CERISE Update: From Location Scouting to Storyboarding

Since it's been a while since I blogged about Cerise, I thought I'd give you all an extensive update on how preproduction is going. But first...

Follow CERISE's progress on FB!
If you haven't done so already, please be sure to become a fan of (whoops! Pardon me, I mean "Like") the Cerise Movie page on Facebook. Currently, you can see our full cast (and what a beautiful and talented cast we have!)

Now, the best part about the fan page is that all you have to do to get there is go to www.cerisemovie.com. That's right, we've got a domain name! Ben Gerber, one of our totally awesome backers, graciously donated it to us. So for now, we've linked it to our fan page until we can find someone who'd be willing to make a website for us. Thanks again, Ben! Your generosity deserves praise beyond the limitations of even my best verse.

And...

There's a New Blogger in Town
For all you visioneers out there, be sure to check out Alain Aguilar's blog My Weekly Dose of DOF on Tumblr. He's going to be blogging about various visual concepts from classics like Touch of Evil to modern day epics like Avatar (and let me tell you, this brother know his stuff! I think the man breathes at 24 fps!) From deep to flat space, between affinity and contrast, this blog spans everything image-related for the professional DP to the kid picking up his first HD camera.

Alain will also be writing about some of the visual elements he intends to employ on Cerise (but don't worry, he won't give anything away... I hope!)

Now, the Cerise updates:

Better Than Zero and Gene!
Cerise has scored two awesome producers––Camiren Romero and Kejal Kothari. They're currently handling the bulk of the production details so I can ween myself off of those duties and focus on storyboarding, rehearsing and, ultimately, directing.

We've also been gradually bringing together other great crew members to the Team––Lisa Sever, our production designer, Oles Protsidym doing audio/sound recording (and who expertly handled audio on my last short film Perfekt, Darylanna Benavidez as our 1st (and 2nd) AD, Albert Phaneuf as our Key Grip, and a dynamic duo for hair and make-up, Michelle Ernest and Adam Ramos.

Locations Scouted and Secured (& Some Unsecured)
Alain and I spent the the entire day this past Tuesday scouting our locations and taking picture upon picture (which I'm basing my storyboards on).

So far we've secured a quaint little café in Downtown Jersey City called The Warehouse for our final scene and Josh's apartment thanks to a generous colleague of mine.

Troubled Waters Ahead...?
As you all may or may not know, DIY filmmaking is full of mines and pitfalls that try to thwart would-be filmmakers from success. Well, Team Cerise hit our very first troubled spot this past week, but we weren't caught for long between this possible Scylla and Charybdis.

The short of the long is that we were able to work out an agreement with a location which was proving difficult to secure. However, there are certain provisions, mainly that we shoot around their schedule, not ours. But the location is absolutely perfect! Check out the pics below of Josh Kermes' workplace––the Tutoring Center at N. E. Given University:





My producers and I are now in the process of rearranging the shooting schedule (which has been set for over a month now!), and, luckily, it seems that our cast and crew are being very accommodating. We should be well on our way past this tiny whirlpool within the next few days thanks to the awesome people who will be bringing Cerise into full bloom this May.

I Used to Want to Be a Comic Book Artist...
BACKSTORY (cue Glass Menagerie lighting; some strings by Mozart) ...When I was little, my first passion was drawing. I'd draw everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to my own mythological beasts and the heroes who'd fight them. I'd even sell my recreations of Batman and Superman comic book covers to extended family members, and after an arduous month of saving up a whopping $15, I was able to buy myself The Real Ghostbusters Ghost Trap, which I thought was just the coolest thing at the time (still do, actually!)

My passion for drawing and comic book art lasted all the way up until freshman year of college when it was unexpectedly drowned in a four hour long Drawing and Composition I course that started at 9am on Fridays (to this day, I still won't work on Fridays). But I still read comic books to this day, and I still have a passion for great art.

FLASHFORWARD: Storyboarding is the graphic novel version of a screenplay. That said, the storyboards for Cerise are going very well, but as I mentioned in a recent status update, six pages of the script took me two hours to storyboard in pencil because I simply can't settle for stick figures. I've got to be somewhat detailed. It's borderline obsessive-compulsive behavior, I know.



Now granted, the above storyboard is no Picasso, but going at this current rate, I'd be drawing until well after the film's edited and screened at Aspen (here's hoping, anyway :-) So to speed up the process, and thanks to another awesome Team Cerise member, I'm thinking of giving the Hitchcock storyboard app for my iPhone a go and see if that can speed up the process some. I've watched the demo about six times, and it looks easy, but all demos look easy 'cause the object is to get you to lay down your hard earned bills and buy it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, that's the inside scoop on Cerise for now. I'll be back with another update real soon. In the meantime, keep up to date with us on Facebook and check out Alain Aguilar's blog for more Cerise goodness!

Filmmakers Get Social: A Short Recap of What I Already Knew

Filmmakers Get Social - A Recap
Last Wednesday I attended the Filmmakers Get Social event (thanks to a sweet discount courtesy of reading Erin Crumpacker's blog Briefly Noted) at the Roger Smith Hotel. It was a spirited evening of short film, panel discussion, and free Ultimat vodka (and the bartender knows how to pour!)

