All language subtitles for Neil.Breen.5.Film.Retrospective.2020.Part.4

Hi, this is Neil Breen.

Over the past few years, I've been asked

a number of questions
about my filmmaking process.

People in theater audience Q&A is ask me,
Neil, how have you been able to do this?

I get questions online all the time.

Neil, how have you been able to write,
produce, direct, act

and self-fund five theatrical

independent feature films?

So I thought I'd take this time
to put together

what I'm calling a retrospective
of how I've been able to do that.

What my process is

this is not a documentary

on how I made five indie feature films

that would take hours and hours and hours
to do.

As it is, this
retrospective is about five hours long.

What I'll be covering
is all aspects of my filmmaking process,

how I conceptualize the film,

how I write the script for the film.

Be creative

as a filmmaker.

Use your imagination.

That's what the media is all about.

Creativity. Imagination.

Entertaining
the audience is informing the audiences.

That's what your goals should be.

I write my stories in screenplays.

Purposely, in order to challenge myself.

To challenge myself

from a story line point of view

and from a technical point of view,

every film that I've done,

I've done more technically advanced work

than the prior film.

The challenge
is that that I give to myself

is to do things I've never done before.

How I plan around the budget for the film.

My actual film production process,

my editing of the film.

This is the editing bay that I use to edit

my four most recent feature films.

My special effects for the films

in order to survive as a species.

It is not my intention
to give you the impression

that I, as an experienced indie
filmmaker, do big, successful

indie films.

What I have done

is make in the small scale, low budget,
successful,

profitable,
imaginative, thought provoking films.

I want to be honest with all of you.

I've been hacking into government
and corporate systems

all over the country, all.

These films have given me

tremendous experience and insight
into making larger medium budget,

visionary,
thought provoking films in the future.

And that is what I intend to do.

My music for the films,

my lighting of the films

and so on

into an all encompassing
post-production process.

After post-production, I'll discuss
distribution,

both DVD,
Blu ray and digital distribution.

I'll then discuss theatrical distribution.

My most recent films have played in major

cities and theaters all around the world,

and I'll discuss with you
how I was able to do that.

I'll discuss marketing,
how I've taken it upon myself

to create a new breed brand of film.

I'll be presenting during the five hour
narration.

I'll be presenting film clips
from all the films.

I'll be presenting props from
all the films, how I've made the props.

I'll be discussing sets and locations.

That I've made for the films.

I'll be discussing my
the casting process that I use.

It's not my intent in this retrospective

to tell the story of all five films.

That would take forever.

My intent is to convey

my imagery

that I've created for the five films,

in an effort to show you

the themes
and storylines of the five films.

Once again, utilizing

all of the categories
that I've mentioned previously.

So I think at the end of the five hours,
you will come away

clear on how I do what I do
relative to filmmaking.

You'll come away on the thematic,

imagery relative to filmmaking,

cinematography and visual presentation

that I'm very interested in
and what I'm offering,

the viewers of my films.

So I think you'll find this
very interesting,

both as a learning tool, a creative tool.

I think if you've never gone
to film school, which was my case,

I think you'll find it.

It's something that will give you
some insights

into creative ways

to accomplish your filmmaking goals.

I'm a big believer in

doing things over the top.

Being creative, using your imagination.

Being a bold filmmaker, you take risks.

So that's really it.

About the retrospective.

I think you'll enjoy it.

I think you'll learn from it.

Happy filmmaking.

Thank you.

I'll be right here.

This is a screening in.

Paris, France.

Of twisted care.

There were 2700 people

in the audience
at this single screening at Twisted Care.

This is their reaction to the film.

And to me after the screening.

We'll bring.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

Oh, this is a screening in Los Angeles,

right?

Oh. Oh.

We knock it

down. Oh.

You. Know.

Oh, this is it.

I can't believe this is happening.

Oh, my God. Oh.

There are many.

Truly
independent feature filmmakers out there,

just like me,

making quality, professional,
creative, imaginative

theatrical feature films.

My experience in having

self-funded, written, produced
and directed five theatrical feature films

has been an amazing educational experience
for me.

I've learned so much and I'm happy

to share that information with you.

I think I've demonstrated,

that it is possible for you

to be a theatrical feature

film maker if you want to work for it.

You got to work your butt off.

There's no getting around it.

There's no easy path.

But, I hope I've demonstrated that
it's possible.

The opportunities are there.

If you've got the potential
and if you want to work at it

in a very professional way.

To give you a little background

on me personally, as some of you may know.

Even though

I've written, produced,
directed, self-funded and acted in five

theatrical feature films,
I've never gone to film school.

So I believe I have some credibility

in offering what I'm offering to you.

As far as information
goes and insight into the true indie

filmmaking process.

Going about it this way,

as far as me personally,

I went to college to become an architect.

I became an architect.

I'm a licensed architect and that's really

graduated and practice as an architect.

That's really where I made my money.

While I was in college

studying architecture,

I would take on side jobs as many of us
did, who didn't have any money.

And college
is an extra or atmosphere in movies

that served two purposes
that are really paid.

Got made me some money
because there was no other way

I was going to make money as a second job
being a student.

Also,
more importantly to me, it exposed me

to real A-list filmmaking.

I could be around sets and I could be
around cameramen and cinematographers.

Of course, I couldn't talk to them
because I was nobody.

But it exposed me

to some degree to the process.

Once again,
these are multi-million dollar films

which don't relate to me,
but it was just part of me fulfilling.

The. Passion that I have for filmmaking.

Filmmaking, for me, is not a hobby.

It's I'm passionate about it.

So when I graduated from college,

I immediately moved to the West Coast.

To make a long story short.

I did really well as an architect,

but always wanted to be a filmmaker.

I've never lost the passion,
always had it.

I have no idea
where the passion comes from.

My family's not in the business.

I don't have any relatives
in the business.

I don't know anybody in the business.

But I just really thought

it's something they

would really,
I would really find fulfilling.

An analogy I use

frequently is that in trying to explain
the difference between my background

as an architect and as a filmmaker.

Architecture.

I can design a building, and that building

is a, in the end,
a three dimensional object.

And you can drive by that building
and you will say, Neal,

I love that building, or Neal,
I hate that building,

or you'll have no,

opinion of that building at all.

But it's a three dimensional static
object.

Filmmaking

is has a three dimensional quality to it,

but it also has
a fourth dimensional quality to it.

It has time and space in filmmaking.

Unlike a.

Building,

the film.

Will make you laugh, cry,

think, etc.

it will make you emote.

The building in the macro scale
will make you emote,

whereas a building,
whereas a film will make you emote.

The drawing of the emotions
from viewing a film on

many different levels is really
what appeals to me, and really is what,

has created that

passion for me in filmmaking as passionate

as I was about make,

architecture.

So that's really key to me.

And that's how I try to describe to,

others what the differences
between a three dimensional building

and a moving, living,
four dimensional film.

Whereas a film

you literally create your own world.

In other words,

you can create dialog.

You can create a physical environment.

You had music.

You had lighting.

You literally can control the whole world
to create the image

and the moment
and the inspiration that you want.

Whereas a film

will make you laugh or make you cry,

make you happy, will make you
sad, will make you think,

will make you fantasize, etc.

etc. etc..

A film is a living thing.

There's nothing more inclusive

in the media world

than filmmaking, in that you create
your own world, tell your own story

and convey your own thoughts,
ideas, inspirations and passions.

So that really is what's in my heart.

So to make a long story short,

I've traveled

to probably 85%

of the major cities in the world.

Through business and on my own.

And it's been absolutely

the most rewarding thing in my life.

But it came time.

In fact, I shot Double Down

and I shot I Am Here Now.

While.

I was still full time
employed as an architect.

I shoot nights and weekends and vacations.

There are a lot of words that I hear
filmmakers

using actors using words

such as I wish I could do this, or

I hope this happens, or I dream of this.

These are all.

Words.

That should be prohibited from,

the vocabulary of people using.

After about the age of 13,
when you're a kid,

you can dream, wish, hope
when you become an adult,

a professional person
working to achieve something.

There's only one thing

that's going to make those wishes,
dreams and hopes come true.

And that's work.

You have to work at achieving
everything you want.

The problem with a lot of filmmakers,

is that they're dreamers,
but that's all they are.

They're wishers, but that's all they are.

