Producer's Notes

July 6, 2001 - The Cast is Complete!

I am pleased to announce that we have our cast in place and we have begun rehearsals!

First, I have made a decision to not have a young version of Burt. The more I thought about it the more I realized that it would be very difficult to find a convincing young person who would have both the maturity and the physical resemblance to Joe Greenan who is playing the mature Burt. And even more importantly it would be a shame not to let as fine an actor as Joe Greenan perform the entire role. We auditioned some very fine young actors but none of them would have fully done justice to the part.

Second, I am pleased to announce that Kerry Smith has accepted the double role of Britney/Audrey.

Kerry is a talented peninsula based actor. Her specialties include singing, dancing, modeling, improv and stand-up comedy. She won numerous awards for her skills while attending Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. Kerry completed her general education at De Anza College and is looking forward to continuing her studies at UC San Diego in the fall as a theater major. Besides 'A Rendezvous With Audrey' she is currently appearing in two feature length movies being shot locally; 'Pizza Wars The Movie' and 'Fast Cars'.

Kerry was the unanimous choice of the auditioning team of all the female actors we auditioned. She combines a lovely, wholesome appearance with solid acting skills and an obvious feel for the roles.

If you want to see what she looks like check the web site:

http://anderwell.com/kerrysmith/index.html

Jun 27, 2001- News from A Rendezvous With Audrey #3

This Saturday we will be busy with auditions. We have received a lot of interest from some very promising actors and will be doing our best to pick the right people. Location scouting, equipment selection and other logistics continue to be refined.


In my last email I talked about low-budget filmmaking. The most exciting aspect of modern low-budget production I didn't talk about was VIDEO filmmaking.

Until recently the only way to make a film was with film. (Makes sense!) But film is very expensive and that has been a barrier for many independent filmmakers. Even a frugal budget for a feature length film will include $100,000 or more for 35mm movie film and processing. Shooting on less expensive but less sharp 16mm film still costs tens of thousands of dollars.

But the world of filmmaking has been changing with advances in video and computer technology. For the last dozen years most of the post-production editing of films has been being done on computers.

The original film negatives are scanned onto video tape and then digitized so the editing process can be performed on computers. The valuable original negatives aren't cut until everyone is satisfied with the edit.

More recently computers have been used to create impossible special effects (Titanic) or even entire movies (Toy Story, Shrek) where no film was exposed until the final negative was printed from the computer.

The experts have held that video cameras could not be used to create theatrical films. Video runs at a different frame rate, has a different color response and is much less sharp than even 16mm film. But--computers to the rescue! With new advanced programs a high quality video image can be converted to appear so close to actual film that the average movie goer will never guess the difference.

Today independent filmmakers are using good quality Mini-DV cameras that costs a few thousand dollars and a few hundred dollars of video tape to create successful motion pictures. That is how we will be "filming" Rendezvous With Audrey.

And the latest development? Last year Sony brought out a new high resolution video camera specifically for filming Hollywood movies. George Lukas is using this new camera exclusively to film the latest installment of his Star Wars saga. Sell your Kodak stock!!!

June 11, 2001 - News from A Rendezvous With Audrey #2

Actor's headshots and resumes are coming in daily! We will hold auditions at the end of June. Filming is scheduled for the last two weekends of July and the first weekend of August. We won't actually need that much time but we want to allow for weather and various people's schedules.

Of course this is guerilla filmmaking! That means do everything as inexpensively as possible but still come up with a quality, entertaining product.

The average big studio movie budget last year was $85 million to shoot and distribute one film. The average small studio film cost $20 million. Big name stars get $10 to $20 million per film.

With these kinds of numbers how can a small independent filmmaker stand much chance of getting his/her film seen?

Every year a few successful films are made for a tiny fraction of the cost of the Hollywood productions. One recent example was the "Blair Witch Project". A few years ago Robert Rodriguez used $7,000 he got mostly from having medical experiments performed on his body to create the successful "El Mariachi" which started him on a career in Hollywood.

The tradition of independents making successful films on shoestring budgets goes back many years. In the 50s Roger Corman was making classic 'B' movies like "Little Shop of Horrors" in two days on minuscule budgets.

But it's not just a matter of getting some friends together and shooting some film. With a tiny budget there's no margin of error so it is even more important to plan every detail, starting with a great script.

