Words Pictures Movies

The Official Trailer

2010-11-22T07:18:00.001-05:00

For your viewing pleasure: 

Sundancing?

2010-09-03T22:05:00.004-04:00

Our film has been received by the good folks at the Sundance Film Festival. Now we wait until Decemberish to find out if we're in, while we work on cleaning up the movie (soundmix, color, etc). I can never thank everyone enough for all the hard work they've put in.

Closer

2010-07-27T07:41:00.001-04:00

We have a rough cut & it looks good. Now on to the tightening, then the sweetening, then the distributing!

Asbury Park Zombie Walk Footage

2009-10-08T09:54:00.005-04:00

As soon to be featured in "Everything Fred Tells Me is True", here's some footage captured by Jason at the Asbury Park Zombie Walk:

Enjoy!

Three Days and Counting...

2009-05-21T21:19:00.004-04:00

So it's been almost three years since we announced to the world our brilliantly over-simplistic four step process of how to make a movie by not making The Movie in your Head. A few short months after that, these vague thoughts solidified in our all important lessons learned and most importantly, our 7 steps to make a movie.

And there was no turning back. Now, a full 30 months later, we're on to step 5:

5. Shoot the Movie.

This is the point where we've gone from talking about making a movie, to planning on making a movie, to actually making the movie.

In just three days, cameras roll. For the first time, we get to see the final images of the movie in our head re-etched into our brains with the finality of the actual images that will make the film, the actual perforamces that pull all our words thoughts and ideas to life.

We film throughout June, and then it's on to step 6...

We have a cast...

2009-04-07T01:14:00.006-04:00

A group photo from Sunday Night's read through. Note the smiles on everyone's faces that genuinely reflect the true joy of the moment, and have nothing to do with any nearly tragic yet hilarious accident that may have happened seconds earlier from a camera timer mishap.

The Paradox of Blogging

2009-02-22T10:57:00.003-05:00

When we started this blog three years ago, we did so not so much out of the pretension that anyone would actually read it who wasn't already involved with what we did, but based on the idea that we wanted to remember what it took to get there, and that forcing ourselves to write down some sort of detail about every step in the process, we'd have a more or less objective way to gauge what we did and what it took to get there.

But the problem with Blogging as documentation is this: When you're not making progress you have nothing to blog about, and when you are making progress, you have no time to do it.

Fortunately, that's why the good lord invented bullet points.

So without further ado, I interrupt my incessant rambling about how I have no time for incessant rambling to present a nice concise bulleted list of what we've been up to lately:

New Promotional Videos - The Dead People Making People Dead movie trailer and the Everything Fred Tells Me is True pre-production montage are now available on our flicks page.
Casting - Casting for is underway and will continue over the next few weeks, so drop us an email at everythingfredcasting@gmail.com if you're interested in starring in our film
IFP Sponsorship - We're now officially sponsored by IFP, accepting donations, and looking for creative ways of soliciting these donations, in an attempt to push our budget up slightly from our original "Up to and including zero dollars" number.
Fund Raising Parties - We held our first fund raising party in Brooklyn on Friday, which was a resounding success, and a great kickoff of the sprint through the production phase of Everything Fred Tells Me is True, featuring the world premiere of our new trailers, and the musical stylings of A Halo Called Fred. Thanks to Nancy Mastrotataro and Johnny McAuliffe for the use of their home, and all the hard work. We're planning more and bigger events in the future, so drop us a line atwordspicturesmovies@gmail.com if you want to help out!

So keep your eyes peeled here. We'll keep you (and our future selves) posted as often as possible, whenever there's a compelling enough reason to fight against the forces of the paradox of blogging.

So you fancy yourself a Thespian...

2009-02-05T20:39:00.003-05:00

Ok, so things are moving along. Auditions are starting. Things are in motion. Here's our casting notice, as it was sent out on Friday:

**** CASTING NOTICE **** INDEPENDENT FEATURE SHOOTING IN CENTRAL NEW JERSEY
“EVERYTHING FRED TELLS ME IS TRUE” Philip tries to take control over his life, despite the best efforts of his friends – and that guy in his dreams who keeps telling him his future.
SEARCHING FOR ACTORS FOR THE FOLLOWING:
PHILIP - mid-20’s, Male - Intense, but nervous. Artist. Slim to average build. Looking for love and will admit it.
CHRISTINE – mid 20’s, Female - Sad, mysterious beauty. Sarcastic. Cynical. Slim to average build. Looking for love but won't admit it.
TRACY - mid 20’s, Female - Overly exuberant & socially maladjusted. Unaware of potential attractiveness which is destroyed by her scheming. Slim to average build. Manipulative.
DEVON – mid 40’s to mid 50’s, Male - Thinks he's way too hip for the room. Always trying to make a quick buck. Manipulative. Generally dates women in their 20's, refuses to "grow up." Tall. Average build. Looks his age but carries himself as a much younger man.
DREW – mid 20’s, Male - Dirty, disgruntled. Waiting for something better to come along. Easily manipulated. Naive. A few extra pounds. Average height. 4 Scenes, 22 lines
AMANDA – early 20’s, Female - Innocent, cute as a button. Everyone wants to date her. Unaware that she comes across as much younger than she is. Naive. Very petite. A smile that lights up the room. 3 Scenes, 16 lines
DREAM FRED – 30 to 60, Male - A bearded man with an intense, spaced out gaze. Stocky. Short to avg. height. 4 Scenes
REAL FRED – mid 40’s, Male - A large angry bearded man. Very angry. Total jerk. Works out a lot. Tall and in fantastic shape. Possibly suffers from "roid rage." Willing to shave head & appear naked on screen for a few short seconds. 1 Scene, 5 lines
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BE IN A GREAT NO-BUDGET INDEPENDENT MOVIE!
ALL ACTORS WILL BE FED DURING FILMING AND PROVIDED WITH A DVD OF THE MOVIE!
EXPECT REHEARSALS!
FILM TO BE SHOT IN JUNE
SEND HEADSHOT & RESUME TO EVERYTHINGFREDCASTING@GMAIL.COM IF UNABLE TO SEND THESE DIGITALLY, REQUEST OUR MAILING ADDRESS AT THE ABOVE EMAIL ADDRESS

Random Ramblings and the State of the WPM State

2008-11-11T22:01:00.006-05:00

So the kiss of death for any blog is to start out with "Sorry, I haven't posted in a while."

I was looking through my iGoogle page with all my RSS feeds, and noticed that about half the blogs on there start with phrases very similar to that, which happens to be the last post I've seen for three years.

So I'll refrain from pointing out the obvious, except to say we've been keeping busy, but mostly doing stuff that's not very interesting to show or write about.

Until now.

Two Sundays ago, Words Pictures Movies completed filming, "Dead People Making People Dead", our last film of the Bush administration.

We don't have any photos of our own yet, or an expected release date, but Neil, the person we most like to kill over and over again, has passed the threshold from dead to undead, and posted an awesome picture in his own blog:

http://www.neilfein.com/2008/11/brains.html

Also, on the same Sunday, photography began on "Everything Fred Tells Me is True", our much anticipated first feature film. At least its anticipated by us.

More information to follow.

One day.

The Making of Eric's Disembodied Head.

2008-03-21T09:28:00.009-04:00

Here's how the process came together:

Bigger pictures here.

The next step is to remove the imperfections, and create a latex on top of the bust.

Stay tuned for the finished mask, and the final dream proof of concept!

