I am really heartened when someone decides that they are not going to just sit around and wait for someone to deliver something to them (other than take-out that is). I am even more heartened when someone takes such action, not just for themselves but for the community at large. I truly believe that we are missing out on both vibrant work and a vital community of truly free film work by those in their 20’s.
I was recently hipped to a new endeavor that, although they may not have mandated to focus on such new work, their energy, spirit, and age gives hope that it will lean such a way. Brian Geldin of The Film Panel Note Taker let me know of NYC’s new”Big Vision Empty Wallet” that launches tomorrow! Today’s guest post is by Alex Cirillo & Dani Faith Leonard, Founders and Creative Directors of Big Vision Empty Wallet who have been gracious enough to let us know what they are up to.
Recession. The signs of it are everywhere – teachers losing jobs, restaurants and stores that were once NYC staples closing, fashion labels hiring Lindsay Lohan to design for them instead of actual designers (it’s not only Ed Hardy). The recession is always a top story on the news and is brought up in daily conversation. We can only come to one conclusion about how our industry will fare in this climate and here it is: what an exciting time to be an artist.
In this tough economic climate of limited budgets, creativity is key. We live in the greatest city in the world filled with more creative people per capita than anywhere else. The NYC independent film community is so vibrant and our friends and colleagues are creating amazing work.
Together, we run a weekly series of film screenings and events called Industry Power Play, where we aim to foster a sense of camaraderie among the members of the NYC film community. We recognized the need for an online independent film presence that reflects our fresh and excited tone, is visually interesting, and contains all of the resources artists need to create films in NYC, as well as a forum for them to promote their completed work. Most of all, we want people to make films in our city.
All of these things have lead us to launch BigVisionEmptyWallet.com, our new one-stop blogazine for film in NYC, on May 1st. The site will contain news stories and other features, funny blogs, profiles of local artists, film and event reviews, videos, web series, and a jobs and gigs board. We are also compiling a full independent film resource guide, including: a vendor directory, sample production forms, information for shooting in NYC, union information, organizations, schools and festival deadlines.
Through BigVisionEmptyWallet.com, we will provide original content that is entertaining and useful, but never boring.
We are two hard-working women in our 20s who have a blast pursuing our careers and working in film and our site will reflect our fun, and often snarky tone. Most of all, we are excited to feature the work of up-and-coming filmmakers and artists, while encouraging people to make films in the city that we love.
One feature on the site is a weekly Top 10 list (Dani’s first one is “The Top 10 Things You Should NOT Do if You Are a Fake Producer and You Are Trying To Sleep With Me”). So, in that spirit, here are:
#10 – A visually uninteresting interface #9 – Mildly entertaining video content #8 – A resource guide featuring only companies who have paid to advertise #7 – A writing staff consisting only of middle-aged white men #6 – Content for the sake of filling up space #5 – Boring “How To” articles #4 – The same film and event reviews you can read anywhere else #3 – Profiles and interviews with the same questions everyone has been asked before #2 – Film reviews written by a person who has never made a film #1 – Any reason not to make a film in NYC
Rain. Wind. Sun. Clouds. Hot Temperatures. Cold Temperatures. You name it. It can, and does, affect a movie shoot. Any movie shoot.
Like another movie that was set in Ukraine -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971). In their case, they wanted snow. (As you can probably guess, they didn't get snow. Instead they had to settle for a light dusting of fake snow and have the characters dress like it was really cold!)
And when we were filming Under Jakob's Ladder? In our case, we didn't so much as expect snow, but we did want the trees to look barren... Winter-like. The scene was a funeral and funerals should be cold and lifeless, right?
The first week on set was very promising. The cold weather was perfect to keep the trees in line. But then came the weekend prior to filming this scene. All hopes were dashed. The weather just wasn't going to cooperate with us.
That weekend was very warm... And the bare trees started to look less bare. The grass began to look a little greener.
On the actual day of shooting the funeral, the temperature was 93 degrees Fahrenheit!
We had to pick angles wisely. Fortunately the actual trees that made it in the shots... well, at a distance the trees didn't look too bad. (Good thing is was windy that day. It would come in handy when we put in some cold wind sound effects.)
Maybe this whole thing could have been avoided if the trees had been given a shooting schedule!
What was your filmmaking background before you made Lunatics, Lovers and Poets?
JOHN: I started as an actor. I did plays in High School. In College I was a scholarship quarterback on the football team, which was always interesting running across campus after football practice to rehearsal. Two words meaning the same thing. Weird. I secretly liked rehearsal more.
After college I moved to New York and studied at HB studios with late Bill Hickey. Booked some commercials etc... but it was moving to L.A. where I really got involved at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. I joined a theater group and we put a lot of original work. I always wanted to write and direct, but I didn't think I was allowed to do something like that. It was reserved for the elite and all knowing. But then I took a chance and wrote scene in acting class and put it up. My acting partner and I didn't tell anyone I wrote it to get an unbiased opinion. They liked it. So it's their fault I'm a writer/director.
