Cinemusing

Action!

2011-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings and welcome to Cinemusing! I’m Brian Johnson, a wannabe director, and this is where I will be chronicling my future adventures in film production, whatever they may be. I’ve already had some adventures, but wasn’t much of a consistent blogger about them. So, forward we go!

The dream, of course, is to end up with “Directed by Brian Johnson” on a movie screen, a real theater movie screen somewhere. Limited release, wide release, I don’t care. Oh, and it has to be a feature-length production: Short films are nice and all, but I want to direct a feature film someday.

Like any good movie, my life has a backstory relevant to this blog that leads up to this date. As time permits, I will briefly present that information; but otherwise it will mostly be a look forward as I work my way up (hopefully) to accomplish some version of my dream. Entries of a given production’s activities for the day will be interspersed with my thoughts (rants) on cinematic techniques and ideas I come across in my quest.

I hope you’ll stick around, either as an encouraging fan, or a newbie film maker yourself who wants to learn from someone else’s mistakes, or as a seasoned veteran who can point me in the right direction when needed.

So here we go!

Backstory: In Development

2011-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

The family moved to Midvale, Utah, in either 1979 or 1980, I forget which. What I do remember was the fantastic front window and curtain, the perfect venue for a little boy to put on shows for stuffed animals. The curtain was operated with a drawstring on one side, so I could open the curtain, step out from behind it, perform whatever it was I was performing back then, then return and close the curtain to end the show.

The house also came equipped with our first staircase. The stairs landed in a hallway that ran perpendicular to them, so that there was a blank white wall facing you when you took the last step down. This turned out to be ideal for showing “movies” to my stuffed animals. I would line them up on the steps, and imagine that a movie was being shown on the white wall. Being the projectionist, I did not actually stick around; but I was known to leave the animals on the stairs for over an hour as if they really were at a theater viewing the latest flick.

In elementary school, I gladly participated in all the class programs. Somehow, the principal, Mr. DeGraw, became aware of my performing interests and invited me to join “The State Show”, an annual musical presentation he put together himself out of popular songs from select states. A chorus of some thirty students sang “California, Here I Come” and “I Am a Utah Man” while others would take center stage to perform an accompanying dance.

I was slated to be in the Utah song, but I couldn’t pick up the move very well, so I was moved over to join two others in doing the (easier) dance for “Chicago, Illinois.” I must say I looked dapper in my – well, I'm not sure what to call it. The striped shirt, vest, and pants remind me of an old-west bartender or some such. Ultimately, it was a blast for an exuberant young performer, especially when we took the whole show to a nursing home in the area.

It was while living in Utah that I really got into the home-grown “shows”, inspired mostly by my vinyl record of Disneyland music. The record featured music from the Electrical Parade, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, and other prominent attractions at the amusement park. And on repeated occasions, I sat my parents down and performed “dances” to each of the tracks on the record. The whole experience was a good forty minutes per sitting, yet my parents were always smiling and enjoying every moment.

On the one hand, these were trivial moments in my past; but on the other hand, I have no doubt they contributed to the foundation of what I would become. Even us great performers have our humble beginnings.

Backstory: The Born Entertainer

2011-01-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

If my published quest to make a movie began on January 1, 2011, it should be noted that my unpublished quest began 36 years prior to that. I deliberately chose a Sunday afternoon to be born, so that my mother’s absence from the church service that morning would generate attention. Plus I was born in the Whittier hospital, which explains my fantastic sense of humor.

As far back as I can remember, I was interested in theatrical atmosphere of some kind or another. The relevant memory I have of life in Los Angeles was the record (those old vinyl things) the girl across the street had. It was a “spooky” record designed to make little kids scream more with giggles than actual fright, but it had some great music, and a narrator with a good voice for Halloween material. And I loved listening to it, because it was so successfully atmospheric. Not that I was consciously evaluating it for its cinematic quality at that age, but I know in retrospect that its tone contributed to my creativity in those and later years.

We lived for about six years in the La Mirada neighborhood of Los Angeles, and while I don’t remember much of it, my mother will testify that I was putting on “shows” for my stuffed animals in those early years. I’m sure much of my life was a “show” back then: I had already demonstrated a tendency toward being a tour guide, for example, from confines as small as the driveway to much longer family road trips. My guess is I picked that up from the Disneyland railway recording or some similar venue.

So my interest in the general world of showmanship was a part of my nature from the very beginning, and has only grown since then. It may or may not be too bad that we moved from the Los Angeles area before I ever had a chance to show Hollywood what they were missing.

Action!

2011-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings and welcome to Cinemusing! I’m Brian Johnson, a wannabe director, and this is where I will be chronicling my adventures in film production, whatever they may be.

The dream, of course, is to end up with “Directed by Brian Johnson” on a movie screen, a real theater movie screen somewhere. Limited release, wide release, I don’t care. Oh, and it has to be a feature-length production: Short films are nice and all, but I want to direct a feature film someday.

Like any good movie, my life has a backstory relevant to this blog that leads up to this date. As time permits, I will briefly present that information; but otherwise it will mostly be a look forward as I work my way up (hopefully) to accomplish some version of my dream. Entries of a given production’s activities for the day will be interspersed with my thoughts (rants) on cinematic techniques and ideas I come across in my quest.

I hope you’ll stick around, either as an encouraging fan, or a newbie film maker yourself who wants to learn from someone else’s mistakes, or as a seasoned veteran who can point me in the right direction when needed.

So here we go!

Your Cheating Heart

2010-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

And without any further ado, I have news of production work!

Local actor and director Craig Richards recently purchased a new Canon 7D camera and wanted to try it out on something. So he and an acquaintance wrote a short script, called it good, rounded up some cast and crew, and we started shooting this past Monday night, September 27th. Three nights later, around 3:00 a.m., we wrapped and staggered home.

The concept is fairly simple: Marital tension between a husband and wife has the bad timing of boiling over while they are dining in public. Suspicions of infidelity force the conversation into uncomfortable territory, and secrets are revealed that will change everything. And that's all I'm going to say, because the story is one where half the fun is turning the corners to find new surprises waiting.

My job title was Assistant Camera, which would be 1st Assistant Camera if we had other assistants. I set up the camera, made sure it was running, and otherwise helped out the Director of Photography as needed. Truth be told, on a shoot this small, there were significant stretches of time where I was not needed. As is often the case with "indie" films, the D.P. was also the Camera Operator anyway, so it was often faster for him to simply do what needed doing than to call me over, explain it to me, and have me do it.

The shoot took place primarily in a restaurant, and the proprietors of Bourbon Street Bend graciously allowed Craig to move in to one of their side rooms. It was a tight squeeze – another reason I often stepped out of the room rather than cram in next to the camera just to execute something too simple for words that the D.P. could do in an instant. But it has been interesting to watch it come together.

Having worked alongside the Canon 7D for a couple of days now, I'd have to say I'm not overly seduced by it. True, I have not seen the captured images on a proper television screen to see the quality, but the camera itself is simply trying to be too much. It takes both stills and video, and therefore its surface is covered with buttons and dials, many of which either the D.P. or I bumped while simply trying to operate the camera. Plus it "gets tired" way too easily: Some sensor inside can only stay on and recording for approximately fifteen minutes before the screen fades out and the camera needs to be switched off for a few seconds to recover. Give me good old 35mm film anyday!

The film's working title is Infidel, and Craig hopes to have it done in time for entry in a December film festival. So keep your eyes open!

Craig, by the way, has had appearances in numerous Hollywood productions. Watch for him as the officer scowling at Jon Lovitz in Rat Race, or the guard over Jim Carrey's right shoulder as he packs up and leaves the studio at the beginning of The Majestic, among others.

The Director's Chair - July 2010

2010-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Motion Pictures Studios!

This past quarter saw a successful run of She Stoops to Conquer at Cascades Theatrical Company. Of the four community theater plays I have directed, this is quite possibly my most satisfying result - though the previous three came off so well also that putting any one play in First Place is a matter of inches, not yards.

If you live in the Central Oregon area and watch the cable channels, you may have seen me play an insomniac for the St. Charles Sleep Center commercial. Not having cable, I have yet to see it myself, but it's something of a hoot to be someplace and have a total stranger stare for a moment, squint, inch closer, and finally say: "Are you the sleepless guy?"

Who knew that merely acting sleepless could take three hours to capture on video? I spent an afternoon laying on a mattress at Rage Studios with a camera directly overhead. A heavy camera. Held to its mounts by zip ties. I wasn't actually nervous but if a Red Camera were to fall ten feet lens-first directly onto your face, it wouldn't be a nice afternoon.

Anyway, for three hours we tried all possible variations of sleeplessness: Dazed, staring at the ceiling, frustrated, tossing and turning, thrashing, thumping the pillow, and so on. I actually had it pretty easy: I got to lay down and get paid for it; Chris Kas had to alternately stand and squat on the cherry picker basket several feet above me that whole time.

Just a couple weeks ago I had a truly cool experience when I was a temp crew member of The Wait, an independent film being shot 20 minutes away in the town of Sisters. I was scheduled to be out of town the entire last week of their production schedule, so I reckon that is part of why I did not get a full-time position, but the two days were still very interesting.

I debated outlining it all here, but I will shortly have both days described in vivid detail on my Cinemusing blog, so I'll let interested parties dive in over there. I will say, however, that I got to sit within talking distance of Chloe Sevigney at lunch (Boys Don't Cry, Melinda and Melinda, among others), and she even spoke to me for a short while. I'm actually not into the whole "celebrity" thing, but it was a cool moment for me.

On a more personal front, I decided it was time to get in shape. (Jeremy, stop laughing.) Having tried for years to motivate myself, I think I have finally found the answer, by combining my need for better health with my love of film-making. I am documenting the 100-Day Fitness Countdown on YouTube and having a lot of fun doing it.

Well, 2010 is half over and many things remain undone. My short Mammon and the Archer and Animals still await their final and official DVD releases for cast and crew. I have not yet made a new short film, as I resolved to have done by this point. And the screenplay for Horatio sits atrophying in a corner. I know you won't believe me if I say that at least half of these things are going to be finished by the next newsletter - but if I simply refrain from sending out the next newsletter until they're finished, I end up being right. Ha!

Later, peeps! Hang loose, break for pedestrians, vote Constitutionalist, and call your mother - she's worried about you.

