John Q. Phats Entertainment

You may have noticed by now, but I posted some out takes from the re shoot on Do Nice Guys Finish Last in the Shorts sections.  The Shorts section has now sort of become the Videos section.  Whatever works.  Really, who doesn’t like out takes?  One of my favorites ever is from a short film I did a long time ago called The Wake Up.  It was about two women who wake up in bed together.  One is straight and one is gay and they are both naked.  Of course I don’t show anything, but it’s implied.  Anyway, at one point both of the characters say “I’ve got a handcuff key in my bag” at the same time.  So, Kristen says it but the other actress, Jessica missed her line and didn’t say it.  Kristen without missing a beat says
“I’ve got a handcuff key in my bag and you didn’t say it, you God damned bitch!  I know you got one!”
I still have that footage somewhere.
The Wake Up isn’t posted here.  It’s not that I don’t like it.  It’s just that it was a very early short film in my film making “career.”  It was shot on a shitty little camcorder that I got on the Internet for like $200, the lighting, and color balance in each shot changes.  My directing skills weren’t quite there yet.  This was a really tough film for me.  I was a straight male writing about gay women.  I didn’t want to be offensive at all.  I wanted to tell a funny, kind of weird story.  Plus, finding actresses was tough.  It was a tough sell.
“Hey, I need you to appear to be naked, kiss another girl and fondle her a little bit.  Then I’m going to film it on a crappy little camcorder and possibly post it on the Internet.  O yeah, and I can’t pay you.”
After I did The Wake Up though, I realized that I could pull people together for anything.  The Wake Up has a lot of negatives, but there are some positives as well.  I think the beginning sequence is fantastic, some of the acting is great (I messed up directing wise a couple of times), and I actually really did like some of the cinematography.  I also think the story is pretty decent.  If I had written some better dialogue I think it would have been great.  This was only my second short film, so I think all is forgiven.  Here is the short film if you want to check out some of my early work.  You’ll also get a look at my very crappy 1st logo:
The Wake Up
Watching it again, I’ve actually changed quite a bit.  I wasn’t so biased about hand held camera work at the time and I actually kind of like it.  Maybe it will change my mind on how I feel about handheld stuff in the future.
 I started off talking about the out takes of Do Nice Guys Finish Last and ended up on a totally different topic all together.  That’s pretty typical for me.  Check out the Shorts section if you want to see the Do Nice Guys Finish Last out takes.

Do Nice Guys Finish Last is a mockumentary.  We really wanted it to have that documentary feel.  Thus why there is no tripod in any of these shots.  I usually hate it when short films don’t use a tripod, but in this case, I think it calls for it.  These are some out takes from a scene we had to re shoot.  We had so much fun on this shoot.  We all have a laugh when someone messes up.  There’s also just some messing around.  When we have the shots we want sometimes I’ll just tell the actors to do whatever and have a good time.  This is the result.

So, the Pick up shots are done.  It was actually pretty painless.  We had a very small crew and we knew what we were doing.  I went with a little bit of a different workflow this time.  Rather then just having the actors memorize the script and then shooting, I went through the dialogue with them a bunch and made the adjustments I wanted before I pressed record.  So, they memorized the dialogue and knew how to act it out.  It worked out very well.  I also really tried to avoid saying things like “I need you to be angrier.” I’m usually pretty good about that, but sometimes I slip up.  Instead, I tried to direct through situations that the character would be put in.  For example with Caine, I needed him to be more upset so I said
“OK Caine, so this sort of thing always happens to you.  Chris always gets the girl and you don’t understand it.  He has the girl of your dreams practically throwing herself at him and he’s complaining to you that she’s not the right one.  You haven’t been laid in God knows how long.”
Instead of just saying
“I need you to be more angry.”
 It worked out really well.  Not only was it more of a collaboration between me and the actors, but we both got what we wanted out of it.  We actually had a lot of fun doing this.  I’m thinking about posting one of the out takes where everyone was just kind of goofing around.  What do you guys think?  Would that be something you want to see?  The only comment I’ll get, is probably an ad for Viagra, but that’s ok, I’ll take that as a cue to post it.

