peter john ross

RETRIBUTION AND REVELATION

sonnyboo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:06:28 -0700

Week four of COWTOWN went extremely well. JOHNNY APPLEWEED from Johnny Cotugno and Tamara Reynolds played for a packed crowd of over 200 people. In the short film line up, I added the SAD KERMIT short from Backwards Slate’s Max Goah. Man oh man did that hit well with the audience, as I knew it would. I programmed it after the Uncle Pete and Telemarketer shorts; you have to ditch your ego and program what works best and that piece I knew was a home run.

During the trailers, I did something a bit different. Since several of the audience members are repeat viewers, I felt that the trailers start to get a bit grating being the same every week. So for HORRORS OF WAR, I decided I’d mix it up since I personally have several trailers. Since it was a comedy night, I played the Japanese DVD trailer, and just in case the joke was lost, I added a title at the end that said “Now in English” and thankfully it got laughs, big laughs no less. Even more cool was that about 6 people approached me to say that the thought the trailer was so kick ass, they want to see the movie again.

The great and powerful short film channel MOVIEOLA from the Great White North has approached me about showing the new short films. I had not been quite the marketing whore I once was in that I never submitted the Telemarketers or Uncle Petes to them. Since they bought a British TV network too, this is a bigger outlet than it once was. Thank god I have a connection and history with them as competition for air time is fierce these days.

The big SUZUKI push ended. I’m blitzed. Even though this was a smaller order, which only meant that I did more of the work myself instead of bringing in more people to help. Now that the economy has crashed, only a few weeks off from my earlier prediction of Mid-to-Late-August, we can expect a serious draught in work for many in the film & video realm.

I had an interesting discussion relating to the effects of the economy on filmmaking on various levels. The “indie film” will die a pretty immediate death, from the $1,000-$1,000,000 stages. Private investment has just left the building as everyone’s property and stocks have plummeted. The mini-majors in Hollywood will be the first ones to feel the squeeze as the banks pucker up the credit.

What most people don’t realize about a major Hollywood film is that they are financed not by investors in most cases, but low interest loans from banks. Warner Brothers, Sony, Fox, and Disney have assets and values so they can get a loan, as opposed to private investment. That means that now that there is less credit available to banks from bigger banks, there is less money for Hollywood, even though they are, in a general sense, profitable. Since virtually every single “indie” studio had been gobbled up by the big studios, there ain’t no money for Indies either.

So with private investment, studio deals, all out of the option window, what can we do? In a lot of cases, just wait it out. Practice. Make shorts. What else is there? We’re screwed for the time being.

The home video market had already been decimated by piracy, gluttony of product, and a lack of profitability thanks to Netflix, Video on Demand, and alternate sources. It seems the very same things that widen our audience diminish our chances of fiscal success.

The future is unwritten. We face various forms of uncertainty. My prediction remains positive, as the unknown is the future. I know that the next generation, the next wave will be in the unexpected, unpredictable new form.

- Peter John Ross

Procrastination Kills the Kitties of Creativity

sonnyboo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:27:37 -0700

My weekend filled with monotonous, but necessary works. I got ahead on our big commercial gig whilst simultaneously digitizing and working through a ton of material for The COWTOWN Film Series. From conforming video files from various sources to digitizing tapes and DVD’s, sorting through it, scheduling, and then timeline assembly, I did about 44 hours work from Friday to Sunday night for the COWTOWN Film Series, while still laying spots to Beta SP for broadcast throughout the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard.

Putting these shows together is by no means a small job, but quality assurance means a lot to me. I want to put on good shows. Because someone told me how cool the title sequences are that I did, that actually got me a little upset. I appreciate the compliment, but now I’m left wondering what I to do when by week 10 they get bored with those animations. So I spent my Friday night creating a whole new set of animations and graphics for the show intros for the remaining 7 weeks. So now I have a plethora of animation and title sequences for everything. I even added dates and show times to the trailers, an animation introducing the Q&A sessions, and a titler at the head of each show. I’m big into professional grade showmanship, although most of the animations I created are simply templates slightly altered from VideoCo-pilot.net (gotta give credit where credit is due and Andrew Kramer deserves most of the credit).

