The GP Blog

Some Fun Facts About Dialtone

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Voelker) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Here are some fun facts about Dialtone, our first short film and one of only 42 films selected from 250 entries as a semi-finalist entry at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival:

1. Some are calling Dialtone the "Filmmakers' Choice" at the film festival. Several of the directors and producers of the other entries (including 2 of the feature films) said it was the best film they saw at the festival.

2. The SAICFF is by far one of the biggest and most competitive film festivals with the largest cash prize of any film festival in America, secular or otherwise.

3. The audience response at both of the festival screenings of Dialtone was overwhelming.

4. Dialtone was the most talked-about short film at the SAICFF, and was referenced as an example of how to make a professional-quality film with the most basic equipment.

5. At least 3 influential people at Vision Forum stated that if Dialtone had been submitted at last year's festival, it would have won at least one award.

6. Dialtone did not win any awards at the SAICFF.

7. A lot of people, including several other filmmakers, were shocked at the fact that Dialtone did not win any awards at the SAICFF.

8. We did not make Dialtone with the purpose of winning awards at the SAICFF.

9. It was an indescribable honor to have been selected as a semi-finalist entry at the SAICFF.

10. It was an even greater honor to have worked alongside Brian Lohr, Daniel Bittner, David Craig, Daniel Craig, Sam Young, Stephen Bittner, Jacqueline Bittner, Natalie Lohr, Kaitlin Lohr, Matt Lands, Michael Goulet, The Bradricks, The Munsons, Andrew Lee, The Gravers, Randy Gross, John Wright, Rita Fletcher, Howard Lohr, Chris Lohr, Benjamin Berkompas, Jimmy Sizemore, Jeff Spohn, The Rowlands, The Pollocks, and countless others.

11. God is not finished with Dialtone.

12. I am, above all else, grateful.

Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (JosephDaniel) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:10:00 +0000

All I'm Getting is a Dialtone

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Voelker) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:07:00 +0000

An employee of Vision Forum (the main people behind the film festival) said today that Dialtone is the most talked-about short film at this year's festival. WOW. And we are up against some great films. One surprise hit for me was "Wars of Humanity III." Imagine a movie that makes you laugh so hard, milk shoots out of your nose. Mix in the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. Now add a parody of everything you can think of. Okay, now make that movie using nothing but Legos. Now go clean up that milk because that's disgusting. I mean, seriously. Anyways, the audience LOVED that movie!

And I'm thrilled to report that the crowd loved Dialtone as well! The applause during the credits just went on and on. People were whistling and doing that "Whoo!" thing. We had a crowd of about 400 people at the showing, which was VERY encouraging, especially considering the fact that Dialtone was being shown at the same time as a very popular feature-length entry, The Widow's Might, as well as four other films.

The evening ceremonies were GREAT. Stephen Kendrick (Producer of Fireproof) spoke, as did Kirk Cameron. And Dean Jones was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. Very cool. We also saw 3 short films based on the Biblical accounts of Abraham and Isaac, The Widow and The Oil, and The Rich Man and Lazarus. And the Von Trapps were back with music from The Sound of Music, including that one yodeling goat song I can't stand. Don't get me wrong: I am a HUGE fan of yodeling goat songs as as well as yodeling sheep songs and even yodeling squirrel songs. Just not that particular one. Wow. It's late again, isn't it?

Okay, I'll cut this blog short. Blog you later! Go Dialtone!!

A live post!

noreply@blogger.com (JosephDaniel) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:48:00 +0000

For all those those skeptics that claimed I would never post, I have now proved you wrong. But you see, the biggest part of my job as producer is to find other people to do things for me and I think Gary has been doing a very good job at that.

I'm sitting at a table in the Rivercenter food court after a quick lunch in between films. I saw three this morning and am about to watch The Other Son followed by Dialtone. I am very excited to see the improvements in production values on lot of these films since the last festival.

My voice is a bit hoarse after talking to so many people yesterday and this morning. I had forgotten how many people I knew down here and have been surprised to meet many others that I didn't think would be here.

I look forward to posting reviews of todays films later this evening.

God Bless Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Voelker) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:45:00 +0000

Okay, let me just say it: I love this place! The weather is great, the people are wonderful, and the Mexican food is the real deal. Sure, it's flat out here... if your dog ran away you could still see it 3 days later; but I just love being here.

