Ten percent more money wouldn’t have made that big a difference, but 10 percent more preproduction time would have helped. Our funding showed up so late in the game that nothing could be nailed down until two weeks before we started shooting. Casting and location scouting was last minute. Luckily my producers and crew were intrepid so we just marched on. Rehearsal with actors was minimal. I met most of the people in the smaller roles for the first time on the day they arrived on the set. The only thing that saved us was the script. The time spent on making the story clear saved time because everyone who read it really knew what we were doing, and my lead actress was generous with the first-time actors.

It’s tempting to overlook story, like somehow or other you can solve things on the set. But story and acting, in my opinion, are pretty hard to fake. Most other things will be forgiven. I’d pretty much weathered the long, painful journey to the heart of my story so when other things fell apart we still had that to fall back on.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 2:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 07:15:00 PM Comments (0)

After 13 months of shooting in four states, a broken arm, lightning strikes, a once-in-a-generation power failure at our power-plant location (“stay here, you’re slightly more likely to survive if it explodes”), I should want at least 11 percent more money to make the movie, to deal with these contingencies, or else I’d be wise to force myself to write 99 percent less insanity into my script so I could make something simple.

But since all that’s past, I’d say if I wished I had 10 percent more of something, it would be peace of mind. I wasted a huge amount of my brain space dreading disasters of casting, location, weather. Here’s the thing: For the most part, my worst fears actually came true. And yet I survived the disasters, as did the film. What I imagined the movie would be as I wrote and prepared is nothing like what happened. Some of this still breaks my heart, but for every thing that went wrong, there was something that went better than I could have imagined it, something that surprised me. An actor takes a studio film the night before my shoot, and I find someone genius to replace him. Rain destroys a perfectly blocked outdoor scene, and the simple blocking under shelter ends up stronger. A broken arm makes it impossible for me to carry a prop, so a bizarre solution where the prop carries itself ends up funnier. A band pulls their song from our soundtrack and my brother writes something better in its place. We were able to roll with the punches because the crew was small and I was able to lie in bed at night and know that I gave it all I got. But if I’d had the peace of mind to accept impending disaster, I wouldn’t have lain in bed thinking of anything. I’d have fallen asleep. And that would have been swell too.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, midnight -- Egyptian Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 07:10:00 PM Comments (0)

It’s very tempting to go for the obvious answer and say money, since most of the elements that one would kill to have 10 percent more of could be had with a little more money. Money would be the universal gift card with which one could purchase delicious items like more shooting days or film stock or editing time. I’m still in post so even thinking of a card that could buy me more mix time or music licensing is getting me a little worked up. But money seems like an easy answer, so I’ll try to think outside the box a little and say maybe I’d take 10 percent more catering value because good food just helps everybody maintain their often tenuous grip on sanity. Or perhaps I’d ask for 10 percent more powerful meds to help me survive the stress of indie preproduction where the financing pops in and out more frequently than the little furry heads in whack-a-mole. Nah. Let me say knowledge. I would take 10 percent more knowledge going in. That may sound kind of ethereal, but I can’t think of a movie I’ve worked on where they didn’t feel they needed at least 10 percent more money in the budget. So whether you’re making a $160-million-dollar tent pole or a little indie in New Jersey like ours, that seems to be a given. Choke was my first film and if that experience was any indication that a lack of money translates into a lack of time and also to the inevitable conversations that begin, “Do you think we could do the Fancy Restaurant Scene in that vacant lot behind the production office?” Or worse, “We’ve got to wrap for the night in 80 minutes. Which of these two scenes do we really need?” For me, the second question forced me into some high pressure improvising done generally with an entire crew and a cabal of sweaty producers all staring at their watches. And what saved me when I found a way out of those tight spots (and what didn’t when I didn’t) came down to knowledge. For example, I came to the party with some knowledge when it came to working with actors, and I also had some knowledge about writing and more specifically working on a script on set under pressure. I would, however, have benefited from some additional knowledge when it came to getting the story on film under the battlefield conditions of an indie film shoot. My brilliant cinematographer, Tim Orr, was always extremely generous and lucid when it came to illuminating our options, even when they seemed (as they often did) painfully limited. We used to joke that when the shoot was over we would lie at home trying to figure out how to get from the couch to the refrigerator in less shots. But no matter how much Tim elucidated our options, at the end of the day I had to decide for myself what I needed to shoot in order to tell the story I wanted to tell. So in retrospect I would have used my 10 per cent of additional knowledge working prior to prep with an editor, or shooting a few test scenes and then cutting them in a number of different ways. That would have allowed me to show up on day one with a deeper command of the visual language I would need to make those decisions.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 8:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 06:52:00 PM Comments (0)

The question isn’t fair as it relates to my production. I don’t wish I had 10 percent more of anything. I deliberately set out to make a film without expectations. Expectations are what thwarted any creative impulse I’d had in the past. Instead I relied on whatever I found before me. It is no accident that our production company’s name is Found Films.

From the get-go we knew we had severe limitations: intellectual, financial, technological and with regards to professional talent; so instead, we embraced those limitations, almost with glee. No interchangeable lenses? No problem. Let’s embrace the aesthetic and create a visual vocabulary that plays to the prosumer HD camera’s strengths and weaknesses. Our nonprofessional actor didn’t show up today ’cause his boss threatened to fire him from his job at the fast-food restaurant? I guess we’re rewriting the story. And so on. Whatever came our way was okay. Our cast and crew often heard me say, “It’s okay, everyone, we are like water.” The central metaphor for the making of the film was water. We knew eventually that water would find its way and empty into a big ocean.

To deal with no expectations, we designed a film created in situ. In other words we planned for scenarios, but because our cast was, for the most part, people we’d plucked from the streets (sometimes the night before shooting) we thought it was incongruous to try to ram anything down their throats or give them something a priori that would’ve scared them or created expectations in their own performances. Instead I relied on the miracle of those human beings themselves and we created together, with no rehearsal. That’s not to say that there is improvisation in the performances or that there wasn’t a script. No, I simply had to rely on the pressure and reality of having to shoot something so I put no burden on myself with regards to the outcome and quality of the writing. I simply had to deliver on the spot. There was no alternative and no reason I’d have to dredge up “wouldas” and “couldas,” notions that serve no purpose, at least for me. Not a word is uttered that wasn’t written a priori.

