A Wakeup Call on Filmmaking from Night Catches Us #nablopomo #gbe2 #indiefilm

One year ago, I watched “Night Catches Us,” a movie set in 1976 about two revolutionaries from the Black Panther Movement, who are trying to move on with their new lives in Philadelphia. This dramatic picture took 10 years to make and when director Tanya Hamilton called “action!”-- the production was completed in 18 days. I was stunned at the 10 year wait for this film, since it is said to be an independent picture.

It is easy to understand how the financial difficulties of getting indies greenlit at studios or taking them into production off of the studio lot can delay a film for a very long time but if this is categorized as a low-budget feature, then why did it take a decade to get from script to screen?

James Cameron wanted to wait for technology to catch up to his plans for “Avatar,” which may explain the 15 year delay for that film. However, if a movie like “Night Catches Us,” with no expensive special effects or CGI requirements takes 10 years to make, then I must be behind the times regarding independent filmmaking. Low-budget films can be made in under five years. Jared Hess didn't take a long time to make "Napoleon Dynamite" for $200,000 -- so what is the hold-up with producing films that are supposedly indie and/or low-budget? -- unless these projects are being shot on film stock rather than HD or some other digital video equivalent.

You see, I wrote a screenplay for a feature length film that I wanted to direct over several years ago and this year is creeping up on the edge of a 10 year delay for this particular movie. When I first thought about the long time it took for “Night Catches Us” to come to fruition, I considered it to be an example that I shouldn’t worry about when my film was able to be made. In the Fall of 2010, I thought “I guess things like this happen all of the time and is nothing new for Hollywood or the independent film arena, so I should just chill out”….and then I came to my senses.

In comparison, since my movie has no stars and no crazy special effects or CGI….oops. Oh, wait. My script has animated scenes in it. Shucks! Never mind that part. Since movies can be made without celebrity actors or big budgets, it should have at least taken me five years to move a screenplay into the production stage.

Even if I replaced the star-power aspect of “Night Catches Us” with the animation aspect of my screenplay, my film should of at least been in pre-production by now, and it’s not. Instead, it’s been in development for like a few months, before being put on the shelf, where it has collected virtual dust for some time. The cause of this delay? Money and resources (which is nothing new). If I can get this thing in the can my future goals will be to avoid the 10 year movie production delays, at all costs.

I want to make movies, but I don’t want to make them every 10 years. We only get between 80 and 100 years (roughly) of life as it is. If you break the timespan of a single human life down by quarters the way businesses do their fiscal years or the way the seasons are structured, that is only four quarters. The first quarter allows us to become adults while the remaining three allows us to live the life that we make for ourselves. If I work on some kind of 10-year plan for film, that’s only like 7 movies in a lifetime. That is kind of depressing, unless all of those 7 movies are each epic opuses. Talk about pressure!

“Night Catches Us” (and even “Avatar”) was enjoyable to watch but I am relieved that it is not the sole model of filmmaking in today’s world. Indiewire reported that since his 2009 film “Alexander the Last,” Joe Swanberg has unleashed a swarm of features this year, including “Uncle Kent” and “The Zone.” If a guy can make five movies in one year or at least over the course of two years, then there is no way in hell I’m trying to wait to make a movie every decade. However, now that means I really need to get moving at not only making movies that I can afford to make….but also making more of them!

That seems to be the key to the whole movie-making career thing. Making a film is a great feat, but being able to continue to make movies is what filmmaking is all about; constantly learning, improving and keeping the world entertained.

What do YOU ALL think? How long should it take to make a movie?

This post is part of a long series of catch-up posts for my participation in the GBE2. It is written for the “One Year Ago” prompt from week #17.

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The ‘Criminal Minds’ on CBS Model of Film Distribution #nowplaying #indiefilm #tvshows

Often when a new episode of “Criminal Minds” is scheduled to air on CBS, I find myself in quite a predicament. Watching the new show will satisfy my quest for some prime-time television entertainment but doing so will usually also mean that I delay work, sleep, dinner or some type of household task. If I choose to skip the show, then I will have missed out on this episode, because it will not play soon in reruns like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” do.

When reruns of “Criminal Minds” air, these repeat broadcasts usually occur several weeks, if not months after the original airdate. By that time, I will have either forgotten about the episode, lost interest in watching it or will need to wait until it is available to rent or buy on DVD. Imagine how people would consume movies if the film industry operated similarly to the way CBS airs new “Criminal Minds” episodes.

