Archive Nine
November 5,
2005 - HD Expo -
More hi-def techno geek babble ...
What's a
person to do? As technology pushes forward at alarming
rates, supposedly making us all more productive, I can't help but
wonder who's the slave and who's the master here. I know how
amazingly fun new technological gizmos can be, but sheesh, how can
we keep track of all this stuff? I just spent all day
Thursday at the
HD Expo in L.A., checking the latest and greatest
in the Hi-Def world, and trying to figure out what half of it even
was. And I'm not exactly a beginner with techno-gear, but
overhearing some of the conversations around me (it was quite
crowded), I'd swear they were speaking in foreign languages ...
I mean,
what does it take to tell a story these days? Are these new
tools to help, or burdens to weight us down? We know what
the intent is, but is that really the result? Where is all
this leading us? These questions and others filled my head
as I took it all in, and went to a couple of the workshops.
One of the more intriguing ones had a number of mucky mucks
espousing where the future was headed (exactly what I had been
wondering). Nothing too unpredictable here, what with
digital cinema theaters and internet distribution, but the
surprise to me came with the idea of true 3-D, not just in
theaters, but also in our homes within 5 to 10 years. Hhhmm,
do we really need this? Why don't we just experience real
life? Does our storytelling have to be as real as real life?
What happened to imagination? ...
More
points I pondered as I wandered about the Peterson Automotive
Museum (the expo site). While doing so, I took in the Steve
McQueen Gallery, which had posters and memorabilia from his films.
But more importantly was his car and motorcycle collection; a
couple Porsches, a Ferrari, a '57 Chevy, the Mustang from
Bullitt, a couple racers, a few others, and Triumph, Harley
and Indian motorcycles. Actually, this made the whole event
more enjoyable. And to think, you don't need to sit in a
theater with 3-D glasses to enjoy all that fun reality in action. Ol'
Steve (a man's man?) was probably looking down on us and all our
virtually dweeby silliness
...
315 days
and counting ...
J-Alden
November 10,
2005 - Distribution Daylight? -
A bit of starlight sneaking through that there oppressive black
hole ...
As I've
mentioned before on more than one occasion (somewhere in my
archives), distribution seems to be the last frontier (and huge
barrier) of the indie filmmaker. Never mind all the sunshine
reports we've been hearing for the past half decade on how the
Internet was going to revolutionize filmmaking and bring down
Hollywood. Right. Well, finally, it does appear that
stranglehold is cracking a bit. A bit, I say ...
Check out
these articles to see what I mean; about
Truly Indie,
IndieWire,
IndieFlix and then what
IFC
is trying now. (yes, there are are others out there, but
this gives you a taste of what's happening, and more of what's on
the horizon) ...
If you add
this trend up up with falling box office for the majors, more DVD
purchases than video or DVD rentals, the closing window between
box office release and DVD & cable release, the rumors of
Blockbuster (and others?) going bankrupt, Netflix merging with
Amazon, the skyrocketing sales (and plummeting prices) of HD televisions, and on and on,
and what do you have? ...
IMHO,
you're seeing several overlapping forces at work here; people
getting tired of the same old HW fare, people getting tired of the
ad-driven, noisy, overpriced theater experience, and people with
busy lives who like the convenience of Tivo and related
technologies, who can set up their own state-of-art home
entertainment experiences, who can buy (or rent) their DVD's
online, download alternative fare online, or who watch cable,
satellite and PPV. Why go the traditional HW route when
there are several other avenues available? The trad HW
paradigm is not dead, but it appears over the hill. Seems
those execs need to rethink their business model if they intend on
surviving as king of the hill, or maybe (most probably) they may
have to face the music and realize they need to settle on being
one of the games in town, not the game.
News Flash! -- This is probably one the responses they needed
to make. Guess we'll see how all this shakes out the next few years.
Anyway, more power to the indie. It's about time (well, it's
getting there...it's the journey not the destination, right?) ...
Tidbits:
Also, you should check out these intriguing, comical, sometimes
scary
Slate
articles by Edward Jay Epstein on the biz and such related
craziness. And yes, I'm heading to the
Screenwriting Expo
tomorrow, for three days of fun (and BS). Later ...
310 days
and counting ...
J-Alden
November 16,
2005 - The Screenwriting Biz -
A business within an industry within a business ...
My two and
a half cents (sense?) on the latest Screenwriting Expo in LA.
