King is a Fink » FILM

D.I.Y. Big Time

Jessica & Julie — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:23:30 +0000

As Do-It-Yourself, or DIY, filmmakers, we often embrace the notion of keeping things small: small budgets, small casts, etc. While we may have to keep things small in order for them to be manageable, that doesn’t mean we ever forget the other side of DIY-ness – audacity. Just because you strive for efficiency and effectiveness, doesn’t mean you can’t think like a visionary.

And so this summer we’ve devoted ourselves to thinking big. What kind of big? Think “conquering the space-time continuum” big. Think “breaking the sound-barrier” big. We’re shooting for the moon, and that’s no joke. Welcome to DIY Big Time.

If you like this, you might also get a kick our of our DIY FILM FESTIVAL.

P.S. If you know Richard Branson, be a love, and tell him to give us a call.

Balls & Cats & Script Magazine, Oh My!

Jessica & Julie — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:06:56 +0000

Big thanks to our friend, screenwriter, producer, and fun-time party gal Jeanne Veillette Bowerman, for her in-depth article on what we’re up to in her Balls of Steel column on the Script Magazine site.

Jeanne w/ Jess & Pericles Lewnes in NYC

The only things Jeanne DIDN’T reveal in the article were what we ate for breakfast this morning and what color underwear we’re waiting…oh, wait…that’s probably in there, too.

Keep up with what Jeanne’s doing on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and, if you’re a screenwriter, check out her twitterific online writing community, #scriptchat.

DIY Physics!

Jessica & Julie — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:31:38 +0000

It has recently come to our attention that there are some major physics experiments that haven’t been done yet. In an effort to extend our DIY ethos beyond filmmaking, Julie and I have decided to tackle physics and pursue the only award more elusive than the Golden Globe: the Nobel Peace Prize. We’re pretty certain that we’re shoe-ins. What do you think?

Like this? Then you might dig our DIY BIG TIME video…

“It Gets Better”- Kfink-Style!

Jessica & Julie — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:35:31 +0000

Our friend Leontine brought Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” video project to our attention a couple of weeks ago, and we instantly knew that it was something we wanted to contribute to. And now that the TILT production dust has settled…we’ve done it. Made a video, that is.

Dan’s “It Gets Better” project is a loud and loving show of support for bullied lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, or questioning teens who are feeling low and considering suicide. There are already 1,000s of videos up on YouTube from celebrities as well as regular folks like us letting gay kids know that even though being gay and different can be difficult, life does get better as you get older. Our main message: “Stick around for the good stuff!”

As one might expect, the “It Gets Better” videos are overwhelmingly serious and somber, but serious and somber isn’t our style. Check it out, and please pass it on. The more views + “favorite” ratings we get, the easier it’ll be for others to find our video. Thanks.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Feed Your Dreams. Feed Their Dreams. Feed Some Dreams.

Jessica & Julie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:55:35 +0000

Today we present a short, “re-purposed” birthday video in support of Flyway Film Festival’s current kickstarter campaign. Flyway Film Fest is one of a very few festivals that doesn’t charge entry fees and screens truly independent films.

If you’d like to learn more, check out their Kickstarter campaign:

Get Finky. Get Inspired. Support “A Musing”.

Jessica & Julie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:45:11 +0000

Today we present a short video in support of David Spies and Phil Seneker’s KickStarter campaign for “A Musing,” a short film collaboration.

To learn more, visit their KickStarter campaign:

As We Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of TILT

Jessica & Julie — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:21:00 +0000

Right now we feel like we’re in between two huge mountains: our TILT crowd funding campaign (which was successful on August 6th thanks to our 223 amazing backers) and the filming for TILT (which starts September 18th.) You’d think we’d get a little breather while in this slightly quieter “work valley.” You’d be wrong.

"This is no time to stop and smell the honeysuckle, Julie."

SO – JUST WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

TILT’s Indie-in-an-Indie Contest: We ran a contest to find indie features for quick cameos in TILT. The winners are: Gary King’s DEATH OF THE DEAD and Mark Thimijan’s BARSTOOL COWBOY. And the losers, well, they still win. The runners up (Gary’s NEW YORK LATELY and Lucas McNelly’s BLANC DE BLANC) will show up in one of our 4 TILT shorts.
Crowd Funding Conversation: Jessica’s been sharing thoughts on running a kick ass crowd funding campaign and engaging your audience. More ideas + more opinions = more blog posts. Fasten your seat belts.

She plays it cool, but on the inside Jess is jumping for joy at the prospect of another wild rice omelet.

TILTtheShoot: Jess and I will be heading up to Brainerd for the TILT shoot in September. We’re planning on taking lots of pictures, making vlogs about behind the scenes hijinks, and eating lots of breakfast stuffs from The Sawmill Inn. Oh, and we might help Phil a little. Find out what we did on our last Brainerd trip here.
TILTtheShorts: Last week I put the finishing touches on the script for the 4th and final TILT short, which features yet another of the movie’s side characters. You could still understand everything in TILT without seeing the teaser shorts…but why would you want to?
TILTtheTown: The end of our crowd funding campaign doesn’t mean the end of fun in TILTtheTown. I just finished bio #170 last night. Only 50 or so to go – YAY! As soon as I finish #175, Jessica will release an updated TILTtheTown storybook with hypertext links so that you can see who’s playing with who in our imaginary universe.

