Highland Myst

Beating the Pavement

2007-02-09T11:05:00.000-06:00

It's been more than a month since I posted my last blog and it seems like the time is just flying. I've been working on Living & Dying and Fall Down Dead for nearly two years and now find myself without another project ready to roll. January was a month of transition for me, trying to regroup and reaccess my priorities and goals. I'm back to being in that 'in-between' place.

My first priority of recent has been updating my demo reel. Good friend and fellow filmmaker Blake Calhoun has offered his editing assistance and we've been importing all of my movies and trailers into his Avid. In cahoots with my manager, we're putting together a brand new Director's Reel that will showcase trailers, a new montage and select scenes from all of my movies. Around April, my manager is going to start taking me out to the larger agencies in Los Angeles to see about getting me an agent. With these more recent movies completed, it's time to get an agent who can help me take that next step up the ladder and get me through the studio doors.

The process of making this demo reel has also been an interesting one. In my mind, I would have approached it by selecting the 'best' scenes from each movie and moving forward. However, my manager made a good point in the selection process. It's not just about the best scenes, it's also about displaying versatility and range. Each select scene needs to compliment the others instead of being similar. We've chosen scenes that display a) action and production value, b) strong, dramatic acting, c) creative and stylistic editing, d) comedy, e) horror, and d) tension and suspense. I believe the final demo reel will show an ability to handle various types of movie genres and storytelling styles.

Beyond the demo reel work, I've begun reconnecting with potential film investors that I knew prior to making Living & Dying. Because of these last two movies, I've proven I can handle higher budgeted productions (or at least higher in contrast to my first four movies) and this has instilled a greater confidence in these investors. Between rebuilding those relationships, they've also been passing the word and hooking me up with new potential funders. I'm off to the races, beating the pavement, searching for that elusive 'investor' that is ready to put money into a film.

And last but not least, I'm back in the writing chair. In between demo reel work and meetings, I've spent a lot of time writing again. As movies are my life, it's how I enjoy spending my 'free time.' I've taken the time to do a revision to my Dark Heart script, rewrote my postpartum depression thriller called Angela's Body, completed a rewrite of American Nightmares with Debbie Rochon and now I'm digging into The Hellfire Club, my first crack at a truly big budget, studio level script.

The next few months should be interesting as I push my career forward and keeping building the foundations for bigger and better movies.

End of the Year Wrap Up

2007-01-03T15:16:00.000-06:00

2006 is finally concluded and it was a great year for me with - thankfully - a lot of work that included finishing two feature films, directing an episode of Inspector Mom for Lifetime and co-producing a couple of projects.

Living & Dying was wrapped up in the early summer. Here in the US, Living & Dying will be released on MAY 01, 2007 by HBO on DVD. A cable run will follow shortly thereafter. Be sure to hit the rental and retail stores on May 1st. Internationally, Warner Bros. Independent is releasing the movie theatrically. It will premiere in Istanbul on March 16th followed by a run across Turkey, Easter Europe, Germany and several other European countries.

2006 also had me doing one of my fastest movies yet. Fall Down Dead went into pre-production in June and was done and delivered at the end of December. It will premiere at the Berlin Film Market this coming February with, hopefully, release news in the next couple of months.
I also directed an episode of Inspector Mom for Lifetime which plays sometime in May or June. I'll post dates once I have them. Doing an episodic show was definitely a different experience - one I really enjoyed. Hopefully they will do a second season and I can do a few more shows... or better yet, one of the tv movies.

I also co-produced two other projects. The first is the music documentary Teen-A-Go-Go, directed by Melissa Kirkendall. It's a look at the teen music movement in the mid-sixties that sprung out of the British music invasion. A first cut of the documentary was completed in December. A few more interviews need to be conducted along with some additional archival footage put in. Hopefully the doc will be completed by this spring.

The second co-producing venture was on the horror flick From the Dark, directed by Cliff McClelland and Tom Zembrod and produced by Tom Zembrod and Todd Jenkins. It's a cool little movie about a supernatural force that traps a group of friends inside a cabin as the darkness outside tries to suck them into the abyss. Cliff and Tom directed it over the summer (while I was in North Carolina on Fall Down Dead). They did a good job with the movie, especially considering their low budget and time constraints. We are locking picture edit next week so they can get going on music and sound editing.

Now I'm looking forward to 2007. Hopefully it will also shape up to be a good year. I'm supposed to do one more movie for New Films, which hopefully will happen. I'm also excited about Living & Dying and Fall Down Dead both being released. These should generate some interest in getting more films financed and rolling. I have a number of other projects in the works, each in various stages of financing and development. With any luck, 2007 will also be the year that I get an agent that can get me into the studio doors. We'll see what happens...

Best to all and a prosperous and successful 2007!

We Have a Movie

2006-12-18T12:22:00.000-06:00

I'm back at the sound studio in Burbank and we're basically done with Fall Down Dead. It was a long, rough week that left me exhausted and sniffling from either a cold or allergies. Either way, the last week kicked me hard.

The race to the finish line was fast. I spent the days at the sound studio and the nights at the lab with Richard and Joe doing the telecine color corrections. Friday morning we headed to Media Concepts do to the Dolby 5.1 printmaster session. It went very well. It was the first time I wouls see the answer print projected with sync sound running. It looks and sounds awesome! I had a very surreal moment sitting on the stage. I finally felt like I'd accomplished making a theatrical quality movie.

Friday night was back at Ascent completing the telecine and I crawled my way to bed around 1am after five hours of sleep in two days. With the picture and sound locked, and exhaustion overwhelming me, the typical happened. I began to second guess myself and some of my decisions. Fortunately, sleep gave way to a better mind set and I'm back to my positive self.
Today we are doing the foreign M&E sound mix and later in the day will be viewing the composite print to make sure that all picture and sound elements were put together properly. With a knock on wood, we are still on schedule for complete deliver of the picture and sound elements to New Films no later than Friday. Once I get through the process and past the holidays, I'll do a recap on the experience of making Fall Down Dead.

What Did You Say?

2006-12-12T20:34:00.000-06:00

I'm at the sound studio in Burbank and my ears are ringing. We are on day five of our sound mix heading toward our Dolby printmaster session on Friday. The sound for Fall Down Dead is incredible. The guys at Digital Dreams have been awesome and are doing a top notch job with the sound design. Of course, I can barely hear anymore but that's okay. We are currently doing reel 5 (end of the movie) and will get through it by tomorrow morning. Once done, we'll spend the rest of the day plus Thursday final mixing and going through it with a fine tooth comb. On top of it all, Pinar's score is beautiful, rich and full - perfect for our thriller. The only hitch that could interrupt us is an ADR session from Rome that has yet to be delivered. One of the engineers is going to be on the phone at 2am talking with the studio in Rome trying to get everything uploaded to an ftp server overnight so we can drop it all in tomorrow. If it's not here... well, let's just hope it's here tomorrow morning.

The print is basically done. We finalized reel 5 today. Richard has been bouncing back and forth between two labs working on the print and then doing the telecine color correction for the video masters. The color for both the print and the video masters are going well and it's also planned for all of that to be done on Friday. If Straw keeps us all on track, we'll be looking at a composite print of the completed movie on Monday.

On The Road Again

2006-12-06T00:35:00.000-06:00

I'm on the road again to completing Fall Down Dead. I'm currently in Los Angeles and will be here through the end of December doing all the final work on the movie. After having handled all the post production supervision myself on Living & Dying, I can't say enough of how grateful I am to have an experienced post supervisor working on this movie. He is getting to deal with all of the grief and headaches. LOL! And he's saving my ass in keeping up with all the workflow and schedule juggling.

We have now completed all the necessary looping. Mehmet Gunsur finished his in Rome, Keith Harris did his in North Carolina this morning and I spent the day with Udo Kier finishing his. Udo's a master at looping (as was Dominique Swain). They continuously nailed their performance and sync over and over again.

While we were at the sound studio, Richard Clabaugh, the director of photography, was up at the film lab working on the color correction of the answer print. They've completed the second pass on the color correction and are doing the third pass tomorrow. At this point, it looks like the producers will be looking at it Thursday morning for approvals.

And from there, poor Straw, the schedule moves into further mayhem. I'll be bouncing back and forth between the final sound mix, which begins Thursday, and the rest of the print work. We are waiting on titles from the title house, end credit crawl and a few other optical effects to come in so we can complete the answer print and move on to the Interpositive and Internegative. As scheduled, the telecine of the print will begin next week. Richard will be supervising that and I'll be joining him in the evenings after I'm done with the sound mixing during the day. Somewhere in there, I'll find time to sleep. If everything stays on schedule, the final and complete theatrical print along with the final and complete video masters will be done on the 19th. Our official delivery date is the 22nd, so Straw is giving us a few safety days in case of the inevitable hiccups.