Expectations also were irrelevant for the team. Our crew was comprised almost entirely by first-time filmmakers. Hell, we were happy that we got an image that made sense and that it didn’t sound like crap. So I don’t think any of us wish we had 10 percent more of anything. We’re just glad we’ve got something to show and tickled we got into Sundance.

Hmm… now as I read this I actually wish I had 83 percent less arrogance, and, sometimes, in retrospect (answers are so clear and abundant in retrospect, aren’t they?), I wish I’d listened to my heart with even more candor (perhaps increasing that value by, say, 7 percent).

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 2:15 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 06:36:00 PM Comments (0)

I made a documentary where I tried to interview my ex-girlfriends to find out why they dumped me. I wish 10 percent more of them had agreed to talk to me. In fact I wish 50 percent more had talked to me. But they didn’t. So for a couple of months I wandered ’round, scratched my head and tried to think of ways to persuade them. When I couldn’t persuade them I tried to come up with other things to film. As a result I think I ended up doing a lot of naval gazing, or in my case, a lot of groin gazing. I ended up devoting a large section of my film to my penis. On reflection I’m not sure this was a good use of the production’s time and resources. I ended up thinking about my penis a lot when I should have been thinking about my ex-girlfriends and what I did wrong in my life. I mean, I don’t have a problem thinking about my penis, but I’m not sure it is a good subject for a film.

I think great filmmaking is all about getting to the essence of what your subject is. I’ve realised now that for a large amount of my shoot I didn’t have a clue what I was making or what I was doing. At times I feel bad about this as I think maybe I wasted everyone’s time and money. Then I thought about the fact that life is always more interesting when you don’t know what’s going to happen. In a weird way I’m glad my ex-girlfriends didn’t speak to me, because then my film would’ve turned out just as I’d planned. Maybe I did get carried away with my penis, though.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 9:30 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 06:10:00 PM Comments (0)

I have been thinking about this question for a couple days now and I’m stumped. I’m really happy with Momma’s Man and I think extra cash, time… a bit extra of anything could have just fucked it up. Whatever limitations there were — and I had an enormous amount of freedom on this one — were helpful as far as I can see. Sorry if this wasn’t the answer you were looking for, but for me it’s the truth.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 11:30 am -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 06:00:00 PM Comments (0)

If I could have had 10 percent more of anything it would have been days off! We worked 6 and 7-day weeks on this film ever since production started in May 2006 and haven’t stopped. And believe me, looking for the most wanted man on earth and traveling for months at a time to some of the most dangerous places in the world (all while having a pregnant wife at home), is not the best recipe for a stress-free job.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 8:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:45:00 PM Comments (0)

While filming Assassination there were times when the chatter of my thoughts and the cacophony of the set drowned out my instincts’ pleas. When this happened, the result was always the same: The movie and I would suffer. But when I listened, out came the gifts. I acknowledged this, I even wrote “INSTINCT” on my finger so I was reminded every time I typed, framed a shot, or gestured to an actor. But still there were times I forgot to listen.
So please, make my instincts louder, or make me a better listener, and then I’ll have all the time and budget and insight I need to achieve my vision.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 6:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:38:00 PM Comments (0)

At the risk of sounding unoriginal I’m gonna have to go with time. I’m sure everyone wishes they had more time but I had no idea how little time I would have to shoot this movie. The budget was about five times the budget of my previous film, XX/XY, (which isn’t saying much since we made XX for about 37 cents) but on XX I had about 50 percent MORE time. We had more days and on XX the days were longer by about 35 percent. This was because XX was nonunion and August was [IATSE] East Coast Council. It’s not something I was prepared for and to say that it sucked ass would be an understatement. I had to make a lot of quick adjustments but luckily I had an amazing crew. Everyone really rallied and we got great stuff in the end. But it was a very different experience than what I’d had before.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 5:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:34:00 PM Comments (0)

A defining moment in the making of American Son was when the financing fell through four weeks before production. Six months of preproduction and planning evaporated with one phone call. That disappointment forced me to dig deeper and commit to making the film by whatever means necessary. In hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened. After digesting the initial disappointment, I was suddenly reconnected to the initial inspiration that was the genesis of the film. I felt like I was back in control of the creative process — it was from that moment on that the film found its true rhythm. If I could have had 10 percent more of anything, it would have been time. But that was a small price to pay to make the film in the way it was meant to be made — intimately, independently, no frills and without a studio looking over my shoulder.

In making independent films there are always limitations. It is a barter system of sorts; you give something up to gain something more important. Navigating this process is the biggest challenge for me. There is a fine art of remaining firm and flexible at the same time. I like to place myself in a creative space right at the far edge of comfortable. I know when I’m out of my safety zone that I do my best work. It is from this uneasy place that the happy accidents happen. In many ways, I consider myself a “method” director. I need to submerse myself in the reality of the story. It is the greatest feeling to be in that zone when you are as much in the moment as the actors. I think listening to your own sense of truth is the greatest insurance policy a director can have.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 2:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:28:00 PM Comments (0)

It took me a few moments to really find the most specific and significant answer to this idea. In my experience on this particular film, I have to respond by saying that if I had 10 percent more of anything, it would definitely be AVAILABILITY. Since I have the most sincere and genuine respect for all positions regarding the many aspects of filmmaking, it was my duty as a multiple player on this production to wear many different hats. Serving proudly as the screenwriter, director, actor and producer (among others) on this film had some serious consequences. The most important of which was my availability to all others who worked so passionately on this film. I found that being available to your cast, crew and the community who participated can ultimately serve you with the support, assistance, and energy that filmmakers must possess in order to achieve the magic that happens while shooting. Taking on multiple duties and responsibilities limit your personal availability, which, in turn can be counterproductive. It is not that I lacked availability entirely, but 10 percent more would have been the blessing we all deserved in order to support the means of communication, collaboration, creativity and production output. I’m certain that all who worked on this project would agree that availability is the key to unity. A lesson I’ve certainly learned.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 11:15 am -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:26:00 PM Comments (0)

How do you make a small film about the American economy, the federal government and where they’re both heading? And more importantly, how do you make it appealing to a general audience? How do you make people care about it? As I write this we are five weeks away from our world premiere at Sundance ‘08, and we’re still asking ourselves these questions. We’re still trying to find the heart of this story, and the challenge is made greater since we’re trying to hit a moving target. This story literally changes every day.

