HOLLYWOOD BOUND AND DOWN

Careers Are Prototypes

2012-02-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

As I was perusing through Zite articles on my iPad when I saw this post from Scriptpunk.com: "10 Things I Learned at the Guerilla Filmmakers Masterclass." In addition to several great tips, #2 caught my eye:

2. Careers Are Prototypes: Chris had a really interesting five stage model of career progression for filmmakers. (BTW Chris – you need to publish this!) It went from Day One Newbie declaring “I want to be a filmmaker” through to being Chris Nolan.

I found this an incredibly interesting way of looking at your own development. Your development is in your own hands. Intellectually we know this, but seeing it laid out on the screen brings it home.

There is not a set amount of time required for each of the five stages. and the big thing to remember is everyone’s career will be different. Also good to see is that there is no ONE big break. There will likely be a series of breaks. In fact, you are best thinking of your career as a game of snakes and ladders. Sometimes you go up, sometimes you go down. There may be an element of luck in some of the “breaks” but mostly it is a strategy, a laser vision and MASSIVE action involved in getting to the next stage.

During a general meeting with a writer today, the idea of one's career and the progression it takes came up and I remembered this article. It's really easy to get caught up in what everyone else in this town is doing, how they're ahead of you, how they've been given opportunities you haven't.

I went through this in the couple of years following my win at the MTV Movies Awards. As I've mentioned on here before, I fully expected my career to just be handed to me following my acceptance of the Golden Popcorn and it was a cold, hard wake-up call when I realized that wasn't gonna happen.

For me, the next major benchmark in my career is the feature film and I'm actively pursuing making that happen. I've always seen that as the first major step I need to take in order to move my career to the next level and my management concurs (as far as directing is concerned). But it's important to try and not look to others with jealousy or anger. Otherwise, anyone older than Josh Trank (25, director of Chronicle) should just give up.

I thought the post made an interesting point. How have you dealt with your own setbacks, goals, wishes, seeing others get further, faster than you? Share your thoughts below.

3Questions: Doug Richardson - Screenwriter

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Doug Richardson, screenwriter of Die Hard 2, Bad Boys, and Hostage, (among others) and author of the novels Dark Horse and True Believers. As Doug puts it, "I'm an author/screenwriter. Which means when I'm fed up with Hollywood, I work on a book. So what I do depends very much on my mood. Presently, I'm promoting my most recent novel, The Safety Expert."

HBAD: How did you get your start?

DR: I got my start like anybody else interested in writing. I got behind my typewriter and wrote. And I did whatever I could to maximize my time at the keyboard. Write, get read, rewrite it, and move on. Eventually I got noticed.

To fill you in a little bit more, this is from Doug's bio: Doug left Northern California for Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema. For as long as he could remember, Doug had wanted to be a movie director. But in pursuing his goal he discovered how movies are really made: in the writing.

After finishing college, Doug signed a two-year contract with Warner Brothers. In 1989 he garnered national attention when his spec screenplay was the first in Hollywood to sell for a million dollars. Doug’s first feature film, the sequel to Die Hard, Die Harder, was produced in 1990. He has since written and produced feature films including the box office smash Bad Boys and, most recently, Hostage. To date, Doug’s features have grossed over 800 million dollars worldwide.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

DR: Other than the obvious and somewhat overwhelming competition in the screenwriting trade, I'd say it's keeping a moral center. Hollywood isn't a gentle place. Honesty is in short supply. It's very easy to become cynical in this town. Yet after a lot of years, I still believe in movies and their power to entertain, uplift, or transport. For me it's a healthy mix of cynicism and faith.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to break into representation?

DR: Simple. The road to success is paved with the bones of talented who've been run over by relentless people. If you don't find that fire in you to succeed, to put in an effort beyond everyone else who claims to want what you want, then you can't expect to ever arrive at your destination.

Visit DougRichardson.com for more info and follow Doug on Twitter at @byDougRich

Dig: Official Selection -- Durango Independent Film Festival

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that Dig is an Official Selection of the 2012 Durango Independent Film Festival. The festival, which takes place in Durango, CO will run from February 29th - March 4th. Check back here for more updates, including screening times and locations!

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Production Journal - Day 5

2012-01-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Warning: Potential book and cyber-bridge spoilers ahead.

Day 5:

Call time: 10:00 am

Burbank. Undisclosed hotel location. The fact that we wereable to shoot in a working hotel in the manner we did was such a coup I can’teven begin to explain. This was another massive day: 10 pages / 5 scenes.Looking back on it now, this really should have been split up into two days butoperating with the budget available to us, there was no way to build our ownlocation on a stage and, unfortunately, it would have been a little risky to dotwo days at the hotel.

We had a lot of different scenes with a lot of cast,effects, a few small stunts and a tight confined location (which didn’t helpwith the lighting).

We started the day with a flashback scene that comes in themiddle of the third bridge. As Labyrinth is talking to Charles Murtha he thinksback to this scene. Labyrinth, essentially, was a Jason Bourne type of assassinfor MI:6 in Britain, having come up through the SAS. One of his first missionswas to assassinate this man named Lisandro, who was a revolutionary leader inSantiago, Chile (invented, of course). This was the one scene completelyinvented separate from the book and Travis and I wrote it to explain the momentwhen Labyrinth began his journey towards where he is now. Lisandro challengeshim in a profound way that alters his vision of what he’s doing and why.

Photo by Alex Minkin

We’re filming this scene in a practical bathroom withmirrors everywhere so it took a little working out. For the gun shot, Bruce,our prop master, brought in a guacamole gun, which is essentially an airpowered device that can shoot blood, guts, etc. to mimic a gunshot. It’s prettyawesome but, of course, it’s messy. All I can say is that Hal looked badass inhis black gear with the silenced Browning .22.

I actually learned something really fascinating on thisshoot. Initially, in the scene, I had Labyrinth using a silence .45. Bruce, whowas a former member of Delta Force and did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan backin the 90s, told me that the only gun that can actually be silenced is a .22. Anythinglarger and you still hear the gun shot. In fact, if you were to fire a silenced.22 all you would hear is the click of the hammer. Crazy! Wanting to maintain as much authenticity as wecould, we switched it to the .22 and it plays really well. We never fired theweapon as the shot happens off screen. It took us quite a while to wrap thisscene up, after which we moved immediately into what will be cyber-bridge 5.

Photo by Alex Minkin

In this bridge, Labyrinth has kidnapped Shane Corbett andbrought him up to a hotel room where the three of the many women he raped(remember the scene we shot yesterday?) are given the chance to get theirrevenge.

There’s a lot of movement in the scene, from Labyrinthdragging in Shane, sitting him down, getting in his face, turn to stop a girlfrom attacking too early, going back to Shane, tying him up, standing back,pulling out a phone, kneeling down to film as the girls approach Shane and cuthim. Paul and I decided to shoot this whole scene hand held and in order tocapture a certain amount of energy from both the actors AND the cameraoperator, we decided to try the angle looking towards Shane in one long shot,as opposed to breaking it down. The idea was to then turn it around and shootthe angle looking towards Labyrinth and the girls in one take, using twocameras (as most of this shoot did). We did several takes of it and the energyof both Hal, the girls, Shane and Nate (camera op) was fantastic. And I couldsee the bits and pieces I know I’d end up using in the edit, which were usuallyparts of a shot or angle that would be tough to explain to an operator to getor that happened accidently because of how everyone was moving through thescene. (Hence, my reason, as explained in yesterdays post, for shooting longtakes.

Photo by Alex Minkin

After finishing the angle on Shane we broke for lunch.Afterwards, we came back and shot the other angle out, followed by shallowfocus slow motion shots of the girls slicing Shane to death, followed by someinserts of the glasses being broken. We next had to get the girls, Nathalie,Jennifer and Haley, bloodied up to show the progression of the kill. So ourmake-up artist, Jennifer Mann, took them into the bathtub and went JacksonPollock on them.

At this point we had gotten really behind on our schedule.Coming up were two scenes that took place in a hotel room both involving thesame actors and technically the same location but I was being told that wecouldn’t continue shooting in the hotel until 3am. Beyond the fact that itwould have been nearly five hours over our day we also had guests staying onthe same floor. So, I was informed that I needed to cut a scene. Without adoubt, I knew which scene I had to cut. While both were important, only one wascrux to your understanding of the story in the book. I felt terrible about it,especially because I had asked a friend, Bella Dayne, to come out for it andthat she and Alain would be speaking in English, French and German. I washeartbroken when I had to tell her but I knew in the back of my head that I’dfind a way to shoot the scene, since I wasn’t cutting it because it wasn’timportant, it was because I had to choose one.

Photo by Alex Minkin

The scene we did shoot that night was probably our mosttraditional. Lending itself to the nature of the scene and to do somethingdifferent, we shot the back and forth interview (it wasn’t suppose to be ataped TV interview however) in lock offs with your more traditionalmaster/medium/cu format, albeit, with a little tweak in the framing to satisfymy desire to not do something traditional. It was nice to just let the camerarun as these two battled it out and the two actors, Thomas Mikusz playing AlainPantin and Christopher Frontiero playing Johnny Knack, really killed it.

Lastly, we had to get the beginning portion of the scenewith Lisandro, where he’s standing by the window on the phone saying goodnightto his wife. The scene plays via Labyrinth’s POV view through a closet asLisandro dismisses his bodyguards and retires to the bathroom. We shot thescene quickly. Jesus Diaz, who played Lisandro, did an amazing job bringinghumanity and strength to the character.

And with that, principal photography on Dark Revelations was over. The next day, Saturday, Paul, Hal and Iwent down to Angels Flight in LA to shoot a quick scene of Labyrinthoverlooking the location where the bomb goes off. We totally stole the shot andgot what we needed but not before having to kick a homeless man off a bench.

At the end of the day, we shot a 53-minute film in fivedays, capturing an enormous amount of varied content that, having seen it inits final form on a big screen, feels really epic, really big, very cinematicand incredibly satisfying. I know Zuiker loved it. And I hope you like it aswell.

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Production Journal - Day 4

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Warning: Potential book and cyber-bridge spoilers ahead.

Day 4:

Call time: 8:00 am

Malibu. Otto, our Line Producer and 1^st AD,picked up Paul and I on the way to the beach. It down poured the day before,when we were on the stages, but it was looking like today would be warm withclear blue skies. Of course, you never know what’s going to happen out inMalibu but it was a beautiful early morning drive in.

Photo by Alex Minkin

Wewere shooting at a small beach house out near Point Dume. The scene is prettymuch the entirety of cyber-bridge 2, wherein Labyrinth holds hostage aHollywood actress, her producer boyfriend and orders them to strip naked beforeturning them against one another.

It was a roughly six-page scene, with nudity (nothing you’llsee in the final cut) and there was a lot to get through. To add to it, we werein the living room of a house, which on one side had a huge bank of windows.Obviously great for light, but it also meant we had to bring in some of our own.We were also fighting light; since we couldn’t be shooting once it got dark(and honestly, didn’t want to anyway). In addition to the bulk of cyber-bridge2, we had one small series of shots to get of Labyrinth standing on the beachas well as another scene, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Today would be a closed set due to the nudity. As mentioned,you won’t see anything in the final cut, since we’re not allowed to show itanyway, so aside from a key shot here and there, we never see anything and theactress was never fully nude on set. However, for the comfort of everyoneinvolved, the set was closed down to all except the very essential personnel.

To play the role of Faye Elizabeth, I called TiffanyBrouwer, who’s been a friend of mine for a while now and has appeared in severalof my projects. In addition to needing to be beautiful and attractive this wasa really emotional scene, with the character being put through a fairlyharrowing experience and I really needed someone that could deliver on theperformance. I had absolute faith that she would (and she did) as well asknowing that she would be comfortable working with me in the describedsituation. While this role was technically a “day player” there was so muchmore that had to happen in it that I really needed someone I knew would deliverand could trust.

David, her producer boyfriend, was played by actor DanielProbert, and of course, Hal was on set as Labyrinth. The scene wasn’t difficultto get through, it just took time. As a director, even when switching angles, Iprefer to try and shoot as much of the scene straight through as possible. Thisallows the actors to have better starting points, allowing them to really getinto the scene, but also because I like the surprises that come from it. I’drather have the actor (or the camera operator) make a bold choice late into ascene and have something really great, than shoot bits and pieces. So, ofcourse, it takes a while to get through but I find that I’m better served by itin the editing room. But it’s also why I don’t spend too time doing too many oftakes of any one angle.

This scene was important in a number of other ways. It wasthe first time we see Labyrinth interact with anyone so I wanted to make surewe had the tone and function of the scene down. While I was somewhat rushedduring the other scenes from previous days, I really wanted to take the time toget it right.

Once we had finished angles on both Tiffany and Daniel weneeded to get Hal’s. Rather than staging him so the camera looked into theroom, we set him up so the camera would be looking right outside, with him inthe foreground. Because of this, we needed to deal with the disparity betweenthe outdoor and indoor light so Hal didn’t play as a silhouette. It was fortunate that we started getting intothe end of the day as we shot this so it wasn’t super bright and sunny outside.

While Paul started lighting, Nate (camera op), Tom (1^stAC), Hal and myself went outside to get the stuff on the beach. Initially wewere going to finish the scene in the beach house before doing this but it wassmart we decided to do it when we did because we didn’t end up wrapping thebeach house scene until close to sunset.

Once we wrapped cyber-bridge 2, we had another short scenewe wanted to grab at the house, where one of the rooms stood in for a dormroom.

The scene is a flashback scene for cyber-bridge 5, wherethree girls are being raped, individually at different times, by this characternamed Shane Corbett. I’ll talk about the cyber-bridge itself tomorrow but thepoint was that we had to shoot the rape scene while out at the beach house.

I had found the three girls during my casting session withJennifer Cooper the week before, three really amazing actresses: Nathalie Fay,Haley Strode and Jennifer Holland. They all came in for the same role but Iknew that whoever was playing these girls would need to be really accomplishedand despite the limited lines, perform in a believable and emotional way. Iactually rewrote their scene for cyber-bridge 5, based on the casting session,in order to differentiate between the three of them and give them all momentswithin the scene.

While we were waiting on lighting I sat down with the threeof them, and Jared Ward, who would be playing Shane, to discuss the scene. Weworked with our stunt coordinator to figure out a struggle that would look realbut keep everyone safe.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate Nathalie, Haley,Jennifer and Jared’s willingness to bring it to the scene. After one particulartake, our stunt coordinator said that he was three seconds away from jumping inand pulling Jared off before slugging him in the face, it was that believable.

I decided, for the comfort of everyone involved, to operatethe camera myself. We went through two versions of the scene, one that was veryspecific for the flashback as written and a longer one to give us more materialto cut with.

Despite Nathalie, Haley and Jennifer going through the sameroutine, each girl made it profoundly different and everyone, including myself,was very disturbed having gone through it. Despite the fact that no clothes arebeing ripped off, no nudity, no simulated sex, the scene itself comes off asincredibly violent, both due to the performances of Shane, Nathalie, Haley andJennifer and the camerawork and lighting.

I can’t imagine it was a pleasant experience but everyonewas extremely professional about it, it was a huge asset and comfort to thegirls to have our stunt coordinator there to take everyone through everythingand honestly it shows in the scene. It’s a testament to the professionalism ofthe cast and crew that we shot some pretty harrowing, difficult and disturbingscenes and got everything we needed.

Tomorrow: Day 5 of Production

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Production Journal - Day 3

2012-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Warning: Potential book and cyber-bridge spoilers ahead.

Day 3:

Call time: 8:00 am

Photo by Alex Minkin

While Paul started lighting the main CSI:NY set for our bomb squad scene (which intercuts with theinterrogation room scene we shot on Monday) we flipped the lights on in theautopsy room and shot two quick plates of the television for the final scenejust before Dark walks out.

In addition to the main scenes we had to shoot, the bulk ofwhich was the bomb squad scene, we had a few pick ups from the day before,include the rest of the black ops hospital scene (Labyrinth’s angles only) aswell as a shot of Labyrinth in his costume from the fight scene calling out toand taunting Dark.

But first, we had the bomb squad scene. As mentioned above,this is the second component to the first bridge. We couldn’t have higherproduction values than on this scene. Not only were we shooting on the main CSI:NY set where the lab, video room,Gary Sinise’s office and more is located but since it’s a bomb squad scene wewent all out. Our amazing costume designer, Amanda Riley, went out and foundthe same bomb suit that was used in TheHurt Locker.

Photo by Alex Minkin

We had three awesome actors playing the bomb squad officers:Voltaire Sterling, whom I worked with on Dig;Garret Davis, who played one of the pilots of the doomed FedEx plane in Cast Away; and finally, AndresPerez-Molina, who came into play Cruz, the technician in the suit. If there wasa scene in which we had some amazing production value, this was it. And thebomb suit looked fucking amazing. I couldn’t be happier with the result.

While shooting one of the close-ups as he’s opening the box,I watched as this bead of sweat rolls down Andres’ nose. So amazing!

It took us a while to get some of these shots off however. We had to move the character from one end of the hallway to the other, one of the angles was on a dolly, moving through a room and it was a big space to light. This got us into lunch.

After lunch we moved into one of the offices to shoot Labyrinth’s side of the Charles Murtha scene. Contrasting with the dirty, grimy feel of the basement, we decided Labyrinth’s angle should be warm, elegant as he talks with Charles from his office in New York. I hope the contrast will play up well.

Photo by Alex Minkin

This included a few pick-ups on some lines of dialogue;insert shots (in which my hands doubled for Dark’s), and some intro and outroshots of the scene. Despite the lower page count for today it still took us awhile to get everything shot since we had five separate scenes/settings to gothrough.

In addition to that, this was our final day on the stagesbefore moving on to Malibu, so we had to get everything loaded up onto thetrucks and wrap out the stages.

Tomorrow: Day 4 ofProduction

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Production Journal - Day 2

2012-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Warning: Potential book and cyber-bridge spoilers ahead.

Day 2:

Call time: 7:30 am.

Big day today. Three scenes, 9 3/8 pages, a fight scene, gunfire. It’s a lot to try and get through. What’s going to make today even moredifficult is that we have one hallway that needs to be made to look like fivedifferent spaces. It’s somewhat fortunate that the scene itself is supposed tobe dark but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier. Any time we turn the cameraaround, we’ve got to change lighting and figure out the exact logistics of howthis works.

I had done much of the work ahead of time while planning outmy shots but it’s still a challenge. And that was just shooting everythingleading up to the fight.

