The Lengths Movie

TRT

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:49:23 -0400

Once it ran 2 hours 34 minutes. Then it came in at 2 hours and 17 minutes. Now, now it is finally under two hours with 10 scenes and (hopefully) just one more pass to go (before sounds stuff).

Why we're at One Spark

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:22:00 -0400

Here’s a little video explaining why ‘The Lengths’ is participating at One Spark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCw38PFJ8X8

One Spark: Enhance your One Spark experience with Bonfyre!

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:27:44 -0400

One Spark: Enhance your One Spark experience with Bonfyre!:

beonespark:

Join Bonfyre App to Win 2 All-Access Passes (a $700 value) to One Spark!

For this year’s event we are partnering up with Bonfyre to take One Spark to the next level! Download the app now so you can receive important event updates, privately chat and share photos of One Spark…

One Spark

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:30:16 -0400

In just over a week One Spark will be hitting Jacksonville. I’ll be downtown with the newly ‘repaired’ (the gas pedal doesn’t stick anymore and I have brake lights) Rusty-T at Main Street Park.

I’ve got fliers, posters and t-shirts printed or in the process of being printed and am ready to talk movies, specifically The Lengths. I’ll be posting more information shortly about voting and or donating as we get closer but till then here’s a little overview of what One Spark and why I’m there.

So One Spark is a live crowd sourcing festival. Think the Kickstarter website but with tents and people and the ability to see and or interact with the creators and their inventions/projects. However, unlike Kickstarter, you don’t necessarily have to donate anything to see something get made. One Spark already has a $250k crowd fund that gets divided amongst the creators via vote of the populace. If I get 10% of the vote then I get 10% of the $250k (which would be cool). But, you can also donate as an individual if you’d like. What’s also great is you can vote for as many creators as you like (though only one vote per project) so you don’t have to try and decide between this great local feature (The Lengths) and you know, that guy who wants to build an orphanage that teaches kids how to be incorruptible world leaders - you can vote for us both! (and donate to us both if you so choose).

The Downside (for me at least) is you have to at some point during the festival (4/17-4/21) check in and register, either through an app (which reads your GPS) or at a One Spark kiosk at the festival. Which means no online voting.

My goal is to raise $12k to cover the cost of sound editing, mixing, scoring and festival submissions. That’s a pretty significant part of the vote and or private donations. Sound is going to cost around $7k and that is the first priority.

That’s more or less One Spark. I’m finishing up a new campaign video highlight what we’ve accomplished so far on this movie and the importance of having great sound. More One Spark updates to come!

A Road trip movie... in real time!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 09:30:33 -0400

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. I’ve been making good progress with the movie. A rough cut of the whole thing is complete and I took a few scenes to L.A. with me to showcase to a few people. They were well received.

Last week I hosted a very small private screening (and sent the cut to a few out of towners) to get some story notes and ideas on how to improve the film. In retrospect I was probably a little too agressive in trying to get it out. It’s long, has many sound issues, and it’s quite ready to be seen by many people. That said, the viewers were very gracious and I came back with some really great notes.

Last week’s screening had a running time of 144 minutes. A bit of an epic. The goal is to have this movie finished around 100 minutes. This week, between applying for the IFP Labs, I’ve been making some broad cuts, eliminating scenes, and in some cases, characters all together. They haven’t been to painful yet, but that’s coming.

I know many of you are anxious to see it and I’m anxious to get it finished and out to you. I haven’t set a new deadline but I will have one by Monday. Here’s hoping I don’t blow through that one either.

Tim

Do you think Martin Scorsese would agree to mentor me?

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 09:30:36 -0400

So I’m a big fan of Scorsese. It’s not obvious in my filmmaking. I don’t trend towards his kinds of stories, I don’t move the camer like he does, yet, he’s hands down my favorite director. Currently the only films of his I have yet to see are a few of hid documentaries.

Here are some links to Scorsese talking about movies, his, and others.

Scorsese on Kubrick and D.W. Griffith On ‘Rear Window’. On ‘Citizen Kane’.

Lawrence of Arabia. On ‘On The Waterfront’

On Goodfellas. On ‘The importance of Visual Literacy’

and finally, for a little change of pace, Quentin Tarantino on ‘Taxi Driver’.

Crowd Sourcing Festival

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:30:34 -0400

One Spark! It’s coming. Get ready. More info coming soon.

