On Offending People.

In contemplating what it means to be a filmmaker and a consistent adherent to a Christian worldview, inevitably I have been forced to deal with the delicate issue of offending people. There’s really no easy way to actually categorize the people you might end up offending, which makes this issue all the more complicated.

There’s a couple broad and quite crude generalizations I can make, however. There are those people I might offend because of openly acknowledging my discipleship to Christ. There are also fellow followers of Christ who I might offended by not living up to their expectations of what it means to be an artist and a disciple. This, in a general sense at least, is what it can mean for a guy like me when I use the expression “between a rock and a hard place.”

Broader Horizons for Short Film Distribution

I’ve met a lot of new and aspiring filmmakers in the past several years, and one thing I’ve noticed is a particular drive in many of them to jump with both feet into feature filmmaking. There are a few (very few, in fact) that due to past experiences and a passion for learning through reading and observation are able to jump into directing or producing their first feature film without the trail and error of making some short films first (though, most eventually recognize having had more experience wouldn’t have hurt either).

Now there are many reason such filmmakers list for not wanting to “waste their time” with short films. But in this entry, I want to address one particular myth that exists in some indie film circles. There’s this idea floating out there that “there is no market for short films.”

An Interview with Kyle Prohaska, Director of Standing Firm.

Some time ago, Kyle Prohaska, an independent filmmaker, who has been following this little blog of mine, contacted me. Kyle has his own website and blog and we got to talking. We’ve kept in contact and Kyle has shared with me some things about the feature film he’s directing, Standing Firm. I’ve seen some scenes from the film and the trailer, and the level of professional achievement is really remarkable. For all of you new filmmakers out there struggling to find your path and for all of my fellow Christians hoping to see some interesting new voices in the filmmaking world, you are in for a treat here. I did a little interview with Kyle.

Christian Cinema ... An Adventure in Missing the Point.

“Are our churches and broadcasts and books and organizations merely creating religious consumers of religious products and programs? ... ”

- Tony Campolo & Brian D. McLaren, Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel

As a film lover and filmmaker, I am ever the student of the craft. As such, I try to invest time in continued education. So, I’ve been reading a particular book: Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics by Michael Rabiger. Let me tell you, it’s a fantastic book loaded with great information about the process of filmmaking and how to go about equipping yourself to best accomplish the work of making a movie. It’s not light reading, but very worthwhile!

Preproduction: A Neglected Art.

One often-underappreciated aspect of filmmaking is what is commonly referred to as preproduction. It really amounts to that planning phase of filmmaking, once the script is finished or selected and before principle photography begins. For those who might have been working in the film industry, this should be nothing new. However, I have noticed a disturbing trend among indie filmmakers. Preproduction often gets very little focus.

Audio for Short Films Part 3: Post-Production Sound

One aspect of filmmaking that has taken me quite a while to get a good grasp of is post-production sound. Great audio is filled with its own subtle challenges. Just as many talented people dedicate their livelihoods to working in cinematography, editing, lighting, set design, visual effects, and any of the many other specific areas of the filmmaking process, there are plenty of reason why individuals do the same with sound editing and mixing. The truth is, you may have a great picture, but if your sound isn’t very good, audiences will quickly become annoyed and either emotionally or literally abandon your film. That’s never a good thing.

The Short, the Feature, and the Bias

“Regrettably the short film subject is often considered beneath the director with serious intentions.” – Michael Rabiger, Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics.

For those of us working in the filmmaking and media world, it should come as no surprise when I state that there seems to be a sort of bias towards feature films in America. Short films are the things of student filmmakers exercises and film festival aficionados. But for the serious filmgoers, it would seem, feature films are where it is at.

