Monday, March 9, 2020

Film Production 101 - "Gumdrop", a short horror

My new film, "Gumdrop", a short horror, is finished! In the can! We began on this film back in the Spring of 2019. We shot through the summer and I started post-production early las Fall. As of March 5, 2020, after speaking with the film score composer, Andrea Fioravanti of the Italian band, Postvorta, we agreed... the film is ready to be locked and distributed. That begins with the film being submitted to film festivals. Which I have now started doing.


This past week I began researching film festivals to submit to. I had previously submitted my last film, "The Rapping" to film festivals. My first time doing that. It won the Weekly Online Film Festival, and was shown at New York's, Midnight Film Festival. Now pieces of it have ended up in this current film as a kind of background in what was a rather challenging audio flashback scene.


This past Saturday night was our monthly Slash Night horror film event at the Historic Roxy Theater in Bremerton, Washington. I was talking to the event founder Kelly Hughes (also founded the Gorst Underground Film Festival, September will be the third annual and now a three-day event). I've been helping Kelly on his films over the past few years and now on the GUFF and these Slash Night events.

We started the monthly Slash Night events to support the annual GUFF. But also to build a community of local filmmakers. To bring us all together. To educate ourselves together and to build a sense of cooperation and support. And it is working. The Darkow film crew is working with Kelly on a new short film project we are filming at the Roxy Theater. I'm helping with that, too.

Kelly saw my first assembly draft cut of "Gumdrop". I had inadvertently called it a first rough cut. He and our friend and cartoonist, Pat Moriarity, had come to my house in Bremerton to watch it. Both of them live just across the bay in Port Orchard.

They had some positive and negative things to say about the film at that point. I was a little surprised by their reaction. To be fair, Pat said he's not really a fan of horror movies, but he has taught storyboarding in college and as that professor's eye that is always positive and productive for students. But they both had some very valuable critiques.

I mention this viewing because that week after they saw my film, I researched some things and came to realize, I had not shown them my first draft cut of the film, but the first assembly cut. To vastly different things. And so they judged it upon that mistaken understanding. My fault, not theirs. I should have said they were watching the first assembly, or assembly cut,  not a first rough cut.

The first assembly, or assembly cut, is the editor's first cut of the entire movie. The editor strings together all of the usable footage and organizes it into a chronological sequence that corresponds with the film's script.

The assembly cut is also the first draft of the movie edit in which the director has the opportunity to see the movie for the first time. In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still used to describe projects that are recorded and edited digitally. - Wikipedia 

I also mention all this because, at this past weekend's Slash Night, Kelly said he saw just a bit of my submission to our GUFF on FilmFreeway.com and he was very impressed with how much it changed from that first viewing he got many months ago. Since he last saw it with Pat, I have done fifty-four drafts of the film and added the film score and songs.

On that... I was very lucky to acquire musician Andrea Fioravanti from the awesome Italian band, Postvorta. No, really. Check them out! I laid down his soundtrack, we talked, he sent me another, I laid that down, I began to edit in the late stages of the film with the soundtrack in place and altered things accordingly and the film only got better.


It's hard to know what it takes to produce a film without doing it. In doing all stages of the film build process you really get a close-up view through painful and tedious work. 

I am not bragging, but this is the process one goes through. Of course on a bigger production where you have even one crew member, there are people to do these various things, all of which the director and producer may be intimately involved in throughout the process. 

I wrote the screenplay last Spring of 2019. It is based upon one of my older short stories, "Gumdrop City" and is a prequel to that story and an origin story of that main character. That story is a true crime story that I fictionalized and published in "Anthology of Evil", a collection of my first short horror stories.

It contains my first published work of science fiction, a short horror story ("In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear") and, my first novelette ("Andrew"). Andrew was eventually grown, along with another single page short story ("Perception") into my massive epic horror sci-fi book, "Death of heaven". 

I also later published "Gumdrop City" as a standalone ebook. Not yet as an audiobook, though I have a few. I first heard about this story at university in an abnormal psychology class. It was so disturbing I decided to write a short story to share that story with the world. OK then. Marketing crap out of the way, back to our story...

After finishing the screenplay, I chose and gathered the actors among friends, and actors, who I had worked with on Kelly's film projects in the past, and handed out the roles. We began principal photography where I was cameraman, sound tech, lighting tech/grip, cinematographer, craft services (food/drink for the actors and non-existent crewmembers), essentially, the crew.

