David_M_Payne
Well-known member
Holy War so far.
Well it has been a mixed bag on this movie to this point. I've had some successes, and some failures with the filming. Using the DVX100a cameras is pretty easy, as they don't really need much lighting to film most of the scenes, and the mics have been great at picking up the dialog. So the twenty grand I invested in the equipment has been great, all I could ask for.
I used the model of "Clerks" for this first movie, get some friends together and make a movie like Kevin Smith did. He had friends who were into film though, I have friends at work and else where who were doing me a favor and as it turned out in the end not all that interested in setting aside some time to shoot this film. This would turn out to be a big mistake for me, but I guess it is all a learning experience. I love film, I've studied it off and on for over twenty years now, and it is time to get this movie, "Holy War" out of my head and onto film. I need to find some people who are into acting, and I may have started doing that, as one young lady at UNR has answered my ad, and she has been acting since she was five and is a theater major. She isn't concerned about money, she just wants as much screen time as she can get for her resume, which is a great attitude, but one I can't count on for the rest of the actors that I need to finish this film. I don't take any classes right now, between full time work and the movie I just don't have any time, and I have no real contacts in the theater departments at UNR and TMCC, so I'm a bit of an outsider trying to make contact with people who would be interested in this film. On the plus side I have several ladies who are topless dancers who are willing to do the fantasy dream sequences, but they have to be paid for that and I have the money to do that, so that isn't a problem. We got one nude death scene done with one of the topless girls who is doing some of the acting for me, and it went well. Getting the rest of the actors and actresses has been my biggest headache.
It started out great, got the lab scenes done up at the TMCC science lab, and then the guy who was a friend of mine from work, was doing the role of Mel the janitor, and he went south on me in the end. As his character is in his scenes for one day and part of the same night, continuity was important in his look and dress. So he films the lab scenes and they are great, he nails the part. He is no Jason Mewes, but he is funny. We do his hiring scenes, and one day he is great, but the other person playing the person who is hiring him sucks, not from lack of trying, he just doesn’t have any acting chops. So we shoot the scenes over a few days later, and the lady I have doing the part of the one hiring Mel is good, but my friend playing Mel is loaded and can't get his lines done at anything close to what he had done before, so this time he sucks and he know it. It was like night and day from him. Before we can re-schedule the hiring scenes and shoot his final death scene so he can be done with his part in the movie, he goes on vacation and comes back with a buzz hair cut, his semi-long curly hair is all gone. So I wait for it to grow out, but what grows out is an attitude on him instead. He says he will be there for a shoot, but doesn’t show and gives me the silent treatment when I try to find out what happened. Then he starts making demands like he is a big star or something and I have a big budget, and he finally goes south on me to such an extent that I can no longer work with him. I had offered him points, but that is not enough to get him put in the effort he needs to make his character work on the screen. I'm so pissed at him now that even though I am going to be able to come up with some money to pay my actors, I don't want to work with him as his actions have poisoned the environment between us now and I don't trust him to do what he says he will do. (This is a good lesson in trusting people you think are friends to help you on a project that is important to you.) Well, $750.00 and all those lab scenes go down the drain. (At 750.00 for rent on the lab, insurance for the shoot and some pro camera help from a friend of mine who had to be paid 200.00 a day, that hurt. Though to be fair, she taught us a lot about the cameras, light, sound and angles and some other stuff that has been helpful so it wasn't a total loss.)
So at this point I have some good people who are helping me on this, but boy would movie money solve most of my problems, and I may have found enough of that now, we will see.
What I've learned so far is that while I have a great story to tell, something that is missing on so many movies that get made these days, I don't have a great script, yet. I have had several people who said they would go over the script I wrote and help me put it into shooting shape, but so in the last six months it has been all talk and no action, so I've realized that I have to do the best I can to re-write it so that it is a viable shooting script not just a reading script. I'll do the best I can, but I'm really more of a storyteller than a scriptwriter, though Movie Magic Screenwriter is a great program to use. I know I'm not a great director, but I know what I want to do with this film, so I'll be able to do a good enough job that when the film is done it will tell the tale well enough for a first time director. And I'm learning a lot, some good, some bad, about the movie biz from an independent venue.
So at this point I'm waiting for two things, me to finish the re-write of the script to put it into shape for a shooting script as opposed to a reading script, and some money to hire some real low budget actors and actresses from the TMCC and UNR theater departments. I'm working on the script, it won't be perfect, but I think I can get it into shooting shape. As for some more money, well I'm going to tap into my house and use some of that equity I have to get enough cash about 10,000 or so to offer some of these students some real money for their work. I can't pay SAG scale, but I can pay some money and offer some points too. If any of you have any thoughts, suggestions etc on this, post away. Thanks.
