[Fink on Filmmaking] The 48: On the Front Lines with Monolopolus Productions for 'Before Christmas'

photo credit: Monolopolus Productions / Tal Kissos

The 48 Hour Film Project is not for the faint of heart – nor those that are tittering on the edge of sickness as I found myself about a week ago. Luckily I was with, shall we say, loved ones – folks I’ve worked with before on the set of Ryan Monolopolus’ Before Christmas, which premiers tonight at 7PM at the Pierce Arrow Film & Arts Center (1685 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo NY).

I’ve been an outside observer on the 48 Hour Film project, blogging on behalf of my friends city producers J. Garrett Vorreuter and Rachel Stover for their social network/production company The FVC. I’ve always admired anyone who could put together a project in 48 Hours; typically the contest provides “teams” with a genre, prop, a line of dialogue, and a character they must incorporate into a 6-minute film. The “Holiday” edition, a new one this year, allows you to chose any genre or holiday while throwing in a line of dialogue, character and prop to the mix.

The process is as ungodly as Lars Van Trier’s Dogma 95, and damn nearly impossible especially as it does force one to jump start the creative process via a series of shortcuts (mine, as you’ll read on involved balling up in the fetal position on the floor of some stranger’s apartment and listening to the kind of music I normally have on while writing – Bruce Springsteen and the Gaslight Anthem).

Independent filmmaker involves a series of sometimes shady tactics that get the job done, short cuts that are necessary to get done what you set out to do on the tiniest of budgets – here time and money were the enemies. The 48 Hour Film Project is a trial by fire, but like all productions good planning makes all the difference.

Ryan Monolopolus is above all an assembler of good people – he has a co-producer credit on Brandonwood, my first feature film because he would frequently feed us crew members “you need someone tomorrow, give me an hour – I’ll should have three guys calling you”. With Before Christmas, this was key along his production manager Jeremy Cournyea, who assembled a 20-person team of various units – a meeting two nights before we started almost buckled the floor of the Monolopolus’ home.

Without giving away Ryan’s secrets certain elements including locations had been planned, I was brought in as the co-writer and helping hand – working on the creative side of the project, in essence to ensure the quality was present on the performance/delivery end and especially the dialogue. This was actually increasingly difficult given the technical considerations of the project – our lead was a Muppet-style puppet performed by Cameron Garrity.

So – to review – 20+ people on set, puppets, unknown elements given at a meeting on Friday night, I’m sick and miserable prior to shot one (without having had time to stop at Starbucks for my daily earl grey tea latte) and it’s go time. While we’re getting our matching orders folks have already left their homes in route to our first location – The Market in the Square own in West Seneca for 7PM – the old man goes shopping, alone – really for no other reason than this scene will work in any context.

I head over, after a trip to Starbucks and another stop at the GNC next door for anything that’ll keep me up (after of course downloading the inspiring Icona Pop song “All Night” which is played about 40 times this weekend). We go slightly over Jeremy’s schedule getting the shots right – here’s where I should note one the hardest things to do is to keep two people in focus while dolling – here we had to make a puppet look realistic.

The next set was down at UB for a wide shot that may or many not have worked as well as intended – but I think made the cutting room floor. After a data dump (here’s where things get tricky – Ryan and team decided to in list an editor in NYC to work on the assembly cut – sending out files via UB’s high speed internet) we headed to our second location for a writing meeting – from 1AM to call time (3AM).

After a nap, the set was quickly dressed by a team lead Emily Pumm (many of the folks on this team worked on Dien Vo’s Let The Have It Their Way) with the assistance of Britt Tirabassi – also an undergrad at DMS. Ryan, who I’m convinced doesn’t sleep  - and I sat up planning how we’d incorporates the elements of we were given along with new dialogue that would move the story forward based on the rough outline Ryan conjured up. The story had been intended to be a Krzysztof Kieslowski-style Christmas film in the lonely landscape of Main Street Buffalo – a zone that’s dead really anytime of day save for the Hyatt (which thankfully didn’t mind us using their bathrooms).

And here’s is where I went to work – we had a short period of silence (every time I closed my eyes Ryan would talk to me, Gitmo ought to hire him to torture Al-Qaeda) – and I balled up into a corner with a note pad sprawling down ideas from music that typically inspires me choosing Bruce Springsteen and Gaslight Anthem. The ideas did flow eventually and I returned to my MacBook and final draft to bang out the rest of the script including stuff that would be shot in 12 hours downtown Buffalo.

The apartment stuff was brutal – 20 folks cramped into a decent sized apartment shared by 3 college folks who were more than accommodating. At this point an all nighter was rare – I’ve pulled an all nighter exactly three times in my life: once was prom night where it wasn’t worth it to go to sleep (we were getting on a bus the next morning at 6AM – I stayed up watching episodes of Perfect Strangers on TVLand), the second time was more recently when I had experienced a quazi-heart break and couldn’t go to sleep – instead I stayed up all night and then saw Anna Karenina to cheer myself up, the last incident where I stayed up late was thanks to fitness supplements that I took way too late and paid the price.


