Not every director is suited for low-budget indie filmmaking, and that’s OK if you’re Terrence Malick or David Fincher. But chances are, you’re not…or not yet, anyway. I get a fair number of calls from biggish directors and producers who are having trouble raising money for their …]]>

Video Village, Indie-Style

Not every director is suited for low-budget indie filmmaking, and that’s OK if you’re Terrence Malick or David Fincher. But chances are, you’re not…or not yet, anyway. I get a fair number of calls from biggish directors and producers who are having trouble raising money for their films and want to explore how to make them on the super-cheap. I’ve entertained some of these requests, collecting funny anecdotes along the way, like the director who wanted to fly in stars from another country and rent large trailers for them, but forego unions and production insurance. Or the producer who wanted to cast an actor whose agent demanded $12,000 worth of perks, when our entire costume budget was just $4,000. As much as I want to work with these namey folks, I usually end up politely declining because I know that it will be difficult for them (and for me, especially) to make a movie on a fraction of the budgets to which they’re accustomed.

I’ve now worked with twenty different directors on mostly low-budget indie projects–some of whom I’d like to work with again and again; others, never again. By now, I can tell when a director is lying, even if he or she doesn’t realize it–”it’ll be 70% handheld,” “we can just run and gun it with a skeleton crew,” “all I need is an extra half day for second unit stuff.” Yeah, right. Most of the director foibles I’ve dealt with are due to inexperience and will likely resolve themselves with time. But sometimes, I wonder if some people just weren’t meant to direct–at least not low-budget indies.

So what are the traits that I think make a director “indie-friendly” (and more generally, “producer-friendly”)? Besides the usual traits that all directors should have–passion, confidence, focus, a high E.Q., a collaborative spirit, a sense of humor, the ability to command respect, an openness to feedback balanced with decisiveness–here are the traits that are especially important when working with limited resources:

1. Fast Writer

I’ve worked mostly with writer-directors, which offers an efficiency that’s often missing when the writer and director are different people. So much rewriting is done not just during development and prep, but also during production. Some of my directors have had to rewrite whole scenes minutes before shooting them. There is probably a lot more production-directed rewriting in the indie world since we are constantly trying to figure out how to stretch a budget. Development periods are also a lot shorter for us because they have to be–typically, no one gets paid during development; we only get paid if we’re in production. As such, it’s nice to work with speedy writers who can discuss, digest, and incorporate notes quickly to produce a shoppable draft.

2. Adaptive

Anything can happen in filmmaking, especially if you have limited resources–extras stand you up, location owners change their minds at the last minute, the G&E truck takes a wrong turn and shows up 2 hours late. So it’s critical for a director to be able to adapt to these exigent circumstances and figure out how to make lemonade from lemons. I’ve worked with directors who refused to shoot because a featured extra didn’t show up. Even after I’d come up with workable solutions, the directors still resisted, insisting that the entire film would be ruined without this extra. Really? You have a set, a camera, equipment, and a cast and crew of 50 at your fingertips, and you’re just going to cross your arms and pout? You’re a creative person…create something! If it ends up sucking, then reshoot it. But for now, use what’s right in front of you and try to make something. (By the way, I’ve never had to reshoot any scene that called for an unexpected last-minute fix like this.) Being adaptive and thinking on your feet also helps when there are happy accidents. Filmmaking is organic and unpredictable, and when the right mix of elements strikes on set, a good director will know how to capitalize on it.

3. Editing Experience

It is so valuable for a director to have editing experience because she or he will know on set what’s important and what’s not, what can be sacrificed and what can’t. Indie films are scheduled so tightly that it’s often very tough to make the day. All of my feature productions have been between 19 and 24 days, shooting between 4-7 pages and 15-35 setups per day. Sometimes, shots and even scenes have to be cut on the day of shooting. A director who also edits will have a much better sense of which shots are expendable, and how to make up for losing them.

4. Ability to Visualize

This seems obvious, doesn’t it? But you’d be surprised how many directors can’t do this. Many indie directors I’ve encountered come from writing or theater backgrounds–they can write great dialogue and work well with actors, but they have no idea how to compose a frame. Yes, this is what cinematographers are for, but it’s much more efficient when a director can actually visualize what shots will look like before crew and cast go through the trouble of setting them up.

