In the previous post, I announced that pre-production work had begun on a new film titled "Super Gabby."
I wrote the initial screenplay draft during the spring semester of 2013 for Diablo Valley College's Film Club. Each semester, club members write and pitch their short film scripts to the club. After the club votes are counted, one film is chosen to be produced. Although well received, SG was deemed too ambitious to film in such a limited amount of time because it exceeds the two character/two location structure preferred by the club (the shorter the better and easier to film). The script sat on my computer for nearly two years after that. Now, six drafts later (and counting) after revisiting the story, Aztek Studio Films is in full swing to bring it to the screen. Adrian Nava Writer/Director
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It's been nearly two years since "Take Five." Not because we gave up on filmmaking but because we had to focus on our personal lives as adults. Veronica had a beautiful baby boy while maintaining a hectic freelance work schedule and went on to get a job at Black Magic Design in Fremont where she still currently works. Sandra found a job as an editor and videographer at an audio/video studio in Emeryville. As for me, I came back from shooting the independent feature "A Father's Journey" in Mexico and found myself unemployed.
Prior to leaving to Mexico, the school semester at Diablo Valley College ended so my job at the school was over. I also had to voluntarily quit my other job at the AMC movie theater I worked at because the film shoot schedule exceeded their two week leave limit. My managers gave me their blessing and even welcomed me to apply again once I returned. I served as 1st Assistant Director on AFJ. It was the best damn experience and film school an ambitious filmmaker could ask for. The crew in Mexico had industry experience working on low budget to big budget Hollywood films. I took a brand new notebook to document the experience but unfortunately I could not find the time to write, luckily I also took along my pocket sized Flip cam and filmed the only behind the scenes footage I'm aware of. I'll use these videos to write a blog about my experience soon and possibly share some clips. The cast and crew became a family and I cherish the memories of working and learning from everyone on that film. AFJ will have its world premiere next month at the Las Vegas Latino & International Film Festival! I still haven't seen the finished cut so I'm excited. Anyway, so I came back home in need of a job or two with better wage. I decided I did not want to go to film school (another subject I'd like to write about in a blog) and planned to make my own luck by learning it all on my own. I had applied for a security guard card license before leaving to Mexico so I searched for jobs on Craigslist and applied to many, most of which were in San Francisco. I had no luck for a month and my bank account was looking dismal. Suddenly, multiple calls and emails started coming in. The first company that called was Bannerman Private Security. I was skeptical when the caller told me the interview would be at a Starbucks on Montgomery St. in San Francisco, he requested I bring my resume and guard card. Then Preventive Measures Security Firm, based in Las Vegas, emailed me to attend an orientation at the Oakland Coliseum for security work during A's games. Bannerman turned out to be legit, they were a San Francisco tech start up that provided clients with licensed security guards -- I call it the Uber and Lyft of the security industry since it's also an app you can use to book the guards. My first on call gigs with them had me bouncing at bars around the city checking I.D.'s, preventing fights, and kicking unwanted drunks out. One evening, while I was on my break watching the game at the coliseum, the general manager at Centerfolds, a strip club on Broadway St. in San Francisco, called me to schedule an interview the next day for a doorman position. I also received an email from the manager at Pineda's Sports Bar in Pittsburg for a bouncer position. And you think that was it? No. The general manager at El Techo de Lolinda, an upscale Latin restaurant in the Mission District, also called to schedule an interview for a doorman position. I don't think anyone believes me when I tell them I held five jobs at once but I did. I was a security guard at the Oakland Coliseum, a Bannerman guard, a bouncer at Pineda's Sports Bar, a bouncer at Centerfolds, and a doorman at El Techo de Lolinda. I was coming home dead tired and sleeping a minimal amount of hours. More security companies called to schedule interviews but I had to decline. Need a job? Get a guard card! Obviously, I wasn't able to juggle all five for too long especially since some of the work schedules started to conflict. I dropped the bouncer and security guard jobs at Pineda's and the Oakland Coliseum. The strip club and the restaurant provided set schedules: Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday at Centerfolds and Tuesday/Thursday at Lolinda. Bannerman let me set my own schedule so I picked