The Crescent Curve of Popular Culture

The girlfriend and I are re-watching the entire Battlestar Galactica recent series on Blu Ray, the gift that keeps on giving. We even placed the two straight to DVD movies in their proper place, chronologically. By complete accident, I saw an original series episode on one of the new sub-channels for digital broadcast and I was struck by how different the two series are, if for no other reason than the aesthetic tastes of today versus 30 years ago.

I was a huge fan of the original BSG. Meeting Richard Hatch a few weeks ago was great because he was a childhood hero. He bridges the gap because he was on both series. Even then, one of the things we talked about was how they gave him not just a throw away cameo, but a real character with depth that provided an acting challenge.

So far (as we’re only at the beginning of Season 3 of BSG) the most striking difference between the old series and the new series is in the character of Baltar. In the original series, the part was of a guy who betrayed the human race. Why? Just because. He was the bad guy. Like the flaw in a lot of TV shows and movies from the 1950’s to the late 1990’s, there was no motivation or complications. The old adage “the villain is the hero of his own story” somehow got forgotten. In the new incarnation of this same character, we have a man who is rich in motivations, very real in intent, and relatable in his complexities. To show a person offered choices and making the wrong ones based on selfishness is a bit more “realistic” and relatable which exemplifies why the show Battlestar Galactica garnered so much acclaim in its current incarnation.

Since the 1990’s, we’ve experienced a surge in anti-heroes. Batman really is more of the Dark Knight when comparing the 1966 Batman to the 1989 and now to the 2008 version. That trend began with the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel by Frank Miller in the late 80’s but that realistic and very adult version didn’t start to appear on screen until 2008, and even then in ways for more down to Earth than imagined.

In popular culture we’re in a phase of “realism” and it’s even bled over into our fantasy worlds because the audience demands as realistic as possible effects and worlds like Lord of the Rings and Avatar provided. The goal remains to engage the audience by making something relatable to their own experience, no matter how fat fetched or deeply imaginative like aliens or robots or goblins.

In the 1950’s it was about the big spectacle movies, period costume dramas and big musicals. By the late 1960’s the pendulum swung back to realistic movies, like EASY RIDER and it ushered in a decade of similar such movies like THE FRENCH CONNECTION and MEAN STREETS. Then George Lucas came in with STAR WARS and ushered in another several years of big fantasy. Everything is cyclical, but even the current trend of big fantastical movies have a more “realistic” edge; trying to appease both sides.

Arthur (1981)

I recently rewatched a movie from my youth that I had seen countless times on videodisc (RCA’s analog video equivalent to the LP) and also on cable. I hadn’t seen ARTHUR with Dudley Moore in over 20 years. Lately, many films from my youth do not stand up to the scrutiny or aesthetics of what I like to see today, whilst a precious few still hold up or even find much deeper meaning in my elder days. Arthur had deeper meanings and even a few great lessons for filmmakers.


I even named my cat from a line of dialogue from this movie “Can we name our first child Vladimir, boy or girl?”

There are several major plot points that happen off screen. ** SPOILER ALERT ** When Sir John Gielgud’s Hobson dies; it occurs off screen and is probably more effective being that the audience filled in the blanks. It’s a rookie filmmaker mistake to always SHOW or SAY what’s happening. The audience deserves more credit for thinking.

Sadly, this movie has been remade with Russell Brand as the titular character and Helen Mirren as the butler. I don’t see how they can contextually make the scenes of blatant drunk driving and other aspects of alcoholism charming as they were 29 years ago, before becoming such serious and unfunny as they are today.

I can’t wait for this era of remakes and unoriginality to end. The cycle of bland, tasteless movies grates my eyes. I recently watched the 2007 UK movie (directed by Frank Oz though) dark comedy DEATH AT A FUNERAL, that was remade in less than 3 years. It was a wonderful and brilliant comedy and as suggested by Alex the Intern (May he rest in peace) as a great tonal comparison to what I want to do with Accidental Art.

The Verism of a Cubist

Now that the Sonnyboo Intern series is over (maybe), time to re-focus on some other objectives. Fundraising is difficult in the best of circumstances, but in a super recession, it is near impossible. There are some fruit still on the trees, but they are much harder to reach. Exposure helps a lot, so I’m exploring some newer sites to help get the name and work out there.

OPENFILM.COM shows off more dramatic and engaging works. Anyone can upload, but much fewer get featured. In the past 3 days, I have had 3 films featured, including Accidental Art, Refractory, and the now ancient Bitter Old Man. On the advisory board for this site are James Caan, Robert Duvall, Mark Rydell, and Scott Caan (which one of those names is not in the same category as the rest?). They have a contest with a $45 entry fee to try to win a $500,000 development deal to make a feature from the short film. Seems like ACCIDENTAL ART is a perfect fit, but $45 for a contest is mighty steep. I’m weighing it over.

Atom.com used to be AtomFilms.com which was one of the crown jewels of internet video before being toppled by YouTube, which basically destroyed most of the sites like this. Now owned by Viacom and networked with Comedy Central and MTV, Atom.com runs a weekly “get the most views, win a couple hundred $$$” kind of deal. I uploaded the Sonnyboo Intern series just because, who knows? Well, I didn’t. We’re in the top 10 with one of the videos, and in the top 30 with 4 of them. We have already surpassed the YouTube views by several thousand views. And then other videos in the series have 1-2 views total. It’s hard to gauge what this site is really about and what any of that means.

