Production News

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.

Tomorrow, I'll sit at the director's chair for my ninth and tenth features for Twitchy Dolphin (Littlefield was distributed by Twitchy, but shot before it existed). I'm trying to find some calm before the storm that will inevitably set in on my life. Shooting a movie is tough personally and on my wife, who must live with me being very distracted.

So what is The XXXX Saga? It's two movies at once ... both mockumentaries (think Spinal Tap and Best in Show) follow an adult film company. Both films will be shot at the same time, the second of which (The Porn Movie Massacre) adds the element of a slasher movie to the mix. The pre-production for these projects has been tough. A huge cast begets its own problems, the logistics of two very different setups has been tough to balance, and trying to juggle other commitments has left me feeling like I'm two steps behind. Thank God for the production staff!

So why keep doing it? We've done eight feature films on budgets that don't add up to one budget of some of the films we compete against. Why go through the headache? All I can say is, its worth it. It's worth it to create something totally unique that isn't tainted or watered down by a studio process. It's worth it to put something out there that is wholly yours. And the experience of going to battle alongside like-minded individuals is completely worth it. For as much as the lack of money really pains us at times (and it does) at least we're out there, doing our own thing. That freedom is priceless.

So, the question begs ... why this film? Why a film about porn stars? Again, it goes back to having a question to answer -- this one dealing with freedom of speech, and much like we did with Abram's Hand, we want to be as upfront as we could when asking this question. And it's been an interesting experiment. Our Indiegogo fundraiser has been a huge success -- we're past our goal with 17 days left. And we've had a lot of people wondering if we're making porn (we're not.) We've had actors leave the project due to familial pressure. But the ones who have stayed with us have reveled in the chance to do the film because they believe in the script and what it says about freedom, expression and society.

The Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grant winners for 2012 were just announced last night. This year, the TFPF has awarded $121,000 worth of cash grants for filmmaking projects, resources such as film stock, camera goods/services and post-production services, and travel grants for Lone Star filmmakers to attend festivals where their movies are screening.

Not only is it a pleasure to see Austin and Texas filmmakers receiving needed funds and other assistance for their projects, but the list of recipients provides a great sneak preview of shorts and features we might expect to see in another year or two (or more). One project received a $15,000 cash grant for production; others received grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Some names were very familiar, but I enjoyed learning about some new-to-me filmmakers as well.

What I've done below is to rearrange the descriptions of grant recipients from Austin Film Society's press release to pull out the Austin films and highlight them first; then the films from elsewhere in Texas. I've also added brief notes about many of the filmmakers.

Austin-connected filmmakers receiving TFPF grants:

ABOVE ALL ELSE
John Fiege
The story of the Keystone XL pipeline project and of the landowners and activists who set out to stop it.
Documentary Feature
$7,000 in MPS Camera Austin services for production/post-production
Note: Fiege's previous documentary was the excellent Mississippi Chicken. He was cinematographer on The Least of These and Inside the Circle.

Austin-based filmmaker Elizabeth Chatelain remembered the event that made her realize how detached she and her elder sister had become. Her documentary and University of Texas radio-TV-film graduate thesis, My Sister, Sarah, explores their relationship and her sister's battle with drug addiction. 

Chatelain had returned home to Fargo in 2007 after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont. The 22-year-old's homecoming was cut short when she, her mother and brother stopped by her estranged sister's apartment to persuade her to go to the hospital. When her sister Sarah Chatelain-Gress finally opened the door for her brother, after refusing her mother, her physical appearance was astounding. After combating drug addiction for years, Chatelain-Gress had relapsed. 

"I saw her and it was like seeing this other person," Chatelain said. "It's not the person you have grown up with; it's not the person that you just had a conversation with on the phone. She was like a shell of a person. She was just out of her mind."

With so many independent film projects in Austin, it can sometimes be challenging to stay up to date on local production news. Promotions usually don't occur until after a film has been completed, but now and then filmmakers offer the unique opportunity of a set visit. These behind-the-scenes experiences reveal that the "magic" of moviemaking is really about the blood, sweat and tears a filmmaking team will sacrifice for their project. Specifically, the dedication and passion behind bringing a story to the screen, the physical conditions endured, and the frustration of funding dissolving at critical moments.

An upcoming film project that had hit my radar while researching for my monthly "Ready, Set, Fund" column is the feature Thank You A Lot.  I was intrigued that Texas singer/songwriter James "Slim" Hand was prominently featured in this film, as well as local Austin musicians.

Set in Austin as well as nearby Marble Falls, Texas, Thank You A Lot is about Jack Hand (Blake DeLong), a small-time music agent, who is forced by his management company to sign his reclusive and legendary musician father (James Hand) from who he is estranged. Jack hustles his way through a vibrant and diverse Austin music scene, trying to protect his current clients while discovering the real person behind his musician father. In addition to DeLong and local favorite Sonny Carl Davis (Bernie, Thelma and Louise), real musicians portray many of the supporting cast including hip-hop artist Da'Shade Moonbeam, members of the Austin band Hundred Visions, and jazz vocalist Keri Johnsrud.

Founded by actor and director Robert Redford in 1981, the nonprofit organization Sundance Institute is not only recognized internationally for its annual film festival in Park City, Utah, but also for its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The organization has supported critically acclaimed film projects including Born into Brothels, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Angels in America and many more.

