"schism" feature length film (DVX100a)

[John C Lyons]

(updated 12/7/09)

***SKIP TO PAGE 19 FOR TALK (AND LINKS) ON THE DVD and VOD RELEASE!***

Intro:
After trying my hand at shorts with "Hunting Camp" and "BOGO" (both shot on the DVX100a as well, and both earning some decent recognition) "Schism" is my first feature length film project...shot on a single DVX100a. "Schism" is a very personal film, a difficult production - filmed almost entirely at an operational nursing home. a 105 page script with no budget. i self-financed the film entirely.



links:
Official Website: http://www.schismmovie.com
Official Blog Site: http://schismmovie.blogspot.com
IMDb Listing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1310664



"Schism"

Project Status Round-up/Timeline: "COMPLETED"
-submitted to 12 well-known fests as a "work-in-progress" at various stages of editing - no luck there.
-held 2 open test screenings of the current "final" cut at edinboro university of pennsylvania. 1,300 in attendance, reaction was very positive.
-had 1,000 pro DVDs made up of the early-2008 cut to promote and send out for screeners/submissions.
-had luck with festivals in late 2008, early 2009.
-film is shown in nursing colleges across the country. has gained the support of the Alzheimer's Association and LECOM (largest medical college in the USA).
-finally reached the FINAL cut of the film in march 2009. minor tweaks on sound and color until summer 2009.
-made more film festivals in Fall 2009. Won some awards: Best Narrative Feature, Best Actor, Best Screenplay...
-Retail release: 2 disc SPECIAL EDITION dvd set September 8, 2009.
-The final cut on Amazon VOD as of December 1, 2009.


subjects:
Aging. Alzheimer's Disease. Assisted Living. Care. Family relations. Dementia.


synopsis:
After a hip injury as a result of a fall, Neil Woodard enters a nursing facility unhappy with the changes occurring in his life. Initially uncooperative and insistent that he will return home once he recovers, he deals with the reality of no longer being a priority in his family's life, but discovers comfort and friendship in the residents and staff. However, he soon learns that all may not be as it seems. Told from the perspective of the afflicted this is the story of one man's descent into the world of Alzheimer's dementia.

raw footage stills (no CC):










in the next post...the auditions and location troubles

[Noel Evans]

Cool John, look forward to hearing more. Interested to hear some of your low budget BTS techniques also.

[John C Lyons]

thanks ncje! i hope that my posts here and answers to your questions can be of some help in your future projects...

***just an FYI, i edited the first post, adding some info about the story and intent of the film.***



so after writing the script, we started looking for locations. we knew it would be difficult, but we really had no idea. i didnt really think of the logistics of trying to film a movie in a nusing home: privacy laws, red tape, and just the fact that it is a hell of a lot to ask a place to film a movie in.

i was unable to pay a location, and i thought in order to make the movie look and feel as realistic as possible that we had to film in an existing, operational nursing home. or even a hospital for that matter. i fund my projects myself, but i cant afford to go into a run-down place and decorate the entire thing to make it seem like a real, clean nursing home. Production on "Hunting Camp" cost me around $4000 (most of that being a camera and a mic, since it was my 1st real attempt at making a movie) and "BOGO" cost only about $100.

so this was my big wish and it was a tough one to grant while i kept hearing no, after no, got unreturned phone calls, blow-offs, etc etc. i even eventually found out, just by telling everyone i knew "i need a location" that i had some connections to people working at nursing homes. but those didnt work either.

after a couple months of being held up waiting for administrators to even have a face to face with me (only 2 complied at this point and both said "great idea, and the your script really gets it right, but youll never find a place that will say yes") i decided that maybe if we started casting the movie and could get some attention from that, that maybe it would help us with getting a location. going into a place with some faces attached to the story, i thought might give me some extra ammo...



so i rented some space at the erie playhouse rehearsal hall (cost $50) and we held auditions, 2 of them, a couple weeks apart, advertised them everywhere we could (for free) and had exactly 100 people audition in total (pretty huge for the erie, pa area). some people who auditioned traveled up to 6 hours away, mostly saying the storyline drew them the distance.



and, very much to my surprise, a television news crew showed up partway through our first audition to cover it.

here's the news story:

http://www.schismmovie.com/schismaudition.mov
QuickTime format

in the next post, the HUGE cast and a great location comes through!

[Brandon Rice]

John, I am super excited you've got this thread going! I was curious about the status on the feature! Looking forward to keeping up with the thread.

[Paul Coleman]

Lookin' good. Best of luck on the project.

[John C Lyons]

much thanks briceman and paul for tuning in!

so after making it on the local news, the word started to spread, and in September of this year we found a truly dream location in Brevillier Village and setup a meeting (this connection was found via all-star crewmember Mike Best). this place is a dream not only b/c its right on lake erie and its mamoth in size, but it's modern and beautiful looking too! big hallways (very crew friendly), brightly lit, etc etc.



but even better than all that, the vice president of health care at the facility, Vicky Wittuck, seemed very open to the idea and b/c it's a privately owned facility (a big problem we were running into was that everyone had to "report back to corporate" to see if they would even entertain the idea. brevillier village makes the decisions themselves, and from meeting #1 we knew we had a decent shot.)



so i left the script with Vicky to see what she thought and things were looking a lot brighter than they were a couple weeks before. So now to tackling our giant cast...

