Future Filmmaker Friday - Iris, Campus MovieFest Winner for Best Special Effects

In honor of San Diego Comic-Con this week, how about a more geek-oriented short for this week's Future Filmmaker Friday?

This short is Iris, produced by the group Apeture Process at the College of New Jersey.  As with all Campus MovieFest entries, it was entirely produced in a week - a fact that will blow your mind when you see all the CGI and compositing it entailed.  I've listed all of the team members below but Joshua Lewkowicz was Captain as well Cinematographer, Editor, Writer, Foley.  It deservedly won the CMF Golden Tripod award for Best Special Effects.

This short looked fantastic on the large digital screens at the awards ceremony.  The colors are slightly less vibrant on YouTube, but it's still worth a look.



The rest of the team:
Andrew Kuserk - VFX, SpFX / Animator, Match Moving, Character Design, Writer
Steven Munoz - Actor
Alyssa Mangel - Producer
Ryan Laux - VFX, Compositing, Editing, Gaffer, Writer
Chris Lundy - Sound, Composer, VFX, Sound Design, Writer, BTS
Garrett Verdone - Voice Actor
Manuel A. Montiel - Voice Actor
Julie Rossi - Voice Actor, Catering

Also, some of you might remember Nicholas Sailer, whom I profiled two years ago after his film "The Strong One" won Best Picture and Best Director at the 2012 CMF Hollywood awards.  He recently let me know he'd finished directing his first feature, "Ipseity."  'd like to send him some congrats and give all of you a link to view his film online.


CMF is a wonderful program that goes to college campuses throughout the year and provides students with Apple laptops and Panasonic HD cameras to make short film within one week. Each school then has their own finale to select the best of the best, which then move on to the Grand Finale in Hollywood. Each week I'm going to spotlight another student film that impressed me.

Future Filmmaker Friday - "Forgot My Pants" from the College of New Jersey, via Campus MovieFest

Last week I presented you with a heavy drama from Campus MovieFest.  Now for something completely different...

If there had been an audience award at the Campus MovieFest Hollywood Awards Gala, this selection from "The Best Team" at The College of New Jersey would have surely taken top prize.  At one point during the ceremony, we were treated to a montage that featured a few moments from each of the Top 30 Films.  When "Forgot My Pants" came up, it seemed as if most of the crowd was spontaneously singing along with the tune.



It's utterly silly, but you can't deny the tune is catchy.  The committment to the joke for nearly a full three minutes somehow makes it even funnier.  These guys definitely have a sensibility that reminds me of The Lonely Island.  It's the perfect ridiculous way to start your weekend.

CMF is a wonderful program that goes to college campuses throughout the year and provides students with Apple laptops and Panasonic HD cameras to make short film within one week. Each school then has their own finale to select the best of the best, which then move on to the Grand Finale in Hollywood. Each week I'm going to spotlight another student film that impressed me.

Future Filmmaker Friday: "Stetson Street" - CMF Best Director and Best Actress Winner

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending one of my favorite yearly events, Campus MovieFest. 

CMF is a wonderful program that goes to college campuses throughout the year and provides students with Apple laptops and Panasonic HD cameras to make short film within one week. Each school then has their own finale to select the best of the best, which then move on to the Grand Finale in Hollywood. I was so taken with the quality of the films shown there that I spotlit a number of them in a segment I called Future Filmmaker Friday.

Longtime readers of the site have seen me talk about CMF a number of times before and I always enjoy attending their on-site workshops during the several-day event known as CMF Hollywood.  This year, their guest speakers included director Jake Kasdan ("Sextape"), director Tom Shaydac ("I Am," "Bruce Almighty," "Liar Liar,") screenwriter Richard Wenk ("The Equalizer,"), screenwriter Robert Ben Garant ("Night at the Museum," "Reno 911"), manager-producer Richard Arlook, and Black List founder Franklin Leonard.   I attended many of these panels and enjoyed mingling with the visiting college students and chatting them up about their work.  It's impossible to be around a group like that and not feed off their enthusiasm.

With another year gone by, a number of films from this year's CMF Hollywood have ended up on my radar, so I wanted to restore that weekly feature throughout the summer and it wasn't hard to figure out which film should kick it off.


While at the CMF Hollywood Awards Gala, I had the pleasure of meeting director Connor Williams, his lead actress Caity Parker and the rest of his team from Bridgewater State University.  Connor and Caity walked away with top honors in their nominated categories, Best Director and Best Actress for their film Stetson Street.


As each filmmaker is limited to only five minutes for their projects, it's really hard to do drama and have it resonate with the audience.  Comedy presents its own challenges, but in general, I think it's easier to try to be funny than to be serious.  There were actually a lot of serious films in the screened selections this year and I was impressed how a number of them would have been compelling even if one wasn't taking into account the fact they were completely made in a week.

I reached out to Stetson Street's director, Connor Williams, to find out a little more about his film and his CMF experience in general.

So tell us a little about yourself. How did you get interested in film? Where are you in your school career?

All my life I have been good at making people laugh. The feeling you get when somebody forgets all their troubles and just laughs is like no other. I had made a few skits in high school with a friend and hosted a few events, but by the time I got to college I had to turn this into a career so of course I chose communications. I made my first real film entitled “four score and seven years ago” when we screened it in front of 60 people and all of them were in tears laughing I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I spent the next four years mastering my craft taking classes and working on countless projects. I have just graduated and do part time work for a studio in Boston called Generation Cinemastories.

Had you participated in Campus MovieFest before?

All four years I have always been screened at my school, but I never won. It was a great learning experience being told that I suck year after year and only made me a stronger filmmaker.

How did you develop the idea for STETSON STREET? How did the limitations of one-week to shoot and edit it play into how you developed your idea?

I have always wanted to do something domestic disturbance related because of how dramatic it is. My actor Mark Cividino is very explosive and I wrote the script around his acting style. My directing style comes from experience and film taste but mainly from a short I did called FRED which takes advantage of those static compositions. The flashback technique is nothing new to film making and neither is changing time order. I have always had trouble fitting my films into 5 minutes and these two techniques really helped me condense my story down. My goal was to make an intense “trailer of a travesty” leaving the audience wanting more. I am also a purist and don’t really go in for fancy effects and camera tricks. I like clean story-telling and let the content of the film itself do all the talking.

How much time did you spend shooting the film?

The camera came a day late and I thought I was going to murder somebody, I thought everything was going to be horrible. We had two 12 hour days Saturday and Sunday and then a non stop three day edit. We shot the argument, birthing and grocery store scene one day and everything else the other day.

I think a big help to me winning Best Director and the film being so successful was we filmed the rehearsals. I would get Mark and Caity to scream at each other and then I would show them what they looked like and adjust the script accordingly we did this 3 times and I cannot explain to you how much this helped. It was the writing process.

Was there anything you wanted to do, but couldn't, due to time restrictions?

Honestly, I wanted to get the opening shots at a train station and that’s about it. I can’t complain one bit about anything other than lack of editing time. We actually didn’t end up using a lot of footage and the part where mark is throwing the clothes into the bag is entirely improve. I was just lucky enough that the audio was recording.

