One Sheet and turning a page

Here's our "one sheet" for publicity purposes. Some festivals ask for it, so we're preparing it along with other publicity packet materials outlined at festival sites and at Without A Box.

Road to Opportunity had a premiere showing and is essentially complete. We tweaked it a bit more and are sending it out to other film festivals to see where it might fit in and be screened. In case you don't already know Withoutabox.com, check it out. It helps fine tune your selection process (choosing festivals) and eases your effort to get a film placed. After you register your project at the WAB and describe it in detail, you can search festivals and click the "Qualify this Project" tab to see how well your film matches each festival's requirements.

One sheet, and many pages to go.

Still climbing the learning curve. . . even when the film is complete. . .there is more to learn and do.

Not Road to Perdition

People keep asking us, "What's the name of that film again? Road to Perdition?"

Sometimes our own crew makes the error of calling the film "Road to Perdition". This confusion is probably made because Road to Perdition is the most commonly known "road to" film.

You might have seen the comedy road films of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. More recently there's: "Road to Eldorado", "Road to Avonlea" (TV-series) and "Road to Guantanamo".

If you google "road to" and "film", you'll also find "Road to Opportunity".

RTO's Premiere Film Festival Screening

Road to Opportunity premiered at the Mondavi Center in Davis, California, May 27, 2006.

In April the Pacific Edge Film Festival accepted RTO in its rough cut form.

RTO's final cut wasn't complete in time to enter the competitive portion of the festival, but being selected for screening (as one of only two feature films) was a prize in itself . Being screened at such a venue helped get this film off to a good start.

We are glad that it could open so close to home. Congratulations, Pacific Edge, and thanks Mondavi Center. It was a good event.

Thanks to everyone involved. Thanks to everyone who attended the premiere of Road to Opportunity.

Post production post

Post production: Editing, sound and sound editing, music, visual effects, voice overs (or AVR which stands for Additional Voice Replacement).
These were much of what we worked on in April and May.
Hundreds of hours. Now I see how the film industy employs so many people.
Check out the credits on many films and you'll see a long list due to so many people employed in post production.
We couldn't have afforded to pay for all the post production we did on our own. There are a lot of student filmmakers who don't get around to learning the programs involved in post production. It ususally ends up being a bigger-budget item.
Films are indebted to a lot of software these days, including things as simple as color correction and editing, to things more complex, such as visual effects, which we experiemented a lot with.
It was our first feature and hard to judge the time it would take to tweak the earlier rough cut we sent in to the Pacific Edge Film Festival. When they notified us that it was accepted, we got to the point where we were working around the clock without sleep to come up with a suitable cut.
We had a good premiere screening, but we are using the time since to tweak it further prior to submission to other festivals.
Thanks to everyone who came through for us during those deadline-crunching days.

Location, Location, Location

Location scouting has been a major aspect of the filming process. Our cast and crew have traveled hundreds of miles from deserts to urban overpasses, lush hillsides and cluttered construction sites. We have mounted cameras to vehicles as we film on some of the nation's largest freeways. We have been questioned by pedestrians, but no matter how much attention was drawn, some locations have proven indispensable. The production of “Road to Opportunity” has been loaded with experiences, many of which couldn’t have been anticipated at the drawing board. Now, with our film 90% completed, we look back on 9 months of work with good memories of the people and places we came to know during the production process.

The Other Los Angeles

Diego continued his adventure through Los Angeles in Fairfield, CA.The government district of Fairfield has a "Socal" appearance that looked authentic on camera. As these images demonstrate, we had to position the camera (and DP) in awkward locations to get the shots we were looking for. Doing everything from running through the streets of downtown Fairfield to driving a motorized scooter thought parking lots and sidewalks, Diego probably walked five miles and scooted another two miles during the entire filming day. We also filmed a few quick scenes at a major grocery store and near a small orange grove. All in all, it was just another day in the production of “Road to Opportunity”.

World Wide Web Indeed

The internet has proved to be a powerful tool in the exposition of the Road to Opportunity production progress. Already, AB FILM BLOG has received hits from 48 countries throughout five continents. All countries in red (above) have accessed this bog. (Click on map to enlarge)

Scene 1 - "por que tiene espinas?"