I even did all the PRE-SHOW timelines and exported them to MPEG files for the Compact Flash Video player I use for the loop. I love this cool handy device. No moving parts, just plug it in for power, connect the audio/video cables to the INPUT of the DVCAM deck, switch the deck over to LINE IN, and then pop in the COMPACT FLASH card with MPEG1 or MPEG2 files on it and away it goes, looping for an eternity. Running it through the deck saves me any additional hookups or switchers, plus I can manually control the volume levels on the deck for the LINE IN. I want the PRE-SHOW to be a much lower volume than the real show.

For the PRE-SHOW, I added a trailer for JIM LEO’s upcoming feature. Even though it isn’t a part of COWTOWN, he’s been attending every week. One other thing I added was a few new slides to the slide show. I’ve always had one for INDIECLUB COLUMBUS because they send out the notices about COWTOWN, so it’s the least I can do. I’m not particularly a fan of the local chapter, but hey scratch my back, I scratch yours. Business is business. I also added one more Paul Landis-made slide for a production company because supposedly there was a FACEBOOK notice about being “banned” from the COWTOWN Film Series. No one has been banned. It’s open to the public and anyone can attend. Who I chose to put in the PRE-SHOW is really up to me. Several people PAID to be sponsors; others generously donated time, support, word of mouth, or short films.

So someone I barely know tells me there was some FACEBOOK or something entry stating that their current status was “BANNED FROM COWTOWN because they weren’t getting a free slide. What the hell are they doing for the screenings? My understanding is that this same yahoo called me the devil and then wonders why I’m not feeling inclined to give them a free spotlight on the big screen in front of 50-100 people a week. Gee, I wonder. Whatever, I’ll put their slide into the shows. Sheesh.

My Sexy Fiance Veronica ™ could turn into Columbus’ own AIN’T IT COOL NEWS for Ohio movies. Since I prefer to watch the features for the first time on the big screen, she’s my beta tester when I lay off the timelines to tape. She watches for glitches and mistakes or even computer error (which has happened a few times) and the tapes stop, or the hard drives stop, or there’s skips in the program, etc. She sees all the movies, pre-show, and short films/trailers, and the features up to 3-6 weeks early. Since she works and can’t make it before 30-45 minutes into each COWTOWN Film Series, she loves getting the private screening. I suggested she blog about the movies before they screen and build a mini-web-spoiler thing going so Columbus could really be a mini-Hollywood. Like if the plot twist was the ultra-lame “she’s really the killer’s SISTER!” DUH-DUH DAHHHHHHH! Oh my god, it’s as if they saw HALLOWEEN iV! Maybe not. No one really cares.

As it is this week’s upcoming feature JOHNNY APPLEWEED kicks ass. It’s not a slapstick comedy or Cheech and Chong proportions. It’s got a bit more depth and seems more akin to the abstract-lite Richard Linklater films like WAKING LIFE or moments in SLACKER. Regardless, I think people are in for a treat with the short films too. When Max’s SAD KERMIT video plays, my belief is that people will be laughing so hard, I’ll get equal parts complaints and praise for programming it.

I have shows 1-9 (out of 10) pretty much complete, 1-5 are even on tape already. There are a few procrastinating or last minute tinkerers and slackers in my midst, but we have set deadlines. I shan’t be very forgiving of those who miss the deadline…. PHIL. These dates and times are not superficial, as I need to clear the decks so that I can put my OWN focus on completing the feature for November 13th. Obviously HORRORS OF WAR is done, but IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM is not. I’m debating that show order now and think the film itself should go first for those who haven’t seen the movie; the documentary goes second and doesn’t spoil anything.

Once I plug the holes in a few of the newer timelines (and secure some more blank DVCAM tapes), I’ll be set for the rest of the run of COWTOWN . I have placeholders and other things in the sequences, so everything in terms of mapping and planning has been completed. I wanted to get ahead, and now I have. I have two projects in post production to nail, one small, one huge, but neither insurmountable.

If I can just manage to get the day-job commercial work to tone down some more, then I’ll be in a position to get everything done in order. Thanks to the economy, that looks likely to be sooner rather than later. In the past year I’ve learned some amazing time saving tips and workflow short cuts with all my software that I so arrogantly thought I had mastered. Nay, I say unto thee. Someone can always teach you new tricks and cut corners.

I want to schedule two small shoots in the next few weeks. I guess, since my inspiration has returned I might as well kick the ignition and go for it, right? I mean when the divine muse gives you a gift or two, you should really pay attention and light the fire. I’m lit. I want to burn like a forest fire while the heat remains.