Stranger Than Fiction

2006-11-24T17:23:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note while I'm away on vacation. My wife and I went and saw Stranger Than Fiction yesterday and it might be one of the best movies I've seen all year. Directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), this is a movie that relies on story and acting to sell itself, and it suceeds in a very big way. Stranger Than Fiction is pure storytelling at its best. It's sharp, witty, dramatic, intelligent and entertaining. The script was written by Zach Helm who, based on imdb, seems to be new to feature film screenwriting. I've always been a huge fan of Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, etc.) and Zach seems to have that same mind-boggling creativity and imagination that makes all of Kaufman's scripts so uniquely original in the current world of remakes and bland movies. I recommend Stranger Than Fiction to anyone that appreciates and enjoys pure storytelling without all the big budget hype and frills.

On The Run

2006-11-20T14:05:00.000-06:00

The end of 2006 seems to be wrapping up very well with lots of work and success. I directed the episode "The Haunted House Horror" for Lifetime's Inspector Mom show. It was a complete blast. The actors and crew were wonderful to work with and incredibly dedicated to making the best show possible. It was very different doing an episodic show instead of a feature film. Fortunately, the producers gave me a lot of latitude with the look and style. The biggest thing I noticed in directing episodic was that a) the regular cast already know their characters so there tends not to be a lot of series arc work in terms of directing, and b) having to think differently in terms of composing shots for a small screen instead of big screen. It was a great experience and I hope I get to do more.

We wrapped last Monday at 7pm and I jumped on a plane to Los Angeles for a fast "in and out" trip to do ADR on Fall Down Dead. Dominique Swain came in for a full day and we picked up David Carradine, Monica Dean and Jennifer Alden the next day. The fast switch from Inspector Mom to Fall Down Dead had my head swimming and I was grateful to return home and finally get some sleep.

Fall Down Dead is going great. I love the sound team and it's nice having a post production supervisor finally handling post on a movie. It's taken a lot of weight off my shoulders and allowed me to focus more on the creative side of the movie.

My wife and I are off for a short Thanksgiving holiday and then I return to Los Angeles on December 4th. I'll be out there for the rest of the month finishing up the movie; bouncing between sound mix and color correcting the print. It should be a very fun month ending with my wife and I spending Xmas with my family.

From there, the future is unknown. I have another horror project that we are out raising financing for, a zombie flick I'm attached to direct that is in the process of raising funds, and I'm talking with the producers of Fall Down Dead about a third movie for them. Hopefully I can begin 2007 on a high note with one more movie lined up.

Lock Me Up

2006-10-30T20:13:00.000-06:00

In what might be one of my fastest edits, the producers called picture lock today on the edit of Fall Down Dead. Overall, I'm happy. There were editing decisions made that I don't necessarily agree with, but unlike some past projects, I don't believe the decisions ultimately do harm to the movie. Fall Down Dead is a good, fast paced thriller that I believe audiences are going to enjoy.

Bob, our editor, will spend the week locking the five films reels and transitioning all the materials to the next post production stage: negative cutting, composing and sound design. I'm very eager to start hearing Pinar's score for the movie after our lengthy conversations about the tone and style. It'll be a modern variation of Bernard Hermann's classic style so familiar in many of Hitchcock's movies.

While transition week occurs, I'm prepping my webisode of Lifetime's Inspector Mom series. It's a Halloween house episode, which of course I love. A murder takes place in a Halloween house and our hero, Maddie, must solve the crime. I've been prepping since last Thursday and we film from Friday through the following Monday. I'm having a ball and it's very interesting seeing how different it is doing an episodic show instead of a feature film. More soon...

Mad Bad

2006-10-19T16:24:00.000-05:00

I just got notification that my movie Mad Bad has won the Jury Award for Best Picture at the New York International Independent Film Festival. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who helped out and supported this movie.

In the meantime, I'm still working crazy hours editing Fall Down Dead. I've just mailed out what I hope is the final cut of the movie. Our post production schedule has us slated to have picture lock by next Friday. The producers will have the final say but I'm feeling very good about it.

Not meaning to add more to my plate, but I'm going to be directing an episode of Inspector Mom for Lifetime Channel's web broadcasts. More than anything, I'm curious about directing episodic shows so this will be a nice way to get my feet wet.

Here Comes Autumn

2006-10-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

I've been finding it very difficult to keep things updated lately. My typical schedule has me getting up at 7:30am, editing Fall Down Dead until 7pm and then working until midnight on other movie projects. And, on top of it all, with the coming of autumn comes my favorite time for writing. Autumn always ushers in a spirit of inspiration so my screenwriting increases dramatically through the end of winter.

Fall Down Dead is coming together very well. Bob and I completed are first cut in thirteen days and have now completed a second cut. In this particular editing experience, I'm being able to see how prepared I was for this movie. I went in knowing what I wanted and it's making editing very easy. Of course, we had an incredibly limited shooting schedule so I also don't have a lot of options in terms of editing scenes. Fortunately, the performances are consistently good from every actor, the story paces itself the way I was hoping, and the few who have been watching the cuts of the movie are finding it entertaining. Being entertained and enjoying the movie is the best I would hope for, so I'm happy. For anyone interested, I've added four pictures from the movie set to my company's website at www.highlandmyst.com.

Living & Dying is finally finished. The telecine was completed on Monday and passed Quality Control. We can now start delivery to HBO as well as the other distributors. We're still working on a theatrical release of the movie and hopefully there will be good news on that front before too long. I'm also working with HBO and the producers getting the DVD featurettes put together along with my audio commentary.

Last but not least, the screening of Mad Bad in Los Angeles went great. We had a good turnout, everyone laughed and cringed when they were supposed to, and we got a good round of applause when it was over. The producers have signed with a Producer's Rep based out of New York so it's starting to make the rounds to distributors.

With that said... it's back to work.

A Quickie

2006-09-19T18:17:00.000-05:00

It's been a fast and furious two weeks with little time to blog, let alone do anything else. Pretty much upon arriving back in Texas, Bob and I started editing Fall Down Dead. We've been editing upward of twelve hours a day for the last two weeks and got our first rough cut in the mail to Brandon yesterday. As with all rough cuts, it's rough. But I'm feeling good that as the process continues, we'll smooth it out and find the right pacing throughout. More than anything, I'm happy with the performances. Ever person in the movie is good and the characters come to life and are believable. Upon watching the rough cut all the way through for the first time, I was a bit amazed at how fast the movie goes. Beyond the obligatory horror opening scene, the horror hits again about fifteen minutes into the movie and the energy level stays up for the rest of it. I believe, once it's done, it'll be a good, tight, fast paced thriller.

With everything else going on, I flew out to Los Angeles this morning. My movie Mad Bad is playing tonight at the Laemmle Fairfax Theater. So, it's off to a screening of that tonight followed by an after party at Jimmy's Lounge where Landon (the lead female and singer in Mad Bad) will be performing with her band. Should be a ton of fun and hopefully we'll get a good turnout.

I head back to Texas tomorrow night and continue pushing forward with the editing on Fall Down Dead. More soon...

Editing and Producing

2006-09-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

No rest for the weary... editing on Fall Down Dead started yesterday with my long time conspirator, Robert Castaldo. We worked twelve hours yesterday and pulled another ten day. We are flying through this initial phase so we can get a first cut (albeit rough) to the producers in about a week and a half. We made it through the first twenty minutes of the movie and I'm very, very happy with the footage and the way it is cutting together. Editing is something that I personally love. Seeing the story unfold, increasing and decreasing the pacing, putting the puzzle pieces together to see the movie spring to life is exhilirating and exciting. It's like watching something you gave birth to start to grow into their personality and individuality. Of course, we'll see what tune I'm singing in a few weeks when I start getting notes back.

Speaking of producers, I wanted to mention my producing partner, Brandon Baker. As time has passed, and movies get made, I've learned more and more about filmmaking and how various people fulfill obligations on a production. Beside their own creative input, a good producer is there to protect the creative vision of the director while also balancing the business side of the film. But, even more so on a film shoot, a producer needs to protect their director from the daily production issues and potential disasters that can arise so the director can focus on making the movie. Brandon has consistently done this in spades on both Fall Down Dead and Living & Dying. It's nice and comforting to know that I can go to set each day and not have to deal with production headaches unless it's something I truly need to know about. I've stumbled into the middle of producer discussion more than once where I could hear the making of a disaster. Brandon simply turns and says, "Just walk away. If you need to know, I'll let you know." You know you are in good hands when you can turn and walk away and forget about the conversation. Every director needs a producer who will watch their back and I've gotten lucky with Brandon.

Back in the Saddle

2006-08-31T14:14:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Texas trying to recover from a very long couple of months and the finale of Fall Down Dead. I've slept about 20 hours during the last 48.

lthough we got great footage, the last two nights of production didn't go as smooth as we'd hoped. On Friday morning, with the sun approaching in a few hours as we filmed on the streets of Winston-Salem, our generator broke down. This left us scrambling to make our day while dealing with power issues for our lights. Fortunately, our gaffer Bob ran to his home and brought back a small generator he had that provided enough power to at least make our day. It also meant we were having to become faster and more efficient in our footage to make the day.