Jess prepping for vlog w/ her friend Flippy

New Vlog: We shot a video of support for some friends running a crowd funding campaign for their own indie film (much like this one we made in May for Danny Lacey.) You’re gonna love it.
New Kfink films: Narrowing down ideas for possible shorts and gearing up to flesh out the treatment we’ve written for our Kevin Keck project. No rest for the Wiccan. I mean, wicked. I mean, ambitious.

We’ve also had some amazing shout outs from friends:

Sheri Candler used TILT / TILTtheTown as a case study when presenting at Roberta Munroe‘s “Best Short Film Workshop Ever” in LA last weekend. (Highlights on the FilmTiki site)
Transmedia specialist Christy Dena has also been talking about TILTtheTown, which makes us really happy, especially since 1) she’s a TRANSMEDIA SPECIALIST and 2) she’s actually in TILTtheTown. How’s that for a little show of faith?

Lots to look forward to! Thanks for stopping in.

Interview with Filmmaker Juliane Block

Jessica & Julie — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:01:49 +0000

While pitted against one another during June’s War of Films on the Film Annex, we met the fascinating Juliane Block, a German-born filmmaker making films in Malaysia. Not only was her short, Ramly at War Begins a well-crafted, well-choreographed martial arts film, she was engaging and playful. We immediately wanted to know more about her, so we asked her for an interview.

1) We understand that you started your film career in Germany as a special fx make-up artist. Can you give us some additional background information on where you grew up and how you developed an interest in film?

I grew up in a village near Celle, a small town between Hamburg and Hannover in Northern Germany. My mom sold make-up in evening parties to the neighborhood women, and I was allowed to play with the leftovers (eyeshadows and lipsticks in colors nobody wanted). I remember that I was playing with a girlfriend of mine – while she was trying to beautify herself, I just applied the make-up all over my face, trying to look as scary as possible. That pretty much set the path.

I continued to explore more options of SFX make-up by myself, mail-ordering the necessary tools and won local costume events with aging or zombie make-up. It never occurred to me though to pursue a professional career as make-up artist.

When I entered art university majoring in industrial design, I bumped into a fellow student who was doing a no budget zombie movie at that time (Mutation). It was a home-made zombie movie, shot without a script on Hi8, Super 8, DV. I joined the weekend crew as their make-up artist and have been hooked on film productions ever since.

(2) On your blog you claim that you moved to Malaysia to pursue your interest in Asian Cinema, can you discuss your interest in Asian film and how that led to you getting involved in making martial arts films?

The director of Mutation and I opened up a company for film and graphic design in Germany. For various reasons we ended our collaboration in early 2005 and I had the opportunity to make a clean start. The logical choice for movie experiences abroad would have been the United States – but I thought I’d be another wannabe filmmaker with nothing much to distinguish myself from the others.

I always found Asia fascinating and decided to explore the other side of the world instead. I chose Hong Kong as start – one of the hubs for Asian movies. The movie world in Hong Kong, however, is very closed to people from the West and you need to speak Chinese fluently. I followed my boyfriend to Malaysia.

My first year in Kuala Lumpur was difficult. Even though in Malaysia English is widely spoken as a first language, I had trouble to find friends. I took this as an opportunity – I decided enough of waiting for a job in the movie industry. I put up ads to search for cast and crew for the first short film I was going to direct myself (and I hoped to make some friends at the same time). The short film was based on a gangster short story by my brother. I loved it so I stayed in the genre. Last year I met Chee Hong at an independent filmmakers meeting. He was looking for a short film production where he can improve his skills as action director & choreographer, I was looking for a somebody who can improve the action in my films. A perfect match.

So far we produced two short films. You can watch the results here:

The Fascinating Juliane Block

3) What is the hardest part of being a filmmaker?

The hardest part of being a filmmaker… I guess is to accept the fact that you never will make the perfect movie. Therefore, you might as well go on and do what you want to do, make it as perfect as you can, but be sure there will always be room for improvement.

4) How do you think your life is different being a filmmaker in Malaysia vs. if you’d stayed in Germany?

Difficult to say. I actually never think about what could have been. (I think it’s a waste of time.) Could I imagine a return to Germany in the future… I don’t know yet. I definitely want to make one or two movies in the next 5 years in Germany; however, I usually just plan a couple of months ahead and go where my movies will take me.

5) For people not familiar with Malaysian cinema, what is the appeal and what are some good gateway films?

To be really honest, I wouldn’t say Malaysian cinema is that appealing. At least not to me. I love Hong Kong movies. In my opinion you almost never go wrong with Korean films and the Chinese industry is definitely getting strong.

Some of my favorites:

Bittersweet Life – an action drama about the downfall of a hitman (Korea)

The Good, the Bad, the Weird – a Kimchi Western (the Korean answer to the Italian Spaghetti Western) – damn funny.

