sounds like the mantra for selecting a lunch spot, but it was the gem Stephen Israel doled out to the participants of this seminar. he was really referring to film and the guidelines for how to make one. al-jay hit me up on the AIM one day and linked me the information for this thing. i figured it was a good ‘2-for’ offer so i bit the bullet, spent the $125, rented the car, and hit up a homie for a place to crash for a night.

first off, i thought i would’ve been dead tired during saturday’s panel discussions. i left SJ around 3:15 (after barely managing to shower and shave and pack in candlelight – the power conveniently went out) to catch the first panel at 9AM. it should also be noted that i made it to Hollywood in approximately 4.5 hours – pretty good time if i do say so myself. as you can imagine, 2 days of panel discussions yielded a LOT of useful information for us “independent filmmakers”. so for the sake of time and utter boredom (for you guys – of course, i was all up ons), i’ll give you the ESPN News version of what i learned:

1) Refuse to spend money – i thought this was weird when i heard some producers and directors say this, but they sold me on this theory. if you have no money, then you obviously can’t spend it. being an independent filmmaker means you have to be pretty damn resourceful. if you are blessed with an actual budget, following the aforementioned statement will allow you to stretch your dollar to ensure…lessons #2 and #3

2) Spend on food – i already knew this because it’s been ingrained in my brain from the very beginning. it’s cool to see this rule applies even to people who actually get paid to make movies.

3) Spend on sound – i’ve been making a conscious effort to pay attention to the sound design and music when watching films. it’s 50% of the movie-watching experience, but it can result in 0% interest from your audience if your sound sucks.

4) ALWAYS have a card on you – weeks ago, i thought perhaps getting some simple cards made would be a good idea. i had heard this is how it is in the ‘biz’ and you want to network as much as you can. weird thing was that i kind of felt i would be lying if i put ‘writer/director’ on the card. i mean, i do write and direct, but not for the screen (at least not for a WHILE), and definitely not there…in LA. i dunno…i guess i just felt like a poser.

5) make sure you have a voice/vision – just having the IDEA doesn’t cut it anymore. pretty much every panelist from every discussion alluded to originality. according to Jeremy Coon, the producer of Napoleon Dynamite, only 2% of scripts that are written are actually decent…at least in his experience, it is.

side note: this guy is rad. he kinda looks like a young val kilmer and told really cool stories about his experience working with Jared and Jerusha Hess. the coolest part was that he produced Napoleon Dynamite just so he could edit the film.

6) the barter system lives – if you have any film equipment, especially a camera or an editing suite, you can make ‘friends’ real fast. are you reading this Hugo Benson?

7) 8 is the magic number – this is how many minutes a short should be. this is according to Sarah Diamond, the Slamdance Director of Programming for the shorts segment of the film festival. shooting a short of this length will be the best chance for acceptance. the longer it gets, the badasser it needs to be.

refocus efforts on the screen – i’ll handle take care of business with Three Rats and then ride that high into the screen realm once again.

that last one wasn’t really something they taught me at the seminar, but more like a call to action.

Joss Whedon

i know the name and heard of his work, but damn. my roommate and i bought our other roommate the Firefly series on DVD. she’s been raving about it for months, ever since she watched Serenity, the feature film based on the series. i won’t delve into how a canceled tv show was able to get onto the big screen, because Mr. Whedon (that’s my nytimes.com homage) does a good job of that on the DVD. but anyway, it was recommended to me to watch the TV series first, and then watch the film.

so i did. i’ll be honest – my expectations were SUPER high for this show. Sam Chanse raved about it, so i knew that it had to be sharp. i had not been all too familiar with Mr. Whedon’s other works (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), but i did see one episode of Buffy, called Hush, written and directed by Joss Whedon. (i just looked it up right now on Google.) but the episode blew me away. the dialogue (or lack thereof) was brilliant all the way to the final frame. i had no idea what these characters were like, but the story was put together so well you either understood their general backstories, or were so gripped by the plot that it didn’t matter. (ha – a writer saying character doesn’t matter. who is this guy?)

so back to Firefly – beginning with the opening frame, i was hooked. really strong ensemble of characters, snappy dialogue, sharp wit, strong visual concepts, EVERYTHING i like. the world was believable and so were the people that existed within it. the only thing i didn’t like was that opening theme music. i know it’s a sci-fi western with asian influence, but geez.

i finished all 14 episodes within 5 days time. that’s not SUPER hardcore or anything, but one night i decided to start watching an episode at 11:30 as a sleeping aid, but four episodes and a DVD change later, i’m forcing myself to rest up for the next work day. telling you – HOOKED. i even managed to catch some commentaries on the shows and Mr. Whedon knows his stuff. he’d be a fun guy to talk movies with. i also found out he wrote a run of X-Men. i gotta hit up the Prose Monkey so i can borrow them.

I learned 3 things while watching Firefly and Serenity:

1) Fox is stupid. they canceled Firefly and the fans rioted and got it revived, thanks to Universal Pictures. hmm…i do recall Fox walking with their tail between their legs when they brought Family Guy back. and don’t even get me started on Arrested Development.

2) there really is quality TV out there (even thought this show doesn’t exist anymore). i always thought TV was filled w/ jiggy stuff, but if you look, you will be able to find some gems, Scrubs is my personal fave. i’ve heard some stuff about Veronica Mars, so i may have to look into that.

3) i’m now openly in love with Joss Whedon. but i guess you don’t really learn to love someone, you discover that you do. he’s like the girl in high school you always kind of heard about, was cute, but never really got to know. then you run into them at a bar years later and was like, ‘holy crap! THIS is what i missed out on?’ better late than never i guess.

so a combination of business (or busy-ness) and laziness is the result of the length of time between posts. work for the RAP show has been steadily ramping up and it’s going to be insane before i know it. it’s a pretty good experience so far. i’m learning to work with a production team and trying a different process for directing actors.

in terms of the production design, i have explained my concept to Paz and Joce, my production designer and costume designer/prop master, respectively, and given them the freedom to work with the ideas. in the past, i’ve always been micromanegerial when it comes to those sort of things and i thought it may be more efficient to work with folks i trust to help create with me. some may see it as passing off work so i don’t have to do it, but you guys are idiots. theater/film is a collaborative process – otherwise, you wouldn’t have all those damn oscars for all those different categories. the key, however, is selecting people who are able to comprehend my vision and work within those guidelines. of course, a huge part of that is the ability to effectively communicate what that vision is. for the most part, i feel i’m doing a pretty good job. we all seem to be on the same page, and i’m excited to see what comes out of it.

having a team to help me with the production design has given me time to really analyze the script and pull out much more from it. there are certain liberties i’ve taken to mold the script into a story that matches the look and feel i’m going for.

it also allows for more time to focus on the actors and their character development. in the past, i’ve always liked to have all my actors together when analyzing the script. we’d talk as a group about the beats and the arcs of each specific character. in chatting with my lead actor, he explained that while opening up the discussion is great in terms of understanding the general scope of the story, it may ruin the surprise element when actors start to work with each other. in a way, they can already anticipate what the other character will be feeling (because we’ve discussed it at length), and that may affect the spontaneity that can happen during rehearsals and performance. the cool part of acting is being able to discover things as you work (or so i hear – i just direct this stuff, man). all in all, it’s a method i’d like to try, and if it works, it’ll be another tool for the toolbox.

stay tuned for more posts.