From there I wrote and acted in a short film I did with my actor cousin, Neal Matarazzo. I asked my friend Hugh Ross to direct it. Hugh is the voice in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward... Hugh is an editor now. Anyway we got into The Hamptons International Film Festival and did well. We were the only nobodys there and it was quite awesome. Our film played against Ben Affleck, Griffin Dunne Illeana Douglas etc...
From there I wrote and acted in a Western, The Last Outlaws, and I had Lewis Smith (Southern Comfort, Heavenly Kid) direct it. I thought I was on my way in this business when I got sick. Nobody could diagnose me, lyme disease, lupus, wackadoo syndrome... they said I had an overactive immune system blah blah blah. Within 6 months I had to crawl to the bathroom in the morning and could barely walk. Some kind of arthritis attacked my body, my hands my ankles my knees. Anyway, poor me, the next few years were spent on crutches and I had to leave California and move in with my Mom in Florida because I couldn't work.
Finally after about 30 doctors, I got a doctor to agree to replace my knee and put staples in my ankles and gave me some drugs to kill my immune system. Duh, that doesn't make much sense so I stopped taking them. Good news is I had plenty of time to write after icing my hands. It took a couple of years for the operations and recovery, but I never got back to normal. I'm just grateful I walk now! A friend of mine gave me a job answering phones at his production house so I could move back to L.A. From there I started to P.A. for people who knew me so when my legs swelled up they would let me go sit down on set next to the Director. Very grateful to them.
It was obvious I wasn't going to be Brad Pitt at this point, so I studied every job on the set and watched the Directors like a hawk. I was fortunate to work for some great commercial & music video Directors: Frances Lawrence, Nigel Dick, & Martin Granger. The job allowed me to stay in the business and write. I put plays up and started Directing as well as sending out screenplays. I was trying to rally support to do my first feature, but it bothered me that I didn't know the 35mm camera. I watched Frances pick up the camera on set time after time and I thought if I wanted to do this thing right, I should know the camera. So I took out a loan and went to The Los Angeles Film School. Actually my wife took out the loan. I graduated with honors in Directing & Cinematography and shot my thesis film on 35mm.
At that point I had a really good script and got a couple of producers. They set up a co-production with Canada and we were going to shoot in Fiji (It's an Island picture). I had meetings with a couple of really good actors who agreed to do it. Rodrigo Santoro (The 300) and Leanor Varella (Tailor of Panama) The Producer spent a year and a half setting it up and then it all fell apart. Basically an investor backed out. I was pissed and angry and felt like a failure, and told my wife Madeline that I had to do something. I had to do something... now. She was supporting us as an actress and Production Mgr. and agreed that we would do it ourselves. So I took out a play that I wrote, called Raining in Chelsea which was put up in L.A. twice but it never really worked the way I hoped it would as a play, and rewrote it for the screen in two weeks and I liked the direction that it took. Madeline called in every favor she could and became Exec. Prod. We didn't let anything stop us. Not money, not nothing. We just pushed forward because no matter what, we couldn't fail.
Where did you get the idea for the film?
JOHN: Aside from the fact that it is a semi autobiographical, and I've aired some laundry which is frightening in and of itself. Funny enough I hate people who write "tell all books." The original idea for the film came from a statue of a coal miner that my mom brought back from Scotland. (My parents are from Scotland) At the Beverly Hills Playhouse we had to do this thing called a picture exercise -- you find a painting like a Gauguin or Caravaggio, and reproduce that on stage.
Well I took the Coal Miner Statue, wrote a 5 minute monologue about a Scottish Coal Miner and went to Western Costume and got some authentic miner garb from the 40's. I basically played my Grandfather whom I had never met. He died of Black Lung in Scotland when my Mother was young. From there it morphed into a one act, then 3 acts, back to two acts and finally Lunatics, Lovers & Poets.
During the writing of the play however I was estranged from my father. He had a tough life, he was homeless in the port of authority in New York for a while. I don't say that to denigrate him, or cast dispersions, because contrarily I loved him and in the end he died in my hands, which had a profound affect on me and the theme of what I write about. There was surrealism in the hospital room before he died. There was pain, and magic and love. He was in a coma and a couple of times about 3 am he would roll over and talk to me. What do you do with that? I can still smell the room, I can see the shadows on the wall, and the sounds. What do you do with that? Write I guess...
How did you script the film and how did that script change during the shooting?
JOHN: Like I said earlier it came from a play I wrote, but it was an amalgamation of experiences and kept morphing. When the play first went up, in my twenties. I thought it was good. But it was like an "oh, woe is me" piece. And had I done the film then, I think the character of the "Dad" would have been one dimensional. Whereas now the "Dad" is complicated, lovable, human, despite his flaws. And I credit Cotter with a lot of that.
Writing Lunatics... was very personal, but the challenge in that was to make my story the audience's story and hopefully hit a universal nerve, it wasn’t like sitting down and saying "okay I want to write a comedy, or horror film." Or right now I've been hired to write this action/comedy which is not my story, I just write based on the production company's story, send it in get notes, and apply those notes. It’s fun and I work at it just as hard, but it's not painful to get the words out. I don't recommend doing your first feature the way I did it. My advice would be write a horror/comedy...