5. Doesn’t Sweat the Small Stuff

This is probably the most controversial trait on the list. Artists are, by their nature, perfectionists–and they should be!  However, the reality is that perfection is tough to achieve on a small budget. Of course, we should always work very hard to achieve it, but the obsession over minor details–like the way a curtain drapes over a windowsill in the background–should not compromise more important things like the actors’ performances or the entire shooting schedule. Except, of course, if you’re making an art film in which the position of curtains is paramount. But if you’re making a traditional narrative film where the writing, acting, and storytelling are the main events, then those are the things you should focus on. A production’s budget and schedule are a zero-sum game. It’s rare to get everything you want; it’s usually very give-and-take. So it’s important for directors to choose their battles wisely.

6. Highly Prepared

One of my favorite first assistant directors,� Nicolas D. Harvard, has a great motto: “Fix it in prep.” Indie films benefit immensely from directors who are incredibly diligent about doing research, shot lists, storyboards, and the like during prep. Some directors I’ve worked with have refused to do shot lists because they don’t want to be “locked in” to doing those particular shots on the day of shooting. This is silly because a good producer and crew understands the importance of being flexible on set and allowing for the organic nature of filmmaking to take its course, and would not pressure a director to stick strictly to his or her shot list. On the contrary, a shot list is what allows a director the freedom to improvise on the shoot day. Going into production without a shooting plan is very dangerous because it could easily throw the entire schedule (and consequently, the budget) off the rails.

7. Solid Work Ethic & High Stamina

Making a movie is hands down the hardest work I’ve ever done. That’s why I’m so picky with my projects. I cannot imagine working so hard on something I don’t care about. So when I take on a project, I expect to work very hard on it, and I expect no less of my director. Once, during late-stage prep on a film, the director kept checking into bars and restaurants on Foursquare, and tweeting about how much fun he was having hanging out with his friends. I did not like this one bit. If I and your crew are working our asses off on your film, then you should be too. Indie directors must have a very solid work ethic, and a high stamina for long hours spent doing what will likely be the most intellectually, physically, and emotionally challenging work they’ve ever done.

8. Vast Knowledge of Film

It’s important for all directors to know the language of cinema. By knowing what’s been done before and what certain shots have traditionally communicated, a director doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. He or she can then more easily pay homage to, do variations on, or reject conventions. Being able to refer to certain films, scenes, or shots also makes it much easier and quicker for a director to articulate his vision to the crew and cast.

9. Articulate

In all productions, but especially indie ones, a director often has to defend the creative decisions that conflict with budget or schedule limitations. As such, a director should be able to clearly articulate why he needs 5 picture cars instead of 2, or 21 shoot days instead of 20, or a Steadicam instead of doing it handheld. A good producer will listen and OK the expenditures if the director provides a strong rationale for them. Of course, it’s also beneficial when directors can clearly and efficiently communicate what they want to their actors and crew, and woo financiers with a pitch. Directors should practice untangling the creative jumble in their heads to form coherent thoughts and actionable requests (that, or find a producer who can translate for them).

10. Publicity-Friendly

Being articulate also helps when a director is promoting a film. Communicating your vision to the media and the public can be a difficult thing to do, especially if you can’t afford fancy publicists to guide you. Some directors I’ve worked with are great at making movies, but can’t write loglines or synopses, pitch their own films, or conduct coherent Q&As, so I’ll have to pinch hit. But it’s really nice when they can do these things, because no one cares about the producer! Distributors also expect directors to play an active role in film promotion, especially now that the landscape is so difficult, and so much rides on the cult of personality. Bonus points for the director who is active in social media. There is no substitute for authenticity, and when a director can tweet in his or her own voice, it generates a lot more interest and engagement.

11. Technically Adept

Knowing how to use Twitter and Facebook is part and parcel of the overall technical aptitude that’s important for an indie director to have. Indie directors and producers often have to be jacks of all trades–more so than ever now that so much of marketing and distribution falls on our shoulders. When you can’t pay your Web designer, graphic artist, or assistant editor enough to be on call (or when you can’t afford these folks in the first place), you should be prepared to do the job yourself. So if you have some spare time, learn how to use video editing, photo editing, illustration, and web design programs, and of course, social media tools. You should also try to stay abreast of the latest camera and post-production technologies because in indie land, post supervision often falls to you and your producer.

