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watch New Film Trailer

That preview looks incredible! Hard to believe how you could produce a film of such quality on a "no budget" production?. It's great. Do you have a link for the film emulation software used?
best of luck on the release!
 
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Thanks

Thanks guys,

i will put more info up soon as well as the camera and software info...

sometimes a pat on the back is all we have to keep going o the long haul of making a movie so again, thanks

kely mcclung

http://www.kerberosbites.com
http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com

In some ways Blood Ties was even more ambitious, 25K - shot with a crew of 3, in 3 countries and 6 major cities - hope to share and learn

k
 
If that was "no budget", I'd love to see what you could do with a budget!

Since you're pushing envelopes, please drop in my mailbox too, please. ;)
 
KERBEROS movie production details

To fairly level all playing fields - I suppose no budget should mean zero. But while the term is used loosely, I never meant we are doing it for free or expecting people to work for free. Begging for it - yes, expecting it - no.

I directed and edited our short film, AM Session for about $400. We were lucky enough to get some attention for it and it now plays on HBO. Still, by the time we delivered it, with DigiBeta transfers and Beta tapes, we spent another couple grand. I know of one fest fav feature shot for $50! Rob Pralgo's and Matt Green's zombie feature was shot for just a bit more than that and looks terrific.

That said; KERBEROS will come in under a 100K counting, cameras, editing system, and all post. The trailer on-line is cut from about 65% of the scripted movie. We are still in active production, (most of the action is still coming!) though there are many considerations in trying to raise our game while keeping the costs down. My kick ass Executive Producer Brad Fallon is making this possible, but being the producer while being the director has forced me into some agonizing decisions.

So, under a 100K, and a MUCH bigger looking movie when it's done.

I have payed cast and crew - though not a fortune or even a fraction of what they should make considering their hard work, a sizable chunk of our money. We have payed fees for some of our locations, guerrilla filmmade in others, and have tried to make sure we have the police on our side while I stole locations and filmed extensively downtown. I have called on many favors, and through a past martial arts student of mine, Jess Dillard, we were able to get the support of the Conyers Police Dept, including cars, wrecked vehicles to wreck a bit more, cops, locations, police dogs, etc... for one of our bigger scenes. I have 'stolen' locations in Macon and will shoot in Rome.

Rob Pralgo has been a huge help with casting and acting as liaison with People Store and the actors and the extras that I cast. Dan Slemons has been his usual invaluable self, and Tim Honnegan did some fantastic work filling in as gaffer when Dan was not available. My AD Attila Alexander has stepped up to play line producer and AD, and is now even acting cameraman, and with me writing, acting, directing, composing, doing make up, stunts, and doing all post, we have been able to keep the cost in check.

As people know from BLOOD TIES I push to get it right and so take longer than some. Knowing that others have more resources and more talent, I try to work harder and longer. (I am excited by having Jack Chapple, a 'real' composer re-do the music for the trailer for when it debuts at Indie Fest USA in Disney next month on the BIG screen!)

Our total crew has been about 10 people working off and on - usually just 3 or 4 on set. The movie is being shot on the Sony PMW-EX1, their stock lens, and edited on a Mac with Premiere Pro. The cameras, and both the computer and the software have issues, (compression issues, rolling shutters, unwanted interlacing, etc..) part of which come from converting and finishing in uncompressed 4:4:4 targa files and then grading, modifying, and adding effects on a PC. Desktop computers are not really made to edit at 142 MB per second of footage!

The work flow and processing of the footage is what I developed before starting and then working on the movie BLOOD TIES. Most of the LA film community is convinced BT was shot on something other than the venerable DVX! Still, it's amazing the difference in seeing and working with1920x1080P footage. But, with a frame size with 6 1/2 more times the pixels DV - there are "frustrations".

KERBEROS was partially written and done here as a payback for those who worked hard and contributed so much to BLOOD TIES. I had offers to do it much bigger in LA, but as a filmmaker - like the film itself, I know I have a long way to go, and the comfort and support of talented people that I already knew around me gave me the determination to do the film even if it had literally been for zero. Okay - the cost of paper and a pencil...

