Raymond Guarnieri on "Buffalo Boys"

What was your filmmaking background before making "Buffalo Boys"?

RAYMOND: I started out in the industry as a professional actor. After I graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts—New York, I was hired to work on two-major projects, “Rendezvous Point” by Korean Director D.K. Lee, which won Best Picture at the CUNY AIRR Film Festival, and “Payin’ The Price,” which won Best Picture at the HBO Martha’s Vinyard Film Festival. I was very observant during the production of these projects, and became more and more interested the overall process of filmmaking.  

Shortly afterward, I met with fellow actors Matt Tester and Mckenzie Trent and we formed Better StirFry Productions in hopes of making shorts that we could use to pad our acting reels. But once I got behind the camera and started shooting my own scripts, I realized I was exactly where I was supposed to be in life.

Where did the idea come from and what was the writing process like with your co-writers?

RAYMOND: In 2009, a friend of mine (the young man on whom the main character of Buffalo Boys is based), passed away. This was around the same time that The Better StirFry Team and I had completed a few successful short films and we were looking for new material. I was deeply moved by the story of my friend’s life, and everyone agreed that it would make a fantastic movie.

I researched by interviewing the young man’s family and friends before writing the first draft of the script. It was pretty awful the first time around. But we all still agreed that the story was good if we could just get the script right, so Mckenzie and I teamed up and developed it over the next eight months. About nine or ten drafts in, we solicited the help of my novelist girlfriend, Elana Lott, and she helped polish the script up until we began production.

Writing is one of the most challenging parts of the process. I believe that it’s where most filmmakers go wrong. When you start- there’s nothing but a blank page. When you turn on a camera with the lens cap off, there’s always something happening in front of it already. If you don’t have a great script, you’re just practicing. Mckenzie and I fought a lot during the process. It was a battle. But I wouldn’t do it again any other way, because what we came out with I’m truly proud of. 

What was your Kickstarter experience like for raising pre-pro funds? 

RAYMOND: We knew from the beginning that we were going to need to be modest, so we only asked for a $1,250 goal to get us through pre-pro. We ended up raising $6,000. Most of this came from family and friends. It was humbling. It gave us the momentum and confidence we needed to go out and raise more from private investors until we reached our final production budget.

What's the upside and downside of using a crowd-funding source?

RAYMOND: Kickstarter is great, and running a campaign is a full-time job. We’ve just launched a new Kickstarter where we’re offering tickets to the World Premiere in NYC, as well as copies of the DVD, all so that we can raise the necessary funds to send the movie to film festivals worldwide.

The upside is that you have the opportunity to not only raise money on a platform that gives you added legitimacy, but to promote your project to the general public as well. The downside is that these platforms are film saturated. This also has a lot to do with the digital filmmaking boom. Everyone and their mother has a DSLR nowadays. It’s exciting because it democratizes filmmaking and gives great artists the opportunity to produce works, they never would have been able to ten years ago.

But it’s also terrible because you see a lot of poorly thought-out projects appearing on places like Kickstarter. But in the end people will know the difference when they watch your video and read your story. It’s just frustrating because when some people hear that you’ve got a Kickstarter going, they roll their eyes and remember the fifty other people with mediocre ideas that told them that today.

What kind of camera did you use to shoot the movie -- and what did you love about it and hate about it?

RAYMOND: We used a two-camera setup with the Canon 5D MKII and 5D MKIII. We are the instant gratification generation. I’ve only ever shot on film once. (If there are any filmmakers with 20+ years of experience reading this, I’m sorry for the heart attack). It’s tough for me to think of anything I don’t like about DSLR filmmaking. It’s fast, cheap, you have instant playback, and with proper color correction and post-production techniques you can end up with very, very beautiful pictures- on TV/Computer screens, but also even small cinema screens. If we had shot Buffalo Boys on super 16mm we’d have spent something like $300,000 on film stock and development alone. That’s 100 times our entire budget.

You wore a lot of hats on this project -- director, writer, producer, actor. What's the upside and the downside of working that way?

RAYMOND: I feel like all indie filmmakers end up doing this. It just comes down to the fact that you don’t have money to hire people so you end up doing multiple jobs. In my case it’s a little different- the story was very personal to me, so I was one of the screenwriters, and I’m a professionally-trained & experienced actor, so I wanted to continue doing that because I love it.

The upside for me is that I not only got to oversee the project as a Director, but I got to participate more specifically in other ways that I love.

The downside is probably the lack of sleep and toll it takes on your body after a year or two of working on a project. We held the wrap party at my house outside of Buffalo and after I made a little speech and thanked everybody- I snuck upstairs and slept for about a week.

What was the smartest thing you did during production? The dumbest?

RAYMOND: This is a tough question.

I suppose the smartest thing I did was in pre-pro and not production, and that was making sure we had a solid game plan. Production was really a process of just making sure we stuck to that plan while still getting everything we needed creatively.

But I’d say that asking for resources (for free or for very little) whether it be locations, equipment, crew, etc., was the smartest thing I did. Some people have a tendency to not ask for things at the crucial moment.

One of the biggest things I learned is that if you have a good idea and charisma, people will believe in you and want to support you in any way they can. That’s not to say you should ever take advantage of that- but you should have the confidence to ask for the things you need to make your project come to life. The worst thing that can happen is that people will say no.

The dumbest thing I did happened on the 3rd or 4th last day of production. I was recently awarded The Colin Powell Fellowship for Leadership and Public Service and had to attend an all-day seminar in NYC the day after we wrapped production. I forgot to pack a suit for this and went one morning before call time to the mall to pick one out.

