My 1st Date with Storyboarding

This is the first film project I have worked on that I have used storyboards which I never used before. Not because I have anything against storyboards, but because I am terrible at drawing. With OotGG I wanted it to be more thought out than my previous projects. With the help of amazing artist, Andrew Mitchell, I dipped my toes into the story boarding pool.

Not only a great artist, but he looks like Nicholas Cage.

On a camping trip with my friends we got on the subject of OotGGs. A buddy of mine, Andrew Mitchell, was very interested in my idea and wondered if he could help out in any way. I didn't know what he could do, but told him why not. I have no budget and could use all the help I could get. Andrew mentioned helping with story boarding. Having never using them, I figured this would be a fun and new adventure. We made a date and planned on story boarding one of the most critical scenes in the movie:

Abby's Death.

A few weeks later, we met at the Holland building and quickly got to work. The thing about Andrew is he is an AMAZING artist. He has had many galleries in the area show his art, he is always top in his art classes and he recently got hired by a slot machine company to do the art for their newest wave of slot machines. Yeah, he is out of the league of this project. As previously stated, I have never worked with an artist to story board. I brought a whole bunch of things I thought I would need; the script, a book on camera angles, paper and pencils, and most important of all, Funyuns.

Essential for ANY film.  - Martin Scorsese

We talked about the characters and what their dramatic needs were for the scene. Motivations of both Caleum and Abby and what the ultimate point of the scene is. All the while, Andrew is drawing on his tablet. Getting a feel for who Caleum and Abby are. After about an hour of talking about the characters, we got to work breaking down the scene. It was a bit difficult because I had not locked on a location for this scene, but Andrew assured me that it can be tweaked once we find the location.

I have to admit, doing a story board was really eye opening. Story boarding really helped me get a feel and look of the scene. In my head, I can see it plain as day and it is sometimes hard trying to explain it to others much less show them. Working with Andrew was great because he knew what I wanted, added his own little touches and together we created a great foundation for the scene. If time and scheduling permits, I would love to story board the rest of the scenes and the entire film.

Here is what we came up with. 

Caleum at Abby's bedside, brushing her hair and keeping her company.

The two of them sharing an intimate moment.

Caleum makes a crack about the staff.

Time for Abby's pills. Abby is trying to bring up a tough question.

Abby is trying to get a promise out of Caleum. Caleum, wanting to get out of the uncomfortable situation, agrees.

Caleum leaves Abby. This is the last time he will see her.

I know it will most likely change especially once we get the location locked down. Even though changes will happen, story boarding has given a huge boost in my confidence.

Adventures in Casting: Unexpected Gems

Contrary to popular belief, once a movie is written, the project is about 20% finished. As stated before, casting is a very important aspect of making a movie that can make or break it. While I lucked out with the lead for OotGG, all the other parts were up in the air.

In OotGG, Caleum's sister, Abby, passes away which leaves Caleum without family. This void is then filled by the criminal organization that becomes Caleum's surrogate family. Abby is only in the movie for a short time. Never the less, she is the catalyst that sets Caleum on his journey into the underworld. Basically what I'm trying to say is that Abby is a very important character and I had no idea who would play her. Most of the movies I work on, I already have someone in mind for a part. This time, I was drawing a complete blank.

I met with Varlo Davenport, who runs our local theater department. They were casting for two plays at the time and I was able to sit in on the casting sessions to see if any of the actresses would work for OotGG. Sad to say that none of the women were right for the part of Abby. I was a bit bummed out.

My problem was I at the wrong casting sessions.

 When I returned home that evening, my wife asked how the casting went. I told her that no one stood out. We then talked about the qualities of Abby and what I was looking for. After discussing for about an hour, my brilliant wife brought up a great idea:

"Does Abby have to be white?"

I didn't have an answer. I thought about her statement. Abby didn't necessarily have to be white. My wife went on to explain that it is very common to have interracial families. The face of the modern family is no longer a mom, dad, brother and sister all of the same race. This opened doors I never thought about.

