Vidas Pliodzinskas's Lounge Discussions

Eric -- Fabulous story. Making stuff gives us all a chance to succeed.

I follow a simple philosophy: Just do it! Revel in your successes, learn from your failures – and then go do it again. (The Devil made me do it the first, the second time I done it all on my own.)

Hey Doug -- Excellent advice. Get 'er done, and then see what happens. Oh, and I met the devil once, too. Just once. :) Continued success.

I just finished a table read of my new screenplay and am working on a preproduction plan. I can't wait any longer for other people to recognize my brilliance! LOL

Robert -- strong move. No need to wait. I'm impressed. Best of luck.

Hi Michelle it was good I liked it, its scary can I use the clip for my Talent In 10 Halloween #IndieFilm clip? Next Monday? If so email me at ljdntalent@gmail.com

@LinaJones Sure, I just emailed it to you.

Welcome to the site! I grew up in Shaker Heights!

Yup, I have to respect your drive and passion just in general. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

Welcome Michelle! Nice to meet you. Glad you're here.

Perhaps a large city has older vehicles that are no longer in use. Also, hospital and other care companies may have ambulances. Most of the time paramedics/fire rescue are sitting around. Police cars can easily be "undercover" Ford Crown Victorias / Dodge Chargers or you could have motorcycle cops. Fire chiefs can be large red trucks like the Dodge Ram. Perhaps you can make a deal with a used car dealership. Hope this gives you some ideas.

It does Vidas. Thank you.

Try calling the Just for Laughs Gags production team. I don't know whom they rent from but they get their hands on all kinds of vehicles.

True, I watch their shows and never thought about it. Thank you James.

I'm not a student, but where are you?

Kevin- Thank you for the connection. I am not currently enrolled as I just finished up my education last semester. I would love to help if you'll have me. I am trying to get as much experience on/off set as possible.

Sounds cool, but I'm also a recent graduate.

Hey man! i'm a student filmmaker and I'm interested in hearing more. I'm at John Paul the Great University in San Diego, California. I'm also the founder and owner of Zen Garden Productions, a small production company. Check out our website to see our past work. http://www.zengardenproductions.com

This is great

Needs some tweaking, but nice work!

The answer to the question is 30 pages, and this is depending on the action and the dialogue, if you have a lot of scenes without dialogues and there's a lot of action, then one page might not equal one minute.

But I can't really say how many words.

That question simply cannot be answered. Find a way to get a page count.

Massive difference, isn't it, Sam.

Turn on Pagination in Celtx to see the page count

Hi Robert. The logline may be- ' Two feuding brothers stranded in desert, have 24 hours to reach the Burning Man Festival to fulfil the last wishes of their father, failing which they will disinherit a lumpsum fortune'. How about that? I wish to add something more for you. I don't know the full story of your play 'Burning the Old Man'. But what about the following ideas you may include at your wishes in your movie? Here it is :- The feuding brothers stuck in the motel. The stake is- they will be disinherited great fortune if they doesn't able to reach Burning Man Festival in time. The condition is - if any of them reach the festival before the other one, he will solely inherit the fortune . If both reach there, both will inherit. To verify this, the family lawyer is already there in the fesival to decide who is going to get the fortune or not. In the motel, the brothers meet a middle-aged woman, who is also going for the festival carrying the ashes of her father. Actually, this woman is a thief, who generally thefts the passengers on the way to the festival. She doesn't have the ashes of her father either in the container she caries. She only holds some junks in it. She also have an old car which have only two seats, one for driver & one for passenger. One brother say 'X' immediately immitates to fall in love with the woman, wishing that he will reach the festival before his brother in the woman's car & inherit all solely. The other brother say 'Y' got furious with this & he swaps the containers of ashes of their father with that of woman's, wishing that even if 'X' reaches the festival before him, he will never inherit the fortune. Incidentally, both of them reach the festival at the same time, 'X' by the woman's car & 'Y' by hitch-hiking. Reaching the festival, it has been found that the woman is the Ex-wife of the family lawyer & the lawyer got furious seeing her as he knows that she is an imposter & also robbed him a long ago. As soon as 'X' introduces her as his 'Would-be-Wife', the lawyer tries to disinherit 'X' by hook or crook. ' What happens after this? Who got the fortune? ‘X’ or ‘Y’ ? Or both? How? It's up to the original playwriter how he wishes to end up his wonderful comedy. My best wishes Robert. Hoping to see an splendid comedy movie very soon.