Old Boy – one of the most twisted stories I’ve ever seen (Korea)

Public Enemy 3“- gangster action (Korea)

In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar Wai is certainly the master of beautiful images (Hong Kong)

Infernal Affairs I + II – much better than The Departed which is based on the Hong Kong original

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon – Chinese epic

Ipman – one of the greatest Martial Arts movies (Hong Kong)

A Malaysian movie I really liked (and that might be about the only one -

Sell Out! – hard to classify… it’s a mix out of musical and drama.

6) What projects are you currently working on, and what can we expect to see from you in the near future?

I’m currently in the midst of editing my lastest feature KINKS – a comedy / mockumentary about two sisters brought up on different continents who clash over a reality TV shoot in Malaysia after years of separation – tentatively to be released in early 2011.

I’m working with different screenwriters on the scripts of two different features – a thriller drama about an Indian hitman (to be shot in India, Malaysia, and Indonesia) and a story about a young girl possessed by a demon who masters her split personality in the final end to become a super hero (set in Jakarta against the backdrop of Balinese black magic and heaps of action).

Besides that I am working on another short film – a Kung Fu – Bruce Lee spoof. Chee Hong and I explored funky action in Ramly at War Begins, serious action in Unsecured Loan II, now it’s time for comedy!

You can check out all my work here:

Unsecured Loan II

Filmmaker Meet-Up: Sean J. S. Jourdan

Jessica & Julie — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:04:47 +0000

Sean + Kfink

Last night we had the great pleasure of meeting with director / screenwriter Sean J. S. Jourdan. We’ve had a special connection with Sean since our early days on Twitter (okay, we fell in love with his website), and then we were lucky enough to see his shorts “The Beekeeper” and “An Open Door” at EgoFest.

Sean currently lives in Denver, but he’s been all over. He got his MFA in Film at Columbia College in Chicago (where we live) after receiving a Master’s Degree in Theatre from Washington University in St. Louis (where Julie’s from). Even if we hadn’t had indie filmmaking in common, we’d have a lot to talk about. But indie filmmaking (our successes and struggles) definitely dominated last night’s conversation.

Things we talked about with Sean:

#1 – Sean’s current gig: Sean is in town this week shooting a short doc for a grant-funded project. One of the best things about this project: he gets to pick his own crew, which is easy for him in Chi-town because he used to find crews for films when he lived here.

Kfink takeaway: Remember Sean when we’re ready to assemble our next crew…

#2 – Sean’s next gig: Sean might be coming back to town in August to work on a feature. Would love to hang out with him more if this happens, perhaps to work our way through the Hopleaf beer list.

No Kfink takeway for this one – just high hopes.

#3 – Sean’s screenplay plan: Sean is currently making the pitch rounds with two feature-length screenplays, The Beekeeper & a thriller, which he did not name. Give us a little more time on that one… He’s had a lot of interest in The Beekeeper, in part because of the finely-produced short he made based on the project. Having seen The Beekeeper, we can understand why it would pique people’s interest. Further, he’s secured distribution for the short throughout Europe.

Kfink takeaway: Remember foreign distribution channels.

Julie practicing Step #1 of Sean's 'getting gigs' strategy

#4 – How to get gigs: First step – get out of your house and meet people. Sean has had better luck meeting fellow filmmakers in Denver than he did in Chicago (aside from his film school connections). And it’s true – Chicago is a rather insular place. We like to say that it’s big but small. Further, moving to Denver put him outside his comfort zone, which forced him to go to events like Sundance and Telluride to meet like-minded folks.

Kfink takeaway: No more geriatric hour dinners and 8pm bedtimes. We will leave no stone unturned until we find the mysterious Chicago film community, specifically these people who are financing and producing major projects.

Sean & Jess bitch about pitching

#5 – How to approach pitch meetings: Sean says that the people you pitch to are mostly inclined to say ‘no’ and that you should count on that being their response – no matter how brilliant your premise is. With this in mind, you need to have a valiant rebuttal at the ready. If you know that they might tell you there’s not an audience for your film, tell them precisely who your audience is. If you know that they might not feel it’s a sell-able genre, tell them about other successful films of the same genre or about how this particular genre does really well over-seas.

Kfink takeaway: Prepare refutation strategies. Be specific. And be ready. And ready to be rowdy.

#6 – We thoroughly enjoyed talking with Sean and can’t wait to do it again.

Good News + Special Thanks

Jessica & Julie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:05:46 +0000

#1 – Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to or spread the word about our fundraising campaign for TILT. Right now we’re 90 backers strong (wow!) and about 40% of the way toward reaching our $15k goal (not too shabby). If you haven’t seen our pitch video yet, check it out, consider contributing, and spread the word. Every little bit helps. If we don’t hit out $15k goal by August 6th, we get $0. Help us get this movie funded!

#2 – We were very lucky to visit with some friends (and TILT backers) recently. We hope they enjoyed the tarts (they’re the only ones we’ll be making for a while) and excused our piles of dirty dishes. And laundry. And dust bunnies.

Jess w/ our friends, Backer(s) #18 Steve, Evan & Juliet Sinclair

Evan's tart

TILT Backer(s) #63 Maria & Brad Rossi

Maria + her tart