FORCED CALL; don't do it

 I've been on a lot of non-union projects where forced calls were very common. My recommendation is that unless you want to work with very unhappy people don't do it. A FORCED CALL is when your call time is fewer than twelve hours after your release the evening before. It essentially allows a cast or crew person a chance to drive home, eat, visit briefly with their loved ones, shower and sleep for about six hours. Continual Foreced Calls is a recipe for a mutiny.

On a union shoot you will pay dearly for a forced call. I recently had what I think was my first intentional Forced Call. Sometimes it just can't be avoided. We had a location with a night exterior, which we would normally schedule toward the end of the week, but because of talent availability, location availability, etc. we had to start our week with it. So we went to 10:30 PM and started at 8 AM the next day. None of our crew were working under union constraints and we only had one SAG actor that it would affect, so we gritted our teeth and went for it. SAG penalty for a forced call is a full day's pay. At an Ultra Low Budget contract (for films budgeted at less than $200,000) that means just $100. If you do a Force Call under ten hours the talent is contractually allowed to refuse. I'm not sure if the penalty is the same for higher contracts, but I suspect it is. Imagine if you had four SAG actors on a Force Call with SAG Low Budget Modified contract (projects under $650,000) -- at $268 a day, you're looking at over $1,000 just for the luxury of bringing them in early.

Even if you're not using SAG actors or IATSE crew, frequent Forced Calls is nothing more than a sign that you don't know how to schedule and don't respect the lives of those working with you.

Lynn Chen, the lucky first recipient of a Brainwave Films forced call penalty fee
(and a good sport), on the set of Daylight Savings.

More notes on sound in Los Angeles

A couple of months ago I wrote about some of the crazy sounds that interrupted production while filming in LA. Well this morning was stranger than normal. We were filming at Angel’s Point in Elysian Park which is just above Dodgers Stadium (Go Giants). I told my director that we couldn’t shoot at sunset as he wished because there was a game and the noise and traiffic would be crazy. Well, I hadn’t noticed that the LAPD police academy was right below us as well, and our morning was peppered throughout our stay by gunfire! I guess it was target practice day and there was non-stop gunfire the entire time we were there. 

103CT1 by brainwavefilms

Busted in L.A. (the perils of shooting off permit)

Driving to our location in downtown yesterday I passed one of those ubiquitous yellow signs pointing a crew into their location. They cost about $35 per sign, when you use the film office’s service. I have a friend who makes them for me for free, but I never use them in LA because I don’t want to draw attention to my invariable off-permit shoot. As I passed the sign the thought crossed my mind that with so many shoots going on at once in Los Angeles it’s a wonder they don’t cross paths more often (visions of the Sharks and Jets dancing in the streets of NY came to mind). The thought turned out to be prophetic.

We were shooting in a small bar downtown and at a theater next door. The owners had given their consent, even without liability insurance. They had helped us with our parking strategy. We were good to go. When I turned onto the street at 6 AM I discovered cones up and down it, and no parking signs thrown up. I knew at once there was a shoot going on. In fact, it was a major Showtime series and they were having a huge extras day (100 background players in a club), in addition to their ninety-person crew. They had all the nearby parking lots bought out for trailers, extra’s holding, etc. As soon as we pulled up to unload we had security on us in a second. In these situations it’s essentially my strategy to buy time. As our guys unloaded I went and talked to the key security, transportation, and locations folks. I tried to get them to let us park there all day, even to buy the spots off them, but they weren’t going for it. Unexpectedly they were very severe and protective at first, but softened up a lot as they saw how little we were and as the day went on.

I made a big mistake though. I saw the location manager talking to what I thought was a security guy, and went up and told her a few things. Unfortunately he wasn’t security but the fire marshal. He figured out we were another shoot, and called to see if we had a permit. He peaked his head into our location took a glance and then stepped out, on the phone. I walked out to see what was up, and he asked those fateful words,

            “Do you have a permit?”

            “No.” What else could I say?

            “You can’t film in here without a permit.”

I tried to think of something convincing, but only came up with, “Well, we don’t have one.”

I tried to explain that we were super small (crew of ten, cast of three, four extras), but he didn’t care. However, soon I caught onto his tone. It became clear to me that he didn’t want to bust me, but that now that he knew I was there, he couldn’t just turn away. The trick was to do whatever I could to please him – short of paying the thousand bucks or so it would take to actually get a permit.

You'd think it would be easy to fly under the radar when you're this small.

It was before 9 AM so the permit office wasn’t open, but they do have an after hours number. I called and talked to someone who said he couldn’t guarantee anything but to go ahead and submit an online application. Knowing the film office I knew they wouldn’t get to it until at least noon. By then we’d be almost ready to move.

In a little bit the fire marshal came back, asked who I talked to. He called him, asked if I had indeed called, and that was all he needed. I saw him a couple of times later that day and he was super great. He essentially said to me, he didn’t care so long as I had done something to make the effort, but in good conscience he couldn’t just turn a blind eye. Meanwhile the permit office called around two and rejected my permit, but said I could probably get it for Thursday if I could hold off until then. I told them maybe and that I’d get back to her. We wrapped the location at 4 pm. The next day our production wrapped all together.

