2011 has been a pretty crazy year as far as my personal screenwriting output is concerned.

THE TOTAL NUMBER OF FEATURE FILM SCRIPTS since January of this year:

A PAGE ONE rewrite.

A HEIST film.

A CRIME THRILLER.

A WESTERN.

Another ‘HIGH OCTANE’ CRIME THRILLER.

A (Psychological) HORROR film (Co-written with my friend Paul).

WHY THE SUDDEN FLURRY?

I think the cost of setting up a film means I’m not directing as much as I’d like to be.

A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS drained my line of credit and credit cards (which remain drained), so “self financing micro budget style” is a challenge.

My management company are an inspiration. Great notes. Great attitude. Great guys.

I’ve learned the joy of outlining.  A more holistic understanding of narrative story structure, in both commercial films and smaller personal dramas, means less time meandering and more time writing. I’m certain the end result can be the same, whether you outline in great detail or not, but, for me, I find I’m making more productive keystrokes lately, and that keeps me at the computer.

Of course, characters continue to surprise, and often refuse to go where I tell them.

Cast read through later today.

Chicken-scratched homemade stick-people storyboards.

A few roles still up in the air.

Ready to get shooting on Monday!

Yesterday I took a break from writing to grab lunch and I remembered an email somebody sent a while back. It pissed me off all over again.

This person said they were inspired by the way I just went out and made WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD with myself as the only crew, how I just decided to make a film and then went out and made it. I replied to the message with a thank you and a brief “all you need to do is decide to make a film and then…you make it” message of inspiration.

Then I received a further message, pretty much asking for my help making their film, because, they said, unlike me, not everybody can just go out and make a film.

They pretty much wanted me to take their script and make their movie for them.

THAT IS SO WEAK

Something I learned very early on when making music transferred perfectly to film:

There will always be better filmmakers.

There will always be more talented filmmakers.

There will always be luckier filmmakers.

There will NEVER be a filmmaker who works harder than I do.

It was the only thing I could control, so I decided to control it.

SO, PLEASE

Don’t be a lazy fuck and expect people to create for you.

If you need equipment, find a way to buy it.

If you need actors, find them.

If you need a script, write one, get a friend to write one, remake The Tempest in a high school and shoot it on your iPhone, anything.

If things aren’t working out for you, if you’re not “getting the breaks,” if you’re not working on a new script because, even though nobody’s rushing to make the ONE script you have, you know it’s the greatest thing since Matrix Reloaded…if you spend more time talking about what you’re going to do or reading books and magazines and blogs about what you want to be doing, then you’re not doing anything.

All you really need to do is…something.

Now, I’m going to stop playing around on this blog and get back to writing.

Oh, and I procrastinate EVERY day. I find the secret to good procrastination is to switch back and forth between projects rather than the dishes, playstation, online “research,” etc…

Can you imagine yourself going down with just a cameraman and sound man and half a dozen people and shooting a film?

Sure I can. In fact, any contemporary story is best done just that way. The only time you need vast amounts of money and a huge crew is when you require complex special effects, as in 2001, or big battle or crowd scenes, as in the Napoleon film. - STANLEY KUBRICK

CASEY and BROOKLYN (Casey Manderson & Kristine Cofsky)

A couple more shooting days left on the film. Whew.

As soon as it stops raining I can get out and hunt for a well lit baseball diamond, soccer field or running track (for night shoot). Looking forward to shooting that scene!

Also looking forward to getting into some serious writing (of course there’s the matter of editing this current film as well).

The good old HVX200 has been steady, but some part of one wireless mic or transmitter is sketchy, and continues to give us grief. This just means more takes for sound.

The mountain of footage continues to amaze me. So much to wade through.

Hoping to see at least a few films at VIFF. Perhaps soon!

The newest script is ready. Hopefully we’ll be shooting that one in the summer. Fingers crossed.

It’s taken me three days to go through two camera’s worth of footage and select the usable clips for ONE scene. One two minute (at the most) scene. I still haven’t made a single edit, just taking the usable parts and putting them onto a timeline. It’s 47minutes long (but this is double because most of the shots are TWO cameras) and now I need to cut those 47 (94) minutes into less than 2 minutes of magic.

It’s a scene with Kate and Kristine in Brooklyn’s Apartment.