Adding to it, we were under a lot of pressure to get thesethree scenes done today because we only had Daniel Buran (Steve Dark) for oneday and it was Hal Ozsan’s (Labyrinth) first day on set as well. Just a big,big day overall.

I’ll take a minute here to talk about Hal Oszan. I’m givingsome things away here about Labyrinth but fuck it. Obviously, with Labyrinthacting as our protagonist, it was extremely important that we find someone theaudience would be believe is capable of both the crimes he’s committed as wellas the deep sense of humanity and conflict he undergoes throughout thecyber-bridges. He also needed to be British.

Hal was recommended to us by our amazing casting director,Jennifer Cooper, and after our first meeting I immediately knew he was the guy.Beyond the fact that he “got” the script, the politics of it, the whole idea ofwhat we’re trying to do with this character, he had a charm to him, he knewwhen to lay it on and when not to and there was a real sense of humanity in hiseyes that could be masked by darkness. All in all, he was the perfect pictureof Labyrinth before he even opened his mouth.

We immediately hit it off and continued to do so when I methim at his house to discuss the character on Friday before the shoot. He’s anincredibly gracious actor to defer to me despite his experience in thebusiness. You hear stories about actors coming onto the sets of first timefeature directors and just railroading them, taking over, being a pain in theass. Hal was none of those. At the same time, during our meeting, we both cameto a mutual understanding of who Labyrinth was, where he was coming from, andwhy he was doing what he was. Because we were both on the same page, it made ourinteractions on set that much easier.

I’ll talk a little bit more about my philosophy as adirector later on.

Anyway, the scene begins with Labyrinth observing theaftermath of an attempted assassination when Steve Dark tracks him down in thebasement hallways of a building in Edinburgh, Scotland, leading to a chase anda showdown.

Photo by Alex Minkin

The first thing we shot were the bits of the chase, thenmoving on to the initial confrontation. As Dark takes a couple of shots atLabyrinth, we had Bruce, our props master and armorer (who is a really awesomeguy, former Delta soldier) loading up the Glock 17 with blanks. Unlike Dark Prophecy where the one bit of gunfire was done separate to the action, we integrated the shots into a longertake so it felt more organic and real than by shooting them as inserts, as Ihad done on Dig. It’s just so muchbetter not having to have it cut it up. The energy just flows betterthroughout.

Photo by Alex Minkin

That took us up to the fight scene. We shot in Dark’sdirection first and Dan did all his own stunts save for one moment. Meanwhile,since Labyrinth was in a mask and costume we had our stuntman perform asLabyrinth. Because Labyrinth is supposed to be a master at various fightingstyles it was important that he be lightning fast, pointed and controlled.Having the stunt man play him during the fight allowed Labyrinth to look andplay as if he’s a badass motherfucker and didn’t require us to cut the shots tohide anything.

In addition to stagingthe fight similar to the down and dirty fights from the Bourne films, I wantedto take that extra step of putting the audience into the fight as it washappening. So, we rented an HD lipstick camera, which allowed me to get rightin there with Dan and the stuntman. It’s gritty, shaky and is going to look fuckingrad once everything is cut together.

Photo by Alex Minkin

Once Dan’s angle on the fight was done, we came around onLabyrinth’s angle and finished the scene with Hal stepping in to perform afinal reveal and dialogue of the bridge (this moment will only be available in thefull length version of the bridges, released after the book comes out.) I’mtelling you, the scene was fucking amazing, despite the need we’ll have for VOfrom Hal because of some restrictions. It’s too bad it won’t be included in theregular cyber-bridge but the plot point was just too significant to not have inthe book.

We spent a good chunk of the day shooting the fight scene,more than we should have, and had to book it up to the autopsy set on Stage 3to shoot the eighth cyber-bridge. This was a big scene, four pages of dialoguebetween the two characters and it was a hugely important scene. This is thefinal confrontation between Labyrinth and Steve Dark and it’s actually thefinal moment in the book, i.e. the book, and the entire series as a whole, endson this cyber-bridge so it was really important we take the time to get thisright.

Due to the amount oftime we had available we decided that we needed to shoot out (finish) any shotswhere we saw Dan’s face. The reverses on Hal could be done with a stand in,since they were all OTS (over the shoulder).

Photo by Alex Minkin

However, once we got shooting and started wrapping up Dan’sshots, I decided, after discussing with Hal, that we should come around and geta couple takes of him. Despite the shortage of time and the amount of materialto shoot (4 pages for each angle) Hal was just really on fire and I thought itwould be a shame to 1) break and come back and 2) not have Dan there for Hal toplay off of. So, I made the call to turn around and get Hal’s coverage of thescene, knowing that if we needed to, we had the next day to pick up thenon-performance sections of the scene. In the end, it was definitely the rightdecision and Hal delivered a great performance.

The third scene we had to shoot was actually done during thescene described above. While lighting for another shot, myself, Paul, Nate(camera op), Tom (1^st AC), Maria (Script Supervisor) and Dan wentout to the front of the CBS Radford Admin building to shoot the final shot ofDark in the series.

As mentioned above, there are spoilers here, so if you don’twant to know what happens, I would suggest you stop reading.

The Level 26series has never been black and white, at least for the audience. Clearly, Darksees both good and evil as very definitive things, but for the audience,they’ve been on a ride with a deeply tormented and divided protagonist. SteveDark is not your normal good guy, walking a fine line between the establishmenthe represents and the bad guys he attempts to put behind bars. I have toapplaud Anthony for creating a character so three-dimensional. Travis and Ireally wanted to use Labyrinth to challenge Dark, to really put Dark’s faith inthe system to the test and I believe we succeeded, having seen the finalcyber-bridges and heard reactions to it.

Labyrinth is not your typical bad guy. I’ll admit he playsmore like one in the books, but as mentioned in an earlier post, we reallywanted to make him a protagonist for the purposes of the bridges. In thatsense, Labyrinth is really someone who wants the world to be better, believesthat humanity is capable of it, but just needs a push. He is that push. He isthat spark that will ignite the flames of revolution, so to speak. He’s chosenvictims who, by all accounts, probably deserve what they’re getting, and isdoing so in the name of making the world a better place. To quote ThomasJefferson (which was included at the beginning of the script):

"What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?

The tree of liberty must from time to time be

refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

It is its natural manure."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Labyrinth is merely acting on the same principals as therevolutions long before him. However, he is facing a world that is lazy, thatis unable to fathom the thought of revolution, and sees murder as the only wayto call attention to the injustices visited upon humanity by a select few – theelite.

As mentioned before, we wanted the audience to agree withwhat Labyrinth is saying (though maybe not his methods). In this way, with Darka protector of the status quo, he in fact becomes the villain of the bridges,finding himself perhaps on the wrong of the fight.

This is what Labyrinth hopes to challenge Steve Dark on. Inthe same way he was challenged many years ago by a revolutionary in Santiago,Chile (Cyber-bridge 3) Labyrinth manages to get into Dark’s head.

The book ends with Dark capturing Labyrinth, thus winning thebattle, but the war rages on as Labyrinth’s message spreads from country tocountry. The revolution has already started and can’t be stopped. So while Darkwins the battle, he doesn’t win the war. As Dark attempts to stand stoicagainst Labyrinth in his finale moments, Labyrinth calls him on it, leavingDark with the feeling that he does protect the elite and that, in fact, Dark isnot a hero.

The last shot follows Dark walking out of this governmentbuilding, presumably a black ops hospital where Labyrinth was being held and ashe stares off, thinking about Labyrinth’s words, the building stands tall andlooming above him. He’s trapped until he makes a decision on which way to go.And the crazy part is, we never see him make that choice. We don’t know whatDark ends up doing. But that, in a sense, is the point. Dark is the reader,someone thinking that they’re on the right side, as we (Labyrinth) start toquestion that. It doesn’t matter which way Dark goes, the question is, whichway will YOU go.

That, at least, is the intent. We shot the scene at dusk toplay for morning, did several takes until we were out of light and moved backonto the stage to the finish the day.

Tomorrow: Day 3 of Production

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Production Journal - Day 1

2012-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Warning: Potential book and cyber-bridge spoilers ahead.

Day 1:

Call time: 7:00 am.

It’s supposed to be a fairly easy day. Four scenes, 4 3/8pages. Probably the easiest day we’ll have so far (which does turn out to bethe case). We’re filming for the next three days on the CSI:NY stages at CBS Radford Studios, one of the amazing benefitsof this being an Anthony E. Zuiker project. Even though we’re operating on afraction of the budget we’ve had before, much less than CSI:NY’s per episode costs, we still get the benefit of multi-milliondollar sets, which adds so much production value I can’t even begin to tellyou. (Well, you can see it for yourself.)

Westarted the day in the Interrogation Room set on Stage 2. The scene revolvesaround two detectives who interrogate a crazy homeless man about a box he’sbrought into the police station. This scene intercuts with another to make upthe first cyber-bridge. The detectives were played by Dave Baez, best known forhis multi-episode stint as Debra’s boyfriend in Season 2 of Dexter, and Tom Ohmer, a former policeofficer with the LAPD and motorcycle cop with the Simi Valley Police who hasmade multiple TV appearances on network shows in recent years.

MJGazali, a newer actor from Lebanon, played the Homeless Man. All three of themcame in and killed it. It was an intense scene, with some dragging, punching,throwing in to walls, but the performances were great and I got what I neededas we moved into lunch.

Following the meal, we set up for a simple News ENG styleshoot of Alain Pantin, a European Parliament Member delivering a speech. Thiswill be cut together with shots of protests and riots and comp’d onto atelevision that Dark looks at in the final cyber-bridge of the novel. Simpleshoot. We shot it two ways, one on the HVX in 29.97 for a more TV news look andalso on the 5D for a more filmic look.

This is probably a good time to mention that we shot thecyber-bridges on two Canon 5Ds, just like DarkProphecy. Though it’s been a year, I don’t feel like there have beenany dramatic low-cost improvements in terms of production with the Canoncameras. We were still tied to about 20 feet of monitor cable; we still hadHDMI cables breaking. Unlike last time, we shot on Canon lenses (before we hadcine lenses that weren’t available to us this time around), which is somethingI was a little worried about. However, once we started shooting they workedgreat and we really didn’t have outstanding problems with focus or zooms(except when I was operating, ha, I am a terrible focus puller). I was reallysurprised at the versatility of the lenses we used, moving back and forthbetween a 24-70mm F/2.8 and the 70-200mm F/2.8. I was really happy with theimage we got.

Also, slightly different than last time, I decided to shootthis framed for 2.40:1, instead of the more traditional 16x9. I did thisbecause 1) it’s an aspect ration I’m more comfortable composing in and 2) itgives the whole thing a much more cinematic feel that I think the series couldbenefit from. Considering all the bridges not only take place indoors but alsoare mostly dialogue scenes, I felt the widescreen would help enhance the epicquality of the book. I’m more than happy with the result, though the framelines on the video village monitors were a little wonky due to the down-rezzingand stretch while rolling the camera.

While we were at lunch and shooting the Alain scene, our artdepartment team, led by Art Director Raul Contreras and his On-Set DresserTyler Travis, started to dress the interrogation room for the result of a deathscene. The walls and so on were covered in gore and blood and it looked reallyfuckin’ cool. Unfortunately, this shot did not end up in the final edit, as wefound through screenings that people were confused about what happened. In aneffort to make it easier to understand, this shot got dropped, despite byinitial objections. This is a great lesson though, in that nothing in the editroom can be sacred. It’s all about the project, even if that means cuttingshots that took you and others a long time to get.

Once we completed thelast few shots in the Interrogation Room we moved down to the basement of Stage2 where we setup a shot with one of Labyrinth’s victims who is chained inside abackup supply pipe. We had to hide the fact that we were in a low, boxy hallwayand not a round 10-foot in diameter backup supply pipe. That said, regardlessof our limitations, I always imagined it as barely lit, the only light comingfrom a cell phone and creating a real sense of claustrophobia for both the characterand for us, as the light just falls of into darkness.

Actor Alan Brooks was a sport for having to hang from a pipefor most of the scene, despite us making it as comfortable for him as possible.It’s a great scene and looks amazing. Paul did an great job lighting it to looklike single source and my camera operator, Nate Kolbeck, took the camerahandheld, focus buzzing, moving in and out, and really made you feel like youwere the victim. Some great camerawork in this scene.

It wasn’t the most pleasant place to shoot, a dark and dingyhallway, but it got the job done. Regardless, we’d be back the next day for thefight scene between Steve Dark and Labyrinth.

Tomorrow: Day 2 of Production

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Pre-Production Journal

2012-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Photo by Alex Minkin

Writing and Development:

I am, obviously, writing this after the fact. I’m notentirely sure it’s even possible to write a production journal during shooting.There is just absolutely no time. Maybe on a bigger production when you’re notshooting between 7 and 10 pages a day, when there’s slightly more downtime andyou don’t have THAT much to worry about when you’re home at night.

I’ll say this though, despite the amount of material we hadto shoot in only five days, this was probably the least stressful shoot I’veever directed. I had an amazing production team, led by producer Orlin Dobreff,Line Producer/1^st AD Otto Penzato and 2^nd AD Ron Dempsey,who really allowed me to do my job and focus on the actors and camera, exceptwhen it was absolutely necessary to talk about any production related issues(more on that later).

It was also my ninth project with Director of PhotographyPaul Niccolls, so we were able to easily slip back into an easy relationshipthat we’ve perfected over the course of working together since 2004.

For those unfamiliar with Anthony E. Zuiker’s Digi-novelseries “Level 26,” of which “Dark Revelations” is the third and final in thetrilogy, the concept is this: you can consume the novel like any other, read itcover to cover, without missing a beat. However, about every 40 pages, you’regiven a code to log in and watch a “cyber-bridge,” which is a several minutelong piece of motion picture footage that will continue and/or dive deeper intothe narrative of the book. The last two sets of cyber-bridges for “DarkOrigins” and “Dark Prophecy” were written and directed by Zuiker himself. Thistime however, he’s handed both duties off to myeself and it’s a huge honor.Travis and I co-wrote the cyber-bridges together and I directed them.

Each version of the cyber-bridges has been, if nothing else,an experiment in how this multi-media experience works. After readers got ahold of “Level 26: Dark Origins” we heard that they felt like they were missinga part of the narrative if they were unable to watch the bridges, say if theywere on a plane or at the beach. We corrected (maybe over-corrected) for “DarkProphecy” by making the bridges their separate, yet related, self-containedmovie. Many readers then felt that watching the cyber-bridges wasn’t reallynecessary.

On this one, Zuiker allowed Matthew Weinberg, the Presidentof our company Dare to Pass, Travis and myself to come up with a solution. Anthonywas interested in exploring the villain, Labyrinth, in the bridges, so togetherwe turned that on its head and not only made Labyrinth the subject and focus ofthe cyber-bridges but decided to explore his mission from his point of view,essentially turning him into the protagonist (hero) of the cyber-bridges.

Travis and I relished the idea of giving the audience aglimpse into the humanity of a man who believes he is on the right side ofhistory. It’s that famous quote from Joseph Campbell; “The villain is alwaysthe hero of his own story.” And so we dove in and began a historical journey throughthe great revolutions and revolutionaries of the past several hundred years.I’ll let you decide when you see it in the end, but I think Travis and I wereable to present a sympathetic character, despite his actions, and may have evenpushed you so far as to be on Labyrinth’s side by the end.

We did several drafts of the script, all the way up toshooting, each time building Labyrinth’s arc, building his humanity, hisargument and in the end, based on everything the crew and cast said to me, wesucceeded, with many thanks to Anthony and Matt’s guidance. Almost everyonecame up to me and said, “You know, it’s funny, because I actually agree withLabyrinth.” That was gold because my goal as a filmmaker is to challenge yourpreconceived notions about how things are, how they should be, to make youthink. NOT convince you of one way or another, mind you, but to push you in adirection you might not have thought of going.

I did the same thing with Dig. We took a Nazi, probably one of the least sympatheticcharacters you can think of, and really did our best to find the humanity inhim and I think it shows. We don’t excuse what he did but we do show you athree dimensional human being. Many people have told me, after seeing Dig that they actually felt bad for theguy and were a little weirded out by it.

That’s exactly howI want you to feel watching DarkRevelations. Not that you should feel bad for Labyrinth but that you shouldfind yourself on his side even though he is, by definition, the “bad guy.” (However,I would ask you whether you believe that to be true once you’ve finishedwatching the bridges and reading the book.)

It’s really a testament to Zuiker and Matt, that they letTravis and I go in this direction but we’ve gotten so many compliments fromthose that have read it that I really think it was the right thing to do.

Overall, Level 26: Dark Revelations is about revolution.It’s about the very thing that is going on right now with #occupywallst and theprotests around the country and the world. Labyrinth believes this world can dobetter. Maybe his methods are questionable, maybe not, you be the judge. Butthe parallels to what’s going on across the globe are ridiculous. I reallycan’t wait to hear what you think.

Tomorrow: Day 1 of Production.

Interview with CSIFiles.com about Level 26: Dark Revelations

2011-12-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

Check out my interview below with Shane Saunders from CSIFiles.com about directing the Level 26: Dark Revelations cyber-bridges, working with Anthony Zuiker and what's next at Dare to Pass.

In 2009, Anthony E. Zuiker launched a brandnew media platform. The Digi-novel concept was featured throughout theentire Level 26 franchise, Zuiker’s first project afterleaving CSI. Now, just a little more than two years since Level26: Dark Origins was released, the book series comes to an end, andwith it, a final installment of cyber-bridges, a video feature that takesyou beyond the pages of the book. Level 26: Dark Revelations containseight cyber-bridges, each directed by Joshua Caldwell. Born inBellevue, Washington, Caldwell joined Zuiker’s Dare to Pass company in2009, and has since taken the position as Director of Digital Media. In thisinterview with CSI Files’ Shane Saunders, the DarkRevelation director gives background to what his duties at the companyinvolve, talks what it’s like working with the creator of CSI andbeing behind the camera for the epic conclusion of Level 26.

CSI Files: You were the editor on Level 26:Dark Prophecy, which was directed by Anthony, and on Level 26: DarkRevelations, you got to serve as the director. How did you get theopportunity to direct the third series?

