So the editor of Causality Scheme, Sarah Gersh, edited the film using Final Cut Studio 2 and I own Final Cut Studio (the 1st version).  Well, she sent me back the hard drive that I sent her and on which she edited the film on.  I was very excited to see my hard drive come in the mail and at the time my Mac was out of order - the hard drive had crashed on it.  I was using my work laptop for my day to day activities so I didn’t REALLY need to fix the Mac - that was until I got the hard drive back!  So, I scrimped and saved and sold off some old film equipment and found the money to buy a new hard drive and also to buy the new Mac OS X version.  I was stoked when I got that stuff in the mail!  So I installed the hard drive in my Macbook Pro and then I popped in my Mac OS X Tiger install discs.  1st disc went just fine… the 2nd it turned out was used to go sledding on over a sharp rocky cavern - it was unreadable and I could not finish my install!

The next day I took my Mac in to the Apple store and they were super cool and installed a fresh copy of Mac OS X 10.5 on my Macbook Pro!  Okay, so then it was finally time for me to go home and install Final Cut Studio.  I didn’t remember this but it took me 3 friggin hours to install it!!  Now, finally, it was time to look at Sarah’s cut of Causality Scheme directing in Final Cut Pro… I clicked File, Open, and navigated to Sarah’s Final Cup Pro Project file and…..   ‘general error 41′

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!  I did some searching and found out that I can’t open a FCP file that was created in a later version than mine!  Big Shitski is what that is!

So there I was digging in my garage for more things to sell.  I found a few things worth a few hundred and started hocking them.  It took me a few weeks, but I was able to wrangle up the fundage to purchase the Final Cut Studio 2 upgrade.  That was today.  I’m actually pretty excited about it though.   Final Cut Studio 2 has some really awesome stuff in it.  I can’t wait for it to show up.  It’s like it’s Christmas!

So it’s been over 2 years since I filmed Causality Scheme and it’s now finally done.  It’s almost like I never made the film - it seems like it’s just been so long ago that it was like a distant memory of a film that I had once watched.  Yes, it may have been a distant memory, but now the time has finally come.  Causality Scheme, the most talked about indie film in Illinois (well, at least by my friends and family), is about to be premiered!  

I’ll be hitting some festivals in Dallas and in the Chicago area.  I’m also going to be keeping an eye out for certain festivals that are looking for my type of short film as well.  I’m also going to attempt at festival submission overseas as well.  I’ll have to check on subtitles there though!

Causality Scheme was a story that came to me from Joseph Schantz, a friend of mine.  He brought me an unfunished three page story that he had jotted down over a weekend.  He was a part of the group of people that I invited over to my house to come up with an idea for Bohoc Productions’ 2nd film.  Joe was quiet pretty much the entire time, but then come Monday, he handed me this gem.  I was extatic - I was floored - I wanted to film the movie right there and then!  Well, I wanted to do this one right (thank God I did!).  I decided to find a screenwriter and find actual locations that we would be able to use, and we even built a set.

What didn’t I do that I wish I had done you ask?  Well, I wish I would have storyboarded.  There were some continuity issues that I ran into when I first put together the rough cut of the film.  I had to completely scrap the entire script and start from scratch because the flow of the film was WAY too fast.  I felt like someone was pushing me with their cane from behind me to go faster and go faster - that’s honestly how I felt when I watched the movie the 1st time.  That’s when I knew I had to find an editor that wasn’t me!  Sarah Gersh took on the job.  I had met her through my uncle.  We met and decided that we can work together on the film.  It took on a new life once we had a new set of eyes looking at the movie now.  Well, it still took another year to complete the job, but I have to say that I am finally proud of saying that I filmed this movie.  Seriously… after seeing the first cut of this movie I was going to quit as a filmmaker.  I was so disappointed.  That’s probably why it took me so long to finish it.  I shelved it and didn’t take if off the shelf until after meeting the film’s current editor Sarah.

Causality Scheme was a collaborative effort.  There were quite a few screw-ups and luckily they don’t show in the final product.  I just wonder how many good movies that I like now started off like mine did.  If you think about it, I wonder what Scorsese thought when first seeing Taxi Driver’s first cut… did he like it?  I might have to scour the special features on the DVD to check.

Causality Scheme is a good movie - even by my standards it is good.  Obviously the budget of a few hundred dollars shows in the production quality but still, for the amount of money I spent on making this movie, you’d think it would look horrible.  It doesn’t!  I think it looks great!

Well, keep an eye out.  I’ll be screening at festivals all over the US and I will also offer the DVD on Amazon.com as well to purchase.  Please stop by to view the movie or even pick yourself up a copy of the DVD once we get it ready to purchase.  The storyline of Causality Scheme is SO good that you really need to watch it a few times (or 10) to really get all the little things that is in that film.  Can you understand it?  I can, but you have to pick out the clues!

Good Luck!

I have the script. 

I was contacted by a novelist who has two novels and currently one screenplay.  The stories are great and I know that they both can be filmed using a modest budget.  I then started thinking - where should I start.  Who should I contact first?  Should I contact an actor first or should I contact a director of photography first?  Or should I try to find financing first?

Well, luckily I got some good advice from a director friend of mine and he told me that these are good options to start, but even before that I need to secure the rights to be able to film the screenplay!  I can’t do anything without that.  So after I get the rights to produce the screenplay then I need to set up a  “Private Placement Memorandum” which is what I need if I’m going to be getting investors.  Legal stuff… ICK!!  Oh well, I guess that’s why they call it “show  business” right?

