Michael Lorefice wrapping the logo on the emissions station sign used in Greenspoke.

The Saturn was due for an emissions check. A cold, heavy rain fell as I made the familiar trip past the State Emissions Inspection Station sign. Why a familiar trip when we only get our car checked every two years? Applus+ Technologies, the company that runs the emissions stations in Washington, was kind enough to allow us to use the Sodo station for several scenes in my short film Greenspoke. Tim glides by the sign on his bike in the film, answering the question ‘where is he going anyway?’ I’ve seen him do that exact ride a million times. Well, maybe a thousand. For our scenes in the bays and interior of the inspection station, the management was extremely helpful, even advising our lead actor Tim Gouran on how to probe like a pro.

Visiting locations you have used in a film, especially when you have literally spent hundreds of hours watching, editing, watching and re-editing the piece, is magically surreal. I almost said magically delicious. This place that initially lived in your imagination as you wrote the script took on another life when you played out your story in this physical space. The story grew into the space until they were inextricably linked. Eventually the place works its way into your consciousness like a character all its own. As I pulled up into the lane we used for Ruri’s scenes with John, the cold gray space seemed empty without the lights, dollies, camera, cast and crew. Even with that, it had a familiarity and chilly warmth that left me waiting for the line:

“You passed with flying colors.”

The friendly attendant missed her cue but the car passed and I was on my way. I never did hear that lone serendipitous train whistle we got in the film.

I had a similar experience when out cycling at Golden Gardens, the Seattle park where we shot the beach scenes in the climax of Greenspoke. This also was the location where we shot several scenes for my acting turn as a multi-murderer in the Trapped Principal episode of the Japanese television series Gyoten Sekai. This park is used often in film productions here in Seattle, so it wasn’t unusual to see a film crew. What was fun was to see the 1st Assistant Camera from Greenspoke, Angie Bernardoni and then realize that our Director of Photography Ryan Purcell and Sound man extraordinaire Matt Sheldon were also on the beach making movie magic. Even though it was a warm day, I felt again the chill of our December shoot, reliving over and over again the teeth-chattering cold that the talent went through and that I have seen (and felt) hundreds of times as well as I tweaked the color and the edit and manipulated the sounds of their screams, the passing train and the water.

Greenspoke storyboard

I’m currently working on storyboards to help me tweak my feature length script The Smiling Zombie. Storyboarding helps me identify weak sections of my scripts, visualize the locations I need and develop broad production design concepts. They also help in working with the director of photography to help us find the right dramatic and visual tension for a scene. Something they don’t do, which is part of the joy of making the film, is  flesh out all the nuances of an actual space and how that can be used to further the story and enrich the visual aspects of the film. It’s like the difference between looking at a map and walking down the street. As I make my new ‘maps’, I’m looking forward to walking down the streets of the new places it brings into my stories and my life.

Filmmaking has been a passion of mine for many years, supported financially by me through my corporate employment. When I was at the 2008 ReelHeART International Film Festival (RHIFF) with my short film two julias, I received a phone call from my employer of 6 years letting me know they were laying off several people in my department and that I was one of them.  The ironic timing of the call did not go unnoticed since I had made my first film as part of an employee filmmaking contest there. They let me go while I was on vacation at the first film festival to show one of my films in competition.

RHIFF is a great filmmaker-friendly festival and definitely worth the submission fee – I have entered again for 2010. However my overall festival submission strategy has definitely changed since then. I tended to take a shotgun approach before.  I research the festivals more and take advantage of early bird submission rates where I can to save money. If you use withoutabox.com, use their search and watch list functions rather than waiting for their e-mail notifications. Most of the e-mail notifications are for the higher fee late or final deadlines. More money for WAB and the festival but not the best use of limited filmmaker bucks.

I took a leap of faith and used my severance to fund Greenspoke, a project that was already in pre-production before my layoff.   I do not regret making that decision – that project kept me sane through what I thought would be a couple of months seeking employment. Greenspoke has done well so far, showing in four festivals and getting a good review in The Seattle Weekly. Oddly my layoff from a high profile employer and continued filmmaking also led to a small piece in The Seattle Times as well. Unfortunately the article makes it sound like the layoff somehow helped my filmmaking career – that is not the case. That story came up in a job interview I had shortly after the article came out.

