www.BudgetFilmMaker.com : What
is the title of your new film?
Jesse Cowell: Shades of Gray- A title I selected because the film contains no black
and white
characters.
Everyone gets a little dirty in Shades.
BFM: What are your film about? Give me a brief synopsis about it.
JC: Five guys get together to blackmail their former best friend for
all the terrible things he’s ever
done
to them in an effort to see if he’s truly sorry.I made the film in Los
Angeles , California
BFM: What category does your film fall under drama/comedy/etc and
where did you
film ?
JC: Comedy (with an underlying drama)
BFM: How much did the films cost to made? Break this down in
sections?
JC: About $2000 total. Most of the cost was the price of DV tapes. A
few pizza’s here and
there and some gas money I suppose.
BFM: How did you fund the film?
JC: Saved up a little working and made the film J. At 2000 bucks – it
really didn’t require
funding – just lots of coffee, a strong sense of denial that it
couldn’t be done, and a few lost
girlfriends along the way.
BFM: How did you plan to make the film? What planning went
into making the film?
JC: There was a lot of research done on assh*&% friends. The more time
I spent with them,
the easier it was to come up with the ideas for scenes. Seriously
though - the schedule had
to be very planned out, but beyond that, it was an anything goes type
of film. Some scenes
were
rigidly planned (The opening) and some not at all (The passing of the
book and garage
scenes).
As I’ve had to in the past, I come from a very “Run N Gun” school of
filmmaking
where
my shooting creativity is often done on the spot. Some days we had
extensive shot
lists. Others it was let it fly (essential if you don’t have permits)!
Luckily, all I ever really
have to do is close my eyes for five minutes and the film usually
flows out of me. In fact,
sometimes
being on the set gave me the pressure I needed and wanted for it to
happen.
Don’t get me wrong, I always had a rough backup plan for every scene,
so I wouldn’t get
into a jam if the creativity wouldn’t flow. It also doesn’t hurt to be
surrounded by the right
creative
people. If my engine failed – there always were three more to keep the
plane flying.
BFM: What equipment did you use to make the film? Break this down
(Please list)
Homemade or bought?
JC:: I used my own Sony TRV900 mini DV camera on a Steadicam Jr. (eight
years old and 400
bucks
back in the day) to get all the moving shots I love. When I shoot, I
do a lot of move
and locks (moving shots that hold on characters before moving again).
That way I can
choose in the editing to have a static shot or the moving shot in
between. To me, keeping the
shots
moving (but not shaking) can give a shot an energy that you just can’t
get from tripod
mounted
stuff (especially for a comedy). For sound I used a Seinhieser 416
(the old industry
standard)
on a boom pole. I figured sound would be extremely important, as the
image
resolution on DV would be poor compared to film or high-def. I believe
that, of the two ways
to sell a film to an audience, sound is a full 50 percent of that. The
rest of the shooting
equipment was a junk pile of random stuff I had collected over the
years making movies.
Nothing
that really cost anything. Stuff that just gave me the “duck-tape”
like ability to do
different
things when I wanted to. As for cost, basically whatever equipment I
bought
(ummmm….charged)
for the film was used to make money before and after the shooting on
other
projects – it all basically paid for itself.
BFM: Where did you get the cast and crew for your film?
JC:
The crew was really my friend Steve, two friends who were also in the
film, and myself.
Steve was a fellow film student and friend. He shot all the shots I
was in and I shot all the
shots
I wasn’t. Steve also played the part of Billy the redneck and I think
he did an excellent
job acting as well. The two other actors/friends that helped with
the crewing were Guy
(Guy) and Victor (Victor) – both of whom I knew in my undergraduate program
in
Albany, New York
and remain close friends with to this day
BFM: Did the film come out like you expected?
JC: My answer to this has changed over the years. At first, I thought
the film was the complete
opposite
of what I expected as not every scene matched the tone I wanted. Now,
an exact
match
of the individual pieces was never important to me, as I believe more
in the overall
product
than the individual pieces. Kind of like one of those painting that
you can’t see close
up
because there are to many little colored dots, but when you pull back
and see the whole
thing,
it all makes sense. What I’m trying to say is that initially (even
though I believed in the
whole),
some of the pieces were red, instead of being the gray they were
supposed to be.
So, to me, the film as a whole wasn’t working (even though everyone
else told me I was nuts)
It was only when I took a giant step back from the film, that I
realized I had to go way back
to my original intentions and somehow through the editing and footage
that I had – make the
scenes
match those intentions (not exact vision – but tone). With pickups
shot in my bathroom
by
me – some really creative editing – I think I was able to capture the
spirit and mood of the
very scenes I wish had been burned in a tragic fire. So, in the end –
yes the film came out
exactly
as I had expected because to be blunt - I simply refused to have it
any other way.
