Here's a link to an interview I did from the Sidewalk Moving Picture Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. After a packed opening night screening, I was met by Daniel Waters who did this interview for his web site to podcast online. Go ahead and give it a listen. Remember, I was exhausted and filled with free drinks...

Part two in a series of blog posts about the making of My Big Fat Independent Movie...

So here we are with the script and like any filmmaker with no money, my first thought is, okay, now how am I going to actually get this film made? There's so much to do, what is the first step? Where do I start?

Strangely, I began by hiring a composer, Joe Kramer, to write the title song for the film. Joe Kramer is known for projects like "Way of the Gun" which is one of my all time favorite soundtracks, average movie but great, great soundtrack. I wanted a kind of a pop rock-sounding, Blink 182-like, opening song that would use the title of the movie as the chorus. I gave Joe a list of key words to write a song and when I first heard his demo version, it blew me away.

I then approached animator Evan Mather about producing an animated title sequence for the film that would accompany the song. A title sequence that would kick viewers in the teeth and grab their attention as it told a story of a disenfranchised filmmaker, all while we see the credits role.

Additionally after having gone through the script I realized there were so many prop gags that we needed to work on them right away. I hired a prop designer to start creating these on the computer so the art department would not be overtaxed, which of course, proved correct. So before I even had the money secured for My Big Fat Independent Movie, many things were in play and in progress. I was pulling every favor I could to get work done that would help us later.

The original investor for the film had a bit of personal trouble and he pulled out just a month before we were about to shoot. Strangely, I was able to find an investor through our director, Phil, and those investors came in two days after our original investor pulled out. It felt too easy, but I think the preparation from the script to the music to the title sequence to the rough web site all contributed greatly to their making such a fast decision to put in the money.

I should back up and tell you about the director. Philip Zlotorynski wrote and directed perhaps the best comedy short I've seen called Walkentalk about an odd fellow who talks like Christopher Walken. WalkenTalk is a 10 minute short that Phil shot in 35mm and made in only two days. He'd made a previous short before called Sway a heartfelt drama about a young man dying of cystic fibrosis. Phil was exactly the kind of hungry and talented director that this project needed. Phil could pull this off. He previously worked at Dreamworks in the marketing department and left his job just so he could go and direct this movie. He's put a lot of faith in me and there's no way I'm going to let him down. (Now some of you have asked at festivals Q&As about why didn't I direct this movie? This is not the kind of film that I feel comfortable directing. It's a complicated movie and all the elements have to be just right. There are other films that I plan to direct and I'm saving those for later. Also, if someone like Tarantino or Aronofsky or Nolan or Soderbergh or Linklater is pissed about something in the film, I can always say, "Uh, hey, meet the director!" And then run away really fast!)

The worst part for me about making this film is that I know everything that can go wrong. I am painfully aware of every mistake that a filmmaker can make, along with everything that can possibly go wrong on the festival circuit. I've interviewed hundreds of filmmakers in my career and been to plenty of movie sets and read hundreds of books on film – so the worst part is feeling cursed with so much information packed into my head. It's a blessing and a curse. I have all this useful info and movie geek knowledge at my disposal which can help, but it could hurt also. And I'm just as susceptible to all the mistakes as any other filmmaker. So with a 22 day shooting schedule and a budget that worked on paper, we began shooting on October 7th and the disasters that lay ahead could not have been anticipated. Next week I’ll fill you in on all the details from that first week of shooting. Welcome to the hell called production.

Next up... SHOOTING BEGINS

This just in! Take a listen to this interview I did on Red Bar Radio with Mike from Chicago!

Hope you find it entertaining.
Chris

How did this all start? No one is really asking, but I feel compelled to tell you. Every film critic who tells you that they don't want to make movies is probably lying. As someone who has spent the better part of my career writing about film, it was about time I made one.

Years ago, I ran into Rod Lurie at an event for the Writers Guild. Rod is a former film critic for Los Angeles Magazine, and now a bigshot Hollywood director behind such films as The Contender and The Last Castle, Rod and I were hanging out and talking film, when he said to me you know – you never hear from the media to the people who cover the subject feel they can do what the subject can. For example, no journalist who covers sports says, "Hey, I can do what Tom Brady does for the New England Patriots. I could be a Super Bowl caliber quarterback, that's easy." No one who covers politics says, "Hey, I could do what Condoleeza Rice does. I could be Secretary of State." Or at least, they don't say it aloud.

But somehow when it comes to film journalists, they cover movies and say to themselves, "Hey, I could make a film." And Rod was the inspiration for me to make the necessary sacrifices (uh, no pay) and actually go out and make a feature film. Over a decade ago I started Film Threat magazine, moved out to Los Angeles, thinking that the Film Threat thing would be a temporary career detour. And I imagined that I would soon begin making movies. I went off and made a short film called Red starring Lawrence Tierney. At exactly the same time that the film was being made, my girlfriend at the time became pregnant. I was hit with reality and about to become a young dad. A choice was put in front of me, do I pursue the bohemian lifestyle of a broke independent filmmaker or do I actually do the responsible thing, and provide for my family? Well, I chose to provide for my family, and I have no regrets whatsoever. And Film Threat became more successful than I ever imagined as a magazine. But my film career was, sadly, on hold. People think it's strange sometimes when they read some of my wild musings on the Film Threat website or meet me at a film festival and realize that I'm a responsible dad, but that's the truth. And the risky financial life of a filmmaker just didn't quite fit the needing healthcare and regular salary.

But the desire to make movies has burned inside of me ever since. After having written a couple of screenplays that "almost sold" to big studios, I finally had to do something. I did not want to suffer the frustration of that "almost sold" feeling again. I vowed that the next film I wrote, I would actually produce myself. That led to this project, My Big Fat Independent Movie.

After having been to countless film festivals and seen countless cliche road independent movies, coming of age independent movies, Tarantino-wannabe crime drama rip off independent movies, melodrama independent movies... I realized that the entire genre of independent film needed to be made fun of. Indies needed an enema. They need a swift kick in the balls! Thus this project.

A couple of years ago I began writing down what I thought were all the recurring cliches I'd seen in independent movies that needed to be parodied. And after having gone to the San Diego Film Festival one year, I ran into Adam Schwartz, who had made a hysterical short film called "Project Redlight." His writing partner Yoni Berkovits and I sat down and pounded out this script for My Big Fat Independent Movie, having spent almost a year writing down gags. We began with certain parameters and rules about the films we would cover. We decided that we would parody or satirize only independent films that had either made over a hundred million dollars at the box office or independent films that were widely known and revered by indie film fans to be absolutely sure that the subject matter in the film was broad enough to appeal to a large audience. Sure, I sound like some marketing schmuck from some big studio, but the last thing I wanted to do was be another guy that made some independent film that nobody would actually get to see. So while My Big Fat Independent Movie contains specific spoofs of indie films that I know you have all seen, it also includes insights into the independent film world, film festivals, inside jokes and plenty of cameos as well, but, I just don't want to give them away. So if I sound like I'm skirting the issue, well, I actually am.

Next up... INDIE FILMMAKERS ACTIVATE!