Your First Time on a Film Crew

So you’ve got yourself a job on a film set. That’s great news. Even if it is unpaid, that’s still great news. In fact, most first time film gigs are unpaid production assistant work, or intern work. This is to be expected. It’s a means to get your foot in the door. After all, if you have no experience working on a film set, you have little bargaining power, frankly. That is, unless you possess a specific set of skills (like make-up design, or set design, or costumes, or special effects) that you have acquired in other work—such as the theatre—that makes you a bit of a hot commodity to a given production. Most of us, however, don’t start off that way. And that’s to be expected. So embrace that and get in there. There is a very specific flow to working on most film sets, and being able to be introduced to it without the added stress of being a head of specific department is usually a good way to go.

Audio for Short Films Part 2: ADR and Foley.

So now that you’re in postproduction, your film has all been shot, the crew sent home, what happens if you need more sound? Let me assure you that this is naturally part of the filmmaking process. In fact, as nice as it might be to gather every single extra sound effect you might need for your film during shooting, most of the time the schedule simply does not allow for this (especially on indie films). In fact, in some situations stopping everything just to grab what are called “wild tracks” of sounds during shooting may indeed be irresponsible use of the crew’s and actors’ time. Often, these sounds, referred to as Foley, are something that you or someone else can go off and record on their own once shooting has wrapped.

Audio for Short Films, Part 1: Production Audio Recording

An often-overlooked aspect of good filmmaking by many a young aspiring filmmaker embarking on those early productions and short films is sound. Good sound can really make or break a film. You may have a good looking image, but if your sound is not any good, it can quickly become not just a distraction that pulls the audience out of the experience you are trying to create with your film, it can be down right annoying—like fingernails of a chalk board. So, to any new filmmakers out there reading this, let me stress that it is worth taking some time to really learn more about good audio because it will really help your projects stand out (in a good way).

Behind "Cold October": The Making of a HDV Special Effects Short Film

I had already directed a fairly successful short film in the psychological thriller genre titled “Cellar Door,” (click here to read about making “Cellar Door”) so it may come as no surprise that I might want work in that genre again. However, I am prone to trying new things, especially as I develop as a new filmmaker. So, yes, I chose to work on another psychological thriller. Only this one would be quite different from “Cellar Door.”

An Exploration of the State of Christian Cinema (part two)

“Society needs artists, just as it needs scientist, technicians, workers, professional people, witnesses of the faith, teachers, fathers and mothers, who ensure the growth of the person and the development of the community by means of that supreme art from which is ‘the art of education.’ Within the vast cultural panorama of each nation, artists have their unique place.”
- Pope John Paul II, from “Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists.”

The Christian as Filmmaker

The lights go down. The projector rolls. Light, cast upon a screen, becomes something else entirely. Suddenly, it has a language all its own. An experience. What a moment ago was a strand of still images is now a living thing. It is transformed. A miracle of sorts.

An Exploration of the State of Christian Cinema (part one)

“I made it as a prayer, an act of worship. I wanted to be a priest. My whole life has been movies and religion. That’s it. Nothing else.”
- Martin Scorsese speaking about The Last Temptation of Christ in Martian Scorsese: A Journey.

What do you mean, “the state of Christian cinema?” one might ask me. Allow me to first define the term “Christian cinema.” I want to approach the topic of Christian involvement in filmmaking from two fronts: (1) Films made by Christians with an openly Christian message, and (2) Christians working in the film industry making films with broad appeal. Thus, “Christian cinema” as I refer to it here seems to have two incarnations (I recognize the irony of using that word). Yet, both mesh into a broader issue, Christian engagement of the American culture through cinema. This will by no means be an exhaustive discussion on the topic, as much can be said, and as I will point out in this entry, much is ever changing. These are merely the observations of one filmmaker/film lover who also is a follower of Jesus.

New Videos

In light of the fact that I have just moved from the Northern Indiana area to the Boston area, I've had quite a bit on my plate lately and have not had a chance to make more blog entries here in a while. But, I do have a few new videos to present, one being a new version of my director's demo reel. Thus, I thought I might post those here for a some food for thought and possible discussion.

