A little taste of Back to the Future
Posted by Jeremiah on August 28th, 2008 @ 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

I was driving to the post office to mail a DVD. The sun was shining. I was listening to my iPod. And it started to play Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. And it took me back… Back to the Future.

Let it take you back.

In this one clip, you see why I wanted to BE Marty McFly. Still do. He is AWESOME! And so is that song.

Who did you want to be growing up? And can you illustrate it with a one-minute clip on YouTube?

For Me and My Gal
Posted by Jeremiah on August 26th, 2008 @ 09:27 AM | Comments (1)

One of the speakers at the conference we recently attended talked about the how American filmmakers’ underlying assumptions have changed over time. I saw a wonderful example of this when I watched the classic film For Me and My Gal.

The film was made in 1942 and directed by Busby Berkeley. (He’s the guy behind all those wonderfully choreographed musicals with all the girls who dive into water.) I really love his films. A lot of them are soft on story but strong on music and choreography.

For Me and My Gal is strong all the way around. The movie addresses issues of patriotism and courage. Gene Kelly wrestles with dodging the draft and ultimately finds a cowardly way of staying out of the army. The guilt he feels is almost too much. This film wouldn’t be made today. By the way, the movie does end happy. Would I like it if it didn’t?

Here is a great scene - Gene Kelly and Judy Garland performing the title song. I love the guy behind the bar. He makes me laugh. I wish I could dance like Gene Kelly.

AFR Film Workshop - Trip Report
Posted by Josh on August 19th, 2008 @ 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending a filmmaker’s workshop in Los Angeles.  The workshop was put on by the American Film Renaissance.  Their mission statement:

AFR celebrates timeless American values through the production, distribution and showcasing of films that reflect the enduring and inspiring principles of individual freedom (such as free speech, free enterprise, and freedom of worship), rugged individualism and the triumph of the human spirit, and through supporting filmmakers who share our mission.

I was unfamiliar with AFR, but Dirty Harry over at Dirty Harry’s Place highly recommended applying for this workshop, so we did.  We were two of 35 participants accepted/invited to attend.  All expenses were paid, so we figured worse case we’d get a free trip to LA.

Thankfully, we got so much more than just a free trip.  AFR is a classy organization.  They brought in top notch speakers and did a wonderful job programming the weekend.  It all kicked off Friday night with writer/producer Lionel Chetwynd. Lionel has over 30 years experience in the film industry and has worked with some of the biggest names of all time.

He gave a talk warning us of some of the traps people fall into in Hollywood.  It was great advice from someone who really knows what he’s talking about, but the best part of his talk were the stories he would tell.  Real inside Hollywood type stuff.

He also talked about how the underlying context of American film changed in the 60s/70s.  Before the change, America was portrayed as basically good with occasional uprising of evil that was put down by an average Joe - think Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life.  In the 60s/70s, this changed and America has ever since been portrayed as evil with occasional uprising of good that usually fails to make any difference because the evil is so overwhelming.  It was amazing insight.

After he spoke, we had the opportunity to talk at length with him at the cocktail party that night.  He had some great advice on directing actors.  He said that he would always have the actors write down their internal monologue for each scene they were in.  Internal monologue is not what a character is saying, it’s what a character is thinking while they are saying the dialogue.  He said this is the key to making it seem like characters are saying the lines for the first time.

The rest of the weekend consisted of different speakers and panels on different topics.  One of the highlights was the writing for television panel that consisted of Daisy Gardner (South Park, 30 Rock, Californication) and Tim Minear, Exec Producer of one of my favorite shows, Firefly.  Tim also wrote for X-Files, Lois and Clark, Angel, and is the creator of several short-lived TV shows.

Daisy and Tim just answered our questions for over an hour.  With 35 people in attendance, we got a lot of interaction with them.  It was a great opportunity to quiz actual working television writers about working in television.  The both had great advice and really seem to love what they do.

After their talk, we’ve decided that we’re going to get to work on some spec TV scripts.  The feature writers that spoke all seemed a bit frustrated that they are constantly getting paid to write stuff that never gets produced.  Daisy and Tim said the best part of writing for TV is that you know your work is going to be produced and seen, and according to Tim, it’s the best way to break into directing for TV.  We also asked how it worked to be writing partners on a show.  They said that they have several writer slots to fill and that writing partners fill one slot and split the paycheck.  They said that made writing partners somewhat sought after since they get an extra person.  Good news for us.

