Alright, since I don't really know shit about how to make a movie, I thought I would talk a little about background. This one's going to be a bit long, with plenty of pictures if you don't like all the words... click "Read more..." to get started...
Background can be and mean a lot of things. In a painting, it could be a meadow behind a pair of Victorian dressed women holding parasols, one of them touching her lips in deference while chuckling softly at the social quip the other might have made. In a book, it could be a piece of story about the character's past that hasn't nothing to do with story at hand, but might help you piece it all together at the end. On your computer, you currently have software running in the background that makes the whole get-up work, and if you're the average user, you probably have software that came with computer reporting your behaviors to Dell, or Compaq or Gateway. However, the point is that the background is always in one place. The back. If it wasn't it'd be foreground, and that is not the topic at hand.
Background, in this case, is Mike and I. We met on the school bus in elementary school. Comics. He and I both liked them. I'm not going to say that we were fast friends, it wasn't exactly 'love at first site', no matter how gay this thread seems to be becoming (not that there's anything wrong with that). But we were friends. We've been friends since, it's been about 15 years now, give or take.
Growing up, we were into all the things most kids are into. Comic Books, Music, movies, porn, Compuserve and later AOL chat rooms posing as 16 year old girls, or 25 year old guys. We used to jam out to the Counting Crows and Ace of Base (go ahead and laugh, but I bet you saw the sign too). We also made up stories, and we both thought we were going to grow up to be in the Comic Book biz. Mike was going to be a penciler, I was going to be a writer. Of course, a lot of that kids stuff fell away by the time we were in high school, being that we both had discovered there were women, women had vaginas, and we were actually getting to put our penises into them (different women, at different times. I assure you). However, the drive to do something big never left us. It faded, sure, but it was always there.
Background is where we are now. We went to school in the same city, all the way through high school, always living right down the street from each other. Eventually we moved to opposite ends of the cities, living our lives, but we still hung out. Now, so many years later, we again live literally a few blocks away from each other. Not only that, we live in the same damn city we first met. Cyclical. We grew up, we got girls, we had kids, and now we're right back where we started. Hopefully no worse for the wear. Alright, so we didn't hit the big time yet... but, like I said, that drive never left. This is why we're doing what we're doing. No, it's not comics, but, it's like comics as far as I'm concerned.
You might wonder what this has to do with anything. Who cares if he and I have been friends for a decade and a half or we met a few months ago? It's simple. I trust Mike. That matters a lot. I wouldn't be willing to put effort into this if I didn't trust him.
So, all that sappy shit aside. Background is about where we are now. I warned you that I was going to be popping up with pictures, you probably didn't take me seriously. That was your first mistake.
Here's where I'm at. It's not much, but, I call it home. That's where the magic happens. And truly, it is magic. I spend a lot of time in front of this computer, which is my main rig. I have several others scattered around the house, but, this is the one with all the power. Some things of note: a mini-fridge stocked with Coke, which saves me the trouble and hassle of getting up, two monitors, because one is never enough, and lots of random electronics, since that's just how I roll. You may also notice prescription drugs, which I promise are mine, extremely over exposed on the wall are pictures my daughters drew me that they insist I tape up, and on top of the scanner, on top of the tower, is a copy of a draft of Ink.
In addition to the slavery that is my work on Ink, I also do my own thing here. That chair is a lot more comfortable than it looks.
This extremely damp looking, concrete walled pit is Mike's office. It's where he now does much of his magic finger clicking on keys thing. It's his fortress of solitude, his home base. It also smells funny in there, but that isn't important.
For him, he's got those big Thing hands as well as other random toys, the little laptop that makes him feel sooooo mobile... parked at the desk, the picture of his lady and their daughter (how can you not be inspired by that?), and potato chips. I personally disagree with his choice of Old Dutch, I'm a Lays man myself.
This is on the wall of his office. You guessed it, that's Ink, in it's most purest form. Index cards. Beautiful, isn't it? Well, no, because I made it super tiny to prevent theftification.
This is Mike in the rest of the dungeon he calls a basement... or is it a basement he calls a dungeon. Either way, that's it right there. It's where he keeps his dogs. His dogs are the reason that he can't have nice things. You might notice one of the little bastards there. You know, I can go there 3 times a week, and that doesn't change the fact that he acts as though he's never seen me before in his life. Of course, my dog is going blind and growls at my kids as though in protection of me, so, who am I to judge? I'm the master of all that there ever is and ever will be, that's who.