Fan Edits/Remixes

Most people don’t realize that the word “Fan” is short for “Fanatic”. Nowadays being a “fan” of something can mean getting creative with their fandom, either by creating a “Fan Film”, meaning a movie set in the universe of their story, or they can re-edit an existing movie. Today, with computer power and video getting to be more and more a part of everyday life, editing or re-editing movies into new things are hitting an all time high. In the short form, there are video “remixes”, like the misleadingly happy trailer for The Shining (dubbed “Shining”). Or people are taking all the deleted scenes and putting them back into a movie without the studio or director’s involvement.

In 2002, the first world renown fan edit hit the world in the form of someone taking the un-copyprotected Japanese laserdisc of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and re-edited the film, removing almost all of Jar Jar Binks, changing the running time by nearly 30 minutes shorter. Not only did they do this, but they started renting VHS tapes from the local Blockbusters and taping over the copies of the real movie with their fan edit. Here’s the weird part, the public PREFERRED this cut of the film. The reaction from Lucasfilm however was “You may not edit our copyrighted material without our permission”.

Here’s the greatest irony of the situation. George Lucas created the world where anyone could digitally and nearly lossless quality, and edit anyone else’s movies. Starting with the “Edit Droid” program, on to the latest Avid and Apple and Adobe editing software, we’re in a world where anyone can edit with ease, especially from a DVD.

On such sites, Star Wars is still the most re-edited set of movies by far. People seem to spend an awful lot of time trying to make the Prequels more of what they intended, but one version caught my eye and I have no downloaded and watched it. Star Wars IV A New Hope Revisited. There are hundreds of big and small changes to this edit. This guy upped the ante and did full out ILM quality CGI renders and everything. He even did a 5.1 surround sound mix.

It’s as if someone took the super-fan list of things we noticed having seen this movie hundreds of times from age 5 on (I’m projecting) and went ahead and really fixed them. Things like a line of dialogue from Han Solo saying “I know some maneuvers, we’ll lose them” and then showing a shot of the Millenium Falcon flying straight. Or every time they cut to a close up R2D2’s head, they were re-using the same shot from the Death Star even when he is in the Falcon or Chewbacca not getting a gold medal at the end, and all kinds of nit-picky details that only the most fanatical devotee would notice. They are ALL fixed in this guy’s personal edit of Star Wars.

Director’s Cut vs. Special Edition

Fans of movies love to see alternate or longer versions of their favorite movies. There are basically two different types of extended cuts for the most part, a DIRECTOR’S CUT and a SPECIAL EDITION. What is the difference between a “Director’s Cut” and a “Special Edition”?



I remember reading the back of a Laserdisc, an album sized video disc, in 1991 of James Cameron’s Special Edition of THE ABYSS, and shortly after a laserdisc of ALIENS special edition, where Cameron clearly wrote that these are NOT “Director’s Cuts”. Contractually, James Cameron had final cut on the theatrically released films, so his cut was the one released. The concerns about running time and the impact that has on box office returns is a part of his job and duty, he went on to say. Home video affords him the opportunity to add back in scenes and for James Cameron, whole subplots back into the film and they can be seen as alternate versions, and thus “Special Edition” is the apt title for these versions.

Usually a “Director’s Cut” implies that the studio or the producers made editorial decisions against the wishes of the director. In the case of James Cameron, he was fired from his first feature film, PIRANHA 2 THE SPAWNING and he did not have final cut. He vowed and has upheld that he would contractually have final cut on every movie he directs. After the debacle of what happened to Ridley Scott on BLADE RUNNER, you would think he would have similarly made sure, but even as recent as 2005, over 20 years later, he still has to release a Director’s Cut of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN because the theatrical version was not what he intended, although there have been extended Special Editions of BLACK HAWK DOWN and GLADIATOR released, that are not considered “Director’s Cuts” because in his DGA contract, he had final cut on those films.

Peter Jackson got proven right when he made KING KONG. During the LORD OF THE RINGS and the huge success of the “Special Editions” (not “Director’s Cuts”), when asked why he didn’t release the extended cuts of the films, he said that the only reason people say that is because they have something to compare them to, and that the initial films were very popular. With KING KONG, the main criticisms (including my own) are that the theatrical cut (technically a “Director’s Cut”) was too long and self indulgent. He even then released a LONGER “Special Edition”.

The Sonnyboo Intern Program 6 ; FINAL CHAPTER

Everyone Lies and Misspells

My reading habits have not changed. I read a paperback of some kind of pulp fiction, then alternate with some kind of film production book, whether it be a picture based Behind the Scenes, an Illustrated Screenplay, or a text based Making Of. I just finished one of the very few brand new books I bought, as I am addicted to Half Priced Books. I can’t even drive past a Half Priced Books without losing money and getting no less than 3 books. I just finished reading HOUSE the Official Guide.




Usually these “official guides” are not great. They tend to be fluff that just rehash moments from the scripts or worse have the producers and actors play a game of “State the Obvious” where they rehash what should be clear about their characters motivations. I hate those. This book managed the impossible and was a delicate balance, weighted in the production side, with some fluff, but not too much.