Scene One presented a new set of challenges. First, how do you get a person who doesn't speak Spanish to act like someone with a Spanish mother tongue? It's difficult but, as Isaac proved, possible. Isaac acted the role of Julio as a child, for the first scene in the film. Victor acted as the father (before he went to Mexico). This scene was recently added to the script, but it added a lot to the dynamics of the plot. Another challenge was filming the entire outdoor scene after sunset before it became too dark. Fortunately, Ian came to the rescue once again, allowing us to utilize his property for filming the orange trees. In fact, the Fisher family even allowed us to use their home while they were gone—a critical contribution to our filming process. Several cast members traveled over 35 miles to arrive on set that afternoon. Despite a vast array of challenges, the cooperation of our cast and crew members along with the support of Ian’s family enabled us to successfully complete the first scene of our film.

Road to Opportunity -

Still shooting our film, "Road to Opportunity".
Still working on that road.
Still going down that road.
Thanks for everyone who traveled down that road with us.
Thanks to everyone who cheered us on as we went by, ran by, looking a bit tired.


Our list of remaining shots is pretty short now.
Some require sunshine, so that will take another week (according to the weather forecast which we keep checking).
Meanwhile, the post-production moves ahead rain or shine, day and night.
Music will follow. Our musician-composers are standing by.
We look forward to writing up the credits (there are a lot!)
and watching them roll the night of the film's premiere screening.


We'll let you know when we have a confirmation that our film will be shown, when and where.
Thanks!

Props

When you have a tiny crew, everyone does a bit of everything. That's one of the advantages of starting on small projects. Lots of hands-on experience.

Recently we had to build some things. Burgers. Fifteen.

First we had to come up with a name for our fast food restaurant chain, (how?)
then we had to design a logo.

then we had to create the burger wrappers.
The owner/manager of
Hamburger Stand
helped us with this.

We then set up an assembly line at home where three of us packaged 15 "burgers". Everything was edible but the burger itself, which was wooden!


We didn't want to buy real burgers that would have to be thrown away at the end of the day, but they couldn't be fake, because the scenes call for unwrapping real burgers. So we took real buns, real lettuce and a circular slice of wood to fill it out. Looked good on camera.



Two scenes call for the main character, Julio, entering a fast food place. We called it Dwiddles.
In one, he orders all the Big Dwiddies he can get for $60.


Call the Props Department!
We need about 15 burgers!


Now that's a Big Dwiddie!

Branding a Fictional Product

Like our dilemma with choosing a name for a grocery market, we had to modify the name for our fast food chain. We tried McWendles, which, during a film shoot was accidentally spoken as McDwiddles. It made us laugh--we liked the sound of it, but we dropped the Mc, to keep us clear away from any unintended connection with other chains.

Our "Props Department", furnished logos and items to make it look more real.

Big Dwiddie

Two scenes call for the main character, Julio, entering a fast food place. We called it Dwiddles.
In one, he orders all the Big Dwiddies he can get for $60.

Call the Props Department!
We need about 15 burgers!


We didn't want to buy real burgers that will hae to be thrown away at the end of the day. But we couldn't simply stuff the oackaging with foam, because the scene calls for unwrapping the burgers. So we took real buns, real lettuce and a circular slice of wood to fill it out.
Now that's a Big Dwiddie!

Aisle see you

At the "Bucks Mart" location.


Checking the aisles for good angles.

"Prop"erly Labeled

A carton of juice


was to show prominently in one scene.

(click photo on the left to check out out the ingredients on the nutrition label)



To avoid involving a brandname
(no product placement in this film),




we had to get a design for all four sides of a carton.

We should have added "do not drink--this is only a prop". (a prop that sat for days without refridgeration. No one drank from it--we had a "stand in" of fresh orange juice for that scene.

An actor can inspire the lines

Sometimes you write some lines in a script with no particular actor in mind. Afterwards, when you find an actor, and you can imagine them well, it inspires new lines. That's what happened when we found Mr. Bruce Jones to play our Bucks Mart manager.

When we imagined him in the role, we wanted to keep writing more lines. During rehearsal and shooting of scenes, he also improvised with smart humor, so we have lots of "takes" to choose from in the editing process.

