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God Bites Man


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I guess I'm far enough into it to declare that I'm in production. It's about a guy that talks to God. It has a love story sub-plot. The whole thing is interior dialog. No sync sound. No exterior sound except the first few and last pages. Ultra-low shooting ratio. I haven't come across anything like it. Even if it stinks it may be the first of its type.

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COOL!! That are you shooting on, the Mitchell? I've seen a couple of films that were all inner dialog....well monologue :D , but never a guy talking to God. It should be interesting. Post some pics if you get a chance.

 

I'm doing all the audio first like an animated feature. I get all the tracks down and then shoot a guy against the playback. All I have to get are reaction shots. An entire movie of synced reaction shots (lotsa' silent era faces). I've got one of those tiny little, pink earpieces that news guys use for invisible playback in public situations. Depending on directorial style I could get the whole movie on as little as a 2:1 shooting ratio. I've already got 30 cans of short ends sitting around from three years ago (perfectly aged?). If I can't scrounge the money at shooting time to feed Frankenmitchell, then I'll shoot on whatever I can lay my hands on.

 

I'm already running into problems, though. The dialogue delivers like a radio show. So, it burns through much faster than a movie's editorial timing. I have to keep the pace up or it gets boring. That means that my 120 pages will burn up in around 60 minutes or less. Well, back to the scriptwriting software. Fortunately, the scripting style can be padded endlessly. I wrote it to work semi-episodically so I could do principle marketing on YouTube. I'll just stuff in more episodes to stretch it out.

 

Because of its minimalist approach, I can shoot it with a one man crew. If I can direct-up clever shots without movement, I can shoot it myself using Frank's remote start and acting out the scenes. A crewless movie. A genuine one-man movie. Did I mention it is the cheapest thing I could conceive of? Do you think there's any buzz value to this approach to a 35mm feature?

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Sounds interesting but I think this film:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/thelonefilmmaker#p/a

 

is the first attempt at 1 person feature film - if it gets finished. But from that guys blogs - it looks like a real challenging way to make a film - if film making wasn't hard enough.

 

I've wondered why a one man film had not been made. I assume it's been done plenty with DV. Do you know of any 35mm features done this way? GBM will have a female, love interest. So, it's not really even possible to claim it as a one man movie. Just mostly, one man. Mostly, just really cheap to make.

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I've wondered why a one man film had not been made. I assume it's been done plenty with DV. Do you know of any 35mm features done this way?

 

Fellow forum member John Jost has shot a number of 35mm features where he was the only person behind the camera--if I remember correctly, that is what he told me when I met him-- I think all The Vermeers In New York is one of them . Maybe he can shed some light to this himself . . .

 

 

http://www.jon-jost.com/bio.html

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0430927/

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I'm doing all the audio first like an animated feature. I get all the tracks down and then shoot a guy against the playback. All I have to get are reaction shots. An entire movie of synced reaction shots (lotsa' silent era faces). I've got one of those tiny little, pink earpieces that news guys use for invisible playback in public situations. Depending on directorial style I could get the whole movie on as little as a 2:1 shooting ratio. I've already got 30 cans of short ends sitting around from three years ago (perfectly aged?). If I can't scrounge the money at shooting time to feed Frankenmitchell, then I'll shoot on whatever I can lay my hands on.

 

I'm already running into problems, though. The dialogue delivers like a radio show. So, it burns through much faster than a movie's editorial timing. I have to keep the pace up or it gets boring. That means that my 120 pages will burn up in around 60 minutes or less. Well, back to the scriptwriting software. Fortunately, the scripting style can be padded endlessly. I wrote it to work semi-episodically so I could do principle marketing on YouTube. I'll just stuff in more episodes to stretch it out.

 

Because of its minimalist approach, I can shoot it with a one man crew. If I can direct-up clever shots without movement, I can shoot it myself using Frank's remote start and acting out the scenes. A crewless movie. A genuine one-man movie. Did I mention it is the cheapest thing I could conceive of? Do you think there's any buzz value to this approach to a 35mm feature?

 

Well, just stick with it!! There was some female film maker I saw on IFC a few years back, who did the same thing. She would lock the camera down on a tripod then roll and run around in front of the lens. do the take then go back around and shut it down. Apparently, she had a film good enough for IFC to interview her. I was trying to remember her name and even tried to find out some info but came up short. I was also trying ro remember the name of those films I saw with all narration, inner monologue, but again, my brain is fried. I DO remember this one film or it coulda been a TV show with Whoopie Goldberg on the phone for the entire time. In the end you find out the phone is disconnected and she killed the phone man. I wish I could remember some of the films but they were mainly art / experimental films and that was a while ago. Something the does spring to mind though is the Incredible Shrinking Man where much of the last half of the film is inner monologue / narration, done very effectively.

 

I actually had an idea for a script about member of the crew of a space ship who is left alone when the rest of his crew is killed and the ship is damaged when it id struck by a meteorite. He must survive and deal with his solitude on the long trip home. After a while, he begins to go a little mad and question his sanity and what is real and what is a manifestation of his fears, anxiety and loneliness. Sorta Castaway in space. Kinda inspired by the Apollo 13 mission, but with no support or back up and by Robinson Crusoe on Mars, the very first movie I ever saw in a theater and STILL one of my favorites.

 

That or put him in an underground strategic military bomb shelter to wait out a nuclear war, the systems goes down and the communications are cut off. He's left not knowing if there has been a war or not. If he stays he could go insane, if he leaves, he could die from radiation poisoning. I haven't decided which yet. I put a lot of work into the sets for The Black Sky and wanted to do something with them, preferably something cheap. :D It got backburned when I put my focus into Blood Moon Rising, BUT if that doesn't work ot, It may be resurrected, though I think it might be tough to sell without a star.