12. Appreciative

Directors can be spoiled, bratty, entitled people. There is no place for that in the low-budget world, where everyone is working very long hours at very reduced rates. Directors who consistently show appreciation and respect for their cast and crew effectively motivate them, and that motivation is necessary fuel for low-budget productions. The director–not the producers or the actors–is the one who ultimately sets the tone of the production. If he or she is an unappreciative jerk, then everyone is miserable and left to wonder what all the suffering is for. An appreciative director also shares the limelight, and gives credit where it is due. And if/when Hollywood comes a-callin’, an appreciative director will remember the “little people” and “give back” by continuing to work with those who believed in his or her vision before anyone else did.

So there you have it! If you don’t possess most of these traits, please don’t call me–unless you are David Fincher or Terrence Malick. Actually…no, never mind, not even then. I will just enjoy your brilliant films from afar.

For the past six months, my company, Hybrid Cinema, has been working on the release of Bob Hercules’s new documentary film Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance,about the history of the Joffrey ballet. This is a capsule post to explain the highlights of launching a documentary into the …]]> Written with Sheri Candler

For the past six months, my company, Hybrid Cinema, has been working on the release of Bob Hercules’s new documentary film Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance,about the history of the Joffrey ballet. This is a capsule post to explain the highlights of launching a documentary into the marketplace when working with a modest budget. Future posts will go more in depth on certain aspects of this release.

With at least 35,000 feature films on the film festival circuit every year, by some estimates, very few films are going to premiere at one of the top 5 film festivals. When that happens, filmmakers need to decide what is the best launch for their film. We concluded that in the case of the Joffrey film (and we feel that this is the case for many films), some form of robust live event premiere would help to create awareness for the film in the over-saturated media landscape. Live events are great publicity generators, allowing you to focus marketing efforts on a specific event. Festivals are great partners for these types of events – even if you don’t get into a top 10 festival – because you can create a unique experience by partnering with open minded and adventurous festival that is already connected to press and audiences.

In creating a live event premiere, you need to consider the following:

1. A premiere that will reach your audience.

Very early in creating our distribution strategy, we identified ballet fans (and more specifically fans of the Joffrey ballet and even more specifically the alumni of the Joffrey ballet-more on audience identification in a later post) as the natural audience for Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance. Sure, there are other audiences for a film like this – but it is essential to go after who will be the most passionate about seeing the film. For this reason, we targeted the Dance on Camera Film Festival which not only is one of the premiere dance film festivals in the world, it is based in New York City – the birthplace of the Joffrey ballet and the center of the dance world in the United States.

2. Creating an event that will garner attention for your film.

Festivals have many films to care for and promote as well as promoting the brand of the festival in general and often they have a small staff to accomplish all of this. There is a lot for the media to choose from for coverage. What will make your film unique and interesting to cover? We decided early on to partner with Emerging Pictures to simulcast the screening of Joffrey at the DOC festival not only to reach a nationwide audience, but to create a larger story for the press to pay attention to. Emerging was a natural choice because they screen live ballet performances from Europe through a digital network of cinemas throughout the US, so their cinemas already have an audience for this type of programming. They also have the technology in place at Lincoln Center that enables a netcast to happen so the venue and the festival wouldn’t have to figure out the logistics of the simulcast.

Even though a festival premiere is an event in and of itself, that is not always enough to attract attention from the media or from audiences. You should always strive to create your live events to be as unique as possible, both from the perspective of media coverage and from the perspective of the audience, to create that need to attend. Many subjects in the Joffrey film are iconic dancers in the ballet world, what ballet fan would not want to interact with them? We created a post screening panel of former dancers that the audience in the theater could interact with and meet after the screening, but we also enabled audiences even across the country the ability to interact as well. Having this panel discussion netcast live to theaters around the country allowed audiences in to ask questions of this panel as well as interact with each other via Twitter using the hashtag #joffreymovie – creating a unique event not only in the Walter Reade Theater in New York City, but in 44 other cities around the country at the same time. This is also a unique event for media coverage because so few films take advantage of the technology today that enables something like this to happen and having such a concentration of iconic dancers in one place makes this newsworthy.

