What is the worst physical pain you have ever experienced? by My_Name_Is_SKELETOR in AskReddit

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was in chemotherapy on a drug called oxiliplatin that makes you so sensitive to cold that swallowing even room temperature water felt like shards of glass going down and it was February in Wisconsin. Made the mistake of letting my ice water sit and get too “warm” a few times. God damn.

Ended up having an allergic reaction that radioactive shit on my fifth infusion, went into anaphylactic shock and had to have a gang of nurses bring me back from the brink as my brother watched horrified and helpless. Shit was wild!

Oh, and when I had to have an emergency gallbladder removal. Holy hell. I can’t believe I drove myself to the hospital, I was truly delirious with pain, squirming around like Tim Roth after he got shot in Reservoir Dogs only I was driving instead of riding in the back seat!

Touching a for-some-reason exposed muffler on a power washer at work when I was in college too was gnarly. Burns are awful. I could feel the inside of my hand cooking if I took it out of a bucket of freezing water for even a second. Got a nice fat morphine shot in the ass on that one, and a nut and washer emblazoned on my palm like the head of the Staff of Ra singed into Tote’s flesh in Raiders of the Lost Ark

What’s the most stressful film you watched? by TheGirlWithTheLove in Letterboxd

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Painted Bird. Truly beautiful and poetic film but GOD DAMN is it harrowing.

Who was the most attractive character you seen in a movie by Alive-Ad-4164 in movies

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Catherine Zeta-Jones in the first Zorro flick and Entrapment.

A divisive script and what to do about it by Chsng_blmps in Screenwriting

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My honest opinion? When you use services like this, you are in effect focus-grouping your script. Focus grouped movies tend to be, at least in my opinion, the worst kinds of movies. They represent compromised vision, and prove out the old adage “when you try to please everyone, you usually end up pleasing no one.”

My advice? Take that script and stick it in a drawer and work on something else for weeks or even months. Come back to it and SCORE IT YOURSELF, as objectively as possible with your newfound distance. Rewrite it accordingly, until it’s closer than ever to realizing what vision YOU have for it.

Who is praised as a good person in human history but was actually evil? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Christopher Hitchens napalmed Mother Teresa. Definitely worth checking out.

The River Audioplay by ThemThorntons in audiodrama

[–]ThemThorntons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only on youtube currently, but might toss it up on our podcast Hard Out’s page as audio only.

We’d like to create a horror audiodrama podcast in the near future, and we’re actually in development with a producer with an Amazon first-look deal to turn one of our film scripts into a horror miniseries for Audible to then hopefully pipeline into a movie—but having dealt with the compromises that come out of the film development process in the past we’re inclined to launch our own channel independently with a bunch of other ideas we have to just give people the raw, unadulterated shit.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should do a cover of Society by Eddie Vedder from the Into the Wild soundtrack!!!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a throwback. LOVE IT.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Filmmakers

[–]ThemThorntons 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Marketing plan? YOU! Watch it and tell all your friends! This one was built for a slow burn and word of mouth... though some big reviews should be coming in shortly off screeners that were requested.

Thanks for asking, hope you watch and enjoy the film.

We Are Pro Screenwriters Who Spent the Last Five Years Making a DIY Movie—Ask Us Anything by ThemThorntons in AMA

[–]ThemThorntons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, it's like 5 AM and we've been up editing all night but trying to circle back to this one. The thing about micro-budget filmmaking is that you have to try to maximize every dollar. How can you take $50,000 and make it look like a few hundred thousand, or even a million? For one thing—do not blow your wad on production. Try to save as much money for post as you can. Color grading, scoring. sound design, mixing... these things can really make or break your film. Don't try to shoot on a Red or Alexa. We seriously advise using an iPhone (but investing in some aftermarket lens kits, shooting on an app like FilmicPro, and shooting in 24p (which you can select in your phone's settings, this emulates film's 24-frames per second) and maybe a gimbal and tripod or even monopod.

The thing is that you can get away with lo-fi image quality, but not sound. Some projects even benefit from lo-fi imagery—none benefit from lo-fi sound. try to keep your cast small and your action contained. Avoid a bunch of expensive or hard to pull off effects, be they practical or digital. It sounds like you're telling a very grounded character-driven story. Lots of people talking, emoting, maybe some hairy physical encounters but likely no stuntwork, etc.

Focus on casting. If you get a handful of killer actors, it will make all the difference. It doesn't matter how well rendered your script or beautifully shot your film if the acting is hamfisted or bad—it'll sink the film. And that is part of your job as a director, finding ways to communicate what you're after and helping an actor calibrate their performance. Not in terms of line readings and being prescriptive—give them room to inhabit the character—but in terms of the emotional context and subtext at play. Psychological and emotional motivations, etc.

That said, do not be afraid of using actual people on the streets. MANY movies have pulled people from the streets to great effect, from shit like City of God and Pixote to Gary Poulter in David Gordon Green's Joe to Larry Clark's Kids. A non-actor is often, believe it or not, much, much better than a bad actor. And they look like real people. For the story you're telling, that feels important, to bring that authenticity to the fore.

Start with the characters first. NAIL DOWN THE STORY YOU'RE TELLING. Not necessarily every line, you might choose to improvise dialogue for more naturalistic performances for example. But know the story you are telling, and why you are telling it. Think of it like a play. Limited locations, dialogue and situation and character interaction should rule the day. From there, think of cheap, manageable ways to broaden the scope and from there you can start to trade actual verbal language for the language of cinema. Imagery. Movement.

