Why Not Carl Lewis?

Why didn't we consider Carl Lewis for this project?

Night Shooting

As our film Suicide Squad will be shot mostly at night, we've been wondering the same thing ...

Question

I would like to know your procedure when facing a night exterior: what do you use to (if you do) justify the sources? What gear and angles do you prefer? What gels are your favorites for moonlight and no-light? How do you match the exposure between close up's and open shots.?

I've found myself lately solving all these situations with the same old style moonlight with high soft sources, with CTB's or Moonlights, some fog... and I'm getting a bit bored with using always the same scheme. I'll be shooting a short soon and I'll be in the middle of a deep forest, no moonlight, no houses near, no light at all to justify sources, so, I'm a bit clueless with how to achieve good results.

Answer from Oliver Stapleton at IMDB's Ask-A-Filmmaker

The man-in-a-coffin is always a problem and completely undoes the whole notion of source lighting. I have never had to shoot someone in a closed coffin but if I did I think I would approach it as a non-source very dark overall ambient light. This would be achieved by creating a soft overall light (which might involve some cheating by taking bits off the coffin), underexposing it and printing it dark, and probably cool in tone or blueish depending on the context.

I did a big forest job for A Midsummer Night's Dream but that was comedy/fantasy so it was appropriate to light it with magical light, which was chiefly in the form of direct light punching in beams through the trees.

The trouble with a forest if you opt for no moonlight is that trees and particularly leaves have a tendency to go very dark. It is a situation in which your eye can really fool you into thinking it is much brighter than it is. Trust the spotmeter in this situation: if it says “E” then increase the light level! Balloons can be very handy in the forest as long as there is enough space in the canopy. You have to be really careful in accepting forest locations otherwise you can get into big trouble with the lighting. A road nearby is almost essential for a crane to provide beams (with fog if that is what you want) and if you are not after the beamy look, then you need enough space to float balloons out of the top of frame without them overlighting whatever they are closest to.

I think your boredom may stem from the idea of the blueish back ¾ light on a crane which is employed so often. I hardly ever use this in cities as I think it looks so unrealistic. I go for sources such as street lights, buildings etc. When you are in the desert or the country then you can always go for a dark soft look (used very effectively in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). An effective way of doing this is to light soft put “print” hard either through a DI process or through bleach by-pass.

Colour choices are very personal: adding some green is sometimes effective, going very blue tends to be more of a TV look so I would opt for “grey” but it’s very much a matter of context.

The convention for very dark is that you need something bright, even very small, to make the dark look dark. This is true in some ways as the screen often looks “milky” if there is absolutely nothing on it that is above midtone. But this is just a starting point: the main thing is to do what interests you and get a result that you and the Director like.

Redford Reflects on Sundance

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer
Thu Feb 23, 1:34 PM ET

"It's gotten to the point now — almost to a breaking point — where there's a fever that has taken over the festival that creates an enormous amount of chaos and excitement and tension," the 68-year-old actor said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "It's gotten a little bit harder on me."

Though the festival has become a larger spectacle over the years, Redford has long refrained from criticism about the changed nature of Sundance.

He created the independent film festival in 1981 to bring attention to small-budget films and new talent. Redford named the festival, held annually in the snowy mountains of Utah, after his breakthrough role in 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

"The festival that we do is the same one as we did the first year," he said. "We program it exactly the same every year, which is for new voices and more experimental films."

The difference now, Redford said, is everything surrounding it.

"Once the merchants come, then the celebrities come. Once they come, the paparazzi come. Once they come, fashion comes. So suddenly you've got a party ... where Paris Hilton's there and all the attention goes there and she's got nothing to do with anything."

"You've basically got two festivals going," he said. "You've got the festival we programmed, which stays the same, and then the other one."

The big-screen life of the festival, Redford said, continues to thrive. He felt "very good" about this year's crop of films, which included the Hispanic teen drama "Quinceanera" and " Iraq in Fragments," a documentary about the lives of Iraqis under U.S. occupation.

