Hey, this is Kip from Scallywag Films. This is a link to a film I shot in under 48 hours for like $39. It was shot in an effort to learn software better and practice making better short films. Peace and have fun:) Kip

It was a fun short film. Acting was a bit rough in some spots, but for a quick piece, that's to be expected. I especially liked the music score. It all seemed to work with the exception of the last clip in Barcelona which seemed a bit too "porn". For a short just meant to test new software and shot under 48 hours, you did good.

Ya, no rehearsal, shot quickly (3 takes per scene, and you get what you got). I was a little frustrated because of the time limits and drinking on the set, not by me, but now I wish I would have:) It is hard to get cooperation with time constraints ect. and it does show in the performances. I only had one camera also and a drunk camera guy:) yay! This is mostly my fault of course, rehearsal is what I mainly learned from this short and I have to relax and chill even though I wear most of the hats. I think I have a few good stories in my head so maybe the next one will be better:) thanks for the input and thanks for taking the time to look at it. By the way, amazingly enough there is a porno-alternate-ending I deleted, only a seasoned porn freak could have detected that, bravo Gary;)

Boy do I know what THEY are like. Don't let THEM get you down. You know what they say "self esteem is essential for success" ... or did they say "self-esteem is for sissies"? Hmm, maybe I don't listen to them enough.

My advice, Kip, (as unwelcome as it may be) is to chill through the holidays, forget all about your projects. Then after the holiday craziness - if one of those ideas comes back to you and gets you inspired, go with it. If you are still in a slump by mid Jan, drop me a line and maybe we'll come up with something to inspire us.

Jan 12th Malcolm McDowell will be in town to host a screening of Mike Kaplan's Documentary "Never Apologize: A Personal Visit with Lindsay Anderson" 7pm at the Egyptian. It might be inspiring to go to that with a bunch of Boise Micro-Cinema filmmakers.

Happy Holidays!
Chad

I liked it.

The opening scene with the blocks was inventive. Then the following scene with the man in the small room was nicely unsettling. The music was cool. Also, the plot caught me by surprise.

I think this is a very interesting scenario.

Have you considered developing it any further?

Sorry it took me so long to respond. Holiday season and all.

I don't have any specific suggestions. But in general:

I think it's a good idea for a story that could yield some interesting situations. The idea of a filicide while the other parent tries to uncover the mystery behind their childs death (or disaperance) seems very ripe with possibility. Maybe you could consider what you have now as a rough draft and continue to improve on it. Who knows what you might end up with.

I think it's the follow through that is the hard part as well for me and most people I know. Communicating your vision of a story through the language of cinema takes a lot of time, resources, and proficiency in a myriad of crafts necessary for production. It’s hard to know and anticipate everything you need to know, let alone be an expert in all aspects of production.

And then throw in the fact that you’re doing it all on a micro budget in your time off from work etc…

I think it just takes experience that comes from nowhere else but doing it.

As for what I’m working on:

I’ve been learning how to use music creator 4. I’m also trying to finish up my feature–ish length college senior project. I won’t bore you with the details here, but maybe I’ll post some screen shots when I get a chance.

there is no $$ in curing. (well, off to fix more f-ups:) Up up and away!

Nathan, I hope that is what you wanted and the reason isn't that I am being too far off color again:) and it's Microcinemists:)

Hey, this is a short student film I Co-Directed, did Special FX and Make up on and played a demented clown in. Justin Wildman, a good friend of mine and very talented crazy person Directed it and me and Mark are in it. It was filmed like an i48 but edited brilliantly by Justin in a longer time period. Scallywag Films and Wildman FX are talking about collaborating again and I cant wait! We think it is pretty cool I hope you bad asses get a kick out of it. Here is the link to youtube.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=vugilLcOb2Y

A few of you have seen it but feel free to let me know what you think if you have time to check it out. I think it is like 6 min. long. It is a kinda dark twisted disturbing comedy.

