Oak Street Films

I’ve just put together the (first?) trailer for Hell Is Other People. View it (and leave your comments) after the jump.
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Here are a few things I’ve learned during the shooting of Hell Is Other People:

• The availability of potential locations is entirely subject to the capricious whims of incommunicado sorority girls and/or of paranoid corporate legal teams (see below).
• Abandoned, isolated parking lots are apparently very dangerous places; film crews are 100% likely to wound themselves mortally (perhaps by stubbing a toe on a cracked bit of asphalt, one presumes) and then sue the owners of the lot, even if the producers and the cast have offered to sign a meticulously cautious liability waiver (see above).

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While it remains to be seen if this massive Wall Street snafu is an early indication of a coming depression (and historically speaking, we’re about due for one, aren’t we?) it’s not hard to imagine that it will end up having a quite devastating effect on the lives of artists of all kinds–and perhaps small independent film producers in particular, due to a completely saturated cinematic market. Those of us who (at least sometimes) actually get paid to make films are likely to see less work, and at the same time those of us who make films on the side for the love of the medium will probably have to tighten our belts and work even harder at our “real” jobs, thus leaving even less time and energy for filmmaking. In fact, I’m already personally feeling the effects of this economic crash in a very direct way: it’s been months since I’ve landed a gig of any appreciable size, and prospective clients are telling me flat-out that the current situation is making them more than a bit skittish with regard to their budgets. My cupboard contains only about a half-pound of dry rice and maybe a few cups of flour, and my wallet contains nothing at all. Unfortunately this is, quite probably, only the beginning. I think it’s fair to say that I’m officially freaking out.

In my little rant the other day, I discussed the benefits of producing a film in a very relaxed and flexible way: one doesn’t necessarily need an overarchingly detailed script, a huge crew, or even a lot of money, in spite of what we all tend to believe.

It’s hard–if not impossible–to produce a film with zero money, however; it’s nice to be able to reimburse the cast for their fuel expenses (especially with gas prices where they are right now), and it’s only fair to buy them some lunch every once in a while. Videotape obviously still costs a few dollars, even if the expense is nowhere near that of working with film.

As small as these kinds of expenses are when compared to the bloated budgets of most films made these days, they can still at times be hard to cover when one is a struggling independent producer who has enough trouble just trying to feed oneself. That being the case, even a near-zero-budget project can require at least a little fundraising.

I am looking for small donations for Hell Is Other People–$5, $10, $20…maybe you’d like to donate a a gas card…or maybe you own a restaurant and would like to donate a lunch for three or four people. These kinds of things–while seemingly financially insignificant on an individual level–are very helpful, and can help me keep my (unpaid) cast happy. All donors will receive credits as associate producers, and in many cases we may be able to work out a way to make your donations tax-deductible.

If you’d like to help: you can donate financially via PayPal, or contact me to discuss any kind of non-financial donation you might be willing to make.

I, and my cast, thank you in advance.

The fact that most most films made today border on complete unwatchability is probably due almost entirely to rigidity; producers seem to have collectively agreed, perhaps against their better individual judgment, that the making of films is a paint-by-numbers affair, and that the only viable course of action consists of adhering to a regimented and “tested” checklist of procedures. There has to be a script. It has to be revised, gutted, and re-written by at least seventeen different people. The scripts themselves must follow a structure which is so precise that “new” scripts might as well simply be scripts from 1982 with superficial changes made to the names of the characters, the setting, and the profession of the protagonist. The script must be the ultimate “blueprint,” and changes made to it once a camera has begun taking pictures are to be frowned upon. “Small” productions must cost a minimum of $1 million, and must employ more people than an aeronautics factory. In the midst of all of this rigidity, minor common-sensical deviations are hailed as bold experimentation, and a film produced with recourse to any minuscule amount of such common sense is dubbed “an iconoclastic tour de force of free-spirited, free-wheeling creativity.” To put it differently, producers have lowered their own bar so far that they can leap balletically over it while in a coma. This makes a producer’s life easier in some ways (and harder in others). It also happens to make for terribly predictable and intellectually vacant movies.