From there we rolled into our last night of filming... with only Bob's small generator. This would be the opening scene of the movie. Starr Jones' special effects make-up for the "first kill" of the movie was phenomenal. But like the morning before, we were running and gunning to make the night. I know on a longer schedule, I could have done a whole lot more with the opening scene of the movie, but on these fast days you do what you can to make the best movie possible. We also got a hiccup when our "safety glass" that was supposed to break didn't break. It become a quite amusing shot as the stunt guy Keith hammered at the glass over and over until finally, it gave way.

As a sidenote to our final night, we had one more experience that will hopefully be learned from. One of our above-the-line people decided to become a cheerleader halfway through the night. He spent most of the night yelling out, "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! We got to make it!" along with other cheers. He also proceeded to shout orders and "drive the crew" onward. This had an incredibly negative effect on the night as I feared a mutiny from cast and crew, as they told me such. Cheerleading and motivating cast and crew is a very precarious scenerio best left to the director, first assistant director and department heads. What this cheerleading ended up doing was creating a sense amongst the crew that they couldn't be trusted. After three weeks of very long and hard work, every single one of them was aware that the night was short and that they had to hurry. This also created a feeling that the authority of the both myself as the director and the authority of the first assistant director (who had pulled them through three weeks) was being underminded. A loyal crew becomes very loyal and to have a new person shouting out to them didn't sit well. There were many mutterings of anger that slowed the crew down instead of speeding things up. One actor came up to me and said, "If he continues shouting, I'm going to walk off set and let him see what it's really like to have to hurry." I fully recognize the good intentions behind the cheerleading, but it always has a proper time and place.

Following the end of the movie, I discovered I had to make a quick trip to Los Angeles instead of going home to Texas. There were some apparent problems with two of the reels for Living & Dying that had to be addressed. Ron and I made our way to one of the labs in L.A. to review the materials and there were definite problems. Reels 3 and 6 were completely out of whack. It was as if we were viewing only the top half of the negative, which also meant we were seeing all our lights and the sound microphone. Long story short, it turned out that the reels had been misprinted so in the change-overs, they weren't feeding through the projector correctly. I'm quite relieved to now know that the reels are good.

Returning to Texas, I found out that all of the Day 14 footage for Fall Down Dead had been lost by the carrier delivering our film to the lab in Los Angeles. It turns out their tracking system had gone down the night of shipping and was lost. Immediately, the producers started calling the insurance company and doing "disaster control" in the form of budgeting and looking at a fast reshoot of that night's scenes. I'm happy to report that as of this morning, the film had been found by the carrier and was being delivered to the lab this afternoon. We will know tomorrow for certain that nothing bad happened to our footage.

So, for now, I'm trying to get myself organized and settled back in. I have a laundry list of things to get taken care of so that I can relax this weekend and enjoy my time back at home with my wife. Come Monday, we start editing.

And it's a wrap!

2006-08-27T01:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is short. We wrapped on Fall Down Dead and I feel like falling over. I'm exhausted. With the movie ending, the adrenaline has subsided and my body wants much needed sleep. I am taking a very quick day trip to Los Angeles to close some loose ends on Living & Dying and then back to Texas to start editing Fall Down Dead. I'll give an end of movie wrap-up very soon.

Close to the Finish Line

2006-08-24T07:01:00.000-05:00

A short midweek note. Now in our third week, things have slowed down a bit. With various actors busy schedules, we had to cram a lot into the first two weeks. This week has lightened in terms of page count. Today, we only had four pages which was a blessing. We were able to take our time and get everything the way we wanted it. Everyone's spirits are up, though admittedly, I'm sad about the prospect of finishing Friday. It's been a wonderful crew and experience and I'm going to miss the folks and production.

We did have one hiccup that we just discovered. It turns out that our second camera on stunt day wasn't working properly and we have basically lost the footage from the second camera. Second camera was a high speed camera so we could shoot slow motion at 120 frames per second. What we discovered was that the meter wasn't working properly and it was going much faster. This means we ended up with really bad lighting flicker in the image. I might be able to salvage some if we only show it for a couple of seconds but I'm heartbroken. They were some beautiful shots. The movie is in no way ruined because of it, but it would have looked really nice.

On the upside, Udo's Picasso Killer killed off two characters at the start of the week, another tonight and yet another on Friday. It's a fun week of blood and horror. I believe my motto for this week shall become "More blood!"

A Wrap on Week Two

2006-08-21T03:18:00.000-05:00

Early Saturday morning we wrapped week two successfully - on schedule and a half hour early. Thursday night was spent with a fairly large and elaborate sequence outside. Without giving away too much movie story, the exterior sequence was a day of "run and gun" as it was a very long scene and we were fighting to beat sunrise every step of the way. Fortunately, we made it with enough coverage to make me feel comfortable that the scene would edit together well.

Friday night began with a continuation of that sequence - all stunts. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is my first movie working with a stunt coordinator and elaborate stunts. We had stunt people in from a variety of states for this day and a large crowd gathered to watch what we were doing. The stunts went off perfectly and what we saw through the monitors looked great. I was also grateful to the producers for bringing in a second camera at the last minute. It allowed us to maximize our day and cover the stunts in more angles with less retakes.

Following the stunt sequences we did a very fast company move to a new exterior location four blocks away. If you've never witnessed a company move, it's a sight to behold; people running frantically to pack up all the gear from one location and get it moved and reset. The move and setup took about two and a half hours which meant we didn't start filming this sequence until four in the morning. It was an elaborate setup with many police cars and... well, you'll see it in the movie. These large sequences with so much production value gave me a thrill. We had enough to cover the scene when the sun started coming up but I still wasn't happy with the amount I had. As the sun rose and morning traffic started to appear, we very quickly pulled out an 85mm lense and rolled straight through our film mag. I'm in the street shouting out direction to the camera crew and to the actors making sure I had a lot of close-up material to cut in between the wider shots. It was a miracle we made it as fast as we were going. Big kudos go out to our crew who ran fast and hard to ensure we got everything we needed. I truly love this crew.

While we filmed outside, the producers and a couple of the guys took the second camera back to our interior building and began running around with Udo Kier grabbing insert shots that we will be able to sprinkle throughout the movie to assist in building tension and lengthening scenes when needed. On our hurried schedule, we haven't been able to get a lot of inserts so it came very pleasantly being able to pick this stuff up.

I'm also grateful to the film lab for catching something before it turned into a disaster. Our camera started having issues which was causing a very slight flutter to the film as the camera got up to speed and as it cut. All of our material is still good, but their sharp eyes allowed us to swap out our camera with a new one before the problem got worse.

Throughout the week and over the weekend I've spent a lot of time with Udo Kier. He has regaled us with tons of stories about the movies he's worked on and the directors he's worked with. I have found myself sometimes feeling like a boy listening to a storyteller weave his tales. I'm sucking up everything he shares to try and better myself as both a storyteller and filmmaker. Mehmet Gunsur's last day here was Sunday morning and he, Brandon and I sat up with Udo until 8 in the morning listening to stories and talking about movies. I'll miss Mehmet as he is an incredible actor (as evident by the dailies) and a kind and warm-hearted friend. We ended his stay with Udo giving a very nice toast to Mehmet. (As a sidenote, Udo has a funny ritual of giving people ties, so each day two of us end up walking around in shorts and t-shirts wearing a tie he has given out.)

Late Saturday night was spent at the local bowling alley with crew and actors taking over twelve lanes. At one point Richard pulled me aside and summed things up very appropriately: "I feel like I'm in a dream. I'm in my hometown, at my local bowling alley, drinking a beer and bowling with Udo Kier."

Tired But Happy

2006-08-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

A short one for today. It's 8:45 in the morning and we've been running and gunning for the last two days. Somehow, we managed to get caught up and be back on schedule. It's been rough. We had some very large sequences to film that also included several good stunts. Everything seemed to slow us down and delay us, including the EMT not showing up on the day we needed them the most - the first stunts day. Problem got resolved but it put us behind a bit. Thankfully, we're back on track without sacrifices.

Everything is looking fantastic. We've been watching dailies through the first week and they've made me get that "warm fuzzy" feeling of seeing a horror movie coming to life. We've got tons of great atmosphere and wonderful footage to build it into something I believe will be special.

As a final thought for now, Udo Kier has begun his work as The Picasso Killer and all I can say is, "Wow!" The man is incredible and there is a definitive reason why he has done so many horror movies. His scenes are creepy, eerie and both his voice and piercing eyes get under your skin. Over the last two nights, we filmed the biggest scene between The Picasso Killer and Christie (Dominique Swain) and it's going to edit together into something very powerful. We also filmed a few other additional sequences between he and Christie that have all the flair and flavor of an old time horror movie. It'll be nice to dream of those shots as I go to sleep and prepare for our biggest day yet... beginning in ten hours.

