Top 11 Movie Scores of the Last 15 Years

The best script, directing, acting, and editing won't mean much without the right music backing the story. Music sets the vibe, creates the mood, and drives the momentum of a film.

Case in point: when Aaron Sorkin wrote the The Social Network, he had originally envisioned Paul Young's cover version of Love for the Common People to be the opening song. Instead, we got an amazing and haunting score from Trent Reznor that completely re-directed the film's tone.

With that said, here are some of my personal favorite movie scores from the last 15 years (2000-2015). 

11. Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Across the Stars - John Williams



WAIT, HEAR ME OUT. Look I'm not a prequel defender; I downright loathe the Star Wars prequels (especially this one). But I have to admit: John Williams, once again, made a hell of a score. It's a score that's too good for this movie. Had this been put up against a love story with great writing (and acting), it might have become as classic as the instrumentals from the original films.

10. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
Don Abandons Alice- John Murphy



It's repetitive, but each go-around adds a new layer, continuously adding to the overall intensity. And if you've seen the film, you already know that this score compliments the chaos and drama onscreen to absolute perfection.

9. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Lux Aeterna - Clint Mansell



You know a score is monumental when it's made for an indie film, and then reused in a trailer for a Lord of the Rings movie. Like Requiem for a Dream itself, every moment of this piece creates an uneasy sensation - yet you can't look away.

8. The Time Machine (2002)
Going Forward - Klaus Badelt



Chances are you forgot about this movie or never cared for it, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong to. But despite its flaws, one particular sequence grabbed me and stayed in my head ever since: the time travel scene. It pays tremendous homage to the time travel in the original 1960 film, and it manages to capture so much action and wonder in just a few minutes - without a single word.That's why in this video embed, I'm giving you the music with the scene.

7. Under the Skin (2014)
Death - Mica Levi

How mesmerizing is this piece? It manages to do so much with so little, and it creates a deep sense of discomfort that carries through the bulk of the story. I love how haunting this score is, and I really appreciate how it manages to evoke old school horror films while still adding a modern and highly disturbing twist.

6. Spider-Man (2002)
Theme from Spider-Man - Danny Elfman



The current generation of films doesn't really have an iconic superhero theme reminiscent of the John Williams Superman score, but this might be the closest thing yet. It's epic, it's memorable, and it's a huge reason why I'll always prefer this series of Spider-Man films to the next one.

5. Comet (2014)

Under the Comets - Daniel Hart

Sam Esmail is the talk of the town right now because of his hit show Fight Club Mr. Robot, but before that, he made a film called Eternal Sunshine 500 Days of Summer Comet (now available on Netflix). It's packed with awful dialogue and pretentiousness...but god damn it there's something about it that works. Maybe it's the relatable story, or maybe it's Robert Downey Jr Justin Long carrying the film on his shoulders. Whatever it is, the powerful score from Daniel Hart is elevating it to a tragically dreamlike level that stayed with me longer than the film itself.

4. X-Men First Class (2011)
Magneto - Henry Jackman

Years ago, the plan was to make X-Men Origins: Magneto. I, like many fans, hated the idea. That concept eventually evolved into X-Men: First Class, where I soon realized: maybe I wouldn't mind watching 2 hours of Michael Fassbender kicking ass . . . especially to this score. In fact as much as I love the sequel Days of Future Past, it's biggest crime is neglecting to rework this score back in. Why? WHY??

Also, there are two Marvel movies on this list, yet neither are actually from Marvel Studios. Disney/Marvel are doing everything right . . . except giving us truly iconic scores (Okay, Avengers came close).

3. Mr. Nobody (2009)
Le Temps Immobile - Pierre Van Dormael

This sci-fi character study is all about the power of choice, and it's driven by a comforting mix of pieces by Pierre Van Dormael. It was hard to pick one to showcase here, but I went with this composition because it's both reassuring and heartbreaking at the same time (much like the film itself).

2. Star Trek (2009)

Enterprising Young Men - Michael Giacchino



I saw this movie in the theaters solely because a friend gave me free tickets. But after the tense first 10 minutes (when a version of this score kicked in), I knew I was going to love this film. As the above Spider-Man theme is close to this generation's Superman, this theme might be the closest we have to being this generation's Star Wars score. 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Peer Pressure - Jon Brion



Oh it had to be this movie. It's just the greatest film - and picking one track from Brion's perfect score was a challenge. I went with Peer Pressure because it seems to encompass the emotional range of the whole soundtrack: discovery of something beautiful, absolute bliss, addiction, attachment, and inevitable loss.

Honorable Mentions
Here are a few extra compositions I love that almost made the list... 

Pirates of the Caribbean - This franchise might've overstayed its welcome, but you can't deny the piece He's a Pirate is adventurous, exciting, and so much fun.

Tron 2 - The Daft Punk score (especially Derezzed) came real close to making my list, but to me, it just needed to be a smidge less generic. Just a smidge.

Irreversible - This will seem like a random entry, especially since pieces like Rectum (yup, that's the name) are basically just drone music. But the piece does its job: it creates a dizzying and nauseating atmosphere and it's always stuck with me.

Avengers - Like I said above, so close. It's especially epic when the Avengers finally assemble in the first movie, and this piece kicks in. But...it just didn't have the extra punch to make the list for me.

