BLOOD TIES MOVIE

Exciting Times ahead for KERBEROS film maker

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:34:00 +0000

First day of the New Year, and I am thrilled to get to work on the movie! What a blessing!

As life working on films blends from one day to the next, the upcoming year will be really exciting. So, putting it out there into the cosmos some of the work for my coming months.

Finish KERBEROS. Though of course there are compromises in all film making, especially with a lower budget masquerading as a big budget action film, everything tells me we are onto something really good.

Filming starts again in 10 days, and will be pushing hard to have our first screening by the end of April.

Sell BLOOD TIES. With a dozen offers on the table and contracts in hand, we are actually working out the details now. I think it could finally get out there within the next couple months.

Of course, besides the full post on KERBEROS, I am doing the trailers, the posters, the box covers, and the websites for both films.

Even before KERBEROS is done, I will shoot a short film that I am excited about - DUST TO HEAVEN. Like my film AM SESSION, it is in part to enjoy the creative process, partly to learn and push my boundaries, and also to let people know that low budget action films are not where I am going in the future.

Then, people will laugh but I can't wait to do it, I have another feature film I will take on that if remotely successful, will have some people's mouths dropping open. (all to be shot in one weekend!)

I have another short film - (I've wanted to do for a year now) - I hope to shoot over the summer, TEARS, dealing with conflict deaths around the world and with both our apathy and unawareness of them.

Having just co-directed and shot a music video for SPEECH (Arrested Development), I have the bug to shoot at a couple music videos early this year. At least one will be for KATY J, the singer songwriter from LA who will showcase some of her songs and voice in KERBEROS.

If the opportunity arises, I have another music video written out for my friend ADRIANA MEZZADRI. If I can make it happen, I will shoot it in her country of Brazil.

If I can help direct the writing talents of AMANDA McCARTHY, (THE DARK PLACES) and some of the artists I've met over the past couple years, I'll lend my eye and direction to at least one animated short this year as well. Like the other projects, it will push my abilites, bring some new knowledge and technical skills, and be FUN! Amanda's too talented to sit around waiting for me so I need to get on it...

And then there is BLACK HEART, my next action flick. If I am remotely on schedule, I will begin scouting Thailand, Australia, and the Canadian Rockies in mid summer to begin filming by early fall. With a bigger and better budget, and a couple name actors, even more opportunities should open up and reflect back on these.

Factor the first 6 months work, and I will finally be able to present my director's reel to Hollywood - agents and studios - and see where that takes me while pushing ahead on BLACK HEART and the marketing and sales of BT and K*. The graphics, the music, and the layout are now done and ready for me to populate it with the strong, evocative images I am becoming known for.

So by this time next year?

If I can stay on schedule, with a bit of luck, I'll finally tackle ALTERED, the film I have known for several years that will put me on the map. I feel I will have the resources and experience to do it justice.

It is all a lot to do - but as I do more - I find myself more and more excited about creating even more work; not just for myself but for growing network of talented people who I've been able to involve on these past few projects. The joy of creating and working and sharing with these people feeds my desire for us all to do even more.

I've received lots of requests over the past couple years, and especially since I have hit the festival circuit and started being active on many film forums and film making websites, and I have promised to put up some of the basic steps in my tackling the color grading for my work, so I need to get to that today, edit a scene I shot a couple weeks ago for ROB PRALGO's ZOMBIE INVASION, so I can get back to KERBEROS by the weekend.

luck to all

Kely McClung

"talking people and doing people - for myself, I hope to do"

http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/
http://www.kerberosbites.com/