I passed out and eventually had to get some sleep – I was sick after all – and headed back to my apartment at 7:30AM, in bed by 8 I spelt till 1PM – I still had the script to finish and I needed to focus on getting healthy. I decided after finishing the script in a half hour to go have a smoothie, a message and a big lunch (I took a lot of flack especially from sound recorder and one of my good friends Michael Bouquard). Back on set we finished various sequences efficiently moving throughout downtown Buffalo in a way that I think those that know downtown will appreciate.

This of course is a little absurd – considering on the day we began I had to see The Best Man Holiday for The Film Stage, which features Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY filling in for the Meadowlands. In fact they morphed the Empire State Building in the background of what would be suburban Western New York. Details, baby, details – the results I think were impressive – featuring a good chunk of Main Street highlighting and really using the abandoned landscape of a city that’s too large for its population.

This is the great thing about making films in Western New York: part of the story that’s not told as well it should be is the availability of many looks within a 20-minute drive of each other. From abandoned downtowns to affluent suburbs, beaches, cornfields, malls – - America, baby. Before Christmas, which I haven’t seen (I wasn’t required to be around to edit on Sunday – instead I slept in and spent 3 ½ hours in a dark movie theater – ie: heaven, seeing Oliver Stone’s JFK on the big screen) – was perhaps the most ambitious undertaking I’ve been apart of. With that said – you should come see it tonight.

Before Christmas premiers tonight as part of the 48-Hour Film Project, Holiday Edition

7PM
Pierce-Arrow Film & Arts Center
1685 Elmwood Avenue  Buffalo NY

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE ***

Expanding on its original concept Catching Fire dives into further into media criticism providing providing somewhat of a warning in a very entertaining and smart package.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 146 minutes, director: Francis Lawrence   *** of 4 stars

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire expands on the original concept, which was a little thin, this time adding a curious amount of media criticism in addition to its political commentary. Thankfully it’s a film that lives and breathes, a smart action film that believe it or not is dialogue heavy, autonomously building towards its showdown in the arena.

Director Francis Lawrence has made one of his more restrained films; in fact it limits the disorienting CGI to one sequence that feels out of place, grounding itself in a semi-reality. Screenwriters Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt deserve a lot of credit, the film is far from the brainless entertainment that Thor: The Dark World was, and a heck of a lot smarter than the Twilight series ever was, in short a film with a few strong ideas under the hood.

Front and center is Jennifer Lawrence, as Katniss Everdeen, a forced to be reckoned with: she shared a victory in the last hunger games with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). The powers that be, in a move I don’t completely understand have in essence decided to host a best of Hunger Games called a Quarter Quell, after the victory of Peeta and Katiness spark a rebellion in Panem. The Hunger Games as you’ll recall is a sick sort of tribute where poor folks from various districts come together to fight each other of national TV – it’s like Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty and MMA crossed with American Idol and hosted by Stanley Tucci’ flamboyant Caesar Flickerman. The powers that be include Donald Sutherland as President Snow and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee. Silly names, I know.

The game is rigged and of course in the best of selection Peeta and Katiness are chosen to fight against an eccentric best of set of tributes with a cast that includes Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Plummer as two very brilliant killers who won their Hunger Games by electrocuting the other tributes, amongst others including Jack Quaid and the grandmotherly Ripper (Taylor St. Clair). Thrown into a tropical arena, Peet and Katiness are well equipped with several allies in what turns out to be a rather exhilarating film.

Why does it work so well? The film invests greatly in its set-up – in fact I’d estimate this is half of the film, efficient yet entertaining Lawrence has a made a film that respects its audience while delivering all the thrills you’d expect.

The political allegory and what follows, apparently from what I’ve heard departs slightly from the book (although allegedly not nearly as much as ego maniac Peter Jackson, this one is grounded in a surreal political reality while The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings series is just boring). What can be made of this film?

I don’t necessarily read The Hunger Games films as a warning; perhaps they are a warning about idol culture squarely directed towards the young women that make up its core audience. This would wholly imply a US-centered reading of The Hunger Games, in a climate geared towards tribal cultures rebelling against a centralized power that has created a reality TV show to suppress the population. Perhaps we do this currently – narrative is packaged and manufactured, sometimes as a distraction – I’ve certainly had moments where I’ve been too distracted to follow a political condition or a global event.

The 'Hunger Games' is though tied to a political event – the rebellions in the district and the game is essentially a purge for the sins of the rebellion and perhaps this is where it’s a little flawed. A total distraction would be Honey Boo Boo style programming – I’m curious to see what other entertainment content exists in the world The Hunger Games is set in.