Dialtone is creating a major buzz at the festival! It seems everyone has heard about it or plans to see it. I was at a restaurant eating lunch when a family wearing festival badges came and sat at the table next to me. I walked over to say hello and recommended that they check out Dialtone. They all immediately chimed in that they had heard all about it, had seen the trailer, and just couldn't wait to see it! I've overheard several people asking when Dialtone was showing so they could plan to see it. Very encouraging!

Got to see the Craig Brothers(TM) and the Craig Sister and the Craig Mother, a couple of Bittners, and I got to meet the Riddells, who are just amazing, wonderful people who are probably reading this blog entry so I figured I should say something nice about them. But seriously... great people.

Now onto the festival! I saw a film called "The Sword" which is in the Young Filmmaker's category. GREAT story, and a very ambitious effort, especially for a young director. I was impressed. And I got to see "Click Clack Jack," which was PHENOMENAL and is the only film that I worry about losing to at this point. As a counter measure, I slipped all of the judges a crisp $1 bill with a wink and a "I think Mr. Washington would like to cast HIS vote, Wink, Wink!" Maybe I shouldn't have actually SAID "Wink, Wink." In retrospect, I think that may have hurt our chances.

Got to meet a lot of filmmakers today, and hung out with Daniel Bittner a lot because he was the only one who got to wear the "Semi-Finalist" ribbon on his name badge. Coattails, people. It's the secret to getting ahead in this industry. That, and that trick with the dollar bills.

Opening ceremonies were great, and lasted approximately 37 hours. But it was great. George Sarris performed a very artistic narration of the biblical account of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho using a red scarf and his amazingly awesome voice(s). And we heard the famous Von Trapp Children sing. Sadly, they did not sing the yodeling goat song, despite the many shouts from the audience as they screamed, "Do the Yodeling Goat song! Wooo!"

Wow. Maybe I shouldn't blog at 2:30 in the morning.

I'll check in tomorrow! Go Dialtone!!

Germane Productions Reporting Live from the SAICFF

noreply@blogger.com (SamuelY) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Well it's official, the judges loved our film, the audience loved it more, and by popular vote we have received not only the Jubilee award and the best short, but the coveted Audience Choice award to boot. And the festival hasn't even started yet.

OK, not quite, but we are very excited on the first day of the festival to see all of the films that are on the docket to start showing here today. It is interesting just looking at the broad spectrum of films that have become finalists. From the introspectual feature Sounds of a Dirt Road that was shot in less than two weeks on about $900 to the epic film Pendragon that took more than four years and $180,000 to produce; from a French film on fetishism to a pistol packing pencil, the variety here is amazing.

Of course, the $101,000 Jubilee award winner is the question on everybody's mind, and many are positive that either Fireproof or Expelled is going to be a sure winner. Personally, I think the judges are going to pick somebody a little less predictable than that. I do believe that the winner will be one of the eight feature finalists, but probably one that could use and appreciate the award more like Secrets of Jonathan Sperry or The Widow's Might.

As far as Dialtone is concerned, we are all very optimistic about its ability to place. I personally was very excited when Issac Botkin actually mentioned our film at the Christian Filmmaker's Academy earlier this week when discussing the ability to create a superior product on a relatively cheap camera.

All in all, it is absolutely thrilling to see all of the films brought in this year that have all been made for the glory of God. I know some that are calling 'no fair' because of the acceptance of some 'professional' films, but we must keep in mind that ultimately films like Fireproof and Expelled are an example that the festival is hoping that everyone will eventually follow. Please keep both us and Dialtone in your prayers this week, it's going to be a long, grueling, and, win or lose, absolutely fantastic week!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Voelker) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I'm sitting here in our room at the Crockett Hotel, listening to the soothing sounds of Sam Young's laptop keyboard clicking away. It's 8:07pm. And today was an awesome day.

I flew in a day early to take in San Antonio a bit. I was wondering how I would get around until I realized that EVERYTHING is within walking distance from the hotel. The Alamo is literally right across the street. The Convention Center is 5 blocks away. I'm liking it already.

Let me just say that if you ever get the chance, go visit the Alamo. It is an incredible experience, and will help you understand why Texans are so patriotic, not only about America, but about Texas.

Don't tell anyone, but I got a bit teary-eyed in there myself.

We'll keep you posted as the week progresses. The festival starts tomorrow! Go Dialtone!!

