So – knowing all of this – I made the Award Winning feature film BLOOD TIES with my friend and film partner Robert Pralgo (Vampire Diaries and The Blind Side).

Oh yeah, being my first feature film as director and producer, and knowing all the above ‘rules’, I filmed in Bangkok and the jungles of Thailand, on the borders and customs gates of Cambodia, all over the Mall in Washington DC, at the Port of Miami, the mountains and valleys in Roanoke, Virginia, and of course in my home city of Atlanta, Georgia.

I hate rules – especially if they interfere with my creativity, so most of the movie is action, (maybe only 25 people die by gunfire), there are lots of fights, many with professional stuntmen who work on huge movies in Thailand (the Jackie Chan, Tony Ja, Steven Segal – kind of movies), and I cast Erik Markus Schuetz (Ong Bak, Mercury Man) as my bad guy for the BIG fights.

I was also able to add Thailand’s representative for the Miss China Beauty Pageant, actress and model Nawanun Anoma as my love interest.

We don’t have too many animals, just the giant lizard in the jungle and the one mangy dog – so at least that was out of the way early on.

We filmed almost all of it with available light, though I pushed the limits of the cameras and my extensive post processing (mostly in Adobe After FX) to give it the look I wanted and developed. A big part of the movie in at night or in dark interiors so we did have a scene where we had to add a 200 watt light bulb…

Trying to keep the characters to a minimum – I only have about 30 or 40 speaking parts. Most are working actors, and we get lots of compliments of the casting and all these actors brought their ‘A -game’.

So maybe only a total of about 50 stuntmen… I did keep the action limited to mostly fights, a few car chases, just a couple of high falls. We didn’t really have much time for choreography so we limited the special fx to just a few broken bones, and a lot of locking and twisting, kicking, punching, and just a few weapons.

Remembering the ‘limit your location rule’ I made sure we only used about 30 actual locations through out Bangkok – and only a few more in the northern mountains and the jungle. Trains, boats, tuk tuks, temples, abandoned 45 story buildings… those kind of things…

For my experienced crew I used a cameraman I had never shot with before and who had never shot any action. He ended up doing a great job, and since I had to make 4 more trips to Thailand to finish out the movie over a 2 year period, I recruited some of the stuntmen to jump behind the camera anytime I was in front.

To save on music, I composed all the music myself, though was able to add in the amazing voice of Brazilian star Adriana Mezzadri, who flew up to add some polish to many of my cues. Songs from 6 bands completed the soundtrack.

Almost 2 years of editing and post processing… our budget included not only buying two DVX100′s, it also built the editing system and bought the software to do it with, the movie was done!

The awards? “Action Film of the Year” at Action On Film International Film Festival… pretty cool as it was our first fest and went against movies that cost upwards of 2 and 3 million. The Audience Award for “Best Director” at Big Bang Film Festival. I got to see it on the really big screen in Downtown Disney where we won “Best of Festival,” and “Best Visual Fx” at the Indie Fest USA Film Festival. That got me invited to the Rincon, Puerto Rico, International Film Festival where we won “Best International Feature.” Our first overseas screening in the UK at the End Of The Pier International Film Festival brought another award for “Best International Film.”

The feature film BLOOD TIES – shot for 20,000 – in three countries, six major cities, with a total cast well over 100, an average crew of 2, with all post done by one on a desktop computer, will be released by Afterlight Pictures on February 15th.

This is a taste of what we did… BLOOD TIES MOVIE TRAILER

There is LOT of news coming and it might be fun to follow along – contests, screenings, our official World Premiere, reviews, and cast updates… you can find us BLOOD TIES on FACEBOOK here…

The new action movie BLOOD TIES

Making movies!

kely mcclung

“Kerberos” was nominated for 5 awards – including “Best Picture,” and “Action Film of The Year,” and ended the fest by winning “Best Director.”

The AOF was awesome this year! Del Weston has seemingly done everything right with this festival over the last 6 years and it keeps growing exponentially. Like many of the films there, shorts, features, documentaries, animations, and even music videos, “Kerberos” played to a full theater of filmmakers and film fans. Big parties every night, lots of free drinks and food, tons of software and giveaways, literally hundreds of filmmakers, 2 amazing awards shows, and lots of good films.

“Kerberos” had people come from as far as Atlanta, another contingent supporting “Kerberos” from Santa Cruz, and a half dozen who came specifically to see the film after hearing about it on some of the film forums I follow and write on. Having the Saturday night 7:30 screening and the 5 award nominations meant a lot of people were there to check out what the buzz was about, and of course I had my friends and co-stars Stan Harrington and Robert Pralgo there, supporting “Kerberos” and their own films playing during the festival. Stan’s film “Small Days” became one of the highlights of the festival, further validated by winning the coveted awards for “Best Actor,” and “Best Screenplay.” Rob’s ultra indie cinéma vérité style horror film won the Xristos Award for “Best Guerrilla Feature” for his cast and the film’s director Adam Minarovitch.

Like any festival, there are lots of good films to see. Impossible to see them all with 4 screens going at all times, but a couple of personal highlights were Stan’s other feature “Creed,” still in post but wowing the audience with a clever story and great acting, Akiko Izumitani’s powerful documentary on Japanese war crimes, “Silent Shame,” and the short film “Supertramp,” by director Phillipe Lenone. Stan’s movie “Small Days” was in class by itself and becomes some of the inspiration to aspire to on my next film.