All cast and crew are from Atlanta except for Stan Harrington who I brought in from LA, Kevin Coyle from S.C., and Whitney Sullins from Rome, GA.

Making any film is a lengthy endeavor, and as anyone knows who has done it, a feature is exponentially harder and requires a huge commitment, especially when babysitting it from conception to delivery.

At this stage of the process, the comments and reception on the trailer about what we are doing is the incentive and fuel to keep going and so to everyone here, and to another 40 or 50 who have written in from around the world already, I give thanks.

The trailer, even for me who works on it everyday, was to show and remind myself and the others involved that we are trying to do something significant. The movies and films I dream about, plan for, and push to compete with generally cost in the millions. So by those standards and those I hope this movie to be judged by, KERBEROS is a 'no-budget' film.

respects to the 'doing',

Kely McClung

http://www.bloodtiesmovie.com

http://kerberosbites.com

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0565955/

http://www.myspace.com/kerberosmovie
 
ooh. When you said "No budget", I thought you were pulling a Robert Rodriquez. So the film is under $100,000? Im really interested to see it.
 
Your trailer link in the AM Session page is pointing to a file on your C: drive. I'd like to watch the trailer if you have a different link.

And you should probably replace "no budget" with "low budget" because a hundred grand is nothing to sneeze at considering I'm reeling from a mere $6K investment so far. ;)
 
no vs low

I will check into the AM Session page.

I understand and I agree that 100K is a lot and I haven't pulled off a Rodriguez like effort. Nor is this post meant to defend KERBEROS, only inform so that others can make decisions as they tackle their own projects.

A couple quick points though. Rodiguez is a definite inspiration for me, but not the quality of El Mariachi in execution, style, or story. (BEDHEAD was genius though!)

I know that everyone will jump all over this, and I hope people can see to what I am actually writing though I am the first to admit that everything may be wrong!

One: El Mariachi was done in 92 - released in 93 - a while back... it started winning on the festival circuit in 93 and 94. Times and expectations have changed.

Two: part of the budget and way in raising it may have been at least in part some of the marketing spin. It worked. Like BLAIR WITCH, it is part of the legend.

Three: part of the impact the film had came from the confluence of circumstances on the state of film production at the time and Robert's own dynamic personailty and drive - but people were just as awed at the audacity of an American/Mexican college student with no money from Austin making any kind of film.

Four - for now: We have never seen the 9 thousand dollar version. At least no one I know has. The released version by Columbia had at least another several hundred thousand in it for recuts, re-transfers, and remixed sound. Then it hit the festival circuit. And of course winning the Audience Award at Sundance is pretty damn impressive so it stands up.

Moreover, RR has proven himself to be an impresario of film and filmmaking. He remains and validifies his status as an inspiration for many of us and definitely me with every movie. I don't pretend to have his level of talent.

My first film, the Feature BLOOD TIES was shot for 22K. Still a lot of money. But 2003 money.
I agree a lot of money. As I pay my rent late and try to keep up with my bills, I think about it a lot. Still, we were trying to compete with Hollywood productions and Hollywood production values.

I spent nearly 3 years of 50 to 80 hours a week trying to figure out how to make video (something I may be able to afford) look like something I would want to watch. Once I had that down, I convinced my friend to go in with me and make this movie.

So with that in mind, I wrote, starred, choreographed, filmed, edited, did the makeup, did all the fx, composed the music and created the marketing materials.

We had a crew of two people, and bought 2 DVX's and built a computer that could handle it. The cameras have since been used on a dozen projects and the computer on dozens more.

Oh yeah, that 22 K included filming most of the movie in Thailand and Cambodia, Washington DC, Miami, Virginia, and my hometown, Atlanta.

