"Corrado" - A production blog

Status
Not open for further replies.
True, cost really isnt whats stopping me I guess... Truth be told a full truck doesnt fit what I do that well, but I still want one. Its just cool to have everything in its place like that. Nice work with the shelving and stuff inside!
 
Wow, Taormina, I think this is the best thread I've ever read on dvxuser. Thanks for sharing all of this with us. I agree with the guy who said you sound like Robert Rodriguez, but cooler and more together :) Can't wait to read more.
 
Awesome thread. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Though I've read time and again that I should rent my equipment, I too have chosen to buy mine instead. Maybe if I could rent equipment locally I'd consider it, but as it stands I'd have to have it shipped from Toronto.

Instead, I've made some meager returns on my investment by renting my HVX and Firestore out a couple of times to a local ad agency.

Man this thread is inspiring! Can't wait to see the film!
 
My location scout is pissing me off.

Whereas she has access to many locations, her 30% fee generally puts them out of my reach. Yesterday we saw the mansion and the apartment. Today there were problems with both, but she wants to smooth them over - sweep them under the rug rather.

Mansion:
Film LA, God bless them, have redeemed themselves in my sight. I spoke with a very senior person there who told me that if I wanted the mansion in Tarzana, that i would have to have a Film LA rep present there at the rate of $25 per hour to "keep the peace". I guess the rap sheet for this house is a mile long with all kinds of permit violations. Officially, I can get a permit.

"If you were me" says I, "Would you enter into a contract on this house?"

"No way. I'd move on"

That was enough for me. I don't need any trouble. So instead of understanding the importance of good neighbor relations, Ms. Locations gives me her bullshit spiel about that if I have a permit I am allowed there and there's nothing that the neighbors can do about it.

She's out of her tree.

Here is wisdom: Bad neighbors can absolutely ruin a shoot without setting foot on the premises. Their primary weapon is extraneous noise.

I filmed a 35mm short once in Laguna at a cute little cottage. The neighbors were immediately hostile. The cops showed up about 1 hour into the shoot, and I showed them my permit, and they were cool. The cop told the neighbor we were legally allowed to be there, and we thought that was that.

Instead, Joe Neighbor decided it was a great day to cut lumber with his circular saw. He kept it up for a few hours, and finally got tired. We shot all the MOS stuff while he roared in the background.

Angry neighbors can make all kinds of noise. They know how to do this because the first AD cries out "Quiet on set please!" which is like a cue for dueling chainsaws or whatever.

There's nothing you can do about angry neighbors when you are already at a location. But to knowingly go to a hostile neighborhood is foolishness.

Apartment:
All is not well at gunfire terrace. Oh, the hallway shootout is fine, but she forgot the part where I needed two apartments for four hours each, interiors. She thought I just needed the guys to come out of the doors shooting. Nay, location lady, thou hast had it explained to the these ten thousand times, thou fool.

So now she is going to check that out and report back.

So I go on her site to select another mansion location. I pick a few - $10K per day, $12K per day, $5500 per day...no good. I said, look, it's no secret my budget is $2500 per, hook a brother up.

So she starts showing me these big houses. Now there is a difference between a big house and a mansion, primarily in the grounds. Big houses are everywhere; what really makes a mansion a mansion is the fact that not only is it big, it's set waaaay back from the road and has a big gate, etc.

A 6000 square foot showhome in suburbia is not a mansion.

"Go and see if you can find a mansion for $2500 per day and if you do tell me where it is, and I will use it in the future" She says, all snarky.

Fine. So I get on www.cinemascout.org - a California website that's done by the film commission where you can search locations free. I've used it for years, but it's one flaw is that the locations are mostly out of date.

So the first mansion I find on there, I call. Nice place. Big - like 2 acres big - grounds. All brick. Massive gate. Furnished. In the zone. I phone up the place. The owner answers. I tell him I want to shoot such and such a movie, etc.

Owner: "What's the budget?"

Me: "300k"

long pause.

Owner: I don't normally do low budget...............but.........

long pause.

Owner:...but I'll make an exception for you. Your timing is good, I've been slow the past couple months. What can you pay?

Me: The most I can pay is $2500 per day.