I loved reading about the various department heads and “Below the Line” crew and how they contribute to the whole of creating a TV series. Over 10 years ago, before I ever thought of doing filmmaking, I bought a similar book that strange as it sounds, taught me some of the best knowledge EVER about television production. The MAKING OF DEEP SPACE NINE, the Star Trek series had information on how a pilot works, how residuals work for SAG actors, the process of a “show runner” and how writers go from Executive Story Consultant to Executive Producer and what all that means. Learning that a TV Producer is more akin to a feature film director was an eye opener. Directing TV is not the same thing as directing a movie. There is NO AUTONOMY; it is such a team effort.

I feel much better about my book TALES FROM THE FRONT LINE OF INDIE FILM because there are more grammatical errors in the HOUSE book and that’s published by a big company.

Next in my film book queue is THE MAKING OF 1941, a period 1980 book on the Spielberg flop, that I sentimentally love.

Multimedia Musings

I own the multimedia playing device called the WDTV from Western Digital. I love this thing. I first bought it for the Cowtown Film Series (in 2009) because I hate playing things off an optical disc at a screening in the movie theater. DVD’s and even Blu Rays have inherent flaws in that the videos are greatly compressed to fit on a disc. So you lose color, sharpness, and basic picture information before you blow it up on a giant movie screen. This seemed counter intuitive. So I found this little box that plays the video in full 1080P HD glory off of a hard drive and if needs be, even in surround sound.

Many people are musing about the future of optical discs because standard definition DVD is definitely on the natural decline. Sales in 2010 are down over 20% from 2008 at the same time. Blu Ray has not taken off as it was intended, mostly because of the economy being stressed, which is not a great time to launch a new format, especially under Sony’s guidance which means way more expensive without dropping in price. Another factor is that the saturation of HD TV’s into the home is merely catching up to the Blu Ray market, and even then the importance of picture quality is not weighing well against the idea of re-buying DVD collections.



The other factor oft-theorized as to why Blu Ray has not expanded is digital downloads and file-based distribution of movies. Netflix’s ever expanding Video On Demand service indicates that the market is going for this hard. Between 6PM and 8PM nightly, internet traffic heavily takes a beating from Netflix On Demand, which now includes HD content. Does their “HD” on demand look anywhere near as good as a Blu Ray? Hell No, but as has always been the case, convenience wins out often over quality.

Back to the media devices… The WDTV models now have YouTube and Netflix compatibility, meaning even without a Blu Ray player, you can access the Internet and watch movies and videos like this on your TV via a media player box. There is the APPLE TV for mac lovers and various other similar devices from so many manufacturers.




One of the things people claim prevent the demise of DVD and BLU RAY are the EXTRAS, bonus features, and behind the scenes clips. On this point, I agreed… until this past week. As my recent blog entry told, I loved this film called MONSTER. On the YouTubes, I found a bunch of videos in 720 and 1080 HD definition that could be downloaded via Mozilla Firefox to the MP4 file format, which my HDTV can play flawlessly. I can see it in full high definition on my TV, which means in an entirely file based world; I can have a movie and all the extras.

My prediction for the future is that everything will go file based because at the rapidity of change in file formats, image sizes, and standards, being more computer based will pave the way to handle those better than physical discs that are locked into one size and format. As for “extras”, those will be given away freely online with sites like YouTube or any site where they can be obtained for anyone who does want them, and keep the files on their own hard drive or ported to media players for TV. These bonus features also serve as perpetual EPK’s (Electronic Press Kits), promoting the movie as much as “added value”.

I find I’m moving my WDTV around from my bedroom to my screening room (the man-cave basement) to work. I find that looking at HD content on the computer to the 42” TV versus playing it to the same 42” with the WDTV I can say with a large margin the picture quality of video is substantially better from the media player box. The added surround sound output means that this is the best way to view file based videos.

This is the future. I like discs and I love the “collection” feel, but in 20 years no one will know what a disc is, much like high school kids may not know what a “video tape” is now.

Industrial Light and Starz

In posting on the forums, I stumbled across a discussion on a Starz documentary on George Lucas’ effects company INDUSTRIAL LIGHT + MAGIC, aka just ILM. This 1 hour HD doc studied how this ambitious company shaped movies over the last 35 years. It was an amazing set of interviews and footage. Starz really went all out on this one. Interviews with Lucas, Spielberg, Ron Howard, and narrated by Tom Cruise.



Starz has been batting the Behind the Scenes game out of the park. In 2004, my all time favorite Making Of DVD came from them called THE CUTTING EDGE, not to be confused with the ice skating movie. This in depth set of interviews, B Roll and examples dissected film editing and its relation to film history.



I just got this Starz Original DVD called FANTASTIC FLESH on the special effects make up industry and its entire history from the first days to the most current. Sadly missing is Ohio’s Bob Kurtzman, even though his former cohorts Greg Nicatero and Howard Berger are prominently interviewed, along with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez with Frank Darabont.



And this is just a part of a DVD series from STARZ called “Starz Inside” where they examine the different departments and functions of filmmaking. I love it.

Monsters

This past Saturday I got to see an indie film from the UK about two U.S. people in Central America called MONSTERS, which is sci fi-lite. The UK director Gareth Edwards is known for making big FX for small $$$. This feature length film shows his abilities in spades.



The movie is slow paced, which for many viewers is apparently some sort of crime. I like slow pacing and especially when the cinematography soaks in the environment. The cinematography and sound take “indie” to an all new level, nonetheless the fact that the director/writer/camera guy also did all of the FX work. Not most of them, but ALL of them. Wow. They FX are on par with anything you’d see from a Hollywood studio production, but he did them all. From adding simple warning signs for alien invasion, CGI jets, to the giant 100 foot alien monsters themselves, Gareth Edwards made them all and inserted them into his film all by himself. Impressive.

