A Tortellini Story - journey into food

[kotte]

My mistake was that I put aside almost no money for post. Big mistake. I knew too little about the process on a real movie.
Grading, color timing, mixing...this is something they do on big films. It's not like I have go through this on my tiny short...yeah right!
This could be a sign I wasn't ready. I guess it is...but I still don't regret one second of this journey.

Now...I'm tired of living in poverty. I don't wanna spend anymore of my own money on this project. I really don't. I wanna live life. Travel. Buy a book. Get my girlfriend something.

If I can't get funding for to complete my film...is it really worth putting down thousands of my own money on it?
Damn it! I'm gonna get this film financed. It's good film.

[matt35mm]

This could be a sign I wasn't ready.

No one's ready until they've made a movie, or several movies.  When it comes to first time directors of big-budgeted movies, they're surrounded by people who've made movies before.  Someone else plans the budget, photographs it, records the sound, CGIs it, color times it, markets it... the first-time director is surrounded by people who will keep things on track.

When it's a group of novices, of course there will be things that go wrong.  In my case, it was pretty smooth because I had made tons of test videos and got the technical processes down--I was inexperienced with actors and a crew, though.  Your and my next movie WON'T be made by a group of novices--we'll have some good experience under our belts--and so we grow as filmmakers and make progressively bigger and better movies.

I know that there are finishing funds available, so I think you're on the right track by looking for those.  But yes, I can understand that you don't want to spend any more of your own money on it--you've spent enough.  And I can certainly identify with your feeling of just wanting to get it DONE.

[md]

"sacrifice everything for art"

hey man you worked hard...believe in yourself its worth it...put the money in it, send it to film festivals, sell your shit....pta/wes anderson all made it through shorts (which were turned into features)....

im glad we have message boards like this to learn from others....

[kotte]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I was actually the most unexperienced on set. We had an experienced DP from New Zealand, another swedish photographer as Assistant camera, an exsperienced 1st AD. So I was surrounded by good people...

and I would never had done this did I not know how to direct. That'd be a COMPLETE waste of money. That's not where the problem lies. I was too unlearned when it came to post. I didn't have a clue...didn't have a clue how much it cost.

I now agree with metroshane, "My philosophy is to do the best with what you have."

[mutinyco]

I think this is the one problem with digital cinema. People are starting off now doing things cheaply on mini-DV and editing at home. But because they're not dealing with professional post, etc., they're unprepared when they finally confront it. I had the fortune of learning in reverse. 10-11 years ago, when I was making shorts it HAD to be done on film. I used 16mm, which was the most practical. But, man, you learn quite a bit about cost once you get into post! I'm glad to be working cheaply on mini-DV right now. Young people today don't realize just how lucky they are to have consumer equipment.

When I started, you HAD to do EVERYTHING analog. The short that I recently posted, Sabotage In the Ranks of Sobriety, was cut on a flatbed Steenbeck. It had 2 tracks of sound, both on 16mm mag stock. Everything was cut and spliced by hand.

[kotte]

I need advice...

I'm thinking about sending out a 'unmixed' copy of the film to festivals for them to consider, with a note that it's a 'work-in-progress' or something like that?
Why? I need to get it out there. Interest from festivals etc might get investors interested to complete it.
Is this a good idea?

[Ghostboy]

By unmixed, do you just mean that the soundtrack is incomplete? Most festivals do accept rough cuts, I think. I know Sundance does.

It's a tough call, because while you don't want your movie to just sit around gathering dust while you accumulate funds to complete it, you also don't want festival juries to dismiss it based on its roughness (even if it does have a 'work in progress' label). I guess if you can accurately judge its current state and you know that the film's qualities easily outshine its roughness, than it'd probably be okay.

And of course, if they reject you, you can always submit the finished film to the same festivals the next year.

[kotte]

By unmixed, do you just mean that the soundtrack is incomplete? Most festivals do accept rough cuts, I think. I know Sundance does.

It's a tough call, because while you don't want your movie to just sit around gathering dust while you accumulate funds to complete it, you also don't want festival juries to dismiss it based on its roughness (even if it does have a 'work in progress' label). I guess if you can accurately judge its current state and you know that the film's qualities easily outshine its roughness, than it'd probably be okay.

And of course, if they reject you, you can always submit the finished film to the same festivals the next year.

You're making some good points.

The soundtrack is pretty much complete...but it's unmixed. We considered mixing it for cinema but it's too damn expensive so we settled for a DVD and TV mix. If a big festival accept it I doubt it'll be a problem to get the money for a film print and a film mix.

The "screener" we're getting finishing up is pretty good. The picture's locked. The sound...not so much. Well it is but the dialogue track sounds like shit. The DV-deck is making a lot of noise. On a TV this sounds even worse, pretty much my only concern.
They'll fix it in the mix but it will be there for the "screener".

[mutinyco]

Honestly...don't jump the gun. If it's not ready, don't bother people -- cause if they see it unfinished and then you want them to see it again finished, they might feel like it's a waste of time. Everybody's always busy and to get their attention is priceless.

Be patient. Wait till you're happy with it.

[Recce]

Although it is a short short. People like watching shorts more then once, I think. I'd say if its pretty solid as a rough cut, send it in, then blow them away even  more with the awesomness of the final cut.

[kotte]

Help on this would be deeply appreciated...

This is the credits for my short. Could it be organized differently? Mis-spellings? Substitue-words etc etc?


CAST

Michael Mansson   GINO
Josephine Wistedt   SANDRA
Mattias Rundgren   VIGGO


CREW

Christopher Norin
Kim Hansen   PRODUCERS

Matt Meikle   DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Richard   Walton   MUSIC COMPOSER

Christopher Norin
Kim Hansen   EDITORS

Karel Keim                   FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Anna Modén   SCRIPT SUPERVISOR
David Block   SOUND RECORDIST
Martin Nisser   FIRST ASSISTANT CAMERA
Rasmus Svensson   DOLLY GRIP
Mathias Jansson   GAFFER
Malena Modéer   SET DECORATOR
Camilla Moberg   MAKE-UP ARTIST
Henrik Sandén   STILL PHOTOGRAPHER

Cinestar                   CAMERA EQUIPMENT
Joson      SOUND EQUIPMENT
Fuji      FILM STOCK
FilmTeknik                   FILM DEVELOPING
Frithoff                   COLOR TIMING
Unknown      COLOR TIMER   
Second Unit   MEDIA TRANSFER
Beppo      POST PRODUCTION SOUND
Unknown      SOUND MIXER
Unknown      ONLINE-EDITING
Unknown      ONLINE-EDITOR   
Stagepool                   CASTING SERVICES
Filmcafé

A Nopher Films production


DINNER GUESTS

Staffan Rydbeck
Alessandro Fernandes
Göran Holm
Peter Lulle Johansson
Larisa Virkovskaja
Margret Andersson
Shahin Alborz
Gunhild Eriksson
Gonca Yazan
Johan Sandberg
Jelena Mrdjanov
Linda Gendlin
Nadim Ahmed
Camilla Moberg


THANKS TO

Skansens Restauranger
Anna-Karin Norin
Xixax.com
David Jiang
Jossan
Johan at Cinestar
Florian at Fuji

[Pubrick]

Jelena Mrdjanov

this is definitely misspelled.

[kotte]

Jelena Mrdjanov

this is definitely misspelled.

hehe, yeah I wish it was...

[Ghostboy]

That's two movies now that have xixax.com in the Special Thanks section of the credits...so it begins.

[matt35mm]

Mine was the first, bitches.