Creative Dialog - reposted from KERBEROSBITES.COM

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Downtime from movie making usually involves discussions and planning for moviemaking, which is maybe why I have so little life and few friends outside my artistic endeavors. That still leaves me with a lot of amazing experiences and a lot of friends. None of my family is involved, which is why I think they seem interested in the process those rare times I see them. I was recently able to take an afternoon off from editing to visit with my cousin Brent Clark and his wife Lisa, in town in part to raise money for a two year trip to Hyderabad, India as The Directors of India Ministries for an organization named Back2Back. I was struck with their commitment and practicality, and the ideals of their 'mission': to better the lives of 900 children in the Hyerabad orphanages. They of course wanted to see what I am working on in my life, which at this time is consumed with the movie KERBEROS. The scene I had just finished putting together is almost 4 minutes long: two corrupt cops torturing and questioning a drug dealer and realizing they have been missing the bigger picture and payday by looking at the wrong guys. I am very proud of the scene; good filming, really strong acting, and what I think is very strong writing. Now what makes this scene a bit unique is the scripted f#%$'s and f#%$-you's and assorted variations. I don't know that the movie will set any records (I believe the honor goes to Gary Oldman's NIL BY MOUTH at 428 - unless you look at the documentary F#%$ with over 800), but still there are 54 in this one scene! And then Stan Harrington added to them with his frustration on remembering them, so that "I told you what's what, so f#%$ the f#%$ off if you don't believe me" became "I told you what the f#%$ is f#%$, so f#%$ the f#%$ off if you don't believe me!". In relaying this to my cousins before they watched it, they sarcastically said "must be some really creative dialog, huh?". And it is! Most of it a cross between prison slang, gangland slang, street slang, and 'cop-speak'. And even my conservative family agreed! Of course my mother will be a different story... The scene is indicative of many other scenes in this particular movie in that is ostensibly about one thing and then turns on its head toward another but ends up somewhere else again. As the writer, it was fun and exciting to put these scenes on paper with the shades of black and white blurring them gray. As the director and the editor, it's a challenge to tease and inform while creating a pace and structure that shows off the story and the acting. As the primary actors, Rob, Stan, and myself get the joy of translating the colorful language with action and intent into something comprehensible for the audience. The emotion and intent are clear within the action of the film, yet much of it had to be explained word by word and line by line to the three actors in this scene, and the actors of almost every other scene, so maybe I should supply a glossary when the movie comes out. As Harris (Ted Huckabee), says to Darius (Haji Golightly), "Would you mind speaking English motherf#%$er!" Kely McClung f#%$ing wordsmith

Another Violent story - KERBEROS

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:37:00 +0000

People who have seen or know about my first film are asking me about Kerberos; how do you say the name? What's it about? Didn't you get the violence out of your system on Blood Ties? And why do you like violence so much anyway? So a couple brief answers, without trying to analyze them too much or adding too much psychological mumbo jumbo. We would need more than a few pages for that! Kerberos comes from the Greek spelling of the three headed dog in their mythology, a fierce beast of various descriptions that guarded the Gates of Hades. Kerberos was subdued by Hercules as one of his twelve trials, shown to the fearful King of Tiryns, Eurystheus and then returned. That idea of allowing access to Hades, glossed over and thought of as Hell by most in the modern world, but never allowing the souls to escape, guided the creation of this story. Eventually written in Latin and later Anglicized into the more common spelling of Cerberus, the idea of getting in but not getting out remained the same. Kerberos, the movie, navigates through the underbelly of the city and the deep shadows of the human soul, and the three main characters are definitely trapped in their own hell. And though human nature tends to gravitate toward the softer "C" sound, the harder "K" sound seems to better fit the nature of this story. So... Kerberos. Violent? Yeah, pretty much. A dark tale from the dark side of human nature with a lot of pain. And I tend to want to show it, finding ways in both the script and the filming to make the audience feel it. That there are consequences to actions, even one as simple as hitting someone. They feel it. They bleed. And then hopefully the rippling waves of Karma within a small kindness, a gentle voice, a quiet touch. Hopefully as the director, I can let the audience feel both extremes. After all, I'll only have them for a couple hours, and at the rate I am going, a few times in my life. I actually don't like violence, though I recognize I am good at it, in real life and on the page, and hopefully on the screen. I do like the heroics of rising above it. I like thinking that most people wish they could and knowing that there are some people that do. And I like the idea of creating a story and movie that in just a couple hours may in some small way inspire someone to do just that.

Making your second no budget film...

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:05:00 +0000

So you proved you can make a movie - whatever the perceived quality or financial result. You have some accolades and some industry 'well wishes' for both the movie and your success as a filmmaker. And you have lots of ideas for the next project. Bigger. Better. Hoping that inspiration and the luck that came as you filmed before strikes again, and that you can utilize some of the lessons from the first to insure an even better outcome for the second.