PHILOMENA *** 1/2

The true story of a sacked BBC correspondent (Steve Coogan) who teams up with a women searching for her son (Judi Dench) - an entertaining film that hits the cords Stephen Frears is best at hitting.

Philomena - 95 minutes, director: Steven Frears  ***1/2 of 4 stars

Philomena is the extraordinary true story of Philomena Lee, a women forced to give up her son, sold essentially into Church slavery. She ultimately has a good life, suppressing the memories of her Anthony until she receives visions of him. Her daughter, a part time cocktail waitress meets the grumpy Martin Sixsmith (played of course by Steve Coogan) at a party and encourages Sixsmith to meet with Philomena (Judi Dench). Sixsmith is down on his luck, formerly a BBC correspondent in Moscow and Washington DC, he left the Beeb for a position as an advisor to the Labor party, and was recently sacked. Embracing his freedom he freelances, although he’d much rather devote his time to his forthcoming book on Russian history.

Philomena’s story sidetracks him; Sixsmith has become an atheist and feels uncomfortable within the church as he and Philomena return to the convent. Times have changed and the church is, as we gather, become savvier about its PR spin. Of course they can’t fool Sixsmith, who can smell spin from his years in the trenches. Getting nowhere he confirms a rumor overheard in a local tavern near the convent, the records that would show whom adopted Anthony had been set ablaze to cover up the fact children were sold to the only ones that could afford them, wealthy Americans. From a photograph Philomena had been leaked years earlier, Sixsmith traces Anthony, now renamed Michael Hess to the US and they continue their journey.

What follows I will not spoil, the film is a rather remarkable mixture of emotions perfectly in tune. Director Stephen Frears has had one of the most diverse filmography of any filmmaker working today from contemporary works like last year’s misfire Lay the Favorite and the wonderful Nick Hornby adaptation High Fidelity, to touching period films like Liam, Cheri and the excellent The Queen. He blends drama with a lighter touch – telling a story that could have very well had been effective if played entirely straight. What immerges isn’t quite a buddy road comedy, but a drama with lighter elements that this kind of situation may bring. Steve Coogan is, as mentioned, as grumpy as usual – a gifted comedian who has the ability to remain detached, this isn’t he first time he’s played a journalist as you know. Here he plays it straight – someone who takes up the cause of Philomena Lee while he connects the dots on what becomes an allegory for just how secretive and self-preserving an organization like the church is.

The film’s last act is extraordinary with Coogan and Frears nailing just the right tone. Judi Dench gives a superb, genuine performance as Philomena Lee – a complex women who in her later years found happiness haunted by the secrets of her past. Entertaining and engaging Philomena is another strong film from Frears. Similar in tone and spirit to The Queen, it is another complex and engaging, yet intimate and oven very funny character study.

Now playing in NY and LA - opening nationwide on Wednesday.

MINI REVIEWS - Nov 22nd

Here's what's currently in theaters and worth checking out or avoiding this weekend.

Fink on Films uses a four-star scale

0 - offensive on every level
* - dreadful
** - decent
*** - great
**** - outstanding

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12 Years a Slave (****) - An impressive feat of filmmaking from Steve McQueen, who immerses audiences within the experience of Solomon Northup, a free man sold into slavery, an important brutal story that's brilliant even if the presence of Brad Pitt is a tad distracting.

About Time (*** 1/2) - A beautifully told and genuine story about fathers and sons led by newcomer Domhnall Gleeson in a breakout role - so much of things rings true, well as much as movie magic can.

All is Lost (*** 1/2) - A thrilling one man show - Robert Redford stars as 'Our Man' - a nameless figure lost at sea in his final moments, fascinating, thrilling and minimalist.

The Best Man Holiday (**) - Sincere but ultimately a bit dull, an ensemble drama with lighter moments that breaks no new ground in its 2 hour plus running time. (full review)

Blue is the Warmest Color (***) - Epic in scope with two brave performances, director Abdellatif Kechiche is tells the intimate story of two women coming into their own, falling in love and eventually drifting apart, parts don't quite work even if much feels emotionally accurate.

Captain Phillips (*** 1/2) - A solid thriller from Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks, delivering smart edge of your seat thrills with a chilling conclusion.

Carrie (** 1/2) - A retelling of Carrie lacking the bite of director Kimberly Pierce's previous work, generally a solid genre exercise it lacks the bite we'd hope for from a director this smart. (full review)

Delivery Man (***) - A funny remake of the French Canadian hit Starbuck with a winning performance by Vince Vaughn as the world's most generous sperm donor. (full review)

Enough Said (*** 1/2) - Another briliant, funny perspective film by Nicole Holofcener led by two very funny and charming performances by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini.