I am also going to have to create a business plan - which I think I’ll probably be able to find some samples online.  I will have to have to go and seek legal advice and actually pay for legal fees I think at this point.  Oh well, I knew I was going to have to start spending some money at some point… now - let me see, where to find the money… *digging in pockets*  Oh well, I’ll find some money somewhere!!

Yes… I had a chance to be on the set of the new Batman movie. It was a quite excellent experience… something I couldn’t quite describe in words – wait… that’s what a blog is for! I guess I’ll try to capture what I felt when I was on the set. First of all, I was an extra in 3 scenes. I cannot say what the scenes were because then that would ruin the story for you!

To be on the set and see the camera, the lights, and how they set up everything was an amazing thing to see. I was also about 3 feet away from Gary Oldman, one of my favorite actors of all time, and at one point I was lost in his acting. He was so good that I stopped feeling the “oh wow, this is Gary Oldman” thing and started actually becoming part of the movie. I actually felt the emotions that he was trying to have the watcher feel – it was something I never knew existed before. Now that’s acting! Being a director, this was an experience that has taught me so much about the direction of actors. I now watch movies in a completely new light and can now also tell if there was good casting for a film, and also if the actor/actress was good or not. These are things that I thought I knew but only now realize how little I knew about it.

I think the main thing that I took with me from my experience was that all of the people on the set are just normal people - they do movies just like accountants do accounting. They are just normal people. The reason why the average person puts actors and filmmakers on a pedestal is, I believe, because of this falsehood that these people aren’t normal -they are supernormal for some reason. Well, the truth is, no matter how much people idolize them, that they are just normal people. They all have mothers and fathers; they all grew up with childhoods ranging from good to bad and everything in between. They are all just people - just like you and me. Every person has a gift - whether a person has found that gift or chooses to use that gift is another story. Actually, now that I write this, there is a slight difference in the actors and filmmakers than that of your average person. Most, NOT ALL, people feel that they are being pushed into a life that they don’t want; “I have to do this because,.” Or “Oh, I can’t do that because my,” whereas the actors and filmmakers are people, again mostly, not all, who have said that they want to make movies or act in movies, and have done so even though people have said “That’s just a pipe dream.” The difference is something that we all posses - we can all be movie stars in our own right. If what you want to do is to grow tomatoes and you love doing that, then when you choose to grow tomatoes then you will be like the movie stars, you will be on your own pedestal. Gary Oldman is a master of his craft - he’s an amazing actor. He’s doing what he loves to do - at least I think he is (I didn’t quite ask him if he loves doing it!). I love watching movies and I also love making them, but I would have never known I loved making movies if I never tried to. I want to master the craft of making movies and make no mistake - I am becoming a master of it. I’m learning - just as Gary Oldman is still learning. We are all still learning - we are all normal people. Even when we stop learning, we are STILL learning. We are learning how to be inert. If you have a love for something, however big or small of a thing it is, just try it. Take your excuses and forget them for a day and just try on your love.

So, that being said… It was AWESOME to be on the set and to see Gary Oldman acting only 3 feet away from me!

Well, it seems that the new Batman movie is being filmed again in the Chicagoland area.  I actually have tried to get on as an extra so hopefully that will work out!  I was only on location for one feature film, The First Breath of Tengan Rei,  which was a great experience.  That film was a low budget feature and has given me my claim to fame because I’m on IMDB because of that film!  To be on the set of Batman would be another huge step for me!  I would probably only be an extra but still that would be something to experience!

As I was driving to work this morning I popped in my Glory soundtrack CD.  The moment it started playing this morning I was brought back to my 7th grade field trip where my schoolmates went to see Glory at the movie theatre.  What a movie!  I remember feeling all sorts of things when watching that movie, happiness, sadness, uneasyness, and I’m sure much more.

It wasn’t until my teacher, Mr. Schmidt whom we simply called “Schmidt”, was asking us “ok, yes it was a good movie, but why!?” and we all were answering out with “the action!” or “good acting!” and things such as that.  He then answered his question by saying “the music!!”  And boy was he right!  Without the music, Glory would still be good I’m sure, but nothing compared to what it is.

It was at that point in my life that I started thinking about movies as an art form and has thus led me to my new path of filmmaking.  Thank you James Horner for composing that beautiful score, thank you Glory, and thank you Mr. Schmidt!

So this is what happened.  I was working at Max & Erma’s and met a fellow employee named Dan Wagner.  We both really liked movies and found out about this school called Full Sail in Florida.  It was a film school and offered a $99 one day event which included airfare, transportation to and from the Florida airport, lunch, and dinner.  It was a tour of the school and we both were very impressed.  That was until I walked into the job placement session.  They said that after graduating and spending a ton of money on a degree, I’d most likely get a job as a gofer: a coffee getter.  I thought to myself “No way! I want to direct!!”  Ahh, the years went by and I lost my dream of making movies.  Until one day at Max & Erma’s I met Patrick Read Johnson.  He lives about 20 minutes away from me, and that inspired me to start up my dream of making movies.

I researched and read and researched and read even some more about how to make movies.  I bought a nice little camera, the Canon XL2, and picked up the Avid editor.  I asked my buddy Mike Paquette, “Mike, you wanna be in a movie?”  Mike replied “Sure.”  I hung up the phone, but then thought, “Oh shoot, I need one more person for my movie.” I called Mike back and said, “Hey, ask Joe [Mike's brother] if he wants to be in the movie too.”  I heard Mike shout, “Yo Joe, you wanna be in the movie too?”  I heard Joe say “yep” and I had my two star actors.  We made “So, A Guy Walks Into A Bar” and what a riot!  It was so much fun to do.  We had our premiere and showed the movie to all of our friends and family, and the film was a huge success (at least in our minds).  We couldn’t wait to make another one.  But that’s another story.