Happiness is a warm gun to some, but for me Happiness is a cold glass o’ Paul Newman’s Own lemonade. Here’s to ya Paul. Rest in Peace. I’ll have two gallons to support your charities every week.

- Peter John Ross

Catch Up, Cowtown, and Commercials

sonnyboo — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:38:13 -0700

Now for some more good news. I got a strange call the other day. The BARACK OBAMA campaign wanted to pay to advertise at the COWTOWN Film Series. The fact they had even heard of it blew me away. Now, I have been remaining quite Switzerland in terms of politics, so I must adhere to that here and turn them down. I cannot allow the screenings to become political in that regard, no matter how I feel about one candidate or another. I’m just blown away that they had heard of the screenings and wanted to advertise with me. We must be doing SOMETHING right!

Week Three of COWTOWN went well. Whenever Dino Tripodis can’t MC, I now have two very hot ladies doing the intro. I used to want to do the intros and take center stage, but I guess not only have I mellowed, but I want to work the projection booth and make sure things run smooth to get the show started.

SUMMER NUTS played very well. The mockumentary style rarely gets done well on the low budget, but this one nailed the Christopher Guest milieu better than any I have seen. We had a decent crowd too.

The audience always seems to contain the same core 25-30 people from our local film community, which makes a nice base for attendance, and the rest, and sometimes majority are the general public. Yes, I’m disappointed more people from our “film” community don’t attend. There are supposedly 200-300 people on various email lists. As was discussed the other night, it starts with the leadership. No matter what people say, it’s always their actions that speak louder than words. When people say they care about filmmaking or that they can put personal differences aside, it’s the actions that clearly show that they cannot. People follow the EXAMPLE set by the leaders, not their words. When the leaders only care about themselves and their own screenings, that’s what people take from them. If that’s what the leaders are like, people who are followers tend to be the same way, or at least feel the actions are condoned.

This is why another, much more positive and professional filmmaker group has formed in Columbus. I’m not involved, but I have been asked my opinion on aspects. I want no part of being in the leadership of a filmmaking group, but thankfully, I would like the opportunity to attend a real meeting of actual filmmakers doing bigger and better things. FINALLY, a core group of people are taking action instead of just complaining quietly in dark corners. If something is wrong, then FIX IT. Don’t just complain endlessly that something won’t change itself.

Some of the filmmakers with shorts or features in the series are attending every single show, whilst others only show up for their own screening. It says a lot about community and the interest in maintaining the “team spirit” aspect of the series. Micky Fisher and Johnny Wu have driven up from the opposite ends of the state to support screenings that weren’t their own.

I’m not angry or upset by this. I don’t know some of the filmmakers that well. These are NOT my first film festival or showcase screening, so the attendance from filmmakers is not a shock, nor is their motive. Some people just feel like all the work for a screening SHOULD be done for them, as if they are that good. In other cases, they just reach a point of being sick of their movie or never had much confidence in it, so they kind of DON’T want people to see their movie out of shame or self consciousness from the terror of actually finding out that the film is NOT as good as they had hoped.

GET OVER THE FEAR. Be proud of your movie. No movie is perfect. Every director dreads the moments that don’t work or where some blemish exists aesthetically. Become a “glass is half full” kinda person and embrace the unadulterated reaction of the audience to your artistic creation. No, not everything will go as you expect, and the amorphous beast known as the mob/crowd mentality can be different every single time the movie plays based on the collective mood and sway of the audience. Take it all in and enjoy the ride.

Some filmmakers go their entire lives or careers without having the movie play in front of audiences in a real movie theater. It’s an HONOR and a PRIVILIGE to exhibit on the big screen. This opportunity doesn’t come around that often. I cannot wrap my mind around the concept of NOT getting thrilled and fired up about a film screening. Now, bear in mind, I cannot sit through another screening of HORRORS OF WAR, but the idea of putting it in front of a paying audience again gets me jazzed. The adrenaline kicks in from the interaction the audience to the flickering images.

UNCLE PETE’S PLAYTIME has been playing very well at COWTOWN. So far UNCLE PETE plays very well at all the live venue screenings. I made these intentionally to be viral videos for the web. I’m surprised that they hit so much better in a theatrical setting. Every audience screening has yielded much more positive reaction than the singular viewing experience online. The infection of laughter makes it okay to be amused at the political incorrectness of the piece.