I have started to think about the i48, being that it's this next weekend, and that has forced me to watch a few of my old shorts. I came to the conclusion that they all suck swamp water. It even pains me to watch a couple of them. Well, they can only get better.....or suck worse, cool!, I have a 50% chance or not sucking!
<br><br>
I did see some great movies this weekend though. Lars and the Real Girl, Music Within and Juno. Who ever wrote Juno is an f-ing genius! The best written film in years, also one of the best films period.... that doesn't contain gratuitous sex and violence;)

KW, Thanks for the two links. I remember seeing the "Antidepressant" film somewhere previously - perhaps at a Small Pond Screening. "Ryan is Missing" was also a good "read" or "screen" or whatever we should say. The story moved along at a nice pace and provided an unexpected turn of events. Personally I always enjoy seeing attractive ladies in a movie, so thanks for the pleasant visuals and bravo for the bikinis. Porn? Hardly. Instead, the ending scene was a nice surprise and the touch was senuously subtle but an unambiguous indicator of the motivation for Ryan's demise. Nice job. Looking forward to seeing your i48 project. Jim (Spatz)

I have shot about half of my new short, "Loves Me Not". Been having a little trouble keeping a camera operator around, two have moved away on me:) I can't do it all myself, unfortunately, I play one of the main roles:) But I have pulled it off before...somehow:) I had to key out a blue screen scene which turned out ok but somehow the actresses white shirt was kind of effected, Maybe shadows of a blue hue are present or something. I hope it doesn't look too obvious or just a happy accident as Bob Ross would say:)

I only got to film one scene. Ash was great once again (Surprisingly, he's kind of a bad boy alot of the time:) It wasn't easy, he was all over that chess board immediately, I shot what I could when he let me:) It got too dark for the other scene, I will do that later I guess. I am doing a couple of voice overs and post stuff today. I am running out of HD space so I have to edit as I go. I have 3 other external drives but my Premiere hates to pull vid from them, I need more RAM, I have a gig of RAM but it's never enough:)

I spent 3 hours editing 2 scenes and they looked pretty cool.After I rendered them out one started freezing here and there. I just thought I was low on memory but something else happened. I have to capture one of them all over again, I hate wasted time.

I put the scene together again and it turned out ok this time and it seems pretty cool. Each scene was one continuous shot so I was just really playing with the sound FX and music. Also I had to lighten them up a bit and they got a little grainy in places, but it looks stylistic a bit (what the f*** am I talking about?) Unfortunately the scenes ran a little long making a planed 8-9 minute short to possibly 14-15. That's ok though, no one will probably see it anyway. Matty is my hero.

Hey Kip,

You may already know this so if you do well... just ignore me. One trick that really helps to chroma-key (green screen or blue screen) is to deeply saturate the colors of the image you are trying to key. This turns your blue super blue so your chroma key software can make an easy selection. Don't worry if it looks unreal. After you key the part you want then just desaturate the image back to a 'normal' look.

I almost lost 90% of what I have done on this short film. Luckily, I always back up everything 3 times. This will save your ass sometimes. I went back to my old ways of editing scene by scene like it's it's own movie. Sometimes I get exited and capture and edit too many scenes at once and it bogs the computer down of course. I freed up the hard drive alot more and tied to make it run faster-smoother ect. I have 3 and a half scenes of 9 in the can, passable for an actual crappy no budget film. I am going to re-capture the blue screen intro and try what Nathan and I discussed earlier, I hope it works because the shot scene is pretty cool looking and I don't want to re-shoot, I have other films to make and f*** up.

My Dad always told me to get a realistic goal in life. Maybe he is right, making movies is kind of a weird thing to do but everytime I try to quit I see a story in my head anyway and I have to manifest it. I have been paying attention to what Will S. has posted about no respect for our art in the Boise media and I have read and watched everything I get my hands on about directing, acting ect. and it seems to be like the lottery for people to actually make it in this business and survive without a day job:) Then I tell myself, well, if you where as good as they are maybe you would make something worth a sh*t to watch for more than 5 minutes. So, my inner battle of quit an except your retail, cookie cutter meager existence or continue to try to get better at what I do is pretty intense not to mention taking care of my twins, student loans, rent, other evil personality, wacky ex-girlfriends ect. I hope I can try to quit dabbling and make an actual enjoyable film one day.... I guess that is the goal. Too bad I can't pay the rent with it. I just don't want to be old and decrepit and saying "I could have made a cool movie..... you, f****** whipper snappers! Now get me my jello and Nilla waffers, my stories are coming on."

