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.

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.

Oligarchy in the UK

And the past comes back to haunt me again. HORRORS OF WAR, my first feature film to the uninitiated, has just been released in the UK on DVD as ZOMBIES OF WAR. I sure wish someone had told me. I’m only the co-director, producer, co-editor, and co-writer of the movie. It's always a surreal experience when your movie comes out in the UK and no one thought to tell the producers, directors, or anyone involved...

Also, yet again I cannot stress to them that the blue cover with armies of zombies looks cool, but is horribly wrong for our movie. The old way of getting their money for the rental and laughing to the bank doesn't work in the information age of the Internet. Every new UK review says they feel ripped off by the cover, thus letting people know, not endearing the public towards the movie, and creating bad buzz. That’s not good business by my definition. It’s a low budget B-Movie with the Grindhouse feel. If they marketed as such, we’d be targeting the right audience AND not alienating buyers.

Changing the name to "ZOMBIES OF WAR" makes sense. They are cashing in on ZOMBIELAND, etc. and the zombie film movement, even though it is more of what Quentin Tarantino referred to as the Italian filmmaking "Infected People" syndrome, not zombies as he so eloquently describes in the Japanese DVD extras for GRINDHOUSE (thanks McGraner!).

I am not thrilled, but at least it's out in another country! Getting the movie out there is always a good thing. Oh well, yet another DVD version of my movie for my collection. I have 3 copies coming from England already. I keep one sealed, one to open, and one to give away.

Abhorrent Submission

I just mailed out 4 more submissions to film festivals. That puts my total at 71 since December. Not all of these are ACCIDENTAL ART, some are RELATIONSHIP CARD going to the same festival, or sometimes even REFRACTORY, and in this rare care, it’s also UNCLE PETE’S PLAY TIME and HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS since this is for a comedy festival, but sending more than one movie increases the odds of getting something in the festivals.

I figured since I’m doing so many festival submissions, I thought I would share some basic tips, as I’m not an expert, so I can only give rudimentary advice, which I’m sure will piss off someone else in the local film community, but since when will it further my career to care about a high school mentality? My mindset is on a bigger playing field and I’m only interested in furthering my own career without having to step on anyone else to get there.

Why submit to film festivals? Most people have the dream of getting distribution for their feature film when a scout for a company that can release your film on DVD or even more rare in theaters sees it and cuts a deal, or even better you get a 3 picture deal at Columbia. This is the fantasy that CLERKS, SLACKER, RESERVIOR DOGS, ROGER & ME, EL MARIACHI, and BLAIR WITCH did to inspire the entire indie film movement. We all desire this, but the odds are stacked against us. It doesn’t look good. For me, I have a short film, so I’m merely hoping to get enough interest to help fund a low budget feature film continuing the story. The more laurel leaves I rack up, the more proof I have to investors that I am making something people want to see.

Most film festivals in Europe, Africa, and Asia are free to submit to. No entry fees to rack up, and knowing your movie has appeal in other cultures is a good thing. If I get into any of these foreign film festivals, I will use that as evidence to investors that the movies I write and direct have a universal appeal. Any OFFICIAL SELECTIONS I get from other countries just validate the cause. And they are free. A major secret tip, make sure on the CUSTOMS forms, you state that the value is $0 and that it is an “Artistic Sample of No Commercial Value” because in most countries, they charge a tax based on the value you wrote, so the film festival gets hit with charges if they accept the package. They tend NOT to, so your movie and submission will linger in postal hell in a foreign country.

Filmmakers on a different playing field use film festivals to network and market. It has replaced in some ways the limited theatrical runs at art house theaters that were booming in the 1990’s. Virtually every city has a few film festivals going at various times of year and the opportunities to get your movie seen on the big screen are increasing.

I include a nice mini-press kit. Color and Black & White stills from the movie, a 1 page filmmaker bio, and sometimes even press clippings; anything to set you apart from the herd. Of course it comes down to content, meaning a good movie, but even now there are a lot of good movies out there to compete with. The frills do add a special touch.



I’m not necessarily out to “win” anything, as in I am anti-competition. It’s more than enough to be an OFFICIAL SELECTION and get my movie played. The politics in winning awards and prizes bore me. I feel I can sell the idea of the movie without the wins and just the prestige of getting in. Someone else needs or wants the prizes, so they can have at it without ever worrying about me.

