Authoring and Marketing and Bears. Oh My.

Well, no, not bears.  That was "Indiscretions".  But on "Jack vs Lanterns" we're  up to the point where the movie is finally finished and I have to move in to getting it out to the public.  For a lot of filmmakers this would mean hitting festivals to try and drum up some buzz.  For me that would mean spending more money on entry fees and waiting longer for the movie to start paying off.  This movie has been in post way too long for me to wait another year to start selling it, no less adding another 25% to the budget spent on very unsure entry fees.  (It's not really a "festival baby" kind of movie.) Add to that the fact that the cast is scattered to the four corners of the country (well, three) and very busy, so lining any of us up to be present at conventions or festivals means we would have to get into some very specific shows.  If any conventions want to host us after it is available for public consumption, I'll gladly work with them the best I can, but my impatience is showing here.  I do think a panel on the still sub-$5k feature would be helpful since so many people now try to raise more than that for shorts.

So, that moves me on to getting the DVD authored, the cases designed (we usually have two separate designs), I worked on a Blu-ray version and of course we have our VOD files being reviewed.  The reason I have two DVD case designs is simple.  I go with a higher ink consumption design for the discs available through CreateSpace.  For the ones that I'll be printing on demand here and for the cast I go with a design that uses high contrast on the back. where the description is.  Also, it's easier to use CS's designs since they'll be adding graphics after the fact and inevitably it will overlap with something in my design no matter how much I follow the downloaded templates.  (I swear they move that "DVD" box every few months.)  Both versions are DVD-R, but the ones I make myself are generally only available for a limited time because I eventually get burned out on making them in small batches.

High Contrast Back panel for in-house DVD-R case.

This time around I also tried something new.  Blu-ray.  A lot of the movie is just gorgeous and I want people to be able to own it in HD, not just stream it that way.  But, up until now I have only used BD-R's for screeners.  No menus.  No extras.  So, I foolishly believed the disc could hold the 25GB advertised and that the files were the sizes they said they were.  I had the brilliant idea to fit both "Lumber vs Jack" and "Jack vs Lanterns" on one Disc.  With loads of extras.  And in the initial set up it looked to be working.  I kept track of the memory the whole time, but after the encoding, the numbers all shifted up and the disc wouldn't burn because there wasn't enough room.  I started cutting content. This took two days partially because there were a lot of menus involved and I also tried more compression on some of the extras.  In the end all I had left was "Jack vs Lanterns" and a blooper reel from "Lumber vs Jack".  I was pretty disappointed.  So, there may be a BD-R version available, but it probably won't have as many extras as the DVD, which I don't like.


Now I'm in the waiting game.  I'd love to give an official release date, but with closed captions for 1hr and 45 min of movie waiting to be proofed by Amazon and knowing that they may think my rating is "inappropriate", I don't want to give a date until all of the files are approved.  I should know more by mid-week.


My question now is, how do I get the word out?  How much do I spend and how much do I try to do with press releases and teasers?  How do I keep the message that this is a monster movie with a retro tone rather than a blood and guts gore fest or an edge of your seat horror film?  The movie is finished, but the work isn't near done.  And these aren't my favorite tasks.

Catch the original On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/v/hocusfocusproductions



Thoughts and suggestions in the comments would be great.

New Art and Cool Actors

As a reader of this blog, especially if you've seen any of my unedited posts, you have probably noticed that I am not much at typing.  I do it all the time.  Partially for a living, some may say, and yet, I find myself having to correct a lot of mistakes.  I blame short fingers and a lack of concentration.  Largely, I get two or three words ahead of myself as I tend to compose and type as I go.  I'd blame my wrist injury from three  years ago, but that's mostly healed and I was a pretty lousy typist long before that.

Anyway, that makes me a bit leery when it comes to typing out credits.  Actors really like to have their names spelled out correctly.  I mean, for most of them, my getting their names and faces on the screen is a large portion, if not all, of their pay.  So, when the third render and export of the finished "Jack vs Lanterns" had a typo at the very end of the movie, I was a bit..."miffed".  I was  hoping to move onto the DVD Build, but that wasn't looking too promising.  It would be another few hours of rendering and exporting video and as my readers know, Spring into Summer is the busy time for my "day job".  I have a few social obligations coming  up, and as an anti-social (except when I'm standing behind a bar) kind of guy, those use up a lot of my energy.  Pushing this movie a few more weeks back after nearly two years may not seem like much, but to me it was a weight I really didn't want to deal with.

