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.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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.
Monday, October 19, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
SPIRITEUR DIARY - 10/19/9 - okay, so I've been doing the movie journal stuff at mmmmmongrel.blogspot.com, but I hate jumping around from site to site and right now all the action is right here.
Spiriteur began as an germ in my head when I was temping after I graduated from AFI back in 2000. I'd file and xerox reports at this company in Burbank and it was so tedious and boring that I started to try to think up the scariest stuff I could, just to keep from numbing out. I started thinking about scary movies, like really scary movies, not just thrillers dressed up as scary movies. I started writing SPIRITEUR, working on it in between other writing projects. When I finished the first draft in 2002 I gave it to my manager at the Pitt Group. They told me it was "too small," "too disturbing."
I kept noodling with it in between other projects for the next seven years. After MONGREL COLLECTIVE finished the guerrilla version of my crime thriller Red Hands back in July (we've just finished editing it and are getting ready to put it out there for you and send it off to Slamdance, but that's another story), SPIRITEUR seemed like the next logical step.
In future posts I'll give you the skinny on the production process and hopefully inspire you to collaborate with us in the future, or even go out and make your own movie, which we've proven can be done quickly for virtually no money if you're down with the MONGREL dogma.
Spiriteur began as an germ in my head when I was temping after I graduated from AFI back in 2000. I'd file and xerox reports at this company in Burbank and it was so tedious and boring that I started to try to think up the scariest stuff I could, just to keep from numbing out. I started thinking about scary movies, like really scary movies, not just thrillers dressed up as scary movies. I started writing SPIRITEUR, working on it in between other writing projects. When I finished the first draft in 2002 I gave it to my manager at the Pitt Group. They told me it was "too small," "too disturbing."
I kept noodling with it in between other projects for the next seven years. After MONGREL COLLECTIVE finished the guerrilla version of my crime thriller Red Hands back in July (we've just finished editing it and are getting ready to put it out there for you and send it off to Slamdance, but that's another story), SPIRITEUR seemed like the next logical step.
In future posts I'll give you the skinny on the production process and hopefully inspire you to collaborate with us in the future, or even go out and make your own movie, which we've proven can be done quickly for virtually no money if you're down with the MONGREL dogma.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
RED HANDS diary
So we had an official LLC meeting a couple weeks ago where I impressed upon our editors that the sooner they finish they're cuts, even if it's just a rough cut of the full feature, the sooner we can shop it around and start hooking up places where we can screen it. I think they got the message.
Last Friday I went out with Refael (our web guru) and Daniel (our actor and graphic designer) to some bars downtown to look at potential possibilities. We started at the top with the Standard and worked our way straight into the gutter with the Smell (which was closed, but the smell lingered on...). At around 1:30, still having not found a place that was suitably hip and progressive and gritty, but still affluent I took the party over to the Echo in Echopark. This was paydirt. The Echo has everything and most importantly has the right crowd. I don't think Refael was that impressed, especially with the women. That's okay, he'll come around that the real visercal excitement of a place like the Echo far outplays the plastic cliche fantasy of the Standard. We shot footage of this great outing and should have a videopodcast for the site as soon as Refael can find the connecting wires.
I've recorded a couple more MONGREL podcasts, which in various forms are available on the site. I think I'll have to set up another site dedicated to the podcasts. So be it. After three I'm starting to get the hang of the technical aspects.
The collective agreed that August will be about loading content onto the site, and that at the beginning of September we'll have the launch party. We're going for a "white trash" theme, complete with mud wrestling and homemade moonshine. We'll raise some money from this party to help pay for our state business tax in November. In October, from this momentum we've established, we'll have the big desert party in Palm Springs. I'm going out to the desert this Tuesday to solidify the details of that with Kimberly Nichols, our desert party queen.
Next objective - T-shirts.
Stay tuned to www.dirtyredhands.com to see how this all continues to develop.
Last Friday I went out with Refael (our web guru) and Daniel (our actor and graphic designer) to some bars downtown to look at potential possibilities. We started at the top with the Standard and worked our way straight into the gutter with the Smell (which was closed, but the smell lingered on...). At around 1:30, still having not found a place that was suitably hip and progressive and gritty, but still affluent I took the party over to the Echo in Echopark. This was paydirt. The Echo has everything and most importantly has the right crowd. I don't think Refael was that impressed, especially with the women. That's okay, he'll come around that the real visercal excitement of a place like the Echo far outplays the plastic cliche fantasy of the Standard. We shot footage of this great outing and should have a videopodcast for the site as soon as Refael can find the connecting wires.
I've recorded a couple more MONGREL podcasts, which in various forms are available on the site. I think I'll have to set up another site dedicated to the podcasts. So be it. After three I'm starting to get the hang of the technical aspects.
The collective agreed that August will be about loading content onto the site, and that at the beginning of September we'll have the launch party. We're going for a "white trash" theme, complete with mud wrestling and homemade moonshine. We'll raise some money from this party to help pay for our state business tax in November. In October, from this momentum we've established, we'll have the big desert party in Palm Springs. I'm going out to the desert this Tuesday to solidify the details of that with Kimberly Nichols, our desert party queen.
Next objective - T-shirts.
Stay tuned to www.dirtyredhands.com to see how this all continues to develop.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
red hands diary
Last Sunday I drove out to the high desert and met with Kimberly Nichols who's this very cool artist/writer friend of mine. She's agreed to do net marketing with us and we're blessed to have her talents.
She's also helping us set up this awsome rave party out in the desert to officially launch the
www.dirtyredhands.com
site. At this point we're looking to have it August first. Like a thousand people in the warehouse of artist Robert Dunahay
www.robertdunahay.com
Should be an extreme sort of freakout. Robots, lasers, artists and desert scoundrels and mongrels raving it up. Because I'm a total follower of the Corman aesthetic I'm even planning on shooting footage for the next movie I'm putting together with the Mongrel Collective: SPIRITEUR. Everyone's invited. If you come out you could be in the new movie! In any case you'll be able to meet all us and join this very cool and exciting revolution. And get drunk and walk into Joshua Trees. Burning Man eat your toasty heart out. Stay tuned to this blog or join the mmmmmongrel group at Facebook to get the exact dates and times.
What else is going on? Refael continues to tweak and update the site. Hector and Khoren continue to cut their versions of DRH. Once we get a finished version I'll put together a "package" and start casting about for corporate investors. That should be fun.
We're having another meeting next Friday to see how the episodes are grinding out and to also talk t-shirt and other merc exploitation. I'll keep you in the loop.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
red hands diary
Had an official DRH LLC meeting last night where the collective talked about how we want the website to try to make money. We all agreed that all the versions (both of them) should be available on a LIBRARY page of the website, and that on the main page we'll have several episodes that we change every couple of days. Instead of charging people for watching the episodes we're gonna try to cash in with ads. I like this. It follows the network TV model and the rock and roll band model. We'll have ads on the website and we'll sell episodes to ad-based interenet TV networks. What's crucial then is we need to really create buzz and get an internet marketer on board who'll plug like crazy all over the net... Following the rock and roll track some more we also decided that we could really use some corporate sponsorship. Niall said he was able to hook this up for a fanzine he worked on back in Chicago, back in the day. Once we have a finished feature we'll put together a "package" and go for it. I have no idea how to lure corporate sponsors so I guess I'll learn as I go. We all agreed that best way to get anyone, corporate or otherwise, to the site was just to be really fucking cool. People look for and try to connect with shit that's really cool. We are really cool, and we're sexy and fun, and I still think having parties is a critical tool for getting people involved and spreading the word. I keep hitting a wall with this myself so I'll just keep putting it out there that DRH is looking for a party promoter to help us get things started in the downtown, Echo Park, Highland Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Hollywood area. I know it'll happen, and when it does, it's going to be huge and sick.