up gigs with them every now and then. I ended up moving to San Francisco because I was sick of commuting 100 miles total every day. One of the sous chefs at the restaurant told me his roommate was moving out and I ended up moving in along with another friend into the two bedroom apartment. I took the spacious living room which had a door and street window. Every time someone I met asked how much rent I paid, they'd end up saying, "I hate you." San Francisco was listed as the most expensive city to live in in the U.S. so I took it as a blessing to be able to pay what I was paying (thanks to rent control and a three way split) and save up the majority of my earnings. The strip club was about a five minute walk away and I would take a cab or BART subway to the restaurant in the Mission. When I wasn't dealing with drunk, annoying patrons in my face or kicking them out, I was constantly reading about film and taking notes at the door or on my own free time, making up for what I wasn't learning at a film school. After awhile, the other guard at the restaurant was fired after too many complaints from patrons and they offered me five days a week with a raise. I took it and quit the strip club although I had moved up from doorman to floor host there. The money was better and I looked forward to having two days off again after working seven days a week for so long. I was now working at the restaurant and picking up more Bannerman gigs. I built a good reputation with Bannerman and one day the CEO offered me a permanent graveyard shift at an office. The office turned out to be the Lyft headquarters in the Mission District. Lyft conducted an interview and a couple weeks later I was working at the restaurant by day 5 days a week, 4 PM to 11 PM, and at Lyft by night, get this, seven days a week, 1:30 AM to 9 AM. I worked this crazy schedule for quite awhile until I got sick of dealing with disrespectful rich snobs and annoying drunk people (although it was fun doing my job putting them in their place), plus it wasn't healthy -- I had burned out. My manager offered to match my pay to stay at the restaurant but I respectfully declined. At Lyft, I was at the front desk making hourly patrols throughout the three story building and outside perimeter. A whole building to myself, imagine that. Also, I've always been a night owl so the graveyard shift isn't too bad. Between patrols I was free to read and write. Although we learned about the following subjects at DVC working on our student films, I was determined to learn even more and I studied every thing I could about photography and cinematography -- I'm currently studying more about screenwriting even after taking three courses in college. This is what I love about filmmaking, there's so much to learn so I can't get bored. Since starting security work, I've managed to save up and be financially stable which was a major personal goal. Sandra and I moved in together not too far from my old apartment; we live on the border of Chinatown and North Beach. It's an awesome neighborhood and location. Much has changed for me and living in the city has been an inspiring experience. As for work, I'm still at Lyft five days a week with weekends off now. I've managed to find balance in my life and I accomplished some personal goals along the way. I strongly believe that God helps those who help themselves; that if you put in the hard work your efforts will be met halfway by God. I'm not the most religious person but I have always put my faith in the Almighty and thanked Our Creator for everything, even the hard times that have made me stronger to face life's challenges. So what does this have to do with Aztek Studio Films? Friends and family have repeatedly asked me, "So, Adrian, are you still making films? What are you doing? What's your plan? What's going on?" Well, Veronica, Sandra, and I never lost our passion and drive to make movies. It's been a crazy but worthwhile ride on the road back to filmmaking for me and I felt like sharing what I've been up to this whole time. I've always wanted to run my own production company and studio to produce our own films in the Bay Area. One day, back in 2014, Veronica reached out to Sandra and I with a proposal to start our own business and I was more than game. The rest is history. We're trying to balance and juggle our jobs with our dreams but we haven't given up. We won't give up. Making movies is what we want to do for the rest of our lives and we are determined to make it happen. The road back to filmmaking has taken nearly two years but we're back at it again, fires on all cylinders. We're still keeping the details under wraps until we're ready to go public but I am happy to announce that we have begun pre-production work on a new film... SUPER GABBY Con corazón, Adrian Nava Writer/Director So you plan to submit your short film to film festivals -- want some advice that will give your film a better chance at being selected by programmers? You might just have to go back and re-edit your final cut after reading this. Here it is, the juicy must know info every filmmaker should be aware of before sending out screeners.
