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ALEXIA COUNTDOWN – 40
ALEXIA FILM COUNTDOWN #42
We are officially underway with #AlexiaFilm . There are now #42DaysTill production starts! We will begin introducing the cast as of this week!
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Director Of The Week – Alexander Payne 2
Here’s the 2nd film.
‘Election’
Starring; Matthew Broderick / Reese Witherspoon (my favorite performance of hers) / Chris Klein / Jessican Campbell and more!
Do yourself a favor and go watch this film.
#REELATER
Director Of The Week – Alexander Payne 1
So as a film lover I thought why not do a weekly mini-fest honoring not only the old but the new Directors. Those Directors whom have and still give us our pure 100% cine-fix in a modernized 6sec vine & 5min youtube world that would prefer a watered down, diluted, music video versions of film. A 1h30mim montage peice with film credits slapped on at the start and then at the end, the celluloid version of processed food.
The plan then is to choose a Director which I think is great (yes it is my opinion) every week and watch all their films if possible or alternatively as much as can be watched.
For this week we have the Director of one of my personal favorites – wait, scratch that – a few of my personal favorites. Mr. Alexander Payne. Not going to do a whole big write up because … Just go watch his films – because that’s why!
First film we look at!
Citizen Ruth!
Staring: Laura Dern / Soowsie Kurtz (another personal favorite) / Mary Kay Place & Bert Reynolds to name a few!
Go watch it and love it!
The next film goes up tomorrow.
MOVIE / FILM APPRECIATION
This is a wonderful idea to appreciate those who gave us some of the films that have changed the way cinema is made and viewed.
NEXT TO NOTHING – ALEXIA – 10/02/2015
Tuesday 10/02/2015
Here we go, day 2.
Having run around most of the day trying to balance a new and growing business while also trying to prep a film for production is not easy (As I’m sure you know), so its going to be a very difficult and long two months but on the other hand at least I’m spending all my time working on what I love – FILM.
We are ruining around right now so there isn’t any one thing prepared for the ‘how to’ element of these posts so I thought I would just share what I’m doing to prepare as a Director while trying to produce at the moment.
It’s simple! WATCH A TON OF FILMS!
Now I’m sure different Directors prepare different ways and watching films is how I begin to prepare. Watching films however is more a warm up to the preparation then preparation itself. Don’t get me wrong, I find it extremely important to watch a range of films before shooting any project but some people don’t and thats okay too because I know why they don’t like to watch films – there is a belief that once you do that you could possibly, even indirectly copy what you watch and maybe its true.
That’s why the way I do it is very specific. For starters I don’t watch any film that is within the same genre/feel as my film, for example if I’m making a gangster film I won’t go and watch ‘Good Fellas’ (Which would be punishment for me as that is one of the films I must watch before any production. I’ll go back to that in a bit.), and if I’m making a rom-com I won’t watch go watch ‘This means war’. So watch many films is my advice but just make sure to keep it totally different from what you’re making AND YET (Here comes the confusing part) still be relevant to your film, Another example; If I am shooting a romantic film that requires minimal lighting (Due to lack of budget or style) that will still maintain a beautiful feel then I will watch something like ‘Che’ (Part 1&2 because it’s a wonderful film) because they used minimal lighting and still maintained a cinematic look. Not sure if that example will help but the best I could do on short notice.
To wrap up make a list of films and go watch them! I guarantee you it will not only inspire but it will rejuvenate your appetite for FILM as a whole.
Now for my last point, over the years I have developed many techniques to help me get the best from my craft and here is one of those techniques (I told you I would come back to my point). Before I work on any production and when I say any I mean if I go shot anything with a narrative script I watch these films back to back (I MUST), whether it’s out of a sense of tradition that I created, a superstitious ritual I have to do or a practice that genuinely inspire me and gets my creative juices flowing (I think it’s the last one), it always seams to help.
So here are the films;
- Hang Em High
- Yojimbo
- Election
- The Milagro Beanfield War
- Good Fellas / Raging Bull (I know its 2 but who cares!)
- The King Of Comedy
- Reservoir Dogs
- Rumble Fish
- 12 Angry Men
- Fargo
They my not be favorites for everyone else but they do it for me!
Good luck if you’re working on a project and follow us!
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Thanks for reading!
Khalid
NEXT TO NOTHING – ALEXIA – 09/02/2015
Monday 09/02/2015
This is the first posting for our new production ‘ALEXIA’ (We will be releasing more information as time goes on). We want to run you through from where we were, where we are and where we a hoping to go, as well as the purpose of future posting.