Lots of new friends – based on mutual respect and common goals – people like Matt Sconce – director of one of the fest’s most talked about films “Stricken,” award winning writer Steven Karageanes, the badass Timothy McNeil – awesome playwright/actor; and got to spend time and share some laughs with the Mediasaurs gang, film reviewer Peter Demon, Spinal Villain, and Trapani, and the talented, beautiful, and very funny Amanda Dreschler.

As much as anything, hats off to Del Weston and Josh Neufeld for putting on a world class film festival. I encourage anyone making films of any level to enter and join the filmmaking family these guys deliver.

So much more coming from me and all these filmmakers!

“Talking People and Doing People – I hope to DO – Film is Forever”

Kely McClung

KERBEROS WEBSITE

follow me on twitter

http://www.twitter.com/kelymcclung

Nobody knows! Haha… Well, nobody on my set or in the cast! The name is the Greek spelling of the 3-headed dog in Greek Mythology that guards the Gates Of Hades… so the accent on the front syllable and with a hard [k], the [e] is a bit harder than the [e] in pet - the [b] in modern Greek alphabet is pronounced as a [v], and the [o] is pretty much like the [o] in “got” , and all ending on the hard [s] sound… Got it?

Just when I thought the name was too tough for people – how are they going to talk about it if they can’t say the name? – I was told by a Greek distribution company that it can also be Greek slang for ‘fierce’. So the name stays!

2. And what’s the name have to do with the story?

We’ll substitute Hades for Hell… a stretch for the purists I know, so you get in when the ferryman carries you across the river Styx, but the badass 3-headed dog doesn’t let you back out. We have three main characters – all tough guys in their own unique ways, all bad guys, and in too deep to ever get back out. There are at least a dozen other combinations of ‘three’ in the movie, though as one distributor recently told me, ‘you didn’t follow the 3-act structure.’ Thank God!

3. What was your budget?

Low budget, no budget, micro budget… not enough budget! Seriously, the budget was probably about what they spent on potato chips for a movie like Dark Knight!

4.   For a Low budget film “Kerberos” does not seem to be lacking in anything, Can you tell us what corners you had to cut? How did you make that choice?

The biggest sacrifice is probably time. Even though it looks good, we were pretty rushed on nearly every scene. The few people I did have work on the film did a great job, and could have done even better if they had more support. We had quite a few scenes, even when I am in front of camera, which had only one other crew member. The chase scene is an example – even though I am in it, and even though I filmed many of the shots, I only had my camera operator Raphael to help out – to shoot and help move equipment. We did it all in one day. Raphael went back out with me on another day to record all the sound while I recreated both parts of the scene for sound. The car chase is another extreme example; it was done in about 4 hours in one afternoon with one camera and a crew of 3 and no professional stunt drivers. Crazy – but I wanted it! The cops were my friends and made it happen.

Since I really had to struggle in post to make up for a lot of poor location sound, I’ll concentrate much harder on that next time. Still, there are so many times we knew the sound was going to suffer, but you either shoot it with what you have or just scrap the scene – not really an option in my stories. The car chase would have to be the extreme example for a bad sound situation going into it.

5. “Kerberos” is very action packed; the action is intense and looks real – what is your background? Did you go into it knowing that is what you wanted?

I’ve been doing martial arts almost my entire life. I’ve taught and trained with dozens of teachers around the world; Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, and all over the United States. Eventually I won the International Full Contact Stick fighting Championships that got me noticed. My introduction to the movies was in the American Ninja films. I was first guided in that transition from fighting technique to movie technique by karate/martial arts legend Mike Stone.

I know almost no one will agree with me, but I don’t think of “Kerberos” as an ‘action movie’! It’s more of an intense ‘pressure cooker’ cop story with a bit of action.

Part of that comes from our budget – I knew going in we couldn’t flip cars or blow up buildings; and part of it comes from the fact that those are not things I’m so interested in if they are substituting from the real emotion of the characters. You see that in many movies! With my resources, it is impossible to compete with a car chase like in the Bourne movies, or “The Rock’.

What I can compete with is raw emotion being tested by extreme circumstances, and that’s one of the elements that can make me like a movie. So I concentrate on the inner struggle during the big external scenes. That is what I am going for – to make movies that I want to see, and hopefully find an audience that thinks the same.

6. What else have you done or been in?

A bunch of low budget movies no one has heard of. My father used to think I was a spy because the movies are usually filmed in some troubled spot around the world, and somehow I’ve been there right as trouble begins or ends. Apartheid in South Africa, a coup in the Philippines, revolution in Burma, on my way to Israel as the Gulf War broke out.

People find me in a movie here and there. I’ve been in front of camera in about 20, but the first movie I felt I got to show some of what I can really do as an actor was from my first directing efforts in “Blood Ties”. I have a long way to go, but was able to take all of that much further in “Kerberos”.

7.  Which is harder Directing or Acting in the film? Which would you say is more your passion?

They are incredibly different mindsets. As the director, you need to embrace evolving circumstances but you need to dominate them and bend them to your will or vision. You are the leader of everyone involved, cast and crew, and dozens or even hundreds of people who are behind the scenes, and the guiding force behind the direction of every minuscule part of the final production.  I’m finding out I’m good at it, and of course you love what you are good at!