You have gone from being that person who wishes they could make a movie, or talks about it, or silently dreams about it. to being that rarefied person who has actually done it. So if you are a bit insane, you start planning the next.

Oh yeah... and you have no money.

So do you spend then next year trying to raise the money, trying to justify to everyone that you talk to why your first effort isn't in a position to finance the second, or do you impose on your friends and beg those who helped before to pitch in again?

I guess a bit of both. I do know that this next story is better. That I know more now. Things that can and will make it better. That the script and the finished movie can be good for all who get involved. But not only do you have to suck up the small bit of pride you've worked so hard to earn, you have to tackle the next years work with the foreknowledge that it could even be better with a few more resources. Resources that money could bring.

And yet time goes by and you are either talking about it or you're doing it.

Amazing that Billy had it right so long ago.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

And so before the dream is poisoned or murdered by fear and doubt and reason - it's time to give it life -

- nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose -

--
"Talking people and doing people, for myself, I hope to do"

Kely McClung
http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/
http://amsessionwebsite.com/
http://www.festivalwinners.com/

There are NO friends in the entertainment industry...

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I was told recently by someone I had considered a friend, that there are no friendships in the movie industry. This by someone who has substantial standing in the industry, the same film business I am getting deeper into.

Pretty sure they are wrong, but since I haven't made it big yet, I can only examine my own circumstances and those I surround myself with.

I started investigating film and video as a way to document the massive amount of training techniques and discoveries made while teaching martial arts over the years. Writing and sketching out techniques and angles and body mechanics became way too cumbersome. While doing research on video cameras and what was involved in filming something that hopefully would be intelligible 20 years later, I met Jim Benton. He became not only my first acting teacher, but a friend, and has been for nearly twenty years.

Though I might not have been a great student, through his class I was introduced to two other students, Ray Lloyd and Robert Pralgo. Ray jumped into the professional wrestling world and is better known to his fans as Glacier. He became a part time student of my martial arts, and is now more and more involved in the world of film and acting, and for these 18 years has been someone I consider a good friend.

Robert Pralgo became an instant friend, and we discovered later that I already knew his father from other mutual friends in martial arts. I had previously traveled to Los Angeles to teach at his martial arts school, have dinner, be shown the sights, and find out that his son lived in my home town of Atlanta. "Have to meet him sometime" - not realizing until sometime later that I already had. Small world, then and more so now, and both our mutual friends, Chuck Young, and Rob's father Mel, remain friends with me and each other.

Rob and I shared a mutual love of films and found we both had ambitions behind the camera as well. Rob to push his acting, and me to take creative control and become a director. We remained close friends while I moved to LA, Rob to New York, then me to Miami as Rob transitioned to Los Angeles.

I helped create product for Pan Am Pictures in Miami while Rob pursued his acting in LA, and only years later after a couple of false starts, we found ourselves in the same city with the same passion for films and movies, and then partnered on producing and delivering BLOOD TIES. Though the film stretched our finances, stretched our collective talents, and stretched me physically, it never stretched our friendship.

My circle of friends are basically in the business of movies, tv, and films. Actors, writers, cameraman, and editors. The success of BLOOD TIES on the festival circuit has introduced me to many people, a few of which I can now call, and hope they do, my friends.

One of the friends made on BLOOD TIES, brought me in as the director and editor of another project, AM SESSION, which can now be found playing on HBO. Mark Wilson and I are talking about future projects now.

Rob was with me, to hang out with other friends from our circle of filmmakers, when I met my girlfriend nearly 2 years ago. Besides a host of other things, she has a passion for dark, thought provoking stories, and an exhaustive knowledge of films, anime, comics, and graphic novels. Turns out that Amanda McCarthy is an amazing writer, and as she pursues her writing, we are now investigating options for animations and short films under her label THE DARK PLACES.

We thought it would be fun for people if we included the first scene I ever directed on our behind the scenes extras on the BLOOD TIES DVD. Shot in 1992 on a single Super8 camera , it incorporated lessons I learned playing a major role in AMERCAN NINJA IV (can there actually be major role in there?), and getting to double both Michael Dudikoff and David Bradley. (David later helped bring me in on TOTAL REALITY)

What's pretty cool about watching the video of our Super8 scene - shot 16 years ago - besides the laughing at the huge hair and patting myself on the back for some meager exhibition of a talent for orchestrating film violence, is that my main fight was with another friend and sometimes martial arts student/sometimes teacher Scott Sullivan.