Eric's Disembodied Head

2008-03-20T20:53:00.001-04:00

So we've finally moved away from the solitary scripting and storyboarding phases, into the more tangible.

Specifically to figure out if we can do the special effects we need to in order to complete the dream sequences that are the centerpoint of the story.

Here's something incredibly distubing that came out of that session:

More pictures of the whole process (and the mask, still to be finished) to follow

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

2008-01-01T14:08:00.000-05:00

One year ago today, I had a dream. It was about 3 AM, and I had dream that a lion was loose in Penn Station. And somehow, although this lion was running wild, I knew all I had to do was wait it out. The lion was up on the level with the big board. But somehow, this lion didn't know how to climb stairs. So all we had to do is wait one level down by the train platforms, and wait for the lion to pass.

That day, we started writing our script.

It was a long, turbulent year. And today, a year later, the script is done. Storyboards are started. We've moved out of the "Figure out what movie to make" stage and moved into the "Figure out How to make it" stage. Big things are happening.

Last night I had another dream. This time, I dreamt about drinking some very delicious coffee, that had lumps of ice cream, meringue, and marshmallows floating in it.

Ok, this one wasn't quite so profound, but I think it's very significant that there were no lions anywhere.

So on we go. No more waiting out the lion. In 2008, we make a movie.

Futuristic

2007-12-29T17:42:00.000-05:00

"Scientists are saying the future is going to be far more futuristic then they originally predicted." - Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Southland Tales

I'm just posting this so you don't think Words Pictures Movies has disappeared. We're still here, we're just doing some of the less exciting work on the movie. Let us know what you've been up to!

nothing...nothing...nothing...SOMETHING!

2007-10-15T23:25:00.000-04:00

Well not much really, sorry if you felt you were mislead by the title. I had to get your attention somehow.

The current draft of the script is inching ever closer to completion. Adam says he's going to be done by his 35th birthday, which is coming up rather quickly. Sorry Adam, I just revealed your age. Fine, I confess I'm 32. Bruce is 117.

Go ahead, ask Bruce about life before airplanes -- he's always happy to share tales of running around, flapping arms wildly, etc.

In other news, Bruce took a one day lighting class. At our meeting last week, he presented a quick rundown of the information they shoved into his precious brain. Lots of good stuff that will make our feature look spectacular. Or at least bearable.

I just finished an acting class that taught me a lot. I think I'm going to be much less of an overbearing director from now on. At long last I think I can speak your language, you wonderful actors!

That is all for now, so keep holding your breath Faithful Reader for soon you will be allowed to exhale and enjoy the beauty of our first feature film.

Zombie Happy Hour

2007-07-08T00:58:00.000-04:00

Zombie Happy Hour is done and on the internets for your viewing pleasure. Let us know what you think!

Name That Movie!

2007-07-02T22:32:00.000-04:00

We need a title for our film. Don't know what it's about? Who cares! With the magic of symbolism, we'll figure out how to squeeze it in.

Winning entries get eternal glory and a screen credit.

Post suggestions in the comments.

Serious entries only, Dave.

Pre-Production

2007-05-23T09:07:00.000-04:00

About 6 moths ago, we blogged the overly simplistic steps of making a movie.

1. Figure out what movie to make

This step is done. We have a script. A very rough, first draft, un-proofread script.

Now on to step 2:

2. Figure out how to make it

I guess this is the tricky part. It starts now.

Ruin your entertainment life with time travel

2007-05-08T09:42:00.000-04:00

So if you could time-travel and got stuck in the past (not too bad, say 50 years ago or so), would you be tempted to use future songs, stories and movies and claim them as your own?

And if it didn't sell for some reason, would you fight Paul McCartney in court later when he says HE wrote "Hey Jude" with no prior knowledge of your (presumably shitty) 1950s version? Or make "Star Wars" with bad effects, so George Lucas is never inspired to make his own version (at least not one exactly like the one you knew)?

the 4 main food groups are sugar, salt, grease, and leftovers

2007-04-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

When we do movie shoots, I must eat healthy foods, or both my brain and body fall asleep, and I get cranky. Well, more cranky. Shut up.

Bad things I would eat ALL THE TIME if they weren't bad for me:

hot dogs with chili and cheese
Ore Ida tater tots (fried in a pan, not baked!)
Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburgers (steakhouse burgers) with ham
hell, just bacon anytime
Pepperoni slices (on pizza or plain, whatever)
KFC skinless (sigh, they don't even make them anymore) breasts, extra crispy
Quarter Pounder with cheese, large fries
diner cheese omlettes with those enormous breakfast sausage
English-style bangers and mash
whole wedges of parmesan cheese
nachos with everything
Yoo-Hoo
malt milkshakes
Oreos
Ring Dings
Yodels
Choco-diles (or chocolate Twinkies, do they still have Chocodiles?)
good cigars
clove cigarettes

Not to say I don't eat this stuff on occasion, but man I could live on this stuff, in theory. Until I got sick/depressed/heart-attacked/dead.

Filling the Silence

2007-04-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

Wow -- The last post is over a month ago.

It's that silence that always seems to occur after a shoot, before the final film is done.

There has to be something to say.

Editing is complete. Effects are being done. Music is being scored. Screenplays are being written. Filmmaking is happening. More to follow.

In the meantime, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Still more coming attractions...

2007-03-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

Not to beat a dead horse with these photos, but Dave has really outdone himself on the makeup.

More Coming Attractions...

2007-03-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

Six Days

2007-02-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

Things are progressing chaotically but nicely on "Zombie Happy Hour". We have rehearsal Monday night in the face of an impending snowstorm. The shoot is this Saturday. After that I begin to edit and in the second half of March we'll have another movie for your viewing pleasure.

In the meantime Adam is moving forward with the feature screenplay. I'm excited! Are you?

Coming Attractions...

2007-02-12T09:03:00.000-05:00

Voiceovers

2007-02-06T09:18:00.000-05:00

Am I the only person in the world that totally loves voiceovers in movies?

Never write them. That's what they tell the aspiring screenwriter. Unless you really know what you're doing. It's an art that must be mastered.

But there's something about the droning prattle of a narrator to guide you through a story and ground you in the alternate reality that is their universe. Sure, you've got your people who do it right. Goodfellas, Fight Club, Election, The Shawshank Redemption-- Movies whose backbone is the voiceover.

But I'm trying to think of a movie with really bad voiceover. Sometimes it seems unnecessary. But what movies are there where the voiceover really hurts the viewing experience? The theatrical release of Blade Runner comes to mind, but it's more because of Harrison Ford's "why am I reading this crap?" tone of voice than what he's actually saying.

Any other thoughts?

Monkey vs. Tiger

2007-01-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

According to a recent New York Times article, our minds are just a little monkey riding a tiger:

A bevy of experiments in recent years suggest that the conscious mind is like a monkey riding a tiger of subconscious decisions and actions in progress, frantically making up stories about being in control.

The same can be said of a screenplay. The tiger is the story you want to tell. The monkey jumps around and fills in all the little details, makes you laugh, flings poop, and grinds his little organ, but the tiger just goes where he's gonna go anyway.

But sometimes, the monkey tries to take over. "Look at me! Look at me!" he says, as he distracts you from noticing the tiger has gotten up and left. So you're there sitting around like a jerk watching some monkey fling poop, while the tiger's off doing something cool, like gracefully stalking it's prey. While he's at it, he'll probably eat the monkey too.

