Monday, November 21, 2005

The Right Place At The Wrong Time

Leah Leach has an entry in her blog about her early attempts to make it in Hollywood.



At the fresh young age of 18 I packed what ever I could into my little Chrysler Neon and headed from the Midwest to California to become the next Quentin Tarantino. I had one really bad script but most importantly I had passion.



Her story is a common Hollywood tale. Lots of people follow that path and end up with nothing to show for it but a drug habit and self-destructive behavior. Luckily it sounds like Leah walked away with richer wisdom and her head squarely on her shoulders. She even still pursues her artistic habits, but now she does so in a smart way.



I found that timing wasn't everything.  Preparation was.  I wasn't ready to be in Hollywood. I didn't have a clear definition of who I was and what I wanted to put out into the world. I had passion but I didn't have vision. The vision came when I was ready.


Read the full posting here.



There are piles of success stories that involve someone who was in the right place at the right time and got a lucky break. What people tend to ignore is the time the "lucky" person spent perfecting their talent for years before they were in the right place at the right time.


As for the "it's all who you know" theory, I think we are all closer to the people we need to know than we realize. You already know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows the person who could give you your break. One big mistake people make, though, is to try to hit the big time when their skill level is still small time. That ends up closing doors that might have been open if you had truly been ready to walk through them.


Here is my prescription:


  • Put in the work first.
  • Pay your dues.
  • Hone your craft.
  • Hold yourself to a high standard and continually raise the bar on yourself.
  • Concentrate on the work more than you concentrate on the reward.

I fully believe that anyone who approaches their work this way, will not only have people take notice, but their work will always continue to be personally rewarding.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Wrapping Season


We finished principal photography for Passing Season today. We shot the initial scenes 5 weeks ago when there was green grass and brightly colored leaves. Today we went back to the same places and filmed with barren trees and frost on the ground for a wonderfully bleak, cold tone that perfectly fit the scenes.


I don't know how Brandon Smith and Greg Johnson get so lucky to have perfect weather on their production days, but it was a clear day with perfect frost on the ground and no wind. They must be doing something right.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Romancing an Idea

How much do you love the concept you are working on for your next script? In a great post, C-47 talked about falling in love with his idea. I identified so closely with his thought I had to post about it here.



when a great idea for a movie hits you and you get excited about it, it's like meeting someone new and becoming instantly infatuated with them. you start to form a crush on them. the same with the idea--you start to think about it all the time and smile knowing that no one else in the world feels the way you do about that idea. with a person, your friend might see you smiling for seemingly no reason and ask, "why are you so happy?" to which you might reply, "oh, i met this girl." it's the same with a great movie idea. though instead of telling your friend about the girl you met, you say, "oh, i have this great idea for a film."



Read the entire post here.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Silence is Golden

Wrote a couple of silent scenes for Kunal Sigtia, who posted a message in the Wasatch Film Group looking for suggestions. Kunal has an assignment to make two silent short films about 3-5 minutes long each. One of the films has to be completely edited in-camera.


I told Kunal that if no one responded with silent scripts I would be willing to write a couple. We exchanged a couple of emails off message board, and I sent over some story suggestions.


I suggested that one silent film could be a scene where no one talks because they are trying to be sneaky about the things they are doing. Since there is no dialogue, I just wrote it as a story outline, and I didn't bother putting the story in standardized screenplay format.



An office.


Character (A) is getting some papers off the printer. He looks around for something, but doesn't find what he's looking for. Character (B) is facing away from his desk, and (A) sneakily picks up (B)'s stapler and walks away stapling his papers.


(B) turns around with some papers of his own and reaches for the stapler, but it's gone. He looks around the office, and spots it on (A)'s desk while (A) is not there, so he takes it back and walks away very satisfied.


(A) comes back to his desk and notices the stapler is gone. He immediately knows what has happened. He goes back to (B)'s desk and starts to walk away with the stapler, but it won't budge. He looks closer and the stapler is duct taped to the desktop. (A) looks frustrated, but then he smiles with an idea.


(B) comes back to his desk and looks down, shocked by what he sees. The duct tape is flapping ribbons where the stapler has been cut free.


(A) returns to his own desk, looking very happy. He looks at the stapler and smiles, then he kisses a pair of scissors and puts them away. As he is putting the scissors away, he sees something else in the drawer that gives him an idea. He pulls out a bottle of super glue and smiles an evil grin.


