FEATURE: Skinhead

Eric Boellner

Eric Boellner

Well-known member
Hey guys,

My good friend and mentor of four years, Calix Lewis Reneau, and I have been developing a concept for a micro thriller since I came out to LA at the end of March this year. For most of that time, SKINHEAD was a title and an idea, but a little over a month ago, Calix handed it over to me and told me to take a pass at it. And now here we are.

- Last Thursday, we had the first producers meeting on the film - myself and Calix - and we set a shoot date: January 21, 2012.

- On August 2, I wrote the first line. Today, 23 days later, I turned in the first draft.

- The film is a hard-R thriller, Calix and I are co-writing and co-producing, he's set to direct and I'm set to play the title character.


LOGLINE.

A psychotic young skinhead embarks on a day of violence, retribution and mayhem, forcing a terrified woman to video his spree - and he's the hero of the story!

Calix is reading the script this very moment, and then we're going to In-N-Out for celebratory milkshakes and then off to the AMC Century City 15 to catch the midnight showing of Our Idiot Brother.

After we go over notes and thoughts, Calix will set in on a page-one rewrite. Meanwhile, I hope to get a pre-production poster done soon, but we need to decide on and design particular facial tattoos before we can really do that. Also, I need to work out...

Thanks for reading, and I hope you check back in soon as I'll be posting updates as we round out the script, move into casting and crew calls, and take some meetings on potential studio involvement through several of Calix's connections.

Michael Traven
TravenFilm@gmail.com
 
Well, this post shows you have a knack for good detail in your writing. ;) Best of luck!
 
Just finished reading the first revision of Skinhead today - it's wonderful! We've just got a couple of scenes to discuss and revise, and one scene to rewrite from scratch, and then we should have a draft we're ready to take to the town.

It's a longshot that we'll get any funding for this. Not because it's not a completely salable concept with fantastic execution in the script, but because money's tight these days and as Calix reminded me when I showed him an article about a certain distrib greenlighting an initiative for low-budget indies, most of the films who make that initiative will be films produced by someone with either pedigree or a relationship with the studio.

My goal now is to single out studios and prodcos that play in the low-budget arena ($200k to $5mil), and charm their socks off. To do this, I need to do a TON of research, which I've already started on, including:

(when I say "studio," I mean studio OR production company, which are sometimes the same.)

- Who do I talk to at this studio about this project?

- What films have they produced or are they in production/development on that are similar to Skinhead?

- What are the budgets they ordinarily work with? (this is important so that Calix and I can know what budget to pitch for Skinhead; more to come on this below)

- How big of names do I need attached to the project to get in any talks with this studio?

- Does this studio have the kind of pedigree to take Skinhead somewhere?

Regarding the budget issue: We don't want to go to Studio X and pitch Skinhead at $200k, if they're used to dealing in the $2mil range, and likewise, we don't want to go to Studio Y and pitch Skinhead at $2mil when they deal in the $200k range.

The interesting thing about this is that we've already set a shoot date: Jan 21, 2012. While we'd love to have a "real" budget on this film, if that means negotiating for six months and trying to package a film that the studio is interested in, or rewriting it for another five months, it's a no-go. While we'd be perfectly happy to move the shoot date by a short month or whatever we need to do to make sure we can get everyone we want to get, this film is going into production on or around Jan 21.

Calix has taught me what I consider to be the three most important rules of producing:

- Set a date.

- No permission filmmaking.

- The producer's job description is "by any means necessary."

With these three concepts in mind, our approach with studios/prodcos will be "Hey, we're shooting a cool little thriller on Jan 21, wanna come play?"

In the end, the goal is to raise enough funding to pay people in real cash, not in Monopoly money, and to help get some solid locations and afford some of the pricier scenes so that we don't have to rewrite them because we can't afford to lock down a public street and have our hero cut off a BMW and assault the driver.

If anyone would care to toss a few words to the man upstairs, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Michael Traven
 
Thanks Marlon! Calix asked me the other day when we were meeting to discuss his revision, "If we shot the script as-is, right now, would you be happy with the movie?" I said "Absolutely," and then we made it better.
 
Mmk, in a bit of a crunch here. Does anyone know:

- How to apply realistic-looking FAKE/TEMPORARY tattoos that can be removed in a day or three? (It's for a photoshoot for the poster for Skinhead.)

- Someone (a makeup artist) who knows how to do the above and can either advise us on the process or be available for the photoshoot and apply the tattoo designs him/herself for a small cash reimbursement, day-of?

I've spent the last two weeks trying to get this done, and I need it figured out in the next two weeks. We've got the location for the photoshoot - we have to work around their schedule, but we'll definitely have the space - we just need to get the tattoos designed (heading out to local tattoo parlors in the next couple days) and then find a way to apply them temporarily for the photoshoot, without them lasting so long that I get fired from work for having Neo Nazi tattoos on my face. <grin>

I'd really appreciate any help you guys could give in this area. I know this is one of those desperate posts that never gets answered, and I don't think there are a lot of makeup artists on here, but if anyone has worked with anyone who could pull this off (or even advise on how to do it), I'd very much appreciate it. If it helps any, there's a strong chance we'll need the makeup artist again for the shoot, and we're using the poster to help pitch the project to the studio; if we find a makeup artist who can pull off the look for the poster, and we get any kind of financing, there's likely a bit of pay involved for the actual production (I can't promise anything, but both the director and I look out for "our people," so if there's a way to keep the artist involved and hopefully paid again later in the process, we'd love to do so).

