Portland Twinkling To-Do:
First Place: Documentary of a Skater directed by Alex Itkis
Runner Up: Mini Munny directed by Asher

San Francisco Twinkling To-Do:
First Place: The Stick Man Flies directed by Stian
Second Place: Big Girl directed by Claire Zager
Third Place: Food Wars directed by Dustin Magidson

Portland Black Tie Gala:
First Place: Mortuary Men aka “The Ballad of John Doe” Directed by Steven Joinson, Christian Bergmans, Daniel Hornbeck
Runner Up: American Teenage Culture Directed by Tanner Preciado and Kelly Wourms

San Francisco Black Tie Gala:
First Place: Home Directed by Jeremy Anderson and Laura Dean
Second Place: 1901 Directed by John Douglas Powers
Third Place: The Waiting Directed by Nathan Wollman and Julien de Benedictis

Thank filmmakers, attendees and volunteers! We’ll have pictures and videos up soon!

We’ll see you at the Clinton Street Theater at 3:00 for the Twinkling To-Do and at 6:00 for the Black Tie Gala & Film Screening!

Our dream of expanding to Portland and adding a kids screening and sitting in real theater seats while eating real theater popcorn while watching 3 minute films is coming true! BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all of our 2010 filmmakers! Now that the hard work is over, we are getting ready to party in your honor! See all the important details below but first, let’s answer the number one question we get asked every year:

Is the screening really black tie? Answer: Heck yes. But in a free-form faux-Oscars kind of way. Our filmmakers worked hard and they deserve a fancy screening! For the kids, we’re encouraging everything in the Halloween to formal wear spectrum. Actually, that goes for the adults too. Whatever you decide to wear, we promise you do not have to be worried about being overdressed! It is highly possible that special prizes may be awarded to those who do it up right. Just saying.

Now for the details:
PORTLAND: We’ll see you on August 21 at The Clinton Street Theater
Twinkling To-Do: 3:00 pm
Black Tie Gala & Film Screening: 6:00 pm

SAN FRANCISCO: We’ll be back in time to party with you on August 28 at The Victoria Theatre (we know!). Advance tickets now available: http://www.victoriatheatre.org/boxoffice.htm
Twinkling To-Do: 3:30 pm
Black Tie Gala & Film Screening: 7:00 pm

Yay! Operators are standing by at Three-Minute HQ to answer your questions: info@threeminutepictureshow.com. See you at the screenings!

Still from "Vigilante Vigilante" courtesy Nate Wollman

Q: How did you get started in filmmaking?

A: I used to mess around with an old  VHS camcorder as a kid. I dubbed the audio bits onto a VCR with a walkman for the soundtrack. It was a ridiculous method even for that time, but to be honest, I blame the original MTV videos (when they actually had good ones) in the 80′s and 90′s for some of my first inspirations!

Q: Tell us the history of your film-making career…

A: Long time friend and now colleague, Max Good and I have always had some kind of project going on since we were teenagers, it wasn’t always film and video, sometimes we made prints, stickers and music but our projects were always hilarious and non conventional!  Max became heavily involved in working on documentary film during his 20′s, which inspired me to keep up my film hobby over the years as well, now at 32 years old, I am producing my first feature documentary. Naturally, when I first heard about the Three Minute Picture Show I jumped at the opportunity to share in an open forum film activity, it’s amazing to see what people can do with 30 days, a camera, and some pure creativity. It definitely is part of why I am working on a feature film now! This is year 3 for me at the festival, and I’m really happy to see it moving forward.

Q: What’s your feature length film all about? How’d you get the idea? How did you go about making it? Doesn’t it cost tons of money to make a feature film? Where are you in the filmmaking process with that film? How will you market it?

A: The feature film I am producing is all about anti graffiti vigilantes, obsessive and hardened civilians armed with cans of paint and rollers with the goal of erasing graffiti and blight from America’s neighborhoods. The idea came about when Max decided to find out about a local vigilante who was spraying silver blobs all over the city, it started off with some investigative work and turned into a full blown project.

Yes. Making a feature documentary is absolutely not cheap, we have joined forces with the San Francisco Film Society, Indiegogo.com, and various other production associates to help us get funding, but as of right now we are still funding it by ourselves. The budget for the film is very modest at an estimated budget of somewhere in the $100,000 or less range. Dirt cheap by most standards. We are in the editing phase at the moment getting ready for festival submissions. We hope to tour the festival circuit and get distributors on board who will get the marketing end of this thing in high gear.