3. The budget you have to work with.

We have a modest budget for the release of Joffrey so we had to do a lot with limited means. We have a small staff handling publicity, audience outreach, booking screenings and organizing merchandise sales. Bearing this in mind, we needed the most bang for the effort because we launched the film into the market during our festival premiere. We won’t have separate budgets for festival publicity and then release publicity in order to start selling.

Utilizing the Emerging network only costs at most $1000 (which can be taken off the top). Similar satellite systems through companies like Fathom and Cinedigm can cost $75,000 to $250,000 because of the cost in satellite time.

In addition, by covering much of the country at the same time – it allowed us to pursue reviews and articles in multiple markets – thereby most effective use of our publicity budget.

4. Creating assets before and during the release.

In another post, we will talk at length about the need for additional media assets to promote your film and all of the ways we have done this. One way that you can garner additional assets during release is by filming and documenting your events.

You want to film the event itself – outside the theater, crowd shots, audience arriving at seats, applause, the audience watching the film during the screening and the entire Q&A. Very important to capture audience expectation before and reaction after the screening. I recommend having two cameras so that one can be filming the Q&A and the other filming the crowd reaction outside. You also want a photographer shooting the event if possible.

What you film can be utilized in a number of ways:

• Short promotional videos that you can release on your Youtube channel to promote the film. For the premiere we created two videos. The first is about the film, opening night and audience reaction.http://youtu.be/7-glGz6lgWw

The second piece which we are now premiering with this article concerns the simulcast of the film and the audience participation.

• Still photography of the people and personalities at the event (especially those that are interesting to your core audience and some that may be interesting to society pages and other publications).
• Longer pieces of the Q&A panel discussion or even of just the filmmakers in conversation. You can use these on your extra features. Since our extra features have already been locked and since we have received numerous requests from people around the country to see these panels, we are going to put the full-length panel discussions up on the web on Distrify and charge a dollar or two for the viewing as an additional revenue stream.

5. The need to have the next steps planned.

Many times filmmakers are so busy planning their premiere, they neglect to prepare for what will happen after this. Where will all of this publicity attention go? In the past, they hoped it led to a distribution deal, but that cannot be relied upon now. There is no reason that direct distribution should not be the next step and that some kind of event theatrical screenings can be booked. In the lead up and following our premiere, we have booked over 20 other screenings and we continue to set up screenings. We also launched our online store just after the premiere and have sold several thousand dollars in DVDs/merchandise. Don’t let the efforts and the financial resources you put into the premiere stall out from waiting. In a future post, we will talk about how we prepared for sales by setting up the web store and creating the merchandise.

The Results

We ended up screening in 45 cities throughout the US to launch the release of the film. A number of these screenings actually sold out. We received press articles and reviews in a number of major markets (even though the film was only screening once). Through TweetReach, we were able to quantify the exposure via Twitter for the event. According to our TweetReach report, our hashtag #joffreymovie reached 200,549 people through 270 tweets just on that day. Some of the comments we received through twitter:

“#JoffreyMovie Santa Fe, NM – our audience loved it, thank you so much! congrats on premiering a new, high tech way of running a Q&A!”

“@JoffreyMovie #joffreymovie It’s insightful, performance history is fantastic. pic.twitter.com/tBeFP9IN.”

“The excellent #joffreymovie & panel yesterday @danceoncamera made me wistful for @joffreyballet of old. I loved taking class w Mr. Joffrey.”

The release continues and we will provide some in depth posts on this site of the different methods we have used to reach audiences and generate awareness and sales for the film.

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About Co-Author Sheri Candler

Sheri Candler is an inbound marketing strategist for independent films. Through the use of content marketing tools such as social networking, podcasts, blogs, and online media publications, as well as relationship building with organizations & influencers, she assists filmmakers in building an engaged & robust online community for their work that will help develop and sustain their careers. Currently, she is working with Hybrid Cinema to release the documentary film Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, a history of the Joffrey Ballet. She can be reached on Facebook, on Twitter and on Google Plus.

Passman: What is ASCAP? What do they do and how can they be a resource to filmmakers?