-- Gary Voelker
D.P. and Editor, Dialtone

Live Blogging from San Antonio!

noreply@blogger.com (JosephDaniel) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Hello folks,

For the many of you that can't make it to the SAICFF we thought it would be good to keep you updated here. So stay tuned for updates, reviews, and lots of pictures!

- Daniel

It's Done!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:53:00 +0000

After a lot of tears, sleepless nights, frustration, joy, and prayer, Dialtone the movie is officially complete! And yes, it was sent to SAICFF by the deadline, juuuussst by the deadline. (Why can't the post office be open until midnight anyway?)

We can't thank everyone enough for all the work that has been put into this great project by so many talented and gracious people. It's been a blast, and the Lord has definitely blessed all of our efforts. I'm just humbled by how great the final film turned out, and am honored by all the folks I've been able to work with.

When Daniel and I first sat down and decided to do our first film, there is no way we could imagine what God had in store. We hope all of you will be moved by Dialtone and will help us share it with as many Christians and non-believers as possible. It truly is better than we ever imagined it could be.

But the work goes on for us on the Dialtone crew. We're working on marketing and setting up screenings at various churches and Christian colleges at the moment as well as getting reviews from figures with some cultural/word of mouth clout. If you would like to help with this, just email as at producers@germaneproductions.com.

Also, expect some cool changes to the website in the near future. We're going to secretly put up some "hidden" videos on the site, including a "history of the phone" segment and other fun stuff. We'll let you know when we have more details, but we're hoping to make some serious additions to the site in the next month or so.

Oh, and we're shooting to get our first batch of DVDs for sale by Dec. 1st, so if you've already pre-ordered, the wait is almost over. If you'd like to pre-order yours, go to the Support us page on www.dialtonemovie.com and click the donate button.

The Deadline

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:28:00 +0000

The deadline for submission to SAICFF is... um... now?

Please pray for us as we do have a DVD to mail off today if need be, but we're working on rendering a new copy with a couple fixes. We need to get it done in time for it to be postmarked by today if it is going to be accepted.

The backup we have is without any color grading and without surround sound. It would be great if we could get this new copy done with all color grading applied and a 5.1 surround sound mix.

Thankfully, we have a brilliant engineer, Joseph, who configured and is manning our render lab. He's cut our render time by, well, it's ten times faster whatever that percentage is. What was taking 20 some hours is now taking 2. If I knew what amazingly cool and complicated stuff (that involved math and tearing apart computers) he did to get the process that much faster, I would tell you.

All I know is that without him there's no way we would have any hope of getting this done in time. Thank you, Joe!!!!!!

Please pray for us!

The Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:57:00 +0000

Ah, yes... sound. When we began production on Dialtone this was definitely our weakest link as far as the expertise of our crew at the time, but we've come along way since then in the overwhelming, sometimes terrifyingly complex, area of sound. We did a pretty good job of getting quality sound on location, but we knew it was going to need some work. Especially since some locations had some pretty bad room noise from machinery and what not and there was nothing we could do about it.

As I write this post, Matt Lands in LA is putting together the final mix of Dialtone. He's doing some mind blowing stuff that there's no way we could have done on our own, as far as fixing room tone issues, enhancing dialogue.. and all kinds of other great stuff. When it comes to small budget films, sound quality is usually what suffers the most, so we're incredibly excited that our mix will be top notch.

Thank you Matt and Mike!

Locations!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:11:00 +0000

One of the toughest parts of producing a movie the size of DIALTONE on a small budget is getting good locations. We were smart in that we determined what cool locations we knew we could get first (for example: an old, empty warehouse).. and then built a story around them. (We did that with our characters based on who would be acting as well.)

A bit of advice for filmmakers with no budget: Make a list of stuff you can get for free before you do anything else; and then find the story all this great free stuff inspires.

So anyways, I've got a short break from post-production duties as everyone else is doing the majority of the work. Gary is working on visual effects, Matt Land a sound engineer in LA will be working on sound, and the Craigs are making huge strides with music. (By the way I am blown away by what the Craigs are coming up with, I seriously think the score for Dialtone will rival anything you've seen, or heard I should say.)

But all that to say I have a break to use a high-tech piece of software called Microsoft Paint to draw up a map of where all the locations for Dialtone were actually shot within Washington state. Of course, in the story it all takes place in Seattle, but only a small part of our filming actually occurred within the city limits. Our 8+ locations in Dialtone literally spanned the entire western portion of the state. Stephen Bittner, our location scout, did a fantastic job finding exactly what we needed on screen without breaking our budget, no matter how long it took to drive there.

