As we enter the later stages of the Reach Film Fellowship program, I’ve been in post on my short film, Brothers, for about two months. I’ve had several people look at successive versions – including RFF mentors, advisors and Cinereach staff – and made revisions based on their input.

I had been editing the film (which I also wrote and directed) on my own and it had come a long way as I’d explored more and more options. About three weeks ago, however, I realized that I needed to partner with an editor.

I finally made the decision to work with an outside editor – not because I think I’m overly attached to specific material, but because I’m so intimately familiar with each shot and scene, and with the overall story. I’m so close to the project it’s hard for me to anticipate how an audience member watching it for the first time might perceive it and to decide what information they need to have, and when. This realization came primarily out of feedback sessions, where I began to become aware of the disconnect between what I thought certain scenes or shots conveyed and what viewers perceived.

For example, in the opening scene, Nathan, the older of the two brothers featured in my film, comes into the room and tries to get a book away from his younger brother, Joe. The film revolves around the relationship of these two boys as they come into their own under the shadow of a hot-tempered father. Joe has hidden something inside the book that may alienate his brother – his only ally in the family – and Joe needs to appear very scared of being found out in that scene in order to lay the groundwork for the remainder of the story.

A friend watched an early cut and responded to the first scene by saying, “One brother wants to get a book away from the other one and then they talk about football, so what?” To me there was a strong sense of foreboding in the scene but my friend’s reaction helped me realize that it was only because I knew what was going to happen later. I needed to do more to ensure the audience sensed what I wanted them too, without the benefit of the additional context I had.

I went back and re-edited the scene to better highlight the moments where the younger actor looked frightened, and I was also more forceful with the editing of the scene in general. At the moment when Joe hears Nathan coming into the room, for example, I cut from a medium shot of Joe to a close up of his face. With these techniques I was able to create the tense tone I wanted.

There were many similar examples where I found my knowledge of the film interfering with my ability to see it as an audience member would. While I could have continued the editing process by going through the cycle of getting feedback and re-editing as many times as needed, now that I’m working with Editor Cedar Daniels (The Third Wave), I can shortcut the cycle. In effect, he is a filmmaking-savvy audience member capable of correcting the problems I can’t see, in addition to his technical skill as an editor. Not only will editing move faster, but I’ll end up with a better, more polished film.

RFF 2010 Fellow Gabriel Long (mentored by Laurie Collyer) has done extensive work in both narrative and documentary film. Two of his documentary projects were nationally broadcast by Current TV. Swimming New York City documents a swimming race around Governor’s Island, and The Art of Sticks offers a portrait of outdoor sculptor Patrick Doherty. He has also completed seven narrative short films, most recently Adán, which follows a schoolteacher as he travels from his home in Ecuador to New York City, trying to find a friend in the wake of a school shooting. Long recently moved to New York City where he works as an assistant director, editor, and writer. Check out the Brothers blog, and stay current via Facebook and Twitter.

A post by Gabriel Long

A few weekends ago I filmed my Reach Film Fellowship film, Brothers, over two days at my family’s summer cabin in Eastern Pennsylvania. Before getting into the details of how it went and what lessons I learned, I have to acknowledge the amazing patience and dedication of my cast and crew. Every person on set was very professional and focused on the goal of making the best movie possible. I can take a little bit of credit for assembling a team of people who I thought would work well together, but in reality, I also got lucky. Without further ado, a few lessons from the field:

Location Selection

Visually, my family’s cabin was the perfect setting for my film. I needed a rural setting to fit the story, and it had to be a place where I could construct a sense of claustrophobia indoors balanced with a sense of freedom outdoors.

There were clear disadvantages to using this location. We were shooting in November and the cabin has no insulation or running water in the winter.  Furthermore, shooting so far from the city meant that we needed to organize transportation, lodging, and plenty of food for everyone, and there woulnd’t be a chance to get pickups if anything went wrong.