My scriptwriting professor and mentor, Bonnie O'Neill, shared this with me when we were submitting La Vida Loca to film festivals and now I am happy to share it with you. Adrian Nava Writer/Director Anonymous Advice from a Short Film Festival Director Why anonymous? Because I assume you want the truth… Many years ago, I founded a successful medium-profile film festival, which I still direct. And I am a long-time filmmaker, so I understand many of the questions, frustrations, and fears when entering a film festival. Below is advice to short filmmakers who hope to get screened. Mostly, it’s what not to do. Make your films as short as possible, which is usually 25 percent shorter than you believe they can be. Cut out nearly everything that does not move the story forward or give us more insight into its character(s). The shorter the film, the easier it is for a festival to program it. Every screen minute is valuable real estate to a festival. For example, if your film is 30 minutes long, it is taking up nearly half of a short film program. Three other films could fill that time. Of course, every year, we get about one 30-minute film that really does command that time, but it is a rare and difficult choice. Every year we also pray for some really short films: under 4 minutes, because they provide a variety of pacing in our grouped programs. We receive way too few of these films; so if you want to get into a film festival, make a really fast, short, fun film. Really short films also program better for festivals that program all lengths of film, because they can more easily pair your short before a suitable feature. Often, short filmmakers are younger and are in love with their own new craft but neglect to consider their audience. Again, cut everything that is not necessary. How can you make your film instantly shorter? Cut down your graphics. Long opening title sequences are very annoying to a festival programmer. We often fast forward through them, and once we’ve done that we’re more likely to forward through other parts of the film (sorry…). Ideally, the only front credits necessary are for the main title and if, on the rare instance, you have someone involved with the film who is very well known (a prominent actor, for example.). Filmmakers often believe that because they have chosen a piece of music for their titles, they should fill the entire song with graphics: wrong. Also, production company credits (especially logos) are completely unnecessary, and honestly, when we screen a film, we cut them off when possible. Their branding interferes with the screen graphics of the festival. Most of your titles should be reserved for end credits, and ideally they should not be longer than 30 seconds; again, this is valuable time to a festival, and honestly, we have sped up slow graphics and truncated their music (sorry…). Get to the story faster. Honestly, our festival does watch every film is receives; however, we do not watch all of those films fully. Usually, a film has about 3 minutes tops to grab us: sometimes less. When we watch a film, we imagine ourselves sitting in the theater as a dubious ticket-holder. We want very little down-time for our audience to doubt why they spent their money. Slow openings to short films are difficult to watch. You need to establish the film premise, ideally through immediate action. There is an old valuable film phrase: “into the pot already boiling,” which is also how you best place pasta in water. Clichés of exposition are deadly. The ones we see most often are: a character waking up to an alarm clock or a character talking on the phone. Other “Don’ts” for your short film: We rarely program a film with potty-humor (perhaps we’re snobs, but likely most festival programmers are more mature…). We are tired of ninja and zombie films. We worry legally about films that use easily recognizable (pop) music. In fact, music in general is a problem. Canned music (especially reverberating pianos) is a turn-off, as is well-known public domain classical music. Usually truly background ambient music works best. For whatever reason, we get a lot of films that are obviously shot in color video and then reduced to washed-out black-and-white; attempts to recreate film noir through video are difficult. In fact, it is often impossible to suspend disbelief in a short film format to accept any historical period shift, because there is usually not enough time or production value to pull it off. Another problem we see is filmmakers entering projects that are not appropriate for a film festival. A primary example of this are television pilots that are obviously episodic and mainly (wacky) character-based. We screen films with stories and/or revealing character relationships within an arc. Almost nothing kills a film more than bad acting. If you are not using trained professionals and haven’t found the next “natural,” we suggest that your actors do less. As David Mamet would suggest, have your “actors” only do those things necessary for the action of the film. Tell them to “bring it down a notch” and not attempt to emote with their faces; often an audience can fill in with their own emotions. Character reaction shots, including eye-rolls and sighs, are painful to watch (sorry…). Some practicalities. If your audio dialogue recording is not good, nothing else in your film will matter. Titles and subtitles should be sized for large-screen projection, not for youtube. If you are entering via DVD, do not use a main menu; festival programmer want to pop your film in and watch it immediately (we suggest no color bars or slates as well). Test your DVD before sending it; we often receive blank ones. If there is time, we do contact filmmakers for replacements, but sometimes we are considering your film the day before we have a deadline. Protect your DVD in shipping; they really can crack. We don’t care about film marketing packaging; we care about what’s on the screen. We discard all entry packaging and organize DVDs into our own logging system. We’ve heard that other festivals do like packaging, but we can’t believe that your effort wouldn’t better be served on the actual content. Tricks. We are constantly asked for entry fee waivers and have a policy not to grant them; however, every once in a while a filmmaker will properly play on our sympathies. These can include a charitable project or an entry from a remote country, so you may want to give it a shot. Send your film in twice. It is deceitful and we see it a lot, but with so many entries, it is often difficult for a festival to delete redundancies. You have a chance of getting your film reviewed by different screeners. Do not give up if for some reason you missed shipping your film by an entry deadline. Most festival entries go through one corporate online entry system. Although you paid for your entry, the festival does not get the money until they receive your entry; therefore, it is in the festival’s interest to accept your film even if its receipt is past their deadline. If you do get accepted into a festival, you have an “in” with them for life. Many festivals will grant waivers to their alumni, often in perpetuity : ) Apologies if this article seemed negative. As a festival programmer, these are the things we often wish we could say to a filmmaker, but we must maintain our goodwill and demeanor toward the community. Good short films have genuine and unique insight. The above only hopes to grasp more purely at that amazing potential. The following is an e-mail I received back in April 2013 from Molly Thomas, a young actress that appeared in our short film, Threat to Society, as Priscilla. She was doing research for a film related school project and sent me a set of questions. I thought I'd share since it provides some insight...
