Shooting Close Ups First & Why

If you're reading this blog there's a very good chance that you're an ultra low budget, independent, self distributing movie director who has to borrow your friend's camera to get things done.  Or maybe you WANT to be that person.  (You should consult a psychiatrist about that.)  If you're either of these people then your cast members may be friends, family or local theatre volunteers who are helping you out for little or no pay.  Most of them will have other jobs and responsibilities and for some acting may not even be their first passion (gasp!).

No Rehearsals:

When  you're working with people who don't act for a living getting them all together at the same time for rehearsals can be tough.  Getting them together on the location for staging and rehearsals can be even tougher.  And when  you're flying in some talent (usually my biggest expense), getting that person into the mix on a budget can be near impossible.

I remember being super excited about actually having the chance to do a table read for Stopped Dead with the core cast. (on Amazon Prime ).  Actor couple, Kevin and Karen White hosted at their house and Debbie Rochon, I believe, tried to telecommunicate for the reading and did manage to  be there on speaker phone for part of it.

Debbie Rochon in "Stopped Dead"

Photograph by Nancy Liquori

This was, however, a rare  opportunity.  More recently, on Jack vs Lanterns, we had 17 pages to shoot in one day with cast members who had never met.  At least one didn't understand the urgency with which I was shooting.  Monique Parent and Ryli Morgan weren't local and paying for a second trip for Monique would have taken 25% of the budget.  I was already asking for freebies from locals.  Adding money to the travel budget wasn't in the cards.  Weather was a concern for getting some shots and the studio stuff HAD to be done on that specific day.  This didn't really leave time to rehearse much.

A Close Up of Monique Parent in Jack vs Lanterns

because who doesn't want to see a close up of
Monique Parent?

The Blessing and Curse of Off Book:

Going into a situation like this, it's usually a blessing if all of your talent is "off book".  That is, they have their lines memorized.  As I stated earlier though, most of these people have other life matters distracting them, as we usually do, and so they may not have their lines as committed to memory as you'd like.

On the other hand, you may run into someone who is so locked into their lines that the slightest change, say to explain a missing prop or handle a script change that was made the day before, will throw them completely off their game.  You will actually have to present this person with new pages.  Some people need to see things in print.  ( I often need to write things out by  hand in order to memorize them.)

Some actors will only remember the cue words from their fellow characters.  So, if a line is changed, but has the same exact meaning, they won't know when to speak because they're waiting for a specific word.  A bit of improve is something that's good to know.  Learning how to "flow with the changes" is important.  Let the script supervisor writer or director worry about if the slight line change is earth shattering.  Sometimes what's on paper doesn't flow well when said out loud.

These are not complaints.  They're problems you will encounter while working with people who are honing their craft.  You're giving them experience while they give  you their talent.  Part of the pay off is they get to do what they love, so keep a happy set when  you can.  For many, however, learning is a big reason they're working with you.  So, be prepared for not everyone to know their lines or how to handle the changes.

Surround the newcomers with as many of your pros as possible.  It will make your life easier.  Although, some of  your pros may get frustrated, most of them will be helpful with new talent.

Take Advantage of Down Time:

So, it's shoot day.  Most of your cast is sitting around while you set up, reading their lines to themselves.  Put a stop to that immediately.  Have them do that "table read" (I put that in quotes because often I find them sitting on the floor with the dog between them).  Have them interact and read the lines out loud.  Do a bit of multi tasking yourself.  If you have a crew setting up lighting, let them, while  you listen to the cast.  If you're setting up things  yourself (you know you are), listen as you tighten down lights and drop sand bags.  By the time you get everyone on set you'll have a feel for who knows their lines, who is comfortable with their characters and who is ready to "go first".

Learning Lines While the Camera Rolls:

Have your most confident sounding, off book actor do her close ups first. Let everyone else reference their script for feeding your off book actor her lines.  This will often mean shooting a scene, in its entirety, several times.  Perhaps more times than  you think  you need to, but it will ensure you have the coverage when you get into editing.  Watch the actors who aren't on screen as well as the one who is.  This is when  you'll shape their performances.  It's likely that your most confident actor, the one who is already off book, is also your most experienced, or one of them, and will already have a pretty good grasp of the character.  You may need to do some tweaking, but it's the people who weren't quite ready who will need the most help at this point. 