But it turned out that the whole process took forever and even though I was rushing through it, I caused us to be almost two hours late into the schedule. My AD, Tom Quigly was NOT happy about this. We ended up catching up throughout the day, and I learned two important lessons: don’t try to buy a suit in 30 minutes and DON’T piss off your AD by making stupid mistakes.

What's your game plan for distribution of "Buffalo Boys" and recouping your costs?

RAYMOND: In the end, we just want people to see the film. If that means going to film festivals and no distribution deal then so be it. But I really believe that this film is well written, produced, and acted enough to receive at least some kind of DVD or Netflix distribution.

I’m not going to delude myself- I know that the chances of a first-time filmmaker getting a distribution deal are slim, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try. As of right now, we’re pretty under the radar so we’re trying to get some press and film festival screenings to establish credibility. Once people in the industry have had a chance to see the film is when we’ll see where we might end up.

And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you have taken to other projects?

RAYMOND: I haven’t really had the chance to move on to the next big thing yet. Buffalo Boys is still a full-time job for me. But like I said before- asking for help is a big thing I learned. That, and really take the time to make sure your story is not only well-written, but that is says something (artistically) that you want to say as an individual.

In the case of Buffalo Boys, it’s that the consequences of your actions are much more far reaching than you ever might have thought. And don’t ever forget to treat each member of your production team like the invaluable gear in the machine that they are- from extras to PA’s and your DP.

Keep your team happy and the energy on set positive and clear and everything will go much smoother and you’ll get exactly what you need to make a great movie.

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced!

Nelson Cheng on “The Magic Life”

What was your filmmaking background before setting out to make "The Magic Life"?

NELSON: I had just produced my first web series (The Consultants) -- so my background was pretty light. However, after the rush and angst of learning everything that you do the first time you produce something, I realized that I both had a decent amount of film equipment (or knowledge of) and connections to cinematographers and other film professionals that my mind started expanding in terms of the types of projects I could do. A documentary seemed daunting but feasible.

Where did the idea come from and what was your process for determining the film's subjects? 

NELSON: At the time, I was a member of the Magic Castle -- it's sort of the home / clubhouse for magician's all around the world and as a consequence, I got to know a lot of magicians.

A story I often heard was something along the lines of that these magicians would meet someone, and that person would inevitably ask what they did. They would say they're a magician and the person would say something like, "Oh that's fantastic! That's great!" Then there would be this pause and they would be asked, "So what is it you actually do?" The original conceit was a documentary looking at "the business side of being a magician" -- this profession that people couldn't even conceive of as being a profession. 

In terms of determining the film's subjects -- initially, I just started filming magicians. I would then ask those magicians if they knew anyone else I should talk to and one magician led to another until I reached Dale Salwak -- a significant character in the film who runs the Chavez Studio of Magic.

At the time, one of his students was Yang Yang, one of the film's main subjects. He had a certain joie de vivre that I responded to and we filmed a lot of Yang Yang and originally built much of the film around him. However, after sharing some early footage with a very important contributor -- Penelope Falk (who won the editing prize at Sundance for "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work") -- Penny just thought we needed more and asked who else I had / knew.

The first two names I mentioned were Matthew Noah Falk (I described him as a 20-something living a block from the Magic Castle and performing for tips on Hollywood Boulevard) and Michael Friedland (I described him as an NYU MBA graduate, successful in business, and just moved to L.A. to pursue a career in magic.) She said, "Those two sound interesting. I would go film them." So we did. 

Can you talk about how you raised your budget and your financial plan for recouping your costs? 

NELSON: This project was self-financed. It's never cheap making films, but certainly the production costs of a documentary can be kept quite manageable. For me, at least, it's post and then festival / marketing related expenses which proved to be the majority of expenses.

Regarding a financial plan for recouping costs -- I think the strong likelihood is I won't recoup the costs. Statistically, there are just very few docs that recoup their costs. The sale prices and other revenue simply aren't high enough. That being said, and I'm certainly not alone among filmmakers who feel this way, but simply hearing from and interacting with people who respond to and with whom this film resonates with has made it all worthwhile. 

What camera(s) did you use and what did you love and hate about it? 

NELSON: We used a number of different cameras. We primarily shot on the HVX-200 but also used the AF-100, the 7D, and -- believe it or not -- there's some footage from the Flip HD. I was pretty stunned that the Flip HD could hold up when blown up to a theater-size screen. It's not ideal, but usable.

Also, a lot of those shots we simply would not have gotten or would've had a lot of trouble getting if we didn't have such a small / convenient camera available. The HVX-200 is a good camera -- it's a real workhorse. The main drawback for me is that it's not that good in low light conditions.

Also, no interchangeable lenses and the offloading of footage is a little cumbersome. The AF-100 (at the time I had only rented the camera -- now I own one), I think, is better than the HVX in every way. Bigger chip size, very good in low light conditions, interchangeable lenses, shoots to CF, etc. It's really terrific -- if I did another doc, I would primarily use the AF-100. The 7D (and 5D Mark II) are really difficult cameras to use for shooting docs. Much harder to manage because you'll want to record sound to something like the Zoom H4n and the camera has that automatic shutoff thing after 10 min, etc. It's just not designed for docs -- the workflow is quite messy.