Our country is remarkably resilient and has faced serious threats throughout our national history, but the financial cancer that we now suffer from is unlike any challenge we’ve ever faced before. The United States is incredibly wealthy, and our economy is larger than the next four economies in the world combined. But we are living beyond our means, and as Warren Buffett says in our film, “I could do that for a very long time, but I can’t do it forever. At some point I’d max out.” America runs the very real risk of running itself over a cliff financially, and the time to act is right now.

It helps immensely that my wife Christine and I are working with the same team from our last film Wordplay — editor Doug Blush, graphic designer Brian Oakes and composer Peter Golub. If you’re lucky enough to be surrounded by people you love, and filmmakers you trust, there’s really no story you can’t tackle, even one like this. We have developed a real shorthand with our team, and we’ve been able to pull this film together in an incredibly short amount of time. Doug recently showed me a section for the end of the film that included music by Peter and some elements from Brian. We had discussed the ending in general terms, but hadn’t discussed the fine details. As I watched the conclusion of the film I felt my eyes welling up with tears. Somehow we’d been able to take a very dry topic and make it a simple story about people. It’s a heartbreaking story, but I have hope that we as a country can steer clear of the danger that looms ahead.

As for what I wish we had 10 percent more of, that’s easy: I wish there was 10 percent more time between finding out you got into Sundance and the day your film premieres in Park City. But then again, every filmmaker always wishes they had a little more time, don’t they?

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 6:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:22:00 PM Comments (0)

Days. It’s always about time in terms of shooting, especially on a smaller budget. I usually move pretty fast when I’m shooting. I like the energy, but I don’t like to be rushed. Being on a set is a fluid environment. Sometimes you will move faster than expected and sometimes (most times) you will move slower. So whenever you have a little safety/time cushion it’s always a good thing. It allows for a bit more creative discovery along the way.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 9:30 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/18/2008 05:14:00 PM Comments (0)

I’d need 10 percent more time, not only in front of the camera, but for my family. Becoming a father of Valter, 15 months, and at the same time being a first-time feature film director is hard. I long for time alone, time with my girlfriend, Anna, time with my son, time to write, time to watch more films, time to sleep and time for exercise.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 9:00 pm -- Egyptian Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 05:04:00 PM Comments (0)

My first thought was I wished I had an additional 10 percent of everything! As an independent filmmaker, I don’t think you ever feel like there’s enough time or money or resources. You always feel like you need just a little more. In the end it’s about finding creative ways to make what you do have go that extra 10 percent… and it’s about making choices and compromises that hopefully don’t hurt the film.

As we traveled around the world filming I never felt ready to leave one location and go on to the next. You can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen once you leave. With a vérité documentary, if you’re not there to capture it on film, then you’re out of luck.

The same goes for the editing. You always wish you had more time. And for this film, which interweaves the stories of six characters, what I really wanted was more minutes to tell each of their stories. But I also knew the film couldn’t be three hours long or no one would go see it. As I agonized over every cut, I had to keep reminding myself that no one else knows what’s ended up on the cutting-room floor. They’ll never know that scene I loved so much is missing because they’ll never know it existed.

As I write this, we’re in the middle of our final postproduction. We’ve got 10 days to finish the film and all I can think about is how I wish I had another two weeks.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 8:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 05:03:00 PM Comments (0)

Well it goes without saying that all first-time filmmakers would like 10 percent more budget, days, film, editing days, money for score, extras, lock up, 2K DI, mixing days… oh, you know, the little things. So for me it came down to 10 percent more time in my real life to hang out with Alan Alda.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 6:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 05:00:00 PM Comments (0)

There isn’t a filmmaker I know who wouldn’t mind 10 percent more of absolutely anything he or she can get. The one thing we could all do with, probably, is 10 percent more sleep or rest because we seem to get just about none during a shoot. Somehow our bodies keep going until wrap and then we either collapse or go down with all the bugs we have managed to keep at bay for the duration of the shoot.

To be serious about the question as far as The Yellow Handkerchief is concerned, I could have done with at least an extra 10 percent on the schedule. The reason is simple: Kristen Stewart is under the age of 18 and there are very strict limitations on the hours she can spend in front of the camera on any given day.

We were making a road movie and anyone who has had to film in and around cars immediately knows how time-consuming that can be. Furthermore we were filming in Louisiana as summer approached which meant that from around 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. the sun was pretty much directly overhead. That does not make for interesting lighting as far as most exteriors are concerned, especially with the visual style we had in mind. Normally the solution would be to film exteriors before 10:30 a.m. and after 3:30 p.m. and fill in the intervening period with interiors if at all possible. Well, that isn’t always possible, and anyway, for lead actors who are also minors, the clock starts ticking from the time they either leave their residence for set or arrive at base camp depending on how far the latter is from the former. It certainly cannot be stopped and then restarted when the light becomes more favorable. So we were left with the choice of either having great light for the start of Kristen’s day and harsh light for the rest of it or the other way around.

The solution, and there always is a solution because filming has to continue, was to pick locations bearing this restriction in mind and try and design the schedule accordingly. However making movies is an organic and sometimes unpredictable process with curve balls coming at you when you least expect them. That’s one of the reasons why it is so exciting. So there were times when we just had to bite the bullet and roll camera. It was either that or have an unfinished film on our hands and that was not an option. What really saved us was the fact that we had Chris Menges behind the camera and if he doesn’t know how to find a solution then, believe me, there is hardly a soul on this earth who does.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, noon -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 04:57:00 PM Comments (0)

CONTINGENCY… that was put away somewhere that no one could touch… stored behind glass that said, “Break in an emergency.”

