This Monday, October 25, 2021, at 11:59 pm, is the deadline to apply to Crazy8s on Film Freeway.
Since 1999, Vancouver’s Crazy8s has produced 127 short films. The Crazy8s Film Society exists to provide funding and support to emerging filmmakers to help them produce short films and to train crew and cast.
Each Writer, Directer and Producer team submits a 3-minute video pitch. Forty semi-finalists will be contacted by November 15 to schedule a time to pitch in-person to a jury of industry professionals on either November 20 or 21, 2021.
Next, twelve semi-finalists go into a story editing phase and work with a professional Script Editor.
Then the Top 6 Teams receive almost $50,000-worth of camera, lighting and grip packages, $1000 cash, and mentorship throughout the duration of their 8-day production and delivery of their final films.
The process culminates with a Gala Screening and AfterParty slated for April 9, 2022, in Vancouver.
My take: I’ve seen a number of Crazy8s films over the years and have always been impressed with their professionalism. Highly recommended.
BIPOC writers take note: here’s a great way to advance in episodic television.
The BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Training Bootcamp is a 4-day workshop-style intensive for mid-level to senior writers. Led by writer and executive producer, Anthony Q. Farrell, along with special guest instructors and panellists, the workshop will train up to 50 writers on best practices in managing and staffing their writing rooms, managing production and post-production schedules, and working effectively with production companies and broadcasters.
Farrell says:
“A nice thing about the Canadian Entertainment industry right now is that more doors are opening for BIPOC creators. It’s a beautiful thing. What I’m noticing though, is that many of those creators are being thrown into showrunning without any real preparation or support. The goal of this program is to get mid and upper-level writers ready for the jump to showrunning, demystify elements of the role that are new to them, and to inspire them to take creative control of their series. We’ll go through the nuts and bolts of the job so they’re mostly ready for the opportunity if and when it arises.”
The Showrunner Training Bootcamp is open to Canadian writers who are Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized (Persons of Colour). To be eligible you must also meet at least one of the following criteria:
You have or had a show (web or TV) in development with a Canadian broadcaster or with a production company; or,
You have attained a producer-level credit on at least one season of a Canadian TV or web series; or,
You have a story editor credit on an animated series.
Here’s the program:
Week 1 (October 16): Managing and staffing your creative team
What to look for when hiring, where to find your writers
How to cultivate a safe working environment
How to communicate and delegate effectively
How and when to promote junior writers
How to work best with story editors/coordinators
How to manage relationships and set realistic expectations with producers
How to manage a co-showrunning relationship
Week 2 (October 23): Managing Schedules
Guest Instructor: Jim Corston
Breaking down line producing and budgets
Pitfalls for showrunners to avoid
Determining budget realities and priorities
Staying within your budget and production schedule
Special session on notes; who gives them, when, pushing back, communicating them to writers
Week 3 (November 6): Production & Post Production
Guest Instructor: Dave Huband
Post production workflow from day one to delivery
Tracking dailies
Working with editors (giving and taking notes)
What to look for at the mix and in colour correction
“It’s a fascinating look at how self-referential most modern film and TV is (there are a lot of fake sequels), but also how ingrained Netflix’s content strategy and interface are in our culture generally. It’s one thing to cut away to a scene from a fake movie or show during a comedy, but it’s a whole other thing to have it packaged up with stills, art, and metadata like it’s ready to stream. It doesn’t make any of the fake movies or shows feel more real, but it does make them funny all over again.”
My take: My latest project has a dozen films within a film. And one of those has a film within a film within a film. That’s the Wes Anderson episode, natch.
She writes, “Movie theater operators did not mince words in asserting that Disney left money on the table by putting Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Disney Plus on the same day as its theatrical debut.”
The theatre owners are concerned about Disney+ password sharing and digital pirating. Of course, they don’t get a cut of any legitimate streaming revenue as well.
According to The Numbers, the 14-month delayed Black Widow earned $80,366,312 on its first domestic weekend and a total of $314,906,683 internationally after 16 days.
Compare those numbers with the 12-month delayed F9: The Fast Saga that earned $70,043,165 on it first domestic weekend and a total of $621,096,825 internationally after 30 days.
So even though Black Widow bested F9 on its opening weekend, it has earned only half as much in total to date.
Is this because F9 has been out for twice as long? No. In my opinion, the difference is explained by the fact that Black Widow has yet to be released in China.
“Beijing tends to program Hollywood blockbusters sparingly in the key moviegoing month of July to carve out space for local productions. This year, its resistance to scheduling foreign films has been exacerbated by the critical 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding on July 1. The occasion has been accompanied by an ongoing, months-long period of militant censorship across all media that will last through the end of the month and likely into fall.”