The Flip HD -- I certainly can think of improvements. Would love even higher picture quality (terrible in low light conditions) and just an overall upgrade in terms of its audio which can be quite bad -- but it's hard to beat its portability. I usually had a couple of Flip cams lying around just to take something spur of the moment.

How long did shooting take and did your vision for the movie change much during the shooting and editing process?

NELSON: We shot for about a year and a half. The vision changed quite a bit, frankly. I started off wanting to make something probably a lot more analytical -- investigating the business side of being a magician.  

Over time, it evolved into something -- for me at least, that was much more visceral -- following the stories of three fairly different individuals as they try and turn their passion into their career. What was great about how it evolved was that it both gave a framework with which to look at the larger world of magic (talking to builders of magic, world champions of magic, famous magicians, etc.) but also asked questions along the lines of why some people make it and some don't -- how much of it is talent vs. attitude vs. perspective vs. support system, etc.

What was the smartest thing you did during production? The dumbest?

NELSON: The two smartest things were getting more experienced people involved and to just start filming. Re: getting more experienced people involved -- as an example, I met Seth Keal -- one of the producers on "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" after one of their Sundance screenings. I just loved that film and frankly, started randomly talking to him. He's a magician himself, became interested in the project, and offered to help.

In addition to literally sharing all the details of what they shot "Joan" on (literally sending me links to the various pieces of equipment on B&H), he also introduced me to Penny Falk -- their editor.

As I mentioned earlier, Penny was instrumental in helping guide and shape the film from some of its earliest stages and introduced me to our wonderful editor, Erik Dugger, with whom she had previously co-edited a film. Penny felt that Erik's sensibility would both work well for this film and also that he and I would work well together -- and she was absolutely right. 

The reason I also mention to just start filming was that I think it would been easy for me to sort of sit in stagnation -- especially because I didn't have any experience. So I could hang out for a long time paralyzed by fear of not knowing what I was doing, or that I was making a mistake, or even being afraid of what other people might say.  

What was good about filming immediately was that one thing always led to another and, frankly, you start seeing problems and solving them -- especially when you get people involved.  

As a minor example, there's a scene in the film where one of our characters, Yang Yang, meets Lance Burton. I remember looking at the footage and just thinking it was a bit dark -- I mentioned this to Seth and he immediately told me, "Oh, buy an onboard light." That solved it. So sometimes it was small things and other times it was big things -- but by doing, we could get to fixing issues quickly rather than planning ourselves into oblivion.

The dumbest thing, and I'm not trying to be clever with this answer -- but it's the same two things, but on the flip side. I wish I got even more people involved. I'm certainly more secure and knowledgeable now in terms of what I know I can do and what I don't -- but at the time, everything was just such a mystery to me and I didn't always feel comfortable reaching out for help.

Or even knowing who to go to. I've thought about this in the context of when I was a product manager. When I worked as a PM, I liked to gather as much information as possible -- at times, I would literally read every customer service email for the products I worked on. The vast majority of information I came across was not actionable -- but some percentage was and all of it helped shape my view of the product.

So someone might have a thought on a particular sequence or music cue or even a magician that could strength a storyline -- all of it helps contribute to making an even stronger film and so I would've liked to have really pushed myself more in that aspect.

Re: filming right away -- I think it's always a fine balance between preparation and just doing it. I know people on the extremes -- those that plan so much they never do anything and those that do things too soon and could benefit from even a modicum of planning. I recently read an interview with David France, whose documentary, "How to Survive a Plague" is Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary this year.

In it, he mentions that in preparation for making the doc (he was a first time filmmaker), he watched a documentary every day, for two years. What fantastic preparation. So that's a great lesson for me -- do but always push yourself in terms of how much you can prepare. 

What has been the reaction to the movie by its subjects?

NELSON: I would say surprisingly good. Positive feedback from all of them and a number of subjects have appeared with us for various Q&As and the like. I only use the word surprisingly because being in a documentary is quite an intimate experience -- and we get to see many of our subjects in fairly substantive / private moments, so you never know how someone will react when they see it in that format.

I think one of the pieces of feedback that I've felt most proud of is when subjects or their friends say something along the lines of, "That's you." -- which I interpret as us having really captured the spirit and essence of who they are and those circumstances.  

And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you have taken to other projects?

NELSON: I found making a film to be a fairly complete and fascinating process. I mentioned earlier that I used to work as a product manager -- as great and challenging of a job as that is, it's very different in the sense that there's a lot of visible and invisible institutional support / structure.

That's something that was quite apparent when I started making this film -- there's no structure around you. Everything has to be built from the ground up -- from the nuts and bolts logistics to the network you invariably need. I think the biggest thing I learned was that anything -- whether it's something completely brand new or a close variant of something you've previously done -- there's just a process and a way things are done or could be done.

It's learning those things and just incrementally learning, getting better, and moving forward. Not to be paralyzed by the enormity of it all. There may be 1000 things you don't know at the start, but if you learn 3 of them every day -- you'll get there in a year. 

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced! 

Kathleen Behun on "21 Days"

What was your filmmaking background before making "21 Days"?

KATHLEEN: I had written and directed three dramatic short films prior to 21 Days which had garnered a fair amount of acclaim on the festival circuit. I also had written several feature spec scripts that had won a number of screenwriting awards; one of which was optioned by Academy Award-winning producer, Irwin Winkler

But before I was a filmmaker, I had been an actress.  And I’ve always told people that Acting taught me how to direct; Directing taught me how to act; Writing made me better at both, but that reading, being a voracious reader, was the foundation of all of these disciplines. There’s something about reading- novels and short stories especially- which feeds the imagination and creativity in ways than any other art form.  In fact, when James Dean first burst onto the scene in the 1950’s, he once was interviewed and asked what he attributed his talent to as an actor, and he replied simply, “Reading.
Where did the idea come from and what was the process for writing the script and getting the script ready to shoot?