Tomorrow I travel out to Palm Desert to meet with a prospective internet marketer and also plan the huge premiere launch party, which should be really cool - robots, lasers, one thousand mad desert artists and moviemakers... I'll keep you in the loop about the where's and when.
Friday, July 3, 2009
RED HANDS diary
Well, I realize I said that this diary was moving over to
www.dirtyredhands.com
but there's still some pretty serious bugs in that system so until we get them fixed I'll keep people up to date here.
We finally finished our shooting. Last weekend we did our picks ups and inserts on Saturday, and then our reshoots on Sunday. Things went very well. Only one person called 911, and that was in the valley so we really should have seen it coming. I guess she didn't like us pretending to beat the shit out of someone under her window during church hours. She told the police on the phone that our camera was a gun and well, that's what you call a wrap. We bolted and no one was pinched.
Ed and Neti and Myles shot a final scene that we didn't get at the downtown bar on their own last Wednesday. That's a hot shit crew for you - no money, no producer, no glory - and they still went out and got gold. Love. I've been looking at the results on Khoren's final cut pro and everything looks very cool. We're still on track for having it all up and running by the end of the month.
I've been putting up DRH fliers all over Silverlake and even though I'm green to street promotion I learned quickly that my height is a big advantage. The higher up the flyer on the telephone pole the longer it stays up.
Next Friday we'll meet and talk about what and how to sell stuff. This is the perfect time. This is the time of innocence and splendor and there are no rules and we are all absolute beginners. It's our time.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
We (me, the writer/producer, Ed Joyce, the director, and Khoren Mirzakhanian, the editor) went to the desert last Sunday to do the location scouting. It's very noir out there. Stephen Mooser, the acclaimed children's book author, has graciously allowed us to shoot at his guest house in Joshua Tree and it's going to be perfect. Originally in the script I written the sex/sacrifice/black magic scene to drop in a basement. No basements in the high desert, but there is a natural cave in the hills next to the guest house which will be even cooler!
We then met with Kimberly Nichols, who's this really cool artist/writer who lives in Palm Desert. She's interested in helping us secure some more locations and organizing the community to get involved. More exciting is that she's agreed to play Katie, the psychic.
At this point we're still on track for the end of July/first week of August shoot. I'll go out again in a couple weeks to nail down the rest of the locations and deal with other logistical issues. The weekend of the 17th we'll do a podcast of the novella and, if it all comes together, throw a party to celebrate the completion of last MONGREL COLLECTIVE movie (DIRTY RED HANDS) and to shoot the rave scenes of SPIRITEUR. I'll keep you informed on this blog what's happening with that party and if you come to it you'll BE in SPIRITEUR. Won't that be fun!
RED HANDS DIARY
HAS officially moved to
www.dirtyredhands.com
check out the new posts and watch the movie there!
www.dirtyredhands.com
check out the new posts and watch the movie there!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Red Hands Diary
Once again the members of Dirty Red Hands met at Neti's to check out rough cuts of episodes of Dirty Red Hands. Hector was unable to show up so we didn't get to see the full length rough cut he'd promised.
Because I'm a very impatient person and I feel that this project should have been wrapped up by now, last week I brought Khoren Mirzakhanian, who's this wonderkid post production hot shot to come up with another version of DRH and we watched the cool shit he's edited and cooked up. Good stuff.
Neshia has agreed to be our party promoter club wrangler because I suck at that shit. At this point we're planning one of our premiers for the middle of July.
We are also very lucky that the extremely cool and talented Sylvan has agreed do some composition for DRH. His stuff is very exciting and he speaks with a suave French accent. Check out his work:
http://www.musicbysylvan.com/
Oh, right, and at the meeting I tried to sell the idea of having subtitles for some of the scenes in DRH when we were shooting in environments that shredded our sound. I truly believe that if you look at current docs and a few of the more progressive directors (David Lynch, Tony Scott, anyone who's Brazilian), you will see that subtitles are not only very sexy but also completely accepted as par for course in this new world of digital story-telling, when you can't always control your sound. The other members of the collective thought very differently (despite my stunning Breathless analogy and other pretentious grandstanding postulations), and that's what's cool about a collective, everyone, from the actors to the directors to the editors and composers, everyone gets to contribute and be heard. I certainly heard them and now we're doing an ADR (sound looping) session at the end of the month. I of course hope that it all gets fucked up and we'll be forced to go in the subtitle direction, but unfortunately for me everyone on this project is so professional and talented that they'll probably come up with amazing stuff and we'll end up having really pristine dialogue in those scenes. And that's totally cool too.
Also I think I offended everyone when I suggested that we sell smelly "collectable" t-shirts and thongs emblazoned with the DRH art that we'd personally worn for a while and not washed. It's okay, I'm sure Picasso has similar marketing ideas which weren't understood in his time either.
As soon as Khoren has episodes locked we'll start putting them up on our new website:
http://www.dirtyredhands.com
This blog should be viewable over there too... Actually I'm sure how that transition will work. I'll keep you posted. Oh, right, and I've got my podcasting gear which I'm learning how to use so there will be podcasts of behind the scenes Dirty Red Hands action available.
Hector's incredibly cool cut should also be up on the website when he's done with it, along with Ed's director's cut of the original (non guerrilla) budgeted RED HANDS, of which we still need about $40,ooo to complete. If you are an investor and you watch Ed's director's cuts, beware, your checkbook will start writing itself!
Because I'm a very impatient person and I feel that this project should have been wrapped up by now, last week I brought Khoren Mirzakhanian, who's this wonderkid post production hot shot to come up with another version of DRH and we watched the cool shit he's edited and cooked up. Good stuff.
Neshia has agreed to be our party promoter club wrangler because I suck at that shit. At this point we're planning one of our premiers for the middle of July.
We are also very lucky that the extremely cool and talented Sylvan has agreed do some composition for DRH. His stuff is very exciting and he speaks with a suave French accent. Check out his work:
http://www.musicbysylvan.com/
Oh, right, and at the meeting I tried to sell the idea of having subtitles for some of the scenes in DRH when we were shooting in environments that shredded our sound. I truly believe that if you look at current docs and a few of the more progressive directors (David Lynch, Tony Scott, anyone who's Brazilian), you will see that subtitles are not only very sexy but also completely accepted as par for course in this new world of digital story-telling, when you can't always control your sound. The other members of the collective thought very differently (despite my stunning Breathless analogy and other pretentious grandstanding postulations), and that's what's cool about a collective, everyone, from the actors to the directors to the editors and composers, everyone gets to contribute and be heard. I certainly heard them and now we're doing an ADR (sound looping) session at the end of the month. I of course hope that it all gets fucked up and we'll be forced to go in the subtitle direction, but unfortunately for me everyone on this project is so professional and talented that they'll probably come up with amazing stuff and we'll end up having really pristine dialogue in those scenes. And that's totally cool too.
Also I think I offended everyone when I suggested that we sell smelly "collectable" t-shirts and thongs emblazoned with the DRH art that we'd personally worn for a while and not washed. It's okay, I'm sure Picasso has similar marketing ideas which weren't understood in his time either.
As soon as Khoren has episodes locked we'll start putting them up on our new website:
http://www.dirtyredhands.com
This blog should be viewable over there too... Actually I'm sure how that transition will work. I'll keep you posted. Oh, right, and I've got my podcasting gear which I'm learning how to use so there will be podcasts of behind the scenes Dirty Red Hands action available.