How did we survive without it? We got creative, tried to keep our sense of humor, and enjoyed the kindness of strangers. I do think that some really wonderful moments came out of it… that now, I would never trade for a slower heartbeat.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 3:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 04:40:00 PM Comments (0)

I wish I had 10 percent more of the budget in my own pocket so that when it comes time to retire, I won’t have to work the dark alleys of Marseille.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, Jan. 24, 5:30 pm -- Prosepector Square Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 02:08:00 PM Comments (0)

I suppose we always could have used 10 percent more daylight since we attempted to shoot as much of the film as possible during “the magic hour.” It seems that regardless of the production’s size, there’s never enough resources, financing, time. In spite of these obstacles our shoot went smoothly and was a really liberating, fun experience. This was in no small part due to our friends and collaborators who filled in the gaps otherwise created by our budget limitations. These limitations also forced us to be resourceful and creative in ways that positively contributed to the film’s overall aesthetic.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 8:30 pm -- Prospector Square Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 02:05:00 PM Comments (0)

Ten percent more of 100 percent.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 8:30 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 02:03:00 PM Comments (0)

The obvious answer to that would be “cash flow.” But I would really like to combine it with organization.

Our film Flow took us to many countries like India, South Africa and Bolivia… in the space of five years… I first started with a small crew for the first two trips abroad and before I knew it — and with the exception of the U.S., which I did with Yvette, our co-producer, it was a one-man show: me, the camera and the sound…. Basically it was either that or no film, so I tried to let go of the panic as much as I could and like a true warrior went on along. The downside of this is that naturally when one has to handle everything and you are far away in often remote places under a tight schedule carrying your stuff, having to be spontaneous and at the same time running your camera as the wind and the dust hit you and you have to prepare your sound — it’s funny for an observer but stressful for the filmmaker. The good news is, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I learned so much from this experience and also went from a feeling of, “Oh I can’t do it” to: it’s possible.... Driven by the story, the amazing people I met along the way, the new landscape and the subject,“Water,” I actually never felt alone. One has to trust the process. The more I trusted the unknown and welcomed the “be in the moment” spontaneous move, the more I felt in the flow and totally guided by some invisible forces….

Now, I’d like to go back to the organization and definitely something I’ll pay more attention to on my next film: taking photos along the way. I have practically no photos because even when I traveled with a crew with little sleep and so many places to go with so little time somehow very few photos where taken. And the other thing that I learned is no matter what to label the tapes properly and write a few pages at night on the content of the day otherwise it’s a mess for the editor. Thank God I had a very patient editor!

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 8:30 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/17/2008 01:51:00 PM Comments (0)

It may be cliché to mention time as being something we’d all like more of, but it is a major factor once your film is up and running. It is also the one thing that is under relentless assault as you make your film. Every element of the process can benefit from more time, and every element can conspire to eat it up. Knowing this in advance is critical. The only guarantee is that time will go faster than you want it to. However you can make the most of your time on set by being as prepared as possible. You can’t anticipate what will delay you, but you can have swiftly employable backup plans for when things do go wrong, you can essentially create time on some days when things go smoothly.

Preparation for our film was essential for the type of film and the style of execution I planned. To a great extent, I believe that an enormous amount of the directing on this type of film is done long before the camera rolls. By approaching the process in this way, fewer unanticipated decisions need to be made on set, and more time can be spent focusing on the actors and the performances.

A cast and crew who are working in difficult conditions, as we were, like to see that you are being efficient with your time. In our case we set high expectations for the amount of coverage we wanted to achieve each day. When it was clear that our plan was efficient and was working, you could feel the energy and the excitement of it and everyone became the guardian of the precious resource that is time.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 3:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:44:00 PM Comments (0)

Easy enough: I definitely wished that I had 10 percent more head capacity. Call it intelligence, understanding, analytic ability, lateral thinking, insight into psychology or just mathematics. I felt a deficit.

As a first-time feature director I went pretty fucking cockily into the process. I reckoned my vast experience in music videos, commercials and short films had prepared me for anything that would come my way, production-wise. I believed my life as a devoted reader had rendered me understanding about characters and stories and, finally, that my love for film had filled my mental archive to the brim of how one can choose to depict something. Boy was I dumb.

Thus, a couple of weeks deep into the shoot, I found myself very much alone, in my thick-carpeted, pastel-colored apartment in Regina, Saskatchewan, freaking out. I felt I couldn’t grasp all aspects of the story, all facets of the characters, all plausible outcomes of a given move within the script. I glimpsed into the doorway to chaos theory and my head was literally boiling.

And then I spiraled down. I started questioning causality and even the concept of time. What really came first — the effect or the cause? I was thinking of the filter of film versus reality. What the hell was reality!?! And how could reality be abbreviated? Obviously I ended up on “who am I?” and “why in the name of all things sacred am I doing this?” It was quite pathetic.

Eventually O’Hanlon’s came to the rescue — the local watering hole. In the warm bosom of this Irish pub, a few pints amongst friends and fellow workers scattered all ghosts and made worries around inferiority redundant. With the edge taken off, the comforting “It is what it is” told me to just be fine with being thick. Then I moved on.

Nevertheless, I am definitely going to inject 10 percent extra brain for the next one.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 11:30 am -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:19:00 PM Comments (0)

After spending a quarter of my life filming Patti Smith: Dream of Life, I can’t imagine what I would need 10 percent more of!

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 6:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:16:00 PM Comments (0)

I wish I’d had a 10 percent better understanding and insight into the case when I started the movie.

I say that because this has been the most complicated and difficult film I’ve ever made. The story was legally complex and took place 30 years ago. I am not a lawyer. Although my father was a politician and a judge, I do not know the inner workings of the DA’s office or how lawyers and judges behave or bargain with one another.