Note however that the tentpole was first released internationally on May 21, 2021, and has grossed over $335,000,000, for a worldwide box office of over $405,000,000.
I interviewed Paul Ruta, an avowed Fast and Furious fan, about the appeal of the franchise (over $6.3B and counting!) by email.
Michael Korican: “What is the appeal of the Fast and the Furious franchise?”
Paul Ruta: “Pure escapism at its finest! To me, they are the ultimate thrill rides that allow me to just shut my brain off and smile as I watch the craziness that’s happening on the screen. I love, admire and appreciate all different genres of films but when I think of the absolute basics of what I want to see in a movie — every Fast and Furious ticks all the boxes: Fast cars, Great action, Big muscles, Hot babes, Explosions, Compelling (somewhat) story and Likeable characters. And speaking of characters — I think this is really the foundation of the big appeal of these films as they’ve always been about: family. These characters started out very rooted in reality and that made them a lot more relatable in watching as the series went along and they eventually started doing more “super-hero” level feats of strength in some of the later entries. Often when people think of their “family”, whether they are blood related or not (which a lot of the characters in the films are actually not) — they feel love. And that’s exactly what these characters feel for one another in this franchise and what the filmmakers and production team involved feels for the stories being told — as it always comes across evidently on screen that everyone is always having fun in these and that they in turn want the audience to be having fun too.”
M.K: “Who’s your favourite character and why?”
P.R.: “I’d have to say Brian O’Connor who is portrayed on screen by the late Paul Walker. The first few movies (1, 2, 4 and 5) are really sort of told through mostly I find through his point of view — and I can easily empathize with a lot of the dilemmas his character is presented with and goes through, which in turn provides a lot of the original emotional investment a lot of people made in the beginning with the series. It’s one of those characters where you never felt like there was necessarily so much acting going on as Paul played and fit that role, in that world, perfectly. I think that was maybe one of the big reasons why it felt so tragic to so many when he passed years ago — because it sort of felt like we lost the character in our lives also. The movies since his passing have really noticeably missed his presence — but I don’t think there could’ve ever been a better, more respectful or more touching sendoff to a character than how they handled his exit from the franchise in the 7th film.”
M.K: “Did Vin Diesel change his last name so he could headline an automotive franchise?”
P.R.: “Hah! Perhaps after the “final” scheduled 10th and 11th films there might be a way to infuse his “stage” name into a variety of automotive products to keep the legacy of the franchise going. However, I think that legacy will still be alive and well regardless of when the series does eventually end (or not…) or if there does end up being “Diesel approved Diesel Oil” — because the films themselves will all be shared throughout the families of everyone who grew up with and loved these films for generations to come.”
M.K: “What’s up between Vin Diesel and The Rock?”
P.R.: “It’s a classic good ol’ testosterone-fueled battle of muscle-bound, bald-headed egos. Vin is an ultra-big movie star, however The Rock is an even bigger ultra-big movie star. That being said, Vin was there first in starring in the first Fast and Furious therefore making him the foundation of this series. And because of this, this is the one set that The Rock doesn’t call the shots on. Any other film franchise that these two would be in — it’d be the other way around where Vin would be The Rock’s coffee boy (relatively speaking.) However, it’s Vin’s loyalty (another recurring theme throughout) to these films (and the right timing!) that’s allowed him to be the big dog on campus and everyone involved and the audience recognizes, knows and understands that we wouldn’t have had the awesome 20 years of Fast and Furious we’ve experienced so far if it wasn’t for the spark that Vin brought to the scene in the first place. The movies can of course continue both without The Rock and Vin in them, but Vin is the glue that held this together from the start and therefore — The Rock needs to know his role when he’s in Vin’s world.”
M.K: “Will you see F9 at the cinema or online?“
P.R.: “Oh most definitely on the big cinema screen for sure!!! I’ve seen every one so far since the 1st back in 2001 20 years ago — and I was worried this might have been the first one I’d miss seeing at the theatres this year as I wasn’t sure they’d be back open yet here.”
My take: Thanks, Paul! Vox also explains the franchise.
The production prize awarded to the winner is substantial:
$13,500 in-kind equipment rentals from CineVic
$2,500 in-kind equipment rentals from William F. White
$1,500 cash grant
$100 Modo driving credits toward production van rental
Production Insurance: 10 consecutive days of coverage ($195 value)
One-year complimentary CineVic Production Membership ($220 value)
Your film will premiere at the next Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival!
There are two stages to the competition.