Feel free to email me if you have any leads (or know how to do it):

TravenFilm@gmail.com

Thanks again,
Michael Traven
 
This sounds really good man, if you don't backed by a studio in the end you can try the independent funding route.
I wish you guys the best of luck whatever happens.
 
Thanks Charles! If we don't get funding, we're going to shoot on a shoe-string. It'll be way more difficult (well, some say it's just as difficult when you HAVE money), but the director, Calix Lewis Reneau, is experienced in shooting on a dime and little time, and we're both dead-set on seeing this film through to completion. If nothing else, a Kickstarter campaign should bring in at least a G or two.
 
Michael Traven said:
Mmk, in a bit of a crunch here. Does anyone know:

- How to apply realistic-looking FAKE/TEMPORARY tattoos that can be removed in a day or three? (It's for a photoshoot for the poster for Skinhead.)

- Someone (a makeup artist) who knows how to do the above and can either advise us on the process or be available for the photoshoot and apply the tattoo designs him/herself for a small cash reimbursement, day-of?

I've spent the last two weeks trying to get this done, and I need it figured out in the next two weeks. We've got the location for the photoshoot - we have to work around their schedule, but we'll definitely have the space - we just need to get the tattoos designed (heading out to local tattoo parlors in the next couple days) and then find a way to apply them temporarily for the photoshoot, without them lasting so long that I get fired from work for having Neo Nazi tattoos on my face. <grin>

I'd really appreciate any help you guys could give in this area. I know this is one of those desperate posts that never gets answered, and I don't think there are a lot of makeup artists on here, but if anyone has worked with anyone who could pull this off (or even advise on how to do it), I'd very much appreciate it. If it helps any, there's a strong chance we'll need the makeup artist again for the shoot, and we're using the poster to help pitch the project to the studio; if we find a makeup artist who can pull off the look for the poster, and we get any kind of financing, there's likely a bit of pay involved for the actual production (I can't promise anything, but both the director and I look out for "our people," so if there's a way to keep the artist involved and hopefully paid again later in the process, we'd love to do so).

Feel free to email me if you have any leads (or know how to do it):

TravenFilm@gmail.com

Thanks again,
Michael Traven
Click to expand...

What about those fake tattoos that you can get at the fair? I can't remember what they're called, but they last a couple of days.
 
Marlon Ladd said:
What about those fake tattoos that you can get at the fair? I can't remember what they're called, but they last a couple of days.
Click to expand...

Not sure. I think I know what you're talking about (I always wanted to get one when I was a kid, but my parents wouldn't let me <grin>), but I don't have a clue what process they used or how realistic it looked (everything looked real when I was a kid at the fair...).

In any case, I tried to post this yesterday evening and it wouldn't let me, but a friend on Facebook pointed me to a site called Body Jewelry Shop, who have temporary tattoo pens. If the tats look real, then this is EXACTLY what I'm looking for - I ordered a couple test items, and if they work out well, I'll definitely make a thread about it over in the Art section so that others know how to do fake tats that look nice (assuming they actually do look nice <grin>).

Now all that's left is for Calix (director) and I to find a tattoo/makeup artist who can design the tats and apply them on the day of the photoshoot.

So again, if anyone knows a tattoo or makeup artist who is good at design and/or application of designs (we might be able to get transfers), I would love to get in touch with them. There WILL be a small cash payment either upfront or very soon after the shoot, depending on how much I have to spend on materials, PLUS deferred payment and possibly an opportunity to work on the film itself.

Calix and I are going to make the rounds and hit the tattoo parlors in Venice today, see if anyone wants to help us out. Thanks for the help and support, guys. :-)

Michael Traven
TravenFilm@gmail.com
 
Big update!

We've locked the studio for the photoshoot - I believe this Wednesday (Oct 5) is the day we're in. The studio is the same that we used for the entire production of Canyon Road, and I'm looking forward to heading back to Chinatown for that.

Yesterday, Calix and I made the rounds at the tattoo parlors on Lincoln Blvd down by Venice. At the first shop, Calix led the discussion (being the far more experienced of the two of us), but at the second and third, I went solo so that Calix could stay in the car and avoid having to put the T-tops back on. The first place I went into by myself, the female tattoo artist listened while I explained the situation and what we were looking for, and then gave me a crazy look and said "That is not even going to happen." Despite the awkwardly direct response, we parted very politely.

After that, I went to another shop, and the guy there seems like the PERFECT fit. He mentioned movies like American History X, Memento, Californication (TV), etc. He really understood what we were going for with the character and the stories behind each individual tattoo. The only problem is that A.) he's very booked over the next week or so, and B.) we've got three days to get these tats designed.

BUT, both the first artist and the above-mentioned guy said they'd love to see the script, so I'm going to shoot that over to them today and see what happens. What we'll probably end up doing for the photoshoot is doing only the face, or else I'll design and draw on the tats myself. That probably won't work, though, so we'll probably stick with just the facial tat, which is pretty simple.

Michael
 
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