Robin Nations and I returned back to San Antonio with our phones blowing up. Word got around about our film and we had 3 or 4 more distributors wanting it. After a week or two of weighing all of the options, we ended up choosing the distributor that promised the most, had the biggest numbers. We were super nervous and never really knew if we were making the right decision but felt this one was as good as any. On April 19th 2011, we inked a world wide distribution deal. We were the most excited people on earth and couldn't believe it was actually happening. Surely we missed something, surely it wasn't this easy. We thought for sure that there was more struggling to do. How on earth could we work so hard and so long for something and it actually come true? These kinds of things happen to other people, not us. People you read about in the news or on some TV show but the fact that it was happening to us just didn't make sense. To re-iterate something I said before, getting distribution for one of our films was the holy grail for us. That was it, top of the chart… It's like getting a record deal as a musician, or signing a publishing contract as a writer. And when Robin and I ran over the projected numbers for our foreign sales? Mind blown. Have you ever had one of those "out of body" experiences? You know, where you are sitting in a chair and your body goes numb. Your face and arms start to become very heavy and then suddenly you feel like you're hovering above yourself, looking down at whatever it is you are doing at the time. I felt like that while we were on our conference call with our distributor. Robin and I huddled around my macbook pro with our foreign ask/take projections full screen. I whipped out my calculator and added up the numbers 5 times… Each time coming up with the same unbelievable number. How is this happening?
One week later, our distributor called and said he had an offer from not a domestic buyer, but a domestic distributor that we should really look at. This is where it got even more interesting. This distributor offered that if we sign with them, they would pay us an MG of the entire budget of our movie. Wait a minute, are you telling me that we sign with these guys, they will cut me a check right then and there? Pretty much. We did have to wait until the movie was "Officially Released" which was a month or two but that is how it went down. MG stands for Minimum Guarantee. When you strike a domestic deal, you will get one of these (hopefully).
This all seems like roses doesn't it. I am painting it as such. That is exactly how it felt at the time. Roses. Bright red, highly contrasted with the greenery around it. Supple petals, resistant from the rain, fragrant and wonderful. Nothing could touch us, we were finally there and it was awesome. Soon, we will continue this journey and realize that our journey has just begun and with achieved goals, there were new goals. Many new obstacles, trials and problems to overcome. We learn from our mistakes every day and boy oh boy we realized soon after, that during this time, we made a lot of them.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
My life up to now. Part 13: A cutscene out of the TV show "Scrubs"
I am a pretty big fan of Nathan Fillion. Robin and I loved Firefly. Loved Serenity. Big fan of Capt. Mal. I never really got into Castle though, not sure why. I think I probably need to give it another try. I saw Nathan Fillion round the corner and walk into the small outdoor cafe at Raleigh Studios Hollywood, the back part behind the sound stages. He and the crew of Castle stepped in for a lunch break and Nathan sat 4 feet away from me as Robin and I nibbled at a meager appetizer waiting on our first Cooper distributor meeting. Apparently, they shoot the show there, Castle. What amazed me was that Mr. Fillion sat with the crew. The camera crew, grips, the production assistants. That's different, I thought. He went on talking with them like he was part of the crew, getting to know them personally, talking about cats and flip flops… you know, the ushe.
Our first appointment shows up. I won't disclose the distribution company in this blog to protect the guilty but what I will do is go ahead and blow your mind right now and let you know that it's the exact same guy that crushed our spirit years ago with the freight train of Truth and Exactitude. I swear, the moment he sat down and started talking my life switched to a cutscene out of the TV show "Scrubs".
Scrubs cut scene -----
12 INT. Distribution Office - DAY
A man in his late 30's, dark sandy hair, cheap suit and a slight gut sits at cherry wood desk. His desk is littered with stacks and stacks of DVD screeners and his trashcan has twice that amount inside. ECU on phone to mouth as he spatters out words and spit equally.
DISTRIBUTOR
No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings.
End Scrubs cut scene -----
Yeah, I am not kidding. We met his lovely assistant the night before, at the screening and never put it together. Luckily for us, the guy had no idea who we were and that we had spoke those years ago because I am sure we were just a number to him. He seemed head-over-heels interested in our movie this time though and wanted to close a deal right then and there. We told him we do have a few more meetings and that we would be giving him a call.
Our next meeting was really great. A lovely girl who really had it together. The first thing out of her mouth was, "Where did you have your pitch packages made?". She told us straight up that the reason she is talking to us now is because of that pitch package… that her company had already made the decision to speak to us before our film ever screened. She spoke frankly with us, "Filmmaking is one of the only businesses I know where there is a lot of people making their product before they know how they will sell their product. It looks like you guys made a product directly for the market. Good for you. If you're not going to have a named actor in the cast, an equally essential thing is to have a cute dog on the cover. Look at this", she holds up our fly card artwork. "We can definitely work with this", she said. We told her that we would be in touch sometime next week.
And our next meeting. Man, this guy was really interesting too. He was a straight-shooter, a no BS kind of guy and told it how it is. "First of all, great pitch package. Best I've ever seen. Most people send us screeners, burned DVD, title scribbled on them…-- kerplink#@# -- straight in the trash. Who do these people think they are? They spend all this time and energy on their film and erase it with a cheap DVD and Sharpie. It's like they are using the shotgun approach and just firing spindles of crappy plastic out the post, I don't want to watch that crap. I got your box, yeah.. that box. Opened it up, had a cute little doggie tag keychain I gave to my daughter. Yeah, I remembered that one", he said. This dude was a fast talking New Yorker, a real Jonah Jameson kind of guy (J.K. Simmons version from original Spider-Man movie). I swear, the guy was not privy to small talk and really just got down to brass tacks. "I tell ya, Here is what I can do for you. I can do X, Y and Z. I cannot do D, E, F. Your film will make between 145-150k domestically and I do not handle foreign territories so you'll need to sign some someone else for that. DVD is dead and you won't likely make much money there. We can make money through VOD and some television deals. Your movie is great but it's got one fatal flaw… the same flaw that Hitchcock made in the worst Hitchcock movie that nobody has ever seen… you killed a kid. Yeah, make another dog movie but this time don't kill a kid and you'll make twice as much money. Also, if you can add in a scene where the guy holds up a Bible or says a prayer, that'll get you a few extra bucks right there." All we could do is listen, the guy was a machine. Robin grabbed my knee under the table and gave it a squeeze. When he was finished, he flicked us his card and told us to call him Monday morning and we would go over all the deal paperwork. He was closing the deal before we were ready to close the deal!
We left California with a lot of options!
Our first appointment shows up. I won't disclose the distribution company in this blog to protect the guilty but what I will do is go ahead and blow your mind right now and let you know that it's the exact same guy that crushed our spirit years ago with the freight train of Truth and Exactitude. I swear, the moment he sat down and started talking my life switched to a cutscene out of the TV show "Scrubs".
Scrubs cut scene -----
12 INT. Distribution Office - DAY
A man in his late 30's, dark sandy hair, cheap suit and a slight gut sits at cherry wood desk. His desk is littered with stacks and stacks of DVD screeners and his trashcan has twice that amount inside. ECU on phone to mouth as he spatters out words and spit equally.
End Scrubs cut scene -----
Yeah, I am not kidding. We met his lovely assistant the night before, at the screening and never put it together. Luckily for us, the guy had no idea who we were and that we had spoke those years ago because I am sure we were just a number to him. He seemed head-over-heels interested in our movie this time though and wanted to close a deal right then and there. We told him we do have a few more meetings and that we would be giving him a call.
