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The Official Valley of the Sun Poster

2011-07-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

THANKS NBFF

2011-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

We want to offer a sincere thanks to the Newport Beach Film Festival for selecting Valley of the Sun to be a part of their program. Valley of the Sun will screen May 4th @ 7:45pm. You can buy tickets here.

VALLEY OF THE SUN SELECTED FOR NEWPORT

2011-04-11T23:12:00.001-07:00

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

2011-01-18T14:56:00.001-08:00

In mid November 2010 we called “picture lock” and that turned out to be our own “Mission Accomplished” moment. We called picture lock influenced by wishful thinking but, in fact, the editorial work was not done. We screened the film and it was obvious that if we wanted to make the best of this movie we needed to roll up our sleeves and do more work. So we did and the work is done, and the film is the best it’s been. Now, with caution and a fair bit of tentative optimism, I can declare…nope… not going to say it yet… just need to screen it one more time.

LOCKED PICTURE AND BEYOND

2010-11-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

It’s been a little over a year to the day since we wrapped principal photography on Valley of the Sun. In two days we will celebrate my daughter’s first birthday. She was born eleven days after wrap (bless her). Besides being a source of constant joy for my wife and I, she also reminds me of how long it’s been since we wrapped and how much I ache to get this film done before she heads off to college! Okay, that’s an exaggeration but it feels that painstakingly slow sometimes. But, the upshot is that we’ve been patient with this cut, we’ve mulled it over quite a bit, we’ve worked make it the best it can be and I believe we’ve succeeded in that. Once its done, its done and there will be no going back.

My Great Uncle Mark McIntyre named my second cousins Patience and Prudence. Uncle Mark worked in the entertainment industry as a musician, accompanying Frank Sinatra in the 1940’s. I’ve always thought my cousins had cool names but I never understood why Uncle Mark gave them the names he did. I was talking to someone, I can’t remember whom, about the experience of making a feature and I said, “You’ve just got to have patience and prudence.” And well, there you go. Patience and Prudence probably know the true story behind their names but I figured Uncle Mark, being successful in the entertainment business, probably lived by those tenets, patience and prudence. And whether or not he gave Patience and Prudence their names as a nod to his credo, I don’t know, but I am going to take it and run with it. And, as my childhood buddy and movie producer Rich Hull always tells me, “Feature filmmaking is a marathon, not a sprint.”

So, here we are, a year later, with a locked picture. And yet, there is still more to do... the music score, sound edit, foley, sound mix, visual effects and the color correction. I am looking forward to jumping into this new territory. Then, looming ahead is the time when we’ll put this film into industry hands and see how she flies. That’s when it gets really interesting.

PORN CONVENTION

2010-09-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

In July, our production team, Johnny Whitworth and Pasha Lychnikoff visited Chicago to shoot the opening credit sequence for Valley of the Sun at the EXXXTACY 2010 Porn Convention. We bought a booth for Vick Velour and Johnny worked the scene as Vick Velour with our cameras rolling. We had the opportunity to meet porn star legend Ron Jeremy and watch him work his magic. Our movie will be rated R so it was a bit tough shooting around some triple X moments, but we managed. All in all, it was a tough job, but we had to do it.

Valley of the Sun Director, Stokes McIntyre with legend Ron Jeremy.

SUNDANCE

2010-09-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

We've completed our additional photography, cut the new material into the picture and submitted to Sundance...

STATUS REPORT

2010-08-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

We are making serious progress.

REALITY TV SHOW SET IN SUN CITIES

2010-04-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by EpictureGift

WeTV is rolling out a reality TV show set in the Sun Cities... it features some familiar faces of some of the kind people we met out in Arizona while filming Valley of the Sun. Looking forward to seeing it.

Krasava!

2010-02-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

An Actor Speaks

2010-02-16T01:38:00.000-08:00

Ready to Cut

2010-01-20T16:02:00.001-08:00

Transformation

2010-01-13T19:27:00.000-08:00

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-12-31T00:17:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Cliff Traiman : Director of Photography

Kimball Plays the Piano

2009-12-18T02:44:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Little Giant Grip & Lighting

DP Jeffrey Kimball is a man of many talents. One morning, he entertained the crew by playing the piano. The music created a wonderfully calming atmosphere as we revved up for the long day in front of us, proving that there can be poetry behind the camera as well as in front of it. The lady who comes up to sing with him was our hardest working stand-in who stayed with us for almost the entire shoot.

Movie's Over

2009-12-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Apocalypse Now

2009-12-16T02:51:00.000-08:00

Wrong Wardrobe

2009-12-14T00:14:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Happily, Even After: A Film

Sometimes the smallest things can slow a production down. Stokes' brain is clearly fried as he tries to figure out if the character is wearing the wrong wardrobe in the scene he is about to shoot. He is worried that it does not match a scene that he has already shot. The crew has been buffeted by strong winds the whole day, and look on expectantly.

The Problem with Today's Youth

2009-12-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

An Honest Discussion About Porn and Sex

2009-12-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

Perks of the Job

2009-12-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

Hurling Compliments

2009-12-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

A Difficult Question

2009-12-08T22:40:00.000-08:00

1st Day Interview

2009-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Status of the Movie

2009-11-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Table 21 Films

It's been a couple of weeks since we've wrapped and it already seems like eons ago we were on set. I miss production, the people I had the opportunity to work with and the "dry heat" of Arizona. I'm glad to be home with my family, though.

Here's what's next for Valley of the Sun. We have a few more shots to grab in Los Angeles. We will be doing so in the new year. In the meantime, we've begun the post-production process. I've reviewed the dailies and I am very happy with the raw material I have to work with. I've taken some time off to welcome my daughter Sophia into the world. It was amazing going from production to birth... two amazing experiences packed into a single month. I am a lucky man... partly because Sophia was nice enough to let me finish the movie. It wasn't said during production, but I will say it now, if Sophia had decided to come early, I think we would have been screwed. I probably would have had to choose between my film and my marriage or at least doing some serious time in the dog house. But what's done is done and it all worked out.

Starting tomorrow I will be back in the saddle. Despite my time off, I have found a few moments to do some cutting and I've put together the first five scenes of the movie. I have to admit that the digital work flow the RED Camera offers has been nice. I set up the drives and my laptop on my desk at home. It makes stealing a few moments to cut a scene very easy. When I'd finish a cut, I'd export to an appleTV codec, upload the movie to my appleTV and then watch it in HD on my flat screen like any other movie I watch.

It was hard for me to sleep until I had the opening of the movie worked out. The production was a great success on many accounts, but from my perspective success will be measured by the edited movie. So far so good. While I know what I want and I have a lot of time on the edit machine, it's not a good idea for me to cut this movie. The perspective the right editor will bring will be a tremendous asset. We are working now to bring the right editor on board.

Once we have a rough cut of the film, we'll be heading back to Arizona to grab some pick up shots. We anticipate having a finished movie sometime this spring and then we will work to sell the movie. We still have some work to do. - Stokes

Lights, Camera, Action

2009-11-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by: Piping Rock Partners

Rusty Bradshaw, news editor of Independent Newspapers published this article about our film production in the Sun City Independent Newspaper. The article discusses the film production's interaction with the Sun City community. Read the Article by downloading this PDF - >

The Joy of Film Production

2009-11-13T10:29:00.001-08:00

Sponsored by Simple Tea

Feature film production can be a grueling experience for the cast and crew. There's a ton of pressure. You have to make your day, you've got to get it right, because once the take is printed, there's no changing it and you're gonna have to live with it forever. All the while, it's like watching a gas pump add up the dollars and cents. Needless to say, there are a lot of "oh shit" moments. But, there are also moments that make you think, "heck yes! This is fun." Sometimes the only thing these moments have to do with the movie, is that the movie got you there to experience the moment.

We had a lot of these moments on the production of Valley of the Sun, but one of my favorite moments happened on our last day while shooting at the Marana Regional Airport. There's a small airplane graveyard where a bunch of old forest fire fighting planes and two Lockheed C-121 Constellations rest. We planned on parking a A-26 in the midst of these old planes and shooting our scene. One of those Constellations was President Eisenhower's Air Force One. I was told this aircraft, named the Columbine, was the first Air Force One to be put in service. While I haven't verified that, it surely was one of the first. I was pondering the old aircraft with my producer and First AD when overhead, literally framed by the Columbine, was a large, white 747 escorted by four fighter jets. It was Air Force One. I've never seen Air Force One before and seeing it framed by the first Air Force One seemed uncanny. I'm not a believer in destiny and signs and all that, but at that moment, I thought this is where we are supposed to be, right here, right now and this is why I love this damn job. Making movies puts you in all kinds of places and situations and if you have a moment between all of the stressful things pulling at you, take a look around. You'll see some cool stuff. Read more about Air Force One - >

Stokes at the controls of the Columbine

WRAPPED!

2009-11-07T05:39:00.001-08:00

Sponsored by Nick Grover

Arizona principal photography of Valley of the Sun is officially wrapped. It was an amazing 22 days of production and we are lucky to have had such an incredible cast and crew. Everyone worked hard and we achieved a film much bigger than our budget. Our cast and crew showed a lot of heart and for that we are grateful. We also couldn't have made the film without the local home and business owners that supported the film. Independent film relies on locals embracing the intrusive process of filmmaking and the residents of Sun City, Surprise and Phoenix did just that . To the cast, crew and all of those that offered a helping hand. THANK YOU!

Along the Way

2009-11-03T13:46:00.001-08:00

Copy That

2009-11-03T12:48:00.001-08:00

You would think this gorgeous lady is one of our actresses, but the earpiece and microphone give her away. She's our 2nd 2nd AD Tara Fischer, and she helps keep things running briskly on the set.

Video Village

2009-11-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Video village is a cosy little tent where the director can see what the camera sees during a take, the script supervisor can log the shots, and other busy-bodies can make a nuisance of themselves. It often finds itself in strange settings.

Let's Shoot!

2009-11-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

Stokes looks on as 1st AC Sean Fairburn explains to actor Peter Jason how to work a 12-gauge shotgun.

Killing Time

2009-11-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

Doing crossword puzzles seems to be a popular way to pass the time on film sets.

Happy Alley

2009-11-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Our insanely hard-working art department, whose job is to create the world of Valley of the Sun through set design and props, replaces an ordinary garbage lid with a custom-made Happy Valley prop.

Last Looks

2009-11-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Peter Jason, who plays Myron McGill, is being touched up by assistant make-up artist Dianna Geoco, while art director Todd Shealy checks a photo reference on his camera.

Craft Services

2009-11-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

This is Natacha Andrews, our craft services person. Her job is to keep the crew well-snacked, well-hydrated, and well-caffeinated, so that they can keep working throughout the 12-hour day. Natacha is a lawyer by day, and she has a wicked smart sense of humor. I am a big fan.