First Week in the Can

2006-08-14T03:22:00.000-05:00

It's now Sunday and we've finished our first week of production, which also means we have now shot one-third of our movie. It's really crazy thinking one-third of our movie is in the can so fast. Friday night was a little crazy and we weren't sure we would make our day. We've been working twelve hour production days and the producers have been adamant about us sticking to that. It means that there are many times we have to "run and gun" and very quickly compose shots where I can only cover a scene in one or two setups and then we have to move on. It also means that we have limited takes. All the actors have been fantastic about hitting their stride on the first take because we have to move on by take three. We've gotten into a pretty good groove as far as pacing goes and the actors are working out scenes ahead of time so they feel pretty good coming on to set and diving right in.

The actors have all been a pleasure and each one brings something different and unique to both their roles and to me as a director. For example, Dominique Swain has an innate talent for knowing where the lights and camera are to ensure that both are enhancing her performance or capturing the right essence of the emotion she is trying to convey. She also has a great knack for understanding story and finding beautiful levels of emotion to keep her character on the rollercoaster for the audience. She is a person who needs very little direction because of her great instincts for the character.

Mehmet Gunsur plays our cop, Stefan, and the camera loves him. I've heard the term "the camera loves him" before but Mehmet is one of the first people where I have truly understood the term. In person, Mehmet is one of the friendliest and kindest men I have ever known. On camera, he becomes a completely different person. The camera seems to seep into his soul and pull out a whole other layer of the man. He has that wonderful charisma that shines on screen giving him an almost Al Pacino quality of the Serpico era.

Keith Harris plays Lawrence, Stefan's partner, and the man is a wonderful comic actor. His character is intended to bring some humor and lightness to our dark horror film and Keith has that great sense of comic timing. I've always felt that humor is necessary in horror to provide good extremes of emotion for the audience and Keith has delivered in plenty.

Speaking of funny, David Carradine wrapped Friday night. His character Wade, a bumbling security guard, was intended as comic relief and David delivered in full glory. When I first met David, I asked if he wanted to discuss his character and he simply replied, "Why?" Once we shot his first scene, I understood. The man brings a lifetime of acting experience to the table and it shows. Once those cameras roll, he "is" his character. He hits his marks on every take and his level of continuity is amazing. I haven't seen David do much comedy but he played it great and I believe fans of David will really like seeing him in this role.

Of course, there are a lot of actors working on this movie and I unfortunately don't have time to write about all of them at this moment.

A friend of mine asked if I could talk a little about what we are shooting on and how it is effecting production. For this movie, we are shooting on 35mm using an Arri BL3 camera. We also chose to go with Fuji's Eterna 500 film stock. We did this for two particular reasons. One, the film stock is more inexpensive on our tight budget. And two, the Eterna film stock gives us a lot of contrast (something we wanted for the look of the film) and it gives us a lot of latitude in the low end of the blacks to make the blacks rich while still getting enough light to see our actors and give depth of field to the background. Having never gone to film school, I've been learning a ton from Richard Clabaugh. He was the director of photography on such films as The Prophecy 1 and 2, Phantoms and has worked for twenty years as both a DP and Camera Operator on a large array of movies. As most of the movie is shot during a blackout one of the things we have been fighting is to get enough light into places to make the blacks dark. With the Eterna film stock, we've found that we will be able to time the print down three to five stops and maintain very rich blacks, a necessity for bringing good contrast between the slivers of light and the darkness surrounding them. However, we have also found that we don't have a lot of latitude for bringing things up (the blacks begin to unravel). So, we are lighting bright and printing in a safe range to later really bringing the blacks down.

For this production, we are carrying the camera and a Fisher 11 dolly with track. We had one very rough night with the dolly popping like crazy and harming sound. But thank god for Hermann and Matt who showed up a day or two later with a special board they built to put the dolly on. I'm not familiar with all the details but it had something to do with the type of wheels we had for the dolly and the track we were using. They were able to build, overnight, a board that the dolly could sit on and work the track without all the pops. They saved the look of our film as we were fearing we might have to lose the dolly.

We are also using a steadicam for three nights of filming. Most of the movie takes place in rooms around the building, but three days contain much bigger set pieces with lots of running, movement, etc. so we chose to switch over to steadicam on those days for both visual storytelling purposes and ease of getting around. I keep hearing people talk about how steadicam can slow a production down but that hasn't been my experience. Perhaps it is the way I use steadicam, but I love its look and what I can do with it.

We are also getting a crane for two different days. Cranes can bring a great deal of production value to a movie so we've chosen two very good scenes to take full advantage of what a crane can do for our look.

This coming week we start using our stunt people. We have a few really fun stunts in the movie and itâs been interesting having a stunt coordinator on set. I've used fight coordinators in the past, but these stunts require more. The level of safety they bring to a set is very comforting along with their own added creativity to the sequences. This has been a movie with a lot of "firsts" for me and stunts have been one of them that has me most excited.

Finally, we have started getting dailies back and I'm very happy with how the movie is looking. We have to ship film across the country and then wait for turn around from the lab. We are roughly four days behind in seeing dailies which can be a little frustrating as you hope you have all the footage you need before moving on from the set. Fortunately, Richard has been getting detailed reports from the lab about any issues they might be seeing along with notes on what is looking good to their eye. It's been a savings to us to have a set of eyes we trust reporting back as fast as possible. Bob, our editor, has also started receiving dailies so he can begin editing. This will lend another set of eyes to let us know if we need any additional coverage. Of course, because of the delay, we won't have any eyes on the last few days of footage so we will double our efforts to ensure everything we need is present.

That's about all for now. We are getting up early tomorrow to go over the color corrected check disk of our last movie (Living & Dying) before we begin our second week of filming.

What Day Is It?

2006-08-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

We are three days into production, on a complete night schedule, and I have now officially lost track of time. I rarely know what day it is anymore and have no concept of the date.

Production has been going remarkably well. The first night was a pretty intense one. North Carolina got hit with the east moving heat front, so we had an entire crewed packed into a tiny apartment, with the hot lights and body heat adding to the already hot weather. It was a bit of a sweat factory in there. The crew is amazing. Everyone is pushing themselves hard to make a good movie and their spirits seem to be up. At this point, three days in, I can't ask for a harder working crew. We are filming nearly eight pages a day, moving back and forth around the set and everyone is keeping up with the fast schedule.

Of course, on such a fast schedule, I'm not always getting everything I want in terms of shots or coverage. As you don't know how a day is going to go, you have to barrel through the first half of the day just getting what you need. Once you hit the halfway point and see how the day is going, it gives you a little more latitude in getting extra shots. Richard and I have been really good about covering a scene in the most efficient way possible without compromising a scene and I'm delighted in what we are getting. I'm feeling like we have a really good movie coming together.

The actors have been spot on with their deliveries and performances. We are moving so fast we only get about two or three takes before we have to move on to a new camera set up and they've stepped up to the plate to give us what we need starting on take one. I'll try to write more about the individual actors over the weekend, but I've got to say that I'm incredibly happy with each and every performance. My only misgiving on this fast schedule is not getting to spend more time with the actors, working with them on their characters and the beats. The upside is that they are all so perfectly professional that they understand the beats, are taking the time outside to work together, and I've gained tremendous trust in their intuitions and the direction they go with the characters.

We've had a few "fun" moments in the course of production, the second day being the winner thus far. We were filming a bathroom scene in which we used a smoke maching to mimic shower steam. Unfortunately, we didn't know the fire alarms were still on in the building. We set them off and had three fire trucks show up in about five minutes. Production ended up on hold for forty-five very valuable minutes while we waiting for someone from the property to come out and reset the alarms. This also means that we now have to deal with not having "atmosphere" for some of our later scenes.

We also had the police called out because of Dominique. LOL! She was rehearsing a scene in which her character has been chased by the killer and is now at the building entrance, in complete hysterics, pounding on the door for the security guard to let her in. Kudos to her performance because someone in a neighboring building heard her screaming and called the police. Of course, as soon as the police arrived it was very obvious that we are making a movie and they've become friends to the production now.

So, that's it for today. I'm hoping to spend more time this weekend talking about the first week of production.

3 a.m.

2006-08-07T02:48:00.000-05:00

Looking at the clock on my computer it's 3:21 am. We start filming in roughly fifteen hours. Since we're on a night shoot, I'm doing my best to stay up late and turn my sleep schedule around. I haven't done an all night shoot since American Nightmare and I remember how rough that was. I also find it amazingly odd that we are making a movie that takes place entirely at night during the shorter time of the year. And, the storyline includes a city wide blackout. Between city lights and short nights, this should be fun.

Spent the better part of the day at the production office finishing out wardrobe with the actors currently here. We also went back and changed Dominique's wardrobe at the last minute to bring out a bit more of the "hero" look for her character. We finally nailed her character down in look and everyone is happy. We also finalized the look for both of our lead detectives. I decided I wanted to steer them away from the standard suit and tie detectives and gave them a much grungier, street look. As a result, we also changed them to vice squad detectives. It fits the look I like so much and gives both Mehmet and Keith a little more play when they respond to the call that a woman has witnessed our serial killer at work.