Hector's incredibly cool cut should also be up on the website when he's done with it, along with Ed's director's cut of the original (non guerrilla) budgeted RED HANDS, of which we still need about $40,ooo to complete. If you are an investor and you watch Ed's director's cuts, beware, your checkbook will start writing itself!
IN YOUR FACE - end notes
Last week, in reaction to what I saw as the potentially lethal growing virus of bland mediocrity, also known as the FACEBOOK WALL, I launched an investigative performance real-time project called IN YOUR FACE.
For forty-eight hours I responded to the really stupid and what I saw as completely useless entries with what I felt to be honest, insightful, and challenging feedback. I did this in an effort to try to break people out of their FACEBOOK orbit and hopefully elicit a more meaningful exchange that would further investigate what FACEBOOK is really about as a technology of communication (and not just a "social networking" site, which really doesn't mean anything if you think about it for more than three seconds).
Here are the results.
With the exception of Susan Johnson (who admitted that she had written a worthless comment and then encouraged me to vote on the Netflix Find Your Voice contest, which I did) the replies to my reply were either extremely hostile and inarticulate, or articulate and just as banal as the original comments made by the users.
After my first volley of comments I avoided using FACEBOOK for the rest of the forty-eight hours, and did not read any of the replies to my replies which were forwarded to my GMail account. I avoided FACEBOOK because I felt ashamed, and I didn't read any of the re-response comments because I was embarrassed and felt as though anything I re-re-re-responded wouldn't be of any use or further any sort of meaningful exchange.
Conclusions: I was surprised with how upset people seemed to get when I told them their wall comments were boring and useless. The reactions I read seemed to indicate that people, when they comment about how they've just watched Battlestar Gallactica, or bought a latte, really have a lot of emotion invested. My impression of FACEBOOK was that it's mostly a diversion, a waste of time, and the comments people make are either to promote something or just fill in the void so they can feel that they are "connecting" to something greater than themselves in real time. I now feel that things are much worse. It seems that FACEBOOK is being appropriated for a huge ego interface, that commenting on the buying of latte is actually signifying a real world weight of existence that goes beyond the mere checking in and checking out that the "social networking" site was designed for. In the real world you would never make these comments to your friends, or if you did you would make them without any sort of emotional/identity affirming expectations. It looks as though however in the artificially removed world of FACEBOOK, the banal is really transmuting into something much more powerful.
To dumb it down, it looks like really boring people are making really boring posts to try to either rationalize or transcend their own boring natures. Fascinating. Essentially I was wrong with my assumption that I could challenge and agitate people into a "more meaningful" exchange. There perhaps isn't a conservative social rules-of-manners at play on this site. What you see, is what you get, and that fact that it really isn't much could in fact be the "more meaningful" truth behind actual real world social interactions.
What I've learned from this performance project is that I'll be avoiding FACEBOOK as much as possible. It's too real, too direct. I think I need the rose colored glasses and glamour of real life interactions. I'll still try to promote mmmmmongrel because, why not, it's free. As far as the question of trolling, the question of whether or not the definition of trolling of inaccurate and that maybe Internet trolls are much more useful and positive and important to the world of the web -- I'm still not sure. This will have to be explored in a future project. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. If not I'll put on my thinking cap and let you all know when I've come up with something.
For forty-eight hours I responded to the really stupid and what I saw as completely useless entries with what I felt to be honest, insightful, and challenging feedback. I did this in an effort to try to break people out of their FACEBOOK orbit and hopefully elicit a more meaningful exchange that would further investigate what FACEBOOK is really about as a technology of communication (and not just a "social networking" site, which really doesn't mean anything if you think about it for more than three seconds).
Here are the results.
With the exception of Susan Johnson (who admitted that she had written a worthless comment and then encouraged me to vote on the Netflix Find Your Voice contest, which I did) the replies to my reply were either extremely hostile and inarticulate, or articulate and just as banal as the original comments made by the users.
After my first volley of comments I avoided using FACEBOOK for the rest of the forty-eight hours, and did not read any of the replies to my replies which were forwarded to my GMail account. I avoided FACEBOOK because I felt ashamed, and I didn't read any of the re-response comments because I was embarrassed and felt as though anything I re-re-re-responded wouldn't be of any use or further any sort of meaningful exchange.
Conclusions: I was surprised with how upset people seemed to get when I told them their wall comments were boring and useless. The reactions I read seemed to indicate that people, when they comment about how they've just watched Battlestar Gallactica, or bought a latte, really have a lot of emotion invested. My impression of FACEBOOK was that it's mostly a diversion, a waste of time, and the comments people make are either to promote something or just fill in the void so they can feel that they are "connecting" to something greater than themselves in real time. I now feel that things are much worse. It seems that FACEBOOK is being appropriated for a huge ego interface, that commenting on the buying of latte is actually signifying a real world weight of existence that goes beyond the mere checking in and checking out that the "social networking" site was designed for. In the real world you would never make these comments to your friends, or if you did you would make them without any sort of emotional/identity affirming expectations. It looks as though however in the artificially removed world of FACEBOOK, the banal is really transmuting into something much more powerful.
To dumb it down, it looks like really boring people are making really boring posts to try to either rationalize or transcend their own boring natures. Fascinating. Essentially I was wrong with my assumption that I could challenge and agitate people into a "more meaningful" exchange. There perhaps isn't a conservative social rules-of-manners at play on this site. What you see, is what you get, and that fact that it really isn't much could in fact be the "more meaningful" truth behind actual real world social interactions.
What I've learned from this performance project is that I'll be avoiding FACEBOOK as much as possible. It's too real, too direct. I think I need the rose colored glasses and glamour of real life interactions. I'll still try to promote mmmmmongrel because, why not, it's free. As far as the question of trolling, the question of whether or not the definition of trolling of inaccurate and that maybe Internet trolls are much more useful and positive and important to the world of the web -- I'm still not sure. This will have to be explored in a future project. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. If not I'll put on my thinking cap and let you all know when I've come up with something.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
"IN YOUR FACE" real-time performance project
Today 6/6/9 at 1:15PM I launched the latest mmmmmongrel project titled, IN YOUR FACE, a real-time performance project interacting with the friend's comments on FACE BOOK. Facebook is fun, but it's also really stupid. People are encouraged to post the most boring and irrelevent shit about their lives and it's somehow, applauded? - is that the right word. It's like despite all this cool and fun technology, people are behaving socially just conservitavily as their grandparents did in the 1950s.
This could be happening for a variety of different reasons and IN YOUR FACE is a project designed to investigate and maybe uncover some buried truths about social interaction, technology, and honesty in general.
It works like this: for forty-eight hours I'll be responding as honestly as I can to the really stupid comments people make on my facebook wall. I'll be cataloguing the responses I get and using this information to come up with a summation, which I'll post here. My prediction is that once you start to tweak the extremely banal veneer of FACEBOOK comments, everything will quickly erode to the most egregious and immature and angry sort of "communication." Does this mean that people are showing their true colors?, or is it just reactive and a form of "socializing" against "trolls." I personally think the whole concept and pigeonholing of internet "trolls" is very atavistic and deeply conservative, and I can't wait to get the results of this very exciting performance project!
This could be happening for a variety of different reasons and IN YOUR FACE is a project designed to investigate and maybe uncover some buried truths about social interaction, technology, and honesty in general.