What are some of your favorite scores from the last 15 years?

Bluray Authoring with Adobe

Halina is the first time I've edited with Adobe Premiere (by way of the controversial Creative Cloud), so everything about exporting and authoring media was completely new to me. An invaluable tutorial for me is embedded below. It walks you through everything from chapter markers to exporting for DVD and bluray, to importing into Adobe Encore and authoring a disc. With this video's help, today I authored my first ever Bluray.

Now if you're like me, you might've noticed something with your new Creative Cloud account: Adobe Encore appears absent from it. That's because for whatever reason, Encore CS6 was the last version ever released and after Premiere CS6, it was no longer bundled with the video editing software.

That's dumb. Sure there are other programs to author a disc, but Encore's cool, man. So here's a trick I learned to get Encore CS6 on your machine by way of installing a previous version of Premiere.

I just watched the Halina bluray on my projector, which by the way I'm absolutely in love with. It's an Optoma HD 1080p theater projector that I've had for a few months now, and everything I play on it looks crisp, colorful and just plain amazing. So I had a little private screening in a mini-theater to prep for the big screening in Bellmore next month. Very exciting!

"Halina" is Finished!

 Look I just like classic cartoon animations okay? GET OFF MY BACK. *ahem* Anyways...

Tonight I took Ken's final sound mix for Halina and matched it to DP Mike's color corrected video to create the final, finished cut of Halina.

It feels like just yesterday I tested the waters with this post, and here we are: with a completed short film on our hands, and one I'm damn proud of.

But we're not out of the woods yet - a reason I pushed to finish the film by this date was to hit a few festival deadlines that I really want in on. And, truth be told, I'm a bit rusty on exporting/converting videos (and I've never authored a Blu-ray before).  I found this tutorial to be very helpful so far.

Keep checking back because I really do want to get some type of teaser trailer up in the next week or so, and I'm (hopefully!) going to have some festival news too.

Color Correcting "Halina"

On Saturday, DP Mike stopped by and we kicked off color correcting Halina. We started with a lot of issues; the biggest being that the Adobe CC kept locking up after applying an adjustment layer to the whole film. This problem also occurred on Mike's machine at his home so it's something specific to the project that we can't figure out.

Things seemed to work a little better when adding one adjustment layer at a time to each clip (as opposed to laying them all down at once). We were able to do scene one together to agree on an overall "feel" for the film. 

The Adobe plug-ins we're using are Film Convert, which is able to provide digital footage with color and grain of film stocks, and also Impulz and Osiris from Vision Color. Mike is continuing to work on the project from his machine and making incredible progress.

Meanwhile at Sound for Indies, Ken and I have scheduled the final sound mixing approval for March 10th, which means that's about when the film will be completed (if all goes as planned)!

Post-Production Sound Mixing

Halina is now in the hands of Sound For Indies, a Long Island audio post production service. I've known Ken, the founder, for maybe 5 years now but this is the first time we finally get to work together on a project.

If you're not a film person, basically what Ken is doing is taking all of the audio tracks from the editing sequence and importing them into Pro Tools. He'll isolate the best sounding microphones, smooth out the audio levels, and clean up any unwanted sounds in the flick. 

While Ken works on sound, I'm going to simultaneously have DP Mike work on color. I'm pushing hard to have the entire film done by very early March, which is right around the corner.

This weekend I also launched HalinaFilm.com - it's very bare bones rights now but more content will be added shortly.

Halina Editing Update

As of this writing I'm a little shy of halfway through the first rough cut of Halina. Most of the last couple of weeks has been spent logging and labeling all of the footage and sound files - now that that's all done, the initial editing is zipping along pretty quickly.

This is the first project that I'm editing on Adobe Premiere CC (I usually use Final Cut). One newer feature on Premiere CC that is amazing is the new masking and tracking feature. This makes it easier than ever to apply a filter to just a portion of your shot - like a license plate - and then have that filter track the plate through the rest of the clip. Back when Purgatory Comics got picked up for distribution, I had to apply de-focus filters to all of the licensed logos and then reposition the filter manually each frame. If I had this tool back then, my life would've been a lot less stressful.

You're not going to see this in the above picture but I set the film's aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen. There are a few ways to do this is Premiere CC but after trying them out, I really like the method presented in this YouTube video. It gives me full and easy image control with no hassle.

I'm really happy with the edit so far and trying to be an absolute perfectionist. When I'm satisfied with my cut, I'll have to bring this elsewhere for sound mastering and color correcting because I'm pretty weak in both of those categories - so right now it's hard to predict when this will be finished. I believe I can comfortably finish before May if I keep up this pace - I'll provide more thoughts on that down the road.

I leave you now with this downtempo track from Zero 7. Sometimes in editing I need to temporarily stick a song into a scene to get the pacing right. Last night that song was "Somersault" which I've been listening to a lot lately to match the film's vibe. Enjoy!

What's in a Name?

