grammar school pictures

New Video: L Pro "Good Morning" [Official Video]

2011-07-22T08:10:00.001-07:00

iPhone B-Roll: Elevator Up

2011-07-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

iPhone B-Roll - An Occasional Video Series

Sometimes, you come across an interesting moment and the only camera you have available is your phone.

There's no story here. These clips are entirely b-roll - non sequitur shots that nonetheless have some intriguing quality.

From the Archives... Curtains for You

2011-07-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

From way back in March 2010, here's a clip we shot and edited for the fantastic Seattle band, Curtains for You.

Their debut album can be previewed and purchased via their website.

iPhone B-Roll: Flickers

2011-04-15T14:17:00.001-07:00

NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL!

2011-02-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so we've been slacking on the blog... But only because we've been swamped with the release of our web series Non-Essential Personnel!

The first three episodes (out of five) are on-line now with new episodes being release every Monday at NEPseries.com. For your convenience, I've embedded eps 1-3 below. Please enjoy it and pass it along...

TEASER: Non-Essential Personnel

2010-10-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL Teaser No. 1 from grammar school on Vimeo.

Entertaining You Via The Internets

2010-09-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

So, you know how we just wrapped shooting our web-series, Non-Essential Personnel? Maybe we forgot to mention that...

So, yeah, we just wrapped on NEP a couple of weeks ago. Tentatively, we're planning to release the first episode in January.

I know what you're thinking here - how am I going to entertain myself at work until January? How will I find any joy in my cubicle as the days turn dark and grey?

Here is your answer: Wage Slaves.

We mentioned Season One last summer when it was released and we enjoyed the show so much, we signed on to help out. While not technically a Grammar School Pictures production (the show is written, directed, and co-produced by our good friend, Chris A. Bolton), Matt worked as the Director of Photography for Season Two, and several GSP alumni make cameo appearances. It's definitely worth your time...

To make it easy on you, we've embedded the first two episodes of Season Two below. The third episode will be released next Tuesday and there are four more after that (released on subsequent Tuesdays at www.wageslaveseries.com).

Enjoy!

Wage Slaves Season 2, Episode 1: "A Crappy Hell-Suck of a Day" from Chris A. Bolton on Vimeo.

WAGE SLAVES Season 2, Episode 2: "A Whole Lot of Calvins" from Chris A. Bolton on Vimeo.

Big Win!

2010-07-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

We made our Kickstarter budget! Big thanks to everyone who contributed it...it's very generous of you and Joe and I will be working extra hard to make sure Non-Essential Personnel is a project worthy of your contributions.

In the meantime, hook up with Non-Essential Personnel on facebook to get updates on the production...

Thanks again!
matt

Almost There...

2010-07-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends,

Just popping in to give you a brief update on Non-Essential Personnel...

We had a fantastic table read of the scripts over the weekend... We got (most of) the cast together Sunday evening and it was so reassuring to see them next to each other. Everyone really fits their role - it was almost like watching the characters just walk into the room. If you haven't had a chance to meet our actors yet, check out our Facebook page or our Kickstarter profile to get the run down.

Speaking of Kickstarter... We're featured on the front page today! They have some nice things to say about our project and pitch video, so check it out! We've only got 3 days left to raise the final $788. Now's the time to chip in if you can.

Okay... time to get back to work.

matt

New Project: NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL

2010-06-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that we've casually mentioned our upcoming web series, Non-Essential Personnel several times over the past few months. We've got good new: it's actually a concrete thing now... we've got scripts, cast and crew are coming together, and locations are being scouted. We're scheduled to shoot in August with plans to start streaming episodes in late fall/early winter.

So, what's it about? Non-Essential Personnel follows a group of people working in an administrative support office for a private military contractor (a la Blackwater). Most of them feel conflicted about the moral ambiguity of their employer's mission, but when a 12% pay cut is issued to all non-essential personnel, Jonathan Clark (the office's Document Encryption Specialist) decides he's had enough. He sets a haphazard plan into motion that could impact the entire military industrial complex. And it's a comedy (a dark, political comedy, but a comedy nonetheless).

So there's just one other thing - the budget. While we've previously self-funded all our short films (and the bulk of almost everything.), this project is a little more than we can handle on our own. To do it right, we'll need to buy some props and rent a nice HD camera, and (at the very least) feed and transport our world class cast and crew.

So that's where you come in... If you're reading this blog, that means you probably have watched some of our videos. We're going to assume you like what we do. If that's case, we think you'll *really* like Non-Essential Personnel. In fact, we think you'll like it so much that you might want to receive digital downloads of every episode, or a DVD with lots of special features, or maybe even a walk-on role in one episode. Good news: we can totally make that happen and we've set-up a Kickstarter profile to facilitate those transactions. Please click over to Kickstarter to learn more about the project and what you can do to help...

Thanks!
matt

RECENTLY...

2010-04-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

so here's what we've been up to...

we've got two exiciting new projects in pre-production.

A World of Pain marks the triumphant return of Mike Johnson (last seen in The End (which, apparently, wasn't really the end)) to the Grammar School world. Matt is writing and directing and we're very excited to have Melissa Kaiser (of Wage Slaves fame) playing against Mike. That's about all we want to say about that one right now (except also that this one might actually be the end of the sequence (though we hope not (but, sadly, probably, yeah))).

NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL is a web series. it's funny and sad and intense and, um, political... and there's a VERY important audience participation aspect to it. we'll have more to say about this in a week or so...

in the mean time, we're finishing up the edit on a very cool show we shot last month with Curtains For You, Norman, and The Dimes. clips from that show should be trickling out over the next few weeks. we'll keep you posted...

Awesome Others No. 2: "Secret Notebook" by Reclinerland

2010-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

We love Michael Johnson (as a talent as well as a man). We are fully confident that, if you don't already, you will love him too. As such, we are strongly recommending that you go to iTunes and download his new album (as Reclinerland) called "Secret Notebook". We've been lucky enough to hear several of the songs and they are fantastic.

(If you don't have or like iTunes, the album is also available on Amazon.com for download. So, really, you've got no excuse not to enjoy it.)

VIDEOS FOR MUSICIANS: RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP!

2010-01-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

Here's the deal...

We need money to fund our upcoming slate of projects. You need video to promote your band on Facebook (or myspace, your website, iTunes, etc).

Luckily for both of us, Grammar School Pictures is great at making concert videos for bands. We'll shoot your show using multiple HD cameras and, depending on your needs, provide anything from a single internet-ready clip to a full-length concert documentary. As a bonus, you also get a professionally mixed audio recording of the full set (captured from a combination of room mics and feeds from the board).

And the best part: we're cheap (actually, we were previously cheap, but for the next two months we qualify as super-cheap)! For any show scheduled between now and March 1st, we'll work at half our regular rate. You could have a professional video on-line for as low as $100 or a ready-to-duplicate concert dvd for only $500.

Check out some of our video samples below and email headmaster@grammarschoolpictures.com for information on rates and availability.

The Builders and The Butchers - Spanish Death Song (Live) from grammar school on Vimeo.

The Dimes - Paul Kern Can't Sleep from grammar school on Vimeo.

It's Probably Nothing

2009-10-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

TWO MEN sit across from each other at a small table in the middle of the room.

A: So there's this thing I do in my sleep. I don't usually talk about it. But maybe - I don't know - maybe it has some relevance to what you're going through.
(beat)
A: I don't know...

Q: What is it?

A: Nevermind. I don't think it will help.

Q: But you thought it might a minute ago.

A: Yeah, I was wrong. I'm wrong about a lot of things. Really very unreliable.

Q: It's okay - I'm not going to judge you or anything. Even if I wanted to, what kind of position am I in to judge. All my shit. You know -

A takes a moment to consider this.

A: No, I don't think so.

Q: This is bullshit!

A: It's not that a big deal.

Q: Maybe from your perspective, but I'm the one in the bind here. I mean, Jesus, I come to you as a friend and now you're hemming and hawing over what... How is that supposed to make me feel? I'm out there - looking for a lifeline, man - and you're just like, nah, this is my good rope. Might want to hang on to that for a while. Fuck you. Seriously.

A: I know how it seems, but, really, if I thought it might help I'd have no problem...

Q: Fuck you. Seriously.

A: Yeah, I caught that the first time.

Q gets up and walks away.

CUT TO BLACK.

------

EXT. PLAYGROUND - DAY

TWO WOMEN sit on swings next to each other.

G: Sometimes you just have to.

H: I don't think so.

G: Well, if you don't care that's one thing, but otherwise, I think, yeah, you do.

H: I care. Really I do. I'm just done with that. For now, at least.

G: So this is a temporary rebellion? I guess I don't see the point...

H: Why does there have to be a point? Why can't I just make a decision and act on that? He does it.

G: So it's revenge.

H: No. It's not revenge. It's not about him at all.

G: You were the one who brought him up.

H falls backwards off the swing - she hits the ground hard.

G: Oh my god, are you okay?

H remains on her back, staring up into the clouds.

H: How am I supposed to know...

CUT TO BLACK.

------

Let's see a show of hands: Who thinks either of these is a story?

NEW RELEASE: The End

2009-08-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

The End from grammar school on Vimeo.

(available for streaming in HD at vimeo)

SCREENING: Icebreaker

2009-08-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

To Whom It May Concern:

Hello.

The Grammar School Pictures digital short, Icebreaker, will be screening at this year's Eugene Celebration Film Festival. It will be showing at the DIVA Center on Friday, September 4, at 9pm, and Sunday, September 6, at 2:30pm.

The director and some of the cast and crew will likely be sitting in the back of the room during the Sunday screening, so if you plan to attend, please laugh extra loud.

The full schedule for the film festival can be found here: http://www.eugenecelebration.com/film_festival.html

Thanks and we hope to see you there.

New Release Monday (not this Monday, but next Monday)

2009-08-14T09:35:00.001-07:00

We've finally got a locked-down release date for our new short film...

Monday, August 24, will see the internet release (on this very blog) of "The End", which will complete our Mike Johnson cycle (see also: This Song and YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE (Icebreaker, also featuring a character named Mike Johnson, is enough of a thematic departure that it doesn't count)).

That gives you ten days to revisit the characters, relive the ups and downs, and prepare yourself for the next (and potentially final) chapter of this epic story.

