Documentary Encounters

It was a fast and furious five days, but I was able to edit down hours’ worth of footage into a 13 minute, 33 second ‘ghost-umentary.’ At least, a ghost-umentary is what I’m calling it… ‘Otherworldly Encounters’ started as a collection of true ghost stories and ended as more of an argument that an ‘otherworld’ does exist all around us.

I loved every minute of working on this project, despite the time crunch. During the month of October, I interviewed real New Yorkers – including one professional medium – about supernatural experiences they’d had within the five boroughs. Despite not sleeping much this past month, I was thrilled with how sincere (and sincerely bone-chilling) these interviews were. Rather than simply present a series of ‘ghost stories,’ as had been my original intention, I instead wound up piecing together a mini-documentary whose goal, really, was to convince viewers that experiencing something supernatural is actually pretty natural in the grand scheme of things.

My aim had been to finish this video right before Halloween, which, incidentally, also wound up being right before Hurricane Sandy struck New York. That being said, the focus this week definitely shifted away from releasing this short under the most perfect possible conditions.

I’ll be doing what I can to try and drive up the number of views in the coming weeks, though, and while I’m at it – feel free to watch, comment, share, like, and enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/52363683

A few final notes on the experience of making something in the documentary style…

This was my first time doing something in this genre, and right off the bat, I can tell you that in the battle of documentary vs. narrative, they both have their pros and cons. With documentary, it’s ok for the editing to be a little choppy. You don’t have to stick to a perfectly planned-out script. You also have an easier time filming, since setting up one chair with lighting for the interviewee is typically sufficient.

On the flip side, though, without a script, a documentary can be very hard to nail down. The ending of ‘Otherworldly Encounters,’ in particular, gave me a lot of trouble. The ending I finally used was the third one I created. Likewise, there were a lot of great stories and one-liners that didn’t make the final cut simply because there was no good way to include them without going off on big tangents.

Overall, though, I learned that I loved working in the documentary style. It’s amazing the kind of emotion and history people will give you when talking about their real lives. I loved feeling how I used to feel when I was working on a paper in college and had a ton of great sources to pull from: like I had the power to piece their most valuable insights into one, super-valuable final product. 

I definitely see more documentary in my future.

The Perils of Filming Ghost Stories (...Right Before Spending a Long Weekend Alone)

Fresh off the glory of WilliFest, I was feeling extra-inspired to get more filming done. I was particularly inspired by an article I read about how to score a high number of viewings on Vimeo… the article detailed the exact right time to post your film, among other things, to help it get a lot of hits. (See article here.)

So I started to think… what short could I make within the next few weeks that I could post to get a lot of hits? What might be happening this month that would interest people?

HALLOWEEN.

Ok, brilliant – I decided I would interview people with ghost stories and put a segment together for Halloween. Interviewing people on camera, as opposed to orchestrating the filming of a narrative short, is comparatively easy. I would just need to book a room at the DFA, set up some creepy lighting, and rattle off a list of questions to my interviewees about their supernatural experiences.

It went great. I was thrilled with how my lighting turned out. The interviewee I had on my first night of filming was super generous with the details he was willing to discuss… the interview itself was juicy. I went home thinking I had gold.

One problem.

The next morning, I had to head to Pennsylvania to do four overnight stays with a dog. (Yeah, remember when I bought that pet care business back in May?) Said dog’s house is set back from the road, surrounded by woods, and ‘my’ bedroom when I stay there is in the basement.

I stayed there once before over the summer, with no problems whatsoever. But this time was different. This time, every time I had to go to bed, I was faced with absolute terror.

All because my interviewee’s story, about how as a teenager he had seen a demon in the woods near his house, had gotten under my skin… and I kept expecting to see one myself around every corner in this dark, silent mansion. (‘Mansion’ is not an exaggeration.)

It didn’t help that the house’s plumbing routinely made noises that sounded like doors opening and closing in other parts of the house.

And it really, REALLY didn’t help that, on my last night there, by which time I was desperate for sleep, the dog (who never EVER barks) began barking hysterically inside her crate up in the kitchen at exactly midnight, begging to go into the yard where she proceeded to flip out even more, and then taking over an hour to calm herself back down.

I returned to NYC yesterday and was as grateful as I’ve ever been to fall into a deep, peaceful sleep, feeling ‘safe’ in my own apartment and with my husband by my side. Now I just hope that I can manage to edit my footage, alone in my apartment during the day, in time for Halloween… and that the end product is worth it!

Also, of course… I hope I can get through the remaining interviews I still have to film!

WilliFest!

