One Day or Day One

I have never been one who relinquishes control easily. So if the director controls the stage, I will be the director. However, as the director I sometime have to make hard decisions, like who will be the main actors (or actresses in this case) in our film.

The first actresses that came to mind were my sister and her friend. We needed two girls that were of high school age, and they were. We also needed them to be two people we were comfortable filming with, having all attended the same middle school we all would be comfortable filming together. We also needed two actresses who were comfortable being filmed, luckily neither of these girls were camera shy (being the older sister I had many experiences taking photos for them in the past).

I thought using them as actresses would be a good idea and give Addie and I the opportunity to operate the camera. With both of us behind the camera we would be able to capture all the ideas we had for different shots as well as make more creative decisions along the way.

Unfortunately this idea did not come to completion. As our first shooting date was quickly approaching I realized that I would not have time to coordinate with both my sister and her friend. Organizing two schedules was hectic enough but having to organize four schedules of four very busy girls seemed almost impossible.

In addition to this I realized that I wanted to include scenes where our main character was driving alone. While both my sister and her friend are of high school age and have their learners permits, neither have their drivers license. This means they are legally required to have an adult in the passenger seat while driving. If either of them were to play the main character we could not show them driving alone.

This is how Addie and I came to be the two main actors in our own film. I will talk more about the benefits and draw backs of this outcome in my later posts.

Just like Stephen Rea I would love to own a movie camera, but for the purpose of this film project our access to film cameras is limited.

One piece of technology that we do have access to, however, is our cell phones. Most modern cellphones have excellent photo quality, are light weight, and user friendly.

Footage taken from phones can also be easily uploaded to online programs that allow files to be transferred over multiple devices. This will make the process of gathering and editing the footage we have easier.

The two phone types that we plan to be using throughout our filming is the iPhone 7 plus and the iPhone 11 plus. We plan to utilize the iPhones “airdrop” ability to allow for easy file transfer between the two devices. Both devices also have internet access that allows for the transfer of videos over programs like Google Drive and Microsoft’s One Drive.

The camera quality of both phones is compared in the video below.

While iPhone 11 plus has the greater camera ability, it is owned by my sister and therefore will not be available during all of our filming. My sister will be acting as the primary camera operator since she will not be acting in any of our scenes. This does not present itself as a major issue because both use a 12MP (12 million pixel) camera making the videos captured very similar in quality. The main difference between the two cameras is the iPhone 11’s updated ability to allow for “improved image processing to preserve more highlights and details in each shot”.

The iPhone 11 is also said to have a new “Night mode” but we do not plan to film any of our scenes at night or in dark areas so this ability would not be beneficial to us.

Resources:

“Daryl Hannah Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/daryl_hannah_202246.

Welch, Chris. “Apples New IPhone 11 and IPhone 11 Pro Cameras: What They Do.” The Verge, The Verge, 10 Sept. 2019, http://www.theverge.com/2019/9/10/20850694/apple-iphone-11-pro-max-camera-specs-features-triple-three-slofies.

Pretending the camera was not there was one of the biggest struggles we faced on our first day of filming. Having little to no experience in acting I did my best to both remain in character and not look into the camera despite what was going on around me.

Following our shooting schedule Addie and I shot Thursday morning during class time in the student parking lot. In scheduling this shooting time I did not realize :

• The temperature would be below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (and we would be pretending its summer)
• We would have heightened school security due to supposed threats the day before (two police cars in the parking lot)
• How long it would take us to shoot our closing scenes

As you can imagine we ran into some problems, some of which are documented in the behind the scene footage linked below.

One of our reoccurring issues was camera stability. We did not have a tripod for the iPhone that would sit on my car’s dash board and did not think to purchase one before shooting. So instead, on the day of filming, I leaned my phone, our camera, up against my car manual that we had set on the dash board.

With the camera in selfie mode this method of shooting worked for our first day of filming but a better solution would be ideal for future shooting days. While the camera was supported from behind, there was no support in the front of the camera and many great shots were interrupted by the camera falling forward while I was driving through the parking lot.

