The “Get Rich”s can do whatever they like, however, polluting the planet is not the only issue the world faces nor is it the only issue the “Get Free”s are trying to address by building a container home. I must also add there are some businesses who are providing modular buildings/homes made from shipping containers and have been doing so for a number of years who I feel are not “Get Rich”s because they charge a reasonable amount for the end result. So my issue isn’t the commercialization of container buildings/homes, it’s selling something for $500 that cost you $5.

So what brought this on? The same thing that always makes me alert when I’m trying to do something “unconventional’; running into naysayers or people doing the same thing but trying to maintain the status quo. I have not run into any naysayers of yet but recently encountered an individual who is a part of a group of individuals who are very much trying to capitalize off of container home building. However, I won’t entertain the situation too long. I’d rather use this post to encourage the “Get Free”s to continue on their path and do what’s necessary to “Get Free”.

My interaction with a “Get Rich” gave me incentive to search the web for container home projects made for what I would consider a reasonable cost. This was hard to do because there are few with a website that actually exist (sure there are tons of container home sites, but you will notice 99% of them are all computer renderings of what could be while the rest do not list building costs). So I will do the best I can to list all costs for my container home. I’ll declare $20k to be my budget for this project.

I felt this needed to be addressed because I’ve seen this before in two of the creative areas in which I operate. The first being the music industry. A music contract is nothing more than a high interest loan to fund a musician’s career and I’ve also witnessed many an individual go bankrupt buying studio equipment they thought they needed to be “real”. All that is really needed in a studio is a room with great acoustics, a great microphone and a reliable medium upon which to record. The only reason I didn’t fall into that same trap when I created my own home studio is because I am a performing musician and I knew creating a great sound had nothing to do with any type of studio equipment. Next there was and still is the filmmaking community’s obsessive need to spend obscene amounts of money on films. The emergence of high quality prosumer camera’s should have made filmmaking seriously cheap for independent filmmakers and it did, if you chose to see it for what it is. But the majority still insists on spending large amounts of money on films in order to be “real”. It’s as ridiculous as someone saying, “hey, this diamond is yours for $2″ and someone saying “no way, I’ll buy it for $2000″.

An even better example is when I went to Ghana in 2002. Trading to obtain goods and services is a big part of the culture and economic atmosphere there. While there, I pretty much traded my whole wardrobe for a new one. The outfits there were so beautiful, I was buying them for myself and people I know back in the states. The African outfits were costing me anywhere from $10-20 for dresses, skirt and pants sets. My roommate even had a designer come in, fit her and make her an outfit and that still only cost about $40. When walking in the cities you can see scores of women working on those old cast iron black and gold Singer sewing machines and they were making the most amazing clothes.

I get back to the States and what I or my family and friends can’t fit, I decided to sell for about $5-10 more than what I paid for the outfits. After some time I was wondering why on earth they weren’t selling. These clothes were amazing! A couple I’d met a while back came over and I asked them what they thought. They go to Ghana several times a year and have an automotive business there. The woman quite simply said, “You aren’t charging enough.” I was surprised. Of course I wasn’t charging a lot because I didn’t pay a lot for them. She said “I know, but if you don’t charge enough, people won’t think they are authentic.” I was in disbelief. I reluctantly raised the prices between $150-400 and people bought them! I was disturbed. The same happened with the wooden masks I brought back. It is just a wild bit of conditioning. And it’s also this conditioning that makes it too easy to find yourself drowning in debt and/or being taken to the cleaners financially.

Being an IT professional, I can say that I’ve made what I consider a lot of money over the years, however it has not lead me to the life I desire. In taking a moment to look at where all that money has gone, it has gone mostly to “acceptable costs and debt”. That is unacceptable to me. These acceptable costs and debts include, unreasonable apartment rental rates (and now having been a landlord myself, those rates seem even more unreasonable), mortgage payments on an unreasonable loan amount, car payments (I’ve only had one car loan in my life because I’ve always driven older cars I could buy right out and the interest rate on the loan I had with Toyota was 17%!), bank fees, utility bills (I’ve had heating bills in the winter be $500+ before), and expensive supermarket food. These are things most of us can’t do without. I just feel at this point, we can make better choices over what we pay for, even for the necessities.

This realization is important to anyone who is trying to not only live without causing distress to their environment but who are also trying to improve their own personal existence by eliminating debt, having more access to the money they are working for and needing to work less and spend more time on the people and activities they love. Period.