I’m immersed in TV commercials as I dub over 100 spots to tape. I spent all week making the timelines so I can mechanically and mindlessly record them out to tape. Simultaneously, I will be digitizing and creating the shows for pretty much every single COWTOWN show that’s left. I want to get them done and not worry about it week to week. Procrastination kills the kitties of creativity.

That’s it for now kiddies. Back to the massive working weekend of catch up, COWTOWN, and commercials.

Press Whore! The Unfiltered Facts

sonnyboo — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:32:22 -0700

Okay, so week two of the COWTOWN FILM SERIES played out. Yes, we had a drastic increase in attendance. Over 100 people attended this week. It didn’t hurt that the Columbus Alive did a feature story and interview, as did Uweekly, the OSU print paper. See, I sent press releases about the COWTOWN FILM SERIES in early August, and then did follow ups at the very beginning of September for the Sept. 11th premiere. The early bird gets the worm, as they say.

Now, why both papers wanted to interview me, instead of the filmmakers that have movies playing escapes me, but press is press. I’m helping get attendance to THEIR movies, so it all works out. It’s not like I haven’t been pushing these filmmakers to get their own press. I’ve given pretty concise road maps since this summer on how to get these articles & interviews for themselves. So far, I think 2-3 might actually get some (or try to get) printed press on their own.

When doing short film festivals in the past, I would get angry about the apathy, but I think I’m past that. When you don’t promote, and no one shows up, I won’t be the one embarrassed. I’ll simply have that “I told you so” look and I might even skip out on the after party and not work hard to get anyone to head over to the bar. I want to align myself with winners, not losers. By this stage, the inhibitions and complete lack of ambition hardly can come as a surprise from some of the filmmakers whose work I present, especially when I do so much promotion for them already.

Since it’s predictable, I’m not sweating it. My focus & attention go to the ones who ARE way into this. Some of the directors of other movies are coming EVERY SINGLE WEEK and even some other filmmakers locally are making the Thursday night screening habitual. This makes me very happy. The number of these actors, directors, writers, etc. surprises me even more. There exists a core group of pros and semi-professionals who are looking to support each other, truly, in actions not hollow words.

One thing has been a constant in life and that is that one thing you can rely on is the unreliability of others. That’s why I take so much personal attention to press, but also presentation. Very few others have an interest in making a professional, good looking theatrical experience. I go to film festivals or meetings where the projector and DVD players are not tested, and nothing sucks the energy from the room like a group of people standing around, semi-silent, watching 3-4 people fumble with a not working projector or DVD player for 5-10 minutes. By then the momentum has been train-wrecked, and then when the movie plays, the mind-frame has been interrupted and it takes time to get back into it. It’s a Pavlovian response to the lights going down, the projector starting up…. So when the movie doesn’t actually start, you’ve set up anticipation, and then don’t pay off. It’s frustrating, at least for most people and not the best frame of mind for the voluntary suspension of disbelief that most movies rely on to be effective, especially amateur movies that stretch that suspension (or voluntary part) to its breaking point to get the ideas across.

I’m managing the COWTOWN FILM SERIES by myself. No one has contributed much to it because it doesn’t NEED much help. These kinds of events are not rocket science, nor do I have to put in more than 5-10 hours a week into it and that includes promotion. Now, the one regret I have was not getting a print shop as a sponsor. I wanted to get the flyers, postcards, and programs printed for free. As it is, I pay for the programs out of pocket. If we do another run of COWTOWN film premieres next year in early 2009, I will get not only a print shop to sponsor, but I think I can bag some TV time for free too.

I got in my JAG 35 lens adaptor. It works well, albeit I got what I paid for, but it will do what it needs to do. One problem, for me, is that the image inversion makes my life hell. The 35mm lens adaptor inverts the image upside down. So I can’t use the LCD screen, as it’s upside down and I just cannot adapt to that. I ordered a $50 7” LCD screen that I’ll mount upside down on top of the camera. It will arrive on Tuesday, so I can play with it more. So far, I’ve only tested it indoors with pop cans and minimal lights looking at a big monitor, with the camera upside down. The wrack-focus and depth of field effects are amazing. I will use this thing to powerful effect soon enough…My ASPECT HD codec can invert the image right-side up free of charge when I digitize.

The Columbus Alive interviewers asked a lot about HORRORS OF WAR. I can think of no topic I’m more sick of discussing. That makes editing on the documentary about the making of the movie, still being pushed to a back burner, even though the clock is ticking.