Here's the map:

Greg's apartment living room with the view is in downtown Seattle, but his bedroom is in the tiny town of South Prairie, and hour or two south of Seattle. The office in the Seattle skyscraper is actually a building of rent by the day office suites in Federal Way, though all the exterior stuff was shot in Seattle. The warehouse was hours away from all that on the western edge of the state in Hoaquim. Our coffee shop was in Olympia, our restaurant was in Buckley, and the Field of the Dead dream sequence was shot all the way down on the southern border in Vancouver.

We'll be forever grateful for all the folks that let us use their homes, buisnesses, and enormous open fields for filming. If one of you are reading this, thanks, and sorry if we broke anything.

Field of the Dead finally laid to rest

noreply@blogger.com (JosephDaniel) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:12:00 +0000

After several weeks of hammering out logistical details, the Germane Productions team came through once again with the final shoot for the film. "The Field of the Dead" was one of our more complicated shots because we haven't done much outside (unpredictable weather and lighting) and because it's an effects shot (we'll be making a few folks look like a lot).

Though convincing seniors to traverse the back-woods terrain in the middle of a hot day proved to be too much of a challenge, through the help of our two casting coordinators (Rachael and Hannah), we were able to convince 25 unsuspecting extras to join us for the shoot, who followed our eccentric directives without question.

After getting repeatedly poked and scarred by the rough foliage, I would now like to reveal that our extras were selected after we were given small sums of money by the extra’s friends and family for reasons unknown.

I know, were desperate, but it’s all for the greater good.

It was a great surprise to all that that we were able to stick to our schedule throughout the day down to the minute, and got all of the shots that were needed. This has proven quite the challenge since I’ve begun scheduling our shoots, but it’s nice to see how well our team has learned to work together.

Combined with the wrapping up of our principal shooting, we are now in the last stages of editing. Gary has been cutting away for about a month and is doing a superb job. We are extremely excited at the way the film is shaping up, and we can’t wait to let you all see it!

Our score has also been under development for the past month. David and Danny Craig, our composers, have been churning out some great sounds, and we are getting close to finalizing the themes for the film.

Also, color grading will be shortly underway, and we have been blessed to have found a professional sound mixer in LA who is willing to give us a day of his time to clean up our dialog audio and work on our final mix.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and encouragement. We ask that you continue to spread the word to your friends and family so that they can have the chance to become involved and support this project. We getting very close, but still have several expenses left such as buying several needed stock video files, festival fees, and the plethora of small expenses that are always coming out of nowhere.

Thanks for keeping track of our progress. We’re getting there!

- Daniel

Interesting Factoid

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:53:00 +0000

A little bit of Dialtone trivia here. If you have seen the actual phone we have used for Dialtone (pictured below) or seen pictures of it, you'll remember that there is a phone number on the face of the dial that apparently was the original number for the phone who knows how long ago.

Well we called it and lo and behold it took us to the "Harvard University Telephone repair department". No joke. Leave it to Harvard to design a phone that calls back into the past.

Producer's Handbook

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:34:00 +0000

Hello Everyone,

We're working on a nicely bound production photo book for Dialtone supporters that give $500 or more, becoming either Associate or Executive Producers. It will have production photos, screenshots, storyboards, and text that lays out our vision for Dialtone and how God accomplished it from concept through actual production.

If you have been working with us in shooting this movie and would like to purchase a Producer's Handbook email me at producers@germaneproductions.com and we will let you purchase one at cost. They are not complete quite yet so I'm not sure exactly how much that will be, but prob. between $20 and $30.

It's Live!

noreply@blogger.com (JosephDaniel) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:47:00 +0000

After much anticipation we are proud to announce the launch of Dialtone's Official website!

Thanks to many hours of work donated by Jeff Spohn, a professional web designer and supporter of the project, we are thrilled to present to you a site where you can get more information about the project and spread the word to your friends and family.

Check it out at:

DialToneMovie.com

or

WhoWouldYouCall.com

We also need to thank John-Clay Burnett for editing our trailer. He did an amazing job, and I'm still blown away by how quickly he put it all together. You can check out his other work on his website at www.reelcastproductions.com

Greg's Cab Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:22:00 +0000

Our budget for Dialtone is tiny. Therefore, when we had to shoot our main character riding in a cab, we couldn't exactly close down a street in Seattle, get a pro car mount for our camera and attach it to another vehicle to drive along side the cab with our hero inside for 4 hours of shooting.