Caldwell: That’s probably more a question forAnthony, but I feel like it was a combination of the work I did on DarkProphecy, as his editor working to fulfill his vision, and him seeing [andsigning onto as an Executive Producer] my short film Dig. Obviouslyas we moved into late summer, Anthony had turned his attention back to TV, and it wasreally up to me, once we locked picture, to coordinate and shepherd the bridgesthrough post and bring him the music, color correction, and sound mixes that hewould both like and approve of. Following that, I co-wrote, produced anddirected Dig in an effort to show Anthony and Matt what I wascapable of as a director.

CSI Files: Who are your influences for when youdirect something like this? Were you inspired by what Anthony did before, orwas there another director you’re kind of taking bits from to add to it?

Caldwell: You know, it’s interesting because I’vereached a point where I feel like I’m less about trying to find how otherdirectors do it and more about how can I do it. So I wouldn’t say that thereare any directors that I referenced. Having directed a number of shorts and musicvideos over the years I’ve developed an aesthetic, a way of shooting, thatworks for me and delivers a specific result that, I feel, is unique to me andmy vision. I think audiences are very smart, and they pick up on thingsconsciously or subconsciously, and I like to use visuals in such a way that I’mtapping into that response. Beyond that, it’s an aesthetic that tends to workwell with small budgets and short shooting schedules, because I shoot a lot ofhandheld and move very quickly. However, that’s a benefit ofmy way of shooting and directing, not a reason for it.Director of Photography Paul Niccolls, who shot this along withnine of my other projects, is a big additive to that as well. We know how towork together in a way that delivers that result I’m looking for, he’s lookingfor, keeps us on schedule but also, and this is probably most important, looksreally good and interesting and different. I’ve reached a point where I’vebroken free from paying homage to or building off the aesthetics of otherdirectors. Now it’s really about how I see it.

To see more of the interview, visit CSIFiles.com. And be sure to pick up your copy of "Dark Revelations: A Level 26 Thriller" today.

NewFilmmakers Interview -- Dig

2011-12-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Above is part of an interview I did for the NewFilmmakersLA screening. The video is a collection of interviews from all the filmmakers at the screening. My interview starts at 4:10.

Level 26: Dark Revelations -- Official Trailer

2011-12-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

Above is the Official Trailer for Level 26: Dark Revelations cyber-bridges, the stunning finale to the Level 26 Digi-novel series from Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the CSI: franchise.

I had the really unique opportunity to direct, co-write (along with Travis), produce and edit the cyber-bridges for Zuiker, the results of which can be seen in the trailer above and once the book launches on 12/29/11.

I'll be posting production journals from the shoot here on Hollywood Bound and Down following the release of the book.

Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer.

Dig: Official Selection -- Carmel Art & Film Festival

2011-10-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dig is an official selection of the Carmel Art & Film Festival in beautiful Carmel, CA. Dig will screen twice during the festival. First, on Friday, October 14th at 2 pm as part of Shorts Program #2 at the Youth Center JRS Theater and then again on Saturday, October 15th at 4pm at the same location.

For those in Northern California it's a great excuse to visit Carmel if you've never been and we couldn't be more honored to have Dig chosen as an official selection.

For more on the festival, screening schedule and tickets, visit their website.

About Carmel Art & Film Festival:

Set amidst the extraordinary natural beauty of Carmel, California, the Carmel Art and Film Festival hosts five days of groundbreaking art, exclusive premieres, and one of a kind encounters with today’s leading artists, filmmakers, and industry professionals. A 501 (C) 3 non-profit organization, The Carmel Art and Film Festival supports local and regional charities and offers several scholarships to established and emerging art and film students. The third annual Carmel Art and Film Festival will be held October 12-16, 2011 at several venues including on the famous white sands beach of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

This year’s festival is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees. Filmmakers, film lovers, and industry professionals have enjoyed the Carmel Art and Film Festival which showcases the best of independent cinema and contemporary art, music and photography from around the globe including narrative feature, documentary, short, student, retrospective and premièring films. Looking to educate and entertain, the festival also includes an interactive lecture series including a film score demonstration in real time, the Art of Wine gallery tour and wine paring, Art in the Park featuring artists in various mediums, art auctions, a Women in Film luncheon, film and panel discussion, and an emerging artists music café.

Dig: Official Selection -- NewFilmmakers LA

2011-09-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dig has been selected to screen as part of the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles short film series at Sunset Gower Studios Hollywood on November 18th, 2011. Dig will play as part of the Short Film Program #2 at 8pm followed by an audience Q&A and bar reception (yes!).

The screening will be held at Sunset Gower Studios, which is located at 1438 N. Gower St. Hollywood, CA 90028. For more information, you can visit the NewFilmmakers website. Tickets run $5 per program or $15 for the whole night (there are three shorts programs in total and the all night pass also gets you open bar access). It's highly recommended that tickets be pre-purchased at the NewFilmmakers website as they normally sell out.

If you're in the Los Angeles area, I hope to see you at the screening. Dig really is better viewed on the big screen and I hope to share it with you.

About NewFilmmakers LA:

NewFilmmakers LA at Sunset Gower Studios is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization designed to showcase innovative works by emerging filmmakers from around the world, providing the Los Angeles community of entertainment professionals and filmgoers with a constant surge of monthly screening events. NewFilmmakers LA provides a forum where filmmakers can be recognized for their contributions, have open audience discussions about their projects and connect with industry professionals for insight on distribution, production, acquisition and representation.

Television: Where the Storytellers Go

2011-09-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've seen two movies in the theater thissummer: Bridesmaids (way back in May, while I was stuck inTitusville, FL waiting for the shuttle launch) and Love (which was only in theaters as part ofa one night Fathom Event with Angels and Airwaves, who produced the picture).That's it.

This in contrast to Travis, who has seenliterally every movie released this summer in the theater. I used to be likethat. When I was in college I would usually walk up to the Lowes Lincoln Centerin New York City for the first matinee on Friday of whatever had been releasedthat week. Of course, as I was only in New York in Fall and Spring, the moviesreleased tended be movies I really looked forward to (and with this September'sline up of releases, I may change my desire to go to the theatre).

Yesterday, I read an article from the New York Times discussing theeroding summer movie attendance. People are just not going to the moviesanymore and I'm sure we can find a plethora (been using that word a lot lately)of reasons for that. Everything from the costs of the tickets, the annoyance ofpeople texting, calling and talking during the film, and also the quality offilms themselves.

I've watched a lot of films on DVD, streamingon Netflix, some new (meaning, I haven't seen them before), some from my owncollection, so it's not like I haven't been watching movies. But honestly, youknow what I have beenwatching a lot of lately? Television.

And by television, I don't mean sitting on mycouch, zoned out, watching KeepingUp with the Kardashians over and over. I don't mean I've been watchingTV. I mean, I've been watching Television.

Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter, Game ofThrones, Friday Night Lights.

My wife and I have been watching those andman, has that been some good Television. She and I recently finished the secondseason of Breaking Bad, during which we would look over ateach other to find our mouths hanging open in either shock or suspense.

I've heard this talked about before, thenotion that Hollywood is no longer interested in the $40 million adult drama.They don't make them anymore. Instead, cable television has taken up the calland started taking those stories and refashioning them as a cable drama. Andthey're meeting success by allowing the creator to enact his vision,rather than trying to create a show by committee. As a result, the lastcouple years have seen a major resurgence of Television programming andhave given us some of the most original characters and storytelling we've seen in a long time.

My question is: why can't we do the same formovies? If we're going to make movies like Transformers and The Green Lantern why notalso spend the time to make their stories great. This belief that because ofbrand recognition we don't need toworry about story is lazy and detrimental to the overall business. It's the idea of diminishing returns. Superhero movies (even thoughHollywood has now put the nail in that coffin)can still challenge us. They can still tell interesting andcompelling stories, filled with three dimensional characters. Instead, the think all they have to do is put a guy in a suit, add a lot of expensive special effects and the audiences will flock to it. Well, considering The Help has earned more domestically than Green Lantern, you decide if that strategy is working.

Damon Lindelof (Lost) made a greatstatement about the character issue in his "Love Letter to Raiders" whenhe said:

“And while we're on the subject of Dr. Jones,here’s another thing I love about him.He’s actually scared of stuff. Thisdoesn’t seem like something that should be celebrated, but it’s actually quiterare for the hero of a movie to be scared of anything. Do you know what GreenLantern is afraid of? Fear. He is afraid of being afraid. Does that even makesense? Here’s what makes sense to be afraid of – Hissing Cobras and GiganticBald Nazis with mustaches trying to kill you. And it was perfectly OK for me tobe scared of them because Indy was too.”

I spend a lot of my time working towards becominga feature film director. I’ve never wanted to do anything else. However, I’malso now facing a time when many of the film I want to direct aren’t gettingmade. I don’t want to direct GreenLantern 4. As an audience member, I don’t even want there to be a GreenLantern 4.

I have great hope for this fall. Some amazingmovies are being released, even in September, which is usually a pretty deadmonth.

But for me, as a consumer, you're going tohave to really convince me, a guy who is married, works two full timejobs (I consider writing a full time job on top of my day job), not a lot ofmoney, and absolutely no desire to listen to people talk or text, to get me tocome out to a theatre and watch a movie. It is absolutely not worth it for meto suffer through that for a bad film when I have so many other, higher qualitystorytelling choices at my disposal.

What do you think about the current state of cinema vs. television?

Go Into The Story: Dispatches from the Front Lines

2011-09-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from a feature I wrote for GoIntoTheStory.com on my attempts to break into Hollywood. Though much of the information below is contained on this blog, I feel this is a rather succinct description on what's happened to me so far. Enjoy!

In June 2006, recently engaged and having just graduatedfrom college, I won an MTV Movie Award for my short film The Beautiful Lie in the Best Film on Campus category. I was thefirst ever recipient, as it was the category’s inaugural year; and there haveonly been two other winners since. Zack Braff presented me the iconic GoldenPopcorn; I gave an acceptance speech in front of stars like Christian Bale, SteveCarrell, Eva Mendes, John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, Sasha Baron Cohen, KateBeckinsale, and director Spike Lee; and the pre-taped show aired a week laterin front of millions of home viewers. I thought that I was set, that theHollywood doors were now open to me, and that my success was virtuallyguaranteed. Most people would have probably agreed.

Well, as it turns out, not a whole hell of a lot of peoplewatch the MTV Movie Awards, especially not in the industry. Though I received anumber of phone calls from production companies and managers after MTV postedan ad in Variety with all the nominees,little press covered the results of the show and even fewer outlets listed themtvU Best Film on Campus category at all. I was invited by Kevin Spacey toattend a party for Triggerstreet, where I had the chance to meet Dana Brunetti;I scheduled a handful of general meet-and-greets; and due to my win beingfeatured in The Seattle Times, I struckup a conversation with my dental hygienist who mentioned I should connect withher son, which is how, funny enough, I met my current manager.

All of the things that I thought (and in all honesty,somewhat expected) would happen following the MTV Movie Awards didn’t happen inthe weeks and months that followed; nor have they happened to date. I did notsell a screenplay, I did not sign an agent, and I was not on my way todirecting a feature film. And I made a number of mistakes, like sending out myfeature script before it was really ready. But I did do one thing right: Imoved to LA.

A year after the win, I was offered the chance to write,direct and produce The Ronnie Day Project,a six-part music video series for mtvU and Epic Records. It was my firstprofessional directing gig. However, during its six-week distribution on mtvU,Epic Records dropped Ronnie Day as well as its support of the project. Idirected several music videos for artists at MySpace Records and UniversalMusic Group after that, but they were gigs all generated by myself and did notreceive major distribution or backing from their labels. Thus, like Ronnie Day,they were not widely seen.

By this point in 2007, I was married, with a wife who, thoughcompletely supportive and understanding of my passion and goals, required me tohave a steady income. So, I took a job in retail. While not ideal, it gave me alot of freedom, it was low stress, and it enabled me to write at night. Icontinued working on two feature screenplays with my writing partner, TravisOberlander.

Then the financial crisis hit, and the income at work, whichwas based only on my sales commissions, started to dwindle. I had been sendingout resumes daily for assistant jobs, anything that could help me get my footin the door, but I rarely, if ever, heard back. So, with the day job no longergiving me the only thing I required from it (money), I decided that I needed totake a major risk. I spoke with my wife and we decided that if I was ever goingto get my foot in the door in the entertainment industry, I was probably goingto need to start by working for free. I was going to get an internship.

It takes a massive swallowing of pride to get an internshipat the age of 25, having won an MTV Movie Award and directed music videos formajor labels, but there were a couple things I knew for sure:

1) Idid not want to be a music video director. I wanted to be a narrative featuredirector and, second to that, a feature screenwriter.

2) IfI was going to spend eight hours a day doing something, I sure as hell didn’twant to be wasting my time in retail. If I never directed a film and never solda screenplay, I still wanted to work in this business in some capacity, and theonly way to do that was to start as an assistant.

3) Pridedidn’t matter. I could care less about anything except finding a way toadvancing my career, no matter what I had to do to start.

Having had no success sending out blind resumes for paidassistant work, I started applying for internships. I figured that if I couldeventually work my into a job at thatcompany, I would at least start meeting people who could maybe be of help or introduceme to people who could.

I got an internship in the newly formed TV department atYari Film Group. I read scripts, wrote coverage, and supported the developmentof TV shows. But, having not sold any shows, Yari wasn’t in a position to hire.I interned there for a year. I really had no other opportunities. I keptapplying to other internships and assistant jobs but nothing came of it. It wastough on my wife and me. Fortunately, she had a great job, and we were able tomake it work. We had to really cut back on our spending and, thankfully, had somesavings to fall back on.

There were a number of benefits tomy internship at Yari; it’s where everything really started to come together.For one, I got read a lot of scripts, pretty much anything I wanted to,including the newest scripts being sold. The second, and notably biggerbenefit, was that I became friends with the assistant I worked with. Knowingthat I was a writer, I gave him a feature comedy I co-wrote with Travis. Heliked it so much that he asked if he and his partner could take it out and tryand get it produced. Their first stop was to an assistant friend of theirs atGuy Walks Into A Bar Productions, which produced of Elf and Meet Dave. This friendloved it and pitched it to his bosses, convincing them to come on board as producers.Yes! Big moment!

We spent three months working withthe producer on rewrites, during which time the assistant and his boss (themanagement side of the production company) left to go work for Anthony E.Zuiker (creator of the CSI franchise).While getting a producer attached to our script was huge, I was still just anintern at a company that had no plans to hire me.

It was time to leave Yari FilmGroup. On a whim, I wrote the assistant who was now over at Zuiker’s company,Dare to Pass. I asked if he knew of any opportunities, paid or otherwise.

When he got back in touch with me,he said there might be an opportunity for me at Dare to Pass. While alsodeveloping TV shows, the company was preparing for the release of Zuiker’s ‘digi-novel’Level 26; Dark Origins, a traditionalbook that also has a video component to it. So I started as an intern and quicklymoved into an unpaid employee position -- I stopped getting coffee and doingscript coverage and started to be assigned only those tasks related to the digi-novel.I really threw myself into it, doing whatever it was I could, whatever I wasasked. When they were trying to figure out how to get deliverables of thevideos for press, I told them I was an editor, knew how to use Final Cut Pro,and would be more than happy to do it. After that, I was off and running. Afterfour months, I was hired as a paid employee. With a first look deal at CBS andtwo more digi-novels coming out, Dare to Pass was going to be busy.

In 2010, I was a part of thedevelopment of the second digi-novel, DarkProphecy and also served as an editor, co-producer and B-cam operator on itsvideo components, which we call ‘cyber-bridges.’ I was also a part of thedevelopment of the Dark Prophecy iPad App. By the end of 2010, I was promotedto Director of Digital Media, tasked with development of Zuiker’s digitalprojects.

Meanwhile, I continued to pursuemy own projects after-hours. (In case you’re wondering, my schedule issomething like this: 8am – 7pm work for Dare to Pass; 7:30pm eat a home cookeddinner with my wife; 8:30pm – 11:30pm write and work on my own projects.) Iproduced and directed a short film Digin an effort to further my own career as a director and show Zuiker what I wascapable of. Zuiker ended up coming on board as an Executive Producer.Truthfully, Dig was really onlypossible because of the relationships I had developed while at Dare to Pass.(Many of the Dark Prophecy crew membershelped me out on the short, including John Goodwin, an Emmy award-winning makeup artist and Bill Brown, composer from CSI: NY.)

The major financial investment Imade in order to produce Dig hasstarted to pay off. This September, I will be directing the cyber-bridges forZuiker’s third digi-novel, DarkRevelations. Ideally, someday, I’ll get to develop a TV show with Zuiker,or maybe he’ll produce a low-budget feature of mine. We’ll see.

For me, my journey thus far hasbeen all about perseverance. I’ve never wanted to do anything but work inHollywood. Despite early recognition, I still had to work hard and take bigrisks to get where I am. And I will continue to do so, until my dream isrealized. Yes, the risk of quitting my job and taking an internship could havebackfired. After all, Hollywood was still feeling the effects of the writer’sstrike, we were in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the GreatDepression, and Hollywood was shedding jobs like crazy. But I had to do it. AndI have no regrets.

Advice to Filmmakers: Be Interesting

2011-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, while at a private party in Malibu, I had the chance to talk to probably the biggest TV Lit agent in Hollywood. It was a casual atmosphere, surrounded by family and friends. I got to tell him a little bit about myself, the MTV Movie Award, Dig and so on but then I mentioned that I had spent a lot of time up in the Malibu canyons on my motorcycle. "Oh, you ride?" he asked. I nodded. "So, you're interesting," he said, at which point we proceeded to talk about motorcycles.

And if you're wondering, I didn't lie. This is me:

I've always had an interest in things besides filmmaking. As mentioned above, I ride a motorcycle, rock climb, mountain bike, hike, camp, shoot guns (I own an H&K P2000 9mm), I've traveled the world, I devour books (lately, a lot of non-fiction, totally unrelated to Hollywood in any way, my current reads are a book on string theory and one on hacking), and cook. Those are some of my interests at present. To be honest, the last movie I saw in the theater was Bridesmaids and lately, if I'm watching TV, I'm watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix.

So much of my day revolves around the industry, whether in my day job at Dare to Pass, or at night writing my own scripts or working on projects in development, that when I have free time, the last thing I want to do is have anything to do with the industry. Plus, I find that these outside interests fuel my passion for storytelling because I'm always learning something new and inspiring.

The point is, with regard to the lit agent, is that he too spends most of his day dealing with Hollywood and my guess is (since I can't speak for him) that when he has time off, he'd like to talk about anything else.

