Making Movies in Flyover Country

It has begun....

2008-08-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

The new semester, that is. So maybe it's not as momentous as my post title would indicate, but after a hectic summer of shooting Endings, breaking my wrist, having surgery, and more, the start of the semester seems like a major event (and I'm sure it's much more "major" for my students, as their summer freedom is now over for another year).

I'm not eager to get ridiculously busy, but I do like being on a more regular schedule. I'm much more productive that way.

I don't have much more to say today, but my blogging has been spotty of late, so I thought I'd get back on the old horse and start posting again.

New Semester

2008-08-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

The fall term begins next Monday, and I've been in the office this week trying to get ready to go. Seems like summer went by way too fast.

Post is in full swing on Endings. I've seen a rough cut of the first 27 scenes (out of about 100). I'm starting to think about music and need to talk to some musicians and composers...

Clean Freak @ Montana Independent Film Festival

2008-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Just got word that Clean Freak will screen at the Montana Independent Film Festival, in Missoula in September.

Award Nominations for Clean Freak

2008-08-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

Just got word that Clean Freak was nominated for two awards at the Southern Winds Film Festival: Best Short Documentary and A Ridiculously Good Movie (their name for best comedy film).

See the full nominations here.

So -- wish me luck!

Ah, vacation

2008-07-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

I love going on vacation -- in part because I usually get to catch up on movies I've been missing.

In the past week or so, I've seen: The Dark Knight, The Happening, and The Incredible Hulk.

I don't have time for full reviews of everything at the moment, but I did want to say something about The Happening as it's the most maligned of the three I've seen. I flat out disagree with the assessments that it's a lousy film. In fact, I found it incredibly disturbing, with images from it sticking with me for a long time.

I think there are serious flaws with the film, but overall I found the premise truly frightening, and it just worked for me.

I will probably see at least one more movie (maybe more) before returning home...

Clean Freak @ Southern WInds

2008-07-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot -- right before I left for vacation, I found out that Clean Freak got selected to screen at the Southern Winds Film Festival. SWFF gave American Messiah the Best Comedy Feature award last year, btw.

You can see the festival schedule and more at their B-side site: http://southernwinds.bside.com/2008/

ENDINGS on IMDb

2008-07-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Internet Movie Database added Endings today. Here's the link: Endings on IMDb.

Information on there is a little sparse as they just added the page today, so keep checking back and you'll see more added to it soon.

Local News(paper) Coverage of ENDINGS

2008-07-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

Our local paper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, did an article on the production of Endings.

Here's the link the the online version (the print edition had a couple of nice photos from the set).

There's a sort of extended "Q & A" with me and the producer (Brian Elliott). Of course, when I answered those questions, I didn't know it was intended as a q&a that would be printed in that form. I thought I was just providing background information and quotes for the article. So my comments were rather brief and not intended to be in that format (at least, not intended by me).

Local News Coverage

2008-07-09T08:06:00.001-07:00

Local news coverage of the Endings production:

KWTX story

Local NPR Station Covers ENDINGS

2008-07-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

KWBU, the local NPR affiliate, did a great story on the production of Endings. You can check out their coverage, with stills and a link to the story that aired the past couple of days, here: KWBU story.

Wrap Party

2008-07-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

We had the wrap party for Endings tonight. A wrap party is a curious thing -- you instantly forget about any and all frustrations and problems from the set and poke gentle fun at each others' personality quirks. And you start to miss those frustrations and problems already.

We had a dinner catered by Olive Garden (they really make a delicious lasagna), and then we went to my department's screening room to watch some footage. B.K., one of the students who worked on the film and who will be working on the editing this summer, put together a great seven minute selection of stuff from the film. And you know what?

It worked. It looked great. You could feel the emotion in the scenes. I'm starting to get jazzed already...

Once I have a complete version of that "promo trailer," I'll post it online. Right now, the music in it is all copyrighted stuff, and the audio still needs some clean up, but it really got me excited.

Wrapping with some photos

2008-07-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the end of principal photography, I thought I'd share some more stills...

That's a Wrap!

2008-07-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, principal photography on Endings wrapped this afternoon at about 5:45pm. We still have a blue screen shot to get in the studio tomorrow, and then we check all the equipment back in to the main office. It's done.

And now the real work begins... postproduction.

New Review

2008-07-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

As things wrap up on the Endings shoot (last full day of production is tomorrow), I wanted to share the latest review of my current film making the rounds, Clean Freak.

This review is by J.C. Macek III, the self-titled "World's Greatest Critic." He seemed to like Clean Freak a lot.

update

2008-06-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated lately because it's been hard enough getting through the days with the arm hurting, feeling nauseated from pain pills, and operating on very little sleep. I can say that today was the first day I actually enjoyed being on the set since the surgery, as the pain was a little better. I also decided against taking my pain pills, which I'm convinced were the main source of my nausea,

We have about 7 or 8 shooting days left. I really can't wait for it to end -- which isn't to say I don't like making movies! Shortly after it's done, I'll be thinking about the next one. But right now, I'm physically and psychically spent, and the difficulty posed by doing this all with surgery in the middle has really gotten to me.

