A diary of my
arduous process to develop, finance,
produce and distribute a totally independent, digital, feature film (DREAMS
AWAKE). Come along for the
ride, comment if you like, and maybe we’ll learn something, and of course have a little fun.
Originally I gave myself from March 15, 2005 to September 15, 2006 to turn
my dream and vision into reality, with only my imagination to
guide me. Since we all know film development can be
unpredictable and full of unanticipated obstacles, a self-imposed
deadline should not jeopardize the project's quality. My new
timeline was more flexible and production finally commenced
in July, 2007 when the script was where it needed to be in order to tell an
engaging and original story. Check in
regularly for the ongoing progress. We wrapped in September, 2007, and are currently in
a prolonged post-production mode, with some type of release expected in
late 2009 ... Jerry Alden Deal
Guess it's
that time of year once again, resolutions and all that? I'll
certainly toss out a few here, but more importantly I'd also like
to throw out what I'd do different when I shoot my next film.
In other words, what lessons did I truly learn from this one?
Now some of us might call this listing our regrets, but I prefer
taking that in a more positive stride. I mean, aren't we all
here to learn, life being quite a demanding school and all that?
...
Lessons
Learned
(I'm sure there are more)
1) Hire
the 1st AD sooner -- Scheduling a low budget indie and then
logistically pulling it off is paramount in the low budget realm.
A good 1st AD is essential to making that happen. We had
him, but he came aboard awful late in prep. That did
handcuff us some, but it wasn't deadly. However, next time
that will be higher on my priority list ...
2) Hire
an editor for the shoot -- I now see the logic of that.
Having someone doing a rough cut when we were shooting certainly
would have helped, not only to see what we had but to insure that
we go after what we didn't ...
3) Hire
a publicist before, during and after the shoot -- Is there
such a thing as too much publicity? For indies like us I
doubt it, but when it's very minimal you're starting out of the
gate behind the curve. We didn't hit this one right ...
4) Hire
someone to really control the budget -- Since we didn't do #1
on cue, that put us behind the momentum of the shoot in keeping
track of cash, cash flow and cash reserves. Having someone
experienced and aware of this should help close that gap ...
5) Be
more competent -- This one I direct directly at me, being the
director and all, and everything else I was, or still am. As
a perfectionist at heart, I was sometimes disheartened at how thin
I had to spread myself out. I knew sometimes I had to set
certain priorities of the moment and let other things drop by the
wayside, always hoping others could pick up the slack.
Sometimes that happened, sometimes not. But no matter what,
I was (am) always responsible in the end ...
6)
Fewer challenging locations -- Yeah, let's go film a feature
on a high mountain and bring up a lot of people and equipment
where no motorized vehicles can go. And then let's do it in
the heat of the summer and go where there are no facilities for
everyone. And let's do it all low budget under the
regulations of the federal government and local Native American
tribes. Right ...
7) More
prep time -- Don't we always want this luxury? Yeah, but
I only want a couple more days. Just a couple more, can't I?
It may seem that upfront more prep time will add to the budget,
but properly managed more prep time can certainly save you time
(and money) on the back end ...
8) Less
post time -- This is only so because ours has gone on longer
than normal, and certainly longer than was ever intended. If
we had done things normally, this probably wouldn't be here.
Anyway, next time we will have a real Post Supervisor, as I've
shockingly realized this is not my forte ...
9) More
$$$$$ -- Ha, no brainer, huh? Cash dough, we can always
stand to swim with more. The trick is taking those extra
dollars and stretching them out better than before, since this is
where the rubber will always meet the road. Good luck doing
that in this economy. You may have to hit up that rich
eccentric Uncle, or learn to count cards in Vegas ...
10)
Less hats to wear -- As a low budget indie filmmaker this is
usually difficult to avoid. But, please forget about the
romance of being a filmmaker, because just being in love with the
idea of being a filmmaker can never sustain you when you have to
actually do the hard work. On the other side of that coin,
when those hard realities do set in, don't try and to do it all.
You may harm the project beyond what you can repair. In
other words, get out of the way of your ego and don't fall in love
with yourself ...
11)
Relax & have more fun -- At the heart of it all. Always
keep your vision and grow with it, but let go, relax and have fun
within it. There were times I got so caught up in the
frenzied moment that I didn't savor it enough before it passed.
Each day slow it down a bit and take it all in, because who knows,
you may never get to make another film again ...
2009
Resolutions
1)
Finish this film! -- 'Nuff said ...
2)
Market this film! -- Not enough ever said or done ...
3)
Distribute this film! -- Take control, never too late to
execute ...
4) Find
our audience! -- For sure the biggest challenge of the new
year ...
5)
Count my lucky stars! -- Every day, with lots of stars to
count and hopefully many days off in the future to count them
all...
Be well in
the new year ...
