FINALLY apocalyptic Playground the FEATURE

So it's been a long holiday season and somewhere around Thanksgiving I had had enough of the emails that keep asking when Apocalyptic Playground would add an episode to it's original 9. Not that I don't like those emails but now I wanted to do something about it. But not the way we did it before. We literally shot those on a dime. The lack of budget kept us from getting more than 2 actors out to the location at any one time because when you can't pay the actors then they have to keep working their day jobs and then the day jobs take priority. So when we finally got the whole cast out there together we had to schedule 2 months in advance and work our rear ends off that whole day. In which we shot 3 episodes. which cost me $1000.
And even at that no one got paid for their time in any capacity. The money was all about food gas and props etc.

So now we decided we wanted to do this right. Which means with money. Now if we're going to get money we need to bring up the production value. From my camera to a RED epic. 15 day shoot schedule. 3 producers, 5 PA's, FOOD, lodging out in the desert. a jeep to get us to locations nobody knows about but me and my uncle's family. Special FX that require matte paintings and greenscreen. A spaceship set. a cave set. lots of STEAMPUNK props by the amazing Vince Mattina studios. A Harley-Davidson for the main character to build and ride. Cigars.lol and sound and Score by the amazing Morgan Pearse. So we worked very hard  and actress Carly Jones came over and we shot a Pitch video for INDIEGOGO.com

Here it is.... Thanks for your support.

http://www.indiegogo.com/Apocalyptic-Playground?a=243129

WTF???

So I've been making my little films for about 6 years now.  Every time I make a film
and tell my friends about it, one friend, who is an actor, gives me a guilt trip (publicly)
"You know, I'm an actor, Right?" "How come you never ask me to be in your films?"
The answer to which is that he was always busy during the production of my first two
films... so I just stopped asking. I think he forgot that I did ask back then.

So here's the fun part. I recently decided to make my latest Serial short into a feature length film.
And decided to "ask" this actor to play a role in it in the upcoming months. Being as he gave me
hell publicly again recently for not involving him in this very same Serial. His answer was that
he would love to "Help me out" as though I was asking him for a favor. Well let me tell you something.
There are 500 NEW actors in LA every month. It's not like I need help in that dept. Not that I don't love
the actors with which I've worked over the last few years. We've become a bit of a troupe and I think
they are amazing... But to turn it around as though you're doing me a favor after saying very loudly
at a party that I don't cast you in my films for which you are usually too busy to be bothered with.... crazy.

Then, it gets better, he proceeds during our conversation to let me know that he thinks my script wasn't very clear oncreen and that my lead actor wasn't very interesting to him. Hmmmm do I want to work with someone who #1 can't be positive about the project in our first conversation and #2 obviously doubts my abilities as a director?

#1 I think that if a director that I wanted to work with asked me to be in his film I'd be smart enough to avoid my personal critiques of his work until we were at least done with my scenes.lol

#2 If I've already shot 30 minutes of a film with a lead actor and gone to the effort of editing it and doing sound production and hiring a composer and screened the film, why in God's green earth would you say that you don't think the lead actor is interesting??? It's not like I'm going to disassemble the film and reshoot it with some NEW actor at this point. "I'm sorry Mr. Lean, I think Peter O'Toole isn't that interesting." He's in almost every scene! So if I were bold enough to say this to the guy who chose the actor... I'd assume that that director would think I doubted his choices and thus doubted his abilities. And NO director wants to work with an actor who openly doubts him upfront. Not to mention, I'd never place this actor in a scene with my lead actor. Bad blood need not be started if it can be avoided.

Point of all of this is. If you really want to work with someone, to the point of making public Notice about it, then pretend you like what the film maker is doing. At least until you get your footage.:}

Battery Row available on DVD

So since the premiere I've gotten quite a few emails asking about how to get Battery Row on DVD.

Here is the answer...

http://brashstudios.com/blog-5/index.html

Battery Row Premiere photos

Producer Amy Wengreen and I were both amazed when we sold out both screenings of Battery Row. Many of the cast were there and our esteemed Composer Brooke deRosa as well as our fantastic Makeup and Hair pro Navonne Johns. Many of our guests that night were dressed up to the nines in their vintage hats dresses and or suits.

Carly Jones, Jaimie Alvarez, Producer Amy Wengreen, myself, Tom Druilhet.

Lower level Left to right Jay Preston and Brendan Bradley.

The first screening crowd.

BR composer Brooke deRosa

Brendan Bradley and Erik Scott Smith near the standee

and photo taking madness.

Amy Wengreen, myself and Navonne Johns

MY MUSIC VIDEO WORK

Here's a set of Music videos I've directed shot and edited. This first one is for Sam Joole who's song "ALIEN ZOO" is the theme song for SQUATTERS the series. This band below is Sam Joole and the Heartattack. The video is for a song called "Ace in my Hand".... their budget was about...$50. It took 2 days 3 or 4 locations including one on the top of a 4 story condo in Santa Monica that had no railings (very dangerous hand held work) And they got some cool wardrobe cause they had a friend who worked at a very cool clothing store on Melrose. So the wardrobe was borrowed. What I'm trying to say is that we made this for the price of Lunch...

This next video I did for Sam Joole for his other band Alien Zoo. The song was release recently and features the lovely Cooper Harris. So my concept was to shoot Sam in Silverlake against these cool painted walls. First I shot video then Still photos. Lots of stills. He is talking on the phone to a girl who's crazy. Enter Cooper Harris who plays the crazy girl. We shot her against the same walls about 3 months later. I then spent about a solid week editing and color correcting this all together. I had to photoshop about 1000 photos, resizing them and adding FX to them before adding them back into the video itself....budget? $20 I say $20 because I own cameras and editing bay. The locations were stolen. So the $20 was for water and lunch.

NEW Teaser for BATTERY ROW noir Short

Having just submitted our 30 minute short to ITVfest in Los Angeles I thought it was time to update the teaser with much more of the new footage that wasn't shot when I made the old teaser. I added actors like Heidi Hamilton who gave an amazing performance as Nick, the bartender. You can hear Heidi and her very funny co-Host Frank on http://www.heidiandfrank.com/  I had been a long time fan of their show when it was Frosty, Heidi and Frank on KLSX in Los Angeles for several years. All very talented and upbeat in their humor which is what I like.

Also added to the teaser is Erik Scott Smith. I met Erik while I was director of photography for SQUATTERS the series back last year. He plays Alex on that show and "Lucky" in Battery Row. Very happy we were able to get him.

We also added Carly Jones to the teaser who plays Laura in Battery Row. Laura is Butch's gf near the beginning of the film. I met Carly at our audition for "Proving Ground" last year. We cast her for a lead role in that post apocalyptic fantacy sci fi thing but are still setting up that shoot for later this year when we get investors. Carly gave us our "Veronica Lake" type character that set up our beginning plot lines.
Here's her website....
http://carlyjones.com/

Here is our new Teaser...

Expanding my Horizons (literally)

In an effort to expand my mental libraries of artistic and cultural imagery and at the same time broaden my indie film making tastes and emotional tools, and oh yeah, have a vacation, Amy and I are going to France and Italy... tomorrow. So for the next few weeks my blogs will be filled with photography of locations between Paris and the Amalfi Coast which among other things will satisfy my old dream of becoming a location scout. My paintbrush is coming with us too. Here's a couple shots of the Amalfi coast courtesy of Google...