2010 SHOOT Magazine Directors Symposium

This past week I had the pleasure of taking part in SHOOT magazine's Directors Symposium at the DGA theater in New York City.  I was part of last year's New Directors Showcase, and was asked back to talk about what had transpired over the past year. I spoke on a panel with the very funny Keith Bearden, director of the Tribeca Film Festival hit Meet Monica Velour and very talented spots director for Skunk Films, as well as the very smart Bonnie Goldfarb, co-owner of production house Harvest Films. I talked about the process of wrapping up Running America while still directing spots and other content over the year. Unfortunately, I would have liked to shown more work, as we were a part of some interesting, wonderful campaigns this year for a variety of clients, but Running America really is the biggest milestone of the year.

Photo: Bill Bennett, ASC

Maybe the biggest surprise of the panel was the reaction to my discussion of how to "brand" yourself as a director, and my explanation of why I decided an exodus from NY and refusal to keep going West landed me in Cleveland, and that I was happy about it. This was touched upon earlier in a panel when Laura Belsey of Shadow Pictures, talked about a prominent commercials director (who I'm now blanking on) who began his career in Alberta, Canada. I spoke quite a bit about creative freedom, not getting pigeonholed as a "car guy" or a "sfx guy" and not being a slave to "waiting for the phone to ring" mentality - by going to a smaller market and being proactive with your career. Without the financial strain of living in the NY and LA markets, a young director could explore his/her voice and do more work than in a bigger market.

Photo: Bill Bennett, ASC

I was, literally, mobbed afterwards by young directors wanting to know "how I did it" with questions all the way down to "how much is your rent?" Given the film business climate on either coast, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I guess I just didn't expect that vocal and passionate a response. I ended up missing lunch because I felt like I was holding a "mini-panel" after the real panel. It was great, and I think a real sign of change coming in the film industry. In my opinion, it will be the collision of legitimate and profitable self-distribution of feature films and amazingly affordable high-end image capture (see below: Canon 5D and 1D) that will change the way filmmakers think about their careers and art. But I digress. All in all, it was a great day and I gained so much knowledge myself in just a few short hours, including the amazing footage that Bill Bennett, ASC showed of the new ARRI Alexa camera. It blew me away. No noise whatsoever in the blacks, smoother than smooth motion, oh wow I can't wait to use this camera.  But I digress again. Bill sat next to us during the panels, and was nice enough to snap photos during my panel.

Probably the most exciting part of the day was hearing Caleb Deschanel, ASC speak about his long and storied career. Director of Photography on such landmark films as The Right Stuff, The Black Stallion and Being There with Peter Sellers, a film that has held steady sway in my top 3 since I was young. I was able to talk to him after his panel about the famous "final" shot from the film, where Peter Sellers walks on water, then pokes his umbrella into the water. This was a scene which had a real effect on me as a kid, and I can remember thinking how this movie was different than other movies, and it was the first occurrence where I though you could "say" something with a film. Of course, he was very nonchalant..."yeah, I think I told Peter you should test out the water to see if it's real."  He said the most difficult part of the film was just keeping it together and not laughing while Peter was working through a scene. The crew was usually banished from the set and it was the director, Hal Ashby, Caleb, and Peter shooting the scene by themselves.

Now, I have to go back and re-watch the film, once again.

All in all, a great day.

Cannes, The Holy Grail

So, we got the amazing news that "Cleveland vs. Wall Street" - a film on which Kate O'Neil (my producer and partner at Authentic Films) served as the U.S. Executive Producer, will be premiering at the Cannes Directors Fortnight as part of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.  Cinephiles recognize Cannes as the apex of filmmaking and films - a combination of the glamour of film tempered with the best in new films and filmmakers.  We'll be there to soak in the craziness, meet new people, and best of all, see as many movies as possible.  Lately, the offices at Authentic Films has been crazier than usual - as along with our usual workload we are prepping for the trip with decisions on fashion, travel and most importantly which and how many cameras to take.

Congratulations to Jean-Stephan and our friends at Saga Productions who came to Cleveland 2 years ago and began filming "Cleveland vs. Wall Street."  They are a wonderful, generous group of people who we enjoyed getting to know while they were here in Cleveland.   Also, congratulations to all of the Clevelanders who were a part of the making of this film: AC Kiely Cronin, Steadicam Operator Adam White, Boom Lenny Suwalski and Kevin Hines,  PA and script supervisor Kara Martinelli, coordinator Laura Paglin, equipment Hob Zabarsky and John Turk and locations manager William Garvey. 

