Mark Duplass’ SXSW 2015 Keynote

March 30, 2015March 29, 2015 - Colin Ashby 1 Comment

I really like mumblecore film (i.e. microbudget, no-budget film). If you go the archives from years past, you can see I’ve done some film reviews, usually of independent films. Of the independent films I watch, Mark Duplass is a stand out I like. He’s gotten sorta huge in the past few years. Currently he has a TV show he writes and produces on FX called The League, HBO show Togetherness that he writes and produces, and has a guest-starring role on Fox’s The Mindy Project, all while still managing to have a movie career outside of all of those other projects. Busy guy!

He wasn’t always this way.

He used to be just like the rest of us: working a day job, living in a crappy apartment in South Austin, TX, and wanting to have a career as a filmmaker but having no connections to the industry. This wasn’t the typical tale of some twenty-something guy who passionately wrote a screenplay, happened to know someone who worked in the Warner Brothers mail room, and the script ended up at the studio heads who loved it and immediately produced it. That usually only happens in lofty dreams/hollywood movies.

Duplass didn’t know anyone who worked in the mail room at a studio. He didn’t know anyone in connection with Hollywood film, for that matter. He just knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. So set out to do that by making a no-budget short film with his brother, Jay Duplass, that cost them only $3 bucks. According to him the film was poorly shot and not that good. Despite the production quality, the taste and vision was there.

He worked at his day job, diligently saving money, and continued to make short films almost every weekend. He and his brother started to build a community of people they collaborated with, acted with, wrote with, and edited with.

Big piece of advice? Don’t go to film school. He says to minor in film and major in something that can get you a good paying job (since you’ll need to save money). When a guy in the audience asked a question about if he should go even go to college and film school, Duplass told him to think hard about it and maybe even skip college due to how expensive it is.

Duplass had some incredibly great, fresh, advice on up and coming filmmakers trying to break into the industry further. He talked about his experiences going from a guy having no connections to honing in on his craft, building a community, and moving up in the industry. There were eight tips he touched on.

1. The $3 Short Film

When you’re just starting out, find out the resources and locations you can work with and build the short film around that. Duplass said he and his brother spent $65,000 on a film called “Vince Del Rio”, it was their first film and it turned out horribly bad and him and his brother got depressed and almost gave up. They didn’t. They persevered and made another low/no-budget film and submitted it to a bunch of festivals.

“It doesn’t matter what your film looks like as long as it has a distinct quality and unique aspect to it”

2. Make a Feature for Under $1,000

Again, figure out all the resources, locations, and people that can help you and make a super low-budget film. Go make the movie on your own, with your own team.

3. Show Your Movie to Notable Stars

Even better, notable stars who are frustrated by the lack of choice in roles they get. Let them see your $1,000 movie at a festival and tell them you will build a movie character based on what they want. A lot of them won’t respond, but some will.

4. Make Another Cheap Movie–But With Notable Star

The cheap movie with the notable star will have the power to get distribution to video on demand services (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, etc).

5. VOD is the indie film’s savior

“This is where I think VOD is an amazing thing to have for independent film” Duplass says

The cheap movie made with notable star will get some attention on VOD, unlike it would if it played in just a few theaters, and agents and other people will start to notice you.

6. Next Stop: TV

At the beginning of the keynote, Duplass mentioned how much of middle class film is dead. There aren’t that many $5 million to $10 million dollar budget films that are produced unless they have a notable star in them. TV is the replacement. TV is the new age medium indie filmmakers can go to.

You pitch a show to a network, it will probably get denied, and so you independently produce a few episodes of the show and sell it to a network looking for fresh, inexpensive programming.

7. Raise Your Friends and Help Them Out

Now that you are in a better place, help out your lower level friends produce their projects. All about building a community of people.

8. Crossroads

People will be offering you directing, writing, and producing jobs. They will be tempting to take. A lot of the offers will fall through. It’s okay though. You have built yourself up. You won’t be rich but you’ll have a solid reputation, people will see you as a filmmaker. You will be able to show your kids your movies and say that was 100% no compromise, your movie. Some studio doesn’t own it, you do.

