FILM MAKING RANTS AND A COOL FREEBIE

 

I would first like to thank Rob for making the video that I am presenting to you today. He touched on so many of the problems with movies today. I wish that I could say that he is only correct about studio films, but low budget films and micro budget digital films suffer from the same problems.

Readers of the blog know that I have problems with CGI and the god awful screenwriting that dominate the playing field, but there is so much more and the video below touches on things that I have overlooked.

We need our heroes back. I do not mean another Marvel film. I mean big time film makers. Why is it that most of the truly great thrillers come from places like Korea. Memories of Murder came out almost fifteen years ago. Where are the domestic answers to that kind of film making. We have the basic equipment. We can raise the money. I know that we can craft the screenplays, but they do not get done.

Maybe too many of us are chasing money instead of quality.

Look it, I thought when I started this blog almost five years ago I would be networking with amazing film makers and by this point in history the digital revolution would have changed the industry forever.

Instead too many film makers are either walking away just when they are getting good or dreaming about cashing in at Netflix or Amazon. Allow me to offer up the three F's that you need to consider.

Fuck Netflix, Fuck Amazon and just go out and make some really good Fucking movies.

Okay I am back with my Freebie offer. Today I am giving away ten free copies of my Audiobook on Writing A Low Budget Screenplay. The first ten people who email me at cannonbooks777@gmail.com with a request for a copy will be sent an Audible.com code. Even if you do not have an account there you can use it anyway. This is for those of you who are having problems with crafting a low to micro budget screenplay or just want to improve your screenwriting.

POND 5, BUY AND SELL DIGITAL FOOTAGE

At the moment, the website that has the world’s largest collection of stock footage is no other than Pond5, a marketplace for royalty-free media. This site has become the go-to option for numerous producers of digital media to buy and sell.

A Grand Selection to Increase the Value of Your Content

On Pond5, you will find millions of stock footage, audio, and images that will help stimulate your creativity in different aspects and thus achieve more original content in order to create a greater impact among all of your potential clients. 

The 411 on Pond5

Pond5 emerged in 2006 in New York, as a digital content agency that commercialized royalty-free videos. The success of the company resulted in the extension of its catalog; therefore, it started offering customers photographs, audio, and sound effects, too.

In the year 2013, the company acquired Pixmac and this merger allowed it to considerably increase its repertoire, becoming the biggest in the field. Since it is translated into more than 12-languages, it is visited on a daily basis by individuals from different parts of the globe.

Currently, Pond5 provides digital resources to many of the world's leading brands, including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, ABC, Weather Channel, and even National Geographic. In the network you will be able to find hundreds of agencies that offer audiovisual material.

Positive Review Galore

Ever since it was introduced to the public, Pond5 has been able to obtain numerous positive reviews, which indicates that most of its users have been satisfied with the material that they have obtained from it. Many consumers have highlighted the originality and good quality videos that are present on Pond5, emphasizing that they will continue to utilize its services.

Earn Money on Pond5

As a digital film maker, you cannot only buy footage on Pond5, but you can also sell it. Once you upload all of the creative work you want to sell, you will be able to set your own price, and once it goes live for the world to see, you will be able to earn 50% of each sale. You will be able to sell your work, without selling out!

Other Ways to Make Money on Pond5

If you have a blog or website, you can earn money by helping spread the word about Pond5. You simply have to register on the page and choose a banner to place on your site . . . that’s all! Each of the people who register through your referral link will earn you money. You will receive 5% of the total amount of purchases that each of your referrals has made in a year. If you do not have a blog or website, you can also earn money by recommending Pond5 to your friends and family via email.

Pond5 Keeps Standing out from the Rest

Just by entering the site you will realize that Pond5 provides quality and original content. All the footage is divided into categories, making it easier to search for what you are looking for. If you want your work to be professional, the sound effects must be impeccable and in Pond5 you will find them, from epic, footsteps, fire, explosions, and water sounds . . . whatever sound you want . . . you will more than likely find it on Pond5, which is just another reason what it keeps standing out from the rest.

FILMMAKING, LEARNING IS ABOUT MISTAKES

“I counsel you, put down in record even your doubts and surmises. Hereafter it may be of interest to you to see how true you guess. We learn from failure, not from success.” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula


Before we begin, if there is anyone who wishes to do a guest blog post about a film project that they are working on you can contact me by leaving a comment at the bottom.

Now we are going to look at the learning power of failure. Film making unlike almost any other endeavor, is an exercise in trial and error. You get take after take to get a scene right. Before it was very expensive when film was used, but now with digital cameras and audio recording we can try and try again until perfection is found. The video that I would like to show you was shot around 2011 and the film maker made a ton of mistakes that he is happy to share with us.


  


     
 You as a film maker can help other film makers by recording behind the scenes footage and going over what worked and the mistakes that you learned from. One of the best interviews that I ever did was with a found footage film maker who made the mistake of shooting with multiple cameras and while not using the same frame rate. The editing process turned into a nightmare that took months rather than weeks. Always keep in mind that low-budget filmmaking is about learning a process. It is more difficult than big budget filmmaking because we can not solve every problem that pops up by throwing money at them. This a business where learning is everything. As the technology changes, you should learn and adapt along the way.


Good luck guys and please take a moment to share this post on your google plus.

 

FOUND FOOTAGE, THE STATE OF THE GENRE ADDRESS

 

What qualifies me to give the state of Found Footage film making address? 

Have I ever made one? 

God no.

 Would I make on? 

Sure, but not in the horror genre and not pure found footage. 

Now back to the address. I am qualified because I spend almost an entire year writing a book on the subject. I interview dozens of low budget filmmakers for the book and sat through almost two hundred found footage films. I am a found footage war vet. I am the American Sniper of found footage films. When one is about to come out I get sent trailers and screening passes. I watch the trailers and never go to the screenings. Well until I got a pass for the new Blair Witch. I try my best to encourage film makers and rarely criticize them, but in this case... WHAT THE HELL? Scream, fall down dead and get dragged away. Lucky we have multiple cameras present or else we would not be able to scream, fall down dead and get dragged away some more and more and more and again. We are talking Eat, Sleep, Suplex, repeat.

  

    

  The state of found footage on the big screen comes down to this that during the last three years the only film maker who cracked the code (I am from Philly and have seen the guy) is that legendary waster of movie goers time and studio's money M. Night. Yeah, The Visit points us in a direction that we needed to go if we are going to save this genre for future generation to suffer through. It works because it broke the unwritten rule about death. The leads do not have to die. The kids in that film survive because they behave like human beings, not puppets, when trouble strikes they actual use reason to survive it. I suppose that the lesson from the Visit takes us back to the first Blair witch Project. The movie is character-driven. The kids drive the film in the same way that heather drove the events in The Blair Witch. These two movies also have natural humor. Think about both films and I would bet that you can recall every major character in the films. Can you do that with any other found footage film? Maybe Paranormal activity, but come on there are only two real people in the first movie. Perhaps character driven is the way to go save this genre. 