Even if people haven't memorized the lines by the time you get to their close ups, it's easier to hide a few pages of script in a tight shot, than a wide shot.  Just watch for those glances.  They can't be reading their lines while they are speaking and you will want some close up reaction shots with the correct eye-line.  Make sure  you get those.  You may need to tighten the pacing in the editing room, because nothing is worse than fluttering eye-lines that jump from the script to the other character's direction while a line is being spoken. 

After you've gone through everyone's close ups, perhaps stopping when they have to glance at the script from time to time, you'll move on to the wide shots, secure in the fact that you have several close ups to cut away to if the need arises.

Finally, the Straight Run:

Hopefully, now, everyone has gotten the staging, pace and lines pretty locked in.  If the scene is very long they may still stumble, but you want to add some close ups for drama and pacing anyway.  If everything goes to plan, at this point, what you'll have is a nearly flawless reading, that almost comes across as a stage play.  The lines will be quick, the reactions genuine and everyone will be in the moment, together.  They've have their rehearsals and you've gotten your shots.

This is not the ideal way to work a long scene, but it get things done and sometimes that's the best we can do.  The project may deserve better, but finishing a movie is no easy task.  If the impossible shoot day is all that's holding back, hopefully this will get you past shooting and into editing.

Getting to "completed" is another story.

Digital Fog and an Observation or Two

During production of Jack vs Lanterns (ongoing), there were several scenes that called for "smoke". Smoke machines are relatively inexpensive, but in my experience, they have been unreliable for year after year use, especially if you're not one to dump the juice out after each outing. (I don't trust that the stuff is entirely safe).  When mine refused to work during key scenes on the movie, I gave up.  I wasn't going to buy a third machine and more juice only to add plastic and chemical waste to the world.  Especially not when my friends over Detonation Films  (you've heard me mention them before) have digital smoke, dust and fog packs starting at $11 each.  That's less than one big jug of juice and it works just about every time. (Sometimes the direction can be tough to lock down with an effective "screen" overlay.

So far I have used the fog pack I bought three times and it's not even in shots I had originally planned on using smoke.  They would have been too difficult to run cords, conceal the machine and wait for warm  ups to get done.

I also did some testing and learned something I suspected would be true.  Screened smoke can easily be "colored" in post.  Since the background isn't affected by the color or post lighting changes you can manipulate it more.  This should be pretty neat in a movie where orange is such an important color.

Also, I refer to it as "digital smoke", but really, it's footage of actual smoke machine fog lit and shot in front of a black matte.  So, while not as great and interactive as on set or location smoke, it's pretty good looking. 

It's useful in a number of situations:

1. Better for the environment to blow the fog once and have it for use on many occasions.
2. Reliable.
3. Can be added as an afterthought to a scene which you didn't originally think fog would add something.
4. Safer for actors who may suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments.
5. Not a fire hazard if misused.

Do I suggest you all dump  your smoke machines and go "digital"? Of course not.  The stuff is great, but there's definitely still a place for physical smoke.  I just think it makes more sense for  your Special F/X person to own, maintain and run the equipment than the writer, director or producer.  You can't afford a special F/X person on this project?  Well, then the savings and ease of use of the digital method is probably for  you.  Detonation Films (link above) even offers a free 9 second sample, which you can use to see how easily it screens into a scene using your editing software.

Random Observations:

So, I've pretty much skipped YouTube Videos for the past few days.  The number of views and watch time dropped for a few days, but then went up.  Mostly on older videos.

Same with the blog.  I stopped writing one every morning because I've been working on the movie and haven't had a lot of good news outside of that to report.  Nobody wants to read bad news.  But the views still grow daily.  Not a lot, but some.  The blog remains active even when I don't.  This is key.  Building a website, channel or blog that has enough content to remain active and relevant when you go through a stretch that you can't tend to it.

Don't expect those numbers to grow unattended forever though.  Drop by every so often, like I just did, and leave some new knowledge, a product review or just update your followers and readers on what's going on in your corner of the world.  It seems to be working here to some degree.

