California Love

The Los Angeles premiere of south loop is Monday, May 30th at 7pm at the Downtown Independent.

Actor/Producer Juan Ramirez will be there for a probing, detailed Q&A after the screening. Make sure to ask him about taking his pants off in between takes.

And he'll be selling DVDs. Of south loop.

He's Really Not That Angry

Kelley Baker, known as the Angry Filmmaker, just put up his interview with me on the making of south loop.

Writing on a Micro-Budget Doesn’t Have to be so Hard

As I write a draft of the screenplay for my current feature Measure (based on the work of Trevor Thomas), I am reminded of something I tell my students all the time – rewriting is hard. It’s harder than the moment the idea comes to you. It’s harder than getting the first draft done. It’s harder than reading your first draft and realizing how awful it really is.

But it is in the rewriting where the movie becomes a movie.

Rewriting a micro-budget feature is additionally difficult because it is almost impossible to ignore the producer in your head constantly reminding you that he can’t afford the location you just added in the last scene. Now, the writer in your head has no problem ignoring the producer because the story is what matters most, right?

As a way to get around this particular brand of schizophrenia, I tried a new approach (well, at least new to me) on my last film south loop.

Once I knew I was going to produce and finance my own movie (along with my producing partner Juan Diego Ramirez), I made a list of everything I knew I could get for free. That included locations, actors, crewmembers, musicians, props, and so on. I also included the streets of Chicago because, as a guerrilla filmmaker, I could. I included family members that might be willing to cook for the production. I also, with some fatherly hesitation, included my children in case the story I generated needed some toddlers.

So I ended up with a long and diverse list of resources. And a quick glance over the list made me realize I could effectively set a story in the world of real estate. And by effectively I mean that I could develop a narrative and shoot it in a way that allows the audience to buy into that world. Now, if my list had been a lot shorter I might have ended up producing a movie that took place entirely in my apartment. And while there are plenty of movies that tell great stories visually primarily in one location (see Dogtooth), my list of resources took me in a different direction.

As for Measure, the previous drafts were written with these restrictions in mind so I inherited a script that already takes advantage of the resources our production has in hand. And that’s a good thing. Still, I find myself trying to strike a balance between the producer and writer in my head. While I am not adding helicopter chase scenes to the script, I am still adding scenes that require resources we don’t have currently.

For example, I have added a scene that takes place in a banquet hall. The scene is significant for establishing our protagonist in the way she deals with the politics of her job. Again, no helicopters needed. And it’s set in a banquet hall because that particular context adds to the subtext of the scene (or at least that’s the hope). So, at least in this case, the writer in my head wins because, ultimately, story really is what matters most.

But let’s say we never get access to a banquet hall. That will hardly hamstring us because the mechanics of the scene – people talking to each other and the staging of characters – can easily take place in another location. If we have to stage the scene in a restaurant or someone’s home the script will simply be rewritten to reflect that change in context. Rewriting that won’t be so hard. Well, at least not as hard as turning a helicopter chase into a conversation at a bar.

'south loop' in Los Angeles

south loop will screen at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles on May 30th. Lead actor and producer Juan Ramirez will be for an awkward Q&A following the screening.

'south loop' on Film Yarn

Today I was interviewed for the Film Yarn podcast. I am flattered to be the first filmmaker interviewed for the podcast. Traditionally, the hosts, Fredo and Frank, discuss movies they've seen (quite intelligently, I might add). Fredo attended the south loop screening at College of DuPage and asked me to be on the podcast. It is probably the best discussion about the movie I've been a part of.

Thanks, Fredo.

We Got STIFFed (but that's a good thing)

south loop is an Official Selection of the 2011 Seattle True Independent Film Festival. More details to come.

south loop at College of DuPage

The Indie Film Group at College of DuPage is sponsoring a special screening of south loop at the McAninch Arts Center on Wednesday, March 30th at 7pm. The screening is a fundraiser for the group so please go see the movie and give what you can to some young filmmakers.

While I Have this Chance to Breathe...

Our effort to sell south loop has hit a point where we're a little less busy than usual, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to look back on a few things I might have done differently in the making of the movie.

First, I would have put together the self-distribution plan while in pre-production. I made a bunch of little mistakes that would have easily been avoided with some foresight: getting the right printer lined up, mastering the disc, designing the one-sheet, etc.

Second, I would have spent more time in pre-production working on the visual design. Don't get me wrong, I love the way the movie looks, but my DP (Kirk Johnson) and I both wish we had given ourselves more time to discover a coherent visual strategy.