 
 

  Found footage films are still films. To make a good found footage film you have to go out and make a good film that happens to be found footage. Go found footage only if it enhances the story like in the movie End of Watch. Remember there is also the footage film where no one was harming during the making of the film. With the ability to shoot world class footage with a smartphone the possibilities are endless. To conclude this post I believe that going back into the past to try to copy the success of the Blair Witch Project was a tactical mistake that will hurt the genre in the short term while looking into the past for inspiration in the form of another new film could be part of the answer.  Operation Avalanche.

 

Film School with Werner Herzog and Other Filmmakers

Film School with Werner Herzog and Other Filmmakers

I have mixed emotions about a director who has on many occasions put the lives of his cast and crew at risk. I have mixed emotions about a director who is fond of hiring Klaus Kinski to carry more than one film. His daughter Nastassja would be another story, but Klaus was a talented actor who was under the best of circumstances a lunatic. 

Back to the subject of this digital film making post, Werner Herzog is offering you a chance to learn from the master. You can learn film making from him in a course that he offers. If he is one of your favorite film makers I would jump at the chance to learn from him if I were you. Hitchock use to teach film when he lived in LA. and I would have killed for a chance to sit in his classroom. 

 Let’s first have a look at who this film maker is. 




Now 10 questions for the famous film maker.

Next the trailer for his course. You can find a link to the course by clicking on the trailer.


 

 When I want a master class of film making I watch a great film. I visit the film makers who understood that film and art could walk hand in hand. Not every artist realizes that they are making art while it is happening, but there are a few who know it and still manage to do it well. Here is a glimpse at the work of one such film maker. The class can be found in his few films. Yasujirô Ozu was an amazing film maker who understood stillness and shot (for you camera buffs) almost totally with a 50mm lens. He chose this because this comes closes to the human eye.

 

Thank you for visiting. Now go out and find a great filmmaker and study them whether they offer you an actual course or a few films as a masterclass. Good luck and remember to share this post on your Google plus and to follow me there. 

GROWING AS A FILM MAKER, JAMES WAN

GROWING AS A FILM MAKER, James Wan
 A few weeks about I found myself at a screening for the film Conjuring 2. I did not want to be there because I did not love the first one and the sequel rule (sequels usual suck) was ringing in my head, but I went because it was free tickets. Well it turned out that I loved the sequel. It was a much better film that the first and I chalk this up to the fact that the filmmaker had improved since the first film.

 I give the filmmaker most of the credit because I thought that the first script was better than that of the sequel, but not nearly as well shot. Filmmakers like athletes should get better with practice. They should learn and grow. This thought made me consider doing this post. Let’s begin with Saw. He directed the short film version as a pitch for the feature. Something that many micro budget filmmakers have done. 

 





 Next came Insidious, a very effective horror film. I did not like the last act, but still a good film. 


I think that horror is like composing music. Hitchcock described suspense that way. He would imagine himself as a conductor and the audience his orchestra. There is a rhythm that a good horror movie must have. When it is there you do not notice it and when it is missing you find a thousand things wrong with it. For me the Conjuring has a great many good scenes, but lacks rhythm. While the sequel has nearly perfect rhythm.


  


  

 Thank you for visiting my blog. Please share this post and if the Conjuring 2 interested you as much as it did me take a few moments to check out my new ebook on the story behind the script, the Enfield Poltergeist. You can find it at itunes and Kobo and B&N, click image below. Good luck with your filmmaking.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE MICRO BUDGET PUZZLE

There are those in Hollywood (the Industry) who believe that they have figured out the concept of micro budget filmmaking.

 There are those who went to film schools and worked on big budget films who believe that they can drop down and play in this digital filmmakers world. A few filmmakers have mentioned to me that they are worried about an invasion from the big boys as if the Avengers are going to show up armed with Dslr cameras and Zoom recorders. I wish that they would. They would not last long out here on the frontier. You know, down here in the fields where we fight for our meals.

Before I continue I want you to take a look at a fantastic video that was posted on what a 200 million dollar budget looks likes.

 

 Can you imagine those pay checks? I am a screen writer and I do not think that the writer is worth that much money up front, especially if you wrote any of the last mega budget super hero films. I could produce and distribute five feature films with name actors for what the script supervisor gets paid. Then again all of us would love to hit it big with a micro budget film so that Hollywood would come knocking and throw a few million at us.

 Look at it this way, the industry list micro budget as 250,000 dollars. That is their floor.

Now let’s look at what is meant by low budget film making and then micro budget. I would like you to picture it this way. If a film shoot was a date, low budget is burgers at Five Guys, without the bacon or cheese and micro budget is grilled cheese sandwiches at your place, the bread is the dollar loaf for the dollar store and the cheese is that orange stuff that is 99 cents a pack in the supermarket. You know the cheese they do not even have to keep in the refrigerators. All real micro budget film makers know where to find this bread and cheese because we feed it to our cast and crew.

 



  

Bonus footage:::: Here is sort of a Ted talk for the producers out there. I love this advice and let us all remember that producers are people too and they are the ones with all the grey hairs.




Thank you for visiting my site and please take a few moments or better yet a few hours to share this post online. You can post it on facebook, you can add it to your Google plus you and even go twitter or pick up the phone, call someone and say hey I just read a great blog post. The guy who runs that blog is amazing and we should buy all of his ebooks on film making and if we can’t afford it let’s leave 5 star reviews on B&N and Amazon to convince others to buy them.

ABOUT LOW COST LENSES

ABOUT LOW COST LENSES

When you purchased your dslr it either came with a kit lens or just the body only. As you developed as a filmmaker you most likely added a few lenses.

 This post if for those of you who maybe neglected to do this and are now scrambling to add a few more. There is a thinking that if you are ever given the choice between a really expensive camera and a low cost lens r a cheap camera and a high end set of lenses the real film maker will spend money on the lenses. My response to this is that spending money is wrong. You are a micro budget film maker. You buy nothing brand new and you only spend money after begging and waiting for the seller to die fails.

The first thing that we are going to look at is a tutorial on what lenses and why we need them. It ends with prices for certain lenses. They are in the five hundred dollar plus range. Please ignore this. We are low budget digital film makers. We cannot afford that kind of money. Five hundred maybe the budget for your whole feature after camera cost.


 Now let’s look at some low cost lenses. We are talking under one hundred dollars.