In other news, we've got a bunch of really exciting stuff maybe coming up that we can't talk about. So, I guess there's no other news. Maybe later, okay? Fine, a few hints: Satisfaction, t/s, Dufur, Wonder, hammers and cleavers, national security, Payam, baristas, weekend ruckus. There's like four potential projects buried in there - and no guarantee any of them will ever see the light of day. So don't hurt yourself trying to figure it out. Just know that we are busy working on revolutionary new ways to inform and entertain you.

See you in ten days.
MTK

THE AWESOME OTHERS no. 1

2009-07-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Awesome Others is a new (occasional) series of posts directly your attention to awesomeness that GSP had little or nothing to do with, but that we enjoy and appreciate.

Our debut post is giving big ups to Chris A. Bolton (creator) and the cast and crew of "Wage Slaves" a new comedy web series set in Portland. The first two episodes went live this week and they are terrific. Sharp, fresh, funny, all that stuff. You really should go to www.wageslaveseries.com right now to watch them. If you need further convincing, check out the trailer embedded below.

"Wage Slaves" Trailer from Chris A. Bolton on Vimeo.

NEW RELEASE: YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE

2009-07-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE from grammar school on Vimeo.

(available for streaming in HD at vimeo)

Soon.

2009-06-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

Greetings!

This is just an advance warning to check in with us often throughout the summer as we are due to release a new short film, YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE, within the next week or so, and some fantastic concert footage from our friends The Builders and The Butchers shortly thereafter.

Plus, we have a few other developing summer time projects to entertain and amaze you.

Seriously.

In Praise of Michael Johnson...

2009-05-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Still one of my favorite GSP productions, This Song (re-embedded below for your convenience), recounts the romantic foibles of of a singer-songwriter named Michael Johnson, portrayed by Michael Johnson.

This Song from grammar school on Vimeo.

Portraying an exaggerated character has a number of inheirant risks, the most significant of which is the potential for the viewer to project a character's extreme behavior or attitudes onto the actor, himself. This risk is further elevated when an actor agrees to allow the character to share his name and portions of his personal history. Creating even more potential for confusion, This Song consists almost entirely of interviews and musical performances with the characters - it never feels quite like a fictional narrative.

And Mike is perfect in that role. We shot about six hours of footage for this 10-minute short and there was not a single false note in his performance. Mike (the actor) fully commits to allowing Mike (the character) to be the punchline of the film. The other characters have their quirks and weirdness, but the camera's critical eye is focused squarely on Mike and his confusions and frustrations. Watching Mike (the character) struggle to articulate the inspiration behind his art is funny and fucked-up and kind of pitiful all at once.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Michael Johnson (the real person). He's a talented, hard-working musician who's extremely studied and articulate about his work. If you want to see the difference between Mike (the person) and Mike (the character), check out this recent interview he did with Willamette Week.

You can see the superficial overlap in cadence and mannerism, but there is no mistaking the sizable gap between the actor and the character.

So, my general point: Mike is a huge talent. We at GSP feel lucky to have him as a collaborator.

the news

2009-05-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

it's kind of quiet around here when we are writing and post-productioning.

so what exactly has been going on?

old stuff:
The End and YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE are both undergoing some audio fine tuning. While these are both fairly low key projects, we want them to be in the best possible shape when we send them out into the world. We expect to have CAVE on-line no later than 6/30/09. The End will follow shortly afterward, no later than 7/14/09.

new stuff:
while we are polishing the sounds of the old stuff, we've been writing down a few words for some new stuff. in the active development right now, we've got two projects:
Satisfaction is a 5-episode satirical web series written by Matt Knapp & Joe Ballman, slated to go into production in March 2010. (that seems like a long time from now, but considering we've just completed a very rough first draft of the scripts, it's actually appropriate.)
The Executive is a feature-length screenplay by Matt Knapp, currently mid-first draft. production info TBA.

pretty vague, i know. but we really really like what we're working with and would hate to spoil the surprises we have in store for you. so, just sit tight for another month or so and we'll have something new for you. cool?

FUNNY OR DIE

2009-04-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

In case the title of this post didn't already give it away, we're now playing on Funny or Die. A permanent link is available on the sidebar. Vimeo will still be the all-inclusive page for everything we do, but anything that might be considered funny will also be posted to FoD. If you ever get a hankering to revisit the classics, we'd recommend clicking that way - they allow for a much larger file download there which hopefully means better quality. plus you can vote us in as "funny" and maybe get us a little bit of attention from the comedy moguls running that site.

Thanks!

PS - Those two new shorts are coming really really soon, I promise! If you get impatient, bug Joe Ballman about it.

ALSO COMING SOON

2009-04-08T23:12:00.001-07:00

COMING SOON

2009-04-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Catching The Big Fish

2009-03-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

the title of this post is copped from David Lynch's fairly recent book... which, i guess could be best described as a series of thoughts regarding the creative process.

it's pretty obvious and pretty brilliant at the same time (i guess that's why they call it insight).

now i'm no great originalist or creative mastermind like lynch... but i do have a process that i think works pretty well. we'll use an idea i "came up with" just a few minutes ago as an example (it's unlikely i'll use this for anything significant in the future (at least, it was unlikely until i wrote that sentence. now it's probably exptremely likely (at least it was extremely likely until i wrote that sentence...))).

first off (a generalization): A (always) B (be) W (working). Always Be Working. in my experience, it is so much harder to start working (creatively) than to continue working (creatively). even if you're not focused like a laser on a specific project, just doing a little bit of something on a fairly regular basis keeps the mind open for playing with new ideas.

secondly (some context): i watch/listen to a lot of news. i don't read as much news as i probably should. lately it's been all about politics and economics. not uncoincidentally, the script(s) i'm writing now have political/economic undertones. you write what you eat (or consume, rather).

thirdly (the example): one person that pops up a lot in the various news outlets i consume is economist and nobel laureate, Paul Krugman (the man deserves capitalization (and capitolization)). for some time he has been critical of the obama administration's ecomomic recovery moves. i understand his general point to be that they aren't altogether "bad", just generally insufficient.

Krugman is a pretty smart guy. and for this, he has been booked for loads of television news programs, although his television presence is mediocre at best (last year i heard him repeat the same joke on four different programs over the course of one week - though it was a clever joke, it fell flat every time). he is bookish. and not in a cute, hodgman sort of way.

this morning, i came across this:

that's a pretty evocative cover. Krugman looks extremely serious and looms large over a negative reference to the new, popular president. this representation almost casts Krugman not as a critic urging the administration toward what he feels to be better economic policy, but as an idealogical nemesis.

that was my immediate response to the image. knowing a little bit about the subject, the cover image seems pretty absurd.

this is key: whenever i see or hear something absurd, instead of rejecting it, i try to source it - figure out how that absurdity might become a reality.

taking that absurd image of Krugman and merging it with his awkward television bookishness, i started wondering what it would be like if Krugman really fed off the media attention. what if he bought into his own hype. what if this very smart, albeit awkward, man used the newsmedia attention to feed his ego and, over the course of the next few years, developed into a blofeld-ian, luthor-esque villian for obama. that would be kind of comic-booky, but weird because he's an economist.

since i immediately cast him as a comic book villian, it makes sense to cut out every aspect of the concept that seems too much like a comic book. you want to avoid the easy answers and the obvious stories. eliminate the "obama" character - don't give him direct opposition. flip it just a little so that, out of his nobel prize, this character uses a lot of improbable newsmedia attention to slowly grow a physical empire based entirely on his economic philosophies.

and that's where the lesson ends and we move on to something else.

Krugman as lex luthor (sans superman) is not a great idea. it's weird. and the source was interesting. but i really don't see a story there. so you wrap it up and put it away (i write it down in a little moleskine i carry around in my back pocket). maybe it finds it's way into something else sometime later.

this one didn't work. but sometimes they do. sometimes you can see something absurd, try to imagine a world in which it makes sense, and discover that the imagined world actually says something about the real world. that's where a story begins...

Pre-Production/Post-Production

2009-03-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,

We thought it might be nice to show you our pre- and post-production documents for the "Elysian Fields" video. The scans below represent our complete dossier of pre-production and post-production notes and documentation for this one. As you will see, it's a grueling, detailed process.

Pre-Production: Storyboards generally begin as hand-drawn sketches on a legal pad.

Pre-Production: They are then refined to slightly neater hand-drawn sketches on printer paper.

Post-Production: Occasionally, editing ideas are formulated away from the desk. In such cases, it is handy to document these ideas on novelty post-it pages.

We hope this has been entertaining and informative. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us: headmaster@grammarschoolpictures.com.
We would love to hear from you.

NEW RELEASE: ELYSIAN FIELDS

2009-03-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

Parks & Recreation - Elysian Fields (We're Dead We're Dead) from grammar school on Vimeo.

IMDB

2009-02-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

this doesn't count as one of the many updates we previously promised, but it's kinda cool nonetheless...

Icebreaker is now listed on the IMDB. I guess that means it's officially a movie (at least according to the internet).

The page is pretty sparse and only seems to want to list a few members of the cast plus crew credits for some guy named Matt Knapp... but hopefully the names of the rest of our hardworking cast and crew will get their links approved soon.

so, yeah... hooray internet!

status on lots of stuff unfinished

2009-01-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

took a few hours yesterday to convene with the venerable michael johnson and the inimitable joseph ballman to records various noises, sounds, even words, that will hopefully put us on track to finish all those projects still in post-production limbo within the next month. as soon as they are done, we'll update with links and video and assorted awesomeness.

this big push will hopefully clear the slate for new and exciting developments...

keep your eyes open.
m

tease

2008-12-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

wow... two posts in one day! aren't you a handfull of lucky readers...

so, in case you haven't noticed, we're lighting up the vimeo like mad lately. it's basically going to serve as our primary video resource until grammarschoolpictures.com finally get's that much needed upgrade.

anyway... re-watching and converting the archives for vimeo has got me thinking about the teasers and trailers. specifically, our own teasers/trailers. you may not know this, but we are not a huge operation. grammar school is basically a two-man operation with a bunch of freelance advisors and an intern who is literally 15-months old.

that means that we post our own blogs, set-up our own equipment, design our own posters/fliers, and, yes, cut our own trailers. (this is the part where we toot our own horn...) one such trailer that i'm especially pleased with is the little piece we put together for Icebreaker.

normally, you wouldn't bother cutting a trailer for a short film. i mean, seriously, why would anyone spend 35 seconds watching a video to help them decide if they want to watch another video that's only 7 minutes long? silly, right? and totally unnecessary.

but, in the case of Icebreaker i had an idea. a concept even. a way to make a funny little pitch for the concept without giving away 20% of the film. nothing is revealed in the teaser that would potentially ruin any of the twists and turns of the short, but the tone is established. the door is opened just a crack and you can kind of see what might be waiting for you inside that room. in any case, it's not perfect from a technical standpoint, but if you haven't seen it, it's good for a quick laugh.

enjoy.