The wooded setting of Gabriel Long's "Brothers" at dusk

Ultimately, though, the positives outweighed the negatives and we were very happy with the choice we made. Because the place belongs to my family, the price was right (free!), and I was able to give my production designer Yvette Granata and art director Brittin Richter a great deal of freedom. When we needed to cover up the outside of the screened-in porch with plastic to keep the set pieces from getting rained on, for example, I knew it was fine to use tacks to hold up the plastic and didn’t have to worry that we were making little holes in the outside of someone else’s house.

Storyboarding Helps (for me, anyway).

I’ve heard a lot of advice on both sides about storyboarding. Some people seem to think it’s the only way to plan a film and other people think it’s a total waste of time. I’m not sure why it’s a contentious topic, but I can say that storyboarding was tremendously helpful to me. The little pictures I draw would probably horrify a real storyboard artist, but I drew out every shot in the movie, and it helped me communicate exactly what I was imagining for the framing of each shot.

Every time we were switching setups, the easiest way for me to communicate with my cinematographer, Ben Conley, was with my storyboards. Rather than going through a long descriptive list, (“Well the frame’s around here, maybe use a 50mm lens, get a piece of that actor’s shoulder, probably eye level…” etc.), I could just show him the image and immediately he’d know what I wanted. From that initial frame we’d shift the camera to create the best shot we could, but it gave us a great starting point. Similarly, when I was scheduling before-hand with my AD and we were deciding which shots were must-haves, it was a lot easier to look at my little pictures than to explain the function of each shot.

Organization and Scheduling

Our schedule was admittedly a little nuts. We were shooting a 9-page script in two days with no extra days for pickups. Everything was shot in one location with only three actors, which kept the scope relatively manageable, but 4.5 pages per day is an ambitious goal regardless.

In advance of the shoot, I worked with Ben and my AD Nicole Karczewski to map out our shooting schedule as carefully as possible. Guiding all our decisions was the fact that I wanted to shoot in sequence. I felt it would help my two main actors, both of whom were young boys, understand the overall arc of the film as we progressed. We were able to schedule our shoot in order with the exception of one scene that comes towards the end of the film but had to be captured during our first and only night shoot on day 1.

A page of the "Brothers" shot list

For a script breakdown, I shot-listed and storyboarded (as mentioned above) the film with Ben, and noted on the script how I would cover each scene. It was a very low-budget system of organization, but it was simple, straightforward, and free. On a larger-scale movie it wouldn’t have been sufficient, but it worked well for the needs of this project. We also had the luxury of knowing that unlike on a large-scale shoot, communicating critical schedule information to cast and crew and coralling everyone was going to be simple. We were all staying together (in two nearby cabins that are winterized), eating meals together, and traveling to and from set together.

As we finalized our schedule, we kept in mind that we’d have to make changes to it on-the-fly when challenges arose. We identified which scenes would be the most challenging to capture well – especially those containing shots of complex actions and scenes that were dialogue-heavy. We built in extra time for those and also decided on streamlined approaches for achieving them.

This planning proved infinitely useful on set. For example, in one shot, one of the characters is swinging a baseball bat and accidentally breaks a painting. This was complicated from both a staging and prop perspective and I wanted to make sure that the effect of the moment was sufficiently dramatic. I had anticipated that getting the glass on the painting to shatter properly might be challenging, and it was. My actor is only 10 and the bat was a bit big for him, so he had trouble hitting the painting hard enough to really shatter the glass. Fortunately I had a backup plan. I covered the scene in a medium shot to capture the actor’s action up until the moment the bat hits the painting, but to capture the impact, I had the AD swing the bat and covered it with a close-up of the painting. This produced the dramatic effect I was looking for and we didn’t lose time having our actor keep repeating the action to get it just right.