Natacha shows off the big bag of candies that her 5 kids collected over Halloween.

Crazy Man

2009-10-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Garrett Morris called me a crazy man two days ago. I take that as a compliment of the highest order. - Unsu

A Life Possibly Saved

2009-10-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

The woman whose house we are using for the Taggert exterior is in the hospital. We might have saved her life. We knock on her door one day, to schedule the next shoot time. (We have been shooting there a lot already. She is a nice old lady. ) No one answers. We call her son or daughter, I can't remember which, and they come over to open the door for us. We find the mother on the floor. She had fallen the previous day and had spent the whole night in pain, unable to get to a phone. If we had not knocked on her door, who knows how long it might have been before someone found her? For this reason, her children are continuing to allow us to use the location. We are wishing the mother a speedy recovery. We know her ordeal is not yet over.

So far, every location we have shot at has told us that they would welcome us back. If anyone has ever had a film crew in their house, you will know what an achievement this is. Kudos to locations manager Julie Cook and the crew of Valley of the Sun for their respectful use of our locations.

Top Man

2009-10-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

Our gaffer, Hollywood Heard, who is in charge of all the lighting on set, is roped in to the effects department by DP Jeffrey Kimball.

Acting is Harder Than Bullfighting

2009-10-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Myron, our main antagonist, is like a bull. He charges in, looks around, and fixes his eyes on a target. So it’s appropriate that the actress who plays his wife Bunny has some familiarity with bulls. Over the past few days, Bette Ford has been entertaining our cast and crew with stories about how she went from modelling to bullfighting. As one might expect, it all started with Hemingway. His writings inspired her so much that she dropped her modelling career and followed an assistant producer to Mexico. She started hanging out with young bullfighters and occasionally took a literal stab herself. A talent scout saw potential in her, and convinced her to pursue it as a career. Within 3 years, she became one of the top 10 bullfighters in Central America. She fought in the Plaza Mexico, the largest arena in the world, in front of 50,000 spectators. In her 5 year career, she killed over 200 bulls. In doing so, she opened the door for other women bullfighters. Her experience as an actress contributed to her rise as a bullfighter, because she understood the importance of the third act and was able to please the crowd with dramatic kills. Not everyone was a fan of hers. There were many traditionalists who did not like the idea of a woman taking part in a male-dominated sport, and she often heard people shouting for the bull to kill her. So it’s interesting when she says that acting is harder than bullfighting. We're pleased that she continues to embrace new challenges, and that she is helping us open a different door for women through her role as Bunny. We believe that her experience working on Valley of the Sun will be less difficult than what she is used to on other film sets. - Unsu

Golf Carts Have Many Uses ...

2009-10-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

... as camera cars

... as props in a scene

... as lighting rigs

... as law enforcement vehicles

OODA

2009-10-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have been spending too much time with Sean Fairburn, and have started to think about filmmaking exclusively in military terms. On one of our days off, Stokes, Sean and I watch “Law Abiding Citizen”, an action thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. Afterwards, we go eat mexican. We discuss the past week’s work – mostly about what went wrong. This is when Sean mentions OODA, an acronym used by the Marine Corps. It stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. It is a loop which every soldier and commander must strive to shorten on the battlefield. If your side can go through these critical phases faster than the enemy can, then your side will win. Sean’s implication is that a film set should work in the same way, with every department being able to constantly adjust to changing situations on the fly and act accordingly. Sean observes that too many people on the set are not able to OODA quickly. They are too reliant on one channel of communication, which creates multiple bottlenecks throughout the day. It’s a great insight, but it doesn’t really help us, because I don’t think you can teach OODA in a day. Some of our crew may not even attain it by the time the shoot ends. For every military metaphor Sean comes up with, Stokes has an equivalent drawn from sailing. Unfortunately, I’ve never sailed, so I won’t even bother to talk about it. And yes, in case you are wondering, I have served in the military. It is mandatory in Singapore. However, it was only peace-time training, and I spent most of my time running around jungles looking for good places to shit. - Unsu

The Bach Pad

2009-10-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

Good Samaritan

2009-10-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

I'm going to sing my own praise for a moment here and describe my good samaritan deed of the week. When we are finally done with all the background extras, at the end of a long and grueling shoot day, I go outside to thank them for coming. I shake hands with many of them as they file out. I am about to go in, as we still have an hour of shooting left with the main actors, when an old lady comes up to me and asks for help turning her phone back on. I turn it on. Then she asks me if the ring volume is set on silent mode. To cut a long story short, there is much confusion concerning her phone, but I finally help her resolve the issue to her satisfaction.

She now asks me how to get to the roadside. She has a small suitcase on wheels. I decide to help her with the suitcase and take her to the road. We are now at the road. I ask her where her car is. She says she has parked far down the road. I decide to help her take her suitcase to her car. We are now walking down a dark road. We arrive at a junction. She now says that her car should be to the right. We go right. There is no car in sight. She now explains that she is not quite sure where her car is, because she had taken a shortcut across someone's yard when she parked and walked to our location. I realize that we could be walking all night looking for her car. So I tell her that we should get into my car and drive around looking for her car. But I don't have my keys with me. They are on set. So we walk back to the location. I get my keys. I tell her to wait there while I get my car. I get my car. She gets in with her suitcase. We drive round and round. She looks more and more confused. I am beginning to wonder if she even had a car in the first place. Finally, we find her car. In the dark, she fumbles with her keys for several minutes and finally manages to get the door open. Then I ask her if she knows how to get out of the Happy Trails community. She says she does not. So I tell her that she should follow my car and I'll lead her out to Bell Road, where she will be in familiar territory. I feel sorry for her because she is an old lady, she is obviously very confused, she drove about two hours to come be an extra in our movie, and now she has the same long drive back. At the exit gate, I turn my car round to head back to the location. Through her car window, she tells me that I have gone above and beyond the call of duty, and that she would give me something if she had any money on her. I mention something about kindness to strangers and that seems to make her happy.

The whole process of helping the old lady took more than half an hour. While helping her, I wonder whether this is something that I should be occupying myself with as a producer. It’s as if we are trying to launch the space shuttle and I am off buying milk. I could have asked for a PA to help her. But I know that Stokes is doing whatever he needs to be doing on set, and that they don't really need me there, even though this last hour of shooting is the roughest because everyone on the crew is exhausted; I also immodestly think that there is probably no one else in the world that could have done a better job helping the old lady right then and there than yours truly. I never did get her name. Whoever you are, I hope you got home alright. And thanks for being an extra in our movie. I can't believe you drove two hours to be in it. - Unsu

Quiet Menace

2009-10-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

We almost lose a $1000 time-code slate today. This is a fancy version of the normal slate that most people are familiar with. It has a running digital read-out of time code, a measurement that allows us to efficiently sync up whatever picture and sound we are recording during a take. The 2nd AC, JJ Bukowski, whose job is to always hold the slate in front of the camera at the beginning of every take, leaves it behind the wheel of a golf cart when we are not shooting. The golf cart is never expected to move. But ideas and plans change. Fortunately, he overhears someone calling for the golf cart to move backwards, and he runs to rescue the slate just in time. It would have been a minor disaster if our slate had been crushed beneath the wheels of a golf cart. I am slowly learning to respect the quiet menace of these unassuming vehicles. So far, there have been no casualties as a result of them. But I know they are simply waiting for us to get careless. - Unsu

Playing the Room

2009-10-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

Peter Jason is the latest addition to our cast. He has had to cut short his vacation in Puerto Rico to come play the role of Myron McGill, the would-be town sheriff who becomes the main antagonist to our hero. He does not enjoy his first day, because he has not had time to memorize his lines well enough to play around with them. He confesses that he has been faking it and that he does not fully understand his character yet. I reassure him that no one can tell, that his portrayal of Myron is exactly what the story requires.

The second day is better, and he is able to have fun. He even makes the effort to entertain our large cast of background extras, the retirees who live around our location and who have volunteered their time to be in our film. He understands that for non-professionals, spending an entire 12-hour day on a film set can be a tiring experience. Just as in the military, there is a lot of rushing and waiting, rushing and waiting, a rhythm that is sometimes unsettling for people not used to it. Peter appreciates that our extras have volunteered because they want to be part of something interesting. They have come with certain expectations of what it is like to be on a movie set. So even when he is not playing Myron, he still plays a role: he performs for our extras. In his words, he plays the room. He identifies the extras who are getting restless, the ones who need some propping up; and then he cracks jokes, he becomes larger than life, he does whatever it takes to bring energy back into the room. An actor like him is an asset to the film. In military parlance, he is a force multiplier. Of course, he is not the energizer bunny, and he has to retreat often to a private space to conserve and rebuild his own energy before stepping out again to share it.

Which makes me wonder why every crew member shouldn’t have that opportunity to take five and reset, so that they can give their best. For example, Katie Botkin, our 2nd AD, has to wolf her lunch down and get back to work instantly, so that she does not have a proper break in her day. It is 10 pm at night before she can sit down for long enough to finish the half-sized burrito that constitutes our second meal. Even Jeffrey Kimball, our DP, is so busy that I catch him pissing at the urinal with one hand and eating a meager peanut butter sandwich out of the other. The logic that is often used is that those who aren’t on screen don’t matter as much. Who cares if they are flustered, or if their needs of the moment are not instantly satisfied? The flurry and anxiety of production will be transmuted into the grace of screen magic. I’m not completely convinced by that logic, but it has been a time-honored tradition. This process of filmmaking remains as mysterious to me as the first day I walked onto a set. I wouldn’t know how to play the room, because half the time I don’t even know what room I’m in. That’s unfortunate, because I think that’s partly my job as a producer. I’m pretty sure I’ll never get to the bottom of it. - Unsu

BALLOON LIGHT

2009-10-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Extras, extras, extras

2009-10-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

There are so many people here today. We have a group of theatre goers, and a separate group of square dancers. The average age of this crowd is probably around 65. I’m not sure how we’re feeding everyone. I don’t think we are. Fortunately, there’s lots of water. Temperatures have risen to uncomfortable levels here in Sun City, Arizona, and it would not be a good idea to let a hundred elderly people go thirsty. - Unsu

Fog of War

2009-10-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

The past two days have been car accident days. The script supervisor’s car got hit by a garbage truck, and a PA ran into a stop sign. Luckily, no one was injured. The accidents are costing the production thousands of dollars, money we can’t afford right now. I wonder if the long days are making crew members too tired when they drive. Some of them have an hour long commute from home. We also have an insurance policy with a high deductible, which saves us money if nothing happens, but costs us more if something does happen. This is an example of decisions that seem sensible at the time, but in the long run may end up hurting the production. However, it’s hard to know this without the benefit of hindsight. There is an equivalent to the fog of war in filmmaking. You can make the best plans in the world, but something will always happen to screw it up. Being able to adapt to changing conditions on a daily basis is critical.

