MARAUDING FILMS

The first fest I picked is also the first it was accepted by. I don’t know a lot about the is fest other then it is close to home and has a cool name. I’m hoping for the best as I have only been to one before this and that was just to help out. I will keep a posting letting you know what’s up. Here is a trailer for “The Hit”. It was a little harder then I expected because I little time and cutting a trailer for a short is tough since there isn’t that much material to begin with and you don’t want to reveal everything. Enjoy

Hurray, today I did some serious dust busting and got some of our work online. I think I might have got a staph infection from all the dust. Here for all your viewing enjoyment is a short commercial we did for Amazon awhile back. It was literally written in twenty minutes over coffee and shot in almost less time. Kudos to the editing. This is one of the few times I left it to someone else and I think he did a bang up job.

My newest project will be about the birth of superhero. With all these comics turning into movies I have decided to create a superhero in my media. Video will rule the day but I will start with photos and sort of turn the comic style back on itself.

This hero will rise from the ashes of the current war.

Was it really? I care for it. For one, it seemed to long.

The Joker was great. He liked chaos and he went at with a passion. The fact they told us how much he liked chaos was a little irritating but over all I thought his character was a very bright spot in a overwhelming dark film.

The bank heist was great. I loved it. It really set the tone for what I thought would be a fun movie. All the bad guys looked and acted like comic book bad guys worried about their cash. It really felt right. Then the Joker came out and didn’t overplay it like I thought he might after all the hype. He kept his cards tight to his vest, leaving us to wonder can he back this up. BTW, I’ve always heard said, “Close to the vest”, yet they said, “Close the chest” repeatedly. I’ll have to look that up.

When I met Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes I didn’t figure them for a couple and was surprised to see them as couple later on which really made it hard to accept the loss of his woman as a catalyst to him becoming Two Face. Throughout the picture I didn’t care for Mr. Dent, but when he became Two Face well….Flipping a coin for every fricking person got irritating. I remember meeting Two Face when Tommy Lee Jones played him and the character was interesting, and the make up Geez, that seemed way over the top. I would’ve made it more sinister since that is the nature of one side of the character.

Christian Bale….I love him, but either he is being under used or he isn’t right for Batman. And why is Batman a whiny baby that has lost his compass. I don’t like this Batman. And if you’re gonna make Batman torn between upright morals then don’t put him in an interrogation room with the Joker in front of a bunch corrupt cops and have him beat the man for information. This part felt wrong. Is Batman Good is Batman Bad? Do he like being Batman? The movie posed these questions and didn’t answer them. Batman actually became a martyr in the end. How the hell did we arrive there?

Under used Actors. How about Gary Oldman….I want to see this guy play a bad guy or how about a conflicted cop or DA. Now we’re talking. Having him play Gordon is like having him step in for background work. Extra………Gary Oldman. And I have to say my faith has been restored in Eric Roberts. He can be a very fine actor in the right part and this was a very good part for him.

The movie left me leaving confused. It seemed like it wanted be more complex, it wanted to be smarter and it just came out convoluted despite it’s brightest light the Joker. See the Joker was old school bad guy. He even said it, “I don’t scheme”. He just likes to watch the world burn, it’s what bad guys in comic books do. And I think we can all remember what hero’s do……

OK, I finally doing it. I am putting my latest movie out for festival presentation. I have entered it into three so far. San Diego Film festival, Short attention span Digital festival, (aptly named for me), and SoCal independent film festival. I actually entered four but I have some problems using “Without a box”. I find it confusing to say the least, so I guess I just lose my money for that forth entry which didn’t happen but I’m learning. It seems like a powerful site but not entirely accurate. It will take your money easy enough but it doesn’t explain how to submit films digitally. Anyways wish me luck.

That’s right and I just finished a rewrite of my script “Death rides shotgun”. It was a tough ride. I found a couple books on the subject but they really only contained a first chapter on the subject and the rest was dedicated to screenwriting basics. Something that did catch my eye though was that you should look at rewriting as a chance to get it right. Like a armchair quarterback or having twenty twenty hindsight. What’s tough to get past is moving on. I just want to move on to the next project. I think in some ways I maybe afraid to look at it again.for fear of finding writing that is subpar and not as good as I remember writing.it.

The biggest problem I found was reading the script. Let me explain. While reading it I have a tendency to make corrections as I read. As long as they are grammer and spelling they don’t seem to hamper the read,(currently I am in the process of relearning grammer). The problem comes up when you find dialogue or Action that you don’t care for or maybe you don’t understand it, (this has happened). I start to find myself bogged down in these details and I lose my place when I leave the keyboard to think it over and quickly forget about it.

So I have developed a technique that works for me. I read through quickly just making grammer and spelling corrections. While reading I have a stack of index card which I number according to scenes. On the top I will put a brief description and number. If I don’t like the scene I put why in the body of the card. I also put a star next to the scene number and then I put back in the stack. This way when I am done reading I can pull a card and think the scene over, leaving it on my keyboard so I don’t forget and can constantly have it near the top of my thoughts. It works good.

I’ve been gone for awhile mainly cause I don’t see the life of a filmmaker that interesting but I guess it’s not supposed to super exciting and it will help flesh out my thoughts so stick with me. So now that my script is finished I am going to try to send it out into the world. This will involve coverage, consulting, cold calling, contests and pitchfest and lots more. I will keep you up to date with the ups and the downs as I learn to take a script from my desk to sale or production. I think I will try a service called Virtualpitchfest. com first as it seems very easy and targeted. I could be wrong but at ninety bucks I won’t be out that much and it’s a start. They say you’ll get a reply in five days. I’ll let you know.