The Homestretch

I am trying very hard not to lose momentum, but man, it isn't easy. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY excited about the screening Wednesday night at The Charles (7:00pm) and maybe even more excited about the DVD release party afterwards at The Wind-Up Space (9:00pm), but I am also excited about next week, when I can go five minutes without saying the word "Smalltimore" (and I am sure that a few of my friends will be glad when that time comes as well.

But, that's marketing. Blitz, blitz, blitz, repeat, repeat, repeat. It's not really my thing, but I think I am getting better at it.

By the way, WELCOME to all my new readers! Hope you stick around, maybe even sift back through a few posting and see how we got to where we are now. This morning's interview (Tom Hall on WYPR talking to me about "Smalltimore" - http://mdmorn.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/127093-smalltimore/ ) seems to have given the blog a big stats bump. Love it.

The interview was actually taped Friday afternoon, and what aired was only about half of it. I think when my Mom hears the podcast, she will be equal parts proud and mortified. I must have said, "you know," about a hundred times. Which is actually very unlike me, but, I was more nervous than I thought I was going to be. I have gotten SO much better about speaking in front of crowds (it used to terrify me), but now I am discovering that I still have, maybe not stage fright, but... media fright. If I know I am being taped (video or audio) I get butterflies. Oh well, one more thing to conquer. Just not this week. Anyway, apologies to my Mom, and to Sister Mary Agnes, my 10th grade English teacher. I am sure she is absolutely SPINNING. I had no idea I kept saying that until I heard it myself this morning. How embarrassing.

But hey, it got some of you here, so I am not complaining about the free press! Tom Hall and his producer Katherine were very nice and I was in and out of there in 20 minutes.

It is all coming together. Have to tie up just a few more details tomorrow. It is exciting. It is also exhausting and nerve wracking. I am this way before every big event, though. For a decade I was known throughout the land for my killer Christmas party. Friends that I would not hear from for 8 or 9 months would suddenly resurface, starting late September, just to say hi (i.e., make sure they were invited). People travelled cross-country and even internationally to be there! The last one was held two years ago, when I announced my intentions to become a filmmaker.

I used to do photography and I had several exhibits in Baltimore and D.C., and twice I organized group shows of 6 to 10 artists. To any such events I have had great turnouts, but there are always those moments in the days leading up to them, where I stress and wonder if anyone is going to show up. I know it is only natural, and every artist friend and party host I know has the same feeling before every show, no matter how many times they have had huge successes. Still, it doesn't get any easier. The larger the party the bigger the worry, and this is by far the largest party I have ever thrown! I know it is going to be great, though. I am so proud of the musical line-up at The Wind-Up Space I could practically burst. I promise, you do NOT want to miss this.

Well, I have to get going. Heading down to the Creative Alliance for the monthly Cinelounge meetup. If you are a filmmaker, or film lover, or actor, writer, director, musician, whatever... you should start coming to these things. They happen the first Monday of every month, it is always fun, great networking, and you get to see new films and works in progress before anyone else. And, most importantly, the cash bar is open. Click the link in the sidebar to check out all of the CA's film related goings-on, INCLUDING my one-day seminar on Pre-Production for Independent Films, this Saturday at the CA!

And to my new readers, hope to have you here again soon. This blog is usually less commercial and more whatever goofy-but-film-related thing is going on in my life, so after Wednesday (well, maybe after Saturday), it will go back to being a little more entertaining, when I am a lot less stressed. So bookmark us, and see you at The Charles THIS Wednesday, December 9th, 7:00pm! Tix to "Smalltimore" $10 at the door.

Confusions of Grandeur

The Bentleys: Keith Bentley and Johnny Benson, who plays Keith Bentley - photo by Richard Payne at the "Smalltimore" premiere]

9 movies in 3 days at the Maryland Film Festival... I am about cinema'd out. Saw a couple flicks I REALLY enjoyed: "Stingray Sam," I think was my favorite, but "The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle," was also very good and absolutely hysterical. Since that one started 25 minutes late, I missed the first 25 minutes of "The Overbrook Brothers," but I went in anyway and I liked that one also.