It works like this: for forty-eight hours I'll be responding as honestly as I can to the really stupid comments people make on my facebook wall. I'll be cataloguing the responses I get and using this information to come up with a summation, which I'll post here. My prediction is that once you start to tweak the extremely banal veneer of FACEBOOK comments, everything will quickly erode to the most egregious and immature and angry sort of "communication." Does this mean that people are showing their true colors?, or is it just reactive and a form of "socializing" against "trolls." I personally think the whole concept and pigeonholing of internet "trolls" is very atavistic and deeply conservative, and I can't wait to get the results of this very exciting performance project!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
Just met with Hector Mata last night and delivered a copy of Spiriteur that I revised to make it work in the desert and with the constraints of a guerrilla (no) budget. He's jazzed. I'm jazzed.
There's a lot of press about a zombie movie at Cannes right now that cost $70 to make, and that means that (like I predicted several years ago) the flood gates to new cinema are officially open. And we're surfing that wave!
We're tentatively slated to start shooting Spiriteur during the first week of August. I can't wait. Now it's time for me to start putting together all the production needs. On that note, I've contacted the fantastic writer and porn star Mae Victoria and she's agreed to collaborate with us and play April, Summer's mother. She really gets the whole philosophy of mmmmmongrel as well as this particular story, and I cannot wait to see how she creates April.
There's a lot of press about a zombie movie at Cannes right now that cost $70 to make, and that means that (like I predicted several years ago) the flood gates to new cinema are officially open. And we're surfing that wave!
We're tentatively slated to start shooting Spiriteur during the first week of August. I can't wait. Now it's time for me to start putting together all the production needs. On that note, I've contacted the fantastic writer and porn star Mae Victoria and she's agreed to collaborate with us and play April, Summer's mother. She really gets the whole philosophy of mmmmmongrel as well as this particular story, and I cannot wait to see how she creates April.
red hands diary
Hector has given the okay to put out the rough cut of Dirty Red Hands, episode 11. It's a rough cut remix, which means the final sound mixing and color correction haven't been done yet. If you want to see it go here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=99187183808&oid=140229615416
This is the future, now. And it's all for you.
The rest of the movie be done by July. Right now we're still forging ahead with the release party. Actually, we've decided to have two, one hopefully at the Silverlake Tavern, which will be the down and dirty party, and the other will be a more refined possibly "garden party" -- cocktails and croquet, that sort of thing.
I'll keep you informed about how it's all shaping up.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
SPIRITEUR diary
So it looks like the new mongrel movie is going to be called SPIRITUER.
It's a post-modern ghost story that I've been working on, on and off since I got out of grad school. It was originally set in Maine, but after going out to the high desert a couple months ago I became inspired to change it to that location.
It's a very disturbing and powerful story, sort of old school b/c there's not blood or gore. But at the same time it's very explicit and new school, especially the way I constructed the narrative.
I sent a draft of the script to the Red Hands gang and based on their reaction I did the rewrites to change the location and scale it down to make it more guerrilla friendly. I'll finish these revisions this weekend and send it out again.
We could do shoot it in about a week up in Joshua Tree and Palm Desert, for about a grand, if we play it smart. Looks like most of the gang is interested.
I'm very interested. This is a story I've been trying to tell for a while. It looks like the lonely ghost is finally getting born...
It's a post-modern ghost story that I've been working on, on and off since I got out of grad school. It was originally set in Maine, but after going out to the high desert a couple months ago I became inspired to change it to that location.
It's a very disturbing and powerful story, sort of old school b/c there's not blood or gore. But at the same time it's very explicit and new school, especially the way I constructed the narrative.
I sent a draft of the script to the Red Hands gang and based on their reaction I did the rewrites to change the location and scale it down to make it more guerrilla friendly. I'll finish these revisions this weekend and send it out again.
We could do shoot it in about a week up in Joshua Tree and Palm Desert, for about a grand, if we play it smart. Looks like most of the gang is interested.
I'm very interested. This is a story I've been trying to tell for a while. It looks like the lonely ghost is finally getting born...
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Last Friday the cast and crew of Dirty Red Hands met at Neti's place to watch what Hector's assembled so far. Groovy shit. Hector has taken the material in a VERY Kar Wai Wong direction. I don't personally like Wong that much, but that's because I think he's a suck-ass writer. Seeing as how I know I'm not, I'm extremely interested to see what Hector does with his editing of the rest of the movie. Just to make sure he stays on track I made him promise not to go off the deep end into Maya Deren territory (we aren't making a wine and cheese movie, we're making a popcorn and Guinness movie). I also am trying to force him to watch Performance and
Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages to keep him on track.
During the screening I dumped a new script on the gang. It's a post-modern ghost story I've written called at this point SPIRITEUR (based on a novella I'm also thinking of turning into a podcast). I want to shoot it in the high desert. Really weird, creepy stuff. So far, no one really seems to like it except me. We'll see what the gang's reaction is.
After the screening we went to check out the
HYPERION TAVERN
where I want to have the soft opening of Dirty Red Hands. They seem interested in hosting us on a Friday like the first week of June or so. I'll go back next week with some footage to blow them away and finalize the deal. It'll go great and then I'm also putting together a hard opening later on in the month at this club in downtown. Groovy.
Meanwhile I continue to do Hollywood projects to try to raise the money we need to finish the traditional shoot of RED HANDS. Just finished a treatment with my Hollywood writing partner Bryn Mooser. It was commissioned by Billy Zane and this African prince. This Nollywood crossover project. I'm really happy with what we turned in - it's like Coming to America meets The Blues Brothers, meets Midnight Run. Right. Should find out in a couple of weeks if we're going ahead with it, and if that happens I'll start dumping my salary into RED HANDS, and hopefully SPIRITEUR. As it should be.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
red hands diary
This amazing poster was created by Daniel Van Thomas, who also is playing the AGENT in DIRTY RED HANDS. I'm so blown away by his talent and so pleased he's involved with this project. If you want to work with him you better put extra zinc on your lips when you kiss his ass because this kid is HOT.
What else... Neshia is hooking it up with the promoters for the party the first week of June... Hector is busy editing a rough cut so we can have something to look at during our cast and crew viewing party next week - where we're also going to final the LLC for this pretty little baby... Looks like we might need to a little more pick ups and re-shoots than originally planned - I think when everyone sees the amazing shit we've got so far they'll be more than into it... Oh right, and it looks like I might be able to get funding for the traditional version of Red Hands through the Prince of Nigeria. No, I'm not kidding. More on this later, if it ends up developing the way I think it might.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Red Hands DIARY
Yesterday I met with the always fabulous Neshia Brathwaite Farhangi (in the photo on the left - photo by RanRefael.com) who plays the PAROLE OFFICER in DIRTY RED HANDS to talk about putting together the upcoming party. She's got connections with promoter who could potentially really help us blow something up and have fun and get the word out there.
The party is a critical part of this "new model" process. As I was explaining and pontificating and generally hyperventilating to Neshia, the old model of selling a movie basically consists of spending TONS of money of famous actors and marketing. The actors really sell your movie; people see the name and want to see more. With the marketing you blitze out the country with your actors on billboards and TV and print and everywhere else, hoping to suck people in. Most people will go for the stars, and then you'll get the smaller amount who might dig the story, or aspects of it. This is why Hollywood movies are so goddamn generic - you want to try to cast as big a net as possible. They call it shit like "universal themes" and "accessibility". There are boring and stupid people out there who actually believe them.
With Red Hands we're not attempting any of this. This is not a STAR or traditionally MARKETED PRODUCT. Those of you who've read some of the other recent posts understand that there really isn't any traditional product being presented here at all.