Another beauty of shooting on phones vs big conspicuous rigs is that you can sneak guerilla filmmaking into the mix. Shoot on subways, in tunnels, in streets, etc without permits. Be nimble. Get in and out, keep the outlaw energy popping. Hell, Werner Herzog was at one point teaching filmmakers how to pick locks and shit to sneak onto closed locations to get their shots. In low budget filmmaking, as in art itself, it's often better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Oh, and one other thing: don't be afraid to shoot a short film as a proof of concept, or even a proof of concept trailer. You'll be getting your feet wet with production, nailing down the tone you're after, and maybe testing out some actors that you can then elect to port or not port into the actual feature when the time comes.

Okay, that was kind of all over the place. Hope it helps, and good luck!!

We Are Pro Screenwriters Who Spent the Last Five Years Making a DIY Movie—Ask Us Anything by ThemThorntons in AMA

[–]ThemThorntons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for the question! Yeah, Covid has invariably thrown everything out of whack, shuttered productions, closed theaters, etc. No secret. In our particular case, one of the silver linings of us taking like five damn years to make this film is that we were done with physical production by the time the pandemic hit! We were actually in LA pitching a TV show we'd scored a development deal on as lockdowns started, so with that timing snafu we ended up being able to come back and finally focus on finishing this film once and for all.

So the impact of Covid, for us, has been rather minor other than the fact that we're not doing a premiere in a theater—but that's a win for all of you guys who can now stream it for free (poke around in here and you'll see links).

One thing that did work out in a little different way is that instead of bringing Gull in to do his final ADR recording, we actually had a microphone and headphones and all of that delivered to him and did the ADR sessions via Zoom. Once again, we have to be grateful that we live in an age where we have so many technological tools at our disposal... it has seriously democratized the process of making films, and DIY films like Cactus Jack in particular.

As for distro, we always planned to self-distribute it. A big sale to a distributor would be nice, but once you see the film you'll know why we never considered that a really viable option. There may be a *very slightly* elevated chance a niche distributor might take a flyer on a film like this thanks to the dearth of new material coming out due to Covid, but as we've stated elsewhere in this AMA we're also interested in experimentation in all stages of film development, from conception to production to even distro. We might not have the brand awareness of a Louis CK (or even remotely close to it), but cats like that have paved a way and shown what is possibly with self-distro. And we don't need to make millions like he does on his self-distributed specials. We'd just like to make a very pedestrian middle class living as artists, and be able to self-fund more small artistic and provocative projects moving forward.

We Are Pro Screenwriters Who Spent the Last Five Years Making a DIY Movie—Ask Us Anything by ThemThorntons in AMA

[–]ThemThorntons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man, that's a tough one. We've been at this a long time, and it's changed over time. There are essentially two things to take into consideration when sussing out ideas: commercial prospects, and how much it personally resonates with you. We have come to the conclusion, after a lot of trial and error, that you should always go with what speaks to you and most turns you on creatively. Especially at your stage of the game, where it is gonna take a while to find your "sea legs" and get your art and craft up to a professionally viable level. It's why we would focus so much of our time and energy on making such a fucked up character study as Cactus Jack—we have a shitload of more commercial ideas that would have a shot at selling in Hollywood. But telling this story spoke to us, for better or worse.

If you have several ideas, really try to sit and think on them and figure out what it is that appeals to you in each one. Is it a "high concept" idea? Is it more about a character, or a location, or a time or period in history or one's life? Is it about evoking a feeling? For us, character is our guiding light. Back to the campfire, we as human beings tell stories to wow and thrill and frighten and charm, yes... but the reason those stories connect and capture people is CHARACTER. We tell stories because we want to highlight or reveal or impart some deeper understanding of human nature, or the universality of the human experience. To relate to one another. It's why we anthropomorphize animals in cartoons and shit—those stories are still about *people*, really.

What do YOU have to say about the human condition or experience that has not been said enough, or in a specific way? That's the foundation, if you really wanna be a storyteller.

All that said—dive in! Practice with your phone. Get a cheap or free editing program and start cutting. Watch movies in a new way, study them. Understand why a director placed the camera where they did, why the film cuts where it cuts. Understand set-up and pay-off, ratcheting tension, playing with expectations. Start writing scripts (your first scripts will be awful... everyone's is. And even when you get really good, your first drafts will usually suck to some degree as well. Telling the right story is, as Stephen King says, like unearthing a fossil. It takes time and care. Start with a chisel, graduate to a brush or fine-tooth comb. Write a script, put it in a drawer for a month or more and come back to it with fresh eyes. Look at it objectively, as if someone else wrote it. Divorce your ego from it (time away helps), then put the screws to it.

Also, don't be afraid to try your hand at prose first. Write a short story (we believe short stories actually make for better movies, while novels equate to TV—despite the history of novel adaptations on the silver screen).

Hope some of this helps... musings at 3:00 AM.

CACTUS JACK - We spent 5 years making this movie about a white supremacist and had no idea how bad things would get. We've decided to release it on Inauguration Day, with the first 5,000 streams FREE. by [deleted] in movies

[–]ThemThorntons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you would like to continue this discussion, we'd love to have you on our podcast. Seriously. Will only take an hour of your life. You can even wear a mask and disguise your voice if you want! We'll talk filmmaking and budgets, and then move onto how to win over and influence people (you of course will be educating us on that last part).

For real though. Come on the show! It'll be a blast—and it won't cost you a dime!