The point is this. When the monkey and the tiger disagree -- always go with the tiger. Get that damn monkey in line. Watching a monkey on the back of a tiger is pretty cool. But watching a tiger eat a monkey carcass and fall asleep gets pretty boring pretty quickly.

Script Research Question...

2007-01-10T08:40:00.000-05:00

What would YOU do with your life if you had 30 days to live?

I Am You And You Are Me But Who Is He?

2006-12-10T12:46:00.001-05:00

I probably should just make this as a quick answer to Adam's post but think it might be more noticed here.

What I think makes a great movie is that you relate to the character(s). You see yourself as them, doing what they do, being who they are. We have all been Scarlett O'Hara, told by someone we love that they don't give a damn. Like Luke, we have hated our fathers and tried to best them. We have run away from our parents only to realize we are so much like them like Michael Corleone. We want to be children again like Charles Kane. We want to win when everyone tells us to give up like Maggie Fitzgerald. The list can be endless.

The list is also different for each person, depending on who they feel they can most relate to.

In the end its something that the person watching loses themselves in the film. Usually it is because at some level of their consciousness, they walk in the characters shoes, know that no matter what the consequence, they would do the same thing the character does given their circumstances. The story tells us there might be many possibilities but THIS is the one that happened, is happening and will always happen no matter how many ways the fates throw their dice.

While I have not thought this through, I think this might apply to all art forms: song, painting, the written word, etc. What's your opinion?

What do all great movies have in common?

2006-12-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

Great characters? Sex and Violence? Zombies?

It's all very subjective. But some suggestions are probably less subjective than others.

I figure if we poll millions of people, and pool together the most common answers, we have a formula for the perfect movie. We can start with the six or so people who read this blog...

Any thoughts?

Script

2006-11-20T10:11:00.000-05:00

1. Figure out what movie to make

Ok, so we're writing a script.

At least we're figuring out what script to write. We know our rules. We know are limitations. Hopefully, we accurately understand our strengths.

Like a good roll of toilet paper, in any script fit to wipe your ass with, the squeezing grabs you, and the softness keeps you. The squeezing is the premise -- The Idea that grabs you, sucks you in, makes you want to see the movie. The softness is the controlling idea -- What the movie is about. Why the movie exists.

We have a premise. We have a controlling idea. We're outlining characters, plot, etc.

Nothing is final at this point -- but we can reveal the following:

This film will be made from the most successful techniques from the shorts of Words Pictures Movies past.
The movie will be in our head by the end of the year, and the first draft will be in progress by January 1st.
We'll have a draft in May, and will be looking for readers.
Characters. No sci-fi gimmicks, no ridiculous effects, no exploding vans, no regenerating limbs. It's all about the Characters.
And the zombies. There have to be zombies. But it's really about the characters.

Onward Ho!

2006-11-13T15:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, so now we've made some movies.

We've made 4 this year, spanning several genres. From Mindless violence, to romantic comedy, to pointless action, to mindless violence.

We couldn't have done it without the incredible help and enthusiasm of our cast and crew. I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with how excited and dedicated a group of people can be working on a project like this, and bearing with our learning process.

So now let's make another movie. A really, really big one. We've learned a lot over the course of the last few films, now's the time to put it all to the test. Some of the lessons learned:

Thou Shalt Not Be Boring.
Make sure the entire movie is made before the camera rolls. Don't just plan everything, DO everything. All special effects. Music. Lighting & Sound tricks. Do anything new BEFORE you shoot.
Do Not Make The Movie in Your Head.
Know the difference between these two lessons.
Always know what you're getting yourself into.
Try not to think about what you're getting yourself into.
Know the difference between these two lessons.
Set your deadlines in stone. And make sure everybody knows them. Consider this permission for anybody reading this to nag the hell out of us when we're late.
Never stop moving, and always know your next step.

So what's the next step?

Here are all the steps as I see them.

Figure out what movie to make
Figure out how to make it
Plan a timeline
Make the movie
Shoot the movie
Assemble the movie
Fix the problems

We're on the figure out what movie to make part now. In light of the "Always know what you're getting yourself into" lesson above, we've realized that the script we have which is loaded with decapitations, exploding vans, and people's glowing immortal soul, might be a bit ambitious for a first project with a budget of roughly $0.00.

But Ideas are plentiful. And that's the subject of the next Blog post. Which will be posted within the week. And please hold us to that.

Zzzzzzzz...wha? I'm awake, I'm awake...zzzzz

2006-11-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

Guess what friends?! Have Gun Will Murder is done and on our MySpace page. Or you can go directly to Google Video. Share with friend! Watch again and again! We only live to entertain YOU.

So on to the next adventure which Adam will be writing about shortly.

Google Video Stats:

2006-11-03T08:39:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a year since we uploaded our first halo videos to Google Video.

Here are the current stats on the number of for everything we've done since:

Title	Page Views
An Excellent Lover	19326
Butt! - A Halo Called Fred	2477
Chicken Boy	2364
Mexican Love Song - A Halo Called Fred	2446
Standing Tall	2382
Territory	2495
The Frequency Of Damnation	971
The Robbery	7647
Totals	40108

I have no idea as to what drives people to watch one video over another, if it's word of mouth, or random searches, but it's good to know our stuff is being viewed.

On a related note, for those of you waiting on our latest film, there was a gross underestimate on the level of effort for a special effect. We'll keep you posted for the final project.

But here's a sneak preview:

Exhale

2006-10-15T16:12:00.000-04:00

The end is in sight. You can stop holding your breath. I have a final cut of Have Gun Will Murder and in a few short hours will be heading to central NJ to have Adam & Bruce do the final audio mix. After that all that remains is to possibly redo the titles & credits, do a final color mix and apply some effects. With any luck it will be up by the end of the week. FWIW, Filmmaking would be a lot easier if I didn't have to al so work a real job.

All I can tell you is, it looked good in the camera.

2006-10-07T18:50:00.000-04:00

Also, saying you're going to do it right the first time is easier when you've, y'know, already done it right before. And practice is never the same thing as the real thing. For one thing, there's more wind. Also, orange shirts are not girly, but black with small polka-dots are. And lamps are taller but walls are stronger.

so meanwhile here's some photos our awesome stressOrama
Have Gun, Will Murder micro-movie shoot

From Order, Chaos...and from Chaos, Order

2006-10-07T17:48:00.000-04:00

So you tell yourself your going to plan and plan and plan to be prepared for every possible outcome. Yet you get to the starting line and suddenly decide that sneakers won't cut it, you're going to run that race wearing hiking boots! So why are you then surprised that your feet hurt?

That bit of strangeness is refering to today's shoot of Have Gun Will Murder. First the positive: Tony & Dana were AMAZING. We keep stumbling upon these amazing actors. Who knew so many great actors are out there?

Now the negative: for some reason I thought our audio plan would work flawlessly and when we tried it in the field, it failed. We didn't plan enough and we didn't simplify enough. We need to find a way to have one-button audio. Boom mic direct to minidisc (or DAT) without a mixer in between. Level control only. Our lighting was a bit dull but I think it worked for the film. I'll do some playing with After Effects to get as consistant a look as possible. I'm tired so I might be complaining more than I should since I still think this one will turn out as entertaining as our other movies. Despite all the obstacles, we still have a great one here.