They're hopers.

The I hope I get this award

hoping is not going to get you anything.

Dreaming is not going to get you anything.

And wishing is it beyond a certain point.

It's all about hard core work.

That's how you achieve your goals.

I'm often

asked Neil, who's your favorite director?

Neil, what's your favorite film?

And so on and so on.

I really. Don't.

Have a favorite director.

I don't have a favorite.

So that's like saying, what's your
favorite city to travel to in the world?

You can't have one say,
there's many cities for different reasons.

Just like there's favorite films

in different genres.

They're not apples to apples.

They're oranges to apples.

You can't compare them on the same level.

So I really don't have a favorite director

or a favorite film.

I'm a big film fan.

I'm a fan of the old films.

I'm a fan of the new films.

I see a lot of films.

The bad ones

that you sort of intuitively know are bad,
I stay away from.

I don't waste my time on them.

The, the ones that I think are creative

show imagination
that are inspired, enlightening.

They're the films that I'm attracted to.

And, if I don't like the entire film
as a filmmaker,

I may learn from this scene
or this scene from that film.

And kind of put that in my little bank
up here and say,

I wonder if I could use something
similar to that.

Not copying,
but similar to that in feeling

or the moment in one of my future films.

So I put that in my little head
library and go on.

But I'm a huge movie fan.

Prior to not having gone to film school,

I did read a lot about film making,

and tried to do my homework that way.

So reading about filmmaking technically

and creatively and screenwriting
and then just observing

what goes on in
films when you watch a movie.

I'm more
prone to figure out how they did it

or what that camera move was,
or how they light it,

and so on and so on.

So you can learn a lot.

Use watching a movie,
any movie as a learning tool

to help you as a filmmaker.

I write my stories in screenplays.

Purposely, in order to challenge myself.

Challenge myself from a story line

point of view
and from a technical point of view.

Every film that I've done,

I've done more technically advanced work

than the prior film.

The challenge is that

that I give to myself is to do things

I've never done before,

both from a storyline
and a technical point of view.

In other words, there are effects
that I've used in subsequent films

that I've never done before.

But I did my homework.

I tried to figure out
how they were done, how if I

could accomplish them, and so on.

So this gets back
to the adventurous journey

of a filmmaker.

Don't do things.

Don't stay with things
you're totally comfortable with.

Challenge yourself.

Reach out there for something

on a new horizon.

You'd be surprised how much, joy

that gives you when you've achieved it.

And I am mentioning these

in it in a degree of priority.

If you don't have money, you're
not going to make the film once again.

I'm not talking about student films
or experimental films or short films.

I'm talking about real movies
that are going to play in a theater,

and eventually people
are going to pay to see.

Bear with me,
because I may wind up rambling.

It's important,
as I go through my discussion,

that you remember I am only talking about

independent.

Low budget but not low.

Low budget.

Theatrical feature films

that have commercial and legal value.

And I'll get into that later.

I am not talking about A-list films.

I'm not talking about multi-million
dollar films.

That's a completely different animal.

I am not a rogue filmmaker.

I'm not a rebel filmmaker.

I'm not anti Hollywood.

The only reason

that I'm functioning the way I am

is a truly independent

feature filmmaker who self funds, produces
rights, directs and acts

is that I physically

do not live in Los Angeles.

It's really that simple.

I have nothing against Hollywood.

The Hollywood structure,

in fact, the way I produce films, the way

I direct films, the way I make films

follows almost every standard

that Hollywood has.

On all of my films.

I have gone out of my way to conduct
myself very professionally.

Professionalism consistent with

how the pros do it on the big films.

By doing that

and approaching filmmaking
in a very ordered organizational way.

I've been able to do films
more efficiently

than maybe someone

who was approaching it
in a nonprofessional way.

So it's very important
for you to be professional,

adhere to all the standards, guidelines,
requirements and so on that you've been

taught in film school
that you know of through experience,

that you know of by

being mentored by other people,

and by observing

other professional people
that professionalism

will keep everything
grounded and organized.

And in my case, at my level,
it's enabled me to do things

much, much more time, efficiently

and cost efficiently.

So that's something to keep in mind.

I want to stress the importance of good
communication skills as a filmmaker.

Filmmaking is a collaborative team effort.

As the indie producer director,
you will be communicating

with a variety of experienced people

cast, crew, rental companies,

location
owners, distributors, lawyers, theaters,

local and state approval
agencies, insurance companies, etc. etc.

you need to be able to present yourself
as a self-confident person,

skilled and experienced in your craft.

My filmmaking

process is once again

very standard.

What I've learned over

five films is that

I really

you really don't need a full crew.

You'll see independent films out there.

Once again, this is

to some degree budget driven.

If you don't have money,
you're not going to make the film.

Once again, I'm not talking about

student films
or experimental films or short films.

I'm talking about real movies
that are going to play in a theater,

and eventually
people are going to pay to see.

First category is money.

Unfortunately or fortunately,
whatever the case may be,

you can't make a professional

theatrical feature film without money.

Let's talk about

that in a couple different levels.

Where are you going to get the.

Money. To do your film?

You're going to get it from

your family.

If they're incredibly wealthy,
which is probably not the case.

It wasn't in my case.

You're going to get it through money
that you saved personally

during your working years.

Which is another option,
which is the option in my case.

Or you're going to get it from investors.

Which is not likely.

So my recommendations

as far as money goes,

those being the scenarios
that I just mentioned,

is, number one, get a real job,

get a real job.

And I say that with all due respect.

To help you

survive during your filmmaking process.

In other words, have money coming in
that doesn't rely on the film

or film making.

Because the reality is

you need that base, that financial base
to live on, to pay your rent

or mortgage and food and gas
and car insurance and so on and so on.

In the meantime, save money

from your real job
to put towards your your film.

So the script is the script is done.

I've got the money because I'm

self-funding the films.

I have self-funded all my films.

All five films.

All five films have been profitable
for me.

I have made my money back.

Which is very important.

That enables you to do the next film.

I really I'm looking forward

to getting involved with an investor
or investors for my next film.

Every one of my films

gets bigger

and better on many different levels,
and it's reaching

it's reached a point now after five films

where for me to make the next jump,

I really need more money.

My budgets

are not micro budgets.

They're not extremely low budgets.

My films are expensive.

There's no getting around it.

I've never gotten anything for free.

I've had a pay for everything
cast, crew, location and so on.

It's expensive.

I've sacrificed a lot
just to do this because it's my passion.

I'm not going to quote my budget amounts.

In fact, no small indie
filmmaker should for.

A lot of good. Business reasons.

When I say that my films are low budget.

That term is relative.

My films were expensive to make.

This section of the retrospective

is my approach to scriptwriting.

Be creative

as a filmmaker.

Use your imagination.

That's what the media is all about.

Creativity. Imagination.

Entertaining
the audience is informing the audiences.

That's what your goals should be.

That achieving that goal

will reward
you both creatively and financially.

I write my stories in screenplays.

Purposely, in order to challenge myself.

Challenge myself from a story line

point of view
and from a technical point of view.

Every film that I've done,

I've done more technically advanced work

than the prior film.

The challenge is that

that I give to myself is to do things

I've never done before.

Both from a storyline
and a technical point of view.

In other words, there are effects
that I've used in subsequent films

that I've never done before.

But I did my homework.

I tried to figure
out how they were done, how I

could accomplish them, and so on.

So this gets back
to the adventurous journey

of a filmmaker.

Don't do things.

Don't stay with things
you're totally comfortable with.

Challenge yourself.

Reach out there for something

on a new horizon.

You'd be surprised how much, joy
that gives you when you've achieved it.

Social commentary is very important.

Nother element is very important.

In my films

and all, all five of the films
make what I think are

strong, direct,

forceful social commentary

without being preachy.

In other words,
I'm sort of laying out the obvious

in the commentary that I'm,

directly or indirectly making.

Which appeals to me a lot as well.

This script.

I've got many scripts.

Scripts for all my films. Double down.

I am here now,

pass through

Twisted Pair.

I've got a lot of scripts.

My point is,

for me,

I take scripts very seriously.

The way that I write scripts in

and develop them
is that during the course of

even beginning the script, my method

is that I'll think of,
and it could happen anywhere, any time.

This could be a, a year
prior to even writing a script.

I may think of a keyword.

