"Blocked" - To Butte I Go.

I'll be doing Cinematography for the short film "Blocked" by my good friend and fellow grad student Jeff Garrett. It's a classic noir piece and I've enjoyed working on the few scenes we've shot in Missoula. The big stuff is all in Butte, MT which is nice and not so nice all at the same time. 

The Nice: Great, and I mean GREAT locations.

Not so Nice: It's in Butte. Which is the only place I've found to rival Porterville, CA for the "Nothing Going On" award. It's pretty dead.

But shooting a noir is great fun, if not stressful. There's allot of pressure on the D.P. to really use the light to tell the story. But it's a great challenge and I've already had some successes and some failures. But that's okay. Gotta learn somewhere, right?

Anyways. I'm up later than I should be. So tired and beat-up that I just can't seem to get sleep.  Lucky you, that means I get to blog a little ;)

Your Lonely Director,

Nick J.

From the Ashes, I RISE!!!!!

That needs a little back story, doesn't it. Since completing my Thesis film (the Road to Ruin), I've been slogging through post production, teaching, working as a cinematographer on several other projects and, generally, catching the flu. So I've allowed my blog to suffer. WHOOPS! Any who, here's a short update.

First, to answer a question posed by my good friend Aaron Snell. Production (or Principal Photography) is my favorite part of filmmaking. I hate... HATE Pre-Production. It is a time of great stress and pain for the writer/director. It's a time that producers and assistants take to come to you to let you know what you CAN'T do, or what you really SHOULD do. It's a test to maintain a vision and it's very easy to get dragged down into the quagmire of money and time and lose that vision.

Post production is fine, but it's very solitary at this level, kind of lonely. But I'm still being creative and directing the piece in post production. It's not assembling as much as it is directing the footage to be what it CAN be as opposed to what it was supposed to be.

Principal Photography is my favorite stage because it involves actually working with actors. This is where I find I hit my stride as an artist. I love actors. They all do something that I could never do and (at this level) they do it for a hot meal and the chance to get footage on their reels. Great stuff. I've also been fortunate enough to work with very talented and committed actors for three years now. YAY! But it is this time of collaboration and experimentation that I enjoy. This is where the fim really starts to take shape.

Hope that answers your question, Aaron.

On another note, I've begun the rigorous process of applying for jobs. Urg... this is not fun. But it is necessary. I'm really hopeful for two teaching positions on the east coast. One is in Vermont, the other is in Pennsylvania.

I'm also continuing to work on my feature length Horror film. It's slow going, but I think it's an interesting piece with allot of very strange themes. Vague much? I'm only showing the pages to a select few people and, generally, the reactions have been positive. For those of you who have read the first "Act", fear not, the rest is coming soon. ;)

And now, I must vanish again. Though I will try to update my blog a little more regularly in the future.

Your Lonely Director,

Nick J.

That's A Wrap!

Seven days of principal photography wrapped yesterday at 4:15 pm. Though I'm a little too tired to write in full about it yet, I can say that it was an amazing experience. Whether or not I made a good movie is yet to be seen, but my cast and crew gave it their all and that alone was worth the seven days.

All in all, the wrap itself seemed anticlimactic. We did a very emotional scene for the end of the day, then finished with a couple small pick-ups and inserts that I needed. So it was a little laid back for the last 30 minutes of the day. But I think everyone felt very positive about it.

I'll have more about the entire shoot here in a while. But for now. I feel good. The Montana winter is starting to rear it's head so I'm glad I finished now. What a strange journey it's been.

Your Lonely Director,

Nick J.

Seattle Science-Fiction Film Festival

In some rather exciting and delightful news, my film "What Love Remains" has been officially selected for competition at this year's Sci-Fi Film Fest in Seattle. This is good for a few reasons. One, I really felt the main audience for WLR would always be a sci-fi crowd. Two, I love Seattle so I'm happy to make the trek back to check out what other film makers are doing with sci-fi. I just hope I'm of the same caliber.

It's not until February, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

Your Lonely Director,

Nick J.

The Hell?

So I'm not even done with my Thesis project and I'm already back to working on another script. It's refreshing in some ways... in others, not so much. I think, rather surprisingly, this turned out to be such a great project that I'm not afraid to move forward with others. That's a good thing.

But still, I could use a vacation. After shooting I'll most likely give myself a few days to just veg. I guess there's something to be said for striking whilst the iron is hot. I'm feeling creative so I best continue forward while I'm making progress.

Oh, just fyi, the script is called "The Mirror" and it's a psychological thriller of sorts.

5 Days Down

And what a 5 days it was. There were ups and downs, but the most impressive and important thing is the camaraderie that I felt from everyone involved (until the last day that is... I'll get back to that). But what a wonderful team we managed to assemble. Grads, undergrads, pros, and folks that are just friends of friends... they all came through and helped me make my little movie... which feels like a big movie. With only two shooting days left, I'm very confident we'll get everything we need.

On to that whole "last day" thingy I mentioned up there yonder. Coming down the mountain from Garnett Ghost Town is not a hard road, but it is windy and CAN be dangerous. What it really is, though, it REMOTE with no cell phone reception. So, the person in the rear kind of depends on the people in the front to look out for them at the bottom. On this day, I was the last one down the hill. TO THAT END came my driver's side front tire blow out. BOOM!

I swerved a little and managed to pull the car over. Had I been on one of the switchbacks... shudder. So I got out of the car and waited. Surely the two cars not fifty yards ahead of me would stop for their captain... right? Wrong... off they went. Later I was informed by my producer that, at the bottom of the hill, he wondered where I was as he tore off onto the freeway.

So I waited. Nothing. I changed the spare tire at the risk of the car rolling on top of me from the incline. Got into the car and took off. Surely goodness and mercy would follow... no. The spare goes flat. I get out of my car. It's cold. The sun is going down. I'm in the middle of nowhere Montana and the crew I had praised not an hour earlier had left me for the buzzards.

By some strange twist of fate, I decide to look at my cell phone for the time and realize that I have ONE BAR OF RECEPTION! WOOHOO! I call my wife, she screams at my crew through MY cell phone, then leaves home to come get me.

Eventually we get the truck down the mountain and I'm safe at home. But guys... COME ON!!! I'm guessing my motto is leave no one behind and their's is "captain goes down with the ship!"

Creative Differences

Well, to lose your lead actor exactly 5 days before shooting is not the best of signs. But, in this case, I think it was best for everyone involved. We've already recast and are getting our new actor ready for wardrobe and hopefully can get a few rehearsals in before we shoot.

To be clear, Ken was my co-writer AND my lead actor. He and I simply had different working philosophies and could not reach a middle ground. Ken's a good guy and I wish him all the best in his future en devours, but we did just have creative differences which were impacting the film negatively.

So, I'm ready to move forward and am working now with a good friend. He doesn't have the same look as Ken, rather he has his own look which itself will help with some of the themes in the film.

That being said, I'll make a movie one way or another ;)

Your Lonely Director,

Nick J.