We also had an issue with sound effects. In one of our scenes Character one (played by yours truly) calls character two who does not pick up. Our original plan was to have my phone connected to my car and as I am being filmed us it to call Addie, who would not answer, allowing us to record the automated voice and dial tone instructing us to leave a message. A few issues were over looked in this plan:

• If my phone was being used to call Addie, and Addie’s phone was being called, whose phone would be filming?
• Addie’s voicemail inbox was full

Knowing we needed to film this scene in order to create our first rough cut before Monday I improvised by not using the voicemail sound and instead leaving room to have it added in later.

Overall, while there is always room for improvements, our first day of filming went well and I can not wait until the next time we film.

Resource:

“Daryl Hannah Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/daryl_hannah_202246.

And just like in life sometimes plans need to be made before we face a busy day. This is why before we begin filming on Thursday I will be story boarding key scenes that we plan to include in our title sequence.

Story boarding will allow us to ensure that we film the shots that we need in order to create the right plot for the film. We are not filming a horror movie, so jump cuts, where there seems to be no transition between shots should be avoided at all costs.

Story boarding is also beneficial to our style of production because we are creating a montage that involves music. When it comes to editing the soundtrack to match the footage shot for a film, a movie that has is been shot with the soundtrack in mind flows more seamlessly together. As stated in my previous post, the matching of music with visuals on the screen makes for a more pleasing experience by the audience.

Below I have included some planned shots we should include in our title sequences. The plan is to shoot on Thursday and the rest on Saturday. We hope to get more shot variety than what is depicted here.

Below each picture I have also included any dialogue that will be occurring within the scene along with time stamps for specific songs.

We plan to use another song other than Cigarette Daydreams by Cage the Elephant at the end of the title sequence unfortunately, this song has not been found yet. We begin shooting the scenes that involve this undetermined song this Thursday (yes we are shooting the end of our title sequence first). So, we will either have to reshoot this scene once we have found the right song, or spend more time editing the sound and footage later on.

I do not expect everything to go to plan, but I am excited to begin shooting and hope to see our shots come out better than planned rather than worse.

Resources:

“Julie Roberts Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/julie_roberts_520721.

“Cage The Elephant – Cigarette Daydreams Lyrics | AZLyrics.Com.” Www.Azlyrics.Com, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cagetheelephant/cigarettedaydreams.html.

My hope is that as I continue to create this movie that it begins to take on a spirit of its own as Cage the Elephant’s songs do.

Now that I have shared our shooting schedule I thought I would begin sharing what we plan to include in out film, starting with sound.

Our plan for the film opening is to create a montage, set to music, of our main character experiencing life without her friend for the first time.

In order to achieve this plan we needed a song that is both somber and melodramatic. I also wanted the song we used to not be too well known because I do not want it to distract from what is on the screen.

I know I had heard a song like this before so I turned to my Spotify account and looked at my previous songs and playlists. This is where I cam across the song, Cigarette Daydreams by Cage the Elephant included below.

Cage the Elephant is an American rock band that later relocated to London, England. Their songs are influenced by classic rock, funk, and blues music. The band consists of vocalist Matt Shultz, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, lead guitarist Nick Bockrath, guitarist and keyboardist Matthan Minister, bassist Daniel Tichenor, and drummer Jared Champion. Their album Social Cues won a Grammy for Best Rock Album just this January, so including their songs may increase our audience by enticing fans of Cage the Elephant to view the film.

Cigarette Daydreams is a slow rock song, the steady drum beat and guitar in the forefront paired with the uplifting piano in the background create a somber yet hopeful tone that matches our film plan. In addition to this the lyrics of the song also match perfectly with the plot of the title sequence. Take the excerpt below as an example.

The lyrics shown above match the conflict that is going on in the movie. The main character is now all alone and does not know what is going on. She keeps having flashbacks and sees her friend there with her even though she is away at college.

