Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part III: Tagged)

Tagged

    The first of the three movies within the movie that made up our anthology was a short film called Tagged.  I remember brainstorming with Paul Kurutsides and Scott Goedert one evening, sitting around my kitchen table.  The zombie "book-ends" were taken care of, and I had ideas for two of the three shorts (Murder Party came together right away, and Haunted, although completely different from what we inevitably filmed, was already in the planning stages too.)  Originally, we were even considering offering some of our other filmmaker friends the opportunity to write/direct their own short and include it with ours, making it an ensemble piece.  Paul would've loved this, because it would've freed up an insane amount of time, but in the end, I'm glad that we did the entire thing ourselves.  That's not to say, there couldn't be a Cutting Room Floor 2 that could follow that path, but considering we're already about 5 projects ahead of ourselves, we'll put that on the back burner for now.

Anway, we needed one more short film to round out the anthology.  No one had any killer ideas, so we were just kind of shooting the shit, when I received a Facebook notification that someone tagged me in a photo.  I thought, hey, wouldn't it be crazy if you got notified that someone tagged a photo of you doing something horrible that you know you didn't do, like killing someone?  I immediately started to explain the idea, and about half way through the sentence I stopped and said, "Actually, holy shit, that would make a great movie- that can be the other short film," or something to that effect.  Probably with more swearing.  As soon as the idea popped into my head, the whole thing was immediately figured out.  Tagged was the quickest, easiest, and according to most of the viewer feedback we received, the best thing we filmed.

Out of everything, Tagged felt like it could stand on its own, as a tight, self-contained story that puts the viewer in the protagonist's shoes and keeps you guessing up until the end, in the vein of a good Twilight Zone episode or something. It's short on characters, which helps keep the run-time low, and the fact that it all takes place in a couple hours over the course of a night keeps the pace in check too.  There's little touches of humor, which seem natural but don't detract from the gravity of the plot, and I feel like everything in this movie works really well.  If I could go back and fix anything on this one, there isn't a lot I'd change.  Maybe just shoot it on a higher definition.  Or cut the scene where I take my shirt off.  (I don't know why I do that in so many movies...)

I wasn't originally going to play the lead, but due to time constraints, and how much easier it would be to shoot around myself, that's what happened.  I don't go as dynamic as some of our other cast members, but everyone has been pretty kind about my on-screen abilities in this one, so to that I say, "ah-thank-you."

With that in mind, I might as well address why the same folks continually pop up throughout all the parts of the Cutting Room Floor.  It wasn't intentional, but as we shot it, there were certain, principle cast and crew members that were always with us.  Paul and myself were present for every scene in the movie (obviously), and Neil and Sarah were pretty frequent as well.  As a result, we all pop up more than others.  It works, I guess, considering the short movies are supposed to be local films, so it's not too far fetched that the same actors might appear across the board.  I like to think of it as a Monty Python-type of scenario, where the same cast members can just come and go in different rolls as they're needed.

This was the first of the shorts we filmed, and after the ordeal of filming the zombie stuff, this seemed like a breeze by comparison.  We shot it over a couple nights, starting with me and my cousin Paul Gothard's scene at the beginning of the movie, sharing some beers and watching TV.  That went about as smooth as could go, and we had plenty of time to do multiple takes to get the lines right and make the conversations seem a little more natural.  Then Paul bolted and we shot the ending, where my character returns to the house and confronts this evil doppleganger.  Maybe it was the fact that we had been drinking for most of the shoot, but the whole finale went smooth, without any hiccups or unforeseen problems. Neil and Sarah even swung by at the end, both of them lending a hand as a body double for me occasionally.  One stand out thing I remember from the shoot: to achieve the teary-eyed effect at the end, I was constantly yanking out my nose hairs between takes. I think we have some footage of that on the deleted scenes. Give it a shot, I guarantee you'll tear up.)