I submitted ACCIDENTAL ART to 3 of the top ten film festivals. I will walk on egg shells until mid-February to see if it got in to any of those. I have a festival strategy, but again my end goal is just in getting fuller financing for the feature length film, nothing more nothing less. If I don’t get in, that’s okay, as I have submitted to enough festivals I can expect more than a few to say yes.

I do feel this is a notable short film. If it does do well on the festival circuit, I wonder if some of these people who criticize me will finally let go of their prejudices or perhaps it will cause more jealousy. It is never my motivation, but it will be fascinating to see how it unfolds. Sadly, I believe more of my enemies read this blog than my friend

To my acolytes and enemies alike, I bid you adieu,
Peter John Ross

Kevin Smith's Big Business

I am a fan of Kevin Smith, the filmmaker not the dead actor from Xena Warrior Princess. His story of making CLERKS was inspirational for an entire generation of filmmakers, me included. The legend of making a film for $26,976 on credit cards lives on, but of course I have never used credit cards to make a film.

Kevin Smith’s rise to fame (at least with fan boys) happened in an era of the 1990’s where those circumstances do not exist today. There are so few movies with no name stars and the ability to look past surface to find substance is practically nonexistent, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY notwithstanding, as in those odds are so astronomically against repeating versus the annual sales and eventual theatrical release of no name star movies from Sundance every year during the 1990’s.

Now, Kevin Smith is about to release his first feature film from a major studio outside of one owned by the Weinstein’s since the 1995 release of MALLRATS, which was released by GRAMMERCY PICTURES, and indie division of UNIVERSAL, and sadly, as great as that movie was, it bombed at the box office.

I have a hypothesis as to why Kevin Smith is directing a movie called COP OUTwith Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan without his consistent producer Scott Mosier and without having written the script himself. He has to, if he wants longevity. The percentage of people who know who Jay & Silent Bob is pretty low compared to Bruce Willis and John McClane. A Hollywood movie reaches more people than a typical Kevin Smith movie, as much as the circle of friends I know are well versed in Askew language arts.

First off, given Kevin Smith’s penchant for being open and honest, especially on the college lecture circuit, this is apparently considered a crime in Hollywood. No one tells secrets, and even fewer tell the truth. The way he told stories of Prince, Jon Peters, Die Hard 4, Ben Affleck, and Tim Burton have probably made him a high risk to work with on bigger budgeted movies. Hollywood movies have sunk on bad press or any kind of negativity, and heads have rolled. Given the podcasts (or smodcasts if you prefer), Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace updates, not even taking into account his own site(s), Kevin Smith has very few secrets. This is the bane of a Hollywood Studio’s marketing department. They want total control over the films they produce and pay for. Kevin Smith has been unbelievably quiet about anything to do with his current feature, as in no dirt of any kind. Someone wants to play nice with the big studios, and that’s NOT a bad thing or a slam.



Secondly, after the financial loss of MALLRATS at the box office (even though it has more than made up for that via home video/DVD sales in every form), no other studio by Miramax (under the Weinstein’s) and the Weinstein Company (also under the Weinstein’s) would touch him. Bob and Harvey saw the potential in a long term relationship with Kevin Smith. They also saw a cult following which equated to a high profit, low investment opportunity in most of his films.

The downside is that given the circumstances, Kevin was locked into a near permanent situation with the Weinstein’s. Other companies are too afraid to take a chance on him both because of his honesty and volume, and the box office take on his last several movies. Even Clerks II made a profit, but the big studios want more than a profit ratio; they want to make tens of millions in profit. So that left Kevin Smith in a situation where if Bob and/or Harvey Weinstein didn’t like a movie he wanted to make, it probably wouldn’t get made.



After acting in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, and earning favor with Bruce Willis, combined with The Weinstein Company’s major decline in cash and production, these circumstances opened the door for COP OUT (formerly titled A COUPLE OF DICKS). Working with a more typical Hollywood budget, a lot less creative control, and yet with all the responsibility if it doesn't do well, Kevin Smith is now working for WARNER BROTHERS, and depending on the box office, may or may not get to continue making movies.

It’s my guess that this is Kevin Smith’s chance to get out from under the thumb of the Weinstein’s and insure he has a filmmaking future beyond View Askew, and might never have to be Silent Bob ever again…

But it is use a hypothesis. I will keep any opinion I have over the trailer to myself. I’m not a film critic.

Arbitrarily Ascribing to Arrogation

Slowly but surely my movie gets closer to being finished. Sound mix is officially done. I did some interesting panning for voices and sound FX to match the on screen action. The toughest thing to do was to add some room tone noise to shots that were crystal clear. Since one angle of an actor was noisier than the reverse shots, that meant I had to add that basic sound to these shots too. I hate making something sound worse, but it’s a lot less distracting than hearing each cut go from a sound to no sound. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it was not my happiest moment. It happens on shoots.