As the time approaches, inevitably, there are a ton of last minute changes: changes to wardrobe, the sets, make-up, etc. Everyone is finding the cohesion as story and character elements get fine tuned.

We spent the early evening and late into the night doing a script read through with Dominique, Mehmet and Keith. I haven't really gotten to do one of these since my first movie and I was very grateful to have the chance. We were able to fine tune some of the dialogue, discover dialogue that wasn't working and discuss problem areas in terms of character arc or motivation. Of course, this will continue throughout production, but it was nice to get some of it taken care of now before we ever hit the set. Richard was also there and spent the time studying the actor's faces to help assist him in both lighting and camera angles that best serve their look and the story.

About halfway through the evening, Jennifer Alden arrived in town and she was able to join us. Her character plays on the first day of filming so once we completed the read-through, we went back to the beginning so Dominique and Jennifer could go through their scenes together. All of us worked for about five hours and it was a gratifying experience. I've got a better feel for the dialogue coming from their mouths and it gave me some insight into each of the actors and what - I believe - they will be focusing on. Hopefully my perceptions will help me give them better direction on set.

So, at 3:31 a.m. I find myself going through all of the anxieties I've grown accustomed to as the final hour approaches. I want to be there for the actors, be able to communicate clearly with them and give good insight or suggestions when needed. I want to hear and see the characters come to life in a way that is honest and true. I want the first set-up to go smooth and quick without any major hiccups. I want all the little items still unfinished to be finished. I want craft services to be there on time and transportation to be all squared away. I want the make-up kit to be here and ready to go. I want to help foster a sense of family, excitement, committment and dedication. And most of all, I want to make a good movie for all the people who have busted their asses for us.

48 Hours and Counting`

2006-08-05T20:26:00.000-05:00

We are forty-eight hours from D-Day and it's full steam ahead. Dominique Swain got in last night and she is absolustely wonderful. We had a very long dinner getting to know each other and she's a lovely person with a wonderful personality. I'm definitely looking forward to working with her on set.

Mehmet Gunsur gets in tonight from Italy. On the phone, he's rambucuous, high spirited, enthusiastic, eager... all the things that lead to a wonderful partnership. Sometime later tonight, we'll be getting together to meet in person.

Much of the currently cast actors in North Carolina came through today for wardrobe fittings. All wonderful people. We still have some roles to fill for later in the production that should get taken care of this coming week. Had a good time talking with Keith Harris and Austin James. We talked about my approach to directing and the importance of my ability to communicate with actors. I've spent a lot of time over the last few years reading everything I can get my hands on that would strengthen my ability to understand what an actor goes through, how to give them playable direction and how to guide them down the paths that open themselves up to their characters. Both of them, as seems to be the case, talked about how so many directors they've worked with don't know how to communicate. It seems most apparent, to them, in directors coming out of the commercial or music video world where they didn't need to do much of this in terms of character and story. I can't imagine being any other way.

Spent part of the day wandering the halls of our location buidling looking at everything the art department has been doing. It's looking magnificent. My sister flew in last night to help out in the art department for a week or so. It's really great seeing her and I can't wait to have her around set when we start. This will be the first time someone from my family will have a chance to see me working. My Dad happens to live in North Carolina so he's coming out to the set on Tuesday to see both of us.

Richard, Eric and I spent another portion of the day discussing shots on the sets. This is the first movie I've gotten to spend this much time with the Director of Photography and Production Designer. We've nearly walked through every shot in the movie. We've seemed to bond in a very unique way, each of us bringing a different creative perspective to the movie that continuously enhances each other's thoughts. It's been wonderful.

Ticking Away...

2006-08-03T00:41:00.000-05:00

Casting is still ticking away... the mad scramble for the right person for the role and we start filming on Monday. The battles over cast continue. The producer's reasons for not casting a good actor right for the role is enough to beat your head against a wall.

On the upside, my sound mixer is coming in to save the day. I was getting worried there for a few minutes. That makes two that have made it ever since American Nightmare.

We did our tech scout today... nice, hot, sweaty and humid. Eric's art department seems to be working around the clock as we only got into our location on Tuesday night to start working. The way a production runs as the days grow closer to filming is a bit electric. The office is buzzing with adrenaline as last minute details get worked out, schedules are being changed every hour, script revisions are turning my fingers into nubs and my head is ringing from the minute by minute calls that come in to the office.

I finished my "shot detailed" shooting script at midnight so I start focusing on the actors tomorrow. The next few days will likely be lots of phone calls and meetings to discuss character, arcs, throughlines, motivations and all the other fun jargon words associated with characters. While it can get a bit crazy, this becomes one of my favorite parts of filmmaking... seeing the actors bring the characters to life.

With only a few days left to go, I'm ready to be shooting the movie now. The last few days are always the hardest but pass by the fastest.

The Ups and Downs of Auditions

2006-07-30T23:22:00.000-05:00

We started callback auditions today. There were a huge selection of actors today and another large group tomorrow. Auditions for movies are always an interesting beast of burden and necessity. It nevers fails to amaze me what actors will put themselves through for a role in a movie. The biggest amazement is the willingness to drive hundreds of miles (in some cases) to then sit in a hot room with their competition for hours on end and then come in to audition for what might amount to five minutes and then drive all the way home. I guess, in some ways, it's not that crazy when you think about what producers and directors go through in trying to find the funding and put a movie together. We love our craft, we love our careers and we go to most means to see these dreams come true.

As a director, auditions are a double edged sword. On the upside, there's an incredible rush when an actor comes in and nails a role... makes choices that already match what's in your head and bring the character to life in front of yours eyes. Of course, there's always that moment of beating when I select that person and then they don't match the producer's vision and you're off on the hunt again.

To make matters worse, more often than not, the people are wonderful, but there can be only one. You have to say thank you and move on, looking for that one person that matches your vision, takes your direction, displays versatility, exudes a charisma or energy that will pop on the screen and, oh yeah, looks right with the other actors around them but doesn't look to much like the other actors around them. So many variables it makes a director's head spin and an actor's stomach ache with worry.

Sitting here, after today, I feel good about what I saw today. Undoubtedly, there were some that were just "off." For the most part, I saw some very incredible actors, but at the end of the day their look, energy or take on the character just isn't right for this movie. To them, I wish you good look. For the others, I walked away with two to three very good selections for each role. That's exciting to have, particularly for auditions being held in a town not really known for filmmaking. At the end of the day, though, it gets thrown to chance. I will sit down, show the producers my selections and ultimately the call becomes their own. That's tough when you were the one in the room working with the actors knowing that they are right for the role.

Crazy Crazy Busy Busy

2006-07-28T22:36:00.000-05:00

Crazy crazy busy busy. We got our 1st AD on yesterday. A great guy with thirty years experience. He did one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm slowly making my way through the department heads of that movie. LOL! Between him and the others working with him, we've got a rockin' Assistant Directors department. Spent all of today in our building location selecting locales within and starting to block out scenes. It's finally coming together... last minute, but at least it's happening. I'm really loving having such an experienced and professional crew. Half the hardship issues I use to deal with I don't even hear about anymore. It's fun. I love this city and the people rock. Now I just have to hope we can pull this feature off with such a fast schedule.

Tomorrow we meet with the stunt coordinator and start discussing stunts. I found a high fall at the location I'd like to pull off so we'll see if we can work that one in as well. Will likely spend the rest of the day with Richard going through the script. I need to start digging in to script revisions now that we have a location locked.

Sunday and Monday are callback auditions. Time to get the rest of our cast going..

Lady in the Water

2006-07-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

Spent the weekend with Richard going through the script and working out our shots and lighting schemes. Also did some additional scouting yesterday for locations. Brandon and I scouted around the old RJ Reynolds tobbaco factory and found some ideal rooftops and fire escapes that might work well for the movie. Locations has been on the phone all day trying to get things locked in.

Met today with Patricia, our costume designer, and went over fabrics and design for the opening of the movie. The blood is going to look great against some of the lighter colored fabrics we selected. Tomorrow I'm meeting Catrine, our local casting director. She did auditions in Wilmington and Charlotte last week and is doing local auditions this week. Callbacks start Sunday so we can get the rest of our cast locked in. Also spent awhile on the phone last night with Udo further fleshing out his character of the Picasso Killer (his clothes, voice, background and motivations). Udo had some wonderful little bits of creepy dialogue that I'm adding to the script.

On Saturday night, we took a break and went over to see Lady in the Water. I have to say that I loved the movie. However, I recognize why some critics are panning it and why it's not for all audiences. Anyone going in expecting to see what had been a typical M. Night movie will get something entirely different.

For myself, I thought it was brilliant in terms of storytelling. M Night has developed a well thought and carefully layered fairy tale that, I believe, has the fundamentals of both good structure and the underlying meaning buried in older myths. Most of these were meant to be more than entertainment... they were morality lessons, reflections of the culture, and memories of the past. M Night did a remarkable job in marrying entertainment with a tale that could have been told around fires to the village folk.

