Filmed in Exile

We are a small film production company looking for help marketing our feature film “smalltown” as well as several other projects. We are looking for creative, organized and driven people to collaborate with in trying to get this film out to the public.

This is an unpaid job, however, this could be a great opportunity for someone looking to break in to the film industry. The film was shot using the RED camera and has great potential for distribution.

Here is a description of the film:

An action adventure mythic thriller set in a suburban wasteland, smalltown is a once beautiful suburb ruined by poverty and devastated by corporate greed overrun by drugs, poverty, prostitution and violence. For years the town has lived under two warlords, the Druglord and the Pimp. A truce between these two fathers was born, and has kept the town at peace. But not for long. War is on it’s way to smalltown.

When Logan is caught trying to bring down the druglord and is sentenced to death, his girlfriend, Sasha, begs the town pimp, Logan’s estranged brother, Roarke, to help save him, offering herself to him. Sasha and Roarke race against the druglord’s servants to save Logan and end the druglord’s reign over smalltown. In order to save Logan they must make their way through the town on foot, facing brutal gangsters, corrupt cops, desperate drug addicts, soulless teenagers and a hidden army of freaks, while Logan makes his way to the edge of town, haunted by the ghost of the girl he could not save, and hunted by the Druglord’s men. Part action thriller/ part social commentary with elements of comedy and horror, “smalltown” is a modern myth with echoes of The Warriors, The Odyssey, Lord of The Rings, Escape From New York, Sin City, Pulp Fiction and Casablanca.

You can find out more about us at www.exilemovies.com

Internship can be arranged with your school for credit.

To be considered for the position contact m@exilemovies.com

Anyone still watching “At the Movies” (there are two or three of us) will understand why I miss Roger Ebert so much. Ebert, having suffered from thyroid cancer which has left him unable to speak, Ebert is no longer able to helm the most famous movie review show in history. He is still writing, and you can still read his reviews here, and they are still written with the same sharp wit and genuine love for movies that has made him the greatest movie critic of all time (yes, even better than Pauline Kael).

There is no replacement, and no matter how hard we look, we will only find pretenders to the throne.  The reason why I and others love Ebert so much is the same reason why every other critic pisses us off.  Ebert seems to be the only one who understood the vast purposes and functions movies can fulfill.  Not all movies need to be masterpieces of subtle artistry, and there is art in a popcorn movie.  Every other film critic seems too out of touch with the audience, too pretentious to really guide us to which movie to see.

The thing that separates Ebert from every other critic, including even his ex-partner, Gene Siskel, is his unpretentious love for movies.  He understood that you can not compare the latest comic book adaptation with Meryl Streep’s new movie.  Maybe the thing that separated him is that he actually wrote a movie, in fact, he wrote a classless, unpretentious Russ Meyer camp fest “Beyond The Valley of The Dolls”.  How the hell could the guy who wrote a transexual date-rape scene featuring a character that refers to herself as Superwoman while revealing her manbreasts, then going on a homicidal rampage, tell another filmmaker their film was too low brow?  This is a guy who can’t be too pretentious.

Ebert was not just a reviewer, he was a teacher.  I watched every review as a lecture from the best and most relavent film teacher around.  Ebert told you what worked, what did not, what made a great movie great and what made a mediocre movie  worth watching.  He championed small films to help them gain an audience.   He let you know when a movie might not be  a good movie, but you probably would like it anyway.  That is what makes him irreplaceable.   That does not mean I always agreed with him, (He loved Affleck’s “Daredevil” which I will someday forgive) but what I always agreed with was his clear love for the movies.

Reminder:  while I lament our loss of him on TV, I do not mean to suggest he is gone, he is alive and well and still writing great reviews at the Sun Times.  While I will continue to read his reviews, I miss the weekly Sunday school I have been watching since I made the horrible decision to become a filmmaker over thirty years ago.

He may no longer be on TV, but he can still rip to shreds a shitty movie with the best of them.  Here is a quote from his review for Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen:

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.”

Roger, the TV misses you.  Please keep writing.

Art by Jacob Saariaho

Here is the first pencil sketch of Mojo from the upcoming web comic, “smalltown: Stories of a Suburb Gone Wrong”.

The artwork was created by Jacob Saariaho.

More coming soon.

I just saw “Kick-Ass” which was one of the best times I have had at the movies in years.  It brought up a question: Why are comic movies the best genre-style movies around while everyday non-comic inspired movies continue to suck?

This is not about so-called “Serious Movies” (anything starring Meryl Streep except the atrocious “Mamma Mia”) as comparing Kick-Ass to “Sophie’s Choice” makes about as much sense as comparing Archie comics to James Joyce.  Besides, this type of movie continues to be pretty good and even great.  I am specifically referring to genre movies, such as “Die Hard”, “Transformers”, “Max Payne”, “Friday The 13th”, “Public Enemies” Etc.   The movies people actually pay money to go see.