Do you feel better about lenses now? No. What do you mean no? I did not mention camcorders.Well I do not know as much about camercorders and lenses. This is ancient and buried knowledge known only to the Sith, but I will give you my own advice. My camcorders are Canons. The vixia series and the Hv series. This is what I can tell you. All of the Hv cameras and most of the Vixia cameras have threads for lenses. If you gave me one hundred dollars to spend on one lense and I do not have a depth of field adapter then i would get a Raynox 6600 lense. It is a wide angle lens that gives you a kind of depth of field if you light well. also it travels well. You can go indoors and outdoors with it.



 Thank you for visiting. Plese take a moment to share this post on your google plus and to follow me. I want to leave you guys with the trailer for the new Star Wars film, Rogue One. I do not hate the fact that Disney is going to make a Star Wars film every year nonstop or until one flops. I feel like they are making up for the five or six films that Lucas did not make for the hardcore fans (he made Willow instead). Also I know what some of you are thinking before I post this Rogue One trailer, this site is about low budget film making and what is up with the Star Wars love. There is a movie or a series of movies that made each of us consider for the first time the idea of making movies. For me it was Star Wars. I am that little boy again everytime that I hear that intro music.

 EXTRA NOTES.

 Two crowdfunding campaigns I want to share. They are fiends whom I have interviewed in the past and they are raising funds for their new projects. If any of you want to do an interview about your project and crowdfunding campaign you can let me know by leaving a comment and I will get back to you.



 Visit the Joker Rising/ City With Two Faces Campaign. click here.

Behind the Scenes Hateful Eight and Campaigns

Been super busy with projects big and small.  I love this blog, but finding time for the next few weeks is going to be hard.
Right now I would like to share at little bts from the Hateful Eight. I have mixed feeling about the movie, It brought back memories to see a movie shot in actual 70mm. it is stunning on the big screen. Many of you have seen the Hateful 8 by now, some of you love it, some hate it and some like me have mixed emotions about it. It looks like a Spaghetti western, it is bloody like one, but is too talky to be one. Also it was of course not shot in Italy by an Italian film maker.

Watching this film makes you want to grab that western script from the back of the dresser drawer (I have three such scripts) get some 70mm (really 65) camera equipment and shoot a modern masterpiece. Then you find out that you are gonna need 20 to 30 grand for the equipment and another 30 to 50 to process and edit the footage. Without a massive kickstarter or indiegogo campaign that ain't happening.

Let's look at some bts footage from the Hateful 8.

Now a scene from the movie.




The last thing I want to mention about the movie is the cast. I think this is the best job of casting that Tarantino has ever done. It is almost a perfectly balanced cast. I had forgotten how good Jennifer Jason Leigh was and this film is probably her best performance.








Thank you for checking in and please take a moment to bookmark this site and to check out these two kickstarter campaigns I have been following. If you have an upcoming campaign. Let me know and I will be happy to post a link in a future post. If the campaign looks really interesting maybe we will do an interview to go along with it.

Check Out the Crime Lord Campaign

Two days left in this very interesting crowdfunding campaign. Crime Lord for the great indie film maker David P. Baker.

  

The Crowdfunding and Sourcing Post

The Crowdfunding and Sourcing Post

 When sitting down to write one of these post I actual taken into account how long the videos that will be included in the post will be. I try at all times to make it a digestible amount of total time. Lately I have thought that if a suggest is very important then maybe I should pack as much information into the post as possible so today I am going to do that. 

 Digital feature filmmaking could not have become what it has without the audience or the crowd. The crowd has made thousands of good and bad movies possible. We have visions of making epic films in both size and scope and the only way to make these films (without winning the powerball lottery) is to convince the crowd to get involved. Part of the reason that I started this blog was to get to know other film makers and to build a network. Thanks to google plus I have achieved some of this. 

The first two videos that I would like to share with you are about both crowdfunding and crowd sourcing.

  


 


 

 Before we continue I have to say that money is important, but it should never be the goal and it should never stop you from shooting a film. Perhaps you cannot make that micro budget version of the Avengers, but you can shoot a film. The best way to learn film making is to make a film. Make one and then another and another. Hold on to the things that you did well and learn not to make the same mistakes a second time. If you got a dslr or a iphone or a camcorder then you have what you need to record footage. Go out and do this and after you do this find a free editing program and use it to learn how to cut scenes together. If you put together a few good scene you can save them and later they may help you with your crowdfunding campaign. 

 The next video runs about two hours. You will meet many people at different stages of the game. From film makers to those who support them in their efforts to crowdfund.


  

Thank you for visiting my blog and now if you have a free moment add me to your google plus and feel free to shave this post with a friend. Finally I would like to thank Film Courage for doing these interviews. I know how difficult it is to get film makers to sit down and table about their films and themselves. You guys do an outstanding job.

 

Indie Film Maker, Try Gumroad

If it seems as if I have not been available for the last few months you have gotten it right. I am have been in the middle of pre-production while editing a back log of ebooks. I know that there should be no excuses for not showing up at work. I have a few post on marketing lined up and I hope to post them in June. 

Okay today I would like to offer some help to the ultra independent film makers amongst us. Those who want to have complete control over the sale and or rental of their films there is a site that might be perfect for you. I was told about and I am still in the process of learning more about it. So far Gumroad looks goods. It offers the ability to post your finished film for sale or rent and their share of your profits are rock bottom low. 

Check out these videos and let me know what you think.

 
   


 I look at this as a tool that you can use to monetize your film. If you have a large social media presence then you can sell direct to customer without the dozens of expensive middle men out there. To thrive in this new digital film making world we are going to have to become better at marketing our work. The field is more crowded now than ever and to get notice is going to be as important as producing a quality finished product. Okay now I would like to touch on some business that have been piling up. I love the tv series Gotham. It has been a shock how good and intense it has been. The existence of series like Gotham and Agents of Shield does not mean that the world of Fan films needs to suffer. There are many ways to approach characters and situations. This takes me to an update on the Joker Rising sequels. It looks like they will come in the form of a web series. Perhaps when it is up and running I will be able to get another interview with the film maker.


 

 Thank you for hanging in there with this site. I promise that things will get back to normal as soon. 

 

The Fun of Fundraising

The Fun of Fundraising


I have not posted in a while because I am at the beginning stages of raising money for a feature film. There are any number of ways to approach this and I have tried to clear some of the big hurdles by writing the screenplay myself and to pull together the basic equipment that I will need for a micro budget shoot.

Each of us view a micro budget shoot differently. In terms of how much money we expect to spend. How big the production crew needs to be. How big a cast we are going to need. The pre and post production needs such as how soon do I involve an editor and a composer if I am not planning on doing either of these jobs myself. How many days do I plan to shoot? Do I aim for a feature shoot nonstop in under two weeks or do I shoot on weekends for how ever long it takes (this worked for Christopher Nolan when he shot his first feature).

