The Importance of Great Camera Operators

Having great camera operators, that can take direction, and have initiative of their own to find the right shot, is invaluable. I have worked in the past with camera people who can't take direction. For instance, you tell them you need a shot, only to look at the footage later, and it's not what you asked for. Or I ask them to back off so that they don't get into my shot, only to find that they wander right back in, wrecking my shot.

The current camera operators working on Emma's Revenge have been great: Jason Riesgraf and Andrew Crandall. Both have ideas for shots, but both also do what they're asked.

Jason responded to an ad on craigslist, posted after we let our previous producer/actor/2nd cameraman go. As second cameraman, he always comes up with ideas for shots but he never argues when I tell him what to do. As lead cameraman, I will tell him I am going to walk into his shot for a moment, and walk back out, as I move the steady camera around. He has no problem with that, unlike others I've worked with. Jason has plenty of his own creative ideas but always gets what I ask him for, before we experiment with his suggestions. His footage is top-notch and invaluable to our movie.

Andrew, on the other hand, is what I call my roving cameraman. He has shot several features himself, and he always has ideas I would never have come up with. When Andrew is on set, I have very little direction for him. He always knows what shot to get. Having shot several features himself, he knows what the good angles are, as well as original, creative shots. For instance, distant shots through debris, super-close ups, POVs, and other shots that had not occurred to me. As a result, whenever he's not there, I now find myself saying 'what would Andrew shoot?'

I've worked with Andrew previously on his project, Nephilim, one of several projects Krisha Saxon has worked on with Andrew over the years. He has worked in Hollywood and on many features, giving him lots of experience. That is why I just let him shoot what he feels is needed. It always turns out to be shots that add so much to the scene.

I recommend that once you find good camera operators, as well as any other crew, stay in touch.

Shooting Complex Fight Sequences By the Seat of Your Pants

The reason I say seat of your pants is due to the delay in production. We lost some of the people who were going to be in the fight scenes with our talent. The delay in production also reduced the time that talent could devote to shooting, due to previous commitments. We had promised to be done in August, so now school, work and other gigs are in direct conflict.

Back to the fight scenes. Instead of doing previously choreographed and planned fights, we were forced into doing lots of fights, on the spot, with people who were recently acquired to play opposite our Misfits. The choreography that we had planned months before was no longer possible in its entirety. We created fights, spontaneously, based on the abilities of the people who came in, on short notice, to do the scenes.

Due to the lack of time the girls had available, we had to shoot fight scenes fast and had less time to devote to each fight. For instance, we wanted and originally planned for 2-3 hours per fight scene.  What we faced was having 2 hours to do all of a character’s fights. Our challenge was to shoot multiple fights in the time we had wanted to devote to one. Some days we had three cameras to shoot, some days we had only one. The days with only one camera, we had to shoot fast and be more creative. The end result is fantastic.

Although this time restraint was challenging, we had a great training/choreography team. We were forced to improvise, resulting in some really cool spontaneous ideas that we might not have thought of otherwise. In the end, the time delays were once again, a blessing and a curse.

The delay also gave us more time to promote what we had on the web, resulting in more interest and response in our search for villains to be in our fight scenes. Before, I couldn’t generate much of a response for fight extras, but with the pictures and the videos on the web, the recent response has been fantastic. We got many local luminaries to be in our fights, all of whom got gored up. Again, the curse became a blessing.

Gore

We required a lot of makeup and gore special effects.  Chocolate sauce, corn syrup, food coloring, peanut chunks, strings of sealing wax and other fancy stuff. And whatever else our makeup wizard Hannah could cook up. We needed cuts, bruises, abrasions, gunshot wounds, ripped flesh, fresh dripping blood and other evidence of violence and mayhem. This did not include the realities of the real blood from the occasional skinned knee and cut finger suffered by our actors.

The challenge of getting the makeup effects to hold up to the scrutiny of the super-close-ups ultimately was no challenge at all for our wizard Hannah. We have full-screen close ups of wounds that look perfect, oozing as they should. Some of the most important effects and gags needed multiple takes and thanks to Hannah, in each take the effect was as precise as the one before.

Hannah worked under the gun on gritty, multiple-effect shoots in the rain, in moldy basements, and everywhere else the director dragged her.  She stood in water. She stood in dirt. She listened to profanity. She put up with everything that I threw at her, and kept on smiling and producing blood.

When Hannah wasn’t available, our Producer Krisha has been Johnny-on-the-spot with her own makeup magic. I guess being gored out for almost every scene you’re in is excellent training in how to apply it. Now Krisha is able to do many things, if our wizard isn’t available.  

I’d also like to thank our notable local actors, who allowed us to ‘cut’ them until they had blood pouring out of their every orifice. And special thanks to makeup artist Brittany Katuin who helped early in the production, but had other obligations and couldn’t continue.