The analogy to war is one which Sean Fairburn, our 1st AC, is quite fond of. He was at one time a soldier, and was also the only HD videographer to take part in Operation Desert Storm, with hundreds of hours of footage to prove it. He hopes to one day turn all that into the most kickass tank warfare movie ever. He spends some time telling me about what it’s like to be a warrior. He says it’s actually possible to enjoy the work. I have never heard anyone so frequently use the word ‘fun’ in connection to war. I ask him if he has fun even when the guy next to him has been shot. He is dead serious when he says that he does. He explains that it comes down to accepting who you are. If you are a warrior, then you live for the privilege of fighting for your country and comrades. He has seen men who have been dragged maimed from the battlefield who beg to be thrown back in, because the only thing they can think about is their comrades still in danger. I am not a warrior, and I am not going to do anything to piss Sean off. But I do agree that there are times when making a film feels like the most masochistic thing you could ever bring upon yourself. - Unsu

Shooting at Vick's Bachelor Pad

2009-10-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

Daily News Sun City Features Valley of the Sun

2009-10-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

Read the Article

Entrances and Exits

2009-10-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

sponsored by Table 21 Films

I pick Pasha Lychnikoff up from the airport. He looks like a KGB agent, and speaks with a Russian accent. He recently played a Romulan commander in the Star Trek movie. He was on the set for a month. I would have done anything to trade places with him. He’s excited to be part of our production. In our movie, he plays KK, a Russian porn producer. He loves acting because he gets to imagine what it’s like to be different people. His dad was a scientist in Russia, and was always pushing him to study hard in school. He could never understand why Pasha wanted to be an actor. But Pasha says he has always been driven to act. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory Theatre, which is highly competitive. Thousands of aspiring actors vie for only 20 spots. Out of that 20, only about 12 survive the program. Pasha was one of those 12. He spent the first year just learning entrances and exits, and wasn’t allowed to have a speaking part. I’m looking forward to KK’s entrance! - Unsu

Pool Party!

2009-10-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by Follow Me

Saturday is the big pool party scene that opens the film. It’s an exciting moment for us. We get to play with some pretty fancy toys, like steadicams and technocranes. These allow us to create elaborate tracking shots that combine multiple angles. All this stuff costs money, but it’s worth it because it’s the opening of the film, and we have a lot of beautiful women that we need to capture on camera. Well, Johnny’s important too. But let’s face it. We get to see him for the rest of the movie. Whereas hot chicks in bikinis, and some topless ones too – that’s just a minute of screen time, and Stokes wants to matrix the hell out of it. I decide that humility is not a virtue in this situation, and go up to various scantily clad babes telling them that I am a producer on the film - Unsu.

First Shot of Production

2009-10-15T20:24:00.001-07:00

First Week of Shooting

2009-10-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

Big Lights

2009-10-10T22:26:00.001-07:00

Andy Gives Advice to Mr and Mrs Smith

2009-10-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Men Behind the Camera

2009-10-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

First Day

2009-10-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Unsu's Arrival

2009-10-08T22:25:00.001-07:00

Sponsored by: Sauce Crafters

This is Unsu. Stokes' partner at Hotbed. I have finally arrived in Arizona, one day before principal photography starts. I'm staying at the Wigwam Resort. While having a snack by the pool, a woman named Christine gave me some background to the place. This resort was established in 1929, and was the place where Goodyear executives held their retreats. Apparently, the next town over is called Goodyear. After absorbing this tidbit of information, the next thought that entered my head was that the people around here must be super-excited over the Obama administration's decision to impose 35% tariffs on tires imported from China.

Right, back to the film. This is an exciting moment. Stokes is finally directing his first feature. I've been through this twice, and I don't think it's fair that I had to suffer alone. It'll be really fun to see someone else go through the pain for a change. To earn the privilege, I offered to do anything that was needed. So they have assigned me the job of shuttling actors around. I think I can handle that. Call time tomorrow is 5:30 am. Will keep you posted.

First Draw Tattoo

2009-10-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Tech Scout and Production Updates

2009-09-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

MOVIE EXTRAS WANTED!

2009-09-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by: Chad Michael DP

The Feature Film Comedy
“Valley of the Sun”
will be filming in the Sun City Area
the entire month of October.

We are looking for “Featured Extras” with the diversified “character” and “style” that Sun City is famous for. The bigger the personalities, the better! Although these roles are non-paid it’s a great way to get your faces on the big screen and to be immortalized on film. We welcome individuals and groups, as well as all of the members of the 127 Chartered Clubs. Show off your fancy golf cart, your cheerleading uniforms or the mermaids in your synchronized swimming team. It’s
easy to audition and will be lots of fun. Simply show up, complete the information sheet and stand in front of the camera and tell us about yourself.

ONLY SENIORS NEED APPLY!!

AUDITION DETAILS:
Sunday, Sept. 20th
From 1pm to 6pm
Oakmont Community Center
10725 W Oakmont Dr, Sun City
info@valleyofthesunthemovie.com

AUDITION SCHEDULE

2009-09-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by: Vieve Loves this Film

Here's an update for the Arizona actor's interested in participating in Valley of the Sun. We've had an initial round of auditions as well as callbacks. We will have another round of callbacks at a yet- to-be-determined date. For those actors living in the Surprise area, we intend to hold another round of auditions in late September. You will hear more details from your drama club organization leaders. We are working to pin down these dates as quickly as possible.

Again, we want to thank all of those that have put time and energy into auditioning for Valley of the Sun. We recognize your effort and appreciate it very much.

Sun City Audition

2009-08-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by: Jamie Kripke Photography

On Thursday August 20th we held an audition at Sun City, Arizona's Mountain View Auditorium. We want to thank Joan and Bob Hawkes, Joyce Hutchins, President: Leona Blodger and the rest of the Board of the The Sun City Players Community Theater (SCPCT) for making this audition possible. Thank You! And, thanks to all of those people that came out for the audition. We look forward to reviewing the tapes. If you missed the auditions, we plan on having another round in September. More details to come.

Casting Director Jory Weitz Joins the Team

2009-08-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by Witness the Way We Live

Casting director Jory Weitz whose credits include Napoleon Dynomite, Nacho Libre and Visioneers joins Ranch House Pictures to cast the principal roles for Valley of the Sun. Weitz's sense of humor and approach to casting makes him a great fit for our film. We are excited to have him on board!

Arizona Casting

2009-08-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by:Cliff Traiman : Director of Photography

Many of you visiting this blog are participating in the Arizona local casting. To all of those that are participating, thank you! Every role in this film, big or small, is vital to the success of this movie. Have fun with it and enjoy the process!

Simply Beautiful

2009-08-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by: Little Giant Grip & Lighting

Scouting Barbershops

2009-07-30T15:47:00.001-07:00

Sponsored by: Zero Risk HR

Director Stokes McIntyre gets a haircut in Surprise, Arizona.

This is a Real Cactus

2009-07-14T11:56:00.001-07:00

It's Official. We are Go.

2009-04-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by 42 Surfboards

Its been six years since my sister told me about a funny script her friend was writing. I read it and thought it was funny. So did my producing partner Aaron Tudisco. We decided to make the film. It had taken us two years to get our short Capri done, so I knew we were in for the long hall. At the time I was single, living with three other guys in the Presidio at what we dubbed The Ranch because of the spacious yard we had which rare for San Francisco. Now, I am married, have a house, a little girl and whole hell of a lot more responsibility. When I set out to make the film six years ago, I had no idea how much my life would change. But, all of that change revolved and made room for getting this film done. I think its how a tree grows around a metal fence post.

Finally, after six years, we have the money to make this film. It's like a big exhale and then another big inhale as we prepare to shoot. I'm frickin' excited!... and a little nervous. This is the moment we've trained for. This is our space shot. I know that we can all do our best and still burn up in the atmosphere. Its worth it though, and in the grand scheme of things, its no where near as risky as a space shot, our lives are not on the line, so we just gotta have a good time and make the best movie we can. We are lucky sons of guns.

How to Make a Film: Distribution

2009-04-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by Mine: Taken by Katrina

Your movie’s done, and you’ve got your final cut in hand. What’s next? How do you take what you’ve created and get it out into the world? How do you get your hard-earned money back?

You need to distribute your film. Like every other step in this process, it’s not an easy one. Director Stokes McIntyre and I had a conversation about film distribution, and here’s what I’ve come away with:

According to a sales representative whom Stokes met at the Berlin Film Festival, it is important for filmmakers to begin laying the groundwork for distribution before the movie even begins filming. There exists something called a pre-sale deal, where a distribution company (some of the big ones are MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.) will agree to purchase your movie before it’s even completed, set a deal with you regarding distribution, and pay you a certain amount of money up front, which can be used to help make the film. Be warned, this rarely if ever happens for independent films. It is still important to talk to sales representatives though, in order to let them know what type of film you’ll be producing and when it will be done, so that you’re on their “radar” so to speak. This is what the producers of Valley of the Sun are doing right now.

Hopefully you will able to secure a representative before your film is finished. It is helpful to have this person in place so that when you reach your final cut, he or she will be there to assist you in entering film festivals and marketing your movie. Some film festivals are actually film markets (they will have a festival and at the same time a conference for filmmakers and distribution people—like buyers and sellers, sitting down and working out deals for distribution). Producers of Valley of the Sun would like to hit these festivals in particular—though it is also important to attend regular festivals in order to garner an audience and critical acclaim for the movie.

After having been through film festivals with your sales representative, you reach a point where you’ve either sold your movie or you haven’t. The former option is preferable. Assuming this works out for you, you and your sales rep. try to cut the best deal possible with the distribution company. You want to get money up front, because this may be all the money you’ll see for a long time; you also have to discuss theatrical rights, territories, profit sharing, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Chances are, if you’re a first time filmmaker (heh-hem, Valley of the Sun), distribution companies are going to try and get the film from you for as cheap as possible. So be prepared to put up a good fight. They may offer you less money up front because they want to do a theatrical run (which is cool, and has the potential to make a lot of money back if it’s a success), or perhaps they’ll want to cut you a DVD deal (which might mean more money up front and less exposure). Either way, distribution companies find ways to spend a lot of money as they attempt to market your movie, so it may take a long time for you to see any profit.

Aside from gaining an audience, your other main concern as a filmmaker should be to get your investors their money back. The business plan for Valley of the Sun states that investors will get a 120% return on their investment—if they invested $10,000, they will hope to get at least $12,000 back. Say Valley of the Sun gets picked up by a distributor and becomes wildly successful (it’s possible, right!?)—the investors are the first ones to receive money from the movie, and then people like the director get paid. If the movie were raking in tons of money, remaining profit would be split 50-50 between the investors and the producers.

