Saturday, January 7, 2006Production Notes by Christopher FolinoHello reader of the blog, We finished editing one of the new flashback scenes where Gordon is bragging about his camerawork on public access, and we cut him zooming in on the chest of an 88 year-old woman calling out bingo numbers, and just stays there. It’s a quick example of his fine work at public access and believe it or not, I was concerned that people wouldn’t get the joke right away. However, all it took was showing two friends and I got the reaction we wanted which was a mixture of horror and laughter. It’s always good to have as equally as sick friends as yourself. The other new scene is of Scott Allen Rinker’s character Paul standing in front of a mirror practicing being the Spanish version of a famous fast food clown. Man, we have so many disturbing moments, that the DVD bonus footage alone for this scene will be a half-hour long. I do need to get a bit drunk before attempting to edit this scene. It could make or break Scott’s career, that’s how much “Ned Betty” or “Billy Squier” like footage we have of him. We have five scenes left to shoot and I’m a bit excited. Here’s the breakdown. 1. Johnny at parole hearing –Trying to top each scene Ben is in is a tall order. However, the pay-off is incredible. 2. Reese at prom with female cousin –Can’t wait to do this with Hanson! “Got Milk Dave?” 3. Paul’s cursing streak –Sorry, Scott, I watched the movie again for the 300th time and it will work! 4. Scene showing the Pagan babies Paul sponsors –Man, if you know any kid’s who are from Africa or Ethiopia and live in Los Angeles, CA –send them my way! 5. Kevin’s music video at the end of the film –I want to do an ode to Billy Squier’s “Rock me Tonight” video! However, even less manly! Oh, if I can get him to tear his t-shirt and look girlie in front of those horses, I might never be able to make another movie again, because, how can you top “Gamers?” A sequel perhaps? Speaking of sequels, Tom Stratton, a God at PR and Marketing was joking around about about the name of the sequel for “Gamers” and he came up with “Gamers: The Expansion Pack.” That could be also the name of the DVD with bonus features. We know we can make “Gamers” into a series like “American Pie” and we have set-up the “Johnny” character to play a pivotal role in the sequels and there are some hints in the first movie about “Reese’s character and his ability to handle stress. Hell, I think we could do a series on HBO. However, there are at least two other films I’d like make first. One is a drama/comedy and the other is an animated movie. Then again look at me yapping! It’s not like anyone is beating down my door at the moment and last time I looked at Sideshow’s bank account, gambling on football to pay off festival fees isn’t really a sound business plan. Thing good thoughts, this next week is a huge week for festivals and PR for “Gamers” Sunday could be the start of it all! Go click on for part 2 of the blog at http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0485909/board Or go to www.imdb.com click on gamers 2006 and then look up the message board Part 2 is full of lots of gossip and dirt! posted @ 10:01 AM PDT [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] Friday, January 6, 2006The Final Four by Christopher FolinoFive for Five, a bad streak is kept alive. 2006 starts off with a rejection from the Cinequest Film Festival which is held in Sacramento, California. To recap, the movie has not made it into Sundance, Slamdance, Palm Springs, Berlin, and Cinequest. It's hard not to "go off" on this blog, when you keep getting your nuts kicked in! With these rejections, I feel like one of those horrible parents who enter their children into a beauty contest and the kid keeps losing. At what point as a parent do you spend the money on major cosmetic surgery to make your child pretty, so they can be crowned the next "Miss Junior baby Tropicana" ages 6 months to 1 year old. Or do you ship the child off to an "Ugly Baby" orphanage somewhere deep in South America and go adopt a winner? So, we are down to the final four film festivals, which are Santa Barbara Seattle SXSW HBO Comedy Film Festival It's exciting isn't it! The final four! The moment of truth? We may keep the streak alive or finally break it! Rejection, hell, I'm so use to it. I was rejected originally by my High School, it's was rather embarrassing since both my brothers were in Bishop Amat at the time and my mom had to go get the nun who was grade school principal to write a hardship and please let the dumber brother of three get into the high school letter. That didn't do much for the ego, however, once, there I think I continued to suck at math and English and spent my time starting a film club. Which some would say, has