Not only was I able to bring him back in on my first starring picture, he later became the U.S. Heavyweight Champion in Shootfighting - a huge part of the lineage of the UFC. He was and remains my friend.

And there in the beginning of the clip, for just about 5 seconds of screen time, filling in as a stuntman and lending me his arm to break (no one was actually hurt - okay okay - no one was actually broken) is my friend Rob Pralgo.

I know I haven't made it big yet, but... I still have all my friends.

For the high rez Windows Media clip of the Kely McClung and Scott Sullivan fight: CLICK HERE

To watch this Kely McClung scene and others from the movie BLOOD TIES on YouTube: CLICK HERE

Kely McClung

http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/
http://www.amsessionwebsite.com/
http://festivalwinners.com/

Making your first movie is a piece of cake, look at BLOOD TIES...

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:52:00 +0000

Making your first film is all about convincing yourself you can do it. And you can. Anybody can.

We've grown up on watching TV and movies. Subconsciously we know - more or less - how to construct a scene. A bunch of scenes strung together and suddenly we have a movie. Might be a short. Maybe a feature. Might be fantastic, hinting at abilities previously unknown, certainly unproven before now, or it maybe we grew up watching a lot of really bad movies and worse TV and we get nominated for the worst excuse of a film ever made - and that would be pretty cool too.

Those we recruit and entrap on that first movie project also know how movies work - so they bring a lot to the table. Our enlisted cameramen and our actors, our best attempt at make up and special effects, the music and the sound and the artwork - they are all done by those who at best case have done it before and so know even more than we do, and at worst case have also watched a million shows of every sort. The collective knowledge/skill pool is well on its way, unencumbered by realistic expectations and the dreaded 'in retrospect'. Probably the single hardest thing of all is convincing yourself to just do it. Not a NIKE plug I swear... But the fear of failure stops us time and again.

Just the same - for some of us - delusions of grandeur overwhelm and squash our fears and before you really understand what's going on - you've done it. Made your first film! And when you look back, with all the struggles and the obstacles that stood in your way defeated, the now empty pockets and empty bank accounts and empty friends' favors account, the deep circles under your eyes and the few extra gray hairs - it turns out it really was a piece of cake.

But now... a few pats on the back. A greater standing in the community. A few accolades from the industry. And we either go back to our pre-completion existence or... we're faced with our Second Movie. Fear rears its many faces and the mythic struggle with our personal Hydra starts all over again.

In my own case, even while finishing post on BLOOD TIES, the quirky, international action epic that stretched me in ways sadistic medieval torture masters could not have envisioned, I was able to find brief respite in tackling the short film AM SESSION. Even that delivered 11 minute interlude of digital celluloid took nearly 8 months from start to completion. It can be found playing now on HBO.

It benefited from lesson learned, equipment purchased, and skills honed on BLOOD TIES, and I was able to confidently approach and conquer the directing, the editing, and the musical score.

After all, I had 100 minutes of feature film finished, this would be a piece of cake. And in retrospect it was.

But now... looming over my every conscience thought, the many-headed serpent's poisonous breath warm and fetid across the back of my neck... The Second Movie.

More coming soon...

Making a low budget movie takes a lack of vision!

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:18:00 +0000

A lack of vision?

Crack! Slam! Ka-Pow! The hits are coming in 'fast and furious'. A director with no vision? What kind of schlock are you? Blind?

Well, sure. If I had vision I could see the rent is due, utilities are coming up, tax season is looming, the country's fate over the next four years is shaping up, and yet all I can think about it how to pull off my next movie. Seems willfully blind to me - entering the exotic, welcomed by me world between reality and fantasy that allows one to create. A chosen, delusional world embraced.

And which will make a damn good movie by the way.

