Hey!
It's been a while. What accounts for the absence of posts? Basically we've been waiting have the edit done on our last movie SPIRITEUR. Editing takes some time, even longer when you're learning how to use the equipment, which was the case after the last editor we were collaborating with fucked off. And then, the equipment broke, and that takes more time than it should.
If we could find a cool editor to work with we would truly have it made. The idea when this MONGREL COLLECTIVE was started a year ago was to put out little cool movies cheaply and QUICKLY. We've got all of that covered, except for the editing part. It might just have to be that until we find someone who can dedicate themselves as the editor (so we don't have to try to do it ourselves) we might have to budget a grand to get someone. In this past this would have been about double our whole budget!
Anyway, MONGREL Dan assures me that he's going to have the rough cut of SPIRITEUR done by the middle of this month so it should be out there soon-ish.
Of course starting June 12 we start shooting the new movie, a horror comedy called PATTY AT THE PARTY. I'd like to have that wrapped and edited by the middle of August. I hope.
See the awsome teaser for PATTY and better yet, donate to the potential post editing here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1443925153/patty-at-the-party-a-mumble-core-horror-feature
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
SpiritEUR DIAry
Being a teacher I've gotten pretty good at organizing. Setting up a production schedule basically means figuring out what and who's available and putting it all together in chunks of shoot time.
Even though I don't like the production part of making these MONGREL movies I have to do admit that I enjoy putting together the schedules. I think it has something to do with all the Tetris I played when I was a teenage. I get a real solid sense of satisfaction from getting everything to fit together.
As far as knowing how much time to block for different scenes, it all really depends on the how fast your director is and how prepared your actors are. If the director doesn't know what they're doing you're going to waste tons of time. Ditto for actors who can't remember their lines. Depending on how crazy the scenes are I try to block about half an hour a page. This is considered moving things along at an insanely fast rate by Hollywood standards; they tend to only shoot a couple of pages a day! If the scene is really complicated with lots of action, or if it's really important scene to the tone and themes of the movie I add extra time padding.
MONGREL movies are very organic and you just have to start doing them to really figure out what the natural pace and rhythm of the production need to be. But remember, you will waste if you don't make haste. The last thing you want to micromanage and get bogged down in the details. Keep things moving or else you'll snuff out that MONGREL flame. My experience has been that biggest obstacle for getting anything done in any of the creative industries is perfectionism and getting so bogged down in bullshit that you give up. If you can complete your principal photography I guarantee there's something cool you can get from the footage you've shot.
Even though I don't like the production part of making these MONGREL movies I have to do admit that I enjoy putting together the schedules. I think it has something to do with all the Tetris I played when I was a teenage. I get a real solid sense of satisfaction from getting everything to fit together.
As far as knowing how much time to block for different scenes, it all really depends on the how fast your director is and how prepared your actors are. If the director doesn't know what they're doing you're going to waste tons of time. Ditto for actors who can't remember their lines. Depending on how crazy the scenes are I try to block about half an hour a page. This is considered moving things along at an insanely fast rate by Hollywood standards; they tend to only shoot a couple of pages a day! If the scene is really complicated with lots of action, or if it's really important scene to the tone and themes of the movie I add extra time padding.
MONGREL movies are very organic and you just have to start doing them to really figure out what the natural pace and rhythm of the production need to be. But remember, you will waste if you don't make haste. The last thing you want to micromanage and get bogged down in the details. Keep things moving or else you'll snuff out that MONGREL flame. My experience has been that biggest obstacle for getting anything done in any of the creative industries is perfectionism and getting so bogged down in bullshit that you give up. If you can complete your principal photography I guarantee there's something cool you can get from the footage you've shot.
Friday, October 23, 2009
SpiritEUR DIAry
First you need the script. Then you need to find a director/dp with a camera. Then you need the actors. Then you need the locations. Then you need the money.
In the old days you needed A LOT of money. Film - physical film - is crazy expensive and the equipment you need for it is crazy expensive, and you need a huge crew to help you manipulate that equipment, and you need to feed them, and you need insurance, and since this is all such a circus you need to get permits and pay for EVERYTHING.