now proven to be a waste of time, considering that the movie keeps getting rejected by festivals. However, the fat lady isn’t done singing! And hell, originally even my own wife rejected me. However, five years later and a letter from a nun who was my grade school principal she married me! Heck, my consititution is so high, that I have get a plus five added to my saving role for all things that reject me! By the way, that was a Dungeons and Dragons joke, so folks like Mr. Hemenway and my dad,who now read this blog will understand what I'm saying. Maybe I should track down that nun who was my former grade school prinicpal and have her write a few letters to the Santa Barbara and SXSW Film Festival. Remember to go log onto www.imdb.com and look up Gamers 2006 and check the message boards for the bonus blog. posted @ 07:21 AM PDT [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] Wednesday, January 4, 2006Bonus " Wednesday Night" Blog by Christopher FolinoFor all you folks clicking onto our site, from Netflick and Blockbuster, first, let me start by saying this, You are very good looking people and I applaud you for having a plus nine for intelligence. That was really only a joke for folks who know who Gary Gygax is. Maybe you need to "google search" something other than porn and Lindsay Lohan diet secrets! It's a steady diet of Bulimia and drugs by the way! Christ, was I the only one kicking myself in the nuts, while having to watch that "Herbie the Love Bug Remake?" Or should I say "Nascar advertisement?" And now, a special message to Matt Dillon who is one of my favorite actors. "Dude, why? Did you think after you did "Crash" and gave that "Oscar worthy performance" that you could star in the "Herbie re-make" and turn pure "Crap" into "Gold"? Or do you have a thing for young, sexy girls with bodies like Karen Carpenter? Man, somebody also please get that Lizzy McGuire girl to eat something other than a tic-tac! If you clicked on because of our cute "Howard Stern of Blogs!" here, let me do my "blog impersonation of Howard Stern" As I'm writing this blog, I got twins sisters here making out on my keyboard. Fuck, that's hot! I can say the word "Fuck now! Right Gary? Look at me! Oh, wait "Buurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp" Okay, enough of that. What is "Gamers" the movie and why the hell are you this site? Well, you can't buy the movie yet so you're here for hype! We are waiting to get into several film festivals that we hope to premiere the movie at and that will lead to a large distribution deal. We've had some offers to meet, however, since we made this movie on credit cards and gambling on "Football" to pay for festival fees, we are going to wait this out! We dream of 20 distributors coming to see the movie at the festival, speaking Elvish and dressed for Ren-Fair dorks trying to win our love! So help us out! Go watch some media clips, read some interviews, we got Kelly LeBrock, Beverly D'Angelo, William Katt, Jonh Heard, and Michael Bell in the movie. And dude, serious, go read some blogs entries, it's rather sick, the last entry called "Old School" you should skip, I woke up this morning in some sort of "BrokeBack Mountain" mood. And go check out our movie poster which is on www.imdb.com click on Gamers 2006 It's a thing of beauty! posted @ 10:28 PM PDT [link] Old School by Christopher Folino Originally, I wanted to shoot “Gamers” in my hometown of El Monte and to film in the exact locations of where I use to play "Dungeons and Dragons" and hung-out. However, when you make an ultra-low-budget indie film you need to pick one location and stay-put! I thought it would be a nice ode to the city where I grew up in. However, I live in Newbury Park, CA now and all my friends have moved away from El Monte. Besides, the script took a departure from being barely semi-autobiographical to "what can we do make a really funny movie." Since starting in 1986 and making various movies and shorts on video, the city of El Monte was my prop, I shot freely there and it was mostly due to working at the Public Access Station, KELM 3 and knowing the police. Our first movie started while I was in high school and it was called “Lance Amater: The story of a legend” and I was in detention when the thought occurred to me, while being forced to copy the school’s rule book, who would live by these rules? And that's how the story of the perfect high school student at a catholic high school was born. I caught a great break, The principal of Bishop Amat High School at the time was Merritt Hemenway who along with some key faculty members, like Dave Ayotte and the “Velasco sisters” were fully supportive. I was like sixteen and I had nothing but a script and enthusiasm and that was good enough for them. And when you’re