“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.
This is going to be a long interview so I will not do much in the way of introduction except to say thank you to all of the film makers involved with Tokyo Grand Guignol and their producer and production company. If I am ever in Tokyo I intend to check in with them.
Some projects stand out from the others and this one caught my attention at first because of visually stunning it looks. There are places on earth that seem to be saturated with more color. Tokyo seems to be one such place as the stills from this film look amazing. Then I studied the concept behind the project and I came away thinking I had to know more about this film. That lead me to contact the film makers and after overcoming a bit of a language barrier I have the interview below for you.
Do not forget to visit their crowdfunding campaign. You can visit it by clicking here.
Also I would like to thank Yann Moreau for making this interview happen.
Q)Before we begin the interview please take a few moments to tell us about your Indiegogo campaign.
A) First, thank you very much for your interest in our project! It was a long road to make it but because of the interest and passion, as yours, we could make it.
To come back on the indie gogo crowfunding campaign, what we can say is it's very helpful and always positive way to work on a project. We started to talk about TOKYO GRAND GUIGNOL more than 2 years ago, so, after all this time, and already 4 shooting, we make it because we need a little extra money to finish the movie in the best way possible (especially to make post production important steps like audio mixing, some CGI, start marketing, subtitle,...). The campaign will finish on June 16, and every coin is important for us! So, thank you by advance to your great reader.
Q) It would seem that this film touches a number of areas that most low budget film makers would want to know more about. Most film makers would find it a daunting task to shoot a film in their home country and in their native language. Taking a subject like Grand Guignol and using it in a totally new setting had to be challenging. What advice do you wish you had received before you attempted this project?
A) To be honest, we started to talk about this project so long time ago, we mostly get prepared for the badest situation. As usual in this kind of indie movie, the best advise could be "don't wait too much, don't fear too much, just take your camera and shoot". We tried first to get budget with the regular "asking to companies" way, but the concept was little bit to strange for most of japanese producers, haha.
Of course, the main challenge was to manage communication between french directors and japanese team, but our japanese producer (Hiroei Ishihara) selected always great teams, and Gilles Landucci and me (Yann Moreau) worked as Associate Producers, like a link between the french way to work (just do it) and japanese way (let's think, to make it better).
Q) Grand Guignol started in France, how aware were you of this subject material before you were contacted about making this film?
A) This project started with the intention to ask french directors their "visions" about Tokyo and japanese "culture and life". By passion, we are all fans of fantasy and "genre" in cinema, so very quickly we were thinking it will be interesting to make scary stories, with the usual Grand Guignol style (imagination, blood and sensuality), in Tokyo.
Q)Shooting an Anthology is a difficult job when undertaken by one film maker. The most obvious problem that would have to be overcome when there are many film makers involved in the same project is at the level of the camera itself. Did the four film makers have to agree on types of cameras that would be used for this production and the frame rates?
A) For the camera work, we choose to make it all with Cannon mark 2 and 3, and some lenses generously provided by Cannon. Framerate is based on NTSC format. Except that, each director manages his own style of shooting, editing, ...
Q) The anthology film has never really been given the respect that they deserve by the film viewing public or by beginning film makers. I got introduce to this genre of film making as a child by movies like Black Sabbath and Trilogy of Terror. Movies with a clearly defined binding element. In the case of Black Sabbath theme and in the case of Trilogy of Terror a single actress starring in each film that formed the Trilogy.
Recently we have seen in the US. films like V.H.S. and the ABC’s of Death. Were there films that made you eager to tackle this form of film making?
A) All the directors of TOKYO GRAND GUIGNOL made a lot of short films previously, and we all love anthology like Black Sabbath or Creepshow (in France, we were all wicked by the old VHS cover by Melki!).
We talked a lot of time to make one, but we didn't have enough strong concept, and new, to make one. Until TGG.
Q) This project came with basic rules. (The rules of this project are simple: A limited budget, total freedom and imaginative stories of 25 minutes which need to include a kiss and be mostly shot at night.) Did the film makers involved find these simple rules restricting or liberating?
A)I think in the case of the 4 directors, it's was a good thing to have a common base to make a strong identity to the movie. But usually, the more freedom we have, the better it is.