Fingers crossed

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:11:28 -0400

Late last night I finished editing and filling out my submission to the Independent Filmmaker Project Labs (IFP). It’s three, one week labs, focusing on mentoring first time feature filmmakers through post production to distribution. The labs will take place in New York City and only 10 films will be selected. I know I’m a bit of a long shot seeing as I don’t have a ton of shorts or credits, but hopefully they like the cut. It’s down to a mere two hours and seventeen minutes from it’s previous two hours and thirty-five minutes (still working on that).

I find out if I’m selected on May 5th or 6th.

Thanks to Nofilmschool.com and Filmmaker Magazine for making me aware of the competition.

Nora got lost in Los Angeles

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:30:33 -0400

It was not our night this past Sunday as ‘Nora’ was not selected to move on to the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a bummer as we were all very excited and hopeful to attend (and go to France). Regardless, we’re still proud of the film and hope it can make splashes elsewhere. Or this just may be a good place ‘Nora’ to rest and move on to other things…

Like The Lengths! It was a positive festival experience and I had a great time catching up with old friends and some Lengths cast/crew (Cody, Austin and Corsica).

I unfortunately returned home under the weather and that (with jet lag and times changes) has taken a toll on my energy levels. Regardless, I got some work accomplished last night and will get more done tonight. Here’s hoping for another ‘work-in-progress’ screening in the next couple of week.

The Independent Film Project (IFP) submission deadline is up next with One Spark quickly to follow. Updates to come!

The Career of P.T. Anderson in Five Shots

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:11:02 -0400

The Career of P.T. Anderson in Five Shots:

I’m just going to leave this here.

Los Angeles is wearing shorts

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:30:17 -0500

Tomorrow morning team MVH is heading out to L.A. to screen our short, ‘Nora’ at Filmapalooza. Our screening day and time is Saturday (March 9th) at 12p at the Graumann theatre. We fly back Monday morning.

Filmapalooza is the festival/showcase for all of the 48 Hour Film Project city winners across the globe. We’ll be competing against 110-120 other 48hr winners for a chance to screen at The Cannes Film Festival this May. Top ten films get to go! Here’s hoping.

Regardless, we’re proud of the movie and are thrilled to go (but we still want to win).

Screens and traveling (this is not a basketball update)

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:41:00 -0500

This past Saturday I had the first official work-in-progress screening of The Lengths. It was only four people including myself. Naturally I was nervous and anxious - the sounds wasn’t finished, and not all of the scenes had real clean edits, but I surprised myself.

After months and months of pouring over this footage, I didn’t think, nor expect to still be surprised by the movie. However, until Saturday, I hadn’t seen many sequences, let alone the whole movie straight through. I’d only been dealing with individual scenes. The film flowed really well, had laughs in the appropriate places and the characters were endearing. Overall I would call it a success. We had some great discussions afterwards and got a some really good notes. The most positive thing for me was the excitement after the screening. None of us felt worried about the story, or motivations, etc (albeit all of us watching were pretty familiar with the story already). But there was excitement. There is a clear movie. Currently unpolished, but a definite story.

I know many of you are anxious to see it and I’m still standing by my September release/premier/private screening(s) date. Some will get a chance to see the next two or three works-in-progress screenings, but for the most part I want to keep it kind of hidden. I hope I’m not too boastful in saying this, but I want to keep it hid because I don’t want to ruin the surprise and enjoyment of seeing it in it’s final, completed state. I think you’ll agree when you do get to see. :-)

I’m so excited to finish this and share it with you.

Watch your mouth or I'll cut you(r lines)

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:30:00 -0500

As the co-write, director and sometimes narcissist, I believe every word of dialogue is intrinsic to the plot - but they’re not.

While cutting a scene the other night I struggled with the pacing a three character argument. I wanted to make sure no character was forgotten or left out. Joel and I were very aware of this when writing and often had the reactionary character of the scene throw in a quick line to remind the audience of their presence. If flowed well enough on paper and even so in the master. However, when we started getting into tighter shots those “hey-I’m-still-here’ lines really threw the pacing out of whack. Instead of reminding the audience of their presence with a nudge, it felt more like a full on haymaker.