If nothing else, these are helpful notes for me later when I'm trying to figure out if it's worth buying that new pack of F/X footage.

"You Make Money Doing That?"

This was actually a question posed to me by a "life long friend" (at the time.  I don't think I've seen him since) back when I was visiting N.Y. to do some movie work and a bit of work for Cult Goddess Magazine and I think some filming.  I believe we were up to Volume 2 at the time,  but I'm really not sure.  Some of you may read the question and think, "Well that's rude?"  I get that in polite society asking what someone makes or if they make a "good living" performing their chosen task is considered rude.  I think in many cases it's really just curiosity.  People trying to figure out if they can make a living doing what it is you do.  In this case, however, I think the question was actually meant to be rude.  A "challenge".  I'm clearly not rich and people who publish magazines are rich (according to this person's thinking), so I must be doing a poor job of it and not making money.

The fact is, on paper, I wasn't.  I was happy to break even with these things and I had gotten to a point where I was travelling to get some of the photos, so my budgets got a bit high.  Nothing I couldn't handle, but a lot to "earn back" from a free online magazine.  We offered ad space for sale, but I've never been a big salesperson, so we didn't do much business that way either.  How could I make any money at this?

And here's how it tended to pay off.  In order to have "ads", I would run them for my own projects, movies, T-shirts, etc.  I ran free ads for friends as barter for times they had worked for me free/cheap in the past.  Over the first year I noticed each time an issue would come out my web traffic went up, my sales and rentals went up and through those means I guess I "Made Money Doing That".

I eventually stopped because attempts to keep costs down meant less interviewing people in person, doing none of the photo shoots myself and generally sucked a lot of the fun out of it.  Doing it properly took too much time and was too strict a schedule and doing it wrong was just, well, wrong.  So, eventually, I came here, launched the much less formal Cult Goddess Magazine Blog, enjoyed ad revenue from video interviews conducted over the phone and using photos and banner ads on the sister blog to this.

This whole long story came back to me yesterday because, well, YouTube is shutting down my partnership and so I no longer will be able to collect revenue from the videos by way of ads.  The past week since I found out I have posted one video.  In that week I also have written fewer blogs.  What I discovered this weekend is that my numbers on Amazon (one of my bigger indicators for my movies ), which had been recovering steadily the past few weeks, dove 20% since I stopped posting.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  But I have to consider, is writing blogs and doing videos worth it even if the only pay is from the effect it has on other aspects of my business?

Of course, the short answer is, "Yes".  If they prove to be effective marketing tools then it just becomes a question of how much time and money do I put into them.  I originally started my channel and blog as ways of informing people about my movies in the first place.  The ad revenue was a nice bonus.  So, I'll be trying to stick to that 100 videos for the year and to post to each blog at least once a week, but you may notice specific projects being spoken about more, like Jack vs Lanterns (especially on YouTube) and shows I have planned.  I actually think these are the things people are interested in anyway, besides Chaya.

If they start to slag off you know they didn't have the intended effect.

Doggy Stunt Double

In Lumber vs Jack, we had a bit of a risky scene, where after rescuing my Chihuahua I was to run with her and "leap" into the house.  I didn't want to worry about squishing my little girl, so I looked for a suitable stunt double.

This is what I came up with.

YouTube Just Shot My Duck - Metaphorically Speaking

If you read my last blog you know the ducks I'm talking about.  If not (and that's a larger group), go read it now.

One of the problems with digital filmmaking and distribution is it is an every moving target.  The "big wigs" on the corporate end, who put your content in front of eyes and pay you for those eyes, change the rules.  In fact, this the case with any side gig, job, career or business that relies on other, larger, internet or app based businesses to make money.  As they figure out ways to pull more the profit from more people, they edge out the smaller business people who can't keep up.  So, if you're using a rideshare, homeshare or any other platform that really runs your business through a different business, be aware, they can turn your income upside down at any given time.

YouTube recently shut down the money making potential of any channel that didn't have 1000 subscribers.  We're far below that number, but recently gained 9. That's more than a 3% increase in just about two weeks.  We would get to our thousand if we kept at it, but should we?