Now the film itself managed to avoid several clichés I thought I saw coming and that surprised me a lot. What I love most about the movie is that it isn’t about the “Monsters” at all. That merely serves as a backdrop to a story about two people. Every movie tries to invent a world, whether fantastical or realistic, but we hope an audience can recognize and accept the universe we put on screen. Here, a filmmaker made a radical and beautifully damaged world as a backdrop for his story and I bought it hook, line, and sinker.


The local theater played the movie off of what seemed like a standard definition DVD and not in HD or Blu Ray. The details on text and little things weren’t that sharp, but the sound was killer and the camera work was so good with the soft focus (shot on a Sony EX3 with a 35mm lens adapter) that it was still a very theatrical experience. They only did 1 show a day in a smaller theater, but it is also already available on Video On Demand on several cable operators. Traditional distribution is on the outs.

The Progenitor of Processes and Statistics

I’m doing an experiment with this new web series. We already met our goal of 1,000 views on YouTube for the first video. I wanted to put the emphasis on the YouTube videos just because the quality has vastly improved on this site in the last 2 years compared to where they were in 2008. It’s just the main site where most people on the planet find videos. As much as I prefer VIMEO even for quality, it just has a fraction the number of videos and people, plus their limitations on uploads and bandwidth just don’t make it the most viable option right now.

I have however been posting the Intern videos on all the video sites I have accounts with anyways, but posting the links and doing marketing via YouTube. I posted the VIMEO links here on the Blog site, just to keep track of traffic coming from my blog to the videos in a separate tracking.

The results are that YouTube does tend to be the dominant site for people randomly finding the videos moreso than my own marketing efforts. My marketing involves posting links on various sites and forums related to film. The key is to be involved with those sites. Personal connection affects the reaction to the videos. If you are considered a “spammer” or an outsider, the reactions tend to be bad, although the ratio of positive comments even on sites with minimal to no prior postings was much higher than almost all of my previous videos in a similar scenario.



The last video has had a strong initial impact and the views went up higher in a faster pace per day than the others, but they are all steadily averaging about 20-30 views per day or so, taking into account the initial days of marketing skew these much higher, but taking that out you can extrapolate that the average daily views are somewhere between 20-30, and they become somewhat self propelling as I don’t continue to post links after the initial boost.

At this current moment, the views are as follows:
1st video is at 1,037 (Youtube), 2,677 total from all sites combined
2nd video is at 673 (YouTube), 1,322 total from all sites combined
3rd video is at 490 (Youtube), 978 total from all sites combined
4th video is at 443 (Youtube), 883 total from all sites combined
5th video is at 269 (Youtube), 521 total from all sites combined


So there’s one more video to go in the “Sonnyboo Intern” series. It could make a nice ending if we choose not to continue, which I am leaning towards not making more. As per the feedback and interest levels, it seems like we’re beating the same joke into the ground over and over again. I want to curb my obsessive-compulsive impulses rather than entertain them. I think this 6th video will be the last one of these, unless we continue during production of the feature. I think for pre-pro, we’re done. Alex had better start working towards his counter arguments to convince me otherwise, but I think it’s over for me.

Ubiquitous Carrion

As paid work slows down, the unpaid work ramps up. Time to put a lot more effort into FRAMELINES, our PBS show on filmmaking. I was changing directions on the short film show, as many of the films were not as PBS friendly, but they may really want this, so retooling the show means a lot more work. I still don’t know what is the best direction to take the show yet, so I am mulling it over. A more conservative, yet higher quality production, or something a bit more mainstream with a looser chain around the neck?



We shot a few more Rountables for FRAMELINES this week. I think the “Very Special Episode” for the 48 Hour Film Project Columbus may actually get bumped to either a double sized 60 minute episode, or possible edited into two separate 30 minute episodes. We have a lot of great material, and some killer soundbytes. Combine that with Mike Tavares working the crane with his virtual reality glasses to monitor, and we have a killer looking roundtable discussion.



Still, I’m dealing with technical issues that threaten to demolish one of the original studio shoots. I think I fixed it but I won’t know until editing. I love the multicam editing function, being able to “switch” live in post production, and then going in to tweak and adjust it after. It’s a strange and fun process for taking 4 cameras of the same event and creating an edit weeks (and months) later like it was a live event.



I’m gearing up to shoot more things like my 180 Degree Rule video and more short educational film tips. They are for the show, but they are also the most successful videos I have online. I like to teach. It’s something I enjoy. You can’t please everyone, but I never wanted to try.

Accidental Art Video Blog - Collaborating on Screenplay

The Sonnyboo Intern Program 4

Passionately Preoccupied

These new video blogs are popular with people I know. Maybe it’s the slightly exaggerated “me” or maybe people like seeing cruel and unusual punishment towards an Intern, but they are growing in popularity as we go. Alex’s idea of doing this combined with our team writing coalesce into combination of promotion and humor.



I initially agreed to make 6 of these, but we only had outlined 3 of them, all of which are shot and edited and out there. When it came time to do the next few, I had no ideas. Alex pitched me several ideas, and life imitated art whereas I didn’t bite on any of them. It did lead to a healthy set of combo concepts. The idea of doing some kind of homage to famous movies struck a chord with me.