There was no comparable back-up plan for the dialogue-heavy scenes. I simply had to get the right performances out of the actors. However, because Nicole and I were clear about where we needed to be in our schedule at any given point during the day, and Ben and I had discussed how we were covering each scene and why, if we started to run late I would know it right away and could start figuring out which shots to cut or combine. On the afternoon of the last day we were running behind, and I had planned to cover the aftermath of the painting breaking with three shots: a wide two-shot and close-ups of each actor. I discussed the remainging shots with Ben and Nicole, and we decided we could afford to cut one of the close-ups and get what we needed from the wide and the second close-up. I got what I needed from those two shots, and we were able to save 15 minutes by eliminating the third set-up.

Feeding People Well

Because of how much we were shooting and the small size of the crew, I was asking a lot of everyone in terms of endurance. The shoot was especially difficult because we were staying at the location, so no one got to go home at the end of day. I got a local chef to cater our meals and provide snacks and he did a really terrific job. The food was excellent and it made an enormous difference in terms of keeping people upbeat and energized.

Including Others in Decision-Making

As a director, it’s easy to make all the decisions yourself. It’s important to have a firm hand, and if you’re telling people exactly what you want, chances are they will give it to you. The risk is that if you give off the impression that you’re not interested in considering other viewpoints, then no one will offer any, and you will miss out on potentially great advice.

Gabriel Long and Gaffer Jesse Skough tweak their lighting setup

On the first day of shooting I was having trouble getting the performance I wanted from one of the actors. I really wanted him to portray a strong sense of fear throughout a particular interaction with the actor playing his brother. While we were changing setups from a wide shot to a close-up, my cinematographer quietly suggested that maybe I should try taking the place of the brother, off camera, and reading the brother’s lines. It was a great piece of advice. Reading with the actor gave me a much more direct connection with him and allowed the two of us to work together toward the performance I was looking for.

The Director Pitches In

On a low-budget project, the director is really the sole leader on set. He or she is often the writer, almost always a producer, and has the most to gain from the success of the project. A good producer or AD can help keep things moving, but in my experience the efficiency of a crew is directly related to how hard the director is working. Chances are that most people on set are getting paid little or nothing and many are probably helping out as a favor to the director, so it’s critical that he or she maintain a high level of energy and be willing to help out with whatever needs to be done. This may very well include PA-type work such as carrying set pieces or setting out food. If the director demonstrates a willingness to do whatever it takes to keep the production on schedule, the rest of the crew will generally follow that lead regardless of their experience level or how much they are getting paid. Conversely, a director who thinks it’s below him or her to act like a PA when that’s what’s needed on set is unlikely to have a dedicated and hard-working crew.

RFF 2010 Fellow Gabriel Long (mentored by Laurie Collyer) has done extensive work in both narrative and documentary film. Two of his documentary projects were nationally broadcast by Current TV. Swimming New York City documents a swimming race around Governor’s Island, and The Art of Sticks offers a portrait of outdoor sculptor Patrick Doherty. He has also completed seven narrative short films, most recently Adán, which follows a schoolteacher as he travels from his home in Ecuador to New York City, trying to find a friend in the wake of a school shooting. Long recently moved to New York City where he works as an assistant director, editor, and writer. Check out the film’s blog, and stay updated on the film on Facebook, and Twitter!

A post by Gabriel Long

At the start of the Reach Film Fellowship, there were two important aspects of my film, Brothers, I was hoping to get help with. First, I didn’t feel confident about how I would handle casting and directing young actors (my two main characters are children). I know that getting a natural performance from a child, one that doesn’t feel self-conscious, is going to be key to my film. Second, I felt that my script could be improved, but couldn’t decide what to change.

Casting and Directing Child Actors
During our recent advising workshop with Writer/Director Tze Chun (Children of Invention), there were some very useful takeaways related to casting and working with children.

More from his workshop will be posted on this blog soon, I think, but one piece of advice he gave was particularly useful to me. Tze said that when casting a role, it’s critical to keep in mind the specific demands of the part. A very natural young actor who doesn’t have a great deal of acting ability can work well for a role that doesn’t contain many highly emotional scenes. If the character needs to display a great deal of strong emotion, however, more acting ability is necessary even if this means sacrificing naturalness to some degree.