As the director of the actors, your real job is to nurture the actors and place them in a position where they can discover and explore for truth, and then help then recognize it when they find it as it fits into the overall story. It’s an intense process and takes an enormous amount of concentration. Especially in a story like “Kerberos” that has so many important characters. For me, the whole process is a strange balance of brute force and delicate influence.

As the actor, you walk the fine edge of knowing and searching, of pushing into the unknown areas of your own personality and psyche, finding the honesty that allows you to communicate by some common experience. And all of that within the context of the story and production you’ve signed on for.

I really love both, and would love to have the opportunity to concentrate of creating a character for a director who is as passionate as I am about the entire process. That looks like it’s going to happen in the very near future with people who are seeing some of what I was going for in “Kerberos”.

8.  What influences shaped your character choices for your role of Mike Finn? How much of what we see on screen is you?

The first book I ever read was Tarzan – I was only four – and I know the ideas of right and wrong and, the inherent nobility of character in some people is one of the biggest influences on everything I’ve done in life. I have always been able to relate to the internal struggle of Tom Laughlin’s “Billy Jack”. I guess many other people could too as it was incredibly successful and enduring.  I drew specifics for Finn from the Irish legends of Fionn mac Cumhail; things like his photographic memory and that he accesses it by biting his thumb.

The physical abilities are mine; I’ve always been good at creating violence. I can relate to Finn’s struggle to reconcile that with his ideals. Maybe some of the loner personality. The biggest part of the character though is probably is his relentless perseverance… neither one of us would ever give up to reach the goal we set for ourselves.

9.  Now that “Kerberos” is ready and about to be shown, do you wish you had done anything differently?

Not really. In the same circumstances and with the same resources, I’d have to pretty much do it the same. I would maybe not have put it out there until it was done… wouldn’t have submitted it to some of the bigger festivals or distributors until it was in the state it is on now. Then again, that became part of my process in refining it and getting it to where it is now. I’m so excited to finally have everyone’s work seen in this movie! I’ve literally restructured the movie, made some tough decisions, and just signed off on it just a couple days ago.

Of course, I’m a much better filmmaker now than when I started, so I’m ready to move on to the next part of the journey!

10.   When you work so long and hard on something like this does it become hard to let go of it? How do you feel when someone new watches it? Do you sit anxious waiting for their approval?

It takes me so long to do what I’ve done that people probably think that it’s hard for me, but it’s really about me not accepting less than my own best efforts for my given circumstances. I feel I owe that to myself, to everyone who helped along the way, and to any audience I find to watch it.

Compared to big films, I don’t have that many resources. People might be more talented or smarter – so I just work harder.

Of course, you want people to like it, but I don’t feel I have any control over that. I’m not even sure I want that control. I do push to make it work on lots of different levels. If you are into action, I hope you like it. If you are into story, acting, and want a movie that challenges you, hopefully “Kerberos” delivers. If you are after an emotional experience, I hope I’ve created it. I’m guessing my mom won’t care for it too much!

I make the movie to move myself, and hopefully the common experience in being human means someone else gets to relate.

I am so excited to be back at the Action on Film Festival and a big part of it this year. I can’t even express how cool it is for me!

I’m a nervous wreck in a festival screening but it’s more about things like the disc skipping, or bad projection, or some kind of sound issue in the theater. I’ll be in the very back, taking in the movie like everyone else. If I’ve done my job right on “Kerberos”, maybe I can have a few other people sitting there with knots in their stomach until its over!

The Action On Film International FIlm Festival

The VRO Radio – Where Your Obsessions Live

- Burn the final screening copy with duplicates

- Playback discs in real time on two different players to make sure there are no glitches or errors from my end

- Ship to festival, and keep duplicates in hand

- Repeat for a two BluRay discs just in case the fest suddenly wants to screen from an HD source

And that’s just for the actual discs! Once they leave my hands, it’s pretty much out of my control – a really scary thought for a director/editor/writer/producer/actor kind of filmmaker who has spent 2 1/2 years getting this movie ready! If that were the only jobs I had taken on with this movie, this would of been a piece of cake!

Now comes the finalizing of the postcards with all the screening information and adding the nomination laurels to the design… we’re extremely lucky to be adding five! Need to update our poster with the same. Prepare a press release. Redo our Press Kit. Make sure emails have gone out to everyone who worked on the movie so they know what, where, and when!

Get the post card and poster files out to the printer so we have them in time.

Start making the lists of friends and collegues in LA that might want to come.

Update the nomination news on the six film forums I post on.

Buy my airline ticket, book the hotel, pay for the awesome awards dinner, and get the press release out.

My friend Stan is scrambling to get his own movies ready, and is counting on me to at least try to help out on a couple of digital special fx. Not only do I have my hands in as a producer and co-director on his vampire/horror film “Creed”, even more important is that Stan is my friend. Pretty sure I can make these scenes better so he can get his renders done.

“Kerberos” screens at the Action On Film International Film Festival in less than two weeks! It already feels like that’s tomorrow!

Back to it!

So I’ve got to give extra credit when I received an email from the ACTION ON FILM FESTIVAL at 8:44 my time, only 5:44 am on the west coast. A .pdf of this years Award Nominations.

