Archive for December 2011

Basis Weekly Update 12/30/2011 – Year’s End

There’s only one more day left in 2011, and what a year it was. Work on the film began in late February and ended only a few weeks ago. For those of you who haven’t been able to see the movie we will be having another screening of Spirit’s Requiem in January, the date and location is still TBD. If you would like tickets, please send an email to basisproductions@gmail.com with the subject “Tickets for Spirit’s Requiem” and then let me know how many tickets you would like in the body of the message.

We have some lovely images of our two protagonists for you this week. Some are new, others you’ve seen before, but they’re all great photos. Am I right?

Spirit’s Requiem OST Now Available for Sale

You heard it here folks, the Spirit’s Requiem Original Soundtrack is available for sale, with music composed by Jonathan Peros. Click here to be transported to a magical world where music is perpendicular to happiness. Don’t ask me to explain that, just buy the soundtrack and you’ll understand. You’ll understand everything.

This is one of those “pay what you want” deals, so might I suggest $10 for this fine album? I’d say that’s a good price, considering it’s as much as iTunes would charge but you don’t have to deal with Apple’s rules and restrictions. It’s also available in FLAC! Let’s see iTunes or Amazon MP3 give you that option. Nope.

And you know what just might be the best part – most of the money goes directly to the composer. Isn’t that the best reward that a hero could ask for? Support a mildly hungry artist by getting the Spirit’s Requiem Original Soundtrack.

Basis Weekly Update 12/16/2011 – The Road Goes Ever On

It’s the first weekly update following the completion of the film. It’s strange not being able to give an update on production, not being able to tell you how close (or far) we are from the end of the journey. But with the close of one journey comes the beginning of another, and for us that means showing off the film. After all, who makes movies with the intent of never showing it?

For those of you who don’t regularly check the site, nor like us on Facebook, nor follow us on Twitter (and why the heck haven’t you?), Spirit’s Requiem was finished and premiered last week. Click here and here for more info.

I’m afraid I have some bad news regarding the online and DVD release: it’s not happening anytime in the near future. Why? Some film festivals require that any short film they screen is not available publicly available online or home video. The majority of festivals do not have this requirement, including most of the high profile fests, but some of these smaller festivals seem to be zealous in ensuring that their films aren’t able to be seen anywhere else. Even our very own St. Louis International Film Festival is in on this action. Seriously guys, I can understand having these restrictions on feature length films, but not on shorts.

There will be DVDs, as pictured here, but they’re reserved for the cast and crew. After all, I believe I promised all the actors “credit and copy” when they were cast. Melissa Birch, our graphic designer, did an excellent job on the DVD jacket. It looks like a professionally made DVD which is at home alongside the rest of my home video collection. Sorry for being such a tease, but if you want a copy then let us know and if we get a large enough response we may do a public release – once the festivals are over, that is. For now if you have a desperate desire to see the DVD and all its extra goodies you’re going to have to buddy up with one of our fine cast or crew members. Bribing them is always a good choice.

You doth protest being unable to see the movie? Okay, I think we can do something about that. We’re going to be doing another screening sometime next month. In order to get around festival regulations regarding public screenings, it will be a free screening and tickets won’t be publicly available (cough). If you’re interested in attending, send an email to basisproductions@gmail.com with the subject, “Tickets for Spirit’s Requiem Screening.” Tell me how many tickets you want and I’ll see if I can hook you up with any.

In the coming weeks we’re going to have interviews with some of our cast and crew written by our Canadian correspondent Evan Haverson. I’m also planning on finally finishing that article about Shade that I promised a long time ago. Be sure to keep that dial tuned to basisproductions.com, now being broadcast on subspace radio.

Tales from the Premiere

Spirit’s Requiem premiered yesterday to critical acclaim, which is to say that my mom liked it.

You want I should be serious? Alrighty then. It was a cold night, but inside the library conference room of Webster University things were heating up (okay, I swear, I’ll be serious now).The first order of business was to get the movie ready for viewing, which turned out to be much harder than imagined. The DVD wouldn’t play on the Blu-Ray player, so we tried playing it on the computer only to find that there were severe issues with the frame rate. Things were looking bad. If the movie didn’t work then what would we do? Act out the thing in front of the audience? Stage plays aren’t my thing, so we tried hooking up my laptop – which the DVD played perfectly on earlier that day – only to find that my laptop didn’t want to interface with the projector. Ain’t technology grand?

