Double Feature

Synecdoche, New York and Happy-Go-Lucky are currently in theaters and make an interesting pairing. As you would expect, Charlie Kaufman's movie is a mind-bender and Mike Leigh's is a slice of life character study.

On the surface they seem like very different films and in many ways they are -- but I was surprised how they needled me in similar ways. Both grapple with fleeting happiness and the futility of our lives. Both put the main character's life under an uncomfortable microscope.

And though Caden and Poppy are polar opposites, our protagonists seem to press on through the squeeze of everyday life with their own brand of reckless abandon.

In the end, Happy-Go-Lucky has more silver lining.

We would do well to duplicate Poppy's ability to smile in the face of hardship and shake off Caden's grim, existential plight -- however unrealistic that might be.

Final Stretch

A set photo from 11/20/07, the second week of shooting. This is the opening shot of the movie -- little leaguers follow Calvin (Alex Frost) onto the field.

There are over 1000 cuts in our 91 minute feature CALVIN MARSHALL. This week a negative cutter will begin matching key frames to cut lists and chop up over 30 hours of film negative and fuse the correct shots in order with film cement.

From the very beginning we planned to avoid a digital intermediate. DI's are very expensive and we felt the old school way of doing things was perfect for an uncomplicated, realistic indie like ours. There is only one B-Roll fade in our film and just 7 opticals -- two of which are the opening and closing credit sequences. The other 5 are: one freeze frame, one sped up shot, one slowed down shot and two reversed shots. Nearly all of our effect shots were done in camera: one fade out and quite a few high frame rates for slow motion.

During production we were intentional about our color palatte and used natural light whenever possible. We shot with Cooke S4 lenses (which are soft) on the best 35mm Kodak stocks. Color correction will be done photo-chemically at Deluxe.

The negative cut will take about three weeks. Simultaneously we'll be pre-mixing sound, recording foley/FX, additional dialogue, etc at Larson Studios in Hollywood.

The final dubb and print master are scheduled for mid-December.

Throughout post we've built the film with one light DV dailies on a dual G5 in Final Cut Pro. That's all we've been looking at for over a year now. It will be amazing to finally see it projected on film.

Fellini and Sports

The film blog Hammer to Nail recently commented on the polarizing qualities of the art film and popular sports. Most people prefer one over the other and are often diabolically opposed to the other.

Sports fans checking box scores on their mobiles generally aren't found in revival art-houses.

Hammer to Nail is a wellspring of publicity for high-quality indies still finding their audiences. I recommend it for the strong film criticism and for its unwavering commitment to championing small but vital filmmaking. The kind of movies that will eventually occupy more Netflix queues in the years to come.

In their review of ZIDANE, A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT, the subtleties and complexities of the filmmaking are praised. ZIDANE is for "those of us who love both sports and art".

How many of us out there love both? More specifically, what percentage of U.S. art-house movie-goers regularly tune in to Sportscenter?

This question is on my mind because CALVIN MARSHALL is a sports film turned on its ear. I wouldn't want to speculate if it qualifies as an art film or not -- but people wanting RUDY might be disappointed.

The industry will probably view CALVIN as a tweener -- a subject which I'll post on in the future. A tweener isn't always the kiss of death. While some slip through the cracks, many go on to box office success and critical acclaim. Others do moderate business and discover an audience on cable/dvd.

Wow and Flutter

A lot of people ask me where they can see our 17 minute short film.
You can download a hi-res Quicktime (200 MB) of the movie here.
http://www.brokenskyfilms.com/wf/

Picture Lock

According to our post-production schedule we stop cutting on November 7th and turn over the negative.

It felt like we had all the time in the world but now it is running out. Thankfully we don't need more time.

I am lucky to be working with a world class film editor over the next few weeks. He's showing me cutting tricks. Trimming a little here and a little there -- a few frames at a time.

In the end CALVIN MARSHALL will be about three minutes shorter. For the most part people who know the movie won't realize what was cut -- but they'll sense the tighter pacing.

Negative cut, ADR, final score, sound mix, etc. will keep us busy the rest of the year. If all goes well we will strike festival prints before 2008 is over.

Do People Really Change?

In AUTO FOCUS, Paul Schrader's take on Bob Crane is a little callous.

When the movie was released in 2002 Schrader said, "I don't think people change that much...Bob Crane was the same creepy guy at the beginning as he was at the end..the only thing that really changed in his life was the level of hypocrisy."

This is fascinating to me because filmmakers are usually compelled to show how a character changes throughout a story. It's a compulsion that can be both good and bad.

How much can a person change in real life? At worst we're like Bob Crane, the same person in different circumstances. At best, our changes are measurable but happen far slower than we would like.

Filmmakers should also consider how an audience feels about these questions. I'd like to think most people hope we're capable of significant change.

And remember, people go to the movies to be entertained, inspired, challenged. They crave to see characters evolve and grow.

This leaves the filmmaker in a difficult position. We must show realistic and measurable change in a two hour narrative even though deep down we know people don't really change very much.

If the change feels false -- your audience will see through it and the narrative will suffer. And if there's too little change you'll leave your audience unsatisfied.

As usual we're walking a tight rope. No one ever said filmmaking was easy.

The Illusion of Power

All you aspiring filmmakers who feel slighted by the industry, here's something you can take comfort in...

Where you happen to fall on the invisible Hollywood hierarchy matters less than you think.

Ultimately we're all putting our next projects out there hoping someone with power comes along and helps get them made.

After we finished our short film WOW AND FLUTTER, initial industry reaction was positive. But it soon became obvious that cards were being held close to vests. Nobody went out of their way to help us.

A herd mentality runs rampant through Hollywood. A project is not worthy of attention until someone important endorses it. The first ally in your corner is the most difficult one to get.

Our short eventually played the festival circuit and it opened some doors. And the dvd screeners we made were instrumental throughout the development and production of our feature film.

We've had some deja vu with CALVIN MARSHALL during our initial screenings with industry. It will be fascinating to watch the industry's perception of the film evolve in the months and years ahead as the film finds its audience.

And I'll be curious to see if the next one is any easier to get made.