So this is how we did it... Keep in mind this is a very rough test just to see if it would work. The reflection of the window will be replaced with footage from downtown Seattle, along with other fixes.

This video was posted to youtube by our brillant special effects coordinator Gary Voelker. It's looking pretty good. The cab is stationary, only the reflection is moving which was put in later, and we used a reflector to show light pass over Greg to give the illusion of movement.

Check it out.

Dialtone Update from a Part Time Producer

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:58:00 +0000

There’s never enough time in the day: When you are working a full time job, have a family including two small (and wonderful) children, are trying to buy your first house, studying for the Washington state bar exam, AND producing a movie called Dialtone, this fact of life becomes all the more clear.

That being said, the first thing to fall by the wayside when you just don’t have enough time is making a blog post. Sorry about that.

Here’s a few things the crew has been working on in what seems like our absence. (We haven’t really been absent, just doing work too late at night for any of you to know we are here.)

We’ve been taking one night a week (and by night I mean ALL night, as in 5PM to 4AM type deal) to edit the trickiest sections of the film. Gary (Our amazing DP and also starring as the "Postman") is editing the entire film, but there’s some portions where there is just so many creative choices to be made that Daniel and I sit in and make sure he doesn’t screw the whole thing up. Obviously just joking there, Gary’s great, it will just save time to edit through some of the sequences with all our points of view coming together in one editing session instead of sending clips and input back and forth.

Throughout our work on Dialtone, we have adhered to the maxim that you should do all the really hard stuff first. That’s why we shot the warehouse first thing, and that’s why the sections we’re editing are the most difficult both technically and as far as the emotional map of what the scene has to say. The first segment we put together was the intense montage where Greg tries to call Abby before the crash. What a tough, tough scene. We had hours of footage to put together a 2 minute sequence with. The editing session was about as draining as trying to call your wife before she dies in a car crash… maybe not, but it was a rough night. It came out looking great though. I can’t wait to see it with music.

We’ve also been working heavily on fundraising. It is absolutely amazing how much we have already accomplished with essentially no budget (thanks to all of you who have helped out!!), but we knew that couldn’t last forever. At this point if we don’t raise at least $3000, I’m not sure how we’re going to get this finished in time to submit to the festival.

With that in mind, we have a letter that we’ll be sending out to everyone who’s even somewhat interested in Dialtone (and some that have never heard of it but might be interested) to give them the opportunity to be involved. Every contribution will come with a film credit ranging from Sponsor to Executive Producer based on the amount, and $50 or more will get you a limited edition of the DVD when it is released.

If you have worked on Dialtone and would like to send out a letter to people you know who would be interested, please email us at producers@germaneproductions.com and we will get you a copy of the letter and everything else you need. Including special Dialtone stamps! No kidding!

Or if you have some spare cash to help get Dialtone through the post production process let us know or just click the donate button.

Another route we have been taking with fundraising is giving special “big investor presentations.” To say the least… that process has been very interesting. So interesting in fact that it probably deserves its own post. It’s been great to give a polished and professional presentation with original powerpoint slides and exclusive clips, while we go through the production process and present the artistic, spiritual, and financial value of Dialtone. But… yeah… let’s just say we are on a different train than some of our potential big investors wanted us to board. (This definitely deserves its own post.)

Here's a screenshot of one of our powerpoints

Anyways, I’m going to try to post more on the blog here. I think the trick is to tell myself that it’s OK that the updates are informal, rambling, and definitely not proof read. If you wouldn’t mind commenting on this post to tell me that you don’t mind boring, informal, rambling posts… as long as it means they are more frequent… please do so.

OK, so stay tuned for new stuff from Dialtone! We should have the website up very, very soon. With some really neat features… one being that you can sign up to get a phone call (well, a mysterious recorded message) from Greg Pleasant himself. We’ll also have the fundraising letter for those who care to send it out to their friends. And we’ll be doing our last shoot, which has been entitled “The Field of the Dead” where we will need all the extras and crew we can get! And we’ll have snacks! And a big open, grassy field with a view of the mountains, woohoo! Contact us if you can help out.

Until next time…

www.dialtonemovie.com

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:35:00 +0000

Hello, hello!