Jeez, are we screenwriters desperate, or what? Ready to be
mused, used, and abused? Ready and willing to be hired,
sired and fired? Ready to be, well, anyway ...
What a
cottage industry the screenwriting world has become! When I
struggled with my first screenplay twenty-five years ago, there
were very few screenwriting gurus, script analysts, or even
screenwriting books. Now, oh my gosh, everybody's jumped in
to make a buck off us poor little scribes. What happened?
Writing the great American novel has been replaced by writing the
great American screenplay? I guess everybody thinks they can
do it now. More power to you if you can, but chances are
you've been snookered in by all the promises of glitz and glory,
feast and fame ...
I'm
totally amazed by all the products out there for us visual
wordsmiths. Or more snake oil charlatans taking advantage of
our desperate hopes? Don't get me wrong, hope is a wonderful
spring to draw from, but only if it serves your muse not clouds
your judgment. Look, there are over 50,000 screenplays
registered by the Writer's Guild every year, and who knows how
many unregistered. Some estimates put the total number of
feature screenplays written annually at near 100,000. With about
500 films released annually, hey do the math. Somebody's
sure making a lot of money off the backs of our hopes and dreams,
and certainly without any remorse. Just be sure if you're
entering the screenwriting world, you're doing it because you
really love doing it. Cause if you're never successful at making it, at
least you have that love to hang your hat on ...
Hey, I
just got an idea for a reality series, "Desperate Scribes".
It's all about the trials and tribulations of a group of aspiring
screenwriters who wreck havoc on a group of studio executives, and
how they...ah, never mind. Those shows don't use writers
anyway, do they? He'll, if it got bought I'd only contribute
to the high unemployment of screenwriters everywhere. And we
wouldn't want to do that, would we? Since it seems, collectively we
already have ...
304 days
and counting ...
J-Alden
Comments --
RE: Business within business -- 11/20
Remember, the people who made the money during the gold
rush weren't the miners. They were the people selling them
supplies. Any time you have a large group of people thinking that
they can make a fortune off something, it will be people who will
be selling them items they need who make the most money.
ML
November 22,
2005 - SAG Indie -
To SAG or not to SAG ...
Yes, I'm
revisiting the
SAG issue
again. Yesterday I was studiously going over their new
agreements, which they revised last summer (as mentioned in a
previous post). There are five of them, but I can rule three
out immediately; the Student Agreement, the Short Agreement and
the Low Budget Agreement. That leaves the Ultra-Low Budget
Agreement or the Modified Low Budget Agreement, meaning I'm sure
my budget will be lower than $625,000, but just not sure how low
...
For the
most part they both appear to be decent deals. Although
under the Ultra-Low one, it appears there has to be a theatrical
release first, meaning not made for TV movies or made for
video/DVD markets. Hhhmm, what if you can't get a
theatrical? Because in the Modified one, which is also
supposed to be for an initial theatrical release, you pay a
penalty if it's released non-theatrically first. Course, I
guess you could four-wall it yourself, as long as the extra cost
wasn't more than the penalty ...
I also see
that you're still required to post "a security deposit in an
amount acceptable to the Guild", which has to be posted before
filming starts. Yeah, and I wonder how much that is. I
imagine the amount is tied to what your paying the SAG actors.
But, what if you need that money to film your movie? ...
And then
this, which has always been a part of their agreements. "The
Guild, at its sole discretion (bold italics mine),
may require producer to execute documents necessary to grant the
Guild a first Security Interest in the Picture and related rights
to protect professional performers and the Guild against any
default in the performance of obligations under this Agreement."
I understand their concern here, and hopefully they would only do
this if there was proper reason to do so (as in default by
producer). Meaning, there should be some due process here as
to this being a fact and not just perception and supposition.
Anyway, maybe I'm picky here, but I still haven't decided which
way to go yet ...
Tidbits:
To further the point I made a few days ago (Nov. 10), you have to
check out this
article in today's calendar section of the L.A. Times. Wow, is this really
happening? ...
298 days
and counting ...
J-Alden
Comments --
Reality Series and Camera
-- 11/23
The screenwriters
reality series sounds like a great idea. Maybe the 100,000
screenplays/year figure would drop quite a bit. Regarding your
desire to purchase a movie camera: Don't. Find a reliable rental
place or a fellow film maker to rent from. Calculate how many
times you would actually use the camera in a 12 month period.
