to murder and madness. In a place once marked by conformity but now sent into complete anarchy, the rebellious Ben must save the woman he loves from the bedlam in the streets as well as her crazed sadistic husband. But the only way he can tell who to trust or who has given in to violence is by uncovering the true nature of The Signal…”

Click here for THE SIGNAL trailer…

Meanwhile - Jodie Foster (pictured above) is still Number 1 at the box office with THE BRAVE ONE

I had recently seen the trailer for RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR on apple trailers, then several days later my brother, Bernard, sent me a DVD of the movie, which had been previously released last year in the U.K.

R-A-Y-D stars RORY COCHRANE and MARY McCORMACK (pictured above from the Broadway revival of Cabaret). It marks the directorial debut of Chris Gorak - an Art Director and Production Designer who had worked on big studio pictures like Minority Report and Fight Club. I have included R-A-Y-D because it is a perfect illustration of a small, contained digital indie with a genuine sense of suspense and terrific use of limited location…

Although it’s totally off-topic - below is Britney Spears from her recent VMA comeback performance. This is perhaps a terrific illustration of how not to engage an audience…

So you have finished another draft of your screenplay and you have received notes from your collaborators. This is where the real work begins. This is what separates the real writers from the rank amateurs. The re-writing process is grueling. It will takes weeks and sometimes months. You will change one scene which means you will have to change five others. You will agonize over one piece of dialogue, but realize that it doesn’t work because of the proceeding story ‘beat’ not because of the line itself.

In the following few days, I am going to try a new system myself. I am still in the process of formulating it - but sufficed to say this ’system’ is basically a series of key refinements that you might try deploying in 72 hours.

The ‘Second Chance System’ as I’m calling it, is a way to give a flawed script a second chance and hopefully take it from ‘zero to hero’ over a weekend. Simply put - if you start on Friday, by Monday afternoon you will have a new working draft.

The S-C-S is a three step process. You should stick to it closely and the more brutal you are on your text - the better it should work. I say SHOULD - because, as I described earlier, this system is still in its’ beta-test phase. If it works out well, I’m sure that I’ll be basing an entire book on it. Yeah - right. Only joking. Anyway, on to the system itself.

STEP ONE - MAKE SURE THE STRUCTURE IS SOUND
Do your opening scene and end of act turning points work? By this I mean, do your opening scenes set the tone and texture of the movie? Do they make sense? Do they fit? Do we know what kind of movie this is. Sounds silly, I know - but if this is a comedy - make sure that the opening is funny. If it’s a thriller - have us be thrilled as we read. Have us hanging on the edge of our seats.

To fix the opening scenes(if they’re not working) I suggest that you simplify. Take the beat, the style, the flavor and CUT IT DOWN. You probably have a great, smart ‘bit of business’ in there and the way to fix or find it is to REMOVE all extraneous stuff. Don’t have cluttered prose. Have simplicity. Have white space.

The same is true for your end of act turning points and your ride to the climax. Think of these beats on an emotional level. Do they make people feel? That’s the question to ask. Are we feeling the difficulty that the characters are in? Are we rooting for them? Do these beats have any emotional resonance? Again to find that resonance WE MUST SIMPLIFY. What is an image or a ‘bit of business’ that will end the act most powerfully and have us desperate to find out what happens next. Well, you probably have it. It’s probably there - just obscured by too much dialogue or description. Find the power of those turning points and present them as simply and viscerally as you can. Be genuine and honest - and at that point when you connect with the text emotionally - it’s fixed. It’s working. So, move onto step two…

STEP TWO - LOSE BEATS THAT DON’T WORK (AND COMBINE OTHERS THAT ARE TOO LONG)…
When you have spent a day on fixing your structure you are ready to spend a day on the beats of your story. This part is where you have to be perhaps most brutal. In your script, there will be fun beats that don’t quite work. Usually these beats don’t work because they’re meandering or not making the story progress. Don’t try to fix these extraneous beats - simply remove them. Yes. Hit delete. Make them go away. The same is true of beats that take three scenes. Can you combine these three scenes to communicate one beat - Yes! Of course you can. So put the three scenes into one scene in the most economic way you can. As you begin to remove beats and streamline others - something miraculous will happen. The story will take on underlying resonance that you didn’t see before. The cluttered scenes now fly by. It reads much faster. Much punchier. When you have removed ALL extraneous beats that slow the flow (or make it harder to read) - move onto step three… You’ll know this point. It’ll be late at night on day two. You’ll scroll through a much shorter, tighter script and you’ll start see where dialogue cues don’t work.