Strange and simple as my videos may be, they still take a significant part of my day and more so my computer time, to make.  As promotional tools they're useless if YouTube doesn't put them in front of people and YouTube won't put them in front of people unless we have the subscribers to be partners and make money for them.  Basically, they've made it a non paying endeavor.

Vidme is gone and I'm not sure I can embed Facebook videos here (I'll try that)

It's a shame really, because I had an idea for some cooking videos I was going to do with  my wife, I was enjoying the review videos ( I will do one more because I already put the work into readying the studio) and I spent an entire month hitting that 300 video goal.

Now, it seems, except for the 3 or 4 people I seemed to have entertained, I wasted my time.  I do appreciate those who watched though.

I put that duck in the middle of the row and now, he has to fall to the back of the line.  YT videos will once again be an afterthought.  Maybe that's for the best.

Please, if you were following us there, look for my Landing Page on Amazon.  I'll be putting any kind of content that might work there when I have time to caption it properly.
http://www.amazon.com/v/hocusfocusproductions

You may remember that I addressed this issue of moving targets in a YouTube video awhile back.  The difference is, back then, I was talking about Amazon Video Direct.  No online source of revenue is safe.  You're an independent contractor.  You sort of own your own business, but you're still reliant on other companies to allow you to reach and interact with customers.

Getting Ducks Your Ducks in a Row

Nothing will enable a procrastinator like ducks.  Not actual ducks, but proverbial ducks, which need to be in a row.  The reason the ducks need to be in a row makes more sense if you think about them as Dominoes.  One out of the place and the line doesn't work properly when  you try to knock them down.

Today, the big Domino (or duck, which metaphor do we like better here?) is my new hard drive. (Thanks Mom and Dad).  External hard drives have lifespans.  All that spinning.  You don't want to lose what's on them and backing up is essential and something most of us don't do often enough.  Also, as movies get longer,  you do more projects,  you build a larger stock footage library that you want at your fingertips, these drives fill up.  So, every couple of years or every few projects, whichever necessitates things first, I get a new, bigger drive, give it the same letter as an old drive and replace the old one.  The reason for this is, my software which uses clips for multiple projects can always find them if I keep the letters the same.  It simplifies my work flow to have a couple of main drives instead of just adding and adding and adding new letters.  At one time I had quite a little alphabet going.

I have plenty of room to finish Jack vs Lanterns on the drive I'm working on, so why is this new drive so important?  I had no drive to back  up the work to any longer.  My lead duck was fine, but the duck behind him was falling behind and she filled up before the lead duck was finished, where would I be?

By the way, the he/she designations for my ducks come from back when I worked in a bar that was in a  hotel, which had ducks.  Those ducks would march twice daily.  It was adorable, the male led four hens and all of them followed the "Duck Master" into an elevator up to their luxury suite.  I miss those ducks and the really helped put the whole "Ducks in a Row" thing into perspective.  Yep, we're going with the duck analogy.

So, I have had the hard drive for awhile, but knew I would need to set aside some time to move files over.  So, I kept using the old one, working on the movie and other edits so I wouldn't tie  up my editing computer with this move.  Problem is, the more I piled onto the old drive, the more I would need to move.  So, today, being a winter day I was planning on spending home anyway, I decided to make the movie.  A few hours, I suspected.  Right now the computer is telling me 22.  I sincerely hope it is wrong, but we'll see.

In the meantime, I set up the studio for another duck yesterday.  What I hope will be a 3D video review of a 3D movie.  It always works better with a bit of Chroma or Color Key to help drop the background out.

I'm going to leave my office for awhile so that I don't have to keep watching the computer tell me this actually going to take longer than it expected.

The Assistance Bands Are Here!

Sorry, not a very production intense production diary the past few days.  Getting a bit side tracked trying not to get "editor's butt".  Then when 8 -12 hours in an office chair shapes your behind into a flat panel.  The exercise helps.