I don't have a final tally yet on the number of actors and extras, but it's already much bigger than anything ive ever done combined. we taped each audition on my new "toy" camera, a Panny GS500 (cost $900 for stuff like this and importing footage to pc), and i made DVDs for each person on my casting group to review and make notes on. one key person through this whole process was Russ Polizzi, a therapist i met while touring a nursing home that turned us down, but the big win for us was finding Russ. i asked him to be a technical advisor on the project and even this early on in the process he was a big help with finding people who were the right "look" for the roles. luckily we were all pretty much in agreement on our picks and i started to make the phone calls.

here's a sampling of the great cast we have onboard for "schism":


(Don Kirsch, Dick Ropp, and Terry Smith)

TERRY SMITH as Neil Woodard
DON KIRSCH as Roger McKenna
CHARMALENE ULMER as Tammy
RUTH THOMA ANDREWS as Martha
JACKIE JOHNSON as Gertie
DICK ROPP as Rufus
LORI CLAPPER as Elaine Dombrowski
SHANNON SOLO as Bob Dombrowski
NATALIE VINDIVICH as Amy
COURTNEY MALLEN as Kathy
SCOTT FRISINA as Tim
JENNIFER HOOPER as Kristen
JOSH WERNER as Sam
KARLY BENDER as Kellie
TOM BENNETT as Edward


(Neil's family: Josh Werner, Jennifer Hooper, Scott Frisina, Courtney Mallen, and Karly Bender)

and talk about experience! some of these people have been working in film and theater (mainly theater) for 50+ years! safe to say i was very psyched to start rolling...

next post: after an early stumble with some key crewmembers, we do some shifting, and end up very lucky in finding a fellow DVXuser (or rather he finds me) and a makeup artist extraordinaire...

[John C Lyons]

many of you can relate, im sure, to doing nearly everything yourself on your 1st few projects. writing, running camera, trying to light, editing, making the dvds, promo oh yeah and directing and maybe even acting. this is essentially how it was for me and my tiny crew on the last 2 movies. BUT this time around weve been blessed with alot of great new support behind the scenes.

I have a folder where i keep track of everyone who has ever said "let me know when youre doing another movie, id love to help you out..." from screenings, on the forum here, via email, etc etc and this past summer i started seeing who was up for the task and what we needed.



Our crew has changed shape a bit since our meetings early on. but no matter how hard you try and work with them, some people just dont work out, and others dont understand the level of committment needed for making a movie. Without going into too many details, our sound and lighting duties have shifted around a bit, but in the end we got rid of the dead weight (you just have to) and we have a really tight-nit group now that gets along well on set.

What we really needed to improve on technically with "schism" was the lighting. Mike Best is officially our Lighting Director, but really the guy's a huge asset all-around - the man has really loaded up quite a production truck full of goodies. His involvement alone has brought this production up to a new level for us. I did buy a Kino Diva kit (cost $1700) after talking with Jarred on what lights I needed, but they havent been used much. That's the Best factor.

Other big crew noteables on this film, again, Russ Polizzi for literally keeping it real. We really need to get the procedures right for the action in these scenes, otherwise we lose that realism. Russ works in a nursing home, he knows his stuff.



Nancy Fioretti as our makeup artist. Ive never done any kind of makeup on a film, but especially with us needing to show passage of time and the deterioration of our lead actors, having a skilled makeup person is a big deal.

Kirk Daniels on the boom! Kirk is Mr Dependable on LDP projects and hes there every morning to wear the cans and point the stick. He and i keep learning, and next to lighting and acting, i hope that the improved sound gets notice as well...

and of course Dorota Swies. my rock, the person i take everything out on, but at the end of the day she always has 2 or 3 things that really improve scenes. and her photography background and style are a perfect match for the high contrast look we're going for on this picture. DP, assistant director, still photography. shes got her hands full, plus she has to live with me and put up with my bitching. yikes.


so now you've met some of the crew, next time some tales from the production... good stories and bad, and hopefully some tips to filming in crazy environments!

[Brandon Rice]

Very cool read John thanks! Looks like you blasted a ton of light in there... It's always great to have a dependable crew to work with!

[John C Lyons]

thanks dood!

i know i havent really gotten to posting enough info maybe for asking me any questions yet, but feel free to jump in on any you have, equipment used, tone, style, working with 60 and over actors, anything. dont worry about taking me off course in any way is all im trying to say...

[Brandon Rice]

Well, in that case I have several questions for you, both technical and non-technical.

1. Is the entire film set in the nursing home? Meaning, you don’t have any other locations, except in the home.

2. Did you shoot stock DVX (non-35mm adapter) and if so, were you pleased with the result?

3. What was your budget on the film?

4. How many leads are in the film?

I think that’s all I’ll ask for now. Thanks!