To me, a sign of a good screenplay is when a viewer walks away from a screening and can remember at least a couple of the main characters’ names. This is especially important if your script becomes a Hollywood studio film because star-power will only make this more difficult. Take Jim Carrey. If I’m talking about his character in “Yes Man,” I’m probably going to refer to him as Jim Carrey.” “Remember the part where Jim Carrey went running on Red Bull?” I mean, he’s Jim Carrey, and it’s hard to forget it. But he’s also in my favorite movie of all time: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” This is the first time ever where I actually forgot he was Jim Carrey, and I refer to the character in conversation by his name: Joel.

I first noticed the importance of this way back when “Independence Day” was in the theaters. The characters as I perceived them were: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, the President, a bunch of aliens, that guy, and that other guy. Not a sign of strong characters. Granted, a film like “ID” is more plot-driven than character-driven (actually, it was probably money-driven), but that’s no excuse for weak characters to drive the plot. “Law & Order” is the most plot-driven show on television and I can name you every character from the first ten years.

Bringing the topic down to a personal level: I used to love coming up with character names. Back in my college student-film days, I cranked out some of my favorite character names ever. I had a few personal rules to follow: make the lead’s name somewhat unique but believable, and try not to repeat a first-letter in the same script (in other words, I can’t use two names that begin with “B” in one project). These were my little tricks to making the names more memorable, and for the most part it worked.

It was a little harder to name characters in “Purgatory Comics” because by this point, all of my favorite names were already used up in college. The first name I had was “Berner,” because I actually knew a Berner in college and I liked the name. But when I decided on the whole “Purgatory” theme, I thought it would be cool to have my lead (Cola) around characters with names that rhymed with “Heaven” and “Hell.” So, I came up with “Evan” and “Mel.” “Mel” of course would be Berner’s first name, and Evan was the comic store owner played by Tim. Coming up with the lead was more tricky. Originally she was a he, and his name was Caden. Over time, I no longer liked this name so I changed it to Cole. Then when I decided to make the lead a female, I took a quick shortcut of making the name “Cole” feminine. Thus, Cola. At the time, I declared Cola to be short for “Nicola,” a name I ignorantly thought I made up.

When it got time to do the side characters, I took more unconventional approaches. Mia was named after my beloved cat (who, over a decade ago, was named after a character in a video game I was playing at the time). Danny was taken from my own middle name. Realize at the time I had also planned to play Danny in the movie, which I can now see would’ve been a very “meta” move. X-Ray was obviously a pun on the Ray character making himself a member of the X-Men. The rest of the names are pretty standard: Peter, Andrew, etc.

So how did it all work? Well here’s a quick consensus based on feedback I’ve gotten over the last year. Everyone remembers the name “Berner” to some degree, even if they spell it “Burner.” I think a couple of people referred to him as “Burger” at some point too. Most but not all people remember Cola. Everyone remembers X-Ray. And the rest is 50/50: sometimes it’s names and sometimes it’s “the old guy, the boyfriend, Berner’s girl, the store owner.”

I’ve been working on the plot of a new script for nearly a year, and I’ll be honest, I’ve been hung up on some names. I have a female lead name, and I have a handful of possible names for other characters, but it’s certainly a roadblock I’m not used to. There is an added pressure that my working title has the main character’s name in it, whatever it turns out to be. I’ve resorted to downloading a free “baby names” app on my iphone. By the way, the best review for this app is when someone wrote “I use this app to name my Sims characters.” After considering this script for so long, it’s finally itching to be told and I’m anxious to begin writing. I’ll post a logline and title soon, but in the meantime, back to the name game. Yes, it’s that important.

Purgatory Comics Available to Buy at FilmBaby.com

The Purgatory Comics DVD is now available online at Filmbaby.com. Here is the exact page you can preview and order from. If you log in as a customer, you can also rate the film after viewing.

This is a neat site because it gives movie lovers a chance at stumbling upon my film while browsing other independent flicks. Plus a quick glimpse at the other DVD prices will demonstrate how low I set my price point. Yup, the Purgatory Comics DVD is still only ten measly bucks. So, you can buy from filmbaby.com, or you can buy from the store at purgatorycomics.com. Either way, all proceeds go to the same cause: reimbursing the cost of making the flick.

On another note, how you can you actually be reading this blog and not have bought the film yet? What are you waiting for??? Click one of those links and get your copy!

Here's a grab of Purgatory Comics being introduced on the main page. Click to enlarge!

Purgatory Comics on IMDB

Purgatory Comics now has a page on IMDB right here. If you have an account with IMDB and you've seen the flick (or even if you haven't), be sure to go drop it a positive rating! Also I have my own IMDB page right here.

I actually tried to set up the page around last October. What's tricky for amateur filmmaker's like myself is the section on festivals; IMDB wants your film to have screened somewhere to prove it exists. If you submit anyway, sometimes they'll let it slide. In my case, they didn't so they wouldn't let me have a page yet until my film screened. Pain in the ass.

Well you'll remember I joined the free festival site Withoutabox.com. Here's a groovy benefit: when you submit to a festival on this site, you'll get an email inviting you to make an IMDB page for your film. They give you a special code, and you just go back to the IMDB form and enter the code with your other data. This bypasses the festival criteria and gets your page up and running!

So enjoy the long-awaited Purgatory Comics IMDB page. As of this writing, all of the data I submitted hasn't been published yet. But the trivia section's up and you know that's always the best part.

