Spirit’s Requiem

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.

Basis Weekly Update 10/28/2011 – Poster Reveal

Need I say more?

Designed by Melissa Birch. Photo by Peter James. You’ll be able to buy a 16″x24″ copy sometime in the near future. Look out.

And look out for next week’s update, where we’ll finally get around to part 2 of our origin tale.

Basis Weekly Update 10/7/2011 – Spirit’s Origins I

It’s been a lonely two weeks without an update, and there would’ve been an additional week but I decided it would be cruel to leave you in the car by yourself with the windows rolled up for so long.

What’s there to talk about this week? Not much. Spirit’s Requiem is still pretty much in the same position it was three weeks ago. The audio work is proving quite difficult to complete. If anyone out there has experience with sound mixing then be sure to give me a call – basisproductions@gmail.com. Let’s talk shop.

I suppose I could digress into the origins of Spirit’s Requiem. Let’s delve into those memory banks and see what skeletons are hidden underneath the pile of sweatshirts and socks.

It all began way back in December of Aught Nine. I wanted to make a movie about a young girl who goes off on an adventure, something simple and clean, a fun and innocent adventure story set in the countryside. The first iteration wasn’t even a fantasy, but rather a simple tale of a five year old girl who spends some time out in the country. Here’s a sample from an outline I wrote (the file is dated December 18, 2009):

The Giants were gusts of wind that the Girl imagined as being Giants. Don’t ask me to explain why she thought they might be giants. She’s 5, just go with it. There were 16 scenes in all, and it ended with the Girl floating down a river on a homemade raft. Nice and simple, right? Maybe it was too simple. For reasons I can’t exactly remember, the premise evolved into something just a bit different.

The next version was more fantastic. This draft was the only one where the Girl had a name – Frankie. Originally I called her the Girl because I couldn’t think of a fitting name, and over time I began to appreciate her lack of a name. It added to her charm and mystique in a similar manner to The Exile, another one of our nameless characters.

Frankie was alone in the countryside, wandering around by herself for reasons unknown. Some mysterious force takes care of her, providing her with food and shelter. She encounters a mischievous man in her travels, one Robin Goodfellow, a rather puckish person who serves as an antagonist of sorts, though he is by no means a villain.

As I go over my notes for this version (dated January 19, 2010) I realize that it bears a remarkable similarity to what could be Basis’ next project, and so I shall be sparing on the details. I haven’t looked at these notes in well over 18 months, I suppose the idea was just so good that I could never forget it. What follows is an excerpt from a brief outline of the movie.

Based on this outline I wrote a complete script about 22.5 pages long, but I decided that this draft lacked the excitement that I was looking for, and so I began coming up with more ideas. The story became a fantasy in the modern sense of the term, and it was with this new version that Spirits and a true villain came into play.

Stay tuned for next week’s update, where we’ll talk about Spirits, altars, and the evolution of the character who would become Shade.

Basis Weekly Update 9/16/2011

Before I begin I must ask that any of our Kickstarter pledgers out there should check their email for a survey. Most of you have responded, but there are a couple of hold outs. If you pledged at the $5+ level and didn’t receive a survey please send me an email at basisproductions@gmail.com.

So what’s up this week? Audio. Film festivals. Deadlines.

Audio: The last of the music is being scored. What’s been produced so far is terrific. I’m hoping that we might be able to sneak a little peak at it soon. Last weekend we recorded two more of our actors for dialogue dubbing, and this weekend we’ll be recording two more. Audio is probably my least favorite aspect of filmmaking at the moment.

Film festivals: Spirit’s Requiem has been submitted as a work-in-progress to a few film festivals, most notably Sundance and Slamdance. As a poster in one of my middle school classrooms once said, “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” I’ve always interpreted that statement to mean that if you miss your landing on the moon you’ll be lost in space and eventually die once your ship’s life support systems fail. We’ll hear back from most of the festivals by early December. Cross your fingers.

Deadlines: Foiled again. It seems like every time I set a deadline something goes amiss and we can no longer meet it. Such is the trouble with projects of this nature. I am currently predicting a release date of late October, just in time for Halloween. Also just in time for Halloween – Spirit’s Requiem costumes. Dress up as your favorite character!