Class Action

I finally figured out how to make screen grabs (stills from the movie), so now I can give you a picture with every posting. This one above was actually from a camera test when Michelle was fooling around (that's her on the bench, as "Crackhead #1"), it wasn't supposed to be in the movie. But it is my movie and it makes me laugh every time I see it! And it makes Michelle rolls her eyes every time she sees it. Which also makes me laugh. Every time.

Anyway, I have awesome news! No, haven't heard back from any film festivals yet, calm down. Actually, the news might not be as awesome to you as it is to me, but I am personally very, very, very stoked. I will be teaching my first class at the Creative Alliance on July 6th! A one-day seminar on pre-production for indie films.

Michelle has taught a bunch of different classes there in the past, actually she is just wrapping one up right now, so she will probably find my enthusiasm amusing, as it is old hat to her. But I don't care! I get to talk about something I love for 5 hours straight, and get paid for it!

I have learned so much, a lot of it through trial and error, and I can't wait to share it with people who also hope to manifest their ideas for movies into reality. One of the things I love most about traveling within circles of creative people is the opportunity to watch an idea sprout from nothing, a tiny seed of an idea, into full-scale productions, whatever that might be - a movie, a play, a song, a painting. It is simply magical. And this class will give me the opportunity to meet even more people like that.

I have been so lucky to have met some fantastic people by taking their classes at the Creative Alliance. First and foremost, of course, Michelle, but also Steve Yeager (Acting for the Camera) and Rob Pawlosky ( Screenwriting Basics), among others. And through chance and happenstance, gotten to know other people along the way who have been invaluable to "Smalltimore," names you have already heard a hundred times or more, like Sean Stanley, Eric Thornett, and Charlie Anderson. All of these people have been so generous and honest with their advice, it always amazed me, and at the same time it always kind of made me wonder, "Why are they being so nice to me? Why are they giving me so much of their time?" There have been times I felt guilty about pestering them for advice or assistance, but they never really seemed to mind. And now I better understand why.

They must have had people like themselves helping them when they were as green as I was when I met them. It is an opportunity to give back, and pay it forward. And you get to talk about something you love doing, with people who want to do it themselves someday. If champagne were thrown into the mix, it would be the perfect day. I tried sneaking bubbly into the class format, but they put the kibosh on that.

(BTW, if you are interested in taking the class yourself, the new schedule should be out around the first week of April. You can register online at www.creativealliance.org. And OF COURSE I will be reminding you about this when the time comes!)

Anyway, the blurb and itinerary for the class goes a little something like this:

Workshop blurb: There are a lot of universal truths about movie-making. One of them is, for every dime and minute you don't spend on pre-production, you will spend ten times that during production. Another is, movie-making is a ton of work, but it is not brain surgery. Save thousands of dollars (and countless headaches) by learning how to be well-prepared before ever stepping foot on the set. Jeanie Clark, founder of Steel Corset Productions and writer/director/producer of the new romantic comedy, "Smalltimore," walks you step by step through the basics, including:
- How to be open to and receive reliable critique on your script.
- The re-writing process
- Factoring in production value
- Creating an LLC
- Funding
- Networking
- Dealing with actors: auditions, call backs, contracts, rehearsals, scheduling
- Crew & gear, your biggest expense: finding a crew to suit your needs without overspending.
- Building your Production Team
- Location management
- Insurance & permits
- Breaking down the shooting schedule
- Generating buzz for your project
- Craft services
- and generally preparing to expect the unexpected.


It is a LOT to cover in one day, but I am pretty organized when it comes to stuff like this, and a lot of it is much simpler than you might expect. You probably already know this, since you are used to my writing style by now, but I wrote the introductory blurb. I wasn't sure they were going to let me keep that bit in about filmmaking not being brain surgery, but I am glad they did. I mean no disrespect towards filmmakers - it IS a lot of work. But when you break it down into the individual tasks and components, other than the actual camera work, there is no reason a person who is creative, intelligent, organized, disciplined, hard-working, honest with themselves and others, and a good leader cannot make a film. Those are the components it takes, and it does take all of them.

Some of them, you either are or you aren't and there is not much you can do about it if you aren't - like being creative, or intelligent. There is a line in "Smalltimore" that Joyce Scott delivers as Mrs. Talford,

"No one ever used to be an artist! Any more than one can aspire to be an ar-teest! You are either an artist or you are NOT."

I didn't think that much about that line when I wrote it, I was just writing from the heart, thinking how I might talk 20 or 30 years from now to a younger version of myself. And I didn't know when I wrote that line that Joyce Scott would be the one delivering it. She never said anything about it to me, so I could be wrong, but I think that is the line that may have helped her make the decision to do the film. I remember there was just something about the way she said that line at the table read that made me think, she knows that I really get that, and I know that she does, and she wants to say that line.

I digress... but that is the truth. That doesn't mean that someone who is not creative can't have a large hand in making a movie. It just means they need to get the right people to collaborate with them on the project. Even a person who has ALL of those qualities can't do it alone, so you shouldn't be afraid of the collaboration thing.

Some of the other qualities I mentioned... well, you might have them and not even know you have them. In my case, I think of, "organized, disciplined, and hard-working," specifically. At the beginning of this holy mess, I never thought in a million years that I could produce a film. Write, yes. Direct, possibly. Produce? No thanks.

