Feature Film : : Valley of the Sun

Sponsored by Happily, Even After: A Film

We are racing to get it all together. Lots to do. I am enjoying every minute of it.

I am deep in story mode pondering the life of a male porn star and I had a bit of a revelation. It seems like it'd be hard for a porn star to find a woman to settle down with outside of the industry. I maybe wrong, but its difficult to imagine otherwise. I imagine if you ask most women if they'd be with a porn star, they'd say, "gross." Then I started thinking, you know, maybe male porn stars get a bad wrap as say compared to a player. I am talking about the guy who's in his late 30's and who has a spectacular conversion ratio trolling the bars. A player in his late 30's could have very well been with hundreds, if not thousands of women. Look at one of the biggest players, Magic Johnson. The man has been around town.

First, let's look at it from the man's perspective. If you are looking to get laid safely, porn starring is probably the safest way to be with a ton of women. Why? Because, these days, there's a lot of testing in porn. Porn stars regularly test for disease. If you are a player, out on the streets, there's probably less testing going on and a lot of drinking. One night stands aren't regulated for safety as far as I know. There isn't a one night stand safety board or a safety coalition for those that participate in one night standing. I would bet you are more likely to get disease playing your odds at the bar, rather than working a porn set. So, if you are looking to maximize sex and safety, porn might be the way to go. The downside is that you have to screw on camera. But what's worse? Disease or having the stigma being of a porn star? That's a tough one.

From the female perspective, if you are open to hooking up with a player, you might open your field to some lonely porn stars, because they've probably been with about the same number of women and they are less likely to carry a disease. And for the porn star, being with all those women was just for a paycheck anyway. But, if you are looking for a male virgin, porn stars probably aren't the right fit.

Ponder that.

Sponsored by 42 Surfboards

Its been six years since my sister told me about a funny script her friend was writing. I read it and thought it was funny. So did my producing partner Aaron Tudisco. We decided to make the film. It had taken us two years to get our short Capri done, so I knew we were in for the long hall. At the time I was single, living with three other guys in the Presidio at what we dubbed The Ranch because of the spacious yard we had which rare for San Francisco. Now, I am married, have a house, a little girl and whole hell of a lot more responsibility. When I set out to make the film six years ago, I had no idea how much my life would change. But, all of that change revolved and made room for getting this film done. I think its how a tree grows around a metal fence post.

Finally, after six years, we have the money to make this film. It's like a big exhale and then another big inhale as we prepare to shoot. I'm frickin' excited!... and a little nervous. This is the moment we've trained for. This is our space shot. I know that we can all do our best and still burn up in the atmosphere. Its worth it though, and in the grand scheme of things, its no where near as risky as a space shot, our lives are not on the line, so we just gotta have a good time and make the best movie we can. We are lucky sons of guns.

Sponsored by Mine: Taken by Katrina

Your movie’s done, and you’ve got your final cut in hand. What’s next? How do you take what you’ve created and get it out into the world? How do you get your hard-earned money back?

You need to distribute your film. Like every other step in this process, it’s not an easy one. Director Stokes McIntyre and I had a conversation about film distribution, and here’s what I’ve come away with:

According to a sales representative whom Stokes met at the Berlin Film Festival, it is important for filmmakers to begin laying the groundwork for distribution before the movie even begins filming. There exists something called a pre-sale deal, where a distribution company (some of the big ones are MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.) will agree to purchase your movie before it’s even completed, set a deal with you regarding distribution, and pay you a certain amount of money up front, which can be used to help make the film. Be warned, this rarely if ever happens for independent films. It is still important to talk to sales representatives though, in order to let them know what type of film you’ll be producing and when it will be done, so that you’re on their “radar” so to speak. This is what the producers of Valley of the Sun are doing right now.

Hopefully you will able to secure a representative before your film is finished. It is helpful to have this person in place so that when you reach your final cut, he or she will be there to assist you in entering film festivals and marketing your movie. Some film festivals are actually film markets (they will have a festival and at the same time a conference for filmmakers and distribution people—like buyers and sellers, sitting down and working out deals for distribution). Producers of Valley of the Sun would like to hit these festivals in particular—though it is also important to attend regular festivals in order to garner an audience and critical acclaim for the movie.