Other highlights include getting to meet the guys who write the Dirty Harry’s Place blog.  They are super cool guys and run one of my favorite blogs.  Be sure to head over there and subscribe to it.  We also got to meet one of the writers of Liar, Liar and many other industry people with credits you’d be familiar with.

We pimped Dangerous Calling at every chance and came away with several good contacts and opportunities that we’ll be following up with beginning this week. Overall, it was an incredible weekend.  We met a lot of cool people, both attendees and speakers, and learned a lot.  Thanks so much to the American Film Renaissance for having us. It was a great experience.

AFR Film Workshop
Posted by Josh on August 14th, 2008 @ 11:44 PM | Comments (1)

We’re leaving tomorrow to go out to LA for the AFR Film Workshop.  We’ll be there through Sunday and will be blogging/twittering as much as we can.  Stay tuned for updates.

Dangerous Calling Update
Posted by Josh on July 31st, 2008 @ 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

I know.  It’s been a while.  Sorry.  The big news is that Dangerous Calling will be playing twice at the Rome International Film Festival in September.  (Rome, GA not Rome, Italy)  This will be your first chance to see the completely finished film.  The score was just recently recorded, and we’re working hard to get the final mix finished.  It’s incredible.  Our composers have done an outstanding job.  If you’ve seen an earlier cut, you’ll want to see it with the new score.  It takes it up to a whole new level.

The two screenings will take place on September 6, 2008 at 11am and 9pm.  Please visit http://rome.bside.com/2008 for more information.  Tickets go on sale August 1st.  Seating is limited, so be sure to get your tickets soon.

Bob Ross
Posted by Jeremiah on July 21st, 2008 @ 11:09 AM | Comments (7)

I turned 28 last week. I don’t feel 28. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve aged past 1989. That was the best time of my life and I’m still living in that time period. I still buy G.I. Joes, I still play with my toy lightsabers, and my favorite movie is still Back to the Future. So I guess you could say I’m a 9-year-old stuck in a 28-year-old’s body.

Anyway, for my 28th birthday, I received a Bob Ross Joy of Painting paint set! I was so excited about this present. I know a lot of you out there have dreamed of trying to paint like Bob so I thought I’d share my experience with you. I for one have always wanted to try it. Painting appeals to me because it lets you create your own world in a visual medium. I’ve never been any good at drawing but I thought maybe I’d be good at painting.

Before I go on, let me explain that I have never painted anything in my life. I don’t consider myself an art expert. I told my cousin who was an art major in college what I am doing and he snickered. Apparently, Bob Ross’ style is ridiculed in finer circles. But I don’t care. He makes those clouds and mountains look more real than most paintings. (And no cracks about just taking a photograph.)

Before I started painting, I watched about 20 episodes of the show that I found online. I paid extra special attention to what he said and did in preparation for my first painting. The Bob Ross technique is a Wet-On-Wet technique - meaning that you first cover the canvas with a really thin coat of liquid white. This allows you to blend the paint right on the canvas.

My first attempt at doing the Bob Ross technique was a disaster. I used a small canvas - like a 6 x 8 inch canvas board. I used way too much liquid white. And if the canvas isn’t the size Bob uses, you don’t have enough canvas space to mix the colors enough. So my sky was drippy and too dark. I did 3 of these little boards before I realized my mistake.

I got really frustrated that the technique wasn’t working. I couldn’t get the paints to stick to each other and it all just blurred together. On the 2nd painting, I just got angry. Actually, the title of the 2nd painting is “I Got Angry.” The title of the 3rd is “Escape from Paint Island” because I actually quit. I didn’t want to try it again.

But after a few days of feeling like Bob Ross lied to me by telling me I could do it, I decided to try again, this time with a bigger canvas and painting along with Bob.

So the first thing Bob had me do was the sky and water. The blue is the easy part. The clouds were tough.

My biggest problem is getting the paint to stick to the underpaint. You have to use GOBS of white paint to make those clouds stand out. But in the end, I was quite happy. So far so good. I had made clouds.