Haunting Yourself

I haunt myself.
When I have things I need to do (See, the "Needtos" blog), I leave reminders all over the house to make sure I don't forget.  It makes for a cluttered lifestyle, but it's a lot harder to put things off when they're constantly staring you in the face.  I guess after awhile they become part of the landscape and you sort of get better at not wincing every time you see a reminder of an unfinished project, but still, occasionally, it will catch your eye the right way and light a new fire under you to get moving on that long lost idea again.

Most recently, I am haunted by my new pull up bar and the assistance band I bought to go with it. (Unboxing video coming to my YouTube channel soon).  It's hanging in my doorway with the assist apparatus hung over it.  Right in the hallway.  My understanding wife hasn't complained, but it's only been a day.

The problem is, basically, even with the help, I can get one or two good chin ups and one or two good pull ups out before I need a significant recovery.  So, I set the bar up so that I can hit it whenever I pass by it.  One or two in the morning.  A couple of pull ups when I head to the shower.  Maybe one or two more after the shower, if I don't think they'll sweat me up (in this cold spell lately, not a big problem.)  It's right across from my office, so I am probably going to attempt a pull up after this blog.  It's on the way to the bedroom and bathroom, next to the basement door leading down to my basement and currently where my gorilla suit is stored.  I cannot escape it unless I go out through the backyard, where a pile of wood that needs to be chopped is in a corner mocking me.  I can't go anywhere around my house without being reminded that I have some goals and need to exercise in order to achieve them.  This is a good thing, I think.  A positive haunting.  A reminder that in those moments between working, filming, peeing, sleeping, showering and grooming, I still need to sneak in a little exercise.

Winters are especially tough time to motivate myself to get active, so I haunt myself.

With what do you haunt yourself?  Does it work?  

You ARE Your Own Retirement Plan

I have friends who tell me that they're never going to retire.  While it's a noble and healthy outlook to think that you'll always be willing to work in order to support yourself, the fact is, it may not be your choice.  If you work for yourself, you certainly have more control over when and if you'll retire, but you also have more responsibility to make sure you can retire should the need arise.

It's no secret that Social Security is fading.  Jobs with pensions are becoming more and more scarce.  401k's are nice, but you need to start them early and pay into them heavily, while tying your money to investments that could fail at critical times, in order to see a benefit.  If you're fortunate, while working for yourself, either your spouse or partner has a job that offers retirement benefits, or you work another job often enough that it offers some kind of retirement plan.  If not, you're on your own.

There are plenty of websites that will offer advice on how much you should save for retirement, so I won't get into that here.   Here's what I will say, if you run your own business you probably went through some lean years.  That time you were building the business to become a paying concern rather than a debt building one.  The temptation is that once your business starts paying your bills you quit your "day job" and start just living the life of being your own boss.  The reality is, you start to realize the things your boss was doing for you.  Paying into social security.  Helping with insurance costs.  Giving you paid days off, which you probably used to work your own business.  The thing is, when you leave your job for your career, those things go away.  It's something to consider.

Find yourself an accountant you trust and learn about what you, as a self-employed person, can do about your retirement.  I know,  you plan to make movies until you die, and maybe even have a plan to do a movie about your wake, but the fact is an injury or illness can force you to retire before you're ready.  Plan for it.  If it never happens pick an age to "live large" off of the money you happily never needed.

In that between your business paying off and stopping working a second a job is a good time to pretend the extra money isn't there.  You want to know if you can by with just the money from your business?  Try saving or investing 100% of your "day job" (I put this in quotes because I usually worked at night) money.  It will kickstart a nice little retirement fund and if you don't need to dip into it, you'll know it's okay to move on.

Me?  I'm a bit old to be thinking about this stuff now.  Thankfully this isn't the first it's crossed my mind.  I have realized, however, that adding a manager to the rental property, besides myself, will allow me to book it more often.  But it also means I won't be needed there as often.  I can try to shoot more movies and shows, but those are "risky" incomes and the internet has automated a lot of selling and rental of videos once I've finished them, freeing up more time.  So, I'm taking my advice in reverse.  I'm going back to the "day job" because I'm too young to be sitting around while other people do my work for me.  The extra income will allow me to squirrel a bit more away or expand the other businesses, maybe find a third. (Anybody have a bar that's doing well, but needs a silent partner to update the décor or something?)  The idea will be to let the businesses fend for themselves. Instead of paying for my life, they'll pay to grow themselves.  Hopefully, some day, they'll become those money earning, bill paying businesses I always hoped they'd be.  Employ a few people and keep me and mine fed and sheltered in our old age while employing younger people who need the side gig to save for their own retirements.