But the important part is I think we have some great footage. After I take a nap, I'm going to load it in and start doing a very very rough edit. Keep coming back to Words Pictures Movie for updates as I edit & Bruce and Adam mix the audio. Hopefully before two weeks are up, it'll be up here, on Google Video and YouTube.

Tearing Something Out Of Your Brain!

2006-10-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

Six days.

Six days until the camera rolls on the next WPM movie, HAVE GUN WILL MURDER. We have our cast and most of our props. We have our tiny crew ready. I've even started to work on some effects.

So hopefully by the 14th of October you'll be able to come here and download the next WPM extravaganza.

After that, look for our next short to roll in January. In the meanwhile, we'll be writing and learning how to pull off some of the effects for the feature. All exciting stuff and if we feel like it, we might even post some micro-documentaries here to get y'all excited about the process.

I am really looking forward to HGWM. I've spent some time in some weird psychological limbo for the past six weeks that was pointing me in the direction of failure when had I just opened my eyes and ears, I may have been very successsful. I may never know. I think I was actually trapped in my own mind.

I think the key to a successful life is to have goals and acting on them rather than letting them fester in one's brain. Its not only good creatively but makes one far more an attractive human being to know and associate with.

So my new theme is to tear the ideas out of my brain and put them into play out here, in this crazy place called reality.

Keep watching the Words Pictures Movies site for more info and hopefully far less self-analysis.

We weren't, I swear!

2006-09-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

We've just received the greatest review I've ever seen for The Robbery on Google Video.

Click "Comments" on the right to read it.

Can a gun commit a sin? Is it a sin if its heart is pure?

2006-08-29T23:44:00.000-04:00

Summer is almost over which means it is time to get back to work.

But is it really work that we will be shooting two short films on the 7th of October?

So what did you do all summer? Words Pictures Movies has begun focusing more on the feature film ever present in our minds. We've discussed all kinds of things from style to story and believe we are getting ever closer to creating the greatest movie ever. In the meanwhile we will continue to produce ever more entertaining short films for you, our faithful audience.

So with any luck the middle of October will see the release of two shorts films through such websites as Google Video, YouTube, MySpace and several others. Keep your eyes glued open to this blog for more news!!!

HEY! I'm thinking here!

2006-08-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

Procrastination: To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. To postpone or delay needlessly.

Discuss.

The Movie in your Head

2006-08-08T00:06:00.000-04:00

There's a movie in your head. It's a really, really good movie. You watch it over and over again in your mind, and every time it just gets better. If only you had the chance, this movie would gross more than Titanic, Star Wars, and Shrek 2 combined. And the critics will LOVE it. We're talking another Citizen Kane here!

Do not make this movie. You will fail. You will make the worst piece of crap humanly imaginable. Why? There are a number of reasons. You have no money, for one. No experience, for another. What you'll end up with is a movie that's absolutely nothing like the one in your head to anyone but you. Every time YOU watch it, your head will fill in all the gaps, and it'll be great. But to everyone else, they'll see something that kind of touches on the outline of something that might be great, if they could see how the dots really are supposed to be connected. Which they can't.

So what do you do? It's a simple process:

Step 1. Start making the movie in your head. Just because you don't know what you're doing, doesn't mean it's not a great idea. And hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Step 2. Look at the movie you've started to make. Figure out what works. Figure out what doesn't work. Work with people. Try to get an honest opinion out of them. Most importantly, don't worry if what doesn't work is a result of people not getting what's in your head. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Save it for a future project if you like it so much.

Step 3. Put a new movie in your head. The new movie has all the elements that work best from Step 2. Beyond that, the sky's the limit. The important thing is to not throw out what's good, because it doesn't match an initial pre-conceived notion.

Step 4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 until a movie exists.

WE ARE NOT BLOWING UP A VAN....

2006-07-21T12:43:00.000-04:00

...Maybe.

There seems to be some discussion in the comments from the last post about the best way to cheaply blow up a van. Now I'm not saying we won't blow up a van, but I'm not saying we will either.

The script draft some of you may have seen floating around was just a draft. The next step is for the writer (that's me) and director (Eric) to sit down, and plan out the next draft in terms of what works for both the story and the budget. Some special effects will remain, but to keep to our budget of roughly zero dollars, and working with people with very limited time, we're gonna have to scale pretty far back. The goal is to show as little as possible to make it convincing. There still will plenty of effects work for the shots we want to focus most heavily on. We just don't know which ones they are yet.

In quantum terms, we are simultaneously blowing up and not blowing up a van, each with varying probabilities attached. You'd never dream of buying a $500 scratching post as a welcome back from the box gift for Schrodinger's cat, although you can window shop just in case.

Never Tell Me The Odds

2006-07-15T23:35:00.000-04:00

When it comes to screenwriting, they say the odds of selling an unsolicited screenplay are astronimical. I've heard 1 in 40,000. I've heard 1 in 200,000. Regardless, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in a shitload.

And yet they also say that your best bet is doing whatever it takes to improve your odds. Learn correct screenplay formatting -- double your odds. Learn good marketing techniques -- double your odds. But even if you've "doubled" your odds 10 times over, it still gives you only a 2% chance of ever selling that screenplay. And god knows what chance there is of seeing that movie get made.

But if you make that movie yourself the odds someone will make your movie jump to 1 in 1. 100%.

1 < 40,000 < 200,000 < a shitload. Those odds are pretty good.

Ok, so there are still a few obstacles. Like how to you actually make a movie? And how do you pay for it?

Excellent questions. As we figure it out, we'll blog about it here.

Ja, Herr Direktor?

2006-07-09T22:48:00.000-04:00

I was drinking a lot last night and watching Mission Impossible 2 at my Aunt & Uncles'. I kept noticing that in one of the later scenes the light was completely inconsistent from side to side. Tom Cruise was in the same location, unable to move because all the evil henchmen were shooting at him. However, every time the camera cut back to him the light was either shining on the left or the right side of his face. It was always blue but it kept changing source location, as if shot at different times (pickups?).

So now I'm wondering how important it is to be obsessed with absolute lighting continuity. Is it just better to not be distracting, to make sure that what needs to be lit stays lit? The scene played out fine and I will admit I was specifically looking for the lighting.

But what I did notice about that weak-storied movie is that every aspect contained tension. Contrast in color (characters moved quickly from very bright to very dark), contrast in music (loud, quiet, loud, quiet) and contrast in pace of cutting (constant speed up & slow down). They made up for a lacking story with a very tense style that led to simple payoffs.

I'd really rather be analyzing something better but this has been on my mind since last night.

What kind of person names their cat, Cat?

2006-07-01T23:21:00.000-04:00

What the hell does the title of this post mean? Read on and you'll get your answer.

How do you tell a dramatic emotional story when all the pretty pictures in your head are about chasing demons and fighting robots? The answer is, you just do it.

The second Words Pictures Movies weekend film turned out to be a week film -- and not weak by any means. What went wrong? And more importantly, what went right? So before you continue reading, if you haven't seen An Excellent Lover please do so now. Its about 8 minutes of filmmaking goodness!

Around the end of April we began to discuss how to tell an emotional story. You see I've never done a film that wasn't a cartoon of some sort. I asked Adam to write something where the story was of an emotional nature. I have thought for some time that this would be my biggest weakness considering the Lucas-esque direction to actors I like to give. So after some back and forth, Adam came up with the script for An Excellent Lover. It had a different title for a little while -- Fancy Pants.

