The making of an Indie film. The Whiskey Priest. Start to finish Part 1

Our filmmaker Tommy Rennier. Photo T. Rennier.

Most people know how a feature film is made. A studio gets together a script, a cast and a crew. It really isn't that simple, but those are the basics.

How is an Indie made?

It's actually more complicated. Most Indie filmmakers are using either their own money or money they borrow.

I am going to follow a filmmaker who is doing an Indie "short" entitled "The Whiskey Priest". When I say following, I mean he is checking in with me every time he does work on his film.

We are on the ground floor with this film. We will watch it from inception to it's first showing.

I found Tommy Rennier on a website I watch for new talent called, indiefilmpage.com. He was discussing his project with another filmmaker. I received an email as I am a subscriber to the site and I asked him if I could do articles on his progress. He agreed. This contact was made on approximately July 17, 2009.

I requested he give me links to myspace, facebook etc and recieved them on the 19th of July.

Here are the links

Facebook;
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Whiskey-Priest/130076008451

DVXuser;
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=176257

MySpace; http://www.myspace.com/thewhiskeypriest

Indiegogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Whiskey-Priest

Indiegogo is a site where Indie filmmakers go to try to raise money for their projects. You can donate to Tommy's project there if you are so inclined.

Saturday July 18th and Sunday July 19th

According to Tommy this weekend was spent this way...

Saturday I went location scouting, Sunday I met with my DP, and both days I worked on promoting the film (building those pages, talking to people about money, etc...)"

The pages he mentions are the pages with the links above.

July 21st

Tommy reports in with a history of how he decided to make his film.

Basically, about a month ago I decided it was time to make another film, which is always a great undertaking. As an "indie" filmmaker you basically have to work two jobs, I work during the day as an editor (to pay the bills), and during the evenings and weekends on the film (to pursue the dream)! I was debating between a short and a feature and decided to go with a short because of the money situation, plus I've never felt like any of my past shorts have been that great - I really want a great short film. But I'm also working on a feature with my brother (who lives near me) and working on two music videos. It's a busy life!

Tommy decided to do a short, to keep it simple. His last film had "twenty locations and twelve characters".

Why a film on "Whiskey Priests"?

I've always like the concept of a Whiskey Priest ever since I read Graham Greene's masterpiece The Power and The Glory. So I set the script in the mid 1930's when their were priest persecutions in Mexico and the priests were either running for their lives or being executed and wrote a short story about a barber who is more or less a "judge/dictator" of this small town in south Texas. The whiskey priest is making his way out of Mexico, he's a drunk, struggling with the situation, and it shows that everybody is human (even a priest). This priest is tired of running and hiding so he decides to, more or less, confront the situation by going into the barbershop to get a shave from the "barber" himself. What ensues is a tense, strange conversation between these two characters as we anticipate how it's going to play out...

Tommy sent his script to a few friends and got positive feedback. His friends help him shape the script and make it better than it originally was.

Securing funding.

So here I was...I have my script, I'm a poor indie filmmaker trying to get it made and I want to do it right. Make it good. So I ran across this website called IndieGoGo where you can raise funds for your films and I decided to give it a whirl. Not sure what to expect. But it's worked out pretty well. I set the goal for $5,000 and we've already raised $1,260 on the website and I've been sent almost $300 through the mail from others that have heard about it! It's a great start for just about two weeks. The way I see it is that most people in LA spend $50 in one night at the bar, why not skip that night and be a part of something bigger! We offer VIP Perks such as credits, the free DVD, and visiting the set.

Tommy on finding crew members.

Once funding got under way it was crucial to find a Director of Photography, I've normally run the camera myself and lit the set myself but I want this film to be great and I want to reach for solid actors - so I can't spend my time moving lights - I need to be working with the actors to give the script its best performance. After a few e-mails I got a hold of Nathan Carrington, who is in his final year at Chapman's Film Program - and we both attended Missouri State University together previously. I got him onboard and he's bringing a team of six or so to operate the camera and lights. So this should be a cool experience.

Locations, etc.

Then just last weekend I traveled all around the west side of Southern California searching for barbershops. I visited about twelve in all. I narrowed it down to two that looked pretty good, but not spectacular. I took pictures and put them on MySpace and Facebook.

The following day I met with Carrington and my sound man Andrew Elkins and we discussed the costs, looks, locations, problems, etc... We are planning on shooting 16mm, which is a little more expensive than going digital, but I think it will lend itself an amazing look for a period piece and the DP is very comfortable with 16mm - although I've never shot film before - most of his reel is 16mm. Then we drove around to look at some barbershops in Orange (where we had lunch) that he knew about and we found the one! The perfect barbershop in a quiet neighborhood. Now to get permission to shoot at it is another story. Carrington was going to talk to the owner this week.

Wednesday July 22, 2009.

Wednesday consisted of lots of boring, boring work. But it must be done! We have a little problem in the script where I wrote in about ten extras outside the barbershop window. Well that's not going to be feasible on our budget. It's not only ten extras, but ten people that need to look like they live in the 1930's. So scratch that. I sent workaround ideas to my DP. It will either involve creative camera work or a small re-write.
I'm getting ready for the exciting part of the journey, I'm putting together a small wish list of actors for my Casting Director to start making phone calls. We're not exactly going for Johnny Depp and Christian Bale here, but definitely some recognizable faces. Some television actors and smaller film actors that I think are great. I'm excited to see how this turns out. I believe in actors so much that I have nearly half my budget for actors. I don't think most indie filmmakers would even try calling these guys, but I figure why not? The worst they can do is say no. But I truly, truly believe the script is good enough for them to fall in love with and all the makings are there to get this thing to Sundance.

Other than that I worked on the budget after receiving some numbers from my DP (he was calling rental houses) but I don't want to release those numbers at this time. The online goal is $6,500 and I will combine that with my own money. So it won't be that small, that's for sure. My last film was about $3,000...so this is already more than doubling that.

Tuesday July 28, 2009

Casting is still in the forefront.

Nothing much stirring at this point. It's been nothing but trying to cast the film for the last 5 days. Calling agents every day during lunch (it's the only free time I have to get it done) and sending the script around. I'm hoping to get somebody or something in place soon, but it's a lot of work. I think the script speaks for itself so we'll see here.

If I can't get anybody that I specifically want within 2 or 3 weeks I will post a breakdown on breakdownexpress.com and cast it from that. But I'm fairly confident we can get the guys I want.

You are now up-to-date on Tommy Rennier's film. Stay tuned as this will be updated whenever something has been done to move the film forward.