Aha! SORRY Available On Hulu, Vuze, Moviola

Aha! I just found out that you can see my 6 minute comedy short, TWELVE WAYS TO SAY I'M SORRY, on Hulu.com and Vuze.com.

Hulu seems easier to use -- you have to download a player to use Vuze. However, Hulu won't stream to Canada.

UPDATE: You can now see SORRY on the Moviola.ca site. MUCH easier than Vuze, which requires a pain in the butt installation.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Air Dates for "Sorry"

My short film, "12 WAYS TO SAY 'I'M SORRY'," will air the following dates and times on Movieola:

July 03, 2008 at 14:06:24
July 05, 2008 at 14:06:24
July 06, 2008 at 08:06:24
July 09, 2008 at 20:47:27
July 10, 2008 at 02:47:27
July 10, 2008 at 08:47:27
July 11, 2008 at 14:47:27
July 12, 2008 at 08:47:27
July 13, 2008 at 14:47:27
July 24, 2008 at 20:47:06

If anyone sees it this way, please let me know how the viewing experience was!

UPDATE: See next post for simpler viewing options.

Coming Soon to a Website Near You

My short film TWELVE WAYS TO SAY "I'M SORRY" is now airing from time to time on Movieola.ca.

In celebration of Canada Day, Movieola is proud to present 24-hours of Canadian short films! Beginning at 6am on Tuesday July 1st, it’s all-Canuck, all-the-time as we showcase the stunning filmmaking talents of Canada’s best directors. Original, hilarious, heart-breaking and engaging, these short films run the gamut of storytelling from A to Zed.

Highlights of the lineup include: [snip]

12 Ways to Say I’m Sorry (Alex Epstein, Canada, 06:06, 2007)
Alex Epstein, co-writer of the award-winning feature film Bon Cop Bad Cop, brings us the story of Will Ferguson (or someone claiming to be him), who introduces you to the twelve meanings of the phrase “I'm Sorry” -- almost none of which express actual regret. July 1st, 8:45pm EST

Check them out at Movieola.ca. The other highlights are two films about Alzheimer's and one about "The Saddest Boy in the World." So come prepared to laugh your socks off.

Apparently the films are being semi-streamed, so you can only watch the short at certain times -- use the search feature on the site to find out when it's on. This strikes me as not the most convenient way to air shorts on the Internet -- it's like a film festival rather than like a library. But you can see it with a bit of effort.

12 Ways Premieres at 7:30 Tonight on Bravo!

If you get Bravo! network (the Canadian one, not the US one), you can record a bunch of shorts, including my film 12 WAYS TO SAY "I'M SORRY", starting at 7:30 pm.

You can also watch it on Citytv Toronto on December 15 at 7:30 pm and December 20 at 4:30 pm local time; and on A-Channel Barrie, London and Ottawa, December 18 at 8:30 pm local time, and on A-Channel Victoria December 22 at 6:00 pm local time.

Thanks for tuning in!

Sorry at the Whistler FF

If you happen to be at the Whistler Film Festival, our short film, TWELVE WAYS TO SAY "I'M SORRY", is playing Saturday, December 1, 1:00pm, at the Village 8 Cinemas, in Theatre 7.

And if you're not, it will air on Bravo some time later in December. And after that, it will be on the Bravo site, I imagine.

Short Films

I have an animated property that I'm trying to sell. I made a 12-minute demo that was written and performed by some of the writers/performers from "Mystery Science Theater 3000." I produced and directed the cartoon.

It's good, and people in the business like it, but I'm just not a salesman. Can I ask you if you have any ideas as to how I could find a home for it?

There's not a huge direct market for short films. There are pay-per-click film sites like Moviola that show your film on the Internet; you get a small payment every time someone watches, unlike on Youtube where all you get is notoriety.

There are also short film distributors that sell shorts internationally. Ouat Media is good. Flow Distribution (associated with the CFC) might be good if you're Canadian. The Omni Media website seems a bit dated. I've also heard of Big Film Shorts and Apollo Cinema.

They'll take a big whack of any payments, but they might get your film out there, and you might get a bit of money for it.

If what you're looking for is to sell a TV show or feature based on your short film, well then, you simply need an agent or manager who deals with animators, e.g. Metropolis.

