DV Info Net - Show Your Work 2004

hey guys, wanted to let you know that because of this site and all the good people and advice i've gotten here, i am in pre-production on my first project.

i sugested an area where people can keep a log of the projects they are working for people to read. consider this my log :)

here's some details: I searched high and low on how i can start making movies. i was sick of doing the improv things, the one's where it's you and a friend or two just messing around start filming each other with a vhs or super cheap miniDV camcorder. don't get me wrong, i loved doing that..but im an adult now and it's time to take my dream serious.

i found this site and through it i found someone selling an XL1s camera for a price i could aford. then i read everything i could (without going insane) on how to begin. I asked questions and had them answered quickly. I happend to read a post by someone who lived nearby in MD and was interested in meeting people in the DC/Baltimore Area. i contact him and we had a few meetings and talked about things we could do.

one script he had written stood out. then titled: Thorizine. it was clever and had a shocking twist that i didn't see coming and an ending that would leave people talking about the film for a long time after. it only needed one location and a small cast of five. bingo, we had our project. we also had 0 funds, but you have to work with what you got. smiling as i left i remember thinking "this is going to be easy!". oh, how wrong i was.

it took 2 weeks running around like chickens without heads before we both realized we needed a plan! so we took a week and talked and talked and talked. ok, enough talk. time to do something!

first thing was to secure a location: that's now done

second was to gather items needed, small props we could make and/or find: kind of hard but that two is done.

third, start saving for the needed equipment. i began the project thinking i would be the AD but slowly my role became clear, i was turning into a producer. i didn't exspect that, yet it's very interesting and i think this may be my calling. we'll see.

Equipment: we'll i got my Xl1s and i saved for a nice tripod. had to think creatively and came up with the funds to get some lighting. well, there goes the budget. im now in the hole. ohwell.

still short on equipment, we figure it's time to look for some help and why where at it get us some actors.

i took some advice found here and posted an ad at mandy.com looking for anyone interested in helping. all i can say is WOW. i was upfront with people, the ad said this is a shoesting budget and there is 0 pay, only a DVD copy of the final product. we've gotten around 100 responses and after reviewing them we selected a few people who seemed to really want to be a part of this. that incudes, a student at a local univeristy who owns an Xl1 and support equipment. we found someone willing to take care of the sound aspect, who has his own equipment. I was contacted by Mark D'errico who kindly offered to score the intire project for FREE! he does some great work, check his site at www.markderrico.com. we've gotten numerous requests from people who want to do make up, effects, lighting..ect. all in all we have a full crew of dedicated people who wish to gain experiance working on a film.

as for cast. kennith emeson the writer/director/producer and what ever else he wants to do, placed an ad at actornews.com (another suggestion from a member of DVinfo!) he has been swamped with calls and we are currently holding auditions to fill the roles.

we now have a shooting scedule and everything is going verry well. what was supposed to be a colaberation to make a short has turned into something we think has a verygood shot at being played at a few film fests.

other things we've been doing is kenny's done script rewrites and making up some story boards, while i spend countless hours learning how to use VEGAS 4.0 effectivly. (i tried priemere and didn't really care for it) the book "VEGAS 4:EDITING WORKSHOP" by douglas spotted eagle has been a huge help.

once i figured out i had turned into a producer i thought it might be a good idea if i new exactly what a producer was and what he's supposed to do! it's not like i didn't have an idea of what a producer is, but i wanted to be sure i was doing it right and doing all i could to make sure this project gets finished. the book: "INDEPENDENT FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION" by gregory goodel has been helping me so much! anyone interested in that field should read it.

well, we are at a point where it's time to let people know what we are doing and how to get information on the project. so a friend loaned me some webspace and I put my lacking Web Page design skills to use. once we find someone who is a much beter artist and come up with a final name for the film most likely i'll register a domain name but untill then if anyone would like to take a look and follow our progress further check out.

http://www.malicereborn.org/film

i feel i wouldn't have came this far with out the help from you guys, so feel free to let me know what you really think of our progress so far in all aspects of the pre-production process.

Thanks for reading this long and drawn out post!

Kris Mallory.

one quick thing. my spelling is horible, That i already know. Im working on it......