Character: From Concept to Execution

So you want to tell a story? But what is it about? Sure, you can give me the basic pitch and toss out the usual “it’s Speed 2 meets Casablanca,” but what is your story really about. I’ll give you a hint: people. Stories are ultimately about characters. And the truly lasting stories are ones with beautifully crafted characters. It’s the human connection that is needed (even if you’re characters aren’t human, as in the best film I’ve seen so far this year, Wall-E).

Independent Filmmaking and the Bad Economy

“Fifteen years ago, the Sundance Film Festival got 500 submissions. This year, they received 5,000. Virtually all of these are privately financed. There’s only one problem: most of the films are flat-out awful (trust me, I have had to sit through tons of them over the years). Let me put it another way: the digital revolution is here, and boy does it suck.”

- Mark Gill, executive of Warner Independent and Miramax, speaking at the Los Angeles Film Festival financing conference.

In case you haven’t noticed, the American Economy isn’t so hot. Well, actually, the global economy hasn’t exactly been amazing. It’s freighting enough to have to stop and consider what this means for most of us middle class Americans. Unless you are the guy in the huge, gas-guzzling SUV thumping some indistinguishable bass-line for the current pop radio hit that pulls up next me on the street while I’m on my bicycle (yes, my good old mountain bike) on my way to the bank to cash my all-too-small paycheck from my last freelance video editing gig, you too probably have lost some sleep over the economic slump.

Rebels Without a Clue: The Downside of the Digital Revolution

The new age of cinema is upon us, right? Well, yeah, sort of. It’s new. But is new always a good thing? Much has been made of the new technology available to the low and no-budget filmmakers out there—people like me. With new HD cameras that cost only a few thousand dollars, more and more young people with big cinematic dreams are being presented with the opportunity to take a crack at filmmaking. And that’s a great thing! Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. After all, I’m one of these big dreamers who has gotten to make some rather good looking short films because of the new HD technology that is available for a rather small wad of cash. However, the fact that my short films have been praised by industry professionals as being beautifully shot and surprisingly polished has less to do with the camera we used than with the skills we have developed.

The Light Meter and Digital Video: the Basics

For those of you with a background in still photography, or who may have gotten the opportunity to shoot motion picture projects on actual film, you may have some familiarity with an amazingly helpful tool: the light meter। As digital video cameras continue to develop, many shooters have moved away from using a light meter. Especially as the new generation of videographers develop their skills without ever touching a celluloid camera, a light meter can be a rather overlooked tool. I know several excellent videographers who often shoot without the use of a light meter. But this doesn’t mean it is an outdated device that is no longer applicable to the new workflow of digital cinematography. Quite the opposite! Whether or not to use a light meter comes down to two things: (1) your own working preference, and (2) the type of project you’re shooting. What I’d like to discuss here are the occasions where I do choose the use a light meter (even though I am shooting digitally), why I use it, and how I use it.

Making “Cellar Door”: The Creation of an HDV Short Film.

Most of us aspiring filmmakers don’t have the luxury of endless resources. But you shouldn’t let that stop you, especially not these days. What follows is a sort of production diary, detailing how my very small crew and I created a short film for less than two grand, and how this little film has started to create new opportunities for us. Particularly, I want to discuss what we learned on the technical side of making an ambitious and very visual short film for such a small price tag.

A Few Changes

If you're reading this blog, you may have noticed the utter lack of activity here in the last few months. First of all, I'm very sorry. Secondly, allow me to explain:

In the last few month, I've been working hard on completing a short film called "Cold October," which I directed. As we wrapped post-production on that film and got it into the hands of the company submitting it to film festivals for us, we launched pre-production on another short film, "Always Reaching." This wasn't something I'd planned on doing so quickly, but when opportunity presents itself, you're a fool if you don't take it. I am now cutting "Always Reaching." Between these two filmmaking ventures and work as a freelance videographer, little time has been left to write posts.