We went downtown and filmed the rest, cajoling one of PK's cafe employees to join us outside and crawl into the dumpster to play the corpse.  I don't think I ever got his name, and I'm guessing he has no idea that this movie ever released or wound up on DVD.  Oh well, he signed the release; we're all good.  Then we shot some more at 365 Ink, the local advertiser/magazine.  Then we took a break between shooting over Halloween.  I died my hair black for the Black Swan costume, so that's why I have my hood up for the remainder of the shooting we did.  I think we have a little bit of the black hair in there, but it's during dream sequence, so who gives a shit, it's supposed to be trippy. I also asked one of my buddies from my Blockbuster days to play the thug that roughs me up in the alley.  He had never acted before, but did a pretty good job on the spot.  He was less than willing to put the sharp knife in his mouth, more so because it looked dirty than because it was dangerous.  When I told him it wasn't dirty, it was just covered in "old food," he about stormed off (another good moment to check out on the deleted scenes that had us laughing our asses off all night).

 

I feel like I should address the whole doppleganger thing.  What is it?  Who is the character that is going around wrecking people's lives and framing them for murders?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I was inspired by a short story by one of my favorite authors, Clive Barker, called "Human Remains."  There's some very obvious nods to the story, which also involves a doppleganger that pretty much overtakes and assumes the lead character's life.  If you're a literary buff, check it out.  If you're not, check it out anyway; it's only like 50 pages and it would do you good to expand your vocabulary.  There's also a line that paraphrases a quote from Philp K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," another favorite of mine. "...we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”  I always thought it was a cool quote, and it seemed to fit.  The doppleganger pretty much tells the protagonist, whatever is going on here, is above your head; do you really want to spend your last few moments dwelling on something you can't even begin to comprehend?  Then boom, dead, and onto the next one.  The kicker at the end where the doppleganger has now taken on the neighbor's form cements the ending.  Without it, you're left thinking, "what the hell?" but upon seeing that, I think it gives the impression that this is just some weird, fucked up creature that gets its kicks out of screwing up people's lives and driving them to murder/suicide.  Good times.




So yeah, in hindsight, Tagged it one of our best efforts.  It works well as a standalone piece, and I think it's a great way to kick off the short films in the movie.  It doesn't overstay its welcome, and even though it has some cool effects, it doesn't overdo them, or rely on them too much.  I guess there's some foul language that prevents it from being show at children's birthday parties, but what are they doing watching movies about murderous dopplegangers anyway?  Shouldn't they be bumper bowling or something?

Check back tomorrow for a look back at "Haunted."

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part II: The Zombie film)

 

 

The Zombie Film

 

    So, yesterday I took a look back at some of the earlier movies that we all had a hand in.  It was nice.  It even made me a bit nostalgic and prompted me to consider revisiting some of them, either in a DVD release, a wider web release, or even following them up with something new.  But, that'll be later, because right now, the focus is what I've been building up to... a look back at our most recent project "The Cutting Room Floor."

 

 

 

 

Ryan and I had made movies under our Monster Club Productions title, and Paul and I had done work under his PK Films production company, but everything we made always had that kind of "inside joke" vibe.  By that I mean, they were all movies that we found funny, and our close friends found funny, and sure even a couple random strangers on youtube found funny, but they were never really made with a wide audience in mind.  And that seemed like kind of a shame, because together, we had so much talent and prospect at our disposal.  So, I got the itch to make something that could appeal to a wider audience.  You know, people who might be asking, "Who the hell is Troy Potter?"  (if you're asking this as you're reading, shame on you.)

 

 

How did we settle on a horror film?  Well, it's simple.  Horror films are easier to make, and they have the luxury of even if you failed at it, you can still fail successfully.  Some of the greatest horror films of all time have that very cheesy, B-movie quality, yet they're still a blast.  If you make a horror movie and people laugh, it can still be enjoyable, whereas, if you make a comedy, and no one laughs, you've just subjected your audience to an hour and a half of torture.  It was also a logical movie because I'm a massive horror fan.  Seriously.  Quiz me. I know it all.  Paul is more of a sci-fi guy, but try making a sci-fi movie with no budget... (which, at some point we hope to, because I'm writing something as we speak for one...)