Though the movie does not have distribution yet, it has just finished its festival run. It screened in Bangkok last year during the Bangkok Film Market. It screened at the Action on Film Festival in LA (winner Film of the Year), at Indie Fest USA (winner Best of Festival and Best Visual FX) at Big Bang Festival in Philly (Winner Best Director - Audience Award) and at the Rincon Int'l Film Festival in Puerto Rico (winner Best Int' Film)

So back to KERBEROS...

My second feature. Bigger budget. Having been really embraced at the American Film Market for BT, I had enough meetings and conversations with studios and producers to know that with the move to HD that we would have to step up again.

A second film using people I knew also meant that they needed to see a progression and get paid at least a little money this time.

So a full budget of 100K?

Well, at this stage, the trailer was cut from about 65 film pages - so 35 more to go. The movie will look and be bigger than what the trailer can now show. My budget must include all post and marketing. I am currently on point to come in below that budget.

So far, we have spent nearly 45K - a lot of money.

Out of that, we have bought two cameras for about 17K. They have already been used on other projects and will be for the next couple years.

We have paid cast and crew.

I built a 6000 computer system to handle the uncompressed HD footage. I have bought 5 external drives for storage. I broke down and bought the software - another couple grand.

I have bought new mics which will be used over the next several years and other projects.

I spent 1500 on blank firing prop guns which have already been used in couple of other projects and will be further. And yes, I bought 5 guns, but there are probably 25 people in the movie with guns so they will go a long way.

Could I have found software - probably. Could I have made do with my old computer - maybe. I could of also borrowed cameras, mics, dollys, etc... but now I am in position to let people borrow and rent them from me as well as do other work on my own projects.

At the end of the day, we all care because we want to know how to pull off the movies in our heads and dreams. Others may be smarter. I am not cool enough to know how to make a movie with two people in a room interesting but am always floored by the ideas and talent others have. My stories are extremely ambitious. I am still trying to make an action movie that competes with films that cost several million. Am I pulling it off? I don't yet. I do know that very few people watching the delivered film, including the producers and distributors who will have to get involved for it to have any real success as an entity in its own, and certainly the audience, only care if the movie is good or not good.

luck to all - I'm back to work on KERBEROS!


kely
http://kerberosbites.com
htto://bloodtiesmovie.com
 
At uncompressed rez I do not think it can play back in real time

perhaps augmented with raid arrays and some sort of kick ass high end graphics card

I am on both a pc - a bit older - and a new intel max - dual quad core 3.2 zeons - 4 gig ram - there is no way it can play back unompressed footage smoothly -

most acquisition and editing happens with some kind of compression - though once I have an assembly I export the scene as an uncompressed Targa sequence and do my processing and color grading on that. It then goes through a couple more processes and then is brought back into After FX

I am somewhat of an After FX guru so that is my program of choice right now for grading and fx - even at that - I can only watch a few seconds - less than 10 - at a time in uncompressed real time preview. these sequences are stored as my masters and never put into a compression scheme again until a later film out transfer or maybe BLU Ray -

I am investigating COLOR and it seems a bit exciting and i look forward to learning more with it.

hard making a movie that way but the final look is why I go through the trouble, I might be working harder than I need to but it pretty much lets me get the look I am going for
 
Very interesting story, Kely. One question:

Why are you shooting over such a long period of time as opposed to shooting all at one time. I understand that you certainly want to check and maybe edit footage as you go, but what made you decide to spread shooting so wide?
 
Just out of curiosity, if its too personal, please dont be offended. How do you raise a 100k? You bought all this equipment ect. and you said you have a hard time paying your rent. So what tips can you give me as to raising money?
 
I think the trailer looks very impressive. I have to tell you though, when I read "no budget" and then watched that trailer I got very excited thinking that maybe my film will come out looking half that good, but then I read the rest of the posts and my hopes were a little squashed. Yours looks good though, especially for $100k.

I guess there is no such thing as "NO budget", because everything costs SOMETHING...gas in your car to drive where you are going to film? :)
 
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