Carte Blanche - A Feature Film Written & Directed by Matt Kieley

Sean Penn is going to be in town the day we start shooting again. He produced and narrated a documentary called Witch Hunt, which is about wrongly-accused child molesters in Bakersfield. Fred called me this afternoon, frantic, to tell me. He's her favorite actor. We were supposed to shoot two scenes: one in the afternoon, and the other in the evening. She called me, begging me to reschedule the night shoot for Wednesday so she could go to the screening. I let her off the hook. I didn't really want to shoot for ten hours to begin with, but I thought we had less time to do it, since she's moving soon. But today was her last day of work, so she's available Wednesday. Penn is also leading a rally with some of the exonerated people, who are the subjects of the documentary, at the liberty bell in front of the courthouse at 4:30. Hopefully she's be focused while we shoot her scene. She wants me to go with her, which would be doable since the theater is down the street from the bar we're filming at, but unfortunately, I have other stuff to film, and I don't have $25 for a ticket. She's was so excitedly nervous when she called to tell me. It was hilarious and adorable.
 
We shot a few new scenes and it went well. Shooting ten-page scenes is kind of tough, but we got it done. I can't wait to be done with this so I an move onto new material.
 
75 minutes cut. I'm afraid the first cut may clock in at about 2 hours, maybe longer. I'm looking at bringing the final cut in at about 90+ minutes.
 
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Fred's (real) tattoo

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heh.
 
About 100 minutes cut, with about four scenes to cut, and three more to shoot (and cut). Last night I showed what I have so far to some friends, and friends of friends, to see how it plays to other people. I have a better idea of how some scenes are paced now. They liked what they saw. My friend Shannon had this to say "I like it, even though it's long as hell." I should put that on the poster. I was also happy to see they laughed at all the parts I always found funny, but wasn't sure others would.
 
I kind of want to change the title, but I think it's too late at this point. I mean, not really. It hasn't been shown publicly, and I haven't made a website yet (aside from the myspace and vimeo pages, which I would feel compelled to start new ones with the new title in the url) but I would feel kind of weird calling it something else, as if I were talking about a different movie.
 
Congratulations on the progress you've made. I think Carte Blanche is an excellent title considering that you didn't spare anything in making this movie; I'm not talking money but emotionally, so to speak. Keep up the good work and one day you'll realize that you've made a movie, and then it's up to an audience to see.

I feel you've been very original in the way you've made this movie.
 
Only one more scene to shoot. I made a music video with Thor Brinsfield, for one of his songs that's in the film:

http://www.vimeo.com/5118151

I was going to upload it myself in a couple of days but Thor couldn't wait and took the liberty to rip and upload it to his vimeo page. Thanks, Thor! I'm really pleased with the video too. I very rarely like anything I make, especially right away. It usually has to grow on me.
 
Someone on myspace had this to say in response to the new trailer:

"no idea what this flick is about and looks boring, but i kinda really wanna see it."

I'm so putting that on the poster.
 
So about a week ago I shot the last scene that was left to be re-shot. It went well. We were shooting outdoors in 105 degree weather. The continuity is the worst this time around. Brandon ended up getting a pretty noticeably short haircut (his hair was pretty shaggy in most other scenes) and Coryn had lost about 15 pounds since the last time we shot with her. Oh well, I think the scene turned out well. Only a little bit of editing left, and I still have to shoot the last movie-within-the-movie scene. I've had several ideas for new scripts, once of which is developing quickly. I might even try to do it this fall if I can get it together. It might be easier this time, since I actually have actors who are hungry to make another film and work with me again, and this one will be even simpler than Carte Blanche. We'll see what happens.
 
10 pages into my new script, although it's proving to be a bit of a distraction. I have just a few more scenes left to cut for Carte Blanche, and then some inevitable ADR to do. Bleh.
 
We're finally having our wrap party this weekend. Finally. We technically wrapped in March, and we shot the last scene to be re-shot a month ago. So yeah, this is long over-due.
 
So the film is pretty much at picture lock. Runtime: 86 minutes. I'm pretty happy with it, for the most part. I keep thinking of the scene in Ed Wood when he's on the phone with a studio exec: "Really? Worst movie you ever saw? Well, my next one will be better! Hello...?" I'm going to sit on the cut for about a week. I plan on watching it a few more times with other people, so I can see it vicariously through fresh eyes, and hopefully get a better sense of the pacing. It seems right at the moment, but I've screened rough cuts that I thought had good pacing, only to feel how brutally slow it really was once I screened it for others.
 
Billy, it's good to hear that you're almost done with your movie. It's been a hell of a journey but you've learned so much about the process. I just have a little suggestion for you: screen the movie on a big screen -- in a theater if you can. You'll notice the timing of the scenes will be different than watching it on a home screen.
 
Thank you. That's an interesting notion. I'm going to try and convince a friend of mine (who is also a cast member) who works at a theatre to let us use it for an hour and a half. It's not a movie theatre, but they have a big screen and projector.
 
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