There are hundreds of films this year, and the line up is seriously impressive. One of the awesome things about this particular festival is it’s partially populated by some of the guys I’ve worked for in the past and even more meaningful, many I’ve admired from the beginning. The festival has grown exponentially, a testament to founder Del Weston’s really hard work for all of our benefit and I am really feeling good to just be part of it.

So a quick scan and I see that Whitney Sullins, our ingenue and female lead, is nominated for “Best Young Actress in a Feature Film”. That really means lot to me as I know she is special, one of those people who have the ‘it’, whatever that is, and was such a joy to direct and guide into the catalyst of the entire movie’s action. I saw dozens and dozens of girls in the casting sessions and literally found Whitney the day before we started shooting. I am so happy for her and for our movie!

I then see we’re up for “Best Cinematography – Feature Film”. Really cool! Note that it says ‘cinematography’ not ‘cinematographer’. That’s PERFECT! Even though I did much of the camerawork and controlled most of the look, big surprise huh?, we had a half dozen different people behind the camera when I was in front of it; David Banks, Attila Alexander, Rafael Rivera, and others stepped in when they had to. I create much of the look in post with comprehensive color grading and major work touching up flaws, adding shadows, shafts of light, lens flares and complex stabilizing and reframing. I’m kind of thrilled that I was NOT nominated for ‘special fx’.. most people won’t pick up on or even know about the added breath, rain, snow, gunshots, and smoke, and debris, and that’s the biggest compliment I could ever get on that work.

Then “Kerberos” grabs the nomination for “Action Film of the Year” (feature film).  Since this is the Action On Film film festival, that means a hell of a lot to me! I don’t think of “Kerberos” as really so much an ‘action movie’, more an intense cops and robbers – bad cops – bad robbers – but to be fair, it does have a LOT of action. I’m so excited by this, and even more so because my first movie, the feature film “Blood Ties”, made with my friend and co-star Robert Pralgo, won this award 3 years ago! It somehow feels full circle kind of right, that we are up for it again in this bigger project.

I see my friend, co-star, and awesome filmmaker Stan Harrington is up for “Best Director” for his movie “Small Days”; I wanted to call him, but Stan is west coast and is more likely to be going to bed at 6 am instead of getting up.

And on the very next line I see “Kerberos” – “Best Director” – “Kerberos” – Kely McClung. WTF? That is so great! I honestly did have to go back over it all several times to make sure..

So I pretty much stop there, the next ones don’t seem to really apply to our movie, and I start back at the top.

Wow – Stan again… “Best Produced Screenplay” for “Small Days”! And one line later Stan Harrington, “Best Produced Screenplay” for his awesome ‘Vampire flick’ “Creed”. This has to be a record or something… two nominations for the same filmmaker in the same category! Now Stan’s co-star Timothy McNeil is the writer on “Small Days”, originally a stage play that marked the directorial debut of Mark Ruffalo, but it is another Stan Harrington film! I am so excited for him.

And there is Rob Pralgo’s movie “Exhibit A7″ in for an award as “Best Guerilla Film – Feature”. This is a really cool cinema verte style horror film, directed by Adam Minarovitch, and produced by Kevin Woods, Adam, and Rob, with Rob and Adam starring along with Vanelle Lyn and the other female lead from “Kerberos”, Courtney Hogan. I saw a test screening at the ConCarolinas and it rocked the house!  Too cool!

It’s fun to get to cheer your friends’ work also… I know how much they put into it and how much they deserve the attention they are starting to get. Gonna be cool to see their success!

As I go through the list a third time, there is Stan again! “Best Supporting Actor” in “Small Days”! I’m really happy because Stan gets a lot of recognition for his writing and directing, but he only got into both to push his acting. He’s really charismatic and accomplished, and ‘kills’ it in “Kerberos”. “Small Days” is much like it sounds, a quiet film that really lets the acting shine. Both Stan and Timothy McNeil are great in it.

I get near the end and there is “Kerberos” again – for the biggest award of all… “Best Picture”! And right beside it, that damn Stan Harrington guy again too with “Small Days”!

Of course I want to win them all, but it’s simply awesome, massive, epic, to be such a considered part of the festival this year. Submissions were weeks or even months ago, I’ve lost track, and I’m a bit bummed that the movie I submitted doesn’t have close to the polish and impact of the movie we’ll actually screen. I am humbled though by the fact that the programmers and festival Director Del Weston saw some of what I labored over for the past 2 and 1/2 years, and saw the potential they knew I would keep working to bring out of it even until the last minute.

Having my closest friends and other filmmakers I admire showing their movies and work is really a generous icing on the cake. I’m excited to know that I’ll be making new friends, and getting to represent the efforts of all those who made “Kerberos” something we’ll all be proud of. I have friends flying in, driving from other cities and states, and of course a lot of friends in LA who will get to see it on the big screen.  To suddenly realize you are ‘one of the gang’ of such an admirable group might be the biggest award of all.

“Kerberos” picked up 5 nominations at this year’s festival; “Best Cinematography”, “Best Young Actress in a Feature” for Whitney Sullins, “Action Film Of The Year”, “Best Director”. and “Best Picture”.

Kerberos screens right after “Creed” on Saturday, July 24th, at 7:30 pm. Discounted tickets can be purchased now on the AOF website.