Icebreaker Teaser from grammar school on Vimeo.

vimeo of the week: Icebreaker

2008-12-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

It's back! Enjoy...

Icebreaker from grammar school on Vimeo.

vimeo of the week: This Song

2008-11-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is neither newly produced nor new to the interwebs, but it is technically new to this blog. For your embedding/embedded pleasure, here's the 2006 final cut of our short film, This Song. Enjoy...

This Song from grammar school on Vimeo.

2 and 3

2008-11-11T15:07:00.000-08:00

so the final, official, definitive version of the aforementioned dimes project consists of 2 parts. here they are, seperated, but in order of appearance. (the previously posted Paul Revere video will, i suppose, be considered an outtake as it did not make the band's final cut).

The Dimes - Catch Me Jumping (Live) from grammar school on Vimeo.

The Dimes - Paul Kern Can't Sleep from grammar school on Vimeo.

now that that's in the can, we're looking to tie up a few loose ends and finally get more stuff, new and old, on-line for your viewing pleasure. keep your eyes to the skies, kids.

finally: new video!

2008-10-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: the band has requested some time to tweak the audio on Paul Revere. we'll put it back up when it's ready.

we've recently compeleted a big promotional project for our friends and frequent clients, the dimes. the final product is a three-song live dvd that they'll be handing out and playing on a loop at NACA next month. we might put the whole thing on-line at some point, but for now here's my favorite of the three songs, Paul Revere.

The Dimes - Paul Revere from grammar school on Vimeo.

also: how cool is vimeo? it pretty much kicks youtube's ass as far as we're concerned.

pictures

2008-08-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

last night i was personally criticized for posting two (2!) blog entries that were essentially wordless. while i certainly wouldn't want to innundate any of you with too many pictures, i thought those two (2!) entries would serve as nice little teases of our recent activities.

in fact, we've had a very busy month or so...

7/11/08 - we did a live recording of the dimes at doug fir as part of a larger, promotional project we're working on for pet marmoset.

7/27/08 - we shot a short with the lovely michael johnson. it's still in post-production and we haven't yet worked out the details on releasing it for public consumption.

8/2/08 - we taped another show, this time catching the dimes, derby, and dcrs at the someday lounge.

?/?/08 - as far as anyone knows, joe ballman has been working tirelessLY, day and night, on polishing up the audio on his directorial debut (1.5 years in the works!), YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE.

plus, you know, other stuff that's going on like freelance work and pre-production/development of other projects, etc.

so, yeah... we should have something to show for it all by the end of the summer. even if it's just a few live clips to tide you over until the next film.

buy for now,
mTk

The End

2008-08-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 27 - Besaw's Cafe

2008-07-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

photo by gerald lewis

what you might possibly expect from us this year

2008-03-26T10:44:00.001-07:00

another short or two (potential titles: The End and 2F)
the long-awaited release of YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE
possibly a new dvd to add to your collection
some public screenings

no dates (or promises) for any of that stuff, but it's all on the docket. just so you know, you know.

what?

2008-01-28T15:54:00.000-08:00

yeah... we've been a little absent as of late. sorry about that...

rest assured, the gsp is still alive and well. we're just kind of in hibernation mode for the winter - storing up the creative energies, brainstorming new ideas, finishing up some smaller projects, playing with babies, doing homework, watching basketball, enjoying the glut of awards season films, etc.

that said: our little Icebreaker has gone missing. actually, it's just taking a break from the www as we try to find it a more commercially viable outlet. stay tuned for possible festival screenings or dvd releases.

also, we've still got plenty of dvds of almost everything. available in the our shop (see the sidebar). they make terrific valentine's day gifts for that special lady friend or special gentleman caller in your life. think about it.

sorta sordid (but not really)

2007-12-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

just a quick update re: Icebreaker. as the myspace contest came to a close there were accusations of tampering and fraud and on-line conspiracies spreading like wildfire. mostly, a bunch of the filmmakers appeared to be getting bombarded with negative votes by supporters of this or that other film, empty myspace accounts were being created for the sole purpose of inflating/deflating voting percentages, people were turning off their voting functions so as to preserve their high scores, etc. basically, it was kind of a mess and a lot of people got all twisted around about it.

so, the good people at fox and the pga opted to dismiss the voting process entirely and make an independent assessment of which 12 entries should proceed to round 2. this is currently in process and the expected due date for the result is still TBD. in fact, almost everything (which, btw, you can purchase from our sidebar!) about this contest is still TBD - including the revised rules and regulations!

so, basically, thank you to everyone who watched the film and gave us a positive vote and passed the link along to their friends. we do appreciate it. and, even though none of this counts toward whether or not we'll make it into the next round, please do continue to share the film with anyone who might enjoy it.

best,
mtk

"Pretty Good" Raves USAToday!

2007-11-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

Whitney Matheson of USAToday's pop culture blog, Pop Candy, had some kind words for our short film, Icebreaker , as voting for the Storyteller Challenge was coming to a close...

check out her post here.

i told you so.

2007-11-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:
Icebreaker is offline for now while we send it out to festivals. it will reappear in some form again. we promise.

ORIGINAL POST:
friends,

below is our new film, JEFFERSON - ICEBREAKER.

we've submitted it for a contest on myspace (www.myspace.com/storytellerchallenge). and, since it's a contest, obviously the more people that watch the film, the better our chances of rolling into the semi-finals and getting some nice exposure.

for those of you who have myspace accounts, if you enjoy the film, we would definitely appreciate a nice comment and a positive ranking. and if you really enjoy the film, we would love for you to pass the link along to anyone else you think might like it or maybe even post/mention it on your blog or website, if you're feeling generous.

thanks, and enjoy!

Storyteller

Add to My Profile | More Videos

in case you didn't know...

2007-11-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

"Icebreaker" Teaser

Add to My Profile | More Videos

coming soon... and we do mean soon.

also: DVDs of our charming debut feature, almost everything., are still available and reasonably priced! please support our promising young group of filmmakers with a modest purchase today. thanks!

something cool.

2007-10-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

something very cool is on the way next week.

if you don't have a myspace acct, now would be a good time to sign up for one.

thanks.

Available Now

2007-10-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

We have the DVDs in hand! All pre-orders will ship before the end of the week. Thanks for your patience.

SHOP!

2007-09-12T08:13:00.001-07:00

hi!

in case you haven't noticed, we've set up a new section to your right... it's called SHOP! as you can see, this is where we're going to start selling dvd copies of almost everything.

just an fyi on the timeline... the release date is expected to be september 25th. but, if you're antsy, you can pre-order it now by clicking the "buy it!" button and we'll try to ship it sooner rather than later.

dvds will also be available on our myspace starting the 25th, and, eventually, on our redesigned homepage when it's finished (very soon - we promise).

that's all the news for now, but keep on eye out for additional dvd releases in the upcoming months as well as updates on all our current projects.

-m

tuesday night screening!

2007-09-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

the director's cut of our acclaimed short film this song will be screening at the living room theaters in downtown portland on tuesday night. come see it with an audience - it's free!

VIDEO.

2007-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

as promised, we've polished up and posted some clips from recent musical events that we recorded.

for your convenience:

Laura Gibson (with the Portland Cello Project) - "Hands in Pockets"

Laura Gibson (with the Portland Cello Project) - "The Longest Day"

Jonah - "Intermission Is Over"

Jonah - "The Joy of Drowning"

what gives?

2007-08-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

it has recently been brought to our attention that we've been neglecting the blog. good point.

so... what's been going on this summer?

almost everything.: the dvd is almost nearly done. i promise. we're finishing up some graphic design stuff for the packaging and then it's off to the duplication factory. we're expecting a september 17th release, at which point it will be available for sale on website, blog, and myspace.

live shows: as i think i've already mentioned, we got a few more under our belt this summer, including laura gibson (at holocene with the portland cello project), and jonah (at the crystal ballroom). look for clips of those to show up on-line very soon.

YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE: our voluptuously-titled short film about dudes playing d'n'd is still in post-production. we've got a solid rough cut and are taking the time to make sure it's absolutely top notch before we set it free. look for some kind of release (youtube? myspace? funny or die? dvd?) in october.

big and new: part of the reason for the lack of updates is... we've just shot a new short! it's a very sharp dark comedy called Icebreaker. i know what you're thinking: if you were working on something, and it was worthy of discussion, why did you not discuss it? honestly, we didn't have the time. the script came together really fast (actually during pre-production on YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE) and seemed like it would be easy enough to shoot - a single location, one scene, with about 8 speaking parts.

unfortunately, the pre-production turned out to be not so simple... we initially tried to get it all together to shoot at the end of may, but that just didn't work out. so, we rescheduled for july 28/29 and got to work. casting notices went out and locations inquiries were made and pre-production basically ran full speed from june 1 - july 27. for those of you counting, that's nearly two months of pre-production work on basically a 10-minute short. obviously, there were a few speed bumps along the way, but having wrapped the film, i can honestly say that we've got something really great here and i'm excited to finish it up and get it out there. that's about all i'm going to say on Icebreaker for now... keep an eye out, though, for updates as post-production gets going.

so, that's what's been up. sorry to keep you in the dark. we'll try not to let it happen again.

nt nt,
m

promises promises

2007-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

so...

i really don't have much new to say. but i also don't want to leave you all out in the dark.

um... the dvd. yeah, i'm working on that. as previously (though somewhat sarcastically) mentioned, i've got a couple of sidebars that i'm finishing up for the disc. hopefully (though no promises (despite the title of this blog)), i can wrap those up within the next two weeks and then start burning off discs for everybody.

besides that: keep on eye on our myspace and youtube for more streaming internet video action coming soon. possibly including: more goofy behind-the-scenes p&r clips, some live concert footage of jonah and laura gibson, our new almost-finished short film, you are standing in front of a cave, and maybe some other random awesomeness.

also, we hope to have info on the next big production soon. we're considering production dates, scouting locations, and eyeing actors right now.

pretty decent.