"Quinceanera" won both the festival's jury prize and audience award; "Iraq in Fragments" won three prizes including documentary film editing, directing and cinematography awards.

___

On the Net:

http://festival.sundance.org/2006

Film ... or something like it

We're about 99% sure we're going HD with Suicide Squad, but really hate to lose that film look.

As we research, we think we may not have to.

We're working with our DP and editor to settle on a general aesthetic for our film.

The film is shot entirely at night, which will give us a lot of cool (but difficult) visuals to work with with shadows, light, etc.

And the subject matter is edgy enough that we don't want to take the gritty punch out of it with that super clean HD look ...

Introducing "Joes Filters."

Thank you, David Chung for the link to the Ken Stone Index and the article.

Internet Savvy Indie Filmmakers use Web to finance film

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- From the bastion of cybergeeks in the mid-90s to the creation of a new global community today, the Internet has changed the way we shop, socialize, follow the news, and even voice our worldviews.

For independent filmmakers Adam Hatley and Glenn Hopper, the Internet has been a boon – allowing them to reach out to an audience that they otherwise might have never found. With an aggressive Internet marketing campaign, Starbox Pictures has raised $26,000 to finance their film, and help spread the word to thousands of Internet movie fans before even starting production of their movie.

Starbox Pictures has raised nearly half of their production budget through an aggressive Internet marketing campaign that features a fundraising site, half a dozen blogs and MySpace sites, a CafePress store, a public message board, a week-long campaign on a popular daily deal Web site, and banner advertising on sites around the globe.

From the formation of their production company, Starbox Pictures, last year to pre-production of the duo's first feature length film, “Suicide Squad,” the pair knew the Internet would be a pivotal part of their marketing and fundraising campaigns.

“Our film is based on relationships that formed on the Internet, so it made sense to use this medium as a tool to promote our efforts,” Hatley said. “But even if our film was about rabid bears in the wilds of Siberia, we'd have still gone to the Internet as our first source for spreading the word,” he added.

“We've spent so much time and effort developing a strong Web presence,” Hopper said. “You see all the models like Blair Witch or Alex Tew (of www.milliondollarhomepage.com), and you realize that you can do things on the Internet that you'd have never been able to do even ten years ago.”

The greatest struggle for independent filmmakers is finding financial backing for their projects, but Hopper is quick to note that the vast majority of funds raised to finance Suicide Squad have come from the Internet.

“Adam and I don't have deep pockets ourselves, and financing an independent film project is a difficult pitch, even to family members,” Hopper said. “But through some creative marketing efforts, we've been able to reach a huge audience, and attract a significant number of investors in our project.”

Starbox Pictures' fundraising campaign has garnered the indie filmmakers a great deal of attention and press. The filmmakers' campaign was recently covered in a Wall Street Journal article, and throughout the blogosphere on marketing and film sites.

One recent marketing campaign helped Hatley and Hopper secure a new co-executive producer, who invested $10,000 in the project after several weeks of negotiation exclusively through e-mail.
“I still haven't talked to him in person or on the phone,” said Hopper. “He was completely comfortable handling everything via e-mail.”

The investor, who has asked to remain a silent partner until the film's release, learned about the project and the investment opportunity through an advertising campaign on www.onedealoneday.com, a popular Internet deal site. Hopper said they also locked two other Associate Producers through the campaign as well.

Hopper said the Web sites are just one facet of their campaign. “We've tried all sorts of viral marketing, from getting our links and ads posted on blogs and MySpace sites to creating humorous chain letters to help spread the word about their film.

“We knew we had to get out on the Web early. There is so much crossover from the Internet to movies, that we knew we had to start our campaign as soon as the project got off the ground. The Web was something that wasn't going to be an afterthought for us – it was going to be fully integrated into everything we did,”said Hopper

While the script for Suicide Squad was still in draft form, Hatley and Hopper put up a fundraising Web site at www.boxofstars.com. The duo wanted to offer sponsors a unique way to promote their own Web sites, while helping finance the pair's film.