Del Weston’s Action On Film International Film Festival starts July 23rd and runs through the 30th.

KERBEROS

Throughout the editing process, we make thousands of choices that determine the end experience of watching the movie; none is tougher than losing a favorite shot or even harder a favorite scene. Exponentially even tougher is cutting an entire character or actor from the film, especially when they did such great work.

My litmus test for any shot or even a single frame within an edit is to look at it in the new context and make the decision of whether it makes sense to put it back in. If it does, I fight to understand why it wasn’t working for me as it was, and how can I make it better. I also know that if it’s something that is bothering me now, it will bother me forever!

Most times though, I find the story, the pace, and the coherency is better because of the change.

Just days out from our World Premiere at Action on Film International Film Festival, I went through some more of those tough choices by leaving two of my actors on the dreaded cutting room floor – virtual now but no less painful because if it - both for me and of course for them.

I love the scenes! I love the two characters, and I count the two actors as my friends and love what they brought to the scenes. I fought against the nagging feeling that their scenes were not working for the movie as a whole, that they were not contributing to the movie I ended up making. Not their fault of course, but my inability to guess how the other thousands of variables would come together and their place in it. I fought against the glazed eyes of my audiences when even as they were laughing or reacting, they started falling into the abyss of confusion. I fought against the advice of the people more experienced. I fought against the idea that I had somehow screwed up.

Finally, had to ask myself some tough questions.

- Am I leaving them in because I wrote the scenes?

- Am I leaving them in because I spent time, money, and everyone’s effort to film the scenes?

- Am I leaving them in because they are my friends?

I realized the answers were a combination of all the above. It took a bit of work, but not near as much as I feared; another sign that they were not integral to the rest of the movie we made.

Not always so easy!

The movie is radically better because of it! The through-lines and connections of all the other characters – and there are a lot of them – are crystal clear now. For an action movie, “Kerberos” has some pretty challenging layers. I think the refocus strengthens nearly every performance in the movie including mine as the director!

My filmmaker friend Stan Harrington told me he sees the cutting of such major scenes as a passage to becoming a great director… the ability to make those tough decisions for the overall good of the project.

I know cutting out entire scenes is done all the time for so many reasons on just about every film. Many times those reasons have nothing to do with making the movie better. They are many times corporate decisions, financial decisions, and marketing decisions geared to a lower common denominator.

One of the fantastic opportunities we have as independent filmmakers is to be just that – iindependent. I struggle with the idea of giving that away, and for now, don’t have to.

Still, we have the choice to serve ourselves directly, or to ultimately serve ourselves by serving the project.

I hope and push to be the kind of filmmaker who can look to what best serves the project. I know that “Kerberos” is much better for it… still, it’s pretty rough sometimes!

The final “badass” version of “Kerberos” makes its World Premiere at Del Weston’s “Action On Film International Film Festival” July 24 in Pasadena! Can’t wait!

 My rationale for cutting the trailer is more about making you look at your movie, the movie that you have created - short or feature – with different eyes. It forces you to make tough decisions about what you actually have, about what is working, and what is not. It forces you to boil your original intent of the project down to its essence. 

 Past that, it will may force you to see how those goals were met, and possibilities in strengthening them, by cutting or rearranging to fit not only your original intent, but maybe even more important, about the themes and structure you actually pulled off. 

Cutting an indie trailer is a hell of lot different that cutting a mainstream trailer with stars and star powered directors. Much, much harder!

 First, you won’t have all the amazing shots that 100K to 2 mil a finished minute can bring you. You won’t have the amazing effects. You probably don’t have recognizable faces that can sell your movie with just a shot of that face. You won’t have the perfectly balanced and recorded dialog tracks to work with. You won’t have the awesome, cool studio logos to dress it up with. The stunning music from an A-list composer or a song that’s already been heard around the world and bringing its own following and residual goodwill.

 You can’t get away with a flash of Matt Damon with a gun in his hand followed by a title card that states it’s directed by the Director of the Bourne Ultimatum. People don’t have to know what that film is about until after they see it – the trailer is only there to announce that there is a new movie with Matt Damon directed by the Director of The Bourne Ultimatum. Hit that with a cool, world famous studio logo and you are pretty much done! None of this is to cut down the amazing work of some amazing editors who cut trailers – it’s just a reality check that you’ll have to work a hell of lot harder to compete.

 So you’re actually going to have to tell a 1 to 3 minute story constructed of the pieces you do have. Don’t give it all away: people will complain they don’t know what the movie is about from this 2 minute montage of clips and sound. If they did, there would be no reason to watch the whole movie. You probably only really need to tell them what kind of movie it is – and then let them watch it.

 People will tell you that you are too close to your own project to do a good job at distilling it down. I embrace the idea that the final movie would probably be better if you got even closer, and forced to not just take that second, third, fourth – or one thousandth look at what you tried to make – but to embrace what you did make, and make sure the movie you deliver is done so in the best light possible.

 Now none of these lessons will help unless you are willing to re-examine the movie and make both minute and fundamental changes to it after the fact. And if the trailer sucks, throw it away and let someone else cut it again. You are the one who benefitted by your own efforts and can now apply the new vision you have to your movie. Remember – film is forever – so make it great!

