Hall Monitor Trailer Now Live

Hope you enjoy!

Hall Monitor Trailer - watch more funny videos

Woo! Thanks for watching and be sure to read the below post for all them production details!

The Hall Monitor Trailer Blog Post

Why not post it as it happens? Well high up Linganore officials don't really know about this. It's called Guerilla Filmmaking people! (Okay a few teachers know, but more on that for day one.) ... (Truth be told, you should really see my revelation on Day 3)

Conception & Pre-prod:

It's not that difficult, Brad and I were goofing off before school one day, he started using an Arnold voice, and then this idea came to light. We got to talking about it and developed it more. I began writing the screenplay during Thoroughly Modern Millie, and finished a little afterwards. I then graduated and elected to film shortly after that so I could just drive the equipment there and not lug them around the halls all day. I gathered the cast and crew the day before, including my sister to take pictures on the set. I then took care of all the other Pre-prod. jobs, getting costumes and organizing a filming location for days 2 and 3 (I ask permission to film in class rooms, but not hallways, weird).

Day 1 (June 10):

We were hoping to get more finished today, but last minute Brad tells me he needs to split early for family reasons. I don't delve into personal lives here, but don't worry it wasn't a family emergency or anything, everyone's fine. So I was frantically texting him during the day trying to see how much time I could squeeze out of him. He's in just about every scene except for one, which will be filmed on day 2. When we came to the realization that there was only a half hour tops, we filmed a few short bits that weren't scripted, but good trailer footage. So in a half hour we got 48 seconds of footage. Only half of it usable, but I have no complaints, we started

production on SOMETHING so I'm happy.

Apparently with our mass of equipment teachers don't make a fuss if your out in the halls, at most you get a reaction like "Oh making a movie?" One teacher asked what it was about and then kept walking like she didn't even ask. The only people who seemed to care were the administrators, and only one stopped us. She told us the usual "if your here after school you need to be supervised and if you're working on a school project you can't be goofing off, which you appear to be doing." This was her reaction to us close-lining Alex Richardson. To which Brad replied "But it's for our movie." Then she looked at me, noted the camera and said "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were making a movie." and seriously too, not a single hint of sarcasm. Then she just walked off. So apparently if you look important and the teachers you know like you, no one really cares.

So we unfortunately wrapped early that day, leaving a heavier load for Day 3. But it should all work out well in the end.

Day 2 (June 11):

Alright, today we filmed in Lazarus' room. We had permission, so we just went ahead and shot what we needed too. It was one scene that took a little less than an hour to wrap on. There's not much to post about, but we had a few weird freak-outs that occurred on the set. This is one of the things I love to catch on film. The footage is essentially unusable in the context of the scene and in fact happened in between takes, but I love when we're all relaxed on the set and the cast is comfortable enough with each other that a bit of improv. shows up and creates some wild event. These outburst usually end as abruptly as they started, with every one of us wondering where the hell it came from.

That's about it for day 2, so I guess that means we're off to Day 3, the big shoot. We begin in Laz's room, and by the time we're done hopefully a good percentage of the faculty will have left, making our hallway shoots go very smoothly.

Day 3 (June 12):

Ha wow, so we got permission to use Laz's room and we did. And all went smoothly. Then we moved out to shoot in the hallways (to clarify "shoot"="Film" I don't want to end up on any watch lists). I figured we'd get off easy with it being a Friday afternoon and teachers wanting to leave, little did I know it would be THAT easy. Turns out no one cared at all, in fact at one point an administrator who I was worried would get on our backs about it commented on how she liked our HALL MONITOR costumes and how she wanted one.

So there's not much to write about for day 3 (and maybe that's because I'm writing this 2 days later). But we wrapped every shot that was needed inside of Linganore today in about 2 hours. A HUGE THANKS to every administrator/teacher/faculty member who had every right to kick us out and didn't.

We have 2 more scenes to wrap and we'll catch those on Day 4 ( do note the date difference).

Day 4 (July 10):

The final day of shooting went well, it was only 2 short scenes. I'm pretty disappointed in Brad and I's poor ability to get together and film one damn scene (Cite the MONTH's difference between the two last shots). Anyway Production has wrapped, Brad and I discussed some ideas, and Post is pretty close to being done, so expect the finished product within the week!

Hall Monitor Trailer (Coming soon)

Along with a nice blog post. I'm writing it as it happens, and saving it as a draft and you'll get the whole experience at once. Woo!

Where have we been?

Good God, I haven't updated this blog in forevaz! Well you didn't miss too much luckily.