 

 

Okay; so horror film it is.  What will it be about?  Right off the bat, I wanted to make it an anthology piece.  Something of a throw-back to classics like Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow, where there's one unifying story with several short, unrelated stories sprinkled throughout.  This afforded us a chance to really experiment with different techniques, actors, and themes.  I'll get to the individual shorts later next week, but the first order of business was establishing what the central storyline to hold everything together would be.

 

Well, everyone loves a good zombie flick.  Now more than ever (although some may argue that the zombie fad has worn out its welcome. Not me personally; I mean, we're living in a time when the number one show on television is a ultra-gory zombie drama... what a time to be alive!).  Anyway, we're all big zombie fans, and a zombie invasion is something everyone can relate to.  Who hasn't envisioned that post-apocalyptic scenario where you're hunkering down, fending off the undead and trying to survive from day to day?  Especially when you're really bored at work.  However, between all the zombie flicks I've seen, I didn't recall ever seeing one where the main character gets bit and is slowly becoming a zombie himself.  At least none that I recall.  So, for an original take on a familiar subject, we figured that was a pretty unique idea. 

 

We cast Neil Potter; brother of local legend Troy Potter, as the lead.  For one, he's a pretty entertaining guy, with lots of improve work. Two, he's skeletally thin and would look good in zombie make up.  With the lead cast, we needed a place for him to hide out, gradually transform, and still somehow be able to incorporate other stories.  We had always intended on premiering the finished film at Mindframe Theaters, so we decided, why not film it there too?  The owners obliged, and we had our location.  A creepy, nostalgic cinema.  Perfect place to hide out from the zombie invasion.

 

 

 

The script came together pretty quickly from there, and in August of 2011, we began preparations to shoot the first scenes of the movie.  I don't think we had all of the individual short films scripted at that point, but we had the gist of everything worked out.  Paul created a hastily thrown-together facebook group asking if any local Dubuque-ians (?) wanted to swing out and be a zombie extra in our movie.  That day, we got together early, preparing the shoot list, mixing fake blood, and helping Troy Potter (make-up effects maestro) assemble facial prosthetics.  Then, at about 11:30, we started arriving at the theater, and holy shit, were there a ton of people there ready to help out.

  

 

We were blown away by the turn out.  Close to 45 people arrived, half of them already dressed in full undead attire.  We set up a table and Troy got to work on prepping extras while Paul and I scrambled around trying to get our shots set up.  It was an experience.  All these people came out, excited to play a zombie in a little movie they had never heard anything about.  They entrusted us that we knew what we were doing, and quite frankly, that was a sobering realization.  At that moment, I told Paul, "Okay, we seriously, have to finish this film."  There was so much invested in it before we filmed the first shot.  But what a great way to start filming.  Our first real movie, and we were working with a full crew of extras, in an awesome location, with a gang of friends helping with production. 

 

We filmed well into the morning. I think we left the theater at about 5:30 am.  Even more amazing was most of the extras stayed with us until we told them there was nothing left we needed to film.  It was dedication.  There's no way we could have made the movie without everyone who lended a hand that night; it was amazing. 

 

 

The zombie portion of the film took three separate shoots.  The first night at Mindframe with all the extras.  Then a couple weeks later, we started at the crack of dawn to film the downtown scenes before traffic picked up on a Saturday morning.  Everyone met at my house and we headed down to the Port of Dubuque area to haunt the alleys of local business.  We were about an hour in when the police showed up. You know, right when two characters dressed in camo were holding fake guns.  Real looking fake guns. Thankfully, Paul had called the city the day before and alerted them that we'd be filming, and using fake guns.  The cop was cool with everything; even came over and chatted with us a bit (although I think he had to just double check that the guns were fake).  He said they had gotten like 4 calls from concerned citizens that a group of people were downtown with guns.  I can't imagine what would happen if we tried this today. 