So, parties are crucial. Get people together and get them liquored up and get them thinking and talking and getting excited about what we're doing. We'll show footage, or maybe even the whole guerrilla cut at the next one. This is an experience. I used to security at a nightclub to be unnamed back in Boston (for those of you in the Boston know here's a hint, in 1997 it was voted by the Herald as Boston's #1 most cultural-free zone), and never understood why everything always revolves around music and dance (and maybe some fashion) at these places. It just plain makes sense to do, because I'm already following the whole independent music model... Because I'm a film geek, I've always wanted a club I could go to where movies were the main performers. The idea is get things seriously started with this next party, and then keep it going as a monthly or bi-monthly event.
Why try to take over the whole world? If we can get enough people interested in what we're doing here in L.A. we'll have a base that'll nicely explode out on the internet and eventually provide us with money (through t-shirt and special edition DVDS and other fun shit) to keep making these cool movies, and eventually even provide full time work for those who want it. Don't be greedy. Keep your fantasies in check. Why would anyone who's a real artist want anything different?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Red Hands DIARY
I was talking with my buddy Everett Stillwell, the gonzo film critic, about Mongrel and what we're proving with RED HANDS and DIRTY RED HANDS, and he was trying to wrap his brain around it and luckily for the rest of you I was recording the whole thing on my digital recorder (podcasts are in the works, btw):
ME: I think everyone understands that the old model has broken for years, and now it's really BROKEN.
E.S.: You mean with regards to making movies...
ME: Making movies, writing books, making music, like basically anything which can be recorded digitally. All that shit. See, now that you can record everything with little ones and zeros, there's no product anymore. There's nothing you can sell. Anything you create can be instantly duplicated and downloaded, and you can play the game and try to protect it, but why bother? It doesn't exist anymore. There's no artifact.
E.S.: SO... What is there?
ME: There's experience. That's all we have left. Experience, and then of course the t-shirt you make to commemorate the experience, which itself is a copy and just falls apart after like four or five washings. It's mono no aware for the twenty-first century.
E.S.: What's that?
ME: Mono no aware is the foundation of Japanese art and philosophy. Everything is temporary, that's what makes it so sad and so vital and beautiful. The tech has finally caught up to this wisdom, proving its truth.
E.S.: I'm lost.
ME: Exactly. There's nothing to hold onto anymore.
E.S.: So what are we left with?
ME: We're left with the campfire. We're left huddling around the campfire telling stories. Stories, with different narratives attached to them. Take what we're doing with DIRTY RED HANDS. We are proving that the auteur theory is for shit. There is a story, DIRTY RED HANDS, and there are narrative interpretations of that story, we've got different director's cuts coming out, but there is not one singular "authentic" version of this story. We are also interested in having all the footage that we shot available for anyone to download and create their own narrative with. No one has ever done anything like this. Instead of trying to control and manipulate and hold on, we are respecting the campfire and the story, and the experience.
E.S.: And why exactly are you doing this?
ME: Because this is honesty. This is what you have to do if you are a 21st century creative communicator. Deny it all you want. Hide behind your castles of ego and greed. Cling to your old art and collect your paintings and other artifacts, and tell yourself you have something. You have nothing. You have dust. You have nothing but yourself and your experiences. We are trying to show you that. This is just as much your story as it is ours. This is what's real. This is all for you.
E.S.: But at the same time you're trying to sell this shit; you're trying to make money...
ME: Of course, that's why God created deluxe special collector's editions. That's why God created t-shirts.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
RED HANDS diary
I was looking over some of the more recent posts and I don't think I've done a very good job of being clear on just exactly how revolutionary this project is.
I think one of the major reasons RED HANDS and DIRTY RED HANDS have been so successful is that all the players involved have all agreed on this new mindset for making movies. Collaboration. It's a word that gets thrown around a lot, but with this project it's real.
Everyone involved has been treated like an equal, because we all are. In Hollywood there's this weird hierarchy of the director and the producer. People will tell you that these guys have to be in charge because otherwise everything falls apart. I have no idea why this is valid. Maybe it's because of the French and their promotion of the auteur theory, which I think is total bullshit. It's pretty adolescent if you think about it. You could just as easily shape cinema around editors or production designers, or any of the key players. Whatever. With this project everyone understood what they were doing and were respectful to let the other people do their art. I've been the community organizer, but I'm no more the leader than anyone else.
I remember talking to one of our directors and trying to explain to him that he could do whatever he wanted with the footage once the shoot was over. Anyone can. We respect each other and share and give credit. Why does there only have to be one signature? We're a community and we're creating community property. This isn't communism, it's rationality and respect for the current technology. This is the new paradigm.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
RED HANDS diary
More on the shoot.
I have been learning lots about being a line producer, and I think the biggest thing I've learned is that at this point I don't have the discipline to be a good line producer. The line producer, or production coordinator's job is to organize everything and make sure while the shoot is in progress that everything's going smoothly. Actually to be fair to myself, I was sort of doing both line producing and director's assistant work.
My biggest problem is that I get so into watching the actors create the world of my script that I lose track of my other responsibilities. And since I get so excited, I end up drinking too much booze, which further complicates matters. Maybe I should cut the booze out when I'm doing this stuff. Hmmm.
I think despite these issues things still came out okay. We got the footage we wanted and everyone seemed really into it. The real trick to producing something I've learned is to basically know the story and hire the right people for it, and then let them do their thing without much bullshit interference. For this story I knew I wanted outsiders who were hungry and dangerously artistic. Once all the players were in place it was a joy to watch them do what they do best.
Oh, right, and the producer really needs to make sure people are constantly eating donuts. Fuck craft services. Keep your actors and crew in donuts and that's most of the deal right there.
Currently my air conditioning is broken and with this heatwave it's hard for me to think too clearly so I'll have to save recounting the highlights of the second half of the shoot for a future post.
Monday, April 20, 2009
RED HANDS diary
It's done. We've shot the guerrilla version of Red Hands, known now as Dirty Reds. What an amazing experience. All we have to do now are some pick ups and then edit it. Once that's done we'll have a big party at some cool club either in Hollywood or Echo Park. Depending on what the directors decide we also may release footage onto the net to let people come up with their own versions. All this will be happening very soon. As soon as I'm more rested I'll probably post here about some highlights from the second half of the shoot.
RED HANDS diary
How to make a feature movie in 6 days for $500 with a 4 man crew.
1) come up with an idea which is too weird and too small
2) show this idea to your manager at the Pitt Group to confirm that it's too weird and too small
3) fire your manager because you no longer need his expertise
4) use craiglist to post an ad asking for visionary movie-makers and actors to come together to take advantage of new technology to create a fresh paradigm of movie making and distribution
5) meet with people who respond at the Big Foot Lodge in Atwater, because the atmosphere is very David Lynch, which creates the correct mojo
6) explain to everyone that there is no pay for this project and that whatever footage gets created becomes community property
7) shoot the movie using the "environment" methodology (i.e., instead of imposing a singular artificial vision upon an environment, use real world locations to further conceptualize the narrative
8) post pictures from the shoot onto your blog and let people know when and where they can see the movie, once it's done being edited
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
MONGREL PARTY #2
(PLEASE NOTE: to see more work by the amazing photographer who took these pics please go to ranrefael.com)
I was so into writing about the DIRTY RED HANDS shoot that I forgot to mention that we had our official MONGREL party #2 last Friday.
The purpose of these parties is to raise awareness about alternative methods of creating movies, music and books, and to also give mongrels a chance to hang out and freak off each other. Mongrel party #2 was highly successful in both regards.