Directing Child Actors Workshop with Tze Chun

When I entered the casting process and had to begin making decisions, I took Tze’s advice and looked for the right balance of acting ability versus naturalness.  We auditioned 20 actors for the two open roles and had four, two actors per character, come in for callbacks.

At callbacks, I was careful to go over the most emotionally subtle parts of the script several times to see what each actor could bring to the moments. In this script there are no highly emotional scenes that call for crying, or throwing a tantrum, so I decided I could err on the side of naturalness over acting experience, while making sure that the actors were skilled enough to understated and convey the emotions of the scenes.

Also critical to me, was looking at the chemistry between each pair of actors. My two actors will be playing brothers and the story hinges on the subtle interactions that make up their relationship.

Now that my film is cast, I am looking ahead at how I will work with my actors in rehearsal and on set. In my discussions with my mentor, Laurie Collyer (Sherrybaby), Laurie has really emphasized using improvisation as a lead-in to scripted scenes in order to get a more natural performance from child actors. Tze also advised that I give my young actors a set of actions to execute whenever possible, rather than a single action, in order to keep them from over-emphasizing each one. I’ll definitely be employing these tactics.

Refining My Script
There were a lot of things I liked about my script going into this process, but in some ways I felt like I wanted to make it better. The story didn’t feel as compelling or engaging as I wanted it to. It was tight, but a bit predictable.

In terms of re-writing, however, I felt I was at a bit of a dead end. I felt that every element of my script was so connected to the whole piece that unless I overhauled it, it would be difficult to improve.

During my second meeting with Laurie, we analyzed my script in depth. Based on her advice, I did a complete re-write of the script, viewing it as an exercise rather than an attempt to come up with a different story. She thought it might free me up to continue improving on what I had.

The idea of writing an “exercise” script was very freeing and allowed me to get past my attachment to the interconnectedness of the previous draft. The resulting draft wound up involving the same location, characters, and subject matter, but was very different and significantly better. I allowed myself to completely re-imagine scenes with the knowledge that if they didn’t work I didn’t need to use them in the final version.

Rather than taking the best elements of the exercise script and melding them into the older draft, I did the reverse. I ended up taking the moments in the older draft that I thought held the essence of the story and constructed a new narrative around them. The end result was a more natural and compelling story.

RFF 2010 Fellow Gabriel Long (mentored by Laurie Collyer) has done extensive work in both narrative and documentary film. Two of his documentary projects were nationally broadcast by Current TV. Swimming New York City documents a swimming race around Governor’s Island, and The Art of Sticks offers a portrait of outdoor sculptor Patrick Doherty. He has also completed seven narrative short films, most recently Adán, which follows a schoolteacher as he travels from his home in Ecuador to New York City, trying to find a friend in the wake of a school shooting. Long recently moved to New York City where he works as an assistant director, editor, and writer. Gabriel’s RFF Film, Brothers, is about two young boys living in the shadow of a hot-tempered father. As the younger brother grapples with his sexual identity and the other becomes his unlikely protector.

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Contact: Reva Goldberg (reva@cinereach.org)
Cinereach, 212.727.3224 x111

CINEREACH SELECTS 2010 REACH FILM FELLOWS

2008 Fellowʼs Film Premiered on POV

Marilyn Agrelo (Mad Hot Ballroom), Laurie Collyer (Sherrybaby), Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback), Jeremy Kipp Walker (Cold Souls) sign on as mentors.

www.cinereach.org

New York, NY (September, 2009) – Cinereach has announced the names of the 2010 Reach Film Fellows and their mentors, launching the third year of a program that nurtures socially conscious filmmakers at early stages in their careers.

The Reach Film Fellowship (RFF) is a unique and intensive six-month program in which four filmmakers work with individual mentors, a team of advisors, and Cinereach staff to take their short fiction and nonfiction films from concept to completion. RFF fellows each receive a $5,000 grant and production resources. At the conclusion of the fellowship cycle, an additional $5,000 award will be presented to one of the four Fellows for the completion and distribution of his or her RFF film.

