The Right Thing

I’m the sorta guy who has to have something perfect before he lets it out into the wild. The problem with this mentality is that it also makes me slow to release stuff. I have 100 YouTube videos that I’ll eventually release, once I get all the effects right. I have a studio full of clutter because I spend days sorting through little piles of receipts. And then I have a script that’s unfinished, because I’m never happy with my writing. Well, that all ends tonight!

Okay, the script part ends tonight. I’ll probably still not upload the YouTube videos or clean my studio.

Tonight I’m meeting with Andrew to review the script (there will be a full writers’ meeting later), and I’m committing to bringing it, no matter how much I don’t like how it looks right now. It’s time for more eyes than mine to see the whole thing together. Plus, someone else needs to see it soon, as we begin casting next week. If you missed that, I’ll put it in bold for you: we begin casting next week. I’ve been swamped with headshots and acting resumes, and in theory, we’re going to audition them all in one or two nights. Want to get in on it? Send us an email at casting@onarollvideo.comm (remove the extra letter) with your info and picture. We’ll give you a time slot to show us what you’ve got.

Okay, that’s it for now.

Later!

-Jim

Here’s an important fact that you’re going to have to learn to deal with if you’re writing something: During the writing process, whether it’s writing a book,  a movie, or the excuse note for being late to class, things are going to change. This is life. We come up with ideas, we toss them up, we shoot them down and start over. It’s sort of a literary skeet shoot.

But it is during this process when the magic happens. We find that when we throw out ideas, some stick to other ideas to form a whole new one. Other ideas might hover for a while, spawn new ideas, and then find themselves shot down while their children prosper. And some ideas are so good on their own that they just can’t be shot down at all. (Of course, these ideas are rare by the standards of most, and almost nonexistent for me.)

During the writing of this screenplay, we had a character that developed into being the leading lady’s father. I liked him. He was the ideal dad, and I really thought he would fit the bill perfectly. However, during a peer review (which is SO important in this stage!), a few plot holes were revealed that were in part due to this man being her father. So a suggestion was offered: Make this other character her father, and make the character in question a family member, such as an uncle, etc.  The solution was perfect – it closed a major plot hole, opened up potential for more great dialog, and solved virtually every problem that we found in one fell swoop. There was only one minor problem – I didn’t like this at all!

The problem is that I fell in love with my characters as we dreamed them out. To me, they had already become real people, and you can’t just go around changing the lives of real people. This man had to be her father, there was no other way I could be happy. And so I hemmed and hawed and pouted about it for a while. But eventually, I put on my directors’ cap, and reminded myself that if a director is so in love with his vision for the film that he can’t change it, that film is almost certainly going to flop. So I took a breath, thought about it rationally, and realized that indeed, the advice I was given was right. The scripting has been changed, and I am thankful for the peer input.

In your filmmaking, if you find yourself getting so attached to your ideas that when other people tell you they’re not working you shut them down, take a step back and give everything a fresh new look. Maybe they’re right. Maybe you do need to change your main character. Maybe you need to cut your favorite scene so the crowd doesn’t fall asleep. That’s life. Make the changes you need to make, and if all else fails, remind yourself that there’s always the director’s cut version, or at the very least, bonus features on the DVD

Peace!

-Jim

Hey film fans! With the incredible turnout that we’ve had on facebook, along with everything that is going well for us in the production of this insanely low budget indie comedy, I’ve decided that it’s time to do something unique. I’m opening the doors for the world to see how this film is made, from start to finish. On this site, we’r going to cover everything from our initial ideas the night we dreamed up this film to the final showings. Will it become a hit that gets the attention of Hollywood? Will I lock it in a box in my attic, never to see the light of day? Who knows! That’s part of the magic of movie making – even the top stars don’t have guarantee of success. So I invite you to follow along, ask questions, and we’re along the way maybe you’ll learn what it takes to mastermind your own low budget film.

Tonight I finished typing up the outline we drew up at our writers’ meeting last night. We got a remarkable amount of work done, from developing an entire storyline to naming characters. It was great. We had a unique meeting in the sense that one of our writers lives several states south of here, and he joined us via Skype. I’ll admit that I was hesitant at first to see if it would work, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He actually provided several ideas that helped shape the film.

Free Film School – Plot

“Free Film School” is something I plan to throw into this blog from time to time. It’s basically a collection of the things we’ve learned that might help guide you, should filmmaking be in your future. And to kick it off, we’ll start with a topic that is the backbone of your story: the plot.