Ed Joyce, the director of RED HANDS, and myself showed the rival footage of RED HANDS we'd cut and then I just gave up - originally I was going to arm wrestle him to see who's version made it into the final cut, but Ed's was so amazing that there was no point in getting physical. Hopefully he'll have it done soon so we can post it and you can have a look.
Then there was the jello wrestling. I've never been to a jello wrestling event before so I was surprised by how technical it really is.
Netahly Leddel
The very talented actress playing DALL in RED HANDS and DIRTY RED HANDS (who also hosted this gracious event) was the ref and got pulled into the jello herself and had to beat her way out.We are planning MONGREL party #3 in Venice to coincide with this new mongrel movie-project me and Bryn Mooser are putting together, and then MONGREL party #4 for the end of MAY, to be hopefully held at the ECHO, where we will be celebrating and showing DIRTY RED HANDS and having a very mongrel time. Hope to see you there!
Red Hands Diary
We finished shooting the first half of DIRTY RED HANDS yesterday. I think everything went really, really well. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I was helping with the boom mic and doing extra producer duties, like wrangling the bar in downtown LA's skidrow, where we shot episode 4 (see the RED HANDS "traditional" version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYZ25di2SvI).
I went to the bar when it opened at 6AM and had much hope but no real idea if they'd let us shoot there. The experience we'd had on the city bus the night before went so well that it almost seemed like things would have to not work, just to keep the whole guerrilla cosmic balance in check.
The very friendly bartender told us we'd have to wait until 9:30AM to speak with the manager. He arrived a little after 8 and told me it was okay with him as long as we didn't bother the customers and if we did bother them to buy them a picher of beer. I bought drinks for everyone in the bar and we shot like crazy until the manager started pressuring us to get the hell out. I bought another round for everyone and then hung with the regulars, having great discussions about David Lynch and Charles Bukowski. In particular there was one very cool muscian I met there named Derrick Estrada (check out myspace.com/baseck) who I'm going to talk more with and maybe have him help collaborate some on the DIRTY RED HANDS soundtrack.
In the afternoon we shot the killing of ART episode in my garage. At this point I was completely spent. I'm not a very good producer and I'm thankful that Hector and Ed, our directors, and Steve, our actor playing the twins ART and GUY, were so professional and together, because I was not. When we resume the shooting of the traditionald RED HANDS I have to find a line producer we can afford, because at this point, with my day job as a high school English teacher, it's just too much for me to do well.
Next Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we will be shooting the rest of DIRTY RED HANDS, and should have footage of the stuff we've done already up on the web by this Friday. I'll keep you posted.
I went to the bar when it opened at 6AM and had much hope but no real idea if they'd let us shoot there. The experience we'd had on the city bus the night before went so well that it almost seemed like things would have to not work, just to keep the whole guerrilla cosmic balance in check.
The very friendly bartender told us we'd have to wait until 9:30AM to speak with the manager. He arrived a little after 8 and told me it was okay with him as long as we didn't bother the customers and if we did bother them to buy them a picher of beer. I bought drinks for everyone in the bar and we shot like crazy until the manager started pressuring us to get the hell out. I bought another round for everyone and then hung with the regulars, having great discussions about David Lynch and Charles Bukowski. In particular there was one very cool muscian I met there named Derrick Estrada (check out myspace.com/baseck) who I'm going to talk more with and maybe have him help collaborate some on the DIRTY RED HANDS soundtrack.
In the afternoon we shot the killing of ART episode in my garage. At this point I was completely spent. I'm not a very good producer and I'm thankful that Hector and Ed, our directors, and Steve, our actor playing the twins ART and GUY, were so professional and together, because I was not. When we resume the shooting of the traditionald RED HANDS I have to find a line producer we can afford, because at this point, with my day job as a high school English teacher, it's just too much for me to do well.
Next Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we will be shooting the rest of DIRTY RED HANDS, and should have footage of the stuff we've done already up on the web by this Friday. I'll keep you posted.
RED HANDS diary
DIRTY RED HANDS PRODUCTION - DAY TWO
This was last Sunday. Hector Mata joined Ed as co-director and I was really impressed with the way they instantly started working together. Hector is this really cool fine art/documentary/hip artist/and everything else guy (see his webpage: www.hectormata.com) and we're delighted that he agreed to join us on this project.
Remember: guerrilla movie-making on this project means NOTHING IS PAID for except food. All the actors, and the directors and producers and sound magicians are working for free because they believe in what they're doing and are interested in showing the world that you CAN make a cool movie using this alternative approach.
Damon Evans came on board and joined us to play GARCIA, the blackmailing insurance adjuster with a straight razor up his sleeve. Great stuff, and I look forward to working with him again.
After we shot our big action scene we took the shoot onto an LA city bus. This was tricky: we had two scenes to shoot on a crowded bus during rush hour and no one on the bus, including the driver had any idea who we were and what we were doing. I followed in my car and I kept expecting the team to get kicked off. I did a terrible job and now know I could never make it as a private detective; at one point in Beverly Hills I was in front of the bus in the bus-only lane. We were not kicked off and the crew road halfway across town from Santa Monica to West Hollywood. Amazingly we got everything we wanted and I guess there were crazy people who joined in the art-making. Again, I am so impressed with our actors and directors and sound magician and I can't wait to see the results!
red hands diary
Wow, I feel like I just stepped out of a tornado directed by Julian Temple! So much to report and where to begin.
Saturday we started shooting the all guerrilla version of RED HANDS which I'm calling DIRTY RED HANDS (works on a couple levels). We shot at one of the producer's apartment in Santa Monica. Lots of time was spent doing set decoration to make it really gritty and I think we created a truly magnificent place for the actors to really get into their art. For this guerrilla project I am producing, to save money, and also because even though I try to fight, that looks to be a direction I'm headed in if I want to keep doing these sorts of movies. The first day of shooting went really well. Nety and Myles and were absolutely amazing. They had two very intensely emotional scenes that they nailed. Nety in particular had to do an enormous amount of heavy psych-sexual-emotional lifting, and she really came true. You will be amazed when you see the results. Ed was working with our new sound magician, Paul Buck, and they were on it and focused.
In the afternoon Less Mahoney came by to play the OLD MAN and completely saved our lives. He agreed to come in at the very last minute our original actor for the OLD MAN had to decline due to other commitments. Less was so professional and did a fantastic job for what will become the first episode of the movie. My only regret is that I didn't get any pictures of him since the space they were shooting in was so tight. However, PLEASE go to his website and check out this super cool actor: www.lesmahoney.com
Saturday, April 4, 2009
RED HANDS diary
Lot of stuff going on. Been so busy I haven't had time to bring everyone out there up to speed. Basically, it looks like we'll have the money to finish RED HANDS by the end of April, or then sometime in August.
Dandy.
But, I hate waiting for anything, so I've decided to shoot an all guerrilla version of RED HANDS called DIRTY RED HANDS. Have invited another director to jump on board. The cast will be the same except for J. Arthur Sunday who has chosen to sit this round out. We're scheduled to shoot from the 11th of this month to the 18th.
Naturally, I've gotten sick again. What else? I've found this amazing location downtown. Basically we'll be renting a room in this crackwhore hotel and shooting until we get arrested, or our cameras get taken away. Every location and shot will be stolen. We are paying for nothing, except some food. This version of the movie will look extremely different, and I think will be the BREATHLESS of the 21st century. I'm producing, since it looks like Kim Bastyr has gone on to other projects. That's okay - I knew it was bound to happen eventually.