Two title effects left to do. I did the scrolling credits last week along with some other titles, but the main title at the beginning and the one at the end needed some motion tracking and insertion, so that was something TJ finished off and emailed me the project files. Either tomorrow or Monday I’ll insert these shots, tweak them to fit the music score by Bill Wandel, and that will pretty much put this project to bed.

ACCIDENTAL ART

The title to my next movie is ACCIDENTAL ART. It will screen on December 3rd and December 6th as a part of the upcoming COWTOWN FILM SERIES. These 2 shows have come together so fast, my head is still spinning.

I got a call from the theater, and the owner wanted to know if I was going to do any Cowtown Film Series this year. I hadn’t thought about it, but I knew I wanted to screen ACCIDENTAL ART soon. Also, I had never done cast/crew screenings of REFRACTORY or RELATIONSHIP CARD. So I started to put feelers out for a few shorts I knew were out there and got a pretty immediate response.

Within 24 hours I had over 2 hours of short films to play. Not a one of these are 48 Hour Film Projects from Columbus 2008 or 2009. My sole purpose in avoiding those movies is because many of them have already played in movie theaters twice in the last couple months. I like to show material that most likely has not been played in a real movie theater. The real reason I make movies is to sit in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and watch a story unfold in pictures and sound.

Since many of these movies showing will be cast & crew screenings, we didn’t want to charge admission, so splitting the box office with the theater was not an option, so we’re splitting the costs of renting the theater, as well as getting sponsors, many of which are already on board.


The biggest difference for this year’s Cowtown Film Series will be projecting in HD. Last year was on DVCAM tape, although great, is still a letterboxed 4:3 image with 720x480 resolution. This year we’ll be in 1920x1080 from an HD deck. I want the best possible color and detail, especially for the movie shot in HD. The colors and details should really pop off the screen.



I’m going to work hard to make sure the projection and sound is top notch. For whatever reason, I guess it’s respect for all the filmmakers’ hard work, I don’t want any screw ups or poor presentation. Few things in filmmaking are more disrespectful than not making sure you’re giving the best possible presentation to EVERYONE’s movie, not just your own. I was partly responsible for a screw up in the past at a similar festival, and I’ll never allow that again. It’s all in who you choose to work with, and I prefer professionals or people who care enough to work to make everyone look good.

The Cowtown Film Series is about the community. The selections this year indicate that the quality of filmmaking in Ohio has increased dramatically. While some local filmmakers are content to remake the same movie over and over again, most are pushing the limits of what you can do with a minimal budget.

Vapidly Insipid

So now the new short, RELATIONSHIP CARD is out there and racking up the views. I’m so proud of George and Amanda. For two people who had never met, they certainly had a great chemistry on camera. George thinks I should categorize this movie as science fiction. Not because of the graphics and animation but because he thinks no one will believe he could land a hot hot hot chick like Amanda and it comes off as unrealistic. Eh, people say the same thing about me and My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™ because no one understands why a hot chick like her is with a fat guy like me. Since I based the short partially on that reality and aspects of our relationship, it seemed oddly fitting to cast it this way.



Hopefully the video will find legs and other people will pass it along from to people they know. So far, the unbiased, I don’t know these people responses have been a great majority positive. It seems people who have been in a relationship “Get it”, and get it completely. That’s cool.

It took me months to do the graphics work. TJ designed the elements, but choosing the look, color, texture, etc. all were vexing me. It was a little too overwhelming to have limitless options. Most of my time was spent experimenting with looks, styles, and ideas. Once I established the basic “look”, it was only 2 weeks to animate and finish the rest. I may still revisit this piece in the next week and shorten it by about 10%. Vince Rocca, director of KISSES AND CAROMS actually took it upon himself to re0edit the movie and sent me a link. I liked some of what he did, but he cut more than I would have. Still, it was nice to have someone else edit the piece and have that give and take like you’re supposed to have with an editor. I wish I had more editors that I could approach to work on my stuff for free, but the best ones are too expensive these days.



Not much else going on. I feel like I’m knocking these “past due”, or “pending” projects down so I can keep on trucking. Work is busy this week (a nice change considering how dead it’s been of late). One of our annual big projects that dominate my life for about a week and a half has hit and “V” is NOT taking it well. 12-14 hour work days are unusual for me and my cat doth protest. Loudly and as soon as I walk in the door.