KATHLEEN: The idea for the film was first born out of frustration. I had another feature spec script, a supernatural thriller, which for five years had been financed on five different occasions with financing falling through each time for a myriad of reasons.

I realized the years were passing and I still hadn’t directed my first feature, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and write another script that was low budget enough I could self finance, yet commercial enough to attract studios and distributors. Even though I had made my name in the indie world as a filmmaker of dramatic short films, I was being encouraged by my agent at the time and various producers, to channel my energies into more genre-oriented material for my first feature. This was actually an easy transition for me as I had long been interested in the classic genre films such as, The Exorcist and The Omen, as well as Gore Verbinski’s version of The Ring.

21 Days was actually inspired by all of the paranormal investigator shows that had become popular on television, especially those where a group of investigators lock themselves inside a house for one night to capture on film the supernatural phenomena which occurs. I then thought, one night locked inside a haunted location would be scary, but something longer such as, 21 days, would be terrifying.

I also became intrigued by a few true stories I had read about where people had abandoned their home with all their belongings behind, even letting their home fall into foreclosure, because they were too terrified to live there any longer because of the paranormal events that were occurring. Can you imagine? A place that haunted where you’re willing to leave behind everything and lose your home to foreclosure because you can no longer bear to stay in the home?  These were some of the stories that served as inspiration for my film, as well as the notion that it’s not the house that’s haunted or evil, but rather the land it sits on.

I wrote the script in about a month and then took another two to three months to polish it, all the while searching for film locations. It took me a total of five months of traversing Southern California to find the right house for the film. Because to me, the house is the main character in the film, and until I found the right house, I was unwilling to begin filming.  And I was fortunate enough to find that perfect house.
What was your casting process, and did you change the script to match your final cast?

KATHLEEN: The entire casting process took us three months.  I hired Luis Robledo, who’s an actor, filmmaker and founder of Actor’s Gym, to be the casting director. He did an absolutely amazing job finding the perfect actors for the film. 

We received a staggering 6,000 submissions to fill only 20 roles in the film. And for a micro budgeted feature which paid little money, that’s pretty stunning. It just shows how many actors in Los Angeles want to work.

Once the film was cast, I didn’t change the script to fit the cast, but prior to shooting, I did instruct the actors to memorize their lines, yet be open and prepared to improvise.  

Since the film is found footage, the actors needed at times to make their lines their own in order for it to feel more “real” and off the cuff. I also firmly believe that a large part of the director’s job is selecting the right actors for the film; and once that’s been accomplished, you don’t have to “direct” them as much.

The actors were hired for the roles because they deeply understood their respective characters.
Can you talk about your distribution plan for recouping costs?

KATHLEEN: In order to recoup our costs for the film, which fortunately were minimal by independent film standards, we selected Galen Christy of High Octane Pictures to serve as our sales agent. To date, the U.S. and Canadian rights to the film have been acquired by Gravitas Ventures who will be releasing the film on VOD in April 2017, and later, on DVD.

Other territories that have sold are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and Taiwan. And we’re currently in negotiations to sell the film to a number of other distributors from other countries.
Did the movie change much in the editing, and if so, why did you make the changes?

KATHLEEN: For the most part, the final edited version of the film is very true to the script.  I had the good fortune of securing seasoned horror editor, John Quinn (The Grudge 3), to work on the final cut of the film. He really taught me an enormous amount of how by using fewer cuts, you heighten tension and suspense in a film. He did an amazing job of going through 24 hours of footage and paring it down to 89 minutes. His eye for how to cut a scene is just brilliant.

The one change he did make that was different than the script was by having the final scene of the film play over the credits and it works much better than how I initially wrote and envisioned it. I’ll definitely be using him to cut my next film.
And, finally, what did you learn from making this feature that you will take to other projects?
KATHLEEN: Trust your instincts.  Prior to shooting, and even on set, there are many people who want to offer their opinion on how best a scene should be shot/played, etc or even how the overall film should be.  

Yet at the end of the day, you need to make the decision and trust your own gut instinct for what’s best for your film. Most especially in the independent film world where the director/filmmaker has that sort of freedom to make those decisions and is not beholden to a studio.  

Why do you make films? What do you aim to do when you set out to make a film? To express the inexpressible... As a filmmaker, or any artist, the goal is to convey some deeper truth; a silent mystery, that ultimately cannot be articulated or even clearly defined, but yet, somehow, through the magical moving image of film, we can come close...

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced! 

JT O'Neal on "Au Pair, Kansas" (aka, “The Soccer Nanny”)

What was your filmmaking background before setting out to make "Au Pair, Kansas"?

JT: I graduated with a degree in history of art from Kansas University, though did my junior year "abroad" at USC film school, but returned to Kansas to complete pre-med. Then I got an MD from Kansas, an MPH (masters of public health) from Harvard, then eventually an MFA (masters of fine arts) in screenwriting from UCLA in 2004.  Au Pair, Kansas was the last script I wrote while in grad school at UCLA (which, by the way, is an absolutely amazing place to learn about screenwriting.  

