The film is finished, and we’re getting all set for the public premiere this Friday – though there’s a cast/crew/press screening on Wednesday, and the director came round with the master copy last week. Chris + I sat and watched it, and also got to participate in the commentary which was recorded as we saw the film for the second time that evening.

I am, of course, entirely biased, so hardly expect you to believe any comments I have regarding the qualities of the film (we’ll recruit an independent opinion for our actual review next week, don’t worry!). But given the budget was well below what Robert Rodriguez allegedly used for El Mariachi (and even the $7,000 claimed was a fraction of the total spent to get it actually into cinemas), and it was shot over three long weekends, Synthetic Truth punches far above its weight.

It kicks the arse of a lot of direct-to-video product, and has a lot more to say, and says it more effectively, than a number of recent cinema releases. While not exactly a feel-good film, it mixes up emotions effectively, with some great characters and some memorable dialogue. Must confess I’m still uncertain as to whether or not I should send my parents a copy (the language has more in common with Goodfellas than the school pantomime in which they last saw me perform), but it’s certainly something with which I am proud to have been involved.

Recording the commentary track was an interesting experience; we largely just sat in the background, and allowed Zach and Ryan to talk, since unlike us, they were on the set for almost every scene. Still had a blast, interjecting the odd sarcastic aside, though if Denise Richards or the MPAA hear it, we could be in trouble. 🙂 It was amusing to realise how much method acting had gone on – the kid eating a packet of Goldfish snacks, genuinely was eating them, to the extent that after multiple takes, he finally upchucked them off-screen. Now that’s suffering for your art.

Chris’s sterling efforts on the publicity front will be coming to fruition, with a bunch of newspaper articles scheduled for the week ahead, in time to whip the populace into a state of frenzy for Friday’s premiere. That’s our main shot at recouping production costs, between admissions and sales of tapes on the night. We should hopefully have DVDs too, as the film has now gone off for mastering, so special editions (commentary, trailers, music videos, etc.), signed by the director will also be available.

Where it goes from there is hard to say, but will largely be determined by market forces. The current plan is to send it off to various film festivals first, while simultaneously making enquiries with various distributors of independent movies. Ideally, we’d like Miramax to come in and take it off our hands for $3 million dollars, in which case, the film festivals can go whistle. 🙂 Though being honest, we’d probably settle for Troma, and a slightly smaller sum…

Premiere report to follow next week!

So I am now an actor. As I write this, various members of the Ballistic cast and crew are hurling themselves, each other, and anyone else foolish enough to get in the way, into our pool – tonight is the wrap party for Synthetic Truth. Director Zach Yoshioka is among them, but before he went down for the third time, assured me that my scenes have not ended up on the cutting room floor as I had feared.

I had two scenes to shoot, on different days – the first one was by far the hardest, since it was mostly outdoors, in 40C+ temperatures, which meant every take was a test of endurance. It also required a fair bit of co-ordination, since I had to drive “home”, get out of my car, lecture my “son”, see him drive off, then stare at the friend he left behind. I appreciate this is not the sort of thing that would tax Jet Li, but doing all this and remembering my lines? Sheesh.

Even the driving part proved a bit of a problem, since I was parked down the road, around the corner and out of earshot, so couldn’t hear Zach yell “Action!”. Admittedly, this was largely because I had the windows up and the air-conditioning cranked to full. But this film is set in Phoenix, and no-one here drives with their windows down, so I was really just protecting the cinematic illusion. Honest.

Actually, another piece of auto filming nearly caused a horrible accident – when my “son” was screeching out of the driveway, he pulled right out in front of a neighbour, who wisely opted to stop, otherwise the filming of the “car crash scene” would have suddenly been brought forward. The odd thing is, I wanted to shout a warning, but was waiting for Zach to say “Cut!” first. I guess this means I take my acting seriously, if I’m prepared to sacrifice someone’s else life in order to stay in character.

The second day was much less taxing, largely because most of what I had to do was sit at a table and look suitably stern and/or disciplinarian. Still managed to forget completely one of my lines, but it all worked out, since the dialogue in question wouldn’t have made any sense in the way the scene was blocked out – I was supposed to smell alcohol on my “son’s” breath, but since he never came within 10 feet of me, it was kinda questionable.

Probably the trickiest thing over the two days was squeezing myself back into my suit trousers, which have hardly seen any activity since I moved out here, the best part of three years ago. Quite a few steaks have passed under the belt since that time, so chalk up another benefit of self-employment. I bet you Tom Cruise doesn’t have to suck his stomach in while delivering lines.