Last night My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™ went to see the new TERMINATOR movie. Dinner came out quicker than I realized and we had 30 minutes to kill in the empty theater. Out came my handy ZUNE ™ and we watched a DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART in the theater with one ear piece each. That passed the time with actual entertainment as opposed to re-reading the same 6 “trivia” slides. Is it really trivia to ask “What Oscar ™ nominated actor returns in this summer’s ANGELS AND DEMONS?” whilst showing a picture of Tom Hanks? That’s not trivia; it is trivial. Anywho, I’m getting some great usage out of the new toy my friend Moe sent me. I have also used it to walk a mile each day for the last 3 days during a break from the long work day. I am in piss poor shape and I need to address that even more.

Until next time,
Peter John Ross

Indubitably Implacable

I just finished editing the near picture lock on one of the two shorts I produced. I think we need to do a pickup shoot for 2 shots. This was 100% an error on my part, if for no reason than NOT booking a scrip supervisor/continuity person. That job is an all important function, but I arrogantly thought we could go without for a simple 3 page shoot. Was I wrong on that count! Someone needed to remind us to shoot coverage of these 2 lines and we did not. No one check listed the shots with the script and now we’re desperately in need to cover this hole. I won’t be making this mistake again anytime soon.







Tomorrow I should have a picture lock on the other of the two shorts. When I say “picture lock” or the “edit”, that is NOT the end of the process.These are all pre-FX and pre-color correction, not to mention the full sound mix, sound design, scoring, and title phases that ensue. I’m taking my time on each step because it’s not only education, but I want these to be great, not just good. I’m keeping that bar raised for myself and those that work on them.







One of these two pieces will have an intense amount of CGI and graphics work. This will NOT be simple or fast. Working in 1920x1080 at 24 Frames Per Second doesn’t exactly speed up any part of the process either. I’m used to working with standard definition 720x480 graphics, and this full raster HD in a 4:2:2 color space has my computer wigging out a little. Luckily it’s only a 3.5 minute piece, but even then, almost every shot has a digital effect in it. Because of the rigors of post production, I wanted to finish this edit first, so that’s the one that is basically done. I can proceed with the FX since the 2 pickup shots are non-effects shots and it won’t affect anything I do with those. Needless to say this bugs my obsessive compulsive side.







I submitted UNCLE PETE and IN THE TRENCHES to a few film festivals this past week. I’ve taken too long a break from that kind of thing. Time to get back to it and getting the work seen again. Once these two pieces are finished, I’ll really increase their exposure, and not in the poser-wannabe way I see in my cheap imitators. I mean, I’m going to bust ass to get them seen in real places.



I’m even contemplating a summer film festival of shorts. The question is, should it be a COWTOWN FILM SERIES one off event or a LOOK AT MY SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL? I think COWTOWN. The level of excellence for COWTOWN is higher than the way the last screening of LOOK AT MY SHORTS was just kinda trashed. COWTOWN also had better sponsors and I intend to parlay that much bigger. I think I can get some TV ad time on Time Warner-WOW-Insight to really get some asses in seats. It takes months to properly promote and fund an event like this, so if I choose to do this, I’ll commit to dates and start working in less than a month. So I think COWTOWN represents a more professional era and I’ll leave the LOOK AT MY SHORTS to represent the amateurs and posers, of which I was definitely in those ranks then, but not now.







Work has slowed some. What a shock! At least it’s not at a standstill. My prediction? Once we get to the June-July period, people will realize the world didn’t end and start spending some of money they’ve stockpiled. Then some new jobs will open back up and the injuries will begin to heal, slowly but most likely.



I sold several DVD’s in the last few months unintentionally. I always do my duplication at work, and so I usually have some discs lying around. Sometimes commercial clients want to buy a DVD; sometimes it’s an editing class student wanting either the book or a DVD. So I’ve decided to make sure I always have a decent amount of product around. I dedicated a shelf of product at work, and have a box of various DVD’s in the trunk at all times too. You never know when you might want to sell or give a disc away. I run into people from HORRORS OF WAR in various places and want to give them their free copy of IN THE TRENCHES, so keeping some stock handy will save me on shipping.



That’s all for now my bitches. Are you a pretty hate machine?





- Peter John Ross

Chancellor of Rossdonia

A province of Rossdom

Sycophantic Distance

So the shoot yesterday went very well. I couldn’t be more pleased. Working with a mostly female crew was great. We had a few dudes on the crew, as Gil Whitney was the D.P. and Mike McNeese was the gaffer. Rachel Hannah was awesome (as always), so the crew and the actors did a great job. Major shout out to Max Groah for helping us with getting the main location. Actually, everyone was great on the crew and cast.