In years time, there will be a better camera out there, then go
rent that one. In fact, find a DP that has their own camera
to use as part of you hiring them. I am about 2 months into my
education as a film maker (joined local independent film group,
reading a lot of film books, and joined blockbuster online to keep
up with the movie viewing) and found your blog after doing a
google search on The Workshops director craft, which is something
I am considering doing next summer/fall. Ideally, I would like to
take a workshop directed at directors, with a bit of production
and a bit of creative/vision mojo. Do you recommend The Workshops?
Are there any other workshops/classes you have taken? or someone
has highly recommended to you? Keep blogging.
Paul Melland
Comments --
Angry Fall Tour a success!
-- 11/23
Hey Everybody,
I am home! At least physically. I think my mind is somewhere in
West Texas...
The Fall Tour worked out great! I had some great screenings, good
publicity, some terrific audiences, and I shot some great footage
for my tour documentary. I have gotten a lot of feedback from
both students and instructors. Everyone is telling me that
I need to do this more often. So I will.
I want to thank all of the venues that hosted me, and all of the
people who came out to see me. I sold quite a few DVD's and my
work is now available in a lot of independent video stores around
the country. I want to say a special thanks to all of my
friends, old and new, who put me up while I was on the road. (I
actually only had to spend 4 nights in cheap road side motels,
not bad for two months.)
I am currently putting together a European itinerary for late
January/early February. I am also planning the Spring Tour,
which will start in March and go through Memorial Day. If you're
interested in booking me please let me know ASAP as I need to
start putting my schedule together.
Thanks again to everyone who made the Fall Tour such a success.
Later. Kelley
www.angryfilmmaker.com
Comments --
Re: The SAG Issue -- 11/25
When I thought
about using SAG for my movie last year, they mailed me a 650 some
page contract, and at that point I gave up on the idea of using
SAG. For an ultra-low budget movie SAG maybe more trouble then it
is worth. Lots of talented actors out there, not all of them in
SAG (I ended up with some excellent non-SAG actors). However, I
know SAG is rapidly changing in relation to developments in the
indie film production world, so for my next movie, I'll see where
they are before I pass on them.
Another question to keep in mind re: SAG: I believe (at least
this was the case about a year ago) the SAG talent has a veto or
has to approve ANY distribution plans/agreements. This could be a
problem for indie filmmakers. See if this is still the case
before you cast SAG (unless of course you do not care about actors
having approval of distribution).
Good luck.
Sujewa
http://filmmakingforthepoor.blogspot.com
Comments --
Re:
To SAG or to SAG -- 11/26
There are a lot of great non-SAG
actors. There are also a lot of bad SAG actors.
Eric M. Rogers
www.ElizabethGunness.net
November 28,
2005 - Special Effects? -
To be special or not, or just good enough not to be ...
I wonder
where cinema would be today if there were not any special effects,
or if there weren't any car chases, crashes or explosions of any
kind. Maybe the storytellers would have to work harder to
craft their ware? And maybe better stories would result?
Ah, who knows for sure. Just food for thought as I perused
over my own script trying to figure out how I was going to solve
some of my effects problems ...
Not that I
have a lot of them, and not that I had actually planned to
have any, but somehow the story I'm telling demanded that this
happen. Those pesky characters would have to complicate this
when they took over their own parts. So, I guess sometimes
it isn't always the scribe's fault, or the director's fault, or
the producer's fault. Ha, blame it on the characters, and
what they require to tell their story. Meaning of course,
there can be a reason for special effects, if the characters
require it. Ha, okay ...
But I'm
back to the how. Why how? Well, first of all I'm on
that tight budget leash, which logically leads me to second of
all. How complicated are my effects? Will I have to
hire a visual effects supervisor? Can I afford to hire one?
And if I don't, will my editor be able to pull it off? And
can my editor use a desktop software solution? And maybe
there are simpler solutions than I am imagining? And on and
on ...
I have
contacted a couple visual effects supervisors who've offered to
advise me on this journey, but I'm getting mixed signals and mixed
information from each. It does seems I'm going to need those
scenes storyboarded. One thing is obvious. These
people are certainly in love with their tools. More on this
progression later ...
Tidbits:
Just a quick note. I finally put up a thin sketch of a
profile, as several have wondered just who in the hell I think I
am (I've wondered that myself). To tell you the truth, I've
never been big on tooting my own horn, but it seems hard to avoid
in this business. For what it's worth, read it, ignore it,
or just let it blow in the cyber winds ...
292 days
and counting ...
J-Alden
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