Just over a week ago, the Williamsburg International Film Festival was in full swing, and yours truly was in attendance! It was an amazing event, and more than your typical film festival since it also included a concert series, street fair/block party, and more.

It was the first film festival I ever attended, and I was so honored to be there on the strength of my film. Going made me wish I had attended film festivals long ago, even before I had any movie to show. I feel like I learned more about networking, financing, and actually making a film HAPPEN in four days at the festival than I could have from any book, lecture, or class.

To quickly recap the events, I went to opening night and was automatically thrown into a world of people who love story and film as much as I do. I had worried about meeting others, since I was entourage-less, and making the most out of the opportunity to network.

I didn’t need to worry.

Each person was so excited to talk about both their project and my project that starting conversations was easy. What’s more, everyone was there to network, so making connections was far simpler than I had thought. By the end of opening night, I had watched the first few movies with two new film-maker friends from Minnesota, then went out to dinner with three others who had come all the way from Australia. (Industry Magazine was also present and I’m pictured twice on their website at the opening gala, http://industrym.com/willifest-2012-press-gala/, third one in on the second row and second one in on the bottom row.)

The second day, I hunkered down to watch six straight hours of short films in three two-hour blocks, of which my film was in the second block. As the student film category got under way, I quickly felt my confidence and excitement take a hit. Student films? I couldn’t tell them apart from the regular short films which had screened just before. They were so sleek, so polished and professional… I knew that my short had a strong story and that the actors had delivered amazing performances, but still… by the time mine came on and I heard how rough and ragged the sound was compared to the others, I wanted to melt into the floor.

I had noticed that on other student films, there were long lists of crew members, whereas in my case, there were just three other folks helping me. Also, during the filmmaker Q&As, I quickly realized that every other filmmaker had had a budget ranging from a few hundred dollars up to about ten thousand. When it was time for my own Q&A, I had to report into the microphone that I had spent a grand total of $0 on my film.

Despite being slightly embarrassed by this, it was also an inspiration… what an amazing chance to find out exactly how people went about financing and organizing these teams of people to put together these great films! I used the opportunity over the next few days to find out as much as I could about how to do this myself.

My story has a very happy ending. Two days, two panel discussions, one big party, and countless screenings later, it was time for the awards ceremony. I was thrilled to find out that my short actually took one of the prizes, the Certificate for Achievement in Short Film.

Being accepted into Willifest and then having also received one of the prizes has been so encouraging… while I was starting to stall a bit on the filmmaking side of things, I now have huge incentive (and enthusiasm) for tackling another project!

 

The Speed of Write

How Fast Do You Write?

I was reading a chapter in William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screentrade (which, by the way, is a great book on screenwriting by one of the all-time great screenwriters… also the man I heard was secretly responsible for Good Will Hunting, but you can draw your own conclusions on that) about the speed of writing and it prompted me to do this post.

Every writer seems to have his or her own thoughts about how quickly writing should happen. Some sit every day and force the words while other wait for inspiration to hit and, when it does, write for hours or even days straight. Personally, I’ve tried approaching writing every which way, but have found that if I break with a project I’m writing – that is, if I wind up having to take more than a day or two away from it for whatever reason – it most likely goes off the rails. Once I’m onto a book or a screenplay, I have to basically commit to working on it each and every day until it’s finished. For short stories and short scripts, I have to do them in one sitting.

Goldman says in his book that there’s a certain energy to starting and then getting through the work as quickly as possible and that the energy translates into the finished product. I would agree with that, especially when it comes to screenwriting.

I’ve always done a good amount of preparation before starting a new screenplay. I’ll have character bios and a decent outline ready to go.

Now, I’m in the outlining module of the ProSeries, and we are on our 6^th draft of our outlines. I’ll repeat, 6^th draft! It makes what I used to do to ‘prepare’ look as professional as a gorilla in a tie. For each pass, we’ve focused specifically on one element of our screenplays, until we’ve been as thorough as possible.

There is something to be said for the ‘just start with a loose idea and inspiration will come approach’… but what I’m finding is that inspiration will strike even in the outlining phase, and in the outlining phase, it’s easy to revise. Things can be moved around, reworked, or flat-out changed at little cost to your time. This doesn’t mean that you might not be struck by some new idea to add in later, when you’re writing, but it does mean that the overall foundation of your story is going to be solid enough that A) You’ll have a better chance of finishing and B) It’s going to have a sound storyline that won’t take years of revision to fix.