2007-05-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

we had a really good turnout for the screening last week. everyone pretty much laughed where they were supposed to laugh and cried where they were supposed to cry and twelve people passed out during the invasion of normandy battle scene (luckily we had ambulances standing by (take that speilberg!)).

if you were unlucky enough to have missed the screening, keep your ear to the grindstone. we may or may not set-up an encore.

for those of you who were promised dvds - sit tight! i've got a couple of enhancements i want to make to the film and a two-hour gag reel to add. homemade dvds should start burning around the 15th and be delivered shortly thereafter. [edit: plans for homemade dvds have been abandoned in favor or professional duplication! dvds currently available for sale (see our "SHOP!" sidebar) and will ship no later than Sept 25.]

for those of you who were not promised dvds, but really really want one... drop me a line/make me an offer: headmaster@grammarschoolpictures.com

that's all i got.

public notice

2007-04-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

poster design by isaac holk

almost everything. screening. finally.

2007-04-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

To Whom It May Concern:

Grammar School Pictures is pleased to announce a free screening of almost everything.

5th Ave Cinemas (510 SW Hall St - Portland)
Friday, April 27 at 7:45pm

The screening is open to the public, so feel free to invite family/friends/business associates/anyone who might be
interested.

Additionally, if anyone hasn't seen the trailer for the film, it can be viewed at our website, myspace, or youtube.

We hope to see you there.

m @ gsp

fin.

2007-03-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

we've finished shooting for "You Are Standing..."

the footage looks promising. ballman did very well for his first stab at directing. knapp hopefully didn't suck too bad in front of the camera. mike was terrific. alicia was fantastic. and our crew and extras were real troopers... thanks to them:

gerald a lewis - director of photography
peter huszagh - production audio
mollie knapp - extra
victoria gallagher - extra
jake powell - extra

also, big thanks to miranda at holden's bistro for hosting us on sunday afternoon. (check out their happy hour menu - it's great!)

we'll have more info on where and when you might see the finished project soon...

You Are Standing In Front of a Cave - Day 1

2007-03-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

with day 1 on our new short film wrapped, we thought we might share some photos from the evening's shoot.

joe shows off the script.

matt studies the script.

peter and gerry set up.

mike explains the various ins and outs of role playing games.

joe makes a point.

mike hits his mark.

joe frames the shot.

over black

2007-03-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

hi.

so, i've got this scene i wrote a while back that is meant to be the opening scene for a feature length screenplay. mostly, it's just been sitting on my computer for more than a year - i've made notes on different aspects of potential stories and characters and kind of messed around with it a bit, but nothing's really driven it forward yet. but i like this one scene... so, i thought i would share it with you, dear reader.

please. enjoy.

-----------------

OVER BLACK:

STEVE
Okay what's the situation here?

CROSSING GUARD
He's having a heart attack.

STEVE
Cardiac arrest. Okay. Everyone clear back.
You kids, step back please. Thank you.

FADE IN:

EXT IRVINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - AFTERNOON

STEVE, 32, and a little scruffy in his wrinkled EMT uniform, is on his knees looking over the obese PRINCIPAL ALLRED, 52, who is laying unconscious on the pavement in the middle of the crosswalk.

Steve takes a deep breath.

STEVE
Okay.

He moves in and starts performing CPR - counting in WHISPERS to himself.

Thirty or so SCHOOL CHILDREN stand in a circle around Steve, watching him work. The CROSSING GUARD, 57, in his yellow vest looks over Steve's Shoulder.

Steve continues WHISPERING as he pushes on Allred's chest. He goes in for mouth-to-mouth, blowing into the obese man. No response.

The Crossing Guard furrows his brow.

CROSSING GUARD
Nothing's happening.

Steve ignores him.

The Crossing Guard leans in closer.

CROSSING GUARD
Maybe you're doing it wrong.

STEVE
Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to please
step back now.

The Crossing Guard ignores him. Steve continues with the chest compressions. He goes in for another breath.

No response.

Steve starts again with the chest compressions.

CROSSING GUARD
Are you pushing in the right place?

STEVE
Yes I'm pushing in the right place! I told
you - step back.

He looks toward the ambulance that's parked just past the circle of children.

STEVE
Kai, I'm gonna need a hand with this one.

EXT. AMBULANCE - CONTINUOUS

KAI, 31, is sitting in the back of the ambulance, with the back doors open, just out of view of the fallen principal. He's talking on a cell phone.

KAI
No, I love you the most.
(beat)
No I don't want to hang up first, you hang
up first.

In the distance, Steve comes up from giving another breath and, as he starts compressions again, turns toward the ambulance.

STEVE
Kai, I'm serious. He's starting to look like
a fucking Smurf. Bring the paddles.

KAI
(shouting back to Steve)
I'm warming them up right now, buddy.
(into phone)
But I don't want to let you go.

STEVE
Kai!

CROSSING GUARD
Who's he talking to?

A few of the children turn to look at the ambulance.

KAI
(into phone)
Okay, honey. I have to go save this man's
life now. I'll call you in three minutes.
I love you I love you I love you.
(beat)
You too. Bye.

Kai closes the phone.

EXT. THE CROSSWALK - CONTINUOUS
Steve in giving another breath - he finishes and comes back up, desperation in his eyes.

No response.

The Crossing Guard SIGHS and shakes his head.

STEVE
What is your problem, jerk off?

CROSSING GUARD
He's dying, asshole. Do something!

Steve starts the compressions again.

Kai pushes his way through the circle of children carrying the debfribulator, the Crossing Guard stares at him.

CROSSING GUARD
Where've you been?

KAI
(to crossing guard)
Sir, I need you to step back.
(to Steve)
What's the situation?

STEVE
He's having a heart attack, what does it
look like. Are those things juiced up?

KAI
Yeah, ready?

Kai preps the paddles.

Steve pulls off Allred's clip-on tie and rips open his shirt.

KAI
Clear!

Kai hits him with the paddles. Allred flinches and COUGHS.

KAI
Alright. He's going to be alright, everybody.

The children all MOAN.

Steve stands up and EXHALES LOUDLY. He drifts away from Allred and Kai.

Kai leans forward and pats Allred on the cheeks.

KAI
You okay, old man? You awake?

Allred's eyes flutter open.

KAI
It's okay. You're going to be fine.

The Crossing Guard stands up and looks off, muttering:

CROSSING GUARD
Nice work, assholes.

Steve turns to face him.

STEVE
What did you say?

The Crossing Guard glares at him Steve.

CROSSING GUARD
He almost died.

Steve steps over and punches the Crossing Guard in the nose, knocking him to the ground. The children all CHEER and LAUGH.

Steve pushes his way through the crowd of children, storming toward the ambulance.

Kai jumps up and helps the crossing guard to his feet, grabbing his arm.

KAI
Are you okay, sir. Are you in need of
medical assistance?

CROSSING GUARD
He punched me. That asshole just punched me.

Kai continues to hold the crossing guard's arm.

KAI
Let's not rush to conclusions, sir. It's
been a difficult and draining day for all of
us. Maybe you should just sit down and take
a deep breath.

The Crossing Guard pulls free of Kai's grip.

CROSSING GUARD
I'm gonna sue you, asshole. You're ass is mine.

Steve doesn't look back, he just keeps walking.

KAI
(to crossing guard)
Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to watch your
language - there are young children present.

CROSSING GUARD
Oh, fuck you.

The Crossing Guard throws down his flag and storms off toward the school.

2-short

2007-03-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

nothing new at all to report on almost everything. but, trust me, you'll be the first to know when we do have news.

besides that, i just thought you might like to know that we're back into production mode. the last weekend of march we'll be shooting a fun little short film tentatively titled you are standing in front of a cave. it will be joe ballman's directorial debut and featuring the fine acting talents of michael johnson. it's loosely tied to This Song, which you can download here. i'd tell you more... but i don't want to. needless to say, we'll let you know how it all turns out.

we've also got a second short film that we just finished writing today. this one is called icebreaker. i'm also not quite ready to say anything about this one - except that it's hilarious!

more details coming soon...

also: check out some new links we just posted --->

under construction

2007-02-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

so... just in case anyone is still reading this and interested, our official website has been simultaneouly shrunk and expanded. we're in the process of remodeling our web presense, so all you've got to see right now is a pretty new splash page. however, on that splash page we've posted some downloadable video. if you opt to download some video from the page, please be patient - we couldn't bare to post super small low-quality clips. also, please note that one of the videos is the brand new never-before-released director's cut of our highly acclaimed short film, this song.

check it out.

update this!

2007-01-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

the neverending project.

2007-01-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

it's mostly done. but it's been mostly done for several months now... just some fine tuning left. correcting a few of the closing credits. perfecting the home-burned dvd just a little further. securing final rights to some of the music. etc etc etc.

new things currently being considered:

there's a fantastic idea for a 13 episode, 30 minute television series. we've got some notes for the pilot episode and a nice outline for the full season.

there's a new feature script for which pages are being written and re-revised and bickered over on a semi-regular basis. the top-secret story may or may not involve the following: hand grenades; anti-government uprisings; dairy farmers; weird europeans; the mending of father-son relations; semi-obscure languages; country regulations regarding alcohol sales and consumption; trapeze. needless to say it's going to warm your heart and kick your ass.

there's a neato little short that is semi-related to the television series and involves role-playing games.

there's a music video for a terrific local musician.

back to work...
m

little pictures

2006-12-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

i probably shouldn't be posting this since it's incomplete, but... our good friend isaac holk has been working on a poster/flier/promotional piece for the film and he sent me a partial/rough draft last night. anyway, it pretty much kicks ass, so i thought i would post a few small pieces of the incomplete work... enjoy.

additionally, if any of you were at the norfolk & western show last night you might have noticed a couple of annoying people roaming around the stage with video cameras. that would have been us and our friend, chad crouch, whose record label, hush, has contributed a number of songs to the soundtrack for 'almost everything.' anyway, we're hoping to have future multi-media collaborations with hush and will keep you updated on any news there.

so long for now...
m

multiple medias

2006-11-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

as per previous posts, i'm dropping some multi-media on all you chumps.

the following are a couple of stand-alone scenes that you may or may not have seen on our myspace page. youtube still sorta sucks (at least as far as a/v quality is concerned), but it's obviously also the most convenient way to spread the video.

here you go:

slow going...