But say that the worst happens, and no distributors come along to save you. If that happens, you can sell the DVD case by case, try to get a deal with Netflix or iTunes, create a grassroots marketing campaign, or, as Stokes suggests, possibly get in a van and drive your film around to theatres and show it.

The truth is, it’s hard for small filmmakers to make money because the whole process is so exhaustive and marketing costs so much money. That said, it is our hope that we will wish upon that one lucky star, and Valley of the Sun won’t have to rely on a van to get distributed.

Here’s an interesting article I found that speaks a bit about how to get your film on iTunes: How to get your independent film on iTunes.

How to Make a Film: Post-Production

2009-04-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by Firefly Coaching.

Time to talk about the post-production stage, where everything you’ve worked so hard for comes together in a tangible form. It’s a complicated process, and an important one.

The first step, of course, is to get your film footage into a form that can be edited. Now, this step, along with the whole post-production process, is dependent on what type of camera you’ve decided to shoot with.

For Valley of the Sun, director Stokes McIntyre has decided to shoot with a Red Camera. Basically, a Red Camera is a digital camera whose recordings are saved to a disk and easily transferred to a computer, and thus, video editing programs. Unlike film, the process is simple and doesn’t require you to send your materials away to be processed, and it also makes the physical process of editing your footage easier. The Red Camera itself shoots a high-quality 4K image on a 35mm lens and produces a shorter depth of field. According to Stokes, using the Red Camera will allow him and his crew to capture the best looking image they can get for the price of the camera, and one that has a more authentic, film-ish feel.

Next you need an editor—hopefully you’ve had this person lined up all along, and he or she is someone who understands your desired feeling for the movie. The benefit of using an editor who has not been present during the filming process is that it allows him or her to come at the movie with a fresh perspective. In low-budget films, this is not always economic. In our case, it is highly likely that Stokes, the director, will also be editing the film. Positively, this will allow him to have more control over the final product.

Now, as you delve into the editing process, there are different ways to go about things. If you were using film, you would want to review your unedited film footage, often called “rushes” or “dailies” (because film can be processed quickly enough that it can be reviewed daily, to give you a sense of whether things need to be re-shot). With digital, you can easily review what you have shot thus far.

It is a good idea to devote a nice chunk of time to simply watching all of your material. Note the things that stick out to you— gut reactions are important because an audience will likely receive them as you did. This gives you a whole sense of what you’ve done, and allows you to instantly know which scenes will work and which won’t.

The next step is to create what’s known as an assembly cut. This version is even rougher than the rough cut; re-order the scenes that you think have potential so that they appear in the order they would in the movie, and get rid of the ones that are completely un-memorable. If the structure isn’t working, rearrange the scenes until you feel it’s right. There is no editing done at all for this cut—it is an opportunity for you to observe the flow of your movie, and decide whether things need to be re-ordered or re-shot.

After the assembly cut comes the rough cut. Here, you’ve got your sequences in order, though they’re not really fine-tuned. You’ve cut out the scenes that weren’t working in the assembly cut, so your material is almost down to what you’ll use in the final cut.

Last is the final cut. All the final touches are put in place—performance rhythms, transitions, visual effects, etc.—it’s all there. Once you’ve got your final cut, it is incredibly beneficial to hold a trial screening. Fight the urge to defend or explain your movie, and instead just observe people’s reactions—where do they laugh, where do they seem bored, etc? Continue to show your movie and get feedback. Take the information you receive and make changes that seems necessary.

When you are satisfied with what you’ve got, you move on to sound mixing. This is where your soundtrack enters the picture, and where all other sound editing occurs. Valley of the Sun has a musician in place for the soundtrack, who will be writing music to the movie. This process can differ from person to person—while some may come up with music before they see the final cut of the film, others will sit with the final cut and compose to it.

All of this, and voila!—you have a movie! The truth is, it’s not over yet. Don’t forget about the fact that you have to distribute your movie in order for it to be seen. But we will save that discussion for another time.

If you’ve got comments, post them!

And a final quote from Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics by Michael Rabiger that I found to be rather poetic: “Intelligent editing coaxes our imaginations and lends enormously to the overall impact of the film by aiding and abetting performances and creating the grounds for us to infer thought, feeling, and reaction.”

How to Make a Film: Production

2009-03-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by IRMI

Before we get into the details regarding the production stage of filmmaking, I’d like to take a moment and identify some of the key players on the set of a film.

Director—the person with the vision who is generally in charge of conceptualizing artistic and dramatic development as he or she understands it from the script. This person serves as the guide for the technical crew and actors throughout the filming process. I’ve been informed that in reality, everyone but the director is disposable—if it came down to it, the director could pretty much play the parts of the following roles (thought that would be incredibly difficult).
Producer—the person who is in charge of coordinating finances, personnel, distribution, etc. He or she is not really involved in the technical production process, but is present from inception to finish.
Director of Photography—the term for this role is often interchangeable with “cinematographer”. This person is in charge of the technical aspects of filming, including directing the camera and lighting crews, or, on occasion, operating the camera his- or herself.
Gaffer—the person in charge of lighting in film production, and often the head of an entire lighting crew.
Editor—the person responsible for piecing together the movie and producing rough and final cuts. This person works closely with the Directors to ensure that the artistic vision is maintained during post-production.
Production Designer/Art Director—the person in charge of the visual setting and props. He or she provides a space for the Director of Photography to work in.
Makeup, Costume, and Wardrobe Artists—these peoples’ title are pretty self-explanatory. Usually an assistant accompanies each individual.
Script Supervisor—the person who tries to maintain a high level of consistency in the details, by constantly taking notes during filming and going back to the script. You know how sometimes you’re watching a movie, and during a single conversation, a person’s hairstyle will noticeably change? It’s the script supervisor who’s supposedly in charge of keeping details like this uniform.

Interestingly enough, I spent the majority of the week (two weeks ago) observing and participating in the making of a commercial that Hotbed is producing. As a result I feel a bit more enlightened in regards to the production process, and while producing a movie is a lot different than producing a commercial, I now feel more certain about the validity of what I’m writing here.

So we’re talking about the production phase; filming begins. After being on the set of the commercial shoot, I’ve realized it’s the sort of thing that you must learn by seeing and doing. But still, I have some notes.

I read somewhere that the average feature film is in production for 48 days. Low-budget features generally shoot for less time; at this point, 25 days have been allotted for the filming of Valley of the Sun.

Depending on the shooting schedule, a typical day of filming can begin as early as 6am, and can last for 12 hours or so. Housing and food accommodations (generally breakfast and lunch) must be provided for crew and cast, as well as a standard amount of “turn around” time between the “end” of one day of shooting and the “beginning” of the next.

During filming, you must decide how much coverage you want—or in other words, how many takes of each scene you’d like to film. Keep in mind that the more extensive your coverage, the more expensive your film costs are. However, it is important to provide your editor with adequate coverage. As you film, you may find that actors fall into their characters, everyone becomes more comfortable, and less takes are required to get things right.

When it comes to shooting, you follow your shooting schedule. Often, this is organized around location availability rather than the chronological order of the movie. For instance, filming for Valley of the Sun is organized in such a way that the scenes set in L.A. will be shot together, the scenes set in a particular character’s house will be shot together, the scenes set at the community center will be shot together, etc., regardless of the fact that those scenes do not necessarily appear in the same time sequence as one another. It is all about efficiency.

Hopefully you stay on schedule as you shoot—if not, you will probably need to make adjustments to save yourself time. Once filming wraps, you’re done with the production phase!

I’d also like to note that, after observing the filming of a commercial in a single day, I have a profound new respect for the endurance required to film a full-length movie. Even the smallest, most insignificant shots require time and thought, and often multiple takes. Since my experience on the commercial set, I now catch myself pondering filming details—I wonder how many takes this scene took?—while I’m watching movies. Oh, the simplicity of just watching a film is gone!

Independent Film Distribution is Getting Better. Thank God.

2009-03-16T20:32:00.001-07:00

Sponsored by Follow Me

Sometimes it just seems ridiculous that so many good films don't get seen. I've been to festivals and I've seen really great films and I've left the festival and never been able to see them again.

Here's an inspiring article in the New York Times about distribution for indies. My dad sent this to me with a note : Are you shooting digital? Of course there will always be gateways to broad audiences, but those gateways are becoming more numerous and wide open to films outside of the system. The new paradigm is allowing filmmakers to more easily connect directly with audiences. That's cool.

There is color in the Valley of the Sun : Meet Sheriff Joe

2009-03-11T22:19:00.001-07:00

Sponsored by The Milkfarm

I love Arizona for its color. The buildings are mostly a drab earth tone that blends in with the desert floor, but its the people that offer the color in AZ. That's why I'm making this film in Arizona. The people have good character. Reminds me of Texas. Here's one hue in Arizona's spectrum of color, Sheriff Joe. You may know him, if you didn't, now you do. Maybe he could play a roll in the film if he isn't too busy kickin' some butt.

My family in Texas forwarded along a viral email describing Joe. It reads.

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs... Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc.. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get
Sued For Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working
ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports: About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At TheMaricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.

Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,
But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Mouths!'

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

How to Make a Film: Development and Pre-Production

2009-03-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Film Emporium

As an intern, I feel it’s my duty to come away from this experience knowing some details about the film industry that I probably wouldn’t learn on my own. For instance, it seems pretty foundational to understand the A to Z process of filmmaking. Thus, I’ve decided to combine some online research with details I’ve gleaned from the director of Valley of the Sun in order to create a brief how-to of the process. First, I’ll discuss both the development and pre-production stages. And I URGE you, if you have any additional questions or comments, to make them known via the comments feature of this blog.

DEVELOPMENT is often the longest stage. You’ve got to start with an initial idea, create a story, and write a script. Your script should follow certain formatting guidelines if you intend to pass it off or have it taken seriously. It’s vital to get external input—ask people to read and cover your script. For Valley of the Sun, the writing process has been ongoing for about five years.

Use the feedback you receive to do rewrites until you feel your script is strong enough to move on. While you are developing your script, it’s a good idea to start raking in financial support. There are many ways to finance a film; for Valley of the Sun, director Stokes McIntyre has chosen to raise money via pixel-based advertising—a method by which advertising space is sold on the website (in this case, 10,000 pixels sold for a price of $150 each). You can also look to finance your film through GAP financing, where an organization agrees to help you reach an agreed upon number, say $1 million, given that you provide the initial $300,000; private donations from individuals or companies; or investments from companies who’ve decided that you’re worth their time and money.

Once you’ve sketched out a budget and you’re confident in the strength of your script, you can move into the next stage: PRE-PRODUCTION. At this point, you set a date for filming to begin and put all the concrete details together. As for Valley of the Sun, filming is currently set to begin in October 2009.