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It’s been a very hectic couple of weeks: I’ve been bouncing between production of Hell Is Other People and the post-production phase of my fourth short documentary. It’s unfortunate that I’ve had to be so neglectful of the blog this soon after having created it, but I’m easing into a kind of rhythm with HIOP and I expect to be getting back into the swing of things.

We’ve been shooting–sporadically–for about the last week and a half, and I’m very happy with the way things are going. It’s been over two years since I began “writing” the scenario for this project, and I can’t begin to express what a relief it is to be underway after so many frustrations and false starts. We’re shooting more or less in sequence, one happy consequence of which is that I’m able to edit as we go and will end up working with an ever-lengthening contiguous chunk of the movie. So far, I’ve put together a rough cut of the first fifteen minutes.

I don’t normally like to show anyone even a part of a work in progress; I tend to take any criticism offered much too seriously and often end up feeling as if I’m letting the film be directed by a committee. That having been said, I’ve decided to post a clip in spite of myself and may end up regretting it. This will likely be the only time I’ll do so on this project, so if you’re curious you’ll get your only early peek after the jump.

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Nick Rombes, a writer whose opinions on movies and the general cultural state of the art are almost always right on the mark, recently expressed a sentiment which seems to be quite pervasive these days. In a brief preface to a post about music he states that he is “tired of [movies] because they are not so good any more. One day, they will be good again. Worthy of words. But not now.”

I think a lot of us know exactly what he’s talking about. The product at the multiplexes is both completely disposable and utterly moronic, and “independent” film has largely been reduced to banal non-stories about recent college graduates who whine about how hard their lives are in spite of the fact that they drive around in cars bought for them by their wealthy fathers. There are silly men-in-tights movies on the big screens and equally silly boys-and-girls-in-flip-flops movies on the smaller screens. To top it off, the audience for films is shrinking at an exponential rate–not only because the movies on offer tend to be so worthless in general, but also thanks largely to all 6,000 worthless cable channels, 6 billion internet videos of people “hilariously” being struck in the testicles by airborne objects, etc. Things are bad, and getting worse every day.

So why continue to make movies in this climate? Why do I even bother? I’ll give you a couple of reasons.

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I’ve been getting a lot of responses to my casting call for Hell Is Other People since my reminder last week, but those responses have been decidedly, shall we say, young and feminine.

I do have some male parts and a more “mature” female part to cast. I don’t want to discourage anyone from getting in touch with me if interested, but I particularly need to build a list of young men and women in their late 30’s or early 40’s, and so interested parties meeting those broad criteria are especially urged to get in touch as soon as possible. I can’t schedule any auditions until I have what at least looks like a workable list for all the parts.

I’ve always been fascinated by Frederick Wiseman’s films, but this fascination has grown in the last year or so (which is roughly about the amount of time since I started making documentaries in earnest)–primarily, I suppose, because there are numerous formal and thematic similarities between what I’ve been doing and Wiseman’s œuvre: we both make films about social institutions, and we both do so in a manner that attempts to present real events in a manner as divorced from our own subjective biases as is practicable (I don’t want to use the word “objectivity” here, because I don’t believe it’s possible or even, really, desirable). What’s so interesting to me about these similarities is the fact that my approach has not really at all been directly influenced by Wiseman’s work; I more or less developed my documentary aesthetic and process on my own as what I felt was the natural way in which to treat the material which had started falling into my lap.

It’s not at all hyperbolic to say that Wiseman is one of the world’s most important living filmmakers, and yet he rarely speaks analytically about his work. Why? As he puts it, in a recent interview with Nicolas Rapold of The Museum of the Moving Image’s Moving Image Source:

I don’t even particularly want to summarize [one of my movies] because if I could summarize it in 25 words or less I shouldn’t have made the movie….I’m specifically avoiding making the generalized statement.

What a great response, and one which is quite similar to what I have found myself saying numerous times when asked to summarize or otherwise verbally describe one of my projects.

I’ve received a fair number of responses since my call to local actors went out a while back, but I still need to build up my list a bit more before I can make an informed decision on whom I should schedule for an audition.

Again, this call is open not only to experienced actors, but to practically anyone who thinks he or she might want to give acting a try.

For more information (including some details about the project in question, what I’m looking for, and how to proceed if you’re interested), please see this page.