KGB Productions

So what do I want to do? I mean isn’t that the fundamental question that we all ask? I mean really is this a hobby or something I want to pursue in a more professional venue? I’ve asked those questions countless times in my life, and I’ve come away with many different answers to them depending on when I asked them. Before making my film it was all I wanted to do, and then during the making of the film I asked why am I doing this, and then when the film was completed and all the war stories were behind me I suddenly realized I wanted nothing more then to do it again. Talk about schizophrenic behavior there seems to be no emotion that you don’t go through when you're making a film. All those doubts get magnified, and you wonder why do you go through this self-abuse. Could I not be happy with sitting back and watching others tell their story. The simple answer is no; the film bug long ago infected me and the addiction I talk about only grows stronger throughout the years. I can chal...

I was going to write about the process of filmmaking, and how hard it is to get motivated and make a good film, or at least a film that YOUR proud of. But I'll save that for another day. I've been reading up on Kevin Smith, and all the shenanigans that go into marketing a movie. I thought some of this would be of interest to some of you. I'm still a fan of Smith's, but when I hear things like this it only makes me think, and wonder. Follow the links and you decide. In Jim Emerson's blog he goes on to describe on how Mr. Smith watches his reviews, and fights his critics In Movie City News Mr. Smith is interviewed, and it's a frank conversation about his film. At the IFC blog there is a article called: " The art of storming art ", which covers the controversy of critic Joel Siegel storming out very publicly from a screening of " Clerks II ". It's all about the marketing of the film I guess. They say there's no good or bad publicity...

Okay so I said I wasn’t going to review films here because there are a lot better sites that do it, BUT since I’m a fan, and I do have admiration for Kevin Smith I’m going to. I can’t help it I like the guy. “ Clerks II ” is a funny film, and if you’re a fan of the first you’ll like this flick. I know Mr. Smith would like you to believe he’s an acerbic young punk who has a potty like mouth, and that he’s just a plain old sarcastic young man, but I beg to differ. After seeing “ Clerks II ” I believe Smith is a powder puff deep inside. Sure the dialogue is fresh, and full of funny pop culture type jokes, but in the end Smith goes for the schmaltz, and weirdly enough it works here. Smith even gets to say “something” here without hitting the viewer upside the head with his message. Why does “ Clerks ” work? Because you love the characters. Maybe you see someone you know in them, or maybe it’s even yourself. Their anti-authoritarian attitude, and their I don’t give a crap attitude is what e...

A couple writings back I wrote that if you thought getting your first feature off the ground is hard try your second. Of all the things I've learned you would think that maybe I wouldn't want to begin another project, but I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. When I finally finished "Deadly Obsessions" I thought okay it's done. For years I've wanted to do my own feature and it drove me, but it wasn't the idea of making a movie that I obsessed on. No it was of being a filmmaker. The landscape has changed in the coming years, and it's gotten easier for someone to pick up a camera and think of shooting his or her own film. Digital video has leveled the playing field, and there are now tools available for everyone to use for the creation of their feature. I always wonder what Cassavetes would have thought of DV. His filmmaking was raw, and visceral. Cassavetes knew the technical side of filmmaking, and he didn't care. He broke all the rules, an...

The shoot went all in all pretty well. What wasn’t expected was our neighbors giving me grief for shooting. I had gotten permission from my landlady about filming, but next door, and across the street the neighbors seemed upset. Now I didn’t need to get permission from these people, but it may have been a good idea to tell people about the movie. I broke no laws, and was well in my rights, but maybe telling others what was going to happen would have probably saved me a lot of grief. It’s just that one neighbor was a retired police officer, and the other was a city court judge. Both seemed to try and use their connections to shut us down, and yet not everyone was against us. Others were interested in what I was doing, but like the old saying goes it only takes a few bad apples to ruin everything. I even got a call from the film office . They wondered what I was doing, and I told them in essence that you guys knew exactly what I was doing because I went through their office as well as t...

The next step I needed to do after setting up the company and casting the parts for the movie was to set a date to start filming. At first the start date was in July, but after talking with the actors and crew August was a more realistic date. August 5th was the start date. On August 1st I checked the hotel reservation for cast and crew. Now of course had I an assistant that would have been great, but my assistant had a family emergency, and I was down a person, so that meant more work for me. I enlisted my wife for some of the grunt work, but I had to involve myself in readying the accommodations for cast & crew. Not only did my wife do some extra running around but she also acquired food for snacks and lunches for the first two days. All this while still going to her day job. Now as you can see I would have saved some money had I hired actors within the Philadelphia area , but remember this all started with an ad in Backstage . I received a majority of the actor’s headshots from ...