I have re-loaded my AVID XPRESS PRO projects and started to sort out outtakes and demonstrative footage for the documentary sections that have been half-cut and need B-Roll to finish. I knew I wanted to start the documentary, as a feature length doc that is, in a less “flashy” softer, subtle, slower open. I now know how to open the movie, which is a big step to seeing the whole project finished. The goal with the feature length version will be in trying to make it a broader, more generalized approach as to how we made an independent film, although I love the stories and little things. Those carry the most weight to me, as I’m trying to make a movie that I want to see, not necessarily one that anyone else will.

I love the documentaries and DVD extras for things like Peter Jackson’s THE FIGHTENERS (4 hours long) and the LORD OF THE RINGS (nearly 6 hours for each of the 3 movies, plus newer 90 minute docs for each of the 3 movies), and HEART OF DARKNESS with Francis Ford Coppola or FULL TILT BOOGIE with FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. The drama behind the camera, the camaraderie of the cast and crew, the creative process of various people in any department – THOSE are the things I like to see and hear. That’s the basis of the film to me. So it’s 50% interviews and stories, and 50% “fly on the wall” documentation to make a hybrid movie that combines my two completely different styles of filmmaking documentaries.

I’m hoping to replicate and sell DVD’s of this documentary when I’m finished. If I add the Filmmaking Tips, and other bits, it will be marketed more as a “Film School DVD” type thing, but also as the supplement disc that the movie didn’t get.

Time to get back to the grind of commercial work. “V” is NOT happy about the time I spend abroad. He’s taken to waking me up earlier and earlier trying to get his playtime with me before I head into the universe outside the walls of Rossdonia.

Peace out Amigos!
Rossifer

Columbus Alive interview

sonnyboo — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:51:17 -0700

This is an interview I did about the COWTOWN FILM SERIES.

My interview with Columbus Alive & Uweekly for the COWTOWN FILM SERIES

Directorial Scrimmaging

sonnyboo — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:56:34 -0700

I’ve been out of the loop since the HORRORS OF WAR screenings. Sure I directed the HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS videos in late 2007 and this year I did the UNCLE PETE’S PLAY TIME series, but I have not tackled any drama or acting that had real meat on the bones. I love working with actors, but I really love getting deep into a scene and playing with all the various ways you can interpret or enliven a scene.

A few years ago, my friend Holly was taking an acting class and her scene was not flowing. It was a Friday night and as is hardly unusual, I had no plans. Since My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ (then simply Girlfriend™) worked (and works) Friday nights, I tend to take Friday night off and just chill on my own. Holly called and said she & her scene partner couldn’t focus and they had a particularly harsh read in front of the class and wondered if I’d mind “directing” them. It was supposed to be more about just being more of a babysitter (her words, not mine), but I seriously got into it. I loved taking a scene, one I had not written myself, and then working with actors to re-shape the words and find meanings and emotions in the context. I had never before directed words I had not written myself.

At first I just had them read it and perform the scene as they had been for at least two reads. Since there is a tendency to get into syncopation with the words, the first suggestion I made was to examine the lines and maybe accent, and “hit” a different word and tell me why they chose that word instead of the one they had been emphasizing. Then I pulled them separately and told them to try the scene as a completely unrelated character. I told one of them to be SPOCK from Star Trek and the other one to be Bill Murray. Just to create an entirely different dynamic to the scene. Neither would win awards for impersonation, but the reads became entirely different. We found together different aspects from this wild interpretation to take to the final variation of the scene back to “normal”. There was so much more in terms of dynamics and the “rut” was alleviated.

The next day I was proud to receive the phone call telling me they had successfully impressed the acting teacher.

The experience left an impression on me and I used similar techniques for my 2004 endeavor directing in the 48 Hour Film Project. Since we had no script, I wanted to develop a rapport with actors in lieu of having a script (or genre).

Now, I am in a different place, yet not so different. I have not been directing in some time. I’ve been away from actors and acting, nonetheless directing. Like any other art form, practice makes perfect. I’m practicing directing at least once a week with two actors. I play acting games, using “open” scenes, and hell, I’m even making up scenes and writing one pagers for them to work on with me. That invigorates me as a writer too, but the directing muscles get the most work. This experience helps me on many levels, but the re-igniting of my inspiration and desire to get back to directing has rewarded me the most.

