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.

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.

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

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.