I may think of a concept.

I may think of a a thought.

I may think of something, a situation

relative to characters, a situation
relative to location.

And I will write those on little three

by four index cards.

And over the course of the year
or whatever prior.

I'm just going to collect cards.

I have a box and I've put them all in,

and they're really reminders to me

of key words, instances

or situations and phrases
or thoughts and concepts

that I want
to eventually incorporate into,

the script.

Typically

based, faithful findings

pass through the three most recent films.

And even the prior films and twisted pair

I wound up with for each film,

about 300 index cards

that I had collected.

Prior to writing the script.

And all of those were really relevant

to the script itself.

Bear with me here.

What I.

And this is once again
my process, what I would do

when I thought I was well,

I thought I was about to write the script
that I thought I had had all the 300

plus or minus index cards
that were all in my head

down on paper, because if you don't
write them down, you will forget them.

What I would do is I wish I

had a war room where I could put them
all up on the wall, but I don't have that.

So I put them.

All out on my living room.

Floor, 300 of them.

Then I would,
and obviously you spend hours and hours

doing the stuff, but then I would

go through every card and begin

to put that thought, location idea,

whatever it was

that triggered something that I wanted
to incorporate in the script.

I would put that
in chronological order on my floor.

And I would begin

to use build it almost as a jigsaw puzzle.

Once again,
I haven't begun to write a script.

So in the end, after hours

I had on my living
room floor 300 index cards

that I put in chronological order.

It would follow a storyline
that I was proposing

and conceptualizing to myself.

And I would be satisfied with that.

Obviously, if there was a hole in
the sequence, I'd write a card and say,

you know, add sky falls
here, red, the tiger enters

here, or the tiger exits here, or whatever
the case may be

at the end of 300
index cards on the floor.

I would gather them all up in order.

First to last.

At that point,

having all my ideas, concepts,

intuitions, thoughts.

Sparks.

Triggers down. On paper.

I literally would start with card
number one

and I would start writing the script.

I would start writing the script

and hopefully collect chronological order.

What happens is you hit writer's block.

You'll have the thoughts
and the keyword down on the card, but

you just it's nothing coming in your head
to write 120 pages of the script.

So you

skip over that in your narrative
that you're writing for the script,

and you go to the next card
and see if that generates

dialog, scene structure and so on,
and you work your way through the cards.

So eventually you wind up

with a bunch of pages

of your script, and you keep going back
and forth, back and forth.

Well, if you didn't do card
number 42 for some reason.

So you go back to card 42 and it says,

that's what I wanted to do.

And then you write the script.

That's how I work.

I go through
probably 3 or 4 drafts of the script.

I type the scripts myself.

The scripts are written
in a professional manner.

I write them as and type them as,

shooting scripts.

In other words, it's got daylight,

nighttime location, indoor outdoor

cast of characters, dialog,
special effects, etc., etc.

all that is in a scene.

So my scripts read as though
any professional script

you get from the Writers Script Guild.

I use their format.

So in the end you wind up with a normal,

professionally structured,
shooting working script.

That's probably about 120 pages.

My, theatrical feature

can't be less than an hour
and a half in total time.

As far as the film plus credits go, that's
that's your target.

Anything less than that?

It's not a real feature.

And then there's all kinds of other issues

that make it a true feature as well.

The script, when it's complete,
when you're happy with it, of course,

it's never complete,
because when you're shooting it, you say,

oh, my God, I should have done this,
or I should have done that,

or I'm going to do this
or I'm going to do that.

So it's always a
in a state of work in progress,

but you must have the finished
script to begin with.

The speaking of finished scripts,
what I do is

I register my scripts
with a Library of Congress.

I get a copyright on the script.

Some people go to the Writers Guild.

I'm not a member of any guild.

But that is sort of

how I work with the script.

The script.

Also, when it comes time to production,

the script also generates its own

daily shooting schedule.

In other words, I've got a shot schedule

for any given day
based on what I've put in the script.

The advantage of me

writing the script,
and I don't pretend to be the

the ultimate in writing the script.

I'd love to eventually get involved
with other people, who can generate dialog

and, and, other thought processes
and storylines and so on.

The advantage is that going into a film,

an independent film

of theatrical feature film quality,

I've been the writer,
the producer and the director

and the editor

I know writing the script.

Number one, I know I can afford to do.

There's no sense in writing a scene

that you can't afford that you know
you can't afford to do.

You're just wasting your time.

Also, I know in most cases while writing,

I'm in the process of securing locations.

So I know what the location is.

And I know there's no reason
to write a scene in a film

that doesn't apply to the location
you have.

I know obviously,
I know the budget I have,

I know the cast that I have.

And very importantly,
because I'm going to be editing the film,

I write the script

and edit it in my head

at the same time,
if that makes sense to you.

In other words,

I when I write a scene,
I know at the end of writing it

how I'm going to edit it, and I write it

to be able to edit it.

In other words, to get the coverage
that I want to edit it.

That's the way I shoot the scene.

I include objects in my films

as symbols and metaphors in the story.

I don't explain to the audience
what the symbols are.

I leave that interpretation
up to the audiences.

Be a bold filmmaker,
regardless of the genre.

Take risks. Be dangerous.

Go over the top.

Go over the edge with your films.

In this section, I'm going to be

discussing film production.

Film production
relative to the way I do it.

And the scale that I work at.

I shoot.

Very standardly, I shoot very efficiently.

This gets back to the script
and your shot log list,

and your daily shoot list.

You really need to know your filmmaking.

Like architecture.

You've got to be
very organizationally oriented.

If you're not an organized person,
you're going to have difficulty.

So every day,

almost by the hour, you know
exactly what you're going to be doing.

There'll be days when you're right ahead.

There'll be days when you run behind.

But you really have to have that laid out.

And that's the only way

you'll make it happen efficiently.

Most of my films, I shot in the range

of about 20 to 22 working days.

That's principal photography only.

It doesn't include

anything prior to that or anything
after that.

Post-production takes a very long time.

Pre-production
takes a relatively long time.

But I can I could shoot the film
in about 22 days, give or take.

And that's shooting ten hour days.

My shooting ratios are about 3 to 1.

The three takes,

sort of 3 or 4 takes is sort of my limit.

And then I move on to the next shot.

If you get hung up
and shooting something for 10 or 15 takes,

something's going wrong with the cast

or technically or whatever,
but you can't take that much time.

The composition of each frame of my films

is very important to me.

As the director of photography

and the cinematographer
for all of my films,

the composition of each shot

is something
I take a lot of interest in and

create an interesting visual relationship

between the objects in your film frame.

Create an interesting visual

geometry, proportion,

and perspective
between the objects in your film frame.

Each frame of your film

should be an interesting representation
visually.

Of what's going on.

Movement in a.

Scene or.

Motion in a scene is very important to me.

Try to have a sense of motion

or movement in your shots

as the director and the cinematographer.

In my films, I try to incorporate

always having motion in my shots,

and that motion can be
something as subtle as a hand movement,

or as bold as someone flying up

the side of a building or as.

Medium as two characters interacting.

But try to have.

A sense of motion
or movement in your shots.

Stay away from static, still shots.

They you'll find
they don't lend themselves

to your story.

My days are normal.

Ten hour days. My filmmaking

process is

once again very standard.

What I've learned over

five films is that

I. Really.

You really don't need a full crew.

You'll see independent films out there.

Once again, this is

to some degree budget driven.

This is me and my expensive, elaborate

on location office.

These pictures are representative

of my production process

in various stages in various films.

It's not my intention to teach you how.

I did every shot and all of my films.

That would take many, many, many hours.

This is intended to be an overview
to show you

the successful film

quality product that you can

produce on a relatively small scale,

at a relatively low production budget.

As you can see,
this is a greenscreen soundstage

that I rented in Los Angeles,

to do a lot of the work on Twisted Pair.

This is equipment that I rented from

Burns and Sawyer in Los Angeles.

This is a staging area for some film
equipment and a set up for Double Down.

This is sort of representative of,
a set and,

some staging areas for, passthrough.

This is the cast and crew.

Just relaxing for a few minutes.

This is everybody grabbing a snack.

On passing through.

Typically, my crew,

has me as the director.

I've got a camera person.

I've got a grip.

I've got a sound person.

I've never had a makeup person

or a script supervisor,
or I've never had those kind of luxuries.

