What Have I Learned So Far?

So what have I learned so far from Making 'Willa'?

1. IT TAKES TIME! As I have done many times I again apologize to anyone and everyone eager to see this film 'happen' more than it already has. Unfortunately it's not an easy task when it's your first film and I don't have a lot of friends and connections in the industry! Film festival after film festival is really the only option for me and that can take a very long time and is more out of my hands than I care to admit!
  Also, I've learned that many people ask to see the film and to let me know what they think about it - and guess what? I never hear from them! Still they manage to ditch it on ImdB and make sure it gets an extremely low rating in there! It's a real pity! Is it perfect? Absolutely not! And it was never meant to be! But I do wish that people would communicate a little better instead of choosing that form of 'review' which I will then never learn why was so bad and what they actually thought of it!
  I really wanted criticism - but got none! Around 100 people have seen the film and I have actually not received feedback from a single one of them. I don't know if that's the 'industry' - if that's people afraid to tell me what they really think or if that's just sad! But part of my own learning process with this project was definitely feedback and so far I haven't been lucky enough to get it from a festival. It's now been completed for a year and in many ways that's a long time - but I've also learned that in many ways it's not! I know we're not done with its journey yet and though it obviously has taken time and will take even longer I know that we will get to a point where it will get some more publicity and finally be seen by people who will judge it as what it is: My first film with a great cast and a great story and lots of 'mistakes' and imperfections! Which is what a first film should be all about I think!

We're Still Here

Thought I'd shoot you a little update now that everything has been quiet for a while. The movie is already being shipped to various festivals around the world so we hope to have some news on this progress soon. In the meantime I've personally been focussing on other things including a couple of new scripts and little things I had been neglecting while finishing up 'Willa'.
 So everything I write these little updates I seem to want to have a "what's next"! And exactly what is next? Well your guess is actually as good as mine. I am new to the industry so I don't have the luxury of contacting my network to get the film out there. I'm hoping for festival attention and through that hopefully get some interest around our story, our wonderful cast and amazing director of photography. So that's about it really! So I'll keep you all posted on our 'attention scale'. So far, even without doing much we have managed to get some attention from different places so I am excited to see what's in store in the coming months. But now we wait and see. And though I know many of you out there are eager to see the final film it will be a while before it becomes available to anyone. I hope we can open in style at a festival in New York City so I'll keep believing in that and we shall see how everything goes.

Official Trailer

Though it's already been posted in many other places we wanted to put the new, official trailer for the film on the blog as well. We hope you enjoy it! It's a matter of weeks before the final version of 'Willa' is ready!

Me Me Me Me!!!!

My name is Christopher Birk and I directed and wrote the screenplay for 'Willa'. But that's not all I did. In case you have been wondering why my name is all over this production I want to take a moment to explain that.
  When I first started this I had a very clear vision for the whole film, from screenplay to music, sound design, colors, effects, picture and a lot of other things. Did I WANT to do a lot of the jobs on the film myself? Not really! Did I end up doing them anyway? Yes and no!
  The problem with a 'vision' is that it's pretty hard for others to understand exactly what the picture you have in your brain is - this becomes a problem when you want to let others do certain things because A) will it ever be exactly like you pictured it and B) will it be done properly?
  Many people have told me that editing your own movie is a bad idea! I can see why - but I can also see why not! In my case it was actually all very simple. It was not so much about whether others understood my vision or not - It was about the fact that there was little to no budget getting these things done and though you can find people who will work on these things as a 'project' - not paying someone for his/her time automatically means that it will understandably not be their first priority.
  So what then? If you don't know I am also an actor - and I have seen many a production take either forever or even never happen because there simply isn't time, people and budget to get a lot of the post-production done. I knew this was an issue that we could face on 'Willa' as well - and in a way we did. However, knowing that it would probably take a very long time if I 'hired' volunteers to do a lot of the post-production I made the decision that it probably wouldn't take much longer if I simply taught myself to do these things as I did them. This would also be helpful in my future career and then I wouldn't have anyone to blame for the result but myself.
  Was it selfish? Maybe a little - but I strongly believe that this movie would take a very long time if I had to rely on people who didn't even know much about the project to do work on it that would match my own vision - not to mention the fact that I naturally knew a lot myself about the whole thing and would save a lot of time not having to explain a lot of things to others but simply play around with the programs, tools etc required to finish this film. Besides, when I started out this was clearly 'my' film and I think I would actually feel I betrayed it a little had I just passed it on to someone else. So it's safe to say that there is more of 'me' in this film than I even dare to think about. That's good - maybe others disagree - but I need to be responsible for the product and there are simply certain thing I have to do myself to feel that I can be that.
  So I did sound editing, film editing, visual effects, special effects, additional music, sound effects and sound design! And in doing so, 'Willa' has become, not only my baby but also been an extremely valuable lesson in everything that needs to be done to make a film. And for that I am very grateful. Naturally, this could never have been done this way on a much bigger production but the size of this one was just exactly perfect to actually do so. I am proud what the film was, what it is, and what I hope it will become and no matter what happens next this has been such an amazing time for me that I know I can use for many things in the years to come.

