Yep. A big fuckin' banana.

ON FILMMAKING: PART 3

AND NOW BACK TO THE GOOD PART:

            Before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to go back and revisit Larry & The Monsters for just a bit longer because I feel that I still have more to say about that show.

            The more I look back on that show, the more it makes sense to me where we went wrong. From day one we became too focused on introducing the individual monsters and not enough time building interesting plots and relationships. Remember what I said about learning lessons? Well this is one of the biggest and hardest lessons for any beginning screenwriter/filmmaker to grasp; the ability to tell a story without force feeding every little detail of the plot and characters. I’ve always sort of been aware of this, but it wasn’t until our most recent project, “Nyar” that the concept finally began to sink in. Now, if you’re one of those people who are looking to begin your career in filmmaking or screenwriting, now would be a good time to take some notes. I’m about to learn ya some info!

            It’s a common mistake. Beginning screenwriters are especially focused on telling the story they want to tell. They think the story is perfect and that everyone else’s ideas are their way of poking fun at the story without directly doing so. We also like to think that our ideas are flawless. That after two or three rewrites there’s no way we could possibly have gone wrong. We just shat gold onto paper and everyone else needs to lick it up and like it.

            This is wrong.

            Most amateur scripts are written in such a way that could be construed as offensive to the audience. It doesn’t treat the audience with any respect and, for all intents and purposes, outright calls those people idiots for not being able to understand the awesome story we just spoon fed them. Believe it or not, this isn’t intentional. I wish I could convey to you how difficult it is to see passed your own writing. To look through it and see what you did wrong. It just is. And can you really blame the writer? They only want to tell the best story possible in the only way they know how. They read the books. Followed the format. They may even have sat down with note cards and sticky notes and plotted out every little detail and scene before actually writing it. But none of that matters unless they can master the art of visualization. I should point out that I have NOT mastered the art of visualization. It was only just recently after getting the opportunity to work with a professional in the business that the information finally sank in. Now comes the hard part of becoming good at it. You can take that how you will. I care not. I’m just trying to help others avoid the same mistakes that I’ve made in the past.

            Anyway, with L&M it all boiled down to a lack of real story. We tried to take what we thought were funny moments and used them in an attempt to introduce monsters. In the process we forgot to introduce conflict. Real conflict. Without conflict all we had were a couple of assholes with a camera and a finicky computer that deserved to be ass raped by lonely convicts. The show still had its moments, but it could have had more. Many more. And with any luck, the show will get a second chance.

            COUNT:

            “Count” was an interesting endeavor. One of those films that I feel proud of despite the experience of making it. It wasn’t horrible by any means. There were only a small handful of moments that weren’t particularly enjoyable (such as trying to fit my fat ass in a dinky closet just so I could get the shot I wanted), but it was a proud moment all the same. It was the first time we had done anything for a competition (www.FilmFight.com to be more specific) and we had to follow some strict guidelines. The film couldn’t be longer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds, it had to be horror, and it had to be based on an urban legend. Horror and urban legends was no problem at all for me, but trying to fit it all in fewer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds was a bitch. We lucked out a little on this one too and somehow managed to make it into the heavy weight category.

            The first draft of the script “Count” was quite different from the finished product. It originally had three female leads with one of them turning out to be the murderous villain in the end. However, one of my actors dropped out only three days before our shoot date and I was forced to do a very fast re-write. As a result I think the dialogue and characters may have suffered a little. The dynamic of the relationships became skewed and just didn’t work as well as I hoped. Then again, the re-write was also a blessing in disguise as the original script most likely would have been too long to meet competition guidelines. Still, a small part of me yearns to go back and re-shoot the original script just to see what it might have looked like.

            Despite a sudden rewrite and rushed shoot “Count” still managed to pull second place in the competition. Our prize for winning? Bragging rights. Film Fights doesn’t really offer prizes. They offer feedback and a chance to flex your filmmaking muscle under pressure. A great place for anyone to go if you’re interested in filmmaking.

JUST A NIGHTMARE:

            “Just A Nightmare” came shortly before we did “Count”. (I know I’m going backwards here. Deal with it!) At the time, “…Nightmare” was the most fun I’d had making a movie in a long time. For reasons I won’t go into here, the movie almost didn’t happen. It was late and one of my best friends from high school was up visiting. I hadn’t seen him in almost 10 years. It was crazy. Surreal. We had talked about shooting something while he was up visiting, but none of us were quite sure if we would have the time.

            We made time.

            After going to see a movie (I forget which for some reason) we opted to go back to Keith’s place and shoot Just A Nightmare. Yet another of Keith Melcher’s brilliant scripts. I stopped and picked up as much of my gear as could be transported in a short period of time, cussed a little out of frustration trying to figure out what to bring, and made my way up the hill to shoot. Meanwhile, Keith, our friend Greg Craddock, and his girlfriend at the time Alaina stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a few odds and ends. Namely, a machete. The script called for a machete. It wasn’t a fake one. It was real. Very real. And it came very close to people’s faces at times. There was one scene in the film in which our bumbling hero (Greg) wakes up suddenly from a nightmare and finds our masked villain (Melcher) standing next to him and holding a machete to his face. The machete was probably less than an inch from his nose. Naturally I found this to be the perfect take and used the footage for the final edit, so what you see on screen isn’t just acting. That’s genuine fear.

            “Just A Nightmare” marked the first time since we started that I finally got to sit behind the camera and not have to worry about acting. I love acting. But when you’re trying to make your own movies and constantly thinking about what is going to happen next and how you’re going to shoot it, it can be tough to stay focused. I didn’t technically direct JaN either, but I was given free rein to make decisions on the camera work which, to this day I still feel is some of my best work. “Count” was all right and it was the first time we had the opportunity to do a multi-camera shoot (which was fucking awesome by the way) but the way the camera was placed and moved around could have been a lot better.  

            And speaking of trying to act and direct at the same time…