Adam often talks about the movie that's in your head vs. the movie you end up with and how you have to accept that the movie in your head might be holding you back. Sometimes a filmmaker just has to let go and see what happens. For An Excellent Lover, I only had the first 20 seconds in my head and the rest I kept open and tried to just make as well as I could.

We set about casting it and managed to find a really great trio for our leads based on recommendations from friends and some of what we had seen. Josh, our male lead, comes from the world of comedy. Sue, our female lead, comes from the world of improv. J9 comes from the world that's at a 45 degree angle to our own, but she has done much film work from behind the camera so it was nice having an actor with that sort of experience.

We had some fun with someone missing rehearsal and actually did script read throughs via cell-speaker phone. The movie was slowly coming together.

On the technical end, Bruce & myself decided to not make as detailed a storyboard as we had for Frequency of Damnation. This may have been a mistake looking back since we forgot the fourth lead in this film, which is the blanket. Its really important to follow the blanket around the room in the film. If you pay careful attention to it next time you watch the film, you might notice something in the story you hadn't noticed before.

Karen and Siva (who starred with Drew in Frequency of Damnation) graciously lent us their home for use in the film. When I went there about two weeks before I was horrified to realize they have more windows than a window factory. And we were shooting during the day as if it were night.

I quickly figured out that all I needed to do was cover up all the windows with utility strength trash bags. Of course I ended up doing this at 3AM before the day of the shoot, with a call time of 6:30AM.

So the biggest problem with the film was probably that I lied to Adam & Bruce since I needed 2 more hours than we had, to do it justice. The problem was we were going to lose Josh around 3:30 PM that day and I did not want to lose him -- he was PERFECT as Philip. So I cut corners and cut out telling Bruce to get certain b-roll shots. I actually forced myself to forget them since it would keep confusing me as I'd keep thinking of what I want to get on tape and what I need. The problem was, we NEEDED some of those shots (see blanket comments above). Anyhow, we got the film done. There were minor crises but overall the shoot went well. We had lots of great moments, especially when Dave made his vomit formula and covered Neil in it. I had wanted to talk to our extras Stephanie, Genivieve and Dana to get to know what kind of people were nice enough to help Words Pictures Movies make a movie, but alas. I know all the other extras so I can talk to them whenever the hell I want...especially Melissa who is gearing up to shoot her next film in a few weeks!

So I just hope Karen never tries to move her couch....oh and its not the couch that's the, um, disrepair. Hmmm. Karen might never talk to me again if she finds it.

Oh and in case you're curious, we filmed on a Sony DVX-1000 on miniDV tape, using a 3 lamp Lowel Omni kit and recorded backup audio on a minDisc. Now that backup audio is real important kids. Always remember that. What's also important is to slate and shout scene & shot numbers. I'll tell you why in a moment.

So I got home, exhausted, around 7pm with the full intention of getting this film done by Sunday night. I began to play the dv audio track and realized that it had been recorded very, very hot. Unusably hot. I called Bruce and was a total jerk to him since he was on camera. None of us listened to the camera output...our audio crew (Neil) listened to the board & miniDisc output as far as I can tell. We had good audio on miniDisc but I would have to sync it up piece by piece. Do you realize how much brain that grinds to dust? My IQ dropped by 20 editing syncing up the sound...

So before Neil gets blamed for any audio issues, he worked with what he had. Josh lent us some equipment and Neil tried to do what he could with the echo-ish nature of the room. We really should have looped the whole film after it was done.

So after digitizing Saturday night, I went to bed feeling sorry for myself. That Sunday I did maybe 4-5 hours of work because listening to the noisy distorted audio gave me a headache. I spent every night working that week on the film -- 7pm until 1am usually. That next Sunday I handed it off to Bruce & Adam and we had a film!

So what are the problems? Lighting! Sound! It hurts me to watch if I let myself think about the lighting. Our plan is to now really focus on careful lighting technical work along with technical sound work. We are definitely not breaking our first rule, which is Thou Shalt Not Be Boring. However we are breaking a lot of technical rules and that just makes for distracting moments in an otherwise great film. Bruce & Adam did an amazing job with the sound mix, given what they had to work with. I begin to understand more & more why real films do a lot of looping. Also I'm not sure how clear I made what I wanted out of our cast but I think they figured it out and created characters you won't soon forget.

Also we will from now on ALWAYS take out some time to focus and refocus -- because if I don't give my cameraman time to refocus, it ain't gonna get done.

What are the successes? Great performances on the part of our cast, zero continuity problems, an excellent story that leaves people wondering what's on that piece of paper and of course Dave eating the popcorn. I think everyone had fun. There are really great little moments throughout the movie so even if you don't dig the story as a whole, watch for little second stories going on in the background. It is very worth repeated viewings to catch all those details...especially watch Drew. Lucky guy! ;-)

By the way, check out www.yesjasper.com home of Andrew Jasper who graciously lent us some tracks to use for the movie.

So finally I will explain the title of this post. Karen's cat is named Cat. What if she and Siva decide to have kids? Will they name it Child? Or Baby?

You can run, but you can't hide...

2006-06-14T15:02:00.000-04:00

"An Excellent Lover" is EVERYWHERE!!!!
And by everywhere I mean Google Video, YouTube, our website, and MySpace.

Feel free to forward any or all of these links to anyone you know, watch often, rate up, embed, or otherwise spread the love.

And just whenever you think this whole sordid affair is behind you, it'll start cropping up all over again where you least expect it.

A Thirteenth Dimensional Hypertube

2006-06-14T00:40:00.000-04:00

Go here to watch An Excellent Lover.

Comment on us.

Rate us.

Love us.

Forever Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom!

2006-06-13T17:21:00.000-04:00

So this morning I sent An Excellent Lover to Google Video and now its up to them to work their evil magic in getting it compressed for your pleasure. It should be done in a few days. Click on FLICKS and a link to the movie will magically show up sooner rather than later. Also I'll post as soon as I get it up on YouTube sometime tonight if you'd rather not wait.

Until then, keep breathing! You never know when the Air Factory workers will go on strike (those filthy communists!)

Edith Bunker, Rum & 2 AM

2006-06-11T02:21:00.000-04:00

Well, that's it. I'm done with the backup audio syncing. I've done what I can with color mixing & matching to give An Excellent Lover the look it deserves -- or at least damn near close. Now I'm rendering out the tracks we need we to do final audio mixing and music syncing. That happens tomorrow at Bruce's. Oh and its 2AM, I'm watching All In The Family on TV Land & I've had probably too much rum. Once we get the movie's up for the world to enjoy, it will be time to move on to the next Words Pictures Movies project!!!

1 = 2; The new math of a weekend film.

2006-06-09T14:05:00.000-04:00

The pieces are falling into place. On several computers spread throughout the NY/NJ areas, the last pieces of a film are flying together across the "inarwebs". That film is "An Excellent Lover".

On Monday, June 12, that assembly will be complete -- at least complete enough for us to post a link to all cast, crew, and anybody who asks really, really nicely. Within a few days, we should have public links everywhere, as soon as we get up a high quality version on a server we don't mind bombarding with the billions of hits this film is sure to generate.

Ok, so I hear what you're saying... "But wasn't this a weekend film? Wasn't it supposed to be done last Monday?" Needless to say, our estimates included the extra week of lost time we expected as the universe was being reassembled during the week of the apocalypse, but failed to account for the fact that we're in that universe, and had to be reassembled also.

Ok, so we had technical problems.