To be honest, I wasn’t that keen on doing any more, even though we’ve had some really good feedback. The new ideas got me reinvigorated. I cannot wait to shoot these and release them over the next few weeks. The video blogs are simple and not complex, so no need for a lot of flash to them. There are several subtle touches that we’re doing to the insiders; things like my lower 3rd having a ton of titles whereas Alex only has “intern” and the like.

My deal with Alex is this, if we get an average of 1,000 views for each video by January, we’ll make more of them. I’d have to be really really compelled to keep doing these. I have other projects in need of attention, but as long as we can keep the quality up, we’ll keep at it.

Accidental Art Video Blog - Caffeine Free

top 5 MAKING OF sites

MAKING OF
http://makingof.com/

Natalie Portman is one of the founders of this site with tons of great EPK videos of behind the scenes kind of things.

ART OF THE TITLE SEQUENCE
http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Art of the Title Sequence has great info and in depth interviews and videos on the title sequences and effects for the coolest opening or closing sequences of film from the earliest days to the latest craze.

SOUNDWORKS COLLECTION
http://soundworkscollection.com/

For sound design, sound mixing, film scores, and all things audio - these videos are amazing and insightful for one of the most under-appreciated aspects of filmmaking - sound.

JOHN AUGUST BLOG
http://johnaugust.com/

John August, the screenwriter behind BIG FISH, GO, and others, shares opinions and ideas.

DREW'S SCRIPTORAMA
http://www.script-o-rama.com/table.shtml

An old classic that still has and adds screenplays, even separating the "transcripts" from the "screenplays", where one is a transcription of what was in the final edit, the other is the WRITER's intent. Great reads, especially if you read unproduced drafts or early drafts of film classics. I still recommend reading THE GREN MILE or SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION for the art of effeciency in screenwriting and description.

a confounded nuisance

Friday night I interviewed a childhood hero, actor Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica (both versions). He was doing an acting seminar in Cincinnati and we wanted to do a story for FRAMELINES. He was a really down to earth, nice guy. It turns out we know a few of the same people and that was a nice ice breaker.


As fate would have it, I wrote a part with Richard Hatch specifically in mind for ACCIDENTAL ART, but we’ll see if he’s interested at all or if schedules work out when it comes time to shoot the movie. So many variables can conspire to make these things not work out. I have in mind several genre actors for this very non-genre movie. I love the idea of casting against type. Taking a science fiction or fantasy icon actor and putting them in a dark comedy has the appeal to their acting skills and because most people would only want them to play a variation of their past characters. I know I don’t want to be pigeon-holed into any one genre or style of film, so I can relate to an actor not wanting to only explore one type of character.

The new intern Blog videos seem to be doing well. A lot of people are positively commenting on the various sites. We’re shooting with the Canon T2i DSLR still cameras in 24P. They take about 30 minutes to shoot and a little over an hour to edit, do FX work, and finalize. I have in mind about 5-6 of these total, but we’ll see if there’s continued interest. There would have to be about 1,000 views each for this initial run before I’d consider doing more. Right now, they are purely promotional for the movie and the simple fundraising, as something to do and create that doesn’t take a lot of effort, but has some entertainment value. I am learning something, as in I am doing some very complex compositing work with 3D motion tracking on multiple planes of focus, etc. I am putting the focus on YouTube over Vimeo as an experiment with these.

I re-edited FRAMELINES pilot episode. My original running time was 29:00 minutes and PBS needs 26:46 which meant some serious trims. From feedback at screenings I wanted to add more clips from the films we are discussing, which meant even more interviews being trimmed. I finished and delivered Friday at 4:00PM what I believe is a vastly improved pilot episode. I’m considering some kind of screening or debut of an episode and then highlights in February, which is when we’re now set to premiere the show. It’s been over a year since I did any kind of screening.

Accidental Art Video Blog - Screenwriting

Bedevilment and Predation

So we put out the first video blog for ACCIDENTAL ART. I think the idea of taking a few potshots at myself and my reputation will make for a humorous thing. People have a certain perception of me and what working with me is like. I don’t mind make a slightly exaggerated parody of this.



I started making silly pictures of myself and opening this up on Facebook for people to make fun of me a bit. Why not? Apparently people want to take me down a peg or two, so now they can.

We’re going to do 5-6 more of these. We sketched out the plan, and now that I showed how easily it is to do the FX work, the ambition rises. Alex had this idea that we expanded on and have made into something that is already getting some really good feedback.

I’ve been in something of a social coma of late. I have strong antisocial feelings towards most of the people I normally have hung out with. I’m in this creative head space and I don’t want to be distracted by unimportant drama. Word still reaches my ears about this, that, and the other in terms of who is making what movies and the opinions of such. I’m out of it and I don’t care.



Some people can spend years making movies and not improve. So what? I honestly don’t care what other people do or don’t do. It’s none of my business and they have every right to make movies and suck or not suck.

I just want to work on my own projects and create things that I like. Come January 2011, when FRAMELINES hits PBS, we’ll see how much I can stay out of everyone else’s business…since the premise of the show is to go onset and talk to as many people as we can about their projects.

Bedevilment and Predation

The Sonnyboo Intern Program

Gesticulating the Syndicate

I am going to speak at Ohio State to some students about film soon. I used to let things like this get to my head, but doing a little homework, some of the students I’m speaking to have been on bigger sets than I have. One girl worked on THOR and met Natalie Portman, whom I am supposed to stay at least 50 yards from. I was a PA on Traffic over 10 years ago, but that’s not a big deal. I’m not some huge success, at least not by any definition I have set for myself.