The speech ends at around the 25:00 minute mark. The floor is open for questions. One that stood out was about moving to Los Angeles. A person wondered about if, when they should move. Duplass answered by saying a filmmaker should keep making films where they are, where they know lots of people that can help them (with locations, props, crew,etc) and can get to know themselves. A filmmaker just starting out can’t do that kind of thing in LA.

Two pieces of great advice (don’t move to LA until you find your style/voice and don’t major in film) and eight tips on success in the film industry.

Watch the keynote for yourself. It’s a great viewing with lots of original and fresh bits of advice and anecdotes.

TV is the Anti-Hero

August 11, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

“Let’s see what’s on Netflix” is a phrase becoming all the more common. It seems to be said more often that the traditional phrase “Let’s go to the movies.” More people than ever seem to be turning on the remote (or computer mouse) instead of going out to the movie theater. While the film industry has had several disappointments, TV seems to be thriving more than ever.

TV is becoming everyone's BFF — TV is becoming everyone’s BFF

In 2013 Netflix released a slew of original programming including the political drama House of Cards, the Arrested Development comeback and the much-beloved women’s prison drama Orange is the New Black. Two of Netflix’s shows received Primetime Emmy Award nominations, a first for web syndicated television content.

With big-budget flicks disappointing and movie making becoming more riskier, TV seems to be a safe haven that many are flocking to.

Anna Faris: Launched to the spotlight after starring in the horror parody film Scary Movie, Faris had a good amount of films under her belt. In 2013 she shifted gears and accepted her first full-time television gig, playing a single mother with her recovering alcoholic mother in the CBS series Mom.

Kevin Bacon: No need to watch Footloose again, Kevin Bacon leads Fox’s thriller drama series The Following.

Kerri Washington: Known for her wide array of film credits, in 2012 Washington became the first African-American actress to lead a prime-time network series in 40 years. Scandal airs on Thursdays on ABC.

See more film stars who switched over to TV here.

Summer TV Shows to Watch

May 25, 2014 - colinashby 1 Comment

Olivia Pope finished her clean-up duties during the April 17th season finale of Scandal. Mindy Lahiri and Danny Castellano got together in The Mindy Project season finale. Jake Peralta went undercover at the end of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine’s season one. Everything is all wrapped up for network shows. Quality TV, however, doesn’t stop in May. A batch of new and returning shows are looking to capture TV fanatics.

Memorial Day weekend has happened and the summer TV season has *unofficially* started.

Under the Dome (CBS: June 30)

The show is based on Stephen King’s bestselling book of the same name. It centers on a mysterious clear dome that encases a small town. Trapped under the dome, the corruption and dirty secrets of the town start to come to light. The show has been criticized a bit for its sometimes overacting and writing. Nevertheless, with new and expanding storylines and a host of well-developed characters, it’s worthwhile to watch.

24: Live Another Day (FOX: Mondays 9/8c)

Okay so this show has already started, but it’s worthwhile to catch up on (via Hulu) and start watching new episodes. The limited 12 episode event is based on the popular TV show. The special limited event series can be enjoyed even without ever having watched 24.

The 12 episodes center on Jack Bauer, still a federal fugitive, is recruited by the CIA to assist in the investigation of a presidential assassination. He is promised amnesty in return for his cooperation. He’s Jack Bauer so he can pretty much do anything. One of the prominent badass heroes of television. He was popular…before TV even became super popular (if you get what I’m saying…). Anyways, digging deep into the investigation, Jack soon realizes that more is at stake than just a presidential assassination. The world…could be on the brink of war. No biggie, right? Jack’s up for the job.

If your dissatisfied with action movie selection this year/summer, Jack Bauer will surely pull you into the action TV landscape. As they say…Jack is back!

Orange is the New Black (Netflix: June 6th)

Everyone surely knows all about Orange is the New Black, right? The suprise hit series no one saw coming? A quick synopsis of this show doesn’t even do it justice. It’s one of those shows you just have to watch to see if its good…and it is. The dramedy prison set series centers on Piper Chapman, a woman who is given 15 months in prison for a drug money smuggling deal. Orange is the New Black is one of those shows that is very character driven (it centers on a different character every episode). It shows each of their motivations, desires, goals, and emotions. The gritty nature of prison drama is shown (albeit a little watered down). It’s one of those shows that really makes you think and feel for each of the characters. June 6th can’t come soon enough.