Quick paced and edgy, clever dialog that sounds and feels real off the tongue. A cast no one has heard of yet are so strong they'll chew the story up, and are always willing to go that extra mile take after take. As the director, and one that probably won't get paid until somewhere on the far side of a 'near future', that's the paycheck and pat on the back that lets me go the extra 10 miles [10 : 1] seems like a good ratio of effort to me [director : actor\crew] - and that translates to visible energy on the screen which translates to palpable energy in the audience - even if it's only an audience of one - which it will be through its long gestation period. Movies are not born overnight...

An unconventional story with unconventional characters... hard to call any of them heroes... but I think it will be pretty easy to call them human. Easy to love and easy to hate. The best of us and the worst... yet its a movie so I'll make them a little better and a little worse than what we could ever admit in ourselves.

A fast pace -- a twisted tale. I feel it. I can feel the emotions, the pain from dreams each character failed to realize, and the excitement that wells up in them as the story presents its opportunities. Their hurt and disappointment when the plot twists it all back on itself. I know intimately the heartaches that shaped their lives; the joys and pleasures they reached and struggled for. I can feel their hopes for a future without pain, without struggle. And their resignation that as story master, I alone have the power to keep that resolution close enough they can taste it, chew on it, even swallow, only to make them regurgitate on command and give up their prize to the greater good of my tale.

I can feel the cold in the shadows and the meager warmth from dim pools of light. Warm blood running down the side of frozen cheeks, the sting of sweat in the eyes, and the lack of oxygen in labored breaths. How leather shoes worn on one side from an old football injury rub into one's feet as he runs the sprint of his life on hard alley pavement. How blood warms the pavement as he lays on the cold, oily street. The agonies from the tortures, pain from the broken fingers, the flesh rent as bullets savage muscle and bone alike, the humiliation and degradation of the rape, the swell of pride in a moment of sacrifice, the resignation of fate.

The locations themselves are raw and angry, screaming their pain onto my canvas. I can smell the dirt and the mold and the urine wafting with the miasma of sweet/bitter rot. I hear the wind and the traffic, and the birds just out of sight of camera but intruding gently into my shot. Is that a leaf blower in the middle of the city from some bastard who is ruining my sound with the auditory proof of his lack of responsiblity in that he not push his own garbage onto others?

Filmed with the urgency of lessons learned shooting Blood Ties in alien cities on foreign lands with the demonstrable threat of the authorities in our faces, the lack of time on our side, and unavailable resources to stand against either.

Hang on --- the phone's ringing. A now broken phone by the way. More bills. Great. Let me write that down... at least I've learned that unopened offers of '0% now pay the rest of your life starting tomorrow' credit cards make great scratch pads.

In my apartment, they are covered with ideas, thoughts and glimmers of thoughts. Links to that other world.

Yep, I can almost see it.

Kely McClung

http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com

http://www.festivalwinners.com

DVD Extras for the action movie BLOOD TIES

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:59:00 +0000

So far we've added an interview with Rob Pralgo, our executive producer and co-star, and I am finishing the commentary that I did with Noralil Ryan Fores from Short Ends Magazine . Noralil was gracious enough to follow up on her flattering review and interview on BLOOD TIES from last year. The 3 hours plus we took watching the film and recording together needs a bit of editing to fit on the 93 minutes of BLOOD TIES. So, a bit more work before it gets added to the glass masters.

Now we're looking at some old footage that we thought might be fun to include. The first scene I ever tried to direct and edit, shot on Super8 back in '92. Basically, a fight scene with me and about 10 others - even Rob in a 5 second shot getting flipped and his arm broke.

Looking at this original footage, I'm hit with mixed feelings. One is that it's actually pretty cool to see the big finale of the fight between myself and Scott Sullivan. Scott was my friend and work out partner who later held the U.S. Heavyweight titles in both Kickboxing and Shootfighting. Hard to believe that this tough guy, who is host of the weekly radio show "In the Cage" for ESPN on 97.5 in Houston, TX, is now completing his PhD in philosophy a the the Center for Thomastic Studies where he also works as an adjunct professor!

What make's it especially cool for us is that we did this same fight - move by move - 2 years later in a rushed day of filming for STICKFIGHTER - Produced by Menahem Golan of Cannon Pictures fame.

Have to say, even though it's the two of us fighting in both, I like my version better!

What gives us (Rob and I) mixed feelings is that looking at the scene, we're hit with the regret of not making the plunge into our own productions before. Is it the greatest scene ever filmed? No. Good enough to have been out there entertaining action fans? Definately.