I’m headed to Indianapolis for a film festival soon, but it’s for RELATIONSHIP CARD playing. I got the nicest phone call from the festival organizers saying it was a great movie and that they watched it frame by frame to see my inside jokes in all the graphics. I’m glad someone did because I took a lot of time to write out a lot of little inside bits for that.



Framelines is coming along. I have to re-edit the original pilot down from 28:59 to 26:46 running time. I got a great suggestion from Tiffany Arnold when we screened this at IndieClub a few months ago. She said we should show more clips from the movies we’re profiling, and she was right. So I need to trim out even more material to make room for more example clips. Looks like January will be the premiere and that will lead to a lot more exposure for everyone.

It’s official; I have avoided a lot of drama in the local film community. There is a big ado about some people’s work and how they are presenting it etc. and I have no part of it, nor really that much of an opinion. I’m so buried in my own work right now I wouldn’t know what anyone’s doing. I don’t have time to care about he said/she said.

Because of the fundraising, Alex and I came up with a quick bunch of shoots to do as promotion. I think these might be funny and they will be really really short. People will like getting a peek at what working with me is like.

Director's Reel

After working on the site and resume, I realized my reel hadn't been updated in over 4 years. This is something I want to do for potential investors as we gear up for fundraising hard core. If they want to see some snippets of my other work in a shorter period of time, this is it. I'd probably also include the entire short RELATIONSHIP CARD as a follow up.

A director's reel is a tool to demonstrate a larger body of work in a short amount of time. You want to put your best foot forward. It's my opinion only, but I like to show some versatility too. I like a broad range of styles and looks, but I wanted to shed the look of my movies from 10 years ago as much as possible. I got rid of most of the work from over 5 years ago.

In the case of this particular reel, I still wanted to show 2 whole scenes to demonstrate storytelling abilities. The two best things I've got are a clip from HORRORS OF WAR, one of the very few things in the movie that I am entirely proud of and now from ACCIDENTAL ART, the short. There are snippets and samplings from various other projects, including my new web series, but that's for another time...

Revamped Revised and Renewed

So I have put a little bit of time into the Sonnyboo.com site again. It’s been a while since I did more than just change a picture or add a screening. In the hopes of putting good will into the world and seeing how much gets returned, I doubled the amount of music for the royalty free music, added some public domain videos, images, and contracts. I have the strictly voluntary donation button for Accidental Art on these pages. Money donated (not invested) from these sites will go towards simple things like the wrap party or screener DVD’s.




I put some real time into updating things like the images to HD (1920x1080) and adding new videos that will be useful. Fonts bundled together for filmmakers along with new storyboard templates et al will help a lot of people out. I found in the past that tossing this good will into the universe tended to see it come back, so I want to get back to doing more things like this.

In preparing for this marketing push, I realized many aspects of the Sonnyboo.com site have not been touched in years. My resume didn’t even include directing HORRORS OF WAR in 2005 or anything at all after that. I’ve consolidated a list of all the awards I’ve accumulated over the years and it sits at 16 total, excluding the award for special FX or acting, which are not awards for me specifically. All this resume stuff lead me to look at my Director’s Reel, which has not been updated in 2006, so that’s sadly missing my better work. I’ve tried to work on that for 2 days in a row but there is no time and I do not edit at home anymore.



In the last few years, I have not marketed myself or the work as much as I used to. Partly, because I have a life and enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and cats, but also because work and other projects take a lot more of my time away from those kinds of endeavors. In looking at the stats, the Sonnyboo.com site had dwindled in popularity. Of course, I had not been making as many movies, but in the intervening years, sites like YouTubeand Vimeo are dominating the way people see videos online, but I didn’t miss that boat, as my views on YouTube continue to skyrocket into the tens of thousands on some of them (not merely dozens on the others).

I also noticed I had not updated the pages for the older short films. They still link to outdated sites that don’t exist, but also they haven’t been touched in years so they do not have the embedded videos from the other sites. I’m still only halfway through updating these pages for individual movies. It’s going to save me a ton of bandwidth by deleting the video files on my pages and having the movie sites take the hit on downloads. Vimeo is my preferred site, but YouTube is not to be underestimated.


So I added VIDEOS, CONTRACTS, PRODUCTION PAPERWORK, STORYBOARD TEMPLATES, IMAGES, DVD/BLU RAY INSERTS, FONTS, doubled the FREE MUSIC , and a bit more, all in the name of shameless self promotion that helps other people a lot more than it does me. If it helps Accidental Art get a little extra, then it’s all worth it.

Genus Festuca

Yesterday we went to the Cincinnati Oxford International Film Festival, both to do a story on the festival for FRAMELINE and also because ACCIDENTAL ART the short was playing. We arrived a little late and I thought we missed my little 5 minute movie. Instead it played much later in the set of short films.



All of the movies I saw were of a surpassing quality of camera work. The prevalence of 35mm film adapters, DSLR, and the Red One camera are all raising the bar on indie film in a huge way. Digital Cinema is no longer hampered by the deep focus of DV and regular camcorders. Shallow Depth of Field and using that cinematic tool is now completely in play for under $1,000 cameras. It shows, people with no money are making incredible looking movies. The artistry and craft of cinematography has never been this energized.




