The End of Summer and Film Festivals

Well, well, well. Summer, is gone.

Cara and I officially said goodbye to our adventure filled road-trip summer times with the beginning of September. This semester I am taking a course on Hitchcock and a seminar on screenwriting. My goal is to shift the focus from film production to writing an entire feature length screenplay- we'll see how it goes.

Also, just an update on my plan while in Graduate school: after quickly completing 18 of the 30 required units in one year, I plan to take 6 units this Fall semester (Hitchcock and Screenwriting) and 6 units in the Spring (Thesis Prep and Documentary), bringing that total to the required 30. I then plan to enroll for one last semester in the fall (of 2010) and complete my thesis film, hopefully a feature-length project, which will, Lord-willing, advance my career as a filmmaker more than any other project I've completed thus far. OK, now on with other news.

I am happy to say that "Rocket" will be playing in three film festivals coming up soon. It has been officially selected to play the Tacoma Film Festival, the SoCal Independent Film Festival, and The San Diego Film Festival. I have a website made up for it here: http://rocketfilmsite.com

Personally, Cara and I have been doing very well, exercising a lot more lately by going on jogs. We're settling into our new place very nicely and, it's almost safe to say that we seem to have found a very comfortable home here. The commute to SDSU isn't as bad as it could've been, it's a quick ten minute drive to campus.

She'll be riding the bus with me tomorrow, just to get her "campus fix," I like to call it. Admittedly, it can be sort of inspiring being around all the youthful enthusiasm, libraries, books, and, the starbucks, even though it feels like the most typical vision of "California" you've ever seen in your life.

Well, SJSU lost to USC 56-3 and SDSU lost to UCLA 33-14. Hey, I never said I went to these schools for their football prowess. If the Seahawks lose I'll be 0-3 and things will only be able to go up from there.

Thanks for reading,

Phil

Rocket

So it's been a very long time since I've posted anything on here. I apologize. Cara and I have been very busy with work, school, and the hub-bub of making a short film.

This time around we shot on actual film and it really made a difference I think. Super 16mm has come a long way in the last few years with a process called digital intermediate. You get the resolution of HD, but the look of film. Cost wise it's not too friendly, our budget for Grandma Shoes was around $200. This was ten times that, around $2,000. But don't worry, we got by with a little help from our friends. At SDSU they have for set aside for advanced students who shoot film and I'm expecting one in my name to arrive soon. And, in addition to being my Director of Photography (pictured below) Peter Lindsey and his wife Autumn Lindsey (hair and make up) came on as Associate producers. Noel and Beth also pitched in and pretty much payed for all the food on set, which earned them a "special thanks" in the credits. All in all it was well worth the effort.

This film is called Rocket, it's about a woman who finds the courage to leave a toxic, verbally abusive relationship at the risk of losing her nine year old son in the process. Shooting it was a very emotional process for me and one I will never forget. Kali Kirk (pictured) was our lead actress and offered us a very honest and heartfelt performance. She will be attending a one year intensive at NYU conservatory in the coming months. (I'm glad we got her while she was still in town!)



Our other lead actor was Joe Cipriani (at the head of the table), a member of the Screen Actors Guild and a former pro hockey player. Joe added so much realism and intensity to the role- he was very serious about understanding his character. He drove down from LA to play the part and really ended up being a great casting choice for us. Noah Johnson, (left) was a great find as well. He had been in plays on stage at The Old Globe in San Diego and other venues but didn't have any film experience. He was just outstanding.

The best directing experience I've ever had. It was a privilage to be working alongside people who could do so much better than I could on my own. Peter Lindsey (left) was my DP and he did a great job. He was able to try things and be expressive and creative. Cara also did the best work on as a production designer to date. The sets were very authentic, even the actors said that the house felt eerily like the characters actually lived there. She pushed for a 90s feel, and I wasn't buying it at first, but it came across very well.

That's all for now, I've got a lot to get done before the semester's over. I hope to report on some film festival showings in the near future, as Rocket is really coming together. It's dramatic and hopefully compelling. It's about hope and courage in the face of adversity. Hopefully people will be touched by it.

-Phil

Long Time

Been a long time since I blogged (or Rocked and Rolled). So it's now February and I haven't written anything on here. Let's see, I went back to Washington to see the three families (not quite five but we're getting there). Then Cara and I went back home for awhile only to go back up to the bay area in mid-January to shoot a movie with our buddy Peter Lindsey. That was fun.  