Money will dictate a number of the choices that you make. So figuring out an honest budget and then going out and raising the money needed is going to be have to be job one. There of course is an exception to this rule. If you are an actor or you live with a great actor or actress then you can go zero budget in your own home or a location that you can get for free. Film makers have done this before. The video that I would like to share with you today is over 90 minutes long and it features a ton of interviews with film makers about how they approach raising money for their projects.




Thank you for visiting my blog. Good luck with your fundraising whether you do it all yourself, find an investor or go with crowdfunding. Please take a moment to add me to your Google plus and to share this post with a friend.


 

Crowdfunding With A Movie Star

Crowdfunding With A Movie Star

 Crowd funding is one of the ways that many film makers find the money to complete a project and or to fully fund a project. To go into it as an unknown film maker of a first film and a cast of beginners in a mountain most of us will have to climb. Today I would like to begin with a film maker who I was say has a big leg up on most of us. I would look at it as hitting the lottery. The lead actress in his film is Keisha Castle Hughes. Academy award nominated (she should have won) for her first film Whale Rider. Location plays a part in getting talent for your project. In the case of her career so far I would argue that location has been the only thing that has held Keisha Castle Hughes from being top of the A list actresses. Okay let me get back to the campaign we are going to look at. The title of the film is Find Your Voice and there is about a week left in this campaign. I suggest you check it out.



 Next up is a sci-fi feature film. I am one of those people who believe that sci-fi should be more about characters and situation rather than special effects. This campaign looks interesting and is near both is funding goal and its end date. I hope that you will check it out. The title of the film is The Toll.



 

 I have been told by readers of this blog that I avoid animation like most guys avoid Twilight films and that is not true. Yes, I hate Twilight, but no I do not dislike animated films. It is just hard to find animators to interview. I may try to get an interview with the film maker behind the next project we are going to look at. The title of the film is Yellow Brick Road and it is about what you think that it is.

  
 Next up is the campaign for Deadly Waters.

  

 

 Thank you for visiting today. Good luck with your film making projects. Please take a moment to like this post on Stumbleupon and to share it on your facebook page. Also you could add me to your google plus.

Gotham City Sirens Posting and Notes

                Gotham City Sirens Posting and Notes

After months of waiting the fan film Gotham City Sirens has been finished and posted.
After doing the interview about the making of it I have been looking forward to seeing the film.
The one thing that I wish for after seeing it is that I wish that it had been a feature film. Great cast and there is room for so much more to be told.  The film is posted below. If you like it please take a moment to share it on your facebook.
        






    I have not posted in a while because I have been working on finishing three separate ebooks. The first one, On How to Make A Found Footage film is available in paperback on Amazon and in ebook format everywhere else.  You can find a link on the side of this page, just click the picture. After spending over a year in the found footage universe I learned a great deal about the genre and the film makers who have taken to it. The future of this genre looks a little brighter than I thought it would. My next post on it will be a feature film and the last of the found footage topic unless something amazing comes my way.

    The upcoming year will be about fan film making and sci-fi on a micro budget. Also news about my first feature length film as the man wearing all three production hats.  When I dreamed about becoming a film maker I thought that I would be like Roger Corman or Taskashi Miike churning out half a dozen plus films in a year. Instead I am more David Lean or (don’t Boo)
my fellow Philadelphian M. Night.

    Last note for today, could I get some acting reels for my reels page. I am going to post this page in a few weeks and I have reels that have been referred to me, but none by actual actors themselves. Do not be shy. Any exposure is good exposure. Film makers are always looking for talent that is willing to work on micro budget productions.

Thank you for visiting and please take a moment to add me to your google plus.


   

Sophie’s Fortune, Action Adventure On a Micro Budget

It is sort of an adventure to write about and get to know indie film makers. I would equate it to the classic version of Doctor Who where the Doctor, (Tom Baker people) would pull a lever and would not have a clue where he landed his ship until he stepped outside. I get sent links to check out all the time. Sometimes it is to a trailer and other times it is a short film or even a feature. About a month ago someone was good enough to send me a link to Sophie’s Fortune. They said it was the best micro budget action adventure short film that they had ever seen. After watching the film that makes at least two of us.
What I would like you guys to do now is to watch the complete short below. Share it and then read my interview with the film maker Chris Cronin about the making of the film.

Q) When people think low budget short film most envision a story set inside a house with two to four actors involved. They do not imagine an eighties style action adventure.  What is Sophie’s Fortune about and what made you think that it could be done on a micro budget?

A) Brendan gets involved in a 'Fathers only' treasure hunt for the sake of his 7 year old niece Sophie and the parents imagination get the better of them as they go on an epic adventure. Sophie's Fortune is about fathers pride and the fact they are still big kids with imagination. It’s a kids film for grown ups in a weird way.

The main aim of Sophie's Fortune was to not play to the restrictions of the short film format and the expectations that come with short films. We didn't really know at first if we could pull it off and that was half the fun of it but I was confident. I've been told a few times that you get to make the films you want to make when you get the big budgets, you definitely need a budget to make films like 'Jaws' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' but we thought what the hell let’s see what we can accomplish on our own. With short films you always have to worry about budget restraints, time restraints, festival requirements and even though I can appreciate that it' good to work to restrictions, with this one we just threw caution to the wind and made something we'd like to watch.

Q) I am from the home of the mega budget block buster while with the exception of the James Bond movies, (most of which are actually filmed around the world) the UK does not produce these types of films?  Is this just a trend or are these kind of movies not well received there?

A) If I look at it realistically I think it’s because adventure movies require a certain amount of distance to travel for it to be an adventure whereas the UK is a lot smaller so it’s easier and cheaper to travel coast to coast in just a short car ride. Plus there are certain restrictions on the use of weapons in public and the gun laws are much different. I think we’d love to make these kinds of movies but there definitely doesn’t seem to be a big need for them right now. The idea of making a summer blockbuster style UK action/adventure appealed to us, in part, because we realised no one was doing anything like it (fan films aside) and also because it would be something we'd personally really like to watch.

Not many short films have attempted the adventure genre, especially here in the UK, but we didn’t believe that where we came from, or what budget we had, should define how we use our imagination in film. Why can’t someone from England go on a glorious adventure with mysterious treasure and dangerous puzzles?


Q) I guess I should get to the technique film making questions.  First one that has to be asked is what did you shoot with? Also would you have selected a different camera if you had it all to do over again?

A) This was made over 2 years ago so we used a Canon 7D with no prime lenses at the start and decided to see it through. It was an outdoor shoot so we didn’t require lighting other than hand-held LED’s and reflectors for the actors faces. The glide track was the greatest weapon for creating that cinematic movement and it saved a lot of time laying down tracks. I think we’d all have liked to shoot this film on something a bit bigger like an Alexa or a RED but post-production would have been an absolute nightmare with all the visual effects on 4K. The 7D was pretty good for the run and gun shooting style that we utilised when bad weather was creeping in on us. I'd love to shoot a more refined story with a Red Epic now that I've had the chance to play with one. That would be a lot of fun.