The next big date is the premiere, on August 29th, which I am kinda looking forward to, though I still claim Zach is being sarcastic when he says I did okay. The prospect of seeing myself 20 foot tall on the cinema screen is distinctly disturbing, but then I’ll just have to sit back and wait for the other offers to roll in. Have they finished The Lord of the Rings yet, do you think? 🙂

Much as we’ve enjoyed the experience, think both Chris and I let out a collective sigh of relief on Friday night – or rather, around 2am Saturday morning – when we finally slumped into bed. Don’t let anyone tell you differently: executive producer is not a title to be taken lightly. Still, seeing a packed theatre for the 8pm screening made it all worthwhile. We’d spent much of the previous week faxing and calling newspapers and radio stations, and were rewarded with a blast of publicity, that translated into 400 bums on seats for the first showing, and an eager queue of people outside waiting for the 10 o’clock show [which, if truth be told, started about 10:30 – it was always a little optimistic to cram introductions, two music videos, a photo montage, a 1:50 movie, and post-showing thanks into a two-hour time slot!]

We were taking tickets at the door and running the merchandise stall, selling copies of the film on VHS for $5, and the DVD, with the commentary mentioned last time plus a bunch of other stuff, for $20. Between sales, we watched the movie twice more, making a total of five times in the past week. Though for the sold-out first show, we were reduced to peering round the corner – it was a bit like watching a pan-and-scan version. When you see a film that often, it takes on a whole, surreal air: you find yourself watching characters in the background as they play chess with packets of sugar, spotting extras from one scene turning up elsewhere, that kind of thing. You see it on a different level, when you no longer need to listen to the dialogue, since you can pretty much recite it verbatim.

Not that the week leading up to the premiere was without its troubling moments, most notably when, during the pre-screening, Zach noticed the sound and picture were out of sync. Some horrible moments ensued before we realised this was not down to the actual DVD – which we’d signed off as perfect, that very afternoon – but a flaw in the projection system. Phew. With the first screening out of the way, we now go full-steam ahead onto the festival circuit. We’re going to submit it to them for the next year, giving us a complete round of possible venues, and once that’s done, we’ll be after some kind of commercial distribution deal. Whether we tie-up with some distribution company, or go straight to a chain (such as Best Buy, Suncoast or Blockbuster) will depend – probably on what offers we get!

It is comforting, on this level, to realise what a huge amount of product is out there – a trawl along the shelves reveals any quantity of DVDs which make our microbudget production look like a Spielberg picture. It’s clear that digital camcorders have made it easy for any idiot to make a picture, albeit one on the level of kindergarten finger-painting. If you film it, they will come. However, our film festival trips have shown us that an enormous number of great movies never see the light of shelves. Just looking over our top tens for the past couple of years – where are Ever Since the World Ended, Boys From Madrid, and Dead Dogs Lie? So, it’s safe to say that our duties as executive producers are not nearly as over as we thought. Sigh… 🙂

Buy Synthetic Truth on VHS or DVD now!

By the time you read this, I will have made my debut in front of the camera. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking part in Ballistic Entertainment’s upcoming independent release, Synthetic Truth, in which I play the role of Mr. Anderson – and no, my first name isn’t Thomas. 🙂 It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to be lurking in the background, providing vague assistance to Chris, who is on board as one of the executive producers. This means she helps find locations, fronts the cash for the eventual release, and generally cheerleads.

It also meant we were at the last script reading, and when one of the actors was absent, I agreed to read the part for him – if truth be told, in between popping out to the car to listen to a baseball game. However, I apparently did a good enough job to get the role permanently (in indie film, absenteeism is a major offence, and it’s not like you can dock someone’s pay when, er, no-one’s getting any), and am now a stern, disciplinarian father.

To go with this, I now have a stern, disciplinary haircut, since it wouldn’t do for the father to look more of a hippy than his son. It also helps that the temperature here in Phoenix is nearer 50C than 40C this week, though showering becomes a radically different task when you have nothing on your head with which to lather up [I leave the solution for that to your imagination]. As I sit here, comfortably cool, in my crew-cut, shorts and Doc Martens, I find myself quietly humming Tomorrow Belongs to Me, for some reason…

Chris, too, has ended up in the movie through a similar route, playing a controlling, frustrated mother, albeit without the need for a controlled, frustrated haircut – she shot her scenes a week or so back. Should say we’re not married to each other in the film; indeed, I don’t actually have any scenes with my cinematic other half, and so the first time I meet my “wife” will be the night of the premiere!

Before you rush out to hector your local cinema chain for the release date (and I just know you were going to, weren’t you?), I should point out that the theatrical release will be about as small as possible – one night, one cinema, two screenings. But this is how Ballistic Entertainment works, and the money they make from ticket sales, plus videos, covers the night’s expenses and funds their next work.

It is film-making at the purest level – if the audience doesn’t turn up, you are fucked. Proper fucked, to steal a line from Snatch. However, Ballistic know how to put on a show and there’s a lot less at risk than with the likes of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Maybe if Drew Barrymore had added a live band to every showing of the movie – as Ballistic did last time – it might have done better at the box-office.

