"Corrado" - A production blog

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Brandon Rice said:
We had 12 hour days for the most part...went one or two hours over on a few days, and had one 23 hour day, but for the most part we stuck to 12 hours.
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Heart of Now was a 110 page screenplay. we had 10 hour days for crew (8hrs for cast) and we shot for 19 days.
 
Have you put any thought into having an on site editor to edit while you go? I'm part of that team right now and I can say it's definitely a huge plus to have. The day before scenes are cut by lunch the next day.
 
That is way cool, charlie. I'm doing the edit myself, and I wonder if I'll have the energy to cut the night after each filming.

I cut my feature length doc around christmas time and it was a bear to me. Took over a month. Mind you, that was in Italian with subtitles but still, as much as Ilove editing it's a real process for me and I can't take it lightly.
 
Today sucked. I had a real problem with one of the actors (no, not Messner or Sizemore).

I can't talk about it publicly, but as soon as this movie is done, I'm going to tell you guys about it, so remind me, please, to do so. He's trying his hardest to be a douche bag.

Call from SAG.

The call a producer hates.

SAG: Hello, this is XXXX from SAG. We've received an anonymous call today about your production.

Me: Really????

SAG: Yes. the caller says the stunt coordinator you have may not be up to the task.

Me: Huh...well I'm the stunt coordinator - what gives?

SAG: I see. Well the stunt coordinator must be properly trained to show the actors how to perform the stunts in the film.

Me: Is there a licensing requirement?

SAG: No,but the person must be qualified. What stunts will you be having?

Me: We'll be doing some fight scenes, some falling, and some gunplay.

SAG: Ok, well are you qualified to do these things?

Me: Let's see....I am testing for my second degree black belt in two months. I'm a member of the World TKD federation, and am licensed by Kukkiwon in Korea to compete in any TKD event worldwide. I teach people how to fight and how to fall. I spar twice per week. I have a federal firearms license, although it's expired now. I.....

SAG: Oh, well! Then you're totally qualified!

Me: Do you want me to fax over my Dan certificates or...

SAG: Oh, no. Clearly you're qualified. Sorry for the trouble...

Me: Okay...but I can fax over a resume...

SAG: No, that's fine. have a nice day.

And that was it. Really weird. The last thing I want to do is piss SAG off, but they really put me on edge with the "anonymous caller" thing.

And that caller is probably a cast member. After telling SAG about my qual's, they insisted that I was okay for the job. And I really am.

We aren't falling out of buildings, setting people on fire, or crashing cars, for which I am not qualified. But as far as I know, no one I could hire is any better qualified than me to direct the fight scene that I wrote...ok, maybe Jet Li is but that's it ;-)

So SAG is kinda like big brother except they back way down when you challenge them a bit.

I'm just waiting to find out who the diva is that called. Probably someone that doesn't want to scrape and elbow doing a stunt. And it's not Messner, cause he's a real man and doesn't mind fighting. So who is it......
 
Adam,

Don't keep that at heart. maybe was an agent and not an actor. you know how those agents are: they want to show their clients how "commited" to them they are. to show that they "care"...

I second the fellow poster's recommendation to have someone to help you doing some dailies editing.

I shoot fairly similar to you- no storyboard, based on "feeling" and organic improvisation on the scene. I do get you when you say you have the entire picture in your head. That's how I shot my 40 minutes short that is currently in post production.

However, this type of shooting needs so much focus from your part, that sometimes something is missed/forgotten/goofed. The dailies editor (if you have the budget- and p2 is fantastic for getting dailies!) gives you that assurance at the end of the day. I wouldn't give him a night to do it, though. I would ask to have a rough edit 2 hours after shooting.

You'll defintely be exhausted after shooting to personally edit dailies, IMO. Sitting down with someone else doing the job is another matter, though.

Also I don't know if you have this already on your budget, but get a directors monitor, or a bigger on board LCD. I don't know if you'll be the camera operator, but framing action trough the LCD's main poblem is not actually focus, but attention to detail on the frame. It trully affects composition.

My 2cents.

Keep it up!
 
#423: I really don't get this whole agent-thing. Wouldn't be a clear conflict of interests if agents handle both producers and actors? That sound seriously weird to me. By the way, I'm from Denmark where these things work quite a bit differently (thank God). I can literally look most of the biggest danish actors up in the phonebook and just call them.
 
gi-jones said:
#423: I really don't get this whole agent-thing. Wouldn't be a clear conflict of interests if agents handle both producers and actors? That sound seriously weird to me. By the way, I'm from Denmark where these things work quite a bit differently (thank God). I can literally look most of the biggest danish actors up in the phonebook and just call them.
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That's because there are no stalkers or whackos in Denmark.
 
But honestly, if the purpose was just to weed out unwanted calls, a secretary would do. To me it seems that these agents are more parasites than anything else.
 
taormina said:
I'm just waiting to find out who the diva is that called. Probably someone that doesn't want to scrape and elbow doing a stunt. And it's not Messner, cause he's a real man and doesn't mind fighting.
So who is it......
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It's the waiter-dude!!! It's the waiter-dude!!!

.......

Hey Adam... Just read the last 14 or so pages and got caught back up on your adventure, (busy 2 weeks for me). I have to say that it is a different experience to read your thread in large chunks as opposed to the daily drop-in. With the former, my heart gets pounding reading this thread... like reading a good book! It's a real page-turner. It is so exhilarating, exciting and educational.