Devine: ASCAP is America’s leading performing rights organization. We’re a membership association owned and run by our more than 420,000 …]]> Jordan Passman (scoreAscore.com) interviews Sue Devine, Senior Director, Creative Services, Film/TV for ASCAP in NYC.

Passman: What is ASCAP? What do they do and how can they be a resource to filmmakers?

Devine: ASCAP is America’s leading performing rights organization. We’re a membership association owned and run by our more than 420,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publisher members. We’re home to the greatest names in American music, in all genres, past and present — from Duke Ellington to Katy Perry, George Gershwin to Stevie Wonder, Leonard Bernstein to Beyoncé, Marc Anthony to Alan Jackson, Henry Mancini to Howard Shore — as well as many thousands of writers in the earlier stages of their careers. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, we also represent hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide.

We’re the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled entirely by our members, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership. ASCAP’s President & Chairman of the Board, Paul Williams is an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning Hall of Fame songwriter.

Our core job is to protect the rights of our members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. In other words, we pay songwriters and composers royalties when their music is played in public. ASCAP’s licensees, the people who pay us, encompass anyone who wants to perform copyrighted music publicly. That includes radio broadcasters and TV networks, bars and live music venues, websites and streaming music services (e.g. YouTube and Spotify), even Disneyland – most anywhere that music can be heard.

That’s the big picture, but we do much more than collect and distribute money. ASCAP’s Creative Services Department focuses on artist development for composers and songwriters. We interact with filmmakers frequently, helping them connect with the right film composers and songwriters for their projects, and we regularly feature our members at film/TV industry events worldwide. We also run several workshops a year that foster the next generation of professional composing and songwriting talent.

Passman: What licenses for music do filmmakers need to get? And can ASCAP help?

Devine: There are three basic music licenses related to a film or TV production. The first is the Public Performance License, administered by ASCAP and described above. The broadcaster, not the filmmaker, is responsible for this license. I can’t stress that point enough: filmmakers do not need to interact with ASCAP at the licensing level. It’s the broadcasters of film, like HBO for example, that must get a public performance license. That license would cover the use of all ASCAP music in all HBO programming.

Filmmakers are responsible for securing two other types of licenses, and must pay very close attention to them. The filmmaker must get a Synchronization License (synch) from the publisher of the work and a Master Use License from the owner of the master recording of the music (usually the record label or the artist themselves). These two licenses are not administered by ASCAP.

ASCAP can help filmmakers learn about this process. Read the ”How to Acquire Music for Films”, and “Music, Money, Success and the Movies” articles on our website for a solid overview. Filmmakers can use our ACE Title Search to find the writer and publisher information for a musical work they’d like to use in a project.

Passman: Let’s talk now about your Creative Services Department, and connecting filmmakers with film composers.

Devine: While ASCAP’s main role is to license and administer public performance royalties for our members, and to represent it legally and legislatively, ASCAP also has a very strong Creative Services Department that helps develop our members at all stages of their careers, across all genres. In addition to our many emerging songwriter workshops, songwriter retreats, and music industry showcases, several of our programs may be quite useful for filmmakers.

We run three highly competitive film and television scoring workshops. Each is an intensive program, widely recognized as a major educational and networking opportunity for aspiring film, TV and visual media composers. We feature prestigious workshop leaders, mentors and guest speakers from the highest levels of the film and television music industry, side-by-side with hands-on experience with both the technical and creative requirements of scoring to picture.

Filmmakers are welcome to sit in on certain workshop sessions, particularly the scoring sessions. I can’t emphasize enough how useful sitting in on these sessions could be for a filmmaker. When it comes to music in film, filmmakers need to feel the difference music can make, viscerally. That can be experienced in some of our workshop sessions, where you watch the same scene repeatedly with a different score each time. Having an intellectual appreciation for the film music process is very different than experiencing what music is (or is not) contributing to your film.

NYC-based filmmakers can sit in on the first two sessions of the ASCAP Columbia University Film Scoring Workshop, where we walk a select group of thesis filmmakers through the process of hiring their film composer. Anyone interested in  attending one of our workshop scoring sessions can contact me at sdevine@ascap.com.