The script changed prior and during shooting somewhat for the better. Here is where I appreciate film school and don't like those who poo poo it. I was learning how to tell a story with images, I'm still learning, and my script was dialogue heavy, there I said it! How could I say the same thing without words? And I love words. So prior to shooting I would "x" out some paragraphs or rewrite the night before the days shooting.
On set the script would change slightly. DP Pete Young, whom I graduated with, helped a lot. He's an artist, period. Now I love actors, disciplined actors, but I don't like improv for the sake of improv. Improv done incorrectly makes a lazy actor. I want to hear what I wrote first. I'm big enough to know what works and what doesn't. If the actors are truly stuck, I want them to struggle their way out of the scene. Because that's real. That's a verb. An actor can play a verb. An actor can struggle. And in that true frustration they may go off book genuinely and create some magic.
That being said, I get ideas on set, and if that discipline and trust has been set up between me and the actors, we can play. A lot of Cotter in the alley was like that, he'd get an idea or I would, such as the "shaving scene" he came up with which I love. It bothered him that he was clean-shaven in one of the scenes, because he had to shoot a TV show the day before. So he asked if he could do a scene "about the homeless alcoholic" Dad" shaving in the alley because he still had his pride. Genius. I love that. Also Jeremy & Leif have about 3 improved scenes, which I decided to shoot on set. One take each. I threw the situation out there and they ran with it. All of those scenes are in the film. So yes the script did change and evolve, and probably would continue to, but you have to say "cut" at some point.
What technology did you employ to shoot the film and what did you like about it?
JOHN: We shot on Super 16-mm for a few reasons. I'm a film snob first of all, and you get about 11 minutes on a 400 Ft load as opposed to 3 1/2 minutes on 35. So I would double processing and telecine costs if I went 35 mm. Most importantly it's a gritty story. And the super 16 is perfect for that. Also we shot fast and had more room to play with exposure in post. The latitude is more vast if we were over or under exposed. We had multiple locations in the Angeles National Forest and High Desert, so Pete was not tethered and had freedom to move when I needed him to move.
We also used the "Red" camera. There is a lot of rain in the film and there ain't much of it in L.A. in August or Sept. So after principal photography was over I waited for the rain for a few months. When it finally did rain, I called Pete and told him to grab the "red" camera and go out and shoot our rain inserts. I think he went out 3 different times without me. I have asked people to point out the "red" shots in the film and they can't. Of course after they read this they will.
I really like the "red", and the reason aside from style and money that we didn't use it was to do it correctly I would have needed a tech/media manager. And at the time the guys I knew weren't up to speed about the nuances, of the camera, which has since changed. Also Otto Nemetz gave my wife the film camera's for next to nothing as a favor. God bless Otto Nemetz.
We cut on AVID. Another editor we graduated with, Kyler Boudreaux, had an AVID and so we cut the movie on that. What I didn't like about it is it's a rich man's machine. Not Indie friendly. And so I became a slave to AVID. Meaning, as you go through the post process and move through different post houses, sound, exporting cuts, titles, color correction etc... You can't open an AVID for less than $500 an hour. I even went deep into the valley to a boutique place in a strip mall to fix one tiny thing and it was $500. It took 15 minutes. Now I'm sure it greatly outperforms the other applications out there but in my case, it hindered me.
You wore a lot of hats on the project -- writer, director, producer. What are the advantages and disadvantages to that approach?
JOHN: You can't blame anyone else! The advantages as a writer/director are no one knows the story better. There is no committee when something doesn't work, I can change on the spot or hang on to it. The disadvantages are there is no committee and have to stand tall in your convictions if you want the cast and crew to follow. Because in the end actors put themselves out there on the edge and don't want to fall. They don't want to look silly. They need to know if they lean over you are going to hang on to them and pull back if need be. I can only hope I achieved that.
The Producer thing is new, I've avoided it up to this point but it was the only way the film would get made. Producing keeps me honest. Even when I don't want to be. I have a lot of arguments with myself. It keeps the film from becoming a Fellini knock off. And forces me to think about achieving the same artistry in a more streamline economical way. Also to think about the audience. No one likes playing to empty houses.
It also keeps me aware of the big picture and details I may not want to be bothered with. My wife Madeline helps tremendously with that. She gets stuff done. I used to work for her as a P.A. and didn't like it. She's still the boss but at least I get to talk back now. Sort of... But when she's the actor, and I've directed her about 5 times now, I make her work harder than everyone else. Payback is a ...
What was the smartest thing you did during pre-production or production? The dumbest?
JOHN: Let's see if I can toot my own horn. Necessity is the father of creativity. So that's a good thing. First off I hired Cotter Smith to play the "Dad." That's a genius move I must say. Also I knew Leif Gantvoort (lead actor) from theater. I directed one of his plays, I think the guy does about a play a month. Anyway I gave him the material, (which he loved of course): however, I told him if he wanted the role, he'd have to get in shape and lose 30 pounds. I saw him 3 months later and he had lost 50! And was cut up like a boxer. Amazing transformation. So that was smart.