Q) What was budget on this film and how long did it take to shoot?

A) The budget was £2,000 and that was used to feed the cast and crew and cover expenses. Some of the guys chipped in and everybody involved was really supportive with helping to cut financial corners where we could in the aim to make a great film. It was a massive collaboration and couldn’t have been achieved without the support of everyone. The fountain head in the film was a huge prop build and should have cost a fortune but Joshua Michaelson believed in the project and wanted to be involved so that was his contribution. Same with the amazing post-production visual effects team. Everybody wanted to make an Indiana Jones film so they jumped in. The first block of filming took two weeks but we had to stop due to the Autumn weather so we picked it up again in Spring for another 2 weeks. It really felt like a feature production but with a short film crew. Some of the action set pieces took all day, like the running along the wall scene and it’s very difficult to get the entire cast in one location when they are not being paid up into the hills for 10 hours. From pre-production to post-production it took us about 2 years to complete the film, that was mainly because we were making the film as we were going along and it kept expanding.


Q) You pulled together a great cast. Where did you find your actors?

A) This was a bit of a self-indulgent endeavour so I pulled in all of the actors that I had worked with or wanted to work with in the past. Some roles were written specifically for the actor such as Steve McTigue’s character the Great White Hunter. Whereas for others I had to find actors to suit the role such as Adam Baroni and Donald Standen who have action films written in their DNA. I was really lucky to find those two specifically in the UK and as a bonus they have on-screen fight training which was a big win. Simon Hardwick, who plays the lead, has been a good friend of mine for a long time and he has gone on to do some big things in the West End but wanted to sink his teeth into something a bit different and with his training he was brilliant at choreographing the fight scenes with Adam. Simon’s dedication to the film is the reason we were able to finish the film. I joked that he was Bruce Campbell sometimes as I put him through hell like Sam Raimi did to Bruce on 'Evil Dead'.


Q) One of the draw backs of shooting an action adventure film is the size of the cast and crew required even on a low budget production. How did you deal with feeding everyone?

A) We just kept things as simple as possible, it was mostly sandwiches unfortunately, nothing fancy. And on the long days the cast would chip in themselves. This project was our film school and we realised the importance of feeding the cast and crew regularly to keep the energy and morale going and everybody happy. Everybody realised the mountain we were trying to climb and were happy to contribute where they could so we were pretty lucky in that area.


Q) The action part of action adventure gives many film makers nightmares because of the stunts that are required to make it look realistic. Every guy from the age of five to sixty five thinks that they can do it better than Jackie Chan, but reality usually comes crashing in after the first strained wrist. How much training went into getting the cast ready to do stunt work and did everyone do their own stunts?

A) Yes, they did, and there were a few bumps and grazes but not in the scenes you’d expect! It was just being a large group out in the countryside with rough surfaces etc that did it. We were very lucky to have a healthy cast with a level headed approach. I had to be pulled back sometimes but I managed to achieve the wall slam after a bit of reworking the wires. Simon is a dancer so he has a lot of strength and stamina and a great ability to remember choreography which made him incredible for action sequences. Adam has a professional wrestling background too so he knew how to fake a punch and be safe at the same time. He and Donald also had on-screen combat training as I mentioned which was a very useful thing to have, everyone else was able to follow their leads and with the use of a bit of camera trickery, we were able to pull off the fight scenes. I think. The rest of the cast focused on shooting the crap out of things and throwing out one liners.

 Q) Clearly there are a lot of visual effects in this film. Who did the effects and what type of software was used?

A) Numerous people were involved in the visual effects, again it was no budget so only those who were interested in showing off their skills contributed and t was mostly done in Adobe After Effects. Even I edited quite a few of the scenes as did the Producer and the DOP. Daniel Buckle was the magic man who did the CG fountain in Maya/3D Max and that was because it was part of his final major project at university. We were very lucky that we had a good group of visual effects people wanting to flex their creative muscles. Some of them work on hollywood blockbusters, but given that they usually work as part of a massive team they may have only been responsible for smaller effects such as dust, whereas in SF they were responsible for all of the effects in a shot so they could fully own their work. We had to wait for Jupiter's Ascending to finish to get Sophie's Fortune done!



Q) Having grown up during the eighties I loved this film at first sight.  Clearly I see a little Raiders of the Lost Ark in this movie. What other movies were you influenced by?

A) Thanks Rodney, that's really cool of you to say. The list of inspiration is as long as my arm, some of them conscious and others subconsciously. I grew up on films like that too so I share the love. There are some old and some new. It was meant to be a grown up Goonies meets Indiana Jones but there are elements of Jumanji; The Mummy; Romancing in the Stone; Predator; Commando; and the more recent stuff being Uncharted and a list of anime, believe it or not. Everything I’ve ever made has influences from Cowboy Bebop, sometimes without me even realising it.


Q) I miss the days of films that featured good old fashion guy on guy violence with the clever one liner thrown in at the perfect moment. Forgetting the Expendables, do you think that we will ever return to movies like that minus robots and aliens and guys wearing capes?

A) Oh yeah, I think film trends are like swings and roundabouts, when we get fed up of the serious stuff there’ll be a need for these type of movies again and then after that we'll want the serious stuff. Dark Knight was so successful because it took comic books to a darker place and so there were copycats and the answer to that was Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy who had fun with the material. The action adventure genre will be back when it's needed but the type of hero is likely to adapt just like what they did with Sherlock Holmes. The modern adaptation of Indiana Jones, in my opinion, is Nathan Drake (Uncharted) I’d be happier to see a trilogy from that than another Indiana Jones film. It was a perfect trilogy, goddamnitt.


Q) Was there ever a moment during film or watching it later where you thought that this could have been expanded to feature length?

A) I think instead of making a feature version of Sophie Fortune I’d rather make something with the same tone, the story for SF was never the main focus, it was just a MacGuffin that allowed us to go to the jungle in the UK. I think if it was a feature film the audiences would be annoyed that it was all in their imagination, we would have to adapt it to be more in the real world to pull it off effectively. I think it would have to be a different story set in the UK without guns, maybe a crazy old Grandad leaves heritage to a grandson who goes on an adventure to find it - something like that would be more fun and realistic for a feature adaptation. The producer of SF is definitely considering a feature adaption as he’s a big fan of the genre too. He's keep a close eye on Tomorrowland to see how they do it.


Q) I am asking this question as John Williams begins work on the score to the new Star Wars film. I wish more films had orchestral film scores, who did the music for the movie?