Our apologies for the lack of posts as of late. I'll be putting up a new dialtone lessons learned post in the near future.

Until then, check out our new movie website at www.diatonemovie.com

At the moment it's merely a coming soon page. We'll be updating it soon to include the teaser trailer that we have been finalizing the last couple weeks along with other fun stuff.

Let us know what you think!

Dialtone Lessons Learned # 2 - Acting

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:58:00 +0000

The trick to getting good performances is to get actors to do anything BUT “act”.

Acting is hard work. It takes practice, training, and a weird type of talent to be able to come across as a real person when you have cameras, lights, dollies, and boom mics all around you and directors telling you exactly how to tilt your head for the close up.

Therefore, the whole area of acting becomes a real problem for small filmmakers, because they can’t exactly go out and hire professional actors to fill all the roles in their film. This was definitely the case with Dialtone where we only had a couple actors who had any real experience.

When faced with this type of conundrum we have learned that the key is to create an environment where the actors (as untrained in the dramatic arts as they may be) DON’T have to act.

My wife Natalie is playing Abby in Dialtone, and she is a wonderful natural actress. She’s so honest, innocent, and attentive to people that she comes across as believable and likeable even with zero acting experience.

In the crash scene that we were filming she had to look terrified as if a truck was about to hit her when the car wasn’t even moving. (This is after enduring a long night of filming already.) So to help her out I just drove a jeep at her as fast as I could and slammed the brakes just before getting to her car.

We did a lot of takes of that shot, but that first one was by far the best because she wasn’t expecting it and actually WAS terrified of being hit by a car.

She didn’t have to act. She actually thought for a brief second that I wouldn’t stop in time and was able to simply be terrified of being hit.

The trick is to create a real moment like that for every shot you need to get, which isn’t easy. One of our actors had a tough time flicking a light switch on believably because the first time I walked him through the scene I talked about it without mentioning the light switch.

“You look ahead and see the… blah blah blah… and then absentmindedly flick the switch.” It just didn’t look right because he kept trying to “act absentmindedly” and do this and that, while flicking a switch. It would have been much better to just say “walk up to the switch slowly, look at it and the turn it on like you would your bathroom light in the morning.” See the difference? If you allow actors to simply focus on a task, they don’t have to act. The natural interactions, facial expressions, inflection of the lines will come out automatically.

Our DP directed a scene that focused on a crowd of people’s shoes as they walked angrily out of an office. He could have said, “walk out angry”... but instead he brilliantly said “take long, fast strides as you walk out”. They didn’t have to act… they just had to do, to be.

Those are just a few examples. Another thing that helped was to actually write the script with specific actors in mind for the characters. We had the luxury of knowing who a few of our potential actors would be for this project, so we wrote characters and lines for them. This allowed them to simply be themselves. It made their acting much more natural after they heard that the part was written for them because it took off that pressure to “act like someone else.”

Dialtone Lessons Learned #1 - Pre-Production

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:50:00 +0000

You can never do too much pre-production!

Everyone knows that the most important part of making a movie is telling a good story. The thing is, when you are doing what most people would call “making a movie”, (filming actors talking to each other and doing stuff in locations with their wardrobe on and props in hand, etc.) you don’t have time to worry about how good your story is or if the shots you are getting are telling that story effectively.

You have to KNOW that everything you are doing is telling the story in the way you want to tell it BEFORE you step on location. Pre-production is everything. The actual filming is always more like painting by numbers than anything else… so you better have it mapped out.

Our wonderful storyboard artist, Benjamin Berkompas storyboarded the entire warehouse sequences for us. And for every other location we did both a birds eye view storyboard of each camera setup and movement and a rough frame by frame storyboard for every short. Since I drew them, no one but me could make sense of them, but that's another story.

This was absolutely crucial so that when it came time to film we could have a myopic focus on the nuances of each shot and each frame without worrying whether they would all work together to tell the story that we wanted to tell. We already knew the shots would tell the story. We just had to get them!

I’m not saying the actual filming phase of production is not a creative, storytelling process… it is. It’s just a more focused type of story telling. The story you might be telling in one shot is the story of a door being opened from a close point of view. You need to focus on telling that story right. Or maybe it’s an actor saying one line in a close up. You need to tell that story right in and of itself.

Every frame should be a story, you need pre-production to fit each frame together to have a character progression and a message when they’re all edited together. You can’t worry about that on set.

