Posted by Counseling Day at c-67-168-153-212.client.comcast.net on March 24, 2004 at 03:09:33:
Hello fellow film makers! I am proud to report that my low-budget movie COUNSELING DAY is now available. This is an independent feature film shot on 16mm color negative film for $21,600 and offered to you on DVD or VHS.
Also included with the DVD is COUNSELING MONTH: THE MAKING OF COUNSELING DAY, a three-hour 'making-of' documentary. A daily video diary of the shoot and a tutorial on how to use an Arriflex camera, tripod, camera dolly, light meter, ect.
Watch the trailer at www.counselingday.com !......My name is Anthony Watkins, writer and director of COUNSELING DAY. I was inspired by Kevin Smith's CLERKS to make my own movie. I wrote a story about two guys at work with a bunch of crazy customers/ parishioners coming and going...similar to the Clerks story structure. I read Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without A Crew, which showed me how to film with no money, that book will teach you to work through a cinematic problem creatively instead of spending money on it. I then attended Vancouver Film School for a few months to figure out how to use a camera. I bought an Arriflex 16BL camera (because that's the camera we used at school), a few lights, and a Tascam DAT recorder on Ebay for cheap (I sold all this equiptment after the shoot on Ebay and got all my money back!).........This is something you can do!
Watch our making-of documentary, which is a day-by-day video diary from auditions to world premier. Once I had collected equiptment and props and had written a shooting schedule, I put an ad for actors on a Seattle actors website and held auditions for a month. I hired 40 actors (out of 85 who showed up) for basically gas money (Robert Heath Jr. playes Pasor John and he can be seen in several Lifetime Channel movies, and William Wiese plays Chester, he was the FBI helicopter sniper in The Hunted). We held rehearsals for a month, then shot our movie in 25 days during the summer of 2002 with a crew of only four! I was on camera, my brother was on sound with the portable DAT, my girlfriend was on the slate, and my dad pushed the dolly....I pulled focus on the camera myself--you don't need a lot of people on the set to make your movie!
I told each actor they were responsible for their own continuity (though I did have the documentary Mini DV camera if we wanted to double check anything), I asked the actors to supply their own wardrobe and make-up, unless I needed something specific...So it is possible to cover most of the jobs on the set yourself!...I spent $4500 on 52 cans of 16mm film from drrawstock dot com, another $6500 to develop and transfer the footage to Digital Betacam video tape. $1000 on food, $5500 on actors, and several thousand on editing....I rented a Digital Betacam deck and played the raw footage into a Mac G4 through an uncompressed capture card for editing, wrote some music, created sound effects (or borrowed a few from other movies), color corrected everything, then outputted it back to Betacam. I sent that tape to a DVD replication house and now have DVDs!.....
We played my movie at the historic Lincoln Theatre (which was partially renovated by actor Jim Caviezel who is from my hometown) to 900 people! At $10 a ticket!! (a benifit of hiring 40 actors...they brought a lot of friends)......Plus I pre-sold about 100 DVDs at the premier!
COUNSELING DAY is a high energy, slap-stick comedy with plenty of stunts. This movie is very funny and you will enjoy watching it.
"Spend a day in the life of your local pastor. From the team that brought you "Essays From A Nut", COUNSELING DAY is a hilarious look at a small-town preacher. Pastor John and his trusty side-kick, Chester, try to survive a day of counseling a steady parade of troubled parishioners as their problems go from bad to absurd. Watch as Freebird breaks both of his arms and count the crotch kicks as they quickly add up. Be careful how hard you laugh, because if Pastor John is your local pastor, then you're the troubled parishioner!"
I you are an independent movie buff and want to watch a great movie, read some of the feedback I am getting:
"Spiffy movie! That Freebird swan dive off the staircase was priceless. Kudos!"
"Very funny movie. Buy it and support a good film maker."
"Item as described!! Funny film!! Interesting "makin-of" documentary!! Great Work Quick delivery, Good cinematography!"
"Great film!"
"Funny-ass movie! True indie film!"
Watch our documentary and discover how we filmed fights, gunfire, crotch kicks, staplers thrown at heads, bodys falling off of buildings, prat falls, ect. Also, you'll find a budget break down of the film at www.counselingday.com...........
I'm telling you, If you have a good plan, you can make your movie on film for cheap!.....