I think my Dad is starting to kind of respect that I march to my own drummer. I have never been the corporate manager type. I was freight boss at Albertsons for a long time and I could have been much more and made alot of money, but money to me isn't worth all the s**t I would have to swallow. It is probably a dumb philosophy, a guy could most likly put a little whip cream and sugar on that s**t to make it taste better but I never wanted to be that guy. To me, art is where it's at but people sort of discourage it if your not Luis Royo or Oliver Stone ect. If they do except it they think I make porno but don't want to be in one because the price wouldn't be right;)

Wow, bizarre.....Houston we have a fan:0 This is the skinny, for those of you how have missed a few episodes: I moved to Boise with my best friend Mark and went to ITT to study Multi Media & Film Making ect. They shoved 5 years of sh*t down our throats in 2 years and now I owe some legalized loan sharks $25,000. I told people when I left that they would see my name on the big screen and I can't go back until I do what I set out to do. I have made about 10 short films including some i48 stuff, and one I wrote actually won best genre one year. A couple of years ago I entered with a very talented friend and we wrote something really cool but when it came time to shoot everyone but me and Mark dropped out one by one, a bad experience, and I have only made 3/4 of a film since then, called "Loves Me Not". Not knowing many people around here and working most of the time to pay rent ect. really deflates my films and chances of filming. I am the only one who takes it seriously, everyone else around me thinks I am out of my mind. They think I should quit and be a corporate American drone like most of them. I don't want to be on my death bed with tubes and wires and a big boy diaper on thinking, Hell, I sure am glad I gave my life to corporate America and never took a chance to be actually happy at what I do.

When I was a kid my Dad was the hero. He instilled a huge work ethic in me and, normally, I out work pretty much everyone at my jobs, unless they also have a work ethic, which is few and far between. My Dad retired when he was 50 and is still the smartest cat I know. Although, he has the mindset of job and it effected my choice back then not to be an actor and not to make movies, making $ from movies is a silly dream you fool. So now I am older and hopefully wiser and I want to make f***ing movies! Everyone is a critic also, even me to some extent. I see movies I don't like but I like more than I don't, I respect the effort put into them.

I had a young girlfriend, 15 years younger than me. We only f***ed and fought all the time. We really did have a generation gap man, it is weird. I never thought that I wouldn't be considered at least half cool:) She hates my music ect. ect. We finally break up but she still needs me, and I have love for her. She gets pregnant by some guy she used to know and has twins. The guy flakes out and never pays child support or sees the babies. She wants me to meet them and I say no (I already have 4 other kids who's Dad's abandoned them and I became their Dad). I end up meeting the twins and now I help take care of them 90% of the time. I spend my last money on diapers and stuff for them, I feed them, bath them everything and it's not easy. Until someone thinks they can do better, I am Dad. It does worry me that they could be taken away at any time but I will deal with that later, I have had way way worse believe me. Anyway, they have made it extra hard to make films, so, I put them in my movie. If you though taking care of the twins is hard, me and the girl also aren't "together", she wants to start doing it again and be together ect. ect. I refused, I already tasted that and I need some sort of escape and freedom....so, I am single and she doesn't really like that, but that is tough.