And then I hit upon an idea. You know my motto: if it doesn’t work then try it again.* I popped the DVD back into the conference room computer and tried playing it on that one media player that’s symbolized by a traffic cone. You know the one. THAT one. It worked, crisis averted, at least until the audience realized that there would be no cake.

Yes, there was in fact an audience. Most of the cast and crew showed up along with their friends and family. No uninvited guests allowed, for i’twas a private screening. People began filtering in just before 6pm, passing through a battalion of well armed bouncers prepared to prevent any unwelcome guests from entering.

The show started fashionably late at 6:30pm and ended shortly before 7:20pm to a big round of applause, followed promptly by cookies and hot apple cider.

What did people like? Pretty much everything, I didn’t hear a bad thing said. Granted, this might have been due to them wanting to be nice to the filmmaker, but I sensed some genuine-uity in their words.

The acting. All of our actors put on superb performances. As many independent  filmmakers (see here for a definition of independent) know it is extremely difficult to find good actors, especially in a Midwestern town far, far removed from LA or New York. It was a combination of luck and good casting decisions that brought us this talented cast.

The music. I know, I know, I’ve praised Jonathan Peros’ score so many times that you’re probably rolling your eyes. Don’t roll them. In fact, gouge them out of your sockets so that you can devote all of your sensory attention to listening to his music once you get the chance. Also: cut out your tongue, chop off your nose, and take an anesthetic. On that lovely note…

The fact that it’s a freaking G rated movie (or maybe PG, depending on how you view that single scene of violence). You heard that right folks, Spirit’s Requiem is very mostly child appropriate. I don’t think the audience, or at least those not a part of the production team, were expecting a bunch of college aged guys to have made this sort of movie.

The visuals. Many comments were made about the pretty scenery, which was made even prettier by the lighting. It just goes to show you that restricting ourselves to less than 2 hours of filming in the evenings was totally worth it (and almost no artificial lighting!). One person even asked how we filmed the campfire scene, which was lit only with real fire. That scene was our Barry Lyndon experiment, except we didn’t have NASA on our side.

What happens next? Keep an eye on the website for more news regarding upcoming screenings and Internet availability. For now, feel free to watch the trailer again. You know you want to.

*That is not actually my motto.

Mission Accomplished

Spirit’s Requiem is finally complete.

After months of script writing, a false start, filming an as-yet unreleased short film, more months of altering the script, filming another short movie, three months of pre-production, 10 weeks of filming, and over three months of sound wrangling, it ends nearly two years to the day after it began.

Clocking in at 47 minutes 12 seconds, Spirit’s Requiem is the longest movie Basis has yet made. Indeed, it’s the longest movie that most of the crew has been involved in. Is it a long short or a short feature? That’s for you to decide.

When do you get to see it? For the cast and crew (and their family and friends) you get to view it at the premiere this Saturday, December 10th. Everyone else will have to wait until later in the month for the movie to appear online. Do not fret, you won’t have long to wait as the movie will be online before Christmas. You might even be able to make it a part of your holiday festivities. I’m not sure if Spirit’s Requiem has any relevance to the Christmas season, but for those of you who live in cold places it will remind you of summer’s warmth. Huddle close to it as you would a fire.

Thanks to everyone involved in production. It was a hell of a thing.

Basis Weekly Update 12/2/2011 – The Final Countdown

The turkey has been in the oven for a long time now, simmering in its juices, absorbing the aroma of the spices stuffed up its…well, you know. That delicious looking bird is almost ready for you to gobble up.

Okay, so maybe it’s a week late for a turkey analogy. But as Sir Alfred Droxshire once said, “The turkey, while best suited for the giving of thanks feast, can be utilized for any meal during the autumnal season.” And since autumn doesn’t technically end until December 21st I will continue to use the turkey until then. Gobble gobble. Where was I going with this?

Spirit’s Requiem is now watchable from the opening titles to the end credits, complete with all the audio: dialogue, sound effects, ambiance, and (best of all) music. Why don’t I release it yet, you ask? Because as it is now portions of the music drown out the dialogue, dialogue obscures sound effects, and ambient noises sometimes trump all other sounds. Much adjustment needs to be done so that all the sound is in its proper place and the audience isn’t deafened due to volume irregularities. Once the sound is ready there will be one final round of color correction before the film is finally finished.

The journey from script to screen is nearly complete, and your journey alongside the Girl and Shade approaches. I hope you’re ready.