As a filmmaker, I believe it is important to have outside interests, not only for your own sanity, but for those of others. There is a view point that one has to live and breathe film, but I don't find that all that valid. I think if you want to succeed in this industry you have to be totally committed to doing what you can to make it and spend as much time as possible writing, directing, script supervising, whatever it is you're in pursuit of. But in the meantime, explore those other interests.

Because I'll tell you this, while the agent thought the MTV Movie Award was cool and asked to see Dig it wasn't until I told him about my motorcycle that I became "interesting." Everyone in this town has a script, a short film, or an idea. Stand out from the crowd because you have more to talk about than Hollywood. Everyone will appreciate you and remember you for it.

Dig -- Teaser Trailer

2011-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dig: Official Selection -- LAShortsFest -- World Premiere

2011-07-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am very proud to announce that Dig will be having it's world premiere at the 15th annual 2011 LA Shorts Fest. The premiere shorts festival in the world, the festival will run from July 21 - 29, 2011.

Dig will be screening on July 23 at 3:15pm as part of program 11 at Laemmle Theatres:

8000 Sunset Blvd

West Hollywood, CA 90046

Tickets are $12 and will only be available from the Laemmle Theatres box office starting on July 14th.

For more information as well as the full program guide check out LA Shorts Fest.

I hope to see you all there.

Dig: Wrapping It All Up

2011-06-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

One year ago yesterday, I wrote my first blog post on Dig as I started writing the script. Here, one year later, I am literally putting the finishing touches on the film after receiving the final sound mix, score and color corrected footage. Tomorrow, I drop several DVDs in the mail, the film on its way to various film festivals across the country and in about a month Dig will be having its worldwide premiere at the 2011 LAShorts Fest Festival. I can't believe it's been a whole year!

(It probably could have been done sooner but I chose to wait for my post-production team to free up on other projects, rather than try and find someone else. April to mid-May was pretty much down time and the post-process picked up again in late May when my composer started writing the score, followed by sound editing/mixing and color correction.)

It's been a busy last couple of weeks as I balance finishing the film with my daily work at Dare to Pass. As I didn't have the chance to post through I wanted to take this chance to provide a summary of all the post work we've done on the film. So here we go.

COLOR CORRECTION:

For the last couple of months of both editing and rough cut screenings, all the way through mix and scoring, I've been looking at a very "eh" picture. This has nothing to do with Paul, he shot it correctly and beautifully, but more to do with the filter settings applied during the shoot, which were more a tool for Paul than a representation of how it was shot. The footage was largely overexposed and just obviously not colored.

The desert portion of the film, which takes place in real time over the course of about twenty minutes was shot over three days. There's bound to be shifts in color temperature and so on that needed smoothing out, if nothing else. You have to take a pass on color regardless.

For me, however, it was also about creating a very specific look and feel to the film as well as enhancing the colors. From the very beginning, Paul and I devised a color scheme that progressed through the film. Essentially, the opening is white (bright), then blue when we're inside the car, then orange/red/brown when we're in the desert and finally, green, at the end. So, we wanted to enhance those colors (without it looking too stylized) for one.

The other part of it was to help it feel period, help it feel like the 1960s, when it takes place. Fortunately, my colorist has been watching a lot of Mad Men and The Kennedy's and had a pretty good sense of what he needed to do to help achieve that look. I've provided some before and after examples of the color below.

Before

After

Before

After

The color work on this was done by my long time friend and colorist James Cohan who did an amazing job. I met James back in 2007 (a meeting I'm sure he now regrets) when I went to mtvU to do post work on The Ronnie Day Project. James is the Head of Post-Production for mtvU and now MTV360 and is a editing/coloring/workflow genius. He also doesn't sleep.

All of the work was done in Color and as you can see from the images above, Dig looks amazing!

SCORING:

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that one of the hardest things for young filmmakers and short directors to do is figure out music. In high school it was easy, just use whatever you want. (My film American Tragedy was basically scored using the American Beauty score by Thomas Newman...the similarities in titles was, honestly, entirely coincidental.) Once you're out there, making films that you hope will be shown in festivals, it gets harder.

I was extremely fortunate to both meet and work with composer Bill Brown prior to Dig on Anthony E. Zuiker's Dark Prophecy. As I headed up post on that project, Bill and I spent a good chunk of time working together. I'll never forget (and I'm sure he won't either) that after getting the first set of cues on Dark Prophecy I sent him more than three pages of notes. His response on the phone was "I've never really gotten notes like this before..." Here I was, a no name kid, giving a very accomplished composer a significant amount of notes on a small internet based project. I'm sure he was less than thrilled.

But then I went into his studio, to explain my thoughts, gave him my ideas and started to not only agree but get excited about them. After that first meeting, it was smooth sailing. He saw that I wasn't trying to do his job, or tell him what to do, but to marry the beautiful work he had done to the film in the most impactful way possible. After all, I had spent months with the picture, knew it backwards and forwards and thus felt I could offer him that perspective.

Regardless of all of this, it worked out, and he created a really moving and beautiful score for Dark Prophecy.

It was during this process, as I was writing Dig, that I knew I wanted to ask Bill to do the score for Dig. There was no one else in my head. 1) I knew that he could deliver what I wanted and 2) I really wanted to work with him again.

Fortunately, after viewing a rough cut of the film, he said yes and went on to fulfill my expectations in every way. We also, much thanks to Bill, were able to record the ending music with a live orchestra, something we had also done on Dark Prophecy. I had never heard the real difference between synth and live instruments before, much less on the same piece, but let me tell you, it is a remarkable difference. The main addition being emotion. You feel the players on their instruments. And you have so much more control over the sound.

We also, on the opening track, had some really great musicians come be a part of it. The amazing cellist Tina Guo provided the cello solo on the opening. Also, Steve Tavaglione, a woodwind musician whose playing you might recognize from Shawshank Redemption, The Road to Perdition, American Beauty came on board to provide some really great sounds for the finale. Steve is a frequent collaborator of Bill's and he brought him on board for Dig.

Rather than get too much into the details, I think it's better to let the score speak for itself. Below is a excerpt from the finale to Dig:

DIG end sequence / credits (excerpt) by billbrownmusic

Here is the sheet music for part of what you just heard:

And here are some pictures of Bill's sessions with Tina and Steve.

SOUND MIXING:

Once we had the score done it was off to the final mix. Like Bill Brown, I met some amazing sound engineers when I got to work with the great talent at Todd A.O. in Burbank on the final mix of Dark Prophecy. (Essentially, the post crew that worked on Dark Prophecy all worked on Dig as well.)

I had never mixed on a stage before and man does it make a difference. When I handed off the film to Aaron Levy and Alexandra Fehrman the sound was a mess. Five separate tracks of audio (in some cases) comprised of both boom and lavs, big gaps in sound where I had cut dialogue and had no "room tone" (or desert tone) and a big section in the middle of the film (the desert part) where I knew I wouldn't have music.

I wanted to fill it with something, I wanted to create a soundtrack to the desert. When I came back two months later to check out the edit, Aaron and Alex had done their work. The dialogue sounded great, the desert was alive, everything was smoothed out, Alex had some subtle but amazing sound design to help enhance key moments in the sequence (without it become too dramatic and maintaining a natural feel to it). It was great. I had very few notes.

Two days later, we were the mix, where Aaron and Alex sweetened and leveled Dig to the best place it could be. In addition to the standard stereo mix we also mastered in 5.1 surround sound.

As you can see from the pics, we're talking about a full on stage here. And in that million dollar theatre it sounded amazing! (It sounded great on my home theatre system too.) One of the things I said to them when we started was I want this to be mixed for the theatre experience. This film is made to be watched in the cinema, not on the computer. So that was where I focus was and everyone did a really great job.

I have been incredibly fortunate to have an amazing group of professionals work on my little short film Dig, many of whom have no reason to work on a very low-paying (or unpaid) short project. Their only reason is that 1) they like working with me 2) liked the project or 3) both. Either one means a lot to me, that they would take time out of their schedules and lives to help me see this project through on a level that I could only imagine when I started writing it twelve months ago. I am truly honored to have the list of credits I do at the end of my film and it has been a dream to work with this cast and crew.

I can't wait for you to see the film so check back often for potential festival screenings. I hope you've enjoyed this year long journey of putting Dig together as much as I have but the creative work has ended. So now it's onward and upward to newer projects as I release Dig to the world.

Bill Brown Scoring 'Dig'

2011-05-24T22:22:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that after working with Bill on Dark Prophecy and since I started writing Dig back in July this was one of the things I've been looking forward to the most: the great Bill Brown has started work on the score for Dig.

The pictures above and below are from Bill's session today with Steve Tavaglione, a woodwind musician whose playing you might recognize from Shawshank Redemption, The Road to Perdition, American Beauty and others.

Bill is a frequent collaborator of Steve's and brought him on board for Dig. I'll be hearing Bill's themes in the next day or two as we start the last couple weeks of Dig post-production.

As more happens I'll be sure to update you.

Pictures Copyright Bill Brown 2011.

3Questions: Julian Rosenberg - Talent & Lit Manager

2011-05-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Julian Rosenberg, Talent/Lit Manager at Caliber Media Company, representing actors, writers and directors, and developing scripts for film and television.

HBAD: How did you get your start?

JR: I got my start up in Vancouver where I'm from. It's a big service town, and after high school I started working on the movies and TV shows that were filming up there. I thought I wanted to be an actor, so I did commercials and a ton of extra work. I enjoyed being on set, decided I wanted to produce, and was able to get a grant to attend film school. While in school I had a couple of commercials and short films I produced win festivals, and the day I finished school I bought a car and drove to LA. This was September 2005. I started in LA as an intern at a management company, then did 2 years at UTA as an agent trainee, and then became a talent manager in 2008. By 2009 my focus had shifted towards wanting to work with writers, so I came to Caliber to learn the Lit game. That was August 2009, and the rest is history.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

JR: The economic turndown, and the industry labor disputes have been the biggest challenges. Both of those happened the year I was promoted, and the business has rapidly shifted since then. The next biggest thing is the "challenging personalities" you face in this business every day. Everyone has an ego, and navigating the politics of that can be tricky. But if you're thick skinned and just do the work – you'll do fine. You just can't take things to personally.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to break into representation?

JR: You have to be an entrepreneur. Gone are the days of just putting in your 3-5 years and being promoted. There was a really interesting article in the LA Times this year around Christmas, about how it's harder and harder to get promoted, and lots of incredibly talented and experienced executives are fighting it out for very few positions. It's much harder to just go Intern – Assistant - Jr Exec – Exec, the way it used to be for years. Nowadays a lot of companies are making their assistants be profitable before even promoting them, whereas you used to be able to get promoted in order to eventually become profitable. Long story short, if you want to break into this business, you need to bring something to the table. Oh, and nepotism as always remains king in Hollywood.

2011-05-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sensible Digital Cinema: The Cooke 5/i Primes from Inspiration Studios on Vimeo.

Above is a rather humorous look at the new Cooke 5/i prime lenses from Inspiration Studios. Thanks to NoFilmSchool.com for bringing this to my attention.

Dig: Official Poster

2011-04-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to show you guys the official poster for Dig today. This has been in the works for a long time, even before we shot the film. I'm a huge fan of the recent practice of creating graphical posters for existing films. Having seen a few here and there I thought it would be awesome for us to do something in that vein. Eventually, Travis got in touch with graphic artist Brandon Schaefer. If you're unfamiliar with his work you should definitely check it out.

We initially spoke to him back in October and after we sent him a copy of the script he agreed to do the poster. We checked in with him off and on after filming and into the edit and finally sent him a rough cut of the film. Brandon was all for it after seeing the film and Brandon, Travis and I spoke at length about images from the film that came to mind, deeper thoughts on the film, posters of his that we loved. What really appealed to me about his work were posters that were amazing in their own right but took on new meaning if you've seen the film.

Also, I'm a huge fan of the design work on book covers from the 60s (we featured a copy of "Beyond Good and Evil" from the time period that has a great look) and because Dig takes place in that time period we felt it appropriate to play with that as well.

We gave Brandon these collections of thoughts and inspiration and let him go to work and what you see above is pretty much exactly what he delivered. And now we're revealing it to you.

I'm getting very excited as we get closer and closer to completing the film and can't wait to have people see the film.

Leave your thoughts on the poster below!

Dig: Post-Production Part 7

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it's been almost a month since I last posted (anything) on here but I have been busy, I swear. On a personal note, I've started working out in the mornings, which means I've been trying to go to bed at a decent time, which means I've been coming home, working on whatever needs to be done and then hitting the hay.

Most of that necessary work has been Dig. (The rest is a new feature project I'm working on.) After my in-laws watched two cuts of Dig I started showing it around. I showed my managers, the producers, Travis (writer), and a few others. And they all....really liked it.

I got notes here and there, which I've taken time to work on, but in general all of them thought it was really, really strong. Which was amazing to hear. After spending so much time on this and going through what I did in the edit, to hear that it works, to hear that it's resonating with those who watch it is really gratifying.

One thing that was really interesting is that while the film doesn't feel long, when it's over you really get the sense that you've spent time with these characters, that you've been with them for a while, that it didn't just fly by and that you really got to understand who they are.

In the last month, I've probably done about 4-5 passes on the film. It's gone from 24 minutes to 22 minutes and finally to 23 minutes, which I believe will be it's final running time. On the 22nd I finished what I felt was my final cut. I screened it for my managers and other than a small note (regarding holding a beat too long in one area) they thought it was great.

In addition, I feel really great about it. So, after I look at this little cut, I will lock picture on Dig.

Meanwhile, I've been lining up my post team. I'm really excited to tell you that I'll be working once again with Aaron Levy and Alexandra Fuhrman at Todd AO (who mixed Dark Prophecy) on the sound mix. James Cohan, who has colored all of my projects since The Ronnie Day Project, will be coloring the film. And composer Bill Brown, from CSI:NY and Dark Prophecy (along with many other films and video games) will be doing the music. I'm so excited to be working with the guys again. I had such an amazing time on Dark Prophecy and I really believe that their contribution to the film will take it above and beyond where it is now and turn it in to something really special.

One of the things I've realized on this project is that because Travis and I took the time to get the story right, took the time to make sure the script was strong, that it worked, it's all there in the final film. Everything beyond the story, the cinematography, the soundwork, the music, are all just cherries, those elements that help it rise above. They're not helping the story along. The story is there. They're enhancing your understanding of it. Which is why going to pros has always been really important to me on this project.

Additionally, I'm excited to tell you that an amazing graphic artist named Brandon Schaefer is currently designing the poster for Dig. For samples of the amazing work he's going to do for us, be sure to check out his website.

That's it for Dig right now. Will let you know when I have a better idea of the schedule. Meanwhile, to hear what I'm doing in between the sometimes lengthy blog postings, follow me on Twitter: @JCaldwell182

2011 Oscar Predictions

2011-02-27T17:20:00.001-08:00

I love movies. I love watching them. I love making them. But I have to honestly say that this is one of those Oscar years where I don't really care. I thought we had a great crop of movies but for some reason, the Academy Awards are just not getting me excited.

That said, I can't have a blog about Hollywood and not make predictions. So, here it goes:

Best Picture: King's Speech

Best Director: Tom Hooper

Best Actor: Colin Firth

Best Actress: Natalie Portman

Best Actor Supporting: Christian Bale

Best Actress Supporting: Hailey Steinfeld

Best Art Direction: Inception

Best Cinematography: Black Swan

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Makeup: The Wolfman

Best Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Foreign Language Film: In A Better World

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Best Film Editing: The Social Network

Best Original Score: The Social Network

Best Original Song: Toy Story 3

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Best Original Screenplay: Inception

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Best Live Action Short: The Confession

Best Documentary Short: Poster Girl

Best Animated Short: Day & Night

SoundWorks Collection: Gary Hecker - Veteran Foley Artist

2011-02-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

Michael Coleman, over at the Soundworks Collection, has posted a video highlighting the work of Gary Hecker, a veteran Foley Artist.

Funny enough, my wife was just asking me about Foley, what it was, how it worked, and then today, I find this video.

Fascinating stuff. Check out the video below. And if you don't know what Foley is, I'll let Gary explain.

SoundWorks Collection: Gary Hecker - Veteran Foley Artist from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Dig: Post-Production Part 6

2011-02-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Based on some of my last posts, one might think that Dig is a disaster. Thankfully, it's not. Far from it, in fact. When I first started this blog I never wanted to shy away from writing about what it was like to go through some of these experiences (I can only think of what might have been had this blog and Twitter been around when I won my MTV Movie Award) and sometimes it isn't pretty.

There are times when you're looking at what you've done and it feels like a disaster. And you, as the director, feel responsible. There are doubts, second guesses, wishes and woulda, coulda, shoulda's. Every director goes through that, as you can see from this post. You just have to push through it.

The other night I showed my wife and her parents a rough cut of the film. I thought that it would be nice to have another set of eyes on the first cut, especially by those who have no vested interest in the project (other than hoping it succeeds for my sake). They knew the story but they're a good audience (showing people who work in this industry can often open the critical floodgates, since everyone knows how to make a film, right?).

Setting aside their comments for a second, I was pleasantly surprised to watch it myself and see that it's in pretty good shape. I was surprised by how well it flowed, and how all the things I was worried about almost disappeared (though not completely).

My wife and in-laws both liked it as well (and full discretion, they have not liked everything I've done). They provided me with some great notes, nothing major but a few speed bumps that affected their response to the film.

So, being that this is the worst the film will ever be, it feels good to be starting with such a solid foundation. Of course, that could be destroyed after showing others, who knows. I'm going to do another pass and then I'll start showing a larger group of people for feedback.

Will keep you updated.

Dig: Post-Production Part 5

2011-02-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night, I complete the first assemblage of Dig. It clocked in at 24 minutes without credits. Obviously, it's long and that's even after I cut an entire scene. Normally, I would have kept it in for the purposes of the rough cut, but I was having trouble getting it to cut together and, having looked at the scene in the script, realized a couple things: 1) there was nothing of any importance in the scene that wasn't covered later on 2) it was almost entirely exposition 3) it was the only legitimately cloudy scene in the film and 4) the film was too long already.

Since the last time I posted, my friend has taken a run at editing the opening sequence and while it wasn't perfect (considering he's an Avid guy who has never used FCP before, I think he did a pretty good job) it was able to shock me out of all the bullshit that comes with directing and allowed me to see the film in a new way. Like I mentioned before, we had a breakthrough and when I got the film back Monday night I started in on finishing it up.