What’s more, there were only a limited number of people I could talk to. These people were not used to being interviewed and some of them were very careful about what they said. I never pre-interview — I find it takes the spontaneity out of the actual interview. I need to be surprised when I am talking to someone. (The only person I did pre-interview ended up disappointing me with his interview because I had heard him tell his stories once already!)

If I had a 10 percent better understanding of the story at the outset, then perhaps my questions would have been more precise. By the time I’d finished the film, I had a lot clearer picture of what had happened and wished I could go back to my first interviewees with all the new information I’d uncovered.

Looking back, I can see now that the Polanski case brought out a cryptic, haiku quality in everyone. It’s such a delicate case — on so many levels — that people are reluctant to talk about it directly.

Knowing that, I wish I had been brasher and ballsier. But then I might never have got the access that I did. My mother always says, “Why does it take so long? Aren’t you finished yet?!” But to me, documentary filmmaking is a gigantic, three-dimensional puzzle with pieces concealed within cities and people and buried away in articles and court documents. It’s a brilliant adventure.

And then, of course, there’s everything that takes place behind closed doors — the meetings for which there is no written record. Nobody tells you how to go about finding that! But you work it out somehow.

My advice for other people starting out on such a quest? Learn as much as you can — and then dive in.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 6:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:13:00 PM Comments (0)

I don’t believe that you can look back and wish for 10 percent more of anything. Time and money are obviously things you want more of. However, the process of filmmaking is so much like life that the unexpected in life eliminates regret and lamenting what could have been. It doesn’t work that way.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 3:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:11:00 PM Comments (0)

I wished I had 10 percent more silence while making the film.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 11:30 am -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:10:00 PM Comments (0)

I wish I had had 10 percent more shooting days. We shot Otto; or, Up with Dead People in 20 days, and that was almost consecutively. If you include the day I spent in a studio recording voiceovers, which had to be done then owing to the complicated availability of the actors, I worked on the film shoot 20 days in a row. My d.p. had one day off in 20. The days were extremely packed and long, so much so that we almost had a crew mutiny on our hands at one point. In the interests of sanity, there were a couple of minor scenes that I agreed to drop along the way as long as my producer promised me that we would pick them up sometime in the future as reshoots. But on a low-budget film, reshoots often end up becoming a luxury that never materializes. Your producers will argue that you don’t absolutely need the dropped scenes to make the picture work. Of course you don’t. You can make footage of an empty chair in a white room work as a feature film if you put your mind to it. But it sure would have been nice to have the option of using those dropped scenes!

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 11:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 01:07:00 PM Comments (0)

In making an independent movie, you go into it understanding that you have certain limitations and therefore you have to find ways to compensate and not sacrifice content or the essence of what you are attempting to do. What Just Happened? was shot on a very lean 33-day schedule, and there were more than 80 locations. I shoot fast so it wasn’t a problem, but where I actually found myself constrained in terms of dollars was in the editing room when we were choosing the music for the film.

There’s a good amount of source music, and you find yourself becoming attached to a particular song because you have been living with it for awhile as you edit. Then you get a quote to license the song, and in some cases, the dollars are way beyond what we could afford. You try to explain to music publishers and record companies that you’re not working with a major studio budget, but some are not amenable to adjusting their price. So throughout the postproduction schedule songs were constantly flying in and out of the film.

You fall in love with a piece of music and how it works with the film, and then sometimes you’re hit with a reality that you just can’t make it work with the dollars you have available. For instance, “Chan Chan” from Buena Vista Social Club was a song that I thought would have worked extremely well in the film, but the price became too prohibitive. I even spoke with Ry Cooder and he was sympathetic and tried to help out, but whoever it was who controlled the licensing of the songs from that film gave us a number that was not doable. So after listening to a couple thousand more songs and a lot of phone calls, you finally end up with a balance of source songs that support the film, and you hope you haven’t lost some special moment along the way.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 6:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/16/2008 12:48:00 PM Comments (0)

I wish I had ten percent more of less worrying about time. Time is every filmmaker’s enemy, and of course you have to worry about getting everything you want. But worry too much, and that’s time you’re not thinking about whether you’re actually getting (or got) it. It’s wasted mental energy.

Here’s what I did to help myself: For months before we began shooting I wrote down in a big book everything I wanted from every moment in the film. In between setups I’d force myself to stop worrying about everything else (time included) and reexamine those notes. Keep the pace fast! Ask for fog! Geeky though it was, the book saved my ass. It’s too easy to forget too much in the stress of We Need to Move On-ness.

But mostly what I did to help myself was: I got the right people to work on the film. People at the top of their game (acting, producing, designing, shooting). And they made sure everything was right when it needed to be right. We fit square pegs into round holes a hundred times a day. I only wish I’d spent less time worrying about it.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 03:01:00 PM Comments (0)

Well seeing as making a film can feel like living a lifetime this is the kind of question I imagine being asked by St. Peter when reaching the gates of heaven (although what with the nature of getting a film off the ground perhaps my chances of making it that far have now rapidly declined).

However much like life, what I wanted 10 percent more or less of seemed to change every day. We shot in prison cells where we could certainly have done with 10 percent less heat from the lamps and in the sewers and water tanks we used for the escape scenes just 10 percent more heat would have been welcomed.

Whilst on week one of preproduction I wished I’d had 10 percent more scenes to shoot. But then on week one of production with 160 scenes to shoot in 26 days, I wished I’d had 10 percent less. Week two of preproduction, when production scheduling was locked, I craved 10 percent more time in the schedule as I knew I’d be going into the unknown with about 25 setups a day to get through. But week two of production when the honeymoon glow of shooting my first film started to be replaced by sheer exhaustion, all I wished for was about 10 percent less time to the wrap party which would come with the knowledge and relief we’d got it all in the can. Week three of preproduction 10 percent more sleep. Same goes for weeks four and five. But by the end of it all, probably it would be the wish for 10 percent more hair (although I like to think it’s up on the screen).