The Wait: Day 1 of 2

2010-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

An independent film production came to Central Oregon this month: The Wait, a drama involving a psychiatrist and a dysfunctional familial relationship. I have the extended logline for it around here somewhere, but I'm not going to look it up right now.

Anyway, I dutifully sent in my resume when I saw the job notice in my e-mailbox. However, I sensed right away I probably would not get hired because I am already scheduled to be out of town the last week of their production calendar. And indeed, I did not hear back from them. Until last week.

I got a call asking if I would be available to be on the crew as a swing between the grip and the electrical departments on Friday the 18th and Monday the 21st. Naturally I said yes.

So on Friday afternoon I headed out past Sisters to the Black Butte Ranch, which is hardly a ranch anymore if it ever was, but rather a high-brow resort complete with lake, golf course, and who knows what else. I checked in, headed through the front gate, and promptly made a wrong turn. But after correcting my error I ended up at the parking lot assigned to crew members.

Due to underestimating the distance from my house, along with weekend traffic consisting of slow-moving RV's and boats, plus the aforementioned wrong turn, I arrived about fifteen minutes later than the official call, so all the crew had already left the parking lot and were at the resort cabin of choice. I grabbed my duffel bag, complete with four varieties of clothing in preparation for the wide mood swings of desert weather in early summer, and headed down the road on foot.

I found the lot number and house in about ten minutes, later learning that the van that passed me three times was the crew shuttle and had the driver known who I was, she would have stopped for me. No worries, the exercise was good for me, and hardly strenuous.

I located Joe Paulet, my immediate supervisor and contact. He's the Best Boy Grip on the production, which in simple terms means he mans the grip equipment truck and delivers what's called for to the Key Grip (Joe Timko), who is the guy in charge of all the grip personnel. And yes, I had two Joe's as my supervisors. A great way for a nervous new guy to step into a working crew and get thoroughly confused.

In the first ten minutes I met more people than I will remember. I got a walkie-talkie and earpiece from a woman I cannot now recall, met the Gaffer (Efram Peter), the Best Boy Electric (Ben Porter), and then person after person after person. I only even remember the few I do because I have the call sheet for the day still in my pocket, with crew names on it.

I was indeed nervous, figuring that this crew had already had four days to get up to speed and get a working relationship going. On top of that, I haven't worked with real film equipment and lingo since 2006 in South Carolina. I was certain that sometime during the day, probably earlier than later, I would end up with egg on my face and a frustrated member of the heirarchy wondering why they bothered to hire me. I am delighted to report that everyone on the crew was very friendly and welcoming, at least as much as they could be given the constant pace of the work ahead of them.

Our first task, already in progress when I arrived, was to black out all the windows of the house so that night interior scenes could be shot during the day. As a "swing" I never really had one supervisor, but was bounced from person to person as the need arose: "Here, help Ben block out these windows, then come find Joe where he's covering over the screen door."

I was re-introduced to the C-stand, the grip's best friend, and met the 4x4 "Floppy" for the first time. The Floppy is a large frame with solid black fabric stretched over it, but unlike an ordinary "flag" it comes with an extra 4x4 flap of cloth that can either be velcroed in place over the main frame or allowed to drop down so that you end up with a 4x8 light-blocking screen.

Other windows were covered with the traditional Duvetyne, a solid black fabric that thoroughly and utterly blocks light from passing through it. And where ordinary black cloth would actually show up on film because it does reflect a significant amount of light, Duvetyne has a matte surface so that it appears as total darkness on film or video. We used a ton of this stuff because the house had entire rooms windowed for a great view of the mountains, which we did not want at this time.

My previous experience has been with film crews so small that once we were done being grips and electricians, we'd then hurry over to be sound engineers and dolly grips for the actual shooting. For The Wait, I was quietly but hurriedly covering the northeast corner of the living room windows when I heard "Cut!" over my walkie-talkie. It was only then that I realized they were already shooting inside and it was a darn good thing I wasn't banging around loudly outside.

Though the whole day was a good learning experience, my creative side is a little disappointed that my job consisted of being outside and grabbing any equipment needed inside. For twelve hours I did not see any of the actual shooting inside, did not get to see the creative process at work between the director, the 1st AD, the cinematographer, or the actors. Not that I would want to erase the day and start over; I'll just have to wait for another time to be a part of the above-the-line team.

I had heard the film was independent and relatively low-budget, so I assumed I wouldn't know anyone involved. Then I took a good look at the call sheet that morning and learned that Jena Malone and Chloe Sevigny were cast members! I will admit to being unable to identify them in a line-up of Hollywood starlets, but I've seen at least two films that each of them has been in. (Look them up yourself, I'm busy.)

So when we broke for "lunch" at 8:00 p.m. and I randomly sat down at a table, I found a certain fascination in seeing Ms. Sevigny sit down just a seat away. (I briefly wondered if I had sat at the higher-ups' table, but I noticed everyone mingling every which way so I didn't get panicky.) I played it calm and cool, not wanting to breach protocol or look like a fool around a "star", though I confess I would have liked to have an autograph. As other crew members sat down we all began conversing. Somehow the conversations led to my experience in Oregon's community theater, and Chloe (the Chloe Sevigny) asked me if I did any acting, to which I said yes, and some directing. She said, "Cool." Yes, the Chloe Sevigny told me my acting experience was "cool". You may have my autograph. (I think Jena Malone was on set that day but I did not see her at lunch and, as I already mentioned, I was not assigned to the set myself.)

Once the windows were blacked out, the day went by in a fairly normal way. We stayed on call, ready to grab a C-stand or a light stand or a cable of some kind. My opportunities to get off my feet were limited to the occasional three or four minutes here and there. I got sore.

Around 2:00 a.m. the shoot wrapped for the night, and we spent the next two hours packing up everything. I won't detail it here. But by 4:00 a.m. I was very grateful to hear that I was free to go while the Key personnel did the last tidying up. I am by nature not an intrusive person, and figuring that they all wanted to get home as well, I did not bother anyone for a ride back to the parking lot. Each step (uphill) was quite painful, and once I was away from all the spotlights, I noticed that the sun was already coming up. A full night outdoors.

I could barely get my left leg into the car, and when I got out at home, the muscles that had been stiffening up during the 45-minute drive all complained loudly. They hurt even now, almost a full day later. I am so glad I did not have two of those workdays in a row.

I go back on Monday, location to be determined, and am looking forward to it.

The Blog Less Traveled

2010-05-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this blog has certainly been less traveled for a while now. My work on She Stoops to Conquer at Cascades Theatrical Company overwhelmed just about everything I had in life to do, and since the blogs rank as optional fun, they sank to the bottom of my list of obligations.

But the play is now over, I have had sufficient recovery time, and I can get rolling on a great many things again. Some of those things qualify as discussion for this blog, so stay tuned!

The Director's Chair: April 2010

2010-04-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR
April 2010

Greetings from the Motion Pictures Studios!

Apparently I switched over to a quarterly publication schedule and didn't know it, because it has been three months since I last wrote. (Had I held to that pathetic schedule at college, my parents probably would have cut off the funding.)

The dominant theme of this past quarter has been my opportunity to direct She Stoops to Conquer at our downtown community theater. Seven years ago I directed this play at the school where I taught, and it has been an equally exciting opportunity to recreate it with adults who are diving in with enthusiasm.

Auditions were in late February, and I got to choose from the largest crop I've ever seen turn out for a community theater production. In this town it is often a huge chore to get enough males, but I had more than enough of all types. I'm having a barrel of fun watching it all come together and getting to work with long-time friends while making new ones.

The show opens April 9 and runs until April 25 – so yes, we're down to the final week of rehearsals! I won't bore you with the sales pitch here; if you're in the area, you probably know where to find the details, and if you're not, you probably won't be coming to see it.

In the video world, paid labor has been slow but somehow I still have too much to do every day. I got to create the commercial for She Stoops to Conquer, which was a small but exciting opportunity. Most plays performed in town are still owned by agencies and the authors, so the theater is limited to a very bland commercial with narration over still photos. Since this play is 200 years old, we are free to use actual lines and scenes from it, so the commercial looks more like an active movie trailer.

I wrote a new cue for Mammon and the Archer, so that might actually get finished before the cast and crew die off! And I used portions of that video and script in an informal talk on writing screenplays at the Central Oregon Writers Guild in March – a group that was very receptive to my whirlwind introduction on crafting a movie script.

And as far as the focus of this newsletter is concerned, that's about it. I could throw in that I did think about finishing the Horatio screenplay, and even mentally came up with more elements I want in the climax and denouement. Once this play is over – Oh, who am I kidding?

All right, I must go and face April head-on. Say hi, don't be a stranger, drive carefully, hold the door for ladies, don't talk with your mouth full, practice what you preach, and always eat your vegetables.

Mammon and the Archer: That Much Closer

2010-03-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I did not have all of the music ready for showing Mammon and the Archer at the Writers' Guild, but that's fine because there was not time for showing the whole thing and talking about it anyway.

It is, however, that much closer to being done, and once this week is over, I should actually have some more breathing room for the project. But then, I've been saying that for 104 weeks, so we'll have to wait and see.

Mammon and the Archer: Scoring

2010-03-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Cast and crew of Mammon and the Archer will be glad to know that I sat down yesterday and finally wrote some new music for the score! In addition to needing to finish the product simply out of gratitude to all who helped make it possible, I also have the pressing need to have it ready to watch by tonight, as I take it to the Central Oregon Writer's Guild meeting where I am presenting it as part of a study on writing screenplays.

While the product may still not be thoroughly polished by tonight, at least I have gotten the ball rolling again. At this point I have written the tango that will play during the restaurant conversation, and the end credits music. I'd like to also have the chaos-and-proposal sequence composed but that may not happen given the other preparations I have to make for the meeting.

Once that scene is written, the project will be just a hop, skip, and jump away from being completed and ready for final distribution on DVD and submission to film festivals. And it only took two years.

Latino Film Festival 2010

2010-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

If you're in the Central Oregon area you might want to stop in on the Latino Film Festival, now in its third year, with screenings tonight (3/4) and Saturday (3/6). Tonight's event is at COCC's Hitchcock Auditorium starting at 5:00 p.m., and Saturday's is being held at Bend High at 6:00 p.m. Both screenings include ethnic food, and Saturday's screening includes dance and music as well.