So, I emailed the actor, pled my case and within a few moments got the coolest response ever.  Read this bit of trivia that let me off the hook.  I just want to say that Micah Christein is one cool guy.  Very talented too.  He's nothing like the asshole character he plays in "Jack vs Lanterns".  In fact, I had him slated as a possible for a different role, but the fates changed that.  I guess that will be another piece of trivia down the line.

THE ART!

I'm still awaiting approval from IMDB, but I hope to have this up as our primary photo there soon.  It's a bit of a work in progress, but the layout has been in my head since the beginning (much like the "Lumber vs Jack" monster carry poster was always what I wanted to shoot).  Since this mock-up I've cleaned up quite a few things mostly only models and graphic designers will notice.  That's roughly 50% of my friends and family.  

I give you the first "poster" for "Jack vs Lanterns"! 

Rough Draft of what will likely be the Amazon Art for "Jack vs Lanterns"

There is a slight chance that I will have to make some changes for Amazon.  They don't like weapons to be the primary focus of a poster, but in general, I find that they allow a gun to be a prop like this.  Pointed straight at the camera may cause a bit of a problem. We'll see.

By the way, if it looks a bit like an  homage to a 70s TV show with a monster in the background, that's not an accident.  Jack takes a bit of a back seat in this sequel (Don't worry.  I still swing an axe here and there.)  I thought all of the phone calls and information sharing he did with the real heroes of the movie harkened back to my days of playing Bosley when the neighbor girls wanted to be the Angels.  The fact that there are three here is a happy coincidence.

I hope you're all looking forward to the movie.

Like many sequels, it's even sillier than the first, but I think a fun time.
If you haven't seen "Lumber vs Jack" yet, it's FREE until the end of May on Amazon Prime.

After June 1st you'll need to be a member or pay for it.

More on Day for Night.

If you follow my YouTube channel and the "Jack vs Lanterns" page, you've likely seen me do some talking about relighting things in post.  It's not really "easier" and it's a "digital trick" I've tried to avoid in my movies up until now in keeping with my retro style, but sometimes it's a necessity.

A shoot we did at a house once, in 3D, a camera captured some light from a room that gave away the time of day, so I added a shadow obscuring that room entirely.  It was very helpful.  You can't really use the feature to fix a scene that isn't lit at all (it can make terrible a bit better, but not good), but you can take an over lit scene and add some mood, color and depth.  It's much easier with a static camera.  When you plan for it, the post process will be time consuming, but reasonable.  I don't suggest shooting with an eye for digital lighting unless you've used it a lot and there is no way to get the lighting situation you want in camera.  Lab Day on "Jack vs Lanters" was a good example.  I lit it cleanly for the blue screen.  Adjusted lights to make sure the actors looked their best and then tweaked everything in post.  Colored gels in a small bluescreen room don't work well, so post lighting was the best choice for efficiency and effect.

We talked about that in this video.

Other situations are thrust upon  you.

Due to schedules I had ONE night at the cabin to shoot the scenes with Christina Daoust and Brewier Welch and because of the mountain location I had what is a strange situation for a filmmaker.  We weren't losing the light fast enough.  It was well past what I would consider night time, and I'm sure it was getting dark in town, but up on the mountain, it was still pretty light.  I wanted to get their two shots in before some extras arrived, so I shot as soon as the sun was basically down.

Deck Scene as shot with Fog F/X added.

I actually liked the sort of "dusky" look of it, but when cut with my footage shot at "true night" in other locations that were being intercut with this, the differences were too much.  You can see in the photo above that I used some shutter control to minimize the exposure and I added some digital fog to tie it into some studio shots, which helped with the lighting a bit (and with audio helped bridge the indoor and outdoor scenes brilliantly).  What you can't see here is that I was using a handheld camera and at one point I caught a blue sky behind the house.  That had to go.

So, I added post lighting.

Deck shot with shadows added.

If you look to their sides, you'll see tht I added some shadows.  I also then relit their faces with a bluish filtered light too cool the light of the overall scene.  The difference is subtle, but it will help with continuity.

I did all of this to the layer behind the fog, so as to not effect the fog's orange tinge, which was also accomplished using post lighting.

Overall, I'm happy I put in the effort.  This effect can be addictive and  you can definitely overuse it or depend on it too much.  I know I did in this film.  Between weather forcing us into the studio and only having limited access to some locations, the time of day we shot during wasn't always a choice or the studio lighting was just too "clean" to match with the outdoor elements of the scene.  I do encourage people to shoot some shorts, light them way too evenly and work on adding depth and mood in post just to get a feel for it. The day you need it, you'll want to know how it works.