What - in your opinion - makes for a good short film?

Emotion, emotion, emotion. In short films it is impossible to develop characters, blow peoples minds with huge over arching plots and all the other dynamic qualities of features. For shorts you want people to get sucked in and feel an emotion for five minutes an emotion that will help them escape reality for 5 minutes. You can have a build up, you can have a little bit of a story, but in the end the audience needs to feel emotions. Also, a good score is vital, this film was nothing without music.

What have you taken from the CMF experience? What were your impressions of CMFHollywood?

I am proud to say that my university, along with Ed Cabellon, flew my crew and I out to Hollywood for free and put us up in the Sheraton plus paid for our CMF badges. SO, I had no expectations at all though knew I wanted to meet some people.

Honestly, it was the best time of my life so far. I met so many awesome people and got to here good advice from amazing people. The best work shop was “Life After CMF Hollywood”. So much free food and booze was overwhelming and really brought everyone together at the mixers and Jillian's. Obviously winning was the highlight of my week and the WD hard drive they gave us will truly help me get my production company up and running. My university is SO proud of me and so are my bosses at work. They both want to hire me full time now and it feels good to be wanted.

I just need to say this film would not be possible without Henry Carrasco, Jason Kimball, Billy Loftus, Mark Cividino, Caity Parker and everyone at Readville Productions.

Henry is one of the most talented audio engineers I have ever worked with and a main focus of this project was to get great audio and mix it in post and he did just that.

Jason Kimball scored the film and was Johnny on the spot with anything through production gaffing, editing, set design equipment, griping he even shot a few shots.

Caity, Mark and Billy were phenomenal actors to work with and are no doubt going to make it in this industry.

Readville Productions is a budding organization focused on comedic skits. We have a sizeable YouTube following and are always looking for more! 

When I met Connor, he struck me as a good guy and I can tell I wasn't wrong because not only did he make sure in this interview to single out each team member's contributions individually, but in our email communication, he asked me twice to make sure I didn't leave out the shout-out to his team.

You can find the Readville Productions website here. I wish these guys all the best.

Congrats to the entire team! I'll be showcasing some more of my favorite CMF films from this year throughout the summer.

It's the 15th anniversary re-release of GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE - an interview with director Joe Nussbaum!

This year marks the 15th Anniversary of a short film we've discussed a few times on the blog here: GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE. The film is a hilarious mash-up of Shakespeare In Love and Star Wars, as it purports to reveal the origins behind George Lucas's script that launched one of the most enduring franchises and mythologies in popular culture.

To celebrate that occasion, the film will be available for download on iTunes for the first time ever. It's on sale today, so check it out here. (And unlike certain other filmmakers, this re-release is exactly how you remember it - no new musical numbers to be found.)

GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE is one of my favorite short films ever, if not my absolute favorite. Written by Joe Nussbaum, Timothy Dowling & Daniel Shere, and directed by Nussbaum, it is everything a short film should aspire to. It's got a brilliant premise, it moves fast, it's funny and the acting is solid.  It feels like a lot of young filmmakers today try to catch attention with fan films of some sort, but I have seen few as purely savvy and creative as Joe Nussbaum's GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE.

So when the opportunity arose to actually get an interview with Nussbaum, I couldn't say "yes" fast enough. In the intervening years, Nussbaum has directed the feature films Sleepover, American Pie presents The Naked Mile, Sydney White, and Prom, and has also worked in TV on a number of shows including Awkward, Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous and Surviving Jack.  But it all began fifteen years ago with a memorable short film...

Joe, first, congrats on the 15th anniversary of GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE! I think some of my younger readers have grown up with YouTube and an era of short films being easily accessible on the web. Can you take us back to 1999 and talk a little about what it was like to make a short film - and specifically a STAR WARS fanfilm - around then?

Joe Nussbaum: In the pre-YouTube era, it was all about VHS tapes. I worked as an assistant in film development, and my boss and her colleagues would get these short films on tape from agents trying to promote new directors. I would look at the stack of tapes and think, “I want a tape in that pile”. So I got together with some friends from film school and set out to make a short film that would get me noticed as a director.

The hybrid short already existed before us (what would today be called a ‘mash-up’) and we knew these were more likely to be watched. Shorts like Troops, Swing Blade, Eating Las Vegas, and Saving Ryan’s Privates were more likely to be put in the VCR than say, ‘Dancing to Oblivion’ or something like that. So being the calculating mofos we were, we dreamed up a hybrid of Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love and hoped it would work. Lucky for us, it did.

As for being a Star Wars ‘fanfilm’, I had not only never heard that word, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. I never thought I was making this movie as a fan (though I was a fan) I was always making this movie as a sample of what I could do.

 STAR WARS is pretty ubiquitous these days as a source for fan films. Was that the case in 1999? I definitely have strong memories of TROOPS becoming an internet hit around the time of the Special Editions, and going back further there is, of course, HARDWARE WARS. Did you have any reason to think that GLIL could become popular to the degree it did?

JN: Popularity was the furthest thing from my mind. I really didn’t think anyone outside of Hollywood would see it. I just hoped that the people who could hire directors (like my boss) would see it and give me a shot.

In your mind, what are the components of a successful short film?

JN: Mostly I think what makes a successful short film is the same as what makes a successful film of any length, but beyond that, specific to a short would probably be the need to capture the audience immediately (first scene, first seconds even), move at a very brisk pace, hold some surprises, and end strong. A successful short should also have strong stylistic elements. It should have a point of view when it comes to style.

Can you give us an idea of how thoroughly you developed your strategy for using this film as a calling card? This was a time before YouTube metrics and Twitter tastemakers were able to get a lot of eyes onto something. Obviously people responded to it once they saw it, but making sure they watch the film probably was the hard part. When you sent out a DVD or VHS of the film, how did you make sure it didn't end up in the "unsolicited submissions" pile?

JN: I was fortunate that the people involved in making the movie were all already working in the Hollywood machine. I was an assistant at a production company, producer Joseph Levy had been an assistant at a big agency and was working with a manager, and Gary Bryman, one of our executive producers, was floating around in legit development circles too. So when we finished the movie we had a network of ‘underlings’ in Hollywood who, if they liked it, could move it up the chain to their bosses.

Gary quickly showed it to a manager and I signed with him right away. This manager then paved my way toward an agent, and all our submissions were legit.

If you were making something like GLIL today, do you think it would be as successful? Should today's young talent be trying to make their own standout fan films?

JN: I hope GLiL would be just as successful today. I think when people like something they like it regardless of how much other noise is out there. I think if anything, with Facebook and Twitter and reposts, the short would have spread 100 times faster than it did back then (assuming people liked it).

As for today’s young talent, they should make whatever they would want to see. Yes, we were calculating when we decided to make GLiL, but we also loved Star Wars and loved the idea and thought it would be really funny. I’m certainly not the first person to say this, but make what you love and it will come out way better. If that’s a fan film, then do that. If it’s something original, do that. Make what you think you can make great and special. That’s the only chance that it will work.

You shot GLIL on 35mm film which is significantly more complicated and difficult than it would be to shoot and edit on digital today. Do you have any thoughts on how the short film community has been impacted by the greater availability of HD cameras and editing equipment, as well as easy distribution via YouTube and Vimeo?

