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

sealerman said:
Obvioulsy you have WAY more money and help with the project than most of us could ever hope to. I realie that as far as money you meant "no investors". which is ok. but there must be a great deal of money that was put into this project and without investors, most of could not even come close to what you are achieving..
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I don't think what Faith is doing is out of reach of anyone on this board with a day job, a compelling vision, and a bit of heart.
 
djkarn105 said:
I don't think what Faith is doing is out of reach of anyone on this board with a day job, a compelling vision, and a bit of heart.
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I'm doing it right now. Sure, not in quite as "grand" a fashion as she has but I'm still doing it. Alot of factors will attribute to how close you can get to what Faith has done. It also has alot to do with who you know. For example, her pro sound mixing would cost more than the entire film cost her to make, if she actually had to pay for it.

The idea here is that Faith organized and completely put together this feature film using nothing more than her own ingenuity and resources and managed to do so without investors and with a professional end result. She's never gone over what she spent for everything, but I would bet that most everything she has used has been donated/borrowed/given.. with most of her budget going to food for the cast and crew. She already had camera gear that she bought herself, and everyone worked for free.

You'd be amazed what you can do with a little planning and finding the right people.

I'm on day 4 of production, and I hope my project turns out half as good as Faith's has so far.

Making connections and generally being nice to people you meet goes a long way when you need something yourself.
 
Hi Faith.. how did you do your audio? was it straight to camera or to an external recorder? Not sure whether to buy an external recorder or what I should do. Any suggestions?
 
n1c02 said:
Hi Faith.. how did you do your audio? was it straight to camera or to an external recorder? Not sure whether to buy an external recorder or what I should do. Any suggestions?
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I WENT STRAIGHT TO CAMERA and I was very happy with the quality the P2 card Panasonic HVX200 gave me. The secret however is THE MIC.

So when I shopped for a mic, I was tempted to cut corners because I had so little money to begin with and needed EVERYTHING (cause I owned nothing). But thanks God a friend of mine who works in a pro audio facility and has YEARS of experience gave me GOOOOD advice he said:"Don't cut corner when it comes to your mic. get a Sennheiser 416 shotgun, it's the industry standard. yes it is twice the money but in that price range it is worth EVERY penny" and he was right. Glad I listened and i never regretted spending $600 more on that mic. the one the store was trying to sell me was $600 and the 416 was around $1200 I think... Money wisely spent. You'll also need a good wind cover furry thingie ($150 or so) and a good mic mount ($125 or so)... It adds up fast :(

So to sum it up if you have a good mic, ar careful about boom position and keep outside noise to a minimum, you can get good quality going straight into the camera, if you have a good enough camera.

Hope this helped :).
 
sealerman said:
Hi.. i dont mean to sound negative.. But I know alot of us are wondering. I have read through your post and I think your film is going to be awesome.
But with that being said.. I think it is just a little misleading with how you pushed your project as being all done by you.

Basically you said that you are doing everything yourself. As much as this would almost seem impossible with the fantastic job that you have accomplished with this project.
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Well you know Jay, everytime I watch my film I too cannot believe it. It has exceeded every expectations I ever had and to see how it snowballed into this now rather impressive project, and how it started from such a tiny nothing project is nothing short of a miracle. I look at it and I keep thinking in my head: " I did this?????????????????? Me?????? Little ol' me????" and I too can't believe. Yet, there it is.

I know it is hard to believe that one person did "it all" (using the term in the broad sense of course) but here are a few things to consider:

1- I started the project by myself filling all the functions: Basically a self contained film studio LOL - I did: Come up with the plot idea, write the script, cast the actors, scout the locations, secure the props, cars, wardrobe, haul the gear, do the lighting, set-up the camera and shoot, pull my own focus, do all my shots myself (unless I as in front of the camera - in which case I set up the shot and then had someone execute them for me), direct, monitor the sound, do the wardrobe hair and make up as well as special effect make up and FX, including blood and smoke SFX, build sets, do set designs and decors, edit, compose the soundtrack, record all the instruments on the main score, and sing on it, mix the score, do the legal paperwork, draft contracts myself... I also did the website, designs, some of the photos (I would have done all the photos but didn't have a good camera until recently - sigh)...

The list goes on and on.

Is that not enough for you?? Or should I have done MORE? :Drogar-Shock(DBG):

2- As the project grew in proportions and buzz, people starting stepped forward to help and I was glad to involve them. This happened mostly at the later stages of the film. The more the film progresses the bigger the caliber of the people involved.

3- Everything was donated and all my funds went to get 1- the gear 2- filming insurance 3- feed my cast and crew. Crew was very sparse varying from having noone at all to having one guy (majority of the time) to having 2 or 3. People rarely stuck around cause there was no pay so it was a very unpredictable scenario for each shoot as to whether i was going to be able to get help that day or not.

4- You will see many names in the end credits, of all the actors (150 or so), car owners (100 or so) and location owners (40 or so) and also people who donated funds to the film (fans pitched in, donating small amounts via the internet, $20 bucks here, $10 bucks there and on occasion $100 - that maybe added up to about $3000 and helped feed the actors for a few months), and you will also see the names of the volunteers, some of them were only on the set one time but still get credits, so that list is long too... So you will see MANY people were involved in making the film. Each person helped and I am very grateful for their help, even those who only helped one time.

5- Some people were essential to help put the finishing touches to the film and make it look good as it can, such as CGI artists who donated their work, Sound mixing people, color correction volunteer etc... As I am not tackling that end of things and could never do it to the level they can.


