The Alexis Project — Post Mortem
AKA Final Final Thoughts.
“The Alexis Project (Spoilers!)” didn’t make the top twenty in the Film Riot Make Film Challenge. Although I’ve actually written a decent amount about it (here and here) I’m going to write one more blog post about it unless something crazy/out of left field happens. I may in a few years pursue making it as a feature film but thats a later problem.
Preface
Before I really get into it I need to write a bit of a preface as the “contest” I made it for now unfortunately is shrouded in controversy. Originally the Film Riot Make Film Challenge (or contest, same thing) was advertised as make your proof of concept over two months (August 26th 2020 — October 23rd 2020) for a chance at the opportunity to devolop a feature film with Film Riot and Ground Control. You had to make a proof of concept that was at or under four minutes in length and upload it to Vimeo/YouTube and keep in unlisted until at the very soonest Novemeber 6th 2020. Other than a somewhat shady line in the terms and conditions that *could be* read as Film Riot/Ground Control were allowed to use your IP for free without paying you for it there really were no other rules and nothing seemed off about it.
Basically you have two months and four minutes of screen time to make a proof of concept and try to secure your first feature or at least we thought. Out of the twenty finalists about half were works made outside the timeframe and had already won other awards. This to me, as it was to others, was a slap in the face. Not only did Film Riot advertise this as a two month contest/challenge they did so in the middle of a the first global pandemic we’ve had in roughly 100 years. Essentially they didn’t honor their half of the agreement.
They asked film makers and producers to take a fair amount of risk (and liability) in return for a real chance at Hollywood but didn’t hold up their end of the bargain by only awarding films made during the duration of the challange.
Now look I’m not mad I didn’t make the top twenty. As I touched on here I don’t do contests to win, I do them because of the deadlines. The chance to win is a just a bonus. If the films made outside the duration of the contest truely were the best of what they were looking for then by all means they deserved it. Good for them! Congrats guys!
Futhermore I don’t blame Film Riot nor the winning film makers for choosing films made outside the time frame. I reread the terms and conditions and nowhere does it say you have to make your film during those two months. What I do (and what has cost Film Riot my viewership and respect) blame Film Riot for is not being up front that past work was allowed and not giving more clear guidelines for what they wanted. It was false adverstising by people I looked up to and respected. Myself and many others feel dupped by them. Hopefully they will come out and make a statement about it but if not, so be it.
So with that aside lets get into into this it!
If you haven’t already I recommended you should watch the “The Alexis Project” here before you continue reading as I will be going into a lot of depth about it that won’t make that much sense if you haven’t seen it. I do need to reupload a new version with credits in the video but for now credits in the description will do.
What Went Wrong
Lets start off with what went wrong.
1: The cost. While I won’t share what I wound up spending on it was a lot and three times more than I had originally wanted to spend. I’m not mad I overspent, it was 100% my choice however I really wish I had stuck to original budget and scaled back once things started to get out of control.
While I don’t want to spend most of this piece complaining about Film Riot not being up front with what they wanted had I known that they really wanted a short three to four minute scene and not a trailer (I looked and several people asked to no avail) I could have easily cut the budget in half. I wouldn’t have needed two days and could have rented a cheaper location instead of two reasonably expensive ones.
2: The cinematography. Look theres nothing wrong with the cinematography. It’s stunning, gorgeous, and might be my best work to date. However it sticks out and calls attention to it’s self. Its one of the two things I get complicated on when people watch it. I would much rather have people comment to me on the story and wanting to know more about it rather than how pretty it looks or how good it sounds. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll 100% gladly take any complement I get but I’m slowly starting to learn that compliments, just like criticism can show where/what you need to improve on.
3: The score — Chris Cozzi did a fantastic job. It sounds way better than I had in my head but just like the cinematography it sticks out.
4: The writing. Honestly I don’t think the writing and story is bad. The line “I’m a derivative” is smart, creepy, hits home hard, and is one of my favorite lines I’ve ever written. It’s just that the writing wasn’t as strong as the sound and the cinematography.
5: Unlike the more general issues above this is going to be a lot more targeted. The scene in bedroom (A screenshot below for reference) doesn’t work for me.
Personally I hate this scene and really kills the piece for me. Now it’s not necessarily that scene is bad, it’s not, at least not really. The framing is fine, the lighting is outstanding, it’s just that it looks “low budget” and isn’t at all what I wrote in the script/planned to do.
I had originally wanted a handful of red flickering lights, most notably one over Erika/Lexi that changed to solid green when she “wakes up”. I wrote that in the script, I wrote in the light lighting diagrams, and we even rigged the damn thing. However for some reason I was talked out of it on set.
Furthermore in the edit I wasn’t quite able to get the pacing I wanted and we crossed the line. All I really needed to make the scene work well (or better anyway) was an overhead close up of Erika/Lexi on the bed with her perfectly centered. Once again it was a shot I had in my notes but instead of doing it we got a close side shot that crossed the line when cut with most of the other angles.
Had I either stuck to my shot list, lighting diagrams/plans, or both the scene would be a lot stronger. I don’t know if it would have made the difference for top twenty or not but it would have helped.
In much later retrospect just sticking to close ups really would have helped hide the “low” budget aspect of it. Live and learn.
6: Just like the point 5 this point is going to be really targeted. I really dislike the lighting in “Infinite Yellow Space”.
This was once again an example of me not following my plan. I had planned to over haze the room (which we did), use some strong side lights (which we did), and had a leko/gobo in the background and possibly have a fan blow the smoke around to create a cool dream like effect (which we didn’t). Just like the bedroom though I set up the damn leko but for some reason was talked out of turning it on.