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 9:30 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 03:00:00 PM Comments (0)

This film is an exploration into why people use steroids, but we live in a time where steroids are an extremely taboo subject. As we were making the documentary, we were frustrated because we kept hitting roadblocks with people not wanting to talk honestly about their relationship with steroids. Even one of my best friends lied to me on camera.

While we were shooting interviews for the film we would have liked 10 percent more honesty from many of the people involved in the steroid issue. However as we were editing the film, we realized that the fact that people were so secretive about this could be a major theme in the film, and the participation of my family is extra special because of their willingness to talk openly about this issue.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 8:30 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 02:59:00 PM Comments (0)

Ten percent more? The first thing I think of is time. We had 24 days to shoot a really intense ensemble piece with huge emotional and psychological scenes that had major effects and stunts, a hardcore sex scene involving five characters — and did I mention half the shoot was on a boat… at night? So sure, another 2.4 days would have been great but then… the energy and the fear of having to accomplish our schedule — that drove me through a lot of things. Another 10 percent and I suspect it would have just stretched to fill the gap — we’d have just gone about things a little slower and accomplished the same thing. Ten percent more cash? Sure, it would have been great to have had a crane for another day, or a helicopter shot or an orchestra. But my producer was really good — he always got me what was needed and when he told me we couldn’t afford something, I knew he wasn’t bullshitting. I don’t watch the film and think, “If only we had another toy.” The film could be technically slicker in parts, I guess, but who cares if the drama is there? Ten percent more rehearsal time? Ten percent more post? Ten percent more development time — you mean more time sitting around waiting to be greenlit? No thank you! I’m finding it very hard to figure out how 10 percent of anything would have changed the film that you’re going to see. I think when you’re shooting on such a tight budget and schedule, the insanity and the energy and the sense of spirit is what makes the experience unique. Ten percent more isn’t going to make enough of a difference and anything that would — double the budget, triple the time — then you’re making a different kind of film.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, midnight -- Egyptian Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 02:57:00 PM Comments (0)

We were always running out of something: film stock, extras, sani-wipes, dessert at lunch, daylight, bodily strength, common sense, gum. But in the end it was usually enough. So what was lacking? Lately my therapist has been encouraging me to enjoy the creative process more. This one really should have been fun: a) It’s something I’ve wanted to make for many years. b) I got to work with awesome actors. c) The crew is composed of my cool friends. d) We got to shoot in Albuquerque, N.M., which is truly the Paris of the Southwest. So if I could get 10 percent more of something it would be enjoyment of the process. I’m not saying I have a bad time. I’m just saying every day is torture.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 5:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 02:56:00 PM Comments (0)

My father is a businessman. An entrepreneur, really, and he’s spent the majority of his working life consulting other companies — advising them how to improve their bottom line, become more efficient, more profitable. In short, how to produce less “waste” — the unnecessary, the unneeded — in their work worlds.

I guess I’ve always been my father’s son, so if I could’ve had 10 percent more of anything during the making of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, it wouldn’t have been 10 percent more of anything, it would’ve been 10 percent less of something. Ten percent less waste: less wasted time (which, of course, is wasted money). Ten percent less wrong decisions. Ten percent less snafu.

I remember once hearing the story of the Sony executives who, in the ’80s, flew into Hollywood to see about purchasing Columbia Pictures. During the discussions with their American counterparts, the head Hollywood executive explained to the Japanese contingent that the studio made roughly 20 pictures a year, 15 of which failed. The other five were the big hits that would pay for the 15 failures and then some. After hearing this, the Japanese executive paused and then asked simply, “Why do you make the 15 failures?”

Of course art isn’t about efficiency. It’s about discovery and beauty, and it’s hard to discover something if you never get lost in the first place. I’m not rubbing my Genie lamp wishing I’d had 10 percent less waste in the hopes that it would’ve made the, at times, chaotic nature of filmmaking more efficient. I just think a little less waste — even 10 percent less — would’ve allowed more time to get lost in the good stuff: taking chances in the right area. Going for that extra shot. Giving your actor one more take to see what he comes up with. Getting one more at bat. One more chance to hold your breath and swing for the fences. Ten percent less would give the process so much more.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 5:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 10:01:00 AM Comments (0)

Visualizing secrecy might seem about as promising as singing in outer space. Film what? From the start, we’ve constantly been on the lookout for 10 percent more things to make visual. How to imagine information that has been withdrawn, conversations stifled, photographs blocked, or words censored?

In fact, the very absence of obvious things to film about secrecy became, over the course of making this film, our single greatest preoccupation. Some things ended up working pretty well — we found ways of animating the redaction — and de-redaction, the all-too familiar blacked-out texts. In fact, prodded by all the things we couldn’t see, animation grew into a kind of subplot of the story, an underground kind of imaginary secrecy that keeps cracking through to the surface. There’s a moment in our film, for example, when American soldiers are hunting (fruitlessly) through an underground bunker looking for weapons of mass destruction and, for a brief moment, the scene morphs over into the animated sequence of just the gas canisters and missiles they were hunting.

Not having the things we can’t see led us also to use artwork that grapple with secrecy… a re-creation by one artist, for example, of the heart of the Los Alamos laboratory where physicists put together the World War II A-bomb. But not everything worked. We tried (for example) to think of a way to make audio censorship work for us. It didn’t.

In a way, documentary film by its very nature is about not quite having what we want, or not having enough, or not being exactly where one wants. We’re always circling around things, catching a snippet, angling to a shot, constrained by real walls and the ordinary physics of things — fiction begins where all those constraints fall away. But maybe in that bumping up against missing or in-the-way things is what gives documentary its endless appeal.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 9:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 10:00:00 AM Comments (0)

I would have liked 10 percent more roads. Without good access there are no good documentaries and there will always be those stories that are lost because it was almost impossible to get to where they lived.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 21, 9:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 09:58:00 AM Comments (0)

I wish I had more time, more energy, a lot more guts, a few less words, a lifetime more wisdom, clearer hindsight sooner, 10 percent more of Fassbinders’s DNA, 10 percent more of P.T. Anderson’s DNA, and 80 percent less craft service.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 6:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/15/2008 09:57:00 AM Comments (0)

You can’t always get what you want, especially shooting a movie. I’d have loved 10 percent more of every resource — what director would say no to that? But since we shot entirely on location in and around Barcelona, I discovered unknown 10 percents along the way. I learned the standard shooting day in Spain is 10 percent shorter than what I knew and that six-day weeks are rare. (I also learned some new things about moving fast while looking good from my superb Spanish crew.)

