The Little Movie That Could

I swear this project is not dead in the water. I've prepaid an editor for its completion. As soon as we finish Dangerous Writing, I'm jumping over to Made Crooked and seeing it through to the end. I promise.

Loggers

Duh. I grew up here but I totally forgot that's what we call them in Oregon. We don't say lumberjack.
Of course I realize this much after the fact. Logger Storytime doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way.

Some Light at the End of the Tunnel

We shot the Brokeback Mountain stuff last week. We went up to Mt Hood and ended up shooting just down the road from the house. It went well. Kind of strange to be dressed as a cowboy all day, though out in East County nobody seemed to notice. It was also a bit strange to play off of the film now that Heath Ledger has died. But we don't reference the film in terms of character so it didn't feel so irreverent after we did our shots.
We're shooting a scene with Rose tomorrow; which will be her final scene, the final scene of the film as well as the last thing we are shooting for the entire film. It seems like we should have a wrap party, but with a third of our cast and crew of nine not living in Portland, it doesn't seem quite right.
While on the plane home from NY I had the idea of writing a song for the film. Since I've never written a song before I thought it would be one of those ideas that I would never get around to. However, I sat down last night and wrote it. I like it a lot. I may have Rose sing it. We'll see. I sent it to the composer last night.
Yes, we have a composer/music supervisor lined up for the film. His name is Mike Spicer. He's a very prolific musician and producer. If he can't do it, he knows the musicians in town that can. I know him from high school, where appropriately enough we became friends in a music class sophomore year. I later managed his band and he was one of the first people in my life to recognize and encourage me as and to be a storyteller. I hadn't seen him for twenty years, but we ran into each other and have reconnected in a profound way.
I got a notice from IFP, that's the Independent Feature Project, about their upcoming Rough Cut Lab. I had a screenplay selected for the IFP Market a few years ago, so I'm on their mailing list. I'm going to submit Made Crooked to the Lab. This year's Lab is being moderated by Scott Macaulay, independent producer and editor of Filmmaker Magazine. It's an opportunity to get some input on putting the final touches on the film as well as developing a festival and marketing strategy. It's also a chance to get an endorsement of sorts and to share the film with people outside of what's primarily been Jordan and me. The important thing for me isn't so much whether Made Crooked is selected but that it feels qualified for submission to such a thing.

Until Soon,
Neal

NYC Wrap

Sitting in JFK waiting for our flight home. It's been a great trip. We finished with exteriors on a very cold and windy afternoon yesterday. It started snowing within fifteen minutes of wrap. I liked the things we found. Joey had a very strong reaction to the material that changed the tenor of the ending for the better. Helping him through his difficulty, especially the loss of time that it required was frightening. Rescheduling things stressed me out, but now that it's over I'm glad things worked out exactly as they did.
We're close to finishing Made Crooked. I'm very excited to present it to the world. We've been talking about how different the movie is from almost anything we've ever seen. And how it almost matter whether people like it or not, because it will be such a different movie viewing experience.
With this film, it seems that every time I start to feel good about it, something comes up. I don't know whether to shut up or just accept the peaks and valleys. I kind of doubt that I'll shut up.

Two Down

Well we've shot two of the scenes that I'm hoping will frame the original footage. David was first. We got some good stuff of him while doing pilates. We shot Tara at Reed just yesterday. Alex Cassidy played Tara's boyfriend two years down the road looking back.
I love working in the quasi-improvisational way that we've done this film. I know what I want them to say and have it all written down but in feeding it to them verbally it seems to free up wonderful errors, the actors' impressions and some unexpected moments that are the heart and soul of the film.
We're going to NY in February to shoot Joey's looking back interview and the video he surreptitiously watches on his laptop.
I feel some clarity toward Made Crooked right now. I was really inspired by Vincent Caldoni's Cathedral Park. He stuck with the film in spite of its obvious problems and made the best of them. In the end the film has a heart that transcends his level of technical experience and the limits of a $10,000 budget. I've always felt Made Crooked has a lot of heart and I'm glad to find ways to let it continue to thump.

December 2007 Update

Spent the afternoon working with Jordan on two of our many unfinished projects. I feel very positive and energized. I don't always feel like that in post-production, but I sure will take it when I can get it.
We reviewed Made Crooked for the first time in a couple of months. Rather than feel lazy about it, I think it's actually healthy for it to sit for awhile. I am undergoing a process of acceptance. It doesn't stink, in fact parts of it are quite good, but there are bits that just don't work. The challenge has been to find a way to get the good parts out into the world. I had a strong idea awhile back in the Fall but accomplishing it was going to beyond our resources. I recently had another idea that I think will work. I noted the areas of the film that needed help again today and wrote lines for the actors or in some cases questions to prompt their own responses. I'm hoping to shoot those additional scenes while David and Tara are in town over the holidays. And if my idea works I'll go back to New York to see Joey to shoot his scenes.

Made Crooked Update

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.

Immanuel Kant

We're still plugging away at this little film. We decided it's worthy of venturing out into the world, maybe premiering early next year.

Thanks,
nc