In conclusion, many people participated in the film but I STILL did it myself because the main functions were all mine to fill. Writer, director, Cinematographer, Producer, Executive producer, casting director, composer,(although I migh tinvolve someone to help with additional underscore and arrangement in the next month), Cameraman, blablablabla....

If you have doubts about this, I recommend you read my blog which describe it all in it's gory details, but start from the beginning please.

There is a reason why Academy member Jim Nelson said " If you do not get an Academy Award nomination for this accomplishment, there is no justice". He too could not believe his eyes when he saw the finished film, that a mere girl could pull it off. But since he knows someone who was on my set and saw me work, he knew it was not BS. Cause he had proof ot it.

So there you have it :).

Check out this candid behind the scene clip edited from footage shot by my lead actor over the course of a year and get a glimpse of the behind the scenes not so glamorous work (complete, with me doing hair, make up, helping building sets, diggin props out of a desert dump LOL)


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Gosh ... gas at about $4/gallon !!! In EU/FIN we are about 50% more ... but I recall 10 years ago in US was 4 times cheaper then EU. Now only 50% !! WOW !!! :)
GO FAITH !!! :)
 
Just watched the trailer and a few clips and all I have to say is WOW. :shocked:

Will the dvd be out by this summer like your official site says? What kind of bonus features will be on it?

Excellent work and I'm really looking forward to seeing the film! :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
 
RockmanX3 said:
Just watched the trailer and a few clips and all I have to say is WOW. :shocked:

Will the dvd be out by this summer like your official site says? What kind of bonus features will be on it?

Excellent work and I'm really looking forward to seeing the film! :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
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I found that the HARDEST thing to do in all the things to do when making a film yourself is to predict what the release date is gonna be LOL. It's pretty funny to see old promo card of mine announce; SPRING 2009 then SUMMER 2009 the FALL 2009 then WINTER 2009...

Ogh. What was I thinking? I think it's so hard to picture in one's mind just HOW MUCH FREAKIN WORK IT IS TO MAKE A FEATURE FILM, especially a 2 hour period drama one.

Yet this is the question that comes back MOST: When is the film gonna be released?

Best answer is of course: when it's done ;).

Patrick told me: You best think "June 2010" but even that is only a guestimate. I think it to be realistic since we are not down to the last stretch... But don't hold me to that date ;).


I have TONS of Special Features stuff but not sure

a- how much time I will have to prepare them (edit etc..) in time for release date
b- they'll never fit with a 2 hour film on one single DVD so then I'd have to have a double DVD release which might bump price up too much - but I wil enquire and get quotes.

So for sure I will have Special Features, but maybe the initial release will not have any or only (if I can fit some with the film on the same DVD disc) just a few :) - Then maybe release a "Special Edition with all the goodies and double disc package, including the book" (more research for me to do LOL)

Here again, vague answers as I have still a lot of homework, research and learning to do...

I'll keep you guys posted though :)
 
CiPO said:
Gosh ... gas at about $4/gallon !!! In EU/FIN we are about 50% more ... but I recall 10 years ago in US was 4 times cheaper then EU. Now only 50% !! WOW !!! :)
GO FAITH !!! :)
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the almost $5 a gallon that summer KILLED ME as both my truck (when towing the trailer) and hotrod eat gas like crazy and do 10 miles only per gallon... And I had so very little money to begin with, a lot of it went to feed the beasts... Cause we filmed far from LA many week-ends... Ogh.
 
Over the last two days I went over 30 minutes worth of flm edits and transitions. Today I attack the last 30 minutes... Should have picture lock by Sunday :happy:.

Got new CGI shots from Frank, new relocated fire shot works great!!!

Also received my fireman and firetruck CGI shot which Nick worked on, and Darren added addtional smoke to. Weeheee everything looking goooood :). This is not yet the final version but now I was able to reedit the scene to incorporate my two fire department shots. The temporary CGi shot will later be swapped with final shot, which I should receive within a week or so. And these two shots added a lot to the Authenticity and credibility of the crash scene.

So far so good...

Many thanks to the kind hearted, generous, helpful CGI artists who are contributing to the film. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! :love4:
 
Need for a transcript of finalized dialogues arose (to get started on subtitles work) so I got started on making one yesterday.

Get this: I was able to type every line of dialogues in my film - from memory. I sat at the office, while having no access to my film footage and simply typed away. Wrote the entire thing in 5 hours. Got home, sat down with footage and compared and found I was 99% accurate. :Drogar-Shock(DBG):

Other note: Amazing to see how much I changed the original script dialogues, while filming and while editing. Also, interesting to notice how little dialogues I have, especially at the end of the film. In my book, less is more.
 
Done. I put your film at the top of my queue so I'll get to see early next week - Looking forward to it!

PS: Noticed someone else released a film with same title as yours, the same year. Don't you hate it when sh*t like that happens? GRRRR...
 
Hi Faith, I am going to order one of your DVD. Will you kindly sign it and dedicated to me ? :) Before you will become too famouse :D
 
CiPO said:
Hi Faith, I am going to order one of your DVD. Will you kindly sign it and dedicated to me ? :) Before you will become too famouse :D
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I don't think that a great concern LOL, and yes, all the pre ordered DVDs will be autographed, it's my way to say THANK YOU for supporting the project!!
 
Latest updates:



YESSS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I FINALLY HAVE PICTURE LOCK !!!!!!!!!!!

:2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:



After 10 days of nit picking to no end, and burning test DVD upon test DVD, I have finally ran out of things to do. This is it kids. NO MORE EDITING.

I'm done.
 
EXCELLENT !!! Congrat .... I wanna see you next year at the OSCAR !!! We will all bring you there by popular acclamation (if such stuff exists in English) :)
 
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