Pre-Production:
Movie Outline Software http://www.movieoutline.com – It is essential to make a detailed outline of your film before you do anything. It will help you understand your story better which will help you move to the next step of writing the script. This software will help you to quickly and easily create an outline for your film projects. I’ve even written an entire script in this program (not what the software is for). The price has gone up significantly since I first purchased it so I can only recommend it if you really really need it.

Celtx Software http://celtx.com – This is thee software to have if you are an independent filmmaker. It is the one stop shop for all your filmmaking needs (wow that’s corny… but true). I use this program exclusively for writing outlines, scripts, creating lists of cast, crew, props, and sets, putting together my shooting schedules and much more! And best of all… It’s FREE!

Production:
I don’t have anything to add as a resource during the production phase because all I’m concerned about during this time is shooting. I’m not logging any tapes, filling out any forms or any other paper work. I’m shooting my scenes according to my shooting schedule, making changes to my script on the fly and watching the tapes after each shoot to catch any issues that need to be addressed by re-shooting.

Post-Production:
I’ll also keep this section simple because I don’t want you to get hung up on what tools to use for editing your film if you decide to edit the films yourself (I don’t plan to edit my films anymore.) You do need professional tools for editing; not necessarily for trimming and ordering but definitely for color correction, effects, transitions, and audio processing. I use Adobe Premier because it’s very easy to use. I use it to trim my footage, put the film together in the sequence it’s going to be in, and arrange the audio for the film. I use Adobe After Effects for everything else (for the video only. I never import the audio.), such as color correction (the first thing I worry about), and any other necessary effects like camera movements and transitions. Lastly, I use Adobe Audition to process any problematic audio (I try my best to shoot perfect audio so it is not something I have to “fix” when editing). Once I’ve corrected problematic audio in Adobe Audition, I import it back into Adobe Premier. Adobe Premier automatically links to Adobe Soundbooth for editing audio but Adobe is crazy. Soundbooth is a substandard audio program and I don’t know why they think film audio doesn’t need as much care as a musician’s audio. Adobe Audition has been around for longer than Adobe has owned it (used to be Cool Edit) and has outstanding, easy to use audio processing tools.

Release:
Kunaki.com – $1.75. Yes, that’s right. For $1.75 each you get retail ready DVDs plus full color covers and inserts using Kunaki.com. These DVDs and the printing are of the same quality you see in retail stores. To make this even sweeter, these DVDs are made on demand! So you don’t need to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for stock you may never get rid of.

Filmbaby.com – If you want great personal customer service from a respected industry company with a great history with indie artists, this is the company for you! Filmbaby.com is owned by the same people who own CDbaby.com and they offer affordable easy to use services for selling your films. And best of all, they accurately report sales and pay you when they are supposed to pay you…consistently. Switching all of my films over to them is the best thing I could have done for myself.

Promotional:
I can’t stress to filmmakers enough how important it is to have a website for your film company and/or your individual films. Let’s face it, many of of the earth’s inhabitants are slaves to the web. *Smile* It is the easiest and cheapest way to get the word out about your films. Making a website can be free or near free so there is really no reason not to have one.

4 Steps to getting your website ready:
1. Get good hosting (linux/unix hosting with Cpanel is highly recommend) – Hostgator.com is my favorite.
2. In Cpanel (fantastico), or on your own, install a content management script (Joomla.org, Drupal, WordPress.org, etc.).
3. Fill it up with content about your film company and film projects.
4. Invest in an outstanding design template if you have no graphics design skills. I can not stress this enough. An uninteresting site is a worthless site, just like an uninteresting advertisement is an invisible advertisement (i.e. you website should not look like it was made in the early 90s). If you need great templates for many of the popular, free content management scripts visit: Templatemonster.com, joomlart.com, and many others.

If you need outstanding quality print media, I’d recommend GotPrint.com. I haven’t had too much of a need to use them for my films (but have used them for my publishing company) but you will need print media if you plan to work the film festival circuit.

Tutorials:
Videocopilot.net – If you are interested in producing professional quality films with great effects, or just to learn how to use Adobe After Effects, this is the site for you. Not only do they have incredibly useful tools for purchase, they have fantastic free tutorials and an entire website dedicated to help you learn the basics of Adobe After Effects; a boot camp if you will.

Enjoy your art, Cheers!

So, now I’m committed to creating quality films with Still Guerrilla Films and High Contrast Media just as I have with Ijaba Films.