You need to cast some actors. A common route is to go through trusted Hollywood agents, who can use their reputations to wrangle in well-known actors. From there, live auditions or audition tapes will help you to decide which actor fits the role you’re casting for. As far as casting goes for Valley of the Sun, the director is looking to secure perhaps one or two Hollywood-based actors, and find the rest via local venues—for example, senior acting clubs in Arizona retirement communities.

Along with finding talented actors, you need to find great locations. For low-budget films like this one, it is generally cheapest to use existing locations, rather than building sets.

In the pre-production stage, the use of tools such as storyboards (visual sketches that allow you to experiment with angles and P.O.V.s) and shot lists (written descriptions of each shot in a scene) is common. Vague shot lists can help you to establish a shooting schedule earlier on in pre-production (for an example, see Valley of the Sun’s tentative shooting schedule). Storyboard artists do have the potential to be expensive, and thus some directors choose to use storyboards only to map out super important scenes.

Perhaps you’ve wondered what cast and crew interaction looks like before filming begins. The truth is that there is no real protocol; it depends heavily on the director and the story that is being created. In one situation, the director might deem it necessary to develop chemistry between actors before filming begins, yet in another, the fact that the actors have never met may be play into the evolution of the story and its relationships.

Hopefully you’ve got the details regarding your cast, location, crew, etc., figured out by the time you reach your start date. In this case, you begin filming and move from pre-production to PRODUCTION!

And that’s a wrap.

Interview with an Independent Film Director

2009-02-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

If you were a renowned adult film star, used to a life of extravagance and vanity, and you suddenly found yourself living with your parents in a retirement community in Arizona, how would you react and relate? How would your life of sex find common ground with their seasoned abstinence?

These questions and more will be explored in the upcoming film Valley of the Sun, directed by Stokes McIntyre. I’ve got a few questions for Stokes regarding this movie, his directorial debut, and life in general, and he’s agreed to sit down and talk with me.

K: Your company, Hotbed Media, has specialized in commercial video production for the last 10 years. Did your inspiration to write and direct a feature film spring from the work you’ve done for Hotbed?

S: We started the company right out of film school with the idea that we were going to make movies, we always wanted to make films…actually wait, that’s not really true. I think I just liked editing, really. Yeah I think that’s what happened…I went to school because I liked the idea of creating content for the web, because the internet had just launched right around that time. So I started editing and I realized that I needed to direct some projects so that I could edit them, and that’s when the idea of telling stories came in and I felt the need to tell a story and make a film. So yeah…I guess it was born out of a practical desire to edit and make something…it didn’t matter what it was…and then I started getting intrigued with the idea of doing the ultimate project, which is making a film.

K: How did you get the idea for Valley of the Sun?

S: Well we finished a short film and we were like, “okay, now we did a short, let’s make a movie.” We made the horrible mistake of picking a short film that we couldn’t really make into a feature. We should have picked a short that served as the idea for a feature. So we were like, “let’s start over, but make a feature now.” We tried various ideas, found another script and worked on it for awhile…it didn’t really work out…so finally my sister called and said “I have a friend that wrote this script about a retired adult film star who goes to live in a retirement community,” and I was like, “I love it.” So we optioned it, and sort of set out to make it our own.

K: You “optioned” it?

S: We paid an option fee per quarter and ultimately the option ran out—the time limit ran out—so we were forced to purchase the script. So we did. The [original] script itself was really slapstick, and I really liked the one-liners, and some of the characters were really great, but it wasn’t quite the tone I wanted so I bought the script and rewrote it to the type of tone that fits my sensibility.

K: So Valley of the Sun isn’t the biography of someone you actually know?

S: No, it’s not. But the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve identified with the character, so even though it’s about a adult film star and all that, it has a more universal theme of getting older and wondering if you’ve made a mistake in life.

K: Are the characters entirely fictional?

S: Andy is entirely fictional, although I’ve read about different adult film stars and sort of included little pieces of them. But the original writer modeled some of the characters—like the parents of Andy—after his parents. So there are some characters that are inspired by real people.

K: Have you ever taken an acting class?

S: YES. I haven’t done much acting at all. I took one class when I was doing my short because I thought it’d be good to try it. I was nervous the whole time so I gave really bad performances. Because you know, you have to get in front of all these people and do weird things, make weird noises…and the lady I was working with had this breakdown while we were working together. So anyway, it was a little bit hard. But I think I might try another class.

K: Do you think it’s good for you as an director to take acting classes?

S: I think so, I think it’s really good. You get to know what actors go through and it helps to understand how to give them direction, and yeah, I think it’s really good.

K: It never really occurred to me before, but it makes sense that you’d want to understand the people you’re working with.

S: Yeah, and a lot of good directors are actors. They really give the actors the freedom to bring something to the table and make them feel secure. And that’s a big part of directing.

K: It’s a broad question, but what do you anticipate to be the most challenging part of making Valley of the Sun?

S: There are a lot of challenges…first it was raising the money, because you can’t do anything without money and I really hate asking people for money. It’s just some problem I have. So once you get beyond that, then the biggest challenge is making the best movie for the budget that we have. It means being as prepared as we can and not losing out on some creative opportunity due to our low budget. And lastly, I think I’m challenged by working with actors that have a ton of experience. I’m a little bit insecure about the idea of working with—if I get the opportunity—a really experienced older actor, because I feel like he’ll be looking at me and thinking “you suck.” But at the same time I know that as long as I know my story and what I want, and I’m able to communicate that to the cast and create a comfortable environment for them to work in, they’ll give me a comfortable environment. I mean, if they’re there, and they’re on board, then let’s try to make the best movie.

K: If your dreams were to come true, what would be the outcome for Valley of the Sun?

S: I guess if my dreams were to come true, it would start kind of small…maybe go to some festivals…some distributors would pick it up, maybe not right away because they might think it sucks, but then it would get picked up for a small theatrical debut, and then audiences would start to love it and it would spread through word of mouth. And then who knows…I mean, I don’t really care about the Academy Awards that much…if I won one it would be cool. But all I want is critical acclaim, and more important than that, I want audiences to like it. I want them to be entertained by it. So really that’s my dream.

K: If all goes well, do you plan to keep creating films after this?

S: Yes, I would like to keep making movies.

K: Would you switch from commercial production to film production?

S: Honestly, if I never had to make another commercial again I’m pretty sure I’d be fine with that. Commercials are neat…they’re thirty seconds…but I don’t get the opportunity to make big commercials that have the most creativity involved. I have had opportunities to make low-budget commercials where they’re like “write it, do everything,” but there’s always an element of sacrifice with commercials because you’re selling a product. That being said, films mean sacrifice too because you’re ultimately trying to sell tickets. But if I keep doing films on a smaller level, I think I’ll have the opportunity to really take risks and do films that I want to do.

K: Do you have any ideas for films to come?

S: Yeah, there are some ideas that I’d like to do right away. One takes place in Mexico; one’s about a migrant worker who comes up and learns how to surf in San Francisco.

K: Have you ever though about doing documentaries?

S: I have some documentary ideas as well. I do documentaries for work a lot, so I feel prepared to do a documentary feature. There was this documentary…I don’t remember the name of it…it was a guy from Israel going and figuring out if there’s anti-semitism. He came to the United States, went all over, and it was just him behind the camera asking questions. And it was really interesting; his sheer curiosity drove it.

K: What questions do you hope to raise and explore about adult films through this movie?

S: I don't necessarily want to raise the question of whether it’s right or wrong, basically. The audience can judge for themselves whether they think adult films are right or wrong. I don’t know… It's more about what is it like for someone who goes into the business? What gets them there? And once they’re in the business, how do they feel about themselves, and how do they deal with fact that they’re in a profession that kind of alienates them, or could alienate them, from other people? The fact of the matter is, while everyone kind of looks down upon adult filmmaking in a certain way, it is a very large industry. Underneath the surface, a lot of people are voting yes for the adult film business, but outwardly they’re saying no. So as a person who’s involved in that business as an actor, do you listen to the people who say yes with their money, or are you affected mentally by all the people saying no?

K: What’s the back-story to Andy? Do you have an established idea of what he’s been through?

S: I’ve been reading about different adult film stars to try to get a sense of “who is this guy, where’d he come from?” I don’t want to portray that up front, I want it to come through as the film progresses. So as we get to know Andy more, we get to know about why he got into the business. But I imagine that he was a normal kid, a good guy. He wanted to be an actor, he went to Hollywood, and he needed to make a dollar. It’s like, you’re going out to a ton of auditions, you’re not getting the commercial, you’re not getting the feature, there’s an opportunity to be an extra on a adult film set, and next thing you know they ask you to be in a movie, you’re good at it, and suddenly you’re making money and it’s hard to go back. It’s as simple as that.

K: You’ve done some research on the subject—is that usually how it goes?

S: Well, the book I’m reading now is about this guy who is trying to talk about how as a kid he had all these sexual thoughts and stuff…and I don’t know, I’m reading this and thinking, I kind of think all children and people—if they’re human—have these things, and not everyone’s in adult films, right? His dad maybe didn’t hug him enough, or would bring home adult films and he’d find it in a bag…but I don’t buy that that’s necessarily the reason. But the practical side of it is that this guy wanted to be an actor, he was in New York, he was trying to audition anywhere he could and got cast in this gay playhouse, got noticed on set and was asked to be in an adult film as like a one-time thing. And he did it, and he kept doing it, because before he wasn’t making money and he was sick of being hit on by male actors. So even though he had that childhood background or whatever, I don’t know if it was really relevant. If you want to be an actor, and the only gig you get is in an adult film, and you say you’re only going to do it right now to get paid, ten years go by and you don’t know what happened. And then you can’t go into legitimate work because it’s like you’ve been pigeon-holed. But not every struggling actor makes adult movies. I think that decision really defines one's character. So that’s the long answer to the back story of Andy.

K: That’s kind of crazy.

S: Yeah, and hopefully the movie will portray that. I don’t want it to be overly deep, but I think that’s how it is for a lot of people in their lives. They get out of school and just take an available job in an accounting department, and suddenly they’re 65 and they’re like, “what happened with my life? I never made a choice to do what I wanted to do…I just got pushed along by different currents and now I hate my life.”

K: What is Andy going to do next?

S: It’s a good question. I don’t really want to pin it down. I don’t know if I want him to go back to adult film…I like the idea that he’s like “it’s not what I want to do anymore.” I like the idea of him writing a book or something…a really good book, the first good book about being in the business. And he sells like a million of them. I want him to take his experience, now that he’s accepted it, and talk about it. And I don’t mind him saying, “I don’t know what I want to do. I just know what I don’t want I do, and I know I can do pretty much anything if I set my mind to it.” But I don’t know if he’ll say all that. Yeah, maybe he’ll just say he wants to write a book. It’s hard not to leave the audience with a downer feeling…like, “yeah, now I’ve got to go back to work.”

