KGB Productions

I've been lamenting about movies not being good anymore, and that everything is so corporate, but I would be remiss if I did not say that there are filmmakers and films out there that truly are works of art, and which are highly entertaining. Films such as the one pictured above. It is from a scene in " The Memory of a Killer " by director Erik Van Loovy. The above shot is of the actor Jan Decleir. The film is from Belgium, and it is an extrodinary piece of cinema. It should be put on every cinefile's list to go see. Other films such as "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" starring Julianne Moore, and Woody Harrelson is another film that is fabulous. Directed by Jane Anderson the film follows a women who is extra-ordinary. Then there is the movie "Separate Lies" , starring Tom Wilkinson, and Emily Watson. This film is truly a bright gem. It is the directorial debut of Julian Fellowes who creates a strong story driven by interesting characters. Ju...

So I've just read up on Panasonic's new camcorder which is releasing this month sometime. The AG-HVX 200 records on tape, but also on P2 disks, which give you 18 minutes worth of HD footage. So in essence you can now download all your footage to a HD array, and then plug that in after your shoot, and start editing on your NL editor. Digitizing becomes a distant memory, and now companies will expect you to have their projects done instantly. With every great advance there will be headaches, and a lot of them won't be technical. The price tag is steep, and one P2 4 gig disk is about $1,200, so this isn't cheap. Slowly the future reveals itself. Check out HD for Indies for more info on the camera and the street date. As the industry gets closer and closer to HD, and it becomes the norm it will be interesting how it does against actual film. Remember compression is DV's Achilles heal. With HD things get closer and closer to the film world. Such things as latitude &...

I got my first review in for "Deadly Obsessions", and it isn't great, but I agree with a certain part of it, but still I'm proud of the film. After all most people who've seen the film seem to like it, and are interested in it. I've gotten some nice comments, and for that I am eternally grateful, but having lived with the film for so long I see more of it's flaws then anyone else. And you know what that makes me want to do? Do it AGIAN! You always learn something new and different on every film you do, and I want to jump on the next one, and apply those things that I learned. Everyone is a critic, and you have to have some pretty thick skin to go into any of the arts, but I still want to do more work. I have stories to flesh out, and characters to create. My problem is that I like doing films that I can realistically create. I'm no special effects techie who can have spaceships flying around galaxies, and I'm in no position to create a period piec...

Technology is moving faster and faster these days and new ways of distributing films are coming into existence each and everyday. So with more households having broadband capability the way a filmmaker distributes his or her film is beginning to change. The digital arena changed when films could be digitized, and placed on the web. I see more and more companies that want content, and like the VCR market of long ago there is a hunger for all types of films. What one market can so selectively target your movie to the it's target audience then the internet. Enjoy horror movies, go google it, or maybe you like romance, try Amazon.com You'll find a number of films that may interest you, and most all come with previews. That way you can see if the film is to your liking or maybe isn't. So why hasn't this revolutionized the industry? It's all about technology, and on what different platform will manufacturers decide on. Right now HD (high definition) is the catch phrase, b...

So I usually am a skeptic, but I do have to say that the digital realm excites me. Not only as a filmaker, but also a movie lover. It's no secret that I'm not your typical movie goer. I like films with a more personal slant. Sure I love the blockbuster films that Hollywood makes, but there are also a number of films out there who were made by people who really care, and who really love cinema also. But the unfortunate thing is that most avenues in mainstream distribution are closed to a lot of us. Maybe it's a film with no stars, or it doesn't have the proverbial chase scene that is seems to be a requirement for most mainstream films now-a-days. So your film doesn't get into festivals or doesn't get that distribution deal because of one thing or the other, so what's a person to do? Well with alternative distribution markets opening up each day, and broadband becoming more and more entrenched into homes a new avenue of choices opens up for the filmm...