sixteen you aren’t smart, However, you have two things going for you! Free time and great friends. That’s all you need to start making a movie and the friendships I had with Robert Velasco, David Frisk, Victor Estrada, Peter & Wolfgang Shane, Kevin Sherwood, Kathy Padilla, The Hemenway family,The Frisk family, KELM, and Jim Clouet were my “Wonder Years.” Our first attempt at making “Lance Amater” was on 8MM film. We started a film club and held a dance and got the famous KROQ D.J. Richard Blade to be the M.C. That’s why twenty years later, we hired Richard Blade to be the D.J. on the radio in “Gamers”. Well, the club made a great deal of money and we got the camera donated for free by my hair-stylist who later became major of El Monte. See, cutting hair can lead to power! I thought by just picking up the camera I was instantly “Martin Scorsese.” Yeah, like all I had to do was yell “Wonder Twin Powers” and say “form and skills of George Lucas, minus the really bad screenwriting and directing!” My partner in filmmaking at the time was Dave Frisk and we shot a 45 minute film and after getting enough money to get the film developed, we discovered we had no sound and the camera work sucked. It was devastating, however, after I graduated I joined the local public access station, and shot everything on video. Video allows you to rewind each take and see if that take sucks or not. So, as most people were graduating from high school and never looking back, I spent the following year re-shooting the movie with a new cast. I did the camera, the lighting, and the directing and then I would take it back to my mentor at the time, Jim Clouet. And I remember sitting in a small editing room, I’m talking perhaps twice the size of a catholic confessional, editing “Lance Amater” with Jim Clouet and I use to bring him peanut M&Ms and cigarettes and he would edit my movie and yell at me for bringing him “crap footage.” The room was full of smoke and it took years to edit that damn movie, because, he wouldn’t let me settle and he would challenge me on everything. Sure, I wanted to kill him, however, I learned more from that man than any film school. I went on to make another movie called “The Art of Crime” with Dave Frisk and Kevin Sherwood and in 1992 I thought we were on our way. I left to go to USC and attempted to get into the film program.However, I ended up transferring to Loyola Marymount once I figured I had no shot at getting into to USC. It didn’t matter though, it wasn’t my time. I wanted it badly, I really did. It’s hard to come from a place like El Monte and be given a chance and not immediately make something out of it. Failure sucks, however, coming from a place with no expectation and then getting a shot and failing and then having to return home, that feeling of failure can last a “lifetime.” However, my road would be another five and a half years of corporate television for “The Home Depot” mixed in with meeting the wrong woman several times. And then the early death of my mother happened at the same time I finally met the right woman. Shortly after, I was forced to move to Atlanta to keep my job with “The Home Depot” and after 13 months of living in Georgia my contract was up and I wanted to go back to California. I got married in San Francisco, that where the wife is from and a few years later my wife got pregnant and I switched jobs from Corporate America to the video game industry. It was awesome! My first day, I got paid to watch somebody play a video game! Christ! That was heaven until I had to make the footage into a cool trailer. After, that it was about gaining enough experience to move to a premier video game company and having the opportunity to write, edit, and shoot a 35MM war spot and to create an animated spots for TV or for trailers that ended up on “The Incredibles” and “The Punisher” movie DVDs as bonus material. And E3, the video games answer to the “Academy Awards” is the most intense boot camp ride in the world. It makes creating a movie in six days seems like a “cake walk.” So after May 2005, and learning that my wife was pregnant with twin boys I had a new found motivation to take care of some unfinished business. And all the lessons I learned from my public access days and the hours I spent making “Lancer Amater” and “The Art of Crime” with my friends and family kicked in. Even though I wasn’t shooting in El Monte or with my original friends, I made sure “Gamers” represented that spirit. It was made on our terms with some nice upgrades. The movie is shot on 35MM film with real actors. And thankfully by making all those smaller movies and failing, I didn’t place my family in a bad financial mess like most folks who make a movie. So the “old school lessons” paid off and we got a real legimate shot with this