2006-11-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

so it's been a little while. i don't wanna say we've been slacking exactly, but let's just say that our television consumption has seen a sharp spike since the film got sent of to sundance. anyway... no word yet on that whole sundance thing. and being as no news is good news, we're just fine with that.

but, so, yeah... we've started back into polishing the whole thing. not much to talk about there, really. only boring-type stuff - running final color correction, re-recording of the some of the music (tho, i have to comment on this one thing: due to the complications of scheduling legitimate recording sessions with everybody in parks & recreation, ljb has taken up the herculean task of re-creating and recording his own versions of a couple of their tracks, featuring support from jake powell and a few others and vocals by michael johnson and chad crouch, which will appear in the final cut of the film. i don't know if you realize how impressive that is, but trust me, it's pretty damn impressive), working out the details of creating a dvd, etc. so, yeah, boring stuff to talk about, but it's gotta be done, hasn't it?

in other news, we've got a couple of writing projects we've started on. though, of course, we cannot discuss them with you as we know you're a plageristic bunch and would likely steal our million-dollar ideas and claim them as your own, if we gave you the opportunity. which, we're not going to do, by the way, so forget about it.

oh, i know what will keep you possibly entertained! how about sometime in the next week or so, i post to the blog maybe some multi-media stuff... a track or two from the score and maybe a small downloadable clip or trailer or something. there's something to look forward to, eh?

sorry if all this sounds weird... we tend to not know exactly what to do with ourselves during these transitional times. maybe it's best we just keep our mouths (e.g. fingers (for typing on the blog)) shut during these times of not-knowingness. i dunno... what do you think?

one other thing...

2006-09-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

i almost forgot! we had an eleventh hour title change go through: we are now in post-post-production on "almost everything."

what do you think?

gonna leave you where i found you...

2006-09-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

long time no bloggy, eh?

sorry about the silence, we've been racing hard and fast toward a firm deadline (which was this morning) and haven't had much time for anything else. really.

but, so, yeah... a brief up-date on where it's at:

our shiny new post-production audio master, noah davis, has done some spectacular work on our tracks and we've now got a pretty damn clean soundtrack.

ljb and dana bourland have composed and recorded some perfect clips of score and they are all placed and pretty well mixed into the film. (one or two will likely be revised before the officius release, but they pretty much nailed everything the first time out.)

ljb also recently spent a long weekend (with mike and anthony) mixing and recording over-dubs for a parks & recreation b-side, love and war, which plays lovingly over our closing credits.

and finally, we've reached a sort of stopping point for now. is there still work to be done? sure, there is. but it's finesse work - tweaking some colors and replacing a demo track of source music with proper studio track, that sort of thing. and being that we're momentarily happy with where the movie's at, we've decided to send off the first festival application. i'm not saying which festival we sent it to first, but it's probably pretty obvious... we should be able to report on our rejection by the first week of december or so. the next festival submission we're looking at is november, so between now and then we should be able to wrap up a the little things and start screening the film for family and friends (public screenings will be announced once we figure all that business out... later. but don't expect anything really until probably early next year.)

thanks for checking in with us!

new and exciting...

2006-07-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

OPEN CALL: Short Films for Benefit DVD

Grammar School Pictures is collaborating with Antoine Doinel Records on a cd/dvd package to benefit SMART, a non-profit early literacy program in Oregon.

The title of the project is Guilty Pleasures and we are asking interested parties to submit a short scene (5 minutes or less) from their favorite cheesy movie, re-created or re-imagined in their own style (basically, a "cover" of the scene - like Wes Anderson's Rushmore-style MTV Movie Awards commercials, for example).

The final due date for all submissions is October 23, 2006. By that date, all films should be delivered in Quicktime .mov format (no larger than 900 mb) on either data-dvd or cd to:

Matt Knapp
Grammar School Pictures
2368 W Burnside St ste. 209
Portland, OR 97210

Since this is a charity project, we can offer no cash prizes, but the selected filmmakers will receive 10 copies of the final product and, of course, a credit.

If you plan on submitting a scene, please register by emailing your name, the name of the film you are covering, and a brief description of the scene to: headmaster@grammarschoolpictures.com. Please direct any inquiries to the same email address.

Thanks and good luck!
matt

no news/good news

2006-07-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

not much to report these days - toiling away on the minutia, as it were. new musical additions have been presented by dana bourland and ljb, and i'm really excited about where our original score is going. also, made a few editorial changes to some source music - nothing major really to speak of, just tweaks and a couple of substitutions. and we've got a firm deadline now - september 25 is the absolute last day for a dvd of our fine motion picture to be arriving in the hands of the good folks at sundance (so that they may watch it and have a mild chuckle before tossing our dvd in the waste basket and crushing our hopes of escaping our lousy day jobs by way of major film festival glory). that's all for now. sorry to be sooooooo boring.

oh, also: i showed the little niece and nephew a few of alicia's scenes on sunday. while 4-year-old dennis was distracted (though strongly insistent that i continue playing the movie), it appears as if we've won over a fan with 2-year-old emma (who couldn't even sit through Cars! take THAT pixar!). so i guess we know our demographic now...

post-script

2006-06-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

also, lest you think we intend to rest on our laurels when this somethingness is all said and done. the last line of the next thing is currently: "are you contractually obliged to be an asshole, or is that still a hobby?"

more on that later...

cutting syllables

2006-06-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

we've been working on adr (automated dialog replacement, for you laymen) and foley (original sound effects) for the last week or so, and so far:so good. the editing of this adr is really the only difficult part. there are little tricks to getting things to synch up (e.g. i prefer to leave the original "scratch" track in place and slide the adr track back and forth by a frame or two until the echo is as minimal as possible), but it's such detailed, meticulous work. it's funny, you can actually cut an entire syllable out of a word that lasts a frame or two too long and, as long as the lips synch up, the brain just fills in what's missing. the scary part is that it's impossible for me to know how these lines are going to sound to an audience. i mean, i've lived with the scratch tracks for so long that, even in their imperfections, they sound right to me. this is where our post-production audio dude/dudette comes in. hopefully, when all is said and done, he/she'll take these clean new tracks and dirty 'em up a little bit. fit them with the right amount of reverb and eq them into normalcy so they closely match our production audio.

but besides the adr, the fun part of the last couple weeks has been recording the little details: a flight attendant's announcement over the airport pa, aaron's voice mail recordings, the little whistle that joe's nose makes when he exhales with vigor.

anyway, things are coming together quite nicely. i'm about a week or so away from a locking down picture and i feel really confident in the project as a whole right now. (but this might be because i haven't shown it to anyone in quite a while - even joe just the weekend got to take a look at it for the first time in over a month.) hopefully, we'll be able to finish strong.

swimmingly.

2006-05-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

yes sir, we're doing just that well.

we (the royal we) made quick work out of that little computer blip a few weeks ago and the movie is officially back in place. all the original scenes were restored by saturday morning and by the end of the day sunday, we'd mixed in the re-shoots and pick-ups as well.

and not to sound sickeningly positive, but i think the time off probably even did us some good. as we sat down recently with a potential post-production audio guru to watch the last tangible cut on tape, we started noticing things - places where it dragged and scenes to be jumbled up and just how fucking long are the opening credits supposed to be anyway... so, all that stuff that maybe we were too close to notice last time around is being worked on. we all feel supremely confident that this next cut will be pretty damn close to final. not quite final (what is final anyway?), but pretty damn close.

in musical new: ljb played for me a few bits of score that's he's working on and they sound fantastic! i'm very excited to see what he and mike johnson (who i believe will be tossing his musical hat into the mix at some point as well) and the inimitable dana bourland come up with for the final score. also, we've got official permission from hush records to use a few of their fantastic tracks including grave's modern 'love's a killer', blanket music's cover of 'i take on your days', and our own re-mixes of super xx man's 'garage apartment' and toothfairy's 'sorry' (as featured in the trailer). also also: the dazzling strangers, who are both dazzling and strange, have granted us license to their strangly dazzling track, 'petey libertine' in the film. exciting stuff!

stay tuned for so much more...
mtk

shameless plugging for friends...

2006-05-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

dear reader,

my good friends, Parks & Recreation, who have been kind enough to provide a number of their fantastic songs to the movie are looking to play the PDX Pop Festival this summer. PDX Pop is now taking requests for bands to be put on the bill. So, if you've got the time and the inclination, please drop by PDX POP and put in a vote for the boys.

if you don't feel comfortable voting for a band you're unfamiliar with, by all means, get acquainted: P&R

thanks and godspeed.

mtk

return of the edi(ting suite)

2006-05-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

just a quick note to say that we're back in business. thanks in part to some generous dvd pre-orders, we've managed to replace and repair our editing system and are well on our way to reconstructing the missing scenes from the film. reconstruction should be complete within the next couple of weeks, if all goes according to jim belushi.

additionally, re-shoots last weekend went extremely well. the two revised scenes and one additional mini-scene are going to work beautifully, i know it. all that's left is some foley, a little bit of adr, and a days worth of random pick-up shots, and we'll be absolutely finished with the production end of things.

that's all for now... except that (and this is the last time i'll mention it) our paypal account is still ready and willing to help you buy a small portion of artistic credibility... see below for instructions.

buy for now.

so that happened.

2006-04-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

hi gang...

just a few quick notes...

1. there's a much better quality version (quicktime!) of the teaser trailer up on our myspace page (and if you're on myspace, be our friend!).

2. my imac died! after less than 1 year! last week it just wouldn't boot. initial trouble shooting by the genius bar at my local apple store indicated it was merely a problem with the power source, however yesterday they called to tell me that my hard drive was ruined as well! this was a major concern since most of the movie was on that hard drive. however, i also have an external drive i use and, luckily, i had saved a copy of the project file and about 40% of the footage on that external drive. so... long story short, i had to arm wrestle the manager of the apple store to get my old hard drive back (they're holding my imac unrepaired until i return it - bastards) so that i could explore my options for (unfortunately costly) data recovery. needless to say, this is a set back. assuming macforce can recover nothing (without having to send it to a drive recovery lab), i'm staring down about a month's worth of work to reconstruct my last cut. plus bills for attempted data recovery, software replacement, etc... which leads me to...

3. grammar school pictures is now accepting donations. for $20 you can pre-order a copy of the dvd (which we will ship by the end of september). for $50 you can purchase a "special thanks" credit (and receive a copy of the dvd). for $150 you can purchase an "associate producer" credit (and receive a copy of the dvd). for $300 you can purchase a "co-producer" credit (and receive a copy fo the dvd). and for $500 we'll credit you as an "executive producer", send you a copy of the dvd, and invite you to the premiere. take some time... think it over. when you decide how much you'd like to give, simply send it via paypal to: headmaster@grammarschoolpictures.com. we'll send you an email confirming your donation and it's associated credit. thanks for your support.

okay. that's all for now... hopefully i'll have more good news to post next time.

m

teaser trailer!