Like any good script it needs to grab the audience's interest right away and keep their attention right to the end. But on a shoestring budget you can't have a cast of thousands, exotic locations and other eye-candy. So you write for a small cast and keep it simple so you only need a small crew and a few, free, contemporary locations. Even if everyone will work for free you still need to feed them, which isn't free, so keep the head-count small.

Some additional rules are

No children or animals - too hard to control and possible legal complications.

No special props, gunfire, weapons and stunts - expensive and dangerous.

The script for A Rendezvous With Audrey was created with all these things in mind.
May 25, 2001 - News From Audrey

A lot has been going on since my last email! We've picked our locations, we've picked one actor and announced auditions for the two remaining lead roles. (If you know any young male or female actors who could pass for High School students let me know.) I've been busy setting up a web site, restructuring the script a bit and creating storyboards.

I had a web site nearly ready to go two weeks ago when my web host company decided to raise rates and reduce service. (The technology downturn hits home!) So I have been scrambling to move everything to a new host.


Today I want to talk about the story of our film, "A Rendezvous With Audrey".

Did you ever have a crush on someone when you were in school? But were just too shy to do anything about it? I think it's happened to everyone, at least once. And did you ever wonder what happened to that person and how your life might have been different if things had worked out?

A Rendezvous With Audrey is about a man who had it especially bad. Burt's overbearing mother had convinced him that his budding romantic thoughts meant he was some kind of a pervert. He was not only too shy to talk to Audrey but he was racked with guilt every time he even thought about her.

Now it's sixty years later and Burt has had a dream about Audrey. He's decided to visit his old home town and try to find some happy memories from his troubled youth. No, he doesn't find Audrey, that would be too obvious and corny, but he does run into (literally) a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Audrey.

A pleasant conversation with this young woman leads him into a vivid imagined conversation with Audrey. The result is a happy and uplifting experience for everyone.

A Rendezvous With Audrey is a delightful exploration of a universal theme, told very simply. I chose it to be my first narrative film project because it could be done with so few resources. Three actors in a public park.

This is the essence of Guerilla Filmmaking. I have observed that most beginning filmmakers fail simply because they take on projects that are far too ambitious. In a future email I'll talk more about Guerilla Filmmaking.

Until then, please check out the start of the Audrey web site where you can see some of the storyboards and learn more about the story:

http://anderwell.com/audrey/
May 8, 2001 - Welcome To Audrey

You have received this Email because you are involved in, or have expressed an interest in a short film I will be producing this summer, or I just think you might be interested. The film will be directed by Bill Evenson and I am producing it.

Introductions

Bill Evenson has had a rich career in entertainment beginning with acting in radio comedies and dramas in the golden age of radio. That was followed by many years of acting and directing in television and theater. He was a highly respected television news correspondent for many more years. Most recently he has been active in Image (http://www.imagesite.org/home.html), directing screen play readings, teaching acting, and is the current President of Image.

Jerry Anderson has had a very practical career in computer engineering but is determined to make up for the errors of his past and get back to the fun films, animations and stories he loved to do in his youth. For the last two years he has been taking classes, producing documentaries and promotional videos, directing and crewing at Public Access Television stations, and volunteering at Image.

A Rendezvous With Audrey will be a first narrative film for both of us. We hope you will join with us as we stumble our way through this process, learning with us as we go. I hope that those of you with the time will help us as crew members when we start filming, and that someday we can return the favor when you start filming the stories you've always wanted to tell.

Where are we?

The script is currently undergoing some final revisions. We have begun casting for our lead actors and are scouting locations. We will be shooting in late July.

Our web site will soon be ready to go public.

Our plan is that A Rendezvous With Audrey will be the first of several shorts we produce in the next year. When we are satisfied that we have the technical skills and colleagues we will be moving on to feature films. You are welcome to join the fun!

About this Email

I will be sending out periodic Email communications so you can stay up with us and learn as we learn.

If you are interested in being on the crew please reply to this email with information on how to contact you (Name/Address/Phone numbers) and let me know if you have had previous experience and what you would like to get out of the experience (we want this to be fun and educational for everyone)!

If you know a friend that might be interested please forward this Email and have them contact me to get on the mailing list.