I overheard Sean once say he was going to print up a T-shirt that just said, "Producing is HARD." And it is. And I didn't think I'd like it, and it is excruciating for me to try to do things I don't like, let alone be any good at them. Producing is doing a million little crappy details like setting up the LLC, bank account, locking down locations, breaking down schedules, and all the stuff mentioned in the above bullet points. I did NOT want to do all that crap! I thought if it came down to me having to do all that crap, this movie would never get made.

But in the end, on the budget I was working with, I could not in good conscience pay someone to do things I was perfectly capable of doing myself, but just didn't want to. And it all turned out just fine. I gave myself a solid six months or so of pre-production time, as I was doing almost everything myself. The next time around I will probably get a small team of people together, but I am very glad I did it all myself the first time, because now I know how to do it. I wasn't super-disciplined, in that I did the things I wanted to do first, and put off the things I didn't want to do until I had no choice but to do them. But if you look back through my blog postings at that time (from the beginning of www.charmcitythemovie.blogspot.com up until production started August 1, 2008) you will see that I just chugged steadily along, and was just happy with myself as long as I accomplished one or two little tasks every day that needed to be completed for the movie. I really surprised myself, because not only did I do it, but I actually enjoyed doing it. Sometimes the little task of the day was as simple as posting a blog entry. That might not seem very important, but think about it - I know you are going to go see my movie, aren't you?

Wise Guy

As I profile my actors I am thinking a lot about my time in pre-production and especially the casting calls. That was probably my favorite part of pre-pro, even though I had to make a lot of difficult decisions, torture some people with the lingering unknown until I made up my mind, and sometimes disappoint people that I really would like to work with. Though I have done a few things to put myself in the actor's shoes, I have not gone so far as going for an audition. I want to, and I think I will before the year is out. I figure then I will know what it is like to be rejected, because I am quite certain that I would be! But even going in knowing that, I still think it will be a nerve-wracking experience. Being alone, onstage, and fully aware that you are being judged and measured against a whole bunch of other people based on your looks as well as your talent... how could it not be? It seems a little masochistic to me when I think about it.

At the first round of auditions at Baltimore Theater Project back in April, one of the first people to be in front of me was one Ms. Regina Guy. She did a great job but unfortunately was not quite young enough to play Gracie or Mel, and quite a bit younger than I had envisioned the part of the wealthy widow. But her enthusiasm was striking, and I could tell she really wanted it. At the end of her audition, she said, for the record, that if she wasn't right for one of the parts that she would be happy to be an extra or help out in any way she could. I thought that was pretty cool of her to say, and made a mental note to self.

When it was time to contact all of the actors who came to the first round (and I contacted every single one of them personally to tell them yes or no, almost 100 people altogether), I let Regina know she didn't fit one of the roles but I would love to have her on board as a Production Assistant. She was a bit disappointed (and voiced that) but still willing to be a part of the project. She came in to help me facilitate the second round of auditions and ran the holding room with a gloved iron fist. She showed up early, helped me haul ice and finish setting up the craft services tables, and when the actors arrived she expedited dispatching them to me for their scenes, as well as making sure they were fed and comfortable and had anything they needed. And she honestly seemed to be having a blast!

Her first day a rousing success, I definitely wanted Regina on for the whole shoot, and she obliged. The next gathering was the table read of the script with all the actors present. This was everyone's first introduction to Joyce Scott (Mrs. Talford). I knew Regina would be crazy about her and I asked her to pick Joyce up. That was all it took, and Regina appointed herself as Personal Assistant to Ms. Scott for the entire production.

Though I had hired someone specifically for meal times, actors and crew (if you want to keep them happy) graze the Craft Services table from call time to wrap. Regina loves to feed people and keep them happy, so these tasks fell naturally to her, as well as a lot of the additional responsibilities of meal times. I'm not sure I ever even put her in charge of it, she just took charge, making my life easier, so I was all good with it. When the other members of my Production Interns "A-Team", Corey Dillon and David Sarmiento, would get to set, she would put them to work helping her to get all the mis en place for the day before she would let Corey could get to his wardrobe duties and David go to help the crew.

I know she'd rather be in front of the camera (and she does appear several times in "Smalltimore", so look for her), but this kept her in the thick of things with both cast and crew and she did an amazing job. So amazing that Michelle and I both recommended her to do the entire catering gig on the project we worked on next, "Juju". Regina got (and rocked) the job, and a new career was launched!

More importantly, we became friends, and it makes the day go a lot faster when you are working with hard-working people that you like. Favorite days were those that Regina made her famous chili. The first time, I was a little concerned that the cast and crew might feel this was a cheap lunch, because it was the only thing on the menu. But we were filming at my friend Greg's house, and using the whole interior, so Regina had to set up shop on the front porch. Space being limited, we couldn't have done much more anyway. But in addition to the VAT of chili, she brought all the fixings and rigged an entire chili BAR with onions, sour cream, shredded cheese, and salad, and it was a smash hit. She even brought some vegetarian chili for a few of the crew with special diets. Everyone had seconds and thirds, and no one complained when we served it again within a week.

The chili appeared several times on the "Juju" set, and Regina always made a little extra for me to take home. We have remained friends, and in touch, and just this morning she texted me to say she is whipping up a batch, would I like her to bring some by tomorrow? Possibly the most rhetorical question that has ever been posed to me.

Moral of the story, stay open to possibilities. Regina didn't get exactly what she came to that audition for, but it ended up opening a lot of doors for her because she was positive and flexible. She has worked on several productions since "Juju" and has entrenched herself in the local indie production scene. And I made out like a bandit because I spotted a valuable asset and made sure to find a place for her. Everybody wins!