basisproductions

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.

Basis Weekly Update 11/25/2011 – Shades of Gray

It’s the day after Turkeyday, which means you’ve either been out shopping or serving those who are. I suppose you could take a third option (like sleeping), but I like dichotomy, hence the existence of Spirit’s Requiem. The Great Spirit represents all that is good, and the Evil Man is – you guessed it – evil. With so many contemporary films featuring shades of gray and never clear cut white and black, I thought it would be nice to have something where good and evil are apparent.

At least Spirit’s Requiem would have been like that had I not [apparently] been subconsciously influenced by said gray contemporary cinema. After having spent many long hours staring at the film, I have come to the conclusion that the Great Spirit is selfish and power hungry, while the Evil Man is more of a tragic figure. To elaborate would give away spoilers, which I grew to hate over my 5 years as a Lost fan, so I’ll leave you in the dark for now. Once the movie has been released perhaps I’ll post this alternate character interpretation so you can see these characters in a different light. But please, do not put the Evil Man in leather pants. That’s just not right.

I’ve decided to take a brief retrospective over several photos this week. While we were unfortunately unable to take production pictures every shoot day, we did snag a few that I love, and I want to share that love with you. No, not like that. That’s just not right.

That’s me right there, along with our trusty camera, a Canon XL1s. She’s been through a lot, and though she is now mostly dead I still wouldn’t mind taking her out again for one last swing. Thanks to Matthew Myers for letting me borrow her for the past year and a half, and in case I forgot to tell you: your camera is on its last legs.

One of my favorite scenes (visually) features Shade and the Girl walking down a creek while the former monologues. The camera floats around the characters as the sun sets in the background. It’s pretty.

Once you’ve seen the film you might recognize this field. Shooting here wasn’t planned, we passed by it on our way to the creek and it just so happened to be a great location to shoot a couple of scenes of the Girl walking around. The best footage comes from these unexpected events.

 
This is my favorite production photo of them all. I know it doesn’t show much of the production, but it gives a fairly good look of the farm (or the barn at least) of the location for the majority of the film. I would like to thank Kingsdale Farm for allowing me to use their property to film not only Spirit’s Requiem, but The Exile as well.

Basis Weekly Update 11/18/2011

Three weeks until the premiere and there’s still a lot of work that needs doing. It’ll be another short update this week.

The music was delivered a few days ago and boy is it good. Jon truly outdid himself, he’s an excellent (and patient) composer. I can’t wait for the movie to be done so you too can experience his music. The score will also be available for sale as a digital download in the not so distant future. Once it’s up I’ll link you to it, though your earliest chance at hearing it will come when Spirit’s Requiem is released online.

That was a really short update. I suppose it leaves more time for drinking…which is something you don’t want to be doing at your office Christmas party. Is it really only 5 weeks until Christmas? That doesn’t leave us much time to get the DVD stuffed into your stocking.

Basis Weekly Update 11/11/11

It’s the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh year of the third millennium, or at least it is here in St. Louis, Missouri. Time for a production update, however brief it may be.

The end is in sight. The audio is being worked on, a slow and painstakingly boring process. Yet now most of the movie is watchable and hearable, albeit without a musical score. That will be added next week, the last major piece of the puzzle.

It’s been a long journey from idea to paper to film, one that you’ll be able to experience sometime next month. The premiere date has been set for December 10th, and while I wish I could open it to all of our faithful readers, we only have a limited number of seats that are reserved for the cast and crew. Do not fret if you are neither of those – the movie will be available online shortly after its premiere.

I leave you with this video, which I believe is appropriate for today:

Basis Weekly Update 11/4/2011 – Spirit’s Origins II

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the first ideas for the movie that would become Spirit’s Requiem, ideas that bore only a passing resemblance to the story as it is now. And then, in March of 2010 there was a breakthrough, an idea that had enough adventure, excitement, and mystery to make it compelling for the average person (previous drafts were a little too “art house”), but was possible to pull it off on a budget comprised of Monopoly money.

The beginning of an outline dated March 7th, 2010:

The Companion, an invisible fairy born from the baby’s laugh, was developed from an invisible friend that briefly accompanied the Girl in the second draft, which in turn was developed from the “giants” in the first draft. He was a kind and helpful fairy who guided the Girl to each of the four altars.

The altars were introduced in this draft, a concept that stayed with the script until shortly before filming began. There were four altars each representing one element. Can you guess what they were? Fire, wind, earth, and water. Thanks to Final Fantasy (and pretty much every JRPG I’ve ever played) for that idea. The Girl needed to activate these altars by solving some sort of puzzle, and the Spirit would be awakened and we would be “treated” to a lengthy expository speech regarding the villain, initially known as the Man in Black, and the nature of the Spirits.

Overall the outline for this draft looks remarkably similar to the movie as it is now. I cannot go into any more detail lest I spoil you, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do that.

The problems with version numero tres were twofold – the pace wasn’t quick enough, and there was very little conflict before the climax. The first problem continued to be a problem until the final draft, but the latter issue was homed in on like a predator drone going after a terrorist hideout (though I should clarify that no civilians were killed in the process of writing this script).

And so, the Companion became Shade in the draft dating from late April 2010. Upon writing this I realize that Shade could take up an entire article on her own, and so I believe I’ll do that at a later date. In short, while the Companion was kind and helpful, Shade was sardonic and far less obliging. It brought it much more conflict to the story, as Shade has far less optimism about their chances against the Evil Man, and on several occasions expresses her love for the shadows. It’s cooler in the shade than in the sun, after all.

Between April 2010 and April 2011 the script essentially stayed the same. There were minor changes here and there, mainly the removal of things that were deemed to be too difficult to pull off with our resources. Originally there were two encounters with the Evil Man’s minions, but due to the complexity of filming fight scenes and outfitting the minions in appropriately evil costumes they were scrapped. A bonfire party was also thrown away partially due to logistical difficulties but also because it felt somewhat out of place.

The biggest change came in April of 2011 when, as we were casting for several of our roles, I figured out how to pick up the pacing of the plot by getting rid of the altars and replacing them with one all encompassing “Spirits’ Altar.” The pace was greatly quickened and the movie slightly shortened. It also meant we didn’t have to figure out how to haul a stone altar around to four different locations, though in the finished movie the altar isn’t actually a stone altar and is rather a waterfall type thing. Securing stone altars is surprisingly difficult, though we do have a kickass stone pedestal for the sacred sword.

The only major script change during filming was to the ending, which – please do not be alarmed – was completely rewritten less than an hour before it was shot. If you have time or money invested in this movie and have just had a heart attack then I advise you to take some Advil. Or call 911. Or just get over it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: fight scenes are horribly difficult to film. I decided it would be better to rewrite the scene than have a god awful battle that leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that you forget all the goodness that was the previous 40 minutes of the movie. So how did the hastily rewritten ending work out? You’ll have to be the judge for yourself.

The script saw its last draft on July 10th, 2011, where some minor adjustments were made to a scene about to be filmed to correct for production related changes to a previous scene. Though the script is finalized and will see no more edits, the story is still being changed in the editing bay. As of right now I’m seriously contemplating cutting a portion from one of the scenes that is an artifact from earlier drafts and is no longer necessary to understand the story or the characters, despite the fact that I’ve already locked the cut. As a wise man once said, it’s not over until the fat lady sings.

On a related note, Basis Productions is looking for a plus sized female to perform a selection of Mozart’s opera works at the premiere of our latest movie. Mezzo-sopranos are preferred.