Welcome to the DOJO!

Hey, all!  Time again for another Q&A with an indie and guerrilla filmmaking guru.  This time, horror FX genius, Marcus Koch, takes some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for you, my loyal Film Sensei readers.  Take it away, Marcus!

Name: Marcus Koch

Year/Age Started as a Filmmaker:
I’d honestly have to say i got the itch, for making movies around age 7, my Parents had a video camera, and it was all down hill from there once i got my hands on it.

Credits:
ROT
100 Tears
Fell
and special effects for :
Walking Distance
Sweatshop
Imago
Closet Space
Sinners and Saints

Website: www.oddtopsyfx.com

Give the Filmsensei.com readers a bit of information on yourself and your experience as a filmmaker.

I’m a horror guy, I grew up in the 80′s so that’s probably my biggest influence was those glorious formative years, I love any and all horror movies, no matter how bad or low budget…and growing up in an era of Drive-ins and VHS tapes, I had seen some of the best horror films and Video Nasties my local mom and pop had to offer.  So it seemed obvious when I was six or seven, that was what I was going to do with my life, and so it began. I knew I had a knack for artistic ability , but it was somewhat skewed due to the movies I watched, so special effects was the route I took, making fake heads out of Styrofoam wig stands etc.

And when my Dad brought home a video camera, I would sneak it out while my parents were at work and make tiny short films around my newest special effect creations, ultimately leading to each effect becoming more grand, and needing to write plot lines around my FX gags.

All of this really laid the foundation for where I wanted to be.  Friends and family became my guinea pigs and victims, and dealing with “actors” became one of my first real looks into filmmaking and how Hollywood magic isn’t so magical when you have to deal with someone, saying they won’t do that, or not showing up.  LOL – Then came scheduling conflicts and pretty much just about anything that could go wrong usually will.

Its like filmschool.  Actually maybe even more so, I could read an instruction manual, so I could learn to use the camera, but that wasn’t going to teach me how to deal with everything else that goes wrong. I don’t think they teach that at film school.

With each project getting a little bigger and taking on new challenges, I had written , directed, shot and edited 3 Feature films before I was 16.  Granted I never show those to anyone, because they are absolutely awful, but it set me up for taking the next step, making a movie, and getting it seen.

At the age of 18 i shot ROT, punks puke and necrophilia, good friends who took me seriously and let me put them in wild situations.  It turned out good, at least good enough to garner national distribution ( i think it can still be found on amazon.com).  Its not a great movie, it’s actually pretty damn bad, but it got released, and 13 years later people still give me copies to sign at conventions. weird.

Since then I’ve pretty much just stuck to working on FX for other films, lots of films that sadly never got finished, or never found distribution.

I still have the itch to direct, so when the opportunity arose , I made 100 tears, my killer clown opus.  LOL – I have an odd obsession with clowns, and what better way to do a gore film, then to throw in a clown ? good times.

As a run-and-gun digital filmmaker, can you give our readers an idea of the problems that you’ve run in to on some of your past productions — or even problems they can expect on theirs?

Problems are due to Murphy’s law, which are always in effect, anything bad that can happen usually does.  I’ve been in run in’s with cops, run ins with crazy religious people, run ins with in inhabitants of a halfway house ( note to self, do not shoot a film at a functioning halfway house for crack heads and hobos ).  Some actors can be diva’s usually the wet behind the ears are the biggest pains in the ass, the coolest people are usually seasoned pro’s – they are laid back and know what to expect.

On a film set, the main motto everyone knows to live by is ” hurry up and wait” and it rings true in every sense of the phrase.  The days are long and usually seem like you are there not accomplishing anything but holding down a cooler with your ass, (or a chair if your lucky).

Expect the unexpected ! use your foresight, and instincts, if you have a gut feeling go with it, if you feel an actor or crew member may cause problems or have an attitude , eliminate it before half the film is in the can.. if you have a bad feeling about a location, you might be onto something, if something looks dangerous it probably is. if you think someone may call the cops, you better have a good story, or at least a decent white lie. and the more you do the more you will get to do.

What is the worst thing that’s ever happened on one of your indie film shoots?

So many to choose from. I’d say the scariest thing was during pre-production for 100 TEARS we started shooting Jan 12th and the owners of the warehouse we were using to build our sets held a huge party.  The owners of the warehouse were also artists and held art shows and raves, but they had this homeless guy living there, so we paid his rent and gave him a job helping us build the sets (he was also an amazing portrait artist).

