Posted on 10/02/2004 10:07:19 PM PDT by daviddennis
Conservative Filmmaking 101: Seminar
The Conservative Filmmaking 101 seminar featured filmmakers Govindini Murty and Jason Apuzzo, organizers of the Festival, James Glennon ASC and Victor Elizalde of Sony Pictures.
Govindini, who I will abbreviate as G from now on, is the charming star of Terminal Island, a conservatively-themed film noir that takes on the war on terror as a theme. Judging by the trailer, it has some very stylish shots and a nice dash of humour, but my interest in it was pretty low due to the level of violence that existed. That's just personal taste and I'm sure a lot of us would enjoy the film. It's impossible for us to argue against the idea of a war on terror themed film, since it's the major political issue of our lives, and yet the majors have ignored it completely. This was mentioned by G with her forceful Italanite flair, and that leads us very nicely into ...
Victor Elzilde of Sony pictures. He was there to tell us the nuts and bolts inner workings of a studio, and he succeeded to a point. I'm satisfied that he was sincere in his convictions and beliefs, but he left out important components of the story.
He started with the theme that the producers of films are responsible to their shareholders for the performance of their productions. As a result, there is a huge bias against risk, and so Finding Nemo 2 is almost guaranteed to be made, while films that might be much better will be left unapproved.
He then mentioned that the film industry has rules. If you conform to their required structure, you will be more likely to have a film approved than if you don't. He emphasized that if you're a Stanley Kubrick, you can ignore this rule and make what you want, since someone of your talent WILL be discovered. But for most people, it would be easier if, for example, your movie was two hours or less -- easy to show in theaters, easy to fit on a DVD, and even easy to get on television with its rigid schedules. For some reason he never got around to mentioning any other rules (at least not that I remember). I would have liked to have heard some more guidelines, since I know that even if I was as brilliant as Kubrick, I'd still want to make it as easy as possible for someone to green-light my film.
He told us that there are two types of executives: Creative executives, who come up with ideas to produce, and finance executives, who focus solely on nuts and bolts. He was a finance executive, so of course he focused on the nuts and bolts end. He fervently insisted that there was no bias.
G said that he was flat-out wrong, that there was a ton of evidence just in the way she was able to shop around her film.
I think both people are right. We're talking to the wrong people here; itt sounded to me like he was talking about him and his fellow finance executives; the creative executives are the people who are coming up with ideas, and it seems to me that it's there where conservative themes get killed. So when G has meetings with creative executives, well, you know what happens.
Concerning the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, G had some excellent ideas that are well worth sharing.
(1) By all means, do it! More conservative themed films are needed. Even if they don't seem to show commercial promise, they can be made inexpensively, and thorough events like the Liberty Film Festival, we can start inspiring demand. Although she didn't say it, I could read between the lines: The Sony finance guy clearly wanted to find demand for conservative products, so he could go to his creative people and say it existed. Then they would have to act. So the more pictures, the more likely it would be that one would inspire the public, and the easier it would be for everyone to get approval of their projects.
(2) Look for inspiring locations. There are millions of great places around LA and a little imagination goes a long way. She doesn't like seeing lots of films that look like they were made in people's apartments, when it's not difficult to find unique and creative locations. I thought this was an excellent point and I plan to do more location scouting for my future productions.
(3) Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! Make sure all the actors know their lines, or some reasonable facsimile thereof (see next point). If you start filming and people flub their lines, you'll lose time and credibility with crews. They did all their shooting in four hour blocs, which means that nobody got excessively tired or hungry. The crews (they got so many volunteers that they rotated many members) were always well rested and appreciated the overall professionalism of the shoot.
(4) Because you're working on a low budget, you're bound to use non-actors for many of the roles. Try taping them talking normally, and then taping them saying lines, and tell them to try and say lines as though they acted spontaneously. (This is an excellent tip that I actually thought of myself when I directed actors for the first time a few days ago. I was pleased to hear my ideas confirmed by someone with actual experience). If necessary, let the actors ad-lib (make up) their lines if it makes their performances more natural.
Peace Out by Evan Maloney of Brain-Terminal
I really enjoyed this film. The format was simple: The director talks to various liberal protestors and they try to explain their rather bizarre worldview to him. They ranged from the clueless (easily the majority) to the bizarre (the fellow who said space aliens where everywhere). The encounters were both thought-provoking and hilarious.
I was very disappointed that Evan was unable to join us. He was scheduled to per the program and I really wanted to talk to him because I have a fairly similar filmmaking style.
Operation Eagle Strike
This was not nearly as polished an effort as Peace Out, but did show that the filmmakers have guts.