Edited by James Steven Beverly
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Hey Steven,

 

I look forward to your recollections of similar product. Your ideas are interesting, as well. It's a mighty cheap way to knock out a feature. It's unique enough of a concept to stand out with mid-to-high level festivals.

 

I may have a leading lady. She's the wife of a friend of a local DV feature producer. Se's worked on his productions before. So, she understands about the glamorlessness and hard work of production. She darn cute and clear spoken. She's the right age and look. I'll pass the script on to her tomorrow. Maybe, she won't balk at it. Wish me luck.

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Well good luck. :D Post her head shot. Has she ever acted before?

 

Bit parts in DV shorts and some high school theater. Fortunately, there's not just a whole heck of a lot of acting required for this thing. I could probably get away with a Bowfinger style shoot if it came down to it.

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Bit parts in DV shorts and some high school theater. Fortunately, there's not just a whole heck of a lot of acting required for this thing. I could probably get away with a Bowfinger style shoot if it came down to it.

 

That'll work! Find out where Tom Cruise is having lunch and follow him around with the Franken-Mitchell, 'coirse it'll be hard to camouflage it cause you need a magliner to haul it around. Just kidding Ol' buddy:D

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She turned me down. More correctly, her husband said no. It was the shower scene ala American Beauty that did it. I might have to cut that scene out. I've got another gal reading it and a couple more that have gotten in line to read it. It's just a matter of going through them until I hit. I could do a cattle call if it came down to it.

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Hey. could work out better for you, who knows. I find it hilarious that she hadn't seen any of those films. If your are thinking of cutting the scene, offer to cut it or shoot it with her in a bathing suit or something so nothing shows but she appears to be nude from the back. See iif her husband will agree to that?

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Oh, well. Casting in the bible belt means the American Beauty scene had to go. Nobody cared whether God sees all or not. They weren't going to act in anything involving that. It does make me laugh.

 

The scene wasn't that important, anyway.

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I've chopped out the romantic sub-plot and the childhood flashback scenes. I was talking with a local theater organizer about casting a female lead. He reported that there just weren't any sane acting females around at the moment that met my casting category. They were all college age, early-retired or retired aged. 30-40ish was a rare item. I can't afford to import. It's cheaper and easier to simply rewrite.

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Audio sessions are going great. The Behringer MDX1600 is keeping all the sound in a perfect groove with expansion, compression, gating and de-essing. The only hazard I'm running into is with the Audio Technica AT4073A mic. It picks up all my gastric noises. I know it's juvenile, but they really crack me up. I'm contemplating making an out take file of just my gurgles. You don't think about how much of that happens with your bod until you've got a big pile of blown takes every day. I should fire my digestive tract.

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Audio editing is going just fine. I'm using Goldwave for recording/polishing and Adobe Audition for editing. Both can get as high as 196,000 @ 32 bit on my card. But I'm only using 88,200 @ 24 bit. Like all Adobe products, Audition isn't terribly intuitive. But, once fathomed, it is a really useful bit of soft. The hardware to pre-polish the sound was definitely worth the trouble. The audio goes on the time line without any hash or noise between vocalizations whatsoever. It sounds better than anything I have ever recorded. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. To think that a shmoe like me can turn out product as good sounding as the big-boys does my heart good.

 

Also, Ole Miss beat Tennessee today. There is much rejoicing in the land.

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Voice-overs are done. Playback tracks are laid down. I'm really happy with the performances and the audio quality. Remind me to pay the actor and audio tech a bonus when the great, whopping train loads of money roll in.

 

I guess it's time to oil Frankenmitchell and shoot one of these aged short ends to see if they're still viable.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Assuming nothing pops up to get into the way, I should start shooting sometime next week. I have to weld up some mods for the matte box and focus pull rigs and straighten out the playback system. That's about it on the "things to do before shooting" list. Storyboards are mostly done. But, this thing is such a minimalist style that they really aren't all that necessary. I guess I'm running out of excuses. Time to "Put up or shut up."

 

I am considering a refrigerator box rig to hide the camera when shooting in public places. That shouldn't take more than an afternoon to throw together. I guess that's about it.

 

Dang brother, I'm gonna make a movie!

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  • 1 month later...
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Man! I caught this flu from my brother's daughter when I went up to DC for Thanksgiving. I'm just now starting to shake it off. I'd get a little better and start working. Then, I'd get sick again. I've heard from others that this strange slow-virus has been going around with weird and random symptoms. Maybe it's for the best since I had to get Frankenmitchell properly fixed. I've made the FF and matte box mount. I'm pretty close to getting out and shooting. I've had to cancel so many shoot days so far.

 

I've been struggling about the ordinariness of my locations. They're boring. I struggled with ways to justify my character's various places. His character, an insurance salesman, was too boring to place him in a cool location. It occurred to me that if he was a photographer or even only an amateur photographer, he could be anywhere with no further justification. That simple scripting device allows me to put him in the local area's more interesting settings. Plus, as an amateur photographer, I can establish that aspect of his character visually without any rewrites. Adding to that are cut-aways to the things he is shooting as B&W stills which adds an artsy-fartsy quality to the movie.

 

What do you think?

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Welp... It turns out I had pneumonia. If I possessed an ounce of good sense I would have gone to the doctor two months ago instead of only yesterday. He put me on whopping loads of antibiotics. So, for the umpteenth time I am announcing, "I should start shooting in a week or so if nothing pops up to get in the way."

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