film. I’d be a liar, if I said that I didn’t want it to sell this film and make movies for the rest of my life. However, I live in the real world where I got a great day job and a family. This movie was personal, it was more about taking the 800 pound gorilla that haunted me for over twenty years, screwing with my self-confidence, and finally kicking it’s ass. It’s great to look people in the eye and not have to make any excuses on why I never made a movie. Now, I just smile and I sound like one of those annoying self-motivational speakers when I say “Never give up.” Twenty years is a long time to reach a goal, however, it sure beats becoming an old man with regrets. We gave it our best shot with this movie. That’s what this movie is, our best shot for right now. It’s not the only movie in me, it won’t make or break me, it’s just my first movie and my first shot. Thanks for reading the blog and remember to go to www.imdb.com and check out "GAMERS 2006 Message Board" for some behind-the-scenes triva and bonus blog. posted @ 09:39 AM PDT [link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] Tuesday, January 3, 2006Day three of the year 2006 by Christopher FolinoIt was a productive day for “Gamers” yesterday; we shot two scenes that will be added into the movie. The first scene was the “Bingo Babe Zooming-on-the-Chest” with 88 year-old Rose Bell, the mother of the legendary Michael Bell. Rose did a wonderful job, however, as I was zooming-in on this woman’s chest , I started to feel like a complete idiot. The scene is part of a running joke about the main character Gordon and his awful job in public access where he’s proud of his “style” of zooming. While I was asking the 88 year old woman to stuff her bra more, a part of my brain clicked on and asked “What the hell am I doing adding this scene into the movie?” “What kind of cinematic legacy am I leaving behind?” Then, I thought about Tom Green and Ned Beatty and I was at peace with myself and that little part of my brain started thinking about “tamales.” Besides, after our graphics guru, Dave, “Colacioppoizes” this scene, it will have an obnoxious dancing “Bingo Ball” and whatever, other “crimes against humanity” we can think of. One of the highlights from yesterday was sitting down and wrapping with Michael Bell and his lovely wife about movies and life. They live in an incredibly secluded home that oozes “chill” and it reminds me of where all the great “Hollywood” stars from 1940’s lived. Michael Bell is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever met and he can “curse!” He won my heart fast! And best of all Michael Bell has a wicked quick wit about him, that’s on par with Robin Williams. However, minus the hair and same voices used over-and-over. When we revamp the website in late January, we are going to add outtakes from his voice over session for the movie. The cursing alone is worth the click! I do owe Chris Borders a lifetime of thanks for getting us Michael Bell for our movie, and if you ever need one-of-the-greatest voice directors for video games or animated movies, Chris Borders is the man. I don’t plug anybody on this blog that sucks! And all I can say is that every video game trailer that I’m proud of creating over the last five years has involved working with Chris Borders. You can reach him at Tikimancasting@cox.net and his cell phone number is (949) 290-2145. And also to be fair Frank Szick has been my go-to-guy for all audio design work and he’s a sick talent. Frank is without a doubt one of the best in the business and a pleasure to work with. He makes me sound and look good; he’s like my “Trim Spa” but with audio. The second scene we shot was at our producer Manuel’s home, which makes me now stereotype all gay men as “Great decorators”. Manuel is one of the sweetest and most talented people you’ll ever meet and the boy is all about style and heart. (By the way when you don’t pay people like Manuel to work on your movie, you need to be nice and remember to talk them up in your “blog” just to give the illusion that you like them) And by the way please continue to pray for him as he now battles two types of cancer. He’s going to beat them both, and look damn good doing it! So, we got to work with the great Scott Allen Rinker last night on the “famous clown scene in the mirror” which, was originally done by another actor who is about six years younger than Scott. We figured since the flashback scenes uses the other main actors dressed in wigs, we might as well stay “consistent”. It went really well, Scott made-out with the hamburger and even had simulated “relations” with the hamburger. Once this movie comes out and people see this scene, we will have done for preventing obesity in children than any other movie in history. We have four