I think the real benefit of all the outlining, though, is that by the time I get to the writing phase, I’m going to be able to get through all the writing quickly, with a completed screenplay in a matter of weeks. And I agree with Goldman in that there’s an energy, once you start writing, that you don’t want to lose. Stepping away for days or weeks at a time pretty much guarantees that you will lose that energy. The more prepared you are before beginning, the less likely that is to happen, because you always know what’s coming next in your story, how you want to handle it, and how you want the audience to feel.

***Now for a few quick, exciting updates! This past week I had two great pieces of news. First, my short story ‘Not There’ was accepted for publication in the January 2013 edition of All Things Girl, an online literary magazine and print anthology series (www.allthingsgirl.com). Second, my short film, Chance, is an official selection of the Williamsburg International Film Festival, which is taking place in Brooklyn from Sept. 20-23!

I’ll keep you all posted on both the scheduled show-times and the release of the short story!

 

The Quest for High Concept

This summer has been about getting re-focused on screenwriting. I spent a lot of last year learning film-making and getting a better grasp of the industry while working on a novella instead of a script. Since the end of May, though, I’ve done a complete rewrite on a screenplay, and have now started a program the focuses on selling your screenplay: the ProSeries. This six-month course is all about screenwriting from a marketing point of view, with an eye toward getting a screenplay sold or optioned by the end of six months and often through the company that sponsors the class (bonus for them!).

So far, I’m impressed with the ProSeries. It’s intense - averaging one project per day – but over the course of six months, teaches 300 skills for creating sellable screenplays. It’s also cheap ($850 for the whole six months and then life-long membership in their contacts-loaded ProSeries alum.) This is far more helpful and direct for a student’s career than any MFA program.

I started three weeks ago and thus far, the focus has been concepts, concepts, concepts. While I’m not at liberty to divulge any of the copyrighted course material, I will tell you that we brought into the course a list of ten original ideas – which have now been put through the mill of various marketing formats and other concept elevating processes – to generate anywhere from 50-100 totally new concepts. One of these will hopefully achieve elusive ‘high concept’ status. (I’ve generated 77 concepts total, maybe having three that are close to high concept.)

‘High Concept’ is that thing which, once you really have it, you’re going to sell your screenplay. I find that most people don’t really know what it is, though. It’s not simply a good idea, or an idea that you love, or even a big-budget idea. A high concept consists of three things, regardless of budget:

1. It’s unique.
2. It has a wide audience appeal.
3. You can say just one line and see the entire movie.

A word on ‘unique’: this doesn’t just mean a unique spin on an old idea, or something that’s somewhat different from other movies… Unique means thoroughly, completely hasn’t been seen before, yet can still fit in with the 2^nd and 3^rd criteria above. And, yes – a lot of screenplays that are not truly high concept might still get sold… but not with the same gotta-have-it fanfare that a high concept will.

Most of my original ideas were borderline high concept, but needed a bit more development. After having reworked them, I narrowed my 77 down to a new, higher-brow group of ten. Then the real fun began.

Going through the script consulting/production company that the ProSeries is associated with, my ideas along with my fellow members’ ideas have now been ‘tested,’ meaning that we each got a batch of ideas and had to either call or meet up with trusted friends (people who liked movies but who are not professional writers or actors) to pitch them those ideas in one line and get their reactions.

Results were really, really interesting.

One of the things I found most fascinating was how different people’s tastes are. I knew my clear favorites… but they were not everyone else’s clear favorites. I also had people rank their #1 and 2 choices out of the 10… and if I base my final results off of what got the most ‘likes’ versus what had the most #1 and 2 rankings, I get different results.

My next step was analyzing feedback on my ideas to determine which are my top 2. Then, (this afternoon!) I’m having a call with my screenplay coach with the goal of finding something she agrees can be pitched to production companies as high concept. (Her background: she pitches regularly to 59 production companies out in L.A.) Once we pinpoint that elusive idea, I’ll spend the next couple months writing it.

I highly recommend that if you’re going to spend a few months working on a script to first see if you can’t improve the overall concept and then see if people respond well to the concept before devoting your time… More often than not, your first choice might not be what appeals to others, and if you’re just starting out, you need that first script to SELL! (Write your love projects later.)

TA'ing at the DFA

So in addition to the many random things I’ve been doing lately, I’ve become a teaching assistant at the Digital Film Academy. Not too much to say about this, except that it’s interesting to be on the other side of the desk. It’s actually a good set-up for me, since I get to basically re-take classes I had a few months ago while helping the teachers out. (Also in consideration: I might be buying one of the DFA’s official cameras. The little video camera I currently have is excellent for what it is, but it wouldn’t be up to par on a film set. We’ll see!)