 It’s not just the dedication and love of the craft and your project; it’s a genuine respect for everyone involved in any way with your film, all those who gave their talent and sweat and time – including the audience.

My newest movie trailer here

Back to work for me! Preparing the final version of  Kerberos for its Official World Premiere at Del Weston’s awesome Action On Film Film Festival July 24th 2010!

If you have a film, it might not be too late to submit. The fest has seriously grown fast, and was named one of the Top 25 worth the fees by MovieMaker magazine! Having shown there once before, I can tell you it’s the real deal! Hope to see you there!

 kely mcclung

KERBEROS website here

 KERBEROS, the 3 headed dog from Greek mythology, informs the story and characters in many ways, but we can basically sum it up as 3 men – none innocent and alpha males in their own right, are pitted by circumstances and goals against each other in a life and death struggle, not just with themselves, but everyone they know. They are all in way too deep, and none are getting out. The story itself is compressed into a tense 36 hour window. Everyone is put through Hell in this movie, but ultimately it’s about one man’s struggle against his own violent nature, and yet his willingness to go even further; to sacrifice his own redemption to do what will surely damn him but in his mind and soul is still the right thing to do.

 This was an extremely low budget movie. We shot on a single Ex1 with a very limited crew and resources. I embrace the dark, not only for what it reveals, but for what it hides. The darkness of human nature – and the heroics to overcome it – is what KERBEROS is about. My rules for making low budget film look rich are dirt, dust, and rust. In this movie, we can throw blood into the mix as well! Usually fake, with a lot of experimentation to get the right look, viscosity, and opacity. The few times there was real blood, it was minor, but was used as reference for what it really looks like. The sweat is real, the grunts and groans and yells from the struggles were real, as were the bruises and sore muscles the following days.

 We spent a lot of time casting, and all but one of my cast are working actors from Atlanta. All have showcase performances in this movie and were pushed by the intense subject matter and by my own obsessive eye for detail and nuance.

 Most of the ‘tough guys’ in the movie are real in the sense that they are world champion wrestlers, cops, former convicts, decorated Marines, former Navy SEALS, and world class martial artists. No one was out to hurt each other on set, but the tension created by having all these guys together was palpable; many times I purposely pitted people’s personalities against each other just to increase that underlying energy and most of that translated to the screen. 

Many of the guns are real so that when someone carries one or points one, the weight in their hands is real, as is the gravity of what they are doing. The suitcases are actually packed, the vintage cars that look so rough are really winning races in the underground car racing circuit, the police cars and sirens and uniforms are real, down to the socks and shoes. Badges and equipment belts are real, as are the prison uniforms.

 I think there was also a pride from working on this movie that was on set everyday, and I think that carried us through and comes across as well. The people on set each day knew and could feel that we were pushing to create something special; that the story and the ambition of the project warranted the demand for their best work.

 Right now, with only a few glimpses of the movie, weighted to pay back some of those same tough guys in a show of what some of their efforts produced, people are sensing that there is something else here to look for, and I think many will be surprised at how real and powerful the emotion and story feel as well. I do know that a lot of people will very happy when they see it, both those who made it and those sitting back safely and watching it.

 more to come – all links can be found on http://www.fuczm.com

The “tough guy” trailer   A bit Violent and Rough Language
– 
“Film is Forever”

Kely McClung

follow me on twitter
http://www.twitter.com/kelymcclung

One of the steps for the DIY filmmaker is creating the marketing materials; the key art and the press kit.

Kerberos

Key art basically wraps around creating a poster. Some variation of it is probably going to become your website, your box art, and maybe incorporated into your press kit. I can’t speak to the issues that every movie has, but there might be lessons that creating the poster for KERBEROS that can help out, or apply, or maybe even inspire.

KERBEROS, the name taken from the three-headed dog which guards the gates to Hades in Greek mythology, was certainly not a monster movie. Rather, it’s about three men, and the personal hell they have created and now fostering on others in a grueling thirty-six hour timeline of violence, double dealing, corruption, and survival.

One of the lessons I took to heart a few years ago at the American Film Market from my friend Ken Olandt (actor, producer, and executive producer) was that though my stars might have great faces, they are not faces that any one knows yet. So, to stay away from the floating heads type picture which dominate the shelves of the video stores and certainly the halls and rooms of the American Film Market!

I of course fought against that idea. My thought being that if I treated my actors like stars, they would be perceived as stars. I still think there is a lot of value in that idea. But Ken’s advice was to find that one iconic image that represented the film and the story. That at this stage, and hopefully in my case for my entire career to come, is that what I am creating as a movie is about the story – not the personalities of the actors we used to tell it. Think of the art for American Beauty… or better yet, go to a site like TCCandler.com and look at his idea of the 100 greatest movie posters. Many of those posters end up on other people’s lists as well. If you look at them, there are only a couple faces that really sell movies, pretty much the ones you’d expect; Tom Cruise, Jim Carey, Jack Nicholson. Thanks Ken for making me take a second look and rethink my concepts!

So a micro budget film made with a micro crew. Not much room or surprise when there are not stills of every scenes, or even less likely, the perfect stills for the key art to start with. I had always thought to do a photo shoot to create the poster, and had two very firm, very workable concepts. I also knew that there is the magic that happens when it’s for real – or as real as it can feel and seem in the middle of shooting a feature film.