Stay tuned...as we'll be blogging, tweeting, and uploading photos on a daily basis and sharing our experience with everyone here back in The CLE...

Scoring and Mixing the 34th Cleveland International Film Festival Promo Trailer

We had a great scoring and mixing session at Ante Up Audio with Michael Seifert and Jim Stewart for this year's film festival trailer.  Michael (along with Dave Padrutt) scored the seven versions of this year's promotional trailer with a variety of instruments - our favorite being the accordion. This is always a great project, and it got even better this year with Ante Up's generous help and talent.

Communication for Producers (and Directors)

My producer, Kate O'Neil.  She usually knows what I need before I know what I need.  She is also, usually, always on the phone...

Below is a list of questions and directives from producer Ted Hope which I think one should review before, during and after every film.  He lists it as "communication for producers" but it is, in my opinion, just as applicable to directors. Reprinted from his blog TrulyFreeFilm.  I thought it was particularly important for when you're in deep, and sometimes forget why you're making the film in the first place...

Why do you love this movie?

You are making the director’s movie. (which isn’t the same as doing everything the director wants).

You are trying to make the best movie possible.

You will make the movie profitable.

You will get the movie seen. You will find the film’s audiences.

The producer works to create the right environment for all.

You appreciate people’s good work and hard work.

You have chosen to be here and know others have chosen that too.

People like to be led. You are here to provide leadership.

People like to participate. Provide opportunities.

Anyone can follow a plan. What can you do to provide inspiration?

Calm = clarity What do you need to do to reduce stress so all see clearly?

Why will they believe you? How will they follow you?

34th Cleveland Int'l Film Festival - Trailer Shoot

This past weekend, we shot the Cleveland Int'l Film Festival trailer.  This is one of our favorite projects, because it brings local crew and community together for a couple days for some good bonding time and no-pressure fun.  This year's idea is "...because of the Cleveland Int'l Film Festival" and we had over 80 people in two days come in to tell us how the film fest had influenced or changed their life.

We shot with the Canon 1D Mark IV, and my co-DPs John Turk and Jon LaGuardia have confessed that this is our new love child.  We've done a lot of work with the Canon 5D lately, yet the 1D seems sturdier and the monitoring capabilities are better than the 5D.  It also shoots slo-mo and, more importantly 24p, which was crucial as we'll be doing a film-out to 35mm. prints.  We were discussing whether this could be one of the first film-outs from the 1D and think that, possibly, it could be.  It will be interesting to see how an HD DSLR will handle a 35mm print and 30 foot projection.

The backdrop to our interviews are the vibrant colors of this year's campaign, courtesy of the talented folks over at Twist Creative, which were then rear-projected onto a 20-foot screen.  Jon LaGuardia created about 30 different variations on the colors, and we switched them out with every interview.

Many thanks to our great crew of (from left) Kip Gynn (location sound), Rick Stern (projectionist, key grip, electric), Matthew T. (assistant director), Kate O'Neil, Bobby Ruggeri (second A.D.), Jon LaGuardia (director of photography, editor, media manager) Bob Stefanov (line producer), Kylee Cook (stylist, hair and make-up), Bill Garvey (location manager), Keith Nickoson (key grip), and Donnie Schneider (key grip).  Not pictured are John Turk, (director of photography, snapping the picture), Grace Nowak (producer) and Danielle Muad'Dib (stylist, hair, make-up).

We'll be creating a number of different versions from the 80+ people we shot, which will be screened during the festival, prior to each film...so be sure to block out March 18-28 for one of the best programmed film festivals in the U.S.

See you there.

MIXING RUNNING AMERICA

A sound mixer, a director, and an editor walk into a dark room, the director says to the sound mixer...

Two weeks of composing and sound mixing at Ante Up studios are completed on Running America.  Michael Seifert and company put together an amazing original score that I couldn't be happier with.  It's rare that you can become unwedded to the temp music you've seen up against a scene so many times, but after a couple of rounds with Michael's music in there, I couldn't even remember what we had slugged in as temp.  The alt-folk sound includes steel pedal guitar, banjo, harmonica, various acoustic guitars - it really captures what I was going for in terms of reinforcing the look and feel of the film.

