I’m taking this show on the road – first stop Dubai!

A week ago I had no idea I’d be on a Emirates flight to Dubai in a couple days.

I’m still following the white rabbit and it’s taking me on the next step in my quest towards indie film producerhood. It seems the next step is a foray into the world of producing commercials.

I will be working on a freelance basis with my friend Jacques Mulder and his company Muddville in Dubai until November 30th (along with his Red EPIC-M and EPIC-X!). This opportunity came about after working together on Murder at the Manor.

I’m not sure what to expect, but I know I’ll be working hard and enjoying every minute of it. I know I’m going to give a lot, and I’ll learn a lot and get a lot back in many different ways.

I can’t say much yet, but in a few days I’ll make my first post from the UAE. I have a feeling, God willing I might be there for a while. There are cool things going on at Muddville, things I would like to be a part of. However, for now it’s until November 30th and nothing further is assumed or expected.

I am not abandoning Cape Town, my daughter is here, and no matter what happens I will always have one foot here, even if the other one is 4720 miles northeast!

So from Sept 18th to Nov 30th I’ll be in Dubai, then I return to Cape Town quickly only to depart again for the UK on December 13th, returning to Cape Town Jan 13th. After that I have no idea!

The world is a small place, and I can use the airmiles.

Over and out from Cape Town.

My top indie film resources on the web!

This afternoon I was listening to Rex Sikes Movie Beat chat show live where he had Entertainment Attorney Paul Baptista on the show. It hit me how valuable the information being given on the show was, how rare these crucial nuggets of wisdom are and how few of my fellow filmmaking friends even know of the show, let alone listen in every week.

I wonder what their excuses may be. Sure, some of them are hungry and just don’t know what’s out there. Some don’t think they need it, many don’t know what they need in the first place.

So I have compiled a list of my most valuable resources… which reminds me that my A-List of must-follow filmmakers on twitter also needs to be updated. I think it’s been over a year now and I’ve met some fantastic new people over the last 12 months that belong on my A-List.

For now here’s a quick rundown of resources I use every day (or in the case of Sheri Candler’s new book launched yesterday, resources I will soon use every day.) Some you may already know these, some may not.

GENERAL FILM BUSINESS

Filmcourage with David Branin and Karen Worden – http://www.filmcourage.com

Film Courage is a weekly show on L.A. Talk Radio, and it’s really an hour every week at midday PST on Sundays that cannot be spent in any better way.

Follow @FilmCourage on twitter and you won’t miss a thing!

Rex Sikes Movie Beat – http://www.rexsikes.com

 

Rex Sikes, and his guests offer up a priceless amount of insider information which is both inspiring and full of down-to-earth practicality. This is another show that is simply not worth missing for anyone who takes their career seriously.

Follow @RexSikesMovieBT on twitter.

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul – http://www.sellingyourfilm.com

Authored by Sheri Candler, Jon Reiss (of Think Outside the Box Office fame) and co-authored by The Film Collaborative (Orly Ravid and Jeffrey Winter), this is a freely available e-book which cannot be missed.

Follow @SheriCandler and @Jon_Reiss on twitter.

Hope for Film - http://blogs.indiewire.com/tedhope/

Ted Hope is a legend in his own time in independent film. Hugely pro-active, sharing and approachable he was one of the first people on my own A-List. He provides answers and insight, and often just puts forward provocative questions. One of the best things you can do is subscribe to his blog here and you won’t miss a post!

Follow @TedHope on twitter.

SCREENWRITING

Raindance – http://www.raindance.org

 

Raindance Resources - http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/Raindance-Film-Festival-indie-tips-for-independent-filmmakers

Elliot Grove is seriously one of my heroes. The Raindance website is easily the first place I go to when I’m stuck with something in the middle of writing a outline, a synopsis or a screenplay. There is a whole catalogue of downloadable screenplay collections that make fantastic reading and study material. The online search functionality and articles provided are second to none.

Follow @Raindance on twitter.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Those are by far the most valuable resources I refer to regularly on the web.

Enjoy!

You’ve got no excuses now!

 

 

Humbled by an EPIC – guest post by Jacques Mulder

By Jacques Mulder (originally posted on my other blog Digital Cinema Demystified)

Its been 2 months with my EpicM and have been meaning to write something about it, I can say in all fairness this camera quite easily found a way to humble my role as a Director and an individual. The camera has opened up so many more opportunities then I could have ever expected, my Bomb Squad (Brian Sheckelhoff) handler has been privvy to my tours across this planet, starting with Dubai, I ventured to Singapore, Barcelona, bit in Munich and Frankfurt, to Johannesburg and Cape Town. I now sit in Dubai with 4TB of footage that I just so desperately want to share. I met over 300 people in my travels, (I kind of know how TED feels) and in that time I met them all, the skeptics, the enthusiasts, the bewildered the flabbergasted and the random unknown. All the while people received the handling of the camera with fascination – all of them!

There was a stretch of 10 days that kept the camera really busy, some days the camera was rolling at 5am and being turned off at 2am, these particular days were in freezing cold conditions, the camera was so solid we only had one problem in a four day stretch, on a pinch zoom the Ouput monitor through the HDSDi split the screen (not physically obviously), we unplugged the cable and continued. We never lost a single R3D file, even if the battery died or someone accidentally pulled off the brick, we had 0 corrupt files, we recycled the 128gb drives at least twice per day (we had four) and then one of the best things about this camera was its battery life, we just rolled and rolled and rolled and it stayed on and got the shots.