JN: I’m not really tapped into the ‘short film community’ enough to know the answer to this question, but my guess is that everything’s a lot easier, and a lot cheaper, and there’s probably a lot more really unwatchable stuff because of it. Which is actually good news! Because then when you make something great, I’m sure it can still cut through.

The DVD behind-the-scenes has a great story involving Steven Spielberg. Can I ask you to recount it here?

JN: So one of my good friends, Jim Ryan, has worked at Dreamworks Animation since it opened. And when we made GLiL, we gave him a tape and he showed it to some of his co-workers there. Well, they liked it, and soon more of his co-workers wanted to see it. Apparently, word spread fast, and soon Jim was doing hourly screenings for everyone in the building. Somehow, the producers of the movie Jim was working on, Prince of Egypt, heard about the short and said they wanted to see it, so Jim gave them his tape. It turned out that they liked it so much, they gave the tape to Jeffrey Katzenberg. And apparently Katzenberg liked it enough to send it to Steven Spielberg.

Then, from what I’ve heard, Spielberg watched it, laughed very hard at it, and proceeded to call George Lucas and begin describing the short to him in detail. He then, according to the story, sent Jim Ryan’s copy of George Lucas in Love to George Lucas himself. Lucas wrote me a congratulatory letter less than a month after we finished the short, and the first line was “Steven Spielberg sent me a copy.” Definitely surreal and very very cool, and yes, the letter is framed on my wall. And yes, Jim got another copy.

You have directed 4 feature films and a lot of hours of TV in the last 15 years. I'm sure it's not as easy as "direct a good fan film, get a feature" so give us an idea of what was involved in making that leap from GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE to directing SLEEPOVER just five years later?

JN: It’s funny that you say “just five years later” because at the time, it felt like forever. I was fortunate because GLiL proved to be such a well received directing sample that I was attached to direct my first feature within three months. That movie never got greenlit. But then there was another. But that never got greenlit either. And then there was another, and another, and another. Sleepover was, I believe, the 7th studio feature that I was attached to direct.

Getting a movie off the ground and into production is amazingly difficult. It could be casting that kills a movie, or a poorly received rewrite, or a regime change at the studio, or simply the whim of a studio head on any given day. Ultimately, there wasn’t really anything I needed to do directing-wise beyond the short in order to get a movie, I just needed the planets to align to get one into production.

It seems like - for the most part - your resume has a lot of projects aimed at the teen audience. Is that by design? Are there things about that particular genre that you really thrive on?

JN: I feel like it’s more a result of the twists and turns of fate than by design. I do tend to love teen movies though and think that high school is a fertile ground for both comedy and drama, but I’d be more than happy to ‘graduate’ as well.

When you watch GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE today, what does that film tell you about the 26 year-old guy who made it?

JN: This is such a great question and one I’ve never thought about before. I think it tells me that guy was very passionate and had a strong enough belief in himself to risk his life savings on his own talent. I wonder if I would have the guts to do that today. I also see someone who was lucky enough to have an amazing group of friends willing to pour their hearts into a project to try and make it great. I wish I had as much chance to work with my talented friends over the years as that guy probably thought he would.

So in the last fifteen years, have you gotten the chance to meet the man himself, George Lucas?

JN: I did. It was five years after GLiL and I met George at the Telluride Film Festival where he was premiering the remastered THX 1138. I made friends with some volunteers at the festival who knew I had made the short and they helped smuggle me up to him before the screening. I quickly introduced myself and said that I made George Lucas in Love. Then the most amazing thing happened, George’s eyes lit up, he gave me a firm handshake and he said, “Thanks for making me famous.” I was speechless.

Then his kids, who were there with him, chimed in how much they loved the short. It was unbelievably cool.

And finally, as a STAR WARS fan, what are you hoping for from the new trilogy?

JN: I hope it’s great! I just want a great SW story with great characters who I can get behind and root for.   I can’t wait.
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Once again, you can find the film on iTunes here. The official website is here, and there's even an official twitter account at @GLucasInLove.

Press Release Below:

In the fall of 1998, four friends and aspiring filmmakers, JOE NUSSBAUM, JOSEPH LEVY, DAN SHERE and TIM DOWLING began discussing making a short film in order to launch their careers.  The group went on to make one of the most notable, widely seen and profitable short films in the history of the genre.

The film, which was produced in less than two months with only two days of actual filming, hit Hollywood on the morning of May 24, 1999, and within several hours, copies of the film started being passed around town.  The film gradually worked its way up from assistants to executives, eventually ending up in the VCR’s of such moguls as Mike Ovitz, Jeffrey Katzenberg and George Lucas himself, whose copy was personally sent to him by Steven Spielberg.  It wasn’t long before the press picked up on the story of the film which was trailblazing its way through Hollywood.  The film’s success was reported in such publications as DAILY VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, PEOPLE MAGAZINE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and USA TODAY.  The story went on to reach publications in nearly every continent of the globe.  Television news media also reported about the phenomenon on such outlets as NBC’s TODAY SHOW, CNN’s SHOWBIZ TODAY, MSNBC’s MORNING LINE, Fox News channel, CBS, CNNfn and many more.

In September, 1999, the film made its internet debut on MediaTrip.com. Within weeks, the film was reported to be the most viewed short film in internet history, eventually being watched several million times by internet audiences around the world.  GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE is currently taking its position in a permanent exhibit on the history of film on the internet at the prestigious Museum of Television and Radio in New York and Los Angeles.

Approximately six months after its world premiere and internet debut, GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE was made available for purchase on home video through Amazon.com.  Within its first 24 hours of sale, the nine-minute video became the top selling VHS film on Amazon, placing it ahead of “Star Wars Episode 1”.  GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE retained its number one position for nearly three months straight, just before the film’s release on DVD and broad expansion into traditional brick & mortar retail markets such as Tower Records, Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster.  At the same time, the film was being licensed for television, airline and theatrical exhibition around the world in numerous countries and languages.

 

Joshua Caldwell's superhero short film "Resignation."

Friend of the blog Joshua Caldwell just recently presented his new short film Resignation and I'd say it's well worth the time required to watch it.  I think the film carries more impact if you watch it without knowing anything about the premise, as I did.  For that reason, I've put the promotional blurb below the next paragraph, so you can avoid being spoiled.


If you have difficultly viewing the embedded video, it's probably best to view the video via the film's dedicated site.  When you go there, you will be prompted to select "Film Only" or "Immersive Experience."  I highly suggest going with "Film Only" for your first viewing.  The Immersive Experience is a little too busy for my tastes and I feel like it distances you from the drama.

Resignation is described thusly, "The gritty, action-fantasy, immersive film that turns the superhero myth on its head: as an alcoholic combat photographer with a curious, heroic past struggles with his job as a “professional witness,” he must confront the fact that his dilemma may run deeper than he’d like to face."

Caldwell directed from a script credited to himself, Thomas G. Lemmer and Alex LeMay.