So many great comments- thanks one and all- reworking and rewriting and all that- but have new logline. First off- this is really a dramedy (hate that word) - anyway, here is latest logline: While taking his father's ashes to Burning Man with his stoner younger brother, an uptight and severely depressed young man must face his greatest enemy: himself.

I love the new longline. Much better. The one thing I would change would be the cliche at the end. ... a severely depressed young man Meets his nemesis ... himself.

I like the concept a lot, Robert, but I'd like to know what stands in their way or what the consequences are if they don't get the ashes to the Burning Man festival in 24 hours.

Jalynn is right. The "or else" factor is missing. You need something like "Faced with disinheritance if they don't get their father's ashes to the Burning Man Festival within 24 hours, a young man and his stoner brother must navigate a nightmare of closed roads, car breakdowns, speed traps and crooked cops to reach their destination on time."

Wow. Keep me posted. I want to watch this!!! I'm drawing a blank on the name, but that's because the premise is really good.

Thanks Lisa!

Stanley this sounds like a great pilot, good luck!!

I think using the feature film structure may work, you should check out the structure 8 sequences which roughly run around the 10 minute mark if you haven't seen that already. A google search will yield the info readily. Interestingly we had the same plan and we shot our project, but it turned out to be a feature film and not a series of webisodes. I think the main thing is that the webisodes have to stand on their own as well as connect as a whole. I think that may be tough to do, but it's worth a shot! You can see some of our project here if you're curious: http://www.cinecoup.com/theories/

Connecting while standing on their own! Definitely the challenge! I'm planning on each episode being it's own storyline and then sprinkling in the over-all arc for each character as the "season" progresses. My cork board is starting to look like a conspiracy theorists.

Thanks, everybody . . .

Hi...I'm scheduled to pitch tonight any advice?

Well, it never went anywhere in my case, so . . . all I'd say is: don't talk too fast, maybe practice beforehand, give a sense of each main character as the person is introduced, in a quick way, and tell it as a story a person would want to watch . . . no deep insights . . .

Congratulations Judy

Um. That was a year ago. You congratulated me then. None of my pitching through Skype led anywhere, so I gave it up as a very expensive hobby . . . but thanks.

Hi William,.thank you so much!

Looks like the Walking Dead with child actors.

Yes, Vidas haha!

That looks awesome

Leonard, thank you so much!

Keeping your crew fed and treated with proper respect and human dignity goes a long way and crew will do whatever you need. Too many start off as on opposing sides and start wanting concessions ( a favor from people they don't even have a working relationshiosp with.) Crew know line producer's get a cut of the expenses they save. And, too many producers do the penny chasing dollar routine. One perfect example, a major feature didn't want to pop for 3k or 5k life like dummy, ended up costing 1/4 mil. to transport the entire set to NY to stay on schedule. Same show the upm spent like 30 man hours to save a $500 rental on a couple of hanging 10k. I think there may be some unwritten production rule to under estimate their day roughly 3 hours to keep the suits in the dark on actual expected overtime. Unpreparedness sets off a runaway train of expenses, which the crew will sit back and watch barrel along fattening their paychecks. Production management should know the cheapest rental piece typically won't get you the proper equipment to do the job costing untold dollars of wasted production time. Oh, and you need to pace yourself to handle the hours. Meal breaks can actually be quite counter productive to the film making process on different levels. The last man through can equal a long break, after which gearing back up feels like a druggery. A meal break at degisnated times can kill an actors mood, momentum, pacing rythm; for scheduling reasons like off hours access to buildings or loadin/out plans. For that matter. the movant of the entire production machinary, as a unit, will be dirsupted, but there are grace periods and penalties for going over them. The 2nd meal is one of those rock and hard place, but mandatory, issues: if you don't they look for it, when you do crew seems to not be espescially eager for it and there's some liability about giving leftovers to the homeless.