THE E-MAIL April 25, 2013 Adrian Nava Aztek Studio Films Dear Mr. Nava: I am a middle school student in Berkeley, California and would like to ask your opinions for my research project on the differences between film and digital cinematography for motion pictures. I have prepared a list of specific questions where your input would be greatly appreciated. Several goals of my research is to understand if movie viewers can see a difference in a movie depending on how it was filmed and how the director, cinematographer, actors, and other people working on the film feel about the two different methods and what they prefer. I also have some questions targeted specifically at being a young filmmaker. My questions are listed below. Thank you in advance for your time and knowledge. I cannot wait to add your answers to my research! Sincerely, Molly Thomas THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS + MY ANSWERS 1. As a young filmmaker, do you prefer shooting with film or digitally? Digitally, because it is cheaper and faster to work with and a good digital colorist can actually add film grain to your film to make it look like it was shot on film (if preferred for artistic purposes). 2. Not having as high of a budget as Hollywood movies, what advantages does shooting digitally provide you? It is much more accessible nowadays to make films digitally and not have to spend so much on cameras, film rolls, and film development. Even with the simple, pocket-sized 720p HD Flip Cam, a kid can go out, shoot, upload the digital files to their computer, and edit their movie on provided software such as iMovie on Macs or Windows Movie Maker on PC’s! 3. Digital cameras are much cheaper and easier to handle than film cameras, have you ever been faced with a time when you were able to shoot something with digital that you wouldn’t have been able to do with film? I want to say all the time! With time constraints and deadlines, who wants to shoot on film and not be able to play it back immediately? You have to send it out to the lab, wait to have it developed, and not see what you have until you get the footage back. 4. While shooting Threat to Society, there were many shots from interesting places, such as from inside the car, a convenience store, and running through the street. Do you think that you would have been able to get those shots with a film camera? Yes, it would have been possible. 5. When writing a script, do you have a certain method of shooting in mind before hand? I start editing in my head ahead of time and imagine how each scene can be shot. 6. Have you ever worked with film before? If so, how is it different from working with digital? No, I started filming my short films on my parents’ videotape camcorder and moved on to digital camcorders as I got older and they became more available. 7. Do you ever want to work with film someday? Yes, it would be an interesting challenge for me. It would be cool to say that I shot on film at least once. 8. How would working with your crew be different if you were shooting a movie on film? We would have to be more careful not exposing the film to light, be more conservative with the film rolls, and we would have to trust our cinematography team with the shots since instant playback is impossible. 9. Of the films that you have done, do you wish any of them had been shot on film? I have to say that shooting digitally is just much more convenient than shooting on film, so I would have to say no. 10. What directors and filmmakers do you look up to and why? Robert Rodriguez taught me that I am a filmmaker, not that I want to be a filmmaker. His work has inspired me to learn every aspect of filmmaking and be a rebel to get the job done. I also look up to all the established directors such as James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, Christopher Nolan, and many more - their life stories and body of work are very inspiring. 11. As an actor as well, how does shooting with a digital camera affect your performance? It affects it in a major way because I can see my performance right after each take and see what I can change in the next. It is very convenient. We are proud to present the official trailer for "A Father's Journey," directed by David Fernandez Jr. Watch it below! Aztek Studio Films founder and filmmaker, Adrian Nava, served as 1st Assistant Director on "A Father's Journey," a feature film based on a true story featuring actor/director, David Fernandez Jr. (End of Watch, Paul, Yes Man, Sons of Anarchy, Weeds, Justified), Joey Medina (Original Latin Kings of Comedy, Zombie Strippers!), Lou Pizarro (creator and star of truTV's hit show, Operation Repo), Mayra Leal (Machete, Mission Park) and a talented cast of emerging actors and actresses! The release date is set for Father's Day 2015. I compiled a short list of favorite film books in my private collection which I constantly go back to for knowledge and inspiration in my own autodidactic form of film school. I highly recommend them. Have you read any of them? What did you think? Have some favorites to share? Please comment below. -Adrian #1 Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez My bible. #2 What They Don't Teach You at Film School by Camille Andau and Tiare White Tips and tricks for every aspect of making a film from start to finish, for example: 8 year old kids don't care about hurting your feelings with the truth, tell them your film's story and they will tell you if they like it or if it SUCKS! #3 Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless by Joseph McBride The only book about screenwriting I could actually sit down and enjoy learning from. #4 Letters to Young Filmmakers by Howard Suber Very inspirational. HONORABLE MENTION Writing Movies for --- --- Profit by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon Okay, I lied, Writing in Pictures is not the only book about screenwriting I enjoyed learning from. I didn't take this book seriously -- looks like a parody -- until I actually started reading it (and that's why they say don't judge a book by its cover, folks). They know what they're talking about because they've been there and done it. Fun, funny read. |
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