News and Newspapers

I am averaging about one magazine cover every 3 days. I imagined 10 covers and a couple should do it, but now measuring the shelves and space for the news stand I realize, I’m going to need like 30 different magazines and 3 different newspapers. Anybody got any good ideas for names of magazines? Mine are getting staler and staler the more effort I put in to it. I need some help.

Here are some of the completed ones and if you notice the captions etc and you know me, you will realize that there is an inside joke on each cover of each mag.

Film Fanatic - My constant argument on how film is still better





Dark Woods - Originally Dark Wood Chronicles, but I didn't like the name and when it comes to the fine print on these covers, it is somewhat irrelevant. Those are my boys from out west I got started in this business with. They are doing well making horror flicks. I had to pay tribute.





Design Magazine - Legacy Furniture is the commercial furniture manufacturer I work for now. They've made it possible for me to do all this. I had to give them a free plug.





City Story - The original paper. I used the NY Post as inspiration.





Vaudeville Weekly - A quick one I made just so I can make that headline.




Other news: Shane Meador from Asheville is officially hired as the Production Manager.





John Kearnes and his company Cinewerks down in Wilmington have been hired on as the Gaffer and lighting crew. Megan Baxter, an old friend, is taking on the responsibility of trying to make Phil look tired and haggard and Dana look pretty and mysterious.

As far as those names dropped, the other usual suspects are all still on board.

If you are on that cess pool social website called myspace, CHECK US OUT add the film to your friends. All the art, boards, info is there. I’ve been neglecting it as of late but now that the production is in full swing again, I’ll try and keep it up.

..."Win"....

And just like that the production is BACK on track. Props are being bought, magazines are being made and cast and crew are being put together. Mandi, my wife, has never really been a huge supporter of this thing I do. She's a realist if there ever was one and honestly I love her for that, because I'm a dreamer if there ever was one and if she wasn't around to put my feet back on the ground every now and again, I'd be freakin' lost on Mars somewhere by now.
She grinned and beared Meter during all my pre-production BS and when I asked her if she would help me shoot the film that freezing cold November night, she didn't say no. In fact, had she not been there and worked her charm with a tempramental cab owner, Meter may have never had the claim to fame of "shot in one night." After that night she didn't speak much of it. Even as I pulled my hair out on the audio mix, she let me do my thing and never really asked any questions.

Then one night just a little before it was completed, she sat down with me and watched the film. She was sort of on the fence. She saw the lighting issues, sound issues and gave me her insight. Now Mark's performance was nothing short of brilliant, but for my wife to go and on about how he was sooooo good and he's the reason that it works kind of hurt my feelings. Yes, Mark made the movie, but I thought the script was quite good and my editing was methodically calculated to keep the pace of a 15 minute conversation in a car interesting. Either way, the night of the premiere when that audience ripped up an applause and I went up and spoke with everybody, Mandi later said, "she had never felt so proud of me."

With Jeopardy, things were a little different. There was more preparation, money and time involved. I don't think Mandi ever thought it was as big a movie as it actually is, so she looked at it as yet another film like Meter that was just kind of getting prepped on free time and free money. As I progressed in my pre-production phase, just the words, "my movie," would get a roll of the eyes. I chose just to not fill her in on what was going on to keep from hearing, "you need to be doing something else with your time." It was clear she thought making the film was "unrealistic." She's always thought my goals of securing a job at camera or editing for a company was an "unrealistic" goal. Everybody immediately associates video, editing etc with the word "Hollywood," when in fact there are an abundance of jobs doing that kind of stuff in every city and many if not 99% never walk down the red carpet on Oscar night. They make a great living because it is a skill, but are never tied to say Jessica Alba romantically. There is nothing unrealistic about it. And I hate to toot my own horn, but I've been working really hard at this for a very long time. No goal I would like to achieve in that trade is unrealistic, (with the exception of maybe making a short film with very little spare time.)