Then came the mountains. This was cool. I used the knife to make the edges and then a clean brush to pull the shape.

Then the snow on the mountains. I did this with a tiny roll of paint on the knife. This is really hard. You can see where my hand touched the water and made dark spots. It doesn’t look this good up close. I still have to work on my snow.

Then I started with the trees. This is a SCARY point in the painting because I was so proud of my clouds and my mountain that I didn’t want to screw those up by messing up the trees.

And then came the foreground. By this time, my blood pressure is WAY up and I’m telling Bob to shut up and wait. I tried doing it as fast as he did but there was no way.

And after about 3 hours of working on a painting that takes Bob 22 minutes, I had a finished painting. I show you this not to get applause (because it really isn’t that good) but to say that Bob’s technique really does work. But it still takes a lot of practice to perfect his technique. I need to work on my trees and bushes. The paint still sort of blurs together and its tough for me to put a highlight color on top of a darker color because the darker color comes off the canvas and sticks to the brush and then it all just goops together. Really frustrating.

And here is Bob and me, painting together. I gotta grow my hair out and perm it like his.

At one point in the process, the painting fell onto the floor. Fortunately, I had an old blanket on the ground. Let me warn you, paint gets everywhere. It gets all over you. And it gets all over everything that is near you. I got a few spots on the carpet and on some clothes that I shouldn’t have been painting in. They came out because I treated them before they dried. But next time, I won’t be painting in my room. It will be in the garage.

So that is my Bob Ross painting adventure. I strongly urge you to go out and try it. You can get the paint set for about $90. Aside from that, you need canvas - I got 3 large boards for $10 - and you need some odorless paint thinner - that’s another $20. So for $120, you can get started painting the Bob Ross way.

Directing Actors
Posted by Jeremiah on July 16th, 2008 @ 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

A few weeks back, a friend of ours and fellow film blogger asked us to write some articles for his blog. His name is Emmet Gibney and his blog is called Film School Student. We met Emmet when we went out to LA for the Ford event.

I had just finished reading a book called Directing Actors and had been thinking a lot about working with actors. So I wrote a post about it and sent it over to him. He posted it in two parts. Check them out.

Part 1

Part 2

The book is really good. It really helps open up communication between the director and the actor.

Scene Study: There Will Be Blood
Posted by Jeremiah on July 14th, 2008 @ 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

Josh and I have mentioned several times on this blog the film There Will Be Blood. This was my favorite film of 2007. We both were blown away by the storytelling and filmmaking in that film. There wasn’t anything flashy about the movie. Just pure filmmaking.

It’s been a while since I’ve directed anything and from time to time, I like to do an exercise to keep me sharp and to add to my directing bag of tricks. Today I pulled out There Will Be Blood and did a scene study of two scenes. This is something I was taught to do in Film School. I find it an extremely useful tool.

After I pick a scene to study, the first step is to watch the scene. The second step is re-watch it and time it. The third step is re-watch the scene and count the number of cuts.

Then I divide the number of cuts into the length of the clip to get the average shot length.

(The typical action film made today has an average shot length of 3 seconds. The Bourne movies are much less. Spielberg’s shooting style is probably around 5 seconds and Shyamalan’s films are like 8 seconds per shot. We tend to go at Spielberg’s pace.)

After that, I start to dissect how the director covered the scene - the camera angles. At this point, I’ve watched the clip 3 or 4 times so I’ve stopped watching the story and acting and I’m taking notice of the angles. So I watch it again and try to spot which cuts are cutting back to shots already seen in the scene.

Then I make a list of all the setups and try to spot exactly what they do. For example, shot 1 could be - MS on Daniel -> Pans down to his shoes -> Dollys back.

So after spotting all the shots, I count them and compare that to how long the scene is. If it is an action scene or a scene where there is a lot of moving around, the scenes typically have more setups. If it is a dialogue scene, it will have fewer setups.

The last step is to draw a diagram of the set (from what I can tell based on the scene.) Then I’ll draw letters on the set marking each of the characters marks and their blocking. Then I’ll go back in and place a number and an arrow indicating a camera and what direction it is looking. So now I have a bird’s eye view of where each camera was in the set. This helps me to grasp various ways of shooting scenes.