At beginning, 7 directors were involved, but because it was difficult to keep the schedule, budget and duration for each story (15 min become 20/25min now for each one); we split the project in 2. Now we are making the 4 first stories (by Nicolas Alberny, Francois Gaillard, Gilles Landucci and Yann Moreau), which will make a 90min feature film. Then, hopefully, we want to make a Volume 2, with the others directors already planned (Xavier Gens from THEV DIVIDE and FRONTIERs, Jean Frederic Chaleyat and Frederic Grousset. All associates producers now)
Q) About the production of the film. Where the films being shot all at the same time or where spaced out over weeks or even months? Secondly was their ever moments when the film makers and or their casts had the chance to interact?
A) Our brave producer took the good decision to set 1 shooting every 3 months, to keep the energy, but in same time to have enough time to prepare well each shooting.
Depending of the directors, each shooting was 7 days to 9 days.
Q) Also from the crowdfunding campaign I see that you all had the same production crew. Some film makers prefer to use their own personnel particularly behind the camera or even man the camera themselves. Did this ever become an issue?
A)This movie was made in the very independant way, with a limited budget, so our plan from the beginning was to hire only director who can handle themselves the camera work, editing, ...
But because we know each others very well, and are friends, we were happy to give an hand if the director asked. There was 1 main director on each story, mostly helped by another one (for second camera, time to time, or help), with a commun base for sound, assistant, ... and always great and very gentle actors team!
Everybody was so great anyway!
Q) Tokyo is one of the most visually stunning cities on earth. I hope to film their someday. With such a canvas available to you were their times when the city itself felt like a character in your project?
A) Depending of the sensibility of each director. Some prefers focus on japanese interiors and story culture, others focus on outdoor shooting to play with the Tokyo Architecture. On the 4 directors, i think it will be an interesting 50/50 style. On my side, i fell in love of Tokyo 7 years ago. Since this time, i always wanted to show some particular places.
Each single station of Tokyo has his own personnality, style, like a small town. That’s a huge pleasure to shoot there (and live there, haha). If you like strange modern architectures, please come in Tokyo Rodney!
Q) Looking at what is called Asian cinema from a distance it is difficult to get a feeling for the state of independent film making in a country like Japan. Has the Dslr cameras and availability of low cost editing software impacted film making there as much as it has here in the US.? Also since the directors involved are from France, how has it affected film making in their home country?
A) In Japan, there is no place for independant filmmakers, in the way of Sundance style. Or you make your movie by yourself (with your own money), or you make it in production company (and it will look like a TV Drama, for 90%). But sometimes, it's working. My friend Akira Ikeda just got many prizes around the world with his super indie "Anatony of paperclip". Bravo!
In France, if it's very difficult, or incredibly looooong, to get money for official (lazy) producers, it's really possible to get money help from gouverment, and free services from technicians and actors (even famous).
We can not complain too much, haha. In Japan, it's almost impossible to get something free/inexpensive (locations, actor, services,...); thats why it's very difficult for indie producer.
That’s why we are very grateful to Dice Entertainment and Hiroei Ishihara.
Q) What are the plans for Tokyo Grand Guignol when it is completed?
A)First, we plan to show the movie in festivals Tour, then we hope to get a passionate distributor to take car of it, And a great co-producer to help for the Volume 2, ahah.
Q) Any final thoughts or advice for the beginning digital feature film maker?
A)As i mention, make a movie is a very long road. Most of the people will say it's impossible, or not reasonable, but now, with DLSR and strong computer, our beautifulest dreams come true.
So, we have no excuse to try. Do your best, even in uneasy situation, and you will be always proud of your work. Good luck to everyone!!!
Again thank you very much for taking time out to do this interview. We all look forward to seeing the finished product.
Each one of us during any given year will pick the one or two crowdfunding campaigns that we personally get involved with. My contribution is usually to invest my time and effort in getting the word out about a project. Some projects I like more than others. This is one of those projects that I love. The location, the story elements. The fact that it is an Anthology. The fact that they are seeking a reasonable sum of money.