2006-04-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

so this is pretty rough... no real sound work done and youtube doesn't provide the highest quality video (and it slips the audio out a sync a little too)... but, irregardless, here you go...

done with all that.

2006-03-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

alright people: by popular demand we are officially ending this back and forth over a new title. the votes have been counted (all one of them) and the new official title is ... somethingness.

take it or leave it. or comment on it.

boring you and me: more potential titles

2006-03-29T10:20:00.000-08:00

i'm not exactly trying to beat a dead horse, or drive away the few of you who actually read this drivel on occassion, but... the title issue has not yet been resolved.

here's a fresh batch of words/phrases under consideration:

- distraction
- all you need is me (courtesy of reclinerland)
- directions
- idle
- returns/returning/return
- hesitation
- backspace (i've bounced this one around for a while - and i kind of like it)
- the lack (does no one like 'the lack'?!? am i really that much of a freak?)
- somethings
- somethingness (yes, i'm serious...)

in other title news: 'how it ends' is out of the running for the picture as it has been reassigned to another potential future project.

thanks for putting up with us.

something else?

2006-03-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

how does anybody feel about "bent" as a title...

thoughts?

feelings?

general misgivings?

o-kay...

2006-03-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

maybe you don't like 'the post-graduate' but can't bring your fine selves to tell us that it's a terrible title... we've been considering that possibility and have decided to let you in on the whole brain-storming process... below is a list of words/phrases/concepts that we've considered... let us know if anything sticks or whatever. please! thank you! you're welcome!

the list starts now:
- incomplete
- a work in progress
- in limbo
- spinning wheels
- plans
- digression
- stray
- parenthetical
- the long finish
- the end
- misdirection
- all the high school girls
- a momentary lapse of reason
- the post-graduate
- the lack
- dating two girls at once while you're trying to work out your own issues probably isn't a great idea
- how it ends
- perspective (or a lack thereof)
- this is your only second chance
- twenty-five
- changes
- ...
- full circle

so... what do you think?

so there's that...

2006-03-07T15:28:00.000-08:00

in the on-going debate over potential new titles for the film, joe and i have tossed a bunch of different ideas around. this afternoon, one of them kind of stuck...

the post-graduate

i'm not going to say anything else about the title, but i would strongly encourage feedback (give us first impressions and then sit on it for a couple days and check back in, if you don't mind).

thanks.

um... i'm not sure about that shot/line/piece of music/scene/character/sub-plot/sequence/act/whole movie

2006-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

so yeah... my head's still spinning a touch from the super-small screening we had on sunday (and also the multiple beers i used to drown my anxiety). it was the first time we'd shown the film to anyone besides select members of our immediate families and it was a little nerve-wracking. special thanks to richard and payam for their objective commentary (being that they were the only ones who didn't really know the story and hadn't worked (much, in the case of payam) on the film prior to seeing it).

it went well, i think for only being a second cut... the highlights/lowlights:

1. payam starts giggling during my very brief cameo and proclaiming that i "look like a child molestor" (ed. note: not true. in no way does mr. knapp resemble a child molestor, nor is he playing a child molestor in the film in question.)

2. as soon as the movie's over, payam calls me out on my over-use of dramatic pauses. (apparently, somehow during the editing process i fell in love with structuring the scenes as follows: medium shot or close-up that jumps right into the dialogue; more med/cu shots as conversion continues; final joke/moment in cu; end on a very long wide shot in which nothing happens except for the characters looking at each other silently. this structure, while fine to highlight the occasional dramatic moment, may not be the best selection for EVERY THIRD SCENE.)

3. during conversation, everyone at the table suggests shortening/deleting a shot at the end of a particular scene. i look down at my own notes where i have underlined three times, my own thoughts for the scene: EXPAND THE END SHOT.

4. joe reminds everyone for the fifth time to refer to his character as "colin" and not as "joe".

5. issues arise regarding a scene in which joe fights with a middle-aged man, who slugs him (off-camera) resulting in joe having a black eye for the rest of the film. it's suggested that the scene simply does not work - which, on some level, i think joe and i were always aware of (that scene went through about three drastic revisions, including a final one five days before we shot it). however, if we cut it, it will leave a distracting gap in the continuity of the film (the black eye is discussed with other characters, but i really think something like that (at least as it relates to the tone/flow of our story) needs to be at least partially witnessed by the audience. richard suggested that a few editing changes (keeping the pace quick and steady through the entire sequence, and cutting down on the fight scene) might make it work... but there are also some sound issues to deal with. so, we're probably looking at another scene to re-shoot (the tally is at three so far), although this particular one will actually require significant scripted revisions to the dialogue/tone of the scene.

okay... i'm getting the anxiety again about all the work that still lies ahead. ultimately, i think we're still on solid ground. lots of work left to go (duh), but we have plenty of time to do it well. and, most importantly, nobody was too confused or throught that it outright sucked. so, yeah... i'm taking a few days off from the whole thing to kind of clear my head. then, it's back to work. (by the way, february marked the two-year anniversary of the project... it was during a triangular road trip from salem to los angeles to salt lake city to salem that i came up with the initial characters and concepts that became our currently untitled film.)

the point of a democracy

2006-02-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

by the way, we finished that first cut weeks ago. and we're already well into the second draft.

there's music now - lots and lots of music. i think i've placed about 10 pieces of source music, some of which is legitimized by handshakes with gentlemen, the rest will hopefully not be too expensive. of course, we've got lots of p&r in the mix (and more still to come (hopefully including some by-request, unreleased b-sides and re-mixes) - there's also a very nice blanket music cover of a corrina repp song, some older reclinerland tunes, an amina track, and, finally, the stuff that will probably drain a fair portion of our post-production budget: belle and sebastian's "if she wants me" over a cheery summer montage and a.c. newman's "drink to me, babe, then" over our opening credits.

so, yeah, swimmingly is an appropriate word, i think. we'll be watching various cuts with friends/family/crew members over the new couple weeks and collecting notes on improving the edit. additionally, we've got some re-shoots scheduled for may, which i'm actually looking forward to. second chances are A+ in my book - especially with 9 months of hindsight... we'll be re-working two scenes specifically and i'm very much looking forward to bettering my shot selections and finding more active and interesting environments for the scenes in question. besides that it's all music and audio sweetening and then we're off...

keep checking in on occasion... and also look us up on myspace if you like (we're too lazy and insecure in our html to post an actually link here...) - hopefully we'll have some clips circulating on our myspace page as well as our home page (www.grammarschoolpictures.com) within the next few weeks.

until next time...

foreverforeverforeverforeverforever

2006-01-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

it's been nearly that long since i updated, it seems. but, as i think i've disclaimed previously - it's largely mental, this work i've been doing.

the good news (and briefly!): literally, just a handful of scenes remain before i have the first cut assembled! of course, none of you will get to see that cut... but i think i'm very well on target for the first super-rough cut test screening that is penciled in for february 25th. but don't feel bad if you don't get an invitation - we're keeping a pretty tight lid on things until it's fairly well-polished... trust me, it's for the best.

besides that, i have a somewhat firm promise from ljb that the scoring will begin early next week upon deliver of the aforementioned first cut. and, speaking of music, (and i may be opening a can of worms here, but) if anyone out there has recommendations for mellow-like pop song or whatnot that we might get the rights to for free (man(!), that's sloppy syntax), by all means, do share...

that's about it for now.

except for one other thing: if you happen to search diligently through a popular networking website, you might just come across some stills from the film... not that we're encouraging you or anything...

still nothing significant to report...

2005-11-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

as the title indicates, i have nothing significant to report. then why am i posting, you ask? good question. the answer: i don't know. maybe to dispell any romantic notions you may have held about the editing process (it's really just a whole lot of me sitting at a computer screen watching take after take of the same shot and trying to decide which of joe's slightly varied inflections of "what are you doing here?" is going to sound most natural and create the illusion of emotional continuity between the three or four other shots i'm using.) not that it's not fun - it's actually really engrossing work (especially when you're editing something that's yours). but the physical details of it are very minimal and the work/fun is primarily mental. in any case, i've starting closely watching the cuts of every film or television show now. and it's clear that editing (like all of the filmmaking process) is about 50% craft and 50% art. most of the decisions you make are to keep pace and continuity, but every once in a while, things come together and continuity is not an issue and you can make cuts that actually elevate a scene (the rest of the time, you must rely upon the script or the acting or the photography to serve the story and deliver the goods). and then there's the middle ground where you might not have perfect continuity, but by trimming a frame here or there and bleeding the audio from one take to another, you can cheat a little and hope that what you're really trying to do, creating that moment, distracts the audience from the fact that mike's right hand went from being on the table to under the table between shots. but it's coming along nicely so far. and the feb 26th self-imposed rough-cut deadline should be no trouble at all.

additionally, i sent in our articles of organization today and within a week or so, we should be an official business. wahoo.

also: still no new name for the movie. not that we've been trying that hard, but still...

who wants to name our movie?!?