In these modern times you don't need film anymore, and it's simply crazy to me that people still shoot with the sorts of budgets which were created by that physical film. It's like the difference between an orchestra and synthesizer. Now imagine trying to play that one synthesizer using an entire orchestra, and with all the expenditures that would come with that. Ridiculous. Screw that.
The rules of guerrilla moviemaking, which I think are pretty good, stipulate that you spend money on feeding people. Period. There's a certain respect/professionalism/human decency thing with that, and it's good. It makes sense on a basic realistic level.
Our guerrilla endeavors have been backed so far by the cool writer Niall Lynch. The budget for Spiriteur ended up being $800, which was what I thought we'd need for food for the estimated eight day shoot. I also liked the sound of that, making a movie in eight days for eight hundred dollars. Steve Mooser, another very cool writer, kicked in another $120, which really came in handy because as it turns out I'm not very good at estimating food costs.
With the money and locations in place all I had to do next was finalize the production schedule and come up with all the props we might need. After that, we would be totally good to go.
In the old days you needed A LOT of money. Film - physical film - is crazy expensive and the equipment you need for it is crazy expensive, and you need a huge crew to help you manipulate that equipment, and you need to feed them, and you need insurance, and since this is all such a circus you need to get permits and pay for EVERYTHING.
In these modern times you don't need film anymore, and it's simply crazy to me that people still shoot with the sorts of budgets which were created by that physical film. It's like the difference between an orchestra and synthesizer. Now imagine trying to play that one synthesizer using an entire orchestra, and with all the expenditures that would come with that. Ridiculous. Screw that.
The rules of guerrilla moviemaking, which I think are pretty good, stipulate that you spend money on feeding people. Period. There's a certain respect/professionalism/human decency thing with that, and it's good. It makes sense on a basic realistic level.
Our guerrilla endeavors have been backed so far by the cool writer Niall Lynch. The budget for Spiriteur ended up being $800, which was what I thought we'd need for food for the estimated eight day shoot. I also liked the sound of that, making a movie in eight days for eight hundred dollars. Steve Mooser, another very cool writer, kicked in another $120, which really came in handy because as it turns out I'm not very good at estimating food costs.
With the money and locations in place all I had to do next was finalize the production schedule and come up with all the props we might need. After that, we would be totally good to go.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
Once Kimberly and I had set up the locations and estimated the proper time to get into it - the second and third week of October - I had to make sure the actors and crew were in place.
This part wasn't so hard. SPIRITEUR only has basically four main actors, and three of them (Neti Leddell, Daniel Van Thomas, Les Mahoney) would be returning from Dirty Red Hands. Les put me in touch in Dana Hayes who agreed to jump on board, and who, after our first meeting, I knew was totally MONGREL and just right to collaborate with.
Having great actors is essential to making a good MONGREL movie. Since you don't have any money for fancy FX or production value (or lights), you need to have strong actors who can work quickly and are ready to deal with all sorts of strange conditions and sudden changes. If you've worked with people before who are this good, you really have to try to keep with working with them because they're worth their weight in gold. Bad actors will flake and not be prepared, and both of those things will kill your MONGREL movie. For the team of actors I was lucky enough to collaborate with on SPIRITEUR I will happily change huge parts of future scripts (during my Hollywood tenure I wrote about fifteen specs, the majority of which were deemed "too" something to try to sell), just to showcase their talents.
MONGREL movies are based on the punk rock garage band ethos. Get a small group and bang exciting shit out. With HD and guerrilla insight you don't need a forty person cast and crew. All you need are really good people, and it helps if they're multi talented. Daniel Van Thomas is also an amazing graphic artist, and has done all the posters and fliers for us. Neti and Dana are both really talented musicians. Dirty Red Hands was lucky enough to feature one of Neti's songs. We're planning on having Neti and Dana both do more extensive music for SPIRITEUR. Ed Joyce directs and does his own DP - better than anyone else I've ever worked with. As well as writing and producing and cheerleading I hold the boom mic when I can't get anyone else to. MONGREL is all about making art you love and collaborating. Working with multi talented people only makes the process more rich and rewarding and inspiring.