So on their new years bash, he was drinking way more than a crazy person who isn’t on their Meds should have been drinking, and built himself a little hide-out room, among our maze of rooms used for 100 TEARS, around 6 am, he hid in a dark corner and waited for any female to pass by.  He had made a homemade garrote (or noose) with wire from some theatrical lighting safety cable, and jumped out at some party going teen, and wrapped it around her neck and started choking her, and dragged her back into his little hiding spot, complete with a dirty mattress.  Thankfully someone wasn’t too far away (our sets were on the first floor and the party was on the second floor) and rushed to her rescue, getting her free, the cops were called, and he was screaming “I was going to kill her and F*** her!” (yes in that order)  She was bruised and banged up pretty bad, but ultimately alive.  Needless to say, he was carted off to the pokey, but it was always a worry on set, if he would be let out of jail and return to the property.  Oddly enough when we saw his Mugshot on the interwebs, (god i love this modern day and age) we couldn’t’ help but ask ourselves…why didn’t we see this coming?  He looked like Charles Manson.

As someone who wears multiple hats on your films – writing, directing, producing, editing, running a camera — what is your favorite part of indie filmmaking and why?

All of it is pretty exhausting and time consuming, and stressing, doing more than 1 job on a single film just consumes your soul.  The whole process is going to be hell, be it a low budget or a big budget, the problems will always be the same.  However, the feeling of having a finished film, that everyone’s hard work was not in vein, is the best feeling, and nothing can top it.  Hell or high water, for better or worse, if its finished, and people can see it, its’ then that you realize, that’s why all the sleepless nights were had, what all the sitting around was for.  All the chaos had happened.

It’s truly the most frustrating business to be in, but when its done, all of the bad times are forgotten, and all you see if what you’ve accomplished.

Finally, can you give beginning indie and guerrilla filmmakers any advice on setting up their first films? In other words, what advice or tips do you wish you had been told before you put together your first film?

I’ve never been rich enough to afford film school, I hear it’s jump started many great careers. Honestly, I”d have to say, if you do have the money to go to film school, then you have the money for your first feature.  Sure, things will go wrong, expect that.  People will quit, tempers will flair, friendships will be broken.

You’ll learn as real life unfolding before your eyes.

Want to learn how to load and operate a 16mm or 35mm camera.. read a book, the technical know how can be found anywhere, dealing with real life problems is something you can’t learn in school.

Anything else you want to throw out to our indie film readers?

Rule # 1 that must be adhered to, no matter how small your budget is, FEED YOUR CAST & CREW. Even if you cannot pay anyone, FEED them.  FOOD is worth more on a long, exhausting day then anything you can imagine…

Marcus Koch, 2010

Thanks for the great answers, Marcus!  I also wanted to say that 100 TEARS was a fantastic film!  Anything with killer clowns is all right in my book.

-Mat Nastos, the Film Sensei

http://www.filmsensei.com

Welcome to the DOJO!

In 2009 I had the pleasure of attending one of my favorite horror conventions, Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas, TX.  I was there to hang out with my buddy, indie film genius Stacy Davidson, and see what the Texas guerrilla filmmaking community had to offer.

I have to say that I was blown away by what I found.  The Texas filmmaking community in general, and the horror community in specific, is one of the most creative and innovative I’ve ever seen.  The group produces some amazing, and incredibly fun, work.

One of the filmmakers I had the pleasure to meet was a Dallas-native by the name of Abel Berry.  He was there pimping his first film, the killer clown flick called SPOILS.  After speaking to Abel and finding out he had shot the entire film on the amazing Canon HV20, I decided to pick up his DVD and check it out.  What I saw was an incredibly low-budget film with a whole lot of blood, a bunch of murders and more creativity and imagination than I’d seen in a very long time.

So now, a year later, I head back to Texas (well, at least via the Internet) to see what Abel has been up to and to get some of his great advice for indie filmmakers.  Take it away, Abel Berry!

5 Questions for Indie Filmmaker Abel Berry

Name: Abel Berry

Year/Age Started as a Filmmaker: 2007/24

Film Credits:
Writer/Director/Director of photography/Composer/actor on SPOILS
and KODIE. Camera Operator on OPIATE

Website: http://bsentertainmentfilms.wordpress.com

Give the Filmsensei.com readers a bit of information on yourself and your experience as a filmmaker.