A) We were very fortunate to have Carlos Rubio on this film who shared the same passion for this style of score, which you don’t hear much anymore. There’s a great story about Robert Zemeckis on Back to the Future where he told the composer that the film is simply a kid with family issues who travels to the same place over and over. He said the score needs to sound like Marty McFly is saving the world and holy crap it's probably one of the best themes to a film ever. I spoke to Carlos in a similar way with SF as really I just made an action adventure film, Carlos made it into an epic. He did an amazing job and it shows because he's already nabbed two awards for it.

Q) Is there a feature film in the future?

A) Yes there is actually, it’s a supernatural horror that is in the final stages of development with a studio. If my producer can get an adventure film off the ground with a great story then we’d happily do that! But for the rest of this year I’m sticking with shorts - the latest being 2AM which is a creepy thriller set in a diner, again something more likely to come from America than the UK.


Q) Who are the film makers that influenced you?

A) The only real inspiration on SF in terms of directors is Steven Spielberg - this really is his playground. I'd really like to shoot an action film with John Mctiernan also in mind in the future. All other inspirations are from other genres really like Ridley Scott, Rian Johnson, Park Chan-Wook and David Fincher. Do the best you can, try to live it down.


Q) Any advice for the beginning film maker?

A) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, experiment and enjoy doing it. You're not going to figure out what kind of filmmaker you are by playing it safe. Also, you won’t learn by somebody telling you what to do, you learn from your own experiences. As Mr Sunscreen said "Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. …But trust me on the sunscreen."

Thanks again Chris for doing this interview. If you would like to visit his website click here. I would like to end by showing the trailer for his upcoming short film 2 A.M.

Part 2, Found Footage 3D Interview

To learn how to support the Indiegogo campaign for the film Found Footage 3D  please click here.

If you would like to follow this campaign on Facebook click here.

No preamble today, this is the second part of the interview with Steven DeGennaro.



Q) Clearly Scream was an influence on the making of this film. The reason I have gone down this road with found footage films is that just when I am ready to throw in the towel and move onto a subject like fan films a movie comes along and gives me hope that there could be something special here. Movies like End of Watch which is not a found footage film, but mimics elements of one and shows me a possible future path for the genre. There are films like The Frankenstein Theory that was fun to watch up until the young doctor Frankenstein decides that it would be a good idea to go and try to talk a ten foot tall homicidal monster out of murdering the rest of his friends. (Spoiler alert, talking softly to someone nicknamed the Monster usual ends badly.) Recently I saw a great film titled Out of Control from the UK. It was shot in the found footage format, but it was a domestic drama instead of a horror film. There is always something like Cannibal Holocaust or Rec 2 to show how good it can get when done well. What found footage films have influenced you?

A) There’s nothing quite like the granddady of them all, The Blair Witch Project.  One of the most effective horror movies of all time, and a completely new experience.  There are people who claim now that it’s only really remembered because it was the first, but I re-watch it once a year or so and it’s just a really, really well-told story and so effective.

For my money, the greatest found footage film of all time is Gareth Evans’ segment from V/H/S/2, “Safe Haven”.  That is as nearly perfect as a short horror film can possibly be.  I love The Sacrament, which has a very similar feel in a lot of places.  I’ve never really understood all the hate that Ti West’s segment in the original V/H/S gets.  That short, to me, really nails what I love about found footage, which is how completely real it feels.  So when you realize that really awful things are about to befall a very real couple, it’s a thousand times more terrifying to me than every ghost story that Hollywood has ever put out combined.

There’s a really obscure film called Skew that also does the same thing very effectively.  This movie was actually made before Paranormal Activity, but didn’t get picked up until much later, which is a shame, because it’s so good.

I totally agree with you about The Frankenstein Theory, which was really well done up until the last ten minutes or so.

Overall, I like movies that really commit to the premise.  I enjoyed Cloverfield and Chronicle and [Rec] and movies like that, but they don’t have the same sort of visceral punch as a movie that really works hard to convince you that it’s real; not necessarily on an intellectual level, but on a visceral one.

Q) In your videos for your film you talk about practical effects. I have always thought that if it is real on the set then it looks real to the audience. I believe that is laziness more than money that makes beginning film makers use cheap CGI for blood, bullet wounds and even scars. I don’t mind CGI for background, it was done well in Gladiator to reproduce ancient Rome and it is done well in the tv series Gotham for making elements of a city that does not exist. How important were practical effects to the making of your film?

A) There’s nothing at all lazy about making any movie, I can assure you, especially a low-budget one.  It’s a grueling process that often takes years to bring to fruition and requires dozens if not hundreds of people working together seamlessly as a unit to pull off.  So I certainly understand where filmmakers are coming from when they decide to use CG instead of practicals a lot of the time.  It’s not about laziness.  It’s definitely about budget, and about control over the final product.

Actually shooting the film is the most costly part of the process.  Every hour you spend on set you are paying dozens of people, most of whom are sitting around waiting at any given time.  So a practical effect that takes time to set up or reset between takes can get very costly very quickly, completely independent of how much the effect itself costs. When you compare that to one or two guys pushing pixels in a studio four months later, you can often get much more bang for your buck with digital.

But as will all things in filmmaking, it requires talent, planning, a lot of work, and a little luck to make any effect work.  Ultimately, CGI is a tool, and like any tool, it has its uses.  I wouldn’t use a hammer to cut a piece of paper, and I wouldn’t use a wrench to drill a hole in something.  It’s all about figuring out which tool works for which problem, within the confines of what you can afford.

So yes... it was very important to me to do as many of the effects practically as we were able to do.  But I didn’t let that stop me from deciding to use CGI where appropriate, either by itself or to enhance the practical effects.  Gore effects rarely look good when they are all CGI, unless you are wiling to spend a lot of money.  But practical effects sometimes don’t work right, and you end up having to fix it later because the sun is coming up and you have to get your shot, one way or another.  That’s a big part of the reason we are doing this Indiegogo campaign: to fix one practical effect that looked awesome when we tested it, but—through no fault of anyone in particular—just didn’t work on the day.  So my choices were either: a) live with the really bad practical effect, b) do a really cheap CGI effect that would look just as bad, or c) spend the time and money to do the CGI right.  I want (c).







Q) You are in the Post stage of your production. This is the most overlooked part of the film making process. Only when the final shoot has been recorded do many first time film makers realize that the hardest part is actually ahead of them. This being your first 3D film were you prepared for the challenges that you are now facing?

A)We did a proof-of-concept in 2013 to test out a lot of the really difficult stuff, especially with regards to the 3D aspect.  So we really worked out a lot of the kinks by going through that process.  We made a ton of mistakes and we learned from them, so we went into the feature with our eyes open.

That said, we still have a long way to go before we’re done.  But I’ve found in making my movies that my complaints in post-production are rarely technical, but usually artistic.  I find myself wishing I had directed an actor differently, or shot something from a different angle, or gotten more coverage of a scene.  Some of those things can be fixed with reshoots and ADR and visual effects, but some of them you have to live with.