I also found his choice of camera framing to be intriguing. Often, characters remain completing out of the frame as those on camera carry on extended dialogue sequences with them. It was unsettling and unconventional and created the sense that we shouldn't always rely on what we see, but more on what we feel.

Those with me liked the movie, with their own criticisms, but we walked away feeling that this was the best thing M Night has done since Sixth Sense. I need to go back and watch it again. Based on what little knowledge I have of M Night, I do believe there are even further layers to this story and its structure that still need to be discovered.

It's Friday at Midnight in a Hotel

2006-07-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

It's Friday, it's midnight, and I'm sitting in a hotel room eager to work.

Its been a fast paced couple of days with many ups and downs. Fall Down Dead is one of the quickest pre-productions I've ever been involved in. Technically speaking, pre-production began two weeks ago, but other than the line producer and art department, no one really hit the ground here in North Carolina until this last Monday, followed by myself on Tuesday night. That gives me a total of seventeen days of pre-production if I work every day.

Yesterday, we walked the city for seven hours checking out buildings, rooftops, alleyways, diners and streets for the movie. With only two weeks to go we still don't have any locations locked in. It's making everyone here a bit crazy as we watch the hours ticking by. We finished the day with sore legs, slight sunburns and a hunger for more. We got back to the hotel tired, weary and ready for bed but filmmakers are always an abusive lot. It didn't take more than thirty minutes for all of us to be back working late into the night.

We continued onward reworking the schedule... the current bane of my existence. With a very fast shooting schedule we are plagued by scheduling conflicts from a third of our cast flying in from various places around the world. It's turning our schedule into a jigsaw puzzle in which we are trying to force pieces together that don't obviously fit. This should make things interesting. Thank god for Richard, my DP, who has the same faith I do that we can pull this off.

Spent the rest of today going over the script with Richard, working out shots, discussing the details and meaning of scenes, and building the foundations that will allow us to work quickly. We'll continue this over the weekend. Also met with Katherine, a local artist who is going to be doing all of the "art" that will hang in the Picasso Killer's lair. For such a gentle looking lady, there was a wonderful hint of darkness that crept into her eyes as I and Eric (my production designer) explained the horror and anger we wanted to convey through the art. I'm excited to beginning seeing pieces next week.

Now if only we could get our locations locked in...

Falling Down in North Carolina

2006-07-19T17:59:00.000-05:00

I've arrived in North Carolina and we have Fall Down Dead underway. Eric Whitney, my production designer, has been here about a week and a half getting his art department up and running, and Brandon Baker, one of our producers, got in on Monday. I arrived last night from Los Angeles, tired and hot. Winston-Salem is a beautiful city and I'm very excited to being filming here (and the people are some of the friendliest I have ever met in my life).

Today was primarily spent meeting departments heads. I met with Eric and Sophia (the set decorator) this morning and we started looking at artwork for the Picasso Killer's art room. They have found some wonderfully macabre art that will add the nicest touches to his lair.

I then met with Costume Designer Patricia Mueller to go over wardrobe choices, colors, etc. for all of the characters in the movie.

From there I met Richard Clabaugh, a very talented Director of Photography and a very likeable man to boot. I'm really looking forward to working with Richard and seeing what all he will bring to the table. We spent some time talking over basic foundations of our lighting and look and then went for a very hot and humid walk around the downtown area looking at locations. We found some very ideal spots that, at night, will be very moody and scary.
Tomorrow, we're off to look at some selections for our primary building location where the majority of the movie will take place at. We're hoping for air conditioning as it's about 100 degrees here with very high humidity. We'll see what happens. Nights are a little more manageable in terms of heat, but we don't want the actors passing out in their "winter" clothes. Why are we filming a winter horror movie in the dead of summer?
Jon

Almost done...

2006-07-13T13:58:00.000-05:00

I'm in Los Angeles and we're days away from having Living & Dying completely finished. Tomorrow morning we will be viewing the final color corrected print of the movie. Next week, the lab will complete the titles and 5.1 sound printmaster and the prints will start rolling off the assembly line.

At the same time next week, the lab will begin working on the telecine transfer and color correction for DVD and television masters. As it currently stands, HBO has purchsed Living & Dying and will be premiering it in early 2007. They have given us a window to try for a small theatrical release. We'll see what happens. Regardless, HBO is a huge boon and something we are all very happy with.

Additionally, in the foreign market, it has been confirmed that it will begin its theatrical run in Turkey and Eastern Europe in early October and will also have a theatrical run in Germany this Autumn.

All great news on the Living & Dying homefront.
--Jon Keeyes

Gettin' Ready to Travel

2006-07-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

Things have been moving at such a pace, I haven't had a chance to think about blogging lately. And, it appears this might be the case for the next two months as I get ready to start travelling.

By the end of last week, all picture work on Mad Bad was completed and I'm incredibly happy with how it looks. We are currently completing sound, which should be done in the next two weeks. I'm taking it as far as I can and then leaving it in the hands of the producers to finish. Fortunately, myself and the producers are very much on the same page with the sound design.

Late this week, I'll be heading to California to wrap up Living & Dying. We have completed the re-edit and it's time to finish the answer print.

From California, I head to North Carolina to start filming on Fall Down Dead. It'll be a very fast three weeks prep (for myself) and then a hurried three week production. With the breakneck speed at which everything is happening, I should at least count my blessings that I'm working, finishing movies and making new movies.

As we move into Fall Down Dead, I'm going to do my best to keep up with semi-regular updates on the progess of pre-production and production. It would be nice to turn this into something of a filmmaker's journal throughout the process. We'll see if I can keep up.

Jon

Living & Dying to be Mad and Bad

2006-06-16T09:17:00.000-05:00

Haven't had much time lately for movie watching or reading, so here are some of the updates on movie progress:

Just when we thought it was all done... We're back in the editing studio with Living & Dying. We are doing some minor re-editing to the first act of the movie, tightening things up further and picking up the pace. The film's opening is beginning to hum like a tightly wound guitar string, which is great for the intensity of this movie. If things stay on track, final final picture will be done in early July. We're almost there.

At the same time, I'm finishing the long overdue Mad Bad. We did re-edits last week and started sound design on Monday. The goal right now is to be completely done with the movie by July 14th. It's beautiful seeing this movie finally get finished after so long. I'm very happy with it and the producers have been very supportive in elevating the movie to the next level and seeing it through.

We've submitted both movies to the Toronto Film Festival, and Mad Bad will start getting submitted to further autumn-time festivals. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

That's it for now. Hoping Fall Down Dead will get the greenlight in the next week or so. That'll have me finishing both movies at roughly the same time and then flying off the east coast to start Fall Down Dead.

Living & Dying Trailer

2006-06-05T14:23:00.000-05:00

The first Living & Dying Trailer is now online.

Please visit the teaser website at http://www.highlandmyst.com/livinganddying

or go directly to the trailer at

http://www.highlandmyst.com/livinganddying/LADpublictrailer.mov

The Ugly Hand of the Bottom Line

2006-05-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

The last week or so seems to have been a constant stream of conversation about filmmaking. I love talking about movies and filmmaking, but it seems that there is a reoccurring trend in the conversation. People want to know why so many movies are so bad. And, they want to know why filmmakers aren't given more control and power over their films.

The honest answer, the best I can find for now, is that the business of filmmaking is just that... a business. And at the end of the down, for many producers and financers, it all boils down to the bottom line.

When I set out to make American Nightmare, the financers were my friends and family (along with my savings account). For the part of friends and family, they invested to assist me in achieving my dream. They honestly never expected to see anything back and for their kindness, I’ll forever be grateful. In such a situation, I was free to make my movie my way. My producing partner Richard Carey was - and has always been – one of the most supportive producers I’ve ever worked with. Throughout the whole process, he constantly challenged me on creative and business choices (for the good of the movie) but never forced me to do or change anything. At the end of the day, American Nightmare was made with my vision in the forefront and built collectively by my family of filmmaking friends.

With Suburban Nightmare and Hallow’s End, the same can be said for the most part. The producers on both features gave me freer reign than I’ve seen on any of my subsequent productions. Other than having approval over the script – which really boiled down to requesting certain marketable elements be worked in to the script at my creative discretion – they gave us the room to go out and make those movies unhindered (though, on Hallow’s End, there were other mitigating circumstances that don’t need to be discussed here).

It is more recently, as I’ve moved into larger budgeted films, that I’ve discovered the ruthless hand of “the bottom line.” I lie awake in bed at night having screaming matches with people in my head. I write nasty emails that never get sent. I want to grab someone by the shoulders and shake sense into them. Why is it ONLY about the bottom line? Why do opening weekend receipts have to be the only concern? In my mind, it is quite possible – yes, even feasible – to make a movie that does well opening weekend and is still a good enough movie to have longevity.