Operation Eagle Strike's people assembled with protest warrior signs, which are designed with similar graphics to lefty signs, but with subversive slogans, such as "War never solved anything (except in Japan, Germany, etc)". There was a lot of video of them setting up, them carrying their signs, and so on. Unfortunately, the video was produced on a poor quality camera and the signs were not readable in any of the wide angle shots they showed. More close-ups would have made this a far better film.
But then, after seemingly taking forever to march, there they were, right in the thick of the ANSWER protests. And they were confronted by bunches of very mad people, yelling and screaming and pushing and shoving. It wasn't clear exactly what was happening because the cameraman was in the thick of the melee, but it obviously wasn't anything nice. The police were eventually involved and forcibly separated the two sides.
All in all I would not rate this film well for production values, but for guts it's 10/10. Let's give it 7/10 so they know they should - and hopefully will - do better in the near future.
Budgets for these films were unknown. I suspect Eagle Strike's budget was just the cost of tapes, or probably somewhere between $20 and $50 depending on the price of tapes at the time. Peace Out was similar. Editing equipment was most likely owned by the filmmakers and therefore had a zero cost.
Is it true what they say about Ann?
Viewing this film gave me an excellent look at why people love Ann Coulter. She speaks her mind, and sugar coats it with humour, charm and great legs. It's a wonderful formula, and it works throughout this film, even when Ann's talking about non-political subjects such as her career and early life.
The biggest disappointment in this film is that it looks like a clip show. I'd say less than 1/3 of it is featuring Ann speaking directly to the maker of the video (and therefore us). Most of it is assorted clips from various interview shows.
A big surprise was the interviews with Ann's liberal friends. I found Susan Estrich, to be an especially good advocate for her since it was obvious Susan hated her views but liked and appreciated her personally. Susan complimented Ann on being an effective advocate, fearless and sincere in her beliefs.
I think it would have been interesting to hear from some of her sworn enemies as well, but that might have ruined the charming light tone of the documentary. All in all I thought this was well worth seeing, especially for her fans. Her remarks about her doll are not to be missed!
Budget was $3,000. The filmmaker hopes to "at least double" his money through the sale of DVDs.
The only major question about the making of the film was the handling of the news clips. The filmmaker believes that they are fine under fair use. He is worried about the "Outfoxed" case, where Fox News was thinking of suing the producer of that film for improper use of their clips. However, he feels that was just "sabre rattling" and expects the fair use exception will continue to work in his case.
Confronting Iraq
This film started with a brief but vivid pictoral history of terrorist attacks against us and our reactions. Smiling Bill Clinton tried to sweep away terrorism by ignoring it, but it kept on going in its relentless advance.
Various middle east experts, including Christopher Hitchens and Victor Davis Hanson, were interviewed about the Iraqi situation. I thought Christopher Hitchens was excellent, speaking with high conviction and the occasional spark of humour to hold our attention. The rest of the cast of experts were solid but he was definitely the highlight for me.
This film did a very nice job in connecting Iraq with terrorism and explaning why we went into Iraq. Unfortunately, it wound up dragging quite a bit towards the end. I think that like many films, it needed a bit of a liposuction to work with the perfect smoothness the topic deserved. But all in all I thought it was a first-rate effort.
Interestingly enough, the budget was $150k, even though it was clearly a clip-show style project. I have to guess that it was produced by people who were paid directly for it, unlike the other productions.
The End
At this point, I left the Festival. The next event was about Saddam's misrule in Iraq, and I wasn't keen on seeing people's fingers chopped up. The people who really need to see this film are, sadly, the people who still support Saddam. I'm not one of them and so I hightailed out of the theater.
I would have liked to have gotten a chance to talk to G, but unfortunately she was of course very busy. I'm going to email this to her and hopefully she will find it interesting.
I thought this was a very worthwhile first effort. I would have liked to have heard a longer panel, or a panel with people with related specialties (such as multiple cinematographers, etc). I think information on how to make our films more stylish on a budget, and therefore easier to market, is an excellent goal. And I really wanted to meet Evan Maloney.
Perhaps tomorrow, where I will be attending event 10, Brainwashing 101, I will have another chance.
Be sure to forward this to anyone else interested!
D
Ann Coulter movie was wonderful. At one of the colleges, an airhead young man came up to her with a shirt that said TRAITOR. He thought he was so funny. She signed it for him. It wasn't until later he discovered what she wrote --- Have fun in Guantanamo.
LOL
Does she ROCK or what???
Waiting for more of your report...
Oh , BTW I want one of Dougie's books...How do I go about that?
Thanks.
Regarding the Sony suit, you summarized his spiel accurately. But I would counter that great product and persistence will find a market. I was hoping for more links to nontraditional financing...But I think what we're doing is so cutting edge in a sense, our innovative nontraditional financing will be a standard. it used to be it was shocking that filmmakers would finance their films on their credit cards. "Hollywood Shuffle" was one of the first financed that way. Robert Rodriguez (Desperado) got paid for being in an experimental drug trial. Now, it's no big deal. And I like the fact that the digital cameras are getting better...Slowly approaching 35mm quality.