Tomorrow the "team" is meeting at Bukowski bar in the area we'll be descending upon. We'll talk about strategy and technique. At the very least this guerrilla shoot will give the cast and crew a chance to practice for the more traditional shoot later on. I of course, think we'll also make an amazing movie.
I'll keep you posted.
Dandy.
But, I hate waiting for anything, so I've decided to shoot an all guerrilla version of RED HANDS called DIRTY RED HANDS. Have invited another director to jump on board. The cast will be the same except for J. Arthur Sunday who has chosen to sit this round out. We're scheduled to shoot from the 11th of this month to the 18th.
Naturally, I've gotten sick again. What else? I've found this amazing location downtown. Basically we'll be renting a room in this crackwhore hotel and shooting until we get arrested, or our cameras get taken away. Every location and shot will be stolen. We are paying for nothing, except some food. This version of the movie will look extremely different, and I think will be the BREATHLESS of the 21st century. I'm producing, since it looks like Kim Bastyr has gone on to other projects. That's okay - I knew it was bound to happen eventually.
Tomorrow the "team" is meeting at Bukowski bar in the area we'll be descending upon. We'll talk about strategy and technique. At the very least this guerrilla shoot will give the cast and crew a chance to practice for the more traditional shoot later on. I of course, think we'll also make an amazing movie.
I'll keep you posted.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Book Club #16 Update
For those of you who don't know, Mongrel isn't just about cool progressive HD cinema, we're also very interested in literature, and music, and basically anything that has anything to do with art and communication and outsiders and absurdity (theater of the absurd).
Literature is changing, like everything else. It's been changing for a while, but most people don't know that because they've remained enslaved by the walls of academia and mass market publishing. With the internet, thank goodness, these walls have crumbled. Comic books, genre books, cult books, true crime, memoirs. The playing field is so much less vertical and more horizontal - the way it should be. Good writing is stimulating and challenging and entertaining - doesn't matter what the forms or formulas or journals say. Because of the internet, and sharing and community people are now forced to think for themselves and be proactive about what their aesthetic/intellectual/sensual jujus really are.
The book in paper form isn't dead, yet. It's still great technology that hasn't been much improved on. At Mongrel we read books and we share ideas and we talk. This is the Mongrel bookclub. We've been doing it for over a year and half. We pick outsider writers who are cool and controversial. We meet about once a month and talk shit and usually drink stout, or hard cider, or beer, or whatever. Anyone can join the group at anytime for any reason. Past members have been actors, writers, artists, teachers, and psychobilly musicians. I love this group because I always come away with insights and inspiration I totally would not get if I was just reading and drinking stout in my office and talking to my wall.
This month we're reading Valis by Philip K. Dick. We'll be meeting around the first week of April at the Barbarella Bar in L.A. Yes, I know, L.A. - people do actually read in L.A. For those of you who live outside the center of the center, we're trying to set up a videopodcast and encourage those in the sticks to read and post comments. This is fun and it's free and it's all for you.
Please post a comment if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.
Literature is changing, like everything else. It's been changing for a while, but most people don't know that because they've remained enslaved by the walls of academia and mass market publishing. With the internet, thank goodness, these walls have crumbled. Comic books, genre books, cult books, true crime, memoirs. The playing field is so much less vertical and more horizontal - the way it should be. Good writing is stimulating and challenging and entertaining - doesn't matter what the forms or formulas or journals say. Because of the internet, and sharing and community people are now forced to think for themselves and be proactive about what their aesthetic/intellectual/sensual jujus really are.
The book in paper form isn't dead, yet. It's still great technology that hasn't been much improved on. At Mongrel we read books and we share ideas and we talk. This is the Mongrel bookclub. We've been doing it for over a year and half. We pick outsider writers who are cool and controversial. We meet about once a month and talk shit and usually drink stout, or hard cider, or beer, or whatever. Anyone can join the group at anytime for any reason. Past members have been actors, writers, artists, teachers, and psychobilly musicians. I love this group because I always come away with insights and inspiration I totally would not get if I was just reading and drinking stout in my office and talking to my wall.
This month we're reading Valis by Philip K. Dick. We'll be meeting around the first week of April at the Barbarella Bar in L.A. Yes, I know, L.A. - people do actually read in L.A. For those of you who live outside the center of the center, we're trying to set up a videopodcast and encourage those in the sticks to read and post comments. This is fun and it's free and it's all for you.
Please post a comment if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Red HANDS DIARY
Did the party at the location. Was perfect. Most of the cast and crew showed. Lots of other cool people arrived, thanks to our amazing AD. The location is like the Disneyland that exists in my mind. I got to see the basement -- I didn't even know basements existed in L.A. county. People were rowdy and drinks were spilled.
Ed, our director, has his own version of our first two scenes that he's cooking up and he's convinced they're like a million times better than what our editor Bob and me came up with. Ha! As if. I challenged him to a smackdown and like a fool he agreed. In about a month we're gonna hit some night spot over on the Westside of L.A. and show both versions and get in a fist fight and let the assembled mongrels and civs vote to decide what they like better. Should be a hoot. I'll also unvail the next Mongrel Movie Project which will be really cool and fun and most important FREE; something to tide us over until we get the cash to finish Red Hands.
If you missed this first party you really don't wanna miss the second, or the third, or the...
Saturday, February 28, 2009
red hands diary
Having the first Mongrel party tomorrow night at the amazing location where we shot the first two episodes of Red Hands. It's pretty out of the way and I don't expect turn out to be great, but I do feel like it has to be at this location. There's just too much mojo not to. It'll be a good symbolic kick off. Hopefully the photographer will be there and maybe we'll even get some video footage. And of course it'll be great to watch everyone watch the episodes.
Three thousand per episode. This is what I think it really has to be. Kim came up with a budget for the rest of the shoot that's around eighty-grand. That's too much. If we get blessed with winning one of the contests I've entered, or get alterna blessed with a deep-pocketed investor then, like, no problem. If I have to go around raising the rest of the money myself and being totally grass roots then we have to think much smaller. Shit, I'm working for free. Ed's working for free. This isn't about work=$, this is about something else. That's the mindset. It will get figured out amongst the tribe.
It looks like I'm going to Maine to do a seminar on outlaw moviemaking in April. This is cool. I'll be at a very hip little college, and if I can get students interested I also want to make a group-movie that night with their equipment. I was telling all this to my new Hollywood writing partner and he suggested I do similar stuff out here. Why didn't I think of that. Environmental moviemaking in L.A. Right now I'm thinking I'll try stuff out in Maine and then come back here and play with what I've learned.
Speaking of Hollywood, I'm working on a new big horror thriller and will use the money I make if it every gets sold to finish doing Red Hands. How glamorous would that be?
Three thousand per episode. This is what I think it really has to be. Kim came up with a budget for the rest of the shoot that's around eighty-grand. That's too much. If we get blessed with winning one of the contests I've entered, or get alterna blessed with a deep-pocketed investor then, like, no problem. If I have to go around raising the rest of the money myself and being totally grass roots then we have to think much smaller. Shit, I'm working for free. Ed's working for free. This isn't about work=$, this is about something else. That's the mindset. It will get figured out amongst the tribe.
It looks like I'm going to Maine to do a seminar on outlaw moviemaking in April. This is cool. I'll be at a very hip little college, and if I can get students interested I also want to make a group-movie that night with their equipment. I was telling all this to my new Hollywood writing partner and he suggested I do similar stuff out here. Why didn't I think of that. Environmental moviemaking in L.A. Right now I'm thinking I'll try stuff out in Maine and then come back here and play with what I've learned.