As I have been searching for a web editor job over the last 15 months, I have had to adjust my expectations as a filmmaker to line up with current realities. Before I would have gone ahead with a project even if funding was iffy — that just isn’t possible anymore.  I can’t proceed with any production activities until firm money in place. I set up non-profit Smiling Z Studios as a means of soliciting tax-deductible donations. When many of your previous supporters are also out of work or worried about losing their jobs, it is tough to make the pitch that a non-profit  independent film production is a great place to make their charitable donations. We do pay all of our cast and crew, many of whom are struggling financially, as part of the studio’s mission. However,  if a potential donor is on the fence between supporting our projects vs making a donation to a food bank or the Red Cross, I would not want them to choose the studio.

Most of us wonder what we would do if we won the lottery. I often think about what it would be like to make that transition from mostly self-funded director/producer to working as a director with full production support and investors who believe in me and my abilities enough to finance my projects. While that is not out of the realm of possibility, I do believe the odds are better to win the lottery and give these feelings the same kind of weight. I think most artists sans trust fund or those who lack a family connection to Francis Ford Coppolla struggle with how they are going to pay for their art.

So what do I do while I’m sorting this all out? Work on the things I can. Besides checking in with friends and former co-workers (again) who may be able to help me find work, I’ve redoubled my efforts to seek gainful employment. There do seem to be more jobs out there in my field and I’ve even had a couple of promising interviews.  I’ve also started working on storyboards for my feature length screenplay The Smiling Zombie, which was a finalist in the 2009 ReelHeART International Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The Smiling Zombie is about Jack, a successful musical theatre performer whose career is cut short by multiple sclerosis. With the support of his HIV+ partner, Jack attempts a comeback of sorts with a featured extra role in a no-budget zombie film. Making the best out of a bad situation seems to be a theme here?

Paper and pens I got, and storyboards help me to really think through the script, its problems and strengths, and what the overall look and feel will be. If I work on the things I can, I’ll be ready with a new job and a solid script and storyboards when things turn around. And who knows, maybe I am related to Francis Ford Coppolla?

Filmmaker or not, what are you doing to keep your passions going during these tough times?

Tom McIntire’s award-winning short Greenspoke will be screening in several Seattle-area festivals in Sept and Oct. Check it out!

Upcoming Seattle/Tacoma screenings:

Greenspoke premieres at Bumbershoot
Monday Sept 7 at 8pm
SIFF Cinema.

International Film Festival Ireland (Clonmel) – Sept 9

Maelstrom International Festival of Fantastic Films (Seattle) – Sept 18-20 (also at SIFF Cinema)

Tacoma Film Festival – Oct 6 at 9:30pm at the Grand Cinema

Other upcoming screenings:

Greenspoke will also be screening at the International Film Festival Ireland on Wed Sept 9 in Clonmel, Tiperarry.

Thanks again to all of you who came out for the Aug 4th preview!

P.S. We have all kinds of fun Greenspoke merchandise available on the official site:
http://greenspokethemovie.com

Two award-winning  short films, snacks, live music from The Daguerreotypes and a no-host bar – come see Tom McIntire’s award-winning political satire “two julias”, plus be a part of the first super secret preview screening of his latest, the sci-fi thriller “Greenspoke”.

two julias: Much to the delight of his kinky girlfriend, a counter-terrorism agent abuses his authority by spying on single women just for fun. A young woman looking for love online and a lecherous married salesman get entangled in their games. A darkly comedic political satire. Break a heart in seven languages! Winner honorable mention and director’s pick 2008 ReelHeART International Film Festival and recently nominated for Best USA Film under 25 Minutes at International Film Festival Ireland.

Greenspoke: A beautiful Japanese translator and a world-weary vehicle emissions technician awaken profoundly changed by the work of a brilliant scientist who believes he has found the solution to climate change. Winner of the Accolade Award of Merit: Short Film and nominated for Best International Film under 50 Munutes at International Film Festival Ireland.

The Daguerreotypes: Their quirky music is featured in both films – come hear this great band live!

Net proceeds benefit Smiling Z Studios, the nonprofit film studio dedicated to providing paid cast and crew positions in quality Seattle film productions

NOTE: No one under 21 years old will be admitted.