But all is under control now. We leave you with a final thought:

Waiter, There's An Eye In My Soup

2006-06-07T01:59:00.000-04:00

I've completed the second pass and am sending it on to Adam & Bruce. Tomorrow I hope to make the final tweaks & colour correct all the shots. On Thursday & Friday I will tackle the audio sync issue.

I can't get over how good everyone in this movie is, especially Josh, Sue & J9!!!

Already I can't wait until we tackle the next project. Does that make me insane?

Like Being Flashed on a New York Subway

2006-06-05T02:24:00.000-04:00

So let me update y'all on where the film is at. I've completed a rough edit and sent it to Adam & Bruce for their thoughts. There's still some tweaking to do and then its off for a few days of sound syncing. After that I will get the completed film to Adam & Bruce for them to work their sound cleanup & musical magic.

Allow me to bring forth the Donald Rumsfeld portion of my personality. Did we bite off more than we could chew with this film? Hell no! Everyone who worked on this was amazing and has my eternal gratitude & appreciation. Were there problems? Of course! It wouldn't be a movie without problems! Will we solve them? Yes and in the process make something y'all can be proud of. An Excellent Lover is turning out to be, well, most excellent!

Oh and by mentioning D.R., I'm talking about the stating his own questions & answers thing, not the whole making-shit-up-about-easy-the-war-will-be thing. Unlike Rummy, I'd tell you the truth no matter how good or bad.

And once again, thank you Josh for bringing your minidisc recorder. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you Dave for the effects, boom mic & everything else! And thank you Neil for sound stuff & being willing to sit there all covered in that. Karen & Siva, I hope we didn't damage your house too much. Thank you. Drew, thanks for not stabbing anyone this time.

And not to give a guilt trip, but things did get a little rougher when you left Melissa. They always do. You're not allowed to leave anymore.

Keep reading this blog to find out the moment An Excellent Lover is ready for your viewing pleasure!

"An Excellent Lover" Thanks and Status update

2006-06-04T00:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks again to everyone who helped out with today's shoot. We accomplished an incredible amount today, and with everyone's cooperation, we were able to pull off a shoot that six months ago we wouldn't have thought possible. A special thanks to the new additions to our cast and crew; Josh, Sue, Janine for putting in a lot of hard work and delivering some excellent performances, and to Genivieve, Dana, and Stefanie for stepping in on such short notice with much patience and enthusiasm. We look forward to working with everyone again on future projects.

Eric has now digitized the footage and the audio, and has started putting together the rough cut of the film. The video and external sound came out perfectly. Unfortunately, the in-camera audio, which we were counting on to cut some corners in the editing process, had some technical problems and came out distorted.

Since our back-up system held, we still have all the audio we need to complete the film, but the amount of time we'll need to re-sync the sound for the final mix means a watchable version won't be available on Monday morning as planned.

What this means is that this is effectively no longer a weekend film. We're working out an updated schedule, and will keep everyone posted with the new release date. Bear with us-- I'm sure the final result will be worth it.

On a final note, here's a link to some of the production stills from the shoot. I can't guarantee they're the most flattering poses, but there's some great shots of Janine eating a sandwich and Dave grinning.

In less than a week!

2006-05-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

In less than a week, the next Words Pictures Movies extravaganza will be on the internet for all to see. So far the usual chaos and problems are popping up so I feel really good about the film. Don't forget to check it out early Monday morning on the 5th of June!!! (and by early we mean around 3AM).

Event Alert!

2006-05-17T10:51:00.000-04:00

Prepare yourselves for the awesome power that is The Next Words Pictures Movies Weekend Film.

And we need You to be a part of it. We're currently looking for people to play party guests. If you're interested in being part of our cast or crew, please email us. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Details:

We're shooting Saturday, June 3rd, editing Sunday June 4th, and will have a finished film somewhere on the web before we go to bed. Hopefully before sunrise.
The film is tentatively titled "An Excellent Lover", but that seems to change day to day.
The approximate running time is 8 minutes -- Our longest film to date.
This film is a romantic comedy. In a departure from our usual fare, nobody will be shot, stabbed, blown up, punched in the face, or kicked in the balls.

Any questions? Let us know!

That big ball of green cheese in the sky

2006-05-10T12:25:00.000-04:00

To invoke JFK, we make movies not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Paying Attention

2006-05-09T11:50:00.000-04:00

If you reread the post below this one, you may notice that I changed the shoot day to June 3d. Why? Because that was what I had intended to write all along.

Sometimes numbers confuse me.

So to reiterate, the next weekend film will be shot on the 3d of June and all postproduction will be completed by the end of the 4th -- until further notice.

How Fancy Those Pants Will Be

2006-05-07T22:04:00.000-04:00

So we've begun pre-production on the next weekend film, with EVERY intention of shooting it on the 3d of June and having it online by midnight of the 4th.

All I can tell you is that it is remotely related to that thing called LOVE that seems to always escape me. Sigh. But you're here to read about movies you love, the movies Words Pictures Movies makes, not about my sad and lonely personal life.

Remember if you want to be an extra or be part of our marvelous crew, just email us and we'll give you extremely high consideration.

Happy happy!

We've been blogged!

2006-04-15T21:17:00.000-04:00

The reviews are in! See what the critics are saying about "The Frequency of Damnation"! And by critics, I mean people who were in some way involved in the making of the film.

Check 'em out here, here, here, and here. My apologies if I've left anyone out. Let me know, and I'll add yer link.

Also, check out some other blogs that have posted some of our other films, like Clip Stop, Some Bikini babes & Other Videos, and Indie Films/Music Videos.

Frequency Recap

2006-04-13T12:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's been a few days, three days and 11 hours to be exact, since the official release of the movie. We've begun our media satuation blitz, posting it on Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, our Flicks page, linking to it a few posts down, etc. Now it begins propagating to the world.

I have to say, the thought of turning a film around in such a short time was a pretty daunting one, but somehow it flowed seamlessly. Thanks to Eric and Bruce, who sped the project along, keept the intesity up for the whole shoot, and still managed to maintain the level of perfectionism I've come to expect from them. The cast and crew kept their enthusiasm up despite bitter cold and driving rain. They delivered some excellent performances, great special effects, and kept us running like a well-oiled machine.

Considering our original charge when we thought this up, was to "Make a movie in 2 days, and don't be afraid to suck," I couldn't be happier with the result.

Anyway, the weekend is done. The movie is done. On to the next one...

See the Flicks Page

2006-04-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

The Frequency of Damnation is up on the Flicks page of the Words Pictures Movies site. I'm probably going to pull the link in the post below in a few days since that server might running out of bandwidth soon. So go on, click Flicks above and watch the best damn short film you've ever seen!*

*Except for The Robbery, Territory & Standing Tall

Yay! Movie!

2006-04-10T02:20:00.000-04:00

The Frequency Of Damnation is done!