Another thing is I knew if I just started shooting I would finish, but I didn't have all the money. So I went into my script and scheduled all the M.O.S scenes or shots first. I ended up with the first 10 days without sound, just the crew and Leif. Then I brought in Jeremy Robinson, who by the way likes to tell people that he "gained 50 lb. for the role..." and shot all their scenes together, and so on...
I think lastly I did not settle for mediocrity despite it being an Independent Film. I created an environment where the actors could up their game and I believe they shined. It is an extremely emotional film, sometimes a bit too close to the bone for some, but there is no denying that the cast acted their asses off.
The dumbest thing I did was leave a roll regular 16-mm film laying around in my garage which the 1st AC picked up by mistake and loaded. We didn't have dailies so it was a couple of weeks later that I found out. Oops. Although we were able to zoom in during telecine, and save the shots.
And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you can take to other projects?
JOHN: That it can be done. That I can make a feature film. Which may seem trivial, but it's a huge win for Madeline and I. I'm not waiting on the phone to ring, or permission from some agent or studio head to green-light or validate me or my work. I get to let the viewers decide for better or worse.
We've played 8 festivals and won 3 awards for Lunatics, Lovers & Poets. And that is in stone. Grown men have hugged me after screenings, teary eyed. Still others give the obligatory "...interesting" which is how it should be. I love a blockbuster thriller just as much as the next guy, but I learned there is a niche for me and others like me.
I think the life lessons on this film are that people do care about this subject matter. Everyone loses everyone and it's in the grieving and how we handle that, that makes us human. Of course the Elephants do the same thing but they don't go to movies.
I learned that I can definitely work smarter on the next one. And I think I can attain more for less. In production value, and cinematic story telling. I've already re-written my next script to be more cinematic based on my experiences with Lunatics... And also I learned that the audience doesn't really care, about what kind of adversity you had to go through to get the story on film. They just want to sit down and watch a good movie.
Ultimately no matter how long or hard you work on something, it comes down to "that sucked" or "I cried my eyes out" And I can only hope it's the latter.
Q: What was your favorite part of your job? A: This was my first experience working on a film set, let alone working as a costume supervisor. I loved the challenge of it, the variety of what the job entailed and learning new things (like scene continuity). I especially enjoyed moments spent with the cast and crew.
Q: Describe a typical day on the set for you. A: First order of the day -- check the call sheet and ensure that there were enough costumes ready for everyone who was on set that day, especially when it came to the guards and extras, as many of those costumes were shared outfits. Was a fun juggling process some days!
Secondly, check the scenes being shot that day and double check the scene continuity sheets for anything special that we had to watch out for (i.e. was Jakob supposed to be wearing his coat or not!) Learned this one the hard way!
Once the day started, and the actors were outfitted and miked up, the rest of the day could entail many different challenges and jobs, including uploading film clips to the computer, helping with props, costume fixing and troubleshooting, ensuring actors were on set when needed, helping with the camera cords, assisting with craft services, and the list goes on!
After shooting was complete, the final task of the night was making sure all the costumes were back together, fixed, dried out and on their proper hangers, and ready to go for the next day!!
Q: What were some of the challenges of working with the costumes? A: Definitely troubleshooting the costuming of 25+ extras, who had come in costume for the most part, but many needed tweaking, adding onto and, in some cases, completely changing. Being creative in this capacity isn't my strong suit but luckily we had Lee helping with costumes. She was amazing in this area and saved me many, many times!!! Also, aging the prisoners' costumes and trying to make them as authentic looking as possible was a fun challenge, and was not as easy as it first sounded like it might be!
Q: What costume gave you the most trouble on the set? A: Yasha'a costume after the rat peed on him three times! Trying to clean it while maintaining the same "dirty look" was a challenge! Also, there was the situation of Nikolai's collar on his uniform shirt. The collar was too big and didn't fit the look for a military professional. So we had to look deeply at his character's background and find a way to troubleshoot other options!
Q: Do you have any other anecdotes about working with the costumes? A: The first time I had to use duct tape on the crotch of pair of pants that had split and had to be fixed quickly before the next scene was shot. For someone not used to working on clothing while they are still on the person wearing them, this was an interesting experience. Although by the end of filming, this had happened so often (in different capacities) that it no longer threw me for a loop!
Q: What did you enjoy the most about working on this film? A: There were so many aspects of it that I enjoyed! At the end of the day, I think seeing the actors make their characters come alive -- and seeing the different scenes that portrayed such raw emotions in beautiful ways -- made me proud and excited to be a part of this production.
Q: How would you describe what it is like to make an independent film? A: It's amazing what a few people, doing many things, working as a team, can get accomplished!!!
