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Truly Free Film

10 More Embarrassing Brushes With Celebrities

Last week we gave you “10 Embarrassing Brushes with Celebrities” by Jack Lechner. Today, Miranda Bailey provides us with ten more of her own. It’s helpful to be reminded that even producers struggle with this.
 
by Miranda Bailey

1.) In 1996 I was invited to a party in Aspen hosted by Kevin Costner. I had lived in Aspen a year before but now I lived in Hollywood trying to make my way through the smog as an actress. When I arrived I looked around and found someone that I recognized. I went up to her and said “Hey! How are you?”- she said she was doing great. I asked her how the Howling Wolf was doing. (This was a restaurant I was a waitress at in Aspen the year before.)  She said “I don’t know what you mean.”?  So I reminded her “Didn’t we wait tables together at the Howling Wolf”? – “No”. She said. “I’m a model”…  “Oh… how’s that going”? I asked, assuming it was something like wearing a fur hat in the Aspen information guide that got handed out to tourists. “It’s going well”. She smiled politely and walked away. My friend then decked me in the chest and said “I cannot believe you just told Rachel Hunter that you thought she was a waitress at the Howling Wolf. You are such a douche”….

2.) In 1997 I acted in a play called Mainliner in a tiny dump on Fountain Ave. I became friends with the directors girlfriend Kerry. We hung out here and there, she was an LA local who knew a bunch of celebs. One night we went to Tobey Maguire’s birthday party, Leonardo DiCaprio was there and I met him briefly. They ALL knew Kerry. I was her wing woman. It was awesome. About six months later, the play was over and I wasn’t seeing Kerry much anymore. But I got invited to a premiere on the Paramount lot. There was Tobey Maguire. I went up to him and said “Hey, I’m Miranda Bailey. I’m good friends with Kerry. We met at your birthday party”.- “Kerry who?” he said…”Um, Kerry…..” but for the life of me, at that moment I couldn’t remember her last name. “Kerry….um, something like a fish for a last name”? He looked at me like I was a pathetic loser ” Yeah”, he said “You’re not that good friends with someone if you don’t know their last name”. . I guess he was right.

3.) In 1998 I was crossing Beverly Blvd. As I waited at the light. I noticed this guy. Where did I know him from? Summer Camp? “Hey, is your name David”? He looked annoyed and pushed the walk button harder as if that would make the light turn and didn’t answer me. “Did you go to Anderson Camp in Colorado?”… the light turned. He walked faster than a pregnant woman headed towards the bathroom.

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Diary of a Film Startup: Post #40: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part II of II

By Roger Jackson and Klaus Badelt
KinoSmall

Previously: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part I of II

This is Part II of Expert Tips from composer (and Kinonation co-founder) Klaus Badelt. Klaus has scored over 80 films. His work spans Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Catwoman, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, K-19. And a ton of US and European indies, including documentaries, shorts and even video games.

11. Choosing a Composer

When seeking a composer, you’re actually looking for a “filmmaker” to work on a dramatic collaboration — he just happens to be called the “composer.” The worst thing you can do is to ask for demo music for a scene of your film from 5 different composers. Why? Because creating a score is collaborative and if you ask for demos you don’t learn or experience collaboration with the composer. You’re much better off asking for score examples from their previous films. But your main objective should be to find a composer you trust and like…with whom you can talk story first, music last. A good composer must be, above all, emotionally invested in the story you’re telling.

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Issues and Actions Truly Free Film

Filmonomics: Thinking in Casts Part 2

By Colin Brown

“I lost money for the first time ever in my career over the last two years,” beamed Matthew McConaughey in his signature drawl as he picked up this year’s actor trophy at the recent Hollywood Film Awards. “But I did have a helluva lot of fun.” McConaughey’s conscious decision to”recalibrate” his shirtless rom-com persona into something edgier has since led him to a succession of eye-catching performances in director-driven, lower-budget films – MAGIC MIKE, KILLER JOE, THE PAPERBOY, MUD – and now to the brink of Oscar recognition with DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. It’s the kind of Travolta-style career revival, a McConnaissance if you will, that should give fresh hope to indie filmmakers still hitting heads against talent agents’ doors in their casting quests. At a time when Hollywood slate-pruning has seen the studios essentially abandon mid-budget dramas, pretty much all actors are open to stimulating roles that may require them to sacrifice their customary compensations. Besides wanting to work, actors know there’s always a chance that their fun will laugh all the way to the bank.

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In McConaughey’s case, that financial pay-off will come soon enough. Next month, he will be seen playing right opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s $85 million-plus THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. And this time next year, he will surface again as the top-billed male star in Christopher Nolan’s even pricier space-travel spectacular INTERSTELLAR, headlining a cast that also includes Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon.