We've Come a Long Way!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Weird, we’re almost done. It’s interesting being where the GP crew is right now and looking back on how much we’ve done. At the beginning stages of Dialtone, we had no idea how many people would want to help, how many people would want to give money, how many free locations or cheap locations we could find, how many actors we could get, how many Christians would even care.

All we really did was make the decision to dive in and do it, trusting God to bring all that about when the time came (and we knew that time would have to come quick.)

Now, we’ve shot all our major locations and scenes. All that’s left as far as principal shooting goes is a few odds and ends and then our tricky field of the dead “dream” scene (which will be interesting).

I continue to be blown away every time I look back and see how far we’ve come. It’s been amazing to work with such great and talented people from actors to crew members to extras who have all been willing to donate their time, effort, and resources to make Dialtone turn out great.

Since I haven’t really done a post in awhile, I thought I should list some of the things I’ve learned while working on Dialtone. It’s impossible to truly detail everything we’ve learned in this process (when you jump in and do a project of this scope for the first time it is definitely trial by fire) but over my next few blog posts I’ll go into some detail on what I’ve learned:

1. You can never do too much pre-production.
2. The trick to getting good performances is to get actors to do anything BUT “act”.
3. Things will turn out differently then you saw them in your head… and that’s OK!
4. Have a dedicated still photographer on every shoot.
5. Once the cameras start rolling NO ONE can focus on two things at once.
6. See a little restaurant or apartment or whatever that would be great to shoot in? ASK FOR IT!!!

Stay tuned. I'll make it a point to post some of my favorite on the set pictures too.

The Fancy Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (SamuelY) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:47:00 +0000

We finished shooting the Fancy Restaurant scene today.

We had a couple issues with the lack of available crew and sunlight creating hot spots on the polished wood siding of one of the walls. But all problems were resolved and we were able to get some fantastic footage of Greg and Abby.

Time constraints became a bit of an issue as we only had three hours there, so we had to hustle through some of the shots towards the end.

Today was also my debut as the boom-man on set, and I'm afraid I hurt more shots than I helped :-P. It was a bit of a challenge as there was an obnoxious fan going in the background for the entire shoot, so it was necessary to get the boom as close as possible to the audio we wanted to get, which takes a bit of practice.......

We now have only to film the now dubbed "Field of Death". This may take a couple weeks to put together with enough extras, so things will probably be slowing down around here.

As we wrap up the production stages and move into post production, your prayers would be much appreciated for the editing and coloring of our film, as well as wisdom as we start looking for different festivals to send it to.

The Church & Coffee Shop

noreply@blogger.com (SamuelY) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:29:00 +0000

Wow, our Church and Coffee Shop scenes went very well! I don't believe that we had any major difficulties, technical or otherwise.

I was continually amazed by the hospitality of the people that we had to deal with in these locations, from the pastor and congregation of the church to the barista at the Forza's. They were all EXTREMELY accommodating and willing to make our jobs easier any way they could. For instance, even though the coffee shop was in full business, and serving customers some of the time we were filming, the kindly barista had no problem with us setting up a full dolly and O'Connor tripod suite in the tight space behind the counter, and the volunteers at the church stayed more than a half hour longer than we had originally asked them to.

Both locations were perfect for what we were looking for, aesthetically. The church was not too fancy and with very distinct pews. As for the coffee shop, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, the warm tones and wood floors could not have been better for the scene.

Only two more shoots to go: The Fancy Restaurant and the Field/Hallucination Scene. We are still looking for these locations, so if you have any suggestions or people you can hook us up with, we would greatly appreciate it.

Good News

noreply@blogger.com (SamuelY) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:45:00 +0000

I am happy to announce that Dialtone will be allowed to compete at the San Antonio Christian Festival at its full length!

The announcement was made on Doug Phillips' blog this morning:

Grandfather’s Clause for Film Submissions

The San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival has an update on film submission guidelines:

Film shorts which in good faith were formally begun prior to the announcement of the 2009 rules (March 10, 2008), and where the filmmakers sign an affidavit indicating that they were formally in production of the project prior to the announcement of the 2009 rules, are eligible under this “grandfather’s clause” to submit their film short for consideration for semi-finalist status, even where the film is as long as 55 minutes in length. To apply under the “grandfather’s clause,” an affidavit signed by all producers and director(s) for the film must be received by the SAICFF office prior to submission of the film online.

Click here to read the entire rules.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 25, 2008 | Permalink