Maybe it’s arrogance, maybe it’s fear of being judged or deemed weak, but , I’d say that pretty much MOST directors need to practice working with actors more than they do (if they do at all). I don’t really care. I feel like if actors need to practice, then directors need practice just as much if not more. Jesus, having seen so many indie films recently I know that most alleged directors are NOT good at working with actors. I view what I’m doing as a scrimmage before the new championship season starts.

That also means I’m about to really get back in the game. I’ve been on the bench too long and this is just the warm up before I start playing my best.

Even though I suck at sports metaphors…

Expect more goodies from the blogs from Rossdonia!

Your Ever Faithful Narrator,
- Peter John Ross

Post Partum Punctuation

sonnyboo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:02:19 -0700

FINALLY! GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! screened last night. The first night of COWTOWN went well, as well as could be expected. The majority of our press will hit for next week’s screening, and the movie is probably the best in the series on week two, so I’m happy. We had about 55 people for the first night, and I expect over 100 for next week’s show.

I just took a phone call from WBNS 10TV, our local CBS affiliate about details for the next screening and to get summaries of each film for their community events calendar. That combined with the other press all hitting next week on Wednesday and Thursday, right before the screening of THE COURIER. We’ll have the COLUMBUS ALIVE story and video, the Uweekly, and hopefully some more press. All for the glory of Ohio Filmmaking.

GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! is not a great film, nor will it win any awards, but it has an endearing heart at its core, which can make it quite watchable. Considering the fact that it took 12 years to be completed, the flaws actually got demagnified when played on the big screen, as opposed to how sometimes the opposite is true. It is not a good film, but it isn’t a bad film either. The audience was moved by producer/actor George Caleodis’ Q&A session where the self deprecating honesty and genuine passion for seeing this through to completion.

Now that it’s been played in the public, I can finally give some of my personal criticisms of the film. I think it suffers from many first time filmmaking mistakes. First off, one entire plotline, one dealing with drug dealing, never shows anything. They talk about everything and show nothing. It’s a common filmmaking mistake (one I’ve made several times). Movies are a “show me” medium, not a “tell me medium”. Unless you have a famous or incredibly charismatic actor, no one would prefer hearing them tell us a story as opposed to showing us through moving images.

Secondly, there are too many “lead” characters. In GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND there are three lead characters when there should have been only too. It gets convoluted and difficult to invest yourself into any one of these characters when there’s so many lead, and even secondary characters distracting us, the viewers. There is a character named “Matt”, whose performance is good, but I do not like his character at all. So giving this character screen time just grates on me.

Lastly, there simply was not enough coverage to edit with. Sometimes scenes had NO coverage, just one to two takes of a master shot. That’s it. Even if you use up a few seconds of film to grab some cutaways; shots of hands, feet, or anything that doesn’t need synch sound, and you can add dynamics to a scene or remove unwanted dialogue or changing the rhythm to something more appealing.

I like the movie, but simultaneously, I don’t want people thinking I don’t recognize that GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND is not a well made movie. It’s not. My mantra, as chronicled in these blogs – we can’t make it good, we can only make it better. We did make it better and it is FINISHED. That’s what really counts. I still find the film appealing on many levels, but it’s not exactly fine art. For whatever reason, I like the movie, warts and all.

I can’t believe I have 9 more weeks to go of these screenings…. Why did I do this to myself?

Carrion and Fodder With a Side of OCD

sonnyboo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:48:40 -0700

We’re only a day and a half away from the first COWTOWN FILM SERIES screening. I’m happy with GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! No, it is not a great film, but it’s a watchable and entertaining film. Too many people just wanted to see it done and that’s what I did.

Strange that I’m potentially considering helping another struggling feature from a Columbus filmmaker to get done too. I don’t know if I will or not. A lot of loose ends and personal issues may prevent me from even offering a helping hand.

I just did interviews with the COLUMBUS ALIVE and also UWEEKLY so the last vestiges of the social coma have really started to end. There’s nothing that can stop me now. The snow balls are collecting, just need to start rolling them down the hill and see which ones are avalanches…

I have so much in the hopper right now, I’m bursting at the seams, both literally and figuratively. For a new project I’m looking to executive produce, I went ahead and splurged on a 35mm lens adaptor for my Canon HV20. I went with the JAG35, as I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, like the $1100 on the Letus35 adaptor. It’s a great piece of gear, but I don’t want to buy something with no lens that costs more than the camera. It just feels awkward to me. So $400 for the JAG35 and having amazing depth of field for my 1080 HD camera, albeit a tiny one, all lead me to the decision to purchase.