I wish I had at least 10 percent more facility with language since nearly everyone spoke a mixture of Spanish and Catalan and put me to shame with their English fluency. Though I eventually picked up some slang and learned to fumble around with my fourth-grade vocabulary, I could never follow the intricate dance of language on set. This linguistic bubble was both crippling and useful; it encouraged a heightened awareness.

Sometimes you get what you need by the proverbial happy accident (which is really just a disaster in disguise or what my producer Katie Roumel calls a “shit storm”). One shoot day included three scenes set at two different locations: Brooks and Blanca’s tastefully rustic villa in Mallorca and Tony and Jake’s hash-infused Cadaqués lair. Finding something that worked for both proved difficult. We finally settled on a remote house in the mountains and the Art Department went to work transforming the interior — walls aged and layered with drawings, the room resplendent in velvet and fur. Two days before shooting, they returned to find the props and every scrap of set dressing scattered by the dirt road in front of the house.

After some prodding, the owners curtly informed us that they sensed diabolical vibrations in the decoration. So we lost that location on suspicion of witchcraft. Scurrying to fix the crisis, we jumped into that nail-biting high-wire act particular to filmmaking and miraculously found and redressed an even better replacement. Sometimes what you need creatively is 10 percent more chaos, to fly without a net. In the words of the great Robert Bresson, “My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.”

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 9:30 pm -- Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 03:19:00 PM Comments (0)

What did I wish I had 10 percent more of when making The Wackness? Easy, sleep. As I approached the first day of production on The Wackness, I couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming sense of: “Don’t mess this up.” I had worked so hard on the script and I was really happy with it. My heart and soul were all over every page. So in my dogged determination not to mess up the movie, I decided I could live on two hours of sleep a night. I stayed in the office storyboarding and tweaking dialogue until the sun came up. My d.p., Petra, and I were used to working this way. In film school we would do it all the time. Thing is, when you’re making a short film, you can survive on two hours of sleep. Over the course of a grueling six-week shoot, it’s a different story. After a first week filled with Red Bull, coffee and soda, I was about ready to collapse.

In his book Making Movies, Sidney Lumet describes his typical day of production. When I read that this day always included a nap, I was blown away. The great Sidney Lumet slept through lunch! I would imagine that none of my Sundance colleagues know the joy of a mid-afternoon nap. In my case, I tackled production with such fervor that adrenaline would not have permitted a nap. This was my opportunity to tell my story, and I would sleep when it was all over. But Mr. Lumet has it right: a feature film is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Early on in his career, he possessed the perspective to know that. Suffice to say, by the last week of my shoot, I was catching some afternoon z’s on set in my main character’s bed. I only wish I had figured out this secret sooner.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 8:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 12:12:00 PM Comments (0)

Ten percent more conformity. One day back in college, my screenwriter teacher held a meeting with me about my first script. He looked me in the eye and stated that my writing is so good, if I would just follow conventional screenwriting methods on this script, I would be well on my way to a successful career in Hollywood. Well… I didn’t listen. I was young, bullheaded, and determined not to follow the Man. I continued to write raw and loose, exactly as it came out like conceptual art. That particular script had a 35-page scene in the middle of it.

Fast-forward several years, not much has changed. Still very much the rebel in the middle of making a film about Black love and sexuality with European sensibilities told through six vignettes. I had one industry person chuckle as he mumbled,“So, it’s like a Black art film?” The title A Good Day to be Black & Sexy, combined with the sensual photos from the film, created the alluring promise of all the ingredients of a commercially successful crossover black film. But yeah, once again, I didn’t make it easy.…

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 5:30 pm -- Prospector Square Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 12:02:00 PM Comments (0)

I wish I’d had 10 percent more of an idea of what the fuck I was doing. Though I had a very strong sense of what I wanted the story to be, we kept shooting and shooting because everything seemed interesting. In the end we had more than 300 hours of footage, and turning that into an 80-minute movie with a strong narrative just became this living hell. The story would keep unfolding as time went on and things would happen and at a certain point I just lost the plot and wanted to kill myself. I just wish I had 10 percent more foresight in knowing exactly what we needed. There was one facial reaction shot in particular that I missed which really pissed me off that, I was so stupid to have missed it. As in most situations with this much footage, we could have made six movies but at a certain point you realize there’s only one movie you’re really interested in and only one story you want to tell. You end up coming back to where you started but you had to go through this whole stupid nightmare to get back there. I suppose in the end having no idea about what I was doing turned out to be the greatest gift. It allowed for something magical to happen. Thinking about it now, I’d like to change my answer. Maybe if I’d had 10 percent LESS of an idea of what the fuck I was doing, the movie could have been even better!

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 5:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 11:58:00 AM Comments (0)

If the three directors at Ironbound Films had stumbled upon a genie’s lamp or magic wand or some other wish-giving mechanism during the filming of The Linguists, and somehow that mechanism would only grant 10 percent more of something we currently possessed, then that something would unanimously and unequivocally be 10 percent more toilet paper.

When we set out with the stars of our film — linguists David Harrison and Gregory Anderson — to India to document the endangered language Sora, we spent our first week in Bhubaneswar, a fairly developed city on the east coast of India. We stayed at the Trident Hilton, a veritable paradise where the flower petals floating in the lobby fountain were refreshed twice daily. However speakers of Sora lived in more remote tribal villages in India’s Orissa State. Potable water and flushable toilets were luxuries to which we had to say our good-byes.

