AF's Rant of the Day

If making a movie is just one of those things you think would be cool to do, then don't do anything. There are already enough posers and bad movies out there.

- - from The Angry Filmmaker's Survival Guide (coming in Fall 2007)

AF's Rant of the day

"What kind of software do you use?" is the most frequently asked question and possibly the stupidest one that I've ever heard! Software doesn't write your story, you do.

- - from The Angry Filmmaker's Survival Guide (coming Fall 2007)

I have a Twin in Germany!

I have been corresponding with a filmmaker in Germany by the name of M. A. Littler. The company is Slow Boat Films (www.slowboatfilms.com).

We have been sharing out thoughts about Real Independent Filmmaking. We have both come to many of the same conclusions, among them are, if you want your work seen you have to do it yourself!

Good films don't have to have stars, and the most important thing for any filmmaker is control over your own work.

We are talking about me coming over to Frankfurt so we can have an open discussion about the differences between Real American Independent Movies as compared with Real European Independent Movies. All of you "Indie" phonies can stay home. You wouldn't understand what we'll be talking about.

The interesting part is that I have sent some of my films over there, and I am waiting to see M's films. I don't care if I like the work, I already respect it. It is all about making movies on your own terms.

If you get a chance, check out Slow Boat Films (www.slowboatfilms.com) and support M. I think it is the least we can do. I'll let you all know what I think of the work. Maybe.

Later.

Kelley

Bad Day for Filmmakers...

I just had a realization...

My short films and videos will never be picked for "Cool New Videos" on My Space or be the ones that are selected on You Tube, Yahoo, Google, or any of those other sites.

I just saw that "Nosepicking Gorilla" is a cool new video on MySpace. (I won't go into the fact that "Nosepicking" is not one word... )

How can I compete with that?

I'm going to bed... for the rest of my life!

Random stuff including the Book

I got great response from people about other web sites that can help filmmakers get their movie made. I want to thank every one for that. I know there is no way I can include all web sites out there but at least I can give people some places to start looking.

The work on the book goes slow. I am trying to do my own editing, with the help of a friend. I am pretty happy about how it is coming together, but the real test will be when it is done and out there.

I am still in need of donations to get this thing going. If you can spare any cash at all please go to the new/current projects page and send a donation to the book. $10, $25, $100, it all helps.
I was in Seattle last week and as much as I dislike the place I did a couple of good work shops at the Seattle Film Institute. It is a nifty little film school and I was impressed with how sharp most of the students were. Although a few of them fell a sleep during my talk... Luckily I don't take that stuff personally.

I got to hang out the first night in town with my pal Sherry Mills who is the Executive Director of Reel Women in Austin Texas. She was up there at the Seattle Film Festival where her film "Natalie at Five O'clock" was showing. It was also showing at the Vancouver Film Festival. (Be sure and check out Reel Women, (www.reelwomen.org), they do good stuff.) We had a great meal prepared be friends of hers.

I also got to see John de Graf, a longtime documentary filmmaking buddy. He has made around 40 films, most of which have aired on PBS. I love his work. He is so much more talented than Ken Burns, but Ken gets all the money and publicity. Stick to your guns John, your work speaks for itself... You can check out John's work at Bullfrog films (www.bullfrogfilms.com).

Oh yeah, and thanks Tim for letting me crash on your couch and buying sushi on Wednesday. It was great to hang with you as always...

Okay, back to work. I still have a book to edit and a couple of tours to book.

Later.
Kelley

Kelley's Book Info & Fall Tour

Hey Everybody,

The big news is that my book, The Angry Filmmaker's Survival Guide: Making The Extremely Low Budget Movie, should be coming out in time for the Fall Tour. I am putting the finishing touches on it right now.

Which reminds me, I NEED YOUR HELP!

