"This looks professional"

Ok, so I made my own little three minute film for the three minute film festival. Some people may be sick of me talking about it already, understood and fair. I might be a little too proud of it or something, but that's the way it goes.

I wanted to share the thing with a few friends and family types, so I made some copies on DVD and packaged the thing up all nice like. It even says "not for sale" cause I used music in it that I don't technically own.

I justify this blatant piracy of music by 1) not making any money on the thing whatsoever, 2) only using songs that I purchased on CD, and 3) only sharing them in the context of this art project of a short film. Neither song used appears in its entirety either. (I work for record labels to it's a touchy subject.)

I bought a pack of DVD cases to put them in. Not the CD jewel cases, but DVD sized cases. It's an important distinction for me for some reason. I'll have to explore that later, when I get a shrink.
I made an insert to go into the DVD case, and hand numbered them for authenticity. I even made up a little logo using the cute face of a kitty I once had. It's a whole package thing, you know.

The hardest part, apparently, is finding print-at-home disc labels that are reliable. No, seriously. I bought the cheap-o ones at Office Depot (may have even been the Office Depot brand) and the damn things cracked and the print rubbed off even as I was trying to apply the label to the disc. It was horrible.
A friend had some Avery brand labels which held the ink much better. Lesson learned. Use the expensive labels.

So once the thing was done I showed the thing to a couple people who had expressed even vague interest in what I'd made. More than one person commented on how it "looks professional."

It's at this time I'd like to explain that I worked for a record label designing packaging and art directing for nine years. I currently manage the brand for an independent university. Dude! It's what I do for a living! How did you think it would end up looking?

I politely reminded people that it's within my professional scope to design packaging and that it's kinda what I do, but in my mind I was wondering what people that I work with thought I might come up with?

Then again, how many people come up with a complete packaging solution for their three minute, one second film?

Getting people interested in working on no-budget films

I'm currently working on an interesting task, but no one has told me I can't do it so I'm doing it anyways. At least no one whose opinion I value in the least.

I'm looking at doing what I'm calling a no-budget film. This means no one is getting paid, and I'm doing pre-production, production, and post-production myself.
I have a very skilled friend who is script savvy, who is working on it. I have a friend who was in my first film attempt who wants to act in it (specifically requesting that she be soaked in blood since it's leaning the way of the horror genre) and is excited to assist with production.
Ok, that's just two so far, but it's not like I've advertised or anything.

I'm actually learning that there are people who are out there willing to do this crap for fun. Not because they'll make any money at it ever, but for fun. I guess it stands to reason that if I'm willing to do it for fun why wouldn't there be other people?

Logistically it may be a bit of a nightmare, but I'm game anyway. That is, if I'm not paying them to act in the thing and they just don't feel like showing up for filming one day there's not much in the way of incentive for them to come. There will be contracts signed (for liability and license for me to own the finished product reasons), but what am I going to do? Withhold their pay of $0.00 if they don't show or perform? Wag my finger at them and give them a stern lecture?

For that reason every actor "hired" is going to be an exercise in trust. They trust that I wont make them look dumb and I trust that they'll show up and let me put fake blood on them. It's a two way street you know.

On the back side I also need to worry about little things like music. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a sometimes odd, sometimes too-easy-to-please, but still somehow picky taste in music. I can't insert music that I have on CDs at home because I want to own the finished product.
This is the part where I'm glad I know a couple/few people in bands. No one has agreed to offer anything up yet, but that's because I haven't asked yet. Maybe I should ask then eh?

You win some, you lose some

I went to my second ever three minute film festival this last weekend. The first one I went to was a show I'd "acted" in. This time it was because my film was showing. Fun!

Attire ranged from full dress up (a few of us were in suits and one lady was actually wearing a snood), to hoodies and jeans. The full spectrum.

We didn't win jack (well to be clear we did win a couple swell raffle prizes, but nothing for the film) and still it was fun and worth it. It was also educational.

