Sunday, July 26, 2009

It helps to have talented friends!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Lucky in that you have talented friends who can help you promote your projects in ways you never dreamed of or could never pull off.

For instance, check out this video response to our "Nerds of Steele" trailer:



This is a fan of our work, NOT someone in our employ. He is awesome, and you can't buy this kind of promotion! So keep an eye out for those wacky talents who do their own thing and carefully cultivate them. Even if for some reason you don't like what they do (which is not the case here but can be in some situations) at least they're talking about you. So keep it going!

PS. Also, I've been swamped getting the Nerds electronic press kit finished but after that we'll see more regular updates here.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

AOF Reminder





Just as a reminder, if you're going to be anywhere near Pasadena next Tuesday, Nerds of Steele, co-produced by Foutz Studios, will premiere at the Action On Film festival in Pasadena, CA on Tuesday, July 28th, at 2pm in Academy Room 1.

Nerds of Steele is a family friendly feature length buddy road trip comedy starring up and coming country music star Ansel Brown and retired NFL great Sean Gilbert.

Ansel Brown plays hit country music sensation Zack Steele, who becomes the object of a hero's quest by four just graduated nerd fans, Mary Beth, Hera, Susan, and Vern. The four nerds follow Ansel Brown across the state of North Carolina in the hopes of recovering special back stage concert passes that have been stolen by two frat boys who tormented our heroes all through college. This struggle for Mary Beth, Hera, Susan, and Vern to overcome their bullies and their own social awkwardness to make their dreams come true is a light hearted, fun, and hilarious comedic journey.

And finally, here's a nerdy trailer for you:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

It doesn't just have to be movies!

Hey writers!

Feeling creative but you have little to no money? Do you have a great short film idea but can't find a camera crew or costumes or actors who can't give you more than a couple hours?

What about audio only projects? Turn your short film into an audioplay.

Here's an example:

Wish Audioplay

If you have a good microphone and some kind of audio editor, you could produce that script for next to nothing. Most actors wouldn't mind an hour of free work to get to know you for future projects. And, who knows, maybe you could even get some exposure for a PG or better script by convincing a college radio station or a small local one to put your finished product on the air. As long as you have some original music and are good creating and editing foley sound effects, you could have something to show off your writing for very little money.

Another possible use for this is to hand it out to potential investors as one way to convince them to invest in that same script as a short film. With your brilliant words flying off the page and into their ears, they could visualize your script much more easily. (A lot of investors don't like reading scripts, believe it or not. So skip that step and give them something they can play in the car on the way home from your meeting.)

Just another option to mull over ...

Monday, July 20, 2009

Headshots

My computer is going to be tied up the rest of the night by rendering some new trailers for the Nerds film, which I'll be sharing with you tomorrow, so I just have time to share some tips for actors about headshots:

1) Look natural and comfortable. In one headshot the actor had his arms tightly crossed so he looked cold, and that was all the Director I was working with could remember about him. Every time this actor's name came up for a role, the Director would say "you mean the cold guy, naw, we'll pass." I'm sure the actor could have overcome this if he'd nailed his first audition with us (indeed, an actress overcame her first headshot making her look like a 1940s starlet and went on to star in several films for us), but anything less than magic that first time and the headshot is going to form the lasting impression. It sucks, but that's the way it is.

2) Look your age. Nothing irritates a casting director more than seeing an actor in an audition who looks nothing like his or her headshot. It makes it feel like you're trying to pull a fast one.

3) Have several looks. It's good to have both a black and white and a color headshot. Or two different headshots where you look completely different. It's expensive, but worth it.

4) Have your resume printed on the back, NOT stapled or taped to the back. If the resume you've stapled to the back of your headshot happens to get ripped off during the jostling and stacking and restacking and mailing, etc ... there's going to be no way for the casting director to call you back in. Just pay the two dollars to have it printed on the back.

5) Don't get scammed. There are a lot of scam headshot photographers out there. A headshot isn't like any other kind of photo, you'll want someone who's done it before and knows what they're doing. And you'll want someone who charges a reasonable price without hidden costs and who is going to deliver in a timely fashion. So your best bet is to get a referral from another actor who was happy with the price and service.

Headshots are expensive, but no other acting expense is going to influence the casting directors you see as much as headshots do. So they're worth it.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Promotion Through Humor

Humor is a very underrated way to promote your products. The big time promotion suits have known this for years, of course, which is why you see all the Super Bowl ads lean on humor so hard. But I've noticed that not a lot of indie companies use humor as one of the weapons in their promotional arsenal. They should.

Now, you can try it on purpose, as the very talented Hannah Rose did here in a promotional interview for my first feature film:



Or you can find these moments by accident, as happened here during a serious interview for my short film "Baggage" and exploit them for humor after the fact:



Practical jokes that are filmed and shared after production can also be used. In this case, the camera was supposed to be further away so that it only saw the feet sticking up out of the bathroom stall. But for the first take the cameraman filmed the assistant helping the actor stick his feet up. Sean Gilbert's taunting from further back helped complete the prank:



Videos of pranks give you an entertaining reason to talk about your movie. Friends and people who know you get tired of you talking endlessly about your projects ... but if you don't then how are people going to keep it in mind when the time comes? A funny video that makes them laugh but is a constant reminder of your project is a great way to keep your movie in mind without you becoming a tedious ass about it.