Anyway, we knocked that scene out.  Some standout moments were Andy Rang (soldier #1)'s excruciatingly long death scene, where he screams and complains about his friend leaving him to die for about a minute and a half.  All while being eaten by zombies.  His fake intestines were constructed by the Potter family by filling sausage casings with died oatmeal.  Apparently they sat around the kitchen table and did it as a family the night before. I think even their grandma was there.  I hope a photo of this exists somewhere. 

 

We finished that shoot by wandering around the deserted downtown trying to avoid getting cars in the shot while Neil journeyed to Mindframe.  A couple of us doubled as various zombies over the course of the trek, and Paul had food poisoning all morning, so the shoot ended with him rushing to the Mall to shit his brains out.  Then we all got Pancheros.

 

The last zombie portion we filmed was some reshoots inside Mindframe. We had gotten all the zombie footage we needed.  More than enough actually.  There's seriously, like 3 hours of zombies wandering around the theater on Paul's computer.  However, we didn't have time to get all of Neil's lines as he sits in the projection booth and plays DJ to the crowd of undead patrons.  So, we went back and spend another night filming Neil inching his way through the script.  In his defense, my scripts can get pretty wordy.  As we edited this, Paul told me he had to turn the volume down because Neil's blaring voice was giving him a migraine.  The Potter brothers are a loud bunch.  And very excitable.  This was also a key moment in the grand scheme of things, because it was the night Neil and Sarah first hit it off.  She was new to the group; just some girl that showed up to the first zombie shoot, but she seemed cool, so we asked her to come back and we added another part for her as a chick Neil had a crush on.  Who would've guessed they would still be together?  (well, us, since that was the plan all along.  That's two Potter's I've had a hand in setting up.  Both over the course of making movies.  (I had introduced Troy to his fiance, Chelsea back in high school while filming a movie (but that's a story for a different day (holy shit, do I have four open parenthesis going? ))))

 

 

Soon enough, we got the zombie stuff done.  Which was good, because it was by far, the most taxing to shoot.  And it was the framework for the entire film, so it was nice to have that done and over with so we could concentrate on the other three movies.  Never would've guessed that this would be the biggest pain in the ass to edit either, but it sure was.  Most of the movie Paul and I edited together in his basement, and by that I mean, I sat over his shoulder and confused him by saying, "No, move that clip over there... no before that part..."  However, over the summer Paul hit the road to film the Colts documentary, so I borrowed a computer and pieced together the entire theater sequence in my basement.  I still feel like the beginning of the movie isn't our strongest work, but it was some of the first footage we shot, and we were on a pretty tight schedule, so it's understandable.  If I could go back, I'd change Neil's encounter with the soldiers, but oh well, what's done is done... it only gets better from there.

 

One last thing to mention; the music in the movie.  Since we wanted to show this and essentially make some money for our hard work, we made sure to avoid using any copyrighted music.  Which left us having to scower royalty free sites for scores and themes.  I'm actually really happy with everything we used, but it took some time.  I would search through sites at home, jotting down title tracks and where I thought they could be used in the movie, then I'd go to Paul's and we'd start fitting them in.  One standout, is the song "Fixing My Brain," by the Canadian artist, Brad Sucks.  Brad Sucks is a one-man band who has a bit of a following.  He's released 3 albums, all of which, rock.  Seriously, check him out.  He's also s huge supporter of independent artists, so I emailed him and asked if we could use a couple of his tracks in our movie.  He responded with "Yeah, no problem."  Awesome guy.  I feel like the song really sets the tone for the whole movie, and as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted it for the opening credits.  I was originally going to have it resume again at the end once Neil goes full-zombie, but we ended up going with a badass version of the classic funeral march, which I think was a better choice. 

 

Overall, what a project. And this was just part one of four.  We still had three full short films to shoot.  And edit.  Stay tuned, because next up, we're talking about the first short: Tagged.

