Help. I've fallen and I can't get up.

Artists are quite often known for being manic depressives. I've hit the downswing here.

My short film "Do You Want to Go Out?" was rejected from DeadCenter. I even entered in the Oklahoma category. The logic being that because I knew what sound was, because I actually used some professional equipment, that I'd be a shoe-in. And I wasn't.

It could be because I turned in a half finished product. One that was too long in the beginning and too sloppy in the end. A version with no soundtrack, uneven color, easily corrected mistakes left in, and well... let's face it folks... bad  sound. All those things I can tell myself, but I really don't know what they thought. It sucks to be rejected.

Especially after my last short some 4 years ago was dreadfully low quality. Especially to know that unless you are in a film festival you won't get sincere criticism, you just get a lot of "Oh that was good," junk. When it's an objective crowd, they really are judging your film - and it's gut-wrenching to hear, "not good enough" - especially when you're competing with a limited crowd. It's devastating to not be able to produce content but once every two years and know that you didn't live up to the standard that was created from successes in college. 


It's like I'm a brilliant director stuck inside the body of a lame producer. My producer won't let me do work, my producer won't line things up to keep me going.

And to know, that I chose a path that meant I had to be good every time- and often -or I would be doomed to doubleA ball with never a shot at The Show. I'm that pitcher who's mom made him go to college instead of taking the draft and he ended up throwing out his arm.

More than anything, I just needed a win.

Not sure why I looked to a film festival for the win in the first place. But sometimes you need confirmation that you belong. Even when you've had that moment 20x before. Even when you've stood next to giants.

Maybe my film WAS rejected because it's not good as a half-done, but that continues to be my excuse. Limited resources/access/time. I keep tweaking "that", I keep waiting to get "this" right. Others do it, they do it all, they get work done. I don't get it, but,


It's like I'm a brilliant producer with a whiny prima donna director stuck inside. The auerture won't shut up and make the movie, he needs his latte to be correct, he needs his space to be clear.

Wake up Call: The Business Plan

<---A helpful book for starting out

Last week I took a second run at my business plan for film. Every time I dig in, I get so excited about the future of this business. When I walk away, all the crap of life and my artistic mind wants to throw more into it, tell me how hard all of it is, and tries to overwhelm me. It often succeeds. It is why I'm only on the second draft of a business plan investors need to know about.

Too many of us treat ourselves as "filmmakers". Well, I'm sorry, but unless you work at Kodak, or Fuji, you are not a film maker. I am not a film maker. We all need to get it through our heads so we can move on and stop expecting someone to give us an aurteur contract because we can dissect Francis Ford Coppola films.

You are hardly an artist. Just because you know the art side, just because you make a movie and inject something Scorcesse or Lynch has done into your story, just because you can break down exactly why a Michael Bay movie is awful (and I'm talking about myself here too) doesn't mean you are "above" the business nature of your medium. This is a wake-up call, Jake.

The moment you apply a story to your art, you have become an entertainer. And entertainment is a business, there is no way around it. Your market might be stuck up film snobs like yourself, your story might be for pure art reasons. But any time you want to hold an audience captive, any time you would even like the idea of them paying for it, you are a business person.

Even David Lynch is subject to budgets, schedules, marketing, audience turnout, and ROI (that's Return On Investment for you ingenious aurteurs out there).

Here's what I've learned:

• Your art will not go away. You have a unique vision - inherently - no one else sees how you do. Therefore your artistic nature is not a trick, if you don't think about it, if you set aside thinking about your "art", it will not make you worse because you aren't thinking about it
• So start learning the business. Stop watching more movies for a month, and research on how the movie got made. You will only lose time by putting off stepping towards business.
• MOVE FORWARD, or, as I will condition myself to think = MFF. I will let you fill in the blanks there, but I had to use the middle one to get some emphasis on FORWARD. My first draft happened months ago because I finally sat down and said "I'm doing this". Because of that moment on that day, I'm done with my second draft today. But only because I did that first one months ago.

Finally: Rely on other people. Being an artist is a lonely gig, it comes with the territory. But you aren't an artist until you start creating art, remember? And you can't create art until you do some business.

• Which makes you a business person right now. Your business is failing. Because business is not a lonely gig. Understand your business and then get people excited about helping, people who are business people - not other aurteurs like you! How's that supposed to work? You will need marketing people, producer people, and people who know people. Start collecting business cards.
• Like a movie without a screenplay - you don't have a viable business without a business plan. So start writing the business plan. All those people you are collecting cards from have no idea what making a movie is, but if you can relay what making a movie is in terms they already know... How exciting will that be to them to understand the magic behind a movie suddenly?