Crazy times.

A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS Vancouver premiere is tomorrow at 9:15pm, Granville 7 theatre. Get your tickets now at viff.org.

I have no idea what to call this new film.

Back home in Vancouver.

It’s nice to be back home with Kelly and the doggies.

It will also be nice to get the new film in the can! Finally!

Wow. It feels like it’s been a long shoot. Shooting out of sequence has been really tough, but with no money (and so many characters) there’s no other way.

VANCOUVER FILM FESTIVAL - Premiere

A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS premieres this Monday (Oct 4th).

Still so much to do with A Night for Dying Tigers AND When Life Was Good (which premieres on Super Channel on October 7th). Details HERE

Calgary was fantastic. I’m really looking forward to VIFF so I can check out some great films and see some great friends.

After the festival madness it will be nonstop editing and writing until June 2011 with at least one other film ready to shoot in Summer (I’m really looking forward to shooting that one).

Shot some great stuff with Kate and Dan yesterday in Gillian’s bedroom (thanks G!).

PRISCILLA FAIA and KRISTINE COFSKY (Tasha & Brooklyn).

Doesn’t this photo look like it should have a “Clubzone” logo on it?

We’re back at the production studio (Vada) for a couple of scenes.

We’ve trimmed back the schedule (thanks Kristine!) in order to minimize the mental and physical damage before we head off to Toronto. We’ll get the rest of it done as soon as we’re back in Vancouver, energized!

I managed to get something rough together for a small scene (2nd in the film). We shot SO MANY HOURS for three tiny shots under 30 seconds. And still, I don’t have enough coverage to let it linger as long as I’d like.

I’ll find a way to get it to work. Some scenes are like this.

KRISTINE COFSKY

CASEY MANDERSON

GAELLE JEGO

PRISCILLA FAIA

PAUL MENDEL, GAELLE JEGO, AND I

DAN RICHARDSON and WES SALTER

ROB LEICKNER

I suspect there will be more DREAM TEAM photos to come (including team members like Rob C., Michelle, Tristan, etc…!)

DAY TWENTY

We shot at Chloe Angus’s dress shop yesterday. VERY NICE location. Gaelle and I had our cameras set to different colour temps (the first time we didn’t look at our LCDs side by side before shooting). Still, the actually lighting in the shop was somewhere between Tungsten and Daylight (actually a bit closer to Tungsten). So, I may be able to blend the footage if performance dictates (although the HVX does not handle any colour correction particularly well at 720p). No big deal, it’s documentary style!

MY STYLE

Shooting in this style requires constant vigilance against the trappings and phrasing of traditional motion picture photography.

I don’t want to finish the scene and then “block the next scene” before lunch. This is anathema to creating something completely different and natural. This is also why I avoid using Final Draft to prepare these scripts. The “scriptment” feels different than the usual, and that helps ease the cast into a different approach…something just feels different…

THIS IS NOT THAT

I will, of course, continue to make films in a more traditional way as well. I love filmmaking and I have respect for the way professionals (Europeans in particular) make films.

But this is not that.

So, we avoid shooting out of sequence.

So, we avoid big crews.

So, we (try to) avoid long days (we try to keep every day between 2 and 8 hours MAX).

So, we use natural and practical lighting (a Chinese Lantern and a LOT of practical bulbs on standby for the occasional darkness in the eyes).

So, we avoid booms and use wireless mics (not quite as nice as a PROFESSIONAL Boom Op and Mixer, but the intimacy is worth the trade off when shooting this way).

So, we avoid wrapping cast and extras before the last scene (just in case inspiration hits or a story point gets added, or we need to reshoot an earlier angle).

So, we don’t “block” anything before I have a camera in my hand ready to roll, and ready to shoot the entire scene.

So, we don’t rehearse. I don’t want to see the scene played or the action blocked until I’m filming the scene (if we need to adjust the lighting, etc…then we’ll have to do it all again, but if we don’t need to make any technical adjustments, that FIRST MOMENT is captured on camera, and it feels different from each take that follows).

So, we try to avoid all of the trapping and phrasing and tropes that make a traditional set feel like a traditional set, and we try to create something unique and different, with energy and style and spark.

I think this is the most difficult part of the process, avoiding the usual.

Because I actually love the usual too!

But this is not that.