Burning Love

This isn’t a new show. It’s been off for a year now but continues to provide laughs. The show has three seasons: first season on Hulu Plus. Clips of the second and third seasons can be seen on Yahoo Screen. The show is a parody on reality shows like The Bachelor and Bachelorette. It takes the dumb nature of the two reality competition shows and pokes fun at them. A string of familiar faces including Kristen Bell, Jennifer Aniston, Adam Scott, and more pop up. The show really makes you see just how dumb reality shows can be all while providing great laughs.

“Wanted: Someone to Go Back in Time with Me”

April 7, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

Safety Not Guaranteed follows Jeff (Jake Johnson), a cocky writer at magazine who spots an ad in the classifieds that mentions time travel. Jeff wants to investigate the man behind the ad. With the help of two interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni), they set out on a trip to Ocean View, Washington to find the man.

The team is able to track down the guy who placed the ad. He is a man named Kenneth(Mark Duplass) who is in his 30’s working at a supermarket. Kenneth is resistant when confronted with the hard hitting efforts made by Jeff. Darius, using her sarcasm and deadpan humor, is able to quickly form a bond with him. Kenneth will take Darius along with him in his time machine. Kenneth wants to travel back to 2001 to save a girlfriend who died.

Safety Not Guaranteed, produced for just $750,000, is a film that enhances the mumblecore films that have come before it. It has a characters that are putting their quirky natures to use. The dialogue is great. Mark and Jay Duplass, producers on the film, helped start the movement with films like The Puffy Chair and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon.

The film is based upon an actual newspaper article. The inspiration for the script came from a 1997 Backwoods Home Magazine classified ad written by an employee as a joke filler.

The film’s performances are great. Mark Duplass shows how versatile an actor he is. Known very well for his award-winning directing and writing, Duplass brings something special to the character of Kenneth. Kenneth is odd but there are reasons for it. Duplass nails the job of giving long bursts of lines and making them all count. Aubrey Plaza shines in her first starring role. Plaza demonstrates more beyond her already widely known deadpan skills that she does on NBC’s Park’s and Recreation. Plaza play the role of Darius, a sarcastic recent college grad, very well. Plaza and Duplass are the standout performers of the film.

The film is vague when it comes to whether time travelling actually takes place or not. Nonetheless, the writer, director and actors provide a solid film to remember.

Derek Connolly, screenwriter for the film, won both the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.

Image by FilmDistrict from http://www.imdb.com/

Successes and Faults of Veronica Mars (film)

March 25, 2014 - colinashby 2 Comments

It’s easy to think that more people would be in the Veronica Mars fandom if the show had aired during the current binge-encouraging TV community. The show ran from 2004-2007 on UPN/CW. It was low-rated but beloved for its writing, format and acting.

Despite (very persistent) fan attempts for a movie to be made, Warner Brothers (the studio that financed/distributed the show) opted not to fund the possible film. Fast foward six years to 2013 and a Kickstarter campaign was launched, raising $5.7 million in 30 days. The movie was officially happening

Review

The prowling teen detective, covering the seedy happenings at Neptune High School and its town, is back.

Veronica Mars was last seen at the end of season three, her freshman year of college, getting recruited by the FBI (Great career planning!). Nine years later she is living in New York City with her college boyfriend “Piz” and pursuing jobs at a few law firms. In the midst of landing a pretty sweet gig at a law firm, she gets contacted by her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls. He’s in trouble, having been accused of the murder of his girlfriend Carrie Bishop who was a fellow student at Neptune High.

Bishop, who went on to become a successful popstar under the stagename Bonnie DeVille, was found dead in her bathroom. Echolls, a lieutenant in the US Navy and son of movie star Aaron Echolls, is the prime suspect. Lawyer offers being thrown in his face, Veronica treks down to Neptune to help him clear his name.

During her 10-year high school reunion, she realizes that Bishop’s murder is connected to the death of her best friend, Susan Knight. Knight mysteriously disappeared during a boating trip nine years prior.