That's all. Stay tuned for more on HOW to write a business plan. I'm no expert, but I sure have done exhaustive research. So I'll relay it to you. Not to mention, if you don't know anything about Oklahoma Tax credits combined with the federal government's incentive for investing in film, you are missing out. 

There is no other business that can guarantee 70% of an investment will not be lost. Not to mention, at the same time providing the potential of the return to be so massive (how much did the $10G film Paranormal Activity make at the box office?)

Oh... and MFF. Let's go.     (that's "flip"... by the way... like a, uh, front flip, you know... flip)

Blogging While Editing 4 - DYWTGO?

Really didn't want to edit from my office, but a 24" screen beats a 13" any day. I don't know if I can stick around here for very long. Last time I worked in my office late, I got locked in the parking lot on campus. Luckily someone left one of the gates' padlocks off. But I found that after quite a bit of panic.

Working on the exterior apartment sequence. It's really important to get each beat in the scene right. We didn't get a take with every single beat right. But each take has at least one beat that is just golden. I wonder if it's just me as an editor, though. I didn't see it that way when we shot it. I tend to look at each beat as its own moment when I edit. I think that's why my highlights are topnotch. But when it comes to the scenes themselves, I really put so much time into each moment. And as I found out with the final scene, that doesn't always work all that well.

Saw myself on camera. I think I might be a vampire. I. am. white.

The Apple Magic Mouse is AMAZING. I love being able to jog back and forth with the sweep of finger.

Kelli has some great ad libs that are so low I never heard them until I started editing with quality headphones. Mike is a lot louder and it skips over him. Note to self: use two channel audio every time. I'm able to bring his volume down and hers up. It's great.

It sucks to kill your darlings. But I suppose that's just what good writing is.

I've been editing for the last hour with my fly unzipped. Good thing I wasn't Ustream-ing my editing progress.

Kent just sent over the coffee shop sequence with timing and sound. I'm rendering now. Can't wait to see it. I just sent him the exterior apt scene for color and sound treatment.

He had already timed and was working on the sound for that scene! It's like I'm out to make this guy work- I totally expressed my plan incorrectly to him. But Kent gets stuff done and seems to love tor work, you gotta love that in the film biz. It wasn't a problem for him and now this will even give me a chance to touch up the computer store sequence - which I was going to call locked so he could color and sound that one.

They just hit the lights in the hallway. I'm so glad I'm not editing a zombie movie right now.

I wonder what time the deadline is tomorrow? I facebooked DeadCenter - we'll see.

The Office sequence is cut. It is funny.

The Long One-Take

OK Go does it again!
Brilliant!



I'm a fan of the long one-take. Often times it can take me out of a scene because I recognize them - and I recognize that I like them. But then I just get filled with so much emotion for whatever is happening in the scene I can hardly handle myself. They inspire me, and I find that they often engross others as well.

I think this is probably why OK Go got away with a tarp as a background in a badly lit gym with non-spectacular treadmills in the music video that made them famous - ADD LINK HERE

Here's one of my ALL TIME favorite fight scenes. (And I'll admit I've only barely seen the movie - and I still can't get over the tension in the scene - I had a problem in college with falling asleep in the middle of movies, it was weird.)
One versus many and they don't even pull out the classic ninja badguy fight strategy of "One-at-a-Time". This is one bad mother-shut-yo-mouth with a hammer, working his way through a hallway crowded with toughs.



The world got shook up with this one. A pretty normal guy has to escort the first baby in almost 30 years through a grim firefight in the not-too-distant-dystopian-future. Even with blood splatter hitting the screen at one point - I never caught on that this was one take. Probably the best choreography with the most and biggest actions happening on screen. This involves a whole wall blowing out and a lot of haunting facial expressions.

Never mind, can't find the shot anywhere, Universal had it removed from YouTube. But if you've seen Children of Men, then you know what I'm talking about.

Here's a classic one that's actually references another classic opening shot. It's from The Player, and another of my favorites - but how could it not be when it's 8 minutes long - that's almost an entire can of film!



And here's the shot that the studio exec was referencing, from A Touch of Evil



And just because you need one that's EXTRA CRAZY, leave it to Thailand to knock your socks off with a long take where our hero faces an entire building of badguys while running up a spiral staircase. You can feel this guy's intensity and determination even though some of the fighting is a little contrived. It's the real beauty of the Long One-Take.