The Films
Among the films shown were Crooked Lane (dir. Chase Bailey), Tony and Cal (dir. Ryan Gielen), and Power (dir. Ari Gold). Nailing Jello, the film for which funds were raised, was never shown due of DVD difficulties (hmm, old tech on the way out: an appropriate segue...)

The Panel
The panel that followed was comprised of a diverse group of content producers. Leslie Poston, co-author of Twitter for Dummies, had some interesting things to say, as did Michelle DeForest of Next New Networks which puts out all The Key of Awesome videos (see the hilarious "Lady Gaga Beyonce Telephone Parody" below!), and John Knowles of Panman Productions.



What I Walked Away With
I walked away from the gorgeous Roger Smith Hotel with a few new nuggets of insight like

• It's still about quality over quantity
• Tumblr is an awesome way to share "snackable content" (so now I've got one)
• Crowdsource for content
• Use www.search.twitter.com to find your audience.

There was also a refresher course of sorts on things I know very well (or learned from attending DIY Days a few weeks prior), such as

• Actual filmmakers prefer Vimeo over YouTube for easier access to quality content
• Make everything about the audience
• The "Law of Least Effort," or posting content on sites that integrates with other social networking sites
• Be open to experimentation in everything you do
• Never be on more than five platforms
• A transparency of process builds anticipation and a fan base for a film.
  

And, of course, there were things that I didn't agree with, primarily

• Scheduing tweets and Facebook status updates via Hootsuite and other clients
• Keeping a content calendar

A Note on Community
I was reminded of an article that appeared on Indiewire called "The Take-Back Manifesto" which outlined a cessation of all discussion about social media, DIY marketing and new distribution models (and one could infer a deadening of any form of progressive thinking while we're at it!) when talking, writing, or blogging about anything film-related. This, of course, goes completely against the natural Tao of the universe, so it's no wonder why the majority of the people I've met think this is the sorriest excuse for a manifesto ever. Above all, however, this idea goes against the idea of community.

As a community, we owe it to ourselves to go to events that will offer us even the slightest shard of new information that might help us fit the puzzle together, to help us better comprehend the chaos swirling around us. This way, when it all comes to a halt and decides on a form or forms (and hopefully not some Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man!), we will be able to be among the first to fully make use of its endless possibilities. And we will have done it together.

The Best & Not-So-Best of DIY Days

I'm still reeling with all the sagely advice and newfangled insights I walked away with after leaving DIY Days in NYC this past weekend. I wanted to mention some of the best and not-so-best moments of the event (of the seminars and workshops I attended).



Biggest Highlight: The OpenIndie Revolution
From the moment Arin Crumley commanded the stage to the minute he left behind his imprint in our minds as he walked off, I was captivated by this energetic DIY entrepreneur's skill with words, images, ability to instill power into his audience. I felt as if I was listening to Henry V's St. Crispen's Day speech –– I was that fueled with a desire to get out of the New School and do something! An especially awesome highlight was hearing a roomful of filmmakers, producers, screenwriters, and the motley rest of us chanting at the top of our lungs the ol' Network mantra "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Truly empowering! The only downside (perhaps of the entire event) was that Arin's presentation should have been the last one of the day; you just can't top a presentation of that caliber.

On Being Yourself
I walked out of Michael Margolis' workshop "The Real You: Personal Branding, Social Media, and Storytelling" a changed man. Not only is Michael's advice sagely and practical, but his delivery was filled with hype and energy. My only beef? The workshop was too darn short! On the upside, I just downloaded a copy of Michael's book Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand and Leadership Need a Bigger Story and am looking forward to absorbing more insight about how important it is to be comfortable with who you are and what you're doing before you can feel comfortable presenting it to the world.

From Reminiscence to Results
At first, I was like, "why is this guy spending 60% of his talk relaying all these specific details of his past?" and I slowly realized that it's because Jeff Gomez was building up a character with an unbelievable arc without putting pen to page, because he was the character. Mixing his traumatic childhood and inability to expound upon the terrors harbored in his mind, haunting his days and nights to being saved by an obscure 1970s Japanese manga hero though print, serial and cinematic experiences, Jeff kept me captivated for his entire 30 minute presentation on "Transmedia Storytelling: Creating Blockbuster Worlds." Jeff definitely enlightened me to all the amazing new things that are happening now regarding the myriad platforms and possibilities for DIY filmmaking and distribution, many of which are not all that new.

Showbiz 101: A Simplified Pedagogy
Although I was a bit befuddled during Brian Chirls' workshop "Who Does Business This Way?!" I was engaged from beginning to end and felt that this presentation, like Michael's, should have been longer. I got a kick out of Brian's pie charts and practical analogies about how business is done in the real world (using the steel industry as his paradigm) versus how it's done in the movie industry (back asswards, apparently!), and it proved very helpful for someone like me, who has no background in business whatsoever.