If I had to state one of the most crucial things we need to focus on in the indie film world right now, I would say that working to establish a sustainable investor class ranks right at the top. If only it did not take a bit more than simply stating it…
I have made over sixty films in about twenty years. Each film is a new start up with a new structure and new investors. It is not a very efficient system. Folks from The Business Community often express interest in trying to bring some greater reason to our world. I hope they succeed and I am available to help, but it is not so easy a mission.
One of the reasons that each film has it’s own financial structure is that every film has its own needs. We are not making a standardized product, but we are working with artists who have developed unique talents for getting their visions and emotion up and out there. Filmmakers need a protected environment to work in.
At the same time, Investors need access to the process to trust their needs are being taken care of. These needs are most often quite different from the filmmakers’. How to provide trust, confidence, and comfort is part of what makes producing such a challenge (and pleasure).
Films need to be budgeted based on market realities and there are very few realities to base things on. Flexibility and rigidity are both needed by the investment structure. Sometimes budget increases enhance commercial prospects, but the threat of increases destabilize any trust or confidence that has already been established. There lies the rub…
Investors have different needs too so I don’t think there is any more a set model for them than there is for the filmmakers. Many producers simply assume that investors want to make a profit and want to make a good film. It is far more complicated than that though.
Everyone wants to be protected, and that again is the producers role. Both Filmmakers and Investors need to declare their needs and be willing to live with what they say. Creative Control does not always come from legislation; relationship support can be the strongest asset to getting a vision widely seen. Commercial concerns may limit critical acceptance which in turn decreases commercial prospects.
It’s going to take a lot of work to demystify this process of protection. I don’t think there is template but I do think, with some focused effort, we can build a sustainable investment base for independent culture.
Today we are pleased to present a conversation between Keith Bearden and Jordan Horowitz, the first-time Director and first-time Producer of MEET MONICA VELOUR, starring Kim Cattrall, about what it was like to make the film, the lessons they learned, and expectations for the future. The film will premiere at the Tribeca International Film Festival on Sunday April 25th, and other screening times can be found here.–
Keith Bearden: I have to start by saying that having done well with short films and commercials, the important parts of feature filmmaking were there when I started (when I hear about writers jumping head first into feature directing I wince in sympathy pain). But of course, there were still a lot of challenges ahead.
My biggest lesson was learning what you don’t need in a screenplay. The original shooting script had long (4+) pages of dialogue, that while good, and relevant, we wound up cutting down after we shot it. I realized that if you cast well, and you and your actors know and inhabit the characters, so much of what I was trying to make sure people understood with all that dialogue gets communicated better by the performances.
Jordan Horowitz: I think I tried to get Keith to cut some of his screenplay before we started shooting, but he wouldn’t do it. And I get why he wouldn’t do it. At the end of the day, I think it helped with character development, so while it was, in the end, cut from the film… it had a lasting effect on the film. But I think I learned how to talk to a writer/director about what is needed in a screenplay, and what is not.
KB: Also, naively, as a greenhorn I assumed that everyone working in the movie business was at least competent, if not talented and trustworthy. Not so. To some people, even people with great credits, it’s a job, and people with little perception or creativity still work their whole lives in the biz. And they are liabilities to your movie, and need to be micro-managed or weeded out.
JH: I took this same lesson to heart. Frankly, we got burned by being too trusting of crew. There is just so much management involved with production: everyone is looking for direction. And I, like Keith, give people the benefit of the doubt. Don’t get me wrong, in the long run, I still think this is a good thing and the right way to operate. It’s just a matter of going in with your eyes open and striking a balance early on.
KB: Movies become different things than you originally intended. MEET MONICA VELOUR was always intended as a dark comedy, with heart, and it still is, but the relationship that we captured, because of Dustin Ingram and Kim Cattrall’s performances, and their genuine love for each other on set, was bigger and sweeter and more dramatic than I perhaps thought of when writing it. It would have been stupid to deny audiences that, so we edited accordingly.
JH: This film changed so many times for me. For us. So many times. I can’t even being to think what it was like for Keith, who was living with it, creatively, for so many years. We cut and recut and had different editors and then went back to the original editor… but in the end, I (and I think Keith) am really happy with the final product. We took a longer road than we’d originally intended, but we got there. We did.
KB: Also, making movies on location is lonely hard work. You have no free time, local people have their own lives, you’re away from your family and friends, the mind is totally preoccupied. It’s kind of like going to war, but without all the blood and fire and stuff.
JH: I don’t know what Keith is taking about. There was fire. And there was definitely a good amount of blood.
KB: I’m very aware of the current situation in the American movie landscape; more indie pics than ever, and more moviegoers only going to the theatre to see the in-every-multiplex-in-America-remake-of-an-80s-movie-in-3D tentpole releases. Also, when you make a movie, you should only try to make the best movie for the audience in your mind (even if it’s only you) and not try to follow trends, maximize imaginary demographics, or think too much about its outcome when it comes to your career or life. Do I think that MEET MONICA VELOUR has the audience friendly potential to be one of the few breakout indie hits? Yes. Would I be happy to be a movie that people see in fests, a handful of US theatres, and grow to dig on DVD and streaming? Also yes. My goal with MEET MONICA VELOUR is to hear audiences laugh, and talk to people or read about people who really enjoyed it. I’m happy to take it one venue at a time. Where this film winds up in the end is really out of my control, and in the hands of my producers, our sales agent, our future distributor, the press, audiences, the Gods of Cinema and other mysterious forces.