I haven't watch the film straight through yet. Haven't spent the last week getting the rough cut in shape, I wanted to take a break from it, so I could come back to it on Monday and see it for fresh eyes.

It'll probably be terrible (ha ha) but the elements are there. I have full movie from beginning to end and I can now begin the best part of the process, which is taking that rough clay and shaping it into a finished product. It's looking great, the cinematography by Paul Niccolls is amazing as always, the performances are fantastic and now it's up to me, as the editor (and director) to shape into greatness.

The Chapel: Insane HDR Cinematography

2011-02-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

The best stuff starts at 01:25.

TheChapel. A short film. (HDR timelapse) from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.

Dig: Post-Production Part 4

2011-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to do a whole lot of editing these past two and a half weeks. The entire Dare to Pass team has been pulling long nights and weekends in an effort to get all of our pilots in the best shape they can be in before we submitted them to the network. While exhausting and time-consuming is was nonetheless an eye-opening experience to go through the fire with Zuiker like that. As he likes to say, "Imagine doing THAT for 10 years and you'll have some concept of what working on a television show is like."

That aside I was, however, admittedly struggling. I have probably about 75% of the film in rough cut form, missing only one middle scene and the opening and closing scenes. I was more than lethargic and couldn't get myself into it (not being able to maintain any roll I had going because of the sporadic DTP schedule didn't help either) and I was in the throes of depression about the project.

For me, it was a big surprise that I didn't have a rough cut in a week or two. Put it this way, it will have taken me almost twice the amount of time to get a rough cut of Dig, at about 30 minutes, than to get a rough cut of Dark Prophecy at 70 minutes. Why? Cause on Dig I'm also the director. And that's the problem.

I knew that going into it (obviously) but though I could power through it and I really couldn't. It's just two completely different mindsets. I should have known this (and I did but ignored it) but the beauty of an editor is that they don't care. And I don't mean they're not interested or care about the project. They (we) just don't care (and didn't experience) what happened on set. They don't care that a shot took forever to set up, they don't care that your lead actor won't come out of her trailer, they don't care that your DP sucks, it was cloudy, the generator shut down (and I say these by way of illustration only). All they care about is the footage they have in front of them. The are, in every sense of the word, objective. And that, more than anything else, is the value of an editor.

No matter what I do, or how much I try to convince myself, I can't get past the subjectivity of making the film (at least not yet). That said, I am not a director who is not flexible, who doesn't recognize when something doesn't work. I will cut a scene like that if it's not working.

And I am in the end, I feel, a very good collaborator. That doesn't mean I'll hand over the key of the castle to everyone I meet, I'll fight for my ideas, but I recognize that I don't know everything, that others may have ideas that will trigger my mind to look at something differently, or that those ideas my be better than what I originally intended. (I've done the "I'm the director, I know everything" bit once and it failed miserably, so I know it doesn't work.)

So, finally a friend of mine who's a reality show producer, and also has a LOT of experience in the editing room, offered to take it off my hands for a bit and cut some stuff and just put together a rough assemblage of what I had. Give me a break, take an objective look at it. He's not editing it, per se, just approaching the material with fresh eyes.

Already we've had a breakthrough, approaching the opening of the film in a way that totally works and I was not in the mindset to think of. It's really strong, it's really interesting and it pulls the audience right into it, which is something that was NOT there in the script phase.

He's basically got it for the rest of the week and I'll hopefully have a full rough cut early next week. Then I can start trimming, cutting, fine tuning etc. I'm more excited about it than I was yesterday and I'm beginning to break through the director-haze that sticks around after every shoot.

My next project as a director, which will ideally be this feature Travis and I are starting to write, I am definitely hiring an editor.

Black Swan and CGI

2011-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to this post from BadAssDigest, we now know that despite being shot on Super 16mm film and having a very raw quality, Black Swan is full of CGI, from the obvious (adding wings to Portman's character) to everything like cleaning up the floor and minor head replacement.

I read an American Cinematographer article on shooting Black Swan and remember them talking about painting out the crew in some of the mirror shots. But I found it really unnerving during the shot of Vincent Castle where the camera moves handheld around him with the mirror in the background and you don't see anything.

It's really amazing to see what is possible these days, even on movies you wouldn't think would have the budget for it.

Dig: Post-Production Part 3

2011-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was flipping through the (digital) LATimes and saw this Envelope Roundtable: Directors on Directing. I'm always a huge fan of reading about a director's process but in light of the fact that I'm in the early stages of editing Dig this particular section was incredibly insightful:

LATimes: You're all here because your films have been incredibly successful. But I wonder if you actually learn more in failure. Are the more telling learning experiences from something that doesn't work?

Ben Affleck: I feel like all filming for me, directing, is about failure. Every day I go home, "Oh, my God."

Ethan Coen: Yeah, that's terrible, isn't it?

Darren Aronofsky: It's the worst.

Coen: And you kick yourself all the way home — that stuff you could and should have done.

Aronofsky: I think it's a myth that you [get] exactly what you have in mind. You're in three dimensions with weather, atmosphere, technology that has limitations, time that has limitations. And you don't want to control an actor to that extent because it'll just suck the life out of 'em. It's a constant form of improv and you just sort of roll with it.

Tom Hooper: I think it's an extraordinary thing when you watch your first assembly [of the roughly edited movie], the film always has become something slightly different from what you thought…

Aronofsky: The worst day of my life, every time.

Affleck: Way worst.

LATimes: In what way?

Aronofsky: When you watch an assemblage, you just know you're getting drunk that night. It's just a miserable experience. Because you realize you have so much work [to do on it].

Lisa Cholodenko: And you have no idea if it'll ever be there.

Aronofsky: And you really thought you did better work. You thought you did better stuff. And it has nothing to do with the editor. It just takes time and time to refine, because you're so far away from that final mix where you're really putting on that final sanding, the final shellac.

Coen: It's always funny because we cut our own movies and I feel exactly the same way.

I have felt exactly the same way on pretty much every film (and music video) I've directed and edited. And I was very much feeling this way recently while working on Dig. Since I'm editing the picture myself, I have a front row view of all the shitty work I did as a director. Ha ha. I'm seeing all the problems, all the mistakes, all the things I thought I did and didn't and all the things I wish I did. And of course, as I'm seeing all this, I'm saying to myself, "Man, I wish I was in the position of the others directors, where this doesn't happen." But it does happen, to everyone.

This process, what I call the "very depressing first two weeks of editing" happens to me on every project. The problem, more than anything, is a psychological one. I have in my head the work I did as a director, but I'm viewing the work I actually did from an editor's point of view. That is, I can't fully take either position. I can't, as an editor, say "It is what it is, I'll just have to deal with it," (which is the position I had on Dark Prophecy) because I'm still seeing it as a director and kicking myself for all the things I didn't do or could have done better. I'm still wearing two hats.

Slowly, after some very depressing days, the director's hat goes away and I fully commit as an editor, allowing me to make harder choices, and see the picture for what it is, not what I wish it was.

Every director faces compromises.

What about you? Have you shot something thinking it was amazing at the time and then gotten into editing and begun to see all the mistakes you've made? How do you deal with compromise?

3Questions: Scott Myers - Screenwriter

2011-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Scott Myers, writer of K-9, starring Jim Belushi; Alaska, starring Vincent Kartheisher and Thora Birch; and Trojan War, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

As he tells us, " I've been a professional screenwriter since 1987, a screenwriting teacher since 2002, and a screenwriting blogger since 2008.

"As a screenwriter, in addition to the projects listed above, I have written nearly 30 projects for every major movie studio and broadcast TV network.

"As a teacher, I along with fellow screenwriter Tom Benedek, who wrote the movie Cocoon, founded ScreenwritingMasterClass.com, a unique online educational resource for writers involving lecture-based content courses and writing workshops. In 2005, I won the Outstanding Instructor of the Year Award through UCLA Extension's Writers' Program. I also teach screenwriting at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

"As a blogger, my screenwriting site GoIntoTheStory.com was named Best Blog for Aspiring Screenwriters and had over 1.2 million unique visits in 2010."

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

SM: I got my start in the movie business when I co-wrote and sold the spec script "K-9" to Universal Pictures for $750,000 back in 1987. Since that time, I have tracked the spec script market constantly and so have a thorough understanding of Hollywood's lit acquisition and development process, knowledge I share on my blog and in the screenwriting courses I teach.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

SM: Breaking into the screenwriting trade is difficult. Sustaining a career is even harder. There is enormous competition on all fronts: spec scripts, pitching, OWA's (Open Writing Assignments). Perhaps the biggest single challenge is to find a way to follow the movie market so you stay informed about trends, yet keep a unique voice when it comes to your creative efforts. Living and working in L.A., it's easy to devolve into formulaic writing. One way to keep your career going is by consistently writing stories with distinctive high concepts, compelling characters, and interesting plots with lots of twists.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

SM: If you're serious about becoming a screenwriter, there are certain things you should do to learn the craft. Here are three of them: Read scripts. Watch movies. Write pages. That should be one of your mantras because in order to become a screenwriter, you need to immerse yourself in the world of movies.

Also unlike when I was first starting out, there are tons of people promoting various screenwriting theories and story structure paradigms. There are essential screenwriting principles you can learn, but be sure you study with the right people, preferably someone who is or has been a screenwriter and thus knows the ins-and-outs of the craft and the business, an educator so that they know how to communicate their ideas effectively, and a mentor so they can help steer you through the writing and rewriting process. That's precisely why Tom and I founded ScreenwritingMasterClass.com.

My final piece of advice: Make sure you start with a story concept that is worthy of being made into a movie. I've read perhaps thousands of screenplays, many of them written quite well, but they have no chance of selling because the story is based on an average or sub-par concept. The best way to come up with a great story concept? Generate a lot of story concepts.

Shooting on Location

2011-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

This month's American Cinematographer has a great article on Biutiful, the new film from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (which I have not yet seen) and there's sidebar called "Inarritu on Method." In it, he talks about shooting on location vs. shooting on a stage, saying:

"I don't know if I'm a masochist, but I hate sound stages, and not only because I think they will never represent reality correctly. There's something about the texture, the reality of walls, the smell, the story of them, the vibe. Even if the builder creates sets exactly the same, the sets don't have soul. I think reality can never be matched in that sense. The other reason I shoot all my films on location is that there's something uncomfortable about locations that, in a way, helps everybody feel they are in real territory and not making a film. I like that, and I think it's a very psychological environment."

Other than when I was a camera op on Dark Prophecy, where we shot on the CSI:NY stages at CBS Radford, I've never directed a project that was shot on a stage. Everything I've ever done has been on location. As I've grown as a director and as a storyteller, and come to understand the types of stories I want to tell and the types of films I want to make (especially aesthetically), I've come to really enjoy and prefer shooting on location for the reasons Inarritu listed above.

There's something harder about it, something more challenging that, I believe, embeds itself in the film you're making. Not that shooting something on a stage is easy, but you can move walls, you can change lighting, you can shoot night during the day and day during the night, and so on. There's just something "comfortable" about it and I've learned that I don't like to be "comfortable" while shooting a movie. I want to be challenged, I want to problem solve, I want to have to work around walls and schedule and daylight (even on a film like Dig, where short days fucked us), I think it makes the film better. As many directors have said, most recently Scorsese, "If making a film was easy, it probably isn't very good." There's something about having "gone through it" that embeds itself in the film. (The work of Werner Herzog comes to mind.)

There's also something undeniably real about what you're seeing and that's because it is real. The dust is real, the light is real, the writings on the wall, it has a soul. Personally, I like the challenge of dealing with the issues of shooting a movie in addition to the terrible difficulty making the movie itself.

As you can see from the pictures below, shot on location in the desert of Palmdale during the production of Dig, we were out there, facing nothing but dust and sun. It was a huge challenge, especially shooting during winter where we had maybe 10 hours of daylight, but I loved every minute of it. It was an adventure.

What do you think about location shooting vs. shooting on a stage?

Dig: Post-Production Part 2

2011-01-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

While taking a short break from editing each night, I'm going to try and take the time to write up a quick post. I'll never do it if I wait till the end of the night and this, at least, gives you a sense of me in the thick of it.

Tonight is going much better than last night. I'm humming right along, I'm cutting action, things seem to be working better for me and I have a much clearer image in my head of what this is. Like a first draft of the script, it's important that I keep going, relying mostly on instinct and not second-guessing myself too often. This is a first cut, not a final cut, and if I try and perfect things too much it'll take me forever. In essence, this is my vomit cut.

I started by cutting the two scenes I started last night which is mostly non-dialogue action. Do to a few continuity issues it took some time to get the cuts where they needed to be, but I think it's a pretty good rough cut. A little long and there is a chance that I'll need to go back and shoot some pick ups but we'll see.

A big part of this scene in particular is how the scene before it ends (which I haven't cut yet) and the music. Music, during particular sequences, will be a huge part of this film and it's not easy to cut without it, especially early on. Eventually, through time and practice, I figure out the rhythm of the film and can almost hear the music in my head as I cut it. But that takes time to get there. Meanwhile, I'll throw this down, move on, and come back to it as I finesse the cuts.

My goal was to finish that scene tonight. I don't want to push myself too hard (I already find myself taking more breaks than I should) as it's a little like writing at the moment - it's very easy to find an excuse to not do it. However, I finished that fairly early on and have moved onto the follow scene. Again, a heavy action scene, but the one I was most worried about.

It was the scene we shot on Day 01, which took forever to shoot (you'll learn more about this in the production journal) and had me really worried about whether the action would cut together. Fortunately, it's all coming together nicely, and has a narrative flow to it, making it easier to cut the action. My hope is that I'll be able to finish a version of this scene tonight, which would be a nice little surprise.

I'm humming right along.

Dig: Post-Production Part 1

2011-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you're asking "How can I read about post-production on Dig when I haven't read anything about production?" I promise I'll be writing my production blogs soon but in the mean time I have started edited and for the next couple months you'll have to listen to my insane editing ramblings as I go through this process and share with you what it's like.

Point: I should be editing right now. I'm in the middle of it, the screen's in front of me, and instead I'm typing away. I never really feel like I can write blog posts and yet here I am. Why? It's distracting me from editing.

Okay, so, tonight is officially the first day of editing on Dig. I should be ecstatic right? We shot the film a month and a half ago and I'm just now editing? I must be itching to put this thing together. And I am.

But like any new editing project, I feel like I'm starting over. Like I've never edited a film before. I'm bouncing around, looking at clips, starting to edit scenes and then moving on to something else. Being very ADD about the whole thing. It's a part of my process and I know that but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with my fumbling around like an idiot.

Still, I haven't seen this footage for a month and a half and a part of making this film not suck is shedding the skin I built up as a director and coming back onto this project with fresh eyes, where nothing is sacred, where I see only what was shot, not what I wish I shot.

Having not watched any of this footage for a while I need to reacquaint myself with it, watch thing, find those bits that are interesting and then slowly start to built the film, shot by shot, scene by scene.

A particularly challenging thing about Dig is the enormous about of footage we shot and that pretty much every take was shot with two cameras. So, it's a lot to go through. And rarely is the action a series of "building shots." What I mean by that, is that the action takes place in one area, and I shot the shit out of that one area, so during any give line, I have 10 options, five of which are from angle A and the other five from angle B. For any given moment in the film, there are just a lot of options and it takes time to look through it all and decide which is the best one.

I'll probably be doing this all week, slowly starting scenes, abandoning them, going on to another, trying to find my groove. Once I do, I'll be off and running.

Meanwhile, I'll continue my floundering tonight.

Needless to say, the footage looks great.

Watch: Discover Channel's 'Movie Magic'

2011-01-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for Discovery Channel's series 'Movie Magic' to come out on DVD for years. I grew up on this show and it's what got me interested in filmmaking to begin with. I remember taping a bunch of the shows on VHS to rewatch and even ordering a latex mask kit from a theatrical store in order to make my own masks (never did).

Nonetheless, it's a still a fascinating look at the special effects used to make films. Watch the first ten episodes below (minus the 2nd ep, which can't be embedded). Thanks to /Film for posting this.

That's a Wrap: 2010

2011-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

2010, both personally and professionally, has been an amazing year. Huge opportunities came my way, many of which have yet to fully pay off. I thought I would take a moment to break it down for you.

Joshua Caldwell

That is, the "me" side of the professional success. For the last couple years, I've often measured my how well I did each year with how much I got done creatively, factoring in scripts written, videos shot, etc. I always felt lousy, like I was falling behind, when I didn't have two scripts written and completed per year, when I hadn't shot anything for a while. But sometimes that's okay. Regardless, 2010 was a very busy year for me on my road to writing and directing and I've laid it out below:

Tim and the Space Cadets - Superhero Music Video

Though it was shot in October of 2009, I didn't finished editing and coloring 'Superhero' until the new year and it wasn't released until February. All in all, it was a lot of fun to work on and turned into a very successful video. You can watch it below:

Mateo - 'Get To Know Me' Music Video

Again, though it was originally shot in 2009, the music video for the single 'Get To Know Me' by Mateo wasn't released until 2010. A combination of live footage shot as part of his "Live at Swing House" DVD and personal tour footage shot by Mateo himself, the video I directed and edited, has gained massive traction, especially after VEVO picked it up on their YouTube channel, giving it nearly 400,000 views so far.

Feature Comedy Screenplay

Many of you following this blog remember that the first half of the year was all about this new script that Travis and I were working on. Since we started working on it after I started writing this blog, I wanted to give you a glimpse into the process of writing a screenplay from the beginning while collaborating with producers. Then, around May, I stopped writing about it. Why? Well, after about nine months of work, and three drafts of the script, the producer thought it best to part ways. I won't go into details about our response (let's just say we disagreed as to where the lack of quality was really coming from) but we ultimately stopped working on the script and found ourselves directionless. We had just spent nine months working on the project, had nothing to show for it expect a 75% of the way there 3rd Draft and didn't know what to do next.

The one thing we realized though (and this something I'm going to post about soon) was how much that situation sucked and how much we didn't want to go through it again. We had worked with an amazing producer on Glory Days (Blitzed) who really understood how to make a script better and found that not be to the case on this project. I think had Travis and I been given the opportunity to do what we wanted to, even as just a foundation, the script would have been a much bigger success.

We're still deciding what to do with the script but may sell it back to the original producer. We'll keep you updated. But this situation did lead us to a bigger project this year, one I'll talk about in a minute.

Blitzed (formerly Glory Days)

Well, after two years of fits and starts we finally settled on the fall to go out wide. Much of the time was spent trying to get a star attached, which in this town, in this climate, was just not a possibility, despite the conditions. Pretty much everyone who read it, loved it (so they tell us) but of course, no takers.