Speaking of Hollywood, I'm working on a new big horror thriller and will use the money I make if it every gets sold to finish doing Red Hands. How glamorous would that be?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
RED hands diary
Spent the day over in the dreaded western part of L.A., showing off the amazing footage to friends in Venice and then having drinks with Nial, who suggested that we put together a holding company as the first step to getting shit seriously organized. I like that idea and will now do some research to find out exactly what that means.
For my birthday present this year I bought myself the NUGGETS and CHILDREN OF NUGGETS box sets. They're both blowing my mind. More familiar with the former and it just goes to show you that when you think you've got the whole universe comfortably figured out, if you keep exploring and remaining open you get knocked on your ass. In a good way.
Nuggets is all about the outsider art of garage rock. It's all about how the outside is the way into the core and all that happy nonsense. Really fits with my theory about where cinema is headed, that cinema, because of the tech and internet, is reaching it's "garage rock" stage, as in filmmakers can now make movies for the same price, basically, that musicians in the 60s would have payed for all their gear.
Set up the M O N G R E L group page on facebook. Check it out and join so you'll stay current with all the physical/social manifestations of this art-media-gestalt. Love that people are joining. There's nothing wrong with joining.
For my birthday present this year I bought myself the NUGGETS and CHILDREN OF NUGGETS box sets. They're both blowing my mind. More familiar with the former and it just goes to show you that when you think you've got the whole universe comfortably figured out, if you keep exploring and remaining open you get knocked on your ass. In a good way.
Nuggets is all about the outsider art of garage rock. It's all about how the outside is the way into the core and all that happy nonsense. Really fits with my theory about where cinema is headed, that cinema, because of the tech and internet, is reaching it's "garage rock" stage, as in filmmakers can now make movies for the same price, basically, that musicians in the 60s would have payed for all their gear.
Set up the M O N G R E L group page on facebook. Check it out and join so you'll stay current with all the physical/social manifestations of this art-media-gestalt. Love that people are joining. There's nothing wrong with joining.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Red Hands DIARY
So it's been a few weeks but the Red Hands train is still chug chugging away. Bob is basically done with episode 4 and 11 and a hot little trailer that came as an unexpected happy surprise.
I've applied to the big Netflix contest and explained to them that with $350, 000 we can make 3 movies instead of the one they're supplying the money for. I feel this gives up a little competitive advantage.
I've also just finished applying to this Film Independent Fast Track market thing. Looks promising. If we're picked up then we get to meet lots of rich people who will be blown away by how creative and economical our project is.
Kim has basic production budget for the rest of the shoot and it's just under $80,000 which is double what I wanted. If we get hooked up through these markets and contests I'm entering then it'll be okay, but if we have to go to individual investors we'll have to cut $20,000, which if you think big picture outside the box, model reformation, won't be that hard.
We're planning a viewing party for around March 1st at the place we did all our shooting. It will be the first official Mongrel party and should be really, really fun. Hopefully the start of many more.
I'm playing around with this concept called "environmental movie-making." Basically the opposite of how most movies are made. This would be about working with the environment, instead of against it. Less ego and more community. More idiosyncratic regionalism. Something like that. Cool name at least.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Red HANDS DIARY
Bob has finished cutting a rough pass on episode 11. Looks cool. I gave notes. Basically I don't want this movie to look conventional. Conventional is last years news. Conventional is dead. You can have a movie edited in a progressive exciting way without having it be all arty and self-conscious. I told Bob to check out the first 30 minutes of Killing Zoe, which has some fantastic "one character" editing. Really creates some cool tension and gives the scenes a very tactile feel.
Our director, Ed, doesn't seem to be happy with the choices I've made, and I totally understand that. He came up with some amazing visuals, which I now want to cut back on for the sake of character and perspective. I've suggested we cut a version off my notes and then do one from his. I think it'd be fun to then show both versions at the first official Mongrel party -- to be held at a cool bar in Silverlake -- and have the audience vote on what they respond to more. There are no problems, only opportunities.
If Bob actually watches Killing Zoe, he'll see what I mean and then everyone else will see that my version is the hot hot shit. Bob is moving super fast so I'm sure I'll get to see something again in a couple of days.
Our director, Ed, doesn't seem to be happy with the choices I've made, and I totally understand that. He came up with some amazing visuals, which I now want to cut back on for the sake of character and perspective. I've suggested we cut a version off my notes and then do one from his. I think it'd be fun to then show both versions at the first official Mongrel party -- to be held at a cool bar in Silverlake -- and have the audience vote on what they respond to more. There are no problems, only opportunities.
If Bob actually watches Killing Zoe, he'll see what I mean and then everyone else will see that my version is the hot hot shit. Bob is moving super fast so I'm sure I'll get to see something again in a couple of days.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
red HANDS diary
Bob has all the footage and is working like a motherfucker to get it into shape. He's posting it on a webpage so Ed and I can check it out and make notes. I just saw about two minutes of scene 11 and it's looking good, it's looking real.
Netflix has a contest right now and the first prize is like $300,000 to make a feature. I'm going to send them what we've got and let them know that for that money we can make at least 3 features and they can kiss my ass if they're more interested having more shitty super 16 indy bullshit to fill their warehouses with.
Re-watched Killing Zoe last night. Now there was a movie with balls. So economically shot and edited. Roger Avery I guess is serving life for some drunk driving manslaughter beef. Oh well, at least he got to make Killing Zoe first, a torch Red Hands will proudly grab before it hits the cold wet earth.
Just finished a couple books on Fassbinder and I think I almost understand why I've only liked a couple of his movies. It seems to be a German thing. That's groovy. I really like his appropriation of the old Hollywood studio system, how he twisted it around and used it against big money and stupidity.
Can't wait for the first official Mongrel party, probably the first week of February. Obama is in office, big stupid stores like Circuit City are going out of business, trite local bourgeoisie movie critics like Ella Taylor are getting fired, Sundance is tanking; change is in the wind and it's powering the sails of Red Hands. We're a cinematic pirate ship and if you're not down then walk the fucking plank.
Netflix has a contest right now and the first prize is like $300,000 to make a feature. I'm going to send them what we've got and let them know that for that money we can make at least 3 features and they can kiss my ass if they're more interested having more shitty super 16 indy bullshit to fill their warehouses with.
Re-watched Killing Zoe last night. Now there was a movie with balls. So economically shot and edited. Roger Avery I guess is serving life for some drunk driving manslaughter beef. Oh well, at least he got to make Killing Zoe first, a torch Red Hands will proudly grab before it hits the cold wet earth.
Just finished a couple books on Fassbinder and I think I almost understand why I've only liked a couple of his movies. It seems to be a German thing. That's groovy. I really like his appropriation of the old Hollywood studio system, how he twisted it around and used it against big money and stupidity.
Can't wait for the first official Mongrel party, probably the first week of February. Obama is in office, big stupid stores like Circuit City are going out of business, trite local bourgeoisie movie critics like Ella Taylor are getting fired, Sundance is tanking; change is in the wind and it's powering the sails of Red Hands. We're a cinematic pirate ship and if you're not down then walk the fucking plank.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Red Hands Diary
They used to say, if you build it they will come. Now that the initial shoot of Red Hands is over they will now have to say, if you write and then post an ad on craigslist they will congregate and create cool art.
The production for this movie started with an theory which was tested with an ad in craigslist asking for talented people who were interested in investigating new paradigms to come together. The rest is history, and it's still happening.
The next step is getting all the amazing footage up to Bob, our master editor up in Seattle, and then cutting the episodes together and getting them back down here so we can have a party and further slap each other on the back.
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