K: And finally, you just returned from the Berlin Film Festival; how were you inspired as a director by what you saw there?

S: I saw ten movies and there was one film that really inspired me, it was called Beeswax. It seemed like it was made for a really low budget. It was the third film by this director, and he’s a relatively young director. The story was good and entertaining, and the cast was relatively unknown—some of them weren’t even actors. The crew was really small; it was shot in a very raw way. I just liked watching it—it was so refreshing against all the movies that were trying to be big, and trying hard to be ”cinema.” So it just inspired me to keep it fresh and not get caught up in needing tons of money. Our film is pretty complex, there are a lot of locations and whatnot, but beyond the practicality of those things, let’s keep it simple, let’s focus on the story.

And that’s a wrap. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about the director, the movie, and the filmmaking process; and as always, if you have any questions you’d like to ask the director, you’re encouraged to leave a comment!

59th Berlin Film Festival

2009-02-26T15:55:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Rain Maker

Film Festivals are great way to get inspired and take some time to contemplate the craft of filmmaking. With my busy schedule, I am so often in execution mode, rather than ponder mode. Taking the time to watch the, sometimes, obscure films that are screened at festivals offers food for thought. The 59th Berlin Film Festival was no exception.

In Berlin I met up with my business partner and fellow director Unsu Lee. We arranged to see two to three films a day with enough time in between to discuss the films over beer and schnitzel. We saw a wide range of films and while some we liked better than others, they all offered us a rich assortment of conversation pieces.

From a directing standpoint, I learned a tremendous amount in Berlin. I am always comparing myself with other directors. I like to look at how other directors approach their films and look for techniques that I find interesting and explore why I find them interesting. Festivals often have good and bad films (the definition of bad is very personal of course). Often I learn as much from the bad films as I do the good. The bad films remind me what I don't want to do.

Here's a summary of some ideas I took away from Berlin 09:

I watched three documentaries, Defamation, Shock Theory, and Rachel. I enjoyed Defamation the most because the filmmaker, Yoav Shamir, drove the film with his genuine curiosity rather than a need to preach a point. In Defamation the Israeli filmmaker set out to understand if there is really such thing as anti-semitism because, living in Israel, he never had really experienced anti-semitism first hand. He humbly approached both sides of the issue, letting his curiosity take him and me (the audience) on a ride. His humble approach was instrumental in diffusing what could be a volatile debate over a explosive subject. His humility and lack of preachiness allowed the film to unify an audience under a universal banner representing the search for truth. Sure, there could be disagreement over the points the film made, but it could not be argued that his points did not have truth in them or that they weren't authentic. He simply asked the questions and let his subjects speak. He presented ideas from both sides of the fence. The film did not press a point, rather it allowed me to come to my own decision based on the evidence.

Conversely, Shock Doctrine clearly had a point to make. It was 90 minutes of narration supported by a few interviews. Based on a book, this documentary was stating its theories like they were facts. Very little humility showed through this film. When the film was over and the Q&A began, I figured I was the only one that though the film sucked. I wasn't. The first question came rather as a comment. "This film insulted my intelligence," said the audience member.

It dawned on me that because the filmmakers, Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom, hadn't taken an approach driven by curiosity but rather of authority, I suddenly wanted to know the filmmakers credentials as historians. I needed some indication that their opinion was an expert opinion. As far as I know the filmmakers aren't historians at all. They are filmmakers who found a book interesting and who had attempted to convey the book's theories on film. They had culled down 30 years of world history into 90 minutes and cherry picked particular moments in time to support the books theories. At times, there seemed to be huge gaps in their narrative that left me repeating to myself, "but... but...but..." What frightened me is that these historical novices had put history into a container that's so easily and quickly consumed by viewers and will most likely be BELIEVED at face value as so many things are on TV. I felt like the filmmakers didn't have the experience to pilot this film. It was like a airplane pilot trying to fly a helicopter. The principles are the same but the application different. I felt that they had dangerously used powerful historical imagery of WWII, 9/11 and Guantanamo to sell their ideas and to ultimately sell the book.

I decided that, as a filmmaker I want to search for the truth with humble curiosity. In both documentary and narrative formats, I have a responsibility to do so when dealing with powerful subjects. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the cat was stupid.

Shock Doctrine was a collection of found footage. While I respect the time and energy it takes to develop a documentary story and research existing footage, I've discovered I don't quite enjoy voice driven films that string together found footage. If a filmmaker splices together powerful images of 9/11, protests, Guantanamo to support an idea, he is looting these historical and emotional significance of these images to make his point. That's all well and good, but I don't think you can call this filmmaking. I liken it to throwing a pre-made pizza into the oven rather cooking a meal from scratch. The taste of the meal could be compared to the tension in film that keeps us watching. Taste keeps us eating, tensions keeps us watching. Historical imagery is loaded with inherent tension. A cook creates the taste by mixing his choice of ingredients and filmmakers build tension by creating a scenario, casting actors and shooting it in a certain way. A filmmakers owns the image and the tension from the ground up. The director is the architect of tension. Of course this is what narrative filmmaking is, but it also holds true for documentary filmmaking as well. In both documentary films Rachel and Defamation, the filmmakers created tension in the interviews by participating in the film and asking difficult questions of their subjects. Creating the film wasn't just a cerebral process that took place in the safety of an editing room. Instead the filmmakers thrust themselves out into the world and got their hands dirty. Sometimes there was conflict or a sense of discomfort as these filmmakers explored their beliefs and the beliefs of of their subjects, but that's where they also found the wonderful tension that kept me riveted and interested. I really think that in order to create tension, a director needs to feel that tension. It can't be an easy or safe feeling. There has to be a bit of conflict in the director's mind for tension to make it to the screen. As I prepare to shoot Valley of the Sun, I want to keep reminding myself of this. I want to keep putting myself out there and when the time comes to work with my actors, I want to encourage them to also put themselves out there and take some risks. That's where we are going to get some good stuff going.

I was surprised by Beeswax, a really great, small film by Andrew Bujalski that has a big heart. Going into the film I had no idea what it was about. What made it great to me was the film's natural, honest dialogue. Amazingly, all of the actors were not professional actors which points to the director's amazing ability to nurture great performances. The filmmaker said that he gave the actors the freedom to improv and that's what helped them to achieve honesty. I took a big interest in the fact that all of his actors were inexperienced. I think it gave the film a certain freshness. I think when using inexperienced actors, you have to cast the characters as they are and you have to include improvisation in process. Improvisation can cause trouble with coverage because it may not be possible to perform the same improvisation twice. So to cover scenes with some improv, you have to pick a really interesting shot and be prepared to hold on that shot and not cut away. While this approach may not be appropriate for every scene in Valley of the Sun, this is something I'd like to try.

Beeswax was shot on a low budget and according to the DP the crew size was super small. The DP had a camera assistant and the producer was his gaffer. While a bit raw, the film looked great. They put their effort into great performances and it worked. I want to make sure that we are doing the same on Valley of the Sun. Ultimately, I was inspired to see the Beeswax crew get something really nice done for what seemed like a little bit of money. I hear about so many first time feature filmmakers trying to raise over a million bucks for their first feature. They talk about the project for years and it never gets done. Trust me, I'm one of them. I'm inspired to "get it done."

We watched a film called Absolute Evil directed by Uli Lommel and in my opinion it was absolute crap. Matter of fact, Unsu and I walked out. We tried to hang in but we couldn't take it. Never mind the story, it was the lack of technical proficiency that drove my crazy. There is nothing arty about really bad, off microphone sound. I know film students that have made more technically proficient films. Then you add really horrible acting and a bad story, and you simply have a pile of shit on your hands and all you want to do is just wash it off. I was shocked Berlin accepted this film. It must of been only because of the director's place in Germany's film history. He acted in one of Fassbinder's early films. In any case, I left the theater feeling burned and pillaged. I couldn't get over it. It was really heartbreaking to have wasted a movie slot on that film. I had savage thoughts about the film. Nevertheless, Lommel had gotten a rise out of me and if that was his sole intention, he succeeded. I told Unsu that if I ever make a film that bad then he needs to just shoot me and put me out of my misery. This film really motives me to push myself towards excellence on every level. I am going to have nightmares about this film.

Overall, I was really interested to see which films held my attention. Many of the narrative films we watched were slow moving, but they succeeded in holding my attention. We watch a Korean film called My Dear Enemy directed by Lee Yoon-ki. It was probably the slowest film I've ever seen. I think Baraka is quicker. It didn't help that it was the 10pm screening. The story was so simple and the characters had barely a discernible arc. The most interesting thing about watching this film was to see how it pulled me in and out of sleep as the film's tension increased and decreased. The story took the characters to a series of locations in between which they rode in the car together. There was a lot of driving in this movie. Whenever they got in the car, my eyes would close down. I mean I'd be trying as hard as I could to keep them open and then I would wake up and we'd be in another scene somewhere. I started realizing that I was waking up whenever the tension built in the movie. The scenes with tension were really nice and captivating. There is one scene where one of the characters, a modest, good girl calls another woman a whore. There was genuine tension there. I would be wide awake for those scenes. Then, the characters would get back in the car and I would fall asleep again. The truth is that, despite sleeping through half of the film, I don't feel I missed anything. All those driving scenes should have been cut. There was no tension and they were uninteresting and only undermined the rest of the film. I'm inspired to keep my foot on the tension throttle throughout my films. It may vary in intensity, but if there's no tension at all, then the scene needs to be cut or re-written. Tension can be elusive. Just because a film is slow doesn't mean it doesn't have tension and quickly paced films can be boring. For me, the tension comes down to the humanity of the film, the human tensions that occurs in our every day lives. To me, creating tension is the essence of storytelling. Its really hard to create the kind of tension that keeps us tuned in. I walked away from Berlin knowing that without a doubt I want to create tension in my films. I am still exploring how exactly I want to do that.

How the heck is a feature film made?

2009-02-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

sponsored by Musync

Have you ever worked for a video production company? Do you know how to make a movie? I have never in my life had anything to do with video or film production (except for those far-fetched dreams in my head), but after this semester I will (proudly) be able to add it to my list of experiences. I am Katrina, the new intern at Hotbed Media. I’m going to contribute to this blog for the next few months, spitting out my opinions and questions as I observe the pre-production stages of the feature film Valley of the Sun. Maybe you’ll resonate with my point of view, or my lack of experience in the film industry, or my journey to learn what this is all about. Or maybe not. Who knows.

Like I said, I’ve arrived here without really knowing anything about video production or film — while initially I was looking to intern with a graphic design company, no one seemed to be interested in unpaid labor. I mean, seriously, I want to intern with your company for free — who doesn’t want free labor, especially right now? In any case, I’ve landed here, with director Stokes McIntyre, and I anticipate that I’ll learn many new things and have fun in the process.