Now that that's over and the semester has started at SDSU I've slowly and steadily been chipping away at a lot of things, my debt, my film projects and a $10,000 Fred Rogers scholarship, which would be huge (fingers crossed). My classes are Directing, Screenwriting and Film Production. That's a hum-dinger of a semester if I don't say so myself. That directing class is essentially why I'm still in school. 

As of this writing I am finally cleaning up Grandma Shoes and getting it ready to submit to festivals. It's been a long time coming for me and I'd like to get the film out there and see what people think of it. I'm proud of it for a few reasons, I like the message, the humor and that it only cost me about $200 to make. It's pretty cool, this process. Coming back to it after it has chilled for awhile. You re-look at the footage and you find stuff you didn't see the first time. I just feel like a big manipulator. It's all lies really. The audio from one take is used over another clip while you listen to fake birds and car sounds to smooth over the cuts because the clips were all shot out of sequence and at different times of the day. It might've taken so long because I hate editing, maybe just my own stuff, but it's sort of the equivalent to editing your own novel, it just doesn't work. You've sat and worked with the script, found your actors, got your locations, shot the movie, heck, you did your best. Now the coolest feeling would be to hand all that hard work over to someone else, but no, for low-budget dudes, it's you and you alone man. Staying up 'til all hours hacking away at the footage and putting it together so that it hopefully makes some sense to people.  

Anyway, I just wrote a 2 page letter to my Dad that I thought might help serve the purposes of this blog, which is just to inform folks what's going on in the lives of Cara and I. 

Here it is: 

A fellow grad student here just won the short film prize at Sundance, which kind of re-enforces to me that I'm in the right place. It was a good film, about a bunch of at-risk kids at a rehabilitation center. Also I got some good news that my buddy's film is in the running for SJSU's feature film project this summer. It's Super Hero Party Clown the feature. If he gets it he wants me to be his producer, which is a big responsibility. I would be in charge of the budget, which is currently something like $20,000. Which sounds like a lot but for a 90 minute feature film that's trying to compete with multi-million dollar productions, it's going to be tight. It feeds the crew for 30 days, pays for props and wardrobe, transportation and camera rental. 

San Diego is a beautiful city with lots to do. So far Cara and I have been to the hotel Del Coronado which is where Billy Wilder filmed Some Like it Hot. Last night we went bowling and I started off with two strikes and ended up bowling a 148, which is my top score of all time I'm pretty sure. Lately we've been going to SDSU basketball games. They're really good, and free for me. So far SDSU is 16-5 and the #1 team in the Mountain West Conference. 

Work is good. I've been up at the bar three shifts a week now which means more money. We decided to have Cara quit her job at Gordon Beirsch because it just wasn't working out the way we had hoped for her there. I like Red Robin for what it is and they've treated us really well through the years...401k, scholarship, and a request off book that allows you the freedom to shoot a movie when you need to. yes!

Well, that's all for now, love ya!

Phil

Pee Wee Champs and Shooting on Actual Film

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I'm even going to use this verbiage in one of my nightly journals required by my screenwriting professor so I'm sort of not even doing it for fun anyway! Ah! Not really, it's kind of fun.

So firstly, this is a still from my HD camera. One of my professors required us to go out and shoot a documentary first thing, sort of a "let's see the best thing you can produce in a short amount of time," kind of thing. So I shot what I knew: youth hockey. I sort of scored a winner and I was just looking for any old team. But these guys are the champs in their division: Southern California Pee Wee A's. I met the coach and interviewed him and his son. The coach is a great guy with all kinds of stories and stuff. The kid reminds me of when I was playing, full of energy and really focused on just playing hockey. I got out there on the ice with my camera and skated around with the players. I ended up getting about 4 to 5 minutes of pretty good footage out of it. It was fun to be there. To be reminded of a time in my life that I really loved and enjoyed. The smells, the attitudes, the drills, they're are all the same. So hopefully I'll have something up for you guys to watch- because of the short time it shouldn't look incredibly polished, just a decent documentary.

For another class my group and I shot actual film (super 16mm) on an actual set, for a class exercise this past Sunday. I put in about 13 hours doing everything I could to keep us organized and on track. It's a whole different world being on a movie set. The culture is stressful yet fun. Film is a lot slower than HD. I think it probably helps though if you have a really experienced Director of Photography to setup the shots and the lights in a timely manner. I was pretty precise with where I wanted to put the camera, what I wanted the actors to do etc. It just took a long time to get everything moving. I hate the feeling of running the set, I don't like telling large groups of people what to do. So later on we had a guy show up who ran it for me half way through the shoot- it took a big burden off my shoulders. We'll see how it turns out. Film is also expensive. This short is probably costing our group of four, $200 each for stock etc. I'm excited to see whether it turns out or not. I'm also excited to have an editor for the first time ever.