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Indie Street Post #6: Not Louder Mouths, Just More Ears

By Jay Webb

Screen shot 2013-08-19 at 4.51.06 PM

Previously: Indiestreet Post #5: Indieconomies of Scale: Distribution

Indieconomies of Scale, Part 4 (of 4): Marketing 

The DIY marketing of an Independent film has always been an overwhelming, and somewhat foreign prospect for an artist.  For me it’s one of those things that seems to be more of a “Where do I even start?” type of problem, especially in today’s fast paced environment.  There are new free to use marketing/networking platforms that pop up everyday, but how do we know what will work?  And even more importantly, what will work for our film specifically?  While the internet, social networking, data mining, and targeted ad networks do make it possible for Indie filmmakers to market their own films more effectively, they surely do not make the marketing process any less complicated.

So let’s try to simplify the idea of transitioning from filmmaker to film-marketer, and then we will talk about why a group mentality can make all the difference in this transition.

1.  Marketing = a cousin of storytelling

Sure storytelling is your born talent and passion; not commercial exploitation.  Well the best marketers are the ones that can tell the story of their company in a brief, memorable and entertaining way.  So before you run and hide during the marketing phase of your film, just realize that a filmmaker and a marketing professional are actually some type of bizarro storytelling cousins.

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Truly Free Film

Professional

by John Sayles

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            The first storytelling I got to do was as a novelist in the 1970s, and in those days there was a phenomenon known as the ‘vanity press’.   Today we would call it ‘self-publishing’ with little hint of derision, but back then it was considered something lesser, tacky in a way, amateurs so deluded about their lack of talent they ponied up and paid somebody to print their work and then gave it away as presents to their friends.  There were exceptions made for ideologues– medical, philosophical or political– who were too far out for even the most adventurous publishers, but though their plight was understood these people were considered to be mere pamphleteers rather than ‘professional writers’.  A professional writer didn’t pay to be published, and in many cases got an advance against royalties from their publisher.  My first advance for a novel was for $2,500 in 1975, when the minimum wage was slightly over a dollar an hour.  Two years ago I got a $3,000 advance for my novel A Moment in the Sun.  Minimum wage, thankfully, has advanced more steadily than my earning power as a novelist.  But it was still a big deal to

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Issues and Actions

Filmonomics: Thinking in Casts Part I

By Colin Brown

“More than 90% of directing a picture is the right casting,” suggests Martin Scorsese in the revelatory documentary CASTING BY. Producers might well reach a similar assessment for financing a picture as well since actors remain by far the most enticing lures to potential investors. But settling on just who might be “right” for that picture is another matter entirely – and a source of constant tension as filmmakers struggle to reconcile the urgent needs of the story with the erratic tastes of the global marketplace and its appointed gatekeepers.

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Casting is rarely a sequential, yes-or-no decision-making process that involves working your way down a long list of actors who have been somehow calibrated according to their creative merits and box office bankability. That would be too easy. Unless your director’s name happens to be Scorsese, more than 90% of the time will be spent casting out again and again into an ocean of uncertainty and inconsistency not knowing which way the winds will blow. You need good hooks as well as good fortune to fish in those waters, the tenacity to keep going, an unwavering hand and eye to thread that needle, and the improvisational skills to react to what’s constantly changing around you. Not unlike acting itself.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post # 39: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part I of II

By Roger Jackson and Klaus BadeltKinoSmall

Previously: Whatever It Takes

Some directors believe that music is a full 50% of a film. And that there are fundamentally just 3 or 4 “true” creative inputs to the movie — the writer, the director, the composer…perhaps the editor. Whatever the numbers, movie music — that skillful combination of score and song — has the potential to turn a good story into an amazing audience experience. But how do you musically super-charge an indie film when you don’t have the budget to hire a top composer?

I asked Kinonation co-founder — and prolific film score composer — Klaus Badelt.

Klaus has scored over 80 films. His work spans Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Catwoman, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, K-19. And a ton of US and European indies, including documentaries, shorts and even video games.

Here’s what Klaus has to say about making the very best — and most economical — music choices for a film.

1. Composer as Filmmaker

The director-composer relationship is that of two filmmakers. It’s not about musical genres, or instruments. It’s about driving the story and emphasizing characters and creating emotion. That’s the role of music in film.

2. Script

Think about music (both score and songs) at the script-writing stage. Fundamentally, a filmmaker must decide what character development and story arc she wants from each scene. That is, how do you want the audience to feel about this episode? There should be a single, unambiguous answer. i.e. every shot in every scene must have a clear objective in moving the story forward. So thinking about the music at this stage– and making musical choices — actually helps propel and clarify the script-writing process. Deciding where the music in each scene starts — and where it fades — forces you to think with greater clarity about story shapes & arcs.

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