Film Festivals, Withoutabox

Over the past few weeks I've been submitting screeners of the film to various festivals. Last weekend I joined Withoutabox, which is an online resource filmmakers can use to find and submit to festivals. It's also cool because you have special deadlines and in some cases, discounted submissions. And on this site, it's real easy to find a load of festivals that your particular project qualifies for. So if you're a filmmaker with a finished film on your hands, check it out.

I've been really busy with this. When a festival requests a fullblown presskit, that's some work and expens on my part. But I'm pretty proud of the presskit I make; it's gotten great compliments.

I'm mostly submitting to Long Island and New York City based festivals right now (with the exception of one California submission so far). That's all you're really going to hear about that on this blog; I'm not going to list where I submitted, so you'll just have to hope I win some. The bad news is that a lot of these festivals don't take place until later summer or even fall, so it'll be months before I hear anything for a lot of them. So, I like to make a screener/kit, send it out, and basically forget about it. If you know of any that you think I might be interested in, shoot me a message!

Online Training

I'm known to be a "Jack of all trades, master of none." I know the basics of video editing, graphic design, web design, and related things ... but I really never knew more than enough to get by. The exception is writing; I am a writer. That's my thing. But I would like to be more knowledgeable in the other stuff.

Up until now whenever I needed to learn something, I'd scour youtube for tutorials, or web forums for answers. I decided now to take a web course instead, and I found a really good one at lynda.com. It's not free but I'm trying out a month and today alone I've watched and taken notes on dozens of videos. They have in-depth courses for Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut, and a LOT more. Right now I'm focused on becoming really kickass at Dreamweaver because all my sites could use much better web pages. The video tutorials are awesome so I recommend this to anyone like me who wants to go beyond knowing the basic stuff for creative programs.

Plus, this: there are a lot of writers who don't know much video/graphical work. There are a lot of graphic people who don't know writing. The people who truly know both are a dime a dozen. In fact I'm not sure I've ever met one person who exels at both. If I could be that person, it would be very good for me.

How to Save Some $$$ on Your Film Production

Here's an entry I started a little while back and I'm finally getting online. If you couldn't guess from this blog, making even the cheapest indie film is very expensive. Luckily there are some areas where you can save on costs if you play your cards right.

Where to Cut Costs

Screenwriting. I have no love for programs like Final Draft. Paying $500 will not make you a better screenwriter. It won’t even guarantee you’ll get the format right (trust me...I cringe at incorrectly formatted scripts, and some have come from FD). Read a few books on correct format, and then download a free Microsoft Word template from the Internet (or make your own). They’re out there. Focus on the writing . . . don’t let an over-expensive program take advantage of your dream.

Actors. There are so many spectacular actors out there that are willing to work for free that the other ones – the ones that want money – just can’t compete. I’m lucky enough to live in the New York area so I had hundreds to choose from, and I honestly believe I got the best of the best for my film. Actors, especially young ones, are starved to add credits to their headshots and take part in REAL productions. Look for them, but be sure to treat them with respect for the entire shoot. And do what I did: compensate their travel (in my case, train tickets), always keep them fed and hydrated at no cost to them, and have them sign your contract long before the shoot begins. My form stated clearly what I expected from them, and what they’d receive from me. My cast gave me 100% and for free, so if you do things the right way, you’ll get the same from your cast.

Locations. You have to plan ahead on this one, and that involves taking inventory of what locations are available to you BEFORE you start your shooting script. Homes, public places, and maybe your place of employment are good jumping off points. For whatever locations you have left, either network or ask some favors. For example, the bar we used belongs to a friend, so that was accessible. But what about the comic book store where half of our shoot took place? How’d I do that? I asked nicely, blockhead. Again, I made it clear in advance what we needed, and I was very respectful for the whole shoot. Now, I didn’t pay to use his location, but I DID pay to insure his location. The two are very different. He didn’t ask me to insure the store during the shoot, but I did it as a sign of professionalism and to cover my own ass. Sometimes you’ll have to pay a little for a location. That’s fine, but get everything in writing. You don’t want to be held hostage the morning your crew arrives because the owner suddenly wants more. Also, try to have a backup location ready to go when possible.

Soundtrack. Odds are, you already know one or two musicians or bands that would love to help you out for free. Maybe you’re a musician of some sort. That should get you started on your film’s soundtrack. The rest is not hard . . . the world is FILLED with talented, unsigned musicians looking for exposure. It took me a long time to build my film’s soundtrack because I had very specific needs, but in the end, I got what I wanted and didn’t pay a dime. In exchange, these talented musicians are getting exposure. Sometimes a band might want a lump set for a defined term of song usage (ie pay $500 for 1 year of song use). This puts a timetable on making your movie successful, so I’d personally advise against it (unless you have a direct “in” somewhere).

Government. I write this on my blog a lot, but it holds true. In terms of extremely rough estimates, I paid $24,000 to make a movie, and I got back $8,000 from the government. That’s because I incorporated my business long before the shoot and maybe every thing related to the film tax deductible. Now, I’m no mathematician, but 8-grand is a lot of money.