“We wanted to create an active, animated site that was visually appealing and would catch on with potential supporters,” Hopper said. “And we wanted something that people could easily associate with our production company.”

Starbox Pictures' wide reaching Internet campaign has multiple benefits, says Hopper. “For now, it's helping us raise money to finance our project, but once we come out of production in May of this year, we'll already have a base of supporters to help us market our finished product.”

As the filmmakers' Web site trends toward 10,000 unique visitors per month, and investors continue to pour in, it appears the team's strategy is working.

February Production Update

We just sent out our February Production Update to Starbox investors, supporters, wellwishers, and gawkers. It is copied below for your reading displeasure. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send an e-mail to support@boxofstars.com, and we'll gladly spam ... err ... inform you of our goings on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greetings Starbox Pictures Supporters,

We didn't put out an update for January because were waiting for some big
news on our fundraising and screenplay before flooding your inbox with
movie spam. We've tried to capture all the latest news in this update.
If you have additional questions, as always feel free to e-mail Adam or
me at any time.

In this Issue

* What Can You Do to Help?
* Script Update
* Fundraising Update
* Production Update
* Marketing PR/Report
* Web Update
* Copyright Note

What Can You Do to Help?

Many of you have been asking lately, what can I do to help?

We are moving along in both the creative and business side of
production, and are putting all the pieces in place to get “Suicide
Squad” off the ground in May. We're still fundraising in earnest and
spreading the word about our project. The area we need the greatest
assistance in right now is in marketing. We're pushing a viral marketing
campaign primarily through Blogger and MySpace, but we are only two
people. The way this campaign will really take off is if we get more
evangelists for our cause.

You can help this by telling your friends about us, about our film, and
about our Web sites. Forward them this update, send them the link to
www.boxofstars.com, tell them about our blogs or MySpace sites.

Adam's put together a small teaser, which is available on all our Web
sites, and on Google Video and iFilm. Some of our potential editors are
also putting together teasers for us. Look for these in the coming weeks.

Also, if you know of anyone else who might like to invest in our
project, spread the word to them as well.

Note: There are about 150 of you on this mailing list. If each of you told
10 people about our project and Web sites, we'd have a chain letter.
And we know how much everyone like chain letters!

Script Update

I just completed draft 6 of the Suicide Squad script. This may not be
the final yet, but should be pretty close. Many of you have offered some
great tips and advice regarding the script, many of which have been
included in this version.

Fundraising Update

For those of you who've been watching the fundraising thermometer on our
blog, you've probably noticed a big spike in the past week. Our Internet
marketing campaign brought in $11,000 and leads on several other
potential investors.

We've also picked up a new Co-Executive Producer, who has asked to
remain a silent partner until the film is completed.

We are offering some additional perks for any of you who've currently
invested at the Associate Producer level, who would like to upgrade to
Co-Executive level. E-mail me for more details.

We now have $26,000 in the Suicide Squad bank account; and with our
commitments to date, we are looking to have over $40,000 raised by the
end of the month.

Production Update

Production is slated to begin in May, and last 15 days. This will give
us almost three months for post, and allow us to complete the film in
time for festival entry.

We've decided to shoot in HD, and have narrowed down our list of
potential DP's. We're hoping to make a final decision in the next two
weeks. We've also narrowed down our list of editors, which we also hope
to finalize in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more details on both of
these positions.

We've locked sound, craft services, and other miscellaneous crew. We'll
send a full crew list when we're completely crewed up.

Marketing PR/Report

We've slowed our press releases in recent weeks as our focus has been
more on personal communications with potential investors than on mass
communications. However, Adam has a big interview coming out in April in
a local Santa Clarita magazine. The interview focuses primarily on his
work on Suicide Squad.

