Production News

In The Works: Local Craft Beer and Cycling Film '1400 Miles'

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Davis Tucker

Successful documentaries often spring from life's most dramatic events, and one that weaves together personal growth, craft beer and cycling sounds compelling in an especially Austin-centric way. Production begins next month on 1400 Miles, a locally-based project with life-affirming aspirations, and we thought we'd give you a little preview. Full disclosure: senior Slackerwood contributor Debbie Cerda is a producer for this feature-length documentary -- a fact we're happy to share. 

Made by the team behind Crafting a Nation (executive producer Courtney Cobb, director Thomas Kolicko), 1400 Miles will follow North by Northwest brewery owner and founder Davis Tucker (pictured above) as he undertakes a 14-day, 1400-mile bike ride to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Traveling with several other "craft beer pioneers" and inspired by NXNW brewmaster Don Thompson's recovery from the disease, Tucker will bike his way from Austin to Denver beginning in mid-September and end up at the Great American Beer Festival in October.

2013 Guide to Austin (and Texas) Film Job Resources

Austin Studios Red Building

If you're a freelancer like me (particularly in the film industry), you know the ups and downs that come with the job. Some weeks the work is plentiful, while others seem like you'll have to start selling your furniture just to pay your rent. But although it can be a scary road, it certainly can be a most fulfilling one for Austinites.

I moved to Austin a few years ago, unsure of where to turn to look for work. After a few years of exploring and meeting other fellow industry friends, I finally feel comfortable and confident when it comes to searching for that next great film gig to jump on.

For those of you new to the Austin film scene (or if you are simply looking for that next great gig), here are a list of a few great film websites that frequently post casting and crew calls. Although I believe these to be tried and true, let me know if there are any sites I might have left out.

  • Texas Film Commission -- Aside from being a great resource for anyone trying to get a film made in the Lone Star State, the TFC website is also helpful for anyone wanting to submit a resume for larger productions shot anywhere in Texas, not just Austin. The website offers great tools to help you craft a noticeable film resume or learn how to be a good production assistant. TFC also posts information about its workshops on location scouting, working on a camera team, production accounting, and more. The website posts both crew and casting calls.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: That's a Wrap

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The XXXX Saga, Week Seven

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos).

That's a wrap, folks.

It's always bittersweet to say goodbye to a film's cast and crew. For eight months we wrestled with  scripts, dove into preproduction and finalized the movie. With over 160 pages and over 50 speaking roles, it was not just the most ambitious film(s) I've done, it's the most ambitious indie film done as our "level." And I'm proud to say that, as hard as it was at times, we pulled it off.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week Six

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The XXXX Saga, Week Six

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

This weekend was, in many ways, what Twitchy Dolphin is about. We shot a lot. And we did a lot of shots! (Not really.)

Twitchy has built a reputation of being a family -- and a team that puts the work first, that is working hard for each other not just for "making it." It's a team that has people traveling from all over to make movies with us. So for our second-to-last weekend, we had Mike Donis (Toronto), Marc Wasserman (LA), Dave Cohen (Florida) and Janet Mayson (Illinois) on set. It's always as much a family reunion as it is work. We've always prided ourselves in making the experience of being on set as much a reward as anything else. I think we did that this weekend.

We started with some XXXX and XXXX2 scenes on Wednesday evening. Andrea Dettling's character Chastity and Mike Donis's Bill England shot their romantic moments. Andrea also did her scenes with Vanessa Perry as Miss Prissy. These scenes dealt with Chastity training Miss Prissy to prepare for life on an adult film set. Yes, a popsicle was involved.

Thursday, we got Billy Kring threatening to use his Smith and Wesson to violate a guy and I took another turn as Mike Antonio, a rather prudish cop. The night was a lot of fun, playing on the police procedural tropes. Billy, one of the nicest guys I've ever known, just killed us as he went on his "I'm tired of defending your crap to the commissioner" rant.

Friday followed, a highly anticipated day. Hard Rocket landed. And Marc Wasserman, in the role, did not disappoint. He's been prepping for months, shredding his body to the point that he refused to take his shirt off at times. Dave Cohen stepped in, making his Twitchy debut as an unfortunate father of two porn star sisters. Not to be outdone, Clif Haley, Sarah England and Ben Tubbs rolled in to shoot their scenes as the writers for XXXX Films. The scene was live, ripe with improv ("Whora the Explorer?") and carrying on. Epic.

Friday followed with a couple of the bigger ensemble scenes, including the Quad X wedding scene. We then decided to have the wrap party. I know, I know. We still have three days left, but with so much of the cast here from out of town for the shoot, we figured what the heck.

And it was epic. We had new shots (Hard Rockets) and Aaron Gaudin's new microbrew imprint Montage Brew made a special brew for the occasion (Vagin-ale). Marc took his shirt off. Over and over again. Beer pong was played, behind-the-scenes pictures shared and we took a moment to thank everyone for all the work on the film so far. We're a family and that's what it felt like. And Marc Wasserman eventually did put a shirt on.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week Five

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The XXXX Saga, Week Five

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

Being an indie filmmaker can -- to put it nicely -- test you. It can throw wrenches into your plans, disrupt your routine. As they say, "Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it."