Still from Sociopathica:

Shooting my first documentary was pretty straight forward. However, it wasn’t until I went to Ireland to film a documentary about Lesbian relationships that I realized the enormous personal and social responsibilities involved with filmmaking. It wasn’t some profound revelation; just a simple acknowledgment. The women were very afraid to be in the film. I had to understand their fear. I couldn’t let my own thoughts about how free they should be overshadow the fact that they weren’t. That was their reality and the film did not get done. But I had a wonderful, welcoming time there and enjoyed conversations I had with the women a great deal.

Not long after my trip to Ireland, I began planning my two new documentaries, Our Side of Joy and Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism with a new appreciation for filming the lives of others. In order to film Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism, I had to think about the feelings of my best friend Charise. I had to be sure she was ready and willing to tell her story and to what extent. Whatever she was ready to reveal, I would have to work with. I also had to consider if I was going to reveal, by interviewing myself, what she wouldn’t and how I would go about doing so in a productive manner.

Having known Charise for over 15 years, it is easier to talk to her about her concerns and expectations as well as mine. However, because I haven’t known identical twins, Marlene and Michelle Tamayo as long or as well as Charise, I had to put far more effort into my filmmaking process. For instance, I have to consider the feelings of the entire Tamayo family (over 30 people). I have to think about how this film will impact all of their lives.

Up until the time I arrived in Florida, the twins’ father was very concerned about the questions I was going to ask him. I had several phone conferences with the twins during pre-production to find out more about their lives and to discover what my story would be. During those conversations I was informed about a few subjects that would really upset their father. Their father would not participate if I was going to ask questions about those subjects because quite simply, they would upset him too much. So I agreed not to ask him anything about it. He did continue to worry that I would. He had every right to worry. It is so common place for filmmakers to ask hurtful or difficult questions after gaining a subject’s confidence that interviewees are justified in being concerned.

When I was done interviewing him and his wife (joint interview), I could see how relieved he was. He was so happy. I was very happy as well but sad that this is what non-fiction filmmaking has come to, where people think they will be hit over the head when they least expect it because of predatory filmmakers.

It would have been predatory for me to have decided that because I wanted to film the truth I was going to ask him about subjects I already knew would upset him. What I filmed was the truth. It was the “despite that” truth. Think about that.

I was also going to speak with a woman in Florida about doing a documentary on her life. She was in the Korean war and fled the country to save herself. When I got there, she was too afraid to do the film. Family left behind in Korea were lead to believe she was dead. If I were a predatory filmmaker I would tried to convince her of how the world really needed to hear her story even though I was already told by her children that she suffers from post traumatic stress and even watching a few minutes of footage about the war sends her into a near-catatonic state.

There are so many different things a filmmaker has to think about when dealing with the lives of others. I’ll share some examples of predatory filmmaking and a few examples of responsible filmmaking.

One example of predatory filmmaking involves a scene from the documentary, Children Underground. While overall, I found this film very riveting; there was a scene where 14 year old Violeta ‘Macarena’ Rosu was being beaten by a stranger because he didn’t like that she was crying. She was crying because she was so hungry she didn’t know what to do. So while sitting on the ground, the stranger came over to her and started kicking her and trying to stomp on her head with his foot. I was disturbed that this grown ass man would beat on a 14 yo girl instead of help and I was just as disturbed that the filmmakers did nothing but stand there filming it. It took a 16 year old to get him to stop, while other adults in the station just watched or walked by. Why would the filmmakers just stand there filming this girl being kicked and stomped by a grown man? For realism? So we can see just how brutal their lives are? Well, you know what? We don’t have to have them being beaten on film to know that being a homeless child is probably beyond hellish. And why did a 16 yo have to wedge her body between the beaten girl and the abuser while grown ass people just watched and filmed? I found the filming of this girl being beaten to be predatory. I’m sure they thought they were getting good stuff for their film all in the name of realism no doubt. It would have been effective, and in my opinion more real, if they would have intervened and added a voice over that went something like “An man, angry at Macarena’s cries of hunger, tried to beat her and we had to intervene” and add something about it being a part of the hardships of being a homeless child and how more times than not, there is no one there to help.

I also felt I needed to speak on this issue because of the new filmmakers out there who are 100% predatory. The way they approach their art is about taking away from someone, what they feel they can feed to the audience and profit from regardless of what it may do to others and they do so in such diabolical ways (i.e. Borat). I’ve seen filmmakers become damn near orgasmic upon capturing something horrible or emotionally upsetting on film.