So, today is the day that Gabe gets my notes for the first Nice Guys Finish Last cut.  He’s been camping for a week straight.  I hope his arms didn’t get ripped off by a bear or something.  That would suck.  How would he edit?  Now that he’s back though we can really get to work on this thing.
I just realized this weekend that I’ve been referring to Nice Guys Finish Last incorrectly.  The title isn’t Nice Guys Finish Last, it’s Do Nice Guys Finish Last?.  That totally screws up my acronym for it too.  It’s not NGFL, it’s DNGFL.  I like the first acronym better.  Meh, it doesn’t matter.
Right now in LA, the Crazy 4 Cult art show is going on.  It’s all art that people have done based off of cult classic films.  Check out the web site here.  There’s all kinds of stuff there.  If you check the web site, you can see what’s for sale.  Prices range quite a bit.  There’s stuff for the casual enthusiast for like $25 and stuff for the hard core art collector for like $4000.  I haven’t checked it out yet, but I hope to make it out there sometime this week.  I’m a big fan of cult classic movies.  Fight Club is my absolute favorite movie of all time.  What actually defines a movie as “Cult Classic” though?  I suppose it’s a movie with a small, but loyal following.  I guess it’s like comparing Transformers to The Big Lebowski.  Transformers made a shit load of money, but nobody really talked about it after it was released.  The Big Lebowski has Lebowski Fest, which happened in Long Beach this year, which I attended.  The Big Lebowski was released in 1998.  Ten years later, they are still holding a festival to celebrate it’s release.  In ten years will anybody really even be talking about Transformers?  No, probably not.  Some cult classics actually bomb in theaters.  Fight Club, Super Troopers, and Donnie Darko are all good examples.  All bombed in theaters, but look at them now.  I think I’ve had 4 hour long conversations about Donnie Darko before.  That movie is amazing, for that very reason.  It only made $517,375 in theaters.  It probably killed in DVD sales.  I bet it did so shitty in theaters because, really, how do you explain that movie to someone? 
“OK, there’s this kid and this guy dressed as a rabbit and he can possibly see in to the future.  He’s taking medication and because he sleep walks the plane engine that falls through the roof of his house doesn’t kill him and then he meets the guy in the rabbit suit….  No, wait, the rabbit tells him to sleep walk, so he knew the rabbit before that…..Or something.”
After trying to explain that movie like 3 times I finally gave up and now if someone asks me what it’s about, I just say
“Just see it, it’s an awesome movie.”
Maybe what saved it is it’s movie channel debut.  That’s where I first saw it.  It has some really interesting shots.  The first time I flipped to it, it was at the point where Donnie is looking in the bathroom mirror and stabbing it with a knife.  After watching that scene for like 20 seconds, I immediately went to my On Demand thing and started from the beginning.  That one scene just brought up way too many questions.  I couldn’t resist.
I ordered Dexter Season 3 from Amazon on Sunday.  It’s on sale right now for $21.49.  It’s not out yet, but I preordered it.  I love that show so much.  I will see Gamer just because Michael C. Hall is in.  When he’s playing Dexter he plays it with a touch of sarcasm when he’s hiding who he really is.  It’s also a touch of “I’m acting.”  Not acting, like acting on a show, like putting on an act just to please everyone else.  It’s very subtle, but I think it makes the show.  If you came in mid show and started watching it at a point where Dexter is in front of normal people you would probably think “something is up with that guy.”  It makes it, because something is up with him.  He’s a serial killer.
Directing actors is always my favorite part of film making.  It’s never the same experience.  You’re always trying to convey something differently.  I bet Martin Brest(director) had a giant grin on his face when he was directing Al Pacino in the scene from Scent of a Woman where he’s in the auditorium.  That is without a doubt on my list of top 3 monologues ever performed.  One of the other ones on my top 3 is the scene in The Devils Advocate where Al Pacino is giving that speech about mankind and God.  At one point during that scene I actually thought to myself “Wow….  I never knew that Al Pacino was the Devil.  That’s awesome.”