It pretty much rubs in the fact that I need to be making movies. Even at the pace of four years it's taken me to make BLOOD TIES, we would had four feature films done!

Film has so far brought me my friends, my wonderful girl friend, travel, knowledge, and the joy of constantly stretching and reaching for all the talents and skills it takes to make a movie. Any movie!

The bills stay the same, the intrusions and sidetracks of life keep coming, but looking backwards, the excuses seem pretty hollow.

So ROLL CAMERA!

Kely McClung

Film Festival Winners is up at www.festivalwinners.com

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:00:00 +0000

Well, after putting aside my final efforts of BLOOD TIES (the special features) for a few days and putting in some time on understanding how this web thing works, I finally have festivalwinners.com up and running.

Actually, its little more than a splash page with links to a suggestion page and some explanation about what it is. What is it? At this stage, I am compiling a book - we'll start with a hundred different film makers who have won various festivals around the world. Most of them probably have never really had a voice before, even though looking at their work, they obviously have a lot of skills and advice they can pass on.

I know that we can always read about the big guys, the Ridleys and Stevens of the film world, but it seems to me that many of the lessons and advice they talk about have little to do with my situation right now.

For now, it's paying the rent (actually in the same month it's due), keeping gas in the car, and the computer up and running while trying figure out how to make the next movies.

So it's back to how do I make the little movies that I can seem like big movies, make them powerful enough to move people, and then what?

So far, I've managed to finish BLOOD TIES -still working on what we hope are the kick-ass extras (http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/) - the action movie we made on a shoe-string budget in 3 countries and 6 major cities.

Then for the price of a nice meal out for four - my four man crew - producer/friend, best friend, girl friend, and MacGyver film buddy, knocked out the short film AM SESSION (http://www.amsessionwebsite.com/)

BLOOD TIES has done pretty good on the film festival circuit so far - though money has been so tight we've only entered seven. Still, LA's been especially good to us - in four fests there, we've won Action Film of the Year, a Best Director award, a Best Visual Effects award, and Best of the Festival.

AM SESSION was in the very pretigious American Black Film Festival and nominated for the HBO Short Film Award. Didn't win, but they bought us and it plays on HBO Zone later this month and then I guess off on on for the next 2 years.

Seems like most of the friends I've made at these fests have the same issues. They've staked a big chunk of their lives on their films, done really well on the circuit, and no one really knows they or their films exist.

Maybe between us, we'll figure it out. I know we're way ahead of a lot of people, and hopefully we can help others as we move forward.

I know the book (http://www.festivalwinners.com/)is a good idea because like the movies and stories I want to make just so I can watch them, I can't wait to read the book!

Kely McClung

BLOOD TIES - The four year, twenty-three day, ninety-three minute movie!

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Yeah, yeah. The movie's not that long, it just has been for me. Everyone else, besides friends and family, will get to see the 93 minute version.

And the reality is, I might be on it another couple years, though what anyone sees will still be the 93 minute version.

"Blood Ties" was filmed with no money by a crew of three in both the US and Thailand (with just a few moments over the border into Cambodia). Just to make things a bit more complicated, we filmed in the mountains of Virginia, Washington D.C. on the Mall, The Port of Miami, and Atlanta. Our crew numbers stayed at a maximum of three and our cast grew to 154.

And post production? Me. Sound, visual effects, editing, ADR, Foley, graphics, titles, music? Me. Which is not to say everything is great, it's just what we could afford on a no budget movie. Every time I'd get ready to fire myself, I'd remember that I'm the only guy I could afford! And even with that, I definitely had some long talks with myself.

Is it worth watching? We hope so, and our success on the beginning of the film circuit says we might be right. Blood Ties won The Action on Film International Film Festival's "Action Film of the Year", The Audience Award for "Best Director" at the Big Bang Film Festival, "Best of the Festival" at the Indie Fest USA International Film Festival, "Best Visual Effects" at the same, and has been nominated for various other awards at various other festivals.

Could I teach something about directing? Yeah, probably, even though Blood Ties is a first movie. About editing? Yeah, I'm known as a strong editor. After Effects, sound editing, composing for film, and 200 other subjects involved in making a movie? I'm pretty sure I could. But that's not want I want to teach or preach or pass on in these few words.

