Official Site Is Up

You might have noticed that this blog hasn't been updated too much recently, that is because I am busy putting together uglyisamovie.com

I will still update this blog as often as I can and once the official site is fully off the ground (I am still tweaking the design), I will use this blog as more of a news outlet with production updates and so on.

Influences (Part 2)

It's always been difficult for me to put my interest in heavy metal music and the influence of it on my films into words. And while I'm not what you would typically classify as a "metalhead", I do listen to that genre of music more than people might think, especially as I get older.

I think the main quality I take away from it and try to apply to my films is the idea of technical proficiency meeting the subversive and abrasive. I think even the most staunch metal-phobe would be hard pressed to deny that Dave Lombardo from Slayer is a talented drummer, for example. And just as film artist like David Lynch or David Cronenberg works with highly skilled technicians and creates dark and very mainstream unfriendly cinema, my favorite metal artists create abrasive and some might say ugly pieces of music.

"Ugly (Is a Movie)" is the first film in which I have played with the notion of including hardcore or metal music on the soundtrack. The artist is Doomsday 1999, a now defunct band from Seattle. The scene in question is one where we cut back and forth between Rose (Amber Hubert) talking to her friend Marie (Caitlin Hill) about Marie's encounter with Lynden (Sam Suver) and Lynden painting, rather wildly, while listening to Doomsday 1999 on his stereo. To me, the scene functions on a couple of levels:

1. Stylistically, the cutting back and forth between a very quiet domestic scene (Rose's apartment is nearly silent except for the limited conversation between Rose and Marie) and a mildly chaotic scene with very noisy and loud music dominating the soundtrack creates a nice juxtaposition and engages the viewer (and therefore listener) a little bit more and makes both the scenes a little more interesting (sum of the parts kind of thing). The scene ends with an extremely long visual fade to black while the song actually rises in volume as the song builds to a cacophonous climax, leaving the viewer no choice but to absorb the soundtrack fully. It creates a strange environment in the theatre during this scene. I've watched the audience watch it on numerous occasions and it nearly always creates a lot of discomfort (people covering their ears, laughing uncomfortably). This might make me an egotistical sadist but this delights me to no end. I like playing with the audience and toying with their expectations a little bit. This is sort of my version of that playful New Wave spirit I talked about in the Godard post, I suppose.

2. From a character/narrative stand point, it simply shows what kind of person Lynden is a little more. Lynden doesn't talk much so I tried incorporating some signifiers in the film to paint a better picture of what makes Lynden tick or what interests him. The music we listen to says a lot about us as people, I think. What is says exactly about Lynden I will leave to the mind of the viewer. For some, it leads them to believe he is more sinister or dark, for some it humanizes him a little more, some just find it a funny idiosyncrasy. I guess it just depends on your attitude towards the metal genre and your biases for or against it.

Hopefully I can put a clip of this scene in the future. I'm working on getting some youtube clips set-up. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading.

Music From The Film: "Dearest" by R.B. Reed

Our good friend and local musical genius R.B Reed was kind enough to compose and record a song for the film entitled "Dearest". My only instructions to him were to create something kind of grandiose and romantic because I needed a song to use for a scene in which our hero, Lynden, watches Rose, his dream girl, as she enters a record store in slow motion. It's essentially a literal interpretation of the moment you see a person and "you hear music" (i.e. "love at first sight"). It most definitely works and I am forever grateful to Mr. Reed for his beautiful donation to our film. Listen below:

Script Excerpt (#1)

FADE IN:

14. INT. LYNDEN’S APT. BEDROOM. MORNING.

LYNDEN sits on the edge of his bed, smoking a cigarette. He is wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. The sound of young children playing outside in the alley is heard. LYNDEN seems restless and nervous. His leg is bouncing up and down. He rises from the bed and heads over to the window; he pulls back the light curtain and pokes his head out. He blows some smoke out the window and drops his cigarette down towards the alley. He watches the cigarette fall to the ground. He exits the frame.

15. INT. LYNDEN’S APT. LIVING ROOM. MORNING.

LYNDEN sits on his couch, in front of the television. He is watching an old cartoon.

DISSOLVE TO:

16. INT. LYNDEN’S APT. BATHROOM. DAY.

LYNDEN is standing in front of his bathroom mirror. He is now fully dressed and ready to go out into the cold (coat and stocking cap). He removes his hat for a second and turns on the faucet. He washes his face with cold water briefly and dries it off. He puts the hat back on and exits the bathroom, turning off the light.

17. INT. LYNDEN’S APT. BUILDING. LOBBY.

LYNDEN approaches the mailboxes along the left wall of the lobby. He reaches into his coat pocket and removes his keys. He opens his mailbox.

CU of the MAILBOX: “APT. 707-BLACK, LYNDEN”.

His mailbox is empty. He shuts it and lets out a big sigh. He hesitates for a moment and yells out “CUT!”. A man named JASON RYAN, the director, steps into frame from behind the camera. CUT TO another camera angle reveals a camera crew and lights facing SAM, the actor playing LYNDEN.

JASON:

CUT!

(walks up closer to Sam)

What is it, Sam?

SAM:

I’m just…I’m having trouble understanding

what this scene is about.

JASON:

What?

SAM:

I mean, what’s my motivation?

JASON:

You're checking your mail

(matter of factly)

SAM:

But am I sad when I see no mail?

Should I sigh like that? Or is

it just business as usual.

JASON:

Don’t sigh. It’s casual.