Now, go research some mutual funds and let me know if you hear anything about that successful bar.

The "I Need To's"

Is that apostrophe correct?  I have no idea.  It looks wrong, but without it the word would be "Tos" and that doesn't seem right either.  I need to look into that.

See that?  That last line right there?  That's a classic case of an "I need To".  These plague our everyday lives.  Procrastinators and heavy planners especially suffer from them, but  you'll hear everyone say it about something if you hang out with them often enough.  They may need to call someone, mail something, look into something, talk to their accountant about something, read a specific book or article, see a movie or any other thing that would improve their lives or businesses, but they haven't found the time to do.  Not yet.  But they are often reminded that they "need to".

These lists tend to grow.  Some are more important than others. For example, I need to make business cards for "Little Creek Rentals, LLC". But do I really?  How often do I find myself in a situation where the card for that specific business would have added a client?  I still have HFP cards from years ago.  So, the "need" is questionable, but I really should.  The "shoulds" get pushed back even further than the "needs to's".

In order to make the business the business cards I need to finalize our logo design.  So now you wind up with the ducks in a row problem.  You need to figure out the order in which things need to be done in order to properly do the things you need to do.  Then, you need to get some estimates, need to decide who will print the cards, or ship the package, or what time of day to make the call.  You need to  decide whether or not it's all worth the cost and then you need to actually get it done.

These things pile up.  After awhile they can become overwhelming.

The first trick is to separate the needs from the shoulds and the wants.
After that, put the needs into categories.  Some of the needs lead to an ultimate goal need, as in our business card example.  So, the business cards are the ultimate need category.  Once you decide which of the main needs are most  important, start tackling the needs you have to take care of to accomplish that ultimate goal.  Some needs are also time sensitive.  Are you entering a film into festivals?  Maybe those festivals have upcoming deadlines and  you need to set up your Withoutabox or other festival entry service page.  You need to get on that need right away.

Is one of your needs the need to start saving some money or paying off debt?  You should get on those right away because time wasted there is interest lost.  Do  your research, but do it as soon as you can.

Is one of your needs new equipment or office gear?  That may involve seasonal sales that you should take advantage if you can.  If you're going to rush into this one because of a sale, however, be sure it's a need and not simply a want. Saving money on something you want, but don't need and later may not actually use is really just spending money.  There is truth in the idea that you have to "spend money to make money", but spending money to save money is really based on whether or not you would have bought the product at the higher price anyway.  If you not, all you did was spend money.

Have a headache yet?

The need to's will always be with us.  The trick is to keep up with  them so they don't become the "I wish I hads" or the "I knew I should haves".  Those can really sting in hindsight.

This is, of course, a case of me giving advice I need to hear myself.  Lots of times these blogs are just me sharing an observation of my own shortcomings in the hopes that I can save a reader or two the time it took me to figure these things out.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go have some lunch before it's dinner time.

The Bears Have the Right Idea

I don't understand winter without hibernation.  I lived without it for a good long time.  My wife and I wanted to live closer to my family, so we moved a few hours drive north.  Now we get a real winter.  Not as long or as brutal as further up the coast, but below freezing temperatures, salted roads, actual snow storms here and there winters.  To make matters a bit worse, we live in a valley, but have a house on a mountain (the rental). Getting to that after snow is treacherous. My last trip up I passed three or four abandoned cars.  One of which was nose down in a ditch.  Probably totaled.  My friends don't understand my owning a winter and non-winter car.  For one thing, torque heavy Mustangs aren't fun in the snow or on ice.  No fun at all.  In fact, they be downright unwieldy.  Secondly, the salt deteriorates a car much more quickly than just air and water.  Thirdly, there are hills around here that would be near impossible to climb in the Mustang if they were covered in snow and the Jeep walks up them like it's any other day.  Finally, I don't want someone who can't slow down because it's icy out to come sliding into me no matter what I'm driving, but I'd rather have to repair or replace my 24 year rust bucket of a Jeep than my now 10 year old, 60K mile garage kept Mustang.