The plan is to make 20-25 short films, by then, I will be done writing a couple of features to try and shoot. I want to f-up on things when the cost is very marginal. Mark got homesick and moved back home so, I have filmed 90% of Loves Me Not by myself and I am in it. I have made films all by myself before and people haven't known, they think I have a camera man because of all the set ups, but it just takes more time and preparation. I have a scene in Loves Me Not that has been frustrating me and the chick in it moved to New Zealand so I can't film it over. I hope I can make it work. If anyone happens to read this dribble and wants to collaborate on a film, even from scratch, let me know. I think I am easy to work with but I like to leave my mark on any film I am involved in, I think like a director so, I am sure I am an asshole sometimes;) I had to change my name to Swashbuckler Films because Scallywag was hijacked and they went out and looked better than me....f***ers. What does it matter, they both sound like porn studios anyway.......which I haven't found a reason to be entirely against at this point. Maybe I can make a classic porno called Gone With the Blow Job...female auditions for this will be held in the hotel room of my choice;)

Empty


Scene 1

EXT: By a campfire (Night Time)

Two old friends are sitting around bullshitting. One is sipping beer from the bottle. The other is drinking bottled water.



Jason
“Ya uh,…Tim got his tongue pierced yesterday.”

Pike
“His tongue pierced?”

Jason
“Yeah,… his fucking tongue pierced?!”


A small pause as Pike takes a sip of beer and a puff off his smoke.

Pike
“Isn’t he like,...15 years old or some shit like that?.”

Jason
“He says it’s like an ornament. I told him, you’re not a fucking Christmas tree Tim! You’re just…. A stupid idiot apparently.”

Pike
“They say it helps with,… you know?, oral stimulation.”

Pike wags his tongue at Jason through his fingers. Jason gets a weird look on his face.





Jason
“I don’t think he’d know what to do if he were confronted by an actual vagina! Ya creepy bastard !”

Jason has a swig of his bottled water. There is a short pause.

Jason
“…and what’s up with all the butt cleavage around these days? In my day you never saw a chick’s ass crack, and if you did ya paid for it one way or another.”

Pike
“ Ya, they put it out there for the world to see…then when they catch ya takin’ a peak they think you’re a pervert! Hey lady! I’m not the one with my ass hanging out!”

Pause.

Pike
“Well, I’m glad it’s the woman’s cracks, could you imagine if guys started to flash their hairy ass cracks every time ya turned around?”

Jason
“Ya well, tell that to my plumber, he’s a walking, talking ass crack cliché.”


Pike tries to light a joint but his lighter won’t ignite. Finally it does after the fourth or fifth attempt. He hits it and passes it to Jason. Pike coughs a couple of times.

Pike (talking while holding the hit in)
“I gotta cut down on smokin’ this shit man….I just keep forgetting too,”

They both smile. Another pause while Jason hits it.

Jason
“Melody’s been being a wackjob again. She said her doctor says she’s Bi-Polar.”

Pike chuckles.

Pike
“Hey now, that could be a good thing for you man. Maybe she’ll invite one of her lesbo girlfriends over for a threesome sometime!”

Jason
“No you ignoramus!, you have been smoking too much hippie lettuce ya stupid dip shit?!! She has these fucked up mood swings and shit man! I told her, Hey honey, I’ve been trying to have an affair with your other personality for years but you keep showing up and spoiling the fun!”


Pike swigs the last of his beer, points at his watch and they get up and walk away from the fire.

Jason throws his bottled water out of frame as far as he can.
As they stand up the empty beer bottle tips over, spins and comes to a stop. (The title “Empty” appears on the screen.)

As they walk up to the front door.

Jason
“We better get this shit over with or Mr. Clay is going to wonder what’s up?”

Fade Out.

Scene 2
INT: Front Door Entering Old Empty Farm House. (Nighttime)

Jason and Pike enter the front room of the house, still talking about trivial shit.


Jason
“Anywho, Melody says to me the other day “Every other couple I know has these little nicknames for each other like “honey cakes” or “sweetie shnookums” how come you don’t have a nickname for me Jason? You’re not romantic like other guys. Blah blah fucking blah man, so, apparently, I have to come up with a little nickname for her.”

Pike
“Well, what have you got so far?”

Jason
“Ya, I was thinkin’ maybe “Hose Bag” or “Sperm Bank,” something like that.”

A slight pause as they continue coming into the house

Pike (snaps his finger and points at Jason)
“Cock Gobbler.”

Jason (seriously)
“Ya,… that’s a good one too.”


The two walk through the living room towards a small kitchen and out into an empty garage. They walk into the garage and over by a large chrome chain that seems to be hanging from the ceiling and out of frame to the floor.