Even though we were going to be entrenched with the linguists for some time, there was no guarantee how we’d make it from one place to another, so we had to pack light. We had two cameras, sticks and audio gear, not to mention backpacks filled with travel meds. We each brought only as much toilet paper as we needed on an average daily basis.

None of us counted on the phenomenon known as Delhi belly. Not to mention the ply of toilet paper through most of the Indian subcontinent was no match for the American brands to which we were accustomed.

As such our reserves were quickly depleted. A rationing game ensued that in some cases pitted filmmaker against linguist.

With 10 percent more toilet paper, we might have been able to find more speakers of Sora, have a more successful scientific expedition, and create an even more entertaining film. Alas, we did the best with what we had.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, noon -- Egyptian Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 11:57:00 AM Comments (0)

A large part of my film, The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, was shot in the extraordinary region of southern Sudan. Its first language is Dinka, its second language Arabic. Casual greetings are unfortunately my limits in both these languages, and this was both the challenge and the beauty of trying to film an observational documentary. My cameraman and I were often running on instinct, interpreting the body language of people we were filming. We’ve both filmed overseas and have gained some familiarity with European and Pacific Island languages. But Dinka in particular has no similarity to anything I’d heard before, no recognition of even the smallest of words. Sometimes it wouldn’t be ’till after we’d finished filming that some of the nuances of a scene would be explained to me by a Dinka/English speaker, and often we were lucky that we had captured enough to portray what went on. There is only one instance which shall remain a mystery to viewers where if I’d known the interpretations of some of the asides, I would have lingered much longer in the scene and filmed some of that particular dialogue. To have prepared myself a little more before heading to Sudan and learnt even 10 percent more of the local language, Dinka, would have been invaluable.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 9:15 pm -- Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 09:00:00 AM Comments (0)

Penis size was definitely an issue on Baghead. In fact, we could have used a LOT more than 10 percent extra, but we would have been glad to have as much as we could get. Now please don’t think we’re superficial. We generally don’t concern ourselves with such things. We’ve traditionally viewed ourselves as nice, sweet brothers who lean toward more personal, relationship-oriented films like The Puffy Chair. Maybe we were even better off making these sensitive films with the limited equipment God gave us, you know? But Baghead turned out to be one demanding, feisty little bugger. And we just didn’t quite have the manpower to get the film under our control. In the end, Baghead broke loose from our feeble reigns and became what it wanted to become, and we sat back in fear and watched it happen.

Next time we’re thinking of hiring Vincent Gallo (haven’t personally seen Brown Bunny, but we hear good things).

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 8:30 pm -- Prospector Square Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 08:59:00 AM Comments (0)

You always wish you had more of everything: budget, talent, time, emotional courage, personal magnetism, etc., but part of maturing as a filmmaker, for me, means accepting what I have and doing the best I can with it. That doesn’t mean not pushing as hard and as fiercely as possible during every moment of the process — it just means a willingness to fight for the things I have a chance of getting and genuinely letting go of the things I can’t.

In this instance, it would have been nice to have 10 percent more willingness from the financiers who were teetering on the edge of deciding whether or not to finance this movie, to make the leap and finance it… but they didn’t, so I financed it myself, with my entire life’s savings. But for every penny spent I gained the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a movie with complete creative freedom, and the ability to communicate the story I was telling in a completely personal fashion. Every choice made by my collaborators and myself was based on our creative interpretation of the script, the limits of our budget, and nothing else.

It’s been important for me to realize — this is where I’m at now, creatively, financially, etc., and the movie is an expression of where I’m at now, and it will reflect all of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in that; and I’ve found strength in the knowledge that if one approaches that moment and the work reflecting that moment with honesty and self-awareness and dedication, the feeling of wishing one had more becomes a kind of wistful musing rather than a painfully gnawing frustration.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 6:15 pm -- Eccles Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 08:58:00 AM Comments (0)

Rasquachismo. Sleep Dealer is a science fiction set in Mexico. In the script I described everything from exploding buildings and fighter-jet dogfights to remote-control robots. The effects were never the focus of the film — they existed to give a politicized futuristic setting for my characters. When time came to actually produce the insanely challenging visuals, my amazing d.p. and VFX supervisor and I solved many, many problems with rasquachismo. Rasquachismo refers to a spirit in Latino communities of taking what’s at hand, cobbling it together, and making something wondrous out of it. Like using parts of one old car to fix another. And then using paint left over from painting the house to paint over the fix. The patchwork isn’t “right” — but it’s somehow beautiful. Sleep Dealer is a rasquache sci-fi. To realize the visual ambitions of the film, we used everything from huge mirrors to double the size of our sets, to stock footage of visuals we could never produce to a 35 set-up reshoot in my Brooklyn living room. In that my films are always made by trying to get the most out of the few resources at hand, all my films have a spirit of digital rasquachismo. But we could’ve used 10 percent more on this one.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 8:30 pm -- Racquet Club, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 08:57:00 AM Comments (0)

If I could’ve had 10 percent more of something on Chronic Town, I would have to say that it would’ve been 10 percent more length on our extension cords. That may sound odd, but when you have to plug in your production vehicles (which on our budget equaled two minivans) to prevent the oil in your car from freezing overnight, then every inch counts. During the winter in Alaska, you need to plug your car into an outlet to keep the oil in your engine from freezing (it’s advised to be plugged in when it’s below zero, which it was for our entire shoot); so when you are staying at a hotel (in our case, the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks) you are jockeying for spots against everyone else staying at the hotel. When you get home late from a shoot, chances are you’ve already lost out on the spaces adjacent to all the heating posts. So on those nights when you didn’t get close to the post (even though you’d have to get up early for the next day’s shoot) you still had to set your alarm for about 3:00 in the morning, dress head to toe, walk out to your car, start it, and sit there and let it run for about five minutes to let the engine warm up. Mind you, looking back as I write this, I think to myself, why not buy some extra extension cords? Well, I guess that’s because I didn’t have 10 percent more of a budget to pay for them.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 19, 5:30 pm -- Library Center Theatre, Park City]

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 1/14/2008 08:56:00 AM Comments (0)