It all starts with a script. Submissions are judged blind and the Top Five are then invited to wrangle together a production team and pitch their project live to a jury of visiting filmmakers during CineVic’s Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival. (Unfortunately, the pandemic has meant virtual pitches this year and last.)
First proposed by him as one way CineVic could step up the production value of at least one film by its members, Arnold Lim says:
“Island filmmakers may not have the same name recognition as those from service towns like Vancouver or Toronto, but I believe they are every bit as talented and deserve the opportunities that are more abundant in more established film hubs in Canada. That’s why talent-development programs like CineSpark are so critical. I am proud of CineVic and CineSpark for the opportunities they have provided to talented local Vancouver Island and Gulf Island filmmakers and their cast and crew who all deserve the chance to level up and show off their artistic vision.”
Producer member of a past winning team, Darlene Tait echoes this sentiment:
“Winning a CineSpark Pitch Competition is like a rallying cry to the local film community who love to work with or help out CineSpark winners. Having the winning pitch speaks to the possibilities that exist with the team and the script and it immediately levels up your game. It can be a serious launchpad if you do it right.”
One of tonight’s Top Five Pitchers, emerging filmmaker Suzanne Moreau comments on the experience so far:
“Thrilling. Then nerve wracking. Then encouraging. A little bit frustrating. Then confusing. Lastly inspiring. This cyclone of emotions resembles the grief cycle! But it’s actually been fun and a great way to discover and connect with many more local filmmakers than I would have otherwise. So I’m already benefitting and the win would be icing on the proverbial cake. It’s been a rush!”
Best of luck to all involved and, “Roll sound. Roll camera. Action!”
My take: even though only one team wins tonight, I can practically guarantee that more than one film will end up being created out of this year’s competition. I guess investing this much time and effort into pitching a project can’t help but solidify the desire to make the movie — and I know of at least two projects that resulted in better films than the official winner that year.
I’ll summarize below but first there’s something I’ve never seen done before in their BTS Making Of video above.
Most directors will storyboard the shots they envision for their movie. Or hire an artist to draw them for them.
Not Brian. At 1:18 he reveals:
“A lot of people do storyboarding. I’m a terrible artist so I did what I call ‘Storybuilding.’ I have a massive Lego collection and I shot probably about 70% of the film in photographs with these Lego figures.”
The clearest frames showing this are near 1:24 and 1:30. OMG!
I mean, I’ve never heard of anyone doing something like this. Wouldn’t this just take forever? But, okay, props for using your Legos!
Some of his other tips on the making of “Last Three Days” that also apply to any no-low budget movie:
Write your script with what you can afford to shoot. “The rules for the script were: modern-day, no kids, no animals, no blowing things up.”
Move forward on all fronts and don’t worry about funding post-production up front. “I continued to churn out a new draft of the script each month and we continued to meet with investors to keep funding moving forward. But it wasn’t until a month before production that we finally raised enough money to get to the end of principal photography.”
Go for union actors under the Ultra Low Budget agreement. “That decision proved well worth the additional paperwork and money required.”
Hire crew who share your enthusiasm for the project. “For crew, the rate was minimum wage across the board, so we brought on talented individuals who believed in the script and didn’t mind making very little money.”
Keep your locations simple. “We borrowed friend’s homes and businesses, asked local businesses if we could buy out the place for a few hours, and sometimes drove around the city just looking for the perfect spot and then found out who owned it.”
Production requires superhuman efforts all round. “Every single department felt that this film was special, and what they lacked in experience, they made up for in passion and raw talent. Every individual went above and beyond, operating outside their singular position and doing whatever it took to bring this story together. Even when things went wrong, which they always did, the crew would remind themselves, we’re all on the same team.”
In post-production, this film used three editors, something only possible because it has three different sections.
(This tip really should be considered in pre-production.) When it comes to VFX, “ultimately all that matters is what ends up within the boundaries of your finished frame. You don’t need a giant set, a giant backdrop, or even a “finished” practical set. And the more carefully you plan your shots, the less time and resources you need to fill that frame, and suddenly your VFX budget is the size of a window instead of the size of a backyard.”
Take your time in post, especially if you’re working on the cheap. Note that post-production on this film took two full years.
Regarding marketing and distribution, “as a low-budget non-linear action romance thriller, with no movie star on the poster, it was initially difficult to get eyes on the film.” They skipped the festival circuit and through a strategic contact signed with a sales rep who was able to land both domestic and international distributors.
Set in Occupied France in 1943, one day André Albert returns home from the daily hunt for the rationed ingredients necessary to keep his family pâtisserie open, and finds his four-year-old son in the street, his wife gone, and an emaciated Jewish woman cowering behind the pastry display case.