Our next meeting was really great. A lovely girl who really had it together. The first thing out of her mouth was, "Where did you have your pitch packages made?". She told us straight up that the reason she is talking to us now is because of that pitch package… that her company had already made the decision to speak to us before our film ever screened. She spoke frankly with us, "Filmmaking is one of the only businesses I know where there is a lot of people making their product before they know how they will sell their product. It looks like you guys made a product directly for the market. Good for you. If you're not going to have a named actor in the cast, an equally essential thing is to have a cute dog on the cover. Look at this", she holds up our fly card artwork. "We can definitely work with this", she said. We told her that we would be in touch sometime next week.
And our next meeting. Man, this guy was really interesting too. He was a straight-shooter, a no BS kind of guy and told it how it is. "First of all, great pitch package. Best I've ever seen. Most people send us screeners, burned DVD, title scribbled on them…-- kerplink#@# -- straight in the trash. Who do these people think they are? They spend all this time and energy on their film and erase it with a cheap DVD and Sharpie. It's like they are using the shotgun approach and just firing spindles of crappy plastic out the post, I don't want to watch that crap. I got your box, yeah.. that box. Opened it up, had a cute little doggie tag keychain I gave to my daughter. Yeah, I remembered that one", he said. This dude was a fast talking New Yorker, a real Jonah Jameson kind of guy (J.K. Simmons version from original Spider-Man movie). I swear, the guy was not privy to small talk and really just got down to brass tacks. "I tell ya, Here is what I can do for you. I can do X, Y and Z. I cannot do D, E, F. Your film will make between 145-150k domestically and I do not handle foreign territories so you'll need to sign some someone else for that. DVD is dead and you won't likely make much money there. We can make money through VOD and some television deals. Your movie is great but it's got one fatal flaw… the same flaw that Hitchcock made in the worst Hitchcock movie that nobody has ever seen… you killed a kid. Yeah, make another dog movie but this time don't kill a kid and you'll make twice as much money. Also, if you can add in a scene where the guy holds up a Bible or says a prayer, that'll get you a few extra bucks right there." All we could do is listen, the guy was a machine. Robin grabbed my knee under the table and gave it a squeeze. When he was finished, he flicked us his card and told us to call him Monday morning and we would go over all the deal paperwork. He was closing the deal before we were ready to close the deal!
We left California with a lot of options!
Friday, July 19, 2013
My life up to now. Part 12: So. Meanwhile in Hollywood
It was an early spring morning in 2011. Robin and I boarded a plane for Los Angeles to screen our film Cooper, which would soon be called Angel Dog, at the International Family Film Festival. The fact that we were an Official Selection at this particular festival (IFFF) was no act of chance but a very targeted festival entry for us. Remember all that planning and research we did earlier before we started shooting? Well, another thing we researched was which film festivals we needed to win if we wanted to get distribution. There's that word again. The holy grail of the independent movie producer right? More on answering that particular question later. Our best chances of getting this movie distributed was to win this festival. Even if we could screen there, we would have a pretty good shot at selling this thing.
While trying to sell our film Leftovers, Robin and I did a really good job mastering the art of the "pitch package". A pitch package is a book or sometimes even a 'kit' that presents your movie to someone. It explains what your movie is, what it will look like, what it will feel like, who made it and why they should consider watching it. By the time we got to this movie Cooper, we were really good at making these things. Because my day job at the time was designing things for NewTek, I was no stranger to this kind of work. The Cooper pitch package was amazing. It was a small black box with a matte finish round emblem border collie logo on the top lid. When set on the desk and opened, it contained a beautifully crafted photo booklet with full bleed still frames from the film and descriptions of the story, wonderful bios of our key cast and crew. Also contained in the box was an engraved dog tag keychain which had our film's name and url. Also inside, was a double pack Blu-Ray and DVD screener of the film. Robin and I spent a lot of time particularly exploring good "Out of Box Experience" designs. How does a customer feel about opening this package? What are their first thoughts seeing the package, once they start, does it invite them to explore more? How do the placement of materials inside the package "question" and "answer" their experience and flow? How long does it take them to explore the entire thing? When we first heard the news that we were an Official Selection at IFFF, we researched and found out which distributors would be there and sent them all this box. "See you at the festival", we said.
So. Meanwhile, in Hollywood. Cooper was to be screened at Raleigh Studios in 3 days. Robin and I woke up early and drove our rental car all over LA posting 11 x 17 Cooper movie posters at every single vet clinic, pet shop and pet grooming establishment in the city. At the bottom of the poster, there was a spot to list the time and location of the screening. We really wanted to fill the seats because we knew this was going to be a big shot for us. We were going to make this night the one we had been working for. The night we had been dreaming about.
SIDE BAR------
Something interesting Robin and I did during pre-production on this film was that we shot 'pre-visualization' footage for the entire movie. Yeah, we tend to take planning and pre-production to the max… some say too far and over the top but we like it that way. We took a DSLR out to all of the locations, used our kids and relatives as stand ins and shot the movie before we actually shot the movie. This helped a lot because it let us spend all the time we needed to work out exactly what we wanted. This way, when we got on set for real, we could almost hit the ground running. When you are making a movie on a tight budget, it's nice to have everything figured out before you get your paid actors and crew there. I pulled a few of these 'pre-vis' shots, matched them up with the real film footage and play them side-by-side. You can see how closely stuffed matched. At the bottom of this blog post, look for the link and check it out. It's a decent way to plan if you have access to your locations early like we did.
END SIDE BAR------
The night came and we both were super nervous. I still get nervous even today watching my own movie with people. In fact, I always sit in the wings of the theater! When the movie finished, we had distributors lined up to talk to us. Robin and I couldn't believe this was actually happening. We gave out our business cards and set up 3 meetings to talk about Cooper that very next day! Wow!
That night Robin and I laid in our quaint little hotel room in Hollywood. It was raining that night and I could hear the rain drops thumping the window and racing down the glass. I slinked out of bed and spread the curtains back. Looked out at the city of angels then turned back around to see all of the lights painting our otherwise dark room with color and light. With this, Robin sat up, indian style, and we just stared at each other. "Are we finally on our way?" she said. That was the question wasn't it. What does it all mean? Are we just going to instantly be rich? Can I quit my day job and buy a really cool house in the Texas hill country? We both didn't know the answer to that question. It was seriously all new territory we were traversing, we were completely and utterly lost in a game we had never played. Didn't sleep well that night… can't imagine why.
Click to watch the Pre-Vis VS Real Footage stuff
While trying to sell our film Leftovers, Robin and I did a really good job mastering the art of the "pitch package". A pitch package is a book or sometimes even a 'kit' that presents your movie to someone. It explains what your movie is, what it will look like, what it will feel like, who made it and why they should consider watching it. By the time we got to this movie Cooper, we were really good at making these things. Because my day job at the time was designing things for NewTek, I was no stranger to this kind of work. The Cooper pitch package was amazing. It was a small black box with a matte finish round emblem border collie logo on the top lid. When set on the desk and opened, it contained a beautifully crafted photo booklet with full bleed still frames from the film and descriptions of the story, wonderful bios of our key cast and crew. Also contained in the box was an engraved dog tag keychain which had our film's name and url. Also inside, was a double pack Blu-Ray and DVD screener of the film. Robin and I spent a lot of time particularly exploring good "Out of Box Experience" designs. How does a customer feel about opening this package? What are their first thoughts seeing the package, once they start, does it invite them to explore more? How do the placement of materials inside the package "question" and "answer" their experience and flow? How long does it take them to explore the entire thing? When we first heard the news that we were an Official Selection at IFFF, we researched and found out which distributors would be there and sent them all this box. "See you at the festival", we said.