NYU's okay for directing, USC's okay for producing, but UCLA ROCKS for screenwriting.)  I made 5 short films while living in LA (one cost less than $10, and played at about 25 festivals around the world.)  Luckily I made the major mistakes on the shorts, so I didn't really screw anything up on the feature.

Where did the idea come from and what was your writing process?

JT: One of my scripts was a finalist in the screenplay competition at Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA, and I attended the festival in 2004.  The opening night feature, United, was about this funny Norwegian soccer player dreaming of turning pro. The star, Havard Lilleheie, was in attendance, and I met him at the opening night party, and invited him to lunch the next day.  He was such a great screen presence, I knew I had to do a project for him.  

So before the luncheon meeting, I tried to figure out how I could come up with an idea for Havard to star in a movie.  How could I get a Norwegian soccer player to the US?  Why not make him a male au pair, that teaches the kids soccer. Why a male au pair?  Maybe the father died and the family needed a father figure.  And that's what I pitched to him. He said something like "yah, sure you will write me a movie" and just smiled.  

I returned to UCLA the next week, pitched this idea about a Norwegian soccer playing coming to a small town in Kansas to be a male au pair and help a recently widowed woman raise her two sons. The class (and teacher) just looked at me like what planet were you from. Ten weeks later I had the first draft.  

Then I moved back home to Kansas to make regionally based movies, spent a week in Oslo rewriting with Havard, then rewrote again, then the script placed as a semi-finalist at the Austin Film Festival screenplay competition, and that got buzz enough to get some investors interested, and I shot the movie.  

Can you talk about how you raised your budget and your financial plan for recouping your costs? 

JT: I raised $200K from private investors.  You never know who will invest in your movie.  I was in this antique shop (knick knacks, not really antiques) in Lindsborg, Kansas, a great little Swedish town in central Kansas, and this elderly man overhead me talking about location scouting for a potential movie.  I sent him a copy of the script.  He loved it.  Said he'd invest a small amount.  

Two years later he contacts me and says he really wants to see this movie made, and writes a check for $100K.  Within two weeks I found the rest of the money, and two months later we were shooting the movie in Lindsborg (and my Angel investor, Ron, had a supporting part in the movie.)  I have no idea if I'll get money back on the movie.  

At this point, I have an international distribution deal (TV and dvd), but the distributor has to sell about $125K before the company sees anything back.  Probably won't see anything from international sales.  I'm currently working on some domestic deals.  Theatrical way too expensive.  

I had great interest for theatrical distribution in Germany (the acquisitions person for the top art cinema chain there loved AU PAIR, KANSAS, but deliverables, including dubbing and 35mm and high def prints, etc, would have been $100K.  Not going to happen, and it didn't.)  Who knew making the movie was the easiest part of the whole process.  

It took me three times as long to get the deliverables together for distribution than to actually shoot the movie (which we did in 18 days.) 

What camera did you use and what did you love and hate about it?

JT: I used a Red One (it was hot shit back in Dec 2008.)  I loved it.  Amazing camera (even with the older chip.)  I can't imagine how good the new smaller Reds are.  

Why did the movie's title change and what was the thinking behind that?

JT: For international distribution I decided to change the title of the movie from Au Pair, Kansas to The Soccer Nanny.  It's just too hard to translate a French term into other languages, and very few people understood what it meant.  Even in the US, lots of people (well, from the midwest at least) didn't know what an au pair was.  

The Soccer Nanny just sounds fun (and it's actually a family movie.)  If the main character had been playing football or basketball (American football that is), the movie would not have been picked up for international distribution.  It's much better marketing internationally, to have soccer in the title, than either Kansas or au pair.  

What was the smartest thing you did during production? The dumbest?

JT: The smartest thing I learned was to get the best actors you can.  I was initially going to use all local talent in Kansas. Then a friend from London (great indie screenwriter and director Sean McConville), said it's too good of script, get it to a casting director in Hollywood, there are all sorts of great actresses over 40 who would love the part.  

So I did, and got the script to a casting director he used on his move The Deadline (one of Brittany Murphy's last movies--she was a mess on set, but that's another story), and the casting director (Cathy Henderson Martin, who is fantastic, by the way) liked the script and got it to Traci Lords' manager, who loved the script, and got it to Traci, who loved the script, and she signed on.  

Then with Traci attached, all sorts of other actors (including the amazing Spencer Daniels, who played the young Benjamin Button) signed on.  I cannot believe what experienced actors bring to their parts.  I can still watch the movie and be surprised. Traci is one of the most professional actresses I've ever seen (I didn't realize how truly amazing she was until editing, when my editor and I discovered that she matched perfectly on all continuity issues, sipping tea, turning head, standing up, looking, etc.  This is a true professional.  

I've spent a lot of time on regular Hollywood movies--my best friend, Peter James, is an A league Hollywood cinematographer, and I take my vacations and sit in his DP's chair on movies. The only actress I've seen that hit marks better than Traci was Kathy Bates. I cannot express how professional and wonderful Traci was on set and in the movie.)  

The dumbest thing I did was hire an immigration lawyer from NYC who said she knew how to get work visas through for actors. Nine months after I started, and one day before shooting was to start, I finally got the US to issue a work permit so Havard could come from Norway to star in the movie.  We had to delay his fist scene by a day, since he arrived later than planned.  

A few days before we were to start filming, I didn't know if I'd get my lead actor.  It was a nightmare.  I should have just used someone experienced in LA (but I was living in NY at the time.)  It cost me more than twice as much for the work permit and fees than Havard got paid to act in the movie! 