Jerry
Comments --
I've begun reading your blog -- 1/12
Albeit a bit late, but
decided to start at the beginning. Reading about your struggles,
ups and downs with producing your own movie has helped to
encourage me to pursue my dream of making films, starting any way
I can. I had been searching for film making blogs for the past
couple of days, before running across yours and it is as though
I've hit a gold mine of observations, notes and frustrations to
consider. Yet even in what I've read so far, I can definitely tell
there's a passion for creating. I like the idea of a spiritual
mystery. Altogether, I'm intrigued and shall be searching for more
of your work. Thank you for the blog.
A humble thanks (and how much do I owe you now?) ...
I figured
I would post some comments from someone who was involved with our
little production, and I believe the first time he'd worked on a
film. A real nice guy, he was our construction coordinator,
and helped mainly with building the only set we had to build,
which we called the Primitive Domicile. Once that was done,
he was one of our devoted drivers. Below are portions of
emails he's sent me over the past year and a half, along with a
few of his photos. Here's to you and all you are, Eric (the
Elder) ...
Eric
(the Elder) and Winston (PA) working on roof.
Eric (the Younger) (PA) working on inside.
Hi Jerry, I have been following along quietly as you sweat it out,
and sitting here feeling bad that you are putting all of this work
into our baby. The trials and tribulations. And now you are
getting closer to seeing your dream, your sweat and blood and even
your soul. I applaud your patience. I marvel at the persistence,
the determination. I wonder if you will from exhaustion once this
baby hits the film festivals. I do hope you and Berry have been
taking good care of yourselves as this thing has progressed. I
cannot thank you all enough for allowing me to be part of it ...
Winston
and Eric (Younger) working on roof.
Renee (Prod Designer) working on door.
Hi Jerry, I'm just stopping in to say hello. I've
been keeping up with your great communications. You must be
exhausted!? All these years of putting this thing together and the
stress doesn't fade. You are a marathon man, for sure. I look
forward to sitting in a theater and seeing our work (yours really)
up on the big screen. I'm proud to have been a small part of your
success in bringing this to screen, and I am excited to see the
final result. How's
the hot tub, these days? ...
Eric
(Younger) and Carlos (Art Dir) working inside.
Eric (Elder) taking a much-needed rest.
Okay
Jerry, I've been quietly following along, feeling guilty that
you're doing all the work. I find this whole thing
intriguing, mysterious, awe-inspiring. So many hands in the cookie
jar, and yet only one vision. To see your work be put onto the big
screen must afford you a daily shot of adrenaline. I know that if
my stories or poems were ever put into script, my heart would be
racing. Such a task of handing the reigns over to someone else to
breathe physical life into it, well that's for you
Buddha-types...calm, collected, confident, and compassionate. So I
ask you, HOW DID YOU DO IT? ...
I
can only hope that there will be enough members of the collective
audience who appreciates everything that has gone into this
undertaking, AND, that they pay you your proper respects once
they've had the privilege to be in audience. I know that when I
sit my butt down to enjoy your film, I will be perplexed, because
I am not a movie folk. I have not been on ten or twenty or more
movies/tv shows/etc., so I have not and will not easily forget the
many events, experiences, and conversations that went into
creating this thing. I will be struggling to separate the finished
work from the daily sweat that I put in in helping to make some
scenes 'memorable'. I
am sure that your baby will be beautiful, bring tears to people's
eyes, joy to their hearts, and questions to their psyches. But
will it live up to YOUR standards? Will it entertain YOU? Will it
satisfy you? My guess, temporarily. Like any creative mind...you
don't/won't rest your laurels on your past successes and/or
failures. No, you will quickly be reshaping some other tale to fit
the silver screen, or you'll be writing something. It's in your
nature. It's in your blood ...
Almost complete - outside.
Almost complete - inside.
Jerry,
I
thank you for the opportunity we had to be part of the filming
experience. I only hope that I contributed in a good way and that
your vision did not suffer too much damage/erasure at my hands.
I will fondly remember the month living within the
culture we created, to dream for peace and hope. It is a culture
you dreamt into existence, and the elation must be overwhelming at
times, in anticipating the first breath that your film takes in
the air of the celluloid jungle; the physical birth of a truly
supernatural membrane.
May you receive more blessings than you can fit into one lifetime
...
Wow.
Well, we did it. We held a small intimate screening of the
film, with about 20-25 people shuffling in and out. And yes,
we got started late because of some tech issues with the
equipment. Seems I've got this love-hate relationship with
technology going on. But in the end we got it up and
running, and overall we had some favorable responses ...