Then the other day, Mandi shocked me. I had begun to see the light at the end of a long tunnel of mistakes, miscalculations and just plain exhaustion. Ryan and I had decided pushing the film back a month was a good thing and upon a record breaking 10 hour edit and completion of the second wedding of three I had to finish to get back to where I needed to be, I almost felt the film may triumphant after all. My stimulus check came and I already knew it wasn't $600 like it should have been, but a mere $170. Mandi relayed the message to me on the phone at work. I came back with a typical Garrick smart ass joke,"Yehhh! That might be enough to take the family out for a pork dinner." Then Mandi said something I never would have dreamed her saying.

You remember Rocky II when Adrian was all to hell about Rocky fighting Apollo again and then she ends in a coma after giving birth to their son. When she finally comes to she says to Rock, "there's only one thing I want you to do for me.... Win." Then it gets all dramatic as it blasts into his training montage? Well, this moment felt like that for me. After my smart ass comment she said, "One hundred and seventy dollars should be plenty to get the rest of the lumber and paint you need to build the newsstand, shouldn't it?"
I paused shocked, ".... Yeah."

"Well, then you need to get on it."
I smiled. She had been paying more attention than she led on. "Yes maam," I thought. I hung up the phone and Bill Conti's soundtrack of Rocky Training began in my head as I marched back into the office.
I had to make some calls and spend some money. I had a short film to make.

Life Measured in Inches

With the threat of pushing Jeopardy back to August or September looming near, I worked vigorously to re-invent my schedule to free up some time to allow me to co-exist as Producer of film slash working family man slash wedding videographer. I managed Monday and Tuesday to tie up some loose ends and took care some of the little details such as getting the police jackets to the press, purchasing the fake police gun and finishing the sketches for the storyboards. (I did not add color to the final sequence being that nobody was allowed to see them due the twist ending.) What lies ahead: Props, props and more props which is…

You guessed it!!! Computer work which means I may never get to it. Besides that, the completion of my newspaper stand is PRIORITY #1.

All that in my eye and then the low budget film Gods dropped a bombshell. On top of bad decisions to take on too much work to raise money for the film, I was also DEPENDING on the Tax Stimulus check to supply me the remaining monies needed to keep up my end of the deal on the film.(Dumb me. No excuses.) Four years ago, new to the 1099, I got into some tax debt for some money I failed to report. (Not out of malice but just sheer stupidity.) Anyway, after losing a two year battle of fighting to see the debt disappear, I gave in and took a monthly payment plan to get squared away with the IRS and had been religiously paying it. My balance as of last month was $438.00 and I guess I was clueless, ASSuming that they wouldn’t deduct that money from my stimulus check since I was paying payments on time. OUCH! They took it as the finished payment leaving me with $125.00. That minor technicality screwed the world. Now on top of needing more time to plan and make props, I’m going to need more time to raise money to finish building the Newspaper Stand. Shit like this just isn’t fun for me. I don’t need this kind of stuff in my life.

We’re still working for July. As soon as I can forecast my possibilities to get this film shot in July the better off I’ll be. For now I look to inspiration through Al Pacino and the speech he makes in ‘Any Given Sunday’ to his team. (It may in fact be the only great part of that film… But it sums my life up as of the moment and I let his dialogue echo through my thoughts as I fight… FOR MY INCH.





Here is the jacket Odem and the boys will be wearing.


Design Image for the Printing Press

Will Fish for Film or at least owe you for life

Tired But Mounting A Comeback

....And we're back. After several meetings with the city and other people
around town to lock down locations I can finally say "GAME'S BACK ON." I
met with city officials last week and then secured the Quality Inn in
Hickory for my apartment complex sequence, (don't worry, I know what you
are thinking and I got it covered.)