Feel free to share this info with your friends, including the discount code for your poor friends. Enter the discount code “blog” and get in at the cast and crew price of $12. Make your rich friends pay at the higher levels listed on brownpapertickets – purchases at the $25 and $50 levels include a portion that is tax-deductible, plus some thank you gifts.

I hope you can make it!

two julias and Greenspoke have both been nominated for awards

Greenspoke won an Award of Merit for Short Film

two julias won an honorable mention and a director's pick

I was disappointed that Greenspoke wasn’t selected for the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival shorts program. Produced in Seattle with a strong local cast and crew, it’s tough to get rejected by the home town.

Going into this project I knew I had several issues to overcome:

1. Greenspoke is long for a short – 27 minutes. This makes it difficult to fit into a festival program and will probably limit our distribution options. It also means that in accepting my film a festival potentially could be rejecting several shorter films that might round out the program better.
2. Greenspoke is a genre piece. The sci-fi nature of the content is a plus in sci-fi  festivals but may actually work against it in more general interest or drama-focused events. SIFF did have a couple of sci-fi selected so I don’t think that is an issue here.
3. Greenspoke, strong as our cast is, has no name talent attached. While we were one degree of separation away from Sandra Oh, one degree can make all the difference.

Feeling a little bitter about it all, I checked out the list of accepted SIFF shorts and found that most of the shorts that were accepted, are, uh, short. All but a handful are under 20 minutes. Unfortunately rejected films don’t usually get a reason for the rejection from festivals. That’s something that would be nice to have – just the scores from the judges and knowing how far it got can be helpful in tweaking and tuning or planning the next project.

We did get accepted to the 2009 International Film Festival Ireland. This was a pleasant surprise because they responded within a couple of weeks even though their notify date is a couple of months out. The festival happens in September in Galway, where the lovely and talented two julias alum  Órla Mc Govern and her pal Miss Nelly reside. We also got a worldwide distribution offer before Greenspoke has even shown anywhere.

So is it pointless rationalization to try and figure out why a festival programmer rejected your work? Probably, but it does make me feel better in a self-flaggelating sort of way. Especially when another programmer thinks you’re the bee’s pajamas.

Good news – Greenspoke is an official selection of the International Film Festival Ireland (IFFI). The fest runs from Sept 8-12 2009 in beautiful Galway, Ireland.

What’s next? Check out our new nonprofit film studio, Smiling Z Studios.

Tom Petty lyrics aside, the end of a project is when it all is beginning. Greenspoke, my environmentally themed short sci fi piece, is entered in several film festivals, including the Seattle International Film Festival. No official selections yet but by early May we’ll start hearing how it is being received by the festival programmers. After spending months and months on a project you want people to see it. And distribute it. And fund that feature you want to produce next.

Speaking of features, there was a delay in judging in the 2009 ReelHeART International Screenplay Competition. Two of my scripts, The Karma Stone and The Smiling Zombie are finalists (as followers of this blog already know). I was amazed and thrilled to have TWO scripts in the running. Out of six finalists, three were chosen as the top three, and will receive a live, rehearsed reading at the festival. Judging was by a prominent agency. Eek! This led to much checking of e-mail, wringing of hands, self doubt and consoling by friends. I sometimes think I am not very competitive but deep down I am. Unfortunately neither script made it into the top three. The festival director was nice enough to call me and let me know.

If you have not participated in ReelHeART (RHIFF) in Toronto, it is a wonderful experience for filmmakers and audiences alike.  They treat filmmakers with care, respect and make it fun to boot. My short two julias premiered there last year, winning a Director’s Pick and Honorable Mention. We also got a distribution offer from Toronto-based Ouat! Media. Even if you don’t have anything in the festival, if you are in Toronto there are lots of filmmaker-focused events.

Other than plastic surgery, free-floating ego and stylists that is.

OK – I’m embarassed to say that I have only seen two of the movies that received any major Oscar nominations:
The Visitor – Richard Jenkins performance was wonderful
The Dark Knight – this got too hyped so I was a little disappointed

Being so disconnected came from a combination of waiting for things to come on cable and watching the cash flow since I was laid off from my day job in June.

I am going to use the very unscientific method I used for the America’s Next Top Model office pool at my former employer WaMu. The pool organizers would pass around a sheet with photos of all the contenders and you would pick the finalists in order, who would cry first, the biggest b*tch, etc. I usually did better than most people based on the photo alone. I didn’t watch the show.