I like a lot of what Josh has done here.  There's a nice mood to the piece, aided tremendously by a score that evokes both the Hans Zimmer and John Williams Superman themes at different times without violating copyright. One thing I think Josh does really well is picking a big theme but finding a way to explore it via a relatively small scale or location. It doesn't feel rushed and despite the fact it's over eight minutes long, it doesn't feel drawn out early.  There's a nice sense of pace to the whole thing.

I asked Josh to talk a little bit about his vision for the film:

"With Resignation I sought to explore the character of a superhero in a way that I hadn’t seen before -- at least in the movies. I believe that superheroes can serve to reflect back on our society -- and they are ever changing because of it. So, rather than simply creating a kickass fight scene and having the hero save the day -- I wanted to play with something much more complex and multi-layered. To put that hero in a place where's he's grown tired of having the responsibility of being a savior, of playing God, and see what happens when he's directly confronted by that choice once again. 

"Where and how this fits into the existing canon wasn't of concern to me. Nor was whether this was in line with our current understanding of this character. I just didn't think it needed to be. Had I been making a $150 million studio movie, yes, there would have been that responsibility. But I was much more excited about exploring a version of this character whom we had never seen before (and probably never will) and challenging the audience with the choices he makes."

Please check it out when you get a chance.

Future Filmmaker: An interview with Eliza McNitt

Some of you might remember that two summers ago I attended Campus MovieFest's Hollywood awards ceremony. CMF is a wonderful program that goes to college campuses throughout the year and provides students with Apple laptops and Panasonic HD cameras to make short film within one week. Each school then has their own finale to select the best of the best, which then move on to the Grand Finale in Hollywood.

I was so taken with the quality of the films shown there that I spotlit a number of them in a segment I called Future Filmmaker Friday.  I was able to run interviews with all of the filmmakers I wanted to showcase, save for one: Eliza McNitt, who directed a short called VIOLET.



Recently, Eliza reached out to me to tell me about her latest short, Without Fire. Without Fire is the story of a Navajo girl who has to figure out a way to heat her home without electricity or fire in order to save her asthma-stricken mother from a bitter winter storm.

The film was the recipient of a $25,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant and just screened at NYU's Fusion Film Festival and received the top awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film.  It will also be appearing at the Sun Valley Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival. You can find it's website here.  

Eliza found time to answer a few questions, so I took the opportunity to get the interview I wasn't able to complete before:

So tell us a little about yourself. How did you get interested in film? Where are you in your school career? 

I found film through science. I was researching the role of the pesticide Imidacloprid on Colony Collapse Disorder - the disappearance of honeybees around the world - when my friend Charlie Greene told me about a documentary contest for C-Span. The prompt was to “inform Obama of the nation’s most important issue” so I immediately thought of Colony Collapse Disorder. A world without bees is difficult to imagine considering one out of every three bites of food we eat is a crop pollinated by honeybees.

I won first place at the Intel Science Fair for my research, but the audience I was able to reach out to was limited to scientists and environmentalists – I thought this documentary competition would be a good opportunity to transform my research into a film. I traveled to Florida and Pennsylvania to interview leading scientists and beekeepers. And there was a moment when I was in a bee suit holding my little HD camera in a swarm of bees when I realized I was fascinated by this. Not the sweaty suit, but the process of making a film. There was a real adventure involved in the creation of a film and the stories you discovered along the way.

Our documentary Requiem for the Honeybee won first place in C-Span’s competition and was broadcast internationally. As a competitor in science fairs I told a narrative about my research – my hypothesis, the materials I used, how I came across my conclusion – and I realized what interested me all along was the process of storytelling.

I just graduated in May from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Film and TV and I am pursuing a career as a writer and director.

I was really impressed with VIOLET when I saw it at CMFHollywood in 2012. Can you tell us a bit about how it came together? 

Thank you! Violet is the story of a frightened teen who channels her dislike for the color purple into an inventive plea for help.

I wanted to tell a story about hair. It’s a simple thing you can run your fingers through or get tangled up, but it is also your identity. I’ve always had long hair. But one time I cut it a little too short, and felt like I didn’t recognize myself. I wanted to tell a challenging narrative about the meaning of something you love, that you have to learn to hate.

My cinematographer Hunter Baker lives in Monmouth Beach County, which became the backdrop for Violet. I admire how Alexander Payne casts authentic people and places that sculpt the world of his films. In that style I wanted the locations where we filmed to bring their own sense of character.

We found this unbelievable hair salon called “Chop Chop Bang Bang” with a purple car parked out front. I even ended up casting one of the hairstylists who worked there. She wasn’t an actor and in many ways was just playing herself. When I met her she had pink hair, and the day we filmed it was green. That was the kind of personality the character would have. And what made her perfect for the role.

I really admire my versatile actress Amanda Yarosh, who brings a real complexity to her characters. I was also really fortunate to collaborate with my cinematographer Hunter Baker. Together we developed a subdued visual tone to make the images feel still and let the performances play out on screen.

It’s a short film, so we put everything into making this possible. I funded Violet using my prize winnings from the Intel Science Fair and the Baker’s were kind enough to let the cast and crew stay at their home. Violet was made for Campus MovieFest, where you have a week to create a film - so we shot and edited the whole thing in seven days. I missed a lot of class. What - in your opinion - makes for a good short film? A short film is about a moment. And story is the driving force behind that. I think a lot of shorts get lost trying to squeeze a feature length plot into a couple of minutes. The simpler you are, there is a greater opportunity to dig deeper.

What have you taken from the CMF experience? Can you tell us how CMF played a part in the genesis of your new short film WITHOUT FIRE? 

CMF is a true test of your survival skills as a filmmaker. Here’s a camera and a computer and seven days, go make a movie. That sounds crazy. But it’s possible (with little sleep and great determination). I was fortunate to be a finalist two years in a row at CMF and participated in the festival that culminates in Los Angeles. Through CMF I met talented filmmakers from schools all over the country. When I decided I would be filming my NYU thesis film Without Fire in Arizona, I immediately called up friends I had made through CMF who lived out there.

How did you come up with the idea for WITHOUT FIRE?

Without Fire is the story of a young Navajo girl who must find a way to heat her home without electricity or fire in order to save her asthma-stricken mother from a bitter winter storm. The story is inspired by a friend of mine who I met through my experiences at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair. Using soda cans he created a functional solar and water heater that could warm a room and heat water up to 200 degrees. I wanted to explore the journey of a young person’s unconventional use of science and technology. But like many of the themes in Violet, Without Fire also explores a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.

You actually got a grant to shoot the film. Can you walk us through the process of getting that kind of funding? 

I was the recipient of a $25,000 production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Without Fire. After writing the script I was fortunate to discover the Sloan grant, which supports projects about science and technology.

Once I was selected as a finalist the process involved months of rewrites and a great deal of patience. I was assigned a writing and science advisor. In order to ensure the accuracy of the science in my script I had the opportunity to consult Tyler Volk, the Director of Environmental Studies at NYU. My story mentor, veteran screenwriter John Warren also helped me develop and structure my idea. I was up against several other filmmakers and there was no guarantee I would receive the funding, but I was driven to make the film with or without the grant. It’s a great honor to have received the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation throughout the production of Without Fire.