ACCIDENTAL ART played pretty well. It hits where I wanted it to. The lines I thought were funny get a laugh and the tense moments make the room get thick. It’s working. I like being in a room with no lights and the sound booming from beyond the screen as we, as engage in the communal experience of watching a story unfold. I’m getting better at it, but I don’t think I’ll ever master this entirely. It’s a lifelong endeavor and I enjoy the pursuit.



We got an interview with one of the original creators of the festival. It started out at Miami University in Oxford Ohio 4 years ago and has since expanded into Cincinnati. There used to be a Cincinnati International Film Festival, and I attended the last one in 2003 where I had 11 movies play. These two festivals combining is a great chance for the good buzz to keep on percolating.



I did the Q&A after the block of short films. I love doing the Q&A with an audience. It’s the same pattern every time. You ask if anyone has any questions, no one EVER does. So you have to start talking about what you did and if you can find something interesting about your project or the making of it; inevitably someone will ask a question. I got about 8-9 good questions be rambling on about changing from the exterior location to the interior house which were 2 miles apart.

We’re trucking along on FRAMELINES. Doing more shooting than editing right now. I’ll get some more footage this weekend for the show. We’re snagging stories here and there throughout the state. I can’t wait for this thing to start airing. It’s gonna turn some heads and I’ll make some noise.

Peace out homies.

How Ohio Filmmakers Got Screwed by Politicians

I think all politicians suck. They are out for themselves and never for us, the people. I lean a little to the left, but who on Earth would want to be associated with the Democratic Party? That's like wanting to get beat up and have your lunch money stolen on a daily basis. Similarly, who would want to be affiliated with the GOP or Tea Party? Good God, it seems like your choices are either radical this or pathetic that. No thank you.

In Ohio, we have an ugly race for Governor. Two guys, Strickland versus Kasich. Neither choice is very good. As is evident, neither can articulate any good ideas, so they both sling mud. Unfortunately, it has decided to use Columbus Film as it's slime.

For one of Kasich's smear ads, he hired a local actor to portray a steelworker attacking Strickland's policies. Hiring an actor is hardly a new thing, bad, or controversial. Well, someone decided it should be. Someone from Strickland's campaign decided THIS should be the issue. Not jobs, not the economy, not gay rights, not terrorism... not anything REMOTELY IMPORTANT TO ANYONE. So they made this web-commercial (that may be airing on TV, but I don't know)...

Are you kidding me? from Jeremy Froughlin on Vimeo.

Thanks to the blogosphere, someone went so far as to research the actor and found out he had some kind of record. They made some blog entries about "Kasich hiring a felon" or something like that. This crosses a line for me. He's an ACTOR and he ACTED a part. Who on Earth thinks it's a good idea to crucify HIM in the name of politics? Which one of these two sides thinks causing this actor to NOT get hired because his alleged criminal record is now all over the web? Who thinks trying to paint some innocent actor who probably didn't even get union wages as a sex addict by using pictures from his MySpace page with a stripper at a birthday party? Who's looking out for the little guy? Who's looking out for privacy? What does this really achieve?

Now in the commercial above, they used footage from two short films from Columbus Filmmakers WITHOUT PERMISSION. The politicians and the campaign are claiming "Fair Use" laws to defend their decision to steal movie clips. I guess they figure "Hey, they're from Columbus and it would cost them more money to fight us than Hollywood, so screw them! USE THEIR CLIPS!".

Well, THANKS politicians. I don't care which party did what. That's not the issue. The issue is intellectual property and the rights we have over our WORK. We can't let fat cat politicians step all over us and use our clips in whatever way they want.

This is MY video to all the politicians. Get off your lazy asses and do something for the PEOPLE, not yourselves, you worthless sycophants.



I guess if they can claim "Fair Use", then so can I, right? Is there anything wrong with my artistic decision to show both candidates with random word phrases like "PEDOPHILE" and "TERRORIST"? I'm not saying they are these things, nor do I intend to imply such outrageous claims. I guess if they want to sling mud, I prefer to bring a gun to their little knife fight.

Why not go out and make your own videos with their commercials and FAIR USE it all up and go for the throat? If our once and future governor(s) can steal clips, then so can we!

These two idiots running for Governor are spending MILLIONS in TV advertising, and they want to claim "Fair Use" on using a poor independent filmmaker's clips? Yeah, even if by some miracle it's legal via a loophole, that doesn't make it right.

Arithmetic & Budgeting For Film

As the script revisions finish, the business plan and budgeting has begun for the next feature film. Since I was a broker, I have some idea how to write for the people with money. It’s never easy and it’s never fun, but I have a knack for knowing numbers. What’s odd is that most filmmakers are terrible with numbers. I’ve seen people throw out numbers and budgets as if they had a clue where that money goes or what it’s for when they clearly do not. Anyone who randomly says, “I could make 5 feature films for $100,000.00” clearly doesn’t know how to budget a movie.

A lot of people hear about El Mariachi for $7,000 or Clerks for $27,000 (rounded up from the actual $26965.00). Or the generic budgets of $1 Million for an indie film and they just turn into parrots repeating numbers they heard vaguely somewhere or they just pick a budget amount from a random group of numbers without doing any kind of break down.

For people who intend to make a feature film for under $10,000 some harsh realities have to kick in. It’s possible to make “a” movie for that, but its profitability is limited to similarly low amounts. The price you pay is a crew that is all volunteer and mostly inexperienced. There’s nothing wrong with this model and business plan, but it’s not for me and most people are deluding themselves into thinking they have the next indie feature hit film like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

The problem is when people have such a low amount of money to play with, like $10K and think that everyone will get paid at least something. This is unrealistic.