Q: What have you learned from the process so far that you’d like to share with others? What advice do you have for someone who has an idea for a feature length film?

A: I would have to say that making a feature film is really just about staying on top of your sanity, getting a grip on the long term commitment needed to see it through and not to worry about crossing bridges until they are dead in front of you (I did not say I mastered all of those!). I would in my very humble opinion, say to anyone wanting to make a feature film: Make a film you think you can do with the resources you have now, if you make something good on a low budget with a high production value, that’s going to go much further than the opposite scenario.

To learn more about Nate and Max’s film Vigilante Vigilante, visit
www.vigilantefilm.com

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Vigilante-Vigilante/111244808068?ref=ts

Want to make a three-minute movie but don’t have any ideas for a story? Here are some tips to help you come up with a plot, or even further develop a story idea. 

The following steps are applicable to all narratives—comedy, action, drama, etc.—so as long as you’re not making a non-narrative film (i.e. three straight minutes of waves lapping the beach) you’re good to go.  I’ll give a breakdown of these steps in an example afterwards.

Step 1: Character’s Desire (or Fear, or Values, or a mix of the three)

• Start with a character or characters desiring something—could be an object (last croissant in a pastry case), a person (a crush), an act (catch a muni bus), etc.
• Keep in mind that fear is also a type of desire—your character really doesn’t want something to happen.
• Also, a character’s values are an implicit type of desire—a character’s strong beliefs (religious, political, social) are all implicit desires of how the character wants things to be in the world.

Step 2: Blocks to Desire

• Put something in or that occurs that blocks the character from attaining/achieving what s/he wants (blocks can sometimes be other desires); or
• make the character get closer to the thing that’s feared becoming a reality; or
• make something occur that goes against the character’s established values; then
• you have the choice of either going to Steps 3 & 4, or moving straight to Step 5.

Step 3: Overcoming Blocks

• Make the character get around/overcome/move past the block to get closer to what is desired; or
• make the character have a brief moment where s/he is safe from the thing feared; or
• make something happen that reinforces the character’s established values.

Step 4: (Optional) Repeat Steps 2 & 3, or move to Step 5

• As you do this, make sure your character shows a higher intensity of desire/fear or support for her/his values.

Step 5: Last Step

• Your character finally attains or loses (your choice) the thing desired, or
• your character finally has the thing that’s feared either occur or not (your choice); also
• the above two points should cover issues related to a character’s values.

Step 6: (Optional) Resolution

• Brief moment that shows the consequences/results after Step 5

Applying the above Steps in a Three-minute film plot.  Below is an example that I saw years ago in the Mission, back when there was still a KFC on Valencia.

It’s a sunny afternoon on a somewhat busy urban street with a KFC on it.  An old BMW in good condition pulls up in front of the KFC, and out walks a young man wearing dark slacks and a dress shirt, talking on a cell phone, saying, “I’m starving so I gotta grab a bite before the next client,” before he hangs up.  He looks down the street and sees at the end of the block is a DPT buggy handing out parking tickets.  He looks at the small KFC line, then looks back down the block, then chooses not to put money in the meter and gets in line, behind the woman who is ordering.  The woman is making a long order…a very long order.  The man peeks out the door and sees the DPT buggy getting closer.  He gets back into line.  The woman is still ordering, then asks questions about her order.  He peeks out the door again.  The DPT buggy is getting closer.  He finally goes out to the meter as the buggy is three cars away.  He reaches into his pocket to pull out change but drops it on the sidewalk.  The buggy is two cars away.  The coins scatter, most of them pennies, and he searches for one that’s not copper.  The buggy is a car away.  He finds a quarter and just as the buggy reaches him, he puts the quarter in the meter.  He gets a ticket anyway because it’s a loading zone.