Many lyrics throughout the song also match the plot of the title sequence and can even be used to develop shot ideas. When the shots are made with the song or soundtrack of the movie in mind it makes them flow naturally when the two are edited together. In addition to this, keeping the soundtrack in mind will also help to match the lyrics of the song to the actions the audience is viewing on screen. This makes watching the title sequence a more pleasing experience to the viewer.

Resources:

“Cage The Elephant – Cigarette Daydreams Lyrics | AZLyrics.Com.” Www.Azlyrics.Com, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cagetheelephant/cigarettedaydreams.html.

“Cage the Elephant.” Wikipedia, 17 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cage_the_Elephant. Accessed 24 Feb. 2020.

‌

‌

If there is no producer, there is no movie, so I need to find a production company. My ideal production company would have experience producing independent films, specifically independent films that are drama comedies.

In order to find a production company that meets this criteria I first researched famous independent films, finding 25 to take specific interest in.

1. Frances Ha (2012)	6. The Land of Steady Habits (2018)	11. American Honey (2016)	16. Trainspotting (1996)	21. Blue Valentine (2010)
2. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)	7. Sideways (2004)	12. Punch Drunk Love (2002)	17. The Squid and the Whale (2005)	22. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
3. The Way Way Back (2013)	8. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)	13. Broken Flowers (2005)	18. 500 Days of Summer (2009)	23. Lost in Translation (2003)
4.The Peanut Butter Falcon (2018)	9. Down to the Bone (2004)	14. The Royal Tenebaums (2001)	19. Before Sunset (2004)	24. Juno (2007)
5. I Can Only Imagine (2018)	10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)	15. Far From Heaven (2002)	20. Swiss Army Man (2016)	25. Lady Bird (2017)

I then took this list and recorded what genre each independent movie was.

1. Comedy, Drama Romance	6. Comedy Drama	11. Adventure, Romance, Drama	16. Cinema	21. Drama Romance
2. Comedy	7. Comedy, Drama Romance	12. Romance , Comedy, Drama	17. Comedy, Drama	22. Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
3. Comedy Drama	8.Comedy Drama	13. Comedy, Mystery, Drama	18.Comedy, Romance Drama	23. Drama, Romance
4.Adventure, Comedy, Drama	9. Drama	14. Comedy Drama	19. Drama Romance	24.Comedy, Drama
5. Biography, Drama, Family	10. Biography, Crime, Drama	15. Drama	20.Comedy, Drama, Fantasy	25. Comedy Drama

From this 25 I then isolated all the movies considered to be comedy dramas, because they are more similar to the film we are trying to make.

This left me with the list of movies below.

1. The Squid and the Whale (2005)	4.The Way Way Back (2013)
2. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)	5. Lady Bird (2017)
3. Juno (2007)	6. The Land of Steady Habits (2018)

From this list I then started to compare the production companies that produced each of these films.

I found that two movies (Juno and Little Miss Sunshine) had the same production company: Searchlight Pictures.

Searchlight pictures is owned by The Walt Disney Studios and is a sister studio of 20th Century Studios, a larger studio that used to be called 20th Century Fox. In fact Searchlight Pictures name was changed from Fox Searchlight Pictures just this past January since Disney acquired it alongside 20th Century Studio on March 20, 2019.

Unlike its sister studio Fox Searchlight Pictures focuses primarily on funding, producing, and distributing independent films. Fox Searchlight Pictures is also specifically known for working on comedy drama, horror, art-house, and foreign films.

This makes it a primary candidate for our film which is an independent comedy drama.

In addition to this movies produced by Searchlight Pictures are well viewed by critics and receive many awards.

For example, both Little Miss Sunshine and Juno won Oscars for best original screenplay. Awards like this draw the interest of audience members, producers, and distributors alike who will be looking to purchase the movie or fund a sequel.

Not only will Searchlight Pictures be a good choice for a production company but they also act as a distribution company as well. If they produce our movie it is likely they will also want to distribute it. They will want to do this to increase their own funds, but luckily for us, it increases ours as well.

