KGB Productions

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...