For nearly half the life of cinema, filmmakers made movies in which the creative people were given control to make creative movies that were not only financially successful, but also continued to thrive long past their prime. This is something – as I see it – that has gone to the wayside. Day after day, in my involvement with a lot of different productions, it all comes down to the bottom line:

“You will cast who we tell you to cast so we can make all our money back.”

Nice, but are they right for the character? For the movie? What part of the 60-year-old character led you to believe that a 25-year-old was right for the part?

“We don’t have enough money for a 25 day shoot. You have 15 days instead.”

My response – do you care about the quality of your theatrical movie? Is your uber-expensive actor worth cutting 10 days of quality? Do you really think I can film enough angles and coverage in 15 days to make the movie you expect? Their answer, “Just do it. That’s what we want.”

“We’ve decided that you need to cut ten pages from the script and we don’t care what you cut.”

Enough said.

I’ve discovered in the business of filmmaking that at the end of the day, for far too many people, it’s about the quick buck and the product without care or concern to the quality. Put some big names on the poster, advertise it like crazy, and as long as they make their money back opening weekend, that’s the only thing that matters.

I really yearn for the day when I meet a financer/producer that truly cares about the quality of the movie. I truly do understand the business of filmmaking. If I don’t make money, I don’t make more movies. It’s a very simple fact of life. I get it. However, I do know and believe there are people out there that want to be successful with their movies but also have a great care for the quality of their movies. If they make a hit, if they make a classic, they are only guaranteed to make more… a whole lot more…

I know they are out there and I’m still looking. In the meantime, I will maintain that John Sayles is my hero. He learned, like so many filmmakers, that it’s a business. So, wanting to preserve the integrity of his movies, he makes them his way without interference. He raises the money independently, keeps the budgets low, turns a profit, and creates the movies he wants to create. Of course, it helps that he’s considered a genius at screenwriting and that most every actor around is willing to work for him for scale, but hey, we all can dream.

The First Amendment

2006-05-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Everyone seems to have their cause. There are those who stand firmly on protecting the environment and I’m a firm supporter of such issues. There are those who rise up for the protection of social programs and I also believe in assisting those who are less fortunate than others (particularly in programs relevant to children and the elderly). However, my own personal cause is in the unrestricted protection of the First Amendment. I believe that our freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. is the most fundamental and vital element created by our Founding Fathers to ensure America remains a place of individual liberties and freedom from tyranny.

Unfortunately, in our modern life, I am watching these rights slowly and deliberately get whittled away, chiseled at ever so delicately until one day we will wake up and find out that we can’t say what we want or believe what we want.

I recently came across three news reports that I wished to share.

In the first case, various First Amendment groups – along with the Screen Actors Guild – called for all its members to contact their State Senators regarding a proposed bill involving the Federal Communications Administration. Under this proposed bill, the FCC would be able to fine an individual performer up to $50,000 for doing anything they deem to be “obscene” on a broadcast program. This would not only extend to “free television” but also to cable television. The scariest aspect of this proposition is that the FCC has not defined what they consider to be “obscene.” This means that if two actors playing a homosexual couple kiss on a broadcast program and the FCC decides it is obscene, they can fine both of those actors. Furthermore, it prevents and hinders the free and creative expression of artists from writers to directors to actors to all involved within television and motion picture filmmaking. Seeking to define obscenity in such a loose and irresponsible fashion rings with overtones of fascism and leads us only further down a doomed road that will end with Americans being forced to believe in what those in power would have you believe. Obscenity is based upon personal morals and values and should not be controlled or dictated by the government unless it causes direct and unavoidable harm to the individual. Fortunately, and particular with broadcast material, we always have the right to change the channel if we don’t want to watch it.

In the next case, The New York Times recently expanded their reports regarding the NSA’s gathering of phone records. It was discovered that these records were also being shared with the CIA so that a journalist’s secret (and protected) sources could be discovered. Several journalists received very urgent and hurried messages from their sources telling them to abandon their cell phones as they were being monitored. While I have mixed feelings about the NSA monitoring my phone records for the purpose of “discovering and protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism” this seems to follow the pattern of the Bush Administration: use terrorism as a terror tactic to get Americans to give up their personal liberties. If find it revolting and terrifying how quickly Americans will give up their own privacy for the sake of “protection” without researching and determining which of their own rights they are giving up and how this will effect our society with each passing year. Obviously, some journalists have acted irresponsibly, sometimes even fictionalizing their work or sources, but I am not willing to give up our right to a free press due to the shortcomings of a few. This is a clear violation of the freedom of press that, if allowed to continue, will become commonplace, opening the door to further violations that hinder the press from challenging and criticizing our government.

The last case, as shared with me by my wife, is in regard to a new technology that will place microchips inside driver’s licenses, credit cards and debit cards. With these microchips, an organization will be able to track – at all times – the location of the cards. I will not deny the potential good this can bring about in tracking down criminals who steal these cards. I also can’t deny the almost “big brother” overtones of such a technology. I am not comfortable knowing that at any given time or place someone can monitor my exact movements and location. I, as an individual and an American, have the right to go about my life free of government scrutiny. For me, this is yet one more “drop in the proverbial bucket” that will lead to the disintegration of personal liberties.

These are but a few of my beliefs, expressed and protected under my freedom to speech. And as of today, I have a right to express them. I hope I don’t wake up tomorrow to find that they are gone.

Living & Dying

2006-05-04T10:54:00.000-05:00

I was trying to avoid writing a "what am I up to" post, but it seems like that's all the time I have for right now. I'm in Los Angeles finishing up "Living & Dying" and it's been a rollercoaster ride. As one person put it yesterday, "It's a runaway fireball that's ready to explode." The biggest problem has been a lack of communication. There are too many cooks in the kitchen and the left hand isn't talking to the right hand. It's caused a lot of delays and hiccups that is making the whole process quite difficult to deal with. I'm a huge fan of communication and preparation, so all this last minute stuff makes it very hard. I have now truly learned the value of needing a post production supervisor and would urge every filmmaker to ensure they have one. It's important that the director be allowed to focus on the creative aspects of finishing the movie instead of dealing with coordinating the elements and playing the "in-between" person between the producers and the rest of the people working on it. We need to have a finished print in the mail to the Cannes Film Market on Wednesday. If I successfully make it, I'll be a very happy man.

Sex and Lucia

2006-04-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

For quite some time, I've heard varying discussions about the Spanish film "Sex and Lucia." Initially, I had chosen not to watch the movie as it didn't particularly intrigue me. It looked and sounded like it was going to be another foreign soft-core movie that never grabbed my attention.

Recently, I was approached by some producers about the possibility of using Paz Vega in an upcoming film. Having only seen her in “Spanglish,” I decided I better rent "Sex and Lucia" to get a better grasp on her previous work.

I didn't have very high expectations sitting down to watch the movie. Within minutes, I was captured. The movie opens with a series of highly emotional static shots. These static shots lent a very bizarre, almost voyeuristic tone to the brilliant and honest acting from Paz Vega. I almost felt like I was intruding on a painfully private moment and should turn away. I also appreciated the prolonged scenes, which I have found - from my own experience - forces an actor to the core truth of the sequence as they aren’t given the opportunity for quick cuts and short spurts of emotion. They have to sustain it from a real and dark place within themselves.

Continuing on, the movie intercuts between the present and the past as Lucia ventures to a Mediterranean island to search out the truth behind a dark secret held by the love of her life. These sequences were remarkably and beautifully filmed. The past and the present were composed to reach to the root of the scenes arc and were filled with rich textures and colors. However, amidst all of this, were these dreamy and meditative sequences, over exposed and desaturated to create a feeling of being in the “inbetween place” of reality and the mind.

The first hour of the movie unfolds slowly and is filled with an incredible amount of nudity and lust. The graphic nature of it often surprised me for a mainstream movie, but I also found that its story-telling approach was one that hit the mark, evoking the appropriate and necessary emotions to understand the nature of the relationships and the fine balance between love and sex, joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, desire and guilt.

It is in the second hour that the story truly pushes forward into terrain that had me hooked. The movie is filled with intriguing twists and turns that explore the moral hell humanity places upon sex and the consequences of our actions. It also explores the danger in keeping secrets and not opening ourselves wholly and completely to the people we love. It did an amazing job of building complex characters and unique conflict that in some small way, I believe we can all relate to.

In the end, I found myself blown away by the depth of the story and the journey of the characters. Almost a moral tell… a bit mythological… it is a movie that would probably need several more viewings to completely comprehend the depths of which it tries to reach. I believe both filmmakers and screenwriters could learn a lot from “Sex and Lucia.”

Cry Wolf

2006-03-27T18:58:00.000-06:00

Being a fan of horror movies, and tending to write or direct them, I try to watch most of the horror movies when they come out. When Cry Wolf hit the theaters, it did lackluster sales (though I was surprised to discover that it grossed $10 million at the box office with only an estimated $1 million budget). I heard only so-so reviews and decided to wait for video. Over the weekend, my wife and I rented the Unrated Version.