A very important added note on cutting corners: Be VERY wary when someone offers you a free service, even if it’s a friend. Free means they’re not tied to you, which means they can flake at any moment. And they will. I’ve had THREE motion graphic designers disappear on me before John Kilgour was good enough to whip me up a Warm Milk Productions motion graphic. Sometimes you WILL get the end product, but not in a suitable timeframe (i.e. a few weeks after you really would’ve liked to have gotten it). That’s all a case by case basis, but be wary. I did get free work from a lot of people who didn’t flake on me, and usually it was because they also had an interest in the film’s success, which is awesome. So, be careful.

Where NOT to Cut Costs

Crew. This is usually the FIRST place amateurs look to cut corners. Stupid. Unless you’re making a student film, don’t hire a student crew. In fact the only students on your set should be assistants or interns, or supervisors but unless he or she has the best demo reel you’ve ever seen, try not get a DP willing to work for free.

Food/Water. I won't lie, catering and coffee and lunches and even waters were a royal pain in the ass during my shoot. At the start I had an assistant taking care of it, then she left me high and dry and Laura and I were forced to keep on it. Which sucks, because I'm trying to direct a movie . . . and I had to leave my own shoot for a deli run one day. But still, you can't skimp on this; make coffee available, serve your cast and crew lunch, and always make sure there's water nearby. If you cut this corner, they'll all just think you an a-hole and won't work with you again.

The Best Advice I Could Give

If you're serious about taking a swing at making a movie or a short film, and actually spending a hefty sum on it (especially from your own pocket), incorporate yourself as production business. This way, everything you buy for the production is a tax write-off, and you can claim your business as a loss (assuming you make no revenue because you're not really selling anything yet). I've said this all before in this blog, but I'm saying it again now because I finally know what my tax return will be and it is friggin' sah-weet. Without giving away the number, let me just say that it will take a hefty bite out of that debt I was bitching about a few entries back (although it won't obliterate it, but still).

And special thanks to both Winnie and Bonnie who advised that it's what I should've done. It is the best advice, and it's not in any of those "make your own movie" books. To you fellow fledging filmmakers...incorporate yourself!

How to Create Muzzle Flashes, Explosions, etc.

Here's a little bit of neat trickery for you fellow aspiring filmmakers. If you're working on something that involves gunfire, explosions, or other types of action effects out of your budget, it's not too hard to create the effect in Final Cut. I did a gunfire muzzle flash in my film and it looks pretty sweet (a "muzzle flash" is when there's a burst of light or fire when the gun shoots...very common in film; not as common in reality).

First, check out this website: Detonation Films. They've got loads of sweet muzzle shots and explosions you can purchase cheap. Thankfully they also have a free page, which is where the link above will take you. You'll find that all of their effects occur against a black screen. After you import the clip into your Final Cut track, simply right click the clip and select composite mode, screen. That'll make the black mostly transparent. Then in image control, you can adjust the brightness and contrast until the black is all gone. Here's their tutorial on the effect, which again, is very easy.

Next you'll need your gun shot sound effect. A great site for sound effects of any sort is Sound Dogs. You can preview any sound right there. You'll be tempted to just use their preview clips since they're free. DON'T. The preview clips are not good quality at all. I bought a firing sound for just under $4. You can choose the type of file you want (.aiff for me), and the sample rate. Now I have a gun shot in my film that I wish I could share here, but that'd be giving away too much.

That's it for this mini-tutorial. Let me know if you like these types of posts and I'll do them more often. Also today, I cast a new character who will be in the pickup shots we do in April. I'll announce it soon.

Frequently Asked Questions

As people talk to me about this little movie-thingie (hey, did you know I made a movie?), I’m starting to seriously get hit with the same questions over and over again. As a result, here’s a special little FAQ blog entry, although I’m sure I’ll still be hit with these questions. If you have your own queries, feel free to drop them in the comments section.

What was the overall budget of the movie?
I can’t give a final budget yet because I’m still spending (money goes fast). Right now, I’d say we’re hitting about $16,000 roughly. The bulk of that went into the production costs, including crew. Most of the actors volunteered, and I didn’t pay for a single location (God Bless you, Golden Memories Comics & Toys). Another chunk of money went into insurance, and then the rest of the expenses were small things that added up fast (like lunches or props). Since I'm editing it myself, that's also saving some big bucks.

How did you afford this movie?
When I first planned on making the movie, I was going to go the investor route, and believe it or not, I had a guy who was interested. Eventually I went against the idea because I didn’t want to deal with an investor…the movie was going to be my burden and hopefully my financial reward. I have excellent credit, so I was able to get a loan from the Bank of America quite easily. I’ll be paying for this movie for the next few years but it’s not the most impossible task when you have a good job, you’re not married with children, you drive a crappy car, and you don’t own a home.

How’d you get your actors?
I wrote all about this in an earlier blog entry: I put up casting blurbs in Backstage (paid), Craigslist (free), Myspace (free), ActorsAcess.com (free), and a few other sites. They were all worth it…I got my lead Angela from a reference from my cousin who saw the Myspace ad, I got Jonathan from ActorsAccess, and Tim submitted a headshot from BackStage (I think…might be wrong on the last one).

How’d you get your crew?
Mike LaVoie came recommended to me as a Director of Photography from a friend who acted with him before. He and I teamed up, and he brought in the rest of the crew. His company is Counter Clockwise Productions, and he seems to get a lot of steady work from references alone.

