FEATURE: Lionhead

hansel960

hansel960

Active member
Hey everybody!

I should have started this thread long ago (I always read other's threads) but for some reason it never really crossed my mind. We are ramping up for a feature film that begins shooting in just 2 weeks!

ABOUT ME
I have made several short films. My most recent one was called The Whiskey Priest. Check out the trailer! It wasn't very successful with film festivals and frankly I'm tired of film festivals charging you a fortune and then just saying "no" with no constructive feedback. But oh well. I know we shot a beautiful short and it's much better than a lot of shorts I see at festivals.

I grew up in St. Louis, MO and moved to Los Angeles after college. I worked as an Editor at MTV for 3 years. The plan was always for my brother and I to make a feature film (he is a really talented writer) but life always got in the way. Then in May 2010 I was diagnosed with bone cancer in my femur. I moved back to St. Louis, endured 22 chemo treatments, got half my left replaced with metal, and beat the crap out of it. Now I moved back to Los Angeles this summer with one goal: to make a movie! I don't tell you the story for sympathy or anything. I'm fine. It was tough, but I'm fine. I tell you the story because I learned life is too short to put off your dreams. Whether you have $50,000 or $50 million you should just make the best movie you can.

So I started asking people I know for investments of just $1,000 and I got enough money to make a film! I don't want to discuss how much I have at this moment, but it's pretty low budget. I'm still trying to raise some. So here we go!

SHORT SYNOPSIS
When Frank discovers he's purchased a phony diamond ring from Ted, a small time con artist, Frank's fiancee breaks off their engagement. Devastated, Frank hires a team of police detectives to help him get his cash back. When Frank seeks the ultimate revenge, he ends up saving Ted's life and saving his engagement.

HISTORY
This project was started in 2008 when the original title of the film was simply “The Scam”. The entire screenplay was not only written to be a witty, independent, character-driven film, but was also written for a budget and with a goal. What does that mean? The screenplay is written with as few locations and few characters as possible. The scenes are purposely longer and driven by dialogue. The goal was to create a screenplay that can be made with a certain quality at a certain price. The entire project has been painstakingly planned to increase the chances of making a successful film.

I have read other threads (especially Corrado) and followed some of the advice in it, but definitely not all of it. I'm not about just making an action movie full of blood and guns with Tom Sizemore because I think it will sell. While I'm definitely attempting to set my movie up to sell (why wouldn't you?) and get some good faces for distribution, I'm also trying to make something within the means of this budget. I want to make movie that is in my style and follow my heart like the Coen Brothers did with Blood Simple or Wes Anderson did with Bottle Rocket.

SIMILAR MOVIES
Stranger Than Paradise, The Sting, The Break-Up

CREW / EQUIPMENT
Director (me)
1st AD
DP
1st AC
2nd AC
Grip
Gaffer
Swing
Sound Mixer
Boom Op
Make-up/Hair
Set Design/Wardrobe
PA

We also have a Line Producer and Executive Producer hanging around.We were originally planning to shoot on the Canon 5D II for cost purposes, but we actually stumbled on a really good deal for the Red and we are going to shoot on that now.

CAST UPDATE

FRANK - Trevor Lissauer
TED - Brien Perry
HEATHER - Caroline Morahan
DARLENE - Jill Crenshaw
NEAL - Jemal Draco
DETECTIVE LUNDGREN - Deirdre Lovejoy
DETECTIVE HEILMAN - Daniel Roebuck
TOUGH GUY VIC - Chip Mefford
TOUGH GUY PHIL -
GERARD - Ian Fisher


LAWYER - Richard Riehle
WALTER - Michael Madsen
AQUARIUM INSTALLER -
OFFICER FOX -
OFFICER MCCOY - Kevin Brief
PAULA -
JIMMY -


We have just 5 speaking roles to fill!


I hope I have more to post soon. And I hope I actually keep up with this. We will see! I'm not sure what else to write, if you have any questions I guess go ahead and ask. I'm learning on the go but luckily I have some really smart people around me so I think it will turn out just fine.
 
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Tomorrow should be an exciting day! Casting from 11 - 5. We are trying to fill in some of our roles with faces or names of people we like from television and/or other movies. But we are also holding auditions for back-ups in case that doesn't work out and for the bigger roles where we can't afford to pay any decent names. When I say names I'm obviously not talking about the Jeff Bridges' of the world, but much smaller. But cool people to me.

We put our project up on Actor's Access and LA Casting but that was pretty dreadful pickings. We then put it on Breakdown Express where the agents submit clients and the results have been much better. It took us a while to get it up there because all of your SAG paperwork has to be in first. And let me tell you, it's a LOT of paperwork.

Maybe I will post the audition video of whoever we pick. That would be kind of cool.
 
Signed 2 more actors today! Deirdre Lovejoy (The Wire) and Richard Riehle (Office Space) are joining the cast. We are excited. They are both awesome. It's been an exhausting day or I would write more, but I have to wake up and look at a bunch of locations in the morning.
 
I've started the process of trying to get our movie on IMDB following what Adam posted in Corrado a few years ago. Submitting it to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Then using that link to confirm to IMDB that our movie is in pre-production. I hope it works! If anybody knows a better way to do this, please enlighten me. I'd like to get it up there while we are in production and not wait until the movie is completed. It's free publicity!
 
CASTING

We dove head first into the world of agents and managers in a big way on this movie. Some are sleezy dirt bags. Some are actually pretty kind. But they always ask the same 2 questions: What is the budget? Who else is in it? It really becomes a problem. The key is getting a decent first name attached so that other people want to do it. And that either means you know a pretty famous actor that will give you a bro rate and help you out or you overpay to get the first actor on.

We really went after a big actor for a while but it didn't happen. We ended up getting Roebuck on because a friend knows him - and I know he's not a huge name but he helped immensely. As soon as we got him on we were able to get Lovejoy. With them 2 we were able to get Riehle. Then another friend knew Danny Trejo, so we were in talks with him for a while (he is not available because of another shoot), but that got us talking to Michael Madsen's agent and now we are close to getting Madsen.

The only reason I bring this up is because I quickly learned that it is about who you know, how much money you have (must have a lot - we don't), or be super persistent talking to these agents and managers. We have been very persistent. We have been turned down by many, but have gotten more bites than I would have expected. We are close to getting Madsen and another actor from The Wire as well as a pretty good older actor that I can't mention yet. It's been a LOT of persistence though. Obviously the easiest way to get actors is to just have a lot of money - they all listen for money. But most of us don't have that luxury.

But I'm happy with the way our movie is shaping up.
 
Just in case anybody is curious or not, I have basically just been copying most of the advice in the Corrado thread (except for making an action film). But as far as calling agents and stuff, I mostly have been doing everything he said. It's pretty helpful.
 
CAST UPDATE

FRANK - Trevor Lissauer
TED - Brien Perry
HEATHER - Caroline Morahan
DARLENE - Jill Crenshaw
NEAL - Jemal Draco
DETECTIVE LUNDGREN - Deirdre Lovejoy
DETECTIVE HEILMAN - Daniel Roebuck
TOUGH GUY VIC - Chip Mefford
TOUGH GUY PHIL -
GERARD - Ian Fisher


LAWYER - Richard Riehle
WALTER - Michael Madsen
AQUARIUM INSTALLER -
OFFICER FOX -
OFFICER MCCOY - Kevin Brief
PAULA -
JIMMY -


We have just 5 speaking roles to fill!
 
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