After the
film we had them each fill out a
questionnaire before diving into discussion mode. I've
provided a link here for the form we used, just in case some of
you out there might want some info about doing this. I
didn't find a lot of info myself, just a few tidbits here and there
online. I've come to learn there are actually two types of
screenings at this stage; one for editing purposes and the other
for marketing. We used this one mostly for the cut, but we
did mix in some marketing questions. It was two pages long
and we printed it on both sides using card stock, making it simple
and quick to fill out with pencils we of course provided ...
Once
everyone turned those in we went around the room with a microphone
for everyone to speak their piece. We of course recorded
them all. Wow. Pretty intriguing. I know I
predicted earlier that I was pretty sure what most of the comments
would probably be. And for the most part a lot of the issues
I had with the film were brought up. However, there were a
couple things that came so far out of left field I didn't feel I
was in the same ball park with the person expressing them.
So, I of course listened very intently, really trying hard to
understand where they were coming from. The uniqueness of
all of us human beings continues to amaze me. What it might
be like to walk in the shoes of someone so different that
yourself, even if just for a day or an hour. Now that would
be something. That's a bit what it felt like listening to a
couple people. And not to be disparaging or condescending at
all, but just to stand with a little bit of awe in the middle of
that and take it in. It's actually indescribable ...
But in the
end, did I get anything out of this? Absolutely! By my
estimation we have about two or three main issues that need to be
resolved, as well as a couple minor bits to clean up. So I'm
currently mulling over several ideas to clear all that up, and in
the process that should enhance and improve the film. To
make it all it can be! ...
In the end
I was glad I did this. Will we do it again before a final
cut? Probably not, but who knows? ...
Jerry
Comments -- UNUSUALS offering
--
1/30
The reason I am writing is because of your
presence on Indie Film Blog and I thought UNUSUALS.net might be
something you would like to share with your readers, or check out
yourself. UNUSUALS is the only social network designed with the
commercial film professional in mind, including grips, directors,
DPs, post production people, producers, actors, stylist, etc.
UNUSUALS allows you to share your reels, connect on projects,
discover and be discovered via our Massive Search Engine. I've
put together this social media news release which explains
everything:
http://www.unusuals.net/smnr
Oh, and one more thing, UNUSUALS is offering you and your readers
a 6 week free membership with access to all of the services on the
site upon registration. Please feel free to steal and repost
anything from the news release and if you are able to post, or
have any questions please let me know.
I just came across your site and thought you
might be interested in our site, Icewhole.com which is a social
network for filmmakers, supported by some great film names
including Richard Attenborough, Morgan Freeman, John Hurt, Ben
Kingsley and so forth.
Also of interest to you might be the following which has a
deadline of 28th February 2009: We have been approached by
some serious film financiers who are keen on making low budget
feature films. They want to cherry pick the most exciting new film
talent and are not afraid to take a chance on new film
makers/actors/writers if their ideas are good enough.
So here's what we're after: Original full treatments or full
length scripts. And, if you have a made a trailer or short
film specifically, to be expanded into a full length low budget
feature, and we like them, then we would be prepared to include it
in our submissions to the financiers.
I wondered if you could kindly inform your readers of this
opportunity and our site.
With best wishes, Ross Grayle Jones
Underground Movies Ltd www.icewhole.com
(Please email us at:
firstfilmfund@icewhole.com with your idea and a link to your
Icewhole.com profile page.)
Comments --
Hello! -- 2/6
Hi! I just stumbled into your site coz a
friend of mine suggested it to me. I haven't read the entries in
detail yet, but it seems that we're in the same plight at the
moment. We're also doing our indie movie here in the phils and
we're doing it for a festival. We were fortunate to have been
chose from over 100 entries to be in the top 10. It will be shown
at the cultural center of the Philippines as they are the ones
hosting the festival.
Anyhow, will find time to read your entries and hopefully learn
more about doing a movie from you. Perhaps we can also share some
ideas. Thanks so much and more power to all of us! Good luck and
God speed!
Bob and I
have been hard at it again, trying to get this picture all locked
up. After compiling all our notes from the screening and
delving into issues we both already had, it looks like we're very
close. We'll screen it again ourselves this next week and
lock it down. Anyway, thought I'd post some stills from the
film. They certainly don't look as high quality as they do
in the film, but give you a bit of an idea ...
There will
be more to come soon. Enjoy! ...
Jerry
February 15,
2009 - Almost There
Locking up the picture, finally? ...
Well,
we've almost got a picture lock. I'm now going over every
scene, every beat, practically every frame to make sure I've got
what I want. Am I being too anal, too controlling here?
Maybe so, but why not, huh? ...
Hey, more
screen shots from the film. Enjoy again! ...
Also,
we've finally got a
Facebook Page up. Check it out ...
Jerry
February 24,
2009 - Hybrid Pathways
Lo and behold, and the seas and the land did not part as expected
...
Things are
progressing along bit by bit on a lot of the little loose ends, to
enable us to get to some kind of release this summer. Which
brings us up to that looming mountain off in the distance.