After having been through film festivals with your sales representative, you reach a point where you’ve either sold your movie or you haven’t. The former option is preferable. Assuming this works out for you, you and your sales rep. try to cut the best deal possible with the distribution company. You want to get money up front, because this may be all the money you’ll see for a long time; you also have to discuss theatrical rights, territories, profit sharing, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Chances are, if you’re a first time filmmaker (heh-hem, Valley of the Sun), distribution companies are going to try and get the film from you for as cheap as possible. So be prepared to put up a good fight. They may offer you less money up front because they want to do a theatrical run (which is cool, and has the potential to make a lot of money back if it’s a success), or perhaps they’ll want to cut you a DVD deal (which might mean more money up front and less exposure). Either way, distribution companies find ways to spend a lot of money as they attempt to market your movie, so it may take a long time for you to see any profit.

Aside from gaining an audience, your other main concern as a filmmaker should be to get your investors their money back. The business plan for Valley of the Sun states that investors will get a 120% return on their investment—if they invested $10,000, they will hope to get at least $12,000 back. Say Valley of the Sun gets picked up by a distributor and becomes wildly successful (it’s possible, right!?)—the investors are the first ones to receive money from the movie, and then people like the director get paid. If the movie were raking in tons of money, remaining profit would be split 50-50 between the investors and the producers.

But say that the worst happens, and no distributors come along to save you. If that happens, you can sell the DVD case by case, try to get a deal with Netflix or iTunes, create a grassroots marketing campaign, or, as Stokes suggests, possibly get in a van and drive your film around to theatres and show it.

The truth is, it’s hard for small filmmakers to make money because the whole process is so exhaustive and marketing costs so much money. That said, it is our hope that we will wish upon that one lucky star, and Valley of the Sun won’t have to rely on a van to get distributed.

Here’s an interesting article I found that speaks a bit about how to get your film on iTunes: How to get your independent film on iTunes.

Sponsored by Elegant Design

Japan is setting the standard for aging porn stars. 75-year-old Shigeo Tokuda has no problem taking his pants off for the camera. His motivation? Challenging the ordinary and staying young at heart. Tokuda's director, Gaichi Kono finds another motivation. "Other old men think they can do it because he can. The elderly can feel secure and encouragement when they see his films," says the director. Read the entire article - >

Sponsored by Firefly Coaching.

Time to talk about the post-production stage, where everything you’ve worked so hard for comes together in a tangible form. It’s a complicated process, and an important one.

The first step, of course, is to get your film footage into a form that can be edited. Now, this step, along with the whole post-production process, is dependent on what type of camera you’ve decided to shoot with.

For Valley of the Sun, director Stokes McIntyre has decided to shoot with a Red Camera. Basically, a Red Camera is a digital camera whose recordings are saved to a disk and easily transferred to a computer, and thus, video editing programs. Unlike film, the process is simple and doesn’t require you to send your materials away to be processed, and it also makes the physical process of editing your footage easier. The Red Camera itself shoots a high-quality 4K image on a 35mm lens and produces a shorter depth of field. According to Stokes, using the Red Camera will allow him and his crew to capture the best looking image they can get for the price of the camera, and one that has a more authentic, film-ish feel.

Next you need an editor—hopefully you’ve had this person lined up all along, and he or she is someone who understands your desired feeling for the movie. The benefit of using an editor who has not been present during the filming process is that it allows him or her to come at the movie with a fresh perspective. In low-budget films, this is not always economic. In our case, it is highly likely that Stokes, the director, will also be editing the film. Positively, this will allow him to have more control over the final product.

Now, as you delve into the editing process, there are different ways to go about things. If you were using film, you would want to review your unedited film footage, often called “rushes” or “dailies” (because film can be processed quickly enough that it can be reviewed daily, to give you a sense of whether things need to be re-shot). With digital, you can easily review what you have shot thus far.

It is a good idea to devote a nice chunk of time to simply watching all of your material. Note the things that stick out to you— gut reactions are important because an audience will likely receive them as you did. This gives you a whole sense of what you’ve done, and allows you to instantly know which scenes will work and which won’t.

The next step is to create what’s known as an assembly cut. This version is even rougher than the rough cut; re-order the scenes that you think have potential so that they appear in the order they would in the movie, and get rid of the ones that are completely un-memorable. If the structure isn’t working, rearrange the scenes until you feel it’s right. There is no editing done at all for this cut—it is an opportunity for you to observe the flow of your movie, and decide whether things need to be re-ordered or re-shot.

After the assembly cut comes the rough cut. Here, you’ve got your sequences in order, though they’re not really fine-tuned. You’ve cut out the scenes that weren’t working in the assembly cut, so your material is almost down to what you’ll use in the final cut.