I just came across an article in the NY Times entitled "Join the revolution. Make movies. Go Broke". It's written by Charles Lyons, and it uses two examples on how some young filmmakers are making their film, yet not breaking through. I've always said that for every success story there are a hundred unsuccessful stories about making films. It is interesting what these filmmakers are doing to attract an audience. Several have gone through the festival route, but both have yet to pick up distribution. This only confirms my belief in the narrowing of the markets for select films. Horror movies, romance films, sci-fi films, and even fantasy films all have a special niche audience, and though their are markets to sell your product to those who are interested the competition for that audience is fierce. Make no mistake you have a BETTER chance of selling your movie to an audience that will appreciate your film, but it is getting harder and harder to attract that interest wi...

So after going back and looking what I've written I can see where confusion can set in. Is he a traditionalists or is he another DV filmmaker, and all I can say is that what ever works. I have shot a lot of film through the years, and I do love the quality, and the texture film has, but with that said I have to say that if you can only get your hands on DV equipment then you might as well use it. I've come across people that cannot overcome the technology. Should I shoot with this camera, or should I shoot with that camera. The excuses are numerous, and the time you consume is your own. If you can't go one way, go the other way. I'm not a fan of DV because of it's small size, and it abysmal compression problem. But with anything this will be overcome someday and then they'll be another set of obstacles that you need to address. Remember it's the story that is important, and how you convey that story. A lot of problems I see in DV features are...

So as I do more and more research into the digital realm I'm thinking HD is posed to explode. Already companies such as Sony and JVC are getting into the act and putting out HD camcorders for consumers. Not long ago one would never think about making movies on a prosumer type camera, but it's being done, and with some good results. Most all non-linear editors now are beginning to support HD, and with more and more HD cameras out there more films are going to be shot in HD. The image is superb, and you can't beat the quality for the price. So I'm sure there will be a flood of product in the near future touting HD quality. A lot of films will be awful, while some will break new ground. I'm currently writing a project to be done digitally. Something quick, & fast, which I can finish digitally. HD is holding my interest, but I need to do some more tests, and coming from a film background helps. I know how to light a scene, yet doing it in HD is somewhat different, b...

So here I am struggling to get my film noticed, and at the same time trying to write some new material. If you think making your first feature is hard try making your second. There is no shortages of ideas just shortages of capital. I want to be realistic about getting another film done, but after finishing your first feature you're a little more jaded and a lot more realistic. The scars from doing battle are all too real and you have the bumps & bruises to prove it. The honeymoon is over, and you now see filmmaking in a new light. No glory, no movie stars, and no wild parties. It's all an illusion, and making a film is one of the hardest things you can do. Even after making your film your battle is not over because then it comes time to sell it. And when it comes to selling you're film you'll find yourself swimming with a lot of sharks. It's a buyers market out there, and there is a lot of product out there. A lot of it is bad, but make no mistake there is also...

Style. What is it? All artists struggle with their style. What is it?, and how is it unique from all other artists work. I guess that's where I'm at now. Working on different projects and trying to find MY style. It isn't easy figuring what to say least how to say it, so there are a lot of starts and stops. It's simple though. I adore film or as some call it "the cinema". There is a lot of crap out there, and trying not to contribute to that crap can be a angst type of proposition. So you write, and photograph, and write some more, and photograph some more, and see where that takes you. Like I said before filmmaking is a collaborative art, so there are many cooks who stir the stew. Sometimes this isn't such a good idea, and at other times it is a brilliant idea. I'm somewhere in the middle. Good writing sells itself, but so does good acting, and with acting one needs to have certain freedoms, and not be too constrained by the script.Of ...

The above picture is one of the cameras I have in my arsenal. The other is a Arri BL, and I love both of these cameras. The above camera, which is called an Eclair NPR has been used in many productions in the past. Many an independent film has shot with the NPR because of it's portability, and it's relative quiet running. Of course both these cameras are older models, and now there are Arri SR's and Anton's which are quieter, but a lot more expensive. It's a no brainer to shoot film if you have the budget, but more and more the world is going digital, and if your final output is to DVD then you might as well shoot digital, and put the extra money you save into paying your actors or better food on the set. Trust me it will be money well spent. I have a affinity for film. I like the latitude film gives, and even if I go the DVD route I know the film will look great. Maybe it's the cinematographer in me. I've gotten GREAT images in the past with film, and Kodak...

