GODMAKERS - A Feature Film

Billy Pilgrim

Billy Pilgrim

Stye in my eye
Written by Enrique Acosta

Directed by Matt Kieley

Produced by Enrique Acosta and Matt Kieley

To be shot on the DVX100

Imagine if you could dream for a living.

GODMAKERS follows 40 years in the history of (fictional) independent comic book company AFS, from the 1940s to the 1980s. The story centers on Izzy Davis, a female writer, and her publisher, Burt Stephens, and the friendship that develops between them, as they struggle to tell the kind of stories that they want to tell, while trying to make a living.

Godmakers was written for the stage by Enrique Acosta, writer of Spider Baby: The Musical. Enrique recently directed a local community theatre production of his original play, and has asked me to direct the screen adaptation. As I've been struggling to get my other feature film made, I decided I'd take Enrique up on his offer and do Godmakers as my first feature.

Ostensibly, we'll be using the same cast from the stage production, unless of a few of them don't want to do it. Fortunately, Enrique likes to work with my actress friend Fred, who I cast as Helena in Asleep at the Wheel. Fred will be reprising her role as Izzy Davis. (Here's a little trivia: I actually decided to cast Fred in Asleep at the Wheel when I saw her performance in a production of a Bridget Carpenter play called Up, which was directed by Enrique Acosta, earlier this year)

Since this production is in very early stages, I don't know when we'll be filming yet. I'd like to film Godmakers and Asleep at the Wheel back-to-back, shooting Godmakers in the Fall, and Asleep in the winter. Godmakers is only 73 pages long, plus it's already cast, and the actors know their parts, so I think it's possible to shoot the film in 2 weeks.

I know I must sound completely insane right now: I want to shoot a period piece in two weeks with no money, and another small feature film a few months later, also with no money. But damn it, I can try! But doing Godmakers first just seems right. It's already written and cast, plus it's a fairly short script, and it only takes place in one location (the AFS office bullpen). It's just a matter of finding a building that looks old enough on the inside. We already have tons of period props and costumes from the play. Plus, we're depicting a small, independent company. Enrique and I both agreed that they're very low-rent, so it doesn't have to be a big building with tons of people, but just a small, intimate group. We're going to find some extras, but their clothes and props don't have to be so detailed, as, well, they're in the background.

Even if I had a budget, I still don't think I'd be a Fincher-level stickler for period details. I want to start with one establishing shot of the AFS offices, when Izzy arrives for the first time for work, after being let go from another comic book company, and never see it again. The characters are so absorbed in their comic-book-making world, the AFS office is like a bubble, completely separate from the rest of the world. Nothing really changes.

Throughout the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s, everyone dresses the same, uses the same typewriter, etc etc. We see the world around them change: Izzy and Burt's loved-ones change with the world; their clothes change with the times, but AFS, and everyone who works there, stay the same. Until the last scene, which takes place in the '80s. That's when we start to see the changes, very subtly, in the background, and in the people's clothes, and especially their appearance (as they age) after some people have died, and others are retired, or on the verge of retirement.

So right now, we have one possible location, and we're going to scout a few more. Enrique is going to talk to the Bakersfield film board and see if they can help us acquire the right location. Meanwhile, I'm going to get the crew together. I'll be shooting myself, and I'm going to approach some filmmaker friends who were going to work with me on Asleep at the Wheel about doing Godmakers first. There's just one crucial crew member I need: a make-up artist who can age everyone 40 years with very little money. That, to me, is going to be the hardest element to acquire, aside from the location.
 
Since we're attempting to make a period piece with no money, we're going to have to do a lot of begging soon. We're going to have to beg someone to let us use a location for free, for weeks on end. And we're soon going to beg every community theatre in town to loan us props and costumes.
 
Here's some images from the stage production:

godmakers.jpg


Promotional flier

godmakers1.jpg


Jarrod Cantrell as Bert Stephens (left) and Fred as Izzy Davis

godmakers2.jpg


Dave Rock as Chet the cartoonist

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Bert and Izzy
 
When I first saw the Title, I'm thinking some post apocolypse crazy actions piece, then I saw the plotline...