This is sort of representative of
the relatively small scale that I work at.

This is not a dolly shot.

What I did here was
I had a wheelchair as a prop.

So the cameraman sat in the wheelchair
with the camera

and I pushed him down the hallway
in the wheelchair, shooting the.

Car to scene.

The relatively small scale that I work at,
maybe,

myself, a camera person

and 2 or 3 other people,

a lighting person and grip and so on.

You'll find that you can operate
very efficiently

and effectively with this level of crew.

Also,

budget
being an issue, you can't afford to pay

to have a crew of eight people
standing around.

Because nobody works for free.

But this is.

Sort of.

Indicative of, what a typical shoot,

typical scene is.

This is me hopping,
setting up one of the sets.

For twisted pair.

This is an exterior. Very simple set.

This is the overhead scaffolding
that I built to shoot

the final walkout scene
with special effects for passthrough.

This is a shot from, Double down.

This is an interior
with, the cast and crew.

There's about 9 or 10 people here.

They're setting up the conference room
for twisted pair.

This is inside the conference room.

Once again, the equipment is pretty light.

Camera. 2 or 3 lights. Boom.

Just trying to keep it minimal

so you can break it down
fast and move on to the next shot.

Once again with a

relatively small crew.

This is an exterior shot, and,

we're sort of just blocking out a scene
here, rehearsing.

But once again, I'm
utilizing the exterior lighting here,

and I'll discuss that
in the lighting segment itself.

Just sort of,

blocking this shot out right now.

After.

This is another exterior

location for, twisted pair.

Two bodies on the,

steps.

Once again, I only could shoot

on the university campus at night.

So I utilize the night
lighting to its best advantage.

This is just once again,
staging equipment for double Down.

Obviously, all these diffusers
weren't used in a single shot.

This is, doubled down again.

This is a dolly that I rented
for one of my films.

I rented it for two days.

It was just too big, too cumbersome.

And, sort of learned

my lesson about dollies on that.

That shoot.

Like, this is just blocking out a scene

or twisted pair.

This is,

an interior shot
setting up, some lighting.

Once again,
that you can do a lot with a little.

It's that old.

Say, less is more.

The advantage in my night

lighting
was that because I purposely made.

I turned out all the lights
inside the building.

I had control of that.

I could really focus on the
the key light that I wanted.

This is, from Double Down.

I shot double down on the 35 millimeter.

This is one of the, locations,

for twisted pair.

The exterior piano.

This is.

This is the interior shot

where I was manipulating the
mice with magnets from below.

This is the levitation shot.

The special effects shot,
which we'll discuss later.

This is sort of representative of every
interior set that I've ever worked on.

It's just a mosh pit of cisterns
and cameras and lights.

This is just blocking out the exterior
lighting.

And scene from Twisted pair at the
the vacant restaurant.

Visible, but excellent.

But once again,
I'm capitalizing on the existing lighting,

which, fortunately,
we didn't have to color.

Correct.

And adding about three of our own lights

to give me the accents on the,

metal tables that I was looking for.

Yeah.

This is an interior
of the circular seating

scene, which,

Yeah, I'm. I'm pointing that out

shortly after we the got here.

This is the cast and crew in the
background while we're setting up for,

the hallway shot and twisted pair.

Once again,
I control the interior lighting so I can.

I turned out
all the lighting lights in the building,

and I created my own,

shadows.

Fortunately, I had control of all

the lights on the interior
of the buildings in the university.

As I went along.

Which was always my intention.

Just so I can see the sort.

This is just blocking out the scene.

So my goal here

is to create a specific shadow.

The girl inside.

Many times when you're shooting inside,
you'll have to block out

the windows on the exterior.

So that they don't affect
the quality of the interior lighting.

Once again,

just a normal mess on the interior.

Filled with cameras, equipment,
ladders, C stands,

diffusers, light pattern makers.

This is the set
I made in the bedroom in my home for,

beautiful findings.

The hospital room.

Every one of my scenes.

I use light pattern makers on this scene.

I think it gives the scene
a lot of texture and, richness.

Rather than flat lighting.

I'm not a big fan of flat lighting at all.

Here, I'm using the lights

from the computer screens to light

the virtual reality.

People in this scene,

I use the slide, the camera slide a lot.

It gives the scene
some movement, needs some relief

versus a static camera.

This is me lighting the
the orange chairs and twisted pair.

And the men in black sitting in the,

in the chairs.

I do that too.

Like there are.

This is fun to do, fun to create.

And I thought the the effect was

great.

Had a real rich look to it.

Once again,
production value is what you're going for.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

Use your imagination.

Be creative.

So what, you got the round glasses?

I'm just making sure that everybody
I bought,

all these props I supply,

all the wardrobe I supply.

And I just wanted to make sure
everybody had the same glasses on.

Here we are, getting ready to build the,

circular seating scene.

This is an exterior shot.

Once again utilizing the lighting,
the existing lighting in the stair

for dramatic effect.

Typical

of the multitude of green screen shots.

And you'll see a lot of that later.

Once again, I shadow every scene I do.

I think it gives it
a real sense of richness and, depth.

Blocking out windows.

Sort of a normal process
of procedure. And.

Cluster of equipment.

Preparing the dining room scene.

This is the equipment
I rented from Burns and Sawyer in LA.

I think we've seen this before.

This is the 35 millimeter camera.

More of the crew
prepping equipment, for that day's shoot.

Staging area for diffuser boards,
light boards,

cast and crew.

Prepping for a shot.

This is a Steadicam that I rented in LA.

Here's the dolly.

This is once again

one of many, many, many green screens.

I own my own green screen.

We, set it up in various locations.

And then you've seen the large screen.

Screen?

Stage that I rented in L.A.

Here we are preparing,

for our soldiers scene.

I can.

Cover the war.

On many

of my films on various occasions.

The crew,

has the opportunity to work as extras.

Or cast members.

And I found that the crew and the cast,

are very willing to sort

of swap tasks
and to be involved in the film.

Now it's kind of in here.

The camera's sort of out of the picture,
but it's way in the background.

I'm blocking off the fly down scene.

Once again, I like

this happens to be an interior at night.

And I'm putting I'm lighting

and putting a large triangle
shadow on the wall.

So as the soldiers pass through it,

it's not just a blank wall.

Here, we're set up to shoot

the three businessmen
leaving the building at night.

Once again, we were fortunate
we didn't have to

color correct any lighting, and,

And so

was able to get the effect that I wanted.

Okay.

He's going to come up here.

So we're just walking through this
and blocking it out right now.

Okay.

So you guys are coming with me. Oh,

no. You're coming with me.

This is the green screen
for the dissolve in Faith.

Faithful findings.

This is the interior.

The bathroom scene, the shower, the tub.

This is the slot light board

that I use to cross her face.

Which you'll see in the special effects

section.

Overhead shots

are as simple
as standing on top of ladders,

diffusing the light for the character
who's inside the jeep.

This is the beginnings of me
building in my home.

The black cube that,

is used for finding the large black cube,

made from the black plastic material.

There it is.

There.

Cast and crew relaxing in between

set setups.

Once again, equipment.

This happened to be on the outside
of the house.

That's my truck
and one of the green screens.

This is, a set that I built in my garage.

For Twisted Pair,
where the three businessmen are hanging

by chains, obviously.

Here.

I opened the garage door to get light.

But for the sake of the scene,
which you'll see, I closed,

the door, turned off all the lights

and created my own shadow effect.

And I'm my own makeup person.

So, like I said, I've never had
a makeup person of any kind,

so it's always me that puts the blood on,

tears or clothes or does whatever.

But we're setting that.

We're setting this up.

This shot was fun, and, I thought
was pretty successful in the film.

The the effect
that I was trying to achieve.

All of my shots I preview through this,

video assist, large monitor.

It's not the monitor on the.

It's not a small monitor on the camera.

It's a good sized visual video
assist that I use.

But every shot, before it's shot
and after it's shot,

I always look at it to make sure I'm
getting what I want.

Both from a,

content point of view,
it looks point of view,

a lighting point of view,
a performance point of view, and so on.

So I have a very simple relationship.

I'm just explaining here to the

the three person, Sarah,
the Sarah's in our

who her character is
that they haven't even met yet. So

I would not

really be acceptable
if you would like to be just

giving them directions on the stuff
that they're about to do.