In “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, Neal (played by Steve Martin) is railing on Del (John Candy) and hits on something we can all learn from. He tells Del “And by the way, you know, when you’re telling these little stories? Here’s a good idea – have a POINT. It makes it SO much more interesting for the listener!”. Have a point. That’s sort of the purpose of having a plot for your film. The plot is like an arrow, directing the viewer to the story’s point and following through on that point’s result. If you want to have a great film, you need to make a great point.

Beyond directing the viewer, having a point to your film also makes shooting and editing easier. Recently I was hired on as the cinematographer for a mocumentary comedy about an annual ice-fishing festival.  When I arrived, I found that the director and producer had Arranged for some of the best talent and equipment you can imagine. We had a steadycam operator who has been all over the country shooting for TV. We had top of the line video equipment and field audio gear – more than I can hope for on our film. We even had a Red One, possibly one of the best video cameras out there in the world of indie films. There was only one problem. With everything they did line up, our leaders failed to actually write a script, or develop a plot, or determine the point of their film. The end result was confusion, disorganization, and I’m fairly convinced that had I not pleaded with a few of the crew to stay, everyone would more than likely have walked off on the job. Frankly, I’m starting to think walking off was a good idea.  A month after the shoot, I still don’t have the foggiest idea what that film is supposed to be about. And if the crew doesn’t know what the film’s all about, how will a viewer ever figure it out? If your film is going to work, it needs a plot.

So what makes up a plot? Several great minds have tackled that question, and come up with differing answers. For me, I like to look at something known as Freytag’s pyramid. Gustav Freytag was a German novelist who lived during most of the 19th century. Freytag was fascinated by Shakespeare and Greek literature, and set out to devise the common  dramatic structure all of these pieces shared that made them so captivating. What he came up with was a pyramid structure you can see below. This structure consisted of five segments, the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the denouement. What he discovered was that just like gravity, in writing what comes up must come down. You start with a premise. Then that premise builds. Conflict sets in. The climax is reached and now the conflict starts to drop. Finally in the end stability is reached, and we have a complete resolution. And everyone said “Amen”!

When we put together the plot outline for “The Right Thing”, we based it off this concept. (Well, I’m slightly less rigid, so on our big sheet of paper I made a rounded bump instead of a pyramid, but it’s the same idea!) We establish the character in the beginning, and through a series of events, calamity follows him all the way through to the climax. But once he hits that climax, we all see the point of the story, and his roller-coaster to resolution begins.

One piece of advice: this triangle doesn’t have to be equilateral! For those of you who slept through geometry, I’m saying that the amount of time in your film that’s spent going up the rising wall of your triangle does not necessarily need to be equal to the amount of time spent on the falling side. In many films, including “The Right Thing”, the climax hits about 2/3 to 3/4 through the movie. To really drive home your point, it can really help to hold off on your resolution until near the end.

Also, don’t be afraid to slice and dice. In the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, director Michael Gondry seemingly throws the plot into a blender. The film starts with clips from the denouement and falling action, jumps to the middle, and hops all over the place. In the end however, he ties it all together, and despite seemingly throwing the plot into a blender and hitting puree, you get a great climax and resolution that completes the film.

Alright, enough of this! I’m leaving town…later today I guess. I’d better get some sleep.

Peace!

-Jim

Hey, we’re making a movie, and looking for help! If you have any interest in being part of our hilarious short film, all you have to do is fill out the form below, and we’ll add you to a list of people who will get more information as we stat looking for cast and crew. Don’t worry, this isn’t a guaranteed commitment or anything! It’s just saying that being part of a film that’s going to be shown across the national film festival circuit is something you might want to help with.

Thanks again!

-Jim

Hey, Jim here. I just wanted to take a quick second after setting up this very simple site to say thanks for checking it out, and I hope that you’ll stick around as we develop this film into an amazing short comedy.

You may be asking, what is “The Right Thing”? It’s a hilarious comedy about a man who is easily distracted, so much so that even something as simple as a trip to the store turns into an adventure of untold proportions. As his day progresses, the distractions of the morning turn into the disasters of the evening. Will it all work out? You’ll just have to wait for the big release!

We’re still in the very primordial stages of all of this, so bear with us as the site grows. In the mean time, here’s our first movie poster:

Catch ya later,

Jim