What were the challenges in making WITHOUT FIRE beyond getting the funding? What was the production like? 

Without Fire was filmed on a sheep camp on the Navajo Reservation with a crew from New York and Arizona. I was very fortunate to be granted permission to film on the Reservation thanks to the support of Ryan Begay and the Community of Pinon.

Casting was one of the biggest challenges and I was lucky to find two powerful lead actresses, Magdalena Begay and Misty Upham. I first saw Magdalena in a film online where she was building a time travel machine. She’s a ten-year-old Navajo girl who carries herself with great maturity and experience. It was an honor to have Magdalena and her father be a part of the project.

I really admired Misty Upham’s work in Frozen River – and I kept telling our casting director Angelique Midthunder, I want someone like Misty to play the lead role – and finally Angelique said "why don’t we just reach out to Misty?" She had just completed production on Jimmy P and August: Osage County with Meryl Streep. I was thrilled when she read the script and accepted the role. She brought forth a truly powerful performance and was such a professional actress to work with.

Shooting in Arizona presented many of its own challenges. I had to go to the hospital one day when I became severely dehydrated halfway through the shoot. I asked the doctor if he’d let me bring the IV to set so we wouldn’t fall behind schedule. He probably thought I was joking.

What do you think are the most valuable ways a filmmaker can make a short film work for them and what is your game plan for WITHOUT FIRE as you start to work the festival circuit?

Making short films has given me an opportunity to experiment with different visual styles and methods of storytelling. In both Violet and Without Fire I have pushed myself to use images to tell a story instead of just words. A short film is a chance to work creatively within limitation.

I want to take advantage of every opportunity to screen Without Fire. It’s currently on the festival circuit and has been accepted to NYU’s Fusion Film Festival, the Sun Valley Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival. We will also be screening at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle before Arnaud Desplechin’s film Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian. Once Without Fire completes its festival run – it will be showcased on the website for the Museum of the Moving Image.

Do you have any ambition to direct a feature and what sort of movies would you like to make? 

I’m currently developing a feature version of Without Fire. The feature focuses on the experiences of my friend leaving the Navajo Reservation to participate in science fairs and the obstacles he encounters along his journey. But first I’m going to make another short, this one is going to be about my true passion – honeybees. I want to tell stories about compelling characters that challenge contemporary views of science and technology.

The fantastic short film NOAH

"Check out this short film. It's 17 minutes long!"

Nine times out of ten, that statement would fill me with dread.  I've championed short films on this blog before - most notably some of the more impressive ones from Campus MovieFest - and I've always emphasized that shorter is frequently better.  An old film professor of mine was fond of saying, "Student films come in three lengths: long, too long, and entirely too long."

This is especially true when viewing videos online, where the sweet spot seems to be between three and a half and five minutes.  If someone sends me a 17-minute film I'm supposed to watch on my laptop, it had better be really good.

The short NOAH, from directors Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg is that good.  Hell, it's fantastic.  Ingeniously told entirely from the perspective of a computer screen, we get a window into the title characters relationship with his girlfriend through Skype, Facebook, Google and online chats.

When I watch a long video on YouTube, sometimes I'll pause to send an email.  I might even be typing an email in another window, or having a online chat convo while the movie still plays.  With this, I'm pretty sure I didn't touch my mouse or my keyboard for more than 17 minutes  This is the kind of idea you watch and wish you'd thought of.


I have a feeling Woodman and Cederberg are going to get a lot of notice from this. The film had its world premiere this week as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.

"Dig" - a short film by Joshua Caldwell

One of the fine people I've met in my years of running this blog is Joshua Caldwell, a promising filmmaker who works for CSI producer Anthony Zuiker's Dare to Pass as Director of Digital Media.

In 2006, while at Fordham University, Josh won the MTV Movie Award for Best Film on Campus for his short "The Beautiful Lie." He talks a little bit about that in this excellent posting from Go Into The Story. I encourage everyone to check that out to learn a little more about Josh.

In his position at Dare to Pass he co-produced the online digital feature Cybergeddon. He also directed, produced, and co-write the Cybergeddon Zips, short films that branch off from the feature and expand the storyline.

Another of his duties is producing the BlackBoxTV series "Anthony E. Zuiker Presents" for the BlackBoxTV YouTube Channel. These include The Reawakening, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Rob Legato, and Execution Style, directed by Lexi Alexander.

But today I want to present Dig, Josh's most recent short film. Dig was winner of the Silver Screen Award (Short Film Competition) - Nevada Film Festival.



Dig from Joshua Caldwell on Vimeo.

Also, it was an Official Selection in the following:
2011 LA Shorts Fest 2011 Carmel Art & Film Festival
2011 NewFilmmakersLA (Fall)
2012 Durango Independent Film Festival
2012 Beverly Hills Film Festival
2012 Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
2012 Dances with Films
2012 HollyShorts Film Festival
2012 Action on Film International Film Festival

You can find Josh's blog here.

Follow Josh Caldwell on Twitter here.

Future Filmmaker Friday: Man Crush - CMF Best Comedy and Best Actor Winner

As you know, a while back I attended CMF Hollywood, the finale for Campus MovieFest.  During the closing Gala, an interesting dilemma presented itself to me - I didn't know anyone who wasn't working behind the scenes or presenting that night.  This meant that I had to find someone to sit with at one of the large tables.  (Think of it like the Golden Globes-type seating.)


While virtually everyone else there was dress in cocktail dresses, suits, ties, or at least nice shirts, I came upon a table with four guys dressed rather... casually for the event.  It was a bit of a Casual Friday kind of night for these filmmakers.  But they looked like nice guys, so I took a vacant seat and introduced myself to the incredibly friendly team of Cloud 9 Collaborations from Indiana University.

They proudly told me that their film was actually a finalist in several categories that evening and as the evening went on, they took home two awards.  Landon Scott won for Best Actor and later the whole team won for Best Comedy.  I'm not sure what thrilled them more - being named the Best Comedy in an international contest, or the fact that it was SNL's Horatio Sanz who presented them with their Golden Tripod.

Excitedly, the guys returned to the table after their second win, proclaiming me their "good luck charm."  I told them they didn't know the half of it, as I had featured "The Strong One" on my blog earlier that year and THAT film walked away with two awards of its own that evening, including Best Picture.

These fine young filmmakers were kind enough to welcome me into their fold during the rest of the evening, and enjoying the Gala and the afterparty with them was the highlight of my CMF experience.  That's why it's a special thrill to present my personal favorite film of the festival: Man Crush.

Below you'll find an interview with Charlie Myers, who co-wrote, shot and edited the film.  Charlie Mattingly was the other writer. Johnny Hourmozdi and Ben Linder did the music, and their cast was

Landon Scott, Bill Kenny, Kat Lyons, and Natalie Hamer.

 

So tell us a little about yourself.   How did you get interested in film? Where are you in your school career?

My name is Charlie Myers, I'm 23 and a recent graduate of Indiana University (with a degree in Film and Media Studies), and I've always loved telling stories.  Video has always been my chosen method of doing so because of the editing stage.  There's a chance to perfect  your story before anybody ever sees it.  Some people prefer stage theater because the story unfolds live; I prefer film and video because the final cut lasts forever.