To a comic geek (of which I will readily admit, pretty-fucking accurately describes me) the answer is obvious.  Comics have been great for decades.  It is certainly no surprise that someone made a great popcorn movie out of Spider-Man or Batman, because us fanboys have been reading great Batman stories for decades.  Even as good as “The Dark Knight” is, it is a B+ compared to it’s source material such as “The Killing Joke” or “Dark Night Returns”.

Comics are essentially genre stories.  With the exception of the occasional departures like “Love & Rockets” and “Box-Office Poison” comics thrive in the world of genre entertainment. occupying the same ground as genre movies (Note: even these departures tend to be better stories than the Hollywood equivalent.  For instance compare “Ghost World” to any coming of age story).  Why then, are comics so much better at telling genre stories?

Here are my thoughts on why, and what Hollywood needs to do to catch up to Comics and stop their movies from sucking:

WHY COMIC MOVIES ARE BETTER THAN MOST GENRE MOVIES

1. Movies are written by committee.  Comics are the vision of a writer and artist. Because the audience for comics is considerably smaller than that of movies and the cost to make a comic is so much less, the comic writer has been free for decades to experiment, to twist the genre and to re-invent.  The movie writer on the other hand has been encouraged to rehash and rewrite.  Their films have been written by committee instead of being the vision of a couple of people.

Comics had their day of being programmed conventional crap.  Companies like Vertigo and Dark Horse pushed the limits of what comics were and found that the audience was waiting for these stories to be told.  It is time for the movie companies to catch up.

2. Comics understand that the audience is not stupid, they just like goofy shit. Let’s face facts, nobody like Transformers: The Movie (unless we’re talking about the Orson-Welles-as-planet animated movie.  That thing rocks).  We just like watching Megan Fox bend over an engine and will pretty much be happy with any movie that features a robot battle. 

We all know it sucks.  But it’s the kind of movie we want to see.  We will pay for it, suck it up and complain about the story while we wait in line to buy the DVD.  But we know it sucks, and we want it to be good.  We want Christopher Nolan directing Transformers instead of Michael Bay, because we, the audience, understand better then Hollywood, ANY story can be told well.

The comic companies figured this out years ago when their sales were failing and the indies were creating a new audience.  Marvel didn’t stop making super-hero comics,  they just made comic books with the same passion for storytelling that is put into serious comics.   Marvel made the genius step of putting creative talent in charge of development.

Movies don’t get this.  You either make “Serious films” or you are making movies for children.  Only when they realize that all stories must be created equally will they earn the respect of the audience and evolve cinema into what it needs to become – a fusion of the art movie and the popcorn flick.

3. Comics are created by people who love comics.  Genre movies are made by people who want to make “films”, and instead get hired to make goofy crap. Most people in the comic field are there because they love comics.  They love genre storytelling.  This is what they want to do with their life and they do it with passion.  Genre movies are often written by people who have no interest in genre movies and have no idea how to make them interesting.

Film school will only prepare you to make “films” and continues to turn out people interested in making Avante-Garde films or serious movies.  You will not find a film school that teaches you to make pop-art, therefore, most filmmakers get into the industry trained to make the kind of movie nobody wants to see.

Mission Impossible - Holllywood's lamo version of a great idea

For instance, Robert Towne was hired to write Mission Impossible.  Which, we can all agree, blew.  Towne is a genius screenwriter, but the guy wrote Chinatown.  He has no interest in writing goofy shit like Mission Impossible.  He phoned it in and it stunk because he is not a genre writer.  Hollywood always makes the mistake of getting the great writer to write their goofy action movie.  The same thing with director.  Ang Lee directing the Hulk was about as bad an idea as you can get.  Unless the Hulk is going to confess is forbidden  love for the Abomination, Lee just is not the right guy for the job.  They hire music video directors to make our myths instead of storytellers.  Kick-Ass is great because it was written by a guy who loves comics, not because they hired some Oscar winning screenwriter to do his prerequisite sell-out screenplay.

If Hollywood wants to survive and create trust with the audience, it is time they put a creative visionary in charge of a studio.  Stop hiring music video directors and Oscar winning writers to make the movies that should be made by genre geeks.  Treat the genre movies as they would a serious film and the audience will keep going to the movies, buy the DVD and a poster and a t-shirt.  If they do not, they are going to feel a serious sting when the genre geeks finally get the equipment in their hands to make the movies we are all waiting to see and this digital revolution finally kicks in.

Exile Movies will soon begin a web comic for the feature-film “smalltown“.   The comic will chronicle the town before the events which take place in smalltown: The Movie.  The comic, drawn by artist, Jacob Saariaho, will show stories featuring many different characters from the world of smalltown.  Minor characters will be featured and the comic will help round out the world of smalltown and it’s inhabitants and give the audience a sense of the town and it’s history.

Stay tuned for the first few sketches.

Exile Movies has begun production on a new documentary following the life and theories of Darren Derwood, also known as “Conspiracy Boy”. Documentary filmmaker B. F. Frinke will follow Darren over the next year and discuss his theory of the “All-encompassing Conspiracy Theory”. You can read some of Darren’s thoughts about the world at www.conspiracyboy.com/blog

VJ Day was Exile Movies 48 Hour Film Project. It was originally titled “Made In Japan” and premiered at the Providence Rhode Island 48 Hour Film project in 2007. Made In Japan won “The Best Use of Rhode Island” and was included on the Best of Providence DVD.