So. Meanwhile, in Hollywood. Cooper was to be screened at Raleigh Studios in 3 days. Robin and I woke up early and drove our rental car all over LA posting 11 x 17 Cooper movie posters at every single vet clinic, pet shop and pet grooming establishment in the city. At the bottom of the poster, there was a spot to list the time and location of the screening. We really wanted to fill the seats because we knew this was going to be a big shot for us. We were going to make this night the one we had been working for. The night we had been dreaming about.
SIDE BAR------
Something interesting Robin and I did during pre-production on this film was that we shot 'pre-visualization' footage for the entire movie. Yeah, we tend to take planning and pre-production to the max… some say too far and over the top but we like it that way. We took a DSLR out to all of the locations, used our kids and relatives as stand ins and shot the movie before we actually shot the movie. This helped a lot because it let us spend all the time we needed to work out exactly what we wanted. This way, when we got on set for real, we could almost hit the ground running. When you are making a movie on a tight budget, it's nice to have everything figured out before you get your paid actors and crew there. I pulled a few of these 'pre-vis' shots, matched them up with the real film footage and play them side-by-side. You can see how closely stuffed matched. At the bottom of this blog post, look for the link and check it out. It's a decent way to plan if you have access to your locations early like we did.
END SIDE BAR------
The night came and we both were super nervous. I still get nervous even today watching my own movie with people. In fact, I always sit in the wings of the theater! When the movie finished, we had distributors lined up to talk to us. Robin and I couldn't believe this was actually happening. We gave out our business cards and set up 3 meetings to talk about Cooper that very next day! Wow!
That night Robin and I laid in our quaint little hotel room in Hollywood. It was raining that night and I could hear the rain drops thumping the window and racing down the glass. I slinked out of bed and spread the curtains back. Looked out at the city of angels then turned back around to see all of the lights painting our otherwise dark room with color and light. With this, Robin sat up, indian style, and we just stared at each other. "Are we finally on our way?" she said. That was the question wasn't it. What does it all mean? Are we just going to instantly be rich? Can I quit my day job and buy a really cool house in the Texas hill country? We both didn't know the answer to that question. It was seriously all new territory we were traversing, we were completely and utterly lost in a game we had never played. Didn't sleep well that night… can't imagine why.
Click to watch the Pre-Vis VS Real Footage stuff
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
My life up to now. Part 11: "Nah. I'm done with that. Can you pass the salsa?"
Because I was free from filmmaking, I had a lot of extra time to think and even more time to continue my self-misery depression. I decided to get on medication to help with all that, and it seemed to work but one of the big side effects was that it blew my creativity. Since my job at NewTek paid me to sit and be creative all day, that was a huge no-go. So I just took it day by day. Finally one day, in all seriousness, Robin sat me down and told me that I should think about being happy again. I thought, yeah… I could probably do that, so I did. Was it that simple? Strangely enough, I think it was. I dunno, but it seemed like the push I needed so it ended up working out.
Not long after that, the CEO of NewTek called me and said that he wanted to take me out to lunch. Jim Plant had been a friend of mine for quite a while. He had also been following my films, being a fan of The Water's Edge and Leftovers. We sat down at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants at the time, ordered, and started some small talk. We finally got our food, and that's when the real conversation began.
"I think you should do another movie", said Jim.
"Nah. I'm done with that. Can you pass the salsa?". "No really. I see an upwards trend with your films. The Water's Edge was OK, good but had problems. You fixed those problems with your next film… Night and day difference. I'm betting your next one will be night and day difference again." Jim passes the salsa. "Thanks. But I'm happy now. I've got a really good thing going here. Really. I'm helping my church with their video stuff, doing some visual effects on the side. It's really rewarding. No really. I'm good."
"What if I pay for it?", said Jim.
I stopped chewing my Jalapeño Enchiladas and my eyes became locked on the specular edge of my cheap porcelain dinner wear. After several beats I looked up at him and said, "I'm listening". "You've got another one in you. I know it.", he said. "And I believe this one is going to be 100 x better than the last."
When I got home that evening, I had a long talk with Robin. Do we want to do this? Do we want to jump back into this game? Yes. Of course we do! But how can we adapt and do it differently? Robin and I remembered our conversation with Mr. Distributor, "No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings". Ok, but what do people want to watch? Wait a minute. Are you telling me that we actually make movies for people to watch? It's not just movies for ourselves? Not just stories that we feel like telling?
SIDE BAR------
At a party, someone asked me advice once. They told me they had a great script idea and they were going to write it and spend the next year developing and producing their movie. They asked if there was any advice I could give them before they got started. The first thing I said to them was, "Awesome! That's quite an undertaking and to make a commitment like that has to be commended!" The next thing i said went something like this. "Before you start writing your script, you need to make a decision on what path you will take. There are three paths, each are very different from one another:
Path one: Your passion project. The movie you've always wanted to make. You know, that movie you've been kicking around in your head for years and never got around to doing. That movie you've dreamed about in your Oscar speech dreams. The movie that will define you as a director or producer.
Path two: Your fun project. The movie that you make because you love making movies. You know, the movie that you invite all of your friends to act and crew in. You all have a blast doing it and after post production, you buy out a theater at the Alamo Drafthouse and you show up with your friends, friend's friends, relatives and neighbors to all drink beer and reminisce the awesome times you had during production. You probably even have a 10 minute behind the scenes reel that runs after the credits showing how silly everyone can be.
Path three: Your sellable project. The movie that you spend months researching hot genres. Is Action in? Horror? Family? Western? Which independent films have the best DVD/VOD numbers and what genre were they? Which independent films have the best Theatrical numbers? Which actors are hot in the UK? Latin America? France?
In a perfect world, we could all make movies that incorporate ALL THREE paths. It does happen. But who wants to risk their investors money on that? Not me. Someone has offered to fund my movie and the last thing I want to do is let them down by not being able to pay them back. I want them to fund my next movie… and my next movie… and my next one. See a trend there? When you've made a name for yourself and people throw money at you because everything you touch is gold, then it's a good idea to tackle that passion project.
END SIDE BAR------
Anyway. So back to Mr. Distributor and his advice which sparked a revelation. Because Jim Plant believed in us, we owed it to him to do our homework. Research led to the realization that Family movies were hot sellers in the independent film world that year. We were delighted to find this out because Robin and I have two young children and this meant that our kids could finally watch our movies!
It was nearing Christmas time, 2009. Robin and I loaded up the family truckster and headed to Louisiana for the holidays. We end up doing a lot of quality thinking on road trips. While driving, Robin told me of a day dream she had the other day. She was driving the kids and the dogs to the dog park. She had a crazy terrible day dream and thought, what if we got into a wreck and were all killed! Even the dogs! Morbid yes, but her real thought exploration was if the dogs weren't along for the ride then I would have them to help me through the terrible tragedy. Animals, dogs in particular, help tremendously in times of extreme loss.
We arrived at my parent's house. After about 30 minutes of hugging and chatting, Robin took her laptop into our bedroom, shut the door, and didn't come out for 4 days. On that 4th day, she emerged with with the first draft of what was to be our very next film and very first family movie, Angel Dog.
Not long after that, the CEO of NewTek called me and said that he wanted to take me out to lunch. Jim Plant had been a friend of mine for quite a while. He had also been following my films, being a fan of The Water's Edge and Leftovers. We sat down at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants at the time, ordered, and started some small talk. We finally got our food, and that's when the real conversation began.