As far as I can remember I've always secretly wanted to make movies.  I was just too afraid to admit it until a couple years ago.  At this point I've kind of gotten fixated on the idea.  As a kid watching movies with my family I was fascinated by the kind of immediate and lasting effect they had on my siblings and parents.  I always wanted to try to create that effect myself.

This was your team's third year participating in CMF and your team's third year as a campus finalist.  Can you chart a measurable improvement from your first year to the present?  Feel free to tell us a little about your other entries.

This is our third year of success but actually our fourth overall.  I addressed this during both our acceptance of Best Picture at IU and our acceptance of Best Comedy at the IGF.  (Someone online called me a douchebag for talking about this so allow me to clarify my speech, which was meant to be inspiring, not douchey.)

The first year CMF came to IU, our comedy wasn't even shown (it was called Books on DVD, you can find it online).  It was terrible. My writing/directing partner Charlie Mattingly and I went back to his house and sat in the dark passing back and forth a bottle of tequila for a couple hours, drowning in our disappointment and failure.  Somewhere within that time came the drive to come back the next year and win at IU.

The next year we did just that having made An Alphabetical Dictionary Conversation with Chet Toddsworth, a short that involved 21 actors over three days, under our new production name Cloud 9 Collaborations.  That short made it to the IGF, but unfortunately received no other recognition.

However, seeing the other shorts that won that year we were again inspired (Bloodsuckers was my favorite, definitely watch that one if you haven't seen it.  Definitely proved to us we had a lot of room to improve).  We saw how high the bar had been set past Indiana.  Determined to make something that could make it further than our last two years, we made Clean Streets our third year.  While we made it the furthest yet as a finalist at the IGF, we again saw how high the bar had been set, and were determined to come back for our last year and finally win. The moment we came up with the premise of Man Crush, I believed we would do just that.  So going from terrible and not even shown to winning an international title definitely felt like an improvement.

What - in your opinion - makes for a good short film?

Short films are tough.  I often find that problems arise when filmmakers try to meet a time requirement.  If it's five minutes, they fill five minutes.  If it's ten, they make it ten.  What this leads to is stories that ought to be two minutes long are stretched, and therefore lose their appeal.  Suddenly they feel hours long.  I may sound like a hypocrite because all of our shorts have been five minutes to the frame.

However, people have told us they love our shorts because they feel two minutes long while actually being five.  We have achieved this because each year we tend to bite off more than we can chew.  Each script has been about fifteen pages (which in normal scriptwriting practice would equate to fifteen minutes of screen time).  By compressing a fifteen minute story into five, we create a more dense and attractive story and never lose our audience.  And that's important for a short, because you cannot lose your audience for a second as each is valuable.

Man Crush deals with a straight guy who becomes concerned that he might have a crush on his best friend.  Where did the idea come from?

The idea for Man Crush comes from simple observation of males.  Somehow, while many men are terrified to be perceived as gay, they are allowed to slap each others asses and brush it off as being "bros." What happens when those behaviors are misread?  What if someone were to perceive those typical "bro" practices as something more?

Originally Landon and Bill were supposed to engage in a lot more of these "broin out turned gay" activities but there wasn't enough time.  The reason we had them wake up together at the beginning was so that the audience would conclude immediately that this must be a gay couple, so when it is revealed soon after that they are just friends, suddenly the story gets interesting.

That being said, we wanted to be absolutely clear right off the bat that this was in no way mocking or putting down homosexuality (much like the classic Seinfeld line, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!").  Instead we focused on making it about a guy who has these strange, misplaced feelings that he cannot explain, and that happen to be for another male.  It turned into the classic "I can't tell my best friend that I love her because that will ruin our wonderful friendship" story, except with two dudes (something I like in itself because I'd never seen it before.)

But again, we immediately inform the audience (by way of the phone scene where Landon tells the radio woman his predicament) that this is not a story about a guy struggling with homosexuality in a society that may not accept him, but instead about misplaced, ineffable feelings for a best friend that happens to be male.  Apparently it worked though because so far every gay person I know to have seen it has said they love it, so I'm proud of that.

How sure were you guys that you hit the right tone?  Was it a case where you didn't really relax until you saw an audience react to it, or were you pretty confidant once you shot it?

I was confident when I had finished shooting it that it would be a great comedy, in the sense that I knew I personally would love it (which is important, as I'm one who believes that you have to make yourself laugh first and foremost).  But there's an amazing double standard that exists in our society, where it's considered attractive for two women to makeout (and they're only experimenting), but when two guys kiss, even briefly, they are immediately labeled as homosexuals forever.  Again, there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it leads to many males being terrified of being perceived as gay.

I knew we had hit the right tone when people, male and female, were cheering on the kiss between Bill and Landon at the end.  After that kiss ends Landon's confusion, nobody labels that character as gay anymore.  However, at our Q&A as well as just walking around, the number one question Landon received was, "Are you gay in real life?"  So maybe we got people to question their sense of social norms, maybe not, but at least they enjoyed the story and had a good laugh (hopefully).

What's the collaborative process like between you and your teammates?

We operate under the name Cloud 9 COLLABORATIONS because we firmly believe in the collaborative effort.  One of the main reasons we never have credits (the first one being that they are a waste of time) is because credits imply that one person had one job.  When we make shorts, everybody has input.  Therefore, we feel as though we all made it, so we operate under one name, and that's all the credit anyone needs.  Having a solid script is a good start, but the real story and comedy comes from the scene and the characters, so keeping your ear to the ground and allowing the story to change and transform in front of you on the fly is just as important.  Improvisation is a great example, and we love working with actors who have that important skill.  Everything is fluid until that final export, and the credit goes to everyone involved.

How did the limitations of one-week to shoot and edit it play into how you developed your idea?

Years past we only had three days to make our shorts, as we didn't own our own equipment.  This year I finally had my own camera so I actually got a decent amount of sleep.  I shot it in two days, which allowed an incredible amount of editing time, which was wonderful.  Sometimes the deadline brings about the best changes, but having an abundance of time this time around allowed me to watch the short hundreds of times, something very important to make it the best it can be.

Was there anything you wanted to do, but couldn't, due to time restrictions?
 
Originally, Bill and Landon were supposed to have a more developed relationship, but there just wasn't enough time.  It was more important to focus on Landon's predicament and let the audience fill in the rest.  As I said previously, I wanted to put them in a series of "bro" scenarios, and indicate that Landon saw them as something more (ex: they play basketball and maybe Bill plays Defense a little close, etc.).  In the end though I was just happy to hit five minutes.

 What have you taken from the CMF experience?  What were your impressions of CMFHollywood?

CMF has always been my favorite time of year.  It's the only time I feel I can truly take a week off of school and not care at all while also having an incredible time exercising creativity.  It's also generally the most stressful time, but it's the best kind of stress there is.  I was a fifth-year student this past year, so all of my old teammates had already graduated and moved away.  With them gone, my level of production dropped significantly.