Sarah Jacobson was one cool lady. She wrote & directed as well as edited, and produced along with her mother the film "Mary Jane isn't a Virgin Anymore". I had a chance to see the film here in Philly, but was disappointed when she didn't show up to the screening. You see Sarah was a one women tour`de force. She took her film to colleges, and small art theaters around the US and even in parts of Europe. She was exhausted, and could not come, but it mattered not, because I was thoroughly impressed at what Ms Jacobson had done for a mere 12K. Sarah was the original punk Do it your-selfer. She and her mom did their own advertising through the web, and by putting up posters for her screening. She sold a short film on video called "I was a teenager serial killer" at her screenings as well as T-shirts. Ms Jacobson eventually got a job at the Oxygen Network, and was a producer there before her illness took her. I've read almost every article I could get my h...

The above is a saying my screenwriting teacher used to tell us, and she was SO right. Any idea starts in your head, and then gets written down. That journey from your head to the paper and finally onto the screen can be a long and cumbersome journey. Richard Rush took 10 years to get the movie "The Stuntman" made, and he suffered a heart attack in the interim. So though there is a lot of product out there in the market place. There is also a lot of junk too. Good writing is where it starts, and don't let anyone say any different. So I'm in the process of writing several things, and seeing which one pans out. I even have several ideas for shorts, but I'm a little put off in doing a short because there isn't really a big market out there for shorts, and if you're going to put in a lot of effort into a project it might as well be something you can market like a feature. The writing process can be one of frustration, and sheer isolation. It's you...

So what to do now. I've completed a feature, and I've done several shorts. Now what? For a long time I've been looking for people who are in the same situation as me. People who had an overwhelming love for the cinema, but who also hold a firm grasp in reality. What do I mean by that you ask. The media is full of stories of people bucking the odds and getting their film made, but over the years I've met others who have danced the dance, and have been less successful. Mostly money, time, or both conspire against one and after all the film industry is a strange mistress. It will love you one minute and forget about you the next. For MYSELF I've been interested in film since I was a young teen, and it has given me much happiness as well as heartbreak. You do what you have to do, and with the tools you have. It's that simple. Glory, fame, money are all nice, but it's not what drives the engine. What drives the engine is the desire to create somethin...

Okay it's no secret that I'm a huge admirer of Roger Corman. I believe he has kind of sort of retired now, but at 80 he is still the man to beat when it comes to his track record of movie production. Corman directed early on his career, and his films include "The House of Usher" "Little Shop of Horrors", and "The Raven". These are just three films that he directed & produced. In the late 60's and early 70's Corman created his own studio that feed the drive-in circuits, and eventually the video market, which was to come later. Corman brags that he never lost a dime on any of his pictures and the reason he didn't is that he is a good businessman. Yes folks after all it is called show "business". He's done many interviews and has been honored at a number of festivals, and it is only now that I truly understand what Corman did. He has said in recent interviews that the number of films available to distributors has increase...

Okay so he may have never left, but tomorrow his film opens "History of Violence", and the word is that it's really good. Hype or truth you'll just have to see it to find out, but Cronenberg has been a big influence in my development as a filmmaker. His films are visceral, and yet they have a point to them. In my teenage years I saw his films such as "Rabid", "The Brood", and "Scanners" and ate it all up. To put it mildly Cronenberg was not for the timid. I remember when a magazine called "Cinefantastic" came out and he was on the cover. I ate up the article and read and re-read the article inside promoting his film Scanners. It was there that I saw a picture of a young Cronenberg filming something with an actor in a bath tub. "From the Drain" was one of Cronenberg's earliest films when he was a student, but I became fascinated with the idea of going to school for filmmaking. I eventually did, and Cronenberg was on...

So I've been scrambling to get my film distributed and seen.  I've decided to distribute it myself through FilmBaby .  I recently had the film put onto DVD by Discmakers .  I have no other recourse and I'm so done with the film festival route.  Now this may sound like a sour grapes, but the festival route is loaded with favoritism, and is just plain corrupt.  I could go on about this but even if your a local filmmaker it's hard to getyour film into a film festival that just happens to be happening in your own backyard.  It's all about the glitter, and glamour of moviemaking.  (Yeah right!)  It's about what stars can I impress or conjoul to appear at my festival.  Such things as giving awards out does the trick, or maybe just plain bribery.  I mean when a star has a film coming out, and their willing to come to a festival to sneak peak it to the public why the fuck not.  Even if the film is a piece of crap I still have the ...