In my current state as a director and filmmaker have me very interested in having depth of field as a valuable tool in my arsenal. It’s very basic you see; I want to wield my control over the image more. By being able to focus, or not focus, on things in the frame means the viewer will really only see what I want them too. This is like level two filmmaking, but it’s so potent. I have not played with this much. I’ve done some occasional rack-focus effects, but I have not truly utilized the power of depth of field to my fullest advantage. Now I will experiment with it extensively and make sure it gets used in this little side project. No one on this site understands DEPTH OF FIELD like EZ... he's da MASTA!

Since the deadline is now barreling down on me, I have to finish the documentary IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM, about the making of HORRORS OF WAR. The goal of having a feature length documentary about the creation of an ambitious feature must be completed. I started this, now I have no choice but to hammer the rest out. I did a lot of work on this, nuggets of which are in the webdocs, but overall, the narrative and educational aspects have to be nudged and tweaked until I have a compelling story. Its there, buried in the interviews and footage; just need the time and concentration. I can do it and today I started my though process on what to do with it, so that’s a good sign. I have to complete this project before I can move on.

In discussing the idea of completion of projects, and how COWTOWN FILM SERIES has been helping more than me with a real life deadline to compel the end of procrastination, I realized. I cannot start another project, at least shooting one, until this documentary wraps. I can pre-pro to a certain point, but I’m cheating if I don’t finish.

That’s the end of the Sonnyboo Report for now.

- PJR
The man, The myth, The math

Who's gonna be our next president?

sonnyboo — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:36:17 -0700

Personal politics aside, I think OBAMA will win. It's not about my choices or preferences, but simply the mathematical numbers.

Making it all local to Ohio, a definite RED STATE and home of corrupt election practices, in DAYTON OHIO, when McCain came in to announce his VP, they had to charter their own buses for the republican party to get enough people there to make it look like a crowd was there and 2 days later when OBAMA was in DUBLIN OHIO, it was well over 20,000 people, driving themselves from as far away as Indianapolis Indiana just to see the guy and hear him speak.

The regular news media ain't reporting facts; they're reporting their political point of view.

Obama will win, but it won't be a "landslide", as people will vote what they always vote, conservative or liberal. I believe Obama will win, but it will be by less than 10%.

Did anyone else see McCain agreeing with a woman wanting to institute a new DRAFT for the military? That will do well for him. People like a draft. Especially parents and young people.

And I think both of these guys made terrible choices for VP. Obama's guy is so devoid of any kind of personality and charisma, it was "INSERT OLDER WHITE MALE HERE". Then McCain, thinking the overrated Hillary supporters would rather have any female ("INSERT VAGINA HERE") , picked a woman with no experience, except being mayor of a town of 8,000 people and Governor of Alaska for less than 2 years. McCain would be older than Reagan was when he took office. If anything would happen to him, like senility, SHE would become the president. We have to look at her as if she might be the next president, and I don't think a lot of people would vote for her for president. The republicans just took the whole "experience" attack angle off the table against Obama now.

Oh well. Politics remain a less fun time waster filled with sound bytes and out of context name games. All of this made worse by 24 hour news organizations desperate to keep ratings via controversy, even when it's manufactured.

It is Complete. GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! has been recorded to master tape

sonnyboo — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:34:45 -0700

The karmic goodness continues! As my Sonnyboo Fan Club of 5-6 readers no doubt already know, the sun is shining in Rossdonia these days. The future looks quite good, both short term and long term. The summer may be coming to a close soon, but the sun continues to shine its golden rays, good guys win, bad guys lose, and your faithful narrator has nothing but exciting news.

Last night at approximately 11:29PM, I put GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! to master tape. I finished someone else’s feature film. Even though it’s not mine, a level of satisfaction permeates.

Sadly, Micah Jenkins was not present for the momentous occasion. I would have bought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Micah revived this and brought it back to life last year. His interest, more so than my own, got this movie to be finished. Micah has been laboring on the audio fixes for close to a year, one night a week in my basement.