I saw two documentaries, "Invisible Girlfriend," and "Rocaterrania." There were a few things about both of them that bugged me, but I thought they were both very good as well. I don't know if I would ever be interested in making a documentary. I think it would be a very difficult undertaking, and most documentaries, if you think about it, are about subjects that are somewhat sad, or politically controversial, or both. Those are exactly the sort of things that put a beat-down on my spirit. It takes so much blood, sweat, and tears to make any sort of movie. I don't know if I could (or would want to) put myself through an emotional wringer while trying to do that. I am too empathetic to people with problems, I don't know if I could make an objective production in those circumstances.

What else did I see... "Daytime Drinking," was good, but a bit too long, and I enjoyed, "Modern Love is Automatic," the closest thing the MFF had to a local production. I saw the John Waters' pick, "Love Songs," which was just okay in my opinion, and not nearly as good as "Sleeping Dogs Lie" two years ago (available at Video Americaine - RENT IT).

"Somers Town," was good. "Lightning Salad Motion Picture," not so much. I was really psyched to see this one, it sounded very "Kids in the Hall", and the creators of it were there and said a few words beforehand and they were cute and funny and energetic and I really WANTED to like this movie. I sat through the first half hour, laughed a few times but not nearly as many times as I think I was supposed to. I know I still have some sound issues to take care of in "Smalltimore," but the sound issues with "Lightning Salad" were beyond forgiveness. As the movie began painfully corkscrewing towards a major crash and burn, I kept trying to hang in there, but finally told myself, if I don't laugh in the next five minutes, I'm outta here. I don't know if I have ever walked out of a movie before, but five minutes later, that's what I did. I felt bad because those guys were in the audience, but it was seriously more than I could take. Maybe it is one of those movies that you need to be high for.

It was a good example, however, of a universal truth I am learning the hard way: when it comes to festivals, being weird is FAR more important than being good. I like seeing weird movies, but they have to be GOOD weird movies. OR I have to be very, very drunk.

Another thing that bugged me is that so many movies "Modern Love...", "Somers Town," "Invisible Girlfriend," seemed to put little to no thought into the ending of the film, they just sort of trail off... I don't think that is "artsy" any longer. I think it is played out. An ending to a movie doesn't have to be happy to be satisfactory. Make me laugh, make me cry, make me think, or leave me with a great big cliffhanger that makes me go, "GAH!!!", but make me feel SOMETHING.

Anyway... all in all, I had a good time at the MFF, and I saw 9 1/3 movies for $50 (I am a Friend of the Festival, so I got into any movies before 6:00pm on Friday for free), so you can't beat that. But it also showed me the difference between movies made for festivals and movies made for widespread distribution. I mean, I sort of knew that before, and Eric talks a lot about it, as he made a movie ("23 Hours") specifically for festivals, and did very well with it, including at Slamdance. But this was the first film festival I have attended since MAKING a movie. So it really brought it home.

Bleah. It's kind of confusing. It's like, what are your choices? Make a weird movie and have a better chance of getting into a film festival but little chance of getting real theater distribution. Make a normal, even watered-down movie that tries to please everyone and spend the majority of your budget to hire an A- or B-list actor so it has a chance at distribution. Or make a good movie with no major actors and have little chance of getting into festivals or widespread distribution!

Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of "Smalltimore," and given the chance, I don't think I'd do much differently. I'm still all over it and I think good things lie ahead. It just makes me think about what I want to do next.

CONTEST: Feed a Starving Actor!!!

I was just about to rename the "Smalltimore the Movie" Facebook page, "Phil Calvert & Friends" as we have recently had a deluge of his friends become fans of the page, but I decided to take a count to be sure which actor had the most friends on here, and it turns out that Kyle Holtgren wins (for the moment) by a nose! The current tally is:

Kyle - 12
Phil C. - 11
Kelly Coston - 7
Cheryl Scungio - 4
Orlando Gonzalez - 4
Johnny Benson - 2
Al Letson - 2
Will Lurie - 1

So, as a little incentive, I decided to create a little contest.

Feed a Starving Actor!!!