"Nah. I'm done with that. Can you pass the salsa?". "No really. I see an upwards trend with your films. The Water's Edge was OK, good but had problems. You fixed those problems with your next film… Night and day difference. I'm betting your next one will be night and day difference again." Jim passes the salsa. "Thanks. But I'm happy now. I've got a really good thing going here. Really. I'm helping my church with their video stuff, doing some visual effects on the side. It's really rewarding. No really. I'm good."
I stopped chewing my Jalapeño Enchiladas and my eyes became locked on the specular edge of my cheap porcelain dinner wear. After several beats I looked up at him and said, "I'm listening". "You've got another one in you. I know it.", he said. "And I believe this one is going to be 100 x better than the last."
When I got home that evening, I had a long talk with Robin. Do we want to do this? Do we want to jump back into this game? Yes. Of course we do! But how can we adapt and do it differently? Robin and I remembered our conversation with Mr. Distributor, "No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings". Ok, but what do people want to watch? Wait a minute. Are you telling me that we actually make movies for people to watch? It's not just movies for ourselves? Not just stories that we feel like telling?
SIDE BAR------
At a party, someone asked me advice once. They told me they had a great script idea and they were going to write it and spend the next year developing and producing their movie. They asked if there was any advice I could give them before they got started. The first thing I said to them was, "Awesome! That's quite an undertaking and to make a commitment like that has to be commended!" The next thing i said went something like this. "Before you start writing your script, you need to make a decision on what path you will take. There are three paths, each are very different from one another:
Path one: Your passion project. The movie you've always wanted to make. You know, that movie you've been kicking around in your head for years and never got around to doing. That movie you've dreamed about in your Oscar speech dreams. The movie that will define you as a director or producer.
Path two: Your fun project. The movie that you make because you love making movies. You know, the movie that you invite all of your friends to act and crew in. You all have a blast doing it and after post production, you buy out a theater at the Alamo Drafthouse and you show up with your friends, friend's friends, relatives and neighbors to all drink beer and reminisce the awesome times you had during production. You probably even have a 10 minute behind the scenes reel that runs after the credits showing how silly everyone can be.
Path three: Your sellable project. The movie that you spend months researching hot genres. Is Action in? Horror? Family? Western? Which independent films have the best DVD/VOD numbers and what genre were they? Which independent films have the best Theatrical numbers? Which actors are hot in the UK? Latin America? France?
In a perfect world, we could all make movies that incorporate ALL THREE paths. It does happen. But who wants to risk their investors money on that? Not me. Someone has offered to fund my movie and the last thing I want to do is let them down by not being able to pay them back. I want them to fund my next movie… and my next movie… and my next one. See a trend there? When you've made a name for yourself and people throw money at you because everything you touch is gold, then it's a good idea to tackle that passion project.
END SIDE BAR------
Anyway. So back to Mr. Distributor and his advice which sparked a revelation. Because Jim Plant believed in us, we owed it to him to do our homework. Research led to the realization that Family movies were hot sellers in the independent film world that year. We were delighted to find this out because Robin and I have two young children and this meant that our kids could finally watch our movies!
It was nearing Christmas time, 2009. Robin and I loaded up the family truckster and headed to Louisiana for the holidays. We end up doing a lot of quality thinking on road trips. While driving, Robin told me of a day dream she had the other day. She was driving the kids and the dogs to the dog park. She had a crazy terrible day dream and thought, what if we got into a wreck and were all killed! Even the dogs! Morbid yes, but her real thought exploration was if the dogs weren't along for the ride then I would have them to help me through the terrible tragedy. Animals, dogs in particular, help tremendously in times of extreme loss.
We arrived at my parent's house. After about 30 minutes of hugging and chatting, Robin took her laptop into our bedroom, shut the door, and didn't come out for 4 days. On that 4th day, she emerged with with the first draft of what was to be our very next film and very first family movie, Angel Dog.
Monday, July 15, 2013
My life up to now. Part 10: A Big Purple Book of Possibilities
Leftovers won Best Feature at the Woman's Image Network Festival in Los Angeles in 2009. Official Selection at LA Women's International Film Festival 2010 (this one happened later). We were well on our way. With our 2nd movie in hand, we bought some big purple book that listed all distributors and buyers that were active that year. For the life of me, I can't remember what the book was called but it was a serious piece of literature. Robin and I started cold calling distributors and even buyers. Buyers that loved the genre… Lifetime, WE, Fox Family… you know, all of those guys. A few of them called us back asking for screeners. I remember Lifetime in particular. We sent them a screener and never heard back from them. And then, a few weeks after our last communication with anyone, we got a call from one of the distributors we sent a screener to.
I remember standing out on my back porch, on the phone. I remember this conversation perfectly. It was 7:42pm on a Tuesday. The sun was falling just under my fence line in my backyard spreading a golden glow across my entire neighborhood. I didn't have shoes on… barefoot, playing with the grass between my toes I mulled over the incredible news that gave us a great revelation that would one day change us. Honesty and truth were in the air and it had changed Robin and I's outlook forever. You see, moments ago… that phone call from the distributor, would eventually send us in a new direction, reset our course and blow up our spirits all at the same time. The man was not interested in our movie. In fact, no one was. Not Lifetime, not WE, Fox Family, no distributors from A-Z in the big purple book possibilities. But that night we were given something better. We were given advice. And sometimes that is the push we need to send us to our next level. Unfortunately, we were too hurt, tired and angry to see it. You see, we weren't ready for distribution. What we did not realize until much later is that the advice he gave us would have set a new plan in motion, a roadmap to show us where we were supposed to go and how we were going to get there.
It was 7:41pm when Mr. Distributor said, "No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings". Instead of arguing with him, I couldn't. I couldn't because I knew exactly what he was talking about. If I hadn't made the movie myself, I would never actually go and see this movie at the theater. Ever. I just always thought that someone would but I neglected to listen to my most trusted critic, Me. We hung up with Mr. Distributor and that's when it happened.
It's over. I vowed never to make another film again. I told Robin I was finished. I had a great job at NewTek designing products that I believed in… that I had childhood dreams and memories of. Why the heck do I need more than that? I am done. After years and years of rejection, heart-ache, going broke, in debt up to my eyeballs, being lied to, being pushed around, being the brunt of broken promises, I just didn't have it in me anymore.
I fell off the edge of the world.
I sold all of my film gear. I took a sledge hammer to the sheetrock and demolished the $8000 sound studio addition on our house. I stayed in the pit of depression for a year. Robin kept working on scripts. She was the trooper amongst the devastation.
I remember standing out on my back porch, on the phone. I remember this conversation perfectly. It was 7:42pm on a Tuesday. The sun was falling just under my fence line in my backyard spreading a golden glow across my entire neighborhood. I didn't have shoes on… barefoot, playing with the grass between my toes I mulled over the incredible news that gave us a great revelation that would one day change us. Honesty and truth were in the air and it had changed Robin and I's outlook forever. You see, moments ago… that phone call from the distributor, would eventually send us in a new direction, reset our course and blow up our spirits all at the same time. The man was not interested in our movie. In fact, no one was. Not Lifetime, not WE, Fox Family, no distributors from A-Z in the big purple book possibilities. But that night we were given something better. We were given advice. And sometimes that is the push we need to send us to our next level. Unfortunately, we were too hurt, tired and angry to see it. You see, we weren't ready for distribution. What we did not realize until much later is that the advice he gave us would have set a new plan in motion, a roadmap to show us where we were supposed to go and how we were going to get there.