Thirdly, and finally, I would have hired my entire post-production team in prep. In fact, we did try to do so but it just didn't work out that way. I would have tried harder.

In short, DO IT ALL IN PREP and the rest gets easier.

The Screening

The premiere for south loop went very well. We had a good turnout (better than my cynical expectations) and I didn't vomit during the Q&A. And we sold a few DVDs.

The highlight of the night was the two or three times I peeked inside the theater and got to see and hear the movie play on a big screen. After watching it on monitors for two years, it was nice to see it projected. Really nice.

In all seriousness, I know Q&As are important to the process and ours went well. It's important to just be as direct and honest as possible. And avoid too many tangents. Provide the information the audience wants and deserves and move on to the next question.

Anyway, you can buy the DVD at the movie's website for $15 or for $10 in person (at screenings).

"south loop" at the Portage Theater

Thursday, December 2nd at 8pm south loop will make it's Chicago premier at the Portage Theater. Admission is free. That night will also mark the launch of the sale of south loop on DVD. Independent Filmmaker Josef Steiff will moderate a Q&A with the producers after the screening. DVDs will be on sale in the lobby.

Admission is free. That means you don't have to pay to see the movie. No money.

Please come see our movie.

$5K

My plan had been to post for every 1K we passed on our way to raising $5K on Kickstarter. So much for plans.

Anyway, we raised our money! And we did it because:

1) We have amazing friends and family who contributed and/or helped spread the word, and
2) Kickstarter works.

As a fundraising tool, Kickstarter integrates your project into a community of like-minded creators, protects the contributors by releasing funds only AFTER the goal amount has been raised on deadline, and it affords an air of legitimacy to your fundraising. I can't count the number of people who told us they were skeptical about giving to an online fundraiser UNTIL they encountered Kickstarter for the first time.

I also think our success had something to do with our circumstances: we had a completed movie so we could put clips in our video as a sort of proof-of-concept, we were asking for "only" 5K, and we set a deadline of 31 days from the establishment of the fundraising so our campaigning wouldn't drone on forever.

And I think that's the key to utilizing any online tool for independent filmmaking. You can't expect any tool to work miracles be it Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or even Facebook. You have to know HOW to use the tool properly for it to do your project any good.

That and a lot of loving, generous people working on your behalf.

Thank you to all 103 of our backers on Kickstarter (to date).

"south loop" Passes the $1K Mark

Barely over one week into our fundraising effort on Kickstarter and "south loop" has raised over $1,000 on its way to a goal of $5,000.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the movie.

And for those of you thinking about supporting the movie, I think you should do it. Really. Just saying. You'll feel better.

And thank you in advance.

south loop on Kickstarter

We have launched a Kickstarter page to raise money for the distribution of the movie. Please support south loop and spread the word.

south loop

Completed in 2003, my graduate thesis film, An Assignment, did pretty well. It played a number of festivals and won some awards. It also played on the Showtime and SiTV cable networks. And from that mild success I hoped to ride some momentum into my first feature.

The script I developed to be that film was The Other Kind. It told the story of a 32 year-old mother of three who comes to embrace single-motherhood after years of regretting her choices. I was packaging it as a $1 million dollar film and eventually had a TV actress attached in the lead role. She was terribly patient as the script and budget changed a number of times. Still, I could never get the project fully funded and lost my patience. The actress and I agreed, quite amicably, to part ways and I began pursuing much smaller projects.

But I couldn't even get those fucking things financed! I'll spare you the details on those projects and cut to the chase.

In the spring of 2008 my wife told me to shoot a movie - short, feature, experimental, home, whatever - or I'd drive her crazy. She even allowed me to put a little of our money into whatever I was going to shoot. Yes, I AM very lucky. And she was pregnant at that time, by the way. Very, very lucky, indeed.

So much so that my good friend and actor, Juan Ramirez, offered to also put in a little cash so we could finally get back into production (Juan had been in my previous two short films).

And this is how south loop came to be.

With a crew of six, a PA or two and a slew of free locations, we shot the project for about $15,000 over 18 days.

As of this posting we are finishing up the sound mix. The score is complete and color correction will be done any day now. The website will be up very soon as well as the trailer. Of course, I'll be posting as these things finish up.

Sorry for this long-ass post. I just need to lay the groundwork for the updates that are to come.

I'll be posting soon to set the table for my next project You've Been Great.