short scenes left to shoot, which will get done within ten days and then that is that! And it was another night of seeing two of our lead actors on TV. I swear I have no right to feel like a proud parent, but I do! I just think it’s cool to see the cast in other flicks! Both Scott Allen Rinker and Joe Nieves were on the CBS show “How I Met Your Mother” last night. It was the repeat episode of the “Halloween show.” Proof that the world is going to end soon, “The Star Wars Holiday Special” which aired once on CBS in 1978 is ranked 2,175 on the MOVIEmeter. If you have never seen this piece of art, it’s equal to rubbing “Liquid Plumber” onto your eyes and the setting a match to it! And then pouring metal spikes over your eyes to put the fire out. Heck, The word “sucks major ass” is too soft of a phrase to describe how bad this “Special” truly is. And if you would like to hear about another wonderful “Behind-the-scenes” of the making of “Gamers” log onto today’s “Bonus Blog” which can be found at www.imdb.com under Gamers 2006 message board. posted @ 08:29 AM PDT [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] Monday, January 2, 2006"Gamers” the movie blog, day two in the year 2006 by Christopher FolinoThis has to be the year; I got my twentieth high school reunion coming up and the hell if I'm going unless this movie makes it "big-time!" I'm renting myself a Hummer limo with a pool inside it, I'm bringing seven body guards that are "little people" and then dressing Gary Coleman up as "Snow White."Also, I will drag the entire cast with me so we can get a private table and yell "That's right bitches! See, I started the Silver Screen Club in High School and look where it got me!" Today we are shooting some new scenes, nothing special, stuff you'd find in almost any movie. 1. Camera focusing on the chest of an 88 year old woman as she calls out "Bingo" numbers 2. A white Guy dressed in a famous fast-food clown outfit, video taping himself practicing, trying hard to be the "Mexican version" of the clown. 3. Lead character and his flashbacks of horrible events that would make most men curse, however, he sucks it up, to keep his"No cursing streak" alive We have one more future day of shooting and then we will be done. So the world has been warned, the movie is coming out very soon. Other newsworthy mentions on the blog! Congrats to Ben Messmer who plays Johnny in our movie for an outstanding guest role last night on "In Justice" on ABC. I was rooting for his character to be the killer in the show; however, he was the loving-grieving brother who I kind of questioned his sexuality. However, I think I was reading "Too-much" or wanting to read "Too-much" into his part last night! I rather liked his little "neck-crack" when he was walking with the investigator woman and I always love it when Ben yells at people! And while were on the topic of actors on TV. I finally saw our leading actress Meredith Zealy's in "The Notebook" which is ranked number 45 on the IMDB MOVIEmeter. I guess IMDB is run by nothing but chicks! After months of refusing to watch more than five minutes of the chick-flick in a single viewing I saw Meredith's scene and she did great! Serious, I have watched about 22 minutes of "The Notebook" over a three month period on cable. And regarding her character who is a mother of two children, I laughed because that's just not what any of our targeted male audiences between the ages of 17 and 55 want to visualize Meredith. And if you like strange trivia, our movie "Gamers" does share an exact same line of dialog with "The Notebook" movie. It was done on purpose! You can find out that answer on the IMDB GAMERS 2006 Message Boards and also read a bonus blog! Oh, yes, our marketing minds are working over-time here! www.imdb.com Gamers 2006 message boards posted @ 09:26 AM PDT [link] Sunday, January 1, 2006Happy New Year by Christopher FolinoOn behalf of the entire team from "Gamers" we wish you all a "Happy New Year." And that even includes you Mr. Gary Coleman! Because, you never know when you or your fellow executive producers may need to call "Cash Direct" for a loan to help keep you a float until you sell your movie. Gary, did I ever mention, that I thought you got robbed for an Emmy when you appeared on "Drake and Josh" in the episode titled "The Gary Grill!" I was going to do a list of "Things I believe the cast should "wish" for in 2006." However, I'm not as clever as I hoped; it all came across as really lame and before I knew it I missed yesterday's blog. Here's what I came up with and then I just had to stop. Otherwise, I'd have to kick myself in the nuts again and that's no way to start off the New Year! I'm hoping to make it rich this year and hire a person "full time" to just kick me in the nuts when I come up