It was 7:41pm when Mr. Distributor said, "No one wants to watch a bunch of women sit around and talk about their feelings". Instead of arguing with him, I couldn't. I couldn't because I knew exactly what he was talking about. If I hadn't made the movie myself, I would never actually go and see this movie at the theater. Ever. I just always thought that someone would but I neglected to listen to my most trusted critic, Me. We hung up with Mr. Distributor and that's when it happened.
It's over. I vowed never to make another film again. I told Robin I was finished. I had a great job at NewTek designing products that I believed in… that I had childhood dreams and memories of. Why the heck do I need more than that? I am done. After years and years of rejection, heart-ache, going broke, in debt up to my eyeballs, being lied to, being pushed around, being the brunt of broken promises, I just didn't have it in me anymore.
I sold all of my film gear. I took a sledge hammer to the sheetrock and demolished the $8000 sound studio addition on our house. I stayed in the pit of depression for a year. Robin kept working on scripts. She was the trooper amongst the devastation.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
My life up to now. Part 9: Never a dull moment
We finished post production on The Water's Edge and it only took two separate audio engineers to save the audio. Not only that, whole lines of dialog had to be meticulously pieced together using multiple 'good' takes. It was a labor of love… of course we were going whole hog! Our little film started touring and winning festivals, from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. We were on top of the world again! With some festival wins under our belt we were approached by a few "producer's reps" in the business. When I got that first call, all I could see were dollar signs. This was it, all of our hard work and dedication has paid off, we are now hitting the big time. I wasn't even sure what a "producer's rep" was, I just knew that someone saw our movie and called us. That right there was enough to send me to the moon and back. A few days later, Robin and I had a conference call with Ms. Producer's Rep. (names hidden). She loved our film, saw it while it was in LA at the Brilliant Light Film Fest. "This film is a great inspirational movie, we can make money with this. I'd like to take it to the Cannes film market", she said. Robin and I dropped our jaws. I started to feel like a freakin movie star to be honest. I almost asked her over the phone if she would like my autograph but it then dawned on me that this request was impossible because I couldn't reach through the phone to give her the paper. Ah, who am I kidding, I could fax it I thought…. anyway, mind blown. So we told her, "Yes of course! Is the sky blue!? Take the movie to Cannes!". She then let us know there would be a $10,000 fee for signing up with her agency for representation. This is when our jaws hit the floor again. There's a lot of jaw dropping going on, but I'm serious its a roller coaster of madness I tell ya. MADNESS. "Oh….? $10,000?"
silence
I held the phone stretched out passed my arm and mouthed to Robin something to the effect of WTF, the F standing for "freak" of course. I then heard Ms. Producer's Rep on the other end talking so I quickly drew the phone back to my ear. "So can I get you over to my sales colleague so we can sign you guys up? I need screener DVDs sent to me by this Wednesday…". I tried moving my mouth but I think I might have let a strange indecipherable noise come out instead. Trying again, I told her that we needed more time to come up with money like that. I then went on to tell her that we made the entire film for $9000 and that was me pretty much maxing out my Citibank card. She didn't miss a beat and blew on like a high-pressure car salesman. Taking everything we had, we hung up with her feeling defeated. Done for. Shambles. Balky, colorless gloom.
Days later, with nothing more than guidance from the good Lord, we decided not to put up the 10 grand. We called Ms. Producer's Rep and delivered the bad news. "You're making a mistake", she said. "You've got a good film, it will sell". We hung up and never heard from her again. In fact, we never heard from anyone again on that film. Much later, someone gave me some advice once, "Never sign with a Producer's Rep if they ask for money up front. Ever. If your film is good, they will go to bat for you and take their fee out of the sale of the film. If your film is bad, they will ask for their money up front." Makes sense, no? Learn it, live it.
Despite our run-in with Hollywood blood-sucking sales reps, we were pretty proud with our little film, so proud that we decided to do another one.
Some of the best stories come from our past life experiences. One interesting thing to do is to go into a retirement home and tell them you are there to play checkers with the fellas. Bring your board and your listening ears because you are about to hear some of the most interesting stories from people who have really lived. Call it research. One story, not from a 90 year old double-jumper but one that inspired Robin and I years before, when we were first married, was about a dear friend of ours who had 4 different boys from 4 different fathers. We always loved her personality, so bold and carefree, blunt and matter of fact. Her personality was so attractive that we always wanted to hang out with her and spend time with her. This is the story we wrote, the story we wanted to tell people. When Robin wrote the script, she added much more to it, changed it up a bit, but the character was pretty much dead on. In 2009, we set out to make this movie called "Leftovers". Again, we had very little money but what we did have was more experience and a better crew. Because we had been in San Antonio a while, we had met lots of people who wanted to throw their talent towards us, good camera guy, good sound guy, better everything. After shooting, we entered post production with excited high hopes. We really got everything we wanted during production. This thing was going to cut together nicely and we knew it. It was during post production where our lives took a very dark turn.
First of all, I am a non-confrontational person. My goal in life is to have no enemies and to love everybody. In fact, I have never had an enemy, ever! The few serious arguments I have had with people I have managed to work it all out, kissing and making up. I am no saint, but I try really hard to get along with everyone I meet. During post on Leftovers, Robin and I really started butting heads with co-producers. In fact it got really ugly… so ugly that law suits ensued, hard-drives were held. Post production stopped completely leaving the entire film in limbo. If you are a non-confrontational person or are around one, and are having a confrontation with someone, you know the desperate and disastrous feeling that gives you. Realizing that someone hates you and you can do nothing about it. It's awful and not fun. Zero fun sir.
A light pierced the darkness and started approaching us. A few months later, all parties came to an agreement and we started posting Leftovers. Things were great again, we were kings of our future. We finally finished the film and considered it a wondrous success. We were elated! Our eyes were set on finally getting distribution! That word shoved it's way into my mind like a mob on black friday. We were bound and determined.
I held the phone stretched out passed my arm and mouthed to Robin something to the effect of WTF, the F standing for "freak" of course. I then heard Ms. Producer's Rep on the other end talking so I quickly drew the phone back to my ear. "So can I get you over to my sales colleague so we can sign you guys up? I need screener DVDs sent to me by this Wednesday…". I tried moving my mouth but I think I might have let a strange indecipherable noise come out instead. Trying again, I told her that we needed more time to come up with money like that. I then went on to tell her that we made the entire film for $9000 and that was me pretty much maxing out my Citibank card. She didn't miss a beat and blew on like a high-pressure car salesman. Taking everything we had, we hung up with her feeling defeated. Done for. Shambles. Balky, colorless gloom.
Days later, with nothing more than guidance from the good Lord, we decided not to put up the 10 grand. We called Ms. Producer's Rep and delivered the bad news. "You're making a mistake", she said. "You've got a good film, it will sell". We hung up and never heard from her again. In fact, we never heard from anyone again on that film. Much later, someone gave me some advice once, "Never sign with a Producer's Rep if they ask for money up front. Ever. If your film is good, they will go to bat for you and take their fee out of the sale of the film. If your film is bad, they will ask for their money up front." Makes sense, no? Learn it, live it.
Despite our run-in with Hollywood blood-sucking sales reps, we were pretty proud with our little film, so proud that we decided to do another one.
Some of the best stories come from our past life experiences. One interesting thing to do is to go into a retirement home and tell them you are there to play checkers with the fellas. Bring your board and your listening ears because you are about to hear some of the most interesting stories from people who have really lived. Call it research. One story, not from a 90 year old double-jumper but one that inspired Robin and I years before, when we were first married, was about a dear friend of ours who had 4 different boys from 4 different fathers. We always loved her personality, so bold and carefree, blunt and matter of fact. Her personality was so attractive that we always wanted to hang out with her and spend time with her. This is the story we wrote, the story we wanted to tell people. When Robin wrote the script, she added much more to it, changed it up a bit, but the character was pretty much dead on. In 2009, we set out to make this movie called "Leftovers". Again, we had very little money but what we did have was more experience and a better crew. Because we had been in San Antonio a while, we had met lots of people who wanted to throw their talent towards us, good camera guy, good sound guy, better everything. After shooting, we entered post production with excited high hopes. We really got everything we wanted during production. This thing was going to cut together nicely and we knew it. It was during post production where our lives took a very dark turn.