The next day, I was sitting in my Make Up class applying my old man make up. I noticed out of the corner of my eye a girl who was in my Acting for the screen class. Her name is Darcee Warner. She was a great actress and now that I had my mind opened, I ran down the hall to ask her if she would participate in OotGG. When I caught up to her, half my face in old person make up, I pitched her the idea. She was excited. I later emailed her the script. We then set up a time for Darcee and Ben to get together and do a read.

A real angel this one.

I was stoked. I found my Abby.

Saturday Night IS Alright for Fighting

One of the main aspects of OotGG is that the main character Caleum gets involved into the criminal world by making money as a bare knuckle fighter. Now, on paper this is really bad ass. Who doesn't like to see two guys beat the living piss outta each other in some dank back room for glory and a few bucks? I'll tell you who.

No one.

The reason I put this in my script was that I remember my dad telling me who use to bare knuckle fight for money when he was younger and in the Marine Corps. He would tell me stories of chumps he would fight and even about the losses he took. I was captivated. I fell that since I was told these stories at such a young age and they were about my father, I have this romantized idea of the bare knuckle fighter. Even when I tried a couple fights when I was a younger and fitter lad. They hurt. They were brutal, but a part of me felt something primal. My fighting career was short lived, but it was something I wanted to try. To walk in the footsteps of my dad.

Actual picture of my dad in his Marine Corps day.

Which brings us back to the fighting of the movie. When Ben Banks agreed to play the lead, I was excited because Mr. Banks has the body of a fighter. I knew he had done martial arts for many years and had expeirence fighting. This was a plus. I wanted the fights in this movie to look better than most fight scenes I see in student films and low budget productions. Now I know they still may look not up to par, but at least I tried. I wanted to really work on the fights. Make them something special. To try this feat, I looked up an old friend of mine.

Robert Savala is an amigo I've known for years. He has always been into MMA and trains fighters. A few months back, mid-August, I decided to shoot him a message and ask if he would be interested in training and choreographing fights for this project. I was surprised to have him come back with a yes. It was something he has never tried and figured he would give it a go. I sent Robert the script and we discussed the break downs of the fights. Robert suggested that he work with Benny to get him a little conditioned for the fighting. I then informed Ben Banks about our plan to put him through a boxing "boot camp." Ben was stoked and agreed. Two weeks later, we were on the mats.

Robert Savala. Mas chingon.

Every Saturday, for the next few three months, we would get together and start training. Robert would start with the basics of boxing and do light sparring with Ben. He would also invite some friends over to spar with Ben. Nothing to heavy. Just enough to keep Ben moving and on his toes. Robert would also throw in some jiu jitsu to take Benny out of his comfort zone. Even though we have been sparring and practicising for months and have not yet choreographed anything, I feel that this training has been invaluable.

We are still working on the fighting and will be for a while. The next step is to start heavy sparring. Robert's philosophy is that training is great and teaches one a lot, but all that can change the second a real blow is landed.

Example: this one kid Robert trains is an amazing technical fighter. This kid can work a bag, has some of the best foot work and in a light sparring session, can dance and fight his way out of any situation. In one heavy sparring match we watched, this kid came out doing all his technical know-how. Robert took a few jabs, bobbed and weaved, and gave this kid a false sense of security. This is when the hammer came down. Robert gave this kid a hard left that took the kid out of his game. Once the shock of the hit wore off, this kid loss all sense of technique and rushed Robert throwing wild hay-makers.

These are a few of the pictures I snapped over the course of our first few sparring sessions. I, being a dumb ass, forgot to bring a camera or anything to document the journey. 

**EDITORS NOTE - NO ONE PICTURED IS AN ACTUAL UNDERGROUND FIGHTER. This is all normal MMA training and this location is not a school/training ground for bare knuckle fighters. The training is for a movie. It is all for make believe. Thank you.**

It is on. 

Robert handin down the knowledge bombs.

Throwin down.

This kid, Francisco, was great. Lightning fast and Mexican. The opposite of Ol' Benny.

Don't let the smiles deceive you, they are killers.