Rilly Short Shorts

Just got this over the transom:

Filmaka has launched its Tenth contest 'The Clinic'. Submissions are accepted till 30th September 2007 at www.filmaka.com.

This month’s topic is "The Clinic" and all 1-3 minute films must be uploaded by midnight PST, 30st September, 2007. The annual grand prize is a feature film contract.

Filmaka.com is a new online competition, judged by award winning filmmakers including Werner Herzog, Neil LaBute, Paul Schrader and Wim Wenders, and founded by leading independent producers and financiers. Filmmakers have a new chance to enter each month, and submissions are accepted in 10 different languages.

Please visit www.filmaka.com to see past contest submissions, and for complete rules, terms and conditions. Membership is free for full time students: email collegeregistration@filmaka.com from your school issued email account for more information.

Director Looking for Short Film

Here's an opportunity for one of you out there to see your short film script produced:

I’m a first time producer/director looking for a short film script (under 10 min) in close to finished form. If you’re an unknown writer with a good short script you’d like to see to produced, this is your chance.

I’ll be spending the next couple of months producing this short, but won’t be taking it on much of a festival run – I’m mainly interested in building my reel.

Your script should be producible on a very low budget. I am looking for scripts with elements of action, thriller, sci-fi, or fantasy. I’m not looking for pure comedy or pure drama.

Please send your script to NimrodShorts@gmail.com by Friday, September 7.

Pay is a copy of the film and seeing your work onscreen.

The filmmaker is an ambitious 19-year-old who's been going to "self-created film school," which as you know I consider to be the best film school there is.

A pity about the "not looking for pure comedy or pure drama." Those are the cheapest to shoot. Then comes thriller. Action gets expensive. SF gets much more expensive. Fantasy is the most expensive of all, since anything unworldly has to be created in a computer or out of latex.

I’m not looking for something that’s just people at home, or work, or school. I don’t want to do a short about a mother dying of cancer. Unless, when she dies, she starts glowing. Or turns into a pony. Or something. I don’t want to rule anything out other than moody character sketches and comedies.

UPDATE:

John Turman, a writer on projects including Hulk, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Fist and the TV series The Crow has offered to "supervise, polish or co-write the 8-12 page script with whoever (well, almost whoever) wins."

This isn't just a great opportunity for me, but for whoever wins to work with an established screenwriter.

There are a few more guidelines than before, but not much. The details can be found here (http://artfulwriter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3763), at the Artful Writer forum.

12 Ways Site Up and Running

Laurie's just uploaded the fruits of his hard HTML labors, and the 12 WAYS TO SAY "I'M SORRY" site is up and running. Check it out and let me know what you think. No video yet -- we're still submitting to festivals and all.

Look at Ads

Thinking about making a short film? Look at ads. You can tell quite a story in a very short amount of time.

Actually, you should try to tell this much story in every scene of your long films, too.

Sneak Preview

A bunch of people have asked me how my sneak preview of my short went. Hmmm, how should I answer that? The audience laughed, so that's good. And people came up and said nice things afterwards. And a short film distributor sounded interested.

On the other hand, I was hoping they'd laugh more! There are a few things in the film I find terribly funny that the audience didn't quite laugh at.

(Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.)

I'm not sure the audience knew 100% what to make of it. I could have directed the same script much broader, anywhere up to Kids in the Hall over-the-top. I went for a subtle, naturalistic kind of humor where you recognize the characters and situations, from your own life. I think that would probably work better in a longer film, where the audience has time to figure out what the tone is. The audience needs to know they're supposed to laugh.

The short aired in a block of shorts that were mostly not actually comedies. It's easier to keep people laughing than to get them laughing.

I also could have stuck a little more expo in the film. There's enough to tell you what's going on, but only if you know that you're supposed to be paying attention, and until maybe halfway through, you don't necessarily realize that all the story lines are interweaving, so you might have not been picking up all the info that's there. In a five and a half minute film, I didn't think that I would have to remind the audience what went on in previous scenes; but I ought to have referred to the previous scenes a little more clearly.

For example, in an early scene, a Texan steps on Dave's foot, and Dave apologizes. Five scenes later, Dave is at a dinner party saying, "So I stopped him, and I told him, hey, maybe you can go around stepping on people's toes wherever you come from, but that kind of behavior is unacceptable here." It would have killed me to have Dave start with, "And he stepped right on my foot!"