With little prior information other than word of mouth, I sat down to watch it with very low expectations. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised. It was not at all what I expected. With Cry Wolf, I got an intelligent and well-crafted movie that was far more psychological than blood-and-guts horror. First time feature director/writer Jeff Wadlow was able to make the movie through a grant after one of his short films won a Chrysler Short Film Competition.

I can tell why the movie didn't do well theatrically. It relied on story and characters rather than violence and special effects. Over the last many years, it seems that for a horror film to succeed it requires at least one of three elements: 1) it's a remake; 2) star talent driving it; or 3) filled with violence and special effects. For the most part, Cry Wolf contains none of these. What Cry Wolf does is it takes full advantage of its meager budget, relying on solid acting (in particular from Lindy Booth of 2004's Dawn of the Dead) and an atmospheric unfolding of events. Wadlow didn't walk into new or innovative terrain, but spent time with structure and pacing. Yes, I saw the ending coming, but I couldn't help wanting to see it arrive.

As the movie ended, my wife (one of the toughest horror critics I know) turned and said, "Well, it's probably the best horror flick I've seen in the last year. It went for intelligence." That's a lot coming from her. And I tend to agree. Over the last two days, I've read many arguments about the pros and cons of Cry Wolf and find myself still pondering and thinking about the movie. Cry Wolf displays so many of the qualities I believe have been lost in the glut of horror movies of the last few years. To be effective, a horror movie needs to believe in its characters, give them a journey that the audience follows, gives them some suspense and/or shock and hopefully makes you think a little. Unfortunately, in our modern world, most people don’t seem to want to think.

With any of its forgiveable errors aside, I believe that if more filmmakers tried to approach horror in the same way that Wadlow approached Cry Wolf, we might end up with better horror movies.

Update #2

2006-03-16T18:11:00.000-06:00

Time flies when you're having fun. Sound design on Living & Dying is in full swing. All the elements have been delivered and the sound editors are working like crazy to meet the end of April deadline.

Things continue to progress on Fall Down Dead. We've had some casting nibbles but nothing to report until paperwork is signed. The producers are also still trying to determine where the movie will get made. New Mexico was a strong lead but now it's looking like they have too many movies filming there during our schedule. Utah and Louisiana have now been added as another candidate, along with the previous locales of North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Dallas. I'll be a much happier man once I know where we're making the movie.

Also got contacted by a company interested in having me direct a larger budget movie for them. I've past muster with their producers and next week will be meeting with the Executive Producer and financer. I spent most of this week preparing a creative treatment to present to this gentlemen. Without giving too much premature info, it's a biopic movie set in the 1930's about a woman executed for the murder of a man during a robbery. I thoroughly love the story and, if nothing else, the research for the creative treatment was fascinating.

Dear Mr. President

2006-03-09T11:09:00.000-06:00

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with one of the sound editors on my movie, Living & Dying. He had just finished mixing a documentary called Dear Mr. President. The documentary follows two 16 year old Jewish Israeli girls and their best friends, two 16 year old Muslim Palestinian girls. The four of them believed that if the President of the United States would spend a little time learning about the cultures of their region, he and the U.S. could very easily intervene with solutions to ease the continuining crisis and bloodshed in their region. They wrote a very intelligent and thought-provoking letter to the President, and suprisingly, were invited by the White House to have a fifteen minute meeting with George W.

This prompted a thirty day tour of the U.S. in which they talked at High Schools and Universities about the misunderstandings of their culture by the rest of the world. They believe, with very good reasoning and arguement, that if the rest of the world's political leaders would learn more about the Middle Eastern cultures, they would probably have a much better chance at assisting in solving the problems of their regions.

The day before their meeting with George W. the White House called and cancelled the meeting. They said that the President was simply too busy to meet with them.

I can only hang my head in shame. While sad for the girls, a perfect ending to the documentary. It just goes to show that we are more interested in political and economic interests than getting to know the people and culture that we are intruding upon.

Update #1

2006-03-02T09:47:00.000-06:00

Life keeps ticking by, one day at a time. It's been a crazy week, as seems typical these days. On Monday night we got picture edit lock on Living & Dying. Bob and I are now working quickly to get the reels assembled and I begin delivering them to the sound studio on Friday. Next Monday, I'll meet with all the sound editors to watch the movie and discuss sound design ideas so they can get working. It's going to be a very fast six weeks as the distributor wants to have an answer print by the beginning of May to screen during the Cannes film market in May.

In the meantime, it looks like Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is finally going to get finished. One of the producers talked with a post facility in Dallas that is going to complete the movie. It's unfortunate the way some of the producers have handled this movie, but I'm glad to see that it is finally going to be completed.

We are also moving forward with our next movie, Fall Down Dead. I was supposed to direct this movie in Toronto a couple of years ago and for many reasons, it fell apart. However, the company that we made Living & Dying for has picked up the script for me to direct. We've hired a casting director and offers have started going out to lead talent. I'm very excited as I've wanted to make this movie for quite some time. I haven't directed a horror movie in nearly three years, so I'm very eager to get back to the genre I love most. They are looking at a late spring to early summer production. We still don't know where it is getting made, however. Besides the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, three other cities around America are currently being discussed

And last, I've been busy with a lot of other projects that are in development. We have a handfull of financing opportunities that could bring The Bloodwalkers and Angela's Body to the screen. I was also contacted by a company yesterday that has a script for a movie they would like to produce this coming year. I met with them yesterday afternoon and picked up the script. I'll read it over the weekend and keep my fingers crossed.

CASTING BY NAME?

2006-02-27T13:29:00.000-06:00

The March 2006 issue of Premiere magazine has a phenomenal article called “Role Call” that explores the secretive, and sometimes mythic, list of marketable actors and the unfortunate yet ever increasing strategy of casting movies based upon the financial value of an actor’s name. This topic has been very near to me and has caused me to do everything from screaming to kicking a wall. Casting without recognition of talent and quality is one of the most infuriating and frustrating aspects of my career.

Now, I’m not one of those filmmakers that run around yelling, “It’s about the art!” I’m in show ‘business’ – not show ‘art.’ With my producer’s hat on, I fully recognize that if I’m going to continue making a living, my movies also need to make money. Unless I become one of the fortunate directors where my name is the star of the show (ala Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Wes Craven, etc.), I know that I need marketable talent to sell my movies. If I’m going to ask someone to sink large sums of money into a movie, they need certain safeguards to ensure they get their money back… and actors are the primary way.

So, do these secret lists exist? Of course they do. I’ve seen them and they are the bane of my existence. The biggest reason for their secrecy is that the lists are subjective. Every distributor, sales agent and executive has their own opinion on who is marketable for their company. I have sat in a meeting where three different actor names got mentioned and I was told that they had no marketability and were worthless to their company. Nearly a week later, I had the same conversation with a different company and those same three actors were in their Top Ten list.

I have had to deal with these lists on my last movie and my most current movie. We create list after list of actors that we believe are right for a role, but ultimately it comes down to who the people with the money like. I can spend hour after hour creating a list, but they are virtually useless.

And thus enters my objection. In my experience, what I see is people trying to cast a film based on marketability and not based on what actor is right for a role. Take for example The Godfather, as mentioned in the Premiere article. The studio originally wanted Ernest Borgnine to play Brando’s role and Ryan O’Neal to play the Al Pacino part. Francis Ford Coppola had to fight tooth and nail until the studio relinquished to the actors the director preferred. And this is the common case. I have been handed lists that make absolutely no sense. In one movie, I had a character written as late thirties to early forties guy. The list I got handed included every popular actor from the 1970’s who is now over seventy. In another case, I have a movie with a young woman in her late twenties, at best, early thirties. One of the original lists included all actresses over forty.

Now, the first thing out of my mouth was, “Did you read the script?” To which the answer was, “It doesn’t matter. This is who we like.”

And this has been the case all along. As a director, I want to cast the best actor for a role. While the producer in me eagerly seeks out actors that will assist in selling the movie, the director has an equal battle over the best person for the role. So, why not cast someone that is marketable in the distributor’s eyes but also right for the role? This isn’t brain surgery. It makes logical sense to me. I guess I’m from a different school of thought. The trend today is to make the quick buck. Make all your money back on opening day and/or the first week of the DVD release. I prefer to think in different terms… let’s do all that plus a lot more. Let’s create a movie that has a legacy… a movie that people are still watching and talking about ten, twenty, fifty years from now. Movies like Psycho, Halloween or, even better, Casablanca and Dracula. Would Halloween still be a classic if an eighteen year old Linda Blair (not that I know of her ever being a consideration ) had been cast as Laurie Stroud instead of Jamie Lee Curtis? What if Robert Redford had actually accepted the role for The Graduate instead of the virtually unknown Dustin Hoffman? I have no idea, but I do know that casting is vitally important to the success of a movie. So, hey, why not try casting the right actor for the right role? I guess the quick cash is more important to some people than a good movie.

I'm up and running

2006-02-24T14:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I've gone and done it... created a blog. We'll see what amusing brain droppings I come up with as I get the hang of this whole blog thing.