So, begrudgingly, I cut the line(s). Still wanting to keep everyone present and accounted for I started using more reactions - looks, glances, stare downs etc. Not only did it allow the attacking character to maintain continue an uninterrupted rant, it created a deeper, more interesting, reactionary character. Now, instead of passively defending or supporting the receiving character they’re just watching and allowing them to take the verbal abuse of the attacking character. By muting their voice and letting them speak with their eyes and body I was not only able to maintain my tab keeping objective, but also kept the pace alive, added depth to a character and heightened the drama. It was a win-win-win-win (the line lost).

So yeah - three total post, two about reaction shots.

Tim

Website Overhaul

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:23:22 -0500

I’m thinking the website could use a face lift. What do you guys think? Anyone in the know on cool Tumblr designs?

Festivals with $0 submission fees

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:22:00 -0500

Here’s an article from NoFilmSchool. Check it out.

On The Horizon - an actual update

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:19:49 -0500

The immediate tasks and deadlines are very clear while other objectives are still a bit cloudy.

Still editing. I am on pace to lock picture on/by March 31st and from there we’ll head into sound design/edit/mix etc. It’s a little unclear what that looks like, but there have been significant developments in that arena (for a later update).

In the mean time it’s plugging(cutting) away in the editing room and these fun adventures…

I’ve applied and was accepted to be part of One Spark, a live crowd sourcing festival to be held in Jacksonville April 17 - 21. I will be setting up shop in the Main Street Park and will be utilizing Rusty-T as my ‘tent’ and base of operations. I’ll have an a/v unit set up to show trailers, and clips from the film.

One Spark has $250k that gets dispersed amongst the creators via crowd votes. So… if I get 10% of the vote I get $25k. If you’re in Jacksonville, FL, or have plans for a vacation in April, come out and vote for The Lengths. Shahid Kahn (Jacksonville Jaguars owner) is also donating an additional $1million (don’t know how/if that’s divided). On top of that $1.25 million, anyone at the festival can choose to donate. It’s like Kickstarter, but in person. All additional funds raised will go towards sound, music/score, color correction and festival submission/travel. I’ll probably also make another Kickstarter-like video… but for post production.

In addition to One Spark, I’ve applied to to IFP’s (independent filmmaker project) First Time Filmmaker Labs. If accepted I’ll get some valuable resources and contacts to help push the film through post and into festivals and or distribution.

And finally, because I noticed I had too much free time, I’ve started a podcast! I’ve been interviewing fellow zero budget filmmakers who are in various stages of completion about what it was like for them to get their project finished and what they learned along the way. I hope to get it syndicated through NoFilmSchool.com and hope it will be helpful to others who are thinking about making that first-film leap (and selfishly to bring attention to me and The Lengths - I really love attention). I was hoping to have that published by March 1 but it’s looking more like an April publication.

Now that was an update.

Tim

A Lengthy project

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:41:00 -0500

Like the above pun? Yeah… it was bound to happen.

I’m hoping to write some kind of update a day. Even if it’s very brief.

Had a few struggles with a scene last night. Balancing the three characters and their changing attitudes and perceptions of each other is a very nuanced business. When it works it’s great… when it doesn’t… it’s… odd. The first half of last night was a journey through oddities.

As a person I have a difficult time with silence. There are, of course, times when I enjoy a still nothingness, but more often than not I like a bit of noise, even if it’s just white (I put baseball or basketball games on when I read or write).

But, I’m very grateful I have actors who relish it. After taking a moment and walking around the office I came back to the edit and played much more of the scene off the uninvolved (in the scene’s conversation) character’s reactions. It gave the silences a weightiness and the overall scene a great sense of tension. The scene will get another pass or two in the coming weeks but it’s nice to go home feeling positive about your days work.

That’s the update for now. I hope to give you another tomorrow morning. Thanks for following!

Tim

20 Screenwriting tips

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:30:48 -0500

This is a post from Ryan Koo, creator of NoFilmSchool.com and writer director of the upcoming film, MANCHILD. MANCHILD will be his first feature film. His tips are insightful, honest and worth the read. Enjoy!

http://nofilmschool.com/2013/01/things-helped-finish-manchild-screenplay/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nofilmschool+%28NoFilmSchool%29

Short film from The Brothers Lynch. Stellar use of split screen....

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:30:26 -0500

Short film from The Brothers Lynch. Stellar use of split screen. It’s a little longer at 13min, but it’s worth the time. Enjoy!

Music video from Carlos Lopes Estrada for the band “El...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:30:45 -0500

Music video from Carlos Lopes Estrada for the band “El Sportivo and the Blooz”. Some great imagery in the final scene. Enjoy!