Whichever actor of the main ensemble has the most number of friends on the "Smalltimore the Movie" page by midnight, May 6th, the eve of the Maryland Film Festival, (and NO, I do not know if we are in yet, but for good or evil, I'll be drinking that weekend) will be treated by me to a ridiculously decadent dinner at the PRIME RIB Restaurant. What's your pleasure? Oysters Rockefeller? Lobster Bisque? Or a steak from one of the top 20 steak houses in the entire COUNTRY? This is not a dinner for the faint of heart, folks.

If a person is friends with more than one of the actors, they will each receive credit. If you don't know one of the actors personally, just post to the page who you are "voting" for and I will add it to their tally. If you are already a fan but not a friend of an actor, you, too, can post your vote. ONE VOTE PER FAN if you are not friends with any of the actors. Watch the trailer to see who's who, and make your voice heard!

Cheryl Scungio as Gracie
Orlando Gonzalez as Tony
Joyce J. Scott as Mrs. Talford
Kelly Coston as Mel
Johnny Benson as Bentley
Darik Bernard as Darik
Will Lurie as Andrew
Phil Calvert as Thom
Tom Diventi as Tucker
Kyle Holtgren as David
Tiffany Ariany as Angela
Phil Amico as Jack
and
Al Letson as The Voice of Reason

So, do your good deed for the day and become a fan of the "Smalltimore, the Movie" Facebook page. I'll be posting an update every 7-10 days to let you know the stats.

Let them eat steak!

Festivus for the Restofus

Hey gang, I am SO sorry I have been a totally lame blogger lately, but I have been super-concentrated on editing, as I had some big deadlines coming up. I was working 4, 6, 8 or more hours a day on editing, mostly sound. I would get through the whole movie, painstakingly going practically frame-by-frame (there are 24 frames per second. That is PER. SECOND.), would review it again whole scene at a time before moving on to the next scene, then when done watch the whole thing straight through, and then think, "I can't believe I thought that sounded good!" and would start the whole thing all over again. The hardest part about pre-production was breaking down the shooting schedule. The hardest thing about post-production is DEFINITELY editing sound.

Istarted editing yesterday at about 3:45pm and stopped about 5:30am this morning, slept for three hours while the movie burned to DVD, then spent the next couple hours watching the whole thing straight through to make sure it burned without any glitches and then burning a few more copies I needed to send out in the mail to be postmarked by today. THEN had to scrape several inches of snow and ice off my car before I could get to the post office.

Also spent 7 hours with Michelle and several of my actors one day last week recording ADR for some scenes that the dialogue and/or sound was terrible in. ADR, as you probably already know, stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. That is an oxymoron of epic proportions. There is NOTHING automatic about it.

Though it really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. And I even did some Foley stuff. Foley, as you also probably know, is little sound effects you might have to add in. Like, a cell phone ringing, a door slamming off-camera, a beer keg sputtering. Some of that is easy, like just recording a cell phone ringing. Some of it is harder, like shaking up a bottle of soda before opening it to make it sound like a sputtering keg. The hard part was keeping Michelle from talking while recording the sputtering.

The hard part is the layering of sound, which I have mentioned before. Conversation ver roomtone over music over barroom chatter... it is exhausting trying to figure out what levels sound somewhat natural but still allow the viewer to focus on the dialogue.

A lot of you have been following this blog for a long time, some even from the very beginning, over a year ago, and I am really hoping it will pay off for you soon. And by that, I mean, pay off for me :) About a month from now, I should start hearing from the festivals I have been submitting to, yay or nay. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. You'll here about the ones Smalltimore does not get into as well as the ones it (knock on wood) does. Probably some of these results will result in stories of money wasted, either on long shots or in festivals that let Smalltimore in but are far more po'dunk than they tout themselves to be and don't do me any good at all. But the whole purpose of this blog is to give you the behind the scenes of how it does (or doesn't) all work. Who knows? I may have just spent the last 18+ months of my life and thousands of my own and other people's dollars on something that will never bear fruit. But, honestly, I don't think so. There are so many things, adventures, crusades that I have been on or in in my life that I have put a fraction of the time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, etc, into and in them have experienced moderate to great success. Making this movie blows anything I have ever done absolutely away. I have never worked so hard or so long at anything, and have never loved working so much. I know that what I have gotten out of this experience already is invaluable, and could never be replaced any more than it can be described. There is no way that all that was for naught. But send your good energy my way regardless!!!