AedanRayne said:
What if a cam model doesn't have any acting experience but has interest in it? Would they be coached while they're there? I've always been interested in acting, love horror movies but lack experience. Marketing a crowd funding project isn't new to me but acting is and that's the key component here. :lol:
This is an older photo of me but my lust for vampires is deep.
To Aedan:
Who said: What if a cam model doesn't have any acting experience but has interest in it? Would they be coached while they're there? I've always been interested in acting, love horror movies but lack experience. Marketing a crowd funding project isn't new to me but acting is and that's the key component here. :lol:"
I have been working with actors and non-actors forever. When I started making films I worked with young people my age who knew nothing about acting but who wanted to act. We rehearsed, we read through the parts. I showed them a few clips and worked through the characters, their motivation, and how that interacted with the motivations of the other characters, and how that worked to build and support the story arc.
This stuff is not that hard if you have interest and determination. One of the best actors I've ever worked with had never acted before. But she'd done poetry slams. She did fine except she read her lines too fast. I used the old trick of having her say her lines to herself out loud and pace back and forth to a set cadence. When she was ready, we rolled and she was perfect - all that frightened energy was gone.
I've worked with actors who have studied and received a modicum of recognition and would rehearse once or twice then told me, "I'm good," when clearly to me and the other actors they were not. They aren't working much anymore. People who love to work, that's totally different.
To PunkinDrublic:
Yes, it is asking a lot. It is also asking a lot of me and my team to put our trust into a virtual non-actor. It's not an easy thing to do. I won't go with just anyone. They have to have the desire and the drive and they have to hang onto it. Because there will be a film crew - cinematographer, two camera crew, two lighting people, two producers, make-up, special effects make-up, costumer(s), production assistants. And every extra minute is extra money spent. So your comments work both ways.
Can I mention that person's name in a public forum like this? No. She does not want me to. But I've given my personal email and you can ask me there. I can tell you she was the star of George Romero's original "The Crazies," had a supporting role in the remake, was featured in "Cat People," "They Came From Within," "I Drink Your Blood," and about a dozen other films. She is a hit at all sorts of horror conventions.
To ask such a thing is rather insensitive to that individual. I respect them and will not post her name without her consent.
I've crewed on dozens of features and TV shows, including "Critters 3," "Killer's Edge," and HBO's first TV series, "Ghost Stories." My first feature, "Dead Girls," was a horror anthology about mistreated young women who came back from the dead to exact their revenge. We got initial funding based upon the title and concept. Donations poured in and we were ready to go within a month. We had the film completed three months later. We had interest from 11 different distribution companies. After weeding out the ones with so-so reputations, we were left with four to pick from and took the best deal. That film releases on VOD on October 7th and on DVD in November. The it gets released overseas. Most features have to go to festival and get buzz and interest through word of mouth. I make genre films and take calculated risks, which is what business is all about. I shoot films and love doing it. I love to see the people I'm working with have fun and take chances and learn something new. I love when our project wraps quickly and we come in under budget. That has happened in 6 out of 7 of my films.
Yes, I am asking those people to help promote the film - and themselves. Yes, I am asking them to work hard. If you don't think writing a 90 page script, getting funding, answering questions like yours, and putting together the crew and getting locations and getting insurance and everything else involved in making a film is difficult and time consuming, then you don't know what it takes and you shouldn't jump to conclusions.
I've been teaching film for the past 12 years. Some of my students have gone on to work for literary agencies repping scripts in Hollywood. Almost each of them has told me they read four to five scripts per day and find maybe two good scripts in a year. I've taught students in every aspect of filmmaking and the ones with drive and ambition have gone on to work in the industry. That industry is struggling right now. Right now the films that make the most money are low budget. Not films like Guardians of the Galaxy. Because it's a matter of budget to box office ratio. Which is why small films like the Blumhouse model work so well. Insidious, Sinister, The Conjuring, or the James Wan Saw series, etc. I'm not saying this film will be one of those, but this film will follow that model. And that means getting funding to make the thing. It is a damned tough economy and it is very difficult to make films right now. You have to think outside the box.
Which is why I'm here, looking for adventuresome spirits who want to try their hand at making a film.
I think some of you may be imagining being an actor who has to be in every scene. But you won't. You won't because that doesn't happen in film. You may be on set five days out of a fifteen day shoot. Maybe more. But while you are on set you'll be working just like any other actor. I could care less what else you do - for my purposes I need people who want to do my film and help me make it something people want to see. Even if that's not in the theatre but on Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, etc.
Finally, think about actresses like Famke Janssen, Katherine Heigl, Rosanna Dawson, Cameron Diaz, Diane Krueger. They all started as models. Models are performers.
I have a friend named Kerry Stevenson. Her porn name is Angie Savage. She's done dozens of x-rated films, and about ten legit horror features. She's trying to move on and up. She's a very smart business person.
That's the kind of person I'm looking for. I'm willing to take a chance on.
The attached photo is of model Jax Turyna, one of the stars of the film. "Don't Save Me" is an ensemble piece about a young woman getting married. When she shares this news with a father she hasn't seen in 20 years, he offers to pay for the wedding as long as she comes West to have it where he lives. She's so excited that Daddy wants to do this that she doesn't stop to think. Mom is incensed by this and even more upset when the daughter sneaks off with her bf's to get married. Daddy introduces his little girl to his side of the family. They are odd but welcoming. And they are all vampires.
Email me if you're interested, please. I don't hang out in chat rooms and wouldn't even be here if my producer had not suggested it. Myself, my actors, and my crew all work through email.
Thank you all. I truly appreciate it. If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Del