Well, I started the journey as a filmmaker a few years ago with my friend Jennifer Stone. We had a little JVC handycam, and we would just play around and make silly videos and try to learn how to edit. Then a year or so later we got more serious about it, and we were approached to make a film in my friend Bart Butler’s haunted house, and that’s how SPOILS was born. We had no money, so we saved and got a Canon HV20 for around 600 or 700 bucks and edited on iMovie hd 6.  Jenn, Bart, and myself did everything. A year after that, we wanted to step it up and make something even more ambitious and used what we learned on spoils, to make it better. So I wrote the script for KODIE, (the girl in a teddy bear suit witchcraft ghosthunter splatterfest extravaganza!) And 9 months later we are deep in post production on that film.

As a run-and-gun digital filmmaker, can you give our readers an idea of the problems that you’ve run in to on some of your past productions — or even problems they can expect on theirs?

Plan your time wisely. Have shot lists ready for every day, and follow them. Of course its cool to come up with shots as you go, but shot lists have helped us save a lot of time on KODIE, because that was the biggest problem for me on spoils,… not having the time to do what I wanted with each scene. Oh, and absolutely back everything up once you begin to edit. We lost the 1st 30 minutes of rough edit and had to start over.

What is the worst thing that’s ever happened on one of your indie film shoots?

Worst thing to ever happen? On SPOILS, not having the mic on during a scene (because I was my own sound guy and messed that up pretty bad)

On KODIE, a certain effect that we prepared for weeks did not go correctly, and we had to do it over, and it cost us a few weeks. but we learned from it to be prepared for things to go wrong.

As someone who wears multiple hats on your films – writing, directing, producing, editing, running a camera — what is your favorite part of indie filmmaking and why?

I love shooting and writing, but by far, my favorite part is Directing. I’m not sure why, but I’m most happy when I’m on set and in the middle of it all ya know. Just finding creative ways to make the story work with friends.

Finally, can you give beginning indie and guerrilla filmmakers any advice on setting up their first films? In other words, what advice or tips do you wish you had been told before you put together your first film?

On setting up a first film, I would say, that first off do as much planning as you can in pre-production (shot lists, story boards, rehearsals, lighting, etc.). And also, the one thing I rant on and on about, the one thing I wish I would’ve known before, is that you shouldn’t blow a bunch of money on some fancy pants camera with all the bells and whistles. Find a camera that is ‘good enough’ and find a good deal on it. Use the money u saved on that, for other things like promotion. Indie Filmmakers NEVER plan enough for promo. I would say to be creative and come up with a good story that u can tell for no money at all, then just spend money on GOOD SOUND (because a film with bad sound will never be well received. never) and promotion.

Anything else you want to throw out to our indie film readers?

The only other thing is, don’t call your film finished, until you are satisfied that its the best it can be. Being indie, you don’t have the time restraints the big boys do so take your time.

Abel Berry, 2010

Thanks for the words of wisdom, Abel! I can’t wait to see KODIE!!

That’s it from the DOJO for today. I’ll see you all later in the week with a new article!

-Mat Nastos, the Film Sensei
http://www.FilmSensei.com

Welcome to the DOJO!

Ok, so my intended re-launch of Filmsensei.com wound up taking just a bit longer than I had originally planned.  However, I’ve got a lot of cool stuff in store and it all begins today!

As often as I can coax my filmmaker friends to do so, the Film Sensei plans to run question & answer sessions with cutting edge guerrilla and indie filmmakers here on the website.  We’re going to get down and get answers from filmmakers who are out in the trenches every day working on low budget films.  These guys started out just like you, my loyal readers, as run-and-gun low budget filmmakers and have been able to get their flicks made and out to the public.

The first in this on-going series of indie filmmaker Q&As is with guerrilla filmmaking wunderkind, Jacob Strunk.  I met Jacob in 2009 when he needed a good camera for his latest short film, “This is the Place.” Normally I don’t tag along to shoots, but having heard about Jacob’s reputation I just had to go and see the man in action.  Needless to say, Jacob didn’t disappoint.

I’m going to shut up now and let Jacob take over.  Enjoy!

5 Questions for Indie Filmmaker, Jacob Strunk

Name: Jacob Strunk

Year/Age Started as a Filmmaker: Probably around 12 or so, the usual “run around with the family camera covering friends in fake blood” story, though my first festival screening was in 2002. A wise man once told me you’re not a filmmaker until you’ve shown your work to a room full of strangers.

Credits as writer/director:
“A Day Awake” – 2002; premiered at Flicker Festival Los Angeles.
“Go Man Go” – 2002; part of the Pioneer 2880 Project.
“Valhalla” – 2003; finalist for Student Academy Awards, screened at 1 Reel Film Festival, Seattle.
“A Shadow Before Sunrise” – 2004; winner, Best Film Noir at New York International Independent Film Festival.
“Another Happy Ending” – 2005; one of ten films commissioned by Warren Etheredge for 1 Reel Film Festival’s Filmmaker Challenge with work by Jason Reitman, A.J. Schnack, Seth Henrikson, the Duplass bros., et al.
“Mr. Butters Syndrome” - 2007; premiered at New Rivers Press Moving Words : Moving Images literary festival.
“This Is the Place” - 2009; premiered at Olympia Film Festival, Olympia, Washington.