JH: As I said above, the process of this film has been a long one, with changes at every turn, and I think it has helped temper my expectations. I am fully aware of the ever-changing distribution environment for independent film. We will find a buyer for this film, and with Kim Cattrall (I think al lot of people underestimate her market appeal, by the way), there will be a theatrical play, but more importantly there will be significant value in ancillary markets. So we’ll look for a buyer who can structure a deal around a big TV or DVD or VOD component and use theatrical as, in a worst case scenario, long-lead marketing. At the end of the day, with the right campaign, this film will find its audience and really speak to people, of that I am certain.
Jordan Horowitz works at Gilbert Films with producer Gary Gilbert. While MEET MONICA VELOUR was Jordan’s first feature, Gary has produced and financed GARDEN STATE, HENRY POOLE IS HERE, and the unreleased Ken Lonergan film MARGARET. Together, they also produced Lisa Cholodenko’s THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, due out for release by Focus Features on July 7th. Jordan can be found on twitter @jehorowitz
Keith Bearden’s 2005 short The Raftman’s Razor was named best short at the SXSW, Seattle, and Montreal film festivals and is in the permanent collection at MoMA. He is the recipient of Showtime’s Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting and in 2008 received a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking. MEET MONICA VELOUR is his first feature film.
Why did you decide -- with no filmmaking background -- to make Deuce of Spades?
FAITH: They say life works in mysterious ways... I have found that to be very true over the last three years!
All my life I pursued music as my passion and dream and felt it was my calling. Four years ago, I finally felt the need to step back and take a long deserved break from constant rehearsals, recording sessions and live shows, which consumed every free moment I had. I longed to have a weekend where I could just relax and enjoy the simple things in life... Such as cruising on a sunny afternoon at the wheel of a 1932 Ford roadster, for example ;).
I had always loved hot rods so finally buying one seemed a good way to celebrate life, in deed. I fell deeply in love with the deuce and that love led me to whip up a small documentary about the 32 Ford roadsters, shot from the hip on a $200 consumer camera. I made the documentary for my car display at the Grand National Roadster Show, the world largest yearly roadster show. It was the 75th anniversary of the 1932 Ford that year so I decided to sign up for the show and all participants were asked to make a nice car display for the occasion.
My display included a TV screen that played my Last of the Hiboy Girls home made documentary. The result? For four days, the crowd kept packing up in front of my car display, to watch the one-hour piece. When I saw just how engaged the audience was and how much they loved watching what I had filmed, I was hooked. I had so much fun doing the documentary that a crazy idea popped inside my head while at the show: And it went something like this: "Wouldn't it be crazy to next do a FULL FEATURE homemade film? One person does it all... That would be such a great challenge!!!"
Did I mention? I love challenges. As crazy as that thought sounded, it stuck, and two weeks later I found myself diving head first at the deep end of the pool (without knowing how to swim), and started writing the screenplay.
Where did the idea come from?
FAITH: Ironically, while many writers get stuck trying to find a good film plot, I had one right up my sleeve. I knew, from minute ONE, that the main star of the film would be my roadster, and knew what the plot was going to be. It was very easy, since the idea came from an (almost) true experience from my not-so-distant past.
Let us flashback to 2004. I had just bought a 1937 Hudson Terraplane Business Coupe. My friend was cleaning the car up, getting it ready for full off frame restoration, alone in the garage. Suddenly he pops inside the house with an old letter in his hand: "Faith! Look what I found when I tore the trunk of the Hudson apart". An old letter. A love letter written on a war ship, from a soldier who was going to WWII, to his sweetheart back home... It was very touching.
For the next few days, I found myself thinking about the letter, the man, his loved one, their story... Wondering how it had ended... Wondering how it was connected to the car... On the fourth day, my friend finally spills the beans: "You know that letter I found in the trunk? I was just pulling your leg. The letter is real, (my dad wrote it back in the days), but I obviously didn’t find it in the car." So it was just a prank. Needless to say I was deeply disappointed. But I never forgot the special feeling I had for three days, the feeling of having found a hidden treasure, uncovered a secret. It was that feeling that would become the core of my film plot.
What was the writing process like?
FAITH: It was very easy. I wrote the script quickly. I had so many ideas and they kept coming... No problem there! What was hard was keeping the film within reasonable length.
Writing the script was like living an alternate life, in a different world. It swallowed me whole. I was consumed. Every moment of the day all I could think about was Johnny's story... The letter... I LOVED writing the script. A lot of ideas would come while driving back and forth to my day job every day. Some scenes were entirely written while listening to a specific song that I wanted to use for the scene. I could SEE the film in my head... See the shots, hear the dialogues...