In this scenario, movies would play once in theaters across the country. Release dates would also have one showtime for each theater instead of multiple showings throughout the day for several weeks until the DVD release. Audiences who did not attend a Friday 3:00pm showing of “In Time” for example, will have missed out on this movie and have to wait until the DVD comes out because “50/50” will be scheduled to play the following day, on Saturday at 3:0pm in the same theater.

A distribution setup like this could be good for theaters and movie studios because it may create increased demand to watch a particular film and anticipation for the DVD release. Showtimes could demand higher prices that were set either by the venues or producers or set differently between films. I’d surely pay up to $20 or so to watch “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” or any other films in the series but I’d be damned if I’m going to shell out the same amount for some crap like “The Box”….unless I had to because of set standard admission prices, which takes us all back to the first option and the matter of supply and demand.

Watching “Criminal Minds” has showed me, however, that measuring the value or possibilities of one-day windows for movie releases is not all about the demand….not entirely, at least. Since I already know that I can’t just can go “ooh, I’ll get around to watching the rerun this weekend” or “I’ll watch it online tomorrow” (guess what… new episodes of “Criminal Minds” do not stream on CBS or Hulu or Amazon or iTunes the day after they air), it comes down to a matter of either how much I want to watch the show.

While I like “Criminal Minds,” it is not my favorite television show, so I won’t be that disappointed if I miss an episode or two…or three. The same thing cannot be said about “24” though. Before “24” got canceled, you could not get me away from the television during the hour that Jack Bauer was on Fox. There are also a few other TV shows that I would likely watch before tuning into “Criminal Minds,” which goes to show that only those who really want to see a particular movie will make the plans and time to visit the theater where it is showing.

Maybe if movies were released on only one day and had only one showtime in theaters, we would have more choices at the local megaplex and more films would also get their chance at being shown to audiences in a theatrical capacity.

What motivates YOU to see a film in the theater instead of waiting for the DVD?

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http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-771-tv-post-mortem.html

Why F. Gary Gray is My Favorite Director

When thinking “favorites” as far as movie directors go, I find it quite interesting that mine is a rather unexpected one that surprises even myself. Steven Spielberg inspired me enough to leave fine arts behind in pursuit of big Hollywood bucks and red carpets.

After quickly learning that not only all that glitters ain’t gold but also I traded one outrageous dream for another, Robert Rodriguez and Spike Lee later helped me realize that movies can be made independently of a studio system but it would require hard work, dedication, talent and lots of social equity that could be turned into favors when production budgets are tight. So, you'd think that I my favorite director's name would end in "Spielberg," "Rodriguez" or "Lee," right? Me too. The thing is, it doesn't.

While all of these men are among favorite directors....and I’m talking top ten and possibly top five, none of them are THE favorite, numero uno at times when I have to choose just one. The very productive and versatile F. Gary Gray is by far, my favorite director of motion picture films.

Since the mid 90s, Gray has directed several movies including “The Negotiator” starring Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson, “The Italian Job” starring Charlize Theron, Edward Norton and Mark Wahlberg, “A Man Apart” starring Vin Diesel and the most recent, “Law Abiding Citizen” starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. The hit comedy “Friday” with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker was Gray’s first feature film, which helped him make a transition from music videos to the big screen.

I like F. Gary Gray’s work because he turns scripts into something that captures audiences by getting the best and sometimes surprising performances out of his actors.....whether they are well known veterans such as Spacey and Donald Sutherland or new talent such as actress Kimberly Elise, who starred in the heist film “Set It Off” opposite Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah.

To this day, Gray is the only director who got me to become such a fanatic about a movie that I own the home video version, the soundtrack and the original score with plans to purchase movie stills and also upgrade to Blu-ray despite the fact that I currently do not even own a Blu-ray player. If the screenplay was available in stores, I would probably buy that too. I’ve also watched the same movie at least one dozen times, if not more and can probably recite the entire film’s dialogue and act out the scenes, on cue. Don’t ask me to do it though, because I won’t. That is just for fun!

I used to toy with the idea of trying to get a job working as Gray’s personal assistant but didn’t follow that one through. I figure that it would be a double opportunity for me. I’d get to spend time with and learn from a director who I admire while also gaining valuable hands-on experience in my area of study.

There is no other director whose film’s I follow to the point that I’m buying the ancillary merchandise, reading interviews and studying both the important and the silly details about a movie......with the exception of the“Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” series but those films don’t count because who doesn’t follow LOTR or the Hogwarts gang?

What do YOU think of these films?

Who is YOUR favorite director?

*This post is dedicated to Herman Turnip at Terrible Analogies.

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