E-mail Adam for more details.

Now that Draft 6 of the movie is complete and we're nearing our
fundraising goal, I am going to re-focus my efforts on marketing and
public relations, and start shotgunning press releases again.

We've locked a publicist who's willing to work pro bono after reading
our script. Her name is JoAnna Levenglick, and she's a New York-based
producer with great leads in the business. We also have a lead on a
Chicago publicist and are searching for an LA-based publicist as well.

If you have media contacts and want to help in this area, please let us
know.

Web Update

Our official movie site at www.boxofstars.com is steadily growing. We're
averaging about 150 unique visitors to the site per day. Our mention in
the Wall Street Journal and www.1deal1day.com campaign have definitely
helped our traffic, as we are drawing in about twice as many hits per day
as we were a month ago.

You can help with this, too, by spreading the word about our sites.

Copyright Note

We have some concerns about our working title “Suicide Squad,” as DC
Comics has copyrighted the name for their comic books. We are currently
researching copyright laws to see if the title is still available for a
feature film in a completely different genre. Our current legal counsel
is not a copyright specialist. If any of you know a tame copyright
lawyer, please let us know. We need to have this nailed down soon so
that we can change the title if needed.

Also, in the event we have to change the title, we'll be looking for
some creative suggestions for a new name. If you have any ideas, please
let us know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That pretty much covers everything from a creative and business
standpoint. Thank you all for your continued support.

Regards,
Glenn & Adam
Starbox Pictures

As always, you can track our activities on the Web at:

* www.boxofstars.com
* http://starboxproductions.blogspot.com
* http://suicidesquad.blogspot.com
* www.myspace.com/starboxpictures
* www.cafepress.com/starbox

Vomit wrapped in a turd

Big Hollywood continues to impress. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to fend off originality day after day after day. Seriously, it's got to be harder to eschew creative thought than to foster it.

Latest exhibit: "Are We Done Yet?"

See, Ice Cube was going to star in the re-make of the 1948 classic "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," which is fondly recalled by your great aunt Millie and pretty much no one else (Blandings, was obviously a re-make of the 1986 comedy "The Money Pit", exhibiting Hollywood's creative use of a time travel machine stolen from the Nazis in World War II, which is not so fondly recalled by great aunt Millie.)

But intellectual assault vehicle "Are We There Yet?" has raked in close to $100 million
worldwide, and big Hollywood is anxious to keep the crap train rolling on that one.

Shuffle the plot slightly, shift a few characters' names and ... voila! An unnecessary re-make becomes an unnecessary sequel in one foul swoop. Genius!

Hopefully we'll see more of this to enrich our lives:

" Mean-spirited "family" comedy with inane script and lack of decent performances.**"
-- Angela Baldassarre,
SYMPATICO.CA

"Doesn't even have the wit to be energetic, funny or humane en route to being inane, irritating, and corrosive."
-- Walter Chaw,
FILM FREAK CENTRAL

"Lacks the courage of its grape-juice-, mud-, and vomit-spattered convictions."
-- Mark Holcomb,
VILLAGE VOICE

Sundance Distribution Deals

A roundup from zap2it.com:

Sundance Dust Settles to Reveal Distribution Deals

By Andrew Rodgers

PARK CITY, Utah (Zap2it.com) -- The dust from the latest Sundance Film Festival hasn't quite settled, so it's still too soon to tally up all the distribution deals and count someone as a winner. That said, with the Academy Awards preparing to capture everyone's attention for the next few weeks, it's a good time to take stock of the films that did sell at this year's Sundance, and make note of the films which seem likely to seal a deal.

For starters, the 2006 Sundance film that landed the biggest distribution deal to date is the independent comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," directed by Michael Arndt and starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell and Toni Collette. Fox Searchlight made a significant play for the title in the hours immediately following the film's World Premiere and Variety reports the film sold for $10 million. In contrast, consider that Fox Searchlight paid approximately $3 million for "Napoleon Dynamite" in 2004. This deal also marks the first time a distributor has paid double-digits for a single film at Sundance since Miramax notoriously bought "Happy, Texas" in 1999 for $10 million.