“Weʼve seen how access to mentorship and advising from successful independent filmmakers really makes the difference for those just starting out,” said Cinereach Founder and Executive Director Philipp Engelhorn. “Itʼs critical to encourage young filmmakers who are inclined towards making films of social relevance, and to help them do that effectively through cinematic storytelling.”

Past RFF mentors have included Albert Maysles, Nicole Kassell, Rachel Grady, So Yong Kim, and Sandi DuBowski and this yearʼs participants represents another dynamic cross-section of important indie filmmakers: Marilyn Agrelo (Mad Hot Ballroom), Laurie Collyer (Sherrybaby), Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback) and Jeremy Kipp Walker (Cold Souls).

This yearʼs program also gives the fellows the opportunity to work with consulting producers Susan Leber (Down to the Bone) and Yoni Brook (Bronx Princess) throughout the months-long experience. Master classes are offered throughout the program, lead by advisors like Director and Cinematographer Ellen Kuras (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Summer of Sam), Dan Cogan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Impact Partners, Director Edet Belzberg (Children Underground, The Recruiter) and more.

The 2010 Reach Film Fellows, Mentors and films are:

• Nadia Hallgren (mentored by Annie Sundberg) Love Lockdown (nonfiction): A popular late-night hip-hop radio host is the on-air go-between for three incarcerated men and the women they love on the outside.

• Courtney Hope (mentored by Jeremy Kipp Walker) Wild Birds (fiction): Two little girls enter the woods to play at being “wild” and we learn what they are actually running from as the story unfolds.

• Gabriel Long (mentored by Laurie Collyer) Brothers (fiction): Two young boys live in the shadow of an abusive father. One boy grapples with sexual identity and the other becomes his unlikely protector.

• Anthony Morrison (mentored by Marilyn Agrelo) Our Principal Intent (nonfiction): A determined school principal embarks on a search for undocumented autistic children among minority and low-income populations.

“This year there will be a lot of emphasis on helping our fellows think strategically about audience building and distribution strategy,” said Reva Goldberg who runs the Fellowship at Cinereach. “Many new challenges and opportunities face filmmakers in todayʼs industry and we want to help our Fellows launch sustainable careers.”

The first RFF workshop of the year took place earlier this month; first a pre-production preparedness talk from Yoni Brook and Susan Leber, then a brainstorming session on audience building and distribution strategy from Dan Cogan (Impact Partners), Leah Sapin (Arts Engine) and Nekisa Cooper (2008 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow).

In an effort to share lessons learned behind closed doors during the fellowship more widely, the Cinereach staff will also build a network of film educators who can elect to receive learning tools and resources that grow from fellowship workshops.

2008 Fellow Annie Waldman premiered her RFF short So The Wind Wonʼt Blow it All Away at Sundance 2009. It aired September 22nd on PBSʼ acclaimed P.O.V. series alongside Yoni Brookʼs Bronx Princess (a Cinereach grant recipient). Updates regarding all former and current fellows and grantees are tracked on the Cinereach blog at cinereach.org.

About Cinereach
Cinereach was created in 2006 by young filmmakers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs to champion vital stories, artfully told. The young not-for-profit facilitates the creation of films that challenge, excite, innovate, offer new perspectives and inspire action through three initiatives: Grants & Awards, The Reach Film Fellowship and Productions. Cinereach has awarded well over $2.5 million in grants and achievement awards to more than 40 feature films. Recent highlights include October Country, a new documentary by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher, which won Best American Documentary at Silverdocs and Entre Nos a fiction film by Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and took home an Audience Award at the Newport International Film Festival. Both films continue to garner accolades on the national and international festival circuit.

The Reach Film Fellowship is a granting and mentorship program (entering its third year) in which Cinereach helps four young filmmakers produce socially conscious shorts. Cinereach Productions is currently in development on two feature film projects. Cinereach also forms collaborative funding partnerships with other nonprofit organizations including Arts Engine, Rooftop Films and the Sundance Institute.