See the downtown schematic for shooting here

I also acquired the Catawba Science Center as an added treat. What happened
was... I was getting a little worried about the Apartment Complex so I
started looking at alternate spots when I found the Catawba Valley Science
center. It had an elevator and almost everything else we needed and just
had so much character. The powers that be said "no problem" to using it,
then the day after they signed off, the Quality Inn was OK'd. I think I'm
going to switch the classroom scene from Lenoir Rhyne to the Science Center
if the schedule allows it. It would be a nice set piece.
With the location burden behind me, I move on ever so slowly. There is a
looming threat of pushing this movie back until September unfortunately.
Losing nearly two months on location scrambles did not help. Then I went
and screwed myself royally by taking on 3 weddings back to back to put some
money in the "Jeopardy budget" only to not take in account that when River,
my new baby boy, showed himself to the world, it would inadvertently deduct
my already dwindling "free time allowance" even more. To be honest, it
would not hurt my feelings in the least bit if I had to move the shoot back
a month or two. I mean we have the actual money to shoot the film so when
we shoot it is completely irrelevant at this point in time, although I
would love to move on sooner or later. I want to be ready for this and
there is so much more to do and with the end of my wedding videography days
in clear sight ahead of me, I almost wonder if it is not the best idea
right now. It would take some pressure off me and at least get me back to
where I AM JUST THINKING ABOUT THE MOVIE and working creatively, not
frantically.
I worked on wedding 1 of 3 last night and am only half way through and that
was working on it 7 hours straight.(The only reason I was able to put that
time into it is because Mandi and the kids are at the beach.) Added to the
already 8 hour block I had on it from earlier in the week, makes 15 hours
so far. With that rough calculation, I'm looking at 40 hours a wedding
which is three weeks doing it straight, (which won't happen,) so I'm
looking at say, 5 weeks just to get those off my plate which puts me in mid
June if I'm lucky, leaving only a month to prepare all the loose ends of
Jeopardy's film. May not be the best idea...
I started contacting crew members from my crew call I put on Craigslist two
to three months ago and they had forgotten what the call was for, (if that
tells you how under water I am.) A really nice guy by the name of Shane,
contacted me, eager to help out on this project and has been in constant
correspondence to help and at this point in time, I don't even know where
to begin delegating work out and because I just got my hands around the
location situation, I have not even been able to finalize and budget to see
if I can even pay anybody....

...Am I rambling? It's been a long night. From the redundant cross
dissolves of a wedding video ceremony to the formula leaking down my shirt
to chasing Payton around with a toothbrush, I'm so far away from Henry,
Dana and Leather Strap Strangler, I almost forgot there was still work to
do.

We're back and pre-production rolls on.... We'll just have to play it by
ear on when this labor of love will go into production. If it is for the
better of the film, August and September are OK with me and TRUST ME WHEN I
SAY THIS. This film will be shot and in the can by Halloween at the latest.
I’ll take no Bullshitting for 200, Alex.

Click on the picture below to see the full set of storyboards for the film.

The Catch 22 Theory (Locations UGH!!)

The Catch 22 Theory goes like this:

-Shooting a film in LA/NY/Big City: You pay for locations, permits, etc... BUT cast, crew, and resources to work for dirt cheap are a dime a dozen.

-Shooting in Hickory: You pay nothing for anything. Don't need permits... BUT, finding cast and crew, resources, (in general,) are impossible.

"The reason I think we should shoot it here is because I can square down locations for free and that ultimately keeps the low budget," I said to Ryan.

"I don't give a shit where you shoot it." he replied.


"I've got two locations in mind... Shouldn't be a problem."


...........AH, Garrick and his big fat mouth..... Ol’ and lets not forget I haven’t opened the crew can of worms yet. Ol’ and lets not forget, I haven’t opened the crew can of worms yet.

Since losing Viewmont Square before I ever even had it, pre-production has halted to a stand still. As more leads and more leads dwindle, I begin to worry that we may not find what we are looking for. People are telling me I am over analyzing the situation by fighting to find an "All in One Location," and ruling out possible different locations for the different scenes in the final sequence of the film. I understand the “Beggar can’t be Chooser,” attitude, but you gotta’ also remember, I have 4 days to shoot this picture and in order to be able to fight to pay crew and cast, I’ve narrowed the Gaffer’s services to the two big days. The two big days being the:

1)Downtown Night Exteriors
2) The Apartment Finale Sequence

Both of these days will take all night to shoot, especially if we include the actual dialogued scenes at the end of the script that takes place in the apartment.