The extreme cold also had some recent effects on my filming.  A 500 watt bulb heating up suddenly in freezing temperatures is apt to "pop" and rain glass down everywhere.  Pumpkins, even when left to soften up, form hard, armor like skin when frozen.  This makes it difficult to pierce one with an arrow.  Combine that with the round shape and they fly off in many directions.  Most cameras will list a functional temperature.  Below freezing is not recommended.  Last year we kept burning through batteries on the shoot with Anjanette Clewis partly because of the age of the batteries, but also, I suspect, because it was 15 degrees out.  We wrote the scene in just to take advantage of the snow and get something shot while we were stuck not being able to get our other cast members to us.

Anyway, the bears have it right.  This is a time to sleep through.  Tuck  up in our caves and not go outside unless utterly necessary.  Of course, we still need to eat in winter, although we do stock  up on calories before the real cold hits.  You may have seen my video about making a suit to  bulk me up for a movie.  Not needed.  I have gained back about 9 pounds since Christmas.  Our skin dries out.  Our cars don't want to start as easily.  Our heating bills go  up.  Pipes can freeze if not used.  We gain time from having mow the lawn, but lose it to shoveling snow and digging out cars.  We  have to cover our windows in plastic, balance the temperatures between well insulated rooms of the house and the "summer room".  It's just not a season I enjoy and the snow isn't predictable enough here, nor does it last long enough, for me to shoot my snow monster movie.

So, I always plan to spend this time writing, but the world conspires to interrupt that too.  Holidays, parties, weather hold  ups and "emergencies" interrupt every session at the computer longer than it takes to fire off one of these.  The earlier it gets dark, the earlier I get groggy eyed and don't feel like doing much.  Even watching bad movies has become tough.  I haven't reviewed a movie for you guys since the new year began.

So, there you go.  The bears are right.  If you live where there is winter, charge  your batteries and plan on staying inside.  Maybe write or edit (if the power stays on) and try to keep warm.  Drive something you don't mind getting rusty.

Temps go up to the 40s next week, so at least I can get some work done outside.

Saying "No", a Necessary Evil.

Sometimes, you just have to say, "no".  You may not want to say it.  You may not even be sure it's totally necessary, but it's easier to change a "no" to a "yes" than the other way around, so when in doubt, I usually go with "no".  I've tried "maybe" and 'I'll look into it and get back to you", but if you turn these into a hard "no", often the person who asked for the favor sees it as you changing your mind.  Many people take an "I'll think about it", as a yes waiting to happen rather than the more probable polite "no" you're trying to get across.

And trying to be polite all the time is part of the problem.  We somehow feel like we need a reason or excuse to say no to the request for a favor.  "I don't want to" or "It's not convenient" should be enough.  I had one, we'll call him a friend for these purposes, who used to call out of the blue, last minute and ask, "What are you doing?", if I answered that I wasn't doing much, he'd follow  up with "Great, then you can help me with x, y, z."  You see why friend may not be the right word?  It was rarely a call to see if I'd like to go hang out somewhere or contacting me with a paid opportunity.  It was always this sneaky way of first checking if I was doing something he deemed important, worthy as an excuse for not helping, and then the request for said help.

As independent filmmakers, you know that you sometimes need favors to get your movie done.  When possible, you should be willing to reciprocate these favors.  Sometimes you may even want to do favors just because you're a nice person and helping others is a good thing to do.  That said, "I'm in my pajamas and I have been planning to spend today in my pajamas playing with my dog and writing scripts for weeks now" should be enough reason to turn down a favor on a given day.

The other favors are for freebies.  These also should be at your total discretion.  Reasons are your own and real friends don't actually need them.  Non-friends definitely don't need a reason, but I find myself giving them often anyway.

