Page 14 - the NOISE June 2012

Stills from True Grit and Singing in the Rain, both at the Prescott Film Festival; the Magic of Belle Island and Bel Ami, both at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Sedona.
The films in Prescott and Sedona in July move from eclectic to fun popcorn movies and make for a nice reprieve from the heat of sum-
mer. Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Prescott Film Festival August 1-8, 2012.
In Prescott all films will be shown at Yavapai College. Look at PrescottFilmFestival.com for more information.
July 4: There’s a fascinating double feature comparison of the original 1969 True Grit with the 2010 Coen Brother version. Check out the
“Duke” John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and the newer version with Jeff Bridges. It’s the Coen brother’s faithfulness to the original novel and the young girl’s point of view that really distin- guishes these two great films. Double features don’t get any better than this!
July 6: Harry Potter & the Order of Phoenix will continue the HP series from June.
July 11: How to Write a Joe Schermann Song is a musical from the independent world of filmmaking that promises originality. It fol- lows the story of an artist who will either sellout for money or follow his heart to the source of his creation. What would you do? Great sing- ing and dancing sequences.
July 12: Singing in the Rain streaming event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the movie with Robert Osborn and Debbie Reynolds — quite a celebration of song & dance!
July 13: Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince
July 20: Another great Double Feature! Har- ry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Parts I,II
July 25: Real Steel; a film about “real steel.” Awesome!
You can also check out YCPAC.com for more information about times. Most films at 6:30 pm at Yavapai College. And watch for the August 1-8, 2012 Prescott Film Festival, the highlight will be the screening of “Dances with Wolves” with author Michael Blake scheduled to attend on 8/4/12 for a question and answer session. With a new summer time frame the film festival is sure to grow leaps and bounds! Mark your calendars.
The Sedona International Film Festival
continues its year round magnificent schedule of eclectic films in July at the Mary D. Fisher state of the art facility. Check out Sedona- FilmFestival.com for more information. Here’s what we know for sure:
July 3-6: Bel Ami is a tale from the turn of the last century. Robert Patterson plays a poor soldier who returns to Paris after the war to use his powers of seduction to improve his social standing. It promises to be a beautifully shot period piece with three wonderful female leads: Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kris- ten Scott Thomas.
July 11-13: The Magic of Belle Island is a Rob Reiner film with Morgan Freeman in the lead. It’s the tale of an author who moves to a small island to reignite his passion for writing but instead meets a single mom with three kids and ignites his passion for life! Don’t miss it.
In the third week of July a wonderful stage performance: Phantom of the Opera from Prince Albert Hall in London! And in the fourth week of July the sequel to “Phantom” Love Nev- er Dies from Sydney Australia in another stage performance.
HOW TO MAKE AN INDEPENDENT FILM
Like most filmmakers I applied the strategy typical for independent and commercial films: pre-production, production and post-produc- tion. STAGED II, a truly independent film, came about because I sold my business and wanted to do what I love before returning to the grind of a real job. (If I can even find one!?) With two credit cards, five of us took off for a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff to New York, May 13-28, 2012. This article intends to share information and demonstrate what “not to do” on a cross country road trip. Hopefully, it will be helpful to anyone planning to make an independent feature.
In pre-production one has to make sure the films premise is solid; this can be done by ver- bally pitching the story to anyone who will lis- ten. If they’re still awake at the end of the pitch,
it’s a good start. Next, have a written treatment of the idea fleshed out (maybe two to four pag- es) and finally a script that works as actor bait. The premise of STAGED II revolves around a stu- dent filmmaker, Mary (Amber Stonebreaker) who needs to finish her film thesis in order to graduate. She decides it would be interesting to ask her estranged brothers; Cain (Nick Rabe), a right-wing neo-con, and Alvin (Eric Schultz), a lefty progressive, to go on a road trip.
Mary’s documentary film thesis is called “Conspiracies in America” and she feels it will be entertaining to watch her brothers debate the left/right evidence. Meanwhile, their mother Ann Marie (Ginny Brown) is dying of cancer and wants her children to reunite for this cross country journey to find out what happened to their father when he disappeared in New
York on 9-11-01. So it’s a story of loss and re- demption for the Hart family, who could be any family USA. The tagline: “There are three great truths; your truth, my truth and the truth.” The actors represent our very narrow political spectrum that ultimately ends with the family realizing that the left/right paradigm is a hoax designed to keep us infighting.
Once you’ve pitched the story, cast the ac- tors, you need to determine the budget ($6,000 – unless your transmission breaks down), the
timeframe of the shoot (May 13 - 28th), the loca- tions (conspiracy tropes from the grassy knoll to ground zero), and map out the journey on a road atlas. Mileage, distance and times, lo- cations of interest, shooting time frames, his- toric sites, everything you can find on the map. But remember, inherent in a script like this, is the improvisational aspect of “finding” things along the way, so don’t over-plan.
Filmmaking is essentially list-making. First and foremost on the list, find a motor home with “character.” We found a 1986 Toyota en- gine with a Travel Master cab over it and the license plate: POKEY. Next on the list, have two cameras of similar quality and look; (two Panasonic’s; an HD 80 and a 150.) Then you need an innovative Director of Photography
(Alex Finden) to make sure you get everything
technically right. “Casting is 90% of the shoot.” – Woody Allen. And all the attendant techni- cal equipment needed for your shoot; sound,
lights and duct tape!
For this unique hybrid of storytelling,
STAGED II mixed a scripted idea (around 70 pages) with character improvisation, “in the moment,” and real documentary footage of
“man-on-the-street interviews” in an attempt to discover what happened to America over the last ten years.
STAGED II asks the viewer: “how staged is it”? In daily reality, what’s real if all the big historical moments seem manufactured? Our first “conspiracy” stop was Oklahoma City and the site of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building by lone “gunman” Timothy McVeigh, who we find out didn’t act alone but hadhelpfrom“JohnDoeII”which,bydefinition, makes it a conspiracy. A conspiracy is: “two or more people conspiring to achieve their ends.” (Sounds like most corporations, or parents rais- ing children.)
The monstrous memorial spans the entire block and includes a reflecting pool between two five-story monoliths, a grassy cemetery, a museum and a walking park. An Arab delica- tessen owner, less than a block away, talked in fearless fashion on camera, sharing his concern for “the logic of the official narrative.”
According to the Department of Defense’s own investigator, General Partin: “The build- ing blew out.” If it blew out, then the official story: “of a van with explosives parked in front of the building and blowing in” becomes sus- pect. The brothers, Cain and Alvin, have a lively debate and Mary adds a third possibility just to confuse the boys; a thesis, antithesis and syn- thesis sort of argument.
| Bob Reynolds could be con- sidered a sabatical kind of guy. bob699669@hotmail.com
14 • JULY 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us
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