So, we decided to go out to the town with in the fall, but first we had to change the name. Why? Well, at this point, a number of people had read the script and more than likely, coverage was written about it. Because of that, it was probably in companies submissions systems. If someone at an agency gets a script, they'll often check to see if it's already been submitted and if coverage was written, thus saving themselves from reading a script they don't have to. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Change the name and you force people to read it again. :-) But seriously, it gives it a sense of freshness. You don't want readers saying "Wait, haven't I read this one?" and then skipping it. Our producer put together a list of people to take it, which included major studios and prod co's with studio deals. And we sent it out. Without agency support (I am not repped) we could only do much. Suffice to say that a number of the places have read it and while they didn't want to buy it they are interested in meeting with us. Others, we're still waiting to hear from.

Odds are, we won't sell it, at least, not now. It's a tough market out there, even for a script that we feel is as good as Blitzed.

The let down of not selling Blitzed combined with the disappointing experience on the other script threw Travis and I into a funk. Faced with "What's next?" we weren't really sure. But there was a project we had kept coming back to and had finally cracked the story.

Dig

Faced with having spent enormous amounts of time and creative energy on scripts and having nothing to show for it (after all, what is a script but a blueprint for a film) Travis and I decided it was time to something that would satisfy us creatively and leave us saying "We did it." And that was to write and producer Dig a short film we had been developing for the last couple years.

Personally, I was also ready to direct something. I hadn't directed a narrative in a long time, almost five years and was itching to do something. I don't really need to go into it, as I've covered and will keep covering it's progress but working on this project has been an amazing experience and we're only halfway done. We still haven't even started editing yet, something I hope to begin this week.

Dig has certainly been a highlight of 2010 and I'm sure Travis would agree. The greatest part, I feel, has been the fact that we created something, from beginning to end. It's not languishing in any one phase (like a screenplay) but it's real. We had great actors in it, great talent behind the camera and we now have something to show for it.

This has forced Travis and I to really sit and discuss what it is we want to do and what we want out of this career. This is a topic I'll cover in another post soon but the experience we went through on Dig certainly opened our eyes to new opportunities and made us wary of some of the more traditional routes out there that just don't seem open to newbies anymore.

Dare to Pass

An equally important reason for why 2010 ended up being such a great year was my employment and involvement with Anthony E. Zuiker's production company Dare to Pass. As the creator of CSI, Anthony is responsible for the biggest, most successful franchise in television history. The opportunity to work for him (and, after almost a year and change of being unemployed, to be PAID to do it) was a dream come true.

One of the biggest opportunities came with my involvement, from initial development (though mostly as a notetaker) all the way through release, with Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller,the follow up to Anthony's first Digi-novel, Level 26: Dark Origins.

In addition to helping develop the book, I also co-produced the cyber-bridges. During production, I got to operate the B-camera and once we moved into post I served as the Editor on the project. It was the first time I edited such a significant project and it was a huge amount of fun. Getting the chance to sit down and go through cuts with Anthony, to improve on scenes and have Anthony love it, and to not only see a project like this through to release (getting the chance to work very closely with composer Bill Brown, sound mixer Aaron Levy and color correctionist James Cohan) but to also be trusted to do so, was a huge "win" for me this year.

This and Dig were definitely the highlights of my year and it opened significant doors to new responsibilities and opportunities within Dare to Pass. On the Friday before break, Anthony promoted me to Creative Direct of Digital Media to help oversee the digital side of the company, including the third Digi-novel, iPad app development and more.

Needless to say, with all that happening in 2010, I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store.

Exploring New York's Undercity with the 5D

2011-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Check out this video made by videographer Andrew Wonder and Urban Historian Steven Duncan as they explore the "Undercity" of New York: Subway tunnels, lost Subway stations, the 'canal' that gives Canal St it's name, and more. Shot with the 5D in the middle of the night it's a fascinating look at part of a city most people have never seen before.

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

VFX: Boardwalk Empire

2011-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty cool look at all the VFX work that goes into HBO's show Boardwalk Empire courtesy of Brainstorm Digital:

Boardwalk Empire VFX Breakdowns of Season 1 from Brainstorm Digital on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks for making this a great year at Hollywood Bound and Down. Though sometimes posting gave way to work, I thought that the posts were quality (over quantity).

Next year however is going to be a big one. I'll have some Dig production journals for you in January as well as announcements on several projects I'll be working on. I'm also going to start editing Dig starting on January 3rd, which is extremely excited.

Also, it should be announced that I've officially been promoted at Dare to Pass. As the new Creative Director of Digital Media I'll be spearheading all of Anthony Zuiker's digital projects, which include the Digi-novels, iPad apps, social games, and more. It's an exciting time at the company. With four TV projects in the script phase at CBS, work on the 3rd Digi-novel about to begin, and new responsibilities, 2011 is already shaping up to be a busy yet exciting year.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading the blog. I promise to post more than this year and at least keep you updated on the projects I'm working on. Check back often come 2011 but for now, go enjoy your friends, family, loved ones and have a great holiday!

Josh

Behind the Scenes: Black Swan

2010-12-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I posted b-roll footage from The Social Network. Now, MakingOf has released b-roll from the production of Black Swan. Check it out below.

Short Animated Films from France

2010-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Obviously, with Dig currently the focus of my attention, shorts are on the brain. Travis sent me a link to two animated shorts that were recently released from a group of filmmakers in France. The shorts, 'Meet Buck' and 'Salesman Pete' are amazing, tight well executed animated short films. They're well worth a watch.

MEET BUCK

Meet Buck from TeamCerf on Vimeo.

SALESMAN PETE

Salesman Pete from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

Dig Pre-Production Diary: Everything Tells a Story

2010-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Author's Note: I meant to write this post prior to shooting the film but didn't get a chance to. Since it involves prepping for the film, I've decided to include it as part of the Pre-Production Diary.

Every little thing in your movie has the ability to tell a story, whether it's something known by the audience or not. Either way, you can use this notion to help guide you in your decision making process as a director.

Typically most young directors don't think about this since they're too concerned with just trying to get the film shot (I'll gladly throw my early self into this category) but as I've matured as I director I've found myself thinking more and more about the importance of using of every tool available to me as a filmmaker. Because Dig had very few props and a fairly stripped down mise-en-scene it was a perfect opportunity for me to really think about how each little element in the film could tell a story in its own right. A clear example of this is the gun used by David.

Though it might have been more time period appropriate for David to use a revolver I never wanted him to. In my head, I always saw him using a semi-auto. For one, I wouldn't have to deal with seeing bullets in the chamber and two I found it better, aesthetically, for the film. I personally preferred a semi-auto to a revolver.

Most directors would have done with this and never again thought twice but I found it important to justify why he was using a particular type of handgun. It couldn't just be any semi-auto. It had to be appropriate to the time period (no H&K USP's in this shoot) and it had to make as to how this kid would get a hold of this type of handgun.

Early on, in the script phase, I wrote the gun as a "Colt .45 M1911 semi-automatic pistol." While doing my prep work with the script I started thinking of how that gun found it's way into David's hands. One thing I did know was that officers and even soldiers from WWII almost always kept relics, be it Rugers, Nazi Helmets, their own boots, clothes, and even their army issued weapons, which for officers and even some servicement, included a Colt. 45 1911. So, the story I came up with, and the one I shared with Aaron prior to filming, was this:

Following the Holocaust, David found his way to relatives of his family living in America. In the 1920s, members of David's family, most likely an older brother, left Poland to go to America. There, he met a woman and together they had a son. This son (David's father's nephew) grew up in America and like most men of his age, served in WWII, and was issued a Colt .45 1911 which, following the war, he kept. After living with his relatives for a number of years, probably up to 15 by now, he no doubt saw his relative take out the gun, clean it, oil it and put it away. While David never, ever thought he would need this information, when it came time for him to get a gun, he knew where to look.

None of this is ever mentioned in the film and you would never know it had I not told you but it helped guide us in figuring out exactly which gun we were going to use for production. (While I did write this type of gun in the script, it was more of a placeholder anyway, since I knew that actual, final gun, would come from discussions with our prop master/armorer and the weapon rental house.)

The rope, pocket knife, blindfold and even the shovel were all born of this story as well. More than likely, not being a pro, David would have looked where for all these things? His relatives' garage. So, the note to our props department was, each element should be something that could have been found in a 1960s garage.

Heinrich's clothes, specifically, also fell under this notion. Because Heinrich lived the last 20 years of his life in Argentina, we needed clothes that looked like he purchased them down there, in the 60s (no Gaps!). Even though it mentioned once, we're still telling a story with the clothes he's wearing.

Clearly, I was dealing with a slightly different beast, since this is a period film and everything had to look it. You can get away with a lot more in present day films but that doesn't mean you should think any less about the elements you're using. Props, when used right, can provide powerful insights into your characters and story and as a director you should take the time to really think about what each element of your film is saying to the audience, whether consciously or sub-consciously.

Black Swan: Production Design

2010-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

I have yet to work with an actual production designer on any of my productions. Even on Dig we had a Set Dresser but I've tended to make use of what's available, rather than creating from scratch or drastically altering something to fit within the design framework of a film. I am really looking forward to the chance to do this. With a film like Black Swan design seems to be almost everything. Here's an interesting look at the production design of the film:

Dig: First Image

2010-11-19T21:58:00.001-08:00

Well, we finished the desert scenes on Dig today! We shot everything we needed and I can't wait to update you guys on the film. Production is going amazing! As you can imagine, I'm super swamped directing and producing this thing but I had some time and wanted to give you guys a first look at an image from the film. Enjoy!

Pretty much sums it up, don't it? Let me know what you think.

Dig Pre-Production Diary: The Things You Can't Control

2010-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep right now, all because of the weather. For one, it's unusually hot out today and my wife and I have already put the flannel sheets on the bed. However, the bigger reason why I can't sleep isn't the weather today, it's the weather in mid-November.

Three of our production days on Dig take place outdoors. Half the movie. We are now locked in to pretty much everything. Talent is flying out, equipment is being rented, permits are being issued. Everything I, as a director and producer, can control is being controlled. The one wild card, the only thing left, the one thing I can't control is the weather. I have no back up. And I just looked at the weather forecast for Palmdale over the next 10 days and every day is "Sunny" except for the last one, Friday, November 12th, which reads "Showers." I don't know if that continues, if it's a one day thing. It's unknown.

So you can understand why I have a tightness in my chest and feel like I'm having a nervous breakdown right now. Granted, November 12th is a good five days away from November 17th and a lot can happen and change, weather-wise, even in the course of the day and historically, California is known for its consistant sunshine but man I am feeling nervous right now. The only possibility I have, if it rains, is to hope it doesn't rain on 22nd - 25th and shoot the desert stuff that day and REALLY hope that everyone will go along with it.

This is a tough spot to be in. I'm not shooting a little short with my friends, where we can shoot anytime, and I'm not shooting a big feature with swing sets in case it rains. I need it to be sunny, or at least, not raining. I really do. I'm picturing that. 100% All I'm thinking about is sunshine. But I'm worried to. I know I shouldn't be, I know I should focused on the power of The Secret and make the clouds and weather bend to my will and good vibes but man, it's tough. (I also had two cups of coffee tonight while doing revisions on the script, which I'm sure isn't helping.)

But I've been in this situation before. I've had the threat of weather and never once have I been ruined by it. Though I've come close. That's all I can hold on to.

There's such an enormous amount of pressure when mounting a project like this, especially one with a significant budget being funded out of my own pocket. There's no second chances on something like this, without a huge added cost and that fact is not helping me sleep at night.

I've said before that so many things have to go right to get a short film like this off that ground that its amazing any get made at all. So many things have gone right so far, from casting, to production equipment, to crew, to getting a RED owner who OWNS the lenses we're looking for and is giving us a huge deal on the rental, to just small, spooky weird little coincidences and help. It's all very strange and odd to look at, seeing how things like this come together. But, whether you believe in The Secret or not, when you put it out there, when you focus your energy on something, it really can happen.

I really need to turn my thoughts around and focus on the weather being in our favor. That everything will be okay. I believe that there's no way, with everything that has gone right in this production so far, that the weather, a last minute day of thing, can spoil it. That's all I can hold on to right now. That's all I have.

So, I ask you, dear readers, to please help me out and focus your energy on the sun shining bright and hot on November 17 - 19 (and 20-21) in Palmdale, CA.

Learn from a Master: Watch David Fincher Direct The Social Network

2010-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

From Slashfilm.com comes a really amazing treat for aspiring filmmakers: getting a chance to watch David Fincher directing on behind the scenes video from The Social Network. As mentioned in the Slashfilm article, most DVD BTS these days are fluff pieces where everyone talks about how great they are. Every now and then, however, you get some really great 'Making Of's' about the process.

The doc on Magnolia and Matchstick Men come to mind. Both worthwhile if you haven't seen them.

Check out the two videos below and enjoy!

PART 1

PART 2

Dig: Pre-Production - Part 4

2010-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Big updates all around on Dig. After an extremely stressful two weeks where I was literally freaking out about whether we could get everything we needed (I will be doing a post, after we complete production on Dig, about the differences between directing and producing and how you should never be forced to do both) However, it seems that everything, in typical fashion, is coming together.

CASTING:

In addition to the two lead roles, played by Mark Margolis and Aaron Himelstein, we have four other supporting roles that we needed to fill. Luckily, there are some really amazingly talented actors out there and I'm privileged to have them be a part of this cast.

Tiffany Brouwer will be filling the role of Marie. Tiffany and I previously worked together on The Ronnie Day Project for Epic Records, SonyBMG and mtvU in 2007 and I'm excited to be working with her again.

Former Miss Germany Bella Dayne has joined the cast in the role of Diane. In addition to bringing her talents as an actress, Bella also speaks German fluently and will be assisting us in the little but very important German dialogue we have in the film.

Voltaire Rico Sterling, who appeared in the Denzel Washington directed Great Debaters also joined the cast.

We're still in the process of casting one more male role for the coffeeshop scene and will have an update for you when we've locked the part.

Meanwhile, on the production front, things are going very smoothly. To help facilitate things (and allow me to focus on directing, NOT producing) I've brought on Jatin Gupta, a great producing talent who I worked with on the W&CK music video 'Get Your Drink On' and on Mateo's 'Get To Know Me: Live at Swing House' productions. He's been able to remove a lot of the day to day producing requirements (getting equipment, cameras, crew, etc) away from me, allowing me to concentrate on my directing prep.

We've also been fortunate to have the last of our key crew positions be filled by some amazing talents:

Amanda Riley will be our Costume Designer. Since this film is set in 1962 there was no way we could get away with not having a costume designer and we were looking for somebody really strong, experience, knowledgeable about the time period and willing to help us out due to the limited budget we have. Amanda fills all those needs and more. She's been a set costumer/key costumer on Jericho, The Starter Wife, Superhero Movie and a costume designer on the Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior.

Andrew T. Grant, property master on CSI:NY and The Shield, among others, will be serving as prop master for Dig and helping us with the firearm in the film. I've worked with Andy on Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller and he's a fantastic guy, a great prop master who does some really fantastic work. I'm really excited to have such a pro handling this aspect of the film.

Thanks to Jatin, it looks like we're going to get an amazing on a RED MX package. It's going to be a full pro package that coincidentally includes the exact prime lens set Paul and I are looking to shoot on. Now, we're just looking for one more RED MX package, so we can shoot on two cameras and we'll set.

After that, it's some minimal work on set design and costumes (approving, choosing, etc). Looks like we'll have all of our insurance, permits and crew locked down by the end of the week!

One thing is that we're still raising money. We've had some amazing contributions so far, we're 43% funded with only 22 days to go! Please consider making a donation. You can do so by clicking the box in the upper right corner of the blog. As you can see, we have a lot of people helping us out on this project and we still need to make our budget to make this short happen!

Keep checking back for more updates!

3Questions: Bill Brown - Composer

2010-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Bill Brown, composer on the hit show CSI:NY and Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller.

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

BB: I've always had music in my life in some form as a focus. I was fortunate enough to attend Berklee College of Music with my parent's support (they also helped support my song writing and recording habit in high school, and every penny I earned washing dishes and waiting tables went into my synth rigs back in the 80's). I think that support went a long way in giving me the space I needed to grow as a musician.

After Berklee, I had even more time in NYC to learn about building studios and doing commercial work as an intern. After working in the Big Apple for a few years I visited a friend in LA in 1994, and while I was there got a job offer to do sound effects editing for the Xena and Hercules series. I took the job and moved out to LA. I set up my very modest home studio in a one bedroom apartment and continued writing and creating demos. After a couple years as an editor on those series, and a number of feature films, a friend brought me over to Soundelux where they heard one of those demos I shared with a friend that worked there. They happened to be interested in starting a music division, and after a few months and a number of project demos, I had started work on both Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and DreamWorks Interactive's The Lost World: Trespasser video game scores. Those early game scores are what I cut my teeth on as a composer.

Eventually I would become the director of music at Soundelux, and was recording game scores with live orchestras year-round. Fortunately for me, Soundelux was also involved in the commercial and film businesses, and I had an opportunity to meet a director named Deran Sarafian doing a spec commercial spot. He gave me a call a couple years later to do a television film called Trapped, and then a few years after that to meet with he and Anthony Zuiker about a TV show called CSI:NY. I've essentially been writing music my entire life in one form or another. It just keeps evolving.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

BB: Looking back, I feel like I've always been exactly where I needed to be at any given point, with each challenge I've been given. There have been times where I felt I wasn't "supposed" to be stuck working on a commercial spot, or several games at once, or whatever the challenge of the month was. But I have to say, looking back, if I hadn't done that spec commercial spot, I never would have met Deran, and I never would have scored his film, and I wouldn't be scoring my 148th episode of CSI:NY today, and whatever all of this is leading me to tomorrow. It's pretty wild if you think about it.

I've learned to work knowing that there is order to everything happening, even if I don't understand what that order is at the moment and to breathe deeply and sleep on it if I feel there is something insurmountable. Things have a way of working out. I'm fortunate in that music is like a hobby, even though sometimes with deadlines and all it can be a lot of work but even then I try to remember how blessed I am to be doing what I love to do. And it has always been gratifying for me.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

BB: Keep writing and recording your music, whatever that is. Study what you love about music, and then study everything else as well. Keep listening and learning every day, never stop. Also, if you know you are interested in scoring for media, then make friends who are interested in creating that media as early on in your career as possible. The more real and grounded the friendships, the better. Don't just make friends with a bunch of composers, make friends of the producers, directors and game developers that will grow and evolve in their careers with you, and hold a vision that you will create something great together some day. Outer experience is a direct reflection of inner reality. Food for thought.