BFM: How did you recruit your cast and crew, how long did it take
to cast?
JC: The casting lasted two nights and another short session. We had to
start shooting the very
next week – so this HAD to work. Luckily, we found Guy’s mom, Charlie,
and Russ (Chris)
and
Linda Lopez in our last day of auditions. Separately, I found Tyler
(Dave) in one of my
directing
classes at USC several months earlier. As I watched him do a scene
where he flailed
his
arm around wildly and showed some real guts and comic timing in front
of my class, I
knew on the spot, he was my Dave.
BFM: Did all the cast and crew work well as a team? Was there a
good working
environment?
JC: We started the summer of shooting by going to see “ South Park ”
together and had one of
the best times I can remember as a team. The tone on the sets was a
competition to see who
could
give each other a harder time. A “dissing” match went from the
beginning of every
shoot until the end. Actors were called “Hacks” and I was made to feel
like a wedding
videographer
(not that there’s anything wrong with that J). But it was all in good
fun and
being around those guys was a blast. It seemed that the only really
stressed person it was me
as
I had to keep the fun going to create a mood, but keep a handle on it
to not lose focus on
the
product I was chasing. But even though the stress was difficult at
times, when the summer
ended
and the phone stopped ringing – it was a very-very sad day.
BFM: If you had to make the films again how differently would you
do it?
JC: Not very differently considering the resources and conditions it
was made under. In fact,
without
a proper budget – I don’t know if it would be humanly possible to do
it again at all!
It really took it’s toll on me as an almost one man band through much
of the process. If I had
to
do it again – I guess I’d ask for more help.
BFM: What advice would you give film makers who want to make
films like this?
JC: Never ever for any reason - quit. Finish or don’t start.
BFM: What editing studio or package did you use to edit the film?
JC: Adobe Premiere – versions five thru Premiere Pro
BFM: Will you be making any more films during the next year ?
JC: I have been offered to shoot a short in Portugal and have been
presented with a few more
small
opportunities here in the US so far. I may perhaps shoot something
bigger if the
budget and right situation presented itself as I have an additional seven
feature screenplays
and ten more pitches that I would like to see get made. I am also
interested in possibly seeing
Shades getting made for a bigger budget to reach a wider audience.
BFM: Would you only want to direct from your own scripts?
JC: No. I believe I can bring something original (we’ll say different)
in my interpretation of
almost any piece of material. I’m not foolish enough to believe that a
good script had to have
been
one that I wrote.
BFM: What did you do before making the film ?
JC: The quick version. Grew up in Manhattan New York with a wild group
of gambling friends.
Got
knocked down. Became a lightweight Karate Champion. Got right back up.
Dropped
out of High school. Got knocked down. Cheated my way into College. Got
right back up.
Went
to USC film school. Got knocked down. Ran out of film school as fast
as I could.
Got right back up. Made Shades of Gray. Stopped getting knocked down –
somehow still
standing.
BFM: What are your inspirations and what are your favourite films?
JC: My mother who is a brilliant novelist. At the age of fifty she
finally got published. A little
woman who fights to this day. My
father, an unreal photographer who came from the school
of hard knocks
and pushed it all into his work.
My own vision of working a 9 to 5 job.
The fear of a normal life.
As for films. Shawshank redemption, Searching for Bobby fisher,
Matrix, Aliens, T-2, lots of Mob movies – Hell, I like something about
almost everything.
BFM: Was there any obstacle during the course of making the
film that with hindsight
you could have avoided ?
JC: Lots. But why look back when I have too much to look forward to :
)
BFM: What makes a good film?
JC: A Heart. Underlying passion and energy - even if subdued and
bottled. A film that makes
you feel like you’re not watching a film, but living an experience.
BFM: Are the characters built on your own friends or experiences?
JC: Not all of the scenes are based on my experiences, but I think the
themes are universal to
everyone. We all have that f%ked up friend at one point or
another in our lives. Though in
Shades of Gray, most of the stories (including the hidden Hotdog
scene) are based on true
events of my own and my friends lives.
BFM: Why did you make a film on such a subject ?
JC: I have a real love for friendships and the dynamics that take
place between them. To me
there is nothing more special than trust and
nothing more interesting than broken trust.
Jesse Cowell's film "Shades Of Grey' can be seen in the 'Films' sections of www.BudgetFilmMaker.com.
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