Here's a line item on MEALS alone....

$6 per meal x 20 cast/crew x 3 meals a day x 15 DAYS shooting schedule = $5,400

That's a combined cast and crew of 20. Add some extras and your costs start to go up a lot. Add more shooting days, price goes up. This does not include craft services either, as having food and drinks available all day is the least you can do for a free or cheaply paid crew. That $6 per meal includes beverages. Making that stretch and not buying pizza for every single meal is the art of a good caterer and there are some that specialize in film and video shoots.

Let's look at a basement low pay rate for crew. Let's say you are going to have 8 crew people.

$50 a day x 8 crew people x 15 days = $6,000

I don't even want to know how much experience your grip has if they can afford to work for $50 a day. I randomly chose 8 positions, some will cost more and in some cases, you might need more people, or less people at a higher rate. Most professionals start at about $200-$300 a day, and a good D.P. or sound person will be higher, especially if they are bringing their own gear to the production.

Right now, you are already over budget by $1,400 of your $10,000 budget and this is paying peanuts to the crew and nothing to the cast and feeding everyone for meals during the shoot. This amount does not include any money for tape stock, editing, on set special effects, stunts, props, sets, location fees, transportation, hotels, equipment rental, post production, editing, sound, deliverables, E&O insurance, Production insurance, contingency, batteries, walkie talkies, printing of scripts, printing of call sheets, production reports, taxes, and the few hundred other expenses that come with making a movie.

My advice to anyone starting out making movies or moving from short films to a feature film is to get out a calculator and work out some very basic numbers with arithmetic before spouting any potential budget ranges. Everyone wants to focus on the “art” and not worry about the costs. If you want someone’s money, you will start having to worry about the costs, or you will have to get money and hire a PRODUCER to worry about the costs for you. If you only have $10,000 – congratulations Mr. Director, you are also your own Producer.

That leads to another topic for another time….

The Pudency of the Pariah

I am attempting something. I’ve taken quite a bit of time off from promoting myself, the Sonnyboo.com site, and the free things I have for filmmakers. As we gear up for fundraising for ACCIDENTAL ART as a feature, it seems like a good time to spread some love, put out the good karma and hope it comes back.

I doubled the number of songs from 20 to 40. I think 8-9 years ago when I first put some songs out there, I held back a few things for sentimental reasons. Even though several of the songs out there were personal favorites, most of the songs were throwaways. I have become so disinterested in anything I did in music that nothing is sacred or worth keeping to myself, so I uploaded 20 more songs that either had quality (a relative term when referring to anything I did in music), or just might be in a genre of music useful to people no matter how much the sound or composition sucked.

I’ve added some new images, now adding HD sized (1920x1080) FBI warnings, film festival laurel leaves, etc. For video, I only had a countdown leader, because AVID users didn’t get one with their software and everyone else did. It’s still standard definition. Now I’ve thrown together 4-5 new HD videos of things too.

I think helping people is essential. I have to do it in the broad strokes because my time is not my own anymore. It’s important to pay back to the world for what help and good has come to you. I want to help others and I will need help in the future. Helping others first, and knowing full well that it’s a 1,000 to 1 help back ratio (if I’m lucky). The most I’m doing is putting the links for donations for INDIE GOGO and KICKSTARTER. Anyone can download for free and some want to give something back.

I’ve barely started letting anyone know about the site re-vamp and we’ve already gotten in $50 in donations. It’s a “soft opening” and pseudo beta testing. I’m finding more new things to add, re-arrange, tinker, and poke at the site. I’ve done some new designs and looks, and even this blog might get a little new look soon.

I felt like making a silly action movie style promo and here it is.

Draconian Disturbances

Oh how time dogs my every move. I have so much to do and not enough time. Re-writes are my highest priority. Learning my lesson from the past, I am not going to shoot a frame until the script is at 100%. The table read proved we were at 90%, but still not all the way there. My newly adopted method is to solicit more opinions, get more feedback.





I think it’s a great thing when out of all the harshest criticisms, there is absolutely NO CHANGE to the structure; the scenes are all solid. Just some character and dialogue tweaks. When the only major revisions are on your second and third string characters to make them as well rounded as your leads, then you know you’re working with a decent script.





In my mind, I know there are a 2-3 tent pole moments missing from this script and I need to adapt scenes that are there and make them better. I want the screenplay to be the strongest it can possibly be before I shoot. I did not do that on my first feature film, so I paid the price for that. This is my blueprint that the rest builds on. I will not proceed until I am convinced there is nothing more I can see done to the words on the page. Lesson learned.





Money has started to trickle in for ACCIDENTAL ART. I’m trying out the whole INDIE GO GO and KICKSTARTER sites. We’ll see if those yield any results, so far INDIE GOGO is more active. I don’t think we’ll see a lot on those sites, though. It’s all about private investment for indie films with a larger budget over $10,000. We want to book at least 2-3 name stars, so our costs will be higher.





Once we get enough money and we start to book talent, then the world will come down on us. The sycophants and haters will converge. I don’t care anymore. People will do what they are going to do. Don’t mistake my notating and predicting as actually caring. At this stage people are so predictable. One of my favorite lines from a movie rings even more true now than ever before…. “People are unreliable, but at least that makes them predictable”.

Maybe I’m too cynical right now, but that’s only in some of the people I know, not about myself or my projects.