Technically, if you apply for a permit you're liable for the permit fee. A permit in Los Angeles cost just under $700 and is good for ten days. It covers all of the city of Los Angeles, state parks and a lot of San Fernando Valley. Most of the cities around LA (Pasadena, Burbank, etc) have their own permitting offices which assess their own fees, etc. I knew our permit would be rejected because we didn't carry liability insurance. I should write in another post more about carrying insurance, but for now, will simply say unless you're ridiculously small, you should have it.

However, the Showtime location manager slipped me some awesome advice about shooting in LA that I hadn't yet picked up: While a film permit is $700, a stills permit is only $60. Most low budget indies can get a stills permit and no one will know the difference. The only issue is if you're trying to control sound or lay track someone might call you on it, but that's unlikely. When I applied I applied for a stills, knowing that even if they assessed me the fee it wouldn't be a crazy price. Fortunately I simply told them that we were gonna try other options and they didn't charge me the fee.

Disaster averted. Phew.

Monetizing festivals, part two

Festivals are all about love. I've never seen audiences show more affection for movies than they do at festivals. I think it's about the discovery. It's easy to like something knowing that you've discovered it. Now you can tell your friends about this rare gem that only you know about. It's exciting and empowering. For the filmmaker it's wonderful, but also dangerous. I know many a filmmaker who buy into the festival audience's love, and when their film is released theatrically they wonder... what happened? People are much more critical at the multiplex. The whole experience is very different, and much harder.
 
For our movie White on Rice we started to self-distribute theatrically while we were still playing in festivals. A lot of people think this sounds counterproductive. If the movie is in theaters, why would you still show it at festivals? But since we were self distributing, and of course broke, we couldn't turn down the opportunity for great publicity (paid for by the festival) and the buzz generated by the loving festival audiences. I give full credit to our amazing team: director Dave Boyle, and Nguyen Tran of Wave Releasing and Dylan Marchetti of Variance Films.

To make the festival work to our advantage we tried always to release theatrically in the festival city the week following the festival screening. That way the festival had a great promotional hook (a sneak peak screening, just before it arrives in theater), and we got all the buzz from the audience who went home and told all their friends about this great movie they just saw AND that they should see it because it would be in the theater the following week! Normally that buzz fizzes out and by the time you return to theaters, nobody cares. This strategy overcomes that dilemma.

The two cities where we pulled this off most successfully (and it's not easy to be able to pull off, mind you) were San Diego, where we won an audience award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and Honolulu, where we had a great screening at the Hawaii International Film Festival. In both cities we had our longest runs.

In these tricky economic times it's important to constantly think outside of the box in this way, and potentially dangerous to simply assume a traditional release, or even a "traditional" DIY release (whatever that could be) will work for you.

WHITE ON RICE-THEATRICAL TRAILER from Dave Boyle on Vimeo.

Monetizing festivals, part one

Film Festivals do many things for filmmakers. Mostly they give them a much needed platform to launch their projects. They also provide a forum for films that may be more "Challenging" than most films that have a better chance at finding an audience in regular theaters or straight to DVD. They provide filmmakers the invaluable opportunity to network with other filmmakers. For the independent filmmaker, film festivals are as important as breathing is to normal humans. However, there is one thing that festivals normally are not... and that is an opportunity to make money.
     It's amazing really. My first film, Big Dreams Little Tokyo, premiered at the AFI festival in Los Angeles, which is a wonderful festival. As filmmakers we worked very hard to raise interest for our film. We hired a very competent publicist (who helped us get into the festival) and went to work making sure the seats were full for each of our screenings. Our film had a sumo-wrestling subplot, so we hired a bunch of local sumo wrestlers to walk around outside the Arclight and pass out information about the film. It was a great bit of promotion and we were proud that our film got more better photo coverage than the Penelope Cruz tribute that was going on at the same time.

Director Dave Boyle, actress Rachel Morihiro and friends on the AFI Fest red carpet.

     The end result of our efforts? More people came to see our film -- which is great. At a festival, however, all ticket sales go to the festival (and venues, etc), but not to the filmmaker. So by spending thousands of dollars on publicity, all we did is line the pocket of the festival a bit. Well, everyone who sees your film is good of course, but there's got to be some way to monetize this thing. Is it worth breaking your bank and back, just so a few more people can see the movie? I would suggest it depends on who they are. If they're industry types, critics, festival programmers, then absolutely. If not, it might be wise to let the festival's publicity team do their job. I've started to concern myself mostly with "Industry-targeted-publicity" for festivals, saving broad marketing for when the dollars come back to me.
     We also discovered that your film never gets more love and attention than it does at festivals. At almost every festival everyone goes in wanting to love it. They're cheering for you because they feel somehow connected to you. They are discovering this new film that no one else has seen. But we found that when you finally release in that same city (six months to a year later), all of that love, as well as any promotion you may have done, is long gone.
     I'll return to this subject in a bit to talk about what can be done.