The lesson I hope to share right now is in creating a vision - not only of the movie and what you want it to be but how you want to be perceived - keeping it in mind, and striving toward it with as little compromise as possible no matter how long it takes. Knowing that in twenty or thirty years, your first film won't matter in the scheme of things except that it will always be, no matter how successful or not, your first film.

One of the things to strive for is surrounding yourself with a strong cheering section. My film partner, my family, my amazing girlfriend. Though they might not physically take on the work, without them, there is no movie.

My film partner, Robert Pralgo put up the initial money, as well as a seemingly endless trickle of money since. He also co-starred, help cast, pushed, pulled and dared me to make a better movie than what we thought was possible.
My family never talked down to me even though I am the one brother of five who they all have to worry about if I have a roof over my head. And the Amazing Amanda let me see the movie from many different angles, again setting me up to challenge myself to make it even stronger.

Our crew of three rotated several times, and our cast gave their all because they somehow knew that I believed in what I was doing. There would be no movie without all of their many efforts. I give credit to almost everyone I meet and genuinely mean and feel it. They color the way I look at myself and my work, and are reflected in the images jumping around on screen.

And jump around they do! Blood Ties embraced the hand held look simply because I knew where I was wanting to shoot, a tripod, a dolly, or a steadicam would get us arrested. "You mean you aren't supposed to shoot on the Mall or the Port or in the streets of a foreign country without permission?" Permission is relatively easy to get, if you pay for it. And that just wasn't part of the budget!

I am sure I could talk about the making of the movie for the about the same length of time it took to make it. And maybe I'll get the chance to write more. There is a lot more information on our website and other people are starting to talk and write as well.

What I hope with this introduction is to pass on the challenge to others to make the movies they want to see. To learn and persevere. To look at the art around them and if they find themselves saying "I could do that" – then to do it!

BLOOD TIES - Action Film of the Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:33:00 +0000

BLOOD TIES wins The Action On Film International Film Festival's "ACTION FILM OF THE YEAR"!

Screening on July 28th (2007), at the AOFF, BLOOD TIES (http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/) was able to win "Action Film of the Year". Though the festival was predominately action, there were many films that stretched that definition. Rob Pralgo (co-star and executive producer) and I really did not think it would happen even though we of course knew about the nomination for both AFOTY and the 'Best Action Sequence of the Year.

Mark Harris (the kick ass role of Rourke in the film), traveled across the country to cheer us on and partake in the fest's atmosphere and seemed convinced it was a lock, but Mark's... Mark, so who knew?

We had other cast members show up as well, most who had moved to LA to seek their fortunes, including the always wonderful Samantha Worthen, (another cast member) who always seems to be everywhere at once supporting everyone.

We were thrilled that many other friends made it and we had a really strong and positive screening, with enthusiastic questioning and responses at the end.

My girl, the "Amazing Amanda", who always seems to have it together so much more than me, was there by my side, trying to rein in my enthusiasm and excitement over our film and the response it was getting.

With over 1000 people attending the awards ceremony, our sit down dinner had me facing away from the awards stage, and the announcement really didn't register until "AA" started trying to get me to quit eating the cheesecake and realize they were calling our name.

The fest was great - and of course the win made it SO MUCH BETTER - and we all saw some significant talent, and though it sounds pretty corny, we made a lot of new friends including David No (FORGED - Best Short Film at Dragon Con and The Melbourne Underground Film Festival), Igor Breakenback (GOOD LUCK WITH THAT), and Takeshi Maya (KAGE).

Can't wait for what's next... oh yeah... the Rome International Film Festival last month, the Big Bang Film Festival in Philly on the 17th -21st, and of course the Indie Fest USA!

BLOOD TIES - First Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kely McClung) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:27:00 +0000

Traveling the World with "BLOOD TIES"

Written by Nathan Flood Saturday, 15 September 2007

That's how it always starts. "I've got this great idea for a movie."
Pretend you do have this great idea for a movie (I know it's hard, but try). You decide to pitch it to a buddy with a little bit of money in hopes he'll jump on board. You've got this great script and you're ready to go, where at this point your buddy asks, "Where you going to film it?" And your answer is?

