Video Game practice pays off!

 

If you don't spend enough time playing video games, you will lose out on some of life's best moments. Yes, I understand the irony in that statement.

I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game last Thursday, and after the game the X96 radio station van was there with a bunch of people hanging around the back of the van playing Guitar Hero.

They announced a contest for video game players, so I signed up. I ended up winning and the station gave me this guitar autographed by My Chemical Romance.

So my team came away with a win, and I walked away with a very cool prize. That's a great night.

What does that have to do with filmmaking? Absolutely nothing, but it's cool, and this is my blog. So there.

You're so Butch

I took my family to the Utah Family Film Festival this weekend. Didn't even know it was going on until my wife heard Chunga talking about it on the radio.

We saw Ryan Little's new film Outlaw Trail, which was absolutely charming. It's the story of Roy Parker, a teenage boy in the 1950's that lives with the family embarassment that his uncle Leroy Parker was better known to the world as the outlaw Butch Cassidy. While the world believes Butch and Sundance were killed in Bolivia, Roy is convinced his uncle survived, came home, and tried to turn his life around to become an honest guy. When Roy catches a couple of thugs stealing artifacts from an archaeological dig, he is led on the adventure of his life to try and recover Butch's treasure and clear the family name.

The story has a definite Indiana Jones feel to it, with some great moments, and a lot of use of dynamite. The script is not as strong as Ryan Little's last picture Saints and Soldiers, but it was plenty of fun.

There were some familiar faces for those of us that see films shot in Utah, like Rick Macy and Steve Anderson, plus some great performances from the rest of the cast, especially Dan Byrd, who was fantastic as Roy's nervous friend Jess.

Get with the program

I got accepted to the Utah Screenwriters Project, put on by the Salt Lake Film Society. It's a year-long project where they bring in industry folks to teach about screenwriting. It sounds like it will mean rearranging my schedule at work several times to go to morning meetings, and a lot of off-hours homework and email correspondence.

I also signed up for Script Frenzy!, which means I have committed to writing a 20,000 word script in thirty days. The event starts June 1.

Too much of a good thing

 

 

 

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful - Mae West

I'm a nice, ruddy, crisp sunburnt and I desperately need some sleep, but it was a wonderful weekend.

Saturday morning I joined Murray Triplett, Greg Johnson and Brandon Smith in a canyon in Eagle Mountain to shoot the short film Anthems of War. They put together a great production. Several collectors brought in authentic vehicles and weapons, and Dave Larsen's whole family was there doing make-up and effects.

I thought I would just be helping out behind the scenes, but as soon as I showed up Murray had me jump into costume to stand in as Levi Larsen's corpse. So Dave created a bullet exit wound in my head and I spent some time face down in a field.

After I got a chance to clean up, I got back to just doing some general helping out around the set. Looks like this film will be good. Special thanks to Bryon Darby for taking great on-set stills.

Then at 6pm I left the set and met up with Kyle Mallory to film the script I blogged about last week. I ended up playing the part of James, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We filmed just a little farther up in the same canyon, and shot night scenes until 2am.

The next morning at 8 we started up again and shot in the desert all day.

To commemorate the long hours this weekend, and to remind myself that although I may enjoy putting in these kinds of hours, I shouldn't expect others to put in these kinds of hours on my projects on a regular basis, I ordered myself a 12 on 12 off hat.

Channeling my inner nerd

Hi. My name is Jim and . . . I'm a nerd

(Everybody together: Hi Jim)

That's why I was the perfect guy for the job when Kyle Mallory wanted someone to write a script about two people on a road trip arguing about which is better: Star Trek or Star Wars.

I first met Kyle on the set of a Star Wars spoof called Rehash of the Chlorians. He was an actor in that one, sporting a Ewan McGregor style Obi-Wan Kenobi beard. I just helped out with miscellaneous grunt work, like laying behind the set and shaking the droid every time it was supposed to chirp and whistle.

As part of a filmmaker group, Kyle has to make a short film every thirty days. Last month I helped him write the script for his project, and this month he asked me to join him again.

For my part, I'm enjoying having deadlines and a reason to have to get something written. Why do I have to have a deadline to get anything done? I don't know. I don't make up the rules, I just try to figure out what they are and work with them.

This script took a lot of research, but it was also fun to air all my grievances with both Star Trek and Star Wars. I'm very interested to see how it translates to the screen.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

btw, I promise there was writing on the board in the picture. It's just a trick of the camera that makes it look like Dave is pointing at a blank whiteboard.

Dave Trottier presented some basics of screenwriting and the screenwriting business to a full room of aspiring writers on Saturday.

 

Pirates of the Great Salt Lake

Opening night of the festival is Wednesday, February 28. Festivities will kick off with a reception at the Union Station at 6pm. Then over to Peery's Egyptian Theater for the screening of Pirates of the Great Salt Lake at 8pm.

Produced by Christian Vuissa and starring Kirby Heyborne, Larry Bagby, Trenton James, and Emily Tyndall. Pirates of the Great Salt Lake has been winning awards at festivals all over the country, but it has never played in Utah before. A lot of the cast and crew will be there for the screening.

Also: look for Larry Bagby to perform an acoustic music set later in the festival.

 

Two for one

 
Go ahead, print it out and use it. You'd think we'd know how to spell 'Napoleon' before we publish it, though, wouldn't you? 

David Trottier - How to Break Into Hollywood as a Screenwriter

 
On Saturday, March 3 at 10am, David Trottier, author of The Screenwriter's Bible, will teach a two-hour workshop titled "How to Break Into Hollywood as a Screenwriter"

Last year I attended a screenwriting workshop led by John Moyer (writer of The Singles Ward and Writer/Director of Mobsters and Mormons) at the LDS film festival. John held up the Screenwriter's Bible and said it was the best book he'd ever gone through for screenwriters.

It's a huge honor to have Dave Trottier lead a workshop for us.

The workshop is only $10, which is a huge bargain for a workshop with Dave Trottier.

Tickets are available at Peery's Egyptian Theater Box Office, or by phone at 801-395-3227 or online at https://www.peerysegyptiantheater.com/ticket.asp (service fee may apply) 

Blind Dating

 

Blind Dating stars Chris Pine (Just My Luck, Princess Diaries 2) and Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie). It was shot in Ogden, Utah, so a lot of people are excited to see the film at the festival.

In the film, Chris Pine plays a 23-year-old blind man. When his brother, played by Eddie Kaye Thomas, finds out he knows absolutely nothing about women, he sets up a series of hilariously awful blind dates. Real love appears in the form of newcomer Anjali Jay, but as their relationship progresses there turns out to be a new problem.

Blind Dating plays Saturday night as the closing event of the festival. The film will open in theaters nationwide later in March.

Watch the trailer at http://www.blinddatingmovie.com

 

Here we go again

 

It's time for my film festival again, and I've been so busy for the last few months I haven't even blogged about it.

After last year's festival we got a lot of attention from filmmakers telling us how valuable the relationships are that they built at our festival, local government leaders telling us how valuable the festival could be for the city, audience members telling us how many people they want to bring back with them next year, and even members of the press who were upset we didn't do a good enough job of letting them know ahead of time how cool it was going to be.

This year we have even bigger things going on. I'll fill in the details in future posts.

http://www.foursitefilmfest.com