As soon as I got to work I'd type my ideas down. Same when I got home... It took about 3 months to write the initial script. A lot of historical research went into it, because 60% of the film is period, and also because of the hot rod technical aspect of the film. My historical consultant, who is curator for the National Hot Rod Foundation, helped me insure that the film stay 100% accurate and true to both the era and the cars. I even consulted with several old timers to make sure the flashback dialogues were period correct. Especially the 50’s slang.
The finished first draft was too long and had I shot it as is, the film would have been about 4 hours long!!! So I rewrote it, three times, over the course of the next 2 years, to end up with the 150-minute version, which was later edited down to a 120 minute final version.
Why did you want to handle all the elements yourself? Did that work, or did you end up adding crew members to the team?
FAITH: Making this film was breaking every known rules of filmmaking... And getting away with it!
Having never been to film school, my mind was a blank canvas. I didn't know what the rules were, so I made my own. I was very free of any and all preconceived ideas, all molds, all trends. I love freedom of expression. I knew that if I wanted to retain that freedom I needed to remain captain of my own vessel. So I didn't go looking for investors.
When some came knocking at my door (cause the buzz about my project was already getting all over the internet), offering me a half million to become partners in my film, I politely turned then down and walked. I didn’t want to take the easy shortcut. I was going to take the less traveled road, and cut my own way through the jungle if I had to. I knew their money would come with a price tag. And that if I took it, my film would no longer be my film, it would never be the same. And I wanted my film to be 100% my vision, 100% my work, 100% mine, whether good or bad, successful or a flop, it would be MY FILM.
Having no investors to call the shots also meant having no budget and that meant having to do everything myself for the most part. But I am a firm believer that if you want to have it done right, do it yourself! I knew volunteers, although well meaning, would probably end up flaking out and that free help was hard to come by, so from the start I expected that if I wanted this film to get done, I would have to carry it on my own shoulders, for three entire years, all the way to the finish line, no matter how hard it got or how heavy it would become.
Did it work?
FAITH: You bet! But I wouldn’t recommend this path to everyone. It truly is not for the faint of heart. You have to really be cut out for it. But it worked wonderfully well for me and if I was to make another film, I would not change much to my current recipe (if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it ;) ). I will continue to self finance my films, work with a skeleton crew, be behind the camera and wear multiple hats. I will however delegate a few little hats here and there, such as hair and makeup, loading and unloading heavy gear (that really gets old quick), maybe some of the preliminary scouting, and some of the tedious, but not so creative, work such as calling actors and crew to remind them of shoots, auditions etc…
I did wear all the hats, but I also had some help from friends and volunteers. Help was sporadic, so no stable crew. Each shoot I would have one or two helpers land a hand. Mostly they helped move gear, plug lights, hold booms and Hollywood flags, etc… Some of my actors helped too, and so did the car owners.
About half way into production, one volunteer, Jerry Mull, stepped forward cause all the other volunteers had either flaked or no longer were able to help due to work / school schedule changes. Jerry was very loyal and stayed with me, as my production assistant, boom person, grip and whatever else was needed, until the end. He helped make three sets (which we built in my garage), a few props, helped line up additional classic cars and even a few locations. He was very helpful. He also drove the rig so I could drive the rod to the shoots. It would have been a lot harder on me had he not been there. Even if you wear all the hats, you still need HELP.
I was very blessed in that my story inspired many pros to also contribute, each in their own way: A few examples: OMEGA CINEMA donated several thousand dollars worth of free prop rentals to help me finish my flashbacks cause I completely ran out of money. CINEMA PRODUCTION SERVICES loaned some basic lighting gear for the entire duration of the production (three years) which were badly needed to pull off the shoots. DAS WERK in Germany, donated a $20,000 CGI shot for my crash scene while Frank Glencairn, Nick Lozz, Darren d’Agostino, also donated CGI shots and title treatment, Luis Sinibaldi donated free steadicam work for three scenes, Blue Nelson lent a hand with some camera work for 8 scenes and general advice, giving me feedback when needed. Top Hollywood pro re-recording mixer Patrick Cycconne and his team are now donating a full sound mixing job at pro facility, to help me take the film to the next level. My struggling on my own to make DEUCE OF SPADES inspired these pros to say: Hey, what she’s doing is really something, so let’s lend her a little help.
What sort of camera did you use? What was good about it? What was not so good?
FAITH: I bought the Panasonic HVX200 with the Letus Extreme (and later, the Ultimate) 35mm adapter with Nikon prime lenses. It provided a wonderful film look. I work with long lenses a lot, for that super shallow Depth of Field, and working with long lenses can be quite challenging, especially when you pull your own focus. I oftentimes had to pull focus entirely by feel, because my more elaborate camera moves involved a lot more than just two focus points.