First for a confessional, embarrassing as it may be to admit this, I feel I have to! I have to for a few reasons; 1) Maybe some closure, 2) because I feel there isn’t anything wrong with trying and failing and three and most importantly – I want people to see that for most of us – over night success is not in the cards. Quite the opposite – we fall. We fall then press our knees against the ground and try and stand back up BUT then we fall again, and again and then finally – WAIT – there we are falling again. Eventually though we fight our way to our feet, look out onto the horizon and start our still very long walk down the path to our dreams. With that in mind let’s get back to the point.
Last year November (2014) we were busy shooting our first feature film (GENiAS – you can go back over my earlier posts and find out more about the project), after 10 days of full production one of the lead actors dropped out of the film which brought the film to a staggering halt! We tried everything to work around it or work it out, we rewrote, rescheduled and then eventually after doing everything short of begging we tried recasting and that sobered us to a horrifying truth. IT WAS OVER, it was over for GENiAS, over for the 8 months of hard work and no pay that we invested and definitely over for the all the work, the hard and great work the rest of the cast and crew put in, that too was all gone.
For the remainder of the holiday period I hit a wall. I fell down a deep dark hole and hit a double thick concrete wall with pieces of glass sticking out of it.
Did it hurt…It did!
Then luckily out of the blue or more specifically out of my bedroom my wife walks out carrying the GENiAS script in her hand and after a while of talking my head was spinning and when I woke up the next morning everything was different.
Sounds cliché and even silly but it’s true I woke and started mapping a way forward. That way forward was ALEXIA.
Based on a story by my wife I started writing a script that with certain guidelines would work on short notice and is as they say “doable”. With 2 locations, 4 actors and 7 days of production we are looking to execute an ambitious project.
These posts are our way of documenting the process of indie filmmaking. Hopefully this will either inspire others to go out and make a film, give others a chance to look behind the curtain or filmmaking or at the very least just keep an archive for ourselves.
We will keep you posted on the whole process and updates that might come up. Stay tuned to our FaceBook and Twitter pages for more info.
https://www.facebook.com/khincstudios
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Thanks for reading
Khalid
FEMALES OF FILM – Ava DuVernay
I realised that I never truly explained what ‘Females-Of-Film’ is really about. What we do is on a weekly bases we pick woman who have chosen film to be their art form and give out a list of their work to a group of people we know, work with or who just like film and then finally gather to screen the most recent work (Latest release) and discuss the projects and the artist. (There I finally remembered to do it.)
We are back at it with our ‘Females-Of-Film’ marathon and this week we divert from our regular path of Female performers to a Female creator. Now as I write this I had a thought and was going to move on but I have to get it off my chest. It saddens me that there are so few exposed female film makers that it’s not the norm that we do a marathon on one. Hope that changes soon!
Back to the amazing female filmmaker of the week. Ava DuVernay has caught the attention of the world with her latest film ‘Selma’ but where did I hear about her (To be honest), I watched an interview she did with a platform called ‘Democracy Now’ and based on that interview I saw how humble, savvy and endearing she was. SO, due to that interview I immediately went and watched the trailer for ‘Selma’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic) which is a wonderful trailer and look forward to seeing it soon. I sent out the email to our ‘F-O-F’ database with other titles she has done like; ‘I Will Follow’ / ‘Middle Of Nowhere’ and to the pleasure of my wife (AND MYSELF) episode 8 – Season 3 of ‘Scandal’. And as usual we download as many interviews and send the links to the ‘F-O-F’ group.
I don’t review (AT ALL) I just like to share my feelings after seeing the work and with Ava DuVernay is a wonderful storyteller and an inspiring creative who’s work is as important as her views on the world.
We look forward to seeing more of her work.
Follow, support and keep track of this great woman.
Thanks for reading
Khalid (#REELATER)
WHAT TO MAKE YOUR FILM WITH
If you’re anything like me, your planning to shoot your feature some time soon and if you’re even more like me you would have no funds available to you so finding a camera that will give you the quality you want and still be within the no-fund budget you have is extremely important.
Here are a list of cameras that were used to make the films from this years Sundance Film Fest.
Keep it in mind!
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/01/cameras-filmmakers-2015-sundance-film-festival
Khalid (#REELATER)
TOMORROWLAND – One for them.
I’m a huge fan of George Clooney and his work. “His one for them one for me” system seems to be working and even though I’m not a fan Sci-Fi (I’m more of a bullets than lasers and more of a People than robots man, to be honest) but I’m still the type of person who will go to a movie/film solely based on the actors of that movie/film so I will watch anything George Clooney does. Now that we’ve gotten that bias sentiment out of the way, have a look at the trailer and let me know what you think?
Khalid (#REELATER)
REELATER BLOG 