2 Months to the day...almost

Been awhile...I completely slack (clearly) when I have a lot going on, and to be honest I really haven't seen many movies this summer. Aside from being uninterested in most, I also haven't had much time. I did see Charlie Bartlett and Vantage Point on On Demand and both were entertaining, but nothing. More importantly, I saw The Stones/Scorsese concert doc Shine A Light, which I'm going to write a review of. The short review is: Amazing.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has a new trailer. I've been anticipating this movie since I read about it years ago and with each new trailer it looks more and more amazing. David Fincher has an uncanny ability to infuse pizazz and camera flair into emotional stories and is only improving with age. Anyway, check out the trailer and see for yourself.

TV-wise, the new season of Entourage started a few weeks ago, which I've been enjoying and I started watching the new show True Blood, which I also like. It's entertaining, slightly campy, violent, very sexual and very well written and acted. Give it a look see.

The new season of Dexter started last night and I can't emphasize enough how great it is. Both of the previous seasons are available on DVD- rent them or buy them because it's easily the best show on TV, although as someone pointed out to me that I don't watch Mad Men and that could be a close runner up if not better. Either way, Dexter is excellent.

I'm still working on an original score for Okay Great, but I'm seriously considering dropping it online with the temp music and just updating it when I have the score. Could be soon so keep an eye out.

Okay Great

I've been fine tuning Okay Great and screening for friends and crew members looking for some feedback. I'm essentially done. I'm really pleased with the film but now comes the tough part- finding a composer to score the film. The music I used in the film is pretty out there, it certainly isn't your typical score and trying to replicate the tone is going to be difficult. A really talented audio mixer named Mike Ryan is going to mix the film for me for basically nothing and he is also putting his feelers out for a composer. I have a few other friends sending emails to people they know, so if any of my 1 or 2 readers knows someone who is a musician or music composer and is interested in taking on a challenging piece of work for little to no money (sounds appealing, right?) please send them my way or give me a shout with their info. Muchos Gracias!

Coat Hangers for Strait Jackets

The title doesn't mean anything, I just like it. I suggested it as the name for our production company at work, but we didn't end up changing the name, so it's a title waiting for a home. Since I'm going to post a bunch of random shit, I figured I'd throw it out there. Maybe it's the title for a short film...

So it's been 2 years, almost to the day, that I finished Edit This, so I thought I'd post it.


Edit This from Jeff Reilly on Vimeo.

Can't believe it's been 2 years and I still enjoy it, which I guess is a good sign.

Also, after 7 long months, I have completely a pretty-close-to-finished cut of Okay Great. Between work, wedding planning, and life in general, I wasn't always able to sit down and grind it out, but as friend told me recently, it'll happen when it's ready. There's still some work to be done in the editing room, then get someone to score the film with original music and then do the final audio mix. My goal is to be ready by august to submit to Sundance and then wait for the rejection letter.

A few weeks ago, my fiancée and I went on our official engagement shoot, although we've been engaged for 2 1/2 years. Regardless, we are lucky enough to have Steve Depino and Carla Ten Eyck shooting our wedding and they both teamed up for the engagement shoot as well. We had a great day! Lost of fantastic pictures, (no surprise if you've seen any of their work) laughs, beers, and dinner to top off the night. I'll never be able to thank either of you enough, but know how much we appreciate your work and personalities and that we count ourselves as very lucky to have you be a part of our wedding day. If the pictures from the big day are half as amazing as the engagement pictures then we're in for an enormous treat. If you want to see our photos, go here for steve's and here for carla's.

I've been too busy to get out to the movies and the ones I have seen haven't left an impression on me. I watched There Will Be Blood again, which is on DVD and if you haven't seen that yet, you need to. Yeah that's right, you NEED to.

Okay Great we're done shooting. Now it's time to edit.

It was a long weekend. Really long. 44 hours in 3 days. That doesn't include travel time and everyone was coming from at least an hour away. I can't thank my cast and crew enough. A majority of them gave up their entire weekend, as volunteers for this film and I'm forever indebted to them. The rest gave up huge chunks of their friday, saturday or sunday to act in the film. I'm indebted to them as well. On top of all that the enthusiasm and energy was palable on set. Every person broke their ass to make this project work. It's very humbling to have so many people be there for you. That was my favorite part of the shoot- the comraderie. Hopefully one day I will get a budget for one of movies and be able to pay all these people. Pay them and pay them back.