I love the HVX, it was a great camera to work with, love the P2 card system, how sturdy the camera is: I really put it through the ringer and it never broke down on me. On the down side, it tends to be noisy in low light. And I film in low light A LOT. That was my only complaint, the fact that it is not so good with low light. Using a 35 mm adapter does not help either. Unless there was a good amount of light on our night sets, the camera could see absolutely NOTHING. This is true of most video cameras of course. Without a budget it is hard to have the gear to light a night set aggressively. So it was very challenging shooting those tricky night scenes, and I had quite a few in my film, including one of the climax scenes. A huge challenge indeed. It’s easy, as a writer, to image in your head a phenomenal night race and crash… Not so easy, as a producer, director and DP, to pull it off.
What was the biggest lesson you took away from shooting the movie?
FAITH: Make your own path. Stay true to your vision. Believe in yourself. Don’t believe what they say. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. Trust in God. Oh yeah and don't you ever, EVER, forget to turn on that adapter again!!! (sigh - how quickly we learn our lessons when we suffer). And next script, no night race and crash LOL. Next script I write, I’ll write it KNOWING what it takes to technically pull off each scene and understanding my limitations, and writing around them this time… Save myself a lot of grief!!
What are the advantages (and disadvantages) of being your own editor?
FAITH: To me I see only but advantages. There are three ways to shape a performance. A- the directing B- the actor’s acting itself C- the editing choices. Let me light your candle here and say that I think the editor has the most impact!
A bad editor can make a good actor look average, and a good editor can make a mediocre actor look quite good! It's not so much in the cuts, but in selecting which clips make the cut. What moments will be immortalized. This implies sorting through an actor's performance, as shaped by the director while filming and making the final decision as to which performance is the best. Now call me crazy but it seems to me this should be the director's job, and when the director IS the editor, then that is exactly what happens. You get what you were aiming for. And you know what you were aiming for, since you are the director!
I love editing and I was told I have a great knack for it. I would never ever delegate that role to someone else. One of the dangers though is to get so close to your project that you lose sight of it. That's when you bring in a couple fresh pair of eyes and show them the edits and get their feedbacks. I had a couple friends who are film pros do that for me. Just to be sure.
You have to be open to hearing the feedback and learn to differentiate between the ones you should implement and the ones you should toss right out the window. It is tricky. I have learned to trust my instincts, they are rarely (if ever) wrong. Women are known for having great intuition. I try to put mine to good use!
Also, each editor has his/her own feel. The feel of the film, the pace of the film is the heart beat of a film. I would not want anyone else to set that pulse, but me, the filmmaker.
And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you can take to other projects?
FAITH: Everything. I knew nothing when I started the film. Had never done it before, never been to film school. As I said, I dived at the deepest end of the pool and didn’t know how to swim. Yes, I thought I was going to drown more than once, and I drank my share of water, but I became a swimmer in the end.
I have not only come out of this three year adventure a full fledge filmmaker, but came out of it with a finished film that I fully own, all100% of it, free and clear. A film that people can’t wait to see, it seems. It has not been completed yet and people are already buying it. I set up an online store on my website www.deuceofspadesmovie.com and I am getting pre-orders from everywhere… US, UK, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Tzchek, Australia, New Zealand, Canada… And that's a good place to be.
With major press coverage (I just received an unbelievable 12 page spread in American Muscle Car Magazine – France) in over 15 countries and already 4 magazine covers... Looks like Deuce Of Spades may very well become a cult film.
What more could a first time filmmaker possibly want?
Today is the one-year anniversary of the beginning of principal photography for Under Jakob's Ladder. And so, we decided it was time for an update on what's happening with the movie. Time for our April Newsletter...
If you've signed up for our email updates, you should have received it in your email inbox today. (If you didn't get it, please do check your junk folder. If you haven't signed up yet, click on this link: http://bit.ly/cubecity_updates)
Finding what you want to watch when you want to watch SHOULD be the easiest thing in the world. It still will always be hard to know what you want to watch, mind you — but if you do, you should be able to find it.
In terms of the knowing part of the equation, playlists are a start. Every social media site should have an easy to use playlist function that allows you to post what you are going to watch, and for others watching those films to find you. The film watching experience is only partially about content. It is also about social and we need to have easier tools to connect with if we are going to make it all work again,
And combining playlists with easy searches of what is available online is the start of something truly great. Clicker helps a great deal in this regard. The ability to share playlists is a key thing when it comes to discovery and it doesn’t look like that is a possibility with Clicker unfortunately. We want to be able to build playlists, post them, embed them, share them.
Reid Rosefelt’s SpeedCine is another such searcg tool. Or rather was. It’s was easy to search but still had no playlist function. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that such a service shuts down in these economic times — but still I am. These are the tools we need. Search & Share. They are services that all film organizations should offer. Someone should take over what Reid built, be it IFP, FIND, Indiewire, or MOMA. Someone, please!
What of course all these services miss is a real curating function managed by a trusted critic/educator/filmmaker/brand. Or rather several curators. Imagine how cool it would be if you could see what filmmakers you respected wanted to watch, and with one click there you were, and with another click, you could engage in discussion with a whole bunch of other film fanatics and discuss the film.
Surely, some smart people must be out there building this stuff. It can’t be that hard. If only the film world had more collaboration with the tech world. Let’s get it built and put it to use.