Likewise, I was a little too clever in some of my dialog, pursuing that naturalistic style. For example, if you pay attention, you realize towards the end of Jenny and Buster's scene what exactly Jenny is mad about: Buster has sent naked pictures of Jenny to her best friend, who is also named Jenny. ("You know how email can be!")

But you have to figure it out. And that cuts into the laughter.

So I was a little subtle. And subtle doesn't get the laughs. It gets the chuckles.

It's nice to get laughs.

In some ways you have to put more expo into a short film. A long film has time to set up its tone and its rules and its world, and then play with them. That takes about five minutes, or just when I'm rolling credits.

Or you could be not so bloody ambitious. You could not have eight characters and nine locations and ten scenes in five bloody minutes!

Anyway, those are my complaints at myself, because I'm picky.

Mostly, I'm really happy with how the film turned out. The actors are brilliant. The rhythm is great. The music is terrific. (Though because of a mixing problem, you couldn't hear half of it. That, we can fix.) I think the film is entirely successful for what I was trying to do. It's a style that would translate really well into the feature I want to direct. I got people to laugh without having to make the actors mug for the camera.

I just want them to laugh more, damn them!

So that's how my screening went. Probably really successfully! I think it was one of the better short films there. But don't ask me. I'm the writer-director. You tell me how it went. What I'm focusing on is how I could have done it differently, and better...

Attention Photoshoppers

Hey, does anyone out there have graphic design skillz, and wouldn't mind helping me out with my short?

I have a basic design concept and image for TWELVE WAYS TO SAY I'M SORRY, but I'd like it to look a little more pro than I and my posse can manage. And we need CD sleeves and CD labels and so forth, and I will easily spend 10x as long learning how as you might spend whipping it together.

If anyone would be willing to donate some graphic design brilliance, I would be grateful!

Dozen Done

We finished TWELVE WAYS TO SAY I'M SORRY today. Whee!

And not a week too soon. We'll be sneak previewing next Friday, at the Comedia Festival in Montreal. We're airing in an hour of Bravo!FACT shorts at 5 pm at Monument National (1182 St. Laurent) next Friday. There will be yummies afterwards, and you can meet Judy Gladstone, who runs the Bravo!FACT program. Seating is first come first served.

Come see it!

Sound Editing

Spent a few hours with a sound guy doing the sound editing on my short. He had a lot of proposed audio slotted in -- stings and whooshes, background noises, ambient sounds. I spent a couple hours responding to them -- this one I liked, this one is no good, this one needs to be less swishy and more whooshy. And we did some fun little audio gags, like where the film freeze-frames, letting the score slow down to a halt, rather than just cutting out.

What amazes me is that this all took about two hours. Based on his amazing speed while I was in the room with him, I'm going to guess all the sound editing on this film will take up maybe eight hours.

I spent three months building the sound on my student film back in the day, cutting and splicing bits of mag film. Sure, that was a longer film, but man! Just to take the soundtrack-slows-down gag I mentioned -- that we did in about a minute. In my student days I would have had to set up a tape recorder, then played back the soundtrack on another tape player, and then physically slowed it down. Then dub that to mag film. Then splice it in. And if that didn't work, doing it again.

I'm feeling very good about the film. Some of the sound problems I thought were going to be serious just went away. ("Oh yeah, the bar upstairs was only on the boom mike track, not the wireless mikes. So we just used the wireless mikes.") While sound guys are always bitching that directors ignore their complaints on set ("we'll fix it in post"), my impression is that I could have ignored our sound guy a little more. He was doing a better job than he realized.

Tomorrow we're going into the mix. End of the day, our film is ... done!

UPDATE:

Q. And then what?

Then we take it to a billion festivals. And air it on Bravo in Canada. And see if any networks in the States want it.

Eventually it will hopefully wind up on Moviola, or some other paying short film venue on the Net. And y'all can see it!

Run! Write Your Short

SODEC is holding another "Sprint for your Script / Cours écrire ton court" competition for Montreal-based young creators. (Young means up to 35.) Goodies galore.