I’m getting to the point now in editing the film, especially with the ability to take a few weeks away from it while I concentrated on the Indiegogo campaign, where I’m starting to forget the movie that I intended to shoot and starting to see the movie that I actually shot.  So instead of being about, “Oh, I wish I had done this thing better,” it’s more about “How do I make the best film possible with the materials I have at hand?”

I’m usually my own harshest critic.  But overall, I’m very happy with how the movie is shaping up.  When we’ve shown it to people, they’ve largely laughed in the right places and gasped in the right places, they like the characters, and they come out of it satisfied.  So I think we’re on the right track.






Q) Film makers do what has been done before because it is easy to market. You open a pizza shop and sell the same kinds of pizza as all the others because you do not have to educate a public about a new thing. Found footage shot as 3D is a new thing. You are basically going to be the first person to market stuffed crust pizza. How long did you prep for the marketing challenges?

A) Ugh... this has been the greatest blessing and the greatest curse at the same time.  So many people see the title and they assume that we are making a gimmick, not a movie.  They expect Sharknado, which is a funny concept that’s basically unwatchable as an actual film.  So we have a real uphill battle trying to educate people about what we are trying to do.

We started our marketing efforts very early, and I’m really glad we did.  Aside from amassing more than 25,000 fans before people had even seen a single frame of the finished film, we’ve also been able to really hone our message and figure out how to sell the film to audiences.

I decided to make this movie because I love found footage, and I hate the way that it has become a bit of a joke because there are so many people who are so bad at it who keep flooding the market with crap.  I really feel like it’s exactly the right time for a movie like ours, and that it will appeal to people who love found footage, as well as those who think it’s overdone.  If I can get that message out, I think we’ll do fine.

Ultimately, the movie will speak for itself. If it’s good, people will tell their friends and more people will see it.  Hopefully, it will be good when we are done.

Q) Any advice for future film makers? Particularly those who are going to attempt to jump the found footage hurtle?

A) Don’t.  Found footage is a really tough sell these days precisely because so many people are trying to do it, and so many of them are failing at it.  So unless you have a truly killer idea for something new and original, it’s probably a genre that, at least for the next few years, it’s better to stay away from.  I realize that may sound a little hypocritical coming from a guy who is making a found footage movie, but it’s the truth.

Ultimately any movie is about telling a good story.  And if you are a good storyteller, you will find people who are willing to go along with you on a journey, whether they be actors, investors, crew, producers, etc...  So the best advice I can give—if I’m even qualified for such a thing—is to hone your craft.  Work on as many movie sets as you possibly can and watch and learn from people who really know what they are doing (as well as from the people who clearly don’t know what they are doing).  Go out and make short films.  Get good at it, first.  Then try to make a feature.

Found footage is so tantalizing to first-time filmmakers because it looks easy.  It’s not.  Found footage is not some shortcut where you get to bypass all the essential things you need to know to make a decent film—acting, writing, pacing, camerawork, editing, sound, etc.  There’s a reason why you have to prove that you are good at those things before anyone will give you money to make a real feature.  So get good at those things.  If you think you are capable of making a good feature film, and you have a story that you think is worth telling, then it doesn’t matter whether it’s found footage or not.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s going to cost ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, or ten million.  If you’ve proven that you are capable of pulling it off, then people will help you achieve that goal. If you haven’t proven yourself capable of those things, then you have no business wasting everyone’s time and money.

I just happened to want to tell this story, and it happened to be found footage.  If I’d had a more traditional story to tell, I would have worked just as passionately to make that happen, and probably a lot of the same people would have come along for the ride with me.

Ultimately, there is no substitute for hard work, talent, and experience.  If you don’t have those three things, wait until you do.  Because you rarely get a second chance in this business.  Make it count.

Thank you again Steven and good luck with the campaign and the film.

     Okay guys that is it for today please take a moment to like this post on Stumbleupon and to share it with a friend. In closing I would like to add Steven's award winning comedy short film First Date.





 

Found Footage 3D, The Interview PART 1

This is going to be a two part interview with Steven DeGennaro, the film maker behind Found Footage 3D. At the moment he is in the middle of a Indiegogo campaign for his film. If you would like to check out the campaign you can do so by clicking here.   In you wish to know more about the project you can visit the website by clicking here.

If you thought that making a found footage film is easy I think that you are about to lose some of your illusions. It is easy to make a movie. Record ninety minutes of footage and cut it together and you got a movie. The problem is that making a good movie requires much more than this. It requires months and in some cases years of planning. Followed by endless weeks of shooting and re-shooting and then the hard work begins, it is called post production. I have interviewed a guy who shot a film in a day, I have seen it and it was not very good. I interviewed the director of Joker Rising which was shoot in six days ( shoot in six days, but there were months of pre and post production) and many believe that it is the best fan film ever made. You can shoot, edit and distribute a movie with your iphone, this does not mean that if you wish to be a film maker, whether found footage, epic fantasy or straight drama you do not need to learn all that you can about writing, lighting, editing and a hundred other things that go into making a great film. I know that many readers have taken the found footage series of post lightly while planning to shoot their own found footage films. If you plan to do it as a hobby then take to it any way you wish, but if this is going to be your profession then invest the time and effort to learn how to do it as well as possible.

Let’s get to part one of a two part interview.






Q) You are in the middle of an Indiegogo campaign for your 3D found footage film.
What is the plot and what will make it different from the other found footage films out there?

A) Found Footage 3D tells the story of a group of filmmakers who go out to a cabin the woods of Central Texas to shoot “the first 3D found-footage horror movie”, but end up in a found footage horror movie when the evil entity from their film starts showing up in their behind-the-scenes footage.  What Scream did for slasher movies, we aim to do for found footage.  Like Scream, our characters know all of the rules, tricks, and clichés of the genre, and we use that structure to comment on and poke fun at the tired tropes of found footage, while at the same time, turning them on their heads and executing an effective scary movie.

Q) Hollywood uses 3D as a way of milking more cash out of audiences for its tent pole films, with the occasional film that was meant to be seen in this format like Avatar and Inception. I would image that in this case 3D has been selected for the effect that it will have on the audience rather than any box office concerns?

A)The 3D is an essential part of the storytelling, for me.  We certainly didn’t undertake the decision lightly.  So on the most basic level, we’re shooting in 3D because the lead character of our movie, a charismatic but ultimately soulless movie producer, decides that if he shoots “the first 3D found footage horror movie,” he will make a killing at the box office.  So right away, we’re almost sort of making fun of ourselves for doing the same thing.

But at the same time, once we had given ourselves a good reason to do it, I decided very early on that we had to do some cool stuff with it.  And found footage—especially a movie about people who are making a movie—allows us to do some things that no one has ever seen before.  We have the practically limitless depth-of-field of a consumer camcorder, which means that rather than having the subject be in focus, and everything in front or behind him being out of focus, the viewer can choose what he or she wants to focus on in any given shot.  That allowed us to really compose shots with a ton of depth in them, with multiple layers, rather than just “here’s an actor; here’s a bunch of fuzzy stuff behind him.”