Website: www.sevenmileswest.com

Give the Filmsensei.com readers a bit of information on yourself and your experience as a filmmaker.

I was fortunate enough to find a great group of folks in film school, and all the films I directed there found their way into festivals. My film “Valhalla” was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards, which caught the attention of SAA judge Warren Etheredge of Seattle’s Warren Report and then curator of the 1 Reel Film Festival. Warren invited me to Seattle to screen the film and talk to the audience, and invited me back the next year to be a part of his annual Filmmaker Challenge.

In 2004, I received grants from Kodak and Fotokem, which allowed me to shoot “A Shadow Before Sunrise” on 35mm. In 2007, I curated the “Moving Words : Moving Pictures” evening of film in Fargo, where I premiered my film “Mr. Butters Syndrome.”

Since graduating from film school, I went to grad school and earned an MFA in creative writing, and I’ve been paying the bills and buying cat food working in post production while managing to pull together my own films as often as possible. It couldn’t be done without the continuing friendship and support of the group of filmmakers with whom I went to film school. It’s been a tremendous life lesson: respect and foster community.

As a run-and-gun digital filmmaker, can you give our readers an idea of the problems that you’ve run in to on some of your past productions — or even problems they can expect on theirs?

Expect everything to go horribly wrong. Expect the camera to fail, so make sure you have another. Expect someone to drop half the day’s film into the glaring desert sunlight, so be ready to scramble to reshoot. Expect your actors to die or be late, your food to be eaten by a bear, the power to go out, the AC to lose focus, a comet to hit. Expect everything to go wrong, be ready to deal with it, and you’ll be primed for battle. And, of course, pleasantly surprised every time something goes smoothly.

My productions have ranged from four guys in the woods with a tripod and a bounce board to a crew of umpteen people and a dozen actors on location for four days with generators and a truck full of lights shooting 35mm film; however big or small, have a backup plan for everything. And most importantly, don’t get discouraged when things go awry. Take a breath and deal with it, keep the momentum going. Your finished film will not be what you originally envisioned — it never is — but with any luck, it will become its own organic beast, growing and changing and chewing up the scenery. And that, quite often, is much better…

What is the worst thing that’s ever happened on one of your indie film shoots?

We’ve been fortunate enough to never have a major injury, maiming, death, divorce, or disfigurement on a shoot, so I have to say the worst thing thus far, the thing most inhibitive to a smooth day of work and a pleasant outcome, was on our final day of shooting the last film, “This Is the Place.”

My first mistake was casting someone I knew from previous experience to be unreliable. But he lobbied for a part in the movie, so I wrote a supporting role for him. He’s a fantastic artist, so I also commissioned him to create a visual effect for the film. And he came through on it; it was fantastic. It looked so great, in fact, that he decided he didn’t want us to use it. He liked it too much and wanted to keep it. At this point, I should have pulled the plug and found someone else. Mistake number two.

He assured me he’d create another. In fact, the day before we shot, the crew gathered at my house for a cheerful afternoon of pre-game beers and banter, during which he continued working on the replacement. Our call time was early the next morning at a location 90 minutes away, so we all called it a night early and got ready for the shoot. Well, almost all of us.

The next morning, he had disappeared. Without finishing the effect. And with my ATM card. I had the entire production waiting on me, so we had to move out without him. I was out an actor, out an effect, and had no money with which to pay everyone working that day. But in the moment, you have no choice but to push forward, so we recast the role (with the stage manager, no less, who did a fantastic job despite never having acted before in his life), someone lent me a bunch of money to pay everyone, and we reblocked the scene to make it work without the effect. In the end, while I still miss that one glorious shot that never was, it turned out to be for the best and, while the day was ridiculously stressful, I think the film is better for it.

Lessons learned: trust your gut and push through obstacles.

As someone who wears multiple hats on your films – writing, directing, producing, editing, running a camera — what is your favorite part of indie filmmaking and why?

It sounds tacky, but whatever stage of production I’m in, I love it (with the exception, of course, of pre-production, which I find daunting and tedious and discouraging). Working on the script is not only a time for ideas to birth themselves in front of you, red and wet and writhing, but also a time for meditation on the film, what it means, what you want to say with it; it’s a time to get to know your themes and characters. They become real.