Due to my own schedule, I was unable to review any films for this year's festival, but last year's Viva Cuba was an interesting tale, and the cultural differences between other nations and ethnicities often results in films that take a refreshing step away from Hollywood's cookie cutters.

More information can be found at the festival's website.

Oscar 2010: The List

2010-02-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

Well, the older I get and the more I look at life in general, and more specifically the complete and utter triviality of the Academy Awards, the less interested I become in watching. Add to this the fact that this year's line-up of nominees has very few films I am pro-actively enthused about, and this looks like the second year in a row I will deliberately skip a viewing of the ceremony.

If we can get a working signal on our television set and a few friends want to come over for popcorn and pizza, I might do it just for the fun of having a few friends over, but otherwise, here is the generally uninspiring list of nominees for the 2009 film year.

Best Picture:
An Education
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Director:
Avatar – James Cameron
The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
Precious – Lee Daniels
Up in the Air – Jason Reitman

Best Actor:
A Single Man – Colin Firth
Crazy Heart – Jeff Bridges
The Hurt Locker – Jeremy Renner
Invictus – Morgan Freeman
Up in the Air – George Clooney

Best Actress:
An Education – Carey Mulligan
The Blind Side – Sandra Bullock
Julie & Julia – Meryl Streep
The Last Station – Helen Mirren
Precious – Gabourey Sidibe

Best Supporting Actor:
Inglourious Basterds – Cristoph Waltz
Invictus – Matt Damon
The Last Station – Christopher Plummer
The Lovely Bones – Stanley Tucci
The Messenger – Woody Harrelson

Best Supporting Actress:
Crazy Heart – Maggie Gyllenhaal
Nine – Penelope Cruz
Precious – Mo'Nique
Up in the Air – Vera Farmiga
Up in the Air – Anna Kendrick

Best Original Screenplay:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay:
An Education
District 9
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Animated Feature:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Best Art Direction:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography:
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Costume Design:
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Film Editing:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Original Score:
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Best Original Song:
Crazy Heart – "The Weary Kind"
Nine – "Take It All"
Paris 36 – "Loin de Paname"
The Princess and the Frog – "Almost There"
The Princess and the Frog – "Down in New Orleans"

Best Makeup:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Visual Effects:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Sound Editing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Foreign Language Film:
Ajami
El Secreto De Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Best Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
Which Way Home
The Most Dangerous Man in America

Best Animated Short:
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Documentary Short:
China's Unnatural Disaster
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Best Live Action Short:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Racists Behind Every Bush

2010-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

I think my favorite line is: "Can't people just enjoy movies anymore?" So true, so true. Anyway, here's the latest from those movie-goers who go looking for racism behind every bush.

***

Author: Jesse Washington, for the Associated Press

Near the end of the hit film Avatar, the villain snarls at the hero, "How does it feel to betray your own race?" Both men are white – although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall, long-tailed alien.

Strange as it may seem for a film that pits greedy, immoral humans against noble denizens of a faraway moon, Avatar is being criticized by a small but vocal group of people who allege it contains racist themes – the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.

Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim three weeks ago, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people" and that it reinforces "the white Messiah fable."

The film's writer and director, James Cameron, says the real theme is about respecting others' differences.

In the film (read no further if you don't want the plot spoiled for you) a white, paralyzed Marine, Jake Sully, is mentally linked to an alien's body and set loose on the planet Pandora. His mission: persuade the mystic, nature-loving Na'vi to make way for humans to mine their land for unobtanium, worth $20 million per kilo back home.

Like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves and Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai or as far back as Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 Western Broken Arrow, Sully soon switches sides. He falls in love with the Na'vi princess and leads the bird-riding, bow-and-arrow-shooting aliens to victory over the white men's spaceships and mega-robots.

Adding to the racial dynamic is that the main Na'vi characters are played by actors of color, led by a Dominican, Zoe Saldana, as the princess. The film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.

Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as Seven Pounds and Hotel for Dogs, said that Avatar was "beautiful" and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.

But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood's Pocahontas story – "the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the savior."

"It's really upsetting in many ways," said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. "It would be nice if we could save ourselves."

Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of [a] sci-fi Web site, likened Avatar to the recent film District 9, in which a white man accidentally becomes an alien and then helps save them, and 1984's Dune, in which a white man becomes an alien Messiah.

"Main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color ... (then) go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed," she wrote.

"When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" wrote Newitz, who is white.

Black film professor and author Donald Bogle said he can understand why people would be troubled by Avatar, although he praised it as a "stunning" work.

"A segment of the audience is carrying in the back of its head some sense of movie history," said Bogle, author of "Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films."

Bogle stopped short, however, of calling the movie racist.

"It's a film with still a certain kind of distortion," he said. "It's a movie that hasn't yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas."

Writer/director Cameron, who is white, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that his film "asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."

There are many ways to interpret the art that is Avatar.

What does it mean that in the final, sequel-begging scene, Sully abandons his human body and transforms into one of the Na'vi for good? Is Saldana's Na'vi character the real heroine because she, not Sully, kills the arch-villain? Does it matter that many conservatives are riled by what they call liberal environmental and anti-military messages?

Is Cameron actually exposing the historical evils of white colonizers? Does the existence of an alien species expose the reality that all humans are actually one race?

"Can't people just enjoy movies any more?" a person named Michelle posted on the Web site for Essence, the magazine for black women, which had 371 comments on a story debating the issue.

Although the Avatar debate springs from Hollywood's historical difficulties with race, Will Smith recently saved the planet in I Am Legend, and Denzel Washington appears ready to do the same in the forthcoming Book of Eli.

Bogle, the film historian, said that he was glad Cameron made the film and that it made people think about race.

"Maybe there is something he does want to say and put across" about race, Bogle said. "Maybe if he had a black hero in there, that point would have been even stronger."

Beyond Your Imaginarium

2010-01-06T00:00:00.001-08:00

Yes! It's official! Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is coming to Bend! It opened to limited release in the United States on Christmas Day, and what news I had of how (or if) it would make its way around the rest of the country was disturbing. But I just checked the movie schedule for my area on Yahoo and it does indeed open this Friday!

So, basically, I'm stoked.

The Director's Chair: January 2010

2010-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR
January 2010

Greetings from the Motion Pictures Studios! And a very Happy New Year to you!

As the dust settles on the flurry of activity that is my annual transition to a new year, I can finally sit down and send out the first newsletter of the year. I know you've been waiting eagerly. Perhaps even on tenterhooks.

Since I last wrote, I've had a few exciting things happen, including the premiere party for my third short film project, Animals. It went over very well with cast and crew, who were crammed into my mother's living room. And there was something particularly rewarding about seeing it play on her massive television. A good time was had by all.

I also had the privilege of directing Harvey at 2nd Street Theater in Bend, which also turned out to be the theater company's last production. Economic times mean the owner, Maralyn Thoma, cannot afford to run it as a company any longer, though the building will remain available for other groups to rent. Even now it is already booked for an April showing of a local playwright's work.

The run of Harvey was highly enjoyable, with a wonderful cast putting together a hilarious show. And did we ever finish with a bang! The last show, December 19th, was nearly flawless on all levels, both technical and artistic; the best of the run, in fact, with an audience that thoroughly enjoyed it.

And the year ended with a delightful Christmas. When I can bring home DVDs of The Village, The Majestic, Coraline, and Leatherheads, it's a good year. (Not that I'm into Christmas for the materialism, but as a movie enthusiast and wannabe-director, my material side was immensely satisfied.)

My new year already has a little work cut out for me, as I either begin or put finishing touches on about half-a-dozen works, including the Square D Circuit Breaker Tutorial (yee-haw!), the 2nd Street Theater Final Curtain tribute DVD, my grandfather's memorial DVD (a two-year-old project, not a recent loss), and the final audio mixes for both Mammon and the Archer and Animals.

In addition, I have a goal of shooting three short projects this year, one per trimester. I have more than enough script ideas to accomplish this; it will be a question of which ones are most feasible on a shoestring. I also will finish Horatio this spring - Yes, I will - and begin a second screenplay. It's a toss-up between Brian about four single 20-something men renting rooms of one house, or Fixations, a darker little tale about a retentive man who is certain that gremlin-y creatures are tormenting him by mal-adjusting the perfectly lined up things in his home and office.

I certainly hope the New Year treats you well and good. Be sure to write when you get there, and don't be a stranger - I'm always home (unemployed) so feel free to drop by.

Shorts!

2010-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

I made a New Year's Resolution to shoot one short film per trimester this year. Whether they happen within their four-month trimesters or not is irrelevant; I should have three new ones by year's end.

This does not count Mammon and the Archer and Animals, which technically still need to be finished up. Even though they will end up with 2010 copyright dates, they are not 2010 short films as far as this resolution is concerned.

I have a few ideas for the year, including such working titles as Intervention, Stuff, and an adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief. I shall have to see which ideas are the most feasible on a shoestring budget, as well as how much time they will take.

Check out my YouTube page for my film projects as the year goes along. Hopefully things will be popping up there from time to time.

Terry is Back!

2009-12-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

My all-time favorite director, Terry Gilliam, is back with a vengeance! His latest, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is rumored to have a wide release on January 8, though I cannot find any official source for that rumor. I certainly hope that it comes to Bend theaters eventually; I really do not want to wait until its DVD release.

Gilliam is the director who can't seem to get a break. Despite his successful delivery of Time Bandits and Brazil to the studios, along with Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King (both with Academy-Award-nominated performances), all any financiers can seem to remember him for is The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the textbook example of a Hollywood fiasco, much of which was not his fault. And which also happens to be my favorite movie. I'd hire the man in a snap if I had the budget.

Then there was The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which fell apart barely a week into the shooting schedule because of an actor's spinal problems, test flights by the Spanish air force, and a hailstorm to rival that of the biblical plague upon Egypt. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was simply too good: Critics and audiences agreed the sensation of being on a drug trip and subsequent withdrawals was so well portrayed that it was impossible to watch. And The Brothers Grimm fell victim to the excessive tampering of the Weinstein Brothers, who basically made Terry wish he had never directed the film.

Now with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry faced the death of Heath Ledger halfway through shooting. From all reports however, including an interview with Terry that I read, if you're going to lose an actor, they lost Ledger at a "good" time, and were able to craft a creative solution to the problem.