The soundtrack for Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller is available for purchase on iTunes. To purchase, click here.

Raising Funds for Dig

2010-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed the addition of this widget off to the right side of the blog. If you've read the post from yesterday you know that we're in the processing of prepping for my short film 'Dig.' Well, we're still a little short on our budget needs and we're looking to use this great website, Kickstarter.com, to help us raise the additional funds necessary to shoot the film. Our goal is to collect $6000 in the next 30 days and I could really use your help.

Check out the video below and go to our 'Dig' Kickstart Project Page to see more information on 'Dig,' how to donate and to be a part of helping this film get made! Thanks!

Dig: Pre-Production - Part 3

2010-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

No, that's not a still frame from the shoot (we're still 3 1/2 weeks away) but it is the (hopeful) one of two locations of the film. A lot has changed since I last did an update. I've been so busy that I haven't really had time to sit down and write it all out but I finally found a free moment, as I've been meaning to bring you up to speed on the film.

Perhaps one of the biggest pieces of news is that we locked our two leads for the film!Obviously, I haven't revealed what the film is about yet but will soon. However, I'm happy to report that both Mark Margolis and Aaron Himelstein will be playing the lead roles in the film.

You may recognize Mark. He's a very well-known actor whose been in Breaking Bad, The Wrestler, Pi and much, much more. Funny enough, when we were just starting to think about casting for Dig I randomly decided to watch The Thomas Crown Affair. And about half through, up pops Mark as Heinrich Knutzhorn, the jailed German forger. Hearing do the accent (our character is German and also, coincidentally, named Heinrich) and seeing his look made me think this could be the guy. And here we are, a month later, and Mark has graciously accepted the role of Heinrich in our little short film.

About two years ago, when I was working at production company, Aaron along with several friends, came in to develop a television show. We shook hands, said hello, but since I was fairly low rung I never participated much and only saw Aaron in passing. Around that same, however, my wife and I were going through a pretty severe House addiction and were watching marathons of the show. Aaron was in an episode called "The Socratic Method." I thought it was fun to see him on the show, since I had met the guy, but was also very impressed with the range and depth his displayed. When it came time to cast the character of David, I remember Aaron, we approached him and he very graciously accepted the role. Also a veteran actor, Aaron can be seen as Young Austin Powers in Austin Powers in Goldmember, he had a reoccurring role on Joan of Arcadia, and was most recently in The Informers and Assassination3 of a High School President.

In other big news we have begin filling out crew positions: Orlin Dobreff, VP of Anthony Zuiker's production company has come on board as a producer. Paul Niccolls will be the director of photography. And John Goodwin, Emmy award-winning make up artist for CSI: has come on board to handle all of our make up needs.

We received word today that our film has been accepted by SAG under the Short Film Agreement, a huge sigh of relief. Not that we doubted it would happen but it's a nice thing to have locked down. One of my biggest worries heading into this was the cast and yet here we are. That's one of the main things we're solid on.

The next biggest things we're dealing with is locking down our locations, both the sites themselves and the permits. One of the most frustrating parts of this project is the cost of permits in Los Angeles. The coffeeshop location is in West Hollywood. It is one of the few, if only places that looks like its from the 1960s and closes on the weekend, which means we don't have to pay them to close down their business. Plus, they're not charging us to use the location. I mean, it's a ridiculous deal. Only problem is: it's in West Hollywood.

To get a permit in West Hollywood, you have to pay a $1250 application/permit fee. This is regardless of whether or not you're shooting on private property. Then, if you're planning to use public land, such as a sidewalk, for say, lights or a genny, you're required to pay $770 PER DAY. ($650 or so if you're in a residential area.)

To get a permit in Los Angeles, it costs about $650 plus a fee to the fire department so they can look over your production and make sure there are no fire threats.

This city is so unfriendly to non-studio filmmakers that it's surprising any movies get shot here at all. BUT, what's the alternative? I can't be in a situation where we're filming and somebody calls or the police drive by and we don't have a permit. That is a great loss than the $4000 I'm spending to get said permits. It's literally 1/5 or 1/6 of our budget, location fees alone.

We've got the coffeeshop location squared away. Just need to get a location agreement signed and apply for the permits. We're still working on the desert location. While up in Palmdale scouting I came across a perfect plot of land (see picture at the top of this post). After looking into it, I found the land to be (unfortunately) privately owned, which isn't a big deal, except I had to track down the owners to get their permission. Thanks to the Tax Accessor, I was able to find out who owned it but since they don't record phone numbers (which seems strange) I only had an address. On Saturday, Travis and I went up there to track down the owner. When we saw the house, with what looked to be boarded up windows and a For Sale sign on the front lawn, I started freaking out because, of course, how do you find these people if no one is here. We decided to knock anyway and fortunately, the wife half of the owners, came to the window. We discussed our plan with her, she took our forms and said she'd speak to her husband, but it seemed like everything would work out. As of this writing (Sunday night) we're still waiting to hear back.

The next biggest To Do on my list is nail down a Costume Designer. Since it's period, we really need someone who knows what they're doing, has relationships with costume rental houses and can help us make this look amazing.

This next week is a big week for us. We're about 3 1/2 weeks out and we're going to be locking up a lot of stuff (flights, rentals, crew, picture cars, etc) and I will hopefully feel better about this whole thing by the end of the week. I'm feeling a bit stressed right now because it feels very close to production and I don't feel like we have a lot locked down. I don't know. This is why I'm not the best producer, it stresses me out too much. I'd much rather be focusing prepping as a director, not the nuts and bolts of directing.

Big check offs this week: production insurance, permits, Palmdale location, costume designer, lens rentals, RED camera rentals.

Friday Wrap Up

2010-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the Friday wrap-up with interesting and relevant articles from the past week. Admittedly, most of them are from the LATimes.com:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Low-Budget Hit

by Meg James

LATimes.com

Consumers to DVD-Profit-Hungry Hollywood: Drop Dead!

by Patrick Goldstein

LATimes.com

Studio Math 101: $40 Million is the New Budget Ceiling for Hollywood Dramas

by Patrick Goldstein

LATimes.com

A Creative Retreat in the Digital Age

by John Lopez

LATimes.com

3Questions: Nick Fuller - Commercial Coordinator

2010-10-21T05:00:00.001-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Nick Fuller, a coordinator in both commercial and integrated production for Anonymous Content.

"We produce content across media platforms for leading brands and agencies in collaboration with an A-list roster of directors. My involvement is to help coordinate all of the nuts and bolts of the process from the initial bidding stage all the way through post-production."

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

NF: I knew from a very young age that I wanted to work in the film business. Aside from having a talent in art and acting in various plays/commercials throughout my youth I really did not know where I would fit. Growing up in Boston and Arizona, the entertainment business was a million miles away, so for a while I viewed it more as a pipe dream, just hoping that one day I would have the guts to make a move.

After attending art school for design/advertising I began working as a graphic designer. Although I was artistically stimulated and loved the ad world, something was missing. I decided that there was no way for me to know if Hollywood was for me, unless I just dropped everything and jumped right in. I managed to get an intern position for producer Stephen L'Heureux, who I credit for giving me a start in the business. I then moved on to work for Paul Hook, who is the father of below the line representation. It was there that I found my love for the world of physical production. These are the guys who take an idea on paper and turn it into something truly remarkable and beautiful. I was able to work with the top cinematographers, line producers, costume designers, editors and vfx producers. Just to brag, I believe we had 10 Oscar nominated clients during my term with Paul and sitting in a room with shapers who are the best at their craft like Roger Deakins, Anthony Dod Mantle, Wally Pfister among several others, before the big night was something this young assistant would never forget.

Having little experience with directors I decided to expand my knowlege and moved on to Brillstein Entertainment Partners working for Lit manager Margaret Riley. It was there that I receieved a first hand look at the development world, working with her incredible roster of filmakers, writers and showrunners. I began to notice the difference between the people in the business who talk about creating something and the ones who actually do it! I would much rather fall into the second category. Trying to make your mark as a Hollywood assistant is difficult, and it's easy to find obstacles to use as excuses, however, the main thing to remember, no mater what state of the business or what you currently do, is that everyone has to start somewhere. I knew it was time to really find a place to build my business and, not feeling that representation was best suited for me, I moved on to my current position at Anonymous Content. It's here that I finally feel I can fully apply all of my past experience and talents while still remaining equally involved in all aspects of the business. It's truly rewarding to walk into work everyday knowing that it is exactly where you belong.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

NF: The most difficult thing for me was to find the right path to follow, working in such a chaotic environment. I found the people who make it furthest in their careers are the ones who are honest with themselves and their peers with exactly what they REALLY want to do. If you want to be a writer, you need to write. If you want to direct or produce then create something. Nothing gets done by keeping your wants and desires to yourself. At the point that I was finally able to put it all together and establish where exactly I wanted to be is when things really went into motion and there is no doubt that it will be in high gear from here.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

NF: For people out there who would like to do what I do but are still on the outside looking in, I would say do not waste any time. If school is an obstacle, try to involve yourself in relevant studies. Find people who share your passions and create something. Write every idea down and be honest with yourself (and everyone else) with what you really want to do and you will be amazed with the help and support you will receive to get there.

Universal Studios Sound Department Tour

2010-10-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Slashfilm.com has posted this behind-the-scenes tour of the Universal Studios sound department from Soundworks. The tour is hosted by Chris Jenkins, Senior Vice President of Sound Services.

SoundWorks Collection: Universal Studios Tour from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Source: Slashfilm.com

Watch the 'Level 26: Dark Prophecy' Cyber-Bridges

2010-10-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, I've spent the last couple months co-producing and editing the video portions of Anthony E. Zuiker's new Digi-novel Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller. In an effort to help promote the book, we've been releasing a new bridge (one of ten total) every day leading up to the 14th of October, when the book is launches nationwide.

Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes: The Walking Dead

2010-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I read this series two years ago when I was working at a production company and always thought it would be an awesome way to bring zombies to television. So happy that not only is Frank Darabont exec producing but that its on AMC. Can't wait for the series premiere. Meantime, check out this behind-the-scenes:

Glory Days Gets Blitzed!

2010-10-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

In October of 2006, shortly after moving down to Los Angeles, Travis and I sat down and wrote the first draft of the script then titled Glory Days: The Saga of Chet Steele. Four years and roughly 32 rewrites later the time has finally come to send the script out to the town.

This past weekend the script, now titled Blitzed, went out wide to thirteen major studios and production companies with Guy Walks Into A Bar (Elf) producing.

What does that mean? Well, for a while now, in conjunction with Guy Walks, we've been approaching agents and talent to try and get someone interested and on board. Unfortunately, attachments in this town have gone into hiding and it's become incredibly difficult to get any one to read a script without an offer. From even good friends at the studio we're told that while they love the script, they can't do anything unless we have a star attached. And likewise, to any talent we go to, the response is that unless there's money behind it, there's nothing they can do. Welcome to Hollywood's catch-22.

Ultimately we came to the point of either 1) giving up or 2) going out wide with the script. None of us wanted to give up. So, while Travis and I did a polish on the script, our producer prepped the script to go out wide. That involves contacting specific people at production companies and studios, letting them know about the project and then on a specific day, send it out to all of them for consideration.

And so, in a big step for Travis and I's writing careers, our script Blitzed has now been sent all over town and may (and very realistically may not) get bought. We obviously hope it does and at the least, hope it leads to meetings and getting our names out there as writers. While it's extremely difficult to sell a screenplay, it's also not very easy to get your script to the point of going out wide, with producers attached, so we did this as a big accomplishment, whether the script sells or not.

Fingers crossed. I'll keep you updated.

Dig: Pre-Production - Part 2

2010-10-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. A lot has been going on these last couple weeks despite my lack of posting. Honestly, that's the best way to know if good things are happening: I stop posting. Not because I don't have anything to say but because I'm usually give my all to something and, as explained before, recapping it seems exhausting and all I want to do is put my feet up and fall asleep.

That's kind of how I've been feeling these last few weeks because I've been devoting all of my time to Dark Prophecy or Dig. Well, you guys saw the trailer (just below this entry) and yesterday we released the first cyber-bridge. We'll be releasing one a day for the next two weeks, leading up to the book launch and I would really love for you to take a look at them. It's been quite a project for me these last few months as I essentially supervised the post-production process, including color correction with James Cohan, the score with the amazing Bill Brown (CSI:NY), and sound mixing and mastering at Todd A.O. Not to mention dealing with all of the encoding and distribution details.

Any time I've had left, I spent working on Dig. Regardless, I've managed to accomplish a lot these past few weeks and I'll tell you that we are planning on shooting in November, that we'll be attaching name talent, and everything is lining up very nicely. I'll try and provide a weekly report on the status of Dig which keeps you, my readers, in the loop and let's me not feel like I'm not updating the blog.

To make it easier, I'll do it by category.

Script:

The script is really getting there. I've done a couple rewrites on it since the 8/10/10 draft, mostly having received notes from people who have read it (that I trust to give good notes) and my own revisions based on reading it over and over. I'll probably be fine tuning it up to and during shooting. Hopefully I can get Travis to come out, huddle up on his computer and do revisions as we go.

I'm liking this whole project more and more the closer I get to it.

Casting:

We've had our first official attachment! Michaela McManus, star of One Tree Hill, Law & Order: SVU and, of course, my film The Beautiful Lie has signed on to play the role of Marie.

Katie Piel, of Piel/Shoai Casting, has come on board as our casting director. We've put together our list of amazingly talent actors to go after for the role of Heinrich and David and we're in the process of approaching them with offers.

Production:

Dan Figur has come on board to produce and has begun work on budgeting and crewing up. Dan produced the W&CK 'Get Your Drink On' music video for Universal Records.

Director of Photography Paul Niccolls will be joining me once again.

Having now laid it all out, I realize it doesn't look like I've done a whole lot. Personally, I don't want to go into every little detail, at least not now, but there have been some significant advancements made that had previously worried me.

One of the big things we need to nail down soon are our two locations. The short takes place in 1962 and we're in need of a coffee shop that matches the era. The desert location is a desert location, doesn't need to match anything but we need to find it regardless. These are two big to dos. If we can nail these down and attach some great talent. We're going to be in really good shape.

And the one thing I'll be doing everything night, whenever I can, is my script analysis. The process of really digging deep down into the script, the subtext, the playable objectives, the beats, all of this stuff that helps me, as a director, do my job. The point of it is not so much to have a list of things you can do on set, but to just mentally prepare me for directing. To give myself things to think about, discuss, ways of making this script come to life.

It's one of my favorite parts of directing because there's no pressure. There's just your imagination.

Of course, it's easy to procrastinate things like this, and with my wife being gone the last two weeks and a dog to take care of, I've been forced to try and work at home -- which is impossible. But now she's back and I can take the evenings to get out, sign off, and get my work done.

I look forward to bring you guys along on this journey. I'll post as much as I can but as I'm full throttle for the next five weeks prepping Dig and seeing Dark Prophecy off, I may not have a lot of time.

But I will try....

At the very least you'll have an abundance of postings following the shoot.

Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller

2010-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Keeping a blog is a full time job and, unfortunately, I have two other full time jobs that take precedent: working for the boss, Anthony E. Zuiker, and pursuing my own writing and directing careers. Those two pursuits have forced me to put the blog in the back of the line for the last couple weeks but I'm going to start making a conscious effort to update this more regularly. (When you spend the entire day pursuing creative endeavors, whether it's writing, directing or shooting, the last thing you're really dying to do at the end of the day is sit down and write some more and try and be funny. All I want to do is hang out with my wife, watch The Wire, or relax with some wine.)

That said, I have been extremely busy and things have been going well. I'll update you on Dig in another blog but for now I wanted to show you the teaser trailer to Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller that I edited. It's a project I've been working on for the last eight months, from early development of the book, to production, to editing and seeing the whole project through post-production.

The novel and the cyber-bridges will be available on October 14th, 2010. Enjoy!

Dig: Pre-Production

2010-08-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just have to stare at the wall. That how I feel right now. Like staring at a wall and letting my mind wander. I haven't had much of a chance to just sit back and drift. I don't do enough of it. For some reason, it feels like we (the human race) are reaching a point where "doing nothing" (a term often used to describe what writers do during the day) will be a rare action. There's always something to do, something to read, something to update, something to tweet, something to watch, something to listen to. Those quiet moments, when the imagination is let loose, when inspiration makes its way back to you, when dreams fill your mind and soul and you discovers the solutions you've been looking for and the questions you never thought to ask.

I think I need to take more time for this and probably will now that I've started prep work on Dig. About two weeks ago, Travis and I finished what we felt was a very strong draft of Dig. The manager read it, agreed. Some others have read it and thought it was very solid. While we do plan on continuing to re-write it, we nonetheless felt that this was more than an adequate draft to prep off of. The setup is simple: two men, two locations. That frame work isn't going to change. The dialogue, character development, etc, is something that continually evolves, changes, and grows as you revisit it, as cast comes on board, and so on. That, we will come back to and adjust as we read and re-read.

Don't have much more to update at the moment. We're starting the process of raising funds. I've got a meeting with my producer next week and we're going to start talking budget and casting. Ideally, we're looking to shoot this in November and things will start ramping up very soon.

Dig: Second Draft

2010-07-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Finally got some time to sit down and write out some thoughts on the latest project. Picking up where we last left off: following the holiday break Travis and I sat down and went through my draft of Dig.

There were a few issues. We both knew the ending didn't work. It was a holdover from a previous version of the script that I really wanted to try but it just didn't work. Even though I knew there was a chance it wasn't right, I decided to try it anyway because hell, it's just words on a page, it's easy to change, and who knows? No harm, no foul, right?

Travis felt the opening scene was really, really solid, something that I certainly felt good about. It was the section I was most confident in. But we also both knew that middle would have to be adjusted. There's some good stuff in there but it needs to be structured a little different, we need to tweak one of the characters and the interaction needs to be adjusted (it's vague, I know).

After our analysis, Travis actually suggested that we sit down and each write separate 2nd drafts. We'd then see what parts work best and combine them. Thinking this was an interesting way of going about it (as you know, I'm all for interesting ways to write a script) I agreed. After all, it's a 16 page script, not a feature.