Jason
“Hey, I heard that Shelly's mother had a stroke. Sorry to hear that man.”

Pike
“Ya, they said it was a Grandma Seizure. Apparently she was dead before she hit the floor.”

Jason
“It’s Grand Mal Seizure not Grandma, numb nuts.”

Pike
“Ya, what ever, it sure makes me never want to be a grandparent that’s for damn sure.”

Pike grabs hold of the chain and pulls on it hoisting up a bloody and beaten woman into frame! Her hands are bound by the chrome chain and she is bleeding profusely! The garage floor is covered with a huge plastic tarp.


Pike kicks the tied woman hard in the ribs! The woman looks at them bloody and beaten but full of contempt. Jason slugs the woman in the stomach hard! Pike lets go of the chain and she falls to the floor!

Jason (Looks at his watch)
"The time is now 9 pm and Mr. Clay has yet to call.... shoot this piece of shit Pike! Roll her up in that tarp and we'll dump ‘er in a ditch somewhere."


Pike pulls out a hand gun and points it at the beaten bloody woman. The woman's eyes bulge with fright!

Jason
“If anyone deserves it it’s this cold hearted bitch!”

Pike
"Nothin' personal honey,... My wife just needs a new pair of tits."

Shot of beaten woman cringing and closing her eyes as Pike pulls the trigger. Click.........click, the gun is empty!


Pike
"What the fuck!?"

Jason angrily grabs the gun out of Pike's hand and points it at the beaten woman! He squeezes the trigger...Click! He pulls out the clip and examines it.

Jason
"It's empty ya silly fucker! I told you not to shoot at those damn squirrels on the way up here ya dildo!"

Pike
"Well,.... if you would have just pulled over I may have been able to hit one or two of ‘em an gotten us some supper!"

Jason
" I wouldn’t eat a mangy fucking squirrel ya moron!
Now how the hell are we gonna git rid of this bitch?! This house is as empty as a tomb… or your fuckin’ head.”

Pike pulls a small pocket knife out of his pocket with a blade about 2 inches long.

Pike
"Hey Jason, I have a knife maybe I could stab this bitch a few times!?"

Pike makes a few feeble stabbing motions.

Jason
"What, a few hundred times!? You couldn't gut a fish with that little thing,...maybe you could give her a manicure though Mary Kay."

Pike
“Hey, you got a better idea smart ass? It’s worth a try man!”

Jason
“Holy shit! Did you leave any gas in my car ya fucktard?”

Pike
“It really got going and I couldn’t stop it.”

Jason’s phone rings and he answers it.

Jason
“Ok boss….. Yup, will do Mr. Clay.”

Jason hangs up the cell phone, looks at the gas can and kicks the chainsaw across the floor.

Jason
“I have a better idea…We have to get this thing done pronto Pike. We’ll burn this dump along with this whore! Let Mr. Clay collect on the insurance,… It’s genius man.”

Jason walks over and pulls the gag out of the woman’s mouth.

Jason
“Got any profound last words bimbo?”

The woman smiles with bloody teeth and spits in Jason’s face!

Jason
“I hope you like barbeque bitch!!”


Jason begins to pour the gas from the red can all over the woman drenching her to the bone! She screams and her mouth fills with gasoline! Jason hits her hard with the gas can! Then he throws the gas can down and Pike takes out his lighter and tries to light it.

Jason (laughing)
“Let me get out of the way ya crazy fuckin’ red neck.”

Pike continues to try to light the lighter but it won’t ignite. Jason grabs the lighter from Pike and tries to light it himself but to no avail.

Jason
“This cock suckin’ piece of shit won’t light! Empty! It’s fuckin’ empty!”

Jason shakes it by his ear and throws it against the wall shattering it!

Pike
“What can we make a spark with man?”

Jason
“We can’t make a spark now nimrod! This house is full of fumes now, we’ll be blown to hell!”

Behind them the woman has somehow broken free!

Pike
“Hey, maybe we could run her over a few times with your car?”