The crew behind the Quad X Saga has weathered their share of issues: lost locations, productions issues, revolving cast members. When I had to step in as a police detective due to a casting issue, the rest of the cast and crew rallied like a team and so far it's gone off without a hitch.

On this weekend, we rolled into three long days. I mean long. A parade of actors flew in from out of town to get some screen time.  Mike Donis arrived from Toronto to play Detective Bill England, and we saw the return of Daniel Cano from Houston as documentary filmmaker Christopher Shearer. My old Army buddy Eric Adair rolled in from Maryland to play maniacal porn director Marcus and brought along Rebecca Meyer to join in the fun.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week Four

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The XXXX Saga, Week Four

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

Since variety is the spice of life, it was a blast on the Quad-X set this past weekend. Scenes dealing with the attempt to shut down the porn company and scenes dealing with some of the more "horror" aspects were shot during three days of crazy shooting.

We welcomed actress Allison Wood back on set. Allison, a fixture in Austin indie film, has been in Twitchy films since the very beginning. She and Twitchy owner Nathan Bybee took a turn as married senators bent on saving the world from non-Christians. Nothing like poking some fun at the politicians who are trying to push us in a more restrictive direction. That's the core of why were doing the movie.

Learning About Props On The Set of 'Parkland'

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Austin Studios

By Sasha Esquivel

Along with a few lucky others, I recently had the opportunity to be a part of the hustle and bustle of a real film set in town. Thanks to the City of Austin, the Austin Film Society and local chapters of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, I got to intern with the props department on the set of Parkland.

The movie is described on IMDb as being about "the chaotic events that occurred at Dallas' Parkland Hospital on the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated." The cast includes current/former Texans Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Duplass, and Marcia Gay Harden; plus Billy Bob Thornton (who won the Tom Mix Honorary Texan Award at the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2009), Zac Efron and Ron Livingston, among many others.

This was my first time on a film set and the entire experience taught me a lot about the filmmaking process. From the moment I arrived on set I felt welcomed, and everyone was extremely helpful.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week Three

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The XXXX Saga, Week Three

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

"Week Three: AKA You See Every Time He Gets a ... He Passes Out"

Yep, that's what we were doing this weekend! We were seven days into the movie now and the core of the story was starting to really be shaped. Can't say enough about all the hard work the actors have done getting this thing going. We're seeing some of the most fully formed characters from our actors that we've ever seen. For this film to be successful -- and by the reaction of the crew, it's well on its way to be that -- we need the cast to bring it. We need them to be these characters and be free to explore the scene so that it will feel more like a "doc" and not like a fictional narrative.

We started out on a Thursday by doing a bit of a send-up to one of my favorite horror flicks, Scream. Margaret Ann Garza and newcomer Trey Stapleton got to set the tone for the Quad-X sequel by recreating a portion of the Barrymore-Ghostface scene. For the slasher comedy to work, it needs to combine laughs, sexiness and over-the-top blood stuff. Check. Always fun to have Margaret on set. I could tell she was miserable at times. Being tackled and covered in Karo while in your undies will do that to you. But it was fun for another reason: Sacha Ryder was back on set. YAY!

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week Two

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XXXX Behind the MaskAustin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

You see the indie world of making a movie. The truly indie world where you rely on the kindness of strangers and you're often subject to rapid changes of mind and focus on the part of those that are not truly invested in the project as you are. It's one of the hardest jobs of an indie director ... to keep people's internal motivation to work on the project high, knowing that some of the normal motivators of the film industry just aren't there.

We got everyone going this weekend, knowing it would be a fast shoot. Most of us were being pulled in a bunch of different directions for SXSW and we needed to be freed up for that.

The film's diversity of story dynamics is proving to be very interesting. First, we're shooting two films at once, with the sequel (The Porn Movie Massacre) being a very different film from Rise of the Beaver Slayer. The actors are really responding well to the challenge of shooting scenes with completely different tones and beats from one scene to the next. We're tying to do a horror comedy with a lot of gore, but keeping the laughs there. We've got a creepy killer design, some fun ways to dispatch some folks and are even making a joke by having a different actor play the killer in every seen. Still looking for more! So far it's coming together, even if the mask is a miserable thing to wear.

The challenge of Rise of the Beaver Slayer is a little different, in that we're trying to make an over-the-top mockumentary about porn stars, peppered with political commentary and still have some heart. Too often, films with these high-concept setups forget that movies connect to audiences when they are about people. We're doing that by having characters face real problems, challenges and facing human dilemmas, all through the context of making an adult film.

'The XXXX Saga' Production Diary: Week One

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The XXXX Saga, Week One

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

We jumped into the production with both feet ... and arms and other appendages. It is a mockumentary about the adult film industry, after all! I was tickled at how well oiled the crew already is. While we have been together for a long time, there is normally some period of adjustment that is needed to get cracking.

We jumped in and Elena Weinberg was our first actress playing both Daisy and Serenity. I can't thank her enough for taking on both parts. It's a huge strain on her and a huge relief for me to have a talented and a true professional taking on that double duty. Vanessa Perry and Terissa Kelton made their returns to the Twitchy screen as Miss Prissy and Ginger Snap, respectively. Vanessa plays a struggling teacher trying to make ends meet while Terissa struggles with the dual roles of mom and adult film star.

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