a ralph oshiro film--"LEVEL 4" spyfest 06.07

[Charli]

As a writer, I liked: they would have to kill to have that body. But hey, that's just me. The others didn't do it for me. If you ask me if I prefer that one to the survive tag, I prefer the "would have to kill..." - it works.

 

[doncamillo]

I was so anxious about the location we were stealing, I neglected to delegate any attention to "DIRECTING." That's the huge Achilles' heel to both DP'ing and directing.

A good point to keep in mind for anybody wanting to do the same type of shooting. But even if you maybe let her down a bit on the directing part, I'm sure that on the DP-side she will SHINE.

I am promising myself, that on the NEXT project, I will dedicate much more attention to her performance.

Cool to hear you plan on working with her again.


From the new taglines my first would be "Playtime is over", it fits what we see in the poster: being that we have a girl, she is half undressed and has a gun. Kind of like a 'no more mister nice guy' thing. But my favorite is still the "survive" one. A slight change might be "Even when dying, you'll do anything to survive" but I don't know if that one is any better than the one you already have. It's just a tiny bit shorter that's all.

 

[Charli]

Ralphy - thanks for info on that holster. I'll see if I can find one in Venice. Cheap is better since it's a prop for us. I miss those flea markets I use to go to where I could dive in a dumpster and find treasures, okay, I was only 5 but it felt like treasure more than junk. Well, let's see what Venice has to offer.

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

As a writer, I liked: they would have to kill to have that body. But hey, that's just me. The others didn't do it for me. If you ask me if I prefer that one to the survive tag, I prefer the "would have to kill..." - it works.

Thanks for your comments, Charli. Yeah, now that you posted that, I'm thinking I like that one too. It's the closest tagline to the actual story. My writer friend at work doesn't like it at all. Tnis seems so subjective, but I KNOW that some are CLEARLY better than the others.

So I'm debating this:

or

I like "playtime" because it's cute, fun, and curt, and it sorta fits the poster, like doncamillo said. He interpreted it how I meant it. I dunno. I tend to agree with Charli on "body" being best, mainly since she's a girl. Plus, she said:

The others didn't do it for me.

Whenever a GIRL says, "that just doesn't do it for me," I LISTEN. For some reason, I think a girl's opinion is more valid here. But then again, Theo ranked "body" as only fourth. My writer friend suggested "Dying is Over." He thought that was the sh*t. What do you think?

 

[Charli]

I dunno, Ralphy, I don't have a logline to your story, but judging by the poster and bts stills, I would say:

play hard, die hard
school is over
over my dead body
spy in disguise

or;

when a sleepover goes all wrong
when boys give in, girls fight to live
you messed with the wrong girl


well, something like that.

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

Thanks so much, Charli for your input and suggestions . . . just to go through the motions, I set the type for my writer friend's version:

But I don't really like it.

Actually, my camera guy friend just e-mailed me a suggestion for a modification of the above, which I think is a great improvement:

But, after all, I actually think I really do like "playtime is over" the best. It's doncamillo's favorite as well (I mean next to the long-winded one). Still can't quite figure out why everyone likes THAT one so much--now it just sounds too wordy and too literal to me! Anywho, my sincere thanks to Ted, Charli, and doncamillo for your valued input. Even though we didn't quite agree on all the same favorites, you all helped a great deal with your comments and suggestions!

Yup. That's it!

 

[-zach-]

When you "steal" a location, after you've gotten all the shots they're yours, right? You can't get in trouble for something like that if you've already got all the shots. You can only get in trouble if you get caught while shooting, right?

Am I completely wrong or is it one of those, "Not necessarily" situations?

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

When you "steal" a location, after you've gotten all the shots they're yours, right? You can't get in trouble for something like that if you've already got all the shots. You can only get in trouble if you get caught while shooting, right?

Am I completely wrong or is it one of those, "Not necessarily" situations?

Well, of course the answer is "Yes" and "No" and "Not necessarily."

Strictly speaking, you're supposed to get a photo release for any recognizable building from the building owner. But if you shoot the skyline of New York, that's cool with no release. This kinda stuff, I think, is covered under something called, "errors and omissions insurance." Say you spend a $10,000,000 shooting a feature film, and you have the Transamerica building prominently featured in a particular scene. They could conceivably say, "Hey, you can't put our building in your movie without our written permission!" Then the distributor would say, "I can't put the movie in theaters because Transamerica didn't sign a release." Public figures (e.g., celebrities) on the other hand are open game--you don't need a release from say, the President, if you were to photograph him. I don't really know where the line is between a single building, a very famous building like the Transamerica building, and a whole skyline. Perhaps there's a "public figures" equivalent for buildings? I know that federal publications are free to copy by the public without violation of copyright, for example. Certainly, footage of national monuments may be used without releases, etc.

But for most of us, I don't think much of this would be enforced by anyone, since our distribution is very limited, and we're generally not seeking any commercial distribution deals for such low-budget festival entries. My recommendation is to steal every location you can! No one has ever confiscated my tape or requested that I erase it. The worst anyone has ever done at a location was to simply ask me to "stop shooting." Just learn to shoot quickly and be flexible, and you'll be able to bag the most incredible locations for free.

