THE OVERBROOK BROTHERS was one of my favorite films from this past year’s SXSW film festival. Co-written and directed by Austin filmmaker John E. Bryant, THE OVERBROOK BROTHERS is finally getting its chance to be seen by a much wider audience. Starting Februrary 17th, THE OVERBROOK BROTHERS will be available through IFC Films ON DEMAND. In the Austin area, IFC ON DEMAND is only available on Time Warner. Check it out.
Posts Tagged ‘Indie Film’
THE OVERBROOK BROTHERS LANDS DISTRIBUTION
February 6th, 2010The Mellow Pros of Texas – Article From Backstage
January 16th, 2009Here’s another good article about the Texas film business that touches on the lack of a competitive film incentive program. Time to nudge your legislators. The wheelin’ and dealin’ has begun in Austin
December 04, 2008
By Mark Dundas Wood
Recently, Drew Barrymore directed and starred in a feature called Whip It!, set in Austin, Texas, and based on a novel by a former Austinite, Shauna Cross. The film was shot in…Ann Arbor, Mich.
Say what? Why would a town with a rich film culture and at least two major favorite-son film directors — Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater — miss out on hosting a project that’s such an obvious fit?
As usual, it’s a money thing. Michigan — along with such states as New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Louisiana — currently offers producers hefty incentive packages to shoot on its soil. As Gary Bond, director of the Austin Film Commission, points out, the 8.25 percent sales-tax exemption and other incentives that Texas offers to filmmakers don’t add up to the same breaks available elsewhere.
Nevertheless, last January, Austin was named the No. 1 American movie city by MovieMaker magazine, beating out such incentives-rich locales as Albuquerque, N.M., and Shreveport, La., not to mention Los Angeles and New York. Austin may not be getting the same kind of commercial projects as other states, but apparently it is doing some things very well.
A (Lone) Star Is Born
The first Hollywood-size project that lensed in Austin, says Bond, was 1977’s Outlaw Blues. In subsequent years, a handful of TV movies and occasional theatrical features (1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, for instance) shot in the area, but no cinematic stampede to the city ensued. Things began to change in the mid-1980s when the first sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Jeff Bridges-Kim Basinger vehicle Nadine were shot back to back in Austin, with both films employing many of the same personnel. Gradually, says Bond, local crew — especially members of art departments — amassed impressive production credits and reputations.
At the same time, Austin was becoming a major music hub. The city’s famous South by Southwest (SXSW) festival actually began as a music event in 1987 but soon incorporated film and other media. “We were sort of a two-headed calf,” says Bond. “People wanted to come here and see what this buzz was all about.”
Filmmakers venturing to Austin found a city surrounded by a wide range of physical terrains: hills and lake chains to the west, rolling prairie to the east. “It’s always been an excellent place to do a road movie,” says Bond, noting that the bulk of the cattle-drive miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989) was shot within 30 miles of Austin, with the countryside standing in for Canadian and Mexican locales.
In the 1990s, the scene grew, especially with the emergence of Linklater and Rodriguez and the latter’s then wife, producer Elizabeth Avellan. Other Austin-based filmmakers include Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions) and Mike Judge (Office Space).
Rodriguez and Avellan developed Troublemaker Studios at the site of Austin’s former municipal airport. Meanwhile, Linklater had founded the Austin Film Society. What began as a film-appreciation organization eventually expanded, assuming management of Austin Studios: other refurbished, city-owned airport property that became “production central” for projects coming into town.
The Actor Factor
But what about human infrastructure? What does Austin provide to filmmakers in the way of an actor workforce?
Beth Sepko, who operates Beth Sepko Casting, as well as an affiliated company, Third Coast Extras, began her career as an agent in San Antonio, returning to her native Austin in 1994. Sepko has worked on several films with Rodriguez. She also casts Austin’s first major network series, NBC’s Friday Night Lights, for which she won a 2007 Emmy. “We have a really strong talent pool,” she says, “but it’s sort of shallow. If I have a film project that has, like, 90 roles on it, then I definitely have to pull from other markets.”
Read the FULL BACKSTAGE ARTICLE HERE.
The threat of an actor’s strike influences film production
May 7th, 2008There is a terrific article by Steven Zeitchik in today’s Hollywood Reporter: Strike effect mirrors class struggle.
A few excerpts:
“A strike absolutely makes it possible to get the quality of people you normally wouldn’t have a shot at,” said Mark Gill, co-founder of the Film Department, which is prepping as many as four movies to shoot during the strike, including Bart Freundlich’s cougar comedy “The Rebound” with Catherine Zeta-Jones. “If we don’t use this window now, we’re crazy. It’s the best opportunity we’ll have for years to come.”
The result could a baby boom of sorts for independently made movies with big names, a class that likely will emerge toward year’s end and early 2009. “It’s going to be one interesting Sundance next year,” one industry insider said.
The decisions also are affecting how producers are financing movies before going into production in the first place; several said they weighed independent financing more favorably compared with specialty division financing.
SAG and the AMPTP suspended negotiations Tuesday with no deal in place. While many in Hollywood believe that the actors won’t actually walk out, the perception of a strike has become its own reality. “Even if a strike doesn’t happen, it’s going to be very hard for a studio to get a movie going right away,” Plum Pictures principal Celine Rattray said. “That means July is going to be a really fun month for a lot of indies.”
and:
The SAG waivers, which serve as guarantee completion agreements, are playing out differently than the interim agreements did during the WGA strike, in which they mainly allowed for scattered rewrites. This time, they could prove critical for companies, particularly specialty divisions and mini-majors, who will use them to shoot now and deepen thin 2009 slates. (Before granting waivers, SAG is scrutinizing productions closely to make sure no signatory companies are involved even via informal distribution deals or small amounts of financing.)