The ensuing plot involves Veronica working to clear Logan’s name while dealing with the seedy and corrupt nature of small town Neptune.

Observations

The film was well-paced and had a steady plot and resolution. A quick two minute introduction at the start gives non-viewers of the TV series a brief history of Veronica Mars and company and allows the film to be enjoyed without ever watching the series.

The only qualms a non-viewer of the TV series would experience is the pop ups of various characters from the TV show. The instances aren’t too distracting to keep the viewer from enjoying the movie as a whole.

While the film was good, I noted a few disruptions to it

Interaction among characters was big in the TV series. In the film it isn’t, all the side characters from the series have few scenes and aren’t really engaging to the plot of the film.
Movie feels a little weird. It plays like some TV movie. Veronica Mars isn’t meant for film. It’s writing serves best when restricted to hour-long TV formatting.

Will the Veronica Mars film be counted as a success? Many already consider it so (it was finally made into a movie after seven years after all).

Box office and movie insiders are looking closely to see whether actually will be a success or not. The film cost a reported $6 million to make. To be classified as a success it would have to make double its budget back, $12 million. A figure that doesn’t seem likely to be happening.

Opening weekend: $2 million from 291 theaters for its opening weekend.
Second week: dropped 76.5%, obtaining around $470,000 from 347 theaters.

Making back its budget from theater box office doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Video on Demand sales may be its saving grace. No report has been released on the exact state of its VOD viewing numbers (distributors have a frequent history of not releasing on demand numbers).

A long time ago, we used to be friends…and we still are. Veronica Mars, despite its few quirks, works well for a night of movie watching outside of the typical slapstick comedy genre. A-

SXSW: Day 4 Recap

March 11, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

(Day 4: Monday March 10,2014): The day consisted of a panel on psychology and technology in mobile applications, The Golden Age of Drama on TV panel and a taco party hosted by a Texas State mass communication professor.

Nicolas Cage was at SXSW Interactive for day four for a conversation moderated by David Gordon Green. I decided to skip it for something more educational (Yes I know it’s Nicolas Cage, but I wanted to learn stuff at SXSW). The panels I chose involved what I wanted to know more about.

The first panel, Can You Feel Me Now?, discussing the convergence of psychology and technology in mobile applications was a bit of a bust. The speakers included Cameron Clayton, president of Digital Vision; Gary Klassen, principal architect at Blackberry; Giorgos Zacharia, chief scientist at Kayak. The panel didn’t really discuss much about the psychological techniques used in created better mobile apps. The main thing repeated throughout the panel was how more people are becoming digital natives and wanting something that is easy to use. It turned out to be an okay panel.

The Golden Age of Drama on TV was a panel on the increased quality of drama TV. Drama series have started to produce quality material that is comparable to theatrical films. Budgets for drama TV has increased, script quality has increased and character development has become way more in depth.

Alex Cary, executive producer of TNT’s Legends; Hank Steinberg, executive producer of TNT’s The Last Ship; Rob Moynihan, LA correspondent of TV Guide Magazine; and Stephen Kane, executive producer at Turner Broadcasting were speakers for the panel on The Golden Age of Drama on TV.

The new nature of character development and scripts was talked about.

“There used to be a lot of resistance to character development of TV characters” Steinberg said, “with DVR, serialized shows like Lost started to get popular”

Steinberg mentioned that studios have for the most part abandoned mid-level movies. They have opted to focus on shorter, smaller movies and $200 million dollar high packed movies. He said people and studio executives have been looking to TV in the past few years to fill the empty mid-level movie void absent from film.

Steinberg said shooting 10 or 12 episodes of TV provides great efficiency and opportunity for character development. He said it is more optimal to do rather than doing 22 episodes a season without all the scripts ready.

“I’ve never had this before where we have all the scripts ready before shooting. It was great efficiency” Steinberg said.

The last event of the day was a taco party hosted by Cindy Royal, a Texas State mass comm professor who is currently a Knight Fellow at Stanford University. The event was great. I got to talk with a lot of graduates from the graduate program at Texas State. One of them works at NPR now and recently did a panel at SXSW. Another one works at a food bank in Austin. Also there were free tacos and chips at the party so that made it all the more awesome.