How’d you get the comic store to let you film there?
I got the comic store by asking nicely. Man was I nervous though…I had already finished the script by that point and if the store said no, I might’ve just had to go write a new script. I will say that when the owner said “yes,” he was under the impression that it was a much smaller production (I didn’t purposely deceive him though, I would never do that). But he is an absolute kind soul and it’s still important to me to maintain a relationship with his business. I sent him and his family a nice thank you basket shortly after shooting and I try to get there every week for a kind hello.

“You must’ve been in Heaven while shooting this thing.”
Yes and no. I’ve already gushed about how awesome it was to work with great people, but while shooting, it was really hard to just stop and soak up the awesomeness of the whole thing. I was usually too busy doing three or four jobs at once and constantly troubleshooting. The stress at times brought out the worst in me, and at other times it brought out the best in me. I learned a lot about myself.

When will the movie be done?
Hard to say . . . I’m not racing for a specific deadline right now. I’ll say Spring 2008?

What are you going to do with the movie when it’s done?
Christ, I get this question the most. Basically, I’m going to show it to anyone willing to watch it and I’m going to send it to any address I find. I’ll submit to festivals big and small (from the Long Island Film Festival to Sundance), and I’ll send to networks (FX, HBO, etc), and I’ll send it to movie studios (Troma?), and I’ll send it to other corporations (Marvel Comics).

What are you hoping will come of this?
Well in a perfect world, it will somehow result in this movie getting paid off and me having the opportunity to make another one, maybe on a larger-scale. Realistically, I’ll take any sort of opportunities for growth that may come of it. Maybe this will get my foot in the door somewhere, maybe it will allow me to be a part of a bigger project, or maybe it’ll just give me a little name recognition. We’ll see. I’m trying to go in with low expectations right now.

Why’d the other actors stop posting on this blog?
Because they hate you.

I’m going to break a little news now…last night I whipped up some props that I’ll be using in an upcoming short film that’s tied to “Bagged and Boarded.” Stay tuned.

Editing this bitch

So I've been editing a rough cut of the film for the past few nights. What I've been doing is pretty much watching every single take of each scene, and then logging what I like, what I don't like, and why we probably can't use that take anyway (ie. out of focus or bad mess ups, etc). At this point I've got about 10 minutes of film edited in a rough cut (as in, no soundtrack, no color corrections, and I need to go back and tweak some cuts, maybe swap some takes). Anyway, if you're a fellow filmmaker and you're reading this looking for advice, here's the one nugget I'd like to share:

For the love of sweet Christ, have a continuity director on your crew.

Each cut I edit is a battle because I'm trying to match the actions of the actors. Unfortunetly, my actors don't like doing the exact same thing twice (ever), so this has been a royal pain. If I had someone on the set whose sole job was to watch for things like this, my life in the editing suite would be a lot easier. A continuity director would also catch things like wardrobe changes, style changes, and so on. Now, I purposely kept my crew as small as possible because we were shooting mostly in a tiny store and even with the few of us, the place was packed. But for your bigger productions, treat yourself to a continuity director.

I'll keep you all posted on editing. I would like to cut a trailer in the near future. I'm also playing with some ideas on how to change how the movie begins (I'm really liking my current one that nobody knows about yet...). In the meantime, here are a few more tasty stills of my leads, mostly from inside the store:

Cola

Evan

Berner

And what the hell, here are two more completely random shots:

Click any image for an enlarged view. As much as I might sound like I'm complaining, I actually really do enjoy the editing process. When I hit a snag, it's a very satisfying feeling to find a creative way around it. Plus, naturally it's just cool to see everything come together.

I am still in need of some kickass music for the soundtrack. If you're a musician or you know a great band, have them send a demo to Warm Milk Productions Inc, PO Box 474 Lake Grove NY 11755.

Casting Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs

So here we are...I'm at over 700 headshots and I'm beginning to make calls and drop e-mails (if you've submitted, and you're reading this, know that this will take me a few days so don't freak out yet if you haven't heard from me at this point).

I wanted to drop some tips for actors on submitting their material to filmmakers. Now I'm by no means a professional, so don't take my opinions as gospel. These are simply my personal guidelines that I use when selecting who would proceed to the audition stage...

Turn-Offs

1. Don't bother sending if your traits don't match the casting submission. I know that somewhere, there's an acting school where they tell you to submit to every casting call you see no matter what. I'm here to tell you . . . DON'T. If you don't match what I'm looking for, I'm dropping you immediately. I'm NOT saving you on file somewhere for future considerations. There's no point for me to do that . . . by the time I get to my next film, your material will be outdated anyway (you might not even be acting anymore). So if I'm casting twenty-something men, I don't want a headshot from a forty-something woman. It's a nuisance and a waste of my time and patience.

2. Get your information right, and please proofread your queries. Again, I realize that actors send as many headshots out per day as possible, but that's no reason to be sloppy. Get the name of the movie right, get the name of the character you want right, and get my name right! It seems like this should go without saying, but you'd be surprised. Mistakes like this aren't grounds for immediate disqualification, but rubbing me the wrong way right off the bat isn't helping your cause.