On a side note, this is a great way of seeing the 180 degree rule at work. Most of the time, you’ll see all the camera angles on one side of the set looking the other way.

(Josh and I did a scene study of a dinner scene in The Aviator to help us understand how to shoot a table scene in Dangerous Calling. Spielberg did the same while filming Jaws. He had so much down time, he just watched old movies all the time and lifted scenes from them. If he can do it, we can too. Eventually you learn to make those scenes your own.)

The final step is to do an evaluation of what I have just discovered.

So here is an example of a scene study I did today.

(See the film before you read the rest. There aren’t any spoilers but you won’t know what’s going on.)

Scene - Daniel Plainview beats Eli

This scene takes place 1 hour and 12 minutes and 18 seconds into the DVD.
Length of the scene: 2 min 27 seconds
Number of Cuts: 17
Average shot length - 8.6 seconds
Number of setups - 10 setups

So this tells me the pacing of the scene is slower than most films. It also tells me that it took 10 setups to shoot, so they could have shot it in an afternoon as long as there weren’t too many logistical problems. The biggest problem I could see was the mud. If I were shooting the film, I’d have saved the last two messy shots to be the last two shots we shot. It seems intuitive but sometimes you have to shoot the end of the scene first. The final thing it tells me is that they cut back several times to pre-existing shots.

Shot list:
1) WS - Pipe - Eli walks in frame - pan up to reveal Daniel in distance
2) WS - Dolly with Eli walking left to right
3) WS - POV on Daniel - rough dolly forward at an angle
4) MS - on Eli - Dolly backward
5) MFS - POV on Daniel - rough dolly forward at an angle - dolly stops
6) MS - low angle up to Daniel -> Eli walks in -> dollys back as Daniel hits Eli -> pans down on Eli as he crawls away saying “You owe the church…”
7) MS - low angle up on Eli -> Eli gets slapped and falls -> camera pans down -> dollys forward as Eli crawls away - ends at the mud puddle.
8 ) MS - Daniel - low angle - dollys back - (Could be alternate take of 6 - looks like same setup that just didn’t pan down to Eli)
9) 2 Shot - ground level - workers in background - Daniel and Eli in foreground
10) WS - Eli in mud as Daniel walks away - still ground level

And my diagram of the scene:

Observations:

*The low angle looking up on Daniel makes him seem scarier and in control.
*The reverse starts as a low angle up on Eli. He’s a man on a mission. But before he can get going, Daniel knocks him out of the shot. The camera pans down as Eli takes his place on the ground. That’s exactly what is going on in the scene - Daniel putting Eli in his place. A beautiful way of telling the story with the camera. I usually don’t think that way. (This is why I do these exercises.)

So that’s how I do a scene study. I also did the scene directly following that scene where Eli beats up his father. But, I’m going to let you do your own scene study of that one. Post a comment and let me know what you learn.

And I couldn’t do a post on There Will Be Blood without saying - “I Drink YOUR MILKSHAKE!!!”

An Incovenient Tax
Posted by Jeremiah on June 9th, 2008 @ 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

I wanted to write a quick post about a new project that is being launched by our friends over at Life is My Movie Entertainment. They produced our feature film, Dangerous Calling.

Their new project is called An Inconvenient Tax. I am really excited to see this film. It is examining the problems with the Tax system in America. The plan is to interview several influential politicians and economists to figure out the best solution. The premise is based on a Patrick Henry quote:

“The oppression arising from taxation, is not from the amount but, from the mode… The whole wisdom of the science of Government, with respect to taxation, consists in selecting the mode of collection which will best accommodate to the convenience of the people.”
-Patrick Henry

The film asks these questions -

How does congress go about deciding what changes should be made?

What’s the solution and who will decide it?

They start production next week. You can find out more by going to
www.AnInconvenientTax.com.

D-Day: Remember
Posted by Jeremiah on June 6th, 2008 @ 07:10 AM | Comments (0)

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.” -Abraham Lincoln. (Quoted in Saving Private Ryan.)

Make plans to watch The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan, or the first couple episodes of Band of Brothers tonight.

Remember what they did.