And that is how I roll. Mike prefers the MGD, but, I like 'em dark and tasty (and now the double entendre has reared its ugly head). I think Guiness is the perfect beer because it's the only beer that doubles as a meal. If I can teach you nothing else, it's that if you're going to make a movie. You're going to need liquor and smokes. Without those two things, you are going nowhere fast.
Alright, maybe what I can teach you is that if you want to do this, if you really want to make a movie, or do anything big really, you find someone you can work with, someone that you trust. No, you don't have to build a 15 year friendship, they don't even have to have driven to another state to be in your wedding (that's another story entirely), but, make sure it's a relationship that works. Because, in the end, working on your own is fine, but if you're in it with someone you know and trust, even if you fall flat on your faces, you'll have a much better time doing it.
Cya internets. Damn, I am one verbose mother fucker.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Some background
Step #1 - The Screenplay
There are a number of elements that make up a successful film. Electric acting performances, exotic set pieces, bulimic actresses with serious emotional baggage, and every so often...a good story.
A lot of your big-budget Hollywood action fare can scrape by with a mediocre screenplay as long as TNT and T&A are in no short supply. We, on the other hand, have neither the scratch nor the requisite insurance to pay for either, so we'll be relying on the pen, rather than the sword/nuclear explosion to carry our little flick.
As Stephen (no F. initial necessary) mentioned in his last post, the script for Ink began in 2004. This is not to say that I've been writing this story for the last 3 years, though it's difficult to really define when you begin and end the writing of a screenplay. In truth, I've been writing this thing a small piece at a time (in my head) every day for that long.
Since 2004, the script has gone through a number of major changes. In fact, only a few elements remain from that original 60 page endeavor. The first pages of that early script are truly my first attempts at writing for the screen and it's no surprise once you've read them. Over the years, I've studied screenwriting and screenwriters and with every new lesson learned, new changes are made. It may seem odd that a film that will be made with the spare change we're able to scrape from our sticky car floormats and proverbial couch cushions would receive such careful attention to its script, but that, I think, is our most valuable asset. There are no vampires, no car chases, no high-wire martial arts displays nor supersonic dogfights over the Atlantic, but what we do have is 110 pages of thoughtful comedy, interesting characters, and a story that aims to amuse as well as inspire (or at the very least irritate, depending on your social sensibilities).
So what's it about? Ink is the story of Everett, a man in his early-20's, as he learns what it means to commit to his job, girlfriend, and best bud over the course of one day working as an apprentice at a local tattoo shop. Sound like fun? I hope so. If that's not enough to entice you, we've got wit and wisecracks that cover topics like: deviant sexual habits, Catholic cannibalism, Robert Shaw, leet-speak (a.k.a., geek shorthand), the bloody war between FedEx and UPS, the Jesus, gay marriage, infidelity, the Google effect, and the luxury that is electricity. Yeah, now you're interested.
Along with all that, you're getting a good story about a guy learning what it means to commit. Whether you're committing yourself to your career, your lady-love, or your best boy, it's a common problem for most guys in their early-20's and it doesn't get much funnier than this...unless you can afford Will Ferrel or a monkey.
We'll talk more about this later and perhaps I'll toss in an excerpt from the script to keep things interesting.
Until then, cheers. Check back soon.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Damn, Mike.
I'm the Other Guy... Give and ye shall receive...
You might hear from me now and then... actually, you'll probably hear from me more now than again, Mike is notoriously unfaithful to this wonderful world of bloggery. I, however, keep up fairly well on my own extremely famouse blog, Simplicity from Chaos. Yes, that is what you might call a shameless plug, but I promise, I have more to say than that, click "Read more..." to see it...
I'm Stephen... all that F. Stephen stuff is for rèsûmés (ascii fun). I'm also known here on the interwebs as fyrephlie, but, that's neither here nor there... or anywhere else. Don't let Mike fool you though, he may act like interaction with technology is like holy water to Jack-a-lope, but he's got some mad skills...
As Mike said, I'm taggin' along on this ride we're calling Ink. Ink is a beautiful thing, it's carefully crafted, wonderfully written (with my help) and though it would probably have been better if I'd written it (there'd be more raping, murdering, crazy people, and general tragedy done up right), I'm glad to be a part of it. It makes me shudder that there won't be an ounce of blood on set, though.
My place, also as he mentioned, will be more technical than anything. I'm artistic, just like Mike is, but in different ways. I'm also techy, I know how shutter speeds work on cameras, I know how computers do what they do, and I could explain all of it in boring, tedious detail.