I must say I was mildly surprised the only media present was the girl from NPR. She asked to interview me and I felt like an exotic (conservative)specimen under a microscope. on the other hand this film festival felt more like a family reunion...I'm sooo happy I went! I had to resist the temptation to stand up and holler "Any Freepers here?" :~)
Since it's not a problem to make a film for cheap, it's not a problem to finance it yourself and go into distribution owning 100% of it -- a much healthier situation than if you owned less than 50% having given the rest to investors.
What sort of projects are you working on? Here are some of mine:
Oscar Night Rally and Candellight Vigil, my best and most dramatic work.
Gray & Me your intrepid videographer goes after Gray Davis.
Hope you enjoy!
D
DD, nice report! BTW - Did you ever get up a report on the "National March Against Terrorism" day (I might have missed it...)?
Thanks for the report. How was the attendance?
I was there for Saturday morning (Event 3). I'm not in "the business" but was interested
in the "101" session. And that was all I could get away for, time-wise.
For an inaugural festival, I'd say it was a good start. I noticed that the attendance
did increase over time.
It was interesting to hear from the cinematographer (Glennon?). I think I also overheard
him being interviewed in the lobby. He was talking about the the contribution of the
environmentalists to the So Cal wildfires due to their insistance to stop logging (and
letter dead trees (fuel) stand.
He sounds like a good cinematographer and a fellow with an expanse and depth of knowledge.
(and common sense)
About attendance numbers:
from what I could see of empty office/showroom space, The Pacific Design Center
should be thankful that any group (no matter how conservative) would
want to have an event there.
I don't know the history of the PDC, but walking around inside reminded me
of the new, empty buildings in Oklahoma City following the oil bust of the early 1980s.
Too bad since it's a gorgeous facility. Remember it's only open on weekdays, apparently. It exists as part of an old business model where architects and designers sell their customers on $10,000 desks and the like. There's some really cool stuff there, but it's about the most expensive way in the world to buy things.
However, I thought it was a really cool venue. It would have been better if there was a restaurant in-house. Seems like something you'd want in a design center, a classy place for architects to take clients. There's something apparently but I guess it's only open on weekdays.
I'm not good at attendance numbers, but I'd estimate we about half-filled the hall. I'd say your numbers are probably realistic.
I was busy working on my own film so I wound up missing today's events. Did Evan of Brain Terminal ever show up?
D
For the march against terrorism I did complete video but it wound up being too large to post. Ted wants me to put together a condensed version as a promotional effort and I'll be doing that in the next few weeks.
D
Hi David: I tried to access the thread last night but FR was down. On my way out the door but am looking forward to viewing your projects later! Will leave feedback.
One thing I forgot to tell you was that Ron interviewed someone from the Washington Post. How'd that go, Ron?
D
Sounds like it was a neat event.
LOL leave it to Rondog to interview the press....heh
The Right Stuff:
[Washington Post rates Liberty Film Festival "GOP", Free Republic mentioned]
www.washingtonpost.com ^ | October 4, 2004 | William Booth
Posted on 10/03/2004 11:54:32 PM PDT by RonDog
The Right Stuff
In Hollywood, a Film Festival That's Rated GOPBy William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 4, 2004; Page C01
-- snip --Billed as the first conservative film festival in Hollywood, the three-day affair showcased comic shorts, one about the "ultimate minority" in Tinseltown ("Greg Wolfe: Republican Jew"), an epic homage to Ronald Reagan and his battle against Soviet communism ("In the Face of Evil") and a snappy doc on tart-tongued commentator Ann Coulter ("Is It True What They Say About Ann?"), in which Coulter signs the T-shirt of a leftie college student with the words "Have fun in Guantanamo!"
-- snip --
Ron Smith, an activist with the conservative Web site Freerepublic.com, sat for the whole festival in the front row. "I'll give this to Michael Moore," he says. "He created a chain reaction. We have to thank him for that." He agreed that the anti-Moore, pro-Bush films were slow out of the gates, "but I'll tell you, this is just the beginning. We've got the Internet and talk radio and now we've got films. This is just a dry run. It'll be better next time around."For more information on the films screened, go to www.libertyfilmfestival.com.CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread
Liberty Film Festival Opens in L.A. - featuring Ron Silver, Evan Maloney - and FReeper AnnaZ!
Posted by RonDog
On News/Activism 10/12/2005 2:20:08 PM PDT · 23 replies · 365+ views
www.NewsMax.com ^ | October 12, 2006 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
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