I've just read an article in this months photography that explains about video disks, and the filming on small portable hard disks. A lot of productions do this already as a time saver since most production house edit on non-linear editing decks. The tape is used usually as a back-up in case there is a problem with the hard disk. With the coming of blu-tooth technology more and more video can now be transposed onto a hard disk, or several disks. In the article the author re-examines the various different disk technologies around the world. For instance I had no idea that China is a big market for video CD technology. It seems that 75 million players were sold in China alone, and so there is a significant market out there that plays it's movies on this technology. Most of the world has converted to the DVD standard, but there still remains a lot of different technologies out there that consumers posses. Several weeks ago I heard Kodak was laying off over 900 workers from...

So no sooner do I write something about DV and it's usefulness when suddenly the magazine Moviemaker has several articles about "Budget-lite" movies & "the teen film revolution. As I've said previously in this meandering blog about filmmaking I started to make films when I was in my early teens, and that was back in the good old days of Super-8. Now with DV more & more young filmmakers are sprouting up. All you need is a digital camera, a firewire board, and a computer. Now instead of splicing tape, and looking through actual film one can create a movie just like the pros & some would even say better then the pros. The youth of today is bombarded by every type of media there is. Computer, cable, TV, radio, & print all covert the 16 to 24 year old demographic. It was only inevitable that this generation as well as it's younger brethren would begin to make their own media. That's where I find the idea of DV liberating, and fulfilling. With...

So with the production of the DVD my mind races to other projects. DV is the tool to do just that. Digital video is a medium with instant gratification, and multiple possibilities. If you don't like a cut or a scene you just delete and start fresh, or maybe by sliding around your video & audio clips you come up with something more interesting, and it's all a mouse click away. Just drag and drop, copy & paste and you may just find out a unique way in getting your point across. "Deadly Obsessions" was to prove to me and others that a feature is capable without the extravagance of a Hollywood budget. But the possibilities now are too numerous now. Their are people out there who are making movies in their garages, and getting them out to the audiences that want them. Regional filmmaking is becoming more and more, but even more then that is that different markets are emerging who specialize in one or two genres. Sony just came out with an HDV camcorders and though ...

"Deadly Obsessions"  is on it's way to DVD, and will soon be available on the web. 

I've been thinking about what I really want in life, and why do I feel so stagnant. Chalk it up to the lazy days of summer, and having the attitude in saying "WTF". This Friday opens a movie by a favorite filmmaker of mine. His name is Jim Jarmush, and his film is entitled "Broken Flowers". If your unfamiliar with Mr Jamush's films here are a couple that may sound familiar: "Stranger than Paradise", Down By Law", "Mystery Train", and Coffee & Cigarettes". I like Jarmusch's style, and he has such a unique way of looking at the world. He's a filmmaker I'd consider a true filmmaker. I like that he doesn't rehearse his actors but instead talks to them about the character. What do I mean by a true filmmaker? What is that? Doesn't any person who makes a film become a true filmmaker. The simple answer is NO! A true filmmaker has his own unique look and feel, and he doesn't compromise in his or her vision no ...

So I've come to the conclusion that the only way to sell this film is through the web, but first I'd like to get it out there and somewhat noticed. Film festivals seem to be a big bust, and I'm finding out that it's not so much that you have a film to show, but who do you know on the film festival committee. I know this sounds like sour grapes, and maybe in part it is, but if a festival is truly trying to be "indie" friendly then why wouldn't it give a local production or a truly "independent" film a chance to be seen? I'll tell you why, and the reason is that it's all about the prestige and the MONEY. It's no wonder experimental filmmakers can't get any play any more. The festivals seem to all be catering to the Hollywood image of a festival. Stars, celebrity judging, award ceremonies to celebrities are all that matter. The more stars the more prestige, and the more prestige the more money a festival brings in. I've tried ent...