2005-11-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

so, we (i) have kind of cooled on the title (drift) and am more or less coming up blank for potential new names... we had this issue during the writing phase too and cycled through about seven or so names before settling (settling) on "drift". so if anyone has any bright ideas they'd like to share, please to post them in the comments section for this entry. if you happen to suggest a title that we fall in love with, we'll probably steal it from you and make no mention of its true origin in either public or private conversations. but there's always the off-chance that we'll throw you a bone and give you an associate producer credit or something.

checking in

2005-11-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

not sure if anyone's still reading this (esp since i haven't posted in nearly a month) - but there's nothing major to report right now. i'm still editing (it's going well) and i've got about 35-40 minutes worth of scenes rough cut. sequences are starting to form. characters are coming to life. and the plot coheres. highlights: (1) joe's nose whistle. it's everywhere. EVERYWHERE. i can't think of a single scene i've cut where at least one take of each angle doesn't prominently feature a nose whistle. BRILLIANT. i'm thinking of stealing from mike nichols and inserting the nose whistle at key moments throughout the film. (2) the subtle variations of mike johnson. as per a previous post, mike excells at tweaking reactions and delivery just enough to change a line's mood without breaking continuity. BRILLIANT. (2) alicia's attention and energy. i've not cut many of her scenes together yet... but in the few that i have done, alicia carries herself extremely well. once a take gets going, there are no breaks in character or blank expressions - she's incredibly focused on each scene. BRILLIANT. (3) lisa's versatility. admittedly, we didn't give her any slapstick or broad comedy, but lisa nailed everything else we asked her to do. from kissing joe (ewwwwwww!) to striking a balance between sarcastic/hurt/angry/embarrased (all in a single moment) to being motherly, she pulled it all off. BRILLIANT. (4) jim is funny. as the dad, jim is really funny. and soft. and you kinda feel bad for him. but he's funny. BRILLIANT. (5) erick is a punk. as with alicia, i've only cut a few of his scenes together, but erick plays a pretty good asshole. which is nothing like him in person! BRILLIANT. (6) dylan is cute. BRILLIANT. (7) dennis is cute (but dumb). BRILLIANT. (8) bob ham can walk-out-of-a-bathroom-and-give-a-disapproving-look like a sonuvabitch. BRILLIANT. (9) mollie definitely looks like she thinks joe is weird. BRILLIANT. (10) all those high school kids in eugene are crazy and young and hip! BRILLIANT. (11) ashleigh is crazy and weird! BRILLIANT. (8) payam is EVERYWHERE. BRILLIANT. okay... i'm done for now.

how it's done (right)

2005-10-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

so just after midnight last night, i sat down to cut together one last scene for the day... i'd been working on stuff from early in the shoot (which was also from early in the script) with joe and mike's characters and it was going okay. mostly, i was just lining things up to be polished at some point in the future when there was more context around the scenes. but so i start cutting together this nice little bit - it's the first time that colin and aaron (best friends 4ever) have to themselves after recently reuniting. it's a simple, two-shot scene set in a very cramped hallway at the basement pub where the characters just sort of chat and establish the situations for the first act. but, damn, those boys knocked it out of the f-ing ballpark. i digitized two takes from joe's angle and three from mike's and between those five times through the scene i had a terrific and uncommon range of reactions and emotions to select from - and without needing to cut around continuity! contrary probably to what i was telling him, mike gave me a slight variations of frustration and playfullness and cockiness without fully changing character. and joe did the same thing with his frustration, depression, and absurdity. both of them provided me with perfect little clips that can be interchanged and shuffled around without disrupting the flow of the scene or causing any awkward breaks of character. it was really fantastic and surprising putting that scene together with so much ease. so, hats off to joe and mike. additionally, hats off to bob ham (bobham!), who hid in the bathroom for several hours that morning, flushing a toilet on cue and then squeezing his large manly frame into an impossibly small gap between the camera and the wall (you can read his version of the story here: HERE! (scroll down to July 11)). i'm really excited to see this all coming together...

even more pictures!

2005-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

and also here's a few pictures from the wrap party...

andy, gerry, and joe bicker in the kitchen.

joe continues bickering. peter is bemused.

gerry schemes, as mollie and alicia enjoy something someone else is saying.

joe, ashleigh, and yona admire mike while an unidentified person enjoys some liquid courage.

ashleigh and mike converse.

jim looks away from bob and lita.

joe and bob share a "moment".

gerry holds court in his living room.

more pictures!

2005-10-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

since there's no new news to really report, i thought i'd catch up with posting some pictures from the latter days of production. enjoy.

joe attempts to put a shoe on.

joe and andy survey the scene.

matt moves incredibly fast behind the camera.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

2005-10-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

that's the answer to your question. on that day, we'll hold a rough cut screening for the cast and crew of the film with the intent to gather critical feedback, test temp track music, etc. also, we should probably have another party that night at gerry's house. i'll have alicia put in a few more calls to widmer and liquid. see you then.

don't eat the bug

2005-10-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

a brief note on our recent wrap party (brief: since i'm sure most of you (1) were in attendence or (2) are not at all interested in this aspect of the production):

it was fun
we didn't drink anywhere near the amount of beer or vodka we had available
gerry told fantastic stories about everything from ghosts to drunken chemistry teachers
some jerk ate a bug
everyone got a free t-shirt or two
peter drank so much he was hungover
peter also gave matt and alicia a fantastic scrabbleboard as a gift
everyone was drunk enough by the time we showed the footage that they were unable to fully express their disapointment/shame
it was fun

that's all for now... i'll try to keep everyone posted on the post-production, but i'm not entirely sure how interesting that's all going to be... additionally, i'll post some more photos and link to some on-line galleries of photos that people have taken on-set and at the party.

l8r.
matt

um... we're done.

2005-09-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

almost. pretty much. basically.

there are a few shots to pick up on saturday before the wrap party - mostly joe driving around on various freeways.

we pretty much went out with a whisper. the last full day of production consisted of myself, joe, alicia, and lucy in salem shooting scenes in which joe was mostly in a single room, had no actual interation with other characters, very little dialogue and a lot of repeated shots. it went well and was a reasonably short day. no major issues or concerns or weirdness.

and like that [poof] it was done.

(at least for most of the other people. joe and i still have a lot of work to do (me: editing; joe: music) and we'll still have to call on our friends mike johnson and lisa wells to fill in a few gaps (mike for music/lisa for adr (we had some microphone failure in one of her scenes)). and, of course, there's the building of the ambient soundtrack as well as securing the rights to source music (most of which we're hoping will come from our good friends parks & recreation... but we won't know exactly what we need until the cut is assembled (unfortunately, we are no martin scorsese). then there's all the business of film festivals and publicity materials (and, oh yeah, we've got to try and arrange cast photos before anyone else changes their appearance too drastically) and trying to find a way for people to actually see this movie.)

but for now, we can give ourselves permission to breath again. most of us have our weekends back. and the work becomes much calmer and almost meditative (at least, the editing seems that way). they say that every movie is written three times - once in script form, once during production, and once in the editing. the first time, with the script, was fantastic - mostly joe and i sat around in bars and argued over the details and thought of things to make ourselves laugh (then i went home and typed it). the second time was (to borrow a term from the poetess, b. spears) chaotic, but fun, but still crazy and too fast and too slow and stressful and brilliant. and now we're back to beer and laughs. hopefully.

sorry... do i sound pessimistic and/or "bummed out"? really, i'm not. i feel great about everything and the scenes i've cut together so far look terrific and i'm excited to see all the moments that we worked so hard to capture all lined-up and playing off of each other. it should be a lot of fun. really.

(maybe this is the whole post-partum thing flaring up. and i wasn't even aware i had a birthing canal. (sorry, is that too graphic?))

long way down...

2005-09-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

the second to last weekend has passed. so we say a hearfelt (production) goodbye to our dear old/new friends: michael george johnson, actor/musician; lisa wells, actress; erick custodio, actor; gerald lewis, director of photography; peter huszagh, production assistant/grip; yona prost, extras coordinator. you will be dearly missed.

but yeah... the weekend went well. the short version: we lost our coffee shop location on wednesday - but everyone kept their cool and raced to fine a replacement. the winner of the race was alicia, who had a new location (la razza tazza) secured by 4pm that afternoon. we shot there on saturday (they actually locked out customers during business hours so that we could get what we needed!). then we shot a few quick things outside mike johnson's apartment before heading off to berbati's pan with 'the band'. a few minor snags getting the tascam to connect to bob's laptop so that we could get a soundboard recording were ironed out relatively easily. in warming up, mike played 'yours' in a lower key and it sounded fantastic, so we went with that at the last minute. the dolly-pan shots of mike on the stage were damn near impossible to coordinate and may not work out at all. we had just enough extras to provide the illusion of a crowd. and it all looks and sounds fantastic. sunday - we got together around 8am and realized our exterior location for april's apt would not work due to construction in the area. so we cruised the neighborhood and "borrowed" the front door from another building in the area. joe and alicia were great in a break-up/argument scene (which is always tough). we picked up a few other pieces and headed back to april's apt for the remainder of the day. all went smoothly from there on out - there was some fun 1st person perspective shots that involved a group hugging of joe and alicia's arms suspended above her head. and we wrapped at a reasonable hour.

i'll see about posting some actual screen shots from our dailies within the next day or two.

one day to go...

big pictures

2005-09-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

i thought rather than me rambling this week, you might enjoy some fine photography from the good folks on our crew... and per the requests of you fine readers, some explaination of each photo: 1. matt knapp (left, director/co-writer/producer/editor) and joe ballman (right, actor: colin/co-writer/producer/music supervisor) discuss the blocking of joe's hands in a very delicate scene. 2. alicia tolman (producer, actress: april) and lisa wells (actress: keira) hang out between set-ups outside pizza schmizza on sw yamhill. 3. andy mills (sound recordist) does his traditional pre-take good luck shuffle. 4. joe "acts" like he's perplexed by what's on a computer screen in colin's childhood bedroom.

blocking the john

2005-08-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

it was a good little weekend coming back to the film.

on saturday we were scheduled to shoot the scene where joe's and alicia's characters silently flirt at a coffee shop as well as alicia's "oath of honesty" bit. however, due to unfortunate timing issues, we were unable to confirm the location. which is bad because alicia's scenes seem to keep getting pushed around and shoved into the odd corner of the schedule more and more. but it wasn't so bad because it meant that we didn't have to be at the coffee shop at 530am (yet). instead, we all met up at the basement at 8:30 to finish off the final joe-and-mike-have-a-beer-and-chat scene. and it went really well... we had way more extras than we needed (a nice surprise) and tim, the owner of the basement, was, as always, so great for coming in early and letting us have our run of the place. joe and mike were totally on the ball and solid with the scene and we finished up in a timely manner. there was one amusing anecdote, but mike stole it and already posted it on his blog, so i'll just refer you there (www.reclinerlandhq.com/blog.html) to read about payam's mad pinball skills.

sunday, joe and mike and alicia and myself all met-up down in eugene to shoot at the airport (we were originally planning on shooting at the portland airport, but... i'll keep this diplomatic and say it "didn't work out" much the same way our conversations with the doug fir "didn't work out" - i may rant about certain conversations with certain parties later on down the line... but not now). much to my suprise (i had only been there once - more than seven years ago) the eugene airport is pretty scenic and i don't think it will look to small or woodsy (which was a minor concern for me). plus, the only trouble they gave us was via a pompous lady janitor who advised us that we were "blocking the john" by setting up the tripod seven feet out from the entrance. also, since we weren't directing foot traffic in the place, we had a number of takes ruined by jet-lagged travelers walking toward us, craning their necks to look into the lens and then, a good thiry seconds later, realizing that they might actually be IN THE SHOT and suddenly shifting directions and walking off screen. but it would out extremely well... mike did a top notch job and everything looked great.