These are from the first couple times of our sparring. I will update with pics or video of all the times we spar just to show how much work we are putting into this project. These pictures are just the tip of what we have been doing and hopefully show the time and effort we are putting into this project. Choreographing a good fight scene takes a lot of work. Even though our budget is basically zero, I believe that we can make OotGG look a lot better than it actually is. By putting in the time to train and focus the actors off-camera, the hope is it will translate on-camera.

Movie magic.

Extreme Bromance: Finding the Star for the Movie

When I finished the script back in the day, I never knew if I would even make it. There is a huge difference from just writing a flick to actually making it and casting was something I didn't really think about. Except for the lead. From day one I knew who I would have star in it. In fact, I wrote it with him in mind. That man is named Ben Banks.

Ain't that a sweet slab-o-man?

We always wanted to work together on a project that was bigger than us just dicking around on a camera. Such as this classic that truly showcases our talents and the whole department:

When I finished writing the script all that time ago, I felt a little embaressed about showing him a movie that I wrote with him in mind as the lead. I mean, he starred in a movie named after him for God's sake! With a nervous pit in my stomach, I gave him in the script to read. He came back to me within a few days and not only liked the story, but was pumped to work on it. This helped me feel at ease. In some ways, it made me feel better about the project. If I could get a guy like Ben on my side, then it was a great step in the right direction. Ben Banks and I talked about the project on and off for the last two years. It was something we always wanted to do, but always felt like a pipe dream.

Enter Senior Capstone.

Over the course of my college career, I went back and forth on capstone ideas. I think One of the Good Guys (OotGG) was always the project I wanted to do, but I never thought it would happen. When the second to my last semester rolled around and I still didn't have an idea of what to do, it was my teacher Ben Braten who suggested that I work on OotGG. I thought it about it for a while and after having a talk with Mr. Banks, who agreed to commit to the project, it was on. Figured what do I have to lose? I am in college and this the best time to try to make a movie like this.

Once it was decided, Ben Banks and I started working on it. We met multiple times to talk about his character, Caleum Crow, and the motivations behind his actions. Ben gave me many great suggestions on what he wanted to bring to the character and I re-wrote aspects of the script to accommodate. Caleum was becoming Ben and Ben was becoming Caleum. To help Ben, I even wrote a detailed back story of his character's life and family. I felt that was the least I could do to help Ben get into character and for the fact that he was donating his time to a project that will probably never make any of us any cash.

Having Ben Banks on board has boosted my confidence in not only OotGG, but in my abilities as a director and writer. This has truly become a collaborative process. I look forward to working on this project more and more even though it fills me with dread. Good thing Benny is my leading man. I honestly don't think this project would work without him.

Such a class act this guy.

Making Movies, Telling Stories

The purpose of this blog is to chart my progress on my senior capstone. Why you ask? Well, the reason being is that the upper ups of our college feel that the capstones that our department (which is film) produces (we make movies) are not as good as a research paper, cutting a cadaver open or whatever the nerds in math do. I was asked, along with a number of my peers, to keep a log of what we are doing to make these projects come to fruition. This will be my personal experience of working on my senior capstone project.

I have actually been working on my capstone, on and off, for about a year and a half. My project is a movie I wrote entitles 'One of the Good Guys.' It is a story about one man's loss of family and his journey to fill the that void. He finds this solace in a criminal organization who fulfill that family need.  The hero then begins to compromise his values to fit into this surrogate family. The premise was taken from bits of my own life and the life of my father's and the original draft was written two summers ago in about three days. As of December 15th, 2013 I have rewritten and edited the script. It is an ever changing piece of work that will, I am guessing, be worked on till the day the movie is finished.

This is just the first entry to what I believe will be a long road. It has already been pretty tough and will only get tougher. This project has stretched my limits as a student, an artist and a filmmaker, but I know it will be worth it.

Yes, I realize that last statement made me sound like a total pretentious asswad. To counter that statement, here is a picture of a what I really look like to prove I am not a hipster.

Orale! I am here to make dee movies and to eat dee burritos.