Is this Iraq? Nope. It's Dallas. We had a major dust storm a few days ago. Eerie, eerie shots...
-Blake
Interesting and funny interview with David Mamet about his new book (about the movie business) called "Bambi Vs. Godzilla".Here's an excerpt...Warner: You love movies but seem to hate the movie business. Mamet: I don't hate the movie business. I'm fascinated by the movie business. It's the only absolutely essential intersection in the history of mankind between art and commerce. You could paint the picture and sell it or not. You can put on plays in your backyard. But you have to have a distribution...
In relation to viral video success (from the Cinematech blog)..."Anybody can become famous for 15 megabytes."-Bla...
Filmmaker Magazine has a good article in their "Industry Beat" section about the status of no-budget filmmaking...
"With digital-video cameras, credit cards and Final Cut Pro, any aspiring director can make a movie for $100,000. But few producers can earn a living helping directors make these no-budget productions. "
"This month, for example, InDigEnt, the eight-year-old low-budget production arm famous for its digital output and profit-sharing model, officially closed shop. "
I thought (and actually still think) the InDigEnt model can work. The idea was to make these no-budget movies - although most of thier's ended up being $300K or more - and make everyone, that's EVERYONE, on the cast & crew owners of the film. They all share in the future profits. In return, everyone works for very low wages - including any name acting talent.
My personal opinion is the reason InDigEnt didn't work out was their recent slate of films. They may have been "too indie" - if that makes sense. It's been said before, but this is show business, and that means that more "commercial" films will likely do better in the marketplace. Now understand, I'm now talking "selling out" or anything like that. I'm just talking more mainstream stories, etc. will do better. InDigEnt's most successful films were Tadpole, Pieces of April and Personal Velocity. All very much indie spirited projects, but with commercial sensibilities.
Definitely check out the article though, it's a good read and it does have a happy ending - much like most Hollywood movies. :)
-Blake
Congrats to Matt Tompkins (the star of Killing Down) who just landed a co-starring role opposite Dolph Lundgren (pictured left) in the new Sony Pictures film Missionary Man.
The project shoots in Dallas for four weeks starting February 28th.
-Blake
I'd been looking forward to seeing the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". Heard good things about it. Rented it from Netflix about two weeks ago, and it had been sitting around unwatched until last night.Kinda wished it had stayed that way.Well, maybe not. I'm glad I saw it to see what folks have been talking about. Of course I don't understand the praise. And BTW, I'm not talking politics here at all. Purely filmmaking.This movie was a SNOOZE FEST. As boring of a film as I can honestly...
There's a piece on Killing Down in the new issue of Indie Slate...
You can buy a copy at most Borders Books and Barnes & Noble. I haven't seen it yet myself, so I hope it's good (I did help write it after all). :)
-Blake
UPDATE 2/20/07: Finally saw the article and it turned out very well. If you get a chance definitely check it out. I will try and get a PDF version of it and post either here on the blog or the main Killing Down website.
UPDATE 2/20/07: Finally saw the article and it turned out very well. If you get a chance definitely check it out. I will try and get a PDF version of it and post either here on the blog or the main Killing Down website.
I've been helping consult on a indie film shooting in Dallas called Fissure. It's being directed by Russ Pond. They're first day of shooting they were visited by the local FOX affiliate for a story on Texas filmmaking and the lack of tax incentives (to help bring more productions here).
You may recall I was on a panel a few weeks back for TXMPA, an organization who is trying to get new tax incentives passed this year.
The video of the news story can be seen here.
If you look real close you might just see some crew from my last feature film Killing Down.
-Blake
This article concerns my first job using P2 with me as producer/director/editor. I have worked on one other shoot as a shooter, but it wasn't my project - I was a hired gun - and all I did was shoot. I did not handle the P2 aspects involved.If you don't know what P2 is then this info will likely not do much for you. But, if you're a filmmaker and been thinking about shooting P2 or been reading about it then my experience will be worth the read.P2 of course is the new solid state recording format...
I've mentioned here in the past a couple New Projects that I'm working on and one of them is coming together very well. The other one is moving forward, but there has been the usual hiccups along the way.I don't want to give away too many details at this stage, mainly because if you're at all familiar with the film business you know everything can (and often does) fall apart.I can say on New Project #1 (the one that is going very well) we have a first draft of the script done and we're now working...
Same content. Same writer. Different name.For 2007 I've decided to at least be clever if nothing else. ;) And for those "non-filmmakers" out there a Martini Shot is the last shot of the day on a film shoot. Of course often times it turns out not to be the last shot (someone will think of something else to shoot, usually after the lights, etc. have been struck) and then you do the "real" Martini Shot.Happy reading. :)-Bla...
Been busy this week, so I'm just now having a chance to talk about the TXMPA event from last weekend...The event went very well.It was an all emcompassing look at what is going on with the organization, the State of Texas, and the film industry within the state.I had the pleasure of speaking along side the president of TXMPA, the head of the Dallas Producer's Association, the director of the Texas Film Commission, the director of the Dallas Film Commission, and the producer of the FOX Network TV...