This thread is a real treat. Not only am I thoroughly engrossed in living vicariously through your filmmaking diary, it has taught me so much... both from the contributions and the occasional constructive "arguments." The information and lessons here, if for no other reason, at least expose me to a variety of styles and techniques, opinions and beliefs.

Example... I have never used shot-lists or storyboards. I am a one-man machine when it come to doing anything and I know how I want it done and how I will achieve that goal. But when I read Barry's posts, they made a tremendous amount of sense. Not that I am going to run out and change my style BUT I will need to consider much of what was shared (in those posts) when I get to that stage (of shooting with large crews) and develop a method of transferring my vision.

I know that my future work will benefit from the inspiration and information shared here by you and our fellow dvxusers.

I hope that writing in this thread is as rewarding for you as it is for us. I imagine that it is both fun and therapeutic for you. I know that it would be for me!

Best and Happy Shooting!

-Ted

btw.... Congrats on Messner. What a catch!

Oh! And on Kercheval. You really have put together an intriguing cast. I CANNOT wait to see this.
 
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I agree with Ted completely. I'm sure I've said it a few times in the past, but I feel I need to reiterate every once in a while that this really is an amazing thread.
 
How I got the money. It's what everyone wants to know. I get the question in PMs, in direct e-mails, you name it. Everyone's got the same schtick - you can tell me.... I won't tell anyone.

And I haven't. Well, except for one person, Dan Brockett, but for various reasons, he's in the know.

And I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to make it the focus of this thread. I did not want it to be the centerpiece of our discussions. Why? The way I got it is so unoriginal, so boring, so mundane that anyone could do it.

You WILL be disappointed. I promise you.

But I promised I'd tell all, so here goes; everyone write this down...my patented, magical way of raising money....

I borrowed it.

See? That's it. Everyone happy now? OK, here's the longer version.

I did not want investors for this movie. Well, that's really not true. I wanted them but I figured there was no way to get them with my track record of...jack squat.

So I devised a plan that I would seek out 2-3 people that I knew had the kind of money I was talking about, and thought I would pay them a hefty interest on their loan to me.

Here is wisdom: Do not borrow what you cannot repay.

Seems obvious but if you know how to sell like I do, you can borrow far more than you can repay. Save that for movie #2, Speilberg.

So I learned quite a bit along the way. Here are some bullet points:
  • Wealthy people are not interested in interest. One of my lenders said "Interest is a given. I don't care about interest" The thing they really are after is the....
  • Ten Bagger. A ten bagger is that lucrative investment where you wind up netting ten times your investment. Wealthy people love to put money in places they think will give them huge gains.
  • Wealthy people don't need paper if you know them and they trust you. To date, I have borrowed $350,000 unsecured. No paper of any kind. I borrowed a bit more than the movie costs just in case.
  • Wealthy people never want to hear that you will repay them from the profit of an investment. You MUST have a conventional way of repaying a loan.
So how does all this go down in real life?

Here is wisdom: There is no free ride in life.

I never at any point sold the upside of this movie to people. I never mention Blair Witch, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Juno, or any other of these anomalous movies. All I said was that if we can gather up some cash, we can mike a nice little direct to DVD pic, make a nice little modest profit, and do it again. That's it.

Cause you will have exactly one chance to f&uck up with these people. Then it's all over.

"Business plans always look perfect", said one of my guys. They never show failure.

Now I didn't have a business plan. I had some cash coming in in about 8-10 months left over from my old day job that more or less covers this money. I do not doubt myself. All my life I have had the uncanny ability to make money. I've also had the uncanny defect of being able to spend more than I made.

Seriously. Right after high school, my friends went to work at Cinnabon and Jiffy Lube. I took drafting in school, and as soon as I got out, I went to go work as a structural steel draftsman where I made 40K a year. When I was 18.

So that's my thing. I started working as a yacht broker almost 10 years ago now. I said to myself I would be the top guy there. Everyone laughed. One guy called me a bum cause I would always wear flip flops. After the fifth year there I was the top guy and never looked back. Then I got bored. The challenge was all gone.


Back to the flick. I told my people what I needed, for how long, and swore to repay it, with interest. But during the course of my borrowing, I had to give away 50% of the profits.

No one will lend you any amount of money and not participate in your success. Number one rule of venture capital. If you are familiar with that realm, you know that on average, the VC people will own 80% of the company they invest in. No one wants interest. They want a ten bagger.

You must find people that trust you, people that believe in you to invest in your projects.

Now you might say - I could've done better than him if I had his money. I say to that - get the money, genius. That's the hardest part.

Remember the one guy that was saying that after the money, it was all easy??? Just tell us how you got the money??? Remember that guy?

And I said it's the way you sell, the way you carry yourself. And I think a lot of you thought that was bullshit. But it's true.

If you can't sell, if you can't inspire confidence in others, if you can't carry yourself like someone worthy of receiving $350K unsecured, YOU WILL NEVER GET THE MONEY. And there's no point going any further.

That's why Hollywood is full of failure, posers, talkers, and dreamers. Because the hardest part is being able to convince people to give you the money.

Plus, it takes many sleepless nights formulating your plan, many nights or praying to Almighty God without which you won't even get your food for the day. And it takes risky behavior, balls, and the willingness to stick your neck out. Way out.

Part two of this to follow.
 
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So what happens if you don't make the money back on the movie?

edit -- OK I see that part 2 is coming.
 
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