Its All About Location

Hello readers!

So to begin with, I'm one week into giving up soda and so far so good! Aside from being a little more sleepy from the lack of caffeine I can't complain. Thanks for all the moral support on this by the way.

This week I want to write about somethings I need to start doing in preparation for the shoot. Now that the script is getting more and more close to the final shooting draft I need to start thinking of casting and locations. The two most important things in terms of putting something in front of a camera. 

For now lets focus on locations. So here's how you can help, I'm going to list a few locations and descriptions thereof and I could really use some feedback as to possible shoot sites for them. Preferably in or near the Concord area. While these locations don't "have" to be in Concord I'd like to keep it as authentic as possible. Also, logistically speaking, since most of my crew will come from the east Bay Area and or San Francisco keeping it to with in 45-60 miles of these areas will make things much more easy. Here we go:

#1. Gerry's Home (The main character). This home is a small lower middle class house. Preferably with a lack of upkeep in the front lawn. Also for this location I'm looking for an older looking home. 

#2 Gerry's Bedroom. This room needs to be large for a few reasons. First, because we need to fit a camera, lights, and minimal crew in it and second because the character shares the room with his brother "Miguel." The room can be in a "new" home as the beauty of movie-magic is the viewer doesn't have to know a bedroom scene was shot at an entirely different location than its exterior. So readers, if you know someone who has a large unoccupied room with at least one window (again nothing fancy though) and wouldn't mind a visit from a movie crew let me know.

#3 Mindy's Apartment Complex. This complex needs to be a middle - upper middle class apartment. Again preferably in Concord.

#4 Peppermill Restaurant. I know it's no longer the Peppermill in Concord, however, I'd like to shoot in a restaurant that has the same look and feel. For those of you who've never been, it's basically a swanky Vegas casino buffet like atmosphere complete with mirrored ceilings. Again, the former Peppermill is now an Asian cuisine restaurant, so if anyone knows the owners or knows someone who has a restaurant in the area please let me know.

#5 Gas Station. So for this one I need a gas station that not only has pumps but needs to have an attached garage. I have locations in mind, but again if someone knows a gas station owner that could be the difference which makes this all easier and do-able.

#6 Tuxedo Shop. I'd prefer a mom and pop kind of feel to this location, but hell any place that rents tuxedos would be fine by me.

That's it for now. The rest of the locations I either have a plan for already or am working on. And that's going to do it for this week. Next week I plan to discuss casting and the parts I'll need help filling up. So if you've ever though of acting, next weeks posting is for you! Keep the questions and comments coming and I look forward to reading your location suggestions.

Forward!

-Gustavo Guardado

Sacrifice to the Gods of Moviemaking

Hello Readers,

So before I start on this week's topic allow me to announce and introduce you to yet another crew member recently added.

Michael Wisner is not only a close friend of mine, but has worked with me before on my film projects. Mike, served as co-Executive Producer for my two short films The White Room, and Big Meet. As my former roommate during the last two years of film school, Mike had a definite influence on my films. He assisted me in the writing and critiquing of my screenplays, was 1st Assistant Director (1st AD) on my film shoots, assisted on editing, but by far was most valuable as a moral support in the highly competitive film school social pool. After I graduated film school, Mike realized filmmaking wasn't his cup of tea. He and I have remain close friends, and recently the movie-bug bite Mike once again. 

Mike wrote an original short screenplay of his own and approached me to help produce it for his directorial debut. I countered his offer with the plans to direct my first feature next summer. We agreed to help one another as best we could, however, once Mike read my blog and put some thought into it he decided to postpone his short film in order to come aboard as my first official producer of the feature film project. Mike will most likely be helping with casting and possibly being 1st AD during principle photography. Either way I'm looking forward to once again collaborating with  and adding yet another talented artist in the arsenal that is my movie.

And now onto this weeks topic:

In order to make any movie a director has to sacrifice a lot. Even the big dogs in Hollywood have to deal with the mental ware of leading a crew and cast of people through the marathon of principle photography. But the strain is even harder on the lowly independent movie director. The indy director has to deal with constant artistic dilemmas as well as financial ones. 

Therefore, to better prepare for the onslaught I have decided to make a lot of self sacrifices now, in order to better be prepared for the production in less than 11 months. What are these sacrifices? Allow me to share:

1. I'll be giving up soda until the wrap of principal photography.

Any one who knows me knows soda is my addiction. So this will NOT be easy! Oh, and I plan to give up Starbucks too. I'm not too into coffee, but giving up soda may cause me to supplement one caffeine source for another. So  no more! Aside from it saving money, I'm also doing it for the betterment of my health. So if you catch me with a soda please slug me in the arm and I'll promise to put a $10 bill in the production piggy bank.  Which leads me to my next sacrifice....

2. I'm going to start penny pinching!

Yup, every red cent I earn or waste on otherwise unnecessary things is going to stop, if not slow to a crawl. So what this means is I'm going ease up on my fetish for buying DVDs. Every true cinephile like myself can't help but buy the latest great movie when it comes out, but until my movie is wrapped no more needless buys. Rentals will have to suffice. This also means I'll no longer go to movie in theaters unless its a matinee. This'll be tough as I obviously LOVE going to the theater. In fact its the closest thing to a church experience for me!

