Many thanks to Sujewa for inviting me to contribute to this blog!
My name is Blake Calhoun and I'm a filmmaker from Dallas, Texas. It appears there are several other Texas filmmakers on this blog too. That's a cool thing. There's A LOT of good filmmaking going on here in Lone Star State. I've made three feature films and numerous shorts here since 1996. My latest film is being finished as we speak - it's an action/thriller called "Killing Down".
It's story takes place in 1993 and follows a paranoid U.S. Army veteran searching for the truth about what happened to him years earlier in the jungles of Nicaragua (during the Sandinista/Contra conflict of the 1980's). It's what we're calling a "character driven action film" and it is by far the most ambitious project I've done.
We shot for 32 days - yep, count 'em - thirty two! That's a lot for an indie financed production (my first feature "Thugs" was shot in 12 days and my second feature "Hit" in 8 days). We also had some recognizable talent in this one, and actually did the film through SAG. That was fun! Not really.
For more details on the movie please visit www.killingdown.com and also check out the trailer on the "Surveillance Page" of the site. Also, I have a blog I write geared towards indie filmmaking, new technologies, and just movies in general at http://loudpictures.blogspot.com.
"Killing Down" will be completed in about another 4 to 6 weeks (I hope). I'm trying to finish quickly so distributors can see it before the Cannes Film Market (we attended AFM in November and got great response, now they want to see the finished film).
So, that's my introduction. I look forward to contributing to this blog and hearing what everyone has to say about their projects and other goings on in the indie film world.
-Blake
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2 comments:
Hey Blake,
Welcome to the blog.
Re: SAG, what was your experience?
I thought about using some SAG talent for "Date Number One", but back in early '04, after I inquired about SAG, they sent me like a 600 page contract. I gave up on the idea of using SAG actors at that point. Also, it may be different now, but I am not down w/ having to get SAG actors' permission for distribtion arrangements - that was the case I believe back in '04.
But I do plan on shooting another movie in '06 or '07, am interested in finding out from a filmmaker (not from SAG at this point, because they will just try to sell me on the good points of their org & deal & will try to conceal possible negative points of the arrangements, I think) if SAG has become relvenat to us no-budget indie filmmakers.
Thanks.
Sujewa
PS: what's up w/ all these indie filmmakers from Texas!!!??? :) How come I know so many?
Let's see: Lowery + 3, u, Hansen - that's 6, I may know more.
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Like I said, there's a lot of indie filmmaking going on in Texas!!! I'll post about this soon so I can list many of the indie films that I know of. It's pretty cool...
As far as SAG. It has changed (again) as recently as a few months ago. It was "interesting" dealing with them. I'll post my full SAG experience on the main blog.
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