Between writing some new/old material, and getting all the elements together for the DVD of " Deadly Obsessions ". It's been a busy few days. Of course there is also the day job too which keeps me going, which I don't mind, so there is little down time. Being a father of two boys also keeps me busy, but that's all par for the course, and somewhat enjoyable. I say somewhat because it does get a little crazy when both boys start crying, and yours truly feels like Michael Keaton's character in "Mr. Mom". I've been working on a script for some time now, and it's been going through several drafts and several severe plot line changes. They say the key to writing is re-writing, and I would have to agree with them on that. I'm sure there's another re-write in this scripts history, but one that isn't so dramatic. I've nailed down characters, plot lines, and resolution. Now comes the details which will change as I write it, and if I...

Here is an interesting story on how some filmmakers tackled the copyright issues in their film " Mad Hot Ballroom ". The documentary is about young children doing what else ballroom dancing" to several different songs. I've always been frustrated at the copyright issue, and what is fair use and what isn't. Where I work we adhere to "royalty free" copyrighted material for projects, but there have been a number of times where I felt it should have fallen into the "fair use" domain, but once you add lawyers to the mix the field becomes littered with landmines. The article makes an interesting point in saying that maybe the filmmakers were being too cautious, but then again as an indie the film-makers had to protect themselves, and even school districts insulate themselves by enforcing the royalty free music only policy. It's too bad because interesting material gets censored before it's even shot. One more thing the filmmaker of today has...

Okay so I have to comment on Romero's latest flim "Land of the Dead". If anyone would like to hear the master himself NPR has two interviews with Romero. One interview done a year ago, and the other done during the premiere of his latest dead installment. Needless to say that Romero's latest is one which will not disappoint. But now for the bad news, and that is the latest box office places it 5th, and has made a little more then $10 million. It's still early but not good for summer business especially when the remake of "War of the Worlds" is releasing Wednesday. I just hope that Romero gets another shot at doing another film. Romero has been a maverick in filmmaking for sometime, and in an interview he did when "Dawn of the Dead" came out he talked about regional filmmaking, and it was an interesting concept to subscribe to, and now with the internet, and niche film markets opening up more and more you can see Romero was ahead of his time. I ...

Okay so I'm all psyched to see this film. George Romero remains a favorite of mine, and I'm amazed to see that even Romero has a hard time getting films financed, and this from a guy who has a track record. As a teen I was heavily influenced by Romero. Creating all those backyard movies way back when in my youth were fun. It's been about twenty years since the last dead film, and I'm anxious to see the results. My thoughts on Romero can go on and on, so I won't do that here. Needless to say that it's good to see a talented filmmaker get his shot again. The horror genre needs to be resurrected if you pardon the pun.

So I was reading this article on pitching a film to a studio. It seems that a Michael Davis a 44 year old director of straight to video films has gotten a deal at New Line Cinema to direct a film called "Shoot'em Up". In the article it says that studios in Hollywood don't look at people over 40, and usually stick with young talent. Well I think I know why Hollywood has been loosing some of it's audience . It's the age factor. Hollywood is notorious for it's short sidedness, and it's attraction to youth. All one has to do is look under plastic surgeons and one will find a plethora of doctors all located in the Los Angeles area. But I digress, and this is all nothing new, so why the anachromony? Because I don't think it's over for me. Maybe call me a dreamer, or a hopeful romantic, but I in no way feel like I'm done, and that I'm toast. The old battle cry "I have not yet begun to fight" comes to mind, and I like it. Davis di...

Two ideas have gotten hold of me, and both would make excellent films. I have not fleshed out the details, but it is something I'm very interested in. The above picture is from a pulp novel written by the late Jim Thompson . You can put his type of writing under such books as Dashiell Hammett, or Mickey Spillane, but Thompson was a bit more harder edge hence my like for his novels. There have been a number of films over the years that were based on Thompson's work. The Grifters , After Dark My Sweat , and the Getaway are all films that have had some success. Even "the Killer Inside Me" was made into a interesting film, but lately Thompson's presence has been absent in cinema. The rights to his stories are too expensive for this independent producer to ever buy an option on one of his stories, so I've been toying with doing something in that same genre using my own story. What appeals to me in these stories is the grit, and the rawness of the material. So henc...