Now let me mention something here. I've seen low budget, indie films where at the end you see in the credits:
  • Directed by: Alan Smithee
  • Edited by: Alan Smithee
  • Produced by: Alan Smithee
  • Cinematographer: Alan Smithee
  • Soundtrack by: Alan Smithee
  • Lighting by: Alan Smithee
  • Written by: Alan Smithee
  • Screenplay by: Alan Smithee
  • Childhood horrors by: Alan Smithee
Look. Do NOT do that! In my film "Gumdrop", at the end it simply says:

A
JZ Murdock
Film

Or something like that. But, nice, brief, clean. Simple! Like me. OK? Don't purge the needs of your ego at that point. We get it. You're the MASTER. Well? You're probably not. Even the greatest of filmmakers are always learning.

Oh, by the way. Who's Alan Smithee? Surely, inquiring minds want to know. Well, too bad, this isn't about HIM!

Oh, and... THAT'S one of the thing I love about filmmaking.  So humble is good. And as my brother, seven years my senior once told me when I was in junior high, self-deprecating humor is good. If a bully picks on you, cuts you down..."Cut your self down first... more. But be funny. It robs bullies of their power and may turn them to your benefit."

Good advice. No. As it turned out? Great advice! Really great advice. It saved me from so many ass beatings, I lost count. And, made me many new friends. So thanks for that, Jon!

Anyway, as I had been saying earlier before my ADD lost track, got unfocused tangent (a woman once called me, "Mr. Tangent! But, that's a good thing!" She said. Okayyy, uh, thanks?) ...luckily for all of us, I was not an actor. Though when one actor dropped out playing a voiceover role on the day of the recording, I jumped in to sit opposite professional actor, Jennifer True for the audio flashback scene of the Sampson's character's child role and step-mother, and I played the visitor, Koloman.

We began shooting the film on set throughout the Summer of 2019. After that was over I began the editing post-production process in Fall of that year and finished, less than a week ago as I write this. 

The editing process is a beast. You have to select the shots to use out of all the raw video shot. That is when you discover if you actually have all the shots you needed. Or if any of the shots or audio aren't up to par. You notice continuity errors and issues and try to fix them in post. You have to match up the digitally recorded audio to the video. 

I also use an external mic on my camera (a Canon 80D DSLR) as an audio backup and it's paid off big time. Nothing worse than finding somehow the DR wasn't turned on or that the mic picked up the dialog in a weird fashion, or some other issue of placement or technical manufacture (such as having the audio pick up turned up too high, clipping the loudness end of the audio spectrum). 

What gave me the most trouble was the audio. As I inferred above, you always run into problems and you do your best to fix them in post, or you reshoot or re-record in ADR. 

"ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) in film is the process of re-recording audio in a more controlled and quieter setting, usually in a studio. It involves the re-recording of dialogue by the original actor after filming as a way to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes."

I had Tom Remick, the lead actor in the role of Sampson, come back and do a brief ADR for a scene of Sampson, in the beginning, looking at a plant. All he had to say was, "My poor little friend." I think there was one other short sentence but I don't remember just now what it was. I then had to match that up to him speaking the words on screen so it looks like he said that. Which means you have to match the cadence up in recording it, or perhaps speed it up or slow it down slightly in post. 

It's not for the faint of heart. Not for the tech doing the audio replacement, or for the actor. I have a lot more respect now for actors who come back to do ADR to themselves on screen. It's tedious, it's difficult and professionals earn their keep. As it is, what we did turn out well. But I'd prefer to avoid it in the future, though at times, it can be impossible to avoid. The more money involved in the production, the more important and necessary it can be. 

There are also issues of sound levels, compression, and separating out the audio of tracks for dialog, soundtrack, music, and sound effects. You have to hear the dialog over all other sounds, or not. It's a decision of the audience understanding the scene and story. When there is too much bass in the music, you have to lower it to understand the dialog, or add treble to the dialog. 

The video is similar. You have to control the color, the white light "temperature" (which hopefully you did on set using real or artificial lighting and camera controls. Matching up the video clips so there is a smooth transition. Shot and scene transitions have to be managed. Special audio and video effects have to be built, acquired and manipulated. Do you give sound to everything you see on screen, or not? Whatever supports the scene and story, of course. 

Do you use real sounds or fake? Foley sounds made up and applied. IF you use the sound of someone walking or being stabbed, it may not sound at all like the action. So you use shoes on a wood floor or stab a head of lettuce, or whatever makes the scene sound real. But you can't overdo it. 

Movie magic, I like to say. Make it seem real to the audience watching the film. And sometimes you go overboard, and it works! Sometimes it fails miserably. It's an artistic choice much of the time and requires a consideration of the format of the film, the story being told the orientation of the filmmaker and other elements. Which is why we take classes, read books, watch videos and best of all, learn from and work with filmmakers who are better and more educated than you are. The best you can access.

