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

Thank you :) !!

Slaving away on my website and...

REVAMPED MY TEASER !

More shots, more action, more production value...

It will first be available strickly as a i-pod / i-phone / cellphone free download

I will be implementing this free download imminently.... Possibly as soon as... TODAY!

Will post updates and link when it is up, maybe you guys can test it for me !!

Pretty soon I am going to start cogitating about my film trailer, the real one, the one that shows both modern days and flashback scenes... And will be dramatically different in feel and pace from the JOHNNY CALLAWAY teaser.

This one will be shorter, probably 2 to 3 min.

Hope I nail the essence of the film in an alluring way that does not give away the plot outcome.

Wish me luck!

Below: A few shots from my last shoot last Sunday, showing once again that it's not the size ;) it's what you do with it hehehehe...

Below: Fellow dvx user Robert Eldon helped me line up this lovely bookstore for my film and ran camera for me THANK YOU ROBERT!!

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Here, being very creative and pulling off a gorgeous dolly (or lack thereof LOL) shot with a simple shopping cart we "borrowed" from ralphs, next door LOL. The scary part is: My idea worked!!!

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HI Faith .... nice to see the teaser .... so much work and soon you will get the fruits ;) Good luck. Great work !!!!
 
Here... I made it peachy for you, nice and soft on your delicate eyes :)...LOL

UPDATES:

I have been incredibly productive this last week, launching new features on the DEUCE OF SPADES official website, which I am redesigning from TOP TO BOTTOM. Nothing of the old site is now left. I have been once again putting my webmaster and graphic designer cap on and whipping up page upon page of narly graphics and features.

ANOTHER NEW EXCITING FEATURE!!

NEW SLIDESHOW!! Sunday I launched a new page "SCREENGRABS" which features a 3.5 minute slide show comprising of well over 70 screengrabs from the film. Get a glimpse at never before seen grabs, moments of the film and the many great faces from my incredible cast. Complete, with a dreamy tune by UK's rockabilly band "The Bonneville Barrons", straight from the film's soundtrack!! Enjoy
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...

Please visit the new website and explore it. Let me know if you find any bugs.

:dankk2:
 
I watched it on my comp. It was GREAT! The only thing that took me out of it was the dipping to black over and over at the end when the text would appear. Faith...CONGRATS...this looks phenomenal. -Matt
 
Matt Sconce said:
I watched it on my comp. It was GREAT! The only thing that took me out of it was the dipping to black over and over at the end when the text would appear. Faith...CONGRATS...this looks phenomenal. -Matt
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hey Matt :)

so I took a look at my timeline to see if the dipping to dark on titles could be avoided but found it can't. Type not readable enough without darkening the image some. However, i found a happy medium, where I can go only half the amount and still get the text readable. Maybe a good solution. When I launch teh new teaser officially I will probably go for that solution :). Thanks for the feedback!
 
I just saw the teaser-trailer, and I have to say, wow Faith, that looks great! What really struck me was the camera placement and direction -- very slick. I can't wait to see the full film.
 
pmark23 said:
I just saw the teaser-trailer, and I have to say, wow Faith, that looks great! What really struck me was the camera placement and direction -- very slick. I can't wait to see the full film.
Click to expand...

Thank you for encouragements :) ... I can't wait to share it with everyone... Working at it every minute of every day. As my skills as an editor and color corrector improve, I go back to older edits and revamp them. Didi some nice improvements to my big dragstrip scene this morning. Came out better :)
 
DOES ANYONE HAVE A LEAD TO GET A 35MM MASTER MADE from digital? And some quotes? What am I looking at cost wise? I was told 2 to 5K before but then someone else said about 50K :embarasse

Theaters are going to need it and I have no money left.... Seems my target theaters (drive ins, mom and pop theaters, 50's theaters) all still are using 35mm projectors so I am SOL.

Rats.

Help?
 
What is your distribution plan? If selling to a distributor who's planning on having a theatrical run, they will pay to get the release print made (er, which is to say, YOU will pay to get it made, they'll front the cash and then recoup their investment from any profits, and of course gouge you horrifically in the process), but at least you wouldn't have to be fronting the money.