So after finishing the trailer for the film what's a person to do if funds are low, but ideas are plentiful? The answer is write, write and rewrite. So that's what's happening. In no area in the film-making process is the idea of a story more powerful then in the writing stage. It is here where YOU , and only YOU begin the long film-making process. All things are possible at this stage, and all avenues are open to you. You as the writer are God in your universe, and it is you who manipulate characters, storylines, and plot points. Of course when production begins, and even when you start pre-production things in the story will change due to time, financial constraints, and just pure luck. That's the magic or should I say the reality of film-making. Chaos ensures, but if your good it's a sort of a organized chaos. Yes I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but in film-making little does. For a really funny and yet eye opening account of film-making see the mov...

The past few weeks I've been busy cutting trailers for my film "Deadly Obsessions", and looking into expanding the web site and getting a merchant account so I can start selling the film. I also need to put the film onto DVD, and I've been looking at pricing. In the past day I've finalized the video, and converted it into an MPEG file. Cutting trailers is an art form all to itself. I read interviews with filmmakers who worked for Roger Corman, and in the interview they say that they would cut in a shot of an exploding helicopter if the footage from the film wasn't visual interesting. While cutting my trailer for the film that sentiment reverberated in my head for some time. To put it bluntly there are no rules to editing trailers. Just as long as you get people interested in the film. Well I haven't gone that far and edited in some exploding vehicles, but I hope I have made the film a bit more interesting with the footage I've included. At first I jus...

In an article in Britain's Guardian Jean-Luc Godard was quoted as saying: "It's over, there was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed." Now far be it from me to criticize the great Jean-luc Godard, but I have to disagree with the above statement. To me it sounds like sour grapes. Godard himself mentions in the article that his movies have been unsuccessful in a commercial sense. I happen to disagree on that also but that's another argument for another time. I guess Godard is measuring his success to what Hollyweird produces, and it's success at the box office. I'll agree that the film business is just that a film business, but to say that cinema is over, and that no good can come from it is wrong. There is a lot of cinema out there that works, and gets it's message through. Of course since the results are not measured in the millions, Hollyweird and its brethren are not paying too much attention to theses small ...

I've been in a quandary for a while now. I've completed my first film, and I'm trying to get it into film festivals, but no luck there, so what do I do? I've been itching to do another film, but my resources are stretched thin. I'm also still working on getting my film "Deadly Obsessions" out there and seen. At this point all I want is to see it on a video shelf, but there isn't enough hours in the day for me to concentrate on selling the film, getting another film together, and of course working at my day job. After all I have a family and I like my job, so it's hard being torn in so many directions. I would like to just get a home for the film, and get it out there. I didn't make the film for profit though I was aware of keeping my overhead down so I could do the film for less, and for all intensive purposes I did that, but now I need to sell it. By the summer I'll be able to put the film onto DVD. Come hell or high water that's what ...

After locking the film down I was ready for the mix. I mixed my film at Agnello Films in northern NJ by Tom Agnello. Tom is a cinematographer & editor, and he knows his stuff. Over three days we mixed the film, and it all went well because of Tom. The one problem that Tom found was that some of the footage seemed out of synch. This was attributed to me not coding the film and mag track so that when I began cutting the film I lost synch. When projected it became a bit noticeable, so Tom had to take the time to re-synch some of the footage. We also added some new sound effects that he thought would help. Tom has an extensive collection of sound effects, and it took him no time to cut them in. We edited on a another 6 plate editor, which was similar to a KEM. Tom is one of the few who still edit this way. His basement is his studio, and it works without a hitch. Tom is also familiar with the people at Color Lab down near Washington DC where the film was printed. So if you are going to...