3. I'm going to sell all my old DVD's!

OUCH! This one hurts, but I figure other movies aren't as important as focusing on my own movie. So off they go! I've collected well over 200 DVD's so this should help me raise a decent amount of money for the cause. I do have to point out I plan to keep my truly rare DVDs and of course a select few movies I just can't live without (*cough* both STAR WARS trilogies).

4. I'm limiting my Videogame purchases.

So I like to play videogames so what! I may have both an Wii and a Xbox360 but I don't often buy games. So I'm going to keep it that way. In fact the only must buy game I plan to purchase is the next Halo game (insert drooling noise), otherwise I'll make due with used games and my current library. Hey I gotta entertain myself somehow or this movie might make me go nuts ;)

And last but not least.....

5. I plan to lose 10lbs!

Sure I'm not obese or anything, but I'm no lightweight either. This I'm doing for the production so that I can be in the best possible shape for the shoot. Again, moviemaking is like a marathon so being physically fit will pay for itself when the stress of 12 hour shoots sets in on my body.

All of these sacrifices all boil down to making this movie possible. But also, I want my cast, crew, and contributors to know a very important thing. I'm thankful for their future sacrifices to the movie. Many of my cast and crew will not be paid for their work (unless the movie is sold for a significant profit) so I want it to be clear to those who are essentially volunteering for the cause, that I too made sacrifices to make this movie possible. It would be completely inappropriate to ask people to volunteer their time and talents to making my movie, without having struggled and strived to be better prepared for the undertaking. 

So rest assure readers, by the time I reach the starting line of principle production I will be physically, mentally, and financially as fit as can be and hopefully more!

Ok, that wraps it up for this week. Next week I plan to write about pre-production planning as well as any other updates that may occur.

Forward!

-Gustavo Guardado

The Crew so Far.

Hello readers, hope you all had a good week. I certainly did. To begn with I finished the 4th draft of the script! Yay! So thank you to all the readers who sent me personal messages of prodding and encouragement. You helped me get over the hump. With the forth draft done I've sent it out to my professional friends and colleagues who have been my springboard for critiquing the script. I'm anxiously awaiting their response so I can begin the 5th draft (for those of you new to the film making process, the screenplay is almost always never done. It sometimes gets refined up to the day of production or even on the set. I'm hoping to finalize before then though). I have already been given some great notes by one of my crew members, which allows me the excuse to introduce you to the crew of the film thus far.

My speedy note giver of the 4th draft is Jimmy Freeman. Jimmy has the distinct uniqueness of being the only student who took all the classes I offered at Saint Mary's (even the crazy Harry Potter class). So he's proven his drive to become a filmmaker but more 

importantly he's proven just how professional and talented he is. Jimmy's talents include everything from being a great writer himself, a talented director, an experienced videographer, and a brilliant video editor. His writing talents have been responsible for some of the best advice I received on the 3rd draft and he's already filled me with ideas and pointed out problem areas in the 4th. He's currently an important artistic contributor to a local TV show created by my former High School video teacher (kinda funny huh). While I haven't given him an "official" position on the production crew I know his assistance will be invaluable and my movies is stronger already due to his contributions.

       Next on the list is another former student Megan Johnson. Megan's passion is computer animation. Similar to myself, once she graduated SMC she realized as great of an education she had earned she still wasn't technically educated to do what her dreams call her to do. Hence she's going for her Masters in Computer Animation at the Academy of Art's College in San Francisco. She's already begun animating shorts and has proven what I already knew, she's incredibly talented! So Megan as of now, is my lead animator. Yup, my feature will have a few animated sequences. I can't go into detail about, as again I don't want to let all the surprises out of the bag. However, Megan has begun doing groundwork for that animation and the results blew away my expectations. She created a "template" of one of the characters and the next thing she's working on is a "walking test." Her template has left me very e

xcited to see her further work.

Last, but certainly not least is Jon Bowerbank. Jon and I go back all the way to junior high, but it wasn't until high school and our Sr. year video class that we knew we were "partners in crime" when it came to film making. Jon has been steadily building an impressive career in the Bay Area as a cinematographer so he became an obvious choice to be my Director of Photography (DP). What sealed the deal, however, was seeing his amazing work for

the short film I'm finishing: Marta's Last Exit. Not only did his camerawork impress me, but I've worked with no other cinematographer whom which our artistic and professional chemistry mixed so well. He truly accomplished the first and foremost goal of a DP, which is to cinematically create the vision of the director. With his commitment to the movie I know in the very least my first feature will look absolutely beautiful!

I have plenty of other people who have promised me their hardworking selves to my crew, however, I'm yet to officially place them in a position. Nonetheless, those of you out there (you know who you are) can be rest assured that I'm already planning and thinking of where to best place you and exploit your talents. So keep checking the blog as I'll fill in the positions as I go along. 