My first day on the job I was covering the script for the film Valley of the Sun, which (for those of you who, like me, have no idea “covering a script” means) entails analyzing major aspects of the script, like story structure, character development, etc. A few pages into the script, my mind began to fill with worried anticipation of what was to come — uncomfortable descriptions of provocative sex scenes? Intimate details of dirty exchanges between porn stars?

If this isn’t making sense to you, maybe you aren’t quite caught up; Valley of the Sun is the story of Andy Taggert, a burned out porn star who suffers a breakdown and ends up moving into his parents’ retirement community. The thing is, I wasn’t initially aware that Andy was about to be “burned out”, nor that his “sexscapades” were not to be the subject of the film. I joked with the people I live with, telling them that I was covering the script for a porno flick. Yes, I laughed, but really I was worried that I was in over my head.

Of course, I was wrong. I realized soon enough that the meat of this script holds deep meaning about redemption and acceptance. As I’ve delved into this project, I’ve come to really enjoy the story and see its potential to create a memorable, moving film. It’s fun to be behind the scenes because I get a sense of the enthusiasm and passion that the people who are making this movie possess, and it’s contagious. Okay, Stokes may seem like a laidback, take-it-easy sort of guy (and he very well may be), but he gets on the phone — and please note, I am forced to eavesdrop because our office here is rather small — and he starts ranting about this theme and that emotion and how these details need to be conveyed in this way, and it’s obvious that he has a vision for this film. And the enthusiasm spreads to me. And the movie connoisseur in me emerges and I envision how perfect this film could be, and I hope that it’s even better than that. And it’s not even my baby…I’m not the one who’s been working on it for the last 5 years! I may be wrong, but perhaps I’ve got a tiny glimpse into the feelings of all the people who are really involved in this project.

So there’s my brief introduction. For now, the only other thing that I wish to say is that I hope some of the creative juices around here rub off on me and inspire me in my own artistic endeavors, which at the moment are severely lacking motivation.

On one last note, here’s a funny article about "porn bailout" that I found while snooping around on the Internet.

Production is "Doable"

2009-02-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Black Lab Creative

Valley of the Sun's production budget passed another test today. The film's Arizona UPM completed his pass on the budget that takes into account local knowledge. The budget fell close enough to the target number that it's officially "doable" says producer and director Stokes McIntyre. The film's producers are taking the budget through a series of steps to ensure that the film, given the intended budget, is achievable. "I just don't want to get boned," says McIntyre. The producers will review the budget internally one last time before giving it a stamp of approval and setting a start date.

Initial Film Production Budget Complete

2009-02-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Simple Tea

Today the producers completed the first pass on the budget that accommodates the financing available to the production. "The film is looking very achievable," says producer and director Stokes McIntyre. "That said, the film will need to be produced with the independent spirit that so many low budget features are made with. While there won't be any proverbial quesadillas on set, with the budget we've created, we can get this film done well." The budget is now being localized by the production's Arizona UPM to reflect some of the nuts and bolts on the ground there. "This signifies one more step towards locking this budget down and pulling the trigger," says McIntyre.

AZ Trip Success

2009-01-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

This post is sponsored by Witness the Way We Live

My DP (Cliff Traiman) and I returned last night from a successful scouting trip in Arizona. We met with the drama clubs of some of the retirement communities around Surprise, AZ. The communities were very cordial in welcoming us. Cliff and I attended a play the Sun City Grande Drama Club put on called The Man Who Came to Dinner. We were very impressed with the talent involved. This group puts on 6 productions a year! I presented Valley of the Sun to The Club and the project was well received.

We pinned down some of the specific locations, met with the local SAG representative and a local coordinator / production manager. All in all, the trip boosted our confidence that this film is doable within our budget. I feel that we have the talent and locations available to us to make an amazing film. I am preparing to pass on my notes to the local production manager to finalize budget numbers. Once we have that budget completed, I intend to pass the budget by two additional indy feature producers for a reality check. If the budget passes the test, then we'll set a date!

Methods for Scheduling a Feature Film

2009-01-17T00:03:00.000-08:00

Putting together a shooting schedule is like a damn rubik's cube, you change one thing, something else gets jacked. For Valley of the Sun, the first big consideration was the hair. The protagonist gets a haircut in the first third of the film and wears it short the rest of the time. That means I either need to schedule the film around the cut or get a really nice wig (expensive). I checked into wigs and a good one runs about $2500. Then you have to consider that I'd need a good hair person to apply the wig and of course the time to do so. That could be a budget killer for us. If we don't go with a wig then we'll have to shoot in a location, move to another location and then come back later to shoot material after the haircut. To leave a location and come back later is super inefficient. I consulted with my good friend and producer Vieve Haag. She mentioned hair extensions. Brilliant. They are cheaper and don't need to be applied each day. She gave me the name of a hair shop over on fillmore that I have to check out.

So, with the hair extension option, I've removed the need to schedule according to hair. Now the priority becomes about shooting consecutive days in locations and scheduling our actors most efficiently. While I am going to cast most of my talent in Arizona, I probably fly a couple of the lead roles out from LA. That means I need to make them my scheduling priority. The SAG contract we plan to work under allows for a better week rate versus a day rate. So, I am working to pack my actors working days into weeks. If I only need my actor for 4 days of the week, it's still cheaper to hire them on a week (5 day) week versus paying them for four individual days. When I create my schedule, I would review the day out of days report and tweak the schedule to get as many week rates as possible. Sometimes it simply a matter of flipping two shoot days and I would save a grand.

Once I had the schedule ordered properly, I broke the schedule down into days. In other words, I inserted day breaks. Then I input the estimated shots (see previous post). Once I have my estimated shots in the schedule, I can count up the shots for each day and make sure the day is looking realistic. For days that I have too many shots, I need to split that day into two days.

To use a skiing analogy, during this part of the process I try to visualize the shoot much like a downhill ski racer might visualize the course... you know when they are at the top of the mountain standing with their eyes closed and skiing the course in their mind with their body mimicking the turns. This is part of the process is all about that pre-visualization. You have to be able to see that you are going to make the turn and not spin out. If you can't see it happening, realistically, then you will probably crash and die.

Download Valley of the Sun's Current Schedule:

Planning, Planning, Planning

2009-01-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

It takes a lot of planning to make a super low budget feature. It takes a lot of planning to make any feature film for that matter, but in the case of low budget independent features, there isn't much room for mistakes. Without proper planning, production can get out of hand and blow through all your cash before the shoot is finished. That ain't good. Things can get uncomfortable and scary really fast and typically low budget features don't have a ton of money to throw at problems. What's scariest for me is the potential sacrifice of quality if the film is not properly planned. There is nothing worse than having to rush actors through performances or having to cut shots. It tears me apart when this happens because can I see storytelling opportunities slipping through my hands. It's most evident while sitting in the edit room wishing you could have gotten the shot or done one more take. While I am shooting, I channel myself to the edit room and try to see the consequences of my actions on set.

So, the key to a best effort production is planning. Lots of it. Ad nauseam.

Planning means grasping every line of the script, what it takes to achieve that line and how it impacts each line of the budget. If the script is the matrix, the budget is the code.

Understanding the scope of a script requires a couple of key steps.

Understanding the set ups it takes to adequately cover a script. This will ultimately drive the amount of time you need to shoot the script.
Understand all of the resources needed to shoot the script such as talent, crew, equipment, props, set dressing, vehicles, locations, etc.

Understanding the time and resources needed to shoot a script is a strong first step to good planning.

In order to quickly get a grasp of the number of set-ups Valley of the Sun requires I went through and circled elements in the script that represent what should be covered. If its a simple two person dialogue scene, I might circle the scene description to represent the master and then each character once to represent their coverage for a total of three set-ups. Of course that represents the most basic coverage. I might circle screen direction that indicates a particular close up or cutaway that we need to shoot. Here's an example :

Add up all the shots for a scene. Then add them up for the whole film and then, boom, you have the approximate number of the set-ups for the whole film. I assume that we should shoot no more than 17-20 set-ups a day depending on the type of shot (that's still a lot). So you divide the total number of set-ups you counted by 17 and then you know roughly how many days you will need to shoot. I counted 715 set-ups for Valley of the Sun. That number divided by 17 / day gives me 42 days of production. Wow. That is way too many days for a feature with our budget. Some of those shots are second unit shots and there are a couple of days I am going to cover with two cameras so I am hoping that will bring the number of production days down. I also will need to go in and trim some scenes or figure out how to be more efficient in my coverage. Maybe there are some scenes I can cover in a "oner." More planning will tell.

Some use the number of pages per shoot day as a rule of thumb to guess total production days, but I don't like that method because in some instances it may take a day to shoot one page where in other cases we might be able to rip through six pages in a day.

To understand the resources needed for the film I had to break script down. The first thing I did was take the script into Final Draft Tagger and breakdown all of the elements. In Tagger you can select characters, vehicles, props, wardrobe, livestock, etc. Then I imported the tagger file (.sex) into Entertainment Partners Scheduling. Its great because it pulls your breakdown elements into the schedule.

With a rough idea of the number of set-ups needed to cover the script and the script elements broken down and imported into my scheduling software, I am now going to work out a detailed shooting schedule and see how many days this film is really going to take.

Pulling the Trigger

2009-01-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

I once heard Saul Zaentz speak at the Mill Valley Film Festival. His advice to filmmakers was don't finance your own movie. Well, I am going to call bullshit because cause I am sick of waiting for the money. My production company has had a good five year run and we've been pinching pennies, so I am going to invest in my own movie. Here we go.

Valley of the Sun has a lot of locations, a lot of set-ups, it shoots in three cities and our cast is primarily between the ages of 60 - 80 so I don't want to work too fast. As a result, its an expensive movie. The first thing I have to do is figure out how to trim the budget by 80%.

WE LIKE THIS VIDEO

2008-12-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

Moviegoers Research Films Online

2008-11-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

In 2006 Google found that 7 in 10 moviegoers go to the internet to learn more about the film they are going to see before they go see it. My guess is that many of them Google the name of the movie or go to movie sites such as Yahoo, Moviefone, etc. This is an important aspect of Valley of the Sun's funding model because we want to increase our sponsors brand exposure to moviegoers. If moviegoers are searching movie titles online, they will be sure to land on Valley of the Sun's website upon the film's release. This will work to give our sponsors more exposure to audiences.

The article is below.

Google Study: Internet Directs Moviegoers

by Mark Walsh, Friday, Sep 22, 2006 6:00 AM ET

About one-third of moviegoers typically turn to the Internet to learn more about a movie release after first hearing about it elsewhere, according to a study commissioned by Google.