with a lame idea. Here was my lame list for "Things I believe the cast should wish for in 2006" Even the name is long and lame. Dave Hanson -Lead actor who plays "Reese" A gold watch that can stop time! However, Dave could move freely while everyone else is frozen in time! Then Dave could go around to help influence "Film Festivals" by placing "Gamers" on the desks on every programmer and with a snappy note on why our movie should be accepted! I think that would be the lamest use of a “magical watch” However, other than using it to sleep for like an extra 15 hours a day, or walking into banks and stealing large sums of money, and seeing famous people naked and changing the outcome of major sporting events, I don't see much other use for it. So I stopped there, and considered writing about the "best of 2005." Okay, so here it is real quick! "Twin Boys", "The wife and family" "Working with my friends at the THQ video department and having the best crew and best creative year ever" "Full support of my friends, co-workers, and especially my family to "go for it", "Meeting and working with every actor and crew member on "Gamers" and "Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers", "co-workers and friends like Gordon Madison, Paul Reese, and Paul Rivas for the countless hours doing script readings and making suggestions that improved "Gamers". "Making Gamers", "Making Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers”,” Meeting Tito and getting hooked on Starbucks", "Meeting and working on a great film with the entire cast of Gamers", "Fernando for creating the web site and everyone who has contributed to it!" "E3 Barnyard trailer", "E3 SpongeBob Trailer", "Working with Mario Vanillo and the team of Jarheads", "Working with Michael Folino", "Tom and Frank" and for doing amazing audio" "Meeting Breanna and the Pflaumer family," "Having Merritt Hemenway appear in the movie," "Having great neighbors that let us film a guy in a white robe and a hood in Newbury Park without asking a single question," "Making new friends with the film and web site, like Shannon in North Carolina, and Chuck in Austin", "The Cast and Crew premiere", "The first and greatest review of the film by www.warycry.com" "My first power meeting with Kelly LeBrock", "Advice from Beverly, Michael, William, Kelly, Merritt, Ben, Rob in San Fran, Steven Folino, Bob Folino, Kathy Vanillo, and the four horsemen, plus one", "a boss and a company that allowed me to do this project on the side," "Gen Con with William Katt, Michael Bell, Dave Hanson, Kevin Kirkpatrick, Scott Allen Rinker, Meredith Zealy, Fernando Velloso, Dave Colacioppo, Manuel Silva, Jennifer Stechman, Melissa Rivas, and Tom Hemenway. "Gambling on Football to pay for "Festival Fees!" "The Cohen Family”,” The NICU unit at Los Robles Hospital", "All the Guillen's and Suttons in No Cal", "The New England Patriots", and "Manuel Silva's improved health." The list goes on and on. There so many wonderful moments and people that made 2005 a historic year! I'm going to stop now; I want my readers to know me more for being a bitter-sarcastic man who will someday snap with another rejection from a film festival than a kind loving human that relates to "Oprah!" So the New Year for "Gamers" started off with a bang! IMDB MOVIEmeter now ranks "Gamers" at 6,134, down from December 25th when the ranking was 7,711. Pretty damn cool! That means we are kicking the crap out of "Weekend at Bernie’s 2" which is ranked 9,747 and you know that gives me frickin hope! However, I do want to mention the following films that are ranked way too high on the IMDB MOVIEmeter and I hope "the movie angels" will punish those that have ranked them so "high"! "Richie Rich" ranked at 1450 -(It's ranked one higher than "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind") "Dream a little Dream" with both Corey's -ranked 5,760 "Bio-Dome" with Pauly Shore -ranked 3,380 "Boxing Helena with Julian Sands" -3,865 And I do protest all my might Meatballs 4 with Corey Feldman -7,806 That's it for me, I have to go celebrate our new ranking for "Gamers 2006" at 6134! Do you know how cool this is? Here's a list of what is ranked near us! "Brian's Song" is ranked 6132 and The "Goodbye Girl" is ranked lower than us at 6136 And believe it or not, this won't last be are ranked higher than "Jackass: the Movie 2" (2006) ranked at 6159! and for all you Star Trek fans! "New Voyages" made in 2004 is ranked 6180! Oh, the magic has started! The power of the twenty sided is happening! Remember to go onto IMDB and keep clicking on "Gamers 2006" I'm going to start posting "Stuff" on the "Gamers 2006" message board! posted @ 11:23 AM PDT [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] |
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