then... we drove the two hours (actually two and half thanks to an accident on I-5) back to portland to re-shoot the dreaded basketball scene (it had a smudge on the lens last time and a bad audio cable) as well as joe's close-up in the stalking scene (also a shabby image with no audio). the basketball scene was... frustrating to shoot. people say you shouldn't try to shoot a movie with kids and animals. i'd like to amend that adivce to include basketballs. even joe, who's got a gentle touch, had a hard time as a stunt shooter for mike and at one point an errant shot sent the ball right into the side of the camera. luckily nothing was broken, but the stress levels went through the roof after that. but you wouldn't know if from the performances. joe and mike were so much more relaxed and natural this time around (amazing how much easier it is when the weather cools down and you don't have the afternoon sun in your face). but yeah, we ended up shooting the scene more or less in chronological order, with mostly singles to cut-away to and the occassional two shot to keep things in perspective. when were starting i had decided to keep things fluid by not over-blocking the action (and going slightly off-book for some of the less important physical beats). again, all this was much more difficult that you might imagine and it took us a good couple of hours to get it right, but i'm very happy with how things seem to have turned out.

and gerry rigged up a very nice make-shift flag to help us get a better image on joe's stalking close-up.

props for the weekend:
1. alicia - for toughing it out in spite of a pending fever.
2. mike - for nailing a half-page of convoluted dialogue in one take at the park.
3. jason hughes - for changing colin's car's alternator in time for us to drive to eugene
4. joe and mike - for getting up early and driving 4 hours (round-trip) to shoot the airport stuff and then still being fantastic during the afternoon scenes.
5. gerry and peter - for being excellent c-stands.
6. everybody else.

don't look me in the eye

2005-08-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

i've developed a twitch in the bottom lid of my left eye. it's not enormous - my eye stays open and the bottom lid just kind of vibrates for a few seconds every two minutes or so. this is not the first time this has happened. during post-production on the short films, a brave new victoria and i want to tell you, i developed a similar twitch. it lasted for a few days (until i was done editing) and then went away. unfortunately, we're looking at a few weeks until we finish production and then months of cutting and scoring and tweaking in post. my hope is that, as things settle and the picture comes together, the twitch will fade away. but if not, i'll survive. the twitch isn't too terrible and it hasn't become overly irritating. and if i'm mentally occupied, i can pretty well ignore it.

so i think we're all excited to jump back in for another weekend. it sounds like everybody had a nice break and i know, at least for me, it was a good chance to open a few windows and let some fresh air in. i've got a few new ideas for the remainder of our scenes and a tweak or two for some stuff we've already shot.

i think the hardest part about this production has been the distance between the first day and the last day (as well as the distance between each spurt of production - 2 on, 5 off is officially not the way to go). it'll be nice to have the full effect of two months' worth of shifting weather... but next time i think we'll try to keep things compact. (and hopefully, next time, none of us will have to suffer through day jobs during production.)

so yeah... nothing terribly interesting to say at this point... i'll let you know how the weekend goes. we do have a few pictures to show off, tho, and maybe a still or two... i'll get those up soon.

-m

(silence)

2005-08-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

hello all,

in case you haven't noticed, we've been quiet for a few days. that's because we're officially taking our fist production break since july 4. last weekend was swell - we got to party with some high school kids, concoct vomit out of strawberry sobe and crushed pretzels, and watch joe deliver a three-page monologue with about twenty pounds of production equipment stacked on his chest. we're not totally avoiding all film work... but for now, we're going to try to get some sleep, enjoy the sun (although not in portland, apparently), catch a show or two, watch the bill murray, celebrate the nuptials of some good friends (nate and stacia; bob and lita) and try not to gamble away the entire production budget while in las vegas.

see you in a few days.

matt and co.

the up-swing

2005-08-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

so right now, i'm feeling very good about the film. joe and i had a nice lunch meeting where we talked frankly about our concerns regarding the production and i think we both walked away realizing that we're actually in really good shape. there are so many logistical issues and the expectations we have for the project and ourselves and each other are so high that it's easy to sometimes lose sight of how much fun this is. yes, it's true that none of the constant cast/crew has had a very relaxing summer. we've pounded out over 17 hours of footage (which is actually a little embarassing, but i do like to just let the camera roll - afterall, mini-dv is relatively inexpensive even for the high def masters we're buying) and easily logged more than 120 production hours (not including the off-set work of rehearsing and scheduling and securing locations and rescheduling and collecting extras and communicating with our sponsors etc). but now we're on the home stretch... we've got just about 40 pages of script left to shoot. almost everything is scheduled and reserved and locked into place (everyone cross your fingers that our discussions with the doug fir are fruitful).

and after this weekend we get a break - one weekend off with which to rest and restore our mental and physical resources for the last big push. i think we're all definitely staying focused on the production... but i'm also (not so secretly) looking forward to getting into post-production. we've been watching the footage on a semi-weekly basis, but that's still no substitute for actually stringing it together. generally, i prefer to edit some footage at the end of each day of filming, but this has been such a demanding experience (physically and mentally) that i just haven't had any time or energy to divert toward post work.

switching subjects: i really can't say enough good things about our cast and crew. andy, our sound recordist, has been extremely dedicated and laid back throughout the entire shoot. gerry, our dp, has given us as much time and energy as he can spare. alicia has been relentless in keeping things organized and flowing smoothly and has made a jaw-dropping transition last weekend from producer to actor as we shot her first few scenes. and joe, as fatigued as he gets and as hard as i make it for him, is always willing to give us one more take if we think we can do better.

i don't want to get too sentimental in front of everybody, so i'll cut short the compliments for now...

so let's talk about a shirtless mike johnson. you see, what happened was: we were at dot's saturday morning to finish up our last scene there. and mike, having just been handed his usual wardrobe consisting of an extremely tight t-shirt and fairly snug jeans went into the restroom to change. and when he emerged, there was two or three sizable water spots on the shirt from the sink in the restroom. now obviously, we'd have a hard time justifying a wet t-shirt at this point in the narrative (not to mention the continuity issues it would cause), so we removed his shirt and started working on drying it. in the meantime, i had joe and mike rehearse the full scene, just as we would shoot it, except, of course, mike was shirtless. and it was actually an interested exercise - how does it change the dynamic of an on-screen relationship if one of the characters is half-naked? the dramatic core of the scene survived in spite of the partial nudity and after a few runs through, mike even treated us to an improvised diatribe on everything there is to love about david hasselhof. at that point, we gave him the shirt back. but all the fooling around gave us a nice opportunity to incorporate a hillarious star wars improv between joe and mike into the beginning of the scene. i won't spoil it for you - but i will say two words: dartha stewart.

once more... in a black wig

2005-08-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

remember last week when i mentioned that lucy ellen moe had her cameo in the film (as a waitress who flirts with aaron/mike). well... funny story... on saturday she actually filmed her second cameo in the film: a waitress serving colin/joe and aaron/mike at another bar - which was fine because you don't get to see her face in that scene, just her shoulders/back). then on sunday she filmed her third cameo in the film: one of april's yuppie friends who attends her vegan barbeque and cocktail party. now why is lucy now vying with payam (have i told you about payam? probably not - more on him later) for the most non-speaking appearances in the film? several reasons, actually... we are running short on extras (if any of you anonymous readers are interested in appearing in a minor motion picture - please drop us a line asap) and our extras coordinator, yona, was out of town this week and therefore not as effective as usual at rounding up the strangers. additionally, the 48 hour film project was in portland this weekend, and seemed to consume a good portion of the city's resources. plus, the apartment we were shooting in is apparently not very easy to find and so one or two of our volunteers lost their ways. so we were one party-goer short of our minimum - and, being that we had a black lady's wig lying around, and lucy was our only spare crew member... anyway, the shot turned out pretty well, with a nice variety of people and, without much direction from myself, the few extras we had did a fantastic job of not only looking natural in their environment but coordinating their actions with the dolly and pan of the camera. i only hope that my handling of the camera was smooth enough and at an appropriate speed (oh yeah, i was running camera again this weekend as gerry was out of the country on family business).

so there's plenty more to talk about, i'm sure. but i'm rather fatigued and have a large stack of papers staring me down right now... so, i'm going to let you all go on with your lives and i will share more later (including our plans for payam and insight into the shirtless life of mike johnson).

motocross

2005-08-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

advice to all you aspiring filmmakers out there - don't schedule any exterior shooting within ten miles of a motocross event.

this weekend actually went pretty smoothly (and, as such, i'm at a loss for hillarious/interesting stories). we shot a couple of joe/mike scenes at the laurelwood pub on nw 23rd - there was some concern over the quality of the sound, but i think we at least got consistent audio (e.g. cutting different takes together shouldn't be a problem). mike and joe both did well. lucy ellen moe got her cameo (as a waitress flirting with mike's character).

also, i had a healthy debate with pretty much the entire crew and a good portion of the cast about my insistence upon joe wearing a tweed jacket on a sunny september day. they all had good, logical points against my decision, but i strongly felt that the needs of the narrative overrided a minor/debatable logistical issue. and, in the end, i think at least joe and alicia understood where i was going with it (e.g. colin is trying really hard to be a grown-up in this particular scene - and, as such, it makes sense for him to put on his grown-up clothes before he heads out into the harsh world to make amends. plus this is the nw - and it's not unheard of for people to wear sweaters or jackets in september (even while other people are wearing only t-shirts and tank tops. right?)).

and we more or less wrapped lisa's scenes (as keira). there are still a few pick-ups left here and there (some montage footage and the big parks & recreation show that we're still trying to schedule), but for the most part, she's done. and done well. she did a terrific job, frequently under less than perfect conditions (e.g. the motocross incident, etc), and really carried her role extremely well. i'm very happy to have her in the film.

and, while i'm at it, how about a round of applause for jim becker as well. we took care of all of his scenes as colin's dad in a single weekend. and he pretty much rocked the role.

also, three cheers for mike johnson! who is masterfully applying a much-needed dose of humanity to his exposition-filled dialogue.

okay... i really can't say enough good things about our large cast and small crew... but i'll try to squeeze in some more compliments (not ass-kissing, mind you, just sincere compliments) later.