FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget

Ok, fixed it. You shoud all be able to see photos above and the additional photos I will now upload below:


One moveable side wall allowed me to have better access and shoot with a longer lens, which is my look/trademark. the wall to the right of the bunk will move. because it is L shaped it can stand on it's own, wherever you drag it.


below: The wall Johnny is leaning against is moveable. (Johnny seen here dealing with massive chronic headaches following his car crash).

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For this scene I selected one hard light source to produce dramatic shadows. I then used the barn door to control how much of the cell was lit and to keep some of the cell into near total darkness. the garage door was opened for some of the shot, adding a hint of natural light to the shots.


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the cell then was converted into a hallway so i could shoot from the persepective of the prisoner this time, looking out of his cell. In fact you are only looking at the same removable wall :)

below: Officer Brent gives Johnny the above letter

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Johnny loses it when he gets the bad news contained in the letter, and trashed his cell, resulting in Officer Yates (the tough bastard) to become ivolved: below, my stunt coordinator / fight choregrapher friend Paul :

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since Johnny will not "knock it off", a short, but very intense, beating results.

Look at this screengrabs of Johnny hitting the wall after being hit point blank in the face by the club and notice the shadow to his right. This is Paul's face. Looks like a demon. Really creeped me out when I first noticed it, cause it was absolutely not planned.

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shooting at 1/60 resulted in blurr, especially since I was moving my camera too, to create a shaky feel to add to the tension. I tried filming at 1/125 but found I was able to see the grain rotation so I backed off and figured the blurr was the lesser of the two evils. the blurr is mostly noticeable when you freeze frame, cause when the footage is rolling the eyes see it the image more normal.

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As yates pounds on Johnny with his club we see the blood splatter on the wall. It took a lot of blood and time to get that one shot right. Go figure LOL.

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Johnny is then handcuffed and dragged out, semi concious:

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Last two shots for today:

Here the same back wall of the same cell is transformed into a brief shot of the solitary cell hallway, as we see Johnny being dragged to the "hole". I simply framed out the sink and extended the moveable wall to be at the largest size possible (when filmind the cell, we moved the wall to reduce the set size to make it look more confined / smaller). I then recycled a couple of my bathroom doors, painted them and added some misc hardware found at home depot to suggest solitary cell openings where food could be passed or prisoner watched. I found photos of that jail and the doors looked very similar so I matched best I could without spending much money. It's not an exact match, of course, but I think it is close enough to give the audience the information they need, aka: Johnny is being taken to the hole.


Below: the real jail and it's row of solitary cell doors (left side):

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here: My no budget / do the best you can version:

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the remaining shots are of him inside the hole. This section was filmed several months ago inside the basement of an old 30's house. When we did the beating choregraphy we were very careful to show Johnny being hit exactely where I had him have marks and cuts / swelling when we filmed the hole shots, so the continuity was perfect.

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I have many more shots of the hole but since they include nudity (Johhny is stripped and in handcuffs), I will not post them here. Scene was filmed tastefully and nothing ever shows (Sorry Michelle LOLOLOL)...
 
Yes, I can see them now and they are outstanding!

Thank you :) !! Makes me happy to hear that cause we worked hard at building the set. Best part is: I now OWN it. If anyone local to LA is interested in renting it for a shoot, PM me. I sure could use a little extra income right now :thumbup:.

mvansomeren, I see you are in Sherman Oaks? I work there. WOuld love to meet you, it's always good to know other filmmakers / adapter owners, I believe in networking, big time!

Here is a good exemple. Paul (stuntman / bad ass prison guard above) helped me with my Saugus dragstrip knife fight scene in September. I then helped him as a second cameraman, to film a demo he needed to apply for a job. The guy filming the demo was freshly out of filmschool and also a stuntman and none other than NICK (blond prison guard above). So my good camera work helped Nick get more killer footage and then it helped Paul get his dream job. He is very happy. THen when I needed two guards to beat up Johnny I called Paul and Nick and both came and helped me. Now I will help them again whenever they need me.

I think anyone who turns down networking and helping each other is missing a really important point here: Small as we all are, we need each other, so we can all grow, together. We acn all learn a lot from each other, too.
 
I think anyone who turns down networking and helping each other is missing a really important point here: Small as we all are, we need each other, so we can all grow, together. We can all learn a lot from each other, too.

Well said and I totally agree. Some of my most successful projects involved collaboration with others I met along the way.

Feel free to PM me. :thumbup:
 
Faith how long til this film is done?! I can't wait to see it!

I anticipate release to be around Spring 2009.

I am now starting to film the modern day section of the film, which constitutes the remaining 40%, or so, of the film. satrted last week-end and filmed for 2 days and this time had to jump back and forth from behind to in front of the camera, as I play the modern day hotrod girl that owns the Johnny Callaway roadster today. We were a crew of two women. My new camerawoman Stacey and I got a lot filmed and accomplished. We travelled light and filmed under the radar the whole time.