At the end of it, though, I'll be excited about what we have, and I think we'll have a pretty good movie on our hands.

Below, an early still (photo credit: Mike Davis):

The day after surgery...

2008-06-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

...is a lot more painful than the day of, apparently.

Just FYI.

Award at ReelHeART

2008-06-24T20:46:00.001-07:00

CLEAN FREAK picked up an Honorable Mention award at the ReelHeART International Film Festival in Toronto.

(Sorry for the short post -- hard to type tonight).

Surgery Update

2008-06-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

The surgery on my broken wrist was a success -- I now have a metal plate holding my wrist in place. I was actually under general anesthesia instead of a local. I don't mind that -- I'd rather not have been alert for the procedure. But I'm still pretty groggy from it; it took me hours to become awake and alert enough to leave the hospital, and I even slept several more hours when I got home. In fact, I'm still pretty out of it.

So now I'm sitting in my living room tethered to a cooling device (PolarCare) that is keeping my wrist pretty numb, which helps with the pain and the swelling.

And I'm pretty glad that we have a day off from shooting tomorrow.

Surgery!

2008-06-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, what seemed like a standard-issue broken wrist has evolved into a major pain in the... wrist. To whit, I will be having surgery on Tuesday to repair the broken bone. The doctor will insert a metal plate to stabilize the wrist, so I will officially be a cyber-person -- part man, part machine.

I think I would be more uptight about this if I wasn't so worried about the impact of all this on the film's shooting schedule!

How it Happened

2008-06-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid the story of how I broke my wrist isn't an exciting one. And this will be the short version since I'm typing one-handed...

After mowing the lawn and putting the mower away, there were some power cords stuck underneath. When I yanked at them to get them to come loose, they gave way too easily, and I lost my balance as I stumbled backwards. I put my arms out behind me to brace myself and avoid cracking my skull on the pavement, but my wrist got crunched underneath as I fell awkwardly.

I knew right away it was broken because if the pain, and when I grabbed it, I could say the way it was misshapen. My friend Dan took me to the ER, where a number of nurses and doctors responded to the sight of my wrist with some degree of shock ("Huh, that's interesting," said the first ER doctor I saw -- not what you want to hear from your physician).

They had to put it in traction for a while (after numbing it), and then they set the bone. All very painful. They gave me some good painkillers, but I can't take that stuff while trying to direct, so I'm surviving on ibuprofen at the moment.

And this took me 35 minutes to type!

Broken bones

2008-06-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

Broke my left wrist this evening -- fun fun. Pretty bad break, had to have it in traction and then get it "set." Ouch.

Endings, Day 7 (I think)

2008-06-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Shooting day 7 (production day 8). More importantly, today was the first day shooting with our lead child actress, my oldest daughter.

And the kid can act.

Really. I was worried -- I thought she'd do well, but I wasn't sure. Then she nailed several scenes today and really impressed her fellow actor (a pro with more than a decade's experience on the stage in Chicago theatre) as well as our producer, associate producer, and director of photography, all of whom have a lot of experience with actors and major projects.

So -- speaking as a filmmaker, I'm thrilled.

Speaking as a dad, I'm a wee bit proud.

Seattle screening of Clean Freak

2008-06-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

With production on Endings in full swing, I forgot that Clean Freak screened last night in Seattle at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. I wish I could have been there!

So, any Seattle folks get to see it and want to report on the screening?

Endings, Day 5

2008-06-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure at first what day I was blogging about. I'm pretty sure I just got home from day 5, but it's 3am, so perhaps we're into day 6 already (which is actually an off-day).

Hard days. People are working hard for this film of mine, something that flatters me and also gives me a great sense of responsibility to make this work well. The actors are giving it their all. There's just so much to do every day -- it's hard to get it all done, the way I want to do it, in the time we have some days. Today was like that. It seemed like we were moving along at a good speed, bit we just seemed to bog down somewhere, and the day wore on longer than it should have.

Or maybe it didn't. Maybe we didn't bog down. Maybe we were just trying to do too much for one day. I'm not sure, really. We got good footage, so I'm not complaining.

The experience just reminds me how difficult and challenging it is to make a good film. People want it to happen, but circumstances don't.

This post reads like I'm disappointed or upset. Not true. Just reflective, possibly because it's so late (er, early). I probably just need some sleep...

Endings Day 3

2008-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was another day at Camp Hope in MacGregor, where we were shooting some intense confrontational moments between a couple of characters. As often happens, matching up the complicated and choreographed action with the intense dialogue was challenging -- so we'll have a nice montage of "actor being slammed to the ground" flubbed takes for the outtakes reel... But we eventually did get the scenes shot the way we needed, and we ended the night ahead of schedule.