CAUTION:

I forgot to mention. Some municipalities do tender fines for shooting without a permit. These fines can range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000. But I only know of one person that actually ever got fined for that. The fine was $500, and that was in the city of Beverly Hills. And that was a looooong time ago. Insurance and a permit would've cost about $3,500, so do your own math. Never heard of anyone I know getting fined since, and I shoot there all the time now with no problems at all. It seems that, at least in L.A., there are so many crews shooting so many things nowadays, that police seem to be more a lot more permissive than in days past.

 

[david jerome]

Ralph, with that poster you can't go wrong with a tag line.

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

SCRIPT DEPT.:

Well, I started with an 11-page script (actually 11+, including notes). Then edited down a 6-minute SpyFest version totalling six pages. I thought, "Perfect! I'm done!" But silly me, I violated my own damned script-writing rule, "Never write what you can't afford to shoot." As written, the original script may have cost about $20,000 to shoot properly. So, guess what? New script! Thought it up in about five minutes a couple hours ago (WHEW!). It includes two of the new female cast members, who never actually had parts to begin with, Sarah Brown and Diane Docter. When I started casting, I just realized, that it would be fun to cast more women. So I did. Even though they didn't yet have parts. I even told them so, and they both bought it, amazingly.

Good things: day one's shoot/rough cut with Alejandra is able to survive completely intact. New story picks up from there. Wrote in a cool part for Sarah, and a nice ENDING (THANK GOD). The original script will be shot slowly over many, many weekends, using many, many favors, and some damned necessary visual effects. But that's later, and beyond the scope of SpyFest.

I guess the moral is, don't be afraid to scrap everything, and then regroup, rethink, and rewrite your short film script in order to meet the often unforgivingly tight constraints of your alotted time, budget, and sanity.

Ralph, with that poster you can't go wrong with a tag line.

Thanks for the high compliment, David!

 

[-zach-]

SCRIPT DEPT.:

I guess the moral is, don't be afraid to scrap everything, and then regroup, rethink, and rewrite your short film script in order to meet the often unforgivingly tight constraints of your alotted time, budget, and sanity.

Serious hats off, man! That takes alot of confidence. Way to go.:grin: :thumbsup:

I'm sure it'll be better the second time around.

 

[Elton]

Ralph,

I admire your moxie!! Yet, I am now even more convinced of the necessity of Charli's super-strict "write for secured locations" dogma. I hate to go to so much effort only to have to (nearly) start all over again...but that's the nature of the beast!

Kudos and good luck with the continuing "Level 4" saga!

 

[Ted Arabian]

$20,000 six minute short film script??? Wow, I'd like to see that script!

I admire your filmmaking approach and attitude, Ralph. And I love the rule... "when in doubt, add more women!" Can't go wrong, right?!

Great info you provided about releases and landmarks. I always appreciate it when someone offers this info. I make sure to not just skim those posts but rather to read them twice and commit them to my learning.

As for the tagline, I like it. The one you chose was in my top 2! As for the "survive" tagline, you should definitely hold onto that one for a future project. I will agree that the playfulness of your recent tagline choices do tend to reflect the poster design more closely... but that is a heck of a tagline. And if you think that it is too wordy and that you'll never use it, let me have it. I'll put it in my "Ideas are Brewing" folder on my computer and find good use for it someday!

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

Serious hats off, man! That takes alot of confidence. Way to go. I'm sure it'll be better the second time around.

Thanks, Zack! Oddly enough, I shoot almost everything twice. Sometimes three times. I know that sounds horribly inefficient, but I think it's like a painter who skeches on the canvas (only some do that) before they commit to oil. I think that's the benefit of owning your own gear, and shooting light (no crew). It doesn't cost you that much more in resources (just time) to reshoot. Thanks to the inexpensive desktop NLEs we now have, this approach really allows you to get things right. It also follows my (sometimes extremely flawed) methodology of "interactive" filmmaking. Shoot, rough cut, re-create/re-think. re-write, re-shoot, etc.

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

Kudos and good luck with the continuing "Level 4" saga!

Thanks, Elton! Looking forward to "Birds" as well!

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

I admire your filmmaking approach and attitude, Ralph. And I love the rule . . . "when in doubt, add more women!" Can't go wrong, right?!

Thanks again, Ted, for your thoughtful comments. I'm no location expert--that's just been my experience. About my fillmmaking methodology (if you can call it that) . . . Well, at times, my approach can be extremely flawed. As of a day or so ago, the project as written was really unshootable. Yup, the "add more women" mantra did seem to help, though.

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

NEW [POTENTIAL] CAST MEMBER!

JUST back from NAB, drooling over at the RED booth for two days. So I go to the Panasonic booth for a meeting I have today, and talk to the reception girl to find our rep. So, I'm like blah, blah, blah, killing time with her and trying to work it, and . . . WOW! Turns out, she's an actress and lives in L.A!

 

[Charli]

Ralphy - how much more shooting do you need to do?

 

[Ralph Oshiro]

Ralphy - how much more shooting do you need to do?

A lot! I've only shot 1.5 days, which is basically one scene.

 

[Norm Sanders]

Ralph, finally got to catch up a little bit on your thread ... cool poster, but even better tagline. Love it! :beer:

Great find as well at NAB ... love meeting people & seeing how they can fit here & there. Sooo wish I'd been able to stay for the actual NAB part of Vegas vs. only being there for recreation, but I have no real regrets on how it worked out.