Loving The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as much as I do, I am positively giddy to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The trailer makes it look like the wild fantasy adventures I love so much.

I hesitate to include links to pages I do not control because the link may become obsolete someday, but here it is. Oh, the joy!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer

A Brian Johnson Film?

2009-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

So I created this short film called Animals, and one of the things I've been hearing back from people is that it has my sense of humor "all over it." It's an interesting comment because I have often wondered if my films would have an identifiable look and feel, like the way you can spot a film by Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam a mile away.

I'm too close to my films to spot any such identifying marks. I know I have a sense of humor, but I cannot look at Animals and point out those things that make it a Brian Johnson film as opposed to anyone else's film. Would people say it felt like a Brian Johnson film if they didn't know, or if it did not have my name in the credits?

I'm fairly pedestrian when it comes to getting the shots. I get the old-fashioned two-shots, over-the-shoulder shots, a wide master shot, all fairly static. And I doubt I'll ever be known for any unique sense of art direction. The only things I can see that really ties my short films together is that they are comedies and easy to shoot on a low budget.

None of this is to argue against those who say my films are identifiable by the style of humor. I consider that a compliment. It's just interesting to see that people are finding a commonality in my work that I myself could not have pointed out to viewers.

Caught Up

2009-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

All right, I believe that brings interested readers up to date on my cinematic pursuits. From this entry forward, information will be current.

The sad part is that at the moment I don't have any cinema production news to post here at all. Soon, hopefully, but nothing right now.

Animals: Shoot Day 2

2009-12-08T00:00:00.001-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

August 30, 2009

I actually do not have an archived entry for this day. The day itself was very busy, as were the following two weeks or so, and by then I was in the process of "rebooting" this blog, so I never did a detailed entry. I can, however, reconstruct much of the day, at least in an overview.

1:00 PM – The day starts in the afternoon because of church. Veronica and Arthur join me out on the set as the crew arrives and we prepare to shoot new footage with Chuck to fill in the gaps in the action.

2:00 – We quickly get the few shots of Chuck we need; quite simple, really, but it will help the fight scene build to a finish and then end gracefully. Afterwards, I thank Chuck and send him on his way. I wish we were finishing the day with a scene that involved everyone because the dismissing of actors one by one is anti-climactic.

5:00 – We wrap up at the Miller farm, having rushed to beat the sun's descent. Some shots are looking decidedly late-afternoon in their lighting, but it is my experience that the audience will not notice if the film is otherwise captivating enough.

7:00 – After feasting on Arby's sandwiches, a reduced crew and the three boys set up in my son's bedroom to shoot the indoor sequence. Though it takes more time than expected to light the interior, the results are worth it: We are shooting after dark but the scene looks as if it takes place in mid-day.

To get the angle I want (or the closest possible thing to it) we actually have to have the camera outside shooting in through the window. Good thing it's a fairly warm summer evening. The street is also quiet by the time we are ready; we're not fighting constant noise.

9:00 – Sometime in here we actually shoot the boys' dialogue. We do about seven or eight takes just to make sure we have one I like before I let the boys leave for the night.

10:00 – We now shoot Nathan Woodworth's portion of the scene which will be pasted in by computer. We shoot it separately for multiple reasons: One, so we don't have to do a dozen retakes just to get Nathan's actions in the hall times out right with the boys' dialogue; two, so I can decide later exactly when I do want Nathan passing through the hall; and three, because Nathan cannot actually change his clothes that fast.

11:00 – Nathan's scene involves his running past an open doorway into the bathroom, reappearing a little later in just a towel and running to his bedroom, then reappearing again fully dressed. Feeling silly, and finding that Nathan is willing to try anything once, we shoot one version of the scene where Nathan bolts from the bathroom in just a towel – but lets it fall just as he disappears into his bedroom.

The idea is to just see the briefest glimpse of his bare backside as he runs out of shot. The actual result is a full-on butt shot that I instantly decide I cannot in good taste use in the final production. But we all still have a good laugh over it.

11:30 – Matt, Warren, Ryan, and I pack up all the equipment after a good weekend's work. Sometime later I crash into bed. I decide that even though short films don't have the venues that features do, there is something rewarding about quickly punching one out over a weekend.

Animals: Shoot Day 1

2009-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

August 29, 2009

6:30 AM – The alarm goes off. My body wants to stay in bed, my brain can't wait to be out doing what it loves the most. My brain wins, in large part because ten other people have agreed to do the same because they want to share in and help me realize my small dream. (This same sense of accountability is why I want a gym partner, but that's another issue.)

I wisely showered the night before; I sure don't feel like taking one this morning. Cereal is for breakfast, and Arthur comes down the hall while I'm eating. He should still be sleeping, but there is simply no predicting him.

Chuck emerges from my office where he spent the night so that he could conveniently shower and look his part today. He and two fellow police academy cadets came over from Salem yesterday. The friends will spend the day exploring Central Oregon for the first time, and Chuck will be in the movie.

7:30 – After loading up the car with probably more equipment than I will need, since Matt is supplying much of it, Chuck and I head over to the Miller property where we are shooting.

8:00 – It is calm, tranquil, and gorgeous today! No hint of the rain from yesterday! There are puffy white clouds dotting the entire visible perimeter of the sky, but nothing overhead to block the sun. The sprinklers at Bend Research are running full blast, but they will doubtless go off once the day is hot and watering the grass becomes little more than an exercise in evaporation. And someone down the road sounds like they are running a wood-chipper. At the very worst, I don't hear anything that would be grossly out of place in a movie about kids living in farm country, so we'll proceed as planned.

The crew starts trickling in. For this project, I have Matt Pugerude, Ryan Traughber, and Bob Leggat returning from prior films, and Ed Victor as a newcomer to film production, mine or otherwise. Warren Shultz from Medford is providing the camera, a high-definition Sony product, thanks to Matt's incessant begging.

Pastor Pat's truck is already in position, so setting up the location is little more than putting the right number of hay bales out where I want them. After that, it's all about getting the production equipment in place to shoot. I leave Matt and Warren to themselves, since this Sony camera appears to have more pieces than a complex puzzle.

8:30 – We're not ready for the cast, but here they come. Mental Note: A full hour between cast and crew call time on the first shooting day of a project. I tell them I'll be with them soon, but to just relax a bit. Chuck has already stepped out with his buddies since he's not needed until 11:00.

I do eventually get over to the cast and we decide exactly what I want them to wear. This is not a shoot with a lot of heavy thinking in the wardrobe department. Someone like Ann Roth or Colleen Atwood could probably draft some sketches of shirts and pants that would subtly accent each character's personality, but neither of them is here. My motto: You're kids living on a farm, dress like it. The entire ensemble is clothed out of their own wardrobe items.

9:00 – We draw nearer to shooting. Matt and Warren get the spiffy HD camera all set to go while I sit back and wish I had the money for cameras like that. Ah, well, it's a loaner this weekend thanks to Warren, which is cheaper than renting or owning any day.

9:30 – The day becomes a blur. I am back doing what I love doing. And I am doing it with what I consider the perfect cast and a clearly capable and enthusiastic crew. No clouds darken our morning, the equipment all seems to be working, the actors are doing fine.

12:00 PM – Ryan returns with our group Subway order. He picked up the tab in exchange for an Executive Producer credit. I laughed when he made the offer, because on a shoot this small it hardly matters. But I figured, why not?

12:30 – We return to the field and capture more footage. Our day so far has focused on the close-ups of Trey and Danny by the hay bales, with Nathan, Julia, and Chuck in the background. The boys were getting tired of kneeling on the ground, and are grateful for the change in position that the "post-lunch" scene brings.

2:00 – Amazing. We're on schedule. On an indie, low-budget production, we're actually right on today's work schedule. We move the camera to the road to capture the fight scene between Chuck and Nathan. Chuck turns out to be the perfect ruffian. It's a shame, really, because his smile is so charming, yet he has to keep it hidden. Mental Note: Write something where Chuck can play the good guy next time.

The casting, however, couldn't have been better. Chuck's muscular build, buzzed hair, and scowl bearing down on Nathan's thin frame, tousled hair, and shy smile he's been giving to Julia is the ideal mismatch for the tussle that will follow. I took my chances, not having seen Nathan and Chuck together at one audition, and I am thrilled with the combination.

The tussle goes well, Nathan and Chuck apparently being irrepressible good sports regarding everything I ask them to do. I have Chuck throw himself to the ground several times to capture the perfect finale; he seems slightly reluctant for whatever reason (not wanting to hit the ground several times perhaps) but nails the last one perfectly. To my knowledge his scene is done and I bid him farewell - all too soon as far as I'm concerned; I like him enough to miss him already. He needs to be a next-door neighbor.

4:00 – Holy cow, we're done two hours ahead of schedule! Something must be wrong. Anyway, we pack up for the night, and Hannah Miller invites me in for dinner. I join her, her family, and a ton of friends who have shown up for reasons I don't know, though I suspect it is for some kind of weekly card game. Anyway, the burritos are wonderful, and so are the chocolate chip cookies.

9:00 – I pick up the footage from Matt and whip together the final scene to confirm whether Chuck is clear to head home or not. I decide that the scene really needs a couple more shots. Nothing we missed in the schedule, just that parts of the scene happen too fast without some material tucked in between some shots.

11:00 – I head to bed, I think. It's all a blur even now.

Animals: Three Days

2009-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

August 26, 2009

In three days we are shooting Animals. Boy, do I not feel ready right now. Some things have not come together like I would like. Oh, I'm sure we will be ready, because off the top of my head the only thing I can think of that we don't have reserved yet is a pick-up truck. And if worse came to worst, we could do it without the pick-up truck at all – though I'm not sure exactly how one part of the script would play out without it.

But it just seems like loose ends keep turning up. I know now that I'll have a full cast; I just have to pick one of the two boys I've auditioned. They both fit the part in their own ways, so I have to decide if I want the more impressionable Will Langton or the more confident Danny Arvin.

This production more than my previous two has had such a wild variety of casting options, all of them talented. I wish I had a reason to use everyone who auditioned, because they've all been enjoyable to meet and watch. There was no one who was easy to scratch off the list. Perhaps for my fourth one I'll write a script that incorporates all of their personalities.

Camera Operator

2009-11-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

August 13, 2009

[This one does not relate to a personal film project, but the experience was definitely a memorable one, so I am archiving the entry here.]