In X-24, the ability to use negative lights to add shadows was also SUPER HELPFUL.  One shadow hides a camera that snuck into shot because we forgot to move it.

Audio on Windy Days

While editing "Jack vs Lanterns", I came across a scene we shot on a particularly windy day.  It was a tight day, so there was no rescheduling to be done.  The shoot had to happen then.

In the past I have shielded microphones from wind in some pretty creative ways, including driving my car around to the location and placing the mic and recorder inside while pointing it out the open window.  We did that for the scenes under the tree in Alien Vengeance and it was far more effective than I expected.

In this particular situation, that wasn't an option, so we handled it like this instead.

Links

The Cult Goddess Blog: http://cultgoddessmagazine.blogspot.com

The Indie Streams Reviews Blog: http://freecinemamoviereviews.blogspot.com/

Indie Streams Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/IndieStreams/

Hocus Focus Productions Website: www.hocusfocusproductions.com

The BCinemaTV Talks Podcast: http://www.bcinema.tv/podcast.htm

Time Off Can Hurt You

Recently I went on a short trip.  Only four days.  I think I ignored the blog for about six days because of it.  I was trying to get some specific editing done before we left and I didn't have a whole lot of access to Wi-Fi while I was gone.  In fact, just typing that sentence I realize I got an email, which I read just before the plane brought us home, that I still need to respond to because I didn't want to try and type my response on my phone.

At First All Seemed Fine.

When I first got back I figured I had better write a blog post and get back into the groove of updating everyone regularly.  When I clicked over to check how many readers we had lost, I was surprised to find out that things had chugged along pretty nicely even without any new content being posted for days.  My numbers had dropped maybe 10% -20% from the week before.  Not bad considering there was nothing new to see.  This left me optimistically thinking that once I started writing again, the numbers would go back up to normal and then continue to grow as they had been before I left.

Boy Was I Wrong.

It's almost like people just needed to see something new in order to decide that they weren't interested in the blog anymore.  Our first new post since we got back seemed to get about 50% of the traffic of the ones posted up until then, but the daily traffic overall has gone down about 80% in the week I've been back to it.  I think this is the fourth or fifth blog I've written in a week (if you include the CGM Blog hosting Monique Dupree's video from her live shoot with Tara Cardinal.  Pop over to our Cult Magazine Blogs to see it.)  That's a pretty normal amount of content for me right now, but we're still down on views.

Maybe It's A Social Disease.

Perhaps part of the change is how things now work on platforms I use to promote this blog.  I am posting less to YouTube and Facebook has changed how links show in the newsfeed.  Also, I admit, that I have snoozed about 20% of my friends list for 30 days.  Today some of those ended and suddenly those friends are liking or commenting on my stuff again.  I think when you snooze someone, Facebook hides your feed from them as well.

It's no secret my YouTube activity has been way down.  I did use the blog to refer to things on the channel and vice-verse.  While I have turned off the searchability of many of the videos on YouTube, I have left most of them active on my channel and they can still be seen in the free theatre on my website http://www.hocfocprod.com . But not posting new videos means no new links back to my blog in the descriptions.

As much as the dates of these changes coincide with the trip, I can't help but think that "being away from things" was the major factor.

What I Should Have Done.

Just like I can schedule videos to post on YouTube days or weeks in advance, I should have done that here.  I can write blogs ahead of time and set them up to post at a later date.  The trouble is, I like to keep them topical and as you can see, I do tend to write a bit "stream of conscious" here.  That would be lost on pre-written blogs.  I would also then have to figure out how to announce them.

I guess these are all things I can try the next time I have to travel, or maybe I'll set some up to publish on auto pilot when I have a few days of shooting ahead of me.  That way I can write about what I know I'll be shooting and set it  up to post on the day I'm shooting because I'll be too busy to write about it then.  I can also read it after the shoot and see how closely my fantasy of how things would go on the production  match with how they actually DID go.

Here is a video I shot and set up to publish on Christmas, I believe.

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.

Lighting in Post

Didn't quite match the lighting between your close ups and wide shots?

Was your lighting rushed and just not dramatic at all?

Did you shoot in front of a green/blue screen and now you need to match the lighting of the background?

Have no fear, digital post production is here!

On Jack vs Lanterns (still in production) because we used a lot of "out of town" talent and had some issues on set, like weather, flakey cast and no crew to speak of, lighting was often a bit rushed.  This is one of the places where my usual "I like to do things the old fashioned way" approach has to get tossed aside so that I can get the look I want.

More "Inside HFP" videos coming soon.