However, with luck, this will be the first Ballistic Entertainment production available on DVD – Chris and I are looking forward to doing the producer’s commentary track. 🙂 Though expect uncomfortable silence whenever I’m actually on screen; I can’t even listen to myself on voice mail without cringing, so the prospect of being 20 foot high in a cinema makes me dizzy with horror.

All this started with a simple review – we’ve written about Ballistic’s other films before: Premonition, Rebound and Turn, and this established initial contact. We then invited Ballistic to a barbecue here; Chris then wrote them an interest-free loan for the up-front costs, and hey presto, we’re on board for the ride with a full producers credit. Of course, this will in no way impact my fair, unbiased review of the end product. 🙂

Have to say, the script does kick arse, and this looks set to continue the steady improvement Ballistic have shown, even in the relatively short time we’ve known them. Gone is the music nicked shamelessly from Nine Inch Nails; this time, director Zach Yoshioka is working with an original score. Interestingly, it’s been composed in advance, off the script, and he’ll be cutting the film to fit the music. He’s directed a lot of music videos for local bands, so this will be right up his street, and the result will hopefully realise the potential of the script.

This may be our only entry in the world of cinema, but whatever happens, it’s been a blast. The enthusiasm of Zack and the rest of his crew is entirely infectious; it’s been a revelation to see how much hard work goes into even the smallest film behind the scenes. Tomorrow, I get to see what life is like hitting marks, remembering lines and backhanding my fictional offspring across the face. It promises to be an interesting day – stay tuned for an on-set report next week!

I’ve recently become aware of just how important Google is, and it’s not an entirely comfortable feeling. This all started when I noticed that visitors to girlswithguns.org had plummeted to a fraction of what they had been. A little investigation revealed that Google, which had been bringing people to the site quite happily, was now disavowing all knowledge of it.

The resulting search to find out what had happened, pulled the veil back off Google a little. Not that they helped much: an email requesting information from them went entirely unanswered for two weeks, and then got a boiler-plate response, telling me pretty much what I’d discovered elsewhere.

The precise algorithm Google uses to return results is a closely-guarded commercial secret, for obvious reasons – otherwise, it would be manipulated by every spammer, advertiser and porno site under the sun. What we know, is that one important factor is the number of pages that link to a site: in simple terms, if site A links to site B, it’s taken as a “vote” for Site B, boosting its importance. But the importance of site A is also taken into account: if microsoft.com links to your site, it’s probably better than if we do, much as it pains me to admit it.

This is a process still open to abuse: in the most famous incident, Adam Mathes convinced enough people to link to a friend’s website using the phrase “talentless hack”, that the friend became the #1 site returned when you Googled the phrase. Now, ironically, the stories about this “Google bombing” are top of the listing. This has since been used for purposes both good and evil, such as to target Critical IP, a corporation accused of unsolicited telemarketing to domain owners.

It’s a continuous process, with people striving to find ways to improve their listing, and Google tweaking their programs to prevent manipulation. For any search engine will only live or die by it proving useful to the people who use it. I still remember the first time I was pointed to Google (thanks, Mike and Steve!), back in the days when the main search engines were the likes of Yahoo and Altavista. How revolutionary it was to see a site without adverts, just a quick, clean interface.

Since then, Google has started to sneak in ads at the side and atop its listing, but it’s undeniably #1. It still does a pretty good job, especially when you consider that Google has to try and work out what you want: if I type in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, do I want to buy the film, read reviews of it, or find some piccies to nick for Film Blitz? [cough!]

Though it does seem I have to burrow further down these days to find decent sites. For example, the useless, advert-laden, Java-heavy rottentomatoes.com seems to crop up every time I type in a film title. What they need to add is some way to customise it to individual’s users’ needs, so that it “learns” from the sites it suggests that you visit, and skews future results towards those. Perhaps this apparent commercial bias is connected to the lurking possibility of Google selling their stock.

Which is something that concerns me, simply because of the power that Google wields: in the wrong hands, it could be used to censor, suppress or drive out of business. I estimate traffic to girlswithguns.org dropped off 90% after it ceased to appear on Google, and few companies could withstand that level of drop in sales. I believe Google should be a public utility, something run for the good of Internet users rather than for profit, as the potential for abuse is just too massive to leave in the hands of a private company. An effective monopoly on access to information such as Google has, is, at best, highly questionable.

However, it’s something where a free-market will likely prevail: if Google fails to deliver what people want, something will arise to supplant it, as Google replaced AltaVista. And I don’t care – for the moment, at least, since sanity has now returned, with girlswithguns.org now currently listed at #15 on a Google for “girls with guns”. But I see that if you search for “Trash City”, our commercial arm, trashcity.com has now supplanted us as the #1. Time to engage in some Google bombing, methinks… 🙂