I actually worked as an adjunct teacher at two universities prior to getting my publishing job, and I really do miss it sometimes. Teaching is enjoyable, and I luckily am comfortable talking to a class. (A plus for someone in a creative field, as they often wind up doing some teaching in their careers to help make ends meet.) It’s been fun to hear about what the students are planning for their short films, which they’re actually shooting now… it’ll be really interesting to see those short films at the next screening in a few months, and to find out who’s the next Director’s Choice Award winner from this new crop of filmmakers!

Equally interesting is analyzing students’ personalities. True, we all get the chance to observe other people’s behavior every day, but for some reason, a classroom atmosphere makes it extra clear – who takes charge; who takes charge, but with an attitude; who doesn’t expect to have to work; who wants to work but is too shy to step forward and do it… I think a heightened awareness/recognition of these traits can help us to hone our own traits however we want. A great part of teaching (or even just being a teaching assistant) is that you step into that role of the one in charge, the one who knows what’s going on… a role we should all be putting ourselves in every day.

This was just a short post, but I'll be back soon with what I've been learning these past few weeks about creating high concepts for your screenplays!

Film Education - PERSONA

So, as part of my No MFA program, I’m doing something film schools everywhere do – pumping my student (aka, me) full of a lot of ‘great, game-changing’ movies. My Netflix queue is now a mile long, filled with movies I’ve been told I need to see for my ‘film education.’ Today’s flick: Ingmar Bergmann’s horror classic, Persona.

The fact that I just finished watching it an hour ago, have already read about four online analyses of it, and am now rushing to do this blog post (when I haven’t posted on other movies I’ve watched), should give you an idea of the effect it had on me.

It’s not that I completely loved the movie.

It’s that I was completely, thoroughly disturbed by it.

Also, it’s that I disagree with a lot of the interpretations I’ve read online. Granted, it’s very complex and touches on a lot of themes, and any number of interpretations could be valid. But everything I was reading seemed to agree on two things that I completely disagreed with, so I have to state my point of view.

Before getting into that, though, let me give you the basic premise of the film… a renowned actress, Elisabet, suddenly goes mute. Whether this is by choice or a true affliction is up for debate. For her treatment, a doctor recommends that Alma, her nurse, takes her to a beachside home where the two of them will stay alone together for a period of time. Throughout the film, the nurse basically winds up losing her marbles, eventually begging the patient to speak with her.

The first thing that most all viewers seem to feel which I completely disagree with is that Elisabet is cruel. One psychoanalysis online even went so far as to say she’s incapable of caring for anyone but herself and rejuvenated only through others’ suffering. She will not acknowledge Alma as a human being.

But I completely disagree. At the start of the film, we see Elisabet’s desperation. She cries both when she is alone and when she sees a monk burn himself in protest on the news. She’s also afraid. During one super-uncomfortable, looooong stretch, she stares directly into our eyes, pleading with us silently to help her. (I had to fast-forward it, it was so unnerving. I also had to fast-forward two other scenes that included disturbing imagery, one of which is only thirty seconds into the movie; it may be the first time I was ever so uncomfortable with a film that I had to fast forward.)

True, Elisabet seems to recover bit by bit at the beach… but the root of her problem, as stated by her doctor, is that she’s realized nothing she can do or say can capture the truth of life; it is all pretend. Therefore, she decides to do and say nothing. I didn’t think she was trying to be cruel to Alma. I just felt that not even Alma’s pleas seemed sincere or genuine - that nothing anyone could say seemed real to Elisabet. Most people online also feel that Elisabet's profession as an actress shows her narcissism - I just felt it reinforced this idea of everything being make-believe.

The second thing that everyone but me seems to agree on is that Alma’s big speech at the end is truly revealing Elisabet’s past and not Alma’s. (By extension, everyone seems to believe that these are two separate women.) I’m not convinced that either of these is true.

First, Alma had no way of knowing all the things she claims are Elisabet’s history. Elisabet hasn’t told her and, even though Elisabet’s husband shows up briefly (and sleeps with Alma, believing her to be his wife,) I don’t think he’s shared (or could possibly have known) all the details Alma goes into, either. Furthermore, I think it entirely possible that these two women are supposed to be the same woman, stuck in an internal war with guilt and the struggle to understand life.

At any rate, it is brilliant film-making, and, according to what I read, this film includes the first-ever instance of the awesome face-merge shot in cinema:

TADA! This is two women in one.

It was beneficial to watch and I have a feeling it will have me thinking for quite a while… but, if you rent it, be warned: by the time I got through it, my first thought was: “Thank God, I survived it.” I was completely relieved it was done.