OK, Cara wants to use the computer so I'll get off now. I love and miss you guys. Here's a photo I took in a beginning photo class a long time ago. I ran across it today and it really made me miss home. Love you.

Settled in San Diego

Hey folks - some news and pictures, from SJ to SD:
This was taken the day of our big move. The truck is packed to the gills with all of our possessions. It was about an eight hour drive from San Jose to San Diego. Our friend Scott from work who also happens to go SDSU let us stay at his place for a few days while we looked for a spot. And that we did, it's about a ten minute walk from here to the film department. We're happy here and the weather is very nice.

This me filling up the Penske Truck. It's a funny picture I think. Can you see that twinge of pain in my eye?






On the job front- we have been working at the Red Robin in Del Mar for about two weeks now and the money isn't really there. What I mean by that is that we're both used to making around $80-$100 a night, even more if I'm up at the bar. But at Del Mar we've been lucky to make around $60. So...we've been pounding pavement the last couple of days applying at various restaurants. We've hit Gordon Beirsch, Buca De Beppo, Lou & Mickey's Steakhouse, The Kensington Grill and thought about Chili's. A couple of days went by and we got a call for a group interview with Lou & Mickey's. The place is a really swank steakhouse. We think it went well but don't know if the hourly demands are going to work for us (5 days a week?) AND (big and) on the way to the interview Cara got a call from Gordon Beirsch for an interview this coming Thursday. Great huh? Things are looking up.

Oh yeah- This is a picture my buddy and I took (or Cara took) of us fixing a hole that I made in the ceiling. We really tried to patch things up before the move.

Cara took me to Del Mar Racetrack for my birthday. We bet on a few races with the money my Dad gave me. It was a really nice track. Probably the biggest throwback to the 20s I've ever seen. (I know the design of the buildings doesn't look like the 20s (it was built in 1937) but it's swankier than Churchill Downs (that's where they hold the Kentucky Derby). It's less about the races and more about being seen picking up your mercedes from the $100 valet lot. The women all wear those silly hats.

And lastly, I just found out today that I passed my summer internship class and am officially graduated from San Jose State University (Cum Laude, yay). I had a cigar that I been saving for the occasion. So tonight I went out on my balcony with a glass of $4 cab, got myself all situated in a camp chair and smoked my cigar. I enjoyed the SoCal breeze for for about half an hour, I started thinking I was pretty cool- then I got dizzy and almost threw up. What a lamo. Adios Mi Familia!

Goodbye Red Robin and San Jose

So we said our farewells to our friends the Nichols and Koscts families at an awesome lunch. Then we worked our last shift at Saratoga Red Robin. We've been working there since March of 2006, a little over two years. It was a tough last day, and hard to say goodbye to so many familiar faces. They brought out a cake for us and sent us on our way- it was a great send-off. It still hasn't sunk in that we're probably never going to see those wonderful people again. But they'll always be in our memories. Duty calls, I've got to go help Cara pack.

Off to San Diego, and good news already

Hey folks, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. A lot has happened since graduation: I started and finished my summer internship with The Last Cut Productions in San Jose. I shot a wedding with my buddy Pete and a fight broke out (no kidding), I've been playing poker on Thursday nights with my filmmaking buddies, I've been reading Mere Christianity (mind-blowing stuff), and I won the Grand Prize Scholarship from Red Robin for $2500 bucks! That basically covers my first semester's tuition with a little leftover. Cool or what?! God is good. 

We've basically narrowed down our search to a couple of spots in San Diego that are relatively close to campus and downtown (good restaurant jobs). There's also a trolly that runs right through campus that we're aiming to be close to. We have a friend from work who also attends San Diego State and who works at the Red Robin down there. He's been kind enough to let us crash at his pad for a couple of days while we find a place. Cool huh? So we're planning on making the trip down  around the end of next month and Cara has already given me a list of things that need to get done (by me of course). 

Here's a sample of the work I did as an intern with The Last Cut: Enjoy! 

cut and paste the link (sorry):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4yRQxKlKs

Love you guys,

Phil