Also, as Mike said (it irks me to admit he was ever right about anything ever...), this blog will be, at least for the time being, to the production of Ink. We are planning on shooting this thing for as little money as possible. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that neither of us have any to spend. Don't get me wrong, we're not going into this with some MyFirstHandyCams, we'll be getting us some real equipment just like the big kids use, and hopefully when all is said and done, we'll have something worth watching. If that doesn't happen, it will likely be an shit ton of fun.
I thought I would make my first post about what Mike and I did this weekend, then after reflecting, I thought I would talk a little about the history of this thing too.
Mike's been working on this thing since, well, I think sometime in 2004, at least, that is the first time he revealed it to me, which arrived in my mailbox Sept. 29th, 2004. He had replied when I sent him something I was working on at the time. It went like this:
here is something i've been working on. This is the first 60 or so
pages of a screenplay i've been working on. i hope to start filming
next winter...but who knows if that will happen.
[pointlessness removed]
anyway, it's a comedy about some guys workin' in a tattoo shop on what
is supposed to be a really busy saturday, the only problem...no
customers...all day. lemme know what you think...it's still pretty
rough, but i have another 50 or 60 pages to write before i can go back
and start revising.
i will read your story today sometime.
anyway, i look forward to your thoughts.
[pointlessness removed]
call me.
or you die.
mike
It's certainly evolved quite a bit from that first bit of crap he sent me (yes, the PDF file is still intact, it might even make it on the DVD as a Special Feature), and I have to admit that I'm pretty fucking proud of the bastard for actually finishing it. As soon as he sent it to me, I was hooked on it, and, without trying to toot my own horn, I've been pressuring him ever since to get it done, reading drafts and send notes and thoughts, most of which he ignored, which is probably why it will be a success.
So, he finally finished it, and hopefully he'll talk a little about it's evolution here in the blog. Now that we've got a working script, we
So, on to this weekend. That, up there is Mike. He's trying damn hard to look as cool as possible with his aging camcorder in his hand, but, there's a reason behind this asshattery. We went out with the distinct purpose of shooting some 'practice' footage. Mostly the idea was to see if we could frame some shots and shoot some footage and end up with something interesting. We chose something simple... the opening sequence of the very film we're working on.
I'd like to think of it as some kind of logic challenge... like a sudoku puzzle, or one of those stupid metal ring things you find in places like Spencer's. Mike thinks the whole process makes sense, at least, that is what I've gleaned from his attitude about it.
My job, was to 'act' by driving my (shitty) car around while Mike shot me. He told me where to go, and what to do, and I did my best to do it.
From there, we took the whole works back to my place, connected camera to computer, and put it all together with Premiere Pro. It didn't take long to figure out what we were missing. First, we were missing decent audio, because his cam was picking up pretty much just wind. That was easy to fix by hopping in the car again and driving around for a few minutes with the windows up. The other thing, the one that follows "first" was what we didn't shoot, and that wasn't fixable, though to Mike's credit, it wasn't much, and considering we made no plans at all to do it, he was able to think the scene through pretty well on the fly.
We had what we had, and I did my best to make it work. With him over my shoulder, telling me what he wanted where, we strung a bunch of it together, and what came out was actually decent. The whole process took us about 5 hours, but, I think what we learned was well worth the time spent. You may get to see it at some point as well, I need to add a few things in After Effects, which is something I'm struggling to get used to. Premiere (and Audition as well) is a cake walk, After Effects is something else entirely.
For you tech people out there, I will likely tell you about my trials and tribulations with all of the equipment and software, and hopefully give some people tidbits they can use if they ever try this. Also, I will soon make a run through of the gear we have, so that as we add the things we're getting to the list on the right, you'll have a frame of reference. Besides, who doesn't love hearing about Gigbyes, operating systems and CCDs?
With all that said, this is just the beginning, but, I think it's a rather auspicious start. So, damn Mike, you started a blog, and I'm already crapping all over it.
Keep on keepin' on.
//transmission ends//
So it begins...
No...not the dawning of Aquarius, but rather pre-production, in earnest, on the first of what will hopefully be many endeavors in the creation of moving pictures. I call them movies.
Anyway. This is the place to be for frequent updates on "How to Make a No-Budget Movie." Your instructors will be F. Stephen Kirschbaum, whose talents are not limited to producing, editing, and working late in to the night on numerous technical things that I'm too feeble-brained to comprehend and Mike Baumann (that's me) who will be writing, directing, editing, and avoiding all contact with technical things (computers, phones, calculators, radio-controlled robots) whenever possible.
We'll be trying to keep this thing updated as much as humanly possible throughout the process, so please check back with us often to watch two guys from Minnesota fumble their way through producing a no-budget feature.
Until then, cheers. Check back soon.