We also have him to thank for finding us this office location at Hearn Construction, thanks to Mr. Gordon Stankowski, president.
Two busy business men who have already worked all week, came in to the office on a Saturday to help two student filmmakers!

Bucks Mart - finding a name that doesn't Google

We had to come up with a name for the business where our lead character gets a job.

We couldn't use the name of an existing business, and we preferred avoiding something too close, such as "All-Mart".

We finally designed a name (and slogan) that even a "Google" search didn't find:

We attached this logo to some props,including stationery and a pen.

Here and not now: later

It's not so fun to think ahead when all you see is a big deadline.
Even so, we are thinking ahead.

we have to live in the present and future simultaneously to get things done

Even after we wrap the filming part, we have the sound track to work on. We are looking forward to working on this because of the original music being composed for it.

I wonder what inspiration (and loss of sleep) it will require to get it all together.

3 months per mile

It took three months to drive this scooter scene to the finish line.

We started the early days of December. Since then, we had to find a scooter that anyone could actually ride.

Several people had scooters that "used to work". We finally settled for one of those.

Then we had to repair and service it.






Then we had to find a new actor (in the scooter-kid's role). Thanks to Kyle's cousin! (we are indebted to lots of people's relatives: cousins, uncles, nephews, brothers. . .)


Then we had to find times that fit everyone and get the sun and shadow continuity right.










Then, we somehow ran out of gas (maybe it evaporated while waiting).

This was the most "jinxed" scene to get everything to come together. But it worked well in the end.

Rain, Dollars and Time budget

Rain means shoot the indoor scenes. Some days the rain was falling so hard and LOUD that it didn't even allow us to do that. It was too loud to record the dialogue.

When the rain stops, we hurry to see who we can get together to shoot the remaining outdoor scenes. Sun is in low supply, so we watch how we spend it.

In the real film world, we'd be losing money every time we aren't filming.

We don't have a big dollar budget (it's mainly costing time) but we have a time budget, and we are running low.

Los Angeles Unit

Someone who studied filmmaking at our high school is now in Los Angeles. He agreed to shoot some pickup shots of LA scenes. Hope he gets them done for us in time to wrap this film.

Blake Borchers--our Los Angeles unit.

Home away from home

Gustavo generously offered his home to shoot some indoor scenes. It took nearly two whole days! How do you thank someone for this?

He's an accomplished professional musician, specializing in percussion. We're hoping we can film him and his band sometime and create a DVD that he can use as a promotional DVD.

We can't think about that until this film is fully wrapped.

Meanwhile, we are thinking of and thanking the good people we have met through this film project. One of the best things about this experience.

We hadn't had experience asking people--people we don't even know--for favors, help, advice and ideas. Filmmaking doesn't allow self-suffiency. You need people. That's how you end up meeting and getting to know them. And because there is often problem-solving involved, you feel like you have been through something together.

Equipment is what you make it

Make it work: bend it, lift it. . .



When you don't have the budget or special film equipment, you modify what you have.



At this same film shoot we also bent a wire hanger to hold our microphone from our tripod.

It was perfect. We should always carry hangers, clips, assorted adhesive tape, string. . . who knows? Might need it. Ever watched "MacGyver"?

Special Effect

Special effects doesn't always mean using CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) or high tech devices and engineering. Sometimes you can achieve an "effect" by watching for and using the simplist things, including glass, mirrors, lighting, positioning.

With room darkening, strategic lighting and positioning of actors on either side of this window, we found the effect we wanted for this prison scene.







You can check here for a simple glossary of Film Terms.

You can compare the terms "visual-effects" and "special-effects".

Location, location. . .

ANOTHER LOCATION:
Fortunately, there are still family-run businesses who can make the decisions on the spot, without having to refer to other authorities. One of our primary actors (and musician) Juan Rodriguez, was able to offer us his family’s Woodland restaurant, El Charro, which has been in the family for generations. They are always closed on Sundays, so they offered it to us for as long as we needed that day. And because we were nearby extended family and friends, we had enough (if we wanted) to fill every chair in the café scene.

It was a long day---for the generous and patient crew, actors and extras.

____________ Click to enlarge photos.___________

Assorted shots:
Adjusting lights, filters, boom, audio. . .
and actors.