Casting has always been a pain, usually because there’s not a pile of money involved, but when it finally comes together, it feels like a first kiss. Production itself is usually the most exciting. Terrifying, undoubtedly, but seeing the scenes you’ve written and rewritten and visualized and rehearsed actually happen in the moment while a red “record” light pulses or a reel of film purrs past the gate, that’s an untouchable high. It’s also a time to experiment, to have fun, the chance for true collaboration to take place. Shoot a couple takes, then let everyone have fun. Shoot what you know need for the edit, but then move the camera. See what other moments you can find. Let the actors improv. The true auteurs know that 90% of casting is directing.

Post is also tedious, but again exciting seeing the puzzle pieces fit together. More often than not, I find myself cutting a rough to script, then making drastic changes in subsequent edits. Things disappear, moments play out differently, characters take charge of scenes in ways you didn’t expect, the timeline skews. It’s wild. If the script is the delivery room and production is a fun childhood day terrorizing pigeons at the park, post must be that horrifying time in a parent’s life when they question whether their child can actually make it behind the wheel of a car or staying out until a later curfew or going to that rock show in the city. More often than not, they’re just fine. I think most parents will say you have to give teenagers space to find themselves and develop. That’s post-production.

And then comes the bittersweet moment where little Billy or Susan leaves the nest. You’re in a darkened theatre full of strangers, about to watch people watch your film. You can’t wait, you’re so happy for it, but you know your job is done. It’s up to the film now to captivate them, to teach them, to move them. And it’s up to you, depending on how masochistic you really are, to get back in the bedroom and start trying for the next. Apologies if that analogy skewed a little blue.

Finally, can you give beginning indie and guerilla filmmakers any advice on setting up their first films?  In other words, what advice or tips do you wish you had been told before you put together your first film?

I can offer two pieces of advice that may at first seem counterintuitive:
1)    Learn your craft. Study it. Take classes. Watch movies. Read books. Go to film school if you’re able. I know, I know, PT Anderson dropped out. John Cassavettes was self-taught. “Barry Lyndon” was shot with natural light. But you must. Know. Your. Craft. Learn how to do everything and how to do everything right: light, operate a camera, run sound, direct actors, pull cable. Take an acting class. Take a writing class, even if you’re not a writer. Learn it all. Arm yourself to the teeth. This is war, kid, and you can’t show up with a penknife to a gun fight.

2)    Take chances. Take risks. Now that you know the rules, see how far they’ll bend. Once you have the fundamentals down, once you know how the language of film is most effective, you begin to develop your own aesthetic. Don’t start throwing around whip pans and tracking shots until you understand the 180 line; don’t try to out-Fincher Fincher until you can shoot a scene in which two people speak in a single wide shot and make it interesting. Then…have fun. See where you end up.

Anything else you want to throw out to our indie film readers?

I mentioned it earlier, but I can’t stress the idea of community enough. Here’s the sad, painful, infuriating truth: almost everyone who makes it in this industry does so through connections you don’t have. Family. Friends of family. Significant others. What have you. Someone gets them a job. Someone gets them money for their project. Someone helps them get a celebrity in their film, which gets it into Sundance, which gets them a deal for a feature, which sets them up for a life of caviar and models and fast cars and magazine covers. It can be discouraging and depressing. Believe me. After a decade out here, you look around and sometimes wonder what all the hard work was for, why you bothered (as I mentioned) arming yourself. The war can sometimes seem miles away while you sweat with 100 pounds of armor and weaponry on your back in the sickening heat of the jungle.

You have to surround yourself with like-minded people. Surround yourself with believers, people who believe in both the craft of filmmaking and in each other. You have to help each other, you have to push each other, you have to pester the hell out of one another sometimes to keep making films. But it’s absolutely necessary. These people are your platoon and your support group, and as you go through experiences together, as you get better at what you do together, you’ll find you’re stronger as a team than any one of you alone.

And when someone’s rich uncle dies or you all discover that Todd’s cousin is dating the guy in the big ABC dramedy, you’ll be ready to pull the trigger and you’ll all be in it together. All joking aside, the longer you keep at it, all of you as a team, you’ll discover you’re making your own connections, through work and over beers and at the laundromat. Keep at it and support each other and force one another to keep making things, and the snowball will grow. Always be ready; when the opportunity comes, it’ll be yours.

-Jacob Strunk, 2010

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions for the readers here, Jacob!  Keep up the fantastic work!!

-Mat N., the Film Sensei
http://www.FilmSensei.com