In the short time that I have owned this camera I have produced and directed many projects, a few stood out, one a short film written and produced by Richard Lackey (a RED user) directed by Leon Laubscher. He asked if I’d be available to help him on a project. I was not really sure what I was getting myself into but found myself smack bang in a beautifully crafted and stylishly designed period piece. I mean, shoot an epic story on an EPIC, it really did justice for the production. We were limited by lights, 1k a 2.5k, a couple of Kino’s, one reflector and a white bounce. I mean, really! We never shot anything over 400 ISO with this light setup, I can assure you we did beg for more lights and landed with a box of Dedolights that did help. The light sensitivity of the camera was truly astounding and we eventually started using less light watching our blacks and highlights carefully. In some shots we were proud that we only used one light. Warrick Mcleod was a genius with the lights and in the end we ended up getting way more then we expected.

In this shot we had no lights, HDRx turned on.

From there, as luck would have it I was offered a unique opportunity to shoot a ballerina, Alice, what an amazing artist. I will be sharing the final film once we have completed the edit and the grade. But this is a testament to her fabulous art and a thank you to the number of takes I made this girl go through.

In Summary, I have had the privilege of working with all formats, a week before my Epic arrived I was still shooting film, I still have a couple of jobs in October that require that format, but in all honesty I am going to attach my EpicM to the side of the 435 and shoot with both cameras. There is one thing for those I would advise anyone out there to do and that is to get a truck load of hard drive storage. Don’t shoot HDRx if you don’t have to, but for those technical boys out there this additional channel is perfect for 3D tracking and amazing at bringing out the blown out backgrounds! It has been a long 7 weeks, but we did a documentary, at least 3 TVC’s, a more “corporate” film and a trailer for a movie by one of the big Post houses in Cape Town, the short film shown above and a passion project named Alice. Lastly, I have had the privilege of using a variety of lenses that most reputable equipment houses have to offer and I have my favorites… This topic I will not discuss now…

To the guys at RED – you have seriously humbled me…

Jac Mulder
Director/TD
Represented by www.spokefilms.tv | Dubai
Muddville www.mvdubai.com
Epic-M and Epic-X (on the way), clutch, canon mount and some cool toys…
jac(at)mvdubai.com

What’s the Big Idea?

Every filmmaker is on his or her own journey toward some distant goal, facing obstacles at every turn and needing to pull immense courage, strength and perseverance to overcome them. (Sound familiar)

So much has been happening in the recent few weeks as a result of pushing myself harder and faster than ever before, and I have so many different projects at different stages of completion, that I thought it best to take a current snapshot, and provide a bit of a roadmap.

On any journey a roadmap is important… and the process of evaluating one’s current state and position in the larger context of that distant goal, and acknowledging it’s general direction has probably not changed, but yours might have… is an important part of keeping yourself moving towards it.

Having a clear roadmap is important for yourself, for your team and for anyone following and supporting you, especially when you have more than one active film in some stage of the process at a time.

I have three. Thankfully two of them will soon move into less intense stages of post – post production… and that means strategically engaging festivals and hoping for some acceptance letters (I am expecting the rejections already). Some wins, or at least some general positive sentiment for the films would really energize the rediculous thing I have committed my heart and mind to, which is the third project I have mentioned.

Here’s where we stand on September 11th, 2011.

INSIDE

Principle Photography – Completed August 3rd, 2011
Edit – Rough edit completed by August 18th, 2011
VFX – Shots are with Christo Crafford.
Locked Cut -
Colour Grade -
Sound Design -
Score – Nathan Shilz is awaiting the locked cut.
Final Mix -

[Current Duration - 00:06:12:07]

Murder at the Manor

Principle Photography – Completed August 22nd, 2011
Edit – Rough edit completed by Sept 11th, 2011
VFX -
Locked Cut – Sept 11th, 2011
Colour Grade – Week of Sept 11th?
Sound Design -
Score – Carin Bowman ready and waiting!
Final Mix -

[Episode 1 Current Duration - 00:04:58:22]
[Episode 2 Current Duration - 00:06:29:01]
[Episode 3 Current Duration - 00:05:21:16]
[Episode 4 Current Duration - 00:04:05:00]
[Episode 5 Current Duration - 00:06:47:00]

[Short Film Version Current Duration  - 00:27:05:15]

The trailer for Murder at the Manor must be ready for public release this week… it goes live on Thursday 15th September. The ultimate deadline for completion of the film is October 22nd. I would like to have it finished in time to courier for entry to Sundance to be received no later than Sept 23rd.

Upcoming Festivals of Interest:

FirstGlance Film Fest – Regular Deadline Oct 12th
Super Shorts International Film Festival – Late Deadline Sept 30th
‘IFS’ Independent Filmmakers Showcase – Late Deadline Nov 21st
Slamdance Film Festival – Late Deadline Oct 21st
Sundance – Late Deadline Sept 23rd

THE BIG IDEA! – PROJECT THREE!

Project 3 is something I am very excited about! It’s come about from a resurrected short film called “Flame” and although it will be completely re-written as a feature, the premise of the story stays the same. It will be shot in London and Brighton in 2012.

Some very exciting partnerships and collaborations are opening up on this film. I can’t say much at this stage, but I can say there are some BIG names involved and a crowd-funding campaign to kill all other crowd-funding campaigns is in the works. If you want awesome perks… then this is a campaign to keep an eye on. We’re gonna go big on the crowd-funding side, and combine that with some equity investment to make up a respectable budget.

The film is big, it cannot avoid major public exposure and press when we roll it out. It has the potential to garner a cult following of note, and will be fan-built in many more ways than just funding.

It’s time to get excited about this one!