First of all, I am a non-confrontational person. My goal in life is to have no enemies and to love everybody. In fact, I have never had an enemy, ever! The few serious arguments I have had with people I have managed to work it all out, kissing and making up. I am no saint, but I try really hard to get along with everyone I meet. During post on Leftovers, Robin and I really started butting heads with co-producers. In fact it got really ugly… so ugly that law suits ensued, hard-drives were held. Post production stopped completely leaving the entire film in limbo. If you are a non-confrontational person or are around one, and are having a confrontation with someone, you know the desperate and disastrous feeling that gives you. Realizing that someone hates you and you can do nothing about it. It's awful and not fun. Zero fun sir.
A light pierced the darkness and started approaching us. A few months later, all parties came to an agreement and we started posting Leftovers. Things were great again, we were kings of our future. We finally finished the film and considered it a wondrous success. We were elated! Our eyes were set on finally getting distribution! That word shoved it's way into my mind like a mob on black friday. We were bound and determined.
Monday, July 8, 2013
My life up to now. Part 8.1: Jack of all trades, Master of none
Piggy backing on the previous post, I want to say that when you are first starting out and you have no money, it's very hard to not hire your friends or people you only semi trust to show up for a 6am call time. It's also hard not to be a :Jack of all trades, master of none". Those things are a necessary evil I'm afraid and when you finally rise out of the ashes and step into paying projects, you are battle-tested and better for it.
Let's talk about you. Yes, you, the reader. What is your passion? And don't say 'filmmaker', be more specific than that. Are you someone who loves the thrill of sound traveling into a boom mic, down a boom pole, through a cable and into a mixer? Do you love dissecting the sound in your mind, breaking it into bands, instantly evaluating if it's good or bad then problem solving ways to tweak and make it great? Loves sound so much that you find yourself going outside and picking apart each individual bird that sits in the bush or bug that passes by. The crinkle of leaves under a footstep or the breeze ripping through the trees. How does the noise floor differ in one location as opposed to another? Sit quietly and listen to the sounds that are invisible. The high frequency hum of a computer monitor, the low drone of a ceiling fan. A person with this much awareness of sound has a passion for sound. They live and breath sound. This person is out there, somewhere. Find them. Look them up on Facebook immediately. Make friends with them. Hold on to them and do not let them go because you're job for the next several months is to convince them to work with you. Apply this logic to every single crew position on set, in pre and post production. There's a right person for the job in all cases. When interviewing crew, ask them what they like doing. If they respond with "I like sound, love to edit and I'm pretty good with a camera"… be careful. When you dip into someone's passion, you'll find their best work.
Let's talk about you. Yes, you, the reader. What is your passion? And don't say 'filmmaker', be more specific than that. Are you someone who loves the thrill of sound traveling into a boom mic, down a boom pole, through a cable and into a mixer? Do you love dissecting the sound in your mind, breaking it into bands, instantly evaluating if it's good or bad then problem solving ways to tweak and make it great? Loves sound so much that you find yourself going outside and picking apart each individual bird that sits in the bush or bug that passes by. The crinkle of leaves under a footstep or the breeze ripping through the trees. How does the noise floor differ in one location as opposed to another? Sit quietly and listen to the sounds that are invisible. The high frequency hum of a computer monitor, the low drone of a ceiling fan. A person with this much awareness of sound has a passion for sound. They live and breath sound. This person is out there, somewhere. Find them. Look them up on Facebook immediately. Make friends with them. Hold on to them and do not let them go because you're job for the next several months is to convince them to work with you. Apply this logic to every single crew position on set, in pre and post production. There's a right person for the job in all cases. When interviewing crew, ask them what they like doing. If they respond with "I like sound, love to edit and I'm pretty good with a camera"… be careful. When you dip into someone's passion, you'll find their best work.
My life up to now. Part 8: Imagine yourself producing a feature film
"We should produce my script." The words came out of Robin's mouth like an over-cranked slow-mo shot. I studied each word like it was a rare animal species at the edge of space, so rare that I thought I would never hear those words. So foreign. What did that sentence actually mean? How would that even be possible to produce a feature film? Was she in some kind of hyper shock? Was she even making sense? And then it hit me. We had been relying on others to make our dreams come true. Why not just make our own dreams come true. Let's take others out of the equation and lead our own charge. How hard could it be!? Weeks later in 2005 we set out to produce our first feature film called "The Water's Edge". We were so sure this would work that we maxed out our credit cards to pay for equipment, locations and food, convinced a crew to work for free and then started having production meetings. At this point we were completely on autopilot as something in us just took over and it all began to unfold right in front of our eyes.
This film was an incredible learning experience for Robin and I. In my opinion, movies are 51% visual and 49% sound. I might have heard that somewhere but regardless, I 100% agree. When we shot The Waters Edge, we didn't respect that. We were so focused on the visuals that sound took a red-headed step child back seat. We didn't realize it while shooting but we sure paid for it in post production. I'd like to think that our sound was the reason we didn't sell the film (yet, more on this in a different post), but there were plenty of other problems with it! Also, our locations hated us because we always shot longer than we told them we would. In some cases, they kicked us out way before we were actually finished. This really all boils down to proper scheduling. When your location has a good view and idea of how long you're going to be there, well in advance, they know what they are getting in to. Another bit of advice, schedule an extra day at that location for contingency even though you don't plan on using it! Doing that will keep them happy especially if you cut out a "day early".
Another huge problem was that Robin and I thought we could just do everything ourselves. Have you ever heard of the term "Jack of all trades, master of none"? Well, we were pretty much the poster children of that phrase. The following is a list of crew positions I have been on any one movie set, pre-production, production and post. (in no particular order)
Catering, Driver, Production Assistant, 1st AC, 2nd AC, Craft Services, Boom Operator, Sound Recordist, A Camera, B Camera, Jib Operator, SteadiCam Operator, Director of Photography, Director, Producer, Grip, Gaffer, Casting, Special Effects Supervisor, Picture Editor, Sound Editor, Compositor, Animator, Composer, Dailies Editor, Colorist
This might sound impressive but it's actually a travesty. Before I get ahead of myself, I will state that I do not regret my time doing all of these things because it taught me several things in the process. One, it taught me what I am good at and what I am not. Two, it gave me an appreciation for all of those roles and an understanding of how they work and what they do.
If you are a filmmaker trying to make your way in the world, starting with nothing, I believe one of the toughest hurdles you have facing you is trusting other people. And when you are first starting out, you have very good reason not to trust them. A. When you have no money, your crew works for free, offering them nothing but a resume. When someone works for free, there is a good chance that at some point in your project, they feel like they would be having more fun doing something else. At that moment, your film is at risk. Have you ever tried to fire someone who was working for free to begin with? It's hard! Sure it can be done, but its just weird. B. You are putting in your own cash. Maybe even selling plasma to cover two days worth of pizza to feed your crew (come on… it happens). When you are putting up your livelihood, you have a supernatural guard-dog care about how things are done which makes it hard to not do it yourself. C. Guess who works for free on your projects? Your friends. Guess who's not a filmmaker or an actor/actress? Your friends. (There are exceptions here, of course, but the exceptions are few and far between).