Based on the photos/clips/trailers I have seen and what little media has slipped in while I’ve been heads-down editing my environmentally themed sci-fi thriller Greenspoke (look for it on the festival circuit later this year), these are my predictions (thanks to Raj Rayru for the list I copied and pasted):

Best Actor
Sean Penn – Milk
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor

Brad Pitt – who doesn’t like a buff little old guy? That could apply to Mickey Rourke too though and I loved his speech at the BAFA awards ceremony.
*************************************************************
Best Actress
Ann Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Kate Winslet – The Reader
Melissa Leo – Frozen River

Kate Winslet – the dark dark side of Summer of ‘42 and just the right actress to pull that off
*************************************************************
Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin – Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

Heath Ledger – again the buzz is deafening, and this is a nice way to say goodbye
*************************************************************
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams– Doubt
Viola Davis – Doubt
Penélope Cruz – Vicky Christina Barcelona
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Taraji Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei – clips look wonderful. Amy Adams is the only other clip I’ve seen – I adore her but don’t think that film is going to do well in the awards after seeing the play.
*************************************************************
Best Director
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher – Benjamin Button
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

Ron Howard – because I hope that movies that examine our political past and future get recognition
*************************************************************
Best Picture
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher – Benjamin Button
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

Slumdog Millionaire – because the Oscar business is entertainment
*************************************************************
Best Animated Picture
Wall-E
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda

Wall-E – because Karen Lloyd (storyboard guru) adores this movie
*************************************************************

This is all in fun and based in ignorant gut feeling with little scientific or cultural significance. Let’s see how that works out. Now to get back to editing Greenspoke.

Greenspoke post-production marches on. Or crawls on I should say. My laptop was purchased as a writing machine and evolved into my editing, sound and special effects unit. Dreams of Mac Pro towers on are on hold until I find a new day job. Which has not been going well. But that’s another blog post.

I’m editing in Final Cut Pro and am enjoying those wonderful surprises you get when you work with newer formats like those from the RED camera we used for Greenspoke. Like the Trim Edit window crashing my machine consistently, taking away one of the niftier features of FC Pro. I’m still able to do fine edits but it is more of a dance than a simple step. I’m using Apple Motion for some of the special effects and to add simple camera movements to some of the static shots – lots of interesting freezes, crashes and a frightening fan noise that makes me shut the machine down so it can go have a cigarette. Disk speed is something I’d prefer not to think about but it is on my mind right now.

Why is he babbling on again about technology? Technology is what makes it possible for me to be a filmmaker at this stage of my life. The tools are amazing – the Red workflow uses no tapes, what seem like huge hard drives fill up with high resolution video footage, being able to go from raw footage to finished product almost entirely on my MacBook Pro – even down to burning DVDs for festival and distributor screeners. What’s tricky is not letting the technology take over the creative process. When I’m having trouble getting the exact edit I want because the system is crashing, it takes away from the time and energy and thought that I could be putting into the piece. And unless you have resources like Charlie Chaplin earned from his early work, you can’t spend years working on each (later) piece as he did. Well, you can, but if you are just getting started it means you are not getting your work and your name out there.

Now back to the cutting…

Who would think that shooting a film with several exterior scenes in Seattle in December was a good idea? No one. The weather in Seattle in December is unpredictable, giving everything from snow storms to spring-like days to tropical storms dumping warmish rain. Luckily for Greenspoke, the weather cooperated. Thank you Jim Castillo. I had great plans to give you a blow-by-blow account of the shoot. Hah! Here are some highlights.

Day 1: Beach and parking lot scenes
Location: Golden Gardens Park

I wanted to get the toughest scenes out of the way first. We rented the Bathhouse at Golden Gardens for makeup and to give everyone a place to eat and warm up. This was our first day and Tess Malone utilized her 10+ years in film and television to get us working together well. I spent the first hour or so running around checking things until Tess chained me to the monitor. We spent too much time on the parking lot shots but they look great. About 8 hours of usable daylight this time of year, so I could actually say “we’re burning daylight people” and it meant something.   We had some frantic moments as the sun sank into the West as we tried to get it all done.

Actors and background performers (Tess used this term for extras – much nicer huh?) leapt into Puget Sound (which is cold all year round). Leading man Tim Gouran went in 3 times and he is still speaking to me. If anyone has to jump in again, I’ve committed to jumping in too. Brrr. Luckily the beach footage is cutting together nicely.