The greatest thing of the day was getting to meet Burt Herman, co-founder of the social media storytelling service Storify. He was pretty awesome and even asked for my website URL.

Feeling accomplished. Day four was a success. Whenever a day includes free tacos (or any food for that matter) you know it’s going to be great.

SXSW: Running the Show: TV’s New Queen of Comedy

March 9, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Emmy-nominated writer Mindy Kaling made a trip to SXSW to give a panel about the changing nature of television and its new dynamics.

A challenge to send a tweet in less than 45 seconds started off the event. No pressure right? Mindy Kaling is awesome. She managed it in a mere 17 seconds with saying “Where am I?” (and was sadly later deleted).

Kaling talked about her presence on social media. For her, Twitter is just for fun and something to be used to tease her writing staff.

The moderator asked the question of the writing process/writers room and creating an episode. Kaling responded with how writers all have creative (and out there) conversations about what’s going on in their lives. What they have been noticing.

“Our writer’s room is very gentle and loving. All the guys would identify as feminists. It isn’t sexist like other writer’s rooms,” Kaling said.

Kaling provided some humorous lines that made the nearly all of the hundreds in attendance laugh.

“I think recycling makes american look poor-Mindy Lahari”-Mindy Kaling

“I always wasn’t one of those sunny, cheerful kids. I was plotting.” Mindy Kaling on wanting to have her own TV show since 8 years old.

Kaling’s The Mindy Project castmates Ike Barinholtz and Adam Pally were alongside in the panel to give commentary.

“My cast doesn’t drug women,” Kaling

“We take drugs with women,” Barinholtz

Moderator: Pet Peeve?

“Moodiness,” Kaling.

“Mindy’s moodiness,” Pally

The panel went into the discussion on the format of the show and how it differs from cable and online streaming counterparts. Kaling acknowledged that the structure for network shows and cable shows is different. Having HBO shows like Nurse Jackie and Shameless in the same categories as network shows doesn’t seem to fit, Kaling said. The shows are different and have vastly different structures, she said.

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Adam Pally added on with how cable and network shows are different because of the episode counts. Cable shows usually have 13 episodes or less while network shows have the usual 22 episodes.

“When you’re only making 12 or six episodes you can say ‘okay let’s follow this character for the season’, you can’t do that with 22 episodes,” Pally said.

The panel did get a tad awkward at the end times when audience members repeatedly asked questions about the racial and gender concerns of the show. The issues were something that Kaling subtly dropped hints that she didn’t want to focus on those concerns.

Despite the audience repetitive questions, the panel went great. Kaling has proved herself as a book writer, television writer, actress and leading a strong work ethic. Kaling is a jack of many trades and has many great years ahead.

SXSW: Inside Late Night with Seth Meyers

March 8, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

It was 1:00pm. Exactly two and a half hours until the SXSW panel Inside Late Night with Seth Meyers was scheduled to start. The panel was great. I got to ask Seth Meyers a question about Brooklyn Nine-Nine (he said he wanted to guest-star!) and even confirmed Stefon (from SNL) will make an appearance on Late Night.

The panel started off a little awkward. The video that was suppose to open the panel didn’t work at first. Panel Moderator Olivia Munn gave an impromptu story about wanting to be a mermaid in third grade. The panel moved into talking about Meyer’s new gig and how it differs from his 12.5 year tenure at Saturday Night Live.

Olivia Munn read tweets from a sheet of paper. To “refresh” she would flip the papers and go to the next one. She was one great moderator.

Aside from the many humor-filled moments, Meyers had solid advice to offer the audience. He mentioned that a lot of the Late Night & NBC writers were hired because they had a strong digital presence on Twitter. To combat the self critic in oneself, he said that perfection is unrealistic.

“Perfection is this crazy idea. It’s improvement that matters,”-Seth Meyers

The humor highlights were great. An audience member told Meyers that he “wanted his face so that he could have a girlfriend.” Other bits included Meyers telling of how he is one of the few in the world with a Blackberry.