So, here we’ve got a guy who has three desires (wants chicken, doesn’t want to get a ticket, and because he values frugalness/is a cheapskate, he doesn’t want to put money in the meter) that are all blocks to each other until he has to make a decision on what is his priority desire.  Note how desires can be blocks to the priority desire (his frugalness and desire for chicken could end up giving him a ticket).  Also note how the other blocks are pretty mundane: woman ordering chicken, drops coins, can’t find a quarter.  Keep in mind that it’s the development of the character’s desires/fears/values that create the story’s drama, and watch out for blocks that are a bit over the top, such as the runaway Muni bus that suddenly veers into the guy as he puts money into the meter.

Hope this helps, and have fun!

After the derby award ceremony, we made our way to the digital cartooning station. The project was broken down into 6 easy steps and the finished result was a printed cartoon.

Step 1: CHOOSE YOUR SUBJECT
Create an amusing vignette from everyday life…

Step 2: CHOOSE YOUR ACTORS
The Geek Dad team had a selection of Star Wars and Toy Story action figures to choose from…

Step 3: WRITE YOUR SCRIPT
Write a quick script to break down each shot. Don’t forget that sometimes a panel with no words can be the funniest of all!

Step 4: SHOOT YOUR SCRIPT
Light boxes were set up and ready for the action figures to be posed. Geek Dad recommends taking a series of shots with a digital point and shoot camera, each with slight differences in stance, perspective and distance.

Step 5: ASSEMBLE YOUR SCRIPT
Download your photos onto a computer and assemble them using Comiq Life Magic to create your comic strip.

Step 6: PRINT YOUR COMIC STRIP

We were thinking this same process could be used to make a three-minute film by importing the photos into iMovie and editing them together as separate clips. Dialogue could be added with voiceover or silent movie style with text clips interspersed with the photos. And iMovie has a great sound affects library to enhance the action! We talked about the project with Ken and he thought using iStop Motion would be a great way to turn this Geek Dad project into a movie.

We have not tried iStop Motion and would love to hear from those of you have. Or if you’ve used comparable stop motion or animation software for the PC, tell us about in the comments.

Brainstorming…
ACK!!!! Only a few days left until the kick off of the Three Minute Picture Show so I’ve been lounging on my thinking couch brainstorming, and let me tell you, the ol’ noggin is teeming with ideas. Here are some of them:

Summer has been late to arrive here in Portland, late like turn off the lights, lock the door, and go to bed mad late but the other morning the sun came out for the first time since February 2 and the yard came alive. Bees were zooming around with their sticky pollen pantaloons on, flowers were offering themselves up brazenly, ladybugs were mating and I had an awesome idea. Imagine the “bow chikka wow wow” of late seventies porno music and lots of close ups of pollination, and bugs getting it on. The lighting is watery, washed out and dreamy-like denoting a sort of vintage quality.  Oh, and then a couple of hands are seen grafting an apple tree because there are all kinds of ways to make a family.

The problem with the yard sex video though, is that there are no chickens in it. My hens are rather proper, and to be honest chicken sex has always looked a little non-consensual to me so they need their own story. I’m thinking a stop action film involving a merry band of smurfs. The smurfs would be carrying on in their little woodland village, doing the things smurfs do, perhaps drinking ale out of a lego mug or gardening, when all of a sudden A GIANT SCARY WHITE MONSTER CHICKEN WITH ONLY HALF A BEAK tramples their entire town. The townssmurfs scatter. Papa Smurf tries to keep order but to no avail.  All chaos breaks loose….then I’m not sure what happens. Maybe a hunting party led by Bagpiping Smurf sets out to track the beast and a dramatic battle ensues. No chickens will be harmed during the making of this film, but they will probably be annoyed.

Or, maybe I finally use the 80 yards of burlap landscaping net I bought at Good Will for $5 when I thought it I was going to become a macrame artist.  I make a ghillie suit out of it and cover myself with twigs and leaves. Then I hide amongst the blueberry bushes and assorted shrubbery only to rise up terrifyingly the first time one of the neighborhood asshats drops their big gulp/hotdog box/ portable meth lab in front of my house. This of course is all captured on film by my camera crew/security team. Afterwards I could just be filmed going about town, taking Tri-Met, eating a burrito, riding my fixie, getting a tattoo, just normal Portland things.

See, I have SO many ideas.  I’ve never made a film before and I don’t own a camera but that’s not stopping me.  Come July 1 one of the above films, or an entirely different  really freaking awesome concept, will be in production.  I can’t wait! See you at the screening in August!