Owner: Ok, I can work with that. Come have a look at it.

This guy goes on to tell me how far the neighbors are - no one cares about filming in this 'hood, cause his house is so far from anyone. The place is - get this - 300' from the road!!!!

What a score. No location scout, no nothing, one phone call. I'm going to see it on Friday.

Sweet!
 
This thread is a testament to that old saying about how if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Adam gets it and has a lot of insight into this business - even though most would say he's just starting out.

Keep your chin up and on those pages! As an aside, perhaps your location coordinator should have a look at the pages as well.

;)

e
 
I also thought I'd share a little personal information about myself. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but here's a little slice of my life anyways:
  • I'm 34 years old
  • I'm 6'-3" 215 lbs
  • I'm married to my beautiful wife of 12 years
  • Parents were both born in Italy. My first language is Italian
  • I have two boys, aged 12 and 8, and one girl aged 9
  • My day job (if you can call it that) is as a salesman of reaaaally expensive things. I'll fill you all in later (to be honest, I'm not that hard to find on the internet - just keep it to yourself)
  • I will test for my 2nd degree black belt in June of this year (Taekwondo)
  • I like guns / shooting (not people)
  • I attend Calvary Chapel church, and am a Christian.
  • I generally deplore violence.
Hold the phone- why is there so much of it in my script????? Because if you look carefully, you will see my story clearly teaches that a man will reap exactly what he sows......
  • I vote republican
  • I own a sailboat
  • I love to play Rock Band with friends (drummer), and Warhawk with my boys on PS3
  • I have been self employed for over 10 years. I am an independent contractor and get 1099s.
  • I am a professional negotiator on extremely difficult deals. I get deals done. That is my specialty. I'm the top guy at what I do at work - no joke.
  • Rarely if ever drink (like twice a year). Sometimes smoke cigars.
So that's it. There is a thumbnail image of me.

I think I posted this just in case anyone had an idea that I was independently wealthy, was very young, had no kids, whatever.

This should motivate you. I am everyman, just like you. If I can do this, so can you.
 
Last edited:
Adam thank you sir.

For being an inspiration to every one on this board. And sharing with us years of hard earned experience.

EDIT: This sounds a little odd...but I have never been so proud of a dvxuser. The fact that you are seemingly grabbing the bull by the horns and quintessentially telling the system to f*ck itself. Awesome...absolutely awesome.
 
Last edited:
Thanks thematthewbone!

Now onto a topic dear (not) to my heart - unions.

Thankfully on this production we only have to deal with one: Let's give it up for my friend and yours, SAG!

Obviously in order to hire SAG actors you must be under one of their contracts. I've heard people bantering about using non-union actors for their stuff, but frankly with the advent a few years ago of SAGindie and their slate of low budget deals, it's hardly worth it.

This isn't my first rodeo with SAG - My last two projects were union shoots and relatively painless.

This time around, I am in the process of becoming a SAG signatory on the Modified Low budget agreement. All SAG contracts are based on how much you are trying to spend.

Here are the highlights:
  • Total budget of less than $625,000
  • Day rate of $268
  • Weekly rate of $933
  • No consecutive employment (except on overnight location)
  • Six day work week with no premium
  • Reduced overtime rate
It more or less fits what I need. Frankly, I wish I could squeeze into the ultra low budget agreement since actors would only get $100 per day, but that has a 200K budget maximum (500K incl deferrals - which we don't have any of). No amount of creative accounting (read: lying) would shoehorn me into that budget, so we go with the Modified low budget.

To be honest, the rules are pretty easy, and considering that out of my $120K cast budget $105K or so are the 3 main actors, the remainder of them should be easy to handle.

SAG themselves are fairly easy to deal with, but they are very bad at returning calls, moving quickly, or being efficient. It is after all, a union of 100,000+ members, and very bureaucratic. In fact, my first call to them yesterday promised a callback that afternoon, which I still haven't received.

When you deal with SAG you are assigned a rep in your specific contract department, and you more or less deal with that one person throughout the production - unless you are under the short film agreement, in which case the turnover is huge and you won't know who to talk to. Ask me how I know.