Now consider this example of responsible filmmaking. Six year old Danny Lloyd who played “Danny” in The Shining had absolutely no idea he was in a horror movie until years after the film was released. This was because Stanley Kubrick went through great lengths to make sure he was protected from a subject matter he knew would be harmful to the child at his age. It wasn’t until years later that his mother showed him the film. Stanely Kubrick took responsibility for his filmmaking. As did the makers of Taxi Driver, making sure Jodie Foster had counseling about the part she would play in the film and using her adult sister in the racy scenes. However this wasn’t the case in the films she was in after Taxi Driver (see also Movie Review: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane). I mean, as cute as they wanted Bugsy Malone to be, it was still children acting out a very adult story.

I could cover thousands of movies that were made by predatory filmmakers and thousands that were not, however I simply wanted to point out there are some things one should consider while filmmaking:

1. Be humble. No one owes you anything. This means you aren’t entitled to tell any story you feel like just because you decided to pick up a camera.

2. The philosophies of Journalism are wrong. The world does not need every story by any means necessary, no matter who gets destroyed in the process.

3. Think about how you can tell the story you want without information you felt you really needed. If you can’t choose another subject for your film. Don’t be so emotionally attached to what you want to film that you are willing to do it at cost to other people. In the end, it will never be worth it.

4. Don’t put people in compromising positions, especially children and young adults. There is no excuse for doing so in any fictional film. If you are shooting non-fiction and need to expose some evil corporation or business owner or something, fine, just know who to shoot and when. Don’t make other people pay for the actions of your evil subject.

The art of filmmaking shouldn’t be 100% about the audience or business. It should be a nice balance between your enjoyment of the art, sharing it with others, and being concerned about the business end just enough for a little financial sweetness.

A Summary:
A 13 year old girl (Jodie Foster, who looked 10 at the time but was actually 14), lives alone in a house where she had been living with her father who had a terminal illness. Knowing he was going to die, he came up with a plan for how she could live alone for three years. He paid the lease on the house for three years and then walked out and never returned. He also didn’t want her mother to get custody of her so he told her to put some white powder (which turned out to be cyanide) in her mother’s drink if she finds her. Her mother did indeed find her and she put the cyanide in her tea and served the tea along with almond cookies. So when her mother commented on the almond taste of the tea, she blamed it on the cookies. She killed her mother and put her body in the cellar, keeping the body preserved with things you can put on them she discovered from library books. There is a pedophile (Martin Sheen) who is constantly after the young girl. His mother leased the house to the girl and her father. The mother is a high class bitch who barges in and bosses the girl around. She insisted on going into the cellar. When she did, she saw the dead body of the girl’s mother, screamed and tried to leave the cellar. In doing so, she accidentally hit her head, fell down the stairs and died. So now there are two bodies in the cellar. When trying to get rid of the woman’s car, she meets a boy who walks with a limp who looks to be about 16. He helps her get rid of the car and the two of them become friends then lovers (that’s right). He lies for her and helps her bury the bodies under a tree in the yard while it was cold and raining. He eventually gets pneumonia. Oh yeah and at some point the pedophile killed the girl’s hamster. Then there is a bunch of nonsensical stuff and basically, while the boy was in the hospital the pedophile has snuck in an hid in the cellar. He thinks he knows the girl has killed his mother and someone else and basically tells her, she’s going to be his mistress (yeah an effin 13 year old!) to keep him from telling. So she makes him some tea with the cyanide in it and kills him.

Alright, where to begin. First of all, I was absolutely sick of people just barging into this young girl’s house. Perhaps that is the feeling the director wanted viewers to experience. It felt as if anyone who felt like it would just walk into this girl’s house. It did give you a sense of this child’s powerlessness; which I guess is what the movie is about; however bizarre and stupid a tale it is.

The things that really bothered me the most are the scenes with the pedophile and this young girl murdering people and becoming a predator for the sake of “freedom” or for any reason for that matter. I’ll touch more upon these topics in my post about predatory filmmaking.

There was a scene in the movie where the young girl gets completely nude. I remember thinking to myself “I seriously hope that was Jodie Foster’s adult sister”. It turns out, it was in fact her sister because Jodie Foster refused to be nude and had to put up a fuss about not doing it. I find it disturbing that a child had to stand her ground with grown ass adults about not wanting to be nude on film. Imagine if she wasn’t as strong a child as she was? Or if she was so disillusioned about fame that she thought it was a good idea at the time? Jodie Foster’s older sister was also used as a body double in Taxi Driver. I was bothered by the young girl having sex with the boy because of her age. Teenagers have sex, bottom line so I’m not going to trip too much on that. But she was too young, period. And she had no parents so to me, it felt even more wrong because she had no guidance and despite how intelligent she was, she was still a very young person. Apparently Jodie Foster had a problem with this as well but the director wouldn’t budge.