In all honestly though one light here wasn’t going to make a difference between making top tweenty or not. If it did then the film has a lot of other problems. This is just me being really really nit picky and upset at myself for spending a lot of time making a plan I was really proud of and liked and then at the last second not 100% following it for whatever reason.
What Went Well
1:The cinematography. I’m well aware that I listed this as something that went wrong but I also believe that something can be great and bad at the same time. So for the exact opposite reasons I cite this as going wrong it went right. The piece looks stunning and is *probably* my best looking work. The lighting is largely constant, matches the tone of the piece, and is full of cool little tricks I’ve picked up along the way. Lastly the camera work is fluid, doesn’t feel forced, and the framing is great.
2: The score. As I said above something can be great and bad at the same time. For all the reasons the score went wrong it went right ten fold.
3: The performances. The performances really are outstanding. One of my biggest regrets about “The Alexis Project” is that you are too busy gawking at the cinematography and score to really notice how each actor kills their respective parts. If I had to pick one thing that I’m really proud of it’s being able to create an environment where I got the performances I did.
If your in the Chicago land area and need a great actor/actress I recommended checking out —
4: The overall piece. The piece really is great. Honestly it’s my best work as a writer/director. All the struggle, headaches, risk of covid, and extra cost was worth the end result. Despite issues I talked about prior I’m incredibly proud of my cast and crew and thankful that they were willing to take a risk and make this with me.
5: While all of “The Alexis Project” looks stunning a few shots in particular stand out to me.
5a: “The Hands” scene.
Fun fact — We did about 30 takes of this as there was originally a line here. The line was “I’m a monster” and I was trying to get the rack focus to time perfectly with her movements/dialague. While it was super frustrating to do so many takes for something “so simple” I’m glad I did as I wound up cutting the line out in post and having options was a blessing.
Fun fact aside this is by far my favorite, if not the most completed lighting set up I’ve ever done. One day I’m going to do a whole music video in this style. I just need to find an artist who wants to do it.
5b: “The Magic Hour” scene.
Fun fact — this scene is the main reason I didn’t get the close up in the bed room. After we had completed all the coverage needed to tell to story for the bedroom scene we opened the door and saw this stunning golden light pouring in. Right then and there we knew we had to scramble to get this shot.
I basically traded one close up in a scene that didn’t really work for an almost perfect shot (if you look closely you’ll see that there are only two light bulbs screwed in — while scrambling to get this shot we forgot to screw in the rest). I’m okay with the trade off made to get this shot.
5c: “Bathtub of Blood”.
I have four fun facts about this shot.
Fun fact number one — This shot was the inspiration for this shoot. I was directing a spec commercial for the Music Bed Challenge 2019 and I made an off hand comment how I wanted to full a bathtub with blood and have an actress get in. The people at the time thought I was nuts but about a year later here we are!
Fun fact number two — The take you saw in the final film was the only take we got in focus. The scene was originally supposed to start on a fairly close shot and dolly out to a wider one but the follow focus either ran out of batteries or kept losing connection (I can’t 100% remember which one) and the dolly shots just didn’t work. Since we were already two hours over we did a couple takes from a static close up and called it.
Fun fact number three — This project was originally called “Bathtub of Blood” because of how much I loved this idea/shot. It wasn’t until the last draft of the script I changed the title based on community feedback. I’m honestly not sure I made the right call.
Fun fact number four — Just like “The Hands” scene there was a line here. It was “Don’t you recognize me sister?” While Erika’s performance was great it felt cheesy and made people laugh in the edit. I wound up cutting it before her line.
Fun facts aside I’m really glad I was able to do this shot and get it out of my system. Sometimes you can build a whole script out of one shot that you can’t stop thinking about and thats a lot of what “The Alexis Project” was.
Lessons Learned
While there a handful of little lessons I learned from “The Alexis Project” the main one I learned is this — if you make a plan stick to it. 95% of my problems with the piece would have been solved by just following my damn plans. I didn’t spend hours planning and agonizing over what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do for nothing. Everything I’m unhappy with is a result of a split second decision to throw out my pre production.
A younger me hated making lighting (or really any) plans. The older and more experienced I get the more I realized and appreciate the value of being able to think things through in a low pressure or “free” environment. Don’t get me wrong, I totally get directors/cinematographers who like to figure out day of/improvise but I think thats no longer me and thats okay.
The other major lesson learned (although I think deep down I already knew this) was to have a plan for what’s next after you most likely don’t win the contest you submitted to. Thats what I did with “Battery Box”. It was a short that I had writen well before Aputure’s Light This Location 2019 and was going to make anyway as opposed to being specifically made for it.
As it stands I spent a small fortune on “The Alexis Project” and because it’s a trailer and not a micro short film I really can’t submit it to festivals and try to win awards. My only options for it are really upload it to YouTube/Social and hope someone notices it enough to talk to me about a feature or use it to raise money.
I did make “The Alexis Project” public on YouTube, add it to my website, and share the final cut/give permission for my cast and crew to share it they’d like but for the time being thats all I’m doing with it.
With the controversy sounding Film Riot’s Make Film Challenge, my own personal issues with the film, and the issues discussed in this piece I really need a mental break from it.
As for what I’m doing next? I don’t know. I do think I’m going to call it quits on my contest career while I’m still pretty far ahead. I may eventually come back and do another contest but I’m pretty sure the next film I’m going to make is either going to be Reaper, Inc. if I get the funds/green light or spend my time on a “real” short film and try for some bigger festivals. However at this point I’m pretty much just waiting out covid and not producing anything of my own till January/February 2021. I will force myself to write some a few scripts and give myself options for when I’m ready to make something new.
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