And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you have taken to other projects?

JT: I learned that I loved making a movie (writing and directing) and hated producing.  They are totally different things.  I'll never make another movie without an experienced producer to help.  The best thing you can do as a director is find a great producer.  It's over four year since shooting, and I'm still (today, in fact) working with the accountant to do taxes for 2012 so I can get statements to the investors.  NIGHTMARE.  

On the other hand, I probably shouldn't complain, as at least I got the movie made, and it has some type of distribution deal, and people have actually liked the movie.  Oh, I forgot about that, I LOVE the movie (of course, I'm biased), and I had the pleasure of making the movie I wanted to make, how I wanted to make it.  

Lastly, I paid for all cost overages (I call it UBO, United Bank of O'Neal), and I'll probably never see any of that money back (I could have bought two new Lexus cars, or five houses in Detroit).  But I got it done.  

I may never make another movie, but the proudest I've ever been was hearing that's a wrap called out and the cast and crew cheering.  

The main lesson I want to take to other projects: Don't use your own money to make your movie!  

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced! 

Joshua Sanchez on “Four”

What was your filmmaking background before setting out to make "Four"?

JOSHUA: I went to film school at Columbia University in my early 20's. I've done a handful of short narrative and experimental films in and out of film school since then. Before this I was just a fan of movies and I made music videos and skate videos with my friends in Texas. I studied Radio-TV-Film as an Undergrad at UT-Austin, but didn't really specialize in making films. I just had a passion for it and started doing it.

What was your process for adapting the play and what challenges did you face?

JOSHUA: The main challenge was to try to preserve the essence of the play without the movie seeming too much like a filmed play. I wasn't interested in literally adapting the material, but rather to use the character dynamics and situation as a jumping off point to tell the story. I also wanted to preserve as much of the perspective and the wonderful language of Christopher Shinn and not lose his unique perspective on this story, that was coming from a place of youth and purity.

My process tends to be a bit scattered. I write in short but intense fits and starts, then put it down for awhile to get some perspective on it and test what I've written. It took me about a year, off and on, to adapt the play into what eventually became the shooting script, although the final film is somewhat different even from what we intended to shoot.

Essentially the Joe/Abigayle story is a bit more flushed out and the second half of the movie reveals more about what is going on in the inner lives of the characters than the play does, which I think is necessary for the story to work as a movie.

Can you talk about how you raised your budget and your financial plan for recouping your costs? 

JOSHUA: The producer Christine Giorgio and I raised the money together through private investors and through a few grants and a couple of small Kickstarter campaigns. Our plan is to release the movie in a small theatrical run next year and through digital and DVD then to go into some foreign markets. It didn't cost that much to make the film so I think we have a good chance of at least making our money back, but obviously it's such a challenging time for small American independent films.  

You also have to think about these things in terms of building a career. This is my first feature film and I think its gotten a solid response enough for me to be able to make my next film. It's good for everyone involved because they have something solid to show to keep working and building on what we've done here.

What camera did you use and what did you love and hate about it?

JOSHUA: We shot with the Arri Alexa. Mostly I loved it. I think it was the right camera for what we needed and I think the end result was far and away more compelling that I originally thought it was going to be. We shot with these vintage lenses called Super Baltars which were used a lot in the 70s. The two combine to make everything look very wet and milky, which I liked because we shot mostly everything at night so it creates a really neat effect.

You can also shoot on this 'log c' mode that gives you so much latitude in the coloring process. It looks sort of shitty while you're shooting it, almost like a film negative would look, but you can do so much with it in the end. 

I guess the downside of that camera is that we didn't shoot the full uncompressed format because you need this really expensive drive to do that with the Alexa. But the post was a breeze because you don't have to do all that lame processing that you have to do with the Red camera to work in Final Cut.

I'm not the most techy director, so for me it was mostly a really great experience.

Did the movie change much in the editing process, and if so, how?

JOSHUA: The essence of the play is definitely still there, but we did rearrange and cut some scenes that were really different from how I envisioned them in the script. If you watch the film, the scene where Abigayle sees her father in the car is kind of a hybrid of like four scenes put together and that's how it worked best in the film. Some scenes were totally cut out of the movie as well.

I really loved working with David Gutnik, the editor of FOUR. He's the first editor I've ever worked with that thinks like a writer. Both of us are really story oriented, so we weren't too precious about what to leave in and didn't feel so committed to the original text. It was more like 'if it works, it works'. 

What was the smartest thing you did during production? The dumbest?

JOSHUA: Probably the smartest and the dumbest thing I did were both the same...trusting and not trusting the actors. My main process in making film is always in the casting process first and foremost. If I can choose the right people to inhabit the role, then a lot of my work becomes just steering the ship so to speak.

For the most part, I did that with FOUR and it worked and that was the best thing I could have done to make the film good. But there were a few times when I was unable to provide the actors with the space enough to explore how to best do what they needed to do. 

The dumbest thing you can do as a director is always to give in to the pressure cooker situation of a film set and then pass that bad energy on to the actors. I regrettably did that a few times, but thankfully not too much for it to affect the over all work of the actors in the end.  

And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you have taken to other projects?

JOSHUA: I think with every film I've made I've been able to take big lessons and pass them on to the next project. With this film I think that trusting my instincts will be the thing I take with me in the long run. Every time that I was pressured into something I didn't fully believe in, it turned out to be a mistake. Thankfully there was not anything major on that front, but still there were a few things I would have made different choices about. 

