The trailer for our upcoming feature, Dead Man Drinking has been released. Check it out on the web-site - available as a 720p Quicktime file or on youtube (now with reduced pixel-count!)

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/04/06/uwe-...ignatures/

Uwe Boll will (allegedly) quit making movies if this petition gets a million signatures.

But y'know what? Even if he was going to stick to that - which I doubt - I wouldn't want him to.

And I can't quite put my finger on why.

I suppose it has something to do with him being such an odd character. I rather like him floating about, making movies that get the internet in a huff over how bad they are.

Keep going, Uwe! Keep going!

Writing fiction, whether it's screenwriting, novel-writing or any other format, is the ultimate, brilliant cop-out.

It's a playground for concepts that haven't graduated into being ideas yet.

You can speak through one character, then play devil's advocate with the next, all the toy with a concept that you haven't quite worked out.

Never mind essays - with fiction, there doesn't have to be a point. In fact, the weaker and more obfuscated the point is, the better the critical reviews. If you imply things, but come to no conclusion, people love it - because it prompts discussion.

Fiction is the ultimate playground for people who haven't made up their mind on something yet.

Especially for people like me - who never will.

Sometimes, when I'm coming up with names for characters, I simply glance over my spam folder and see what wacky and inventive names those spam-bots 'o doom have come up with today.

I was walking back to a friend's place near Taylor Square. A block away from the crossroads toward his place we pass a few random fellow pedestrians.

Firstly, a rather ugly man in tranny getup, complete with exaggerated hip swinging.

Okay, it's the cross. No shock there.

Then, some ten metres behind him/her/it, comes a random bearded semi-hobo in a business suit that obviously hadn't been washed in years.

What was weird about this experience was that, just as he passed us, he stopped, stared up at the sky and in a voice that just oozed sincerity and joy he exclaimed, "Thank GOD for Heroin!"

Here's what got me - doesn't that just smack of Grand Theft Auto? Random pedestrians walking by you that issue a single random comment as you happen to get close.

I wanted to hit the triangle/yellow y button on the next car, to make sure I hadn't slipped into Vice City somehow.

Thanks again to everyone who pitched in their time and energies (and monies for booze 'n food) to create Dead Man Drinking.

I'm really chuffed at the reception we got this weekend past, and I can't wait for more of you to check it out!

Random Facts about Dead Man Drinking:

• There are aproximately 95 usages of the word "fuck" and its derivatives. Given a run-length of 91 minutes, that means the FPM (fuck per minute count) for DmD is roughly one. However, this is based on the usages as-written in the screenplay - I haven't been bored enough to actually count every use in the final, completed film.
  
• We guestimate that about $1200-$1700 was spent on the creation of the film, and almost all of it was on alcohol of various sorts.
  
• During shooting, the following alcoholic beverages were consumed - Red and White wine, Jager, Bourbon, Scotch, Rum and beer.
  
• One scene in the middle of the film would be about seven or eight minutes unbroken and done in a single take, except for two brief close-up shots used in the middle. We didn't do another take - the actors got it in one, and being that we shot on digital, it was an easy affair to double-check our video and audio ont he spot and then just say we got it in the can.
  
• There are four explicit references to characters and events from Inconvenient Things.
  
• We captured about fifteen hours of raw footage during shooting - a relatively tiny amount of footage by regular industry standards.
  

"Editing is not simply -one- aspect, it's -the- aspect. The notion of 'directing' a film is an invention of critics like yourself. It isn't an art, or at best it's an art only one minute a day. That minute is terribly crucial, but it occurs very rarely. The only time one is able to exercise control over the film is in the editing. The images themselves are not sufficient. They're very important, but they're only images. What's essential is the duration of each image and that which follows each image: the whole eloquence of cinema is that it's achieved in the editing room."

- Orson Welles

1) Hot food unless you absolutely have no other choice.
2) Never use tasty props. They won't be there come take three.
3) Never answer a question with another question.
4) Sound is king.
5) Never assume anything can be fixed 'in post'.
6) If in doubt, cut it out.
7) Love your actors, just not literally.
8) If you're shooting on digital, and it looks like it might be underlit - IT IS.

There's something rather mesmerising about watching uncut film footage. As I dump the hours and hours of footage that I now have to edit into a feature film, I get to watch it go by on mute.

It's nice to see shots that make me think, "Shit, we nailed that."

There's always others where I cringe and think, "Fuck. I'll be editing around that. That shot could have been better..."

But in general... I'm ecstatic.

To put this in perspective:

My last (and first completed) feature was a 70 page script with a 6 page 'additional' piece we shot at another time. It took us about three full days, two half days and one random other night to shoot, and we got 14 hours of footage. There were two main characters and two supporting characters.

The only reason we shot it so fast was the unique way in which we shot it - much akin to "El Mariachi" style, but even more tightly shot.

This one was a 103 page script, shot in four full days and one half day.

This time, we had four main characters and one supporting, two locations - one of which was a 30 minute walk from the nearest form of reasonable public transport.

We ended up with 12 hours of footage.

The actors nailed through scenes at such speed it blew me away. Half the time we had it nailed on the second take, the third and fourth was just coverage.

In one case we got it in one and just flat out ignored coverage - thanks to shooting on HD, we were quickly able to double-check that the scene was technically okay... and after a performance that got a standing ovation from the crew, there was just no need to try again.

A big thanks to everyone who put their money and time into this film - it's already looking like the best thing we've done by leaps and bounds.

To those involved - and those who read the last few front-page posts, this won't come as a surprise - but we shot a feature.

In fact, more than shot - it's finished.

Details will be released soon. And I might even knock together a trailer. But suffice to say, I'm pretty impressed with what we churned out in such a short period of time - and I want to give my thanks to everyone who helped.