 

 

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor

PRELUDE

setting the stage

It's no secret that I'm a huge movie buff.  If you know me, this is no surprise.  If you don't know me, chances are, you're not reading this anyway, so why am I even typing this? (must remember to delete this later). 

Anyway, long story short, I've watched a lot of movies in my lifetime, and at a certain point in my life, I decided I'd make my own.  My best friend, Ryan Fleharty, and I made countless home movies with my parents' clunky RCA camera, honing our craft throughout our teens.  I remember spending hours just making nonsensical skits around the "mirror" feature on the camera, or having our minds blown when we discovered how to add titles and credits.  We even practiced the painstaking process of not only making, but re-making several short stop-motion animation movies with legos.  It was no Nightmare Before Christmas, but our heart was in it.  This is why I have nothing to say when people start talking about sports.



The first legitimate movie that I did was a full length horror-comedy called Flame Broiled. I wrote, directed, edited, and starred in this movie, and we produced it with the help of several friends during my freshman year in college. We produced it under the title: Monster Club Productions (a throwback to what Ryan and I called our club house, growing up as kids).  This was a pretty big deal for us all, because it was the first time we had a full script, tons of different locations, and a slew of different actors that we had never worked with before.  We even got to film chunks of it in a local grocery store that I worked in at the time, bringing new, more professional look to our work. I would love to re-release this on DVD (it's gotta be on its 5th or 6th year anniversary by now)

 The storyline centered around that creepy Burger King mascot from the commercials a couple years ago.  He was going around, doing the whole serial killer thing, and two investigators sought out the help of a grizzled Irish cop, just two days away from retirement. (To make the cliche even more obvious, his name was Potatoes O'Brien.)  Meanwhile, some neighborhood kids were filming a horror movie (see, I love that movie-within-a-movie thing), and they happen get catch some footage of the King on camera.  The two storylines converge at the climax, and there's plenty of humor and gore throughout. 

Looking back, I remember having a blast making it, even during some really strenuous shoots.  Each time I watch it, I'm always a little impressed too, because even though we've come a long way since then, I'm genuinely surprised how well parts of the movie work.  Directors like Tarantino will make something like Django Unchained, and then he'll say, "Okay, that was my Western, or Southern," as he'll call it."  I feel like I can look back at Flame Broiled and say, "Yep, that was my slasher flick."  And given the obvious no-budget restraints we faced, I feel like it holds up as a pretty decent movie. You know, if you squint.

After Flame Broiled (which took a full year), I wanted to do something drastically different.  Flame Broiled was originally planned to be a short, 15-minute comedy which I got carried away and turned into a hour and forty minute, semi-serious horror film.  So, next up, we decided to do a short web series that we could pretty much just come up with and shoot on the fly.  (By "we," I mean my buddy Ryan and I)  I came up with the title "An Incoherent Mess," which I've always liked and have tended to re-use off and on to this day... (Hmmm... where did I just see it again recently?).

An Incoherent Mess afforded us the opportunity to just do whatever the hell we wanted.  It centered around two dudes, Dave and Ryan, hanging out in Ryan's apartment and getting into shenanigans.  We'd have different friends drop in for guest spots (like the infamous Ryan Venhuizen, or the game-changing appearance that rocketed Troy Potter to Internet stardom.)  Overall though, it was very spur-of the moment.  I usually wrote them the night before, then we'd film it the next day, edit it that night, and have it online within an hour.  Definitely the fasted thing we've ever produced.  And the quality was actually pretty damn good.  None of that easy, first-person, shaky cam bullshit.  We filmed this like a legit TV show or something.  And every episode gave us a chance to try out something new. 