Last is the final cut. All the final touches are put in place—performance rhythms, transitions, visual effects, etc.—it’s all there. Once you’ve got your final cut, it is incredibly beneficial to hold a trial screening. Fight the urge to defend or explain your movie, and instead just observe people’s reactions—where do they laugh, where do they seem bored, etc? Continue to show your movie and get feedback. Take the information you receive and make changes that seems necessary.

When you are satisfied with what you’ve got, you move on to sound mixing. This is where your soundtrack enters the picture, and where all other sound editing occurs. Valley of the Sun has a musician in place for the soundtrack, who will be writing music to the movie. This process can differ from person to person—while some may come up with music before they see the final cut of the film, others will sit with the final cut and compose to it.

All of this, and voila!—you have a movie! The truth is, it’s not over yet. Don’t forget about the fact that you have to distribute your movie in order for it to be seen. But we will save that discussion for another time.

If you’ve got comments, post them!

And a final quote from Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics by Michael Rabiger that I found to be rather poetic: “Intelligent editing coaxes our imaginations and lends enormously to the overall impact of the film by aiding and abetting performances and creating the grounds for us to infer thought, feeling, and reaction.”

Sponsored by IRMI

Before we get into the details regarding the production stage of filmmaking, I’d like to take a moment and identify some of the key players on the set of a film.

• Director—the person with the vision who is generally in charge of conceptualizing artistic and dramatic development as he or she understands it from the script. This person serves as the guide for the technical crew and actors throughout the filming process. I’ve been informed that in reality, everyone but the director is disposable—if it came down to it, the director could pretty much play the parts of the following roles (thought that would be incredibly difficult).
• Producer—the person who is in charge of coordinating finances, personnel, distribution, etc. He or she is not really involved in the technical production process, but is present from inception to finish.
• Director of Photography—the term for this role is often interchangeable with “cinematographer”. This person is in charge of the technical aspects of filming, including directing the camera and lighting crews, or, on occasion, operating the camera his- or herself.
• Gaffer—the person in charge of lighting in film production, and often the head of an entire lighting crew.
• Editor—the person responsible for piecing together the movie and producing rough and final cuts. This person works closely with the Directors to ensure that the artistic vision is maintained during post-production.
• Production Designer/Art Director—the person in charge of the visual setting and props. He or she provides a space for the Director of Photography to work in.
• Makeup, Costume, and Wardrobe Artists—these peoples’ title are pretty self-explanatory. Usually an assistant accompanies each individual.
• Script Supervisor—the person who tries to maintain a high level of consistency in the details, by constantly taking notes during filming and going back to the script. You know how sometimes you’re watching a movie, and during a single conversation, a person’s hairstyle will noticeably change? It’s the script supervisor who’s supposedly in charge of keeping details like this uniform.

Interestingly enough, I spent the majority of the week (two weeks ago) observing and participating in the making of a commercial that Hotbed is producing. As a result I feel a bit more enlightened in regards to the production process, and while producing a movie is a lot different than producing a commercial, I now feel more certain about the validity of what I’m writing here.

So we’re talking about the production phase; filming begins. After being on the set of the commercial shoot, I’ve realized it’s the sort of thing that you must learn by seeing and doing. But still, I have some notes.

I read somewhere that the average feature film is in production for 48 days. Low-budget features generally shoot for less time; at this point, 25 days have been allotted for the filming of Valley of the Sun.

Depending on the shooting schedule, a typical day of filming can begin as early as 6am, and can last for 12 hours or so. Housing and food accommodations (generally breakfast and lunch) must be provided for crew and cast, as well as a standard amount of “turn around” time between the “end” of one day of shooting and the “beginning” of the next.

During filming, you must decide how much coverage you want—or in other words, how many takes of each scene you’d like to film. Keep in mind that the more extensive your coverage, the more expensive your film costs are. However, it is important to provide your editor with adequate coverage. As you film, you may find that actors fall into their characters, everyone becomes more comfortable, and less takes are required to get things right.

When it comes to shooting, you follow your shooting schedule. Often, this is organized around location availability rather than the chronological order of the movie. For instance, filming for Valley of the Sun is organized in such a way that the scenes set in L.A. will be shot together, the scenes set in a particular character’s house will be shot together, the scenes set at the community center will be shot together, etc., regardless of the fact that those scenes do not necessarily appear in the same time sequence as one another. It is all about efficiency.

Hopefully you stay on schedule as you shoot—if not, you will probably need to make adjustments to save yourself time. Once filming wraps, you’re done with the production phase!