Well that's all for now folks. Stay tuned for my next posting as I plan to write about the various "self-sacrifices" I plan to make in order to save money for the budget. Oh and lastly, I think it important to note I plan to make at least one blog entry once every week, however, as the wheels really get rolling blog postings may become more frequent.  Oh and keep the questions and comments coming (preferably on the blog itself)!

Forward!

-Gustavo

So what's the movie about Gus?

Hello Blog readers! So first off I want to thank everyone who's posted a reply to the blog and the many people who sent me personal messages too. Thanks! Your encouragement goes a long way.

So one of the many questions I've been getting about the movie is "What's it about?" So allow me to answer. But before I do you should know that I can't explain everything about it as I don't want my idea stolen and because I'm still fine tuning the script so things can change. 

Here we go:

The story is semi autobiographical. It takes place in good ol Concord, Ca. It's about a notorious class clown, named Gerry,  who's having a little trouble getting a girlfriend. Along comes a girl into his life who shows interest and is the complete opposite of Gerry and the girl's he's use to dating.

The conflict in the movie comes when Gerry attempts to stay in good graces with his first ever girlfriend, but at the same time not lose his reputation for being the jokester of the school.

So that's about all I can go into about the movie without giving away too much. After all, I do want you all to go out and watch it when it's done.

Another question I've been asked is where do I plan to shoot my opus. Well, I plan to shoot as much as possible in Concord of course. I don't think an actual independent feature film has ever been shot in my home town let alone about Concord. So I'd like to be the historical first! Even if I'm not, like the saying goes "You write what you know" and man do I know Concord.

On to another topic:

Yesterday I finally finished rerecording dialogue for my latest short movie called Marta's Last Exit. I wrote this script about a year ago and  finally shot it with the help of my friends, family, and students last October. This short has been the testbed for my feature film in many ways. By doing this film I learned a lot about whether I can successfully make a film in the bay area, since my three previous short movies were all shot in LA.

The rough cut I've shown friends and colleagues has gotten some positive response and I'm looking forward to finalizing it so it can at last be screened to the public! This might be my first fundraising event so stay tuned as I'm almost at the finish line.

Last thing before I go:

So I'm working on the 4th draft of the feature film and I've promised people I'd have it done soon. I'm a notorious procrastinator so if you wanna help me, keep prodding me to get it done. I'll let myself down a 100 times before I let down someone else. And if you guys keep pushing me and insisting on reading the 4th draft it'll probably get it done faster!

Well that's it for now peeps! Keep the questions and comments coming!

Forward!

-Gustavo Guardado

Your Help to Following the Dream....

Hello friends, family, and internet readers to my movie blog.

So what is this? Why is Gus linking all his social site pages to here? Well the short answer is its a blog to document my lifelong dream to become a motion picture director.

Now here's the long answer:

Since I graduated film-school in 2004 I've been planning and working steadily, if not minutely, to throw my hat into the ring and take up the ambitious endeavor to direct an independent feature film. I started with writing the 1st draft of my feature film directorial debut(four years ago). Then I began researching which affordable HD camera I would use to shoot the movie on. I also began making a mental list of which of my film school friends and St. Mary's former students I would be able to rely on helping me crew for the production shoot.

Well now I'm at the breaking point. What that means is I've finally set a date for when I plan to begin shooting my first ever feature film. Drum roll please........ Day one of my production will be Saturday June 13th 2010!

That gives me less than one year to get the wheels rolling and to make this mega-ambitious dream of mine a reality.

So what's the plan and how can you guys help me follow my dream? Allow me to retort:

Since leaving film-school I've been slowly saving money for what I knew would be my mostly self financed feature film directorial debut. Since I didn't meet Steven Spielberg in graduate school and my parents aren't executives at major studios I knew I'd be doing this on my own.

But then it hit me, I have and know so many friends, family, and people who either would help me if I asked them for a favor, or who genuinely believe in my talent and want to see me succeed, that it'd be dumb of me not to ask for their help.

So in the near future I'll begin doing fundraising events but I haven't worked out all the details so I'll save that for another blog entry. Also, I'm going to be calling on a lot of favors from you guys. Things like asking to borrow something as a prop, or your home as location for a shoot, or maybe even borrowing you to be an extra.

But eventually, I'll be outright asking you to either make a money donation to the cause or to donate your time to the film. Either or both would be the real reason the film succeeds. What I plan to do is keep track of every cent that is donated and should the film get sold for a profit I hope to repay all donations. But I have to be clear about this, there is no promise the film will be sold or that it'll turn a profit. Though I have a few, but limited, leads on potentially selling the film I make no guarantee of a return on your money donation. That's why I'm calling it a donation, because you're essentially giving your money to a cause. 

So if you've ever had a dream, if I've ever done you a favor, or if you simply want to see someone reach their goal against long odds then this is your chance. I'm less than a year away from taking on what will hopefully be the first of many films to come and I'm inviting you to come along for the ride.

So thank you in advance for all of you who I know will be there for me, and thank you for the ones who will surprise me.

Stay tuned to this blog as I plan to document the process, answer questions, share photos, post videos, etc. But most importantly I hope to teach and inspire you all to follow your dream as I set forth to learn how to do it myself.

Forward!

-Gustavo Guardado