STEP THREE - MAKE YOUR DIALOGUE SPARKLE…
All well written scripts look rather similar. There are short descriptive passages that separate fast, percussive dialogue. There’s lots of white space, so your eye is drawn to the middle of the page and the dialogue. This is what you want to do on day three. It has two purposes. The first is fairly obvious and it’s in the title of this step. ‘Make your dialogue sparkle.’ How do we do that? We refine and we simplify - yes - but we work it like it’s Jazz. What I mean by this, is we make the dialogue a riff on the action and the beats. The dialogue is your off-beat. It’s purposes is to inform the action - NOT TO DESCRIBE IT. To fix dialogue in a scene, I suggest that you remove the first two lines and the last two lines. What does that mean? Well, you start after the characters have entered the room and you finish before they leave. It makes a dialogue scene seem more immediate and in some cases more jarring. That’s jarring in a good way. By removing openings and endings you shorten scenes, make them play faster AND GET TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. In the end, dialogue is all about heart and emotion. It can be as simple as the phrase: ‘Oh my God’ when a character sees something marvelous or something horrific. It can be as complex as Hamlet’s soliloquy. But regardless of which - NEVER use THREE lines when ONE will do. Brevity and economy should be your watchwords here. Now polish that dialogue. Make it crisp. Make it shine. And make it look clean.

Yes - looking clean is the last part of the S-C-S. How the script looks is almost as important as how it reads. Go for white space where-ever you can. Remove all the ‘continueds’ and ‘cut tos’ unless they are absolutely necessary. Now proof read and spell check. And in 72 hours - you should have a new workable draft. Work fast. Respond emotionally. And if you get stuck, just make a note and come back to that sticking point when you have reached the end of that particular pass. In this process momentum and honesty is everything.

I’m short on links today, but the Great World Of Sound trailer is certainly worth checking out.

As my producer friend, Karl Hunter is winging his way to Ocho Rios, to begin setting-up offices for I-FORCE FILMS in Jamaica - I thought today’s post could revolve around a discussion of Nollywood - Nigeria’s own brand of Hollywood or even the currently popular Bollywood. Karl came across the Nollywood phenomena during his travels in Africa. It was interesting to us both how digital technology had been adopted there to create a mass of small, local movies. These small, local movies are available in shops and from street-vendors all across Nigeria as DVDs and VCDs. An average movie will sell 50,000 copies. A popular movie may sell as many as 200,000 units. So at 250 Niara (that’s $2) a piece - producers have the possibility of ample profit - time and time again.

In thirteen years, Nollywood has grown from a tiny cottage industry to a multi-million dollar business, employing thousands of people. Nollywood features are, in some cases, issue based meledromas. They tackle topics such as AIDS, corruption, womens rights and the daily difficulties of life in Africa. They are simplistic in terms of production values and often have the texture of telenovelas - however, this hasn’t impacted their mass appeal or profitability. Different regions produce movies in local languages, such as Hausa in the north of Nigeria and Yoruba in the southeast. English language productions are also popular.

We can learn lessons from Nollywood. Here are my five Nollywood top tips…

1) ISSUE BASED MOVIES WILL ALWAYS FIND AN AUDIENCE.
You should write stories with resonance for yourself and your peers.

2) NON ACTORS CAN WORK IN DRAMA, AS LONG AS THEY REMAIN AUTHENTIC.
So - yes - you can cast your friends. But if you need to cast a grandfather - cast a real grandfather, perhaps even your own.

3) EXPLOIT THE TECHNOLOGY TO YOUR BEST ADVANTAGE.
As filmmakers, we always want the latest and greatest toys. Do we need them? No! This is a myth sold to us by manufacturers. You can still make TODAY’s movie with YESTERDAY’s incarnation of digital.

4) YOU CAN TRIUMPH REGARDLESS OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS.
Making movies in Nigeria is hard. Much harder than making movies in San Diego or South Philly. Where ever you are, regardless of surroundings, you can be a filmmaker and a successful one at that. All you have to do is apply yourself, work hard and believe it. Yes! Believe it.

5) SELF DISTRIBUTION WORKS IF YOU’RE SMART.
We all have delusions of theatrical releases and festival success. That’s great, but not always practical. However, making DVDs is cheap. Find a way to promote your movie on-line and in local stores. Try to move product and create a buzz. Okay, you might not sell 50,000 copies - but maybe, just maybe you can sell 5,000 DVDs for $5 a piece, over one year. That’s $25k - and if you made your picture for $10k, percentage-wise you’re doing much better than most of Hollywood.

Here are some NOLLYWOOD clips to get you thinking…

For the latest Nollywood releases, visit IZOGN MOVIES