The other early sale was the new Michel Gondry movie, "The Science of Sleep." Starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, this visually stunning film was purchased for a reported $6 million by Warner Independent. IFC Films also stepped up to the plate with a pair of film buys: the popular Documentary Competition title "Worldplay" for an estimated $1 million and "Factotun," a Spectrum film, for an undisclosed sum.

Comedian-turned-filmmaker Bob (aka Bobcat) Goldthwait also scored with his independent laugher "Stay," about a woman who is haunted by an impulsive sexual encounter from her past. Roadside Attractions & Samuel Goldwyn Films purchased the North American rights while Gaumont picked up the foreign rights. Meanwhile, other indie distributors who jumped into the fray include Miramax, which purchased "The Night Listener," starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette; and ThinkFilm and Lionsgate, which each picked up a Dramatic Competition title: "Half-Nelson" (ThinkFilm) and "Right at Your Door" (Lionsgate).

A couple of smaller distributors also made a play for the domestic market. Films Philos purchased the Spectrum film "Man Push Cart," while Bauer Martinez purchased "The Darwin Awards" and Arrival Pictures acquired "La Tragedia de Macario." Also, a number of films picked up pieces of their foreign distribution, including "The Foot Fist Way" (Momentum bought UK rights), "TV Junkie" (Katapult purchased all rights except North America), "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" (BBW purchased UK broadcast rights) and "God Grew Tired of Us" (TF1 International bought rights to all non-English language territories).

What does this mean for all the films on the bubble or films that captured tremendous critical acclaim? Only that the next few weeks will be spent feverishly going from studio to studio to see who can offer the best deal. So, stay tuned for pending deals for films such as: "The Illusionist," "Iraq in Fragments," "Come Early Morning," "The Hawk Is Dying," "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," "Wristcutters: A Love Story," "Black Gold," "13 Tzameti" and "The Trials of Darryl Hunt."

Low Rent Writing

From the onset of development of the Suicide Squad script, we knew we were going to produce this thing ourselves, and we knew we weren't going to have much of a budget.

The first thought we had was to isolate the characters in a faraway place (ultimately settling on a barn in the middle of nowhere) and putting them in a life-and-death situation (characters all signed a suicide pact), and focusing more on the actors more than any special effects or stunts.

The end result of the first draft was a two-hour a group therapy session.

We knew we had a lot of work, but had developed our characters enough to build on.

So we started layering in action, drama, and suspense.

The end result is draft 6 of Suicide Squad, which is just a couple of weeks from completion.

We've learned a lot along the way, and we are geared up to start production in May.

We moved from an elaborate soundtrack with artists from Johnny Cash to Elliot Smith, before realizing we had a talented musician within our network of close friends, and we ultimately signed Robby Grant of Vending Machine to score the film for us.

We wanted to keep the film as inexpensive as possible, but to get the highest quality director and cast and crew we could afford. We've managed to secure a cast of professional working actors (check their IMDB entries and reels over there -->

And we're starting to secure a great crew.

Not to mention a new co-executive producer, who's bringing significant capital resources to the project. With our current commitments, we're hoping to lock funding by the end of the month, so that we can finally focus on the production of the film.

We know we have a very short timeline. Our goal is to get our film ready for festival submission by mid-August. If anyone knows a really fast, really good editor who's willing to work for peanuts and bottle caps (and points), send him or her our way!

We've been discussing film in general quite extensively over here in recent weeks, but as we move closer to production, we will obviously focus more on the making of Suicide Squad.

Thanks, everyone, for your continued support, and look forward to some big news in the coming weeks.

Don't forget to stop by Box of Stars to help support our project. Star owners can promote their own Web sites or blogs, and support our film at the same time.