3. Don't try to fake me us with your headshots. Let's call a spade a spade. If you're a heavy set man, be a heavy set man. Don't send me a headshot where some professional photographer has gone out of his way with make-up and angles and camera tricks to make you look thinner. Be yourself, because you're not fooling anyone. If the casting director wants a blonde for his movie, and you're a redhead who sends him a black and white photo, sooner or later he's going to see that you're a redhead. The second you walk into that audition, the casting crew can see what you really are. And if what they see grossly mismatches what they thought they'd get from your headshot, you're not in a good position.

4. The Internet is public domain. Everything you put on the 'net is up for grabs. This means that you might be googled, or looked up on myspace (sometimes to make sure you didn't violate the rule above). It's unfair, but it's a truth that holds to all occupations, not just acting. Never post anything you wouldn't want a casting director to find.

5. Show up. If you get an audition, show up. Only an emergency should hold you back (and you should still call). From my experience through my job, there are always a few drop-outs. Not only is that unprofessional, but it's also downright rude. A casting person went through many headshots and selected YOU. He could've picked someone else . . . someone who would've shown up. If you want to be an actor, be professional.

Turn-Ons

1. Personalized notes are great. I love any form of personalized cover letter or note with the headshot. Drop my name, tell me you like my movie idea . . . flattery will get you everywhere with me. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a sucker for post-it type notes written in pen that are attached to headshots. Since I'm casting for a comic book movie, a few applicants have told me who their favorite characters are. This shows me that you took a little extra time to pursue my project, and that shows the potential for commitment. It's a great start.

2. Give web sites and videos. We live in a digital age. If you drop me a web site, I'll check it out. It only takes a few moments and the more images, the better. Video is also great. I'd love to see you in action. Sometimes, this helps me decide to drop a person from the running before they get to the next stage. That sounds like a negative for the actor, but it's really a plus. Remember, you're not going to fool a casting director. If you act poorly in person, you'll be dropped and you've wasted a trip. If you act poorly in a video, then you can be dismissed earlier and save us all the time and trouble.

3. Be cool. If you're applying for a small time Long Island movie, you haven't hit it big yet. This means you're in no position to be a diva. Be nice to the casting director and film director. Make your e-mails friendly. Come to the audition with a positive personality. Sell yourself. Be a person that we'd want to spend a lot of time hanging around with (because eventually, we will be).

That's about all I can think of right now, but maybe I'll add more over time.

By the way, a good place to cast (if you can't get a theater or school) is a meeting room in a hotel. You might be lucky like me and get a decked out one for a few hundred a day, and they'll set it up exactly to meet your needs.

'Till next time, folks!

Casting

Even though not a single frame of this movie has been shot, I feel like I could fill the entire DVD commentary track already. So many fun little stories...

Casting is awesome. I've always loved casting. In college, it was a great way to meet new friends that I would reuse for future projects. At my job, it's a fun way to find the right talent for the projects I'm working on. And now, here I am, casting for this feature length production. I'm getting flooded with headshots, and it's a bit overwhelming. Here's the scoop:

An actress friend told me about a site called ActorsAccess.com, which many actors use to find casting notices. So after getting a minor response from posting on myspace, craigslist, and lifilm.com, I posted there. And...wow. Within hours, I was swamped with profiles of people requesting specific roles in this film. And the site is pretty cool because it lets me organize the people I like from the others and then get in touch with them easily.

At this moment, I have over 325 women competing for the lead role. And that's without the Backstage ad going out yet.

Last week, I submit an ad through Backstage.com. It cost $55 for the submission, plus another $10 because I went a little over with the words. Since one of the roles involved nudity, a woman from Backstage got in touch with me requesting the parts of the script with those scenes (to confirm that I wasn't making a porno). I sent it to her right away. Yesterday she called me while I was in my office at work during my lunch break. As I picked up the phone, I accidentally hit the "speaker" button. Of course, the first thing out of her mouth was "your nudity was approved." Luckily no one was around to hear. It was a pretty funny moment.

The Backstage ad goes out in this Thursday's issue, but the online ad went live just an hour ago. I know this because suddenly my inbox is being flooded with headshots again. And who knows what's waiting in my PO Box right now (I can't check it until Saturday). If I had known that ActorsAccess would give me such a huge response, I would've saved the money on placing an ad in Backstage. But still, more headshots can't hurt.

What sucks about casting is that I have to literally turn down hundreds of people. And I just KNOW one of them is going to go on to be the next Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt or something.

More on casting fun next time...

Things they don't tell you about

As you can see on the main site, we’ve started the casting process. This is always my favorite part. So far I’ve submitted to Back Stage East, Myspace, and LIfilm.com. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to launch a full-on web campaign to get as many headshots in as possible. While casting is always a blast for me, it is also a warm welcome after a long haul of the more-frustrating parts of filmmaking. Since no one really took a lot of time to tell me all of the parts that suck about making a movie, I’m going to drop them right here for all you budding filmmakers.