Let’s breakdown the dilemma:

SEQUENCE ACTION:

Scene 11 – EXT. APARTMENT - ENTRANCE (Can’t be shot during day or faked) Dana walks up the stairs, slams her key into the outside door and enters. Henry follows.



Scene 12 – INT. APARTMENT – LOBBY (Could be faked if shot close with lack of windows at location) Dana walks into common room and into elevator. Henry follows behind.




Scene 12A – INT.APARTMENT - ELEVATOR – (Could be faked and we should build a replica elevator for this scene to have full control over lighting, etc. You can’t use lights in elevator unless you can shut it completely down. At the rate we’re going, we’re not going to have that luxury. The alternative is another set up as well as added dollars to the budget.)



Scene 12A - INT./EXT. APARTMENT – ELEVATOR - HALLWAY – (Could be faked with lack of Windows) MAN gets off elevator leaving Dana and Henry



Scene – 12A – INT. APARTMENT – ELEVATOR (**See above) Dana exits elevator and down the hall to her apartment. Enters the key and enters the room. Henry follows from elevator, tackling her into her Apartment

Scene – 12B/13 - INT.APARTMENT - HALLWAY – (Gonna’ be real hard to fake on a low budget film) Dana and Henry wrestle around



Scene – 14 INT. APARTMENT – DANA’S – (**See above) The final scene with the cops etc…

Every one of those Scenes requires a sort of different location so to speak. Even so much as that extra floor needed so that the Extra Man in the elevator can get off was to be a location. All this has to be taken under consideration when we are on a four day shoot.

OK, so here’s how, “The Pieces of Location Theory” can ruin a low budget film.

Alternate locations I’ve been looking at have ranged from the Abbey Apartments to Broughton Hospital. Where Broughton has a couple perfect exteriors, they do not allow shooting on the inside of any building. The Abbey has the elevator, hallway to the apartment and maybe even apartment itself, but its hallways are very narrow, making it hard to light and it is an actual functional apartment complex where we won’t control the elevator, (seven stories of tenants to pick up through out the shoot.) There is no common room. The door opens into the elevator… That’s it. OK, so let’s just say The Abbey allows us a free empty apartment. So we have Scene _____ taken care of. What do we have now?

EXT. Broughton – Outside Apartment
INT. Apartment – The Abbey
INT. Elevator – A Set (Built Elevator using Flats) OR
INT. First Plaza - ** First Plaza on Tate has an elevator is closed after hours with a 24 hour security guard. That would be a key place to ask for, to get an elevatore we could shut down. If we get it, we have to find an elevator similar to that one that has the hallway leading into a row of apartments on at least a 3rd Floor. This location has yet to be found. Let’s just say for the sake of arguing: Viewmont Square turns over a new leaf and allows us the hallway needed to complete the sequence. Now we have:

EXT. Broughton
INT. Apartment – The Abbey
INT. Elevator – First Plaza
INT. Viewmont Square – Hallway

Now, let’s say I SETTLE to do it this way.

BOTTOM LINE: We’re looking at 2 to 3 hours to move, setup, breakdown for each small shot list for each location. Not only is doing this scene this way going to kill our budget and time, it’s going to interrupt the creative flow for the crew and cast. (Let’s not forget, the time spent in the editing room trying to conceal the little differences between the locations. The lighting will not be the same, nor can I imagine the elevators being identical.) If we get delayed in one location, it may screw us up in the location after, especially if somebody would be taking their free time to let us in to do the shoot. If I had two weeks to shoot, I would do it this way and that’s only IF I HAD TO. This system cannot be done efficiently on our budget and time constraints. Since beginning this entry, I have found a very kind gentleman that has offered his erray of hotels. I have also discovered another building in downtown that has an old school elevator and 4 floors to it. I am constructing a letter to the owner to see if maybe, he may be open to letting us use it. I toured the Hickory hotels over the weekend and have found a possible match. It isn’t at all what I envisioned, but may be a close enough match to justify taking it on.