I love shooting. It's stressful and exhausting to say the least but I love it. You watch the scenes you wrote come alive and you watch the actors performing them take the scenes to new heights- far beyond your imagination. It's exhilarating. Now it's time for me to start editing. I need to make this movie memorable, not just for movie-making sake, but more importantly for all the people who contributed their time, effort, energy, and creativity to make it possible.

Cast & Crew:
Michael Berndt
Jamin Bricker
Adrian Correia
Joe Chasse
Nick Genchi
Tim Hotchner
Lynn Mancinelli
Ashley Pagano
Jon Pascale
Dan Ramirez
Joe Reilly
Pete Reilly
Erin Rosa
Bob Sylvia
Carla Ten Eyck - who also put up an awesome slideshow from the final day of shooting. Check it out on her blog.

Here are some stills from the movie & shooting.

Shooting - Okay Great

2 weeks from today I will be on my 3rd and final shoot day for my short film "Okay Great." Last October I started writing a few scenes that I had in my head. I wanted to do something different, something weird and kind of out there. I wrote about 17 pages but I had no ending, I had 2 ideas both of which I hated. I gave it to my friend Dan Ramirez, who is playing the lead and he liked the script but didn't really know how to end it either. Then another friend suggested the same ending I originally had in mind. I still didn't like it. Then about a month or 2 later I got one. It's been twisted and rearranged and changed a few times and after constantly revising the script here we are finally ready to shoot. I can't wait. It's by far the most ambitious thing I've ever attempted. We have 12 pages to shoot on saturday and if you've ever made a movie you probably just fell off your chair laughing at me. It's going to be stressful, but again, I can't wait.

It's fun to watch a movie progress. Writing is one thing. You can envision everything perfectly and it all sounds right on. Then you get on set and start shooting and the movie starts to take on a life of it's own. Things start to happen. Actors bring things to the performance you could've never imagined and it elevates the part and the work. You have to scrap shots and that you really wanted and are secretly praying that the film will work anyway. You can't get the angle you want and you have to try something else on the fly. It's invigorating. It's also nerve-racking. Then when you come into the edit room, the film takes on another life. Scenes play out funnier than you thought they would or more intense. They start working. Things are falling into place. You put music in, the scene becomes so much more than you thought it could be. On the downside you could get into the edit room and nothing is working and you have to revise the whole plan. To me thats what's exciting about making movies, things can change at anytime and there are hundreds of variables that can kickstart those changes. Happy accidents arise. Hollywood has called it movie magic. Whatever it is, it's fun to watch unfold, especially when you're right in the middle of it.

If you're interested, the still I posted below was taken when we were looking at locations. The scene in the movie that takes place in this bathroom was the first one I wrote.

Okay Great

From the day I wrote the first draft to the day I start shooting will be almost a year. Kind of a frustrating process...Initially I was going to shoot in january, but I got extremely bogged down in work, had to take on an additional unexpected project, etc...then we were going to shoot in May but my DP, Adrian ordered the new Red camera so we waited. The delivery schedule for the Red camera was just bumped 3 months and I'm not waiting anymore. The camera promises to be a revolutionary camera filmmakers- Steven Soderbergh is shooting his next 2 films with it, but again I can't wait anymore. I have a project in the winter and we'll shoot with it then. So be it...

If all stays on course (which it should) I will start shooting Okay Great on September 21st. It'll be a jam packed 3 day shoot. The project started with wanting to do "something weird" and evolved into much more. Without giving too much away- I'd rather have everyone watch it- Okay Great is about a twentysomething man, Sean Chase, who after a sleepless night, is having the single strangest day of his life, but he's not sure if it's his imagination or if it's real.

I'm still looking to cast a female- 20's-30's- in a small (2 scenes), but critical, fun and (hopefully) memorable role, so if anyone knows anyone...also if anyone knows an exhibitionist I have another small scene, no dialogue but very important. There is no nudity, but it is a sex scene. It's not exploitive or distasteful, it's for effect, and it's a neccesity to the story. Anyway, it's a tougher role to cast for the obviosu reasons, so again, if anyone knows anyone...I can explain and describe more when I talk to whomever might be interested. I'll keep posting about this project as I continue to prep.

Outside of my day to day work, I'm close to having a first cut of a piece I'm doing for Steve Depino, which will definitely be posted when it's finished.

later skaters.