From early in the filming and editing, there was one image that I kept coming back to that I felt summed up the entire struggle of our main character, Mike Finn and the theme of the movie. Yeah, that part is played by me. And no, that doesn’t make it easier. It makes it harder. It adds to the second guessing of is this really was the perfect image. But as a director, writer, actor, filmmaker, I’ve learned to trust my instincts. Is there ego involved? Of course. I’m a director, writer, actor, filmmaker.  Still doesn’t stop it from being the perfect image!

It’s also not recognizable as me, unless you know me really, really well. And I’m hoping our audience is bigger that just my immediate friends. Already, people who have seen it questioned me about is the shot one of the other two main leads in the film.

The image had it’s issues though, the first of which is that it was starting as frame grab. A still pulled from the original footage. Fortunately, we shot in High Def with the Sony EX1. Not at 3K or 5K Red, but still better than my first film’s Mini DV. So, where to start?

Well, as a 1080P frame grab, at 300 dpi, we’re only talking about a 6.4″ x 3.6″ image. That has to fill up a 41″ x 27.5 frame (American poster size). That’s a pretty big blow up! Now take in the totally incorrect aspect ratio which means a radical cropping of the image – somewhere down to about 2.5″ x 3.6″. Eeesshhhh.

Even worse, the shot itself was not the sharpest or most perfectly focused shot of the movie. It’s taken from the middle of an action scene. So, where to begin?

I started in Photo Shop of course. There are several plug ins that use fractal mathematics for their enlarging algorithms as opposed to the bi cubic and nearest neighbor formulas native to PS. I tried several different ways, but eventually settled on Alien Skin’s Blow Up. No mater what though, at that extreme enlargement, you introduce a LOT of artifacts. Fortunately, I knew I wanted something with a lot of grit and grain structure to it anyway.

The idea of the apparent reflection, actually a mirror images in concept, also filled up a huge part of the final poster, so I could get even more milage and not blow up the original quite as much. Even more important, it fit my concepts of the movie and story perfectly. Not just okay – but perfectly! The struggle against the good and bad, the losing battle of falling into Hell, the struggle to stay out and fight against the character’s inherent nature, the duality of good and evil. So like the story itself, this then became what the poster was about.

First I did a low rez mock up – just a quick placement of the images and some basic text blocked in. Ultimately, I ended up spending 2 full working days to create the mock up, leaving myself open to ideas of different color schemes but searching, much as I do in my color grading of the movie, for something that has strong contrast and colors but still feels naturalistic – skin tones are skin tones, blood is blood, and whites are white. The placement of the text – the composition and cropping of the images, came pretty quick. When it’s right, it feels right, and then everything else just feels wrong!

Radical manipulation with levels and curves, some highlight painting, the addition of additional film grain were added. There are also programs and plug ins that work within PS to add very realistic exposure and grain that emulate different film stocks. I played and experiment with them all.

I also utilized transfer modes – duplicate layers and how they work with each other and affect different parts of the image. The final image was made up of maybe 8 layers in different transfer modes with different parts of the image masked out and or erased to reveal what I wanted. This then became my basic image.

Next was bringing in the overlay elements. These were taken from low rez scans found on the Internet which were in turn taken from images of Hercules capturing Kerberos as his 12th trial. I looked at dozens of images, and settled on 2. These again had to be blown up – this time even more, though much of their details were not as important. Judicious painting, smoothing, sharpening, and ‘painting’ as well as some interesting color shifts and manipulation made the final image.

I again experimented with dozens of combinations and orders for transfer modes and placement, searching for lines and images that complimented and contrasted in interesting ways. I strive to find patterns that work from both 30 feet across a room and from just a few inches.

Once happy, I started bringing in a variety of textures and colors to overlay, searching for a combination that would compliment the overall design, add visible punch, and continue to tell the story of my original concept. The textures are a combination of paper textures, film textures, and some shots I took of the basement walls. The use of advanced transfer modes within Photoshop’s normal layers gives much more control and use. Mostly this is lot of experimenting, especially when you start to play with hue and saturation and color balance as the effect of the transfer mode changes radically.

The final touches to the images came from merging all the textures, then rearranging how they were placed to create the final composition in terms of both images and colors. The chains were brought in and placed, and the watch hands were made to read at 12. Dodge and burn brushes brought out the image more, and then lots of manipulation of separate adjustment layers for hue and saturation, levels, and curves were used. To help tie in all the disparate tones of the image, I settled on a bluish gray solid with a prominent monochromatic noise added and then used a soft light transfer mode to help tie it all together. This too was judiciously erased and masked in places where I liked certain elements popping through as they were.

I like the idea of using the most basic or cliche font’s – hopefully in ways that seem a bit unexpected, or sometimes to use them exactly as expected to serve as counterpoint to the unexpected image. In this case, I used 2 classic movie fonts, Impact and Trajan. I worked and tried about 20 other bold, compact fonts, but in this case nothing looked as good. I kept switiching them out as I pulled and distorted fonts, I distressed fonts, and tried dozens of colors and textures that complimented what was going on within the poster. Still, I think these classic fonts work as stated above, in counterpoint to the complexity of the image itself.