You should always trust your gut with creative decisions. After all, it's the director's job to protect the vision of the film and even if it makes people uncomfortable, the end result is always the thing that matters the most.

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced! 

Drew Cullingham on “Black Smoke Rising”

What was your filmmaking background before setting out to make "Black Smoke Rising"?

DREW: Black Smoke Rising is my third feature as writer/director/producer. The previous one was Monk3ys, an odd melange of Big Brother, SAW, some nasty whisky and the perennially funny situation of a grown man yet to have lost his virginity! It's a micro-budget containment thriller that riffs on the world of reality television, found footage movies and the sorry state of the film industry.  

It's also an experimental and weird entity that actually scooped the Raindance Festival award for best microbudget film.   

Before that was Umbrage: The First Vampire featuring Doug 'Pinhead' Bradley as an antiques dealer, stuck in the arse end of nowhere, who has to contend with demonic and vampiric grudges as well as the melodrama of his heavily pregnant wife and petulant step-daughter.  

Before that I cut my teeth on shorts, music promos, corporate crap and even some food television.

Before that I didn't know whether to be a writer, a photographer or a musician, and kind of thought that filmmaking was a good compromise!

What was the genesis of the project and what was the writing process like? 

DREW: This film really shouldn't be.  It just shouldn't. I lost my brother in 2010, so it was born from that loss. That grief.   

Monk3ys actually was a fresher wound, and has a lot of anger in it that came from that chapter of my life. Black Smoke Rising was written a little later, and was a cathartic experience to write, and to film.    

There's not a lot of biography in the film, but there is a lot of me.  I shouldn't admit that, but I can't help but be honest about it. As is often the case with me, the writing was not a tortuous process. The story here is fairly vanilla in terms of a hero's journey. The protagonist resists the call, then answers it, has help from a mentor or two along the way, and learns a lesson in the end. I wanted it to be a familiar structure and a positive message. It's a highly emotional journey and there are some particularly emotive scenes that had me pounding the keyboard through a haze of misty grief. I'm just thrilled that James Fisher did such a wonderful job of re-interpreting my personal rants!

Can you talk about how you raised your budget and your financial plan for recouping your costs? 

DREW: There's not a lot to talk about here.  

The film was shot on a shoestring by the small group of loyal and wonderful friends and brothers that I have in this crazy filmmaking trip. I'm so grateful to all of them, and thrilled that somehow I've elicited this kind of fraternity in such giving people.  

What few things we needed, in terms of subsistence, accommodation, insurance and so on - I paid for out of a small inheritance. As I said - in an ideal world this film would not exist - but it does because of the people around me and especially because of all that my brother gave to me - not just financially, but personally too.  

I could say that I just want people to see the film and to feel it.   If it makes a little money then great. In reality we are looking very seriously at how dead the DVD market is to films of this stature and looking to explore alternative means of distribution. The digital age is consuming us, not the other way around, so we need to be making our offerings as palatable as possible.

Why did you decide to shoot in black and white and what's the upside and downside of that choice?

DREW: Both myself and Glen Warrillow, the DOP on the film, are avid lovers of monochrome. There is just such simple beauty in seeing the full colour world in terms of tone rather than colour. I think it is a lost art, and that a lot of people just decolourise things and think that's enough. It's not. It's so liberating to get to the point where you 'see' in light and dark.   

Aside from that, there are a couple of reasons for the film being in black and white. First up I like the sense of 'vintage' that it brings.  I think it sits with the road trip, with the blues music, with a few noir sensibilities that I love.  

Also, the film is a study of grief.  It is a world without colour. Grief is such a powerful and horrible beast of an emotion that it can utterly consume you and affect every facet of the world and how you see what is around you. There is nothing else. It IS monochrome. 

Honestly, I don't see upsides or downsides to the choice. It is what it is. There are moments when I thought we'd inadvertently found some wonderful combinations of colour that nobody would ever see, accidents of production design, but that's hardly a downside. It really just affects the way you work. It affects the way you light scenes, especially when you start veering towards noir. We even created a gobo at one point, which is something rare these days, and a real staple of noir.

What camera did you use and what did you love and hate about it? 

DREW: We shot on the Panasonic LUMIX GH2. Everyone else seems to be shooting on Canon 5Ds these days, and I've done that too. Obviously here, we're talking about shooting microbudget stuff on DSLRs - which is so damn feasible now!  

I did a fair bit of research and testing and just didn't find the Canon to be what I wanted. The dynamic range of the GH2 suited me better, as did the clarity of the nice lenses that you can get for it. It renders blacks and highlights beautifully. Granted, it suffers a little more in the midrange when you blow it up, and perhaps the full frame and better sensor of the Canon can cope better here - but we were shooting black and white, with highs and lows. I had very little midrange to worry about, so I much preferred the definition that the GH2 gave me. 

I normally wouldn't propose shooting too much on DSLRs.  I think they just aren't suited for a lot of things. If you want a pull focus you need a hell of a rig, and by the time you add in a monitor, follow focus and all that you may as well use a full on camera. What I love about the GH2 for this kind of film, where I was more concerned with a beautiful photographic frame for the action to move within (as opposed to a constantly moving camera) is that (1) it takes such beautiful photographs, and (2) it is so compact and easy to get in places you just couldn't get a bigger camera, which affords you angles and opportunities you'd never otherwise get. 