We released Now Entering Maryland at the Frederick Film Fest a little over 2 months ago, and it was well received, and additionally received Second Runner Up in the Student Short Film Category

Now Entering Maryland - watch more funny videos

I should add that I accidently put 2008 on the Funny Or Die Upload, which is VERY wrong as the year is in fact 2009.

We actually begin production on a new short Tomorrow (Wednesday June 10th) which should be fun. Hopefully we'll wrap it all up on Friday, but we may need one extra day.

I'll be sure to let you know once it's up.

K-Cole

The top of 2008

Hey,
Sorry I've been behind in updating, but I have some free time and figured, why the hell not? Sure it's about a month behind... But here we go...

*brief disclaimer* I'm basing this on what I saw in theaters that came out in 08, but if I included the movies I saw last year for the first time, that came out years before 2008, this list would look very different.

1) Wall-E

What can I say, I loved this movie. I know Danny would be extremely annoyed that this is my number one movie, but he can write his own top movies if he wants. The point is Wall-E is a well crafted story, and is expertly told for a good percent of the film with absolutely no dialog. This is my number one favorite animated film of all time (so far), never have I ever collected with a robot so much. Also, a hats of to Pixar for their numerous references to 2001.

2) The Wrestler

Maybe it's my Requiem induced love for Darren Aronofsky, but I loved this movie (ok, so I just got back from seeing it tonight, but it still came out in 2008). I should mention that he completely gets rid of the smooth tracking shots he uses in Requiem, and all the tracking shots are shaky. Which if I may step away and note that the constantly shaky camera in The Bourne Ultimatum completely drew me out of the movie and lead me to add it to my least favorite movies (that and the fact that absolutely nothing affected Jason Bourne). Somehow in this movie, it worked for me. I should add that it's filled with excellent performances and is incredibly well crafted, so my continued kudos to you Mr. Aronofsky.

3) Zack And Miri Make a Porno

This would seem to be the most bi-polar list I've seen so far... Anyway I love Kevin Smith, as a writer and director, and frankly of all the new comedies to come out this year, Zack and Miri was by far the funniest. But what really made the movie was Seth Rogan, and Elizabeth Banks performances, they nailed the characters, and frankly, I've always thought Seth was a really funny guy but this is the movie where he really stands out to me as a great actor. Not only is the movie a riot, but Kevin Smith really brought out some serious scenes (not that much, but) they were incredibly well done, and that's what really made the movie real. You may find the concept entirely outrageous, but the characters were 100% believe-able.

4) Forgetting Sarah Marshal

First of all, Jason Segel's first writing credit, and I can't wait to see what he does next. It wasn't nearly as hyped up as the other Apatow films, but I think it really stands out over the others. It's still that kind of raunchy comedy, but it's more outrageous. The characters are more goofy, and the plot does seem pretty far fetched, but it's a hilarious ride. And it's got a nice little feel good ending.

5) The Dark Knight

It's not the best movie of the year, but I really have to hand to Heath Ledger. If I may reference the latest Smod-cast, he takes an already memorable performance and completely erases it. Honestly though, I think I would have enjoyed it better had it not been hyped so much, I went in expecting a lot more than was delivered. But aside from what I didn't get, it was still great story with numerous great performances.

I think that's really all I have to touch on, for my top movies of 2008 right now. However, I want to bring up Cloverfield, as a lot of people were disappointed by it, and hated the camera idea, but truth be told I think it was a great idea to take that approach with a giant monster film, it brought things into a whole new perspective, and I really enjoyed that. And for all the Cloverfield haters out there, I'm glad we don't know anything about the monster, it's still a mystery and will continue to be, and I think that sets it apart from other monster movies.

On a side note, we wrapped a short in the past week which will (hopefully) premiere at the Frederick Film Fest in May. We've got some other ideas, JCPD is still being written (cool your jets, it'll come). And let me note that we have a new piece in the works that if all goes well, will hopefully show up on a weekly basis (but I won't say anymore about that until it happens).

Keep it real my homeskillets,
K-Cole

A short update...

Good day readers (or should I say good night),
This weekend marks the end of first semester at school, so basically I wanted to give you all the gist. I have 5 days off, and I have some ambitious plans...

1. Make some siginificant progress on the JCPD script, I'm talking almost done

2. hopefully make some progess on getting the upcoming office space sorted out.

Those are my plans for the 5 day break.
Keep it real,
K-Slice?

Weeeird...

Yo dawgs,
Last night I had a dream where this british chick called me at school, and was all like "I just watched Rope, what the hell was that?" and she was all angry, and I was like "I'm sorry? who are you, and how'd you get this number?" I guess since it was a business call none of the teachers I walked past really cared.
Keep it real,
K-Cole