Recently I had someone contact me about using one of my movies as part of a show.  The thing is, this show wouldn't be showing a clip, it would be showing my entire movie.  In the past, when I sold DVDs, these types of things were sometimes helpful for spreading the word, so I would take them up on it as a win-win.  Now, however, anything that shows my entire movie and doesn't pay me is just taking away potential views from our legitimate channels.  Clips, reviews, interviews and the like are all good, but asking my permission to show my movie, in its entirety online is just competing with myself.  Often these shows are presented as a one time live thing, and that COULD be helpful if people miss it, but later you hear they're broadcasting it again...and again...and again...and so on.  I have had to close down my own less-profitable streams in favor of the ones that pay better.  If I want to continue making more movies, I need to do what's best for the titles I manage now.  Do I begrudge them the asking?  No.  If you don't ask, you don't know what the answer may be, but, I do hope that the "I can't help" is enough of an answer.

Even though I know the reasons I say no sometimes, I still feel a little guilty.  I was raised to "share" and be generous and be helpful, but I can't go into all of my friends businesses and ask for their services for free.  You'll often find the use of an office space for free isn't too tough.  A store will let film on the property for nothing, but the services that office offers or the items that store sells will cost you just like anyone else.  To me, this makes perfect sense.

So, ask for  your favors, offer the ones  you can and give  yourself permission to say "no" every so often, for whatever reason.  Save feeling guilty for times you actually do something wrong.

The Day to Day

So, you know how I suggested in a video blog recently that you should be prepared for things to go wrong and just meet them head on?  I stand by that, but it's exhausting.  Things will come up.  Some you're ready for and some from out of the clear blue.  Others will be the result of poor planning or a lack of information from the people you live or work with.

It's winter on the mountain and that means I'm dealing with all sorts of "Surprise! Bet you didn't see that coming" sort of crap.  To top it off, everyone who worked one day on the movie I began back in November of 2016 feels they have a right to ask why it isn't finished yet?  Well, your three hours of work and subsequent abandonment of helping secure locations, funding or promoting the page hasn't really moved things along.  Asking someone how a movie is going because you were an extra for one day is like asking someone if their student loan is paid off because you once bought them a cup of a coffee.  They would love to say, "Great! It's done!"  And you know, very clearly, that if it were the case, they would have told the world, so your only reason for asking is to prod someone, who would love to be able to finish something, to finish it sooner.  If you think about it, you're being rude. So, maybe cut it out.  You're not five years old and this isn't a family drive to the Grand Canyon.  We are not there yet.  We will get there when we get there and annoying the driver while he is changing his third flat tire isn't helpful.

Sorry, was that ranty?

My point is, as an indie, life will get in the way.  Just like with any problem, only your real friends will help.  Getting big projects done seems impossible at times.  Just put your head down.  Ignore the nay-sayers and useless prodders and keep working. At your pace.  In your own time.  You want to make your movie your priority, but you can't always do that.  Small inconveniences like needing to be able to buy food, repair cars and maybe even pay off a student loan (Yay, film school) will come up.  When your day to day and work life happen in the same place they interfere with each other.  There's no, "leave your problems at the door" when  you show up at work, because you're at work as soon as you leave your bed.

An unexpectedly early ice storm cost me about three hours the afternoon it hit.  Another extra couple of hours yesterday because it really slowed down my drive to the cabin and is causing a bit of extra of work at the house today (and maybe tomorrow).  It also has caused internet outages and there's always the looming power outage in these parts, which makes me scared to run my work computer.  However, I did buy a new battery back  up that is a monster and helps with that fear a bit.

This Photo has little to do with the blog, but they do better with pictures.

A slow down in the laundry room has my wife busy and my studio noisy, so there's no shooting audio down there today.  Guests, as welcome as the income and experience is, have been costing us weeks of shooting final scenes at the cabin, but at least I got my arrow hit shots in the other day.  I am chroma keying what I can, but firing arrows into pumpkins in my house just didn't seem safe, especially after a foam tipped arrow still went through a wall when fired from a low poundage bow. Be careful out there, kiddies.

OK, I'm going to have one more cup of coffee, clean up and try to shoot the first video of 2018.

Want to help us move the movie, Jack vs Lanterns, along?  Go buy a poster from Lumber vs Jack so we can pay for the final little touches instead of having to beg for them.