What I did find interesting was seeing Jodie Foster as a young person. It’s just amazing that the actress she was then is the same that she is now. Her acting style never changed. I guess it shouldn’t since what she was doing was working so well. It was also interesting to see Veronica Cartwright as a 12 year old in The Birds (1963) for the same reason. I remembered her only from the movie Alien (1979). The same for the Lawrence brothers (The two oldest were in the movie Pulse (1988) I watched the other day); very cute.

This film’s plot was pretty boring and well… stupid actually. The young girl lied so much you couldn’t really believe the story about the dad or the mother. Even if it were true, it is the most ridiculous plan a grown man could have come up with for this child. Jodie Foster was also wearing this really hideous wig the whole time as well. *Smile*

Now, on to the film. First of all filmmaker, Nancy Meckler, did an excellent job of telling this story. The film starts off with a black and white sequence of two young girls together. The older one is taking care of the younger one, then they are playing together. They are dirty and obviously poor. Then the mother comes in and takes the younger girl. It is clear the mother is quite fond of the younger daughter. She walks away with the little girl as the little one waves goodbye to the older daughter. Afterwards, the film starts with the dark stairs leading from the sisters’ room to the bloody murder scene on the main stairs and the movie starts from the beginning when the youngest sister, Lea (Jodhi May), comes to work with her sister, Christine (Joely Richardson), at a house owned by a middle class woman, Madame Danzard (Julie Walters), and her adult daughter, Isabelle Danzard (Sophie Thursfield).

Right away you can get a feel of the work environment. They are standing there in silence as Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) decides if she’s going to officially agree to have the younger one work there. Then she agrees, knowing she is getting two maids for the price of one. It is a tense moment. The effectiveness of this film requires viewers to put themselves in the shoes of the characters. If you are an emotionally connected person, you will have no choice.

The person who cast this film also did a wonderful job. Although these two look nothing like the real sisters, they look very effectively how you would think they should look for this story and their personalities are what make this story work well. There is no way Jodhi May would have been able to pull off the role of Christine and vice versa. So the casting was perfect.

So right off the bat this woman agrees to pay 150 francs a month (not sure if it’s for each woman or for both) and the only time off they had was on Sundays until 4pm. So imagine being paid that little, having to split it with another person, then give it all to your mother who only loves one of you, and the only time you have off is Sundays until 4 pm every week. That is already sounding like a seriously messed up situation. On top of that, they are sharing one small room with a small bed. They happen to be happy about that given they come from worse conditions. *I gathered 150 francs wasn’t much money because when they went for a photograph it cost them 50 francs.

A run down on the plot. The older sister convinces Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) to hire her younger sister and she would get two maids for the price of one. The woman, being the asshole that she is, takes advantage of Christine’s desire to have her sister with her. So the young Lea comes. The sisters are happy for a while. Every now and then Christine gets angry but it was usually over the relationship Lea has with their mother. After the two became sexual, the older sister would get angry because she thought her sister would leave her. Isabelle Danzard (Sophie Thursfield) tried to get Lea’s attention a few times. This was causing some problems between Lea and Christine but then they would have sex and all would be well. Then Madame Danzard started becoming more and more hateful towards the sisters and began to really make their lives hell. The sisters also began to retreat more and more into their own world and their relationship. Their doing so wasn’t entirely because they just wanted to get it on or be crazy, it was because they wanted to be free of the conditions of their lives. They wanted to be able to go away from their environment and live their lives together as they saw fit. These were two sisters trapped in a set position in life they were not happy with. So they’d been trying to save their money so they could leave. The climax of the movie was when not only did the iron short out, causing an already stressed Lea to burn the daughter’s silk blouse, but they knew they didn’t have enough money to leave. So what lead up to the murders in my opinion were two women who felt optionless in a situation that would have been extremely stressful to anyone.

From the start, the younger Lea (Jodhi May) just seems … young. She doesn’t come across as being of lesser intelligence and in the film she is the one who really initiates the sexual relationship. The older sister, Christine (Joely Richardson) seems more mature and she seems more structured and less carefree.

I must also point out that the mother in this movie is down right sadistic and the daughter, Isabelle Danzard (Sophie Thursfield), is actually worse off than the two sisters. She was literally a captive living with her mother. One would not have been shocked if she’d hung herself in the basement.