Sitting in a dark room listening to scenes over and over, I began to jokingly suffer from "ear fatigue" during the mix - listening to trucks whooshing, distant thunder claps, ambient RV noise, and various other sounds over and over.  Pete Horner came in from Zoetrope in San Francisco to do the mix and had only the kind of ideas a good sound mixer has - adding layers to the film that otherwise wouldn't happen without his ears.  We had kind of gotten used to the fact that this was a movie shot, well, on the side of a road for 53 days, but in the mix we realized it again - and spent a good amount of time both adding in and taking out the accompanying sounds.  We reduced distractions (the ever-present hum of the RVs which our runners stayed in) but we also added layers of sound, giving us the visceral sense that the occasional 18-wheelers that brushed past were a very real danger (and they certainly were).

We also were aware of the most prescient sound for a runner - that of each footstep landing against the ground.  This was an important element, and we worked hard to make sure this is a, ahem, running theme throughout the film.

Now to a week of color correction, where we make an already gorgeous film even more gorgeous...

LOCKING RUNNING AMERICA

It's often said that a film is only abandoned by a director, that it is never truly finished.  Yesterday, we began locking picture on Running America. This is a tedious, detail-oriented process of creating files, double-checking audio cues, making last-minute changes, and so forth.

Michael O'Brien, our editor (on a sabbatical from The Carson Group) took on an army of footage and conquered it, crafting scenes out of nothing and finding things I didn't even know existed.  A great editor makes possible something that would not have been possible without them.  Mike is such an editor.  I believe he's taken, oh, maybe 3 days off in the past 4 months of editing.  His dedication has been astounding.

Early on, my director of photography, Andreas von Scheele, and I discussed how this would be Ansel Adams meets FSA photography. Gorgeous vistas punctuated with portraits of real people and their struggles during a time of change in the country.  When I go back and look at the mood and tone book we created at the outset of the project, I can actually point to photographs and say "we got that" and "we definitely got that."  This is incredibly satisfying.  Our interviews with Americans yielded moments of great insight and emotion, and we met people who surprised and enlightened us along the route.  

We charted our edit of the film like we charted the run.  "We're in about Nebraska..." "We just crossed the Mississippi!"  "Oh, looks like we have to go back to Colorado" and so on. After 4 plus months of editing, so many late night sessions, roundabout discussions about scene directions and sequences, we pushed through many "I don't know what to think anymore..." moments to arrive at realizations we knew would help the film.  

And it was about that moment when we felt we could not ingest any more caffeine, that the talented Michael Seifert at Ante Up Studios played us some ideas for the score.  This jolt of energy was better than any shot of espresso.  This Wednesday, a session band will be in place - pedal guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica - for a tracking session that will probably go into the night.  Then, on to sound mix.    

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THEE, 5D?

 I own a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR.  For those of you in the know, the 5D has made huge waves in the digital photography and filmmaking community over the past year - not only for its enormous full frame sensor but for its ability to shoot 1080p HD video, in such low light with such striking results.  The lines between photographer and filmmaker have already begun to blur - if you have yet to see photographer Vincent LaForet's Reverie take a look and be blown away by the capabilities of the camera.  Within weeks of release, after-market products for the 5D began popping up everywhere, including full camera rigs, matte boxes, transforming this DSLR camera into a legitimate filmmaking tool.  Craig Cockerill, an LA-based director of photography we recently worked with just shot a Cadillac commercial with five of them.  

Hours after receiving the camera one of our favorite collaborators gaffer/DP Jon Turk was at our apartment enthusiastically discussing his purchase of a 5D package as we captured the moment with said camera.  In addition to the 5D I picked up a tilt+shift Lensbaby for a project I am shooting b roll for now.  
Keith Loutit's tilt+shift work is also a big inspiration for the b roll on that project, if you have yet to see it watch this very cool clip:


Bathtub V from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Certainly, there are limitations to the camera and it isn't perfect for every project, but to capture this type of image at this price point, it is truly exciting to be a filmmaker in this day and technological age. Many people are now seeing it as something they need to build out as more of a "film-style" camera, however, I see it as something that can allow me to shoot multiple angles at once - cheaper and faster, and with less light. I'm also I'm shooting more stills than ever, and this has sharpened my sense of composition and light. I take it everywhere with me, and now love stumbling upon events like pro-amateur wrestling in a parking lot on the west side of Cleveland...

It will be interesting to see still photographers beginning to make moving images and film directors shooting stills. I have to say, I rarely think about my Sony EX3 anymore, which sits feet away from my desk. Of course, technology is never a substitute for craft and aesthetic, but this quality of image at this price, is a beautiful thing...