The study conducted by entertainment marketing research firm MarketCast found that of the 49 percent of moviegoers who actively research a movie after hearing about it through TV ads or word-of-mouth, seven in 10 go to the Web to get more information.

Just over half of the moviegoers surveyed used the Internet to find movie schedules and theater locations--more than all other sources combined.

More than one-third of those who rely on the Internet to research movies say it's the most influential medium in their decision to see a movie. These avid movie "Infoseekers," as the study calls them, are also four times as likely as traditional moviegoers to first hear about a movie through the Internet.

David Fleck, Google's Industry Marketing Manager, Media and Entertainment, said the research suggested a disparity between the Internet's influence on moviegoing and the amount studios spend marketing online.

In particular, he noted that 17 percent of moviegoers said the Internet was the most influential medium in deciding what film to see, while studios spent only 2.6 percent of their marketing budgets online.

One key method for Google to boost awareness for a movie is by serving ads throughout its network of affiliated AdSense sites, said Fleck. For "An Inconvenient Truth," for example, Google targeted click-to-play video ads for the Al Gore film on sites catering to three different groups within its network: independent movie fans, and environmentally and politically conscious consumers.

He noted that one-third of those who saw the film on its opening weekend heard about it first online. "Inconvenient Truth" producer Paramount Vantage, a unit of Paramount, "decided they wanted to invest more in the Internet than they have in the past," said Fleck.

Google started a movie trailers site last month and also maintains a movie search service that includes local theater information and film reviews.

For the study, MarketCast surveyed 2,100 moviegoers ages 13 to 49.

Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com

Another Victory for Indepedent Filmmakers

2008-11-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

As an indepedendent, making a film is a real bitch. Getting it distributed is a bitch times two. Finishing the film is a false summit. You get to the top only to find out, damn, there's another peak and this one is frickin' knarly. In the past, getting distribution most likely came down to a single individual watching your film. It was based on their taste and their "knowledge" of the viewer and what they think will sell. They are the gatekeepers to pop culture. While those gatekeepers have a kept a lot of crap out of the cinemas, pop culture has paid a price and that price is mediocrity. I am a believer that some of the best works of art have been risky and typically these gatekeepers aren't willing to take risks. So, as a filmmaker dying to let a film be accepted or rejected by the populous, the gatekeeper is a frustrating barrier. Look. If my film gets out into the world and people think the film blows, I will accept that my film blows. People voted. The film blows. Done. What I can't accept is a single gatekeeper telling me my film blows. Let the people decide. Praise the internet for giving artists direct access to their audiences.

New Sponsors

2008-09-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Valley of the Sun's new sponsors are:
Musync - Music Licensing and supervising
Black Lab Creative - A Dallas based advertising agency
Simple Tea - Custom and private labeled rare and handcrafted teas
Rhode Island Casting - New England's premiere talent agency

Branding with Film : Stella Artois

2008-07-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

I am a filmmaker and I drink Stella. Maybe its because its in all the local bars. Maybe its because Stella sponsors film. I never put the two together. As it turns out, Stella sponsors a lot of film. I like films. I drink Stella. Good marketing. Here's a bit from brandchannel.com about why Stella sponsors film :

In Europe and the UK, Stella Artois is arguably the champion of film. The brand first got involved in cinema ten years ago and its relationship has blossomed from there.

"Ten years ago film was an undervalued medium," explains Kevin McQuillan, sponsorship manager for Interbrew UK (Stella’s parent company), referring to the advertising potential of the medium, presumably not the customer experience. "Cinema advertising wasn't really used to its full potential and the majority of ads you would get would be for local businesses. Today, however, you find that the ads on TV are often edited down versions of feature length ads produced for cinema.

"In the 1990s we made a series of ads in a cinematic style," McQuillan continues. "At the time, it was not a conscious decision to get involved in the film industry, but we wanted to portray our brand in a different light. We took a higher moral ground. Our ads had a plot and storyline. We wanted to get across quality cues of the Stella Artois brand, so we made advertising that has a quality film feel; these were viewed by consumers as short films, which set the ads apart from other beer brands."

Following the success of these ads, Stella Artois in the UK realized that film was a good fit with its brand. In 1995 it developed a wider reaching film strategy. First, it signed a groundbreaking sponsorship deal with British television network Channel 4. "This wasn't sponsorship of particular films, or the evening film slot," explains McQuillan. "It was the sponsorship of an entire genre. Other sponsored TV programs are generally short-lived, but we didn't want the Stella brand to be fly-by-name. Sponsoring all films on Channel 4 positioned us as a premium brand and showed we had commitment."

Stella also inaugurated its Stella Artois Screen Tour. The original idea was to give as many people as possible the opportunity to come and watch films in outside locations, such as Brighton Beach. Over the years the tour has developed to include a mix of mass screenings and smaller more intimate events stage in appropriate locations. For instance "To Kill a Mocking Bird" screened in Nottingham's Galleries of Justice, "The Truman Show" in Belfast’s UTV Studios, and "Interview with a Vampire" in a church in Scotland.

Other initiatives of Stella Artois including a short film competition, called Certificate 18, are set up as a platform to showcase new talent. While After Dark is described as "an eclectic evening inspired by future cinema, bringing together cutting edge film, music and art to deliver a unique multi-media experience."

In most of these initiatives the ROI is extremely difficult to measure. Still Stella has no qualms about its investment. "We are not doing this to purely to sell more beer, but to build up the brand and the association between our brand and film," explains McQuillan. "The return for us is recognition by consumers of what Stella does for cinema. In this day and age, it is important to show that we do sponsorship and events like these not just for commercial reasons."

If recognition is what McQuillan wants, then he should be pleased with the company's latest consumer research findings. "We continue to have the highest unprompted recall in the UK of any brand associated with film," he says.

But perhaps there may be an indirect return too. Over the ten years that Stella has been involved with film, volume and value sales have increased dramatically. "Stella is now the Number One take-home beer in the UK, and we are currently Number Three in on-trade sales," reports McQuillan. "For a premium brand, that is astonishing."

Read entire article

Bitch Slapped by the Free Market

2008-07-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Its truly a brutal world out there right now for independent filmmakers. The mini-majors that buy up indies are drying up, the economy is supposedly imploding and there are more indy films out there than ever. That translates to less buyers, less private equity available to fund films and when indie films are sold, they are handed over for pennies. Ouch. I just can't see how investment in film at this point in time could be sold as a "good investment." A fun investment, yes. A neat investment, yes. A good investment, no. I am not even sure it should be called an investment. Maybe donation is a better term. Filmmakers don't even need to file 5013c because the investors will be able to right off their loss anyway. Bottom line: Investors in small indy films are almost sure to lose their ass. As a filmmaker myself looking to fund my film, I can't go out, in good conscious, with bogus, magical cash flow statements and tell potential investors, "this is a good investment." At this point, I am ready to go out, sans cash flow statement, and say, "you wanna have a good time, you wanna be a part of something cool? Let's make a movie together." That's the only way it can be done today.

Given the risky nature of film financing in today's marketplace, the only hope I hold for financing Valley of the Sun independently is to sell to advertising. Instead of investors taking on a the huge financial burden of funding film, advertisers (or sponsors as we like to call them) can take on a small financial burden, participate in film and get an immediate return on their cash outlay in the form of web traffic and link juice. Even better, there's no holy grail when it comes to distribution. As long as the film gets out there, whether it be theatrically, on DVD, Netflix, internet download, or I drive around in a van and screen the film to any willing soul, the sponsors benefit. It's truly is a beautiful thing. It brings a tear to my eye.

Read more about independent film destruction in this NY Times article:

No Film Distributor? Then D.I.Y.

By JOHN ANDERSON

Published: July 30, 2008

In a glutted marketplace, some directors are opening their own films.

AUTODESK TAPS 42 SURFBOARDS

2008-06-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Valley of the Sun Sponsor 42 Surfboards was named Inventor of the Month by Autodesk for June 2008. 42 Surfboards uses Autodesk Inventor software to create its line of high-performance surfboards that are shaped entirely from sustainably harvested local woods. By avoiding materials like foam and balsa wood-which have a large carbon footprint-42 Surfboards provides surf enthusiasts with a green alternative that reduces the environmental impact of the sport. Nice work 42! -> Read the press release.

This is what I'm talkin' about...

2008-02-02T19:53:00.003-08:00

There is a great article by Christine Beardsell about advertisers using their media dollars to help content producers create content. Although this concept is nothing new since advertisers have been supporting the creation of TV content for years, I am excited to see advertisers recognize that the internet has the potential to allow independent producers to get a little piece of the media money action.

The following excerpt is most relevant to Valley of the Sun, but the entire article is worthwhile.

"Accompanying video content with brand utilities fundamentally changes the advertising model online. As an advertiser, you're still supporting the entertainment, but you also have a role in creating the wider entertainment and information experience. Your media dollars become production, distribution, and syndication dollars. It's certainly no longer about creating a micro-site and driving traffic to your site with a supporting banner ad campaign. It's about partnering with entertainment providers and content creators upfront and co-developing a plan that equally benefits both parties -- plus the viewer! Brands get to be a part of the storytelling process and offer useful tools to their audience, and content creators get paid for doing what they love."

A visit to Sun City

2007-08-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Some of the Sun City residents let us interview them. They were quite vocal about what they would do if Andy Taggert was their son.

"Get your ass out of here"

"Porn Star"

"Bail out of jail"

Flying

2007-07-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

My God man. I've been sitting in Vegas wasting quarters for hours now. How many Burger King burgers can I kill down. We are trying to make our way to San Francisco from Dallas and I feel like I'm driving a horse drawn wagon. Its just been one of those days. Two days really. Last night we (my wife and I) got bumped off our flight despite full fare tickets. My mistake I guess. I was trying to be nice. I didn't crowd the counter and when my name was finally called, the plane had already departed. Thankfully, we could go back to my parents and stay the night. The next morning, I plugged my cigarette lighter phone charger into my father's cadillac seville and ran his battery down. The car wouldn't start. Then I had to call AAA. My dad was pissed. I was tired. I had been bitched slapped by American Airlines after letting the f-bomb slip at the counter. Now I've spent a hundred bucks in Vegas to work out my index finger. This could be my last post before our plane crashes. I can be thankful though, that I have my health, so far, and I'm blessed. So things aren't that bad. So, I can just laugh it off. This is humor. Its real life drama. This is what Valley of the Sun is about.

Revisions

2007-06-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Just when we think the site is finalized and spotless more revisions keep popping up! Its great though, has been a good learning process, and just makes us perfect the site even more. We think, we think, the site is good to go as of date, but you never know!

About This Blog

2007-02-14T23:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks for visiting! Ranch House Pictures is producing a film entitled Valley of the Sun. It's a dramatic comedy about a burned out 40 year guy who goes to live with his parents in a retirement community.