It's gotta look very.

Like the center of lights, lights, oxygen
mask.

Once again, this is a metal sculpture

that I use for shading pattern

on this scene.

With video assist.

Using the parallel slide.

In this shot.

Very typical.

Very representative of

the shots in my films.

I think I forgot her.

Now we have to go back.

We're just rehearsing here
and blocking this, so.

It's like this.

This should work,

right?

When you. Flip it, don't look at.

I always just go.

Okay. Go.

It's the hangman's noose.

I just once again,
I'm big on the shadows and

other green screen exterior.

This is the messy desk.

This is the part
of the living room of my house.

There's the beginnings of the large
black cube

that I built

for faithful.

There it is.

There a lot of work I put into this.

I built it myself.

And unfortunately, it wasn't as successful
as I thought it would be.

The black cube.

This is the exterior, overhead shot
and faithful findings.

When he gets hit by the roll,
hit by the Rolls Royce.

This is another green screen.

Set up

at the University.

And all the,

the various types of lighting that I use

to soften and, to soften the green screen
and make sure there's no shadows

cast on the green screen itself and,

by wrinkles
or by, cast members or objects.

This is the, Los Angeles
soundstage that I rented.

It's 85ft long.

It's 35ft deep, and it's 18ft tall.

I needed a large green screen soundstage

for the effects that I had designed.

And obviously,
you can see the lighting necessary

to give the green screen the even light

that was required for,

the effects and the cast that were,

in the green screen.

But, it was huge.

And, that's what I wanted.

That's what I needed.

And in my future films, my sixth film,

I will need sets larger than this.

To do what I want to do. But,

it worked out great for me, and,

it was a lot of fun.

This is taken

from an overhead balcony up above.

So I had the opportunity
for overhead shots,

ground point of view shots and so on.

It just gave us a lot of flexibility.

In the middle of the green screen,

giving you some idea of its scope
and scale.

This section of the retrospective
is about casting

and what I'm presenting to
you are character

images in my films.

I have approached
casting in all of my films

very professionally.

I've never used friends.

I've never used family members.

I have cast films by posting

professional casting notices.

They have responded

with headshots and links and resumes.

I review all of those.

I bring in the people that I think
are interesting,

interesting looking,
as well as interesting.

Experience wise.

I have never asked

anyone cast or crew to work for free.

I, I pay all cast members.

I pay all crew members.

The way I structure
my pay as an indie filmmaker is that.

There's a SAG level, SAG

after level, union level,
and I pay just below that level.

So it's not like I'm paying somebody
some ridiculously low amount of money.

They're getting a reasonable
amount of money to be in a nonunion

film.

I do all my own

legal
work, and I have an employment agreement

that spells out everything

that the cast member or crew
is going to be doing, is responsible

for, is liable for, protected against,
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Two pages that covers everything

and they all sign that.

And so I'm protected

as well as the producer.

So there's no surprises in the end,
like Neil.

Oh, you told me you were going to give me
ten copies of the film, right?

No, that's not happening.

Oh, Neil, I thought you were taking me
on tour the whole time.

No, that's not how.

In other words,
I answer all those questions.

I also,
when I have probably 90 or 95% of the cast

selected, I gather them all together.

I've done this for the recent films.

I gather them all together in a room
that I rent and I have an orientation.

I say, this is what we're doing.

This is the anticipated shooting schedule.

Anticipated hours.

This is the general storyline.

In other words, I'm very open.

I am there's no secrets.

And they're. More than welcome.

To ask me questions anytime,
and I'm happy to answer their questions.

So casting has always been good.

Now, here and during this whole process,
I will give you the pros,

and I'll try to give you the pros
and cons of all these topics.

The con on casting is that you'll

find people.

Quality back up
depending on your location.

In other words,
obviously if you're casting it out of L.A.

or New York
or some other major metropolitan city

that has a media industry,
you're going to get more

conventional.

Casting types,

with experience.

This is a group shot of the fateful
findings cast.

I think it was the only time
we were all together.

I don't need much to live.

This is him driving in the car.

Living in the car, eating tuna.

Hundreds of cans of

tuna and living out of the car.

In all of my films.

I use. Obscure.

Objects as metaphors.

Or symbols for.

Something that I really want the audience

to think about and to come up with.

Their own interpretation of those objects
are the gold stone.

No more than ever.

The black cube.

The man in the long black coat.

And the black shiny shoes.

The tiger.

The eagle.

The ghostly smoke.

These are objects that you see

repeated in the film,

but they go unidentified by me on purpose.

On purpose?

They're like I said,
they're symbols of something or a metaphor

for something
that I'm trying to convey to the audience.

But I really never come out
and tell the audience what they mean.

This is his love interest.

Which, he loses.

And there's flashbacks to
when they were children.

They've grown up together

and fallen in love.

Will always be together,

even in death.

We are together.

Even in death.

How? Governments all over
the world are so concerned

about nuclear missiles and nuclear bombs,

and all the very expensive
and secret technology involved.

The reality

is that chemical and biological weapons
could be much more destructive

to societies and economies,
and nuclear weapons.

Where does he go?

He's on a quest.

Don't ask.

He's protected.

In the very top, extremely top secret.

Going through these character

images, once again,
I'm not trying to tell a story.

I'm just sort of giving you the flavor

of what kind of.

Characters are in my films.

Mom. Is there life after death?

They're all dead.

Is there a heaven?

I've got to know.

Got to know this nightmare.

These character images
are all being presented within the context

of all of my films.

Being sci fi or fantasy genre.

This is an huge buildings
blowing up and wild gunfire and so on.

That only happens in the movies and TV.

It really doesn't happen in real life.

In real life,
everything we do is done very silently,

undercover and electronically.

The public never knows what we're doing.

It's all done in very, very secret ways.

I've been given
this incredible power tonight.

I believe I could make enough cancer.

I did help her.

And now I want to help you.

I want to use that power.

To bring you back.

I'm so

confused and depressed
that my double life.

How did you get to this point?

Where do I go from here?

I've got so many questions.

Don't you?

I hate you, I miss you.

I'm so glad you're here.

I've got so many questions.

I'm so confused.

I need to believe something

extraordinary is possible.

The bronze star,

the medal for gallantry in action.

And I've never been
so proud of our troops.

But I have no love to look for anymore

from Double Down.

This is the vest.

The denim vest
with all the military medals on it.

Still intact.

But I made this as well.

But this has been around a long time

that this is it.

Take all of this.

I can't go on with this.

I'm not American.

I'm an American.

I love this country.

My country.

Forgive me.

Forgive me.

Make time stands still.

Right now.

Forgive me.

Where are you?

Where are you?

Where are. You?

The small diversions have started

and I can't stop them now.

But I can try to stop

my main attack plan on Las Vegas.

If it's not too late.

I know they're coming for me.

I've got to get out of here.

I need your help now

more than ever. You.

I'm sorry,

but it had to be this way.

Now. I'm

alone now. Now.

Now, now.

Why are the humans failing?

I've given them everything.

Holy shit!

Your weapons cannot harm me.

They think they may have

an opportunity to use it. Now.

What are they in for? A surprise.

Now that we've paid

off our fellow elected representatives
in the legislature,

that environmental Solar Panel
development bill will fail next week.

Her closet, though, too.
She has great taste.

Oh, much like my twin.

She pretty much has way better yet.

I'm so sorry.

But due to the poor economy,
we're going to have to lay you off.

Hey, I've got the new girl to work for us.

Let me help you.

I don't feel so good.

Cancer.

Chemo is kicking my ass.

I always wanted to see this before I die.

I only have a month to live.

Oh, yeah?

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, God.

I do, I do.

Oh, you can have it.

I'm sorry.

We have to lay you off.

We're all so sorry.

I don't
understand how they could let this happen.

This is not a temporary delay.

It's more politics and corporate greed.

Now, I've lost my job, and I'm
not going to be able to find another one.

I'm an environmental activist,
and it's getting me nowhere.

I know.

Yeah.

I know.

We trusted you like a brother.

Give him.

Your free go.

Learn to love yourself.

Other humans

and humanity.

You have so much to offer.

Nature

and this planet.

I know you from somewhere.

Help me!

Help me!

Save me!

You can save yourself.

I've made you strong enough
to save yourself.