If your answer is Thailand, you're lying (or insane), unless your name happens to be Kely McClung, because that was really his answer. Throwing independent filmmaking logic out the window, Kely pitched the idea for his film Blood Ties and its halfway-around-the-world bizzaro location to friend Robert Pralgo, and somehow, someway, got him to say yes.

Blood Ties, is an action film set not only in Thailand, but also a few more wallet conducive locations including; Washington, D.C., Miami, Virginia, and, oh yeah, Atlanta.

Filmed in a jittery, cinema verite, Blair Witch meets Bourne Ultimatum style, the concept of the film is, as listed on the filmmakers' website (http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com/), "Jim, (Robert Pralgo) would be kidnapped, and Jack, (Kely McClung) would save him; in essence, Rob would get his ass kicked everywhere he went, and everywhere Kely would go, he'd kick everybody's ass." How's that for an action film? Okay, there's a lot more to it than that, but at its core it's an action film, so you have to figure there's a significant bit of ass kickin'.

The obvious story here is about Thailand. What the hell are two Atlanta boys doing shooting in Thailand? I mean, I like Thai a whole lot, but these guys must have Pad Thai running out of their brains or something. Half the budget's blown before the plane even touches the ground. Now that's a story, and it's a great angle for the film, but after spending a little while talking to Kely and Robert I realized they weren't curry freaks, they knew what they were doing. They sold me on Thailand. It was the perfect choice for the film.

Knowing the film's action would be focused around Kely's martial arts skills (he's a black belt in 5 types of martial arts as well as a former world champion in full contact stick fighting), and having no sizable budget for guns, squibs and FX, shooting it on the streets of Atlanta wouldn't play real. According to Kely, "How do you justify filming in an Atlanta setting where someone will bring out a Mac-10 and just shoot you?" Couple that with the fact Thailand looks seriously cool as well as your actors and crew will work for a fraction of U.S. prices and suddenly you're talking Thai.

Now that I see shooting in Thailand makes sense from both a cost and quality standpoint, where's my story? Do you ever watch the DVD extras? You know, where the director or whoever tells you about all the behind the scenes you don't really care about unless you're some type of fanboy (see my article in last month's CinemATL for explanation if you don't know what a fanboy is). Well, it'll be worth listening to on Blood Ties. There's not a scene in the film where they didn't have some interesting story.

Story after story after story. A huge blowout over an $8.00 toy gun purchase, dealing with a Thai mobster for a location agreement, getting stopped by the secret service in Washington D.C., almost getting busted by the NSA in Miami, border guards harassing them in Cambodia, broken ribs, food poisoning, hiring Thai taxi drivers to play thugs, meeting your D.P. for the first time in Thailand, making fake rain, shooting in an abandoned and burned out 42 story building and a bunch of other stories of things that happened to them over the filming. They literally told me so many stories I started to wonder if the film was going to be half as interesting.
The bad guy awaits a beating.To find out, they showed me a small clip of the film where Kely's character kicks some serious ass and takes out 23 bad guys in 77 seconds (or 1 bad guy every 3.4 seconds). I was impressed. It didn't just look good, it looked great.

They told me one of their best and funniest compliments about the scene was someone who remarked, "This looks like it's a real movie". And they're right. Seeing that one fight scene, I knew they had something special. It looks like it could be in the Bourne Ultimatum yet they achieved it with 1/3000th of the budget.

And then came the stories. There were the professional fighters who brought their own stunt gear including a Styrofoam chair to be smashed over someone's head and fake rebar to be impaled on. There were the 4 plastic guns that had to be shared by all the bad guys to make it look like every one had a weapon. And in post, to make the guns and everything look real, they had to add 1327 layers in After Effects, each with multiple animated masks and 4-5 effects in each layer as well as 140 tracks of sound.

And that's just 77 seconds. That's when I realized they were going to have the impossible task of telling all this on the DVD commentary track. I suggested they pause the film during the commentary track just to get in all the stories. Probably stretch the movie to 3 hours.
But that's one of the great things about this film, all the extras. Not that you'll see the stories on screen, for that, you'll have to wait for the DVD extras. Some seriously great stories.

Nathan Flood is an editor for CinemATL