COURS ÉCRIRE TON COURT ! will give the selected screenwriters the benefits of taking part in truly unique scriptwriting workshops. In the charming atmosphere of the Old Dawes Brewery at the Guy-Descaries cultural complex in Lachine, between mid-September and mid-October 2006 they will be paired off with advisory screenwriters whose involvement is backed by SARTEC and CBC Television. The writers will participate in intensive individual and group work sessions and discussions.

When the final drafts of the screenplays are completed in October, a five-member panel made up of Télé-Québec and SODEC representatives, a screenwriter representing SARTEC, a director and a producer, will select the winning scripts for:

· the SODEC/Télé-Québec/Kodak Award consisting of a $55,000 investment in production by SODEC, $2,000 worth of Kodak movie film and a broadcast license from Télé-Québec as well as the $5,000 screenwriting award from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec;

· the SARTEC Special Mention consisting of a $1,000 prize for a French script;

· the $1,000 CBC/WGC Prize for the Best English Script.

In addition, the finalists’ seven scripts will be read publicly by professional actors at a reading sponsored by Christal Films, which has agreed to distribute the film made from the winning script theatrically. [snip]

This contest is only open to screenwriters and coauthors who qualify for SODEC’s assistance program for young creators. (For program details, visit SODEC’s website at www.sodec.gouv.qc.ca )

Proposals must be submitted by individuals, not companies. Only one entry per person allowed. Proposals may be submitted in English or French.

Writers must:

• Be between the ages of 18 and 35 (not have turned 36 at the time of submitting the script);
• Have embarked on a professional writing career (high school, college and university undergraduate and graduate students are not eligible);
• Have had a drama script produced and publicly released or broadcast (proof required);
• Have lived in Québec for at least two years;
• Be available between September 12th and October 22th, 2006;
• Send SODEC all the required entry material.

N.B.: Writers who want to direct their own film must have at least one professional credit as director of a film that was publicly released film (i.e. festivals, broadcasters, museums, etc.; student and Kino screenings do not count).

Check out their site. Deadline for applications is August 15.

Like Short Films?

Rooftop Films and the IFC have a new short film every day all summer. Check'em out!

Rough Cut

I saw my rough cut last night. I was pretty sure the film would hold together, because I knew the script did. I was not too worried about whether it would all cut together because I had coverage for all but one scene, and a framing device I could always go back to it. My big question was running time. I had a 7 1/2 page script and a hard 6 minute limit from BravoFACT! I did my best during the shoot to keep the actors from getting pause-y, and 45 seconds a page is not unreasonable if you keep a sense of urgency in the scenes.

I was really happy in the event to see that the rough cut came in at 6 minutes exactly. We'll be trimming from there, so we won't be in the awkward position of wanting to do a 6 minute cut for Bravo and a longer, funnier festival cut.

Simon Webb, our editor, one of the best in Quebec, did a really great job. Not only does the cut move well. He also introduced some freeze frames and wipes that really add to the rhythm and tell the story more clearly. My notes were on the order of "hold on his reaction a hair longer" and "I think there might have been a take where Nick did this really funny thing..." and "trim the second sentence there, we don't need it." It's such a pleasure to work with crafty professionals.

I'm looking forward to seeing anothe cut this evening. I just couldn't be happier with the film. The actors are just brilliant -- human and real and even touching while saying some utterly ludicrous things.

Okay, I do have one quibble. The Red Rock M2 depth of field adapter threw anything that was not in the middle of the frame into soft focus. My fault for being too nervous to watch the dailies until the end of Day 2. (I did ask various people to check, and they told me everything was fine. As Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify.") Either we put it on wrong, or it's crap. I don't think the softness will hurt the piece -- our exteriors look fine, and for the last day I yanked the adapter. It's only really annoying to me in two shots, and I doubt the audience will care.

But that is a quibble. I am thrilled with the results, and I hope you'll get to see the finished film at a festival near you some time this year.

Our Crew

Many thanks to our superb crew on "TWELVE WAYS TO SAY I'M SORRY". If you're shooting in Montreal, you should hire them! (If you want their phone numbers, feel free to ask.)

Our Unit Production Manager, Greg Nicod. He has ulcers so you don't have to.

Our Director of Photography, Mark Adam. He takes the pictures out of your brain and puts them in the camera.