I don't think a species understand.

I've given them so much.

Respect yourselves.

Love nature.

Live in peace.

Have I felt the.

Weight for me.

Wait for me.

The humans dreams.

They can come true.

I will give them one more chance.

If they fail.

I will destroy this planet.

And this experiment.

Look, we're a mushroom.

It must mean something.

It's buried treasure.

You can't make the box empty.

It's bad luck.

I'm not afraid.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Leon.

I had a fantastic summer.

Or saw her.

Again?

Excuse. Me?

I have a damn master's degree

in computer science.

And I turn out to be a writer of novels.

Can I offer you a drink?

No, thanks.

Are you sure I can't offer you

a little drink, No.

Oh, you mean your stepdaughter?

Well, maybe she should hear this.

So she doesn't make the same mistake.

You bastard!

I'm out of here.

You. Nestor.

I offered
you medication that would help you.

I'm feeling less stable.

Can we talk now, please?

He stopped taking his meds.

Can you get some for me?

We've gone through the good times
and the bad times together.

I've given it my all.

I've gone out of my way to make you happy.

You know, I've never intended it
to turn out this way.

I tried to get off the pills.

I just can't do it.

Your pill taken for pain
relief has gotten out of control.

I told you
this was going to drive us apart.

I want you to.

Go into rehab.

I need them.

I realize that, but I'll be lost

without them. So.

I'm. Here to.

Are you having an affair?

That's it, isn't it?

You are, aren't you?

No, I'm not having an affair.

Don't be ridiculous.

I'm with you.

Is this yours?

Yes. It's just something
I've been carrying for good luck.

Another hard day at the office.

Damn it! Yes.

As a matter of fact.

I'm trying to relax.

Leave me alone!

Have you seen Ali?

Let me tell you about Ali.

Ali's been sneaking over to Dylan
and Emily's house

and jumping in their swimming pool.

So it's your turn to watch her.

Stay away from me.

Dylan.

Goodbye, my friend.

Goodbye.

I drove him to suicide.

What?

Suicide.

No, don't say that.

Don't say that.

Please don't say that.

I'm not better off without you.

I'm here for you.

I'm here to support you.

And I don't know you anything.

I. In fact,
I'm not going to give you the next book.

That's it.

Don't call here anymore.

No more damn books.

No more books.

I can't go on like this.

I'm so out of my head.

How was your research coming along?

Research?

What research?

It's a magical day.

It's a magical time.

A place where dreams come true.

I can't wait any longer.

I'm not ready for this.

You know he didn't kill himself.

She shot him.

She killed him.

I saw her.

What?

She planted the gun on him.

Should I be afraid?

Should we be afraid?

I want to be honest with all of you.

I've been hacking into government
and corporate systems

all over the country.

All over the world.

I have discovered

more information than any hacker ever has

ever.

What I have found will shock you.

Here are the files
and supporting documents.

Act now on your own.

Outside of the corporate systems.

And these incompetent politicians.

Act now.

It's our only hope for the future.

Hold.

His heart.

Past.

What's the source?

How strong is that signal?

Let me see. Let me see.

I'm following it.

Whoa, whoa.

Oh! Hey!

It's me.

I've been working on a couple new songs,
and I'm really proud of them.

Keep moving.

Come on. Let's play.

Hurry! Get in there!

Where it is!

I say hurry! I said telephone! Go!

What boy?

Keep going!

Keep moving.

Oh! Oh,

yeah!

Yeah. Oh!

Oh! Oh!

Oh! Who's this? Hey.

I've realized that
I've called you a lot in the past.

With a lot of false alarms.

Well, I just want to thank you

for being patient with me,
since I know you like space travel.

Just like me.

Come on, move your ass if you're going.

Come on. Go, go, go!

Get over here!
You guys go over there. Stop!

Get ready!

We need to get the hell out of here! Okay.

I'm ready.

I want you, you do?

Let's get out of here now.

What's what?

Oh, shut the fuck up in there!

Get the fuck up! Sit down.
Watch your head.

Get in there.

What's going on? Hey!

Oh my God!

Let me see.

Yeah.

It's important.

Turn here. Let's go the other way.

All right, let's go.

Get the truck. Get the truck in the truck!

Move it, move it!

Move! Quit messing around out here.

I don't have all day. Get off the.

Go, go, go!

Move on! What are you doing?

Are you.

Get it! On.

What are we going now?

Go, go go! Hurry!

Hang out here!

Go! Go! Stop it!

Keep moving! Move it, move it, move it!

Come on, let's go.

And then get in the pass.

He don't know gray anywhere.

Hey! Come on!

Shut up!

Son of a bitch!

What are we going? Something.

Hey! Wait for this guy to let go.

We got to.

Wait.

We can't stop.

I don't think I can go any further.

I can help you.

I can't.

Not in an hour.

Where are we? Shut your ass!

Get in there!

Move!

You belong to me.

You ran away and tried to escape.

And now you are mine.

Don't even think about trying to sneeze
without asking permission.

I own you.

I'll let you and your niece
stay in my place.

I'll stay in the car up front.

No, no, we can't stay here. It'll be fine.

I'll clean it. Up.

No, no, we can stay here. No.

Oh, you have to trust me.

Stay here.

I'll clean it for you.

Oh my God!

What are you doing?

How did I get here?

Oh my goodness!

What is this you doing?

Oh my God!

It's clean.

It's all clean.

I'm an addict.

I have nothing.

I'm empty inside.

I have no life.

I'm pregnant.

And I just wanted a better life

for my child.

Now, wait.

We paid a lot of money
to get into this country.

I left my country
to make a better life for my family.

I hate the politicians in my country.

They're so corrupt.

What's it going to take to make the change
happen?

When's the change going to happen?

When? When?

When I realize what I'm doing is illegal.

But I got to do it.

I'm getting out of here now.

Hey. Home.

Where did you go a little while ago?

I went for a walk.

I saw you.

You're weird.

Dude.

How are you?

You know, I'm
very sorry for hitting you in the eye.

No. I'm sorry.

I'm not going to hurt you.

It's okay.

It's okay.

I'm sorry.

No, just let me tap it.

A little bit.

Let off.

See? I'm not going to hurt you.

I'm not going to hurt you.

Sorry.

The only monsters here

are the pimps, dealers and smugglers.

Killing and abusing people.

Trying to get a better life
for themselves.

Hey. How you doing?

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

My name is till

it's spelled t h g I l.

But it's pronounced till.

What kind of name is that?

It's a foreign name.

Like from another planet.

Far, far away.

Well, my name is Amanda.

And this is my niece, Kim.

Everything the power does.

It does in a circle.

Hey, look.

There's an old broken down
piano on the field.

I just wanted to learn piano.

It doesn't even work.

Wait.

Let's try again.

It's never too late.

Music's magical.

Universal.

It's timeless.

Ready?

You cannot.

Travel the path until you.

Have become the.

Path itself.

Have you seen the future?

I am the future.

Are you one of us?

Or from what?

There. Yes.

From out there.

I can move from one time plane to another.

This is my reality.

Not a false human illusion.

Oh. Oh. Oh.

Something incredible is about to happen.

I can manipulate the planes

of space and time.

Many things are going to change now.

I'm going to eliminate

hundreds of millions of the human species.

What an asshole that politician was.

I can't believe he just said that.

He is so damn extreme and biased.

Thank you, Senator, for that thoughtful

and sensitive interpretation.

Very thoughtful and insightful.

It's as if all the harmful people on Earth

are disappearing.

He's gone.

Now get out of here.

I'm setting you free.

Go back to where you came from.

You can't be a leader, not a follower.

You can make a difference.

You are done.

No, you are done.

I'm done.

Done.

You make a difference there.

Take power.

Organize your citizens.

Lead a revolt against the politicians.

The corruption
and the injustices that we all know.

And they

don't need to know why or your reason.

These places are so vulnerable
and unprotected.

And there is no way they can keep up

with the technology.

Isn't that corrupt?

I know senior

national elected government officials
who I can force

my political bias and influence

to vote in public is so naive

and unaware of how politics really work.

Medical research could have cured cancer
and other diseases 75 years ago.

We won't let that happen.

We'd lose too much money.

Isn't that cheating the public?

The wars have stopped,

and those causing the wars have vanished.

I am not of this earth.