I agree with Larry and would add that, if you're shooting an indie, you'd be best served by having a very strong AD running the set and pushing to keep the clock to 12 hours as often as possible so as not to burn-out the crew. I also think Felicia has her head in the right place, but Larry's advice was spot-on. The BTL crew is working all day... and bringing in a snack or specialty item (coffee truck, ice cream truck, food truck, set masseuse) goes a long way. The crew needn't be busy immediately after eating - trust me, after 21 years in film, you'll note that EVERY crew gets the post-lunch-slow-down despite the fact that, generally, you're either completing an unfinished setup from before the break, or just getting into a new setup or scene. So, yeah. Keep the hours to a minimum (aka don't abuse your cast/crew), and feed 'em well.

Thanks for adding your obvious knowledge of production to my post. Not many have had the extensive experience that we have. Bravo!

That's important good post!

Decent food and healthy snack options. Not just pizza pizza pizza. Ample beverages and I don't mean trying to keep everyone juiced up on 5 hour energy or Redbull. Treat it like a union shoot, crew eats first. No cast eats until all crew have been through the line.

Just be yourself!

I notice you.

Noticed and invited.

Hi AJ, the best way is to get active in the lounge discussions giving advice and responding to comments. Introduce yourself during Introduce yourself weekend. Be genuine and helpful, rather than spam yourself out, and you will do really well in this community!

You could look for opportunities in cities where friends and family live. If they are willing to house you then, it could help you get on your feet in that area.

I wouldn't call that a disadvantage. You can apply online without having to wait in line with a thousand other actors for an initial casting call. If you're good enough via an internet audition to land a leading role you won't have to worry about travel expenses. On my current Job Posting I've asked specifically for YouTube video of the actor applying to run the lines I've posted so that I can determine if their facial expressions and voice fluctuations work with my character. I don't plan on sitting in the same room and watching anyone audition that I haven't already viewed online. Open casting "in person" costs time and money both. Hope this helps and if you have a dream then you have it for a reason. Don't let geography mess with your mind ;)

Cause who doesn't like action and sci-fi?

That's right.... LOL...

Welcome to the community, David. Be sure to check out the Screenwriting section of the Lounge. Extremely active and lively.

Hi David- LOVE Sci-Fi!!! Seriously- am very happy to meet more directors in the genre!

Depends on who sees it and if its making money. If its for festivals you need a special sync license. Moby has free music online for independent film makers. Just atmospheric stuff but of a higher caliber than most library music. If the film does well you'll probably be able to pay anyway. DOn't worry about it till it becomes a problem. I doubt anyone will sue you for thousands unless its a block buster

Leon: Abbas is copyrighted and they will probably charge $10k. Ask them. Cheaper to record original music. Find local composer to work with. Professional songwriters usually charge big bucks. Contact True Talent Management for rates. Google their name. That's my daughter.

i do acoustics… like Doris has suggested. score your original song

Leon: I'm a composer/musician and you can use one of my songs for free if you want, all you have to do is download it from my sites and credit me. Usually the record companies won't come after you if you use the song for something like a student film that's not going to make a profit. If you're just going to show it to a few people in a class or something as long as you credit the creators of it, the record labels probably don't really care. It's called "Free use" copyright law. If you are however selling the band's work in your film and make a profit, then their lawyers will come after you eventually and get that profit back with a lawsuit. Good luck :)

I've been a music producer for 50 years. I haven't heard of free use. A small film ci. contacted us for use of one of our songs and they paid a small fee of $100. We licensed to a compilation album from a well-known New York City company (Metropolitan Opera ) and they sent us royalty checks. we signed agreements for all of these. If you're a student film maker the companies will sign an agreement for you as a student film. However if the student film is shown in theaters and is making money then it bumps up to the next level or you do have to pay something. It's all in their contracts. Better get the business end of it done now rather than when you're rich and famous that come after you for $50,000. Aloha Doris

Just sport your wrinkles, they add character.

Your headshot represents you. Anything else is dishonest and can come back to bite you if it doesn't represent you accurately. Besides, what you see as flaws may be exactly what the casting director sees as pluses.

Tony Semanik said it best. Follow his advice.