For this campaign to reach its goal it does not require much more than for you guys to spread the word about it. Twitter is a place to do this along with facebook. I am one of those people who if anyone ask me about movies I have a dozen new ones to talk about each week along with my plans for one or two that I want to do. This is one film that I am going to mention here at this blog a few more times as they near the end of their campaign. I may even pull out the Surfin Bird song to get my point across.
Thank you for dropping by. We are going to get back to the found footage series soon. I think that their asre two interviews left in the series and then we are probably going to investigate the state of low budget film making in other countries. Also I am thinking about adding a directors reel page and an actors page. There are a lot of actors who have mentioned to me that they are looking for work, but cannot get a hundred people in a year to check out their reels.
This post will be a break from my series on Found Footage. I have been waiting to do an interview with Geir M.V. Andersen about his film Good Hands. The interview below will be part one of a two part interview on the making of Good Hands. I have been searching a long time for someone who has shoot a feature using the t2i and the second part of this interview will, I hope, focus more on the pros and cons of using that digital camera to get the job done on a feature.
Q) I interview film makers for my blog because I wish to learn something new with each interview. While most indie film makers are going for an ultra crisp and digital look to their films, your film has more of a grindhouse look. Visually it looks a great deal like one of my favorite films of the last few years, Hobo With A Shotgun. The first question is what inspired the look of the film?
A) I grew up watching a lot of action and martial arts movies from the late 80s / early 90s, and most of them where B - movies.
This was in the VHS days so these films where usually a 3rd generation copy of a copy before it ended up in my hands.
I remember watching them in poor quality, but it did not matter, i still got blown away by these films.
Films like No Retreat no Surrender, The Perfect Weapon, Bloodsport and The Terminator inspired me to make this movie.
I still love watching these films, the use of lighting, bright colors, cheesy heroes and the over the top use of synth music and baby oil makes my day.
My movie is both a tribute and a parody of those movies from that era. And that called for the same tricks with lighting and cinematography as well as the use of synth music.
I wanted the style of my movie to look more like a 80s film with a slightly more subtle look rather than going the full distance with the grindhouse look.
So i did lots of trial and error prior to shooting before i had determined the right look.
Q) What did you use to shoot the film on and if you had a larger budget would you have made a different choice in cameras?
A) I used a Canon 550D (or Rebel T2i in the US).
I enjoy using DSLR`s they are reliable, light, easy to use and has a nice shallow depth of field.
But the H264 compression and limited dynamic range (even with the Cinestyle preset) of the 550D can be challenging, especially if you`re going for the film-look.
But since my film was supposed to look like a worn B-movie from the late 80s this camera turned out great.
However if i had a big budget i would have shot it with Red Epic with 4K resolution.
A more future proof choice because of its greater dynamic range and better resolution.
Q) What is the film about?
A) The film is about a young easygoing man called Angus, with a gifted set of hands with a great future and a seemingly loving girlfriend. His dream to become a professional guitarplayer is really close, suddenly he gets a call from his older brother who got himself tangled in with the wrong people.
He meets up with him in the shady parts of town to help him, but they end up trapped by the sadistic gang his brother owes big money.
His brother gets killed and Angus barely survives seriously injured with his beloved hands destroyed, he falls into a coma and wakes up months later discovering his brother is dead, his girlfriend took off with someone else and his hands are destroyed.
Angus swears revenge for his brothers death. With the help of his strange friend Naley, a thrill seeking local security guard who've seen way too many action films.
They embark on a life changing and dangerous journey with explotions, training montages, fist fights and lots of comic reliefs.
Q) I notice some CGI effects in your trailer for the film. Are you pleased with using CGI for your effects or given a larger budget would you have used more practical effect?
A) I have always been a practial effects kind of guy, I've done work as a propmaker in the industry, i build miniature sets to be used as set extensions instead of resorting to CGI and i generally think practical effects always looks better especially on a tight budget. So if i where given the choice and funds I would definitely go for practical effects.
Q) Good Hands looks like a very violent film. Did your actors do many of their own stunts? If they did do their own stunts how did you balance the risk vs. the reward? If a lead actor gets injured then the film can shut down for weeks.
A) The total budget of the film was 12 000 NOK, thats approx 1500 dollars. These modest funds where to cover lighting equipment, audio equipment, costumes, props, smoke machine and much more. That meant we had to do all our own stunts.