In the end, I will withdraw my comments of saying that securing locations in the Piedmont area is one of the easiest parts of filming in the area. I will restate that using Public Property is a dream here in Hickory. Teresa Randle and the wonderful people of the city make my job easy. Using private property…. Ouch! The Charlotte Film Commission… Wonderful. Sent me dozens of locations that suited my needs, but I couldn’t fathom going to Salsbury to shoot my film and maybe before Leatherheads you could get away with a cheap location, but not now. Clooney slung some cash. Lane wouldn’t stand a chance this soon after of scoring what I needed. (And again, moving the location there boosts my room and board costs by 3.)

By next week, I plan on having this situation completely resolved and moving on with production. Anybody have any great ideas, you know where to find me. I’m all outta’ them.

Sausage and Eggs with a side of Meter

Another Pair of Steak Knives is sure to be the outcome, but it would be surely cool to go up to WV and check out my movie on the big screen again. I'll be shooting a wedding and nursing a little man(if he ever comes!!!), so anybody in the Huntington Area, stop by the Appalachian Film Festival and check out my film. It's playing right after you gulf down you sausage and eggs on Friday Morning. (10:30am)

Crew Status and The Movie List

**CAST & CREW UPDATE: I have received many resumes for crew around NC. Nobody has been contacted yet, because I want to have the location debacle completely aced before I begin that process so anybody wondering why they have not been contacted.... Don't worry. I have contacted nobody.


I am a HUGE Michael Mann fan. Most people know this. It's unfortunate sometimes because the people that don't like Meter compare my film to Collateral, which was... Directed by Michael Mann and involves a Cab Driver and Man wielding a gun. So when they hear I get my influences from Mann then they really rake me over the coals. I've been out of the "lighting" game for quite sometime. I can easily tell you what I want Jeopardy to look like, but when it comes to actually picking out the gear needed to accomplish that look, I don't know so much. I have in the past productions given cast and crew a small list of films to watch to inspire, grab ideas from, and well get cultured. The list is usually different but similar films that have inspired the film we are working on. It may be the camera work, costumes, lighting, lens work, pace... May be a lot of things, but the movies all have a little bit of influence on how I want MY movie to look. Here is the Movie List for Jeopardy. If you guys get time, watch a couple of these. These are the little things that tie into one big one.

1. Miami Vice
2. Heat
3. The Brave One
4. Collateral
5. The Maltese Falcon
6. Touch of Evil
7. Casino
8. Chinatown
9. Mean Streets

If you watch these films take a good look at the surroundings. The lighting, location and art direction. I want to to go with a real cool, but colorful look with hard shadows on buildings, down hallways. These films have some of what has influenced this movie. Take a look a couple of them and tell me what you come up with.

The Cast is Set

Phil Vaglia will play "Henry." Phil was the Cinematographer for "Meter" as well as played the lead role in "Easy Mark." He wrote the script for "Mark" as well. It was based off a Talmage Powell story. As well as film, Phil wrote, starred, produced, and directed a hilarious internet sitcom entitled, "Phil TV." You can still check out all the episodes on his You Tube channel. Ol and I almost forgot, Phil also is a great musician. He used to be my boss and our collaboration began when I edited "Easy Mark." Phil was originally going to put as a producer, co-director for Jeopardy, but then things and elements kind of transformed for the best.