Day 2: The shower and living room scenes
Location: Our house (eek)

Greenspoke had the largest film crew I have worked with so far. Doors came off, furniture went in all kinds of new positions and a month later things are still not all back in place. The shower is a vintage affair that fairly drowned the actors before getting way too hot – then for the first time in years we ran out of hot water. To top it off, I had carefully placed two large bathsheets on the counter for the actors to dry off – these got scooped up when the set was being dressed and got dumped in the laundry hamper.  I had to give two cold mostly naked wet people every hand towel in the house and a hair dryer to dry off and warm up.

Day 3: Governor’s bedroom and bath
Location: Shafer Baillie Mansion

This was a great day. Indoors, mostly dry, excellent location for the scenes with plenty of room to move around.

Day 4: Street biking scene, newscaster report, dream sequence
Locations: West Seattle street, Lee’s Martial Arts in West Seattle

My dp Ryan Purcell HATED the dream sequence location. Securing locations is right up there with getting music clearances on my list of things that make me want to pull my brain out through my nose and smack it around. Once Ryan got that I was firm on shooting at the martial arts studio, he dove in and got me some really nice footage. I dove in and tried to show the actors how I wanted them to fall. Bad idea.

Day 5: Laboratory scenes
Location: Seattle Central Community College

I stepped out of the shower and had a completely immobilizing pain in my back and hips. After standing in place for what seemed like 5 minutes, I started moving very slowly to get myself dried off and dressed. When I finally made it downstairs, Kurt and Tess were both sympathetic and concerned. I figured out that I could move faster if I used an old cane that we had sitting by the front door. This made for a grand though slow entrance when we arrived on set.

Kate Sowell, our location contact and technical advisor, had agreed to play the lab technician in the opening sequence. I wanted someone who knew how a pipette worked and didn’t get the lab geeks in the audience hissing. She did a great job, although I think she got a little frustrated when we had to knock a styrofoam cup off a counter 30 times before the dumbass director was happy with it.

Day 6: Emissions Station
Location: South Seattle Emissions Station

My back was definitely on the mend thanks to some wonderful heating pad thingies that Tess recommended. Our technical advisor and location host Bart Richter helped keep us safe and helped our actors understand what the machines did and how they worked. He even got in a car for on of the scenes. The weather was cold and we had a few weird moments of sunshine that will need to be eradicated in post.

Day 7: Protest and presentation scenes
Location: North Seattle Community College

School was still in session (they were having finals) and we were going to shoot a protest scene outside the library. Only about half of the extras showed up, so many of the protesters were cast members.  My favorite protester is our 2nd AC Staci Bernstein. Totally focused and into what she was doing. Then it was on to the presentation scene about the Greenspoke project, held in a nicer lecture hall. Ryan and crew did a great job lighting the space and hiding the blackboard to make it less school-y.

Day 8: Exterior Ruri’s apartment, John’s bedroom
Location: Capitol Hill and Greenwood neighborhoods of Seattle

Our last day and the first day that we got any significant rainfall. EZ-ups (tent-like structures) on the sidewalk helped somewhat, but it was really cold being out there for hours. Buses, jets and traffic noise were giving our sound guy fits. Chris Swenson and his crew from the Seattle Office of Film and Music came by and cheered us on. After that we headed to my friends Patty and Austin’s house in Greenwood to completely disrupt their lives and drop a very strange man in their bed. They were good sports as always and Patty will even make it into the blooper reel.

Overall impressions

There’s nothing like hearing your words and images come to life with a good crew and actors. Working with the RED footage in Final Cut Pro has been OK but is really straining my poor MacBook Pro. A much-loved tool (the Trim Edit window) in FC Pro crashes every time I try to use it with this higher res footage. I’m working around that but the finish edit will be tricky. I’ve completed a very rough cut and have played around in Apple Motion a bit to try it out for some of the simple visual effects. The trick now is to keep moving forward toward a finished product. It’s easy to get bogged down in all the details.

Thanks to all of you who worked on the project or supported me in this effort. Some things I love about making movies are the collaboration with smart fun people, the creative “greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts” and our shared excitement over seeing something new emerge from a script and a stack of drawings.