For instance, Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) seemed to constantly make it clear that her daughter, Isabelle Danzard (Sophie Thursfield) was trapped there and she may as well do things that took forever to complete, i.e. the beadwork. Then she got her daughter’s hopes up by saying they would take a trip to Paris. She waited until her daughter was smiling and excited, then she started breaking her back down slowly until she announced they would forgo going to Paris altogether. It’s kinda like the mother in the movie Sybil who asked a young Sybil if she wanted a cookie then kicked her down when she reached for it. When Madame Danzard was listening to some upbeat music and dancing around the living room, she deliberately put on some funeral music and stopped dancing when her daughter came into the room. It was as if she wanted her daughter to be in an unpleasant environment. In the same scene, when the daughter enjoyed a chocolate from a dish on the table, her mother came and put the dish away so she couldn’t have any more.

This film shows some different things that can happen in anyone’s life. For instance, the older sister, Christine, can’t stand her mother and for good reason. There are many instances where a parent will favor one child over the other. This was the case with Christine. The other downside to this scenario is that you will have siblings who care very much about each other but have two very different relationships going on with the parent. If you are the loved one, how do you cope with loving your mother who loves you and not the sister that you love so much? And if you are not the loved one, how to do you cope with loving you sister who is loved by your mother who doesn’t love you? The unloved one has some issues with loyalty. So when Christine sees that Lea still has a blanket her mother made for her, she gets angry. I don’t think this is some crazy schizophrenic reaction as some would like to think, this is the effects of the relationship dynamics at play between these characters. In addition, Christine seems to have suffered other major disappointments when trying to get close to other people. She tried to get close to a nun she idolized at the convent and the nun pushed her away and wouldn’t even talk to her. That hurt her a great deal as well and she carried that around with her.

One thing that keeps jumping out in this movie is the tremendous amount of stress these maids worked under. We aren’t talking about a time period where you could give your employer your ass to kiss and just go find another job. This was a time period of small towns and word of mouth and real references needed to get good jobs. This was a time period of real ass poverty. There weren’t any McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts trash bins you could rummage through for food if you were down and out. So you could see the extreme nervousness when the younger sister, Lea, started working there. The Madame Danzard went around checking everything with a white glove. Hell, I’ve quit jobs over less stress than I can imagine they experienced as maids during that time.

The classism in this film was also overwhelming. The mother and daughter joked about the lowly state of the sisters. They made nasty comments when the sisters came home from church as if they weren’t worthy of going. The mother wouldn’t even move her feet when she made the younger sister pick up tiny beads from the carpet. Also, classism and the inherent issues accompanying servitude, both sides had valid reasons for a little paranoia. For the middle class ladies, they experienced maids who were not trustworthy or who would gossip. For Christine, she’d worked in homes where she was in constant fear. She liked where she was currently working because she knew exactly what Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) expected and she knew on some level, because Madame Danzard checked everything she did, there would be no surprises. In addition, both sides never really spoke to each other so you can imagine the incorrect assumptions either side could come up with when they don’t know or communicate with each other.

There is also a point when you can see Christine doesn’t like to see her sister laboring. It was like she wanted something better for her sister. You can see this when they are on their hands and knees scrubbing the floor, and you can see her get angry when she sees her sister being made to pick up the tiny beads. Lea was all the Christine had. One has to consider that as well. All other attempts to make connections with other people failed for Christine. The only person she was close to was Lea. Lea did have her mother and Christine so it was a different dynamic.

I remember being completely amazed by the performance of these women at the end of this film. You could clearly see Christine trying very hard to hold things together. She did seem to really try to smooth the problem over. Madame Danzard was on the stairs breaking her down. I watched this scene and I thought it was a perfect example of stripping someone of their dignity. Madame Danzard had been doing so up to that point but the encounter at the end was a full assault.

It was never proven that the Papin sisters ever had a sexual relationship and they denied having one back then. There is also a lot of psycho-bullshit aimed at “explaining” their behavior. I don’t mean trying to understanding what kind of stressors would drive them to do what they did, but there were labels and assumptions made that really don’t apply to them. One site claimed the older sister would have been labeled as paranoid schizophrenic today, however there is nothing about her behavior that would warrant such a label or that the sisters suffered from shared paranoid disorder. You can’t just label someone with a disorder when they have a valid reason for being paranoid. It’s a natural phenomenon. There was also no indication that they didn’t trust the whole outside world, just that they didn’t trust who they were working for eventually and they had valid reason for that. Both sides trusted each other at the start of the film but by the end, their lack of communication and the their division by class caused both sides to be begin to behave differently and become paranoid.