Part of what took so long was that I was only willing or able to donate one night a week to the project with some occasional weekends. Since GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! is an ultra low budget movie, there is very little coverage in many scenes, which means awkward pauses, extraneous dialogue, and everything else – you’re stuck with it. Another element, very often overlooked is AUDIO overall. Upon LISTENING to the movie, the audio levels, dialogue tracks, ambient sounds, electricity humming, refrigerators, air conditioners, crown noises, these are all cursed with this movie.

Most people simply do not put the time and effort into editing the audio as much as they do their picture edit. It shows in the work, especially if you’ve ever played your cheap ass audio in a movie theater’s sound system. There have been times where your sound is great on your PC speakers, but put it in a real Dolby rated movie theater and you can hear every single flaw at decibels you didn’t know existed.

With Micah having both finished his audio “fixes”, meaning making it as good as we can without re-recording or spending any real money on it, it was my turn to finish up. I always knew that from the rough cut and even picture lock last year that I wanted to do more music spotting. Spotting is the process of determining where music goes in the movie and “how” it goes in. Will it be ambient music, like a radio or TV in the movie, or the music only montage sound, or will it be layered into the scene’s audio, but still be a main player in the moment.

This past Sunday, because the clock stared me down like a barrel of a shotgun with the screening in less than a month, I dived in headfirst into my job of music. George Caleodis had given me 2-3 CD’s of a band he was in from the 1990’s called THE IDEA and told me I could pretty much use any of it, so I did. Since the film takes place in the 1990’s (since it was shot in 1996-1997 it’s considered a “period piece”).

I’m an amateur sound designer/sound mixer. I am in no way a pro or even necessarily good at it. There are some serious and real people out there, but I have no budget to hire the folks who I normally would use for this job. Micah & I had to do it ourselves with whatever off the shelf software we had available to us.

I put in a few songs to be “ambient”, meaning songs that are coming from unseen TV’s and radios in the scene. To make it sound more “natural”, you don’t just lower the volume or gain on the music. I used an EQ setting where I kill out the bass and it sounds a bit more like a small radio or TV would sound. In one case, I even started the music as “scene music”, meaning the song at full volume, mixed with the sounds of the scene, then slowly EQ’d out the bass to make the same song appear to be on the radio in the next scene. It made a perfect transition. Hopefully no one will even notice it’s there, but I’ll know I did something cool to get us from one scene to the next using audio to smooth it out.

In other scenes, like the “love scene” (if it can be called that), I added a song to it that plays into the moment and lifts the scene up some. Similarly, at a more “action” oriented scene towards the end of the film (it is a film, shot on 16mm), I added an upbeat rockin’ song that also seemed to elevate the tension and excitement whereas before there just wasn’t much there. In other cases, the ambient music just smoothes over the horrendous inconsistencies of regular audio in the scenes.

I had a new mantra with Micah these past few months as the deadline of the COWTOWN FILM SERIES premiere loomed. I said, “We can’t make it good, we can only make it better.” Striving for perfection is not a bad thing. I often do in my own works, as best I can, but with this project we just needed to see it finished. That’s all. It’s been 12 years in the making, 5 of which in my world. I checked my emails looking for end credits info and I saw that my first real emails to Miguel and George about taking on the completion was in summer 2003.

It took until winter 2004 to get the film out of DuArt labs in New York. Then I personally paid for the telecine transfer to digital video. We attempted for several months in 2004 to edit this and just get the audio synch to picture. It failed because schedules and what not didn’t allow anyone from the production to give us some kind of road map to link the sound and picture.

In 2007, Micah pushed to bring it back to life. Micah and I know several of the investors and even though we weren’t involved in the shoot in any way, we felt an obligation to try to give them a finished movie, even if it’s just a DVD. As one of the investors said, it would be “closure” to the whole thing. On September 11th, 2008, we’ll close the book on GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! and show people this flawed masterpiece.

I like GOODNIGHT, CLEVELAND! It’s a weird, yet strangely appealing movie. It has warts, like all movies, but I really like it. A charisma of story and character gets to me. I only hope it gets some other people too. I’ll find out September 11th at 7:00PM at the Screens at the Continent.

What a strange feeling this is right now. A giant albatross has been lifted from my neck, albeit a self imposed one. I can’t tell you why, but in the last week or so, I’ve just been getting more Shiite done. Life is setting up the pins, and I’m knocking ‘em down. The stars have just aligned perfectly for me so the next year or so will be BOO TIME.

Peace and Love and Good Happiness Stuff,
Peter John Ross