Our Production Designer, Annika Krausz. She makes your set look like somewhere else entirely.

Our Sound Dude, Pablo Villegas. Without him, you're shooting a Buster Keaton movie.

John Easterbrooke, Digital technician. The new cameras are wacky. You need someone who can speak their language.

Phil Harrison, trusty 2nd Assistant Cameraman

Myriam Doucet, Asst PM.

Audray Adam, makeup. She mops your furrowed brow.

Young Patrick Lanthier. Willing and able PA.

Matthew Cope. Snappy fellow with a still camera. Plays a mean hand of poker, too.

Not to mention...

Michael Solomon. Diligent, meticulous, honest producer. Get him before he's hot. And rich.

Laurie Nyveen. Indispensable Associate Producer. If you can't figure out who's in charge of it, put him in charge and it will happen.

Da Film Is Okey Dokey

We got our last shot last night, except for one greenscreen shot we're going to do in studio with one actor on Tuesday morning. The film is in the can! If by can you mean a variety of hard drives and memory cards.

I think it's pretty neat that all the takes for a film can fit on a laptop. You really could cut a whole film on your laptop.

I'm thrilled with the footage we got. Our actors were brilliant. And professional. And fun. A million thanks to Alison Darcy for recommending so many of them. We had technical difficulties with our equipment, but the cast never let the crew's fussing get in the way of delivering funny and yet emotionally truthful performances. And I have to thank the cast for being so damn funny. One one of the takes last night I literally wound up rolling on the floor laughing.

I have to thank our producer, Michael Solomon, for bringing together a small but highly effective and professional crew on a very tight budget. We had no surprises in the personnel department, and that was a huge relief. I was prepared to go over our BravoFACT! budget if necessary, but Mike was determined not to, and he did a great job in the producer's delicate task of juggling money, time, equipment and people. Laurie Nyveen, our Associate Producer, was invaluable in managing the dozens of tasks we flung at him on short notice (casting, exploding cell phone effects, "Grand Banks Cod Pieces," free maple pies?), many of which I'm probably not even aware of.

The only significant hitch in the show, which ate up hours of time, was the Red Rock M2 lens adapter. We used the Red Rock adapter to create a cinematic depth of field, which our HD video camera couldn't deliver. It did a great job of putting the background out of focus, but it was extremely awkward to keep focused on the actors if they and/or the camera were moving. Physically the difference between in focus and out of focus on the focus wheel would often be a millimeter. We couldn't focus by measuring distances with tape, either, because the lens markings did not seem to bear a close resemblance to reality.

On the other hand, the footage looks beautiful, and we're focused on what I wanted to show you, and not focused on anything I didn't want you paying attention to, so the Red Rock delivered what we wanted it to, for a very good price. The more expensive adapter would have been much easier to use, but hey, more expensive.

Fortunately we had enough time to get all our master shots and enough coverage to trim scenes for time, which was all I really wanted. Since the film is a comedy, I didn't shoot a lot of closeups -- I worked with my actors to stage the scenes so they played in dynamic, moving two-shots. The last shot of the shoot was a thirty second four shot with a lot of choreography.

That style meant I didn't need a lot of coverage. It takes a lot less time to shoot an additional take than to move the camera. Every time you move the camera your d.p. will need to relight. Or think he does.

It also turned out to be much more complex to play back in one scene video that you just shot in a previous scene. Part of the cost of dealing with new digital video cameras is that no one is completely familiar with all their idiosyncrasies, particularly how they interface with computers. The mere fact that you can throw footage from your first scene up on a TV in your second scene is pretty cool. But you have to work all the bugs out before you get to set.

But that's what you get for putting fancy shootin' in your short film. It all takes time. I think it will turn out to have been worth it.

Nick Can't Get No Satisfaction

"Do you have this in a nine?" -- "I dunno!"


"I'm so sorry ... would you mind looking for it???"



Many, many thanks to Peter Toumbanakis of La Table Ronde for letting us shoot in his amazing medieval boutique on St. Paul Street (other boutiques throughout Montréal and in Québec City).

And Sébastian at Pub St. Paul for keeping his live rock'n'roll band drinking a few more minutes until we got that last shot. That was a lifesaver, Sébastian!