So, we spent he rest of the week writing our separate drafts. Travis, lacking the commitments of a wife and puppy, managed to finish his draft by Saturday. I needed until Monday night.

I actually spend a good amount of time last Thursday working on the opening scene. Though everyone agreed that it was very solid, I knew there was a conversation that would need to be expanded for shooting purposes, and I couldn't get myself to move on from the scene without trying to do so.

The scene features a philosophical discussion about Nietzsche (I know, I know but it's meant to play in the background of the action and it actually pertains to the theme of the short so bugger off). I don't know a whole lot about Nietzsche (I mostly slept through philosophy class in college but, honestly, I blame the teacher) and because of that, writing this two page scene required quite a bit of research. But in the process of doing so, I discovered a lot of really great things that not only confirmed Nietzsche as the correct choice for this discussion (I had originally chosen him because of one specific quote) but also gave me so much more ammo to play with in how what our characters are talking about, relates to the overall theme, the overall message, of the short.

Sometimes you can get too lost in the research (as Tarantino reportedly did, early on, with Inglourious Basterds) and for a very short time, I did. The research should support the writing but it's not a replacement for it. What you'll find in your research is not drama and drama is what we're writing.

I rewrote the rest of the script on Monday and, that night, Travis and I exchanged drafts, which we in turn, each read on Tuesday.

Tuesday night, we got together, went through both drafts, talked about what we liked, what we didn't like, new ideas that came out of each version.

And now, Travis will be going through the two versions and combining them into a Super 3rd Draft, which will then become the single document we'll work off of from now on. It was an interesting way to get there but the point is we got there.

We'll give this draft to our manager for the weekend, get his notes next week, do another pass, then give it out to a few close readers to get their reaction and then go from there. Depending on the solidity of the draft following our managers notes, we may be at a point to begin pre-production.

We'll need to start breaking down the script, come up with a budget, scout locations and start approaching talent.

My goal is to shoot this in October or November. If it doesn't happen then, I may have to wait until spring because, while Los Angeles is the land of sunshine, our winters haven't been that great recently. Plus, the majority of the script takes place near sundown and, well, we'd like to have as much sun as possible.

So, we'll see where we stand next week.

3Questions: Jack Campbell - International Sales Agent

2010-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Jack Campbell, President of International Sales at Spotlight Pictures, located here in Hollywood, CA.

He's responsible for "licensing feature films and documentaries to distributors, brokers, and television channels/networks worldwide. Basically, producer’s need the services of a company like ours in order to get their films sold on a global scale. We structure deals with video distributors, theatrical distributors, other sales agents/brokers, television channels and networks and license films for a specific period of time in exchange for a monetary sum. Our job is to get the best deal possible for the producer. These deals come from long-term relationships with buyers worldwide."

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

JC: Growing up as a kid, I was always interested in the entertainment industry. In middle school, I was in my first play, The Sound of Music and throughout high school and college I was always part of the theatre and music programs, singing and performing in their respective show choirs, touring as far as Russia and around the western United States.

While living abroad in college, I decided that “life is too short” to not take some chances, so after graduation, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my acting career. After that floundered for about 2 years, I decided that the acting side of the business wasn’t for me and moved to Las Vegas. While working at a restaurant and going back to school for digital video editing and production, I met an independent producer/sales agent who gave me an intern position with his company. After a few days of working with them, I was offered a full time job.

After working for a year with this small company, I ended up moving to New York City to take on a job with the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, IFQ Magazine and ITN Distribution. This was a small operation but was able to give me some legs to take my career to the next level. After working with ITN for two years, I was offered a job by the US Home Video distributor, Maverick Entertainment. They hired me to implement and run a foreign sales division, Maverick Global. I worked there for three great years after finally moving to Los Angeles in September of 2008 to take my current position of President of International Sales at Spotlight Pictures.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

JC: I suppose the biggest challenge that I’ve faced to date is the overall decline of our industry and having to find a way to reinvent our company in order to just stay in business. The global market is changing at such a dramatic rate for independent feature films right now, everyone is scrambling to figure out where the next revenue streams are going to come from. It’s a problem that we’re dealing with on a daily basis and although VOD is the wave of the future, it’s time has yet to come. Replacing the home video/DVD boom is going to be a long, arduous task for all sales agents and distributors and we have to find creative and innovative ways to get the stories told and exploited in order to recoup investments for producers. It's a very difficult and challenging time right now.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

JC: It’s extremely important that any young person understands technology and the ever changing buying/viewing trends of the general public. The kids are changing the way films are screened and it’s important to have a finger on that pulse. Film rentals and buys are down, as there has been a major shift to consumers now watching reality programming, people are just not watching as many feature films as they had in the past.

More directly, I’d advise them to go to their local video store (if there even is one anymore), take a look at some of the distribution companies who are still releasing product, contact their human resources department and try to get their foot in the door as an intern, work hard and hopefully be able to gain employment thereafter. There are no schools who teach film distribution and sales as a career; it’s more of a “who do you know” type of career.

You can also attend film and video festivals, film markets and get your name and face out there as a person who can be depended on and who is known for a professional demeanor. I'd also advise them to try and get a job working on a film set or television show, in whatever capacity they can. Once you prove yourself as a dependable worker, the doors will start to open up for you.

Writing 'Dig'

2010-06-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to keep up with this shovel theme until I run out of a pictures...or until, ideally, I have production photos from the Dig shoot. Either way...

Wow, what a week it's been. I went from researching Dig to having a sixteen page 1st Draft of the short in my hands on Saturday night. It seems...quite fast, in retrospect, while at the time it felt a little like agony trying to get through that first pass.

I had the opening down cold, wrote the shit out of it. What stymied me for a while was what happened after that. I always knew where I was going with it but wasn't sure how to get there. In the end, having gotten to a comfortable place as a writer, I knew that I just had to get something down, let it flow and that the piece would become more polished and get to the level I wanted it once I started rewriting.

And I already know it is. Both Travis and the manager have read it, and where we've discussed taking it is to a really amazing place. So I'm very confident in our ability to get his script where it needs to be and that is only increased by the fact that Travis is now coming into the fold. We thought it best that I get a first draft done on my own, since I've been living with this idea for so long but now that I've done it, I'm wanting to get him on it as early as possible. Already, through early talks about the 1st draft Monday night, we've come up with some great ideas.

The next step for us, following the holiday, is to roll up are sleeves and start digging into this script. Travis is going to be writing out some thoughts, ideas and impressions he gets from the draft and then we'll discuss and find a way to implement them. What's nice is that we have a structure to it. We have a beginning, middle and end and it's all about taking out the chunks that don't work and replace them with what does.

The most daunting task for me, as a writer, is getting through that first draft. I've written about this a number of times before but I can't stress it enough: writing is rewriting. Maybe you're the type who can nail it on the first draft, or one who agonizes over every line until it's perfect before moving on. I think, as a writer just starting on their path, that is a dangerous way of thinking. Rarely, if ever, are scripts not rewritten. As Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is shit." And thinking too hard about every line is, perhaps, even more dangerous, because it puts you in the position of never finishing the script or it taking forever.

Blast through it! I did. And I'll keep you updated as we progress on the script and the project.

3Questions: Joel Einhorn - Effects Animator

2010-06-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Joel Einhorn, an effects animator who currently works at Digital Domain.

The role of an effects animator is thus, "I create effects for feature films. This can vary from clouds, water, fire, smoke, dust and other volumetric effects to particle and rigid body simulations."

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

JE: After I finished my college degree (multimedia design with a focus on 3D) my 3D animation teacher helped me get an interview for a 3D tracking job for a Dutch movie that was being made. At that time I was living in Holland, which is where I am originally from. As it turns out, I got job and I quickly fell in love with the industry. Nothing beats the feeling of sitting in a movie theater and watching your own work on screen (and of course seeing your name roll by on the credits).

Afterwards, I freelanced in Holland for a while, working on commercials and music videos, but the market was very slim in the aftermath of 9/11. I then decided to pursue a masters degree in the UK to get my foot into the country (there is hardly any film work done in Holland, most of the big productions in Europe are done in London). I applied at Bournemouth University and got accepted in the "visual effects for film" course. This was a one year master's degree where I was introduced to Houdini, now my 3D package of choice. The main benefits of doing this course is that I got to meet a lot of people that were already working in the industry as well as those fellow students of mine who would be valuable future contacts.

After finishing the course it was pretty hard to find a job but through hard work and of course, some good networking, I was able to land a job in London as an effects TD working on X-men: The Last Stand. When that film was complete they kept me around and I got to work on several other films such as Superman Returns and Underdog.

As luck would have it, during my masters degree studies I met an American girl, fell in love and wanted to spend some time with her. So after the gig in London ended I decided to try and get into the U.S. I got an internship at SideFX software in Santa Monica (they created Houdini) and after a few months I decided to take the plunge and asked the girl to marry me. We got married and after filling out a lot of forms, paying a lot of money and waiting for a long time I finally received my greencard and was able to legally work in the U.S. I quickly got a job working on 2012 where my job was essentially to create a whole bunch of (digital) water using their propietary software.

Following that project I came over to Digital Domain to work on Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (they couldn't come up with a longer movie title). I am currently working on Tron.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

JE: For me, the most difficult challenge was just getting into the industry. It can be very frustrating to keep sending out your reel of work, making contacts, sticking your foot in every door and not hear anything back.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

JE: First off all, make sure you have the skills. There are so many people wanting to get into the effects industry that you have to make your work stand out. Knowing people that can help you get into a company is a huge bonus. Experience also helps a lot but how can you get experience if you're not in a position to gain any?

So make sure that you have the skills, get a reel together showing off your best work and sell yourself. If you do know anyone at the company you're applying for don't hesitate to get in touch. It helps if someone that works at the place drops of your reel at HR vs you sending it in.

Last but not least: be persistant! Send your reel in and then follow up, ask if they had a chance to review it, etc. Just make sure that you keep on reminding them of your availability. Try to go to events where you can meet with artists/supervisors, etc. Siggraph is a good venue to go to cause all the big companies send their reps and there is a job market. There you can have people look at your reel and get some feedback or even land a job right then and there.

In Preparation for Writing "Dig"

2010-06-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was suppose to write last night but notes on a Dare to Pass project and a half bottle of Casillero del Diablo Carmenere 2008 got in the way. I'm not one of those guys who can write for an hour, nor when drunk from a very good red wine. When I finished the notes at 10:00 PM but couldn't stand up without...enjoying the up and down sensation too much I knew I was screwed. At this point, I've sobered up enough to decide and execute a long-time coming blog. The decision part came easy, we'll see about the execution.

It won't be long and while there is a lot to update you on, that may have to wait until the next post. It's 11:30 PM and I have an early morning as I continue work editing Anthony Zuiker's Dark Prophecy. Tonight's post came to me, in my less-than-full-on-drunk state, while taking my dog, Hadley, out for his nighttime bathroom break. Now, he's empty and laying at my feet chewing on a paw.

As that happens, I'm writing this. So! Based on the arbitrarily chosen title, I thought I throw at you some things I've learned while beginning my latest project, a short film titled Dig. While the title is, in many ways, revealing of its subject matter, I am not yet at a point of telling you what Dig is. Rather, I'll be going over what it's taking to get it there.

Dig is a project that has lived in my project file since, well...(checking my file folder) since at least 2005. At that time, while living in New York, I threw out an ad on Craigslist looking for short film ideas. Now...when you do that, the VAST majority of the ideas/scripts/plays/synopsis' you receive will not be very good. A ad on Craigslist does not typically invite the A-listers out. However, very often, you can find a diamond in the rough. And for me, in 2005, that diamond was a writer named John D. Smith and a short play he wrote called Dig.

In the spring of 2006, Travis and I were making an attempt to turn it into a short. I was eager to shoot something of some maturity, perhaps on 35mm, and thought this to be the perfect setup for it. Then, I won the MTV Movie Award and we both thought it might be better for us to concentrate on features. So we did.

Then, in 2008 Travis and I both began talking about producing a short ourselves. We just needed a script that could be shot on a low-budget. We came back to Dig. We optioned the short play from John, developed and wrote three or four drafts of the script, before another project came up and we had to put Dig in the drawer. In January 2009, Travis took his own stab at the script, delivering a draft to me just before Guy Walks Into A Bar attached themselves to Glory Days. We did three months of rewrites on that and then began working on other mainstream comedy screenplays. (Our manager didn't think it best to go from writing a big, mainstream comedy to working on a very niche, indie drama about two hitmen.)

Now, in 2010, I've returned to Dig. I've wrestled with it over the years, going back and forth on whether it was a short or a feature, on the storyline, on whether there was enough there to put it on film. On a trip back to New York to see family this past winter, in a burst of inspiration, I stumbled on a different way to approach the story. In a call to Travis, he built off of that and responded with an even BETTER way to approach the story. Very, very different from the short play I received from John five years ago. But for some reason, Travis and I weren't connecting to that version. Which is why, I think, we kept stalling on the project, despite having numerous drafts. It worked as a play but wasn't working for us as a film, be it short of feature length.

It wasn't until recently, within the last month or two, that I decided to commit myself to writing and directing Dig. Travis and I had come to the conclusion that in its best form, Dig was a short. And for a long time I was against shooting another short. But technology has changed so much in the last four years, since I shot my last one, and very, very professional looking projects could be carried off for the same money I had spent previously. I am also, now, in a greater position to benefit, potentially, from a very well done short. I have a feature I want to direct, I work for very respected, well connected people who would be willing to watch something I directed and I'm ready to get back into narrative filmmaking.

That said, I've begun the process of writing Dig. I didn't really intend to go this in depth into where the project came from but...whatever. It is what it is. Point is, Dig in its latest conception, is a historical piece, taking place AND referencing a different time period in the past. And this requires a lot of research.

When I began to re approach this project, Travis suggested, since we were essentially starting over and it had been so long since I really spent time with the idea, that I sit down and write, free associating, on why I want to do this project. What is it that attracts me to it? What do I have to say, as a filmmaker, about this subject?

With the free association done (all 11 pages worth) and some minor character history work, I thought that I could dive right into the script. I was both anxious and (even to this day) naive. I was immediately stuck. I emailed Travis, sent him my free association, and solicited his opinion. We got together and our conversation triggered the need for research. Now, I had thought that I did enough of it, but I was wrong. I wasn't looking in the write place. A few keywords from Travis and I was off and running and now I have well over 50 pages of research material and notes on what may be a 10-20 page script.

The point of all this is that, even for a short, my world has become all the more richer and complex and in depth than ever before. My characters are developing before my eyes. I'm building their histories, their stories, something that is so central to this piece.

For many writers, this, perhaps, seems like a no brainer. "Of course you need to research!" Well...1) I thought I had and 2) I thought that I could at least get a first draft done before I really went into the details. Honestly, I was anxious to get into the action of writing the script and even more action to start shooting (even though I know it won't happen until the fall). But, by going to my collaborating, telling him I was stuck, he pointed in the right (and the best) direction and soon, thanks to his thoughts and advice, I was on my way to creating an even better script than I had before, with new surprises, ideas and more.

The actual writing of a script is an incredibly small part of the process. I know sometimes you're anxious to have a script and just write. Believe me, I know. I did it in college all the times (and, honestly, my films suffered for it). Immerse yourself in your world. In school, doing research for your papers was the worst part, I know. But, honestly, with screenwriting (or directing) I've found that doing research is the BEST part. You get to learn and discover new worlds. I think it's really fascinating to dive into these different areas of study as a way of making your project better. More real. More legitimate. You discover things you never knew existed (is that a line from something?), you find little tid bits of info that make your characters richer and more complex.

It seems like a long road to get to get to a lesson you might already know. But I knew it as well. I just didn't put it into practice.

So, that's where I am. Doing research, developing my characters, jotting down notes and gathering material. This serves me two-fold: 1) as a writer, I've stated the reasons for this above, but 2) as a director, eventually, in sitting down with my actors, we will talk about this world, these characters, develop character histories that may be different than the ones I developed as a writer. As a director, the more research I can do, the more I can know about everything from the world to the tiniest detail will only help me create a better film, a richer film, a more complex film. That's all I can hope for but it's a hope based on research. That doesn't happen if I'm trying to guess or make it up as I go along.

It applies to shorts as well. Short doesn't mean one-dimensional.

And speaking of short, I thought I said this blog post wouldn't be long...

Thanks for reading.

3Questions: Miles Chapman - Screenwriter

2010-06-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing 3Questions series, I present Miles Chapman, writer of the upcoming 20th Century Fox film Protection. Antoine Fuqua and Bruce Willis recently attached themselves to his feature script The Tomb.

HBAD: So, tell us, how did you get your start?

MC: Well, I think like most feature screenwriters there’s no one thing I can point to. I was originally an actor, then switched to playwriting and directing, and finally over to screenwriting. I got my first manager through a friend who passed along my plays to his reps. But that didn’t work out. Mostly because I didn’t really know how to write a movie. So Iturn my attention away from trying to get representation and just focused on learning how to write a commercial movie. The end result was a script that another friend of mine who worked at Castle Rock passed along to some managers whom she liked. That process ended with me hooking up with my current manager. We worked on that script for a few months and then the manager sent it to agents and we got a bite. That’s how I got my first agent. I got my first job when the second spec I sent out was bought by Summit Entertainment, and one of the producers on that thought I might be right for this re-write job at Fox. I then went through what I call the “giving up your first born” process of trying to get that job. I did get it but it took like 5 months of intense work on how I’d fix the script, and then getting my pitch down cold.

HBAD: What are the most difficult challenges you've encountered on your career path?

MC: That’s a good question because there are a lot of them. I’d say the biggest challenge is keeping the balance between being proactive and incredibly aggressive about doing your work and going after the jobs that you want, but then having the patience to wait… wait for meetings to get set, when they get set they then get cancelled, and then get set again, etc. Waiting for deals to get finished, waiting for checks to come, waiting for the next job… cause you never know when you’re gonna get the next one. Figuring out ways not to go crazy while you’re doing all the waiting is important.

HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to get into the position you're in?

MC: I’d say really hone in on what it is you want to write about. I know that sounds funny but I think it’s really important that a writer feel really passionate about what they’re writing. If you love what you’re writing, all the challenges of the career are that much easier to deal with. And definitely learn as much as you can from reading the books, taking classes, etc. But try to get your hands on current scripts. Scripts that have sold recently. Scripts that are getting shot, or have landed on people’s favorite lists. Read as many scripts as you can. That really opened my eyes to how many creative ways there were to solve script problems.