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela (***) - A spirited Bollywood retelling of Romeo & Juliet, unexpected and violent representing various conflicts at the core of Bollywood and its relationship with the West. Fascinating if at times a tad frustrating.

Gravity (*** 1/2) - An impressive technical feat from Alfonso Cuaron, led by a strong, psychological performance by Sandra Bullock. A must see in IMAX 3D.

Jackass presents Bad Grandpa (***) - Sick and twisted, taking the Jackass form and twisting the material into a narrative, Johnny Knoxville and Jackson Nicoll deliver big laughs.

Last Vegas (** 1/2) - A light, good natured ensemble comedy that's entertaining while delivering exactly what you'd expect - a delightful package with too few surprises. (full review)

Philomena (*** 1/2) - The true story of a sacked BBC correspondent (Steve Coogan) who teams up with a women searching for her son (Judi Dench) - an entertaining film that hits the cords Stephen Frears is best at hitting.

Thor: The Dark World (**) - Painfully boring action film that places disorienting sequences above character development.

Welcome to the (re)-Launch of FINK ON FILMS!

Welcome to Fink on Films – - I admit I have been not very disciplined about blogging; the fact of the matter is it can get a little discouraging. The purpose of this new project, is to expand upon my work over The Film Stage and the other blogs I’ve started (and abandoned) - random rambles, the blog at johnfinkfilms.com, – a site that is in need of a major overhauling, and of course my original live journal from way back in the day.

I’m hoping to expand upon my work, perhaps even putting my MFA to good use. My thesis “research” included by first feature film and a paper on large format film – this site I hope will allow me furthur unpack whatever research interests I run into along the way in my various cinematic adventures. With that said, I also plan on reviewing here the movies I want to review – movies that require some more thought, attention, probing or are deserving of an overall rant for one reason or another.

There is only so much I can do on Facebook, Twitter, and over at The Film Stage and I expect Fink on Films (a title I’ve borrowed from the good ol’ days at Pompton Lakes High School) can the launch pad along with a Facebook group to aggregate my overall thoughts on the cinema: the past, present and future – perhaps diagnosing hidden movements that are otherwise not always apparent. I expect many of these posts will, as this one has, be written in the odds and ends in the days, over earl grey tea lattes at Starbucks and so forth.

So a bit about me: I’m a filmmaker based in New Jersey and Buffalo, NY – Buffalo is a city I arrived in a little over four years ago to peruse a graduate degree. Buffalo itself will be a topic in a sequent, multi-part feature – but the University at Buffalo Department of Media Study wasn’t my first choice until I met Carl Lee, who assured me that I could in essence do whatever I wanted. This was partly the case and lead to many a colleague extending their “studies” for one reason or another - unlike a “film” school with strict time tables that would box you into directing within a genre, UB is wide open. In fact the majority of my colleagues weren’t filmmakers. In fact the program embraced the rather messy ethos of the city: once designed to carry a larger population Buffalo was in essence an abandoned frontier along a boarder with Southern Ontario. Southern Ontario and the GTA with its booming economy was like taking a trip back in time to 2007, before the economy ground to a haut and everyone was out, shopping and spending money. The good ol’ days. Buffalo by comparison felt perhaps as Mexico does to those in Arizona.

But all of this is encouraging: a wide-open landscape to make art! Yes! Unfortunately my first experience with local cinema wasn’t the best – a romantic comedy with a bunch of problems and little ambition. On the bright side in four years I’ve seen the Buffalo film scene evolve, perhaps, because, and I really believe this: Buffalo is 20 years behind the times. And, most importantly, 1994 had been an excellent year for film.

Regional cinema has always been a fascinating area I have yet to explore – and its one I’m considering probing furthur into: what can we learn about an area from the films it makes? Are brilliant things happening in garages, front lawns, coffee shops, and crappy apartments and so forth all over the country that for one reason or another have been kept away from Sundance and South by Southwest, the kingmakers of indie film? I hope to explore these kinds of questions with this experiment combining my interest in biography and geography – the pure emotion I feel when I drive down the Garden State Parkway toward the shore with Bruce Springsteen’s Sirius channel, E-Street Radio blasting. What ghosts exist in art in places unexplored – in the suburbs of Iowa, the abandoned frontiers of cities like Buffalo and Detroit, or rural enclaves in South Western New York state?

The rush of cinema is why I do what I do – and I hope to share this passion with anyone who checks into this page as I explore both current releases, films that deserve another look, trends in production and exhibition (exhibition a theme of my thesis is something traditional film scholarship overlooks), and other matters on and off screen.

You can subscribe via RSS for updates or interact via our Facebook page. Additionally I’ll be posting updates via twitter (@finkjohnj), and I welcome suggestions for topics worth exploring and screening suggestions (as well as online screeners) via email at johnjfink (at) gmail.com.

Thank you for checking out my blog – I look forward to what’s to come.

-John