Every year we run the ASCAP “I Create Music EXPO” in Los Angeles. It’s the premier conference for songwriters, composers and producers within the music industry, and we always feature numerous film music panels that filmmakers would find educational and constructive. It’s a great place to network with composers, too.

Additionally, we recently launched the ASCAP Composer Spotlight on our website, a powerful resource for film, television and video game producers to discover and connect with some of the best and brightest emerging composers. The Composers to Watch section highlights a select group of outstanding composers from our scoring workshops. You can find bios, resumes, website links and sample cues for each composer.

ASCAP also produces the official music programming for the Sundance Film Festival, called the Sundance ASCAP Music Café, along with the ASCAP Composer Spotlight @ Sundance. You can even listen to a Spotify mix of all the featured songwriters and composers.

Passman: Filmmakers constantly struggle with pricing the music for their projects. How do you suggest they go about this difficult process?

Devine: Director Alex Steyermark, formerly a top music supervisor on films for Ang Lee, Spike Lee, Jim Sheridan and many others, once said that filmmakers should be dedicating at least 5% of their overall budgets to music. That is a minimum. If your budget is very low, that percentage will be greater, as you must allocate a minimum budget to cover music. That will include the creative fee for the score, as well as the recording costs for the players, music editor, mixing, etc. It will also include license fees for any songs you use, and those can vary greatly depending on what songs
you’ve set your sights on.

To learn more about this, I highly recommend reading a chapter called “Pricing Your Work” out of ASCAP Board member Richard Bellis’s book The Emerging Film Composer.  While written for a composer audience, that chapter will be quite valuable for filmmakers as well.

Passman: How do filmmakers find film composers?

Devine: There are far more extremely qualified composers who want to score your film than most filmmakers realize. I have long observed a wide gap between the film and music communities at the emerging level: emerging filmmakers and emerging film composers rarely know how to find each other. As a result, many an acclaimed filmmaker has hired his next door neighbor to score a film, because he happens to play piano or slide guitar. While that may suffice, you can
certainly elevate the level of score you bring to your project. We created the ASCAP Composer Spotlight precisely to bridge this gap. Please take a look at The Composers to Watch feature and peruse the Composer Spotlight @ Sundance as well.

And now, a plug for my interviewer: I am very excited about ScoreAscore.com, as it brilliantly cuts through much of the high anxiety that a filmmaker faces that often makes them delay the process of hiring their composer (“I’ve never done this before! How do I know what works for my film?”). You post your clip, you check back in three days, and there will be sample scores for your scene. *Magic.* Right away, you get a feel for which ones work for you, and you can begin a
conversation/interview with those composers.

Beyond that, you can reach out to agents who represent composers that are further along in their careers, from mid-level all the way to the top composers in the industry. If you hire a music supervisor, they will be consulting these resources. Plus, they will have the scoop on the latest up-and-coming composers.

Passman: How do you feel about popular artists like Trent Reznor & Jónsi making a significant impact on the composing world?

Devine: ASCAP works with a wide variety of composers, both classically or otherwise formally trained, as well as songwriters/artists-turned-composers. Many composers have come from backgrounds in television or Broadway music, or in rock/pop or urban songwriting. Great scores certainly come from all of these, and keep the field fresh and exciting. You’re looking for the unique sound, style, composer or artist that resonates with the voice of your film. It’s hard to predict where that will come from.

Passman: Every filmmaker should know about cue sheets. What are cue sheets, why do they exist and how do you file them?

Devine: A cue sheet is a schedule of the music contained in a film or television program. It’s the essential document that ASCAP requires in order to distribute royalties to a film’s composer, any songwriters with songs placed in the film, and the publisher of the score (which is often the film production company). It is normally prepared and delivered to ASCAP by the production company. You can find out everything you need to know about cue sheets at the Cue Sheet Corner section of our website.

Passman: What are some of your favorite film scores of all time?

Devine: I’ll answer a slightly different question, since I was quite struck by a comparison relatively recently. This may illustrate the power of understanding what a score can bring to your film.

A favorite (relatively) recent film score was Carter Burwell’s score to Twilight. It was sweeping, dreamy and dramatic in a way that elevated the film, and held all of its moody, staring-into-eyes scenes together while propelling the movie and characters forward. I watched the film again specifically because of the score.