I played the lead role myself and luckily I got a martial arts background as well as some experience in fight choreography and stunts.
Safety first has always been my motto. We would rig the stunts then carefully practice them in a safe way until everybody felt confident about doing them.
So the balance between risk and reward where always accounted for... At least most of the time.
Q) On your Youtube channel you highlight many of the tracks from the soundtrack of Good Hands. Most low budget digital films have to use some free music or find a composer who is willing to work for the film credit. Who did your cool soundtrack?
A) I knew exactly the kind of music i was looking for, it had to be a kind of dark and suspenceful synth score. I've always been a DIY kind of guy, I made all the props in the movie so i decided to make the soundtrack myself as well.
So I started experimenting with a lot of different sounds, in the begining it was mostly guitar tracks. But then i discovered "Garage Band" for ipad, and i was immediately hooked. You could even play individual notes on the touch-keyboard, this was perfect for me.
So I recorded the synth tracks in Garage Band, then I mixed the tracks in Sony Vegas and added some real guitar tracks as well as some custom drums from a programme called "Beatcraft". I got very pleased with the results and i own the rights to the music myself. Also it was free as well as tailormade for the movie.
Q) One of the things that has always surprised me from one low budget film to the next is the amount of time it took to shoot the film. I have interviewed film makers who have shot a feature length film in less than a week and I have interviewed one film maker who took more than two years to finish his film. How long did it take to shoot your film and looking back at the process knowing what you know now was your time well spent?
A) We set out to make this film as a weekend project since everyone involved had to work at their daytime jobs during the weekdays. And i knew from the start that this would be a project spanning over years rather than weeks or months. To be honest the film is not yet completed, we still need to shoot the opening as well a very complicated action scene early in the movie.
Its a long road no doubt, but its been an incredibly fun and educational process that I'm glad to say is not over yet.
Q) Every film maker has the that one film maker or film that inspired them to get started. Who was that film maker or what was that film?
A) The film that has inspired me the most was a film i first saw when I was 10 years old, a film i watch at least once a year every year. The cinematography was incredible to me, the special effects blew me away, and the plot had me on edge of the seat all the way. Later i learned this was also a low budget film, which made it even more awesome. This film inspired me to pursue my dreams of becoming a filmmaker (still a work in progress but I'll get there). "The Terminator" 1984 by James Cameron
This concludes part one of the Good Hands interview. If you would not take the time to share this interview on Twitter or posting it on your facebook page that would be great. This site grows through sharing. I get my encouragement from the number of views each day and the questions and comments that come in. The next post will be about film trailers that I have seen recently and answering a few questions that have come in. Then I hope to have the second half of this interview as the following post before we get back to the found footage topic. Good luck with your projects and did I mention that my first book On Low Budget Filmmaking is now available at Createspace(Amazon) . To those of you who teach film classes this little book would make for a great basic teaching tool. Also for those who know a beginning film maker this would be a great starters guide. Hey we all have our own favorite film making book. For me it was John Russo's Making Movies, The Inside Guide to Independent Movie Production.
The second biggest part of being a indie film maker is learning to market yourself and your work. This comes second only to the actual making of your film.
Yes, I understand that there are still studios and distributors out there, but the competition for both gets stiffer each years.
Your best bet is to become good at this part of the job or find someone who is willing to help you.
The good news in this regard is that you can learn to do this over time. Even if you are an introvert and a maverick like me there is hope.
It amazes me to this day that there are still so many digital film makers who do not take advantage of the free options that exist for them to market themselves and their work. Allow me to go over a few that are obvious.
Facebook and Myspace (yeah, myspace is making a comeback) are two great places to build a page around your production and to develop a following.
Google plus is a great way to keep in touch with other film makers and followers. You can set up weekly or monthly Google hangout meeting for those that you wish to interact with.
Twitter is a place where you can keep those interested in your project constantly updated on what is happening day by day.
Pinterest is a great place to share stills from your project and is perhaps the most overlooked place to market your work.
If you want to build a website dedicated to your project you do not have to purchase a domain and host, although if the film is going to be a part of your life for years you might want to consider doing this. A wordpress site can be impressive both to visitors and those you wish to do business with. If you do not know how to build your own website from scratch you are in luck, that is one of the skills that I market. If you want to learn how to construct a wordpress site from start to finish you can click here and visit a page will a few video instructional.
