O C T O B E R   5 ,   2 0 0 9

NEW COMEDY SHORT JUST WRAPPED
Back in August, I informed you all that I was about to shoot a new short called An Active Fantasy Life in September "if all goes well". Well, not all went well: on the date we were supposed to shoot the film, in my house, somebody decided to throw a big street music festival literally around the corner from my house, featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Korn and other mellow bands. My (justified) fears of neighborhood noise forced me to postpone the shoot. The actors - Erika Godwin and Tyler Rhoades, who also appeared in my previous two shorts - were not available until this past weekend, so I rescheduled the shoot for Sunday, October 4 (yesterday) and all went very well. And I decided to retitle the film Ron and Nancy, after the two characters that the actors play. The title may change again, but only if I can think of something more clever, which is unlikely. It looks like I'll be editing this film by my lonesome, so after a brief vacation next week I will commence cutting, and I'm sure the finished version of Ron and Nancy will be available for your viewing pleasure before the end of 2009.

A U G U S T   2 0 ,   2 0 0 9

"DOUBLE FEATURE" A DOUBLE WINNER
In the previous development update, I said that if Double Feature, the film I directed in this year's 48 Hour Film Project in Los Angeles, didn't go anywhere, I wouldn't say anything more about it. You may now note that I am saying something more about it, which means in this case that the film won the audience award for our screening group, and went on to screen last night as one of 14 films in the Best of Los Angeles show. (These were the top 14 films out of around 70-75.) We also went on to win Best Special Effects at the show, which is pretty funny if you actually see the film. Oh yes - you can watch it here. There were some amazing films in the "Best Of" screening. Very inspiring to see what can be accomplished in such a small amount of time.

Now it's on to my next short, which I will be shooting in mid-September if all goes well. The script is ready, cast and crew are ready, and the tentative title is An Active Fantasy Life. It's a comedy with some "kinky" elements. Stay tuned.

J U L Y   1 9 ,   2 0 0 9

MAKING A DOUBLE FEATURE... IN 48 HOURS
At last, I directed a short film this year. Just last week, in fact. If you've never heard of the 48 Hour Film Project, it's an international competition, taking place in over 80 cities across the world, where aspiring filmmakers in each locale scramble to write, cast, shoot and edit a 4-to-7-minute film in less than - you guessed it - 48 hours. As you might imagine, competition in Los Angeles is fiercer than in most other cities, or at least more plentiful: there were around 70 submissions in LA this time. My film was one of them. The rules of the game are inspired by improv: Last Friday at 7pm, my team (I directed, Party Pooper star Dom Zook produced, Party Pooper costar Tyler Rhoades wrote the script, and his wife and Party Pooper costar Erika Godwin joined him as part of the cast; five other actors and three crew members were recruited) were randomly assigned the genre of science fiction. We were given a line of dialogue, a character name, a vocation and a prop that all had to appear and/or be spoken on screen, just to prove that we did in fact make our movie during the 48 hour period. Ambitious as we were, we wound up making two short films, combining them into a sci fi double feature we imaginatively titled Double Feature. Tyler delivered the finished film(s) right on time on Sunday night and we screened publicly on Tuesday with ten other entries. We were well-received, even by our competitors. I think ours was the best all-around film in our screening group, with the strongest performances and the tightest script, but it's too early to tell whether we will win any awards in the competition - if you hear nothing more about it here, then assume we simply had a good time and aren't up for any further accolades. If you're curious to see the results, in a few weeks I will post the film on this site, after we take a few more hours to clean up the audio. In any event, it was an invigorating experience, and just goes to show you what you can accomplish when you get off your ass and start working. It's a good prelude to my next personal short film, which I still plan on shooting before the summer's over.

M A Y   2 1 ,   2 0 0 9

CIAO!
A few days ago, my wife Miki and I returned from a quick but fun-filled one week vacation in Italy. I waited for this to happen so that I'd have some sort of relevant photo to include with this update. Which isn't to say that my professional career has been in the doldrums. Not only have I still been churning out written content for studio Blu-rays' interactive features, but incredibly, I even have some news on the Claustrophobia front, having signed a couple months ago with a new sales agent: S&S Entertainment. Simply signing with someone doesn't guarantee any sales for the film, but with all the new avenues for distribution opening up, with various on-demand and streaming video channels available now, there may be some opportunities even as I wait until my ship comes in to make a third feature. Meanwhile, at the moment there is a lull in work and I am twiddling my thumbs. The two short films I hope to make this year have had their stories fleshed out, and the scripts are ready to be written. It's just a matter of tracking down the HD camera I've been using (which is currently with its owner on a hiking odyssey across Utah) and securing the actors. I imagine the next time you hear from me here, it will be after the shooting of the first of those shorts, hopefully in a couple of months.

F E B R U A R Y   4 ,   2 0 0 9

HAPPY NEWISH YEAR
I had been holding off on writing any updates until I heard from the two film festivals I entered my latest short Party Pooper into. Alas, both announced their rejection of the film this past week, which only supports my long-held theory that if you have to pay to submit your film to a festival, you won't get in, because most festival organizers fill their programs with work submitted by their established contacts. (Put more bluntly, the majority of festivals only play their friends' films - while taking strangers' money.) I was aware of this semi-scam going in, but figured I'd gamble on Party Pooper because I liked it so much. Oh well, lesson relearned. The film's doing all right on Funny Or Die (FOD) - it even hit #1 on the "User Picks" list in December - as well as on YouTube. Combined, it's gotten over 3,000 views in less than two months. Not bad for a 7-minute film trying to make it in a 30-second world. You can watch it on FOD here and on YouTube here. I encourage you to vote the film "Funny!" on FOD or give it 5 stars on YouTube. If you're feeling nice.

Meanwhile, I've been getting more writing work for studio Blu-rays. Hopefully I will get more of these gigs in 2009. Until then, I have delved back into the world of Web design, admittedly not with a great amount of enthusiasm, but because I need the work.

As for future short films? I have two ideas in my head. Both need fleshing out. But I see no reason why I can't keep churning out shorts this year - even while the endless wait for enough cash to shoot a feature continues. Due to the current economy, I don't predict it will be any easier to find financial backing in 2009 than it had been over the last ten years. Still, to quote Winston Churchill (correctly, for it's often inaccurately quoted): Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in. Of course, Churchill then added, except to convictions of honor and good sense. If I had good sense, I'd probably quit making films. But Winston Churchill wasn't a filmmaker.

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2010