They used to call them "Tracking Shots" but you can see the difference in OK Go and in Touch of Evil. We don't have to keep them on the dolly and tracks anymore. Though I guess it still does "track" someone. Now the GlideCam gives us the ability to "float anywhere" and make up for any timing miscues.

Where are your favorite One Long Take Shots?

Blogging While Editing 3 - DYWTGO?

Thought I was making good time until I watched the entire sequence. There is a lot of work to do. Basically all touchups. I may have used a reaction shot twice, and I can't seem to find the “room tone” we got, which should help me edit because some of the cuts just DO NOT work because the sound is shaved off here and there. So it pops in and out. I can't tell if I'm jump cutting or if the sound is jarring me.

Nonlinear editing. The reaction shots tell a different story every time. I'm trading in about six different ones at two different spots and it's just such a hard choice. Found it. I think. I replayed 2 seconds over so many times I need to leave it alone for a while. But one thing is for sure, Jane (Kelli) had a great reaction and now it's in – which I didn't expect.

Lost. Somehow we didn't get audio on two glidecam shots. Need direction here.

Just made edited Lauren's lines from “You would not believe” and “I just don't understand” into “I just don't believe” and “You would not understand”. Making her next perfectly delivered line have even more of a punch.

Poll Question: Does this make me A.) a genius; or, B.) a George Lucas style director; or, C.) a complete hack. I'm not sure, but it'll make the movie better....

Not sure I've got the momentum to finish. It's getting late and I've reached a point where those soundless glidecam shots look like they are perfect for what this needs. I've spent hours getting just a couple of lines off those shots but they are pretty shakey as far as sync goes, and I have to cut away before you really get the sense that you're on the glidecam anyway defeating the purpose at some pivitol moments. I think I might know where the audio is but I would lose at least an hour getting it.

So do I keep editing so I can have this finished? Or do I move on to the other sequences where I have to relearn where all the shots are? Think my best bet is to move on. This sequence is maybe killing me a little much.

Just watched all that I have again. It looks really good. I need to shave a lot of that silence I spent so much time protecting though. I can see now it could be a lot tighter. Hope I have time to do that before Wednesday – the Dead Center Deadline.

This opening coffee shop scene is working pretty well. I think it's a good start. The only thing that could make it better, and something it really needs, is more swirling around in the opening shot, the way I designed it. I just got flustered because I had blocked it for an entirely seperate coffee shop. And then when we got there no one was in there while I worked the new blocking. We just didn't have enough people. But oddly, by the time we got the perfect take, the shop was hopping, we all just sort of were consumed with getting the shot we'd designed.

I think I just became a stock holder in Dr. Pepper this weekend.

It's funny. They say, if there is a train track anywhere near by, get a shot of the train. Sure enough. I could have used a shot of the train. The big decision of the movie just happens to take place while a train whistle is blairing and rocking Java Dave's. It sounds awesome but is totally out of place with no contex. You are actually able to see the train from the window but we just didn't think to get a shot of the “cat in the window”, or train, in this instance.

Looking good. I went an hour over when I need to go to bed but I think it's in quality enough shape to enter into Dead Center. It should make it into the Oklahoma films category as is. If they give me more time, I know I could make it into the competition.

Scratch that. After putting all the sequences together I remembered I don't have the ending yet. Dangit. Lots of work to be done. Also, the interior needs a LOT of shaving down of little silent moments. If it looks the way things are now, I might need to tack on the surprise ending I've been keeping in my pocket...

Blogging While Editing 2 - DYWTGO?

Now I've got them sitting on the couch so I can use the closeups (which are comprised in the first half of the same conversation as when they are trying to sit on the couch). The problem is that these shots show more of the akward “connection” though not as funny. They are also composed georgously, filmicly even. I may have to scratch the last five hours of editing and just get them to the couch before they talk. Again I'm reminded of the writing process involved in editing video.

Fell aslep contemplating next move. Time to pack it up and go to sleep.

Started back up around 7am. Was worried at one point about them having no connection whatso ever show up on screen but then I had a hapy accident. Some footage overlapped while I was trying to figure out the next shot and we see and hear kelli say, “so you repair computers?” and it was followed by her voice saying “that's cute”. The line is one she ad libbed while shooting from the unicorn's POV and the unicorn is what she was talking about. But with a little magic and some help from pre-“action” shy and figity smiles, I was able to make it look like it slipped out of her after he said, “yes”. So then it made it cute-funny when he starts to ad lib and ramble about working on “some laptops and PC's and some Macs – but I'm not really certified” Then another ad lib she gave was to ask him which which was better. It made the question go from good “yes-and” skills to brilliant. Because now it's clear she's asking because she thinks it's cute.