Participating in CMF suddenly made me feel like I was living again (sounds lame I know, but it's true).  CMF Hollywood is always a good time, even if we were the only guys to show up not properly dressed for the occasion (oops).  Couldn't have had a better time at the IGF Awards Show.  Watching Landon Scott win International Best Actor (yes, for playing Landon, I wanted them to go by their real names) was like watching my child being born.  I'm just glad we won on our final go so I can lay the CMF years to rest happily.

What are your plans post-college?

I'll be moving to LA within a few days.  We'll see what the city has in store for me.

Finally, do you have any other short films on the web, or any personal website you'd like to plug?

I don't really have anything else to plug, except for my youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/Charman64) which has a load of random stuff (shorts, movie mashups, video remixes, stupid stuff of my friends and whatnot).  Sometimes I do little editing jobs when I think of something funny or fun to edit.  One in particular is called 300 Tourettes Guys, which is worth checking out if you need an immature laugh or two.  Or Good Wall-E Hunting, that's another of my favs.  Other than that maybe someday I'll make a professional website, probably a good idea.


So there you have it.  I really think that Charlie and his collaborators are going to be going places in a few years.  So if any of you out there have any leads for Charlie as he arrives in L.A. and tries to break in, please feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch with him.

Future Filmmaker Friday: Violet

This week I'm showcasing another entry from Campus MovieFest, a drama called "Violet."  It was created by Then There Was Lumière Productions at New York University.

Drama is incredibly hard to do as a short film, and believe me, I've seen many a filmmaker try and fail.  It's hard to deal with weighty themes in a short film, and even hard to deal with certain subjects without dipping into overwrought melodrama.  Because of this, I'm very impressed with filmmaker Eliza McNitt and her lead actress Amanda Yarosh is excellent as well.



And remember, they only had a WEEK to shoot and edit this!  This was a nominee for Best Picture and deservedly won Best Drama and Best Cinematography at Campus Movie Fest Hollywood last month.

Friday Free-For-All: Kevin Spacey helps cultivate new directing talent

My friend Erin Cahill recently appeared in a short film called "The Ventriloquist" starring Kevin Spacey.  The film was produced as part of Jameson's First Shot competition to find new directing talent.



Spacey will appear in three shorts, and this one is directed by Benjamin Leavitt.  You can find a little more information here and here.

How long should a short film be?

Part I -
Part II - Stalking Kevin Smith: Getting celebrities to make a cameo in your film

"Student films come in three lengths," one of my film professors once told me.  "Long.  Too long.  And entirely too long."

When working on my own short films, I've done my best to adhere to that mantra.  When I'm making something meant to be shown on the internet, my goal has always been to be even more merciless and efficient.  I have several friends who are also students of that school of thought, and as someone who's known a festival programmer or two, I'm also aware that a longer film faces greater obstacles in getting selected, as it eats up time that could go to two or three shorter films.

Does that mean that shorter is always better?  I don't know.  It's usually my preference.  Then again, there are people I've talked to like Joshua Caldwell, Director of Digital Media over at Anthony E. Zuiker's Dare to Pass, who very firmly believe that the paradigm is shifting and people are becoming more accustomed to consuming longer content on the web.

In this segment of my interview with Hughes the Force director J.C. Reifenberg, we discuss length.  When I started watching the film, I didn't know what the running time was.  I figured it would be about 10-15 minutes.  Very quickly, I noticed the pacing of the individual scenes was slower, closer to what one would find in a TV show or a movie than in a typical short film.  As it turns out, the film is a little over 30 minutes in length.

That wasn't J.C.'s intention when he started.  In fact, he was determined to make it under ten minutes at first.  How did things evolve and why did he decide that longer was better for this particular story?  Watch below.




Part IV - "The best thing I could have done for my career from a networking perspective."

Stalking Kevin Smith: Getting celebrities to make a cameo appearance in your film

Part 1

When you're making a short film, one tactic you can use to get people interested in watching it is by having a celebrity or two appear in your film.  Even a small cameo can be useful in getting some buzz generated, as that star's fanbase will follow them.

When it comes to Star Wars fandom, there are few more famous superfans than Kevin Smith.  In this part of our interview with Hughes the Force director J.C. Reifenberg, J.C. discusses the... we'll call them... "determined" tactics he used to get Smith to do his movie.

The film also features cameos from Star Wars: The Clone Wars voice actors James Arnold Taylor and Catherine Taber, appearing as their characters of Obi-Wan and Padme for the first time in live action.




Part III - How long should a short film be?
Part IV - "The best thing I could have done for my career from a networking perspective."

Webshow is back! Interview with "Hughes the Force" Director J.C. Reifenberg - Part 1

Yes!  After months of waiting, The Bitter Script Reader webshow is back with a new video, this one the first of a four-part interview with J.C. Reifenberg, the director of a Star Wars fan-film called Hughes the Force.

As someone who's made several short films and assisted on many others, I can attest that it's never easy.  A short filmmaker is almost always going to be struggling against not having enough time, money and resources to complete their vision.  But even before that, the filmmaker needs to have a solid concept worth producing - and sometimes it's harder thinking of a short idea than it is a feature.

Then once the film is done, the already exhausted filmmaker has to figure out some way to get his short in front of people.  With sites like YouTube, the process of distribution is simplified, but at the tradeoff of needing to stand out from the pack.

I first heard about Reifenberg's film last year around the time of San Diego Comic-Con.  It had what I considered an irresistible hook: a mash-up of Star Wars and John Hughes's Weird Science.  Better still, Reifenberg came up with some savvy ways to add production value such as costumes and some sly cameos from the Star Wars Universe.

Long time readers of this blog will recall my spotlighting other Star Wars fan films Troops and George Lucas in Love, two productions that stand as A+ examples of short films/fan films in my estimation.  Seeing the potential in Hughes the Force, I contacted the filmmakers through their publicist, and after arranging a viewing of the film, director and co-writer J.C. Reifenberg was good enough to sit down with me.

So watch the interview below to find out more about the premise, how J.C. got such great costumes and props, and why getting an actress to perform mostly naked and in green body paint was actually one of the easiest tasks the filmmaker accomplished.



Hughes the Force will be released this Friday, May 25, on both the Hughes the Force website and Kevin Smith's YouTube Channel, S.I.T. - SModCo Internet Television.


Part II - Stalking Kevin Smith: Getting celebrities to make a cameo appearance in your short film
Part III - How long should a short film be?
Part IV - "The best thing I could have done for my career from a networking perspective."

"Briefcase" has been licensed by Netflix

Remember a few weeks back when I featured the short film Briefcase by Nate Golon?  Well, Nate sent me an email last week with the news that Netflix has decided to license it for use online and in retail stores.  I'll let him take it from here:

Several weeks ago, after 'Briefcase' premiered on YouTube, a friend of mine contacted me, and told me that Netflix was looking for a cinematic looking short film to license. Netflix is now offering a VOD feature in many new TVs, and they wanted a film that could play in retail stores worldwide, as an "example" of the quality of films Netflix offers, without having to license a studio film. My friend connected them with 'Briefcase,' and Netflix wanted to exclusively license it. I agreed, on the conditions that I could still retain ownership, keep it online, submit it to film festivals, and develop it into a larger project in the future. 