I just got told I'm on the Short List for the position of Camera Operator on an independent feature film project. The day is off to a good start!

Actually, the producer's Short List is so short that I am his current choice for Camera Operator, but as the project is not officially financed nor definitely set to go, and producers are allowed to change their minds, I say I'm on his Short List so that I'm not standing on the rug should circumstances cause it to be pulled out from under me.

Animals: Auditions

2009-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

August 10, 2009

Tonight I held the first open auditions for Animals, and I was extremely pleased with the turn-out. Not that the turn-out was overwhelming in terms of numbers, but that those who showed up were both enthusiastic and usable. And I get my choice of male performers!

Male performers are apparently hard to come by, at least in this area and when the project is practically voluntary. In holding auditions at 2nd Street Theater, we are almost always short on the number of males needed for any given script. The same was true for this project, as I received e-mail upon e-mail from females, but a disappointing few from males. So to end up with five in my living room was exciting.

Contrary-wise, only one of the females who applied showed up tonight. This is not a problem, as I will be seeing any others by appointment later in the week; but it was a surprise from the usual.

Everyone present did a fine job. I could use any of them in the production, depending on the tone I want. Do I want our "Hero" to be cool and even maybe sexy? Or would it be even funnier to have him be more of the traditional nerd, trying desperately to impress the girl? Based on tonight's crowd, I have my choice - which is nice but also frustrating, because now I actually have to make an artistic decision myself.

The comically awkward part was asking five young adult males to strip their shirts off in my living room. This is an action that takes place in the script, so I needed to see if they had the temperament to do it, and to see what body choices I had. But it was still strange for me to ask - in part because it's just not often that I ask guys to take off their shirts for a video, and in part because I am self-conscious about asking people to do something I myself would not be willing to do. The fact that I've shot three muscle/fitness DVDs a couple years ago where the models spent most of the time shirtless did not make tonight's topless request any easier; it's just something I doubt I'll ever get used to.

So many thanks to Mike Naylor, Jesse Patterson, Jared Sinclair, Jesse Whitson, Nathan Woodward, and Julia Overfelt for coming by. Should I be a tease and say that if the auditions ended here, I already know who I'd cast? Too late, I said it. But I will wait until all the auditions are complete before making any final decisions - I want the best possible combination of actors.

Until tonight I was getting a little depressed about the whole thing. I was tired of hunting and pleading for male performers. But now I feel really good, and can't wait to get cast and crew together and get this thing on video and into festivals!

Animals: YouTube

2009-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Animals is now online at YouTube. Share it far and wide with everyone you know! Boost its ratings! And if you would like it on DVD so that you can watch it on the big screen, drop me a note!

Click here to go directly to the YouTube page, and don't forget to view the entire (and eventually growing) collection on the Motion Pictures Productions channel.

Animals: Premiere

2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

We interrupt the blog archive historical tour to bring you an actual current entry. My third short film, Animals, had its premiere for the cast and crew yesterday! Like my previous works, the creation of them took place before the official re-opening of this blog, so the details will appear shortly in more archives.

When I set November 14th as the premiere date, I figured that would be plenty of time to finish the project. Instead, I spent most of Saturday cramming to get the project to a state where all the requisite dialogue, music, and sound effects were mixed to at least a satisfactory quality.

Even now, the details are a blur, but the part I got the biggest kick out of was recruiting my four-year-old son to help with creating sound effects. Though some of the more subtle effects can wait until after the premiere when I create the mix for film festivals, some sounds were absolutely necessary. So I took my microphone to the hallway of the house and had Arthur drop some shoes, shut a door, turn the shower on, and run up and down the hall. I'm guessing he has no clue exactly what he was assisting with; his face does not brighten up with glee when the scene he "Foleyed" plays. But he does like to point out his name in the credits.

After that it was a sound mixing frenzy, followed by compressing the production for DVD, then creating the DVD protocol file, then making the DVD and half a dozen copies to hand out at the premiere. Given that I wanted to be at my mother's house at six to prepare, I was literally working until the last minute.

Mom did indeed host the event. She has a good living room for it, and a very big screen television. And it did the high-definition image proud.

About half the cast and crew were able to attend, along with their respective invitees. We ended up setting a new record by viewing the production three times over the course of an hour, and everyone was duly impressed and had an enjoyable evening.

Next the video will go up on YouTube, then I will take some time to refine the sound track and time (color-correct) the image. Then it's the festival circuit! Then fame and fortune and my name in lights! Well, okay, maybe a festival or two. The ones geared toward short comedies.

Soon to follow will be the blog entries leading up to this day. Stick around!

Mammon and the Archer: Premiere

2009-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

February 25, 2009

Well, what with my day job and my evenings filled with little videography assignments, I haven't been able to blog as often as I had hoped I could this year. But I am delighted to say that last Friday we had the Grand Premiere for Mammon and the Archer, my latest attempt at a short film.

Due to time constraints and underestimating how long all the polishing work would take, we ended up showing the "Almost-Ready" version, complete with temp music by Patrick Doyle and Academy-Award winner Rachel Portman. The audio track is the weakest point at this time, so there were some totally dead spots where even the room tone died out.

But a good time was had by all fifteen or sixteen of the present company. Now it's just a matter of Matt Pugerude finishing up the color correction, and then some audio tweaking and leveling of the dialogue tracks. Add in a Director's Commentary and there it is, ready to burn to DVD for the cast and crew.

Keep an eye out for its availability on DVD and its presence on YouTube soon! [11/11/09 – "Soon", ha ha ha ha ha! It's still in the post-production process over a year after it was shot.]

Mammon and the Archer: Shoot Day 5

2009-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

July 27, 2008

Actually, I do not have an entry for July 27, 2008, which is too bad because it was a fun experience. To get the final scene of Mammon and the Archer, we spent a long Sunday afternoon and evening at the Brickhouse in Redmond. Thanks to connections through Michael McCaffery, I was able to meet the proprietor, who agreed to open up the place during one of its closed days on a weekend and let us shoot the scene.

Since I do not have an entry for this day, I will leave it at that and let the film and any accompanying Director's Commentary I create speak for itself.

Terror in the Skies

2009-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

June 28, 2008

[This one does not relate to a personal film project, but the experience was definitely a memorable one, so I am archiving the entry here.]

I'm alive and well, thank you.

So today I went out to Mallard Creek Golf Course early and waited for Mike and Mark to arrive in the helicopter. I got some ground-level footage of some greens from the parking lot while I stood there.

Then I saw them – a tiny blip coming over the rolling hills and headed for the course. Mike brought the chopper to a landing on a flat area of grass and I climbed in. I got thoroughly strapped in, put on the headset so Mike and I could communicate, and braced myself.

It is a strange sensation to suddenly lift straight off the ground. No jetting down a runway and gradually lifting. Instead, you hear the roar of the propellers pick up, and then the whole cabin rocks a little as the helicopter take off. It wasn't necessarily frightening, but it was odd and new.

Over the course of the next hour, Mike took us hole by hole over the course while I got tracking shots, swooping shots, overhead views of the entire eighteen holes. As long as I was looking through the camera's eyepiece, with the other eye closed, all was well - even when Mike would tilt the helicopter so that I could shoot straight down, straight down, to the flag below. All with the door of the helicopter removed so that I could get a good clear shot.

It was when I was done concentrating on the hard shots of each hole and looked up to get a wide shot of the whole course that the reality of my location hundreds of feet up in a tiny plexiglass bubble controlled by the man who used to make my pre-teen life miserable really sank in. It was a good thing we landed when we did; my stomach was not handling it well after an hour of vibrations, cavitating (sp?), and swooping around in the sky.

Mike and I watched the footage shortly after getting back to his house, and overall it looks pretty good. A good gyroscopic arm to mount the camera on would have improved the few shaky moments that ruined a couple good shots, but overall it's stuff that I'm proud to put on my demo reel.

Now I'm home, and plan to raise my rates the next time someone wants aerial footage.

Dessert: WildSound Feedback

2009-11-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

June 2, 2008

Last weekend, Dessert played up at the WildSound monthly film festival in Toronto, Canada. One unique aspect of this festival is that they have an audience feedback session that they tape and make available to the filmmakers and the public. I should have followed through with my idea of e-mailing a brief press release about the making of the film, as the moderator and audience had some comments that resulted more from lack of insight into my process and pitfalls than from merely having an unbiased perspective on the project.

Anyway, here's the note I just sent to the cast and crew:

***

Hey, hey! Just got an e-mail from the administrators of the WildSound Monthly Film Festival up in Toronto, where Dessert showed a couple Fridays ago!

At this festival, they videotape audience feedback, so if you're curious, I've enclosed the link.

I know how touchy artists can be, so I'll brace you and say that there were things they didn't like. But that's going to happen anytime an artist makes his work visible to the public. I felt that their comments were all at least rational, given that many of the films they see up there are far more professional. Also, they were not aware of the context in which the film was made, why it was limited to five minutes, the budget we were working with, and the fact that ultimately I was doing this for fun and a little practice. So don't take it hard. Overall I considered it interesting to see how total strangers reacted.

(Oh, and I totally disagree with the comment that the four friends didn't do as well acting. You guys gave me exactly what I wanted! It's all an issue of different perspective.)

The Comments: [Link still good as of 11/8/2009]
http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/audience_comments_dessert.html

Mammon and the Archer: Shoot Day 4

2009-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

May 4, 2008

Day Four wrapped up all shooting at Michael's house, with the after-dinner scene where Anthony challenges Tony's ideas that money is not the catch-all solution to life's problems. As most of this scene is a conversation at the table between Anthony and Tony, it went fairly quickly: Two main set-ups covered most of the script.

We even got done ahead of schedule. Way ahead. I was left with a couple of hours before Marc Chambers' scheduled arrival to shoot his one exterior shot. Michael supplied pizza and I wrote letters while we waited.

No, once again the real fun was the car. I stepped out to go to church this morning, and it was dead again. Completely. Click. My next-door neighbor Carl helped me jump it, and I headed off to visit John Tittle's new church that meets at the Shilo Inn (details are for another blog somewhere). Of course, then John needed to jump my car, and I drove to Michael's. Then Marc needed to jump my car and I drove home. I really hope it's not an expensive problem, whatever it is.