NOTE: In a three minute film festival your three minute film is going to be seen amid a batch of a bunch of other three minute films. Subtlety will not be what is going to win. You need to bonk the audience over the head with the cartoon rubber hammer, or have what a dear friend refers to as a "bah-DUM-bum" ending. Something obviously clever.

I had none of that. I had long plot (crammed into three minutes), and loaded it with allusions to literature, anagrams, and movies we like. When your three minute film is between two other three minute films and you're subtle, I'm not sure you can expect people to remember your stuff.

There is, then, perhaps a decision to be made. If you're making a film for a film festival because you want to win, or because you want to have fun and/or do something YOU want to do? Even being a looser I think I'm still in the latter category.

Interestingly I got recognized as someone from one of the other films... which I wasn't. I guess I just have that kind of face. Fun!

My advice? Get a camera and enter the film festivals. It's fun.

Bands that actually engage their audiences? No way!

In recent years I've noticed a few bands actually asking their fans to give back, you know, other than just their hard earned cash spent on albums or downloads.

Case 1) Rasputina: Years ago Rasputina had a contest where they asked fans to submit their lies. The winners lyrics were assembled into the song "Our Lies" which appeared on their 2002 album Cabin Fever. Winners also received something special from the band for their efforts. "Our Lies" continues to be one of my favorite of their songs.
Later they had a coloring contest, which I entered but did not win. It may have been one of the few competitions where coloring inside the lines did not help me in the least.

Case 2) OK GO: OK GO had a great success with their treadmill video for "Here it Goes Again." Rightfully so. They also held a contest where they asked fans to video tape themselves performing their own version of the bands "A Million Ways" dance video. Winners apparently got to perform the dance on stage with OK GO at a concert. Nifty!

Case 3) The Foo Fighters: The Foo Fighters were performing "The Pretender" on the 2007 Grammy Award show. Someone had the idea to get fans to perform in the orchestra they added for the show. I don't know if there were My Grammy Moment contests before or since, but it's a pretty cool way to encourage kids/fans to keep playing that oboe, even if it's not very cool most of the time.

Case 4) Nine Inch Nails: Nine Inch Nails had the audacity to actually let their fans make videos for their double album of instrumentals Ghosts I-IV. The album, with purposefully vague track names, is a sound track for something and apparently they wanted to see what the fans thought it was a soundtrack for. This one strikes me as particularly amazing in how the album appears to have been created as a blank slate for the fans to interact with. I don't know if anyone wins anything, and maybe that's not the point? The film festival appears to be still ongoing, so perhaps I should break out the camera this weekend?

Granted, helping bands write songs, or filming your own home videos to their songs isn't for everyone. But when bands encourage fans to be interactive, or even creative, I think everyone is better off for it.

Indie film making at its finest

I recently decided to enter a local three minute film festival. I'd been asked to give it a try by my friend, the organizer, before. Without a camera, or a clue, I'd always thought it was out of my grasp.
I went ahead and splurged on a nice MiniDV HD camera, a spare wide angle lens, and an external microphone for it. The whole package was around $1000 or so. Not the most carelessly used money I'd ever spent, but hardly cheap.

The first bit of luck I had was finding an actress who gave a damn about her character. The second bit of luck was that she was interested in the story I had in mind, and actually improving upon it.

We filmed over 70 minutes of footage, mostly in two days, and I edited, and edited, and chopped, and edited until the thing was a lean three minutes, one second long. Mind you I was doing all this in the iMovie HD that came bundled for free on my Mac. Not exactly top of the line software, but it worked out ok.

If I, in the future, mention any thoughts about filming my expertise can, thus far, be distilled into and out of this one filming experience. (read: I'm making it up as I go along so don't believe half of what I say.)

I'm proud to say that I have a final edit that both my lead actress and I like, and I've turned the damn thing into the festival officials. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately I've also caught a bug. I'm now talking with a friend of mine who has been known to write from time to time, with a rough story in mind. Now, is it sane to go straight from a three minute film, to a feature length film? Probably not. Do I care? Possibly. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes! I'm a fool and proud of it.

Onward and upward!