If you know of any web sites that I should include in the Resources Section of the book would you please drop me a line. I am always on the lookout for web sites that are dedicated to helping Real Independent Filmmakers get their movies made! I have a pretty good sized list right now. I am not looking at Distribution or Marketing sites. I will include those in my next book, Tales From The Road: Self-Distribution and Marketing.

If you know any good web sites that assist in the making of Independent movies please send me a link so I can check it out and hopefully include it in the book.

I am self-publishing the book, so if anybody wants to donate to help me pay for it, please go to my web site (www.angryfilmmaker.com), check out New/Current Projects, and click on Book.
You can make a donation thru PayPal. Thanks.

I also want to let you know that I am booking my Fall 07 Tour right now. It is going to be called The Angry Filmmaker's Grass Roots, Brass Knuckles Tour. (Thanks to Aaron Corpus for that title...)

The Tour is tentatively slated to start in early September at the DC Shorts Film Festival in Washington, DC, (September 13-20). This is a terrific film festival that just keeps getting better, check out www.dcshorts.com. If you are interested in booking me for September or October please let me know.

In mid-November I will be heading over to Europe to do a one month tour there. Countries will include Scotland, Ireland, England, Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. If you know of any venues in those countries that I should be checking out please drop me a line.

Thanks for putting up with me and we'll talk later.

Angrily yours,
Kelley

Just thinking ...

So here I sit trying to get work done and organize my Fall Tour. I have way too much to do, and there are days when I feel like I am out of gas... Which doesn't really matter, because if I don't do it then it doesn't get done.

I am a little pissed, at a couple of organizations/schools that still owe me money. The thing that does drive me crazy is that I set up the shows, work shops, lectures, or whatever. I get there under my own power, pay my own expenses, and give them all of the paper work that they request.

Then they sit on my check! Remember you administrators, you get regular checks to do your job, I only get paid when I work! How about just doing your job a bit more efficiently and paying me in a reasonable amount of time!

Stuff that bothers me.

I am the only one who wonders about this...

Car bumpers! What ever happened to them? I see these plastic things on the front of all these cars, and apparently what is under them is useful in a crash, but the plastic bumper itself?
Useless! Remember when you had an older car and it wouldn't start so you would use a buddies car and push it to get it started? Don't do it now! That whole hunk of plastic will shatter. I was in Chicago and my Cousin in law decided that my van was beyond filthy and we should wash it. (He's a good guy). He was looking at what I laughingly call my front "bumper" and it had all sorts of "black shit" on it. ("Black shit" is a technical term...). It looked like road tar. On closer inspection it turned out to be scratches in my "bumper". It looked awful and we couldn't rub it out. Unless I want to get a new hunk of plastic I am going to have to live with it.

Now I know that the car companies will tell us that the plastic "bumpers" are lighter and will help us with our gas mileage. Yeah right! If car manufacturers were concerned about gas mileage I hope we can do better than plastic bumpers... And new cars are built so well that we don't need to push them any more to get them started. (Plus that trick only works with manual transmissions). RIGHT! And my computer never crashes! So if that is their argument, then why can you still get bumpers on trucks? Are they not built as well? Oh that's right, those are work vehicles. My Van is not a work vehicle...

I had a person run a stop sign in front of me a few months ago when I was in my 1976 BMW 2002. I hit her in the side and put a really nice crease in her door. My chrome bumper? Not a scratch on it. Much later, I was sitting at a stop light in the same car when I was hit from behind. The car that hit me had a cracked plastic "bumper" that was going to have to be replaced. My bumper... no problems! I am sure the car companies and body shops are making a fortune replacing big hunks of plastic on the front of these newer cars. My car, it looks fine!
It looks like real bumpers are going the way of wing windows. (A great invention for circulating air in your car I might add...). We'll never see them again. So I guess I will hang on to my older cars, because I still like chrome bumpers...

Oh yeah, and don't forget to cruise around my web site and see if you want to buy something, or even donate to one of my other projects. That's my hard sell of the day...

Talk later.
Kelley