to move up and down
Should I Call Myself "Richard?"
Filmmaker and cartoonist. I dig telling you stories.
Everyone is trying to pimp you a Kickstarter these days, but after 9/11 don’t you think it’s time for someone actually funny? I present the boys of Dimestore. The first filmmakers after the wall fell at Berlin. The end.
New short films I’m working on for Spring/Summer 2013
In all this transition from the midwest to the east coast, I was able to squeeze out two scripts for new short films I hope to produce within the next 90 days or so. So much of that depends of course on getting settled in Brooklyn before that, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed there. (Oh yeah, I guess I should announce we’ve decided on Brooklyn. There are a lot of great people we know there.) And what’s great about finally wrapping up FORGOTTEN DETROIT and I HATE CHICAGO for our Kickstarter backers is the freedom to move forward with new things. The two new shorts are going to be a hoot. A damn HOOT, and I am already working on the characters I’ll be playing for them.
The first, and the shorter of the two, will be a 5-ish minute short called THE F*CK GRETCHEN DANCE STUDIO. It’s the story of a young man who moves cross county with his girlfriend Gretchen (sound familiar?) and is immediately dumped. He is now left with not only his feelings of anger and resentment, but also a giant moving truck with only a box of his belongings and a boom box. He is stranded, out of patience and gas, and must wait for a friend to pick him up…in two days. During his 48 hour isolation his bitterness gets the better of him and he acts out his frustration through interpretive dance, with his boombox cranked to 11. FGDS is going to be a lighter piece and a totally different direction from Forgotten Detroit. Just pure, unadulterated rage set to dance music.
The second, and the one I’ve mentioned briefly before is LICENSE. This one is about two lifelong friends who suck it up and head to the DMV for new driver’s licenses. They wake up early to beat the crowds, and during a pit stop at a diner the two have a conversation neither of them planned on. The kind of conversation that will change their friendship forever. This one will be in the 7-10 minute range I’m planning at this point.
Each character has been so much fun for me to work on. It feels great to work on performing again after such a long dormancy after Forgotten Detroit. Acting is the easiest, and cheapest form of therapy and mental housekeeping I know of. Figuring out how someone else combs their hair, or holds a cup of coffee really charges my batteries. Speaking of which…expect some pretty drastic changes in my appearance between these two shorts. I’ve always been bound by a 9-5 day job so I couldn’t mess with my appearance too much, and it’s always felt kind of stagnating from a performance perspective. Sometimes it’s great to work from the outside in for a change of pace, and with these two shorts that’s exactly what I plan on doing.
I’m pretty excited.
“Kickstarter is not a store.”
Having successfully funded a Kickstarter for my short film Forgotten Detroit and then experiencing such a long post-production period, this article hits close to home. Really close to home. And we weren’t even close to a “top project.”
“I had this vision: If we ship late or people don’t like it, the entire Internet will be outside my house with pitchforks and torches,” he says. “I can’t even articulate the pressure. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Why 84% of Kickstarter’s Top Projects Shipped Late: READ THE FULL ARTICLE, SON.
People are already starting to get their DVDs. This is much excite.
Limited edition. (?)
DVDs and Posters are in from two films I made last year! Kickstarter backers expect something within a week-ish. I’ll be stuffing over 80 DVDs into envelopes over the next couple days.
You can’t know what this means to me. After post production on the movie dragged so much longer than we anticipated, we still had to fund the making of these DVDs. None of those funds came from our Kickstarter. It has haunted me and sat like a stone on my chest that we couldn’t get this movie to you quicker. Hopefully you’ll forgive us. We’ve learned so much more about movie making than we ever conceived throughout this process. Namely, it’s time consuming, costly, and that regardless, we love it like a fat kid loves cake.
AHHHH. IT’S FINALLY TIME!!!
I have a new website with all my different movies, music videos, and comics and I’d appreciate it if you took it seriously.
This has got me INCREDIBLY excited! There’s really no “Amazon” or “Barnes and Noble” when it comes to distributing independent film. It’s something that’s vexed me for a while. I can’t wait to be able to upload my films for people to tip, buy, or rent (!) all from within Vimeo.
HOLY SHIT MY MOTHER FUCKING MOVIE IS DONE
HOLY SHIT. OKAY CHECK THIS BULLSHIT RIGHT HERE. SEE A WHILE BACK I WROTE THIS SHORT FUCKING MOVIE WHEN I LIVED IN AN APARTMENT WITH NICK VANDERMOLEN WHERE OUR LANDLORD SCREWED A SCREEN DOOR HANDLE TO OUR OVEN AND CHARGED US $65 FOR THAT SHIT.
ANYWAY.
THAT MOTHER FUCKING MOVIE IS FUCKING DONE AND I’M SO EXCITED ALL I CAN DO IS CURSE AND SHIT AT A BITCH. I SHOT IT IN DETROIT WITH SOME FUCKING AWESOME MOTHER FUCKERS AND I’M REALLY GOD DAMN PROUD OF THE SHIT.
Can’t wait to see how this post affects my Google search results. And shit.
She talk more betterer than me do.
We have been so busy this month that I completely forgot to acknowledge the one year anniversary of our Kickstarter success.
I can remember exactly where we were, what happened that night, what time we came home to find that congratulatory message on the computer. Seems incredibly surreal that a year has passed and there’s a film that we created out of our own blood, sweat and tears (I don’t recall any REAL blood, but definitely sweat, tears and fake blood).
I am over-the-moon excited to share this beast with all of our Kickstarter backers, without whom none of this would have happened. How exciting it is, to be an independent filmmaker at a time where the technology and the opportunities are nearing parallel levels! You really can make a movie that’s really good with almost no money.
Forgotten Detroit feels like a really intensive film school to me sometimes, from a producing standpoint. I learned more in the last year about producing than I did in my four years in my undergraduate program. I’m sure that’s universal.
Anyway, another big kiss to our supporters on Kickstarter. Your film is coming! VERY SOON!
“About as good as your abortion.”
It was supposed to be an absurdist comedy about homosexual stereotypes and the uselessness of homophobia. In the end, it fell to the pile of things too big for us to pull off.
Rough cut. Within days.
So much footage. Only two scenes left to assemble before we see the shape of #forgottendetroit.