David
Well it has been a mixed bag on this movie to this point. I've had some successes, and some failures with the filming. Using the DVX100a cameras is pretty easy, as they don't really need much lighting to film most of the scenes, and the mics have been great at picking up the dialog. So the twenty grand I invested in the equipment has been great, all I could ask for.
I used the model of "Clerks" for this first movie, get some friends together and make a movie like Kevin Smith did. He had friends who were into film though, I have friends at work and else where who were doing me a favor and as it turned out in the end not all that interested in setting aside some time to shoot this film. This would turn out to be a big mistake for me, but I guess it is all a learning experience. I love film, I've studied it off and on for over twenty years now, and it is time to get this movie, "Holy War" out of my head and onto film. I need to find some people who are into acting, and I may have started doing that, as one young lady at UNR has answered my ad, and she has been acting since she was five and is a theater major. She isn't concerned about money, she just wants as much screen time as she can get for her resume, which is a great attitude, but one I can't count on for the rest of the actors that I need to finish this film. I don't take any classes right now, between full time work and the movie I just don't have any time, and I have no real contacts in the theater departments at UNR and TMCC, so I'm a bit of an outsider trying to make contact with people who would be interested in this film. On the plus side I have several ladies who are topless dancers who are willing to do the fantasy dream sequences, but they have to be paid for that and I have the money to do that, so that isn't a problem. We got one nude death scene done with one of the topless girls who is doing some of the acting for me, and it went well. Getting the rest of the actors and actresses has been my biggest headache.
It started out great, got the lab scenes done up at the TMCC science lab, and then the guy who was a friend of mine from work, was doing the role of Mel the janitor, and he went south on me in the end. As his character is in his scenes for one day and part of the same night, continuity was important in his look and dress. So he films the lab scenes and they are great, he nails the part. He is no Jason Mewes, but he is funny. We do his hiring scenes, and one day he is great, but the other person playing the person who is hiring him sucks, not from lack of trying, he just doesn’t have any acting chops. So we shoot the scenes over a few days later, and the lady I have doing the part of the one hiring Mel is good, but my friend playing Mel is loaded and can't get his lines done at anything close to what he had done before, so this time he sucks and he know it. It was like night and day from him. Before we can re-schedule the hiring scenes and shoot his final death scene so he can be done with his part in the movie, he goes on vacation and comes back with a buzz hair cut, his semi-long curly hair is all gone. So I wait for it to grow out, but what grows out is an attitude on him instead. He says he will be there for a shoot, but doesn’t show and gives me the silent treatment when I try to find out what happened. Then he starts making demands like he is a big star or something and I have a big budget, and he finally goes south on me to such an extent that I can no longer work with him. I had offered him points, but that is not enough to get him put in the effort he needs to make his character work on the screen. I'm so pissed at him now that even though I am going to be able to come up with some money to pay my actors, I don't want to work with him as his actions have poisoned the environment between us now and I don't trust him to do what he says he will do. (This is a good lesson in trusting people you think are friends to help you on a project that is important to you.) Well, $750.00 and all those lab scenes go down the drain. (At 750.00 for rent on the lab, insurance for the shoot and some pro camera help from a friend of mine who had to be paid 200.00 a day, that hurt. Though to be fair, she taught us a lot about the cameras, light, sound and angles and some other stuff that has been helpful so it wasn't a total loss.)
So at this point I have some good people who are helping me on this, but boy would movie money solve most of my problems, and I may have found enough of that now, we will see.
What I've learned so far is that while I have a great story to tell, something that is missing on so many movies that get made these days, I don't have a great script, yet. I have had several people who said they would go over the script I wrote and help me put it into shooting shape, but so in the last six months it has been all talk and no action, so I've realized that I have to do the best I can to re-write it so that it is a viable shooting script not just a reading script. I'll do the best I can, but I'm really more of a storyteller than a scriptwriter, though Movie Magic Screenwriter is a great program to use. I know I'm not a great director, but I know what I want to do with this film, so I'll be able to do a good enough job that when the film is done it will tell the tale well enough for a first time director. And I'm learning a lot, some good, some bad, about the movie biz from an independent venue.
So at this point I'm waiting for two things, me to finish the re-write of the script to put it into shape for a shooting script as opposed to a reading script, and some money to hire some real low budget actors and actresses from the TMCC and UNR theater departments. I'm working on the script, it won't be perfect, but I think I can get it into shooting shape. As for some more money, well I'm going to tap into my house and use some of that equity I have to get enough cash about 10,000 or so to offer some of these students some real money for their work. I can't pay SAG scale, but I can pay some money and offer some points too. If any of you have any thoughts, suggestions etc on this, post away. Thanks.
David