Phil’s Acting Reel



Mark Alton Rose will play "Captain Odem." If you keep up with me, you know Mark and he needs no introduction. Mark graduated from LR with a Bachelor in Theater. He’s been in several films and plays throughout his career. Since playing Charles in Meter, he’s appeared in feature films such as, ‘April Fools Day’ and ‘Harmony Ranch.’ He’s appeared in Sprint and Food Lion commercials and sometime way back when, this guy wrote a book entitled, ‘Especially for Christians.’ Ol and I almost forgot he was a voice personality on radio for many years…. Anything else?… Sure, but my fingers are starting to hurt. Mark was my original pick to play Henry, but Rick's story and vision of Henry, didn't match Mark's appearance or demeanor, (unless we had a tons of money to sink into makeup and prosthetics.) I took the liberty of changing Henry's appearance to a skinny, sleep deprivated, and pasty guy.

Mark from Meter


Then there was my promise to Rick to stay true to his story. I realized when I was writing the fictitious Captain Odem, (he does not appear in the story,) I was picturing Mark in a trench coat, slim tie, deep voice….

I made a decision and went back on my word to Mark. I called Mark and begged him for forgiveness and ask him if he had a problem changing roles. I sold him on the fact that Odem had as many lines as Henry and he only, (again for the second film in a row,) had to put up with me for one night as opposed to four. Mark graciously forgave me and accepted the role which meant I would lose Phil from the crew, but make a perfect “Henry” in Rick’s eyes.

When I was reading the story for the first time I did not envision Dana. The story is a Third Person Narration from Henry’s POV so you really never “saw” Dana close up. Then as I wrote the script I honestly still couldn’t envision her, (which is terrible considering it’s my movie.) In fact when I began drawing my storyboards, I had no idea what Dana was to look like, so all my boards misrepresent her completely. I thought small frame, glasses, great style, and athletic. That’s all.

As I began to really begin working on this film and getting in the mindset of doing it, a TV pilot contest came up that Freddy wanted to do with his, ‘Platters’ sitcom. A couple Sunday’s later we were shooting. I had seen almost all 10 actors’ headshots that were appearing in ‘Platters’ from the ‘Tag Along’ process but had not met any of them. The week before that Sunday, I had probably had one of the worst weeks recorded in 2007. I was working on two hours of sleep and no vision or prep on how I was going to shoot this pilot. So to make a long story short, (as I need to figure out how to do more often,) I didn’t talk nor get to know anybody in that room that day.

Christina Cupo was one of the girls who appeared in that sitcom. She was like the hippy-type, liberal, who didn’t believe in fighting and stayed on a yoga strict schedule. As I was editing Platters, I was like, “who is this girl?” I opened up the folder on my CPU that had all the old photo/headshots compiled from Tag Along and found her headshot. Her head shot looked completely different. Not in a feature kind of way but more attitude. In her headshot she’s beautiful, professional and confident. Then the girl she plays in Platters is cute, bubbly, and a little insecure. No makeup. No fancy pose and I was like, man… “There’s Dana!” Then I think, (I don’t remember exactly,) but I believe that night an email from Mark came through that read: “Hey, that Christina girl would be great to play Dana.” I had to smile. I emailed her and the rest is history.

Christina’s IMDB Page

Platters Clip



With the switch around that took place Freddy got kind of screwed because he went from Odem to Newspaper Vendor, but then it came up that Freddy may not be in town when we shoot the film. So to mend the situation, I am writing a bit speaking role for a second Detective who walks up to Odem and gives him a little more information and if Freddy’s here, we’re going to shoot it. If not, we are going to keep the script the way it is.

As far as the other small roles in Jeopardy such as the Newspaper Vendor, Man in the Elevator, Dana’s Friend and the Detectives, it was always my idea to put different crew people in the small brief roles. If we can get Rick down from West Virginia, I wanted to have him be the Third Man in the Elevator, maybe have me be the Newspaper Vendor. We’ll burn that bridge when the time comes.

As far as Pre-Production goes…. I’m at a dead stop. The NC Film Commission, Mark and I are trying to find a replacement location for the key final scene. I haven’t made any additional big moves, awaiting the outcome. We may end up moving the whole shoot to Charlotte or Asheville depending. In between those times, I’m trying to finish storyboards and fake magazines.