If you're planning on four-walling, where you go town to town and arrange screenings and make a deal with the theater to split the ticket revenues, then you should probably just plan on bringing your own projector with you. Buy a great HD projector for maybe $2,000 and take it to the theaters. We did this a decade ago, screened a movie digitally in a theater that only had a 35mm projector, we set up our video projector and ran the audio to their sound board. Only real problem with a scenario like this is that video projectors will usually never have the reach to fill the screen at an appropriate size from the projection booth, so you have to set the projector up in the 10th row of seats (or somewhere thereabouts).

Also, don't forget that many theaters do have an "advertising" projector, even if it's not a digital cinema projector. You don't need something that complies with DCI to show your own picture, you just need an NTSC-capable video projector, and any of those projectors that shows slides or "The Twenty" or whatever before the screening starts, would do just fine.
 
I have seen some bad ass high output digital projectors for $5k on a drive in screen at night, I was very impressed and would have thought I was lookng at a $50k projector.

If you do something like that find a drive in with very little surrounding ambient light and no one will know.
 
Finally got around to watching the new trailer... and it's epic! I hope it's not long before I can see the final film...

In regards to the darkening the image for the titles thing-- my suggestion would be to darken the image as the first title came up, and then just leave the image darkened for the rest of the time.
 
Barry_Green said:
www.dvfilm.com can do it, and they're less expensive than most, but you're still going to be looking at $40k or so.
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Faith,

I agree with what Barry said. I think you'll find a 'film out' or transfer costing about $250 to $300 per minute. So, for your film (over 120 minutes?), it's going to cost around $33,000 for the transfer, another $5000 or so for the audio sync, and about $3000 for the composite. Then, it runs around $1700 for additional prints.

So, if you had this done and had ,say 10 prints done (for self distribution), it would cost around $4000 - $5000 per print.

Some companies that do this are dvfilm (as Barry mentioned). Also, Deluxe EFilm and FotoKem.

For self distribution, you may want to consider a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) or I think Barry mentioned a DCI (if it's the same thing?). These are used for digital projection at the theaters that have this capability. These can run around $5,000 - $6,000 and provide something like a hard drive that is 'plugged in' to the digital projectors. This is not the same as a DVD playing from a digital projector.


Best Regards,
Robert
:)
 
Robert Eldon said:
Faith,

I agree with what Barry said. I think you'll find a 'film out' or transfer costing about $250 to $300 per minute. So, for your film (over 120 minutes?), it's going to cost around $33,000 for the transfer, another $5000 or so for the audio sync, and about $3000 for the composite. Then, it runs around $1700 for additional prints.

So, if you had this done and had ,say 10 prints done (for self distribution), it would cost around $4000 - $5000 per print.

Some companies that do this are dvfilm (as Barry mentioned). Also, Deluxe EFilm and FotoKem.

For self distribution, you may want to consider a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) or I think Barry mentioned a DCI (if it's the same thing?). These are used for digital projection at the theaters that have this capability. These can run around $5,000 - $6,000 and provide something like a hard drive that is 'plugged in' to the digital projectors. This is not the same as a DVD playing from a digital projector.


Best Regards,
Robert
:)
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Robert, sounds like I am going to give you a call VERY SOON and pick your brain until THERE IS NOTHING LEFT, you seem knowledgeable in the matter, and I am totally clueless. heck i don't even know how to use an everyday projector (although one was donated to me, so I will play around with it some soon, for small local screenings at car clubs, car museums, etc...)

I like the idea of a 5 to 6K unit that can do the job. I only see ONE problem with this scenario: I expect the film to be screened all over the country, and it might even be screened more so on East Coast than West Coast. Short of flying a man with the projector to every show, I am not sure how to tackle such logistic problems. I'd have to ... What? Ship the projector and film to each theater that screens it and hope they ship it back - in one piece - and still working?

Ogh. :embarasse

What's the secret here? How would you guys tackle this?
 
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