(B) walks back to (A)'s desk when no one is there. He spots the stapler on the desk and tries to snatch it, but it won't budge. He pulls and pushes with no luck. He gives it an almighty tug with all his strength and . . . comes away with the top half of the stapler, while the bottom half is still firmly glued in place.


(A) comes back and finds (B) with the broken stapler in his hands. They both look at the pieces of the stapler, then look at each other.


Just then, character (C) walks by and smiles at (A). (A) watches him go, and then he gets an idea and looks back in the direction (C) just came from. (A) looks at (B), and they both rush off toward (C)'s desk to swipe his stapler.



I referred to (A) and (B) as "he" throughout the story, but they could just as easily both be women, and it might be even funnier, because everyone loves a good catfight.


For Kunal's second short film, there is no editing allowed, so any edits must be done in camera. I suggested taking the challenge one step further and not having any edits at all, like Alfred Hitchcock's film "Rope".


I suggested the story surround one item that we could follow as it moves through several people's hands, like for instance a teddy bear.



A young girl sits at the breakfast table with a teddy bear. She pretends to feed it cold cereal with a spoon. Suddenly her older brother steps in and grabs the teddy bear to taunt his sister. She tries to get it back from him but he holds it up out of her reach. She starts to push him and he dances off out of the kitchen, keeping it away from her. The camera moves ahead of them, watching them as they go from the kitchen to the front room. The camera moves all the way out the front door until the fighting children are framed in the doorway. When the camera is in position, the boy runs out the door at lightning speed and tosses the teddy bear into a trash can before his sister can get outside to see what he has done with it. When she gets outside, he pretends he is holding something behind his back, and runs off pretending he still has the bear, but the camera stays by the trash can.


Just then, the trash man comes. He throws the trash can's lid open and starts to haul it away, but all the while he is talking on a cell phone. He gesticulates wildly, in the middle of a heated argument. He lets go of the can and shouts into his phone, punctuating every word with a finger he waves in the air. He finishes his phone call with with a wild arm wave, hangs up his phone with a violent button push, and throws his phone off into the distance. He storms off camera and leaves the can where he set it down.


Two teenage girls walk by with school books in their arms. One girl does a double take as she realizes there is a teddy bear on top of the trash in the can. She pulls the bear out and shows it to her friend, who is equally surprised. The girls walk on, taking the bear with them. They pass it back and forth, inspecting it. One girl hugs it. She smiles and begins acting silly, pretending the bear is kissing her, which makes her blush and titter in mock giddiness. She looks around to make sure no one is watching, and then pretends to give the bear a deep, passionate make-out session, which sends her friend into fits of laughter.


Just then, the girls pass a homeless woman sleeping in a shop doorway. Their mood immediately turns somber and they stop walking. They look at the homeless woman, then at each other. The funny girl hands the bear to her friend and motions for her to give it to the homeless woman. Her friend agrees and quietly sets the bear down next to the sleeping woman. The girls walk away, leaving the bear there.


After they leave, the homeless woman opens one eye and checks to make sure they are gone. She is surprised to see the bear in front of her. She sits up and picks up the bear. As she looks the bear over, her expression melts from apprehension and confusion into a smile. She brushes the bear's fur with her hand, and presses its softness against her cheek. She lays back down and closes her eyes again, hugging the bear tightly.



Shooting a story like this would require a lot of preproduction planning, and serious rehearsing, because every person would have to get all their blocking and gestures choreographed and executed perfectly in the same take, and that includes the cameraman. The lighting would also pose a serious concern because you would be moving from room to room, from indoor to outdoor, and down the length of a street all without stopping the camera or changing settings.


On the other hand, taking on a project this serious would be an impressive move, and I think it would be graded highly.


Kunal seemed happy with the stories. I will be interested to see how they come out on film.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Filming in a Castle in Provo, Utah


Castle Park in Provo made a great setting for a Jedi temple. I brought along two of my own kids to be part of the younglings class. They thought that was a real treat.

Ambition and Farce


Helped Murray Triplett with his Star Wars spoof film "Rehash of the Chlorians". The script is farcical and quite funny, but Murray also included some ambitious challenges with his special effects.

We filmed the scenes that take place on the Jedi starship against a bluescreen, and the ship interior will be composited in during post.