Check it out for yourself if you have some time to kill.  I'm giggling like an idiot just thinking back to some of them.  Ryan has them all up on his youtube account.  I feel bad that we never promoted these or anything, because there's some really funny stuff.  We've talked about releasing a DVD sometime, but for now, check them out here:  An Incoherent Mess

Unfortunately, all good things have to end, and after filming about 12 episodes, I moved to Dubuque.  However, this was where I met Paul Kurutsides, another like-minded soul who had a passion for film.  It took us a while to hit it off because Paul is a very quiet dude, but eventually we both realized we should be working together.  We kicked it off by filming the epic finale to the Troy Potter saga that we began in the Incoherent Mess series.  And holy shit was it ever epic.  Here's a couple hashtags for you to wet your whistle on: #troypottertimetravel #resurrectedjesus #machinegunshowdown.  Check this one out at http://vimeo.com/10197728.  But be forwarned, you should watch the stuff that came before it first.  Also, it's extremely offensive.  Didn't really realize that until I watched it with my parents. 

Helping us with this movie was quite possibly the biggest mistake Paul Kurutsides ever made, because now, Ryan and I had a third member of our team.  Someone who had all the camera equipment, the editing expertise, and for some reason, a multitude of fake guns and guard outfits.  Paul has yet to have a free moment since.

After that, we did little projects here and there... Paul had been previously working on a webseries parodying the Man Vs. Wild show on Discovery.  It was called Man Vs. Kinda' Wild, and starred Paul's friend JJ, who was like the Ryan, to my own Dave, if that makes any sense.  Paul even got us to appear in his series finale which he spent over a year producing, and has never seen the light of day. The whole gang appeared in this finale, but I don't think anyone has any idea what actually happens in it.  Paul likes to keep us in the dark.  And I'm not even sure he knows.  So, maybe that'll happen some time.  Here's the link to the series: http://www.wearepkp.com/mvkw.html

Paul and I also got together and filmed a short video called Ghost Hunter Dave, which was essentially just me doing a stupid, fake supernatural investigation in my apartment.  It became a pretty big hit (by our standards) and prompted us to sporadically film 3 more.  I'm always surprised when people say this is one of their favorite things we've done; it makes me want to say, "Really?  Have you seen Troy Potter Judgement Day? The movie we spent a year making?" Oh well, sometimes less is more.  Check them all out here on PK's site: http://www.wearepkp.com/ghd.html

After that, Paul and Ryan hooked up and created their own web series called On Patrol, which featured the misadventures of two small-town cops.  More hand-held, first person camera stuff, which isn't really my thing, but hey, I'm not the one who has to edit all these, so I can see the appeal from Paul's standpoint.  The show's funny though, and it's a good showcase of everyone's talents.  Ryan dropped in on Ghost Hunter Dave, and I drop in on this, which is always fun.  Here they are:  http://www.wearepkp.com/op.html

So, as if this wasn't enough, Paul also decided to throw together a monthly podcast to keep his loyal fans and viewers in the loop of all things PK.  We've gotten together, had some drinks, talked about geeky bullshit, and discussed future projects.  Paul also spent a summer filming a traveling documentary for the local Dubuque Fighting Colts Drum and Bugle core, and has been doing some side projects, on, well, the side.  All here: http://www.wearepkp.com/archive.html if you're so inclined. 

So, what is the point of this blog, other than an obvious advertisement for Paul Kurutsides and his production company http://www.wearepkp.com/ (that'll be $400, Paul.)...  well, I just wanted to set the stage for what I'm going to talk about next... our first, real movie.  And real, of course, is subjective.  When I made Flame Broiled, I called it my first real movie.  In a sense, it was, but looking back, it wasn't.  Just as I'm sure in a couple years when we make something better, I'll look back again and say this wasn't really a "real" movie.  But for the time being, it stands. 

What makes this a real movie?  I'll tell you.  We got together and decided we were going to create a serious full length horror film, utilizing all of our talents and resources, and we were going to make it available for distribution.  We happen to have an awesome independent cinema here in Dubuque, IA, called Mindframe Theaters.  This is the kind of local-owned theaters that can offer so much more than the traditional AMC and IMAX theaters.  Our goal was to make a movie, and then have a screening at Mindframe when it was finished.  It took a year and a half, but we did it. 

Check back this week as I recount our experience shooting The Cutting Room Floor, and everything we learned while doing it...