Mammon and the Archer: Shoot Day 3

2009-11-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

May 3, 2008

Day Three was spent on the three or four pages opening the script, as Anthony Rockwall comes down to dinner. The day itself went well with no major hang-ups. I did, however, find out that Ryan was absent yesterday because he thought we weren't shooting at all; and he didn't take it well that I never called. I have since apologized; I never like to do, or even seem to do, thoughtless things.

Bob Leggat joined us last night also. (Sorry, these things should have been in yesterday's entry but I was whupped.) And again today. He's an elder gent with some experience - and equipment that he graciously brought along free of charge. Kristen continues to be on top of her job, probably even more than she needs to but I totally appreciate the dedication.

Together we're plowing through, and we got some good footage today. The way I've staged it, I could sure use a dolly, but we'll survive with the static shots fine enough.

Mammon and the Archer: Shoot Day 2

2009-11-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

May 2, 2008

Okay, Day Two is in the can! Or cassette case, or whatever.

Tonight we shot two shorter sequences in the script, both involving Pat Rogers, now back from vacation. The initial hurdle of covering all the windows went pretty well, given the blue painters' tape I got this time. The duct tape was not doing it last week, not consistently.

Everything went well, really; no complaints. Pat was her usual bubbly self, so excited about working with me again after You Can't Take It With You and Arsenic and Old Lace down at 2nd Street Theater. Casey Prather made his on-set debut and did fine; he mostly has to mope, so any lack of energy present at his audition actually serves a purpose here.

No, the real excitement came today when I began making my way to Michael's house. I had to pick up the soap labels (from Tim Donahue's designing fingers and excellent as always!), some blue painters' tape, and some munchies for the cast. I pulled in at Ace Hardware, stopped the car, bought the tape, came out – and the car was dead. Completely dead. Not even futile whirrings by a tired motor not getting enough electricity. Just a single click.

With the help of someone from the Chamber of Commerce building across the street I got a jump and drove over to the print shop a couple blocks down. And the same thing happened. Okay, so this clearly was not just a one-time dead battery fluke. The men at Ace Hardware assisted me this time, and I drove toward Bend.

I had planned to stop at my mom's house anyway and visit because Grandma Smith was there. Now the visit became an emergency regrouping to figure out what to do with the car. I won't detail the trip to Les Schwab, but they did discern a bad battery and replaced it. The car is now purring nicely again.

So I arrived at Michael's without the food for the cast, but Liz had whipped up some stuff for us anyway, which was very nice of her. What a day. I'm going to sleep.

Mammon and the Archer: Shoot Day 1

2009-11-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

April 26, 2008

Our first scene for Mammon and the Archer is wrapped! Due to the cast members' individual schedules, we actually began at the end, working with Marc Chambers and Michael McCaffery to create the final scene.

The first couple of hours were spent preparing the house. Though Michael's house is a great setting, it also comes complete with several windows. Since the entire script takes place at night, it was easier to cover over all the windows with garbage bags than to start shooting after 9:00 p.m. when the light is finally gone from the sky. I think we all would have hated each other somewhere around 3:00 a.m. the next morning, and I doubt I'd have any kind of reliable crew with that schedule over several days.

There are not a lot of anecdotes from today's work. Things moved along fairly fluidly, Marc had his usual endless array of bad jokes in between takes – you haven't truly directed until you've tried to get Marc Chambers to focus on the script instead of three men walking into a bar – and we all had a good time.

I was thrown for a bit of a loop when Jeffrey Wrensen ended the day by saying he won't be back next weekend. He is very skilled in using a boom mic; he'll be hard to replace. Plus a little more commitment to projects one has agreed to work on would speak better of him. Ah, well.

Mammon and the Archer: I Found Him!

2009-11-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

April 22, 2008

I found Cupid!

I was on Ebay looking around and finding the usual entries I had seen before, either the wrong pose or way too expensive. And then there he was! He's standing on one foot as if just touching down to the pedestal, and has his bow drawn and ready to fire! It's exactly what I'm looking for!

I e-mailed the auction owner to see if there were some way of circumventing the usual auction process, since I cannot wait six days to win the thing (if I win) and then three or four more for shipping. Jann Owens is her name and she has graciously offered to pull the auction from the site, sell me the Cupid right now for $15, and ship it right away.

Did I mention it was perfect?

Mammon and the Archer: Calling Cupid

2009-11-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

From the Blog Archives:

April 8, 2008

Today on my way to the bank I stopped through all of the antique stores on 6th Street to see what they had in the way of cupid statues. Cupid plays a central part, literally, in the upcoming Mammon and the Archer, so I've got to find something that works.

The closest was a cherubic young boy holding a bunch of grapes and wearing a sash. I found it at the Gilbert House, which has always been good to me for shows I've directed at 2nd Street Theater. I picked it up, and now I need to find a way to add wings, be they clay, Play-Dough, or whatever.

Mammon and the Archer: Draft One

2009-11-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

March 28, 2008

The first official draft of Mammon and the Archer rolled off my word processor today. It’s 18 pages long, which is too long, so the next draft will concentrate on shortening and cutting out useless dialogue.

But it’s close enough to where I can start planning shooting days, props, and cast and crew. I do already know that Michael McCaffery is enthusiastic about playing the leading role. I had him in mind as I was writing, and sent him the first few pages a few days ago.

Dessert: The Show

2009-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

March 6, 2008

Today was an interesting experience, as I traveled to Portland to see Dessert on the big screen. Late Bloomer Productions hosts an annual short film festival called The Show at the Hollywood Theater – free admission, no submission fee, just some exposure – and my little gem was the first one in a block of five or six, with five or six other blocks spread out over seven hours.

My biggest relief was how well it showed up on the screen! Everything was clearly visible, matching what I saw on my television screen rather than my computer monitor, in terms of lighting and contrast. And the grain due to tweaking the image's black levels was not the eyesore I feared it would be. It was an encouraging projection of the project, giving me greater confidence to submit it to BendFilm next year.

Everyone chuckled where I hoped they would, and giggles at the end suggested everyone caught on to the twist (something even my Creative Writing teacher at college wasn't totally sure of, ha ha). And there was reasonable applause from an audience of about forty or fifty. My egotistical side was let down that no one in the lobby asked me who I was – I think I managed to leave there without a single person knowing I directed Dessert – but it's not about prideful glory anyway.

Dessert: Victory!

2009-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

February 19, 2008

I just got the call yesterday from VideoMaker Magazine informing me that Dessert took 2nd Place! (It's a glorified 3rd Place, since there's a Grand Prize winner also.) It's definitely exciting to get that recognition.

The prize is a Sony Media bundle, including some video editing programs, which are all PC-based, so they'll probably end up on Ebay since I'm happy with my Final Cut on my Mac; but the thrill of victory is still sweet. Thanks to a tremendous cast and crew!

Dessert: Served!

2009-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

November 13, 2007

I am returned victorious from the Grand Premiere of Dessert! What a great time! Everyone enjoyed the production – always a good feeling – and I had plenty of chocolate chip cookies – always a good feeling. Thanks to Jacki for the use of her lovely living room and big television. It just wouldn't have had the impact on my 13-inch beauty in my office.

The downside was how quickly it was over. The video begins, we just get into it, and it's over. Oh, well, it is a Short, after all. We watched it twice.

It's been a good experience for me. Good to crack the knuckles, shake off the dust, and see what I recall from college. Aside from the lighting issue, I am very pleased with how it turned out. Shots flowed together, continuity was very good, lighting was consistent. I need to take some time and correct the greenish tint of the indoor shots, but I really am pleased. It's good to know I can do it, and it's good to know there are enthusiastic supporters out there.

Thanks to Ryan Traughber, Shawna Dailey, Jon Britt, Jacki Dahl, Sahin Sezgin, Tim Donahue, a host of parents, and a great cast. I will gladly work with any or all of them again.

So, what's next?

Dessert: Now Serving

2009-10-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 30, 2007

Okay, Dessert is in the mail!

I write this after much sleeping today. I was up until five this morning, mixing in the music and sound effects I spend last night recording. I didn't have time to really tweak the audio the way I wanted, but overall I like what I ended up with. I'm very proud of my actors and crew and the product we all created together. (Next time I just need to add more light, is all.)

I didn't spend a lot of time writing about it in yesterday's post, but doing the sound effects for the project was humorous fun. When we were shooting, if a shot did not have synced dialogue, I just recorded the sound with the GL-1 microphone for reference. This meant I had many shots with sound I needed to completely replace.

So last night, after stomping around my front yard around eleven o'clock, I then went into the garage and recorded such delightful sounds as Mrs. Curselias munching food, wiping her mouth, doing that little sucking noise of getting things out of her teeth, and so on. I can only imagine what Foley artists feel like when they have to record a thousand odd-ball sounds for a major motion picture. I'm glad no one was watching.

This morning I dashed a finished DVD to the Post Office, only to learn that "overnight" service is a bit of a misnomer. They couldn't guarantee the package would be delivered until November 1, a day late. Kurt informed me it would likely get to Chico, California, on time, but just that he couldn't promise it would. Well, in the worst scenario, I will enter the video in next year's competition, but it will be a bit of a let-down after all we've been through.

Dessert: Audio Fun

2009-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 29, 2007

I spent the afternoon writing the remaining music for Dessert. Thankfully, with the way the schedule for this thing has ended up pushing the deadline, I had already written the opening and closing music a couple of weeks ago. So basically I was left with the music for Peter's "assault" upon the house.

I've taken the French Horn melody that I doodled into the end credits and made it the main theme for Peter's walk across the lawn. The harmonies are simple, based on one of my favorite six-note phrases that I use a lot for creepy scenes. Probably too much, in fact; someone's going to notice eventually.

It wasn't until I was done with the music that goes with Mrs. Curselias' opening her door that I realized how much it sounds like the music from Signs. I guess it was stuck in my subconscious and worked its way out. It's different enough that I'm not plagiarizing, but I can hear the influence.

During the evening I took my shotgun microphone and went out to the front yard to record sound effects. Rain from earlier this evening dampened everything, so the leaves did not crunch the way I really wanted them to, but I think we'll be fine. I'm just glad the neighbors didn't look out and see me running about my front lawn, holding a microphone between my legs.

Dessert: Coming Together

2009-10-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 20, 2007

Today I spent probably more time than I should have in putting together Dessert. I have the first block of dialogue with the three boys roughly put together, and it is very exciting. The thrill of seeing a whole minute of it in a mostly polished form is helping lift the mild dampening that I've had because of the dimly lit footage.