It doesn't just have to be videos, of course. Tongue in cheek articles, humorous posters, funny signs, etc can also be used. There is a thing guys say about dating, "if you can make her life, you automatically double your chances of getting her to say yes to a date" but it also applies to promotion.

And it doesn't even matter what the tone of the product you're promoting is, as long as you go about it in the right way. Both films being promoted above are serious dramas with few, if any, laughs within them. So we're not finding comedy in the films themselves, we're finding comedy in the actors, the people behind the film. We're showing that we don't take ourselves too seriously, which (hopefully) charms the audience and makes them like us, which increases the chances they'll give our products a chance. The mistake I think a lot of companies make is they try to match the tone of the promotional campaign to the tone of the movie. But I think they're overlooking opportunities when they do this.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Starting a new script

When starting a new script I always look at three factors:

1) What is the budget, if known?

2) What resources are available, if any?

3) What are my goals with this project?

For my latest finished script, the answers were:

1) $43,000, exactly. That was how much money we have available to shoot this project. So we could either make a microbudget feature film or a very well funded short film. I decided to go with the short film.

2) I have a one time access to a major Hollywood actor. One time only, I can put a script in his hands and he'll read it. So it'd better be good and we'd better have the money and be ready to shoot when he reads it, otherwise I'll have blown that opportunity. So I've been waiting for the right script and opportunity for two years. But now is the time to cash it in.

3) My goal with this well funded short film with a name Hollywood actor is to win some awards. I've made short and feature films, I've gotten them placed in film festivals, and I'm on IMDB. Now it's time to go further and start winning some film festival awards. So the script would have to BE about something, and it couldn't suck.

Knowing all that, I started spinning ideas in my head. These factors combined with another factor, I wanted to do a film where a couple of the major roles were older actors. Actors over 50 get screwed in this business. They either play the kind or bumbling grandparents, or the sick and dying old person, or the old person who introduces the flashbacks which are the meat of the movie, or the sad senile person. That's pretty much IT for older actors. So I thought it'd be interesting for an older actor or two to carry a film without ever being any of those things.

So I needed an older actor to carry the film without the focus being on him or her being old and/or senile. I needed a 30 something character with a meaty role so my Hollywood contact would have something to do. And I needed about 30 pages so we could fit into a five day shooting schedule. And finally, I knew what my title was going to be as soon as I ran across this awesome quote by Edith Wharthon: "There is no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow." So I knew the title of my short film would be: "There Is Only Sorrow" and we'd open the movie with the full quote.

I knew what I needed, now it was just a matter of finding a good story to encompass all of this that was actually about something and that didn't suck.

First Attempt
In the first attempt, my old character, named Bear, was a retired spy who was living in an old folks community, which was a series of cabins around a shallow lake, all of which was miles away from the nearest town. The story would be that Milo, the son of a spy that Bear killed years ago, would show up looking for Bear so he could kill him. Meanwhile, an evil demon is stalking the old folks community, luring people out of their homes at night by appearing as dead loved ones and then eating their souls over a period of a week. It was a knockoff on the original Bram Stoker vampire story but with old people and souls instead of hawt 19th century babes and blood. Milo and Bear would team up to defeat this demon and then Milo and Bear would have their final confrontation. To complicate things, I was going to have Bear's exwife living in the same community with her new husband, whom Bear hated. Bear's wife would be the first to die in the film.

It was a nice idea and would make an entertaining film, but a couple pages in I realized that it was too genre to ever win any awards, which beyond entertaining people was my major goal for this film. So I abandoned it and spun the creative bottle again. Here's what I had:

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/tiosoriginal.pdf

Second Attempt
If you're reading along at home, you'll immediately notice that "Lakeside Grounds" still exists but has changed to a park. Milo, Bear, and Willow all still exist as well (though Milo didn't even have time to appear in the first script). But a lot has changed. Why don't you read it for yourself and then we'll continue?

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/tiosver2.pdf

And we're back, assuming you've read it. I really love the concept in this script and especially love the Willow character here. Her dialogue is awesome. So I'm definitely going to be doing something with the concept and with the character down the road. But in this case, it was still going down a road that was way too genre. You can be a little whacky and a little genre and win awards, but the more genre you are, the lower your chances at awards. So I spun the creative bottle again, and this time I hit the jackpot.

The Final Attempt

This script had everything I'd been wanting to hit. It had a philosophical debate, which award givers love. It had action and plenty of dialogue that a great actor could really sink his teeth into. And it had two really good character arcs for Milo and Bear. There will be changes as we go into development and production, but they're going to be minor because I really love this version of the script.

I'd love to hear your feedback on it.

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/There_Is_Only_Sorrow.pdf

But anyway, what I hope to accomplish with this post is to show how much a script can change during the course of it's development and also how some things can stay in there for whatever reason. The process I've described here took place over about four weeks.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Nerds of Steele at the Action On Film Festival





My latest feature film, Nerds of Steele, co-produced by Foutz Studios, will premiere at the "Action on Film" festival in Pasadena, CA on Tuesday, July 28th, at 4pm in Academy Room 1.

For more information, check out the festival website at:

http:​/​/​aoffest.​com/​index.​htm

Over the coming days I'll be going into detail about the making of this film, as well as all of my other projects.