Celebrating our freedoms on July 4th

I just realized that the last three DVDs I watched the few days before the 4th of July were:

Fair Game (with Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as Joe Wilson), ...

All The President's Men (with Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and Robert Redford as Bob Woodward)...

Good Night Good Luck (with George Clooney as Fred Friendly and David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow.

All are movies where citizens expose the dastardly deeds of those in power. All are true stories. All make me angry and also happy to be an American. Freedom of Press and Freedom of Speech are two of the greatest things worth celebrating today. The freedom to make movies that our government might not want made is another thing to celebrate.

By the way. I like Fair Game, but it's not the greatest movie. Cinematically it does nothing outrageously new or memorable. It's worth watching though, for it's good direction, solid performances and a story that's will hopefully remain the most historically significant aspect of the Bush presidency (that and the economic crash). 

All the President's Men, on the other hand, is one of the best movies ever made. Amazing acting, great subtle direction, brilliant screenwriting, mind blowing cinematography. Look for the amazing double focus shots using lenses that are able to find their focus in two places at once. Also look for what I consider one of the most amazing moments of film acting of all time: at one point there is a shot of Redford on the phone, the camera goes from a medium wide to a medium tight. As you watch you are caught up in the drama and suspense of the scene and you don't realize that the scene is seven minutes long. Seven minutes! Very few scenes in film that long even work, and here's a seven minute single shot of Redford. Definitely an under appreciated film actor. The film is worth watching over and over for many reasons... not the least of which is for its legitimately incredible and important story.

Good Night and Good Luck is also a very good movie. Shot in beautiful black and white it has a great ensemble cast, lead by the always outstanding Strathairn. The music is great. My seventeen year old son was the one who pulled it out to watch it. About halfway through I sat down with him and he asked, "Is this an independent film?" I said yes, and he said, "You can always tell because they never have any music." GNGL does have very good music, but it's used like source music. It's based on a story I've known about for years and have wanted to make a movie about for years, but Clooney beat me to it. That's a good name for my autobiography: Clooney Beat Me To It.

Help me out here, what are some other great Power to the People movies we could watch around the 4th?

Ten steps plus one for indie film producer survival

I found this list at Truly Free Film and agree with it for the most part. Not everything on this list have I been able to do, but it's good advice (followed or not).

Ten Steps (Plus One) For How To Survive The Current Indie Producer Hell

indie film, producing

I was talking to a comrade in the field a bit back, and mapped out this survival strategy for the exceedingly tough times that producing indie film is these days. See it’s simple, right? Just do these ten things (and then a little more) and you got it made (if you don’t have to actually earn a living that is!):

1) Cut all your budgets by 60% — but recognize your fee is going down by an even greater percentage;

2) Meet all the marketing, distribution, publicity, social network, widget & app designers, web strategy, & transmedia story world builders you can possibly meet, because “producing the marketing and distribution” of all your films under $4M has become part of the producer’s job description — but recognize that is going to be a major time-suck on your schedule;

3)Aggregate viable projects under $500K to build a new media distribution apparatus, recognizing the lack of fees and time suck involved — but that the low budget is required to experiment with new platforms with unproven financial models and a multitude is necessary to learn;

4)Continue to try to get one of 10 or so available slots for prestige specialized film budget over $10M so you can actually earn a fee, but recognize the odds are really really low that yours will be the one out of 500 or so that are competing with you;

5)Do everything you can to get a studio picture and/or television series since they are the only ways to legitimize yourself in the industry’s eyes, the quickest ways to promote your brand to potential new fans, and the most likely ways to earn enough money to sustain yourself;

6)Spend some time every day building your own audience and deepen their level of commitment to you by you giving back to them regularly — so that ultimately they will follow you and help promote your work, because you aren’t going to be doing it alone;

7) Find some other way to earn money on a regular basis since the film industry will remain unstable for a very long time and we all need to pay the bills;

 Fight for affordable health care and education because if you have to go into substantial debt to pay for what should be available to all then you will never be able to consider a career in the arts to begin with or ever again;

9) Try to give back to a younger generation who are much different than you (other than their interest in film) because if things don’t make some substantial changes soon, their won’t be a film industry for you to work in either (i.e. we’ve all done the same things for too long and the system is broken and we don’t seem to know how to fix it) and besides, maybe you will learn something;

10) Keep your overhead as low as possible forever and ever and ever, as you will need to remain very flexible in the days and months to come.

Did I get the list right? What did I leave out? I mean, other than the obvious one of having a large fortune to squander. You do know that this is a quiz, right? I mean, I did leave some things off the list just because the internet likes top ten lists best. And of course because I want to test you. But really there was one, that I thought was obvious and is really why I have an energy to do any blogging or social networking whatsoever. It’s the most crucial if Indie Film will live:

If Indie Film is going to truly survive — and once again flourish –we all have to do everything we can to organize our community, to encourage participation, to share information.

Choose the culture you want.

Get on the bus. Please.

Thank you.