The continuity of effects can be a nightmare. We shot out of sequence, and it’s obviously important to know what cuts, bruises, etc., were on the actor coming out of the previous scene. We did our best….

Unexpected Delays

Producing a zero budget feature film of this nature has many obstacles, with scheduling being amongst the hardest things to do. When we started shooting in May, we were hoping to be wrapped by August. When no one is paid, you have to schedule around their availability. The scheduling, up until recently, was not done this way. The person responsible for scheduling created schedules that were unrelated to the availability of either cast or crew. This caused major problems and delays in production. Several times, schedules were made, only to find that cast, crew, and/or locations were unavailable. You can’t just pick arbitrary dates and times and expect volunteers to drop their obligations and comply. This is the way it was done the first few months, resulting in major delays in production. Once Krisha took over the responsibility of Producer, the scheduling problems ceased.

At the same time, these delays resulted in recasting, for the better. Particular parts, such as two pivotal villains, had to be recast due to these delays. Our original producer was also cast as our main villain, so when we replaced him with Krisha, we also had to recast the villain. This gave us the opportunity to cast a much better actor for this important role, improving the quality of the film.

The delays have been both blessing and curse; a curse, because it’s almost October and we’re still shooting with the weather's starting to change, and a blessing, because the replacements are more talented and enthused. Actors became interested and available that were not an option previously. We also had time to find better locations for scenes that had to be reshot due to having to replace the producer who also acted in them, as well as providing the time to work out the more complicated scenes that we had yet to shoot.

I initially brought on a producer to assist. The original producer promised a hundred things, none of which materialized, including a workable production schedule. Personality conflicts and creative differences with him (he was brought on to assist in production, NOT to take over and make unrealistic demands), necessitated his replacement. Working with Krisha has resulted in much more relaxed shoots and meetings, and overall production of the movie has gone on smoothly since. In fact, it’s been a joy since the original producer was let go.

I didn’t intend this to be a martial arts movie, any more than Lethal Weapon is considered a martial arts movie, but I knew that martial arts would play a huge part in it. I wanted the four women to kick ass so I knew there would be lots of fighting. I consider it more of a twisted adventure, with martial arts as one aspect.

Today we began fight choreography. The girls of Emma's Revenge have been training since March but we brought in some of our villains today to beat on. So today marks the first time that we are actually planning how the fights will play out. We got some great local talent, such as Jason Borneman, Charles Hubbell, John Cromwell and Matt Kaeder. We still need many others but this was a good start. If you’re reading this and want to be in a movie, send me an email. We’ve been working with Stacy Noyes, Joe Madrid, Rudy Rogers, Fabio Morescalchi and myself for fight training and choreography. We are all martial art instructors and are affiliated with the Minnesota Kali Group, the gym we are training at.

As martial art instructors, we pull from the arts we know. We are using the Filipino Martial Arts (weapons and empty-hand such as Kali, Panantukan, and Silat), Muay Thai, various grappling arts, Jun Fan martial arts (Bruce Lee’s martial art), and whatever miscellaneous dirty street fighting tricks we can come up with.

My goal is to create fights that are in the Bourne Identity style, having come from the same lineage of instructors that choreographed those films, such as Guro Dan Inosanto (whom I am an instructor under), David Leitch and Jeff Imada. We want the fights to be realistic but still have flash for the screen. Some films like to do quick cuts and edits to create fast action. I hope to use some of those techniques but I want to mainly rely on just plain fast action. I want the audience to see the moves as opposed to only wondering what the hell just happened.

After watching some of the work done at the gym today, I am excited about shooting this on location. The logistics of pulling that off will be a whole other blog in itself. Keeping people safe yet portraying the action as ferociously intense will be the challenge.

Now that I had a script, I needed a cast and crew. I also realized that I was not going to be able to produce this alone. In October of 2010, I posted several ads on craigslist for actors, actresses, crew members, locations and monkeys…just kidding about the monkeys.

The first ad was for the four female leads. I must have gotten 25 responses in the first two weeks. Less than half actually made it to an audition. As well as the four leads, I held auditions for other roles.

December 5th saw our first auditions. Two actors out of five scheduled showed. Krisha came in on December 18th, the only one out of four scheduled that day to show up. She was the perfect Emma. She returned January 16th for a second reading, at her request, and I gave her the part. This was typical of the process for us, many no-shows punctuated by brilliant auditions.

My goals in casting were to find people with enthusiasm for the roles, natural talent and likeability. As this was a no-budget film, I needed them to be able to slip into the roles without a lot of rehearsal, as time is money and we had none to give them. Little did I know at the time that I had selected some of the best professional and amateur actors in the Twin Cities. Wahoo!