This film was an incredible learning experience for Robin and I. In my opinion, movies are 51% visual and 49% sound. I might have heard that somewhere but regardless, I 100% agree. When we shot The Waters Edge, we didn't respect that. We were so focused on the visuals that sound took a red-headed step child back seat. We didn't realize it while shooting but we sure paid for it in post production. I'd like to think that our sound was the reason we didn't sell the film (yet, more on this in a different post), but there were plenty of other problems with it! Also, our locations hated us because we always shot longer than we told them we would. In some cases, they kicked us out way before we were actually finished. This really all boils down to proper scheduling. When your location has a good view and idea of how long you're going to be there, well in advance, they know what they are getting in to. Another bit of advice, schedule an extra day at that location for contingency even though you don't plan on using it! Doing that will keep them happy especially if you cut out a "day early".
Another huge problem was that Robin and I thought we could just do everything ourselves. Have you ever heard of the term "Jack of all trades, master of none"? Well, we were pretty much the poster children of that phrase. The following is a list of crew positions I have been on any one movie set, pre-production, production and post. (in no particular order)
If you are a filmmaker trying to make your way in the world, starting with nothing, I believe one of the toughest hurdles you have facing you is trusting other people. And when you are first starting out, you have very good reason not to trust them. A. When you have no money, your crew works for free, offering them nothing but a resume. When someone works for free, there is a good chance that at some point in your project, they feel like they would be having more fun doing something else. At that moment, your film is at risk. Have you ever tried to fire someone who was working for free to begin with? It's hard! Sure it can be done, but its just weird. B. You are putting in your own cash. Maybe even selling plasma to cover two days worth of pizza to feed your crew (come on… it happens). When you are putting up your livelihood, you have a supernatural guard-dog care about how things are done which makes it hard to not do it yourself. C. Guess who works for free on your projects? Your friends. Guess who's not a filmmaker or an actor/actress? Your friends. (There are exceptions here, of course, but the exceptions are few and far between).
Sunday, July 7, 2013
My life up to now. Part 7: Broken Promises and Lapsed Options
In 2004, Robin's writing finally started gaining some traction. A producer out of LA contacted us and wanted to option her script Dreamers. This was a very exciting phone call as they were wanting to go into production fairly quickly. We were super stoked! Robin has been writing screen plays since she was 15 years old. This was another dream come true for us. Just when things were looking wonderful, we stopped hearing from them. They stopped returning our phone calls and emails. Nothing. The option lapsed and we were back to square one. Instead of retyping this exact same thing again, I will say that this particular scenario happened at least two more times that I remember on different scripts.
This business is full of broken promises
It was sometime in 2005 when Robin said "Why are we trying to sell a script so that someone can produce our movie?". I said, "Because you are a script writer. You want to sell your script…. ?". "We can't sit around and wait until someone produces our movie. That's not working. This… THIS ISN'T WORKING. Do you know how many millions of people just like me, just as good as me are trying to sell their script?" It was then that Robin said something to me that seemed so simple that I couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.
It was sometime in 2005 when Robin said "Why are we trying to sell a script so that someone can produce our movie?". I said, "Because you are a script writer. You want to sell your script…. ?". "We can't sit around and wait until someone produces our movie. That's not working. This… THIS ISN'T WORKING. Do you know how many millions of people just like me, just as good as me are trying to sell their script?" It was then that Robin said something to me that seemed so simple that I couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
My life up to now. Part 6: The Alamo City
Cutting to the chase, NewTek did hire me but it took about 2 months of constant emailing them to make it happen. I think I emailed them 3 times a week the entire time until they finally scheduled an interview. Have you ever lived on welfare and food stamps? It's great! Not. Just as our last dollar bill ran out, I found myself with my first NewTek paycheck. God always has a way of giving us what we need when we need it. My first project at NewTek was to design, well.. it's not terribly important. That product never really went anywhere so let's not discuss it. But, my second project at NewTek was to design the workflow and interface for what was to be the very first Windows platform Video Toaster. Yes. That same product that changed the DNA of television production forever. Remember that? Me. YOURS TRULY was designing that! WHAT!? I felt like the luckiest guy on the planet! The Amiga computer was no more… dead. NewTek decided to start making products for the PC. Who was the lead workflow/ui designer on the first Video Toaster for Windows? Me. Who was that? Me. (This is the conversation I had with myself in my head like 100 times a day). Anyway, to me this was a huge deal!
During the years between 1998-2004, Robin and I were working on short films. We were meeting people in San Antonio and making crew connections. We produced several projects to keep in the game and Robin was continuously trying to sell a script. Robin had been trying to sell a script since school, years before… that was her dream. Her and I would sit up at night reenacting our Oscar speeches. Lol, actually we still do that, but I remember them back then too. I heard a story once, can't remember who said it but it was something a pro basketball player did as a kid. He said that when practicing, he would always imagine himself raising the ball, aiming and swooshing the basket. Over and over again. Raising the ball, aiming and swishing the basket. Swish. Swish. Swishing the basket and never touching the rim. He imagined himself doing that so many times - the constant mental and physical training of swishing that basket that it finally became a reality. We do that. We imagined ourselves selling a script, producing a movie, directing a movie over and over again. It's a mind game but it works.
During the years between 1998-2004, Robin and I were working on short films. We were meeting people in San Antonio and making crew connections. We produced several projects to keep in the game and Robin was continuously trying to sell a script. Robin had been trying to sell a script since school, years before… that was her dream. Her and I would sit up at night reenacting our Oscar speeches. Lol, actually we still do that, but I remember them back then too. I heard a story once, can't remember who said it but it was something a pro basketball player did as a kid. He said that when practicing, he would always imagine himself raising the ball, aiming and swooshing the basket. Over and over again. Raising the ball, aiming and swishing the basket. Swish. Swish. Swishing the basket and never touching the rim. He imagined himself doing that so many times - the constant mental and physical training of swishing that basket that it finally became a reality. We do that. We imagined ourselves selling a script, producing a movie, directing a movie over and over again. It's a mind game but it works.
Friday, July 5, 2013
My life up to now. Part 5: If you could move anywhere in the US, where would you go?
After school, we asked ourselves, "If we could move anywhere in the US, where would we go?". We lived in Louisiana at the time and both had family there. We kept hearing story after story about Austin being a hot-bed for independent film. Plus, Austin was much closer to home than Los Angeles so we set our sights on Texas. Packing the car with everything we owned, we set off on our next adventure to make movies! We arrived in Austin in 1997 with no jobs and no place to live - a huge leap of faith that would eventually pay but not for over a decade later.
Shortly after our move to Austin, Robin and I found out we were pregnant. Life throws some crazy curveballs doesn't it? Crewing for low budget indies wasn't paying the bills and money was running out. With a kid on the way times got really scary. One day while sitting in my Austin behind rent apartment, my phone rang. It was one of my long time friends from Louisiana. He called to tell me that NewTek, the company that made the Video Toaster and Lightwave 3D had moved to Texas. San Antonio to be exact. I was thrilled! That was the magical place that I only read about in magazines. That's the company that was so pivotal in my life! He then told me that he was traveling to San Antonio to go to some kind of training to become a NewTek authorized dealer and asked if I wanted to come along! Do I!?!?!? OF COURSE! In my mind, I was the best animator ever! I had full intentions of showing off my uber skills to them. I started working on my demo reel immediately in hopes they would hire me to mop their floors. I knew if I could land a full time job with NewTek, I could support Robin and my new baby.
