DINNER AND A MOVIE FROM ****

[Greg Crawford]

I was invited to MC a premier screening of a film made in a small town not to fair from where I live. I was delighted.

The Director-Producer-Writer had put together a Feature based on local criminal activity in this little town from the 1930's. An interesting idea.

For $15.00 you got a dinner and a movie. Not bad so fair. The dinner was a buffet at a nice restaurant across the street.

The film (dv movie) was show with a digitally projector, on the bottom floor of a former beautiful old movie palace, now a tri-plex. The theater was an actual hang out one of the gang, as was used in the film, as one of the locations.

ON THE PLUS SIDE
A local historian has set up a walking tour, of the area with the Chamber of Commerce. This will undoubtedly become a yearly event. ... so fair a nice tie in. Good turn for the film.. three showings and two big dinners scheduled. Some of the people came to see themselves and friends and family members in the film. Others interested in the historical aspect of the city. By in large an older audience.

PROBLEM ONE
It was snowing and the movie had not arrived by car, from a major city nearly 140 miles away. ....the DP-Editor was making some last min. changes or dubbing it to DVD, I'm not sure. While on stage I was told of the problem, the film would be 30 minutes late. I Learned about this will on stage. And had to find things to talk about for 30 min. The audience was not laughing, but that's ok I'm not a comedian. I did the best I could, talked more with the local historian. Asked the audience questions. Talked with couple of the actors. Told a couple filmmaking war stories from my own experiences. ( it was not a film school anduiences and did not really want to hear about filmmaking.) And ended leaving the stage early as the film still had not arrived . The local historian was so embarrassed that after he left stage, hid in his car. The director asked the audience to go have dinner early and come back in 45 min. It was a good hour later ..and the film had just arrived. He explain to the audiences that It was not the more complete version that he wanted to show but a less finished version.

PROBLEM II
The film sucked! Way to much dialog. Over the top unmotivated profanity. It only went down hill. I was embarrassed and forced my self to stay seated till the bitter end. Seems the director came from the give the actors "the basic ideas," school.

Critique:
No caractor arc from any of the actors. No subtext either. Two sets of gang no charactor development, very hard to tell one side from the other. Good lighting could have helped ..a little. If each gang had there own stylized light look. But No, the director believed that these new DV cameras are incredible can even shot in the dark!

Most of the film was shot with available light. I don't now why the director would work to get permission to film in historically accurate locations ....then not bother to light the scenes. These "Historically correct locations," could have been shot in a big garage, set against seamless photographic background paper!

Most of the dialog scenes were done on studicam only ...no cutaways or reaction shots to go to when the studie cam guy lost the shot.

On the sound track you could on a couple occasions hear the director giving directions to the actors. No room tone, Foley, music and some of the gun shots shot ques were missing. In couple of scenes, we saw the actor do the scene twice....back to back. At least once the actor came out of caractor to look at the director and ask a question. Now scene to scene color correction. No scene to scene audio level adjustments. The trailer was shown before the film.tittles were dizzying ....much to fast on the big screen.

I don't have a snappy ending for this, I have learned some lessons... I guess now I will have to wait for someone from the other board to put me down for being a proud.

[Alex]

It sounds like the movie was directed with a lower end NLE system where doing cutaway shots or insert video shots is a chore. In terms of a learning lesson, the lesson would be to get a screener copy set from the filmmaker before accepting the job as MC.

This does two things. It means the movie has been finished. A novel concept I hear when it comes to having a screeing. The filmmaker actually finishes the movie before scheduling a screening of the movie.

And if they were late with their new and improved version, you could have pulled your screener version out of your pocket and gone ahead with the screening.

The videomakers took advantage of your celebrityhood to help promote their screening without delivering a movie that was on par with you. In the end, you may be associated with the movie by those who attended.

How many people showed up for the screening, and did the audience have any "actors" or production people from the movie among the viewers?

With more aggressive editing, could the project come out decent?

[Greg Crawford]

Yes, I am a little concerned on any fallout. I am glade I stated on stage that "I too was looking forward to seeing the movie."

Yes some of the actors and lots business owners who supplied the various locations were in attendance.

The new NLE's have made filmmaking more democratic and empowering people, but with it comes a responsibility. The coarseness of the films language, but may play with some people in the younger demographics but not play well in Hartland U.S.A. I did not count how many times the F was used, but it felt like it occurred about 2 to 3 times more than in " 8 MILE. "

At the dinner, one of the guest said it best, I will paraphrasing, " THE GUY DOESN'T KNOW HOW BAD HIS FILM IS. NEVER BOTHERED TO LEARN ANYTHING BEFORE MAKING IT."

This was not a case of billing the film as a WORK IN PROGRESS. but come see "The World Premier! "

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by bossjock-dp:
At the dinner, one of the guest said it best, I will paraphrasing, " THE GUY DOESN'T KNOW HOW BAD HIS FILM IS. NEVER BOTHERED TO LEARN ANYTHING BEFORE MAKING IT."
</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>


If everyone ate first because the "vilm" had not arrived, how was this comment made before the vilm arrived?

Were any of the performers everyday people rather than actors?

Was there a music score? What happened after the screening, did people mill around and "talk" about the movie? Did anyone shoot video of the screening and try and interview people and get their opinions of the vilm for promotional purposes?

[Greg Crawford]

Today I received a very bad quality fax of the story from the local paper. Actually what I've posted has been mild. I left the article at work with a friend, so I'll try to remember a few more things.

* People were storming out after the first 30 -40 min. wanting there money back.

* Film was shot 133.1 and shown wide screem lobbing off heads....even this fact did not go un-noticed, when projected to 1:85.1

* Sex...no, S M for about 10 min. Three sex scenes, all to long and without good tast.

* Gangster Rap music...in a 1930 piece!

* Bad acting....I only mentioned the Direction and lack of any caractor grouth or development or chage of hart... very wooden one dimentianal development .

* The writer also pointed out , how confusing the whole story was.

* Write thought some of the people were dressed in todays close, and not period
wardrope. I was so floored by all the other stuff, I personally did not notice.

* However I did notice a Cell phone antenna in the background.

Your question about the dinner .....there were to be three showings and at least two dinners. Some of the people who got tired of waiting to see the first showing went ac cross the street to eat first. Some people left early, when the show started. I joint this group who may have walked out...they were already eating, nearly done..when I arrived. I hope this explains this seaming discrepancy. The person I quoted is a Physicist by day at a nearby State University...and is also a actor-filmmaker. I took it, that he left early, and stayed because he new some people in the production.

I was not introduced to any of the actors but did seem some floating around the Theater.

I'll have to look over your post again and see if I've answered everything.

Oh, yes.....no other music other than the rap piece. At one spot at the beginning of the film, the DP HOLLERED ...bang! Bang!! where gun shots were missing.

Oh yes, ***The writer from the paper also did not like the trailer being shown before the film. I quickly noticed that the director should have hired a professional announcer...hint If you need just email!

[Greg Crawford]

The film makers had someone taking stills. I'm not sure about video's if I would have seen someone shooting video, I would think it might be the police. and this guy was probably guilty of felony film making.

The Chamber of Commerce, Re-Development Agency, and the local Historical Society all were spacers. and to think that I was ashamed for just being a guest MC..

I did not stay till the better end.