The Frequency Approaches

2006-04-05T10:42:00.000-04:00

Things are coming together. Just sent out the kickoff email for this weekend's shoot:

Welcome cast and crew!
The day is nearly upon us for the filming of the Frequency of Damnation. Saturday, we shoot. Sunday we edit. Monday, we will have a completed film. The first Words Pictures Movies weekend film will be complete. History will be made. There will be much rejoicing.
Some important notes:
DATE AND TIME We are shooting this Saturday April 8th. Call time is 7 AM for leads and essential crew, 8 AM for extras.
LOCATION We'll be shooting around Douglass campus. The meeting place will be Nicholas Music Center. There is as large parking lot nearby. For map and directions:
http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?227
Email me if you need more detailed directions.
CLOTHING / COSTUMES:

Siva and only Siva will wear red. We'll supply a red sweatshirt, but feel free to bring any other red shirts you might have that might fit better.
Neil will be stabbed, so we'll provide a shirt that can get bloody. If you can let us know your size, that will help. Also, please bring a not red change of clothes, so we can cover all our bases.
Everyone else can pretty much wear what you want, as long as it's not red. The weather is currently calling for chilly with a chance of showers. Dress appropriately for the weather. Feel free to bring an umbrella.

OTHER STUFF

Food and coffee will be on hand.
If you have any questions before Saturday, Drop us an email at wordspicturesmovies@gmail.com, and we'll address it as soon as possible.
If you need to get in touch on Saturday (lost, running late, etc.) you can call my Cell phone.

That's all I can think of for now. See everyone on Saturday!

Rate up our Slither trailer!

2006-03-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

We've created a trailer for the movie Slither as part of their Slug it Out contest.

You can help us out by rating it up! (Of course user ratings don't actually influence the contest results, but It can't hurt)

The spot is at http://www.slithermovie.net/slugitout/index.php?id=12

scroll down and click on "Sacred Bond" by Adam Dickinson, and the rating form will be at the top.

Thanks for your help! Vote early and often!

Event Alert!

2006-03-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

Some more info on the new film, just posted on MySpace:

Extras needed!
On Saturday, April 8th, we're going to be shooting our next short film, "The Frequency of Damnation", and are looking for extras. If you or anyone you know is intersted, please let us know!
This is our first in a series of weekend films, where we shoot on a Saturday, edit on a Sunday, and don't go to bed until we have a finished film, ready to post to the world.
If you have any interest in spending an interesting saturday, we'd love to make you all a part of it! Please respond via MySpace, or email us at wordspicturesmovies@gmail.com.
Thanks again, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Watch this space!

2006-03-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

You want to be in a movie.

You have ALWAYS wanted to be in a movie.

Your best chance to be in a movie is RIGHT NOW.

On April 8th, 2006, we will be filming "The Frequency Of Damnation" and will need extras. More information will be posted later as we decide on the location. If you are interested, email us!

The Frequency of Damnation...

2006-03-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

...is coming soon to a website near you! Complete with chases, blood and terror!

We'll announce it on this blog when it becomes available for online viewing / download.

40,002 and counting

2006-03-12T15:28:00.000-05:00

There's something kind of nerve-wracking about taking something you've poured loads of time and energy into doing in complete solitude, and paying a complete stranger to criticize it.

At any rate, that's what's going on, and it's what's going to get us closer to creating a feature film. Johnny Immortal is now (for the time being) complete. The feature-length screenplay we are NOT going to be able to do as a first time low-budget indy thing is written, and out of my hands in the hands of the all knowing contest judges. It's in the mail. One more script has been added to the pile of 40,000 scripts written each year.

And now, on to bigger and better things. Or smaller and better in this case. Today begins the next script. The one we ARE capable of producing without a huge infusion of cash (and / or major rewrites).

God help us all.

Naked

2006-03-09T21:18:00.000-05:00

Some films are made with so few problems that they appear as if blessed from whatever deity you choose. Some films are a complete pain in the ass with problems occurring every day of the process -- some of which make you question why you bother. Most fall in between. The funny part is that it hardly ever has anything to do with quality of the end product.

To make a movie you have to be ready to sweat -- and hurt -- and cry on the inside when you're telling everyone how great it is. Luck doesn't hurt either. The question remains: why do I make films? Keep reading for your answer.

For some reason, The Robbery was a very painful process for me once post production began. The process of working with Adam when he wrote the script and doing screen tests and storyboards with Bruce felt so easy. The first crises that I recall came when my green screen (some people prefer to use blue for Chroma but green seems to work better for video) that was being shipped from India failed to arrive before the weekend we were to shoot. I swallowed my pride and went to Walmart to purchase all the fluorescent green fabric I could get my hands on. I actually had to go to two to get enough. Since this was a cheap fabric, I knew that post-production was going to be 10 times harder than I had hoped. One hour before shooting we were ironing the green screen fabric we had just nailed to Bruce's dining room wall. You see, keying around wrinkles in cloth is next to impossible. Since I was the one doing it I didn't mind. I'd hate to force anyone to do that much seemingly pointless work.

About halfway through the shoot, we discovered that I hadn't communicated fully to Bruce certain issues he needed to be aware of when he did the storyboard. It was completely my fault since I was present for the entire storyboarding process and should have noticed what was wrong. The problem was the discovery that we were about to break the 180 degree rule. In a normal film set you have the props, background, etc. as a frame of reference. In fact its rather difficult to break the rule when working on an ordinary set. Since we were making a virtual film shot entirely in front of the green screen, the only frame of reference was the story board and the images in my brain. I felt like I was exercising a muscle that was nearly atrophied from lack of use. Somehow we did not break the rule and the film made visual sense. I think it was luck that saved my ass but I will never forget that experience -- I don't think Adam or Bruce realize that had I screwed up, the film would probably be unsavable without reshooting half of it. I kept a straight face and said it was fine when I was only fifty percent sure.

Of course I always get comments about self-confidence issues from friends and coworkers so maybe I had a better idea of what I was doing than I am letting on here.

My memory of October 2005 will always be about the shoot. It was a good shoot. I had great help and am really happy with Scott & Dave's performances. They are brilliant actors and I hope to work with both again. Everyone was amazing. Karen, Melissa & Neil were more help than they know -- especially Melissa who is just an absolutely amazing director herself. Neil was great and I think he learned a bit about filmmaking. Karen as always was fun to have on the set and added a lot of comic relief. I'm not going to get into how much effort was exerted in finding the blouse she wore in the film though.

Once the film was done, I began procrastinating on post. I did a little here and there for about a month until Adam started urging me to get things done. Our original deadline was Christmas but that wasn't going to happen as fate had other plans. Had I not procrastinated, this probably would have been avoided but hey, I'm human. I procrastinate. I never seem to learn, either.

Around Thanksgiving I got a virus on my PC -- at least all the virus markers seemed point to that date. While working on the film I got fed up with putting off a Mac purchase so I just went and bought a refurbished one from Apple. Good thing I did that. The virus finally kicked in about 10 days before Christmas and knocked my PC offline. I could barely get it running in safe mode -- and when I did, I found a lot of files in the main windows directory with just a single letter nor a weird little square shape for a name. I did have After Effects on my Mac so one of the times I got my PC to work, I transferred the rough edit project file to the Mac via CD-R. Since this was a Premiere 6 file, it was supposed to open in After Effects without any problems. It did not, throwing off sync here and there. This was a challenge to edit since it is very hard to play a movie file in real time in After Effects with only 500 mb of ram (you have to lower the video quality for playback and I just hate doing that). I basically was forced again to imagine what a lot of things would look like in real time since I could not preview them that way.

This was the point in which I was tempted to say the film is much better in my head than in reality, but aren't they all? Despite my pessimism and sarcastic remarks, The Robbery is a really good film and I hope you download a copy from the main page.