5. Money. Now this goes without saying, but no matter how prepared you think you are for how much this will cost, it will cost more. Before I got into this project, I read a lot of books on low-budget, renegade-type filmmaking. I thought “yeah, we’re going to get in there guerilla-style and get what we need and get out, and cut every cost possible.” And it can be done that way, but it just didn’t turn out that way for me. I’ve surrounded myself with a crew that likes to “play by the books,” which is better because it provides a more professional looking product in the end. But still, we’re not that “let’s run on to private property, shoot real fast, and take off” crew I thought we’d be. The good news is that with all of this boring paperwork and these technicalities, my ass is covered from every angle. Still, so many expenses will pop up that you’re not ready for. And things will go wrong. But speaking of paperwork...

4. Insurance. In all the books I’ve read, the chapter that was missing the most should’ve been called “Everything You Need to Know About Insurance.” First of all, you need to insure a LOT of stuff. I’m insuring the equipment that my DP uses, some of the locations that we’re shooting at…I even need to insure the auditorium we’re using for casting! In areas like where I live, it seems that no one will let you do anything anywhere without insurance. And you can’t blame them…I mean, they have the right to cover their asses too. But this is an expense that I don’t think any amateur filmmaker is ever prepared for. Plus, it’s not a walk in the park to get liability insurance. Major companies, like Geiko, don’t even handle that type of insurance in New York State. I had to make many calls before I found a friendly, local firm that would help me out. Now I’m waiting 3-5 business days for a quote for one location.

3. Free Help. Here’s the thing about getting free help from friends. Unless they’re big into filmmaking themselves, 90% of them are all talk. It sucks but it’s true. When you’re fantasizing about a script you’ve yet to write, and you’re running it by your buddies, they’ll all be real quick to volunteer help. But when the time comes to ask for favors, either they’ve lost interest or they don’t have the time. Again, you can’t really blame them. This is YOUR project, not theirs. They’ve got other priorities. When they volunteered to help you, they were under the impression that they’d get to help with a fun part or two, and then see their name in the credits. They don’t consider that they might actually have to WORK. If you get one friend who puts in the effort to truly help out from beginning to end (for free), you hang on to that friend for life. You are in their debt.

2. Time. If you’re a nine-to-fiver like me, and you’re doing all of this film stuff in the evenings or weekends, then you understand the frustrations of time. A lot of stuff I need to do involves the bank, the post office, numerous law offices, etc. But you see, they’re all nine-to-fivers too. This simply means that none of these places are open when I get home from work. Some of them might be open for a few hours on Saturday, so every week I find myself driving around town on Saturday morning racing to get as much down as possible. Banking is the worst. My business account is with Washington Mutual, which is the best for what they offer. Yet they’re open for about five minutes on Saturdays. This is probably why they can offer the best rates for your account…because they don’t have to pay for too many employee hours. I started planning for this movie around Sept ’06, and it felt like there was so much time. But time is never on your side when you’re making a movie, and now I’m racing to make my goal to start shooting in Sept ’07.

1. Ordering. I’m learning a lot here with my first crack at a motion picture, but the one beginner’s mistake I keep making deals with ordering. As in, how to order events. I could have saved so much time if I knew how to order things a little better. For example, I filed for a business, and THEN got a business PO Box. This is minor, but I should’ve got the PO Box first before anything else (so I’d have the business address when I filed). I also should’ve written the treatment before the script, signed all location contracts before casting, etc. The problem with ordering is that so many things are dependent on so many other things. Even right now, there are dozens of next steps I need to take, but I can’t figure out which one to take first.

This might be the most important blog on filmmaking that I’ve written yet. If you’re even considering doing a major project of your own, please please print this out and tape it to your fridge. It might save you a day or work, or it might save you a few hundred dollars. The scary thing is that there are still so many unexpected things left to learn. There might be another list just like this one within a week. Who knows. That’s what makes filmmaking so damn scary. But is it worth it?

Oh you bet your ass it is.

The Treatment

Sorry it's been a little bit; a lot of things have been in the works over the past few weeks. Even though the script is done and copyrighted and ready to go, I've recently been considering a change that'll turn the whole film on its head. More on that in the near future.

In the meantime, I thought I'd write (a long overdo entry) about script treatments. Usually this would come earlier in the process, but I actually wrote the treatment for "Bagged and Boarded" after I wrote the script. Basically, a film treatment is sort of like the outline of what the film is about, how the characters develop, and so on. It's usually between 7-13 pages, but that's no golden standard. Many professional Hollywood screenwriters will do many treatments a year as they (or their employers) "pitch" the film to a studio head. Many treatments get denied...which sucks because writers don't usually get paid for their time writing treatments.

While there are no definitive rules for how to write treatments, this site sums up a few different styles well. The author has a pessimistic view on how treatments are handled in Hollywood, and that's justified.

But treatments serve a much better purpose besides going directly to studio execs. I wrote mine to present to my probable director of photographer (along with a complete script). I made the treatment sort of the "cliff notes" version of the movie, complete with each characters' dramatic needs and arcs. I also gave my treatment to the owners of the location we're aiming to use. I figured it would be quicker for them to read seven pages rather than ninety (plus, it'd make the film look more intelligent to them...).

In the future I'll be doing treatments first, before the script. This way I can outline the events like I usually do, but also sort of "pitch" the movie to myself. It's a lot easier to bail on an incomplete treatment than it is on an incomplete script.

And that's my few words on treatments. I promise to be back in the very near future; I do have a lot to talk about. Look for a casting call announcement this week, as well as an official announcement on some of our crew.