Dessert: Shoot Day 3

2009-10-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 13, 2007

Today was sort of a scattered day, as we grabbed shots here and there that fit into the big picture but which were inconvenient on earlier days. After which, we moved into the house and did the indoor sequence.

I keep consistently underlighting the shots. It's due in part to Ryan's monitor showing things brighter than they are, and our budget not allowing for a vectorscope to really make sure that what we're seeing on the monitor is what the tape is recording. Ah, well; I am glad to have the monitor, and will chalk our darker scenes up to this being a learning experience.

Rachel continues to be hilarious, and the kids are holding up well. Jon Britt was running on three hours of sleep and four cups of coffee, so I let him go early rather than torture him. And Sahin began taking his job so seriously (in a lighthearted way) that he started bossing me around. Good times!

It wasn't the feeling of finality that I would have hoped. We all kind of just went our separate ways. But then I don't blame them: They've all put in a lot of effort over the past three nights. We'll have a big shebang when it's ready to show, and that will give me my sense of Climactic Finality.

Dessert: Shoot Day 2

2009-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 12, 2007

Setting up for today was a snap, as we did all the frantic legwork yesterday. We were largely ready to go even before the sky was dark.

Tonight we finished up the curbside conversation and worked on what I call the "assault" sequence, in which Peter walks across the lawn to Mrs. Curselias' house. Of course, if all he had to do was walk over to the door, our night would have been short and sweet, but there's dialogue in there, and multiple angles, and shots of the other kids running to behind a tree. So even after four hours, we were still behind schedule.

Since Rachel Deegan had driven all the way out here, once we got Peter to the door, we jumped ahead to the part where she opens the door and speaks. We created a harsh side light on her face to amplify the witchiness of her, and compounded with the look on her face – I had one of my hysterical laughing fits. Good stuff.

The kids continue to do great, although they have lost some of the reserve that comes with being around new kids in strange surroundings, and they're beginning to clown around between shots, slowing things down just a little. Overall, for young people who are being asked to sit for long periods of time and engage in repetitious performances long after they would probably be brushing their teeth, I'm very happy with them.

The crew is also settling nicely into a groove, even after just one day. I'm very glad I have them; this is not a production I would want to do as a one-man show, like I used to do.

Dessert: Shoot Day 1

2009-10-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 11, 2007

It is now the end of a very long but very exciting day. I spent the morning and afternoon making sure all the details I could think of were rounded up, including extra extension cords.

As the afternoon wore on, I started putting up the decorations for the front of the house, including items from Tim Donahue's collection of Halloween paraphernalia. I didn't feel this was the film for his eight-foot-tall waving ghost, but he's letting me borrow an adorable little witch that I put over the door, and a sound-activated little ghost that waves and giggles.

The first to arrive tonight was Shawna Dailey, who set right to work helping me carry things outside. She's never done any film work before, but she didn't let that stop her. In fact, she seemed extra-attentive, not wanting to miss anything. I only hope our little production is not so small that it doesn't provide some education for her.

The details are a blur at this hour, but I do know everyone on my crew showed up seemingly eager to help. As the sun continued to set, we spent the time discovering what little details were missing. I ran in and out of my office and nether rooms in the house gathering an item here and there as needed.

As we got close to our start time, we began testing the equipment. Due to a problem I haven't had time to conquer, we are shooting this entire production the very old-fashioned way: With sound and picture on separate recording devices. My Canon GL-1 seems to be overpowered by the AudioTechnica shotgun microphone I bought, but my Canon XL-1 doesn't take in the light like the GL-1 does. So the GL-1 is getting the video, while we're running sound into the XL-1. I shall later synchronize it all with the help of the clapsticks.

But a new problem cropped up: The XL-1 started to really display its glitch of not always recording when I think it is recording. It acts like it is recording, including counting up the time code, but then when I go back to listen to the audio, the shot is simply non-existent. We wrestled with that for a bit before Ryan, the cameraman, volunteered his XL-1 which he had in his car. We were shooting by 8:00 as scheduled, but these little difficulties set us behind schedule quickly.

Once we got things rolling, everything went pretty well. Some of the kids are more experienced than others – perfectly natural – so getting just the right nuance out of a performance was sometimes tricky. But I am overall satisfied with the night's work, which was primarily the main conversation between the five children standing on the curb.

Will Langton came and did his one shot, looking quite wonderful in his football player uniform. I only wish I had had a way to incorporate him more. We said good-bye to him after just an hour's work.

And now I am riding the adrenaline built up from the excitement I get out of making a movie. I will end this blog and head over to my Mac where I will synchronize tonight's footage. I'm looking forward to it!

Dessert: Costume Parade

2009-10-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 10, 2007

I am stoked! The five main kids came by tonight to try on costumes and rehearse the main block of dialogue. To see them all lined up in their outfits was a total blast! My wife and costumer Veronica made a tiger costume from the ground up for one of the kids that is positively perfect.

In addition to the costumes, the kids did a nice job of rehearsing lines. We'll still have to do some polishing when we shoot, and even when we edit – but for kids their age, I'm quite satisfied with the performances I'll be getting out of them.

The morning and afternoon were spent collecting Halloween decor for the front of the house. I'm amazed that I could not find simple paperboard stuff this year; it's all three-dimensional, some of it very creepy. I avoided the worst of it because I want it to look like a nice neighbor lady's house, not the house of someone who's really into being as ghoulish as possible on Halloween.

Dessert: Dinner

2009-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 5, 2007

Today was the initial crew meeting at Fountains Bar & Grill. It used to be The Fountain Restaurant and its menu included one of the nicer plates of spaghetti to be found in Redmond, but they've since changed their tone. Now they're basically a high-end Shari's, or a low-end Applebee's. The burger I had was still good; I'm just tired of settling for Sully's when I want a plate of spaghetti. But I digress.

Rather than waste precious time on our first day of shooting, I wanted to get the crew together today just to meet, answer questions, loosely assign job descriptions, and begin to familiarize ourselves with each other. It's a good group in terms of personality, and none of them strikes me as someone I will regret having on the crew. (And I'm not just saying that out of fear that one of them will stumble across this blog.)

So I think we're good to go. I have a lighting and camera test with Ryan Traughber on Sunday night, and a cast rehearsal on Wednesday, and then we take off! The weather page has changed Saturday from "partly cloudy" to "some showers", but I'm hoping they're wrong, or that the showers are during the morning and afternoon instead of the evening.

Dessert: Microphones

2009-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

October 4, 2007

Well, I did it. I went and bought a shotgun microphone. I am so hopelessly uneducated in that area, I'm trusting that the model is a good one, at least good enough to get through this particular shoot. If the sound quality really rots, then I'm somewhat up a creek. (I've never understood why being up the creek without a paddle was such a bad thing, since you have the current to guide you down. It would seem that being down the creek with no paddle to fight against the current with would be the proper way to express being in a hopeless situation. Ah, well.)

I got an Audio-Technica 8035 Shotgun Mic. I know Audio-Technica is a big name in such technology, even though someone on a bulletin board gave me some model numbers to avoid. I also got a fishpole and shock mount. I feel so professional now. They should be here Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, and I'll give them a trial run immediately.

Dessert: First Entry

2009-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Blog Archives:

September 30, 2007

Every year, VideoMaker Magazine hosts a "5-Minute Movie" contest, and I never enter because none of my ideas are small enough to be told in five minutes. This year, when I saw the announcement in their latest issue, I started glancing at my bookcase, just to see if any of the novels or short stories would spark an idea. Surely something of O. Henry's could be adapted to a small subject with no budget.

The story that gave me pause to think was "Yesterday's Witch" in a collection of short stories I have called Great Ghost Stories. As I re-read the short tale, my thoughts went to a collection of Stephen King stories I had just finished, called Everything's Eventual. In that book, King did something I found interesting: He gave a paragraph before each story describing why he wrote it. Before one called "The Road Virus Heads North" he said, "Every writer should write a story about a picture that changes." And before the story "1408" he said the same thing about haunted hotel rooms.

So then my mind started thinking about "Yesterday's Witch" and other stories in which children stand outside of a house where a witch supposedly lives. Big Fish has a scene like that. And while I never believed in witches as a child, there were some mean old ladies in my childhood whose doors I never dared knock on for any reason, let alone step on their lawns.

Not wanting to plagiarize, and not having the time to hunt down the author of "Yesterday's Witch" and request movie rights, I tossed the idea around to see if something original could be made of the foundational campfire story about witches eating little children. What emerged about an hour later on my word processor was called Dessert.

Of course I don't plan to reveal details here, but it's about five young trick-or-treaters, one of whom feels daring enough to ring the doorbell of old Mrs. Curselias, who is rumored to eat little children for dinner every Halloween. And I think I can get it all into five minutes. So I'm going for it.

That was all in mid-September. I now have most of the crew, and will be auditioning for a few more cast members on Tuesday. We're shooting in mid-October, and rushing it in before the October 31 deadline.

Backstory Part 8: Horatio

2009-10-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

After the heady experience of creating As You Like It, my brain began immediately trying to find something else to do. The excitement of the premiere was fading, and it was time to get something else rolling. My brain went around and around, toying with different things.

Slowly, various elements from films, television shows, and books I had read began to coalesce. I liked the idea of a central character who was somewhat enigmatic, also somewhat magical, who entered the lives of the people of a small town and changed them. Characters like Mary Poppins and Dr. Lao, for instance. Or the dark version of the same thing, like Mr. Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes or Stephen King's Needful Things.

In the end, I settled on the positive and uplifting interpretation instead of the dark and menacing view, since parents of the kids I hoped to work with would probably appreciate that more. For this character's name, and the film's title, I took a name I have long had on my list of potential movie titles: Horatio. (And yes, I have a list of potential movie titles, some of them already linked to basic plot ideas in my brain. The list has over a hundred titles on it, ready to be plucked and appended to a script should I require one.)

I pounded out the script in about a week, the week of Spring Break, 2002. My wife barely saw me, because I worked on it from rising to sleeping. That is the only time in my life before or since that I have had that "inspiration" writers dream of, and the drive to complete the inspiration before it fades.