This one will be a little different in the sense that there will be more paper and there might be a bond just in case Mr. Capitalist Pig Producer stiffs the poor proletarian actor.

They will also want to see a copy of the budget and script.

As far as actors go, Here is Wisdom: Low level day player type actors are usually militant. I've hired a couple dozen of them in the past. Now don't think I'm a hater....my own wife is a SAG Actress.

Still, watch out for these low end people sowing dissension on set. I try and separate them on set wen they aren't working because they invariably start talking union. Some sound bites from actor to actor conversations:

  • I don't think that was a full 30 minute lunch. Do you?
  • Doesn't that look like a stunt to you? I think that's a stunt.
  • Where is the craft service truck. It's past 6 hours and no one is here.
These guys know all the little minutiae of every little SAG rule and will quickly trot them out. They won't tell you to your face, invariably you will get one bad seed that will poison the rest, and then their solidarity will manifest itself by them sending a "delegate" to you, explaining your infractions.

Now don't get me wrong, I respect their agreements. I hate unions, but by being a signatory, I must respect that which I have signed. I resent the pettiness that the low end SAG people sometimes demonstrate. These troublemakers don't even realize they're marking themselves and screwing themselves on future work - producers / directors do talk. Usually their little issues flare up AFTER they've been in a scene or two, where they know you can't just fire them for continuity reasons.

It's my experience that people that have been in SAG for years, people who work all the time and are pros don't seem to exhibit these behaviors. Just watch out. One bad hyper-unionist can poison the rest and ruin the shoot. Yes, this come from experience.
 
Last edited:
Adam,

Thanks for everything you've written in this thread. I am truly inspired!

I was hoping you might share a little about the financing of your film. Perhaps some pointers or real world experience. I'm in the scripting phase of my own feature film and have doubts and fears about how I'm going to finance it.

Thanks!

--Paxton
 
Hi Paxton,

I fully plan to divulge the method I used to finance this picture very shortly. For reasons I can't disclose right now, I have to keep quiet, but before the film goes into production I will tell you all how I did it with the same clarity as the last posts. I promise.

If I were you guys that's what I'd want to know first.
 
This is shaping up to be my favorite DVXUser post of all time. Thanks so much for sharing in such vivid detail Adam!

Cheers,
 
I agree that union shows introduce many hoops to jump through, but be thankful that SAG has put their players within tangible reach of low and ultra-low budget shows.

The other crafts could learn a thing or two from how they've slid the scale to stay in the game, almost regardless of the operating budget. It is a win-win for everyone at the table.

e
 
Erik - Agreed.

The agency wants me to be DGA very soon. I discussed that with my DP, and he reminded me that we won't be able to do film #2 on a 1 million budget if I am DGA, which usually forces the crew to be union as well.

It's a shame that all these unions just add cost and really no production value to the film. Which is why a $1M non-union feature looks very much like a $3M union feature on screen.
 
Great stuff, Adam.

Question for you: Did Tom's people want to know what camera you would be shooting with? Did they scoff at the HVX?

All of us here know what the camera is capable of (in capable hands), I was just wondering what their reaction was to using a $5000 camera?

By the way, how does your wife feel about having that cube van in the driveway??? :)
 
Neal - Great question.

Neither the choice of camera nor the format has ever come up in any discussions with Sizemore's people or the other actor I am negotiating with right now.

I've been meaning to mention this. It's veeeeeerrrry compelling to all of us DVXUsers that essentially no one cares about the format.

As far as the HVX being a $5K camera, that's true, but mine certainly isn't at that level - I think I have over $15K in my camera with all the stuff on it. It's not really fair to speak of the price of the body only as many people do with the RED. The only difference here is that you can actually film something with a bare HVX.

Agents don't care. The big hurdle was the script. They loved it, and that's all they care about.

As a matter of fact, I just received an e-mail from the other actor's agent stating that she and his manager both agree this is a role he should take, and also liked the script.

Now for the big question - the one you've all been waiting to have answered:

What does my wife think of the grip truck in the driveway.

She freaking hates it, man. My daughter wanted to know why it was so ugly. The neighbors hate it. I open the door every morning and it just warms my heart to see it parked there. :happy:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top