There's No Such Thing as Original...Or Is There?
Brian Newman's talk on "Reinventing Innovation" was also an eye opener for me. Blending both the serious with the comedic elements of the ever-changing DIY cosmos, the presentation was well-done, tight and comprehensible. And although Brian didn't offer up any concrete answers (since there really aren't many actual answers out there) to the inquisitive comets swarming all our minds, he did a terrific job detailing every layer of this Jupiter-sized onion so that it doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore. It now seems explorable though the possibilities are seemingly endless.

The Secrets of Serialized Content...Kept Secret!
Admittedly, I'm not the most up-to-date filmmaker out there (heck, I just watched Logorama!), I have to say, I was impressed by the innovation and storytelling present in the übersuccessful webseries Radar. But I took the workshop "Creating a Brand Through Serialized Content" because I wanted to learn how to, well, create a brand through serialized content. And that was the one thing that was never addressed. As impressed I was by the success of Alex Johnson, Janine Saunders, and Josh Cramer, I walked away from this workshop completely unworked and with absolutely no newfound knowledge to keep in my manvelope (except for the knowledge that Radar exists.) This felt like one giant plug for Radar and Babelgum.

Keynote Speaker Not so Key to Me
I'm probably one of the only DIY Days attendees (if not the only!) who was not at all moved by keynote speaker Ted Hope's talk about community building, helping one another out, and coming together as filmmakers. Don't get me wrong, now––I believe in every one of those elements and think that each is integral to the success of indie filmmakers at the DIY level (I especially believe this now, given Cerise's recent crowdfunding success on IndieGoGo); and of course I'm aware that Ted is an awesome guy (see "Side Note" below) and an even more awesome blogger, offering up tons of great advice himself and by way of guest bloggers; and I am a fan of (some of) his films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains my all time favorite film. Ever!); and perhaps it was just the fact that he was unprepared, but there was simply no passion, no urgency behind his words, and, quite frankly, I just didn't believe him.

Side Note: This was my second time listening to Ted Hope speak. Last year I attended quite an expensive finance seminar hosted by The School of Visual Arts. Ted was part of a panel of four, and was the only speaker who instilled a sense of hope in the audience, while Larry Meistrich, producer of Sling Blade, unlatched all the evils in Pandora's chest and sought only to grind us down into fine pulp to discard our filmic endeavors to the wind. Ted was the voice of reason in the room, something that I will always appreciate.

All in All...
DIY Days was an exceptional event, and I give props to Lance Weiler for putting it all together and offering this event for free, which is something I think more people should do; after all, information should be free for the public, for those who want it.


Follow 'Em on Twitter!
And if you're not already doing so, be sure to follow @arincrumley @openindie @getstoried @Jeff_Gomez @bchirls @bnewman01 @alexjohnson_ @janinesaunders and @TedHope.

IndieGoGoal!

Well, it has certainly been one heck of an awesome journey and we've reached the destination! Cerise has surpassed its IndieGoGoal of $5,000!



Not only did we raise the funds we needed, but Marinell, Alain, and myself have met so many big-hearted people, fellow indie filmmakers, and talented actors, which, in all sincerity, is the greatest perk for all the labors of love my crew and I have undergone during this campaign.

I've been listening to this song called "The Chariot" by my favorite band of Aussie independents, The Cat Empire. The chorus goes something like "Our weapons were our instruments/Made from our timber and steel/We never yielded to conformity but stood like kings/In a chariot that's riding on our record wheels." Aside from being an upbeat anthem about making love, not war, it's also a mantra for friendship and the importance of community.

In our case, this "king" riding in this chariot is Cerise. I could never have pulled such an ambitious weight (raising $5K) at such a rapid pace (less than two months) without the Herculean might and ardent belief fueling all of the kind and generous people pulling right alongside me. Together, I'm sure we'll be able to pull Cerise to even further distances, from festival wins to international screenings!

So thank you all for helping make Cerise's IndieGoGo campaign a success, whether it was through a contribution, through constant support and encouragement, or by simply spreading the word about Cerise. And most of all, thank you for making my enthusiasm for this short film your enthusiasm as well.

What's Next for Cerise?
I'm currently casting for the film. So far, we've secured two actors, Stewart Schneck (playing Jack Parsons, Josh's boss), who will also be appearing in The Taming of the Shrew for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at Drew University, and Yan Xi (playing C.J. Shuriko, Josh's love interest), whose credits include Brooklyn's Finest, She's Out of My League, and Sundance "Official Selection" Children of Invention. We've got one more set of auditions this week, and hopefully I'll have all four of my principals roles cast. Exciting stuff!

Join the Cerise Movie Fan Page
If you haven't done so already, please be sure to join the Cerise fan page. Everyone will be kept in the loop with all things Cerise via the fan page. We hope to continue to amass a wide audience for the film in the next months during all stages of production. We've also got lots of innovative things planned for our supporters as well, so continue showing your true color by recommending it to your friends and stay tuned!

There's plenty more happening in the next few weeks, from crew meetings to interviews, so I'll keep you informed about what's in my manvelope, including my #FollowFriday list (yes, still in the works!), thoughts on this past weekend's DIY Days, and plenty more!

"See maybe if the world contained more people like these,/Then the news would not be telling me 'bout all that warfare endlessly." ~ The Cat Empire, "The Chariot"