I am artificial intelligence
from far into the future.

I have taken on this human body

in order to communicate with the humans.

I have taken control
of this international media center.

What you are seeing now is

being broadcast throughout the world.

Human evolution has ended

and there can be no further advancement.

The turning point is now.

You have demonstrated your inability

to live in a truthful, honest,

trustworthy and accountable way

with your fellow man.

I have eliminated 300 million humans
from the planet today.

In human terms.

I have killed them all.

The cleanse has begun.

I've waited my whole life for this.

Hurry, hurry

or you'll be too late.

You'll miss the one.

No, no, I can't

until we are.

I've been looking for you.

I'm so glad you're back. Help me.

I need to find her.

She's missing.

We have to find her. Please.

We have to find her.

Right?

Wait!

Help! We.

Help!

We. Have

to find her.

Where have you been?

We've been looking for you.

Who are you? I'm going to kill you.

What are you doing with her?

No, no, no. What's going on? Nothing.

We were just playing.

I'm fine.

He's not a ghost at all.

His name is Jim.

He's showing me how to make shadows.

Where are you going?

I've seen the past.

And I've seen the future.

We're going to a better place.

What are you talking about?

I can't.

You can't stay.

You can't stay here.

What do you mean you're not going?

What are you telling me this for?

Please, please.

After everything we've been through.

Everything.

You can't stop now. Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

I'm not going.

Oh, shit.

What the hell is this?

The cleanse has begun.

The primitive humans must continue.

The cleanse in order to survive as a.

Species.

I was involved

directly in my own transformation.

Utilizing all the superior technology.

And science available.

For synthetic brain power,

a woman.

While developing further and further
in a humanoid.

State over the years.

I never wanted to lose touch
with the magic.

And majesty of nature and the gifts.

It had given me.

Another defeat for.

The forces of evil.

But forces ability
to transform and advance

my superior powers over the years
has been rewarding.

I'm unstoppable, and I fully accept

these powers.

I don't need them.

Oh, that's right.

You're special.

You're your special kind
where you don't need the patience.

But you should really try it sometime.

You ready for your next mission?

Sure.

Programable.

Virtual reality.

The corrupt.

Version.

A limitless digital universe

connecting all shared virtual reality.

Digital tribes.

I still think of my brother kale
all the time

wondering what's happened to him.

I miss him.

I miss what I never knew.

A crisis.

Programable virtual reality.

We have evidence of the largest cyber

and terror attacks ever planned.

Programable DNA.

But a humanoid such as me

is beyond their wildest expectations.

It's too much.

Too much for someone is going on. No.

You three are coming with me right now.

I don't get why I'm here.

Get the fuck out of here!

You're coming with me.

I don't want your money here.

No, I'm.

Oh, good for.

Oh. Oh.

Here.

She's got it.

Oh! Don't kill me.

Don't worry.

I'm not gonna kill you.

I'm three.

This is where we bring

you all to rot and die.

They were corporate businessmen.

The last time they were

seen was on surveillance camera.

And they were being followed
by someone with a hooded.

They were last seen on surveillance
cameras,

being followed by someone in a hooded.

So it might be another vigilante

justice kidnaping.

I've reserved this entire restaurant

just for the two of us.

I hear the food is spectacular.

The service is impeccable.

I knew it was you.

Kale.

Why haven't you contacted me?

We're different.

No. I'm different.

I don't have what you have.

But you could have that one time.

But you threw it away.

You let it go.

Or it was taken from me.

This is DNA that they can't identify.

Here's the money I got from the hack.

Give me the package.

That's. Damn! Wait for me.

Oh! Do.

This is for both of us.

Gosh!

Take it.

What the hell are you doing?

Oh, I don't even want you anymore.

All I want.

Is the drugs in the money.

It's real.

Who told you

you're beholden to communicate?

Oh, perfectly.

One for you.

Two for me.

Two for you.

Two for you.

What am I?

What's happened to us?

In AI, fright and interest.

Are not far from each other.

Things can become real in your mind.

And you believe things you wouldn't
ordinarily

believe.

Programable matter.

It can transform
itself and do anything else.

I miss what I never knew.

And the way. If,

Good, good.

You're not in control.

We are not going to let you take control.

You've got a lot more days to go.

0000.

Ow! You.

Okay.

You'll be dead

soon. You.

It's time to end this.

Global plans.

They can't stop.

I hope he's well.

I saw you at the office.

How did it go?

Glad to have our personal lives
to rely on.

No secrets here.

You know, I can't talk about my work.

I can't reveal secrets.

I trust you.

Completely.

Who's there?

Who's there?

Damn it!

I never had a beard. What?

What are you talking?

I've never had a beard.

Do you know kale?

What? You look just like.

My twin brother.

What is going on here?

I lived with kale.

I used to live with him. Did he hurt you?

He did it.

But I hit him too.

I hit him first.

Oh. Oh.

What time. Do.

I was?

Now you're one of them.

Oh. I knew you wouldn't

join us.

It was only business.

Hasn't it?

Only business.

I'm so sorry.

You're breaking my heart.

I'm so sorry.

I'm. I'm with you.

You. Know.

Alana.

Cake.

No. Okay.

I will love you for all eternity.

I accept my loss.

Regrettably,

I have much more important things to do

to save humanity.

We will live in a virtual metaverse.

A virtual universe.

Living in our own world.

Every day.

Everyone has the right to be loved.

Everyone has the right to love

and peace.

I'll be right here.

This section is called lighting.

And what I'm trying to present here
is the importance of lighting

and the effectiveness
of dramatic lighting.

Lighting is critical to filmmaking.

For me,

whether it's out in the desert
where it's 100 degrees

and the bright sun is shining,
that light to me is magic.

Or whether it's a totally nighttime

film, such as I did with Twisted Pair.

That dark light is magic.

This is representative

of any almost any interior shot.

The way I set it up.

Here I am lighting the lab.

Here we are utilizing the lighting,

the existing lighting on the stairway
for dramatic effect.

We're just setting up the shot here.

Remember, we had the bright
light with the bright light.

But this is a gold mine that I rented.

And that was the lighting of the cave.

Here we are once again, utilizing,

two lights
that we provided in conjunction with the,

existing,

university lighting,
and adding about three of our own lights

to give me the accents on the,

metal tables that I was looking for.

Once again,
I control the interior lighting so I can.

I turned out
all the lighting lights in the building,

and I created my own, shadows.

Many times you'll need to block up

or cover the exterior
windows of the house.

In order to get the.

Exact quality of light
that you want on the inside of the house.

This is representative of.

A lot of.

Interior shots of my films.

You'll see cameras set up, C stands,

light bounce boards.

The boom, light sources.

And always a light pattern board.

I use light
patterns in almost every one of my shots.

Many times.

On the

multitude of green screens,
this happened to be

maybe the smallest green screen
I've ever done.

But you can see how you need
to create your own

lighting effect
relative to the green screen.

That you're that you've designed.

Here, once again, you can see the pattern
that I'm casting on the wall

for the older woman character
here in this particular scene.

From Twisted Pair.

For the virtual reality soldiers,

I use the light generated

from the computer monitors
as my light source.

In this particular shot,

I've got all the lights turned on
so we could set up the shot.

But when I came to shoot the shot,
I turned off all the lights

other than the monitors.

This particular shot we're setting up

for the orange chair, men.

In black.

I really found the orange chairs

very attractive as, in the cinematography

aspect in conjunction
with the men in black and their uniforms.

So I'm structuring the lighting
of the scene for this.

Obviously,
I'm focusing the lighting on the bright

orange chairs and subtly focusing or not
so subtly focusing the light

on the men in black and set themselves
through my slotted light board.

Here we're
lighting and blocking out the scene

for the large circular seating.

Scene
with the men in black and the bad guys.

So I'm just blocking that out.

Once again, I try to take advantage
of all the existing lighting.

On the university campus,

here are just blocking out the scene.

But, fortunately, we didn't have to color

correct anything, and,

the subtleness of the existing
lighting, worked well on this scene.

Once again, I'm casting a shadow
on the wall for the character.

Similar to this.

Casting the shadow through the pattern
board onto the bed, for the characters.

Once again,
I use light shadow shading patterns

in almost all of my interior
shots on this shot.

This is really just a staging shot
showing a variety of lighting,

reflectors, bounce boards
and so on that I used.