So somehow the film was coming together when amazingly I managed to wipe out everything on the video drive on the Mac. I assumed I was saving to the video drive and backing up to the internal Mac drive when I was doing the exact opposite. I erased everything I had done, which at that point was probably 60 hours of work. I ended up purchasing a $70 program to recover the After Effects project files after trying for days to find something for free. Unfortunately I tend to be cheap so I always waste days looking for freeware solutions before I spend the money. Won't I ever learn?

Not everything was recovered and I estimate about 20 hours of work was lost. I wanted to go around punching people. I was not in the holiday mood and just wanted to sit in my tiny apartment editing rather than go out. Bruce dragged me to a New Years' party where I got to flirt a little with the very cute host of the party. She didn't care for me very much but I had fun. It was a good break and probably a very good thing I didn't sit at home editing since I'd probably be insane by now.

So nevertheless I got the film edited before Sundance 2006 where we gave away some DVD's. In the meantime, I somehow brought my PC back to life and was able to make some fixes in Premiere. What's really strange is that I ended up having to remove a controller card for a send cd-drive I have in the machine to get it working. Perhaps the card failed at the same time as a virus? I have no idea. Still Norton Anti Virus found some very nasty things in the machine as well (70ish viruses / spyware progrrams)

There were also a lot of issues in rendering The Robbery and other films for internet viewing but that was not so bad in comparison to the hell of post production. Somehow it got done and it turned out really really well. I'm proud of The Robbery.

Strangely Territory went off without a hitch and was completed from idea to final film in three weeks. Of course having a deadline imposed by the First Sundays film festival helped a lot. Also Territory had a lot fewer shots and was much more cartoony which allowed me to get away with far more in post. The Robbery has something like 80 shots and each required extensive rendering and rerendering as errors were discovered. I remember Territory as being so pain-free, that it was the reason Adam, Bruce & I formed Words Pictures Movies. I made a film years ago called Being Joe Beercan which was very painful to make and remains painful to watch. I should just rename it Inexperienced Director Makes Movie. The process and end product often have zero connection, at least in my limited experience. Its sometimes better to stay focused on the end product than get too weighed down by crises within the process.

I think the source of all the problems was poor planning on my part. I wanted to rush in head first and the stress was the result. Fortunately a good film was also the result.

I can't speak for Adam or Bruce and hope they'll post their thoughts about how The Robbery went from their perspective whenever they're able. I speak only of my perspective of the whole process on here and I suppose this counts as the directors' commentary for the film I had wanted to do for a dvd.

After all this whining, I still have one conclusion: as Director & Editor, I helped make a movie. It is short, clocking in just under 6 minutes. It has a few flaws, like the interior of the bank is a little darker than it should be. However, it is a movie and it is done. Far too many indie filmmakers drop projects when they hit a brick wall and the trick is to keep working through those road blocks.

People all over the world are downloading it from Google Video and other sites. It is a real thrill to see the download stats on Google's site. Whenever I show people any film, those minutes they watch, their eyes glued to the screen, their faces showing hints of the changing of their emotions in their souls is what I live for. I have taken them into a new world, one which I helped create. The sweat is worth it. The fears realized and frustration weighing on my soul for weeks are all worth it every single time.

If you want to make a movie, grab a camera, write a script, get some friends together and make it. Its a hard journey but the light at the end of the tunnel is more amazing than anything you can imagine. That is why I make movies.

BANNED!

2006-02-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

The Robbery is currently banned in China.

The Blackness of our Thumbnails

2006-02-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

The on-line marketing blitz is underway, albeit with some technical difficulties.

Google Video has six of our films up, yet somehow, the "random selection" of thumbnails always chooses the one frame of black when things fade out or in. We'll keep working with them to get some decent thumbnails on there, so we can throw our films into the eyeballs of the window shopping masses. Or if that doesn't work, remove all frames of pure black from everything we do.

There's got to be something symbolic there.

We've also got a new MySpace with very little on it. Films will appear shortly, as soon as we can upload them without receiving "Unknown Errors", or we give up and link them from external sources.

And last but not least there's YouTube. The saving grace of all online filmmaking. Click the link above to view all our films, rate them up, comment, etc.

Any other suggestions on how we can inundate cyberspace with our filmmaking glory? Drop us an email at wordspicturesmovies@gmail.com.

I have a new coat

2006-02-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

If you saw me frantically rummaging through other people's belongings after the show last week, rest assured, I am once again calm. After much detective work, I have gone as far as I can go tracking down the person who accidentally took my coat, without crossing the border into stalker territory. But at this point, I realize his coat actually fits me better than my own. Just please don't punch me in the face if you catch me wearing it one day.

Saturday's screening

2006-02-12T23:30:00.000-05:00

We screened "The Robbery" Saturday night at the Wicked Winter Renaisance Faire and it was fun! I wish we had had some control over the lights but the people present seemed to enjoy what we showed.

The screening was embedded within a set of songs played by the greatest band ever, A Halo Called Fred. Dave Hummel (who played Hugh) and Karen Krause (who played The Teller) were in the house and much fun was had by all.

Special thanks to Jeff Mach for letting us screen these as well as to Tom who lent us his projector and Neil Fein who so kindly ran the sound.

We also showed "Territory" as well as some videos I directed for A Halo Called Fred.

Event Alert!

2006-02-09T00:58:00.000-05:00

Here's the email we sent out from to the the Halo list a few hours ago:

The totality of your senses will be engulfed by goodness as you experience the...

A HALO CALLED FRED / WORDS PICTURES MOVIES / MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!!

HEAR! The original 2-man Halo play unplugged versions of old ‘90s classics!

SEE! Short films and Halo videos projected before YOUR VERY EYES!

TASTE! The excitement as A Halo Called Fred and Last Robot films collide into the BLAZING FIREBALL that is WORDS PICTURES MOVIES.

FEEL! Your heart palpitate as you witness the launch of WORDS PICTURES MOVIES, ushering in a new era of high-quality, low-budget (and visa-versa) independent filmmaking.

SMELL! Your own sweat as you participate (if you dare) in the filming of a BRAND NEW HALO VIDEO!

TELEPATHICALLY RECEIVE! Cheese, possibly.

This Saturday, February 10th at the Wicked Renaissance Faire
The New Jersey Convention and Expo Center Raritan Center, Edison
http://www.njexpocenter.com

The event is from Noon to Midnight, featuring acts from all fringes of society – Attend at your own risk!

WE ARE SCHEDULED
to perform between 3 and 4pm
(but this event plays it very fast and loose)

MORE INFO...

The event:
http://www.wickedfaire.com

Directions:
http://www.evenfalsethingsaretrue.com/wickedfaire/directions.html

The New Jersey Convention and Expo Center
http://www.njexpocenter.com

Words Pictures Movies
http://www.wordspicturesmovies.com

A Halo Called Fred
http://www.ahalocalledfred.com

Questions? Email us at:
wordspicturesmovies@gmail.com
or
ahcf@brushwoodart.com

Launch

2006-02-09T00:49:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy night for us. The new, improved website was launched a few hours ago with new features galore. And by "galore" I mean we have more than just a single page now. We've added some new film links, an FAQ page, and officially launched the blog (which you've probably figured out if you're reading this). Definitely more to come in the future. We look forward to any comments or questions anyone might have.

In the meantime, keep checking back here to keep posted on current and future projects, screenings, and events.

And speaking of events...

Movies, music videos, etc

2006-02-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

We make movies, music videos, stuff to entertain you, the human being.

Welcome

2006-02-02T10:31:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Words Pictures Movies blog. More words, pictures, and movies are here.