(lowers voice for privacy from crew)

It’s just to show your daily routine.

It will come back later on in the film.

You’ll see.

Let’s just push on through.

SAM:

Ok. Let’s go.

JASON:

(to crew)

Ok. Places everybody let’s get this and move to the street.

CUT TO:

18. EXT. THE STREET. LATE DAY.

LYNDEN walks down the street.

Influences (Part 1)

When I talk about being a filmmaker or director with people (and other filmmakers especially) the subject of cinematic influences inevitably comes up.

One of my main artistic concerns is mentally making the distinction between influences and inspirations.

For example, while I love David Lynch with all the energy my little film nerd heart can muster...his style and film aesthetic is so specific that borrowing from him or creating scenes with a strong Lynch influence comes across as pretty transparent and to me a "Lynchian" film that isn't directed by Lynch himself is sort of a waste of time. So Lynch falls into the inspiration camp. Granted, he is the leader and defacto dictator of that camp but I just can't bring myself to put strobe lights or midgets into my films simply because I love him so much.

Jean-Luc Godard on the other hand is a filmmaker whose work and influence I find seeping into my films almost subconsciously. I hope I have enough objectivity to stand back and not let his ideas or techniques dominate my own style but from the moment I watched "Breathless" I have been bound and determined to create my own film with such a playful spirit, that's not a slave to the plot but instead breathes and plays with the idea of being a film itself. This film and Godard's work in general in some ways is the biggest influence on "Ugly (Is a Movie)". The way he creates different types of scenes that do something new and different cinematically but can still shed some light on basic human interactions is what I strive to do in my own way.

Take a look at this scene from his film "A Woman Is a Woman":



He is taking a very simple domestic scene and transforming it into one of the most memorable scenes of his career. The simplicity of having the couple carry out an argument via book titles! It's one of those "why didn't I think of that before?" kind of moments.

Which isn't to say you can expect one Godard rip-off after another in my film. It's always a challenge for any artist, whether they be a filmmaker, sculptor or musician, to not let their influences dominate their work. The spirit and inventiveness of Godard is the biggest influence on this film, so while you won't see any arguments carried out through book titles or giant flashing text on screen in the middle of a scene (another Godard hallmark), you will hopefully experience a film that is trying to do something beyond just telling a story about two people interacting and that brings an experimental and art film spirit to an otherwise linear narrative.

Last money related post for a while...

Nobody likes to hear about money all the time and I'm done with outright begging for money for a while but I did want to take a moment to explain/acknowledge the ads on the blog.

Ads generate revenue. They are ugly and obnoxious, I realize. I chose an ad set that isn't too disruptive but the fact of the matter is that for every click through we get on those ads, we raise money that goes directly into our PayPal account. How easy is that? So if you want to take a moment to humor us, click on some ads and help us get one step closer to finishing this film...we would greatly appreciate it.

What all the fuss is about...

Our editor Doug Arney was kind enough to take the time to cut together a really quick teaser trailer out of the existing footage we have at this point.

Here it is for your viewing pleasure:


Much thanks to Akron/Family for their kind permission to use their music in the trailer and the final film.

Click this button, add personal info, give self thumbs up

Our plea for help...

...So it's come to this.

Here is our situation:
We have 1/2 of the script in the can, a very talented cast and crew in
place for the rest of the shoot and...several maxed out credit cards.
We are waiting for our guardian angel to swoop in and deliver us the
remainder of the budget but that looks increasingly unlikely as time
(2 plus years at this point) marches on.

So our next logical step is to turn to quantity over quality. Any
prospective investors/kind souls willing to part with
$100....$50....even $20. It all adds up, fifty $50 investors would be
enough to put us in the black. We are just a few thousand dollars
short of our budget. In exchange for a small donation, you will get a
producer's credit. Yes, you read that right...a full producer's credit
(if we won an Oscar somehow...it would partially be yours!), a copy of
the finished film and if the film gets distribution or enjoys any sort
of profit we will give you double the money donated AND donate the
original amount of money you donated to a charity of your choice.
Everybody wins! Contact us if you are interested or know of anybody
who might be interested in helping out the little film that could in
these difficult economic times. Contact us at jasonryanfilms@gmail.com for more information.

Thanks for reading and I promise less solications for money in the future...hopefully.

An introduction of sorts

This blog will follow the sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding and always interesting struggle to complete a feature film completely independently with no major financial support AND in one of the worst economic slumps in American history.

Our current situation is this:
1/3rd of the screenplay has been shot, transferred and edited together and a date has been set for shooting the rest of the film in the August of 2009. We are also several thousand dollars short of our budget. So with a little less than 5 months to go, the production is quickly spiraling into very stressful territory.

So why bother? As the writer and director and creator of this film, I can only compare it to having a child or a husband or wife. You stick it out through thick and thin. You wouldn't abandon a relative in sticky situations and these characters, this cast, this crew IS a family to me. There are ideas and emotions in this film that need to come out of me at some point and they need to be expressed in THIS way, on THIS film stock and with THESE collaborators. David Lynch, while making the notoriously difficult "Eraserhead", once said that he was so frustrated by the stop and start process (it took him 7 years to complete the film) that he at point contemplated sculpting models of the actors out of clay, building miniature sets and just stop motioning the rest of the action. Needless to say, at this point...I can relate to that. And I'm only 2 years deep!

As for this blog, you can expect something in between stressed out journal ramblings and an official home for the film with photos, video clips and a way to donate to the production via payal if you are so inclined.

Thanks for reading!