The woman scurries to grab the old chainsaw while the men are distracted. She dribbles gasoline she has been holding in her mouth into its gas tank.

Jason
“We could tie her to the bumper and drag her for a couple miles?….”

Suddenly the sound of a chainsaw rings out! The two men look around surprised as the woman comes toward them swiftly and viciously!! Screams, ripping flesh and crunching bone fill the room!

Scene 5

EXT: Front of old farmhouse.

The woman comes staggering out of the house saturated from head to toe in crimson! hers and theirs. She has Jason’s cell phone raised in one hand trying desperately to get a signal. She stops and stumbles, reaching into her blouse she pulls out a severed finger that had been lodged in her cleavage and she throws it over her shoulder and into a near by bush!

She looks at the cell phone again, holding it up as high as she can and walking aimlessly into the middle of the dirt road trying to get a signal but the phone is empty.

Then,… WAMMMM!! She is hit by a passing car out of nowhere!! She rolls over by Jason’s parked car! Two men get out of the car and run over to her side! The men look down at her as she burps up blood from her mouth! One man has a big cigar and he takes a big puff off of it.
Cigar Man
“I told you Benny, If you want something done right ya better do it your fuckin self. Then you only have yourself to blame if things go screwy, capiche?

The man with the cigar kicks the fallen woman.

Cigar Man
“Bad ass Navy Seal my aching ceester! She’s just another broad Benny, see she’s not scary.”


A big man with black sunglasses answers the Cigar Man.

Benny
“Yes Mr. Clay.”

Mr. Clay
“Now where are those incompetent thumb dicks?”

Benny
“Umm, I bet those dumb thumb dicks are in the house boss, there’s blood all over the inside of that window.”

Mr. Clay
“Come on Benny, those pain in the ass clowns are gonna make me miss Dancing With the Stars.”

The two walk up toward the house. The woman rolls over and starts to pull herself up by the car handle. She opens the car and slumps into the drivers seat. The keys are still in the ignition and she laughs slightly. Mr. Clay and Benny walk into the bloody mess in the house.
Benny
“Holy shit! Where gonna need a snow shovel and a shit load of garbage bags boss.”

Mr. Clay takes a big puff off his cigar and BOOM!!! The fumes in the house ignite! The woman in the car smiles and laughs as the loud explosion goes off! All of the others are dead now.

The Woman (Chuckling Groggily)
“… Bunch of pussys!”

She tries to start the car but it won’t start. The gas gage reads empty. Close up of her bloody hand dangling out the open car door dripping blood in a puddle on the ground. Drip, drip, drip, drip……drip……..drip…….. The blood stops. The car horn rings out.
The title “Empty” appears on the screen. FADE OUT

ALTERNATE ENDING

She tries to start the car but it won’t start. The gas gage reads empty. Close up of her bloody hand dangling out the open car door dripping blood in a puddle on the ground. Drip, drip, drip, drip……drip……..drip…….. Suddenly she sits back up in her seat! Slowly she falls out the door onto the ground and starts to crawl toward Mr. Clays still running car. It takes her quite a long time to crawl to the car, time lapse maybe an hour has passed and she finally makes it to the car. She feebly pulls herself into the car and shuts the door. A soda cup with a lid and a straw from some fast food place is in the cup holder. She is very thirsty and tries to get a drink from the cup. The straw makes slurping empty sounds and she throws it on the floor. She looks in the back seat and sees an empty bucket of fast food chicken, she grabs it and throws it at the passenger side window.

She puts the car in gear and starts driving down the desolate dirt road into the sunset. Suddenly the car sputters and comes to a stop. She looks down at the gas gage, empty. She snickers a bit, then chuckles, then burst into a crazy as hell laugh. The car sits in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere as the woman continues to laugh.

FADE OUT

Hey Kip, this is an idea that I've been meaning to pass onto you for a bit but it always seems to slip my mind.

Have you ever thought about turning your (mis)adventures in filmmaking into the films themselves? You've got a distinct voice when it comes to telling these tales and I think they (the voice and the stories) would translate to the visual medium quite well. Just something to chew on.