Biggest lesson learned? I really really appreciate a solid art director. Leyna has a great eye and killer sensibilities, even though she’s a smoker. We built a set from scratch in the studio for this and for practically no money, Leyna pulled together something that worked well and beyond the cash value.



This was just a 3 page script and something very complex, yet simple in many ways. The idea of doing a drama and make sense with some level of depth, relating mostly to female sensibilities appealed to me. Helping put this together and doing this will give me some satisfaction.



We went 2 hours over my overestimation of the shoot day. It was worth it to get the best looking footage possible. I said 10:30AM till 7:00PM, but we went till a little after 9:00PM. Normally, a Sonnyboo Production wraps early, but I pushed for a better look and a more polished end product.

Today I’m converting all the footage shot on the P2 cards with the Panasonic HVX200A from their native *.MXF format to a Cineform *.AVI format for editing and color correction. I get the benefit of a free upres to 1920x1080P and a more robust color palette for post production, so the conversion is worth the 5-7 hours render time now, as opposed to later.



Now, I have about 3.5 hours of footage for what will be a 4 minute or less short. That means I have a lot of options. I will endeavor to work with the director, newcomer Joanne Fromes to cobble together a nice piece. She’s John’s sister and has some interesting ideas. We’ll see if they mesh together coherently. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ gets a little jealous of the time I’ve been spending with Joanne, but she’ll get over it.

Speaking of which, for Valentine’s Day, I made this video about the topic of SPOONS but alas it was to no avail. I am saddened. Many thanks to Andrew Kramer and Videocopilot.net for the cool graphics in my everlasting quest for the Spoons.



I have ANOTHER shoot on this week, so the busy time has begun for Sonnyboo Productions. We’ll see how well this whole thing keeps trucking along. There is a new standard and I feel like keeping the bar raised for myself. My standards were too low in the past, so it’s time to rise up and meet the challenge I have for my own productions.

COMING SOON TO AMAZON.COM and other TV and DVD outlets…


What up, my droogies?
- Ross

IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM on DVD

The feature length documentary IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM is now for sale on AMAZON.COM for only $15.99

CLICK HERE TO BUY "In the Trenches of an Indie Film

This movie makes a great guide for first time filmmakers attempting to make a feature length project, covering pre-production to post production and the marketing and promotion of the a film.

Bonus features include tutorial videos on storyboards, make up FX, editing, and more.

Support truly independent movies! Especially ones I produce....

- Peter John Ross aka Sonnyboo

The Guild and How they Got their Cashola

I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan. After recently getting the DVD of DR. HORRIBLE'S SING ALONG BLOG, I finally discovered the web series THE GUTHE GUILD written and starring Felicia Day.



For their first "season" (albeit 10 3-5 minute long webisodes) they primarily existed on PayPal donations... which I thought was illegal, but I'll have to look into their exceptions and how they did it. Now SPRINT advertises for 6 seconds at the head of each video and they are making decent money on the DVD sales and other advertising.

Everyone wants to try to turn the microcinema, camcorder shooting into some kind of profitability. THE GUILD has succeeded in that regard, but it isn't just a fluke. Some forethought and marketing went into their success.



Now the two most significant things in their business model to me was the niche marketing of gamers, formerly D&D geeks/current World of Warcraft and Everquest fantasy online role players who have an unhealthy addiction to their gaming to escape reality. A specific marketing target with crossover appeal made a perfect genre that was otherwise not being addressed. How many TV shows focus on that group and mocks them with a tender and loving touch?

Far more importantly, the writing is stellar. Absolutely witty and sharp, Felicia Day's talent as a writer and the importance of good writing in the end result of a "good" product cannot be understated. She followed the indie film commandments of writing for what she has access to for free, a restaurant, some apartments, a house, etc.; nothing too extravagant. In the current season 2 episodes, there are dolly shots and some obviously higher production values, but still looks almost the same. Filmmakers overlook that “normies” aka normal people don't really give a shiite about the slightly off lighting or framing in the earlier episodes of THE GUILD because they cared about the characters and situation.



I like THE GUILD series a lot. It was no accident, nor was it the luck of the draw that got this web series to be fiscally viable and very popular. The combination of niche marketing and sincerity in writing that made this a success on many levels.

CLICK HERE to watch THE GUILD