A Commentary On Commentaries

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend, although my “have a great weekend” signoff on the last blog was a subtle hint that this may not get updated until Monday. Sunday I was acting in a short film about zombies and Saturday I was helping out TPE creator Dan Poole with a pool problem. Why someone with that name needs help in that area is beyond me! Anyway, on with the blog.

After defeating those swimming hole gremlins Dan showed me some of the special features going into the movie DVD, which will be done done by the end of the week. Seriously! The extras will include a 5 minute Q&A with Dan about his filmmaking career including TPE, 3 behind the scenes featurettes, an “alternate” ending made at the request of one of our producers, and a commentary track featuring me, Dan Poole, and actor Derek Minter who plays Jay Powers.

After listening to the commentary track I couldn’t help but compare it to the tracks on other movies I’ve watched.  My personal favorite is from Dawn of the Dead (2004) with Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman. First of all they were very informative about all things behind the scenes, which I guess is the whole point of commentaries in the first place.  On top of that, they were also fun to listen to, like we were having a couple rounds at the bar while they b.s.’ed about the movie.  We think we’ve got the same vibe in our commentary and hopefully you all will feel the same way.

Since this is about all commentaries here’s the fun part- the bad commentaries.  I can’t stand it when the director gets in what I like to call “artist” mode, trying to talk down to the audience or other pretentious tendencies.  *cough*District9NeillBlomkamp*cough* Not only was he talking to the audience like we were clueless about movies, but also about social issues.  Yes Neill, there are poor people and rich people in all parts of the world. We know.  Now zip it until you have something else to say about the creature effects.

As bad as that was, the District 9 commentary can’t take the crown of Worst Ever.  That honor goes to Sons of Anarchy, which pains me to write because I absolutely love the show.  Why is it bad?  Because Kurt Sutter can’t make it through a sentence without a couple dramatic pauses and a few more “uh…um…..yeah”s.  He does act on the show, so I don’t know if he’s trying to play some role or if he needs the help of that Geoffery Rush character from the king movie.  Add in Ron Perlman’s “I’m too important to be wasting my time on this” schtick and I had to shut it off halfway through the pilot.  Maybe I’ll try again someday, but after hearing this same routine at their Comic Con panel last year I doubt the rest will be any better.

So, which commentaries do you love or hate?  When watching them, what info are you trying to learn?

Not Every Sunday Is Perfect For Guerrilla Filmmaking

The ending of the NFL lockout was a huge relief to all the football fans out there, including this one.  Since the league is so rich it almost prints money I knew a deal would get done, but it’s good to know that the season really is around the corner.  During this time, a fan can’t help but think about the beginning of previous seasons, how they felt about their team at that time, and how that team changes during each season.

The most memorable opening game for me was for the 2008 Baltimore Ravens.  I’ll always remember it because it’s the only opening game I haven’t watched.  Why didn’t I watch? It was because we were shooting outdoor footage for TPE, which A.) happened to be so close to M&T Bank Stadium we could hear the crowd and 2.) we had our one brush with Maryland law enforcement.

The shooting schedule for the day was in parallel to Derek Powers’ evolution from “guy who can’t control his super speed” to honest to goodness superhero.  We also got bolder in our selection of roads we used for shots- starting off on small side streets, then a four lane road passing the Baltimore Sun warehouse, and finally darting through traffic on Interstate I-95.  In that scene, Derek/Photon is chasing the motorcyclist who has been his  crime fighting target in acts one and two.  Mr. Cyclist has pissed off enough people to the point where the police are chasing him as well.

That’s how Dan wrote it in the script, but we didn’t have the money for fake police cars so we were resigned to selling the police action with sound effects.  However, through either a coincidence or fate intervening, when we started shooting a real police car happened to be in the passing lane of 95!  I’ve never seen a police car with that jurisdiction emblem before, so I’m going to call fate on that one.  So when shooting our motorcycle rider we widened out the angle a smidge and presto, our police chase!

That was our last road shot for the day, so we headed over to a side road, parked, and patted each other on the back for a job well done.  Little did we know, but that cop of unknown origin must’ve gotten in touch with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who sniffed us out like a bloodhound.  I was fearing the worst, that he was going to throw us in jail and take the camera setup we had latched in the bed of the pickup truck. Thankfully my worry wort tendencies proved untrue, as the officer told us to film what we wanted on the side streets, but stay off the interstate. Since we just finished, no problem there!

Another update on what I wrote about yesterday-  the website I contacted yesterday, prescreen.com, wants to see the movie!  We’re going to get a copy to them ASAP and who knows, that could be another channel where people can see the movie.

The Dov Simens Of Modern Indie Filmmaking

For those not familiar with the name in the title of the blog, Dov Simens is a successful film instructor who gained his expertise from making his own films, not from a textbook at film school.  His 2 Day Film School is great for impressing the mindset necessary to complete a movie project, as well as providing resources that will help you along the way.  He also goes over film festival strategy, including how to deal with distribution reps who want to buy your movie.

While all this is great instruction, worth more than the price you pay in my opinion, the course doesn't offer a Plan B.  What happens when no distribution reps want to buy your movie, or the deals they offer suck?  Worse yet, what if you don't get into a festival?  You may be inclined to stop the good fight to get your movie out there, lower your flags, and head home.  Don't give up hope though, because there are other options.  Enter independent film producer Jason Brubaker and his website- http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/

If your movie production is just a group of friends, a camera, and a dream, read everything you can on that site and listen to the podcasts.  Jason walks you through how to get your movie into online retailers via video on demand and DVD, as well as how to market the film with your website and social media.  While it could be seen as more work for the indie filmmaker, it's also empowering to realize that in this day and age you have more control over when and where your film goes into the marketplace.  You don't have your filmmaking fate resting on the whims of some outsider, who may only be looking at your film as another way to earn some "marketing overhead" profit.

So take some time to read over that site, and get back to work tomorrow!