Plenty of “out there” questions were asked by moderator Olivia Munn. When Munn asked Meyers what a dreamed tasted like, he asked perfectly:

“A dream tastes like reality with whipped cream”-Meyers

So the event was great. Looking back I can tell that waiting in line for 2.5 hours and crawling around on stage wasn’t the best idea but no regrets right? (or if you’ve seen We’re the Millers #noragrets). Below is a list of some more liners from the hour long panel.

“I always look like me when wearing a wig. I look like a guy who found a wig and put it on”-Meyers [On why he didn’t do many characters on SNL besides his Weekend Update duties]

“Fred Armisen told me his restaurant [Doctor Fred] is like hospital food but better”-Meyers

“I make everything into sandwiches. I like the idea of something inside of something”-Meyers

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Note Crunch

February 14, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Well this series has gotten a part II so I feel a bit accomplished. I created this series to refer to some interesting articles and news from the week. This week has been filled with a lot. The thing on most people’s minds was probably the grateful comeback of Netflix’s House of Cards. All the lonely hearts can happily spend today (Valentine’s Day) binge-watching on all the 13 episodes of season two with no regrets (“no ragrets” if you’ve seen 2013’s We’re the Millers).

House of Cards: Season two streaming (Netflix)

Binge-watchers, couch potatoes and TV fanatics can rejoice! The online-only political drama series released season two for streaming in the wee hours of February 14th (Valentine’s Day). A new batch of political secrets, arguments and suspense awaits. With all 13 episodes of season two streaming, everyone is sure to have something to snuggle up to for V-day.

Related: Is House of Cards TV? (The Atlantic)

Comcast-Time Warner Deal

It was announced earlier this week that Comcast, the nation’s No.1 cable provider, is going to buy Time Warner Cable, the nation’s No.2 cable provider. The agreement happened for a reported $45 billion. With a huge backlash voiced on Twitter, many are worried the deal will create a weak future for filmmakers, content creators and consumers. Many wondered the same question: Will the merger create a too powerful company that will dominate the film and media industry? Read about it here.

Behind the Scenes of Oscar-Nominated film American Hustle

“American Hustle: The Art and Soul of Survival” is a 30-minute special that goes into the making of the David O. Russell directed film, actor performances and more. Note: It’s okay to freak out in excitement.

Creating Meaningful Content for a Blog

FastCompany is great site for smart working tips (among other tech/media news). The article covers ways to create good content that isn’t just in similar patterns that other related blogs have. It details ways to make content pop and keep visitors coming back for more. Click here to read.

Amazon’s new pilots released

February 12, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Remember last year when a Zombieland TV pilot popped up on Amazon and was panned? It eventually got “hated out of existence” (Rhett Reese, creator of the TV adaption’s words). Well fear not, a new batch of television pilots have been released on Amazon and nothing to negative has been said so far.

Amazon pilots coming to a screen near you.

On February 6th, Amazon released 10 new pilots for free. Continuing the plan they had last year, viewers watch and vote on what pilots live and what pilots bite the dust. Out of the several pilots released last year, only two made it through the chopping block. The first was Alpha House, a show starring John Goodman that revolved around four U.S. Senators. It was met with acclaim and positioned Amazon as a serious contender against Netflix and its original programming.The second series that received a series order was Betas, a program showcasing a group of app developers looking for an investor.

Below is a list and description of the different pilots to take a look at.

The After: An apocalypse show from the creator of The X-Files. It centers on eight people of various backgrounds (lawyer, actress, etc.) as they face the events ahead.

The Rebels: Sports comedy revolving around a woman who must take over a team of football players after her husband passes away. It seems brainless, overdone and generic but worth a shot to watch. Plus it has Josh Peck (Drake & Josh) so you know it has some funny laughs to give.

Transparent: Not your typical sitcom comedy but it serves well. It involves a family as they face their host of problems. Three not-so adults including Jay Duplass (brother of Mark Duplass and mumblecore filmmaker). One might think it follows a bit in the footsteps of Arrested Development since it features Jeffrey Tambor. Rest assured it holds it’s own by providing good dialogue that doesn’t just go for cheap laughs.