 So 'Briefcase' is not going to be offered as a film to rent on Netflix. But in many ways, the film will actually have much more exposure with the licensing agreement we agreed to. Netflix may also use pieces of 'Briefcase' online, as further advertising as "examples" of what Netflix has to offer. The licensing agreement is a win win in my book, as it also gives 'Briefcase' much more notoriety. It also helps me for future projects, as I can now say my last two projects, "Workshop" and 'Briefcase,' have been licensed by Hulu and Netflix, respectively.

 So congrats to Nate, and it's a good lesson that you can never know what will come of a short film, so if you've got the means, why aren't you making one?

Film schools finally join the digital era... but why wait for them?

This is my 700th post today, and I wanted to say something more significant.  As it turns out, I'm probably going to get off on a bit of a ramble, but I saw a story that weekend that sparked  a lot of thoughts.

I graduated college about ten years ago, and I was remarking recently to another graduate of that era that most of the technical aspects of my film education are now remarkably outdated.  To put it in perspective, most of my film projects were shot on 16mm film using Arri and Bolex cameras.  Fortunately I made two digital short films during my senior year, which gave me experience with the Canon XL-1 and Final Cut Pro, but we were just at the start of the digital revolution.

On one hand, I have to respect my professors' insistence on really pushing us to tell stories with our short films, to not let them become little more than sketches.  But looking back with the perspective of the last ten years, it's hard to deny that the rise of YouTube has certainly benefited the kinds of short filmmakers who have been good at creating short, flashy and vivid entertainment.  The kind of stuff that rises to the top at Funny or Die or that goes viral on YouTube is also the sorts of things that would have been dismissed in most of my film classes.  And yet... that material is also often what gets young filmmakers noticed.

The Wrap had a recent article that highlighted how some schools are finally adjusting to the new climate.  In part they say:


“Twenty years ago, people went to film school to become the best filmmaker they could become so they could go out and make films,” said Bob Bassett, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, told TheWrap. “Today, they have to be much more calculating about developing their skills, because those skills are what lead to paying jobs.”


In all cases, there is an increased emphasis on crafting films that can be viewed on YouTube, Funny or Die, or other digital platforms.


“It’s not just learning to work on a mini-budget or simply recycling a television episode and putting it on the web,” Paul Schneider, chair of Boston University’s film and television department, told TheWrap. "It has to be content that really is outside the box."


Both BU and Chapman University, for instance, now routinely encourage students to create shorter and more interactive film projects.

 It's great to see film schools really step up and join the 21st Century.  I get the sense I have a fair amount of readers in college, and perhaps even some in high school.  I have to say that I really envy you guys.  I've talked before about how I was the executive producer on a student-run TV series in college.  In those days, no one had Final Cut Pro on their personal systems, and the idea that someone's cell phone would be able to shoot high-definition video was an impossible dream.

There is so much opportunity for those of you even if your film schools are still teaching hot splices and reversal film.  Those of you who are nearing high school graduation there is no better graduation gift you can ask for than a MacBook with Final Cut Pro.  Shoot footage on your cell phone if you have to, but start turning out product. 

You'll pick up the process of storytelling by doing, and by forcing yourself to chisel coherence out of your own raw footage.  There were some night in college where my friends and I would grab a high-8 camera and just start shooting little sketches in the bowels of the library, making the script up as we went.  A lot of times, we came back with some silly pieces, but that trial and error helped us figure out the kind of concepts that worked and what didn't worked.

Telling a story in a short film is incredibly different from telling it over a 100 pages in a screenplay.  I'm going to start highlighting some examples of good short films over the next few months because if this blog is at least going to address ways to break it, it's hard to overlook the value of short content as a showcase for storytelling talent.

I learned a lot in my film classes and I'm a big proponent of education.  But if film school isn't an option for you, I see no reason that you shouldn't get a laptop, get Final Cut and start shooting.  Even if you think you just want to be a writer, you'll learn so much from the process of translating your script to the screen. 

Short Film Showcase: Nate Golon's Briefcase

You might remember Nate Golon from my posts ages ago about the webseries Workshop.  Recently, Nate released a new short film called Briefcase.



I have to admit, I sometimes think I'm even more critical of short films than I am of scripts.  This probably owes to the fact that I've seen a lot of bad shorts and I'm always convinced that I would have avoided making such glaring mistakes.  Each of my own shorts made me a better filmmaker and so naturally, my gut reaction is to nitpick shorts that perhaps fall short of what I consider to be my ability.

That why I was surprised when Nate's film held my interest all the way through.  As I told him in an email, I can't claim to completely understand the ending, but the pacing, editing and overall execution was smooth enough to keep my attention until the end.  Nate avoids a trap so many short film directors fall into - over-directing.  Some guys are so determined to show off their "eye" that their composition and editing becomes a liability rather than an asset.  Nate gets some good angles, here, but he's practices restraint.

If you're so inclined, here's the Facebook page for Briefcase.

Using a short film to get your writing out there

Lacy & Kevin asked me this question a while back:

What's your take on making a short film as a means to getting your writing out there?
Even if it's well filmed, are you better off querying, or do you think it's a waste of time?

I think it can be useful, but you're better off if there's a clear hook to the idea.  That might mean that doing the short film version of your feature script might be problematic.  Instead, make sure you choose a premise that makes the best use of the medium.

One of the best examples of this is the short film George Lucas in Love.  Written by Joe Nussbaum, Timothy Dowling & Daniel Shere, and directed by Nussbaum, the film was produced in 1999.  This was right at the time that anticipation was building for the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and also right around the time that Shakespeare in Love won the Oscar for Best Picture.  The creators saw an opportunity to make something timely that would get them noticed and have a built-in audience.  If you're interested in finding out more about the film, check out this interview.


The film was later released on DVD, along with a behind-the-scenes documentary.  In it, the creators talk about sending the film to all their contacts in Hollywood, only to return home one day to get a call from one of Steven Spielberg's assistants.  It seems that a copy of the film ended up being passed all around Hollywood.  It made its way to Spielberg's office and the assistant recounted how they gave it to Spielberg and heard him laughing as he watched it.  Then the assistant was tasked with putting Spielberg through to George Lucas and heard Spielberg rave about the film to Lucas.

Nussbaum went on to direct the feature films Sleepover, The Naked Mile, Sydney White, Prom and is currently attached to Brad Cutter Ruined My Life... Again.

A more recent example is Kevin Tancharoen, who directed a Mortal Kombat short as sort of a calling card for what he'd like to do with the property.  This was probably a smart move, because his lone feature credit - Fame - probably would have kept him in "Movie Jail" for a while otherwise.  Instead, it landed him a job as the director for the feature version of Mortal Kombat.

Check out an interview with Tancharoen here.

I'm sure those are far from the only examples.  I also have to assume that there are people who have gotten some notice from shorts that have placed in film festivals.  I have to admit that I don't keep much of an eye on that world.  If anyone has further examples, free free to bring them up in comments.

The internet is littered with "calling card short films."  Sometimes they go viral, sometimes they don't.  So long as you're not reaching beyond your means, I'm all for taking a shot at it.