Shortly after our move to Austin, Robin and I found out we were pregnant. Life throws some crazy curveballs doesn't it? Crewing for low budget indies wasn't paying the bills and money was running out. With a kid on the way times got really scary. One day while sitting in my Austin behind rent apartment, my phone rang. It was one of my long time friends from Louisiana. He called to tell me that NewTek, the company that made the Video Toaster and Lightwave 3D had moved to Texas. San Antonio to be exact. I was thrilled! That was the magical place that I only read about in magazines. That's the company that was so pivotal in my life! He then told me that he was traveling to San Antonio to go to some kind of training to become a NewTek authorized dealer and asked if I wanted to come along! Do I!?!?!? OF COURSE! In my mind, I was the best animator ever! I had full intentions of showing off my uber skills to them. I started working on my demo reel immediately in hopes they would hire me to mop their floors. I knew if I could land a full time job with NewTek, I could support Robin and my new baby.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
My life up to now. Part 4: A film set, a marriage
I was 21 when I met my wife Robin. While still working as an editor, my friend introduced me to a young screen writer who was in the film program at ULM. I met Robin and we seemed to hit it off pretty quickly. I told her what I did for a living and she told me about a student film that she would be working on in the coming weeks. When she found out I also did visual effects she convinced me to do a shot for her film. More about the vfx shot later. Robin also asked me to crew on the film, I was stoked. I had never worked with a film camera or film crew before! I told her a resounding YES and also said I will do anything for this opportunity. (Thats when she muscled me to the ground and made me swear I would do her visual effects for free). We shot the film "Turn About" on a Bolex 16mm film camera, recorded sound to a reel to reel Nagra, edited on a Moviola. People this was 100% analog in every way. When you use a razor blade to cut your film, you have a very unique perspective on how all this is put together. This project was instrumental in me furthering my path and I am so grateful for Robin and her classmates giving me the opportunity to share the experience. OK, back to my expertise, the VFX. The shot required an elevator snapping it's cables and plummeting down the shaft to it's doom. I designed and animated this 6 second shot which took 21 Pentium Pro computers running 24 hours a day for about 8 days. The computers were all networked together using screamer net. Once the sequence was fully rendered to 2k, Duart in Dallas outputted the sequence to 35mm film then downconverted to 16mm. When we got the film back, we spliced it into our movie and sent the whole thing off for master. That same year, Robin and I got married a mere 3 months after we started dating. Hey, when you know… you know!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
My life up to now. Part 3: Thousands of commercials can't be wrong
After about a year, I quit school and took on a full time job doing computer animation and graphics. I was living the dream. At just 19 years old, I was winning ADDYs. A year or so later, the wheel of life kept spinning and I found myself working as a commercial editor for a FOX affiliate while continuing to freelance as an animator. This is the point in my life where I edited an average of 4 spots a day, 5 days a week. We were still in the analog world, shooting on MII, mastering to 1" reel and using an Ampex ACE Editor. In a year I had edited over 1000 commercials. One night I was up at the station editing promos. I was the only editor there that night and was behind trying to catch up. I neglected to get one of the VO guys to cut a few of that weeks promos so I did the only thing I could do. I jumped into the sound booth and cut my own VO. I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission! I certainly didn't want to have to tell my boss I hadn't finished the promos. That next week, a promo with my voice went to air and the promotions manager busts through the door of the studio and yelled "Whose voice is on the Seinfeld promo that just aired!?" "Mine sir, sorry… There was no one here to do t-". "No no… I LOVE IT! Nations, from now on you're the new promo voice. The voice of KARD! I'll get you this weeks copy, have those carts on my desk by Wednesday." Everyone in the room stared at me for what seemed to be an eternity. I was sitting there trying to piece together what actually just took place. And then in about 4 more seconds, everything just resumed as if nothing had happened. It was a real "record scratch" moment if you know what I mean. I did have a spring in my step that entire day though.
Monday, July 1, 2013
My life up to now. Part 2: The Fuel
I was a junior in high school when I got my second job ever. A part time job, after school and weekends shooting high school sports and editing highlight reels. My first time to work with a real high-end video camera, not my grandma's VHS camcorder. This was around 1990, still back in the analog world of tape and AB edit controllers. I worked for a production studio who had a lot of nice toys and it was hard to stay away! A year or so later, while in my last year of high school, that production studio got a really cool piece of gear called a Video Toaster. Remember those things? A company called NewTek surfaced and pretty much plowed their way into the world of video, changing the DNA of television production forever. The Video Toaster was a live production switcher, let you add all kinds of cool transitions, DVEs and character generation, animation. I was on top of the world. This boost of creativity was just what I needed to make more… to BE MORE.
One night while up at work I discovered an application part of the Video Toaster suite called Lightwave 3D. I had never seen anything like it. To this day I have a hard time describing the unbelievable impact that program has had on my life. Have you ever made one of those timelines of your life? You know, those that have the major milestones that form and change the path of your life and set you on a course forever? Yeah, Lightwave 3D is on mine. It's the program that brought you amazing visual effects in hollywood blockbusters and tv shows. Real "Movie Magic" at it's finest. I remember staying up at the studio after school and on weekends designing animations and rendering them to tape frame by frame. I spent hours, days, weeks learning as much as I can about this Lightwave 1.0, read the manual cover to cover 10 times, fully engrossed myself almost unnaturally until my eyes bled. I called NewTek's technical support just to hear them talk. I never needed their help, I just called to chat. Those guys were celebrities to me. My childhood up to this point was spent designing graphics, drawing pictures, creating pixels on the screen, animating things. I knew that I wanted to be the one to draw the awesome graphics and animations that amazed me.
I enrolled in the graphic design program at Louisiana Tech University. I was headed for greatness. All I could think about and wanted to do is get a job as a visual effects artist. That was it. That was my passion, my dream, my life and my path. While in school I continued my part-time job at the production studio. I got so good at graphics and animation that they offered me a full time job doing just that, graphics and animation. My job would entail doing animated show openers for television, commercial animated logos, morphs and graphics. I was at a crossroads. I was in school to get a job doing what I love, yet a company just offered me the job doing what I love. What do you think I did?
One night while up at work I discovered an application part of the Video Toaster suite called Lightwave 3D. I had never seen anything like it. To this day I have a hard time describing the unbelievable impact that program has had on my life. Have you ever made one of those timelines of your life? You know, those that have the major milestones that form and change the path of your life and set you on a course forever? Yeah, Lightwave 3D is on mine. It's the program that brought you amazing visual effects in hollywood blockbusters and tv shows. Real "Movie Magic" at it's finest. I remember staying up at the studio after school and on weekends designing animations and rendering them to tape frame by frame. I spent hours, days, weeks learning as much as I can about this Lightwave 1.0, read the manual cover to cover 10 times, fully engrossed myself almost unnaturally until my eyes bled. I called NewTek's technical support just to hear them talk. I never needed their help, I just called to chat. Those guys were celebrities to me. My childhood up to this point was spent designing graphics, drawing pictures, creating pixels on the screen, animating things. I knew that I wanted to be the one to draw the awesome graphics and animations that amazed me.
I enrolled in the graphic design program at Louisiana Tech University. I was headed for greatness. All I could think about and wanted to do is get a job as a visual effects artist. That was it. That was my passion, my dream, my life and my path. While in school I continued my part-time job at the production studio. I got so good at graphics and animation that they offered me a full time job doing just that, graphics and animation. My job would entail doing animated show openers for television, commercial animated logos, morphs and graphics. I was at a crossroads. I was in school to get a job doing what I love, yet a company just offered me the job doing what I love. What do you think I did?
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