I’d also like to note that, after observing the filming of a commercial in a single day, I have a profound new respect for the endurance required to film a full-length movie. Even the smallest, most insignificant shots require time and thought, and often multiple takes. Since my experience on the commercial set, I now catch myself pondering filming details—I wonder how many takes this scene took?—while I’m watching movies. Oh, the simplicity of just watching a film is gone!

sponsored by Table 21 Films

Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 contemplates a unconventional path to porn. Who knows. Maybe one day the tide will turn and mainstream actors will only wish they could cross over into porn... probably not.

Sponsored by Follow Me

Sometimes it just seems ridiculous that so many good films don't get seen. I've been to festivals and I've seen really great films and I've left the festival and never been able to see them again.

Here's an inspiring article in the New York Times about distribution for indies. My dad sent this to me with a note : Are you shooting digital? Of course there will always be gateways to broad audiences, but those gateways are becoming more numerous and wide open to films outside of the system. The new paradigm is allowing filmmakers to more easily connect directly with audiences. That's cool.

Sponsored by The Milkfarm

I love Arizona for its color. The buildings are mostly a drab earth tone that blends in with the desert floor, but its the people that offer the color in AZ. That's why I'm making this film in Arizona. The people have good character. Reminds me of Texas. Here's one hue in Arizona's spectrum of color, Sheriff Joe. You may know him, if you didn't, now you do. Maybe he could play a roll in the film if he isn't too busy kickin' some butt.

My family in Texas forwarded along a viral email describing Joe. It reads.

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs... Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc.. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get
Sued For Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working
ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports: About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At TheMaricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.

Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,
But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Mouths!'

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

Sponsored by Film Emporium

As an intern, I feel it’s my duty to come away from this experience knowing some details about the film industry that I probably wouldn’t learn on my own. For instance, it seems pretty foundational to understand the A to Z process of filmmaking. Thus, I’ve decided to combine some online research with details I’ve gleaned from the director of Valley of the Sun in order to create a brief how-to of the process. First, I’ll discuss both the development and pre-production stages. And I URGE you, if you have any additional questions or comments, to make them known via the comments feature of this blog.

DEVELOPMENT is often the longest stage. You’ve got to start with an initial idea, create a story, and write a script. Your script should follow certain formatting guidelines if you intend to pass it off or have it taken seriously. It’s vital to get external input—ask people to read and cover your script. For Valley of the Sun, the writing process has been ongoing for about five years.

Use the feedback you receive to do rewrites until you feel your script is strong enough to move on. While you are developing your script, it’s a good idea to start raking in financial support. There are many ways to finance a film; for Valley of the Sun, director Stokes McIntyre has chosen to raise money via pixel-based advertising—a method by which advertising space is sold on the website (in this case, 10,000 pixels sold for a price of $150 each). You can also look to finance your film through GAP financing, where an organization agrees to help you reach an agreed upon number, say $1 million, given that you provide the initial $300,000; private donations from individuals or companies; or investments from companies who’ve decided that you’re worth their time and money.

Once you’ve sketched out a budget and you’re confident in the strength of your script, you can move into the next stage: PRE-PRODUCTION. At this point, you set a date for filming to begin and put all the concrete details together. As for Valley of the Sun, filming is currently set to begin in October 2009.

You need to cast some actors. A common route is to go through trusted Hollywood agents, who can use their reputations to wrangle in well-known actors. From there, live auditions or audition tapes will help you to decide which actor fits the role you’re casting for. As far as casting goes for Valley of the Sun, the director is looking to secure perhaps one or two Hollywood-based actors, and find the rest via local venues—for example, senior acting clubs in Arizona retirement communities.

Along with finding talented actors, you need to find great locations. For low-budget films like this one, it is generally cheapest to use existing locations, rather than building sets.

In the pre-production stage, the use of tools such as storyboards (visual sketches that allow you to experiment with angles and P.O.V.s) and shot lists (written descriptions of each shot in a scene) is common. Vague shot lists can help you to establish a shooting schedule earlier on in pre-production (for an example, see Valley of the Sun’s tentative shooting schedule). Storyboard artists do have the potential to be expensive, and thus some directors choose to use storyboards only to map out super important scenes.

Perhaps you’ve wondered what cast and crew interaction looks like before filming begins. The truth is that there is no real protocol; it depends heavily on the director and the story that is being created. In one situation, the director might deem it necessary to develop chemistry between actors before filming begins, yet in another, the fact that the actors have never met may be play into the evolution of the story and its relationships.

Hopefully you’ve got the details regarding your cast, location, crew, etc., figured out by the time you reach your start date. In this case, you begin filming and move from pre-production to PRODUCTION!

And that’s a wrap.