Obviously
they weren't all used in that one shot,

but that was just sort of a staging
area to collect them in.

In my films, I've used many, many,

many green screen configurations,

that I own or rent.

This would be considered

in, in my scope and scale,
sort of a mid range green screen.

I use them smaller
and I've used them a lot larger as well.

But you can see the amount of lighting

that you need in a larger green screen,

just to give you the even shadow
free light effect

that you need on the green screen to,
successfully achieve it.

On this particular scene
that I lit for the soldiers.

I cast that triangular shadow
on the wall myself

just once again to give it
some visual interest, composition,

and relief to what was just a naturally

blank, starkly
lit wall here on the exterior.

The set up for the three men
coming out of the building.

Once again,
I tried to use the existing light,

and then I provided
two other sources of light.

This is the interior
lighting for the bathtub scene.

This is how I lit

the narrow slot of light

that appears across the face
of the two characters.

What you see here is inside the trailer
with all the lights on,

and then when we turn the lights off,

all that appears is this narrow
band of light across their eyes.

Which is the way I designed it.

But you can see that
I achieve that by just aiming the light

through that narrow slit
that I cut on in that board.

In this particular shot,
it was a very romantic shot,

and I wanted the couple to be very softly

lit in a very soft,

kind of golden quality of light,

which once again, I cast a pattern across.

Using the lighting to capture the moment.

Once again

casting the light pattern across the,
the character on the desk.

Typical,

of what I use.

Shooting from above,
casting light from above.

This is the interior of the garage

set that I build.

For the three hanging men.

This particular shot is with the garage
door open and no lights on.

What we evolve into is,

closing the garage door

and turning the lights off.

This is me with a flashlight

panning across the bodies
of the three men.

This eventually evolves into the lights

being brought up right about now

to fully light the three men.

But once again, I'm casting
shadows across their bodies

and shadows across the sets
and their faces.

Obviously, it gives this scene more
richness, texture,

and kind of a fabric to it.

This is representative,
once again, of how I cast shadows

and my typical set almost everywhere.

Using that sculpture,

to cast that shadow against the wall.

Other than that,
there really isn't anything

other than the slot board again.

But this is very representative
of what I can achieve with the minimal

amount of equipment, although the space
obviously is very cluttered.

Once again, with C stands, lights,

boom and cameras and video assist monitor
and so on.

Do I pick it up again?

Now that you have that,

you can go back and take a swig

and then it's like.

Swig and then I flip it.

Flip it.

Right.

When you flip it, don't. Look at it.

Okay. In other words, just go.

Well, okay.

Don't.

Smooth even lighting in the storage

building for faithful findings.

The lighting pattern

I used in the shower
stall for faithful findings.

The overhead shot of the desk,

the isolated lighting.

In the conference room.

As well as the dramatic lighting.

Here with

the Golden Book and the black cube.

The high contrast lighting I used.

Yeah, for the couple
inside the black cube.

Once again, even in the students rooms,

I heavily shadowed the room to give it

texture and richness.

In this scene,

I capitalized on the silhouette
created by them going through the pipe.

The old man professor's hospital room.

The shadows along the hallway
for the girls as they entered

their holding room are.

In and out.

Yeah.

Where are we going?

Right. You're at.

The shadows I created along the cave

inside the gold mine.

The natural

hot lighting through the windows.

I'm an addict.

I am nothing.

I'm empty inside.

Once again, this is a long cave shot.

And I utilize the light at the far.

In the natural light at the far end.

To create the silhouette.

Go this way.

You. Day for night.

Lighting that I used occasionally.

Even in the special effects.

You time it so that the character's face

is capturing the light of the effect.

Programable virtual reality.

The corrupt version here
as the night scene.

But you're focusing the light
on the two characters.

Here I wanted to capitalize on the texture
of the egg.

Create texture.

Created by the ceiling above.

So I lit it
accordingly to create the shadows,

silhouettes, and, highlight
the egg, create texture

of the ceiling up above

inside the theater.

This is
the special effect that I designed.

I wanted it to go to a blackout
and wind up with a key light

on the character
inside the conference room.

I wanted once again,
not to have even light.

Expectations.

On the skulls.

I wanted to have a dark, eerie sensation
with the light

focused on the skull
that appears in his hand.

The exterior night lighting of the house.

I wanted to use just the accents

of the light of the lights
for the house themselves.

I didn't want to throw any light
onto the house

from another source.

The staircase.

I tried to, capture
a silhouette of a character

coming down the stairs,

for an eerie effect,

and try to continue that,

shadow across this wall in the kitchen

so that she would notice the shadow
before she noticed the actual character.

In here,
once again, the key lights are on.

The three individuals
exiting the building,

rather than lighting their entire figures.

Right now.

I, I. Don't know what.

You're coming with me.

I don't want you
on your decorations, on your mind.

This is the three individuals

chained up inside their holding area.

This is a flashlight effect that I used

along their feet and up their torsos.

And eventually, right about now,

we raise the lighting

to fully light them very softly

and in shadow.

Once again,

utilizing the dramatic effect
of the existing step lighting

that fortunately, we didn't have to color
correct this building.

I had control
of all the interior lighting,

so I chose to turn all the lights off

and just put a key light on this red chair

and his face
when he sat down somewhere, somebody.

Similar in this effect here.

I wanted the detective to go from darkness

and back into a ray of light

that would just light
essentially a portion of his face,

and display his character.

They were last seen on surveillance
cameras, being followed by someone

in a hooded.

Same effect here.

He walks into a light.

It's his mark.

This is DNA that they can identify.

And once again, I had control
of all the lighting in the building

so I could control.

Or I could turn it off. That's.

That's our. Dim lighting.

Wait for me. Oh, dude.

This is for both of us.

Gosh.

Take it.

Here.

We're using the police
lighting from the police

cars.

This is interior.

Once again, I turned purposely
turned off all the bill, all the lights,

and let them walk into the light
to accent their faces.

Only an international.

Investor and an art collector.

Don't take your weapon.

Okay?

Okay.

I don't need to.

Carry a weapon.

Utilizing the existing exterior

lights for the house I rented.

Not throwing any light on to the house by,

other sources.

You're
always trying to build the dramatic effect

with the lighting.

Here I have a completely dark room,
and I'm utilizing

the light of the computer screens
as my only source of light.

What we are doing is throwing the light
on the character

to create a silhouette against the back
wall.

Fright, bright and interest are not far

from the truth.

Hallway lighting inside the building,

accenting the character

and accent in the laboratory

that is going into.

Inside

the laboratory,
I'm using the display case lighting only

to light the scene,
and here I'm throwing a,

ray of light across the chemical ID board.

To give the scene

some relief and lighting,
but that's all I used.

Otherwise, I turned off,
and here in the lab, I turned off

all the lights
and just had one source of light

that I was throwing on the scene from,
from a single.

From a single light source.

And here I'm accenting with shadow the,

programable, display.

Programable matter.

It could transform itself to do anything

else.

From this shot.

Or using the light at the far
end of the tunnel,

which has a meaning to the character.

Here, once again, I'm using

the light of the monitors

to light the scenes of the VR.

Men in black

here.

I've turned out
all the lights in the building,

and I've just thrown this one
band of light across the street.

The seats of the
men in black to accent them.

There's so much more

richness and texture in a scene

when you can focus lighting.

In the right way
to create dramatic effect.

You don't need to see everybody.

This is how we lit the beginning
of the big

dissolve scene.

This is another darker scene
between the couple.

This is a lonely scene in the dark.

With the character and one key light

which essentially hits that one chair,
which

brightens the scene.

In this romantic scene,

I could not get any light
from the fireplace.

The working fireplace.

So just utilizing, single source of light

to accent her face.

In the scene.

On this scene, there is a shadow.

So we have a single source of light,
and then I've got the shadow

moving across the source
of light that he reacts to

in this scene inside the,

holding area for the three men.

It's my fate

to have created this once again,

shadow effect across his face

here.

We have, exterior lighting,

but there is a single source of light
that's hitting her face

because she's the main character
in this scene, the focus is on her.

Very subtle.

Keep it subtle.

This is lighting of a scene

where the three men morph
into a large group of men,

relative to the.

Story in the film.

And all of the men are in

semi shade and shadow

and silhouette.

Lighting relative to the being.