Eleven projects were selected for the Sundance Creative Producing Labs this year, held from July 30 - August 3. The selected producers receive creative and strategic support through the year as well as fellowships for direct funding of development and production. Two of the Fellows selected are in Austin, Texas -- producer Kelly Williams (Hellion, Cinema Six), former Austin Film Festival Program Director and Director of Programming of Forth Worth's Lone Star International Film Festival; and producer/director/cinematographer PJ Raval (Trouble the Water, Trinidad). Find out more after the jump.

It was a straight shot down I-10, but ever since, it has been a winding journey for California-born filmmaker Brandon Keropian Olmos.

In 2008, Olmos came to San Antonio to produce an album for the former Sony Latin-signed duo Amor y Pasion. A chance encounter in a parking lot two years later led to a collaboration with Alamo City filmmaker Aaron Lee Lopez.

"I was just about to go back to California when I met Aaron, and I said we should make a bunch of movies together," Olmos said.

Through Lopez's production company, Mutt Productions, Olmos has been the sound mixer, supervising sound editor, composer, director, associate producer, cameraman and editor for a number of Texas-themed documentaries and feature-length films.

"I ended up staying in San Antonio because I fell in love with San Antonio and it was so much fun here," Olmos said.

A Sunday afternoon on the set of The Bounceback reconnected me to all that is enchanting about filmmaking -- the passion, the camaraderie, the dedication. Thanks to talented writer and director -- and former Austin Film Society Director of Artistic Services -- Bryan Poyser, a strong dose of irreverence pervaded the day as a bonus.

Some 50 actors and crew had already put in a good five hours when I showed up at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz on Sunday for my VIP set visit, but spirits were nonetheless high. I parked at base camp where the catering, craft services and honeywagon made it look like any major motion picture and belied the indie nature of this enterprise.

After hugs with Bryan (second from left in above photo), who seemed as proud and tired as a new father, the affable Assistant Director C.J. Neels ushered me to my perch. From the back of the theater, I watched the lewd antics in comfort and anonymity. I stayed for three scenes, which moved at an astonishingly efficient clip considering how much coordination was needed between actors, dozens of background players, and music as well as the usual crew.

James Christopher is directing the new Twitchy Dolphin Flix film 3 References. Check Slackerwood for his updates as the shooting continues.

Shooting an indie film on a micro budget is like no other challenge out there. In movies with large budgets, if a problem arises, you simply toss some money on it. On a micro-budget set, if something goes wrong, you need to think your way out of it. It's part of the challenge, part of the fun and a big reason why you need to have a team of cast and crew you can rely on. As Twitchy Dolphin enters its "Troy Aikman" film (our eighth one, see what we did there?) we certainly have those things in spades.

3 References follows Nick (Christian Swacker), a man who treats women like disposable objects until he meets Michelle (Harper Graham). But Michelle is wary of his sordid past and forces him to confront three women that he treated like crap and earn three letters of recommendation. (Three references, get it?) To complicate matters, Nick's ex Kelly (Terissa Kelton) reenters his life and creates all kinds of turmoil.

Austin filmmaker Miguel Alvarez caught the attention of local audiences with his short films in 2010: the science-fiction themed Mnemosyne Rising, which premiered at SXSW, and the biographical Veterans at Austin Film Festival -- check out my AFF 2010 review of Veterans. This year, Alvarez contributed to a segment of Slacker 2011 -- read Elizabeth Stoddard's interview with Alvarez and producer and former AFF Film Program Director Kelly Williams here. Alvarez is now undertaking his first feature film with La Perdida (pictured above), a re-imagining of the traditional Mexican folktale of La Llorona combined with the Greek myth of Cassandra, but set in the middle of the 21st century. Described by Alvarez as a "lo-fi sci-fi drama," this movie will explore the universal themes of loss and redemption combined with time travel.

Alvarez is currently seeking funding for pre-production expenses of La Perdida through the crowdfunding site United States Artists here. Funds raised will provide Alvarez with a six-week research and writing sabbatical in Mexico City, where the story takes place. Alvarez's goal of $6,500 by Friday, November 4, will help get the project off the ground by covering pre-production expenses. You can learn more about the project in this pitch video.

Kelly Williams is also producing Pit Stop, which is seeking funding from the community. Find out more about this and other interesting and deserving projects in need of donors after the jump.

More to the point, do you look like a late-Seventies chess nerd? Or a computer nerd? You know who you are, and now the Computer Chess filmmakers want to know who you are, too.

You might recall we mentioned Andrew Bujalski's feature Computer Chess recently because it successfully ran a crowdsourced funding campaign, raising more than $50,000 for production costs. The movie is about computer chess programmers and takes place at a tournament in 1979.

Now production is underway here in Austin. Bujalski and producer Houston King have put out a call for extras, starting with scenes being shot this weekend, through September. Extras will be paid in "snacks, meals and good times" and of course you get to be in a locally shot movie, which is cool right there.

If you think you can pass for someone from 1979 who hangs out at chess tournaments (as in the photo on the right), drop a line to computerchessmovie [at] gmail [dot] com and enclose your contact info and a photo of yourself. Best of luck!

[Photo courtesy of Houston King]