Close to the end of the film, Madame Danzard said Christine doesn’t speak and walks by her as if she’s not even there. Her daughter replies that she’s always been that way. Later Christine says Madame Danzard doesn’t speak to them anymore. Lea replies, she never has.

Tomorrow I’ll be watching the six hours again so that I can pick out what’s important and what’s not and figure out how I’m going to use the footage to tell the story. I’m going to end up doing a phone interview with one of the twins. I forgot to ask one of them an important line of questions. I saw a spot in When the Levees Broke where they used a phone conversation to help tell the story and it worked really well so I should be able to do the same. *Smile*.

I will write from the perspective that you want to make films because you love visual storytelling and because you love having a bit of fun (well a lot of fun).  This fun I speak of is also the reason why I personally enjoy really bad “b” movies. I always watch them and think “Man I bet they had fun making that!”

So let’s get down to business. Basically there is none! guerrilla filmmaking can be structured or completely on the fly. It’s up to you. One of the things I find important when making films guerrilla style is to work with other people who feel similar to how you feel about making films. Nothing puts a damper on making a film guerrilla style than someone in the cast or crew dying to go to the Oscars. Don’t spend too much time with them. There are plenty of other film projects they can work on.

When you get your fun loving crew together (or you decide to go solo by personal choice or you don’t live near fun loving people), then decide what you are going to film and FILM IT. This is what guerrilla filmmaking is all about to me. Make a decision on a subject and film it. The key is to choose something you can afford or decide how you are going to fund-raise in a reasonable amount of time so that your work isn’t put on the “shelf” because you are spending too much time begging for money. Keep in mind, you can beg for money during various stages of production so you don’t really have to beg for all the money you think you will need before filming. I will write later about how I structure my finances so that I can make movies and live at the same time.

So when you’ve decided to make a film, spend no more than a week or two brainstorming on how to make your film happen. The FREE program I would higly recommend for planning your film from start to finish is Celtx. You just can’t get any better than this program and it’s FREE. So you can’t beat that. You can literally just plan the whole film in this program in a short period of time (if you care to plan at all. Guerrilla filmmaking doesn’t really require planning).

Another fantastic resource for guerrilla filmmakers is Simply Scripts. This is a website that offers FREE unproduced scripts for you to pick and choose from. I’ll tell you a short story. Being able to write creatively is one of the gifts I was born with so I thought I shouldn’t have any problem writing a screenplay. I didn’t have a problem writing it, I just didn’t like it. I’d written a screenplay for a film I wanted to do when I got my new DVX100b. We’ll call it a “screentest” if you will. And I tell you, it was quite time consuming for someone who just wants to start shooting. After that experience, I said from now on I’ll first look for scripts that have already been written first before I decide to write my own script again, unless I really have a story I want to tell that hasn’t already been written. So I decided to do a few shorts and stumbled upon Simply Scripts. I immediately found two FANTASTIC screenplays I wanted to do. I contacted the filmmakers and they were very enthusiastic about having me film their scripts. They were also willing to do rewrites when needed. Who could ask for more?

Don’t forget to use sites like Craigslist for cast and crew. There are always plenty of people willing to work on the same terms you are … FREE or for experience. Paying cast and crew isn’t bad either when making guerrilla films, just be sure to work out terms that are fair to everyone and you will build lasting relationships. Pay when you say you will, treat ALL of your cast and crew with respect and they will enjoy working with you again. This seems to be something filmmakers overlook. If you get cast or crew that are hard to work with, it is in the best interest of the film to let them go. It doesn’t matter what skill they have or how good they are. Don’t be a film whore. It’s your art, don’t let someone dictate it. Keep in mind there are billions of humans on the planet. Trust me, you can find someone else. Again, make sure you are being fair so always do a self-check first.

I find there are many guides out there telling you how to make films and they are usually very helpful. But the bottom line is, you have to make something and you have to do it now, not later. Even if you are just filming a 2 minute short featuring a beetle bug walking across hot asphalt. There is a lot you could do with that creatively and its a great way to learn about shooting from different angles, shooting handheld, editing, etc. Anytime you point and shoot your camera you are creating a learning opportunity for yourself.

Equipment for these two films:
This was obviously something I spent days and days planning because I was taking a plane down to Florida so I couldn’t take things I may have taken to a local shoot. This was by far the second most energy consuming task (the first being scheduling but I’ll talk about that later). I also have “Tressa’s law of traveling” which usually includes traveling with no more than one large luggage and something like a backpack. This was definitely not going to happen now that I’ve started filming when I travel. So let’s start with the equipment and then the bags/packing.