Found this picture the other day, and it is of me dressed as the killer in some Super-8 short I was making at the time. I had been very influenced by films like "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", and a whole slew of low budget horror films to numerous to mention. I was always filming something, and trying to coax people to star in my films. You see the technical was never a problem with me. It was getting the people to work on the films that was hard. Usually they were my friends & family, but a lot of the time I had to do a lot of filling in. I can even remember getting my mom to run the camera for a quick shot of me dressed as the killer, or as a victim. It's ironic that that still is a problem. As you know if you've been reading this blog I do try and pay my actors and crew when I can, but it's hard to do so now even though expenses for DV filmmaking aren't as much as they would be if I was shooting on film. When I went to film school I was excit...

So how did I go about scoring the film with music? Well I enlisted an old time friend by the name of Peter J. Gorritz who lives in LosAngeles California. Peter and I go way back, and we had talked about the score when I was in LA for a visit. The above photo is of me when I did my commentary to Peter for the music. I literally videotaped the film from the flatbed editor, and talked into a microphone as the film was being played on the editor. On one channel I had the films dialogue and on the other channel I had my voice telling Peter what I thought the music should be like, or when it should comes in and out. Basically it was for queuing music in and out of the film. As for the musical style Peter and I had talked about that over the phone and through emails. I recommended several films, and he recommended several composer's style, and in essence that's how the counteract evolved. As Peter scored the film he would send me two discs. One with the music synch to the picture as a...

Okay I've made a film, and done several short films now what? Work that's what. It's rather difficult to balance filmmaking and life in general. Since making a film can tax your resources both in the physical realm as well as the emotional realm it can be difficult to produce a good piece of work. A support mechanism is needed to help people like yourself to create interesting films, but in today's culture that is so hard to do or develop for that matter. I have been a member of a crew and felt worthless, and hated every minute of it, and on the other hand I've been in a work environment where everyone is working for the project because they believe in it, and enjoyed every second of it. These are two extremes, and there seems to be no middle ground. I guess one needs to keep plugging along, and take from each project something they can use later. Filmmaking is a group effort, but in that group are one or two individuals who move the project forward. It is these p...

I started editing as soon as I got my film back from the lab, but before I could get creative I had to first begin the mundane chores of logging shots, and syncing up the footage. This is time consuming, and sometimes can be quite tedious. But it was something that had to be done. I should have also gotten my film and mag track coded after I sync up the footage. Coding is when numbers are printed on your workprint & magnetic track so that after you cut the slate from the picture you can sync up your footage by matching the numbers from the film to the mag track. I didn't and so I sometime had to sync by eye, and later found out in some shots that I was off synch by a frame or two. If this was done in video I be dead, but since I was doing it in film the out of synch footage didn't look that bad. Of course when editing on my Moviola Flatbed editor I oly saw a small image on the view screen. To get a better sense of how in synch you are one should see it projected. You...

As a student in filmmaking I had some contempt for older filmmakers. The a rrogance of youth prevented me from appreciating artists that had come first. It was only in my second year in college that I discovered the French New Wave, and I feel in love. I began devouring all things that covered that period, which also lead me to learning other American directors such as Ford, Hawks, and Chaplin. The history of cinema is not that old, but yet all that we do toady is based on things that other filmmakers did. Such filmmakers as Keaton, Chaplin, Eisenstein, and Griffith were pioneers in filmmaking. They discovered the language of the cinema. What is this language of cinema you ask? Well like any other subject filmmaking has rules that seem to have been grounded in the narrative. The way we tell a story can be done in several ways, and in the cinema different shots, and angles can be used to convey a different emotions. The early filmmakers found out this by trial and error. After all Ediso...

So what was the budget? How much did this all cost. The answer which every producer should give should be an honest one, and that answer is "under a million". I can even say that it was well under 100k. Are you interested now? The biggest expense was filmstock which ran me around 3 to 4K, and then processing and sound transfer to a magnetic track, which ran an additional 7k. After that I was my own editor, and the expenses dropped. Food, transportation, and housing also ate a lot of my budget. I could have easily halved the budget for the last three items if I one, hired local actors, two gotten catering from fast food places, and three didn't supply any transportation for actors. Some actors had commitments like auditions to go to, so a car was provided. Three actors shared one car. It did work out, and the actors were all satisfied and relaxed. They did not feel like cattle, and it showed, so supplying transportation to the actors was a good thing. I used the rental age...