Screening & Future

Theodore Bouloukos as PHIL PALMER

On a very cold leap year's day I screened 'Willa' for cast, crew and a few of their friends at the wonderful Cinema Village in Manhattan.
First of all, seeing it on the big screen for the first time was wonderful. Though I personally, by the time we did the screening, had seen that version or similar ones about 100 times it was still a completely new and captivating experience for me to see it like that! Within a few minutes my brain couldn't stop thinking 'wow, what a great cast we have'! So thank you to those of you reading this! A guy couldn't have wished for a better gang of actors to do such a fine job.
The best thing was that though I desperately wanted to be annoyed by technical things still not fixed in the film I couldn't. I was simply swept away by their performances and though I was, to put it mildly, violently nervous at the beginning of the screening I calmed down and was taken away myself, completely forgetting that I had actually been working on this for an entire year, more or less every single day since January 2011.
We had a little talkback after the screening and it was great to hear everyone's opinion. Call me an idiot but I actually do care if the actors think they did a good job and my editing was done to maximize what they had already put in there.
All in all I got out of it exactly what I had hoped for so I was very happy and ready to work some more and release a film that I felt everyone who had the chance to watch the screener had a little say in making.
And speaking of release - what about that little detail.
Well, to be honest I'm not sure exactly in what shape and when the film will be available to 'y'all'. The plan is, and has always been, to send it to festivals all over the place so depending on which one will be the first to accept us I guess that will be the real 'opening' - although , depending on where in the world that is, none of us may be able to be there. I do sincerely hope we will be part of a New York film festival so we can make a real 'premiere' out of it and do be sure that I'll announce it once we get accepted to a local festival.
And that's about it! Attracting distributors is naturally a dream for all of us - we would love it to be available to people other than NYC locals and people close enough to the festivals we will be in but when this will happen I'm not sure and in what capacity - but once again you can be sure I'll keep you all informed about this.
A new journey is starting for 'Willa' and I am excited to keep you up to date in our progress and who we get the chance to show out little film to. But first, let's get it ready and get it going! I couldn't be prouder of everyone involved! I'd do it again in a heartbeat and I think I just might!

Poster for 'Willa'

How do you make a movie poster? That's actually a good question and one that I now feel I am a few steps closer to answering. As anyone who has been following 'Willa' from the beginning have noticed, there has been quite a few temporary poster-ish pictures on the Facebook, website etc. but I wanted a 'real' poster - one that expresses what I think the movie is about, leaving something to be desired and not raising or answering too many questions.
 Well a while ago, the wonderful Raffael Pacitti, who first got me involved in Bikram Yoga by the way, and I were chatting at the studio about the movie and he mentioned that he would love to try his skills with a poster for the film. I was thrilled! I told him about the sites etc and sent him the story so he could learn a bit more about it.
 But that wasn't all. In order to make a suitable poster he asked me all kinds of questions about the film - some very straight forward and some more symbolic. This was sort of fabulous! I didn't ever imagine that questions like those could help create the mood for a poster - but I was thrilled that Raffael threw himself into it this way.
 After giving him all the answers I could he brought everything together and sent me a draft, very close to the poster we have now. I immediately loved it and though it's simple in one way, it also just exactly gives the impression and sets the mood that I was looking for. How great was that! I'm hoping he will be designing posters for the next 50 films I do!

Visual Effects & Color Correction

The post production of the film is entering the late stages as everything starts coming together. In the beginning I didn't even consider taking on the task of changing colors and doing effects myself. But as time went on it became more and more difficult to find people who could help. First of all because I didn't have much money to offer and didn't feel too great about asking for 'free' help on yet another job. And second of all it was very important to me that whoever took the task needed to have a good understanding of my vision. So after thinking about just how long it would take me to explain exactly what I wanted anyway - I decided that the time was probably better spent learning it myself. And so I made up my mind to spend most of January becoming an expert at Adobe After Effects.
  3 manuals and about 15 hours of tutorials later I'm getting into it like I never thought I would. And I love it. I still have a lot to learn but I am playing aound with everything and discovering the amazing potential this program has. Our movie doesn't require any heavy effects or digital grading but there is still quite a few smaller or medium jobs in that regard. So once again I'm putting on yet another hat for this film but - once again - this hat also teaches me yet another bunch of things that will be useful for my future work. So it's not so much because I have a desire to do as many things on 'Willa' myself as possible. It's more because I come to realize that it probably is the fastest, most efficient and not to mention cheapest way for me to do it. And the big plus is that I learn things that will be very useful. The movie is 'my baby' as many others have called their projects before I'm sure. But when you have a baby like this you need to know that it turns out exactly as YOU want it. Risky, I guess, because now I am exposing myself to criticism on all kinds of levels - but also good because now I can't blame too many things on others, just myself!
Christopher Birk - Director (and now Visual Effects artist as well).