By the end of school, I was ready to audition actors and get started. Brett Valenti was already on my mind as Horatio, if he could be talked into it. And he could. And he did it. And I still love the performance. Many repeats from As You Like It were present as well, including the Valentis, Caleb Neet, Adam Koehler, Jennifer Vanni, and Nathan Wheaton, along with some newcomers. From leading roles to voice-overs, the cast list is somewhere over three dozen people, including best-selling author Dave Hunt and just about every one of my drama students.

In terms of my progress as a film director, I cannot say that Horatio was anything monumental. It was the longest thing I had done, running at one hour and 51 minutes; and it had a long list of houses and locations I needed. But that was merely an increase in scope from my previous productions. I also tinkered a little with some special effects ideas, mostly limited to the judicious application of split-screen. But ultimately it served simply as more practice for me to learn things I could do well or could not, things that worked or didn't work.

The shooting was finished at the end of August 2002, but post-production took a while due to my teaching job and other considerations. Horatio was not officially released until February 2003. But once it was in the hands of cast members, it spread, and it spread far. I was surprised.

Cast members loaned it to friends, who thought it was cool and loaned it to friends, and on and on it went. For a few years after its release, I would get random e-mails every month from total strangers as far east as the Ohio area asking to purchase their own copies. Apparently its positive message and moral viewpoint appealed to those who saw it.

This enthusiasm as well as some direct encouragement from friends and viewers led me to embark on a re-write in the hopes of some attention from interested producers someday. My second major draft was published onto the Trigger Street website and was a runner-up for the October 2005 Screenplay of the Month. It also made it to the semi-finals of a screenplay competition in either late 2005 or 2006, I don't recall specifically.

Now the third and hopefully final draft lingers on my computer, moving forward in fits and spurts. My goal is to wrap it up and call it Done by the start of 2010, though that goal is becoming less realistic as I deal with the things life is currently handing me.

And I think that about wraps up my whirlwind "Backstory". From here, I will bring forward archived blog posts I did create at the time of working on new projects until such time as I actually have new information to include here. Stick around; Lord Willing, this is going to get good soon.

Backstory Part 7: The First Feature

2009-10-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

From 1998 to 2001, I experienced a complete and forced hiatus from video production: All the family equipment died while I was at college. During that time, I was teaching drama and directing plays at a local Christian high school, so I was not totally void of theatrical endeavors; but it was not film production. Nothing can substitute for film production for any extended period of time in a wannabe-director's soul.

Knowing this, and knowing that I still occasionally had friends who would ask if I was still making projects or if I would tape their wedding and so on, my father bankrolled the purchase of an entire home studio: A Mac G4 (the fastest at the time), three Canon MiniDV cameras, and Final Cut Pro software.

The immediate purpose for the purchase at that time was to videotape Greg Wesson's wedding. But it wasn't long before my cinematic side was getting an itch. In looking for a quick way to satisfy the itch, I settled on William Shakespeare's As You Like It. No fairies, no magic, nothing simply impossible for a no-budget amateur to create in his local forests and neighborhoods. So I recruited any interested drama students, as well as some local home-schoolers who were into acting, and we spent the summer of 2001 out in the parks and public lands of Central Oregon making our adaptation.

As You Like It would be my first feature-length production, just over 80 minutes long. My computer and Final Cut Pro got put to the test immediately, and they delivered. The nice thing about Final Cut Pro is it uses film editing terms, so everything I had learned in college was an easy transfer to the digital workstation. The easy learning curve meant I was fully ready to edit this project when the footage was all shot.

Like all my amateur works (which is, oh, all of them so far), it had its flaws, but creating it was a total rush. Out in the heat of the summer with Caleb Neet, Hannah Miller, the Valenti twins, Adam Koehler, and a good two dozen others is an experience I will never forget.

Backstory Part 6: College

2009-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to belabor four years of education here. In brief, I attended Bob Jones University from 1994 to 1998, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Cinema and Video Production. Since I knew I wanted to study film production at a Christian college, BJU was the only college I applied to, and I attended without having ever visited first. And I had a blast!

During my four years there, I got to work with real 16mm film and cameras. I pity the people who will grow up learning only how to attach a P2 card to a video camera: While there is convenience in the modern equipment, there was an electric thrill in dealing with good old-fashioned celluloid that I do not get when doing my projects on video nowadays.

The milestones in the Cinema department at BJU are the Sophomore Platform and the Senior Project. All students in the Fine Arts departments have to show a certain proficiency and skill at their chosen major by completing a project at the end of their sophomore year, after which the faculty decide if they may continue in that major. I passed with flying colors, having created a project that I felt was not much of a challenge at all, with my self-taught background; but which apparently impressed many. I am told they had to discontinue using my project as a sample for sophomores in ensuing years because too many sophomores were wanting to make one "like Brian's!"

For my Senior Project, I had to write the screenplay, shoot the film, edit the workprint, and conform the negative for an entire short film. Not one with too many original ideas of my own, I chose to adapt Dave Hunt's childrens' book The Money Tree. And again, compared to the usual material created by students at that level, I had chosen something ambitious. I just felt I was choosing something I'd have fun with. And I did.

Along that four-year road, I made good friends with my fellow laborers, and still keep in touch with Jon Hanneman, Jeremy Hufstetler, Betsy Tojdowski, Shane McMullin, and Jason Nicholas primarily, with notes and e-mails to others when I learn of their whereabouts. Good times, fond memories. Maybe I'll get The Money Tree transferred to a digital format and upload it to YouTube someday.

Backstory Part 5: Mr. West Coast

2009-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

In August of 1993 my family moved out to Bend, Oregon, where I promptly aligned myself with groups of people I could tap to be in more video projects.

It has been long enough that I unfortunately do not remember the precise order of events, but early life in Oregon saw me make three video projects. For two of them, I took Biblical parables and modernized them. The results were The Trip to Jericho and Passing the Bucks. Each was about half an hour if I recall. Looking back and having matured in my beliefs, I think the projects did some abuse to the purposes and meanings of their respective parables, but we all make mistakes.

For these projects I was able to start writing my own music thanks to access to a keyboard that recorded separate instrument tracks. Until this point I had simply ripped off music from other film scores, so that Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Henry Mancini all contributed to my projects without their knowledge. But now I was writing my own scores. Simple ones, to be sure; my musical training only reached a certain level. But I had a blast creating my own customized music.

Upon moving to Oregon I also joined a new youth group. And over time as I got to know them, I wrangled together yet another project. This one was called The Race. Its major inspiration was John Bunyan's book The Pilgrim's Progress, and most of the youth group folks had a blast participating. We used just about every place in Central Oregon that I knew of at the time, and this was definitely the most ambitious project I had ever attempted to this point.

The Race would be the last serious attempt at a video that I would make on VHS format and assemble by crash editing. As hard as any of those projects are to watch nowadays (in part because no current VCR on the market will read the audio track the way I created it on the awesome VCR I was using for twelve years), they were definitely instrumental in teaching me many things.

I learned not just what I could do, but what I could not do. I could not overlap the tail end of a line of dialogue with the leading end of a person's reaction, for instance; a deficiency of crash editing that began to irritate me the more I saw them doing it in theatrical movies and wishing I could do so myself.

I suppose someday I should archive those pre-historic projects to DVD and include Director's Commentary. If I can bear to watch them again.

Backstory Part 4: The First Script

2009-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

In Connecticut ('89 to '93) I joined a sizable youth group at a church, and soon I was the official cameraman for major events like the annual retreat. If I recall, it wasn't too long before a few other wacky minds and I decided to create a comedy production, something utterly pointless like an episode of Laugh-In, with quick jokes and movie spoofs and other skits.

For the first time in my life, I was actually working from a script. Most of the time. A few items were invented on the fly, like the Raiders of the Lost Cause sequence. And most of the material was simply ripped off from Monty Python's Flying Circus, a fact which did not sit well with Robert Corica when he found himself disillusioned regarding what he thought was my creative originality.

The finished product was called Film of the Unknown Title and featured just about everyone in the youth group. We had a Grand Premiere at one of the after-church youth activities. Everyone laughed, many rolled their eyes. Despite its complete stupidity, it has lived on, and even inspired one of the Corica nephews to get into video production.

Following this triumph, I wrote a biblically-based script about the consequences of gossip called Word of Mouth, for entry in the annual Evangelical Free Church national conference. This fifteen-minute short was my first attempt at what I will call a "narrative" film, a script with an actual story and continuity of action; and it received fairly high marks at the conference.

Then there was a second sketch-comedy collection called The Hunt For Dead November, and a second narrative, a reworking of the parable of the prodigal son entitled Molly Sherman Came Home (I think). In retrospect, all four of these are so amateur as to be unwatchable now, but once again they represent experimentation, learning, and practice. Without them, I would not be where I am today, even though I still have a long way to go.

Backstory Part 3: Self-Taught

2009-10-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

We were living in New York ('86 to '89) when my dad bought a VHS video camera. And I fell in love pretty much instantly. I videotaped everything, from home life to family trips. I have the entire Haunted Mansion experience at Disney World on tape, along with forts up and down the East coast and many other tourist destinations.

I also used the camera to generate hours of footage of complete nonsense. Put the camera on a tripod, press record, get out a toy or a musical instrument or whatever and go for it. Throw friends Ben Raia, Rolland Ho, Ben Kirkup, and Keith Beckerle into the mix and the results were bizarre. To the point where I really would rather no one ever see those tapes again. Mother, however, will not let me burn them.

As inane as the products were, they were a stepping stone. In those days, I recorded everything in order, carefully setting the tape at the right spot so that when I hit record, the new scene would tag on to the end of the old scene. If we made a gaffe in the shot, I would wind the tape back and line it up again.

And then my mind associated two concepts. The first was the knowledge that I could plug the camera into the VCR, play the tape in the camera and make a duplicate by recording on the VCR. The second was the fact that when we wanted to tape a movie off of television without commercials, we would hit the Pause button at the appropriate time. "Aha!" I thought. "What if, while I am sending the signal from the camera to the VCR, I were to pause when there were shots I did not want?" And suddenly the world of editing was opened to me!

It was still rudimentary editing, "crash editing" as it is called: Going shot by shot from the master tapes to the edited tape. If I discovered I had blown an edit several shots back in the timeline, I had to redo everything in the timeline from that shot forward. But it was a giant leap forward from actually shooting everything in order.

And just about the time I was ready to really use this knowledge, we moved again.