The hardest part of scheduling is finding time when all the actors are free, since paying day jobs and gigs always come first. This is why the last two MONGREL movies have both basically been shot over the course of two three-day weekends. Most traditional movie shoots are at least twenty or so days long. When you're shooting guerrilla I think anything over ten is a serious risk. Dirty Red Hands was shot in 5 days. The SPIRITEUR shoot all told will be approximately 8 days.
This part wasn't so hard. SPIRITEUR only has basically four main actors, and three of them (Neti Leddell, Daniel Van Thomas, Les Mahoney) would be returning from Dirty Red Hands. Les put me in touch in Dana Hayes who agreed to jump on board, and who, after our first meeting, I knew was totally MONGREL and just right to collaborate with.
Having great actors is essential to making a good MONGREL movie. Since you don't have any money for fancy FX or production value (or lights), you need to have strong actors who can work quickly and are ready to deal with all sorts of strange conditions and sudden changes. If you've worked with people before who are this good, you really have to try to keep with working with them because they're worth their weight in gold. Bad actors will flake and not be prepared, and both of those things will kill your MONGREL movie. For the team of actors I was lucky enough to collaborate with on SPIRITEUR I will happily change huge parts of future scripts (during my Hollywood tenure I wrote about fifteen specs, the majority of which were deemed "too" something to try to sell), just to showcase their talents.
MONGREL movies are based on the punk rock garage band ethos. Get a small group and bang exciting shit out. With HD and guerrilla insight you don't need a forty person cast and crew. All you need are really good people, and it helps if they're multi talented. Daniel Van Thomas is also an amazing graphic artist, and has done all the posters and fliers for us. Neti and Dana are both really talented musicians. Dirty Red Hands was lucky enough to feature one of Neti's songs. We're planning on having Neti and Dana both do more extensive music for SPIRITEUR. Ed Joyce directs and does his own DP - better than anyone else I've ever worked with. As well as writing and producing and cheerleading I hold the boom mic when I can't get anyone else to. MONGREL is all about making art you love and collaborating. Working with multi talented people only makes the process more rich and rewarding and inspiring.
The hardest part of scheduling is finding time when all the actors are free, since paying day jobs and gigs always come first. This is why the last two MONGREL movies have both basically been shot over the course of two three-day weekends. Most traditional movie shoots are at least twenty or so days long. When you're shooting guerrilla I think anything over ten is a serious risk. Dirty Red Hands was shot in 5 days. The SPIRITEUR shoot all told will be approximately 8 days.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
After getting the script put together and giving the whole thing enough time to really crystalize in my mind, the next step was setting it up.
One of the reasons I got into screenwriting is that I hate dealing with the actual production, organizing, telling people what to do, having to think on my feet with major time pressures. When I first set up MONGREL I tried to get several producers involved by putting out ads on craigslist (this is where I find everyone and basically everything). There were two who expressed enough interest to keep meeting with me. One of them flaked out, and the other ended up burning MONGREL for about a thousand bucks (before we went full on guerrilla we shot enough material from my script Red Hands using the traditional Hollywood model. The producer said she wouldn't work for free, which I thought was okay and I told her to charge what she thought was fare considering that we had absolutely no money to work with -- and she ended up charging five hundred bucks a day. A fifth of the total 2 day budget. Pretty sleazy considering the rest of us were gladly working for free.) Long story short, I realized that if you want to do anything you really have to nut up and do it yourself. So, I quickly taught myself how to produce.
Since we were working with a budget of $800 (for food and some props only) producing for Spiriteur meant securing locations, finding the co-stars, and coming up with a super tight shooting schedule. And working a full time day job. And trying to finish an absurdest mystery novel. What's cool about MONGREL though is that I love doing this so much I ended up having a lot of fun.
I got in touch with this friend of mine who's an amazing artist and writer out in Palm Desert - Kimberly Nichols - and got her to sign on as associate producer and actor. With her we found the majority of our locations, and set up a party so we could introduce MONGREL to the desert coolies and also shoot a scene from Spiriteur. Kimberly is basically one of the coolest people I know and she instantly "got" that MONGREL is all about art and freedom and community. Without her involvement this project wouldn't have gotten off the ground.