So, I saw the new Transformers movie last night.  It was ok.  Nothing life changing, but I was entertained.  I went in wanting to see big robots beating the crap out of each other, Megan Fox in sexy posses, and some good special effects and that’s what I got.  I’m happy.  The special effects in that movie were insanely awesome, as expected.  Good special effects, robots beating each other up, Megan Fox, it worked.  I hate when people see a movie like Transformers and review it badly because there were parts that weren’t realistic.  Look, you’re going to see a movie about robots kicking the crap out of each other, maybe, just maybe, ALL the rules of reality, don’t apply here.  I’m just saying, pointing out tiny little flaws in realism is kind of pointless when you’re watching a movie about robots that fight each other.  To me, it’s the same as pointing out realism flaws in a Road Runner and Coyote cartoon.  However, I’ll give you a realism flaw.  Any guy, before going off to college, leaving Megan Fox behind would have banged her like a drum if she were their girlfriend.  LaBeouf just makes out with her in front of his parents.  Kind of kinky, but not at all what would have happened.  Anyway, I liked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  Here’s a little useless movie knowledge.  Sometime in the middle of shooting, Shia LaBeouf was in a car accident and injured his hand.  They wrote the bandage that he had to have wrapped around his hand in to the script so that it was explained for the rest of the movie. 
Before the movie they showed this commercial thing with Michael Bay in it where he says “I consider myself an old time film maker.”  I’m sorry, what?  There were scenes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where one frame of special effects took 5 days to render.  Sorry Michael Bay, But I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one.  Everyone knows that a Michael Bay film is going to be packed with special effects, that’s partially why I go to see it.  I know I’m going to get a solid action film with lots of explosions.  Directing actors wise, I think Michael Bay is actually pretty good.  He gets good performances. In fact would call him a good director.  I haven’t seen a movie of his yet that hasn’t been somewhat entertaining. 
All of that aside, the new project is starting to move.  I can’t really discuss what it is exactly, but I’m going to sit down tonight and jot down some ideas.  I decided to let someone produce this one.  I’ve never really worked with a producer before, so we’ll see how this goes.  I’m kind of a control freak, but I think I can make it work.  For this project, everyone needs to focus on what they do.  The actors need to act, the director (me) needs to direct, the producer needs to produce, and the cinematographer needs to…..cinematog?  Everyone needs to focus on what their job is.  I can’t produce this myself and I can’t have actors running around worrying about camera angles and what not.  This is a big project and everyone will need to be razor sharp.

It’s hard to believe this, but every time I do a short film I seem to have some sort of breakthrough revelation in terms of film making.  On Saturday we shot some more of Nice Guys Finish Last and I got my best take out of Caine when I just told him to do whatever he wanted.  I gave him some adjustments here and there along the way, but we didn’t get anything truly amazing until I gave him that freedom.  Caine is a funny guy, it’s one of his talents.  I should just let him be funny.  I told him at one point
“You’re a funny guy, go with it.”
To me, this is a breakthrough.  My favorite part about film making is working with actors, so this is a really exciting to learn for me.  Actors are fascinating people.  Acting is something that looks easy, but isn’t.  As an independent film maker, you often pull people from your group of friends when you need actors.  Most of them say the same exact thing too:
“I can act.”
They really do think they can to, it’s kind of adorable in an ignorant sort of way.  Then the camera gets on them, you yell action and they go blank.  Either that or they fumble over their lines, look at the camera, and giggle like crazy.  News flash, acting is really hard.  You think you can act?  Get about 6-7 of your friends, have them all stare at you, then, what you do, is cry.  Don’t laugh, don’t say anything to them, just cry.  Serious actors can do that.  I can’t do it.  I could with some practice, but I belong behind the camera, not in front of it.  Whenever I attempt to act, I just giggle like a stoned school girl.  If I were playing a stoned school girl, I could probably pull it off quite nicely. 
So, my breakthrough revelation this time is that I need to start a new career as an actor who plays stoned school girls.  Just kidding, really it’s that sometimes, all an actor or actress needs to act is freedom to do it.
The shoot went great on Saturday.  I transferred it all on to my computer today.  That’s always a fun process by the way.  It’s kind of exciting to watch all of your footage from a shoot while transferring it.  It’s kind of the moment of truth.  Sometimes, you see something that you didn’t pick up while shooting.  Like an obvious boom mic or the reflection of my stupid ass in a mirror or window standing there with headphones on, next to a camera man.  Stuff like that.  When something like that happens, you need to do pick up shots or fix it in post.  I fucking hate pick up shots.  They are such a pain in the ass.  I try to avoid them at all costs.  Maybe that’s why I always have so many takes of each scene.  Because, I want to make sure that I get everything right.  I think I hate pick up shots so much because on the last shot, when I say “That was the last shot, we’re done!”  Everyone cheers and it’s just an awesome feeling of accomplishment.  Everyone is all happy and anxious to see the first cut.  It’s almost like a graduation party for like an hour because everyone just sort of hangs out and congratulates everyone else.  When you have to do pick up shots, all of that is taken away.  And when you finish your last pick up shot, you don’t get the same response at all.  It’s more like “awesome, lets get the fuck out of here.”  A pick up shot is kind of like if tomorrow, you got a letter in the mail saying that you actually failed PE in high school, so now you have to go back in order for any of your college degrees to be valid.  O, and they’ve notified your boss of this so your job will be docking your pay until you finish the class.
Imagine what that would feel like.  That’s what I feel like whenever I have to do pick up shots.