I did a quick mock up of the credits in Steelfish – a free movie font that does a remarkable job of looking professional with a minimum amount of work. Here again, people can argue that Univers is the type of choice, but there is no one standard font that someone has to use, and some will say its used too often. But the Univers family works because of it’s clean vertical design and legibility especially as smaller type sizes, which allows a maximum of information in a minimum space. Univers Light Ultra- condensed (Univers 59) is one of the most used.

Once I had my basics laid out, I went into Adobe design to redo and lay out the stacked credits. The kerning and leading is much easier to work with in designated design program. Most graphic designers are probably used to Quark or In Design or Illustrator. If you are used to staying in PS for your text needs, you can theoretically do almost all the same things and PS text is also supposed to be vector based these days. I say supposed because the difference is really quite pronounced and where as it’s okay in Photo Shop, it looks amazing when done in a dedicated design program such as the one’s mentioned. Stacked credits are not difficult – just tedious.

So though I am still investigating other fonts and ideas for manipulating them for the title, I’m pretty excited about the result. No matter who does the work, a poster design or graphic design firm, a friend who’s an artist or photographer, or your own skills and talents, it takes effort, time, experimentation, and work. But that’s the movie business, and the work is important. Remember that no one gets to watch the movie before they do – they make their decisions based on word of mouth, reviews, ads, trailers, and the artwork.

So, now onto the press kit…

kely mcclung

So more accurately, the beginning of another year of film making!

Since it’s still part of the year’s first weekend – hell, the first weekend of the decade! – it gives me the day to start planning and reflecting on last year’s efforts. I know that last January 1st, I wrote my years ambitions down in the Blood Ties blog, so it’s easy to see how both how close and how far I came from hitting my goals.

Kely McClung on the set of Kerberos

My primary goals at this time last year were to sell “Blood Ties” and finish “Kerberos’. I was also determined to shoot at least one short film, “Dust to Heaven”, and direct a couple music videos for a couple of the kick ass artists I have got to work with over the past couple years. I was dreaming of being well into “Black Heart” by this time, and making plans for “Altered”. I had even thought to film and complete another short film, one I am convinced needs to be shot on the beaches of Thailand to work.

“Blood Ties” is not sold yet. My film partner Robert Pralgo and I decided to piggyback it’s sale on either the sale of “Kerberos” or one of the many great projects he has been working on. There is nothing in “Blood Ties” story of filming that dates it – except that we look so much younger – and with both our creditability rising, Rob as an actor, and me mostly as a director, it still seems like a smart thing to do.

I did film “Dust To Heaven”, but for many reasons, some technical and some creative, I want to shoot it again. I think, and those who have read it, all believe the story warrants it. So that is definitely on this year’s to do list.

And “Kerberos“? Finished filming, finished editing, and finished post production. Bigger and better on the production values that came from both filming and post than I ever thought possible on this film and with this budget. The inclusion of 17 songs from 8 artists and bands, 4 from Australia, three local, and my original anchor, Katy J from Los Angeles. A music score made from the combined efforts of a English composer, Russell Scott Johnson, and my radical reworking to fit the scenes and evolving sound track. My second feature is again pushing the limits of what micro budget films can be.

“Blood Ties” won another film festival, the End Of The Pier Int’l Film Festival in England. That win back in April of last year, turned out to be more far reaching in ways that I could never have imagined. They introduced me to my friend Rob James, a former award winning sound engineer retired from the BBC and now a renowned sound guru and technical writer for the post sound industry throughout Europe. His help, his advice, and and his introduction to not only the Kerberos composer, but to Twickenham Film Studios in London, took up a good part of last years efforts to raise Kerberos above the common indie crowd. I was not only able to spend nearly five weeks total in England last year, I was able to work and make friends at Twickenham Film Studios and work on our sound mix with Craig Irving, another BAFTA award winning sound engineer, co-director of the Twickenham sound tacitly, the re-recording mixer on films like John Madden’s “Proof” and Mikael Håfström’s “Derailed” and “1408″.

Twickenham Film Studios, London

I can now count Craig as a friend and collaborator, and learned an incredible amount from both he and Rob that will effect all my future films. “Kerberos” is much, much better for it, and their encouragement and reception to the movie, the story and acting, is making me push even harder for it to reach it’s full potential.

I also am thrilled that I spent some time in England. Though my 2 weeks in London were taken up with the mix, 10 to 16 hour days, I still was able to get a feel for the city. Enough that I want to go back this year. And of course am already planning the mix at Twickeham Film Studios as part of post production on my next films.

I’ve started a new script, and am starting to breakdown “Black Heart” and “Altered” to start making plans to film them this year – a year late – or just in time - it’s hard to say.

I had a rough, unfinished work in progress showing that brought our first review and another man I now count as a friend – Peter Demon of Mediasaurs. He truly writes some insightful, badass movie reviews on both mainstream and indie films, and had become our first outside champion of the work.

And “Kerberos”? I brought it back from Twickenham knowing that there was much we were not able to get done in that short two week window. much that I still had to do. As of 10:45 pm Dec 31st – that work is done! Story of my life - cutting it close!

So now comes the marketing, the completion of all those other projects I’ve started out to make, mentoring a few others I’ve met along the way, and of course being open to the adventures of a new year!

For easy access to all the links – jump to fuczm Hey, the word makes me laugh!

luck and success to all – kely