One of the reasons I got into screenwriting is that I hate dealing with the actual production, organizing, telling people what to do, having to think on my feet with major time pressures. When I first set up MONGREL I tried to get several producers involved by putting out ads on craigslist (this is where I find everyone and basically everything). There were two who expressed enough interest to keep meeting with me. One of them flaked out, and the other ended up burning MONGREL for about a thousand bucks (before we went full on guerrilla we shot enough material from my script Red Hands using the traditional Hollywood model. The producer said she wouldn't work for free, which I thought was okay and I told her to charge what she thought was fare considering that we had absolutely no money to work with -- and she ended up charging five hundred bucks a day. A fifth of the total 2 day budget. Pretty sleazy considering the rest of us were gladly working for free.) Long story short, I realized that if you want to do anything you really have to nut up and do it yourself. So, I quickly taught myself how to produce.
Since we were working with a budget of $800 (for food and some props only) producing for Spiriteur meant securing locations, finding the co-stars, and coming up with a super tight shooting schedule. And working a full time day job. And trying to finish an absurdest mystery novel. What's cool about MONGREL though is that I love doing this so much I ended up having a lot of fun.
I got in touch with this friend of mine who's an amazing artist and writer out in Palm Desert - Kimberly Nichols - and got her to sign on as associate producer and actor. With her we found the majority of our locations, and set up a party so we could introduce MONGREL to the desert coolies and also shoot a scene from Spiriteur. Kimberly is basically one of the coolest people I know and she instantly "got" that MONGREL is all about art and freedom and community. Without her involvement this project wouldn't have gotten off the ground.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
SPIRITEur diARY:
What's cool for me as a writer is that right now the sort of scripts that Hollywood said were too small and too disturbing are exactly right for guerrilla HD moviemaking and the digital distribution world.
Last April we shot a guerrilla version of my script Red Hands (titling it Dirty Red Hands) in five days for five hundred bucks. It went really well.
SPIRITEUR was originally set in Maine - where I'm from. Originally the plan was to fly over there and shoot for a month at and around a mansion that belongs to a friend of mine who's the head of the neo Freudian society. But like many things, this ended up being way too expensive, both in production, and in compensation for everyone who'd have to take time off work.
I was in the high desert for an education conference last March and, like the other times I've been out there, I was struck by how creepy and intense the place was. I started thinking that the sandy wasteland could be a good metaphor for the Maine forest. After I had that, it was really easy to convert the script for the desert.
If you've got a strong story that you understand really well it isn't hard to modify it to different environments and the guerrilla restraints (few locations, few characters). As long as your metaphors don't step all over each other the story itself will remain solid and energizing.
This brings up the first major difference between a MONGREL production and a more traditional one. Traditional shoots focus on imposing the artificial world of the script and "vision" of the director onto a plastic setting. With MONGREL, we're very interested in doing just the opposite of this. I call it "environment" moviemaking. You find a really cool environment and really utilize and use it to modify and improve the script and vision. You respect what's around you and you work with it, not against it.
What's cool for me as a writer is that right now the sort of scripts that Hollywood said were too small and too disturbing are exactly right for guerrilla HD moviemaking and the digital distribution world.
Last April we shot a guerrilla version of my script Red Hands (titling it Dirty Red Hands) in five days for five hundred bucks. It went really well.
SPIRITEUR was originally set in Maine - where I'm from. Originally the plan was to fly over there and shoot for a month at and around a mansion that belongs to a friend of mine who's the head of the neo Freudian society. But like many things, this ended up being way too expensive, both in production, and in compensation for everyone who'd have to take time off work.
I was in the high desert for an education conference last March and, like the other times I've been out there, I was struck by how creepy and intense the place was. I started thinking that the sandy wasteland could be a good metaphor for the Maine forest. After I had that, it was really easy to convert the script for the desert.
If you've got a strong story that you understand really well it isn't hard to modify it to different environments and the guerrilla restraints (few locations, few characters). As long as your metaphors don't step all over each other the story itself will remain solid and energizing.
This brings up the first major difference between a MONGREL production and a more traditional one. Traditional shoots focus on imposing the artificial world of the script and "vision" of the director onto a plastic setting. With MONGREL, we're very interested in doing just the opposite of this. I call it "environment" moviemaking. You find a really cool environment and really utilize and use it to modify and improve the script and vision. You respect what's around you and you work with it, not against it.
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