The only problem? The stupid director got in my way AGAIN! I actually cut them off as Mike started to explain and Kelli is really listening. I thought it was funny but didn't think I could use it. Looking back, maybe I sensed the real chemistry happening that goes along with good acting, and then I started feeling shy-akward – because that's what I'm seeing now on screen. Next time I need to wear a shirt that says, “Get out of your way, Jake”.

There's an “Oh” that could go anywhere. I can't figure out where's the best. For some reason I don't want to lose it. It's sort of a strange shot to hold on to.

These closeups are so much better than the full shots. That could be because the full shots don't look filmic. I intentionally left them as full shots, eye level, on tripods, in order to stay true to the film's spine - “Silent Film”. But the problem is that film gramar has evolved so much that this shot has become the mark of the amatuer. And that's a big problem in a short film from a nobody. It could get away with looking like a sitcom, but really I would have had to light it brighter. Or do a lot of timing on the colors. But that would take it away from the warm 16mm film look I had in the beginning.

I'm really thinking about scrapping all the work from yesterday and starting over to get them to sit without saying their lines.

It's interesting how LESS blocking can make something seem more filmic sometimes.

I just found another take with a few more GREAT lines. I'm going to have to get them in but that means going backwards for a bit. It shouldn't be too hard or too time consuming though. It should definitely be worth it.

Okay. Not sure it's worth it. Maybe it slows all that momentum down.

It actually did. Way better without it where I had it but it is perfect for slowing down the momentum just as Mary (Lauren) bursts through the door. I forgot to really push for the surprised “Buster Keaton-esque” reaction from Mike to the door, but I think we have enough to work with to keep it surprising and funny.

Made it to Lauren's entrance. Time for a break.

Blogging While Editing - DYWTGO?

Now I can feel why Kent with the first draft the way he did for the final scene. He took all the angles from the first take because those matched up the easiest. It was more of a rough assembly to get the thing in a sequence. Sort of like writing a screenplay draft without outlining/treament writing or breakdowns. It was a good move. After that first take, the continuity is CRAZY. I'm truly writing with my edits here. I'm using a separate take every 2 seconds. It's hard!

Every choice I make at each 2 second interval changes the story, the lines, everything.

It's crazy how a little outside stress can deflate all momentum. Since Kent has a brand new system, his saved files won't run on my Mac – it's too old. So, I have to borrow Ashley's laptop to get this done. I also don't have a hookup for an external monitor, so it's all on a tiny screen. But... it's getting done.

So I'm switching to something a little more “skill” oriented – putting together the DVD menu. Definitely going to use the poster but now I'm envisioning some sort of opening with all the info being typed in, like a chat room thing.

Maybe I don't design DVDs so well without the finished product.

Next time, all akward humor gets choreographed. Like a dance. I remember Kent trying to figure out when Kelli said the line and when Mike stood back up. I told him to forget it and basically I told him we'd fix it in post! He said, “who's editing this thing?” and I said, “me”. So he let it go. Then I tried to pay him way under his rate and he got to deal with it. Man, I really tried to screw Kent on this one! This is tough! But then it all came back to me and now I've screwed myself... This is why Ashley needs to be there during the reshoot. She's the only one I ever listen to when she says to stop and pay attention to continuity.

My son just showed a growth spirt in development. The kids called to say goodnight and he was telling me all kinds of things. Still can only pick out words here and there, but there is definitely a marked difference in his speech. Man that's awesome. And there's that little inspiration I needed.

Working really hard to stretch each beat of akward. They play it really well, it's just that there's no breathing room for the audience. We found so much good stuff while shooting! It was basically a really great rehearsal. Had we had this and then gotten to shoot, it would've put more of that funny into the silence. I'm still so impressed with my actors. I haven't had this great a cast to work with since Rich, Jubal, and Brent did a scene from A Simple Plan with me (that I totally screwed up in the editing of that one – I edited with Movie Maker while hiding in the editing lab at CSF over night on the last day of finals.)

Dad wants me to eat the last piece of chicken. Because it's there. I already ate one... and potatoes, but he said “eat that last piece of chicken.”

“No, Dad.”

“But it's dark meat.”

See: Blogging While Editing 2 - Entrance to Delerium for more funny on this very topic.

Made it through “sit on the couch play”. On to finding a connection. Having some continuity would have helped me already be there. I need to wear a shirt on my next shoot that says “I will NOT fix this in post”.

Dad's sleeping through Rocky IV blasting in the living room. Appolo Creed just died. I don't care if you are Russian and a Commie Sypathiser, that Rocky IV is a good show.