Hate about it? Nothing. I knew its limitations. I wish the battery lasted better, and I wish now that they had a 3.5mm jack input for a shotgun mic, rather than an odd 2.5mm one.  But hey - you can't have everything, right?

Did the movie change much in the editing process, and if so, how?

DREW: Movies always change in the edit, and this one was no exception. There were bits that I knew would be MADE in the edit, bits that had no need for continuity of action but would be effectively a montage of soliloquy!    

Did it change profoundly? Not really. The first cut was mercifully way too long,  a relief since the script was actually on the short side. I'd shot way more than I needed, and was able to cut almost 20 minutes of stuff, some of that being bits of scenes and some being entire scenes.  I also moved a chunk from what was becoming an over long act one into the beginning of a slender act two and reshuffled a couple of things. Being a largely episodic piece this was relatively easy.   

The most important thing in any edit is good pacing, and having the ruthlessness to excise favoured segments in pursuit of that pace. Black Smoke Rising is a long way from an action thriller, but in some ways that makes the pacing even harder. It is a slow build of momentum that can only really be created in the edit, no matter what the script says!

What was the smartest thing you did during production? The dumbest?

DREW: Smart? I can't lay claim to anything of the sort! Haha.  

Ok... I think on any film set, especially micro-budget ones, there are moments where you just have to improvise. The shit will hit the fan at some point and the measure of the man is how swiftly and successfully you manage to integrate that shit into the seamless fabric of the story you are weaving. There's a scene in the film where the protagonist is contemplating an urn full of his brother's ashes, and wondering what size tupperware pot to decant him into for his trip, since the urn isn't really roadworthy. In the script he just chooses one, and next thing we see is him walking to the car with a pot full of ash.   

IN THE SCRIPT - when he returns from his trip without the ashes, the urn is on the kitchen counter where he left it.  IN THE FILM, he breaks the urn accidentally earlier on, and when he returns there is no urn (and instead one of my favourite shots where the entire frame is out of focus until he puts his hand where the urn should have been and his hand is suddenly sharp).   

This is because our esteemed DOP decided to smash the urn in an act of wanton clumsiness and I was faced with this horrible moment where I had to either (1) panic and lose the plot (2) freak out and try and get a matching prop (3) integrate the DOP's idiocy into a new story element and embrace the dark humour of it! I chose (3)!  OK - it wasn't that smart.  I tried to say I hadn't done much smart to begin with!

The dumbest? Without a doubt the dumbest thing I personally did was travel to the lake district in early October with just one pair of cheap crappy trainers. They got so wet after half a day of traipsing around the lakes that I was already getting tetchy. When, on a simple shot of a drive by somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales, I decided to inadvertently step knee deep into a camouflaged wet dyke (and I mean that literally!) that signalled the end for those shoes, and those socks. I proceeded to direct the rest of that day barefoot in the moors and dales of a flooded Yorkshire until a suitable shoe-equipped supermarket reared into view hours later.  Stupid!!

And, finally, what did you learn from making the film that you have taken to other projects?

DREW: Crikey. It's so hard to pinpoint this kind of thing. Everything is a learning curve. I've learned to consider what footwear is appropriate!   

As a director, every time you interact with an actor you learn a bit more about directing. You learn things that you can never really apply, but at the same time you are stockpiling experiences and ways NOT to deal with situations or people.  You learn constantly when it's best to trust your instincts.   You learn to trust other people.   That's a big one - part of the building of the team, of the family.  Learning the abilities, and limitations, of the people around you is very useful.  For me especially, as a weird kind of perfectionist (I think it's more that I'm a control freak than a perfectionist to be honest!), it is good to know that other people have your back and won't let you down when it matters.  

Mostly every time I get on set I re-learn everything, and I am reminded of why I do this. There is nothing quite like making movies...  

I used to think that filmmaking could never rival the thrill of being on stage and playing music to an audience. But it can.  I'd never show it, but I get palpitations when I know something special is happening on set, and it only adds to the thrill that there's a camera bearing witness to it rather than an audience.  Oddly enough it's a thrill that I can only imagine getting from filmmaking (as opposed to on stage).  

Dying to make a feature? Learn from the pros!

"We never put out an actual textbook for the Corman School of Filmmaking, but if we did, it would be Fast, Cheap and Under Control." 
Roger Corman, Producer

★★★★★

It’s like taking a Master Class in moviemaking…all in one book!

  • Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos

  • John Sayles: Writing to your resources

  • Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes

  • John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots

  • Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals

  • George Romero: Casting

  • Kevin Smith: Skipping film school

  • Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection

  • Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity

  • David Lynch: Kill your darlings

  • Ron Howard: Pre-production planning

  • John Carpenter: Going low-tech

  • Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking

And more!

Write Your Screenplay with the Help of Top Screenwriters!

It’s like taking a Master Class in screenwriting … all in one book!

Discover the pitfalls of writing to fit a budget from screenwriters who have successfully navigated these waters already. Learn from their mistakes and improve your script with their expert advice.

"I wish I'd read this book before I made Re-Animator."
Stuart Gordon, Director, Re-Animator, Castle Freak, From Beyond

John Gaspard has directed half a dozen low-budget features, as well as written for TV, movies, novels and the stage.

The book covers (among other topics):

  • Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories

  • Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature

  • Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) on writing for a different time period

  • George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget

  • Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories

  • Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations

  • Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive

  • Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous

  • Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget

  • Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget

  • Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror

  • Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget

  • Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting

  • L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting

  • Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing

  • Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres

This is the book for anyone who’s serious about writing a screenplay that can get produced!