The more distributors a movie has the more people have access to view the film. The more people that view the film the more people there will be who want to buy merchandise for that film as well as buy digital or Blue-ray copies of the film. This all increases the revenue, and success of the film.

Resources:

“Little Miss Sunshine.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449059/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“The Squid and the Whale.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367089/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“Juno.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“The Way Way Back.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727388/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“Lady Bird.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“The Land of Steady Habits.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6485928/companycredits?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4.

“Searchlight Pictures.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchlight_Pictures.

Church gives good advice that I should remember in this process of creating our film. There will be failures, but we can not dwell on them or we will miss appreciating the achievements.

In one of my later posts I mentioned how directors Tyler and Michael had to film a proof-of-concept to acquire funding and start producing the film. A proof of concept or (POC) video is a video that proves to buyers or investors that the movie the directors are making will be worth their monetary investment.

I included a video below that talks about POCs in software. The concept of POCs when it comes to a movie or a software are the same; they are both trying to prove the quality of a product to a funder. In this video the narrator outlines what most POCs will contain and the different methods they use to convince their audience.

Creating a POC would be the method I would chose to convince a production company that my film is worth financing. My proof of concept would include a few high quality shots from our film that express our message of personal growth and independence while also expressing the light hearted comedy aspect of our film.

Shots of our main character goofing around with her friend, struggling with loneliness, and stating comedic one liners would all be included in our POC.

POCs can not only help establish the funding of a film, but get famous actors on board as well. Below I included a video about The Peanut Butter Falcon that includes clips from its proof of concept video. In the video it explains how the proof of concept video really helped to establish the actors that would be starring as major roles in the film.

https://youtu.be/upVPCEJGt0w

After determining how to convince a production company that my film is worth financing the next step is determining what production company I will be convincing. This is something I will be discussing in my next post.

When I am researching behind the scenes of great movies like The Peanut Butter Falcon, I am also very happy when I am working. In this post I will be completing my case study on The Peanut Butter Falcon by discussing how it came to be distributed.

Distributing

On March 9th, 2019 The Peanut Butter Falcon premiered at South by Southwest. South by Southwest is a film festival that “dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals.“

After winning an Audience Award within a Narrative Spotlight, Roadside Attractions negotiated a deal to acquire U.S. distribution rights to the film.

Howard Cohen and Angel An of Roadside Attractions negotiated the deal and planned to release the movie into theaters August 9, 2019.

The Peanut Butter Falcon was distributed using the method of platforming, where a film opens in a few big cities then spreads only if it is successful.

Within the opening week the movie was released into 17 theatres and grossed $205,200. Because of this success the movie then was released to a wider audience and 991 theatres. Then it grossed 3 million dollars, which is almost half of its production budget of 6.2 million dollars.

It then expanded even more to 1,249 theatres, and became the highest grossing independent film of 2019 grossing $21,989,716.

Surprisingly enough, this is not the first “highest grossing independent film of the year ” Roadside Attractions has distributed. In 2018 they released I Can Only Imagine (which I had the privilege of viewing in theatres) that grossed 83.5 million dollars.

Given just its track record of financial success when it comes to independent films, Roadside Attractions seems to be a great candidate as a distributor for our independent film .

What really puts Roadside Attractions over the edge is that in addition to their background of financial success they also distribute several movies with academy award nomination and even more that are both critical and commercial hits.

Now that I have completed my case study of The Peanut Butter Falcon I have chosen my distribution company, know how to plan and save money during production , and need to begin convincing production companies to finance our film.

Resources:

“About.” Roadside Attractions, roadsideattractions.com/about/.Hipes, Patrick.

“SXSW Audience Winner ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ Acquired By Roadside Attractions For Summer Bow.” Deadline, 15 May 2019, deadline.com/2019/05/the-peanut-butter-falcon-release-date-shia-labeouf-dakota-johnson-roadside-attractions-1202615138/.

“SXSW Film Awards.” SXSW, http://www.sxsw.com/festivals/film-awards/#2019winners.