The plot is pretty cool but I don't think it fits the title, but this is not my film so maybe there's an explanation for it... either way Great Title, it got my attention. Best Wishes with everything.
 
capitalP said:
When I first saw the Title, I'm thinking some post apocolypse crazy actions piece, then I saw the plotline...

The plot is pretty cool but I don't think it fits the title, but this is not my film so maybe there's an explanation for it... either way Great Title, it got my attention. Best Wishes with everything.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that. If you search "Godmakers" in google, you'll find it's also the title of an anti-mormonism documentary. I didn't write the script,b ut just reading it (or soon watching it) you find out what it means. There's a scene where Bert and Izzy stay late at the office and talk. Bert asks her how and why she became involved in comics. She goes on to explain that when she was a child, she grew up reading a lot of Norse mythology, and eventually discovered that comic books were like modern day mythology, that super heroes are like modern gods. Izzy is a character who wants to tell big stories, and is the only one who views comics as more than "children's books" but as a new art form. She wants to create her own modern gods. Hence, "Godmakers".
 
I'm going to be looking into changing the casting a bit. The principle cast is staying the same, however, a few smaller parts are being re-cast. There's a scene where AFS allows unsolicited comic book pitches from a random assortment of misfits. In the play, these characters were played by principle cast members, however, Enrique and I both agree that it might take people out of the film, so we're casting new actors in those roles. The only one that may stay the same is a character who's kind of like an R. Crumb surrogate. One of the principle cast members played him in the play, and does a spot-on Crumb impersonation. So we'll see. If we can disguise him enough I'll go with it. We're also waiting to hear back from a make-up artist. We sent her the script, so we'll see what she says. I hope to hear back from her soon so we can shoot some make-up tests. I want to shoot one short scene as a sort of "demo" to both test out the make-up and to show Enrique how I intend to shoot the movie. There's an appearance of Jack Kirby in the story, briefly. We're going to try and get in contact with the Kirby estate. There's nothing bad said about him in the script, nor is he portrayed negatively, but that doesn't mean his family won't have a problem having he and his name associated with it. We want to be safe, and don't want any lawsuit to derail our no-budget production. We just can't afford for that to happen.
 
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So today Enrique, his wife Helen (who plays Bev Stephens in Godmakers) and I went around downtown looking for possible locations. We checked out a place across town first, which the owner was willing to lease to us for a month for 250 bucks, but ti was far too small. The price sounded right, but I'm relieved it wasn't right. It's really far out in town and would really cost us on gas. So we went down town to a regular office building, but the renter wasn't available. So we checked out this wonderful little building that's renting space. We couldn't find the owner, so Enrique is going to call him sometime. But the place is perfect, my favorite of the bunch we saw. We ran into some guy who runs his IT business out of one of the offices. He let us look inside his office and had a nice conversation with Enrique. He seemed to be really into the idea of the film. The office has great windows, and a perfect, run down old look to it, which is what we need for AFS. It's also high up, which is great because all you can see through the windows is other tall buildings that also look period on the outside. Plus, you can't hear the sounds of traffic from that level, which is a big plus for sound. We also looked at two more, beautiful, but upscale places. They could work too, but I really liked the other place the best.

We're going to talk to the Empty Space Theatre (the theatre that put on Godmakers) and the Kern Arts Council about putting us under their non-profit umbrella. The Empty Space is non-profit, meaning that it keeps running from tax-deductible donations. All the Empty Space has to do is become a film production company, so whatever is provided to us for the production (location, props, etc) will count as a tax-deductible donation, which is what some of the owners of the buildings liked hearing.
 
Sometime tomorrow we're going to talk to the owner of the building that I liked the most. As of now, it'll cost us $600 for a month. We're going to see if we can work out a special deal.

I've also decided that, since the film takes place over 40 years, the passage of time, and the changes that occur over time, that I want to shoot the film in sequence. Since it takes place in one location the entire time, it's absolutely possible. So as characters die (I don't want to spoil anything) the other actors won't see them the next day. Much like death in real life, they'll just be gone. I feel this will really add another dimension to the performances. I'm hoping to achieve the same kind of emotional effect the actors went through during the play.
 
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