If on the other hand you want to construct a site for free you can go to blogspot and build a blooger website like this one. It is totally free to use and easy to set up.
There are so many other social sites out there like typepad and Tumblr that you can use to reach people.
Once you have set up a series of social media accounts then the next thing to do is to connect them under one umbrella. The reason that you will want to do this is so that if you post at one site it is syndicated to all of them. This saves you a lot of time and effort.
The two sites that can help you with this is Rebelmouse. You can see a quick tutorial video about it below. The video is narrated by the great indie film maker David P. Baker.
Since David is promoting his film Screen, I thought that I would post his six minute preview.
The second site is Onlywire. I like onlywire and have used it not only to connect my social media, but to get backlinks for this blog. Backlinks are important if you are interested in improving the page ranking of your main website. It has gotten this blog to page one in multiple google keyword searches. Quick tutorials on onlywire.
Remember that Onlywire gives you a real free trial for one month. I would suggest, if you are on a budget, to use their free trial during a big promotional or fund raising month.
The lesson I want to leave you with today is to use ever tool possible to promote yourself and your work. You do not get a do over in life. This is it and you got one shot at getting it right so give it your all. Spread the word about your project if you have to stand on a street corner handing out flyers. If you do not have a budget for promotion then social media is your best tool. You can expand your reach by tens of thousands of people if you master this part of the game. Hollywood does not have all the answers. The truth is that many micro budget film makers are already ahead of them in this part of the advertising and promotes game. Through social media we will become an industry that will someday compete head to head with the major studios. If you want to be a success at this business and what I mean by success is making enough money to finance the next project and keeping the lights on and the pets feed then you are going to have learn more about this area of the business. It will not be harder than learning about blocking and lighting. It will be far easier than learning how to edit.
Good luck with your project and please take a moment to help me with my social media. Stumble us on stumbleupon, add me to your googleplus and share this post with a friend by using my share button. That is social media in action.
We have looked at Dslr Cameras and consumer camcorders. We have gone as low in price as the Canon HV 20 for our low budget film. The truth is that you could drop down to the HV 10. It will give you most of what the other Hv cameras have to offer. This camcorder sells for 80 to 100 dollars less than the HV 20 and 30, but we can go lower still.
How about those canon vixia cameras?
They also shoot native 24p and in high def.
The problem with them, particularly the one I am going to talk about is that many do not have threads so that you can attach lenses and dof adapters. There is a work around. It is ultra low budget, but we are not here to impress people with how much we are willing to spend on our camcorder, but how good our end product turns out to be.
Let’s have a look at my favor of the Canon vixia series the hf r10 (do not confuse it with the massive g10). This little baby has most of the manual setting of its bigger brothers. It can be gotten brand new in the 179.00 dollar range. Used it can be found for around 130 and I got one for less than 100. I love this little camera, it has the toggle rather than the touch screen. You can record internally or to card.
Did I mention that it shoots 24p?
Naked with out any additions it is a pretty good camera for the beginning film maker and I plan on using mine this fall as the second camera on the feature I am going to be producing and maybe directing. Here is a quick review of the camera and what it does.
Now let’s upgrade this kid. We have a camera that does not have threads. We can not add any extras to it unless we are able to add an adapter ring to the camera. I could explain it to you or you could check out the video that taught me how to do it and I have to say that so far so good. I have tried it with a wide angle lens attached and soon I am going to try it with a static depth of field adapter.
So here is the tutorial. Good luck and be careful when you do this. You really only get one bite of the apple with this DIY unless you want to have to buy another camera.
Almost forgot to include some test footage shoot with the camera and a dof adapter. Take a look at this.
Okay I guess that is it for now. The next post is probably going to be about the GH series and I do not mean General Hospital. Remember us on stumpleupon and google plus. If or when you decide to buy a Dslr consider using one of the camera shops that sponsors this blog. They help to pay the bills and if any of them is reading this if you want a product review contact me, send me the item and I will be honest about it. If any of the shops wants me to review a Red camera I will happily do so right after I do to it what Peter on the Family Guy did to his Surfing Bird record.
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