I also pursued crew, such as special effects, cinematographers, etc. Several of the initial contacts did not follow. For instance, I met someone in January who said he could do all the blood spatter and gore that we need in the movie. I saw photos of his work online, so I gave him the job. He failed to attend our first production meeting in March. We scheduled a meeting in April to see his effects in person, however, when I called him, he wasn’t prepared to show me anything and said that he would call me the following week after picking up supplies. I never heard from him again. So after months of thinking I had our makeup person, I was left hanging without one. Another craigslist ad put me in touch with Brittany Katuin. At our first meeting in May, she gave me the confidence that she’s our gore girl and cosmetologist.

Another major disappointment was an individual who was going to help with camera work and cinematography. He also claimed to have a crew for lights and sound only to find weeks later that he had no crew, leaving me crewless again. He is no longer part of this production.

But, by mid-March the major roles were cast and the four female leads began martial art training.

Then it hit me. How the hell am I going to make this movie all by myself? Then it hit me again. I better put another ad out for producers to help me make this happen. Joel Thingvall, a local luminary, contacted me and helped me find several key locations and has provided great advice.

And then, in walked Ulysses Awesumb (yes, that’s his real name). He first came in to audition for several roles, but as we talked I realized he was well-connected, motivated, and talented and would find the crew that I could not. As well as being cast as one of the leads, he became the co-producer. He is now responsible for the things that would normally drive me insane, freeing me to concentrate on polishing the script, rehearsing the actors, training the girls in martial arts, and to bang my head against the wall whenever I can no longer deny the urge. (Ulysses has since been replaced by Krisha Saxon as Producer, see subsequent posts).

As a martial arts instructor, I had a few fantastic colleagues to assist me with fight choreography and training. Joe Madrid and Stacy Noyes, two talented instructors, have helped me transform our four female leads from complete novices to experienced martial artists in just three short months. For a no-budget film to have four actors devote themselves to physical training for months…well, I guess all I can say is, find me another local no-budget film that had that level of dedication from its cast.

After making contacts while working the 48-hour Film Festival with Ulysses, we rounded up crew for lighting and sound, just this past week. Also this past week, one of the crucial villains, which has proved the most difficult to cast, was finally found. Today, we met and auditioned other key extras, skilled in martial arts, for our leads to test their skills against.

Now we have everything in place, all the pieces for this puzzle, just in time for an intensive stretch of shooting starting in two weeks. Soon, Emma’s Revenge will no longer be an intangible concept solely in my head but will transform into a thrilling adventure for us all.

The Making of an Independent No-Budget Feature Film in the Twin Cities

My name is Mike Ascher and I am in independent filmmaker here in the Twin Cities, embarking on my first feature-length film. Having read Robert Rodriguez’ REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, I decided to keep my own diary.

So where do I begin? How does a project like this start and what are the first steps to bringing it to fruition?

Directors that inspire me are Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Tony Scott, Rob Zombie, and of course the biggies such as Spielberg, Howard and Scorsese. My influences are the Exploitation films of the 70s, Kung Fu films, horror, and monster movies and action-adventure like Indiana Jones and over-the-top thrill-rides.

I would say that the first step is to create a story. I knew what kind of story I wanted but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years ago I had made a horror short called FLASH. After a handful of awards, I was itching to make a feature-length film. After a year or two of feeding my obsession with independent films, I stumbled across the web page of Twisted Twins Productions. Jen and Sylvia Soska, twin sisters from Vancouver, had made a feature film, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, which was getting rave reviews from biggies such as Tarantino and the like. This was when I realized that independent low-budget films did not have to suck. I contacted the Soska sisters via email and we communicated over the next few months. They gave me a lot of great tips, advice and encouragement.

Thus began my feature-film journey: how to create a zero-budget feature film, with style and flair that doesn’t fall flat on its face in the first five minutes. Style is important. Cameras have to move. Scenes that drag bore an audience.

Technical issues aside, I needed a story or there was no reason to contemplate any of it.

In August of 2010, I decided to start. So there I sat with pen in hand. How do you start a feature-length script? What is the first scene? What I always liked are movies that hit you hard in the beginning and then fill in the gaps as they go along. And that was exactly my approach to writing this script.

I decided to start with two people talking about something, and it had to be comical. I went through many topics before I found one that grabbed me. After many trials, I wrote dialogue that had a life of its own. I could barely type fast enough to keep up with it.

So now I had my beginning. How do I finish it from here? I just followed a few simple guidelines: have colorful, fun and unforgettable dialogue, characters and situations. And hit with the unexpected. Just when the audience thinks they have it figured out, sucker-punch ‘em.

After two months of writing, editing and rewriting, I had most of what became the working script for EMMA’S REVENGE. Now, how do I make it into a movie, with no money?