Michael and I recently had the following email exchange:
Michael Korican: Congratulations! Is this your first novel? Because I know you foremost as a screenwriter.
Michael Whatling: “It’s my first “real” novel, I suppose. I say “real” because when I was 15 I sat in the back yard at one of those round metal tables with the umbrella in the middle and typed out a book on an old Royal typewriter I found in the basement. I called it “The Song No One Heard.” It ended up being the book no one read.”
MK: I believe you overheard the germ of the idea for this story in a Montreal bakery. How long did it take you to write the screenplay?
MW: “The screenplay didn’t take long — it was all the rewrites that were interminable. It was optioned twice: Once by two-time Academy Award nominated best actress Isabelle Adjani, and by Francis Lawrence, the director of “I Am Legend,” “The Hunger Games,” “Water for Elephants,” etc. Unfortunately, like is often the case, the options lapsed.”
MK: How did you turn the screenplay into a novel?
MW: “I wrote the novel based on my screenplay because I felt there was so much more of the story to tell that a 100 page script couldn’t. I used the screenplay as a detailed outline. As you know, in novels you have to go inside the heads of the characters. That was a very different skill from the ones needed for writing a script. That took getting used to.”
MK: But why turn a screenplay into a novel? Was it the intellectual challenge, or does it now make the screenplay more marketable? Or, did you in effect abandon the script but not the idea and use the lockdown to re-express it in another creative medium?
MW: “By bringing the novel to a different audience, I’m hoping it will also make it more visible to someone who’d want to see it as a film.”
MK: How long did it take?
MW: “Writing the novel took much longer. Writing novels is hard work. You have to consider EVERY. SINGLE. WORD.”
MK: What else have you been up to, and what’s next?
MW: “An award winning independent film I wrote, “The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova,” is currently available on Optik TV and iTunes. It’s about estranged siblings who travel to Poland to fulfill the dying wish of their grandmother. Another of my screenplays, “Cut for Stone,” has been optioned by Ezeqial Productions of Toronto. It’s about doctors who slip into Syria during the current civil war to provide medical aid to civilians.”
My take: turn your screenplay into a book; how novel! Congratulations, Michael!
“Kevin Smith is looking to push the boundaries on indie distribution again and this time he’s auctioning off his latest horror feature anthology Killroy Was Here as an NFT (non-fungible token). The owner of the NFT will secure the rights to exhibit, distribute and stream the work, making it a means for whoever owns the movie to earn money outside of the blockchain.”
He quotes Smith as saying:
“As an indie artist, I’m always looking for a new platform through which to tell a story. And Crypto has the potential to provide that, while also intersecting with our almost 25 years of experience selling real world collectibles online and at the brick-and-mortar Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Back in 1994, we took Clerks up to Sundance and sold it. Selling Killroy as an NFT feels very similar: whoever buys it could choose to monetize it traditionally, or simply own a film that nobody ever sees but them. We’re not trying to raise financing by selling NFT’s for a Killroy movie; the completed Killroy movie IS the NFT. And If this works, we suddenly have a new stage on which I and other, better artists than me can tell our stories.”
My take: to summarize: you write, finance and create a digital feature film, then evolve it into a unique digital item as an NFT and finally sell that for Etherium crypto-currency. Hmmm. It will be interesting to see who buys it, if they immediately resell it, if any buyer decides to hang on to it and whether they then attempt to monetize it through distribution theatrically or online through VOD or streaming or ??? Who knows? This is crazy shit!
“Seed&Spark announced Thursday (March 4, 2021) that it is ending its proprietary subscription streaming service later this month as it shifts its distribution focus to new impact-driven initiatives. Seed&Spark’s library will next be heading to IndieFlix….”
IndieFlix looks like a good home for those films:
“IndieFlix CEO Scilla Andreen said the additions to her service’s library are part of a mandate to grow the service’s library with meaningful content that can create conversations using the power of film. And with open submissions and a transparent royalty model, Andreen said IndieFlix will continue to help fill a need for filmmakers increasingly shut out of platforms like Amazon Prime Video Direct, which last month stopped accepting shorts and non-fiction submissions, cutting out a major digital revenue stream for filmmakers and distributors.”
We pioneered a revenue sharing system called RPM or Revenue Per Minute which pays filmmakers for every minute their movie is watched.
My take: streaming is a crowded market so I’m happy Seed&Spark is concentrating on crowdfunding and classes. IndieFlix’s revenue sharing system sounds promising. Anyone care to share what your quarterly cut amounts to?