Also, because our villain is itself a creation of the very footage it inhabits, it can do things within the footage that wouldn’t necessarily make sense in a more traditional movie.  Things like moving from one screen to another as people watch footage on a monitor, or appearing differently in one eye than in the other.  That kind of stuff.



Q) There are a few ways to shoot a 3D movie. The easiest is to set up two identical cameras side by side and in post blend the footage to produce a 3D image. What types of cameras did you use to shoot the film? Also when shooting on a budget, you sometimes have to trade the camera that would be perfect for the job for what you can afford. Any cameras that you wanted that you just could not afford?

A)The beauty of found footage (from a budgetary point of view) is that you get to shoot on cheaper cameras. Indeed, in my opinion, to really do it right, you are required to shoot on cheaper cameras.  There’s a certain aesthetic that’s required in found footage.  If it looks too nice, then it works against your suspension of disbelief.  I’ve seen found footage movies that were clearly shot on state-of-the-art big-budget cameras with full Hollywood lighting, and then the character looks at himself in a mirror and you see this little dinky handheld camcorder and it pulls you out of the story because you know that camera couldn’t possibly look that good.

From even before we decided to shoot in 3D, I wanted the aesthetic of the film to be very lo-fi and real.  So when we made the decision to shoot in 3D, we did a bunch of research on readily-available 3D camcorders and we settled on the Panasonic z10000.  It’s a camcorder with two lenses side by side, and it operates more-or-less the same way any prosumer camcorder does, with the exception of being able to change the convergence of the 3D effect (which can further be tweaked in post as well).  So we bought 3 of them (two of which appear in the film, with a third as a back-up in case we broke one of the other two).

We also bought a 3D GoPro rig to shoot “surveillance” footage.  Because of the wide-angle lens and the fact that the cameras are not necessarily 100% aligned when you shoot, that footage was a little more difficult to deal with in post, but it looks really cool when we’re done.  Again, this is something that most people have never seen before.

Q) The found footage genre is the genre that has experienced the most growth during the last two years while also receive the most hate from hardcore film goers. For every Paranormal Activity, there are five films like Crowsnest, Area 407 and Devil’s Due.  Can this genre make it long term or are we talking disco?

A) We live in a time where everybody in the Western world carries a camera in their pocket at all times.  One hundred hours of footage are uploaded to YouTube every single minute.  The news, our Facebook feeds, our Twitter feeds, and TV news are filled with footage shot by everyday people.  Terrorists upload videos of beheadings.  Protestors film cops. Cops film car chases.  Surveillance cameras watch a lot of what we do in public spaces.  Journalists and citizens alike film war and political unrest across the world.

So no... I don’t think that the idea of telling a story through the eyes of one of the characters in that story is a style that is going to go away anytime soon.

Q) The thing unique to the found footage genre is how so many of the film makers that I have interviewed approach the writing of their films in totally different ways. Film maker A may write a complete screenplay in standard format. Film maker B may craft an outline of scenes and piece it together in rehearsals. Film maker C comes up with a title, a basic beginning middle and end point and allows his or her actors to improvise the film from that point on. What approach did you take to crafting the screenplay?

A) I admire the balls it takes to go into a situation where you don’t know the story, you don’t have the beats of a scene in mind, you make everything up pretty much on the fly.  That’s how they did Blair Witch, which is still, in my opinion, one of the best horror movies ever made.  They got great results, and they also spent a hell of a lot of time crafting the movie in the editing room.  But it could just as easily been a complete disaster, and unfortunately, for many filmmakers, that’s exactly what happens.

At the same time, if you over-plan, you end up with something that starts to feel rehearsed and stilted, and you lose the realness that found footage relies on for a lot of its best moments.  So I didn’t want to necessarily script out everything.

So the screenplay was a constantly evolving process for me that took over two years from initial idea to the time we rolled cameras.  My first few drafts left a lot of detail—particularly the dialog—intentionally vague.  I think it came in at about 60 pages or so.  But then people had a hard time really envisioning the characters and the finished movie in their heads, and that made it difficult to get certain people—like Kim Henkel and some of our investors—on board.

So I went through and I wrote out a lot of the dialog, knowing that I was going to eventually scrap a lot of it once we were on set.  I’m glad I did, though.  In fleshing out the beats of each scene, I was able to connect more with who the characters were, which helped a lot in casting the film and in shooting it on a really tight schedule.




Q) Where and how did you find your actors and did you give them any room to improvise during shooting?

A)The most important thing for me was to make sure that the characters never felt like they were saying lines.  So the actors had free reign to use their own words any time they wanted to.  At the same time, because a large number of the scenes had to play out in long single takes from a single camera, I couldn’t let them just meander around a scene for hours and hope to fix it in the editing room.

So the first thing we did was spend three days on the set—just me, the actors, and the director of photography—talking through and rehearsing each scene.  The beats of every scene were there in the script, but they had a lot of room to improvise around those beats.  We used the rehearsal process to figure out what scenes and lines were really working, and which ones weren’t, and I went and did some rewrites based off of that.  That allowed us to show up on set and shoot very very quickly, because we’d already worked out a lot of the kinks beforehand.

During the shoot, we then didn’t do many additional rehearsals right before shooting, so that the actors could keep fresh and be spontaneous.  Often they’d nail it on take 1 or 2.  Sometimes, when we got to take 6 or 7, they’d start feeling too rehearsed, and we’d throw in a take or two where they got to completely toss out the script and have fun.  We very rarely used those takes in the finished film, but they usually loosened things up enough that the next take, which was much closer to the scripted scene, worked really well and found the perfect balance between improvisation and structure.

In the end, we had a mixture that was probably about 85% highly structured scenes with improvised dialog, 15% of what we called “marshmallow moments,” where we set up a scenario and the actors just freeformed it for ten or fifteen minutes and we jump cut the best parts, and then a rare scene or two where we ended up with the dialog very very close to what was written on the page.

It was a very unique way of working, and it never would have worked if the actors we got weren’t so damn good at it.  We went through a pretty traditional casting process. I spent several months watching audition tapes—I eventually saw over a thousand auditions from over ten thousand submissions—and then we had in-person callbacks for my favorites for each role, where I got to see them with the other actors.  It was actually very easy to eliminate about 80% of the hopefuls right away, because despite explicit instructions that I wanted them to use their own words and not stick to the script, most actors just can’t pull that off.  They either stick exactly to the script, or they improvise and are just really, really bad at it.

In the end, we ended up with six lead actors that had amazing chemistry together and were really great at exactly the kind of improv we needed for the film to work.




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