Compare that to its sequel, New Moon, where the filmmaker chose to have top artists/bands write songs specifically for particular scenes. While strong song placements can often work extremely well, and having the songs custom-written to scenes was intended to further fine-tune these placements so they would carry the film, in this case I feel it didn’t do the narrative justice. While any one of these songs may have nailed the moment and made for a great individual scene,
much was lost in the context of the whole.

Without unifying score/themes/melodies interwoven through these scenes, connecting them from the wider perspective of the arc of the film, these scenes remained as separate islands. Nothing tied them together and helped them build momentum or crescendo sequentially. Nothing integrated them with the scenes that did have score.

As such, in my opinion, the invisible tensions between the characters was lost, the drama was lost, and we were left with characters’ empty staring into eyes, which fell flat. In this case, with fewer song placements and more room for a proper dramatic score, I think the film might have played much more strongly.

Pictured (l-r) at the 2009 ASCAP Film & TV Music Awards: ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board Paul Williams, Twilight composer Carter Burwell and director Catherine Hardwicke, director Bill Condon, ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento. Photo by Lester Cohen/Wireimage.com.

Why am I a man-of-action? Because I “T.C.B.” all day long, which stands for “take care business,” because I don’t …]]> Ask anyone to describe me and they’ll say “Adam Bowers is a man-of-action.” If they say anything different, or talk about how I owe them three hundred dollars, they’re dirty liars.

Why am I a man-of-action? Because I “T.C.B.” all day long, which stands for “take care business,” because I don’t have time for prepositions. You know that moment in romantic comedies when the protagonist realizes the error of their ways, so they run across town to catch their ex before they get on an airplane? That’s me, 24/7. I’m starting to have to chase girls I don’t even know. They’re not crazy about it, but I AM A MAN-OF-ACTION (hearing this doesn’t seem to make them feel any more comfortable).

Let me describe the process of making my first movie: I wrote it, guilted friends into helping out, and we just started shooting. Bingo bango, as I wish I’d say. There are some drawbacks to this: mainly the whole “not having money” thing. But, as I tell bill collectors, what is money anyway? You know who else didn’t have money? Jesus. I’m not saying we’re one in the same, but if he also stole his roommate’s laundry detergent, we’re two-for-two.

Even without money, I still like this way of making movies. There’s a sense of immediacy to it, the way you feel when you spill a beer on your laptop. It’s a real do-or-die scenario.

But, while I wrote, produced, directed, and then edited my first movie (in that order, if you can believe it), I missed out on a crucial step in the filmmaking process: waiting to hear back from people. I’ve heard it’s where the real “movie magic” happens (by which I mean, you become so despondent about your movie that you start contemplating a career in magic). So, it’s something I’ve been sure to set aside time for with my latest feature. Luckily, I set aside A LOT of time.

(This little girl is constantly checking her inbox.)

Having recognizable actors in your film is obviously a great way to help get people with money to give you said money, so we’ve been following that angle. Like in my first movie, I’m playing the lead role, but apparently I’m not a “recognizable actor,” or even very “likable as a person.” So, we’re looking to fill out the rest of the cast with people we love who also happen to be actors that audiences care about, in the hopes that it will offset the damage done by associating the film with me any more than it has to be.

Now, my first movie played at Sundance, but, of course, I’m still very unknown as a filmmaker. Let’s just say I’m no Penny Marshall (at least, not until the paperwork clears). So, when we approach these actors, I imagine that their first response is “Who? Some guy who’s changing his name to Penny Marshall? That’s really weird.” Naturally, it can take awhile for them to get to the script. But, that’s how it is with a project like this. There’s nothing saying “If you don’t jump on this, it’ll go to that YouTube kid, Fred,” which I’ve heard is “code: red” for actors. By the way, if the next “Fred” movie is called Code: Fred, I want some sort of royalties.

But, while that’s been coming along, Adele and I have started feeling that no-budget, DIY itch coming back, so we’re getting ready to do as much as possible ourselves. That’s actually comforting, though, coming from the world we started out in. I hope I’ll always keep that mindset: that the more you can do yourself, the less you need to rely on others. That’s why my third feature will have me in a fat suit playing every role.

If that’s not taking care business, I don’t know what is.

Bingo bango.