Once the film is "locked", the distribution begins. Actually, wise words are that it should begin, whenever possible, before you initially put pen to paper. But for many low budget, indie filmmakers, it's not so much an option and you're left with submitting to film festivals once the film is ready to go out. 

And that, is a whole other blog. 

I started taking a look at film festivals about a month ago, ramping up until the end of post-production. As of this time, I have submitted to about ten festivals around the world. Mostly good, solid local ones. So far one big on, the Austin Film Festival. Some international ones, I have two in Ireland (I'm half Irish born in Tacoma, Washington, and visited there for my birthday in 2015). I've been to Cork and Dublin, so I submitted to a film festival in each town. 

Andrea, our soundtrack composer lives in Italy. So I found a festival about two and a half hours from where he lives. He may not make it, the film may not get accepted, but at least I made the effort so that if he wished to, the film might get accepted and he could have the opportunity to show up and enjoy some of the attention I may get to receive. It's really only right to do it.

Festivals I've submitted to, after reviewing top ten lists of best festivals for in my case, indie horror films to submit to, and reviewing the festivals I came up with. Some of these gave me a waiver so no entry fee! I just asked. One even said to ask them if you are a local filmmaker. I got waivers in the Crypticon. Some of these I've entered before with "The Rapping". 
How many festivals should you submit to? Up to you, and how much money you have. Be sure to read the rules and about info to know what you're getting into. I entered one for "The Rapping" and was rightfully disqualified, as I had missed it was for student submissions only. Luckily, it was a free submission.

So for me, now, that's ten. I may enter the Port Townsend Film Festival up north of here. I love Port Townsend and it can draw big names. They also require DCP format, which is a bit of a pain, rather than the format my film is in now, MP4. My daughter was working up there several years ago and called me up to say, "Tom Cruz is walking down the street." So you never know who might see your film.

And that's about it. For now.

Much more later...

So, I know, I know, I should add in some inside jokes, some blooper reels, some brief and funny or weirdly bizarre asides, but...no. Maybe in the DVD extras?

Speaking of which. The film is now done. I got some DVD blanks and I've had some DVD covers for a few years which I had almost gotten rid of but now I'll use for this. I have to make up a graphic for the DVD covers. Hey, I'm getting there! Soon. This week even. I'm still not to 100% of my energy after a month of healing from that damn flu. No, not THAT damn flu. Just, the flu. But, it sucked.

Now I've shared Gumdrop with some close to me on Google Drive. My kids. My editor of "Death of heaven". Her husband is my friend, so they both get access to it and later I'll get them a DVD. In fact, I'm still thinking up who to offer it to.

Let's see. So far I've given offered it to Ilene and Kurt Giambastiani (this is in no particular order by the way). Did I say Ilene was once my editor until she had to go and start a new career as a small businessperson? By the way, I love Kurt's "Fallen Cloud" series of revisionist history. I know, sounds stupid but it's so amazing, well written and historically accurate... until he subverts it for fun and profit.

I said, my two kids. Who else?

Oh, Erwin. No, wait. Andrea in Italy (see above). Since he did, after all, do the soundtrack music. I mean, come on. Not to mention what Italy is going through now with this COVID-19 virus crap.

Oh, Erwin. Great photographer. I met him online in the 90s over a Clive Barker play he was producing. He sent me the music and years later, I sent that to Clive's archivists, Phil and Sarah. I met Clive a few times in person, and that's a story unto itself. But as far as meeting a celebrity doing me any good...not so much.

But then Erwin Verweij and I reconnected on Facebook years ago. And, he's awesome. But, he lives in Rotterdam, Netherlands and I live in Bremerton near Seattle, Washington. That being said, we both know we need to meet one of these days and have a very good whiskey and talk. He has my young self's dream job as a photographer. Long story. It has a bit to do with my older brother who was once a bit of a photographer.

Anyway, I'm now working on the DVDs for friends and whoever should get one of Gumdrop. I'm going to look into that this week and I'd like to include some DVD extras. There is definitely some entertaining stuff from our film shoots. Festivals get my film from what I uploaded on the Film Festival site.

And, end scene. It's been a long weekend. I've covered so much above, I hope something was informative or entertaining to you, or someone.

Enjoy your week/year. Stay safe, avoid the hype and nonsense and go out and be brilliant and be productive! Sláinte! Cheers!

Oh, that was something I'd meant to mention. Gumdrop ends with a word no one knows. It's actually a word that ends old Czech films. Like "Fin" in the |French cinema, I ended both "The Rapping", and, "Gumdrop", a short horror, with Sláinte.

Why?

I grew up watching in the 1960s in America on our local PBS channel. Because, the lead character in Gumdrop, that being, Sampson, is half Czech and half Irish.

Just like me.

So?

Sláinte

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