I'll try to post some screengrabs when I have a chance, soon.
 
very classic look in terms of image and content

really impressive / looking forward to more
:beer:

Thank you :)... we are now converting the jail set into a hospital waiting room set. we are going to flip the walls around and cover the back side with plywood and paint it white for the hospital scene. This way our set will be fully reversible :thumbup: - you get two sets for the price/space of one.

I am interested in renting out my location/sets, if anyone needs somethign like that, let me know. I could use the money right now (to say the very least). White side can be painted to any color you want / need. The jail side I do not want to touch because it looks so good / seasonned, I am keeping it permanently that way. Location of set is Woodland Hills adjacent in the San Fernando Valley near LA CA. I can also provide the set lights, and other gear (boom, shotgun mic etc etc...) Let others know.
 
My web server is now 100% back to normal, after 4 weeks of being partially down.

So I can now share some more screengrabs from footage of misc scenes already completed. I'll share a few every few days.

below: Flashback to 1942, to Johnny's childhood. Filmed on location at a completely period correct hotrod and machine shop.

Extreme close up / rack from the father who was about 40 feet away, to the son's face who was only 10 inches from lens

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the shop had very interesting textures to it.

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Johnny's father, James Callaway.

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Jeez Faith:

You are a superstar! These look freaking amazing. Your production values are so on-the-nose (in a good way). The attention to detail is just amazing. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to do period stuff and do it right.

If the acting, directing and script are as good, I would say that you have a winner of film festivals at hand and a good career as a director/producer ahead of you. Is this your first "real" film or have you directed others? Anything on-line?

Dan
 
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Pretty amazing you're doing it all my yourself. I love the shot of you behind the camera, looking through the monitor and also pushing the dolly at the same time...

Been there before. It makes it so much more enjoyable :)

Great job with the jail cell too. From the free stuff from home depot to cheating the bars... great.

Very inspiring the way you're doing this.
 
Pretty amazing you're doing it all my yourself. I love the shot of you behind the camera, looking through the monitor and also pushing the dolly at the same time...

Been there before. It makes it so much more enjoyable :)

Great job with the jail cell too. From the free stuff from home depot to cheating the bars... great.

Very inspiring the way you're doing this.

I know, it's weird how everything is falling into place for this film!!

Just this last week another miracle happened. Can you believe the owner of the BIGGEST prop house in the WORLD (conveniently located here in LA) contacted me to offer his help to see me get the last flashback filmed? He heard about my hotrod film and that I had run out of funds and unable to cover prop rentals for my 1955 hospital waiting room scene.... So he stepped forward to help me. He is an avid hotrodder himself, what I refer to as a "rodbro".

I went there thursday and visited his HUGE facility and he personally helped me pick all the furniture and fixture I needed, PLUS he also is giving me what I need to create my chapel shot...

What an awesome, generous man!

I walked out of there, my feet weren't even touching the ground...

It was truly a MIRACLE.

See? If you have FAITH .... :thumbup:
 
Jeez Faith:

You are a superstar! These look freaking amazing. Your production values are so on-the-nose (in a good way). The attention to detail is just amazing. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to do period stuff and do it right.

If the acting, directing and script are as good, I would say that you have a winner of film festivals at hand and a good career as a director/producer ahead of you. Is this your first "real" film or have you directed others? Anything on-line?

Dan

No, this is my first film, I made a 1 hour short last October after buying the adapter , so to learn how to use my new gear and try my hand at lighting (since I could not find a DP that wanted to work for free and commit for that long of a project).. I got so frsutrated looking for a DP I decided:

"To hell with them! how hard can this be? if they can do it, SO CAN I"

THE REST IS HISTORY LOL...

Turns out I have a knack for lighting. Would love to learn the craft in more depth... Sure would be nice to take some seminars / crash courses etc... But for now I am getting by A-OK :).
 
More screengrabs. This scene took two full days to film. It was a challenge. The temps inside the metal period correct machine shop was above 100F, no AC and no way to open any windows because it is only 50 feet from the 5 freeway... The sound sucked.. Lots of modern sounding traffic which I could not have in a 1955 period film...

It was a real toughy.

but I pulled it off, nonetheless...

A private road was donated by a hotrodder buddy of mine. I filmed MANY scenes on his ranch. The cars were donated by my other hotrodder buddies.

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Shot with a shoulder mount, from inside the moving car:

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Inside the machine shop, a vintage 40's Coca Cola machine, which I can now display since Coca Cola gave me the release.

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A vintage playboy magazine... Might have to get a release from them for that shot... Not sure...

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Inside the shop with temps above 100F. Some of the actors had to wear varsity leather jackets.. OUCH.

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Strong faces in my film

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Faith, your screengrabs are excellent. It appears to me that because you are shooting on weekends that you have the opportunity to see how its going before moving on and reshoot as necessary. Likely less of that now as you've gained experience. I think for the contraints you've had its a brilliant way to shoot and reminds me of the way you'd tackle designing and building a custom rod.

Can't wait to see this movie!
 
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