Unlike the WGA strike, which was primarily a television strike, the potential SAG walkout is hitting film in all sorts of ways. The scribe stoppage came about abruptly and, because it concerned writers, froze many projects in development. That made its impact felt more sharply on TV.
But the SAG strike is working in exactly the opposite way. Because studios have had plenty of advance warning — and because it gums up projects farther along in the production process — its impact is felt in the more long-term business of the studios.
Read the whole article here in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Low Budgets Dominate Upcoming Texas Production Slate
March 28th, 2008Just as Friday Night Lights looks almost certain to return as part of an NBC deal with DirecTV, the CW has given the green light to Austin Golden Hour, a series pilot about a group of emergency medical technicians and emergency room doctors working frantically in the pivotal hour after a trauma in the capital city.
This and more about film projects shooting or slated to shoot in Austin are available from Joe O’Connell’s FILM NEWS column in the Austin Chronicle.
Friday the 13th is officially set to begin an eight-week shoot here April 21, from the same Platinum Dunes folks who brought you two The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes and The Hitcher reimagining. Marcus Nispel, the German video director who got his big-screen start directing 2003’s Chainsaw, is back at the helm for this remake with Jared Padalecki (the CW’s Supernatural) reportedly in negotiations to star as a guy investigating what really went down with that hockey-mask-wearing Jason at Crystal Lake.
Here’s a list of projects slated to shoot in Texas. This list is taken from Mona Lee’s BizOnline newsletter.
Kick the Can – Theatrical
Prayer Hour – Internet Series
Out of Hand – Theatrical
Harmony and Me – Ultra Low Budget
Radio 101 – Low Budget Modified
Borderline – Low Budget
Mindsight – Ultra Low Budget
Serenity Falls – Low Budget
Chupa- Theatrical
Friday the 13th – Theatrical
The Two Bobs- Low Budget
Easier With Practice – Low Budget
Never Enough – Low Budget Modified
Bearding Christian – Low Budget Modified
A Flag Between Two Families – Low Budget
Guys – Low Budget Modified
Behind the Palisades – Low Budget Modified
Zombie Love – Ultra Low Budget
While I’m glad to see a number of film projects upcoming, the list above is somewhat telling. Where is the impact of the film incentive legislation? What is it going to take to lure back some of the bigger budget Hollywood projects that have been given away to Louisiana and New Mexico and their much more aggressive film incentive programs?
Will SAG actors really work for $100 a day? Legally?
March 20th, 2008
SAGIndie: A gentle and loving union between the hard working thespians of the world and the passionate filmmaking mavericks who buck the system.Since its
formation in 1997, SAGIndie has been traveling to film festivals, trade shows and conventions spreading the word: Just because your film isn’t produced by a studio doesn’t mean you can’t use professional talent.
Are you aware of this SAG contact? :
Ultra-Low Budget Agreement
* Total budget of less than $200,000
* Day rate of $100
* No step-up fees
* No consecutive employment (except on overnight location)
* No premiums
* Allows the use of both professional and non-professional performers
* Background performers not covered
Check out THIS PAGE for more SAG contract information.
A few weeks back I was at a callback for a good role (interesting character and situation, well written, multiple days work) in an indie film that is, right now, shooting in Colorado. I’m sitting in Austin. I was interested, the director was interested. It didn’t work out. Why? For one thing they had good SAG and non-SAG choices.
They decided not to become a SAG signatory production. I won’t lie, I would really have liked to have nailed the job…good roles are hard to find. And this, Mr./Ms. indie writer/director/producer is why you should look at the various SAG low budget agreements and at SAGIndie.
What is every actor looking for? Even more than a payday? A GREAT PART. That includes SAG actors, and that, Indie Producer, is your secret weapon. Do you have a well written script with interesting characters that will be fun, interesting, challenging to play? If so, then you can get those SAG actors for your project. Even if you’re only paying $100 a day.
When I got the audition call from my agent I was told the project ‘might go SAG’ IF the actors they ended up casting were SAG actors. Right away I knew there was a possible ‘problem’ with the SAG thing.
NO…it’s not that I couldn’t audition. As a SAG member I am encouraged to audition for anything I’m right for. IF the producer wants to cast me, at that point they have to become a signatory or I can’t do the job.
The potential problem was that the production was only 2-3 weeks from the start date…and they hadn’t decided yet if they’d go SAG or not. They weren’t really organized for a potential SAG shoot. From the SAGIndie site:
I am starting to shoot tomorrow and need to get an agreement today.
That’s funny. Do you know any others?
I can’t get anyone in the theatrical department to call me back and I’m starting production this weekend…
Did you start the process 4-6 weeks ago? If not, we probably can’t help you. If you did start the process but no one is responding that’s a problem. Please send us an email and we’ll try to resolve it.
Organize, people. No, I don’t mean Union in this case. I mean get things together well before your shoot date. And don’t discount working on a SAG contract because you don’t have a large budget or because you’ve been scared off by what somebody said to someone who told this other guy about what a big, bad motha SAG was to work with back when blah, blah, blah. Things change. SAG is trying very hard to be “Indie Friendly”.
Visit the SAGIndie site. Get in touch with the SAGIndie people. They will be straight up with you on what you need to do to navigate the waters of the SAG low budget agreements…agreements that will allow you to work with SAG actors for as low as $100/day. Is your cast ethnically diverse? If so you may be able to significantly bump your budget and still qualify for one of the low budget agreements.
Screen Door Jesus Clip
February 8th, 2008This is a clip of my role as the small town preacher, Bro. Wiley from the independent film SCREEN DOOR JESUS. This film won lots of awards at film festivals and is now available on DVD. Check it out. It was a small role but one I very much enjoyed. The writer/director, Kirk Davis and producer, Sam Adelman were great to work with.