Distribution. A filmmaker has three major
stages in the life of their project; fundraising, production and
distribution. We conquered the first, are finalizing the
second and will shortly be facing the third. Which could be
the most challenging, riskiest stage of all ...
Behind The Scenes Shots
There have
been a lot of changes in the distribution world since I started
this project years ago. Lots of companies in this space have
gone out of business, others have scaled back, and the
possibilities of DIY (do-it-yourself) distribution are both
slowing coming to fruition and littering the landscape with
casualties. I suspect it will take a number of daring
filmmakers who don't mind flying by the seats of their pants to
help this process evolve and become more real. It has been
something nagging me in the back of my mind, but like a lot
of other filmmakers out there who may be reluctant to take up the
sword, we do know it's double-edged. The device of that
empowerment may also be the source of our demise. I
certainly never had hari-kari in mind when I went down this path,
but I can see the farther you go down it, the higher the stakes
are ...
Behind The Scenes Shots
In the end
I think we'll be attempting a hybrid strategy of distribution,
where we will use more traditional avenues of distribution, when
and if they present themselves, and more cutting edge still
evolving models for little ol' indies like us. I'm still
putting that plan together, but it is a bit like hitting a moving
target. Which means we have to nimble, open and flexible to
the weather of these fast-paced times. And we all know how
quick the weather can change. I'd like to go into this in
more detail, but that's for another day. I feel a different
wind blowing in, and I'd better see what it's all about ...
Behind The Scenes Shots
Jerry
February 28,
2009 - Videos
A little before and a little after ...
A Behind
the Scenes video of the family at a diner:
And then
the Diner Scene itself:
March 10, 2009
- More Videos
A little more of the process and the result ...
I thought
I'd post a couple more videos. The first is another Behind
the Scenes clip of us trying to get a scene 'up on its feet.'
The scene takes place very early in the film, as we're trying to
establish the characters. And of course, the second is the
scene itself, taking place in the kitchen of their home. Enjoy ...
Jerry
March 21, 2009
- Communication
Do you hear what I say or said, or what I mean or meant? ...
What is the
lifeblood of any creative endeavor? Any collaborative effort when
a team of people have to align themselves to a singular goal or
vision? I think most of us in that spot know that answer, or can
at least give up a decent guess. Yes, that big old C word, that
means so much but can also be so indescribable, even many times
quite unreachable. It goes without saying that everyone has their
own unique way of communicating, usually built into their own
private comfort zone of social interaction. Working in intense,
fast-paced environments like film production, you've not only got
to be able to peel off those layers but you've got to do it
quickly and efficiently. Or else ...
As a director on
set I have to be able to communicate this way with my first main
layer of contact; the actors, cinematographer, first assistant
director and production designer. And they all speak different
languages. In essence, a director has to speak many languages, in
effect be multi-lingual film wise. But not just speak them, but
to be fluent and turn on a dime from one language to another. And
not just be fluent, but be able to communicate meaningfully, and
then realizing if you really are or not. Confusing?
You bet ...
That lesson
came back to the forefront the other day when I was sitting in a
spotting session with the editor, sound designer, composer, his
engineer and the executive producer. As the six of us hashed
out the film, reel by reel, scene by scene, the different
languages all played out, each in their mighty splendor.
Creative juices flowed, sparks ignited and issues played out.
At least we were there for a common purpose, to get the very best
score possible, in conjunction with an overall sound design.
How we got there took us all over the place at times, as we each
had territory to protect, but we did get there after a long day
...
Reflecting on
all that later, I wondered if I had 'got it' completely. Did
I really understand what everyone was communicating, and if not,
did it matter? Did we get it enough to make it all work,
might be the more appropriate question? Making it work?
What does that really mean? Making it work? For each
of us? Any or us? All of us? Our future
audiences? Huh? It seems lots of times communication
may be more about asking questions than answering them.
Don't you think? In the end I think (hope?) our little piece
of cinema asks lots of questions. I believe it does,
'cause I'm not sure it actually answers any. Or will it?
...
Jerry
March 31, 2009
- Online Social Networking
Flying across the universe ...
As you can see
we're certainly getting seduced by the online networking scene,
which seems to be taking over everything everywhere ...
Yes, we of
course have our
Facebook Page and our
IMDB presence,
but now we've also moved into the
Twitter space and
the YouTube
universe. Will it ever end? Probably not, as I imagine
there will be other online networks we will wire ourselves into,
if it appears that is what we need to do to get the word out.
Now if the whole Internet goes down, well, there you go, back to
the age of stones. But to look at it another way, here's
something to make your belly jiggle -
Trouble with
Twitters - enjoy ...
Also, got a
couple new videos for you; both are behind-the-scenes clips, which
are just a complication of all our hard work over several
days of production. Enjoy ...