1 – Panasonic DVX100B
1 – Azden SGM-1X Shotgun Mic
3 – Smith-Victor light sockets
3 – Smith-Victor soft boxes
3 – Smith-Victor 8′ light stands
2 – 500 watt incandescent light bulbs
1 – 250 watt incandescent light bulb
2 – 105 watt Fluorescent light bulbs
1 – 65 watt Fluorescent light bulb
Stock Battery
9 Hr Battery
Camera Remote
Lens cleaning cloth
Logitech Noise Canceling Headphones
30 – Mini DV tapes
Pen for labeling tapes
Battery Charger
3 – Impact Light dimmers
Sticky Pod
Video Cables
Impact VT-2500 Tripod
2 – Sand bags
AA & AAA batteries
Power Strips
extension cords
Automatic pan/tilt head
Gaffer Tape
Script book
Rain cover

All of this stuff fit into two checked bags and one carryon. I decided to buy a hard carryon (Pelican) case to use when traveling from now on. In it is everything I need to film if my other bags are lost. Basically, my camera, all of the tapes, microphone w/cables, pan/tilt head, cleaning cloth, etc. Of course not the lights.

One checked bag was a medium sized luggage that I primarily used to carry my three light sockets and tripod head which were inside a hard case (Porta Brace) and some power cords, empty sand bags, ect. The second checked luggage was a kinda upright duffel bag made by JEEP. This is the most awesome bag on the planet and it is what I used to carry my gear around town once I was at my destination. This bag had my clothes in it along with my light stands, tripod legs, Sticky Pod, and light boxes, etc. All baggage was within airline weight limits. I shipped ALL of my light bulbs ahead of time via the US mail. I also shipped them back when I left (I did break one of the high wattage fluorescents while there but happened to find them in Light Bulbs Unlimited and nowhere else in Tampa or surrounding areas. Light Bulbs Unlimited didn’t even know they carried them.).

Once in Florida I put everything I needed for each shoot in the one JEEP bag which had wheels and a telescoping handle. I’d rented a PT Cruiser which initially I didn’t want but after getting it I quickly realized the incredible blessing it was. With the back seats pushed down, I found I didn’t have to break down my 3 light boxes anymore. I put all three, fully assembled in the back along with my JEEP bag full of my gear. Eventually I would leave the light boxes in there until I needed them. I was also able to film Charise’s beach interview sitting in the back of the PT Cruiser. She was sitting outside the car and I sat on the folded down seats inside the car (with the back door up of course). This way, my microphone was shielded from all of the wind and outside noise and I could get just her against the ocean in the background.

Everyone I interviewed were nice enough to help carry stuff and help setup. I was pretty thankful because it is time consuming if it’s just you filming. I would like to have a small crew next time.

Preparation for these films:
I originally was just going to film Charise but thought I’d ask Marlo and Michelle if I could do a doc about their lives anyway. I didn’t really expect them to say yes but they did! So then I went to work with setting up phone meetings and gathering information on everyone so I could determine what my stories were. From there I put together my questions. I like to cover as much as possible so I tend to have many many questions to ask.

The schedule was the most energy consuming task. Just because when you are setting up a schedule you are at the mercy of those you are interviewing. So if they have to wait for their work schedule, so do you. This can be taxing when you need to plan ahead to make sure your shoots will be as successful as possible. I was lucky enough to have Marlo and Michelle handle getting in touch with all of their family and scheduling them in on the days I could shoot. This was a tremendous help!

Honestly, I found that once I had all of my points covered, there wasn’t much else for me to pre-plan. For instance 1. Subjects to Interview, 2. Clear stories to tell, 3. Questions to ask, 4. Gear needed, 5. Schedule. Then it’s shooting time. I pre-worked how I thought the final films would be structured because I had time. I also setup photoshoots which can be added to the workflow for covering promotional material as well.

I was also fortunate because everyone stuck to the schedule and everything I had planned went exactly on time. It was the most incredible film shoot I could ask for. And I had tons of fun with friends I hadn’t seen in a very long time. :)

I originally planned to do only one trailer for the documentary on Albinism but there is really two parts to it; the medical aspect and the social aspect. So when I collected clips for the one trailer, I had no choice but to make two instead of one, if I wanted to end up with something that is actually trailer length and not a full hour or so documentary. :)

This trailer was also hard because of the subject and also being limited on B-roll clips as well. But so far I’m satisfied with what I have put together. After completing the first trailer, putting together this second one and working on it in Adobe After Effects has been much faster.