VJ Day is a holiday still celebrated in Rhode Island. Only RI celebrates the holiday as most states find it incredibly inappropriate to celebrate the dropping of the H-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This film was shot for the 48 Hour film project and had many problems during the shooting including but not limited to: burst lights, exploding microphones, drunken cast and crew members, and other problems one can expect when you shoot in an open bar in 100 degree weather. It is neither a great technical achievement nor a storytelling high, however, we worked hard on it and we should be able to watch it.

With no more further apology, I present to you…. VJ Day.

VJ Day from Mark Fogarty on Vimeo.

Robert Rodriguez might be the poster child for the digital revolution. His setup is much like a lot of digital filmmakers I know, just a hell of a lot more expensive. . He has all his equipment in his house/studio  (troublemaker studios). He works with digital video and non-linear editing systems. He does not work in Hollywood, but rather in Austin Texas. He does much of the work himself, from making music, to camerawork, to editing. Rodriguez is one of the most powerful and eloquent advocates for the digital revolution. His book, Rebel Without A Crew is an inspirational how-to book where he generously shares secrets and encourages filmmakers to get off their ass and make movies instead of just talking about it.

Still, he did kind of ruin my life.

In 1996, after graduating from film school (a ridiculous experience that by no means made me feel ready to make a movie) I read Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without A Crew” and decided if Robert Rodriguez can make his flick for $7,000, I can make mine for, $6,999.

I was wrong.

Two years later I had spent 20,000 dollars on a movie I can not finish. I ordered the workprint on super VHS video because at the time, the lab I was using did not offer a digital workprint (This is a reminder of how new the digital revolution is). Having spent my entire budget on film, I could not come up with the cash to get a real print and therefore, I only have the film on Super VHS. Although I could and do intend to finish the movie, even if it is only from the super VHS workprint, I can not justify the cost of getting a digital workprint (Around 15,000) when for the same cost, I can make another movie on digital video.  I am not really feeling motivated to drop 20 grand on the movie I wrote when I was 24. I racked up 25,000 bucks in debt and destroyed my credit (which I have since restored).  The movie took nine months to film and consumed my life for that year, it ended a relationship (which was probably doomed anyway, but what the heck. I’ll blame Rodriguez for that too.) cost the DP his day job, and in the process, I crashed my car, broke my arm and it caused me to go bald.  (Okay, blaming Rodriguez for going bald is a stretch.  But I did coincidentally go bald during the shoot, and previously had a thick head of hair).

Rodriguez made it sound easy, and enticed myself and a whole bunch of other suckers to follow his lead.   (I’m not the only person Rodriguez screwed.  Check out, The Unkindest Cut: How a Hatchet-Man Critic Made His Own $7,000 Movie and Put It All on His Credit Card, Joe Queenan’s hilarious memoir of making the no-budget movie Twelve Steps To Death.  It can be done, but it is not easy and it requires the filmmaker to get it in one shot, something I am notoriously bad at.  I like trying things out, something which can really blow up the budget when you are using film.

Realistically I can not and do not blame him.  I’m the dumb shit who tried to make a movie for nothing and racked up a credit card.  And I joke when I say he ruined my life.  My life is pretty good.  And the time I had making the movie was incredible.  Making movies is always a blast, despite what the final project looks like or if it even comes out.  I do plan to finish this damn movie someday, and maybe even buy my negative back from Monaco labs.  See?  This thing still plagues me.  

In part two, I will talk about the making of the movie that didn’t get made.

The Rhode Island Film Collaborative (RIFC) is an organization brought about to help bring democracy to filmmaking.  The organization is a non-profit started by a group of filmmakers who decided they could help other filmmakers by pooling resources and building the film community in Rhode Island.  It was co-founded by myself and Broto Chakrabarti, director of Sleep: A Novel.  At the time we started RIFC a few years ago, this was a relatively new idea, and is probably still in the idea stage.  We have two-thousand people on our e-mail list and a group of a few hundred that we all know by name, but we have yet to truly fulfill the promise of what we started.

The idea was to build the film community, share equipment, connections, actors and everything else in order to overcome the need for money.  Almost everything needed to make a movie costs money, however, with a community that comes together to donate and share resources and work on the movies for experience, the cost of filmmaking can be reduced down to videotape (or hard drive space) and food.  Most importantly, once we acquired the resources we opened them up to everyone, and resulted in helping dozens of films get produced.  

I am sure there are other organizations doing the same thing all over the country.  I am not sure if we were the first, probably not, and I know we’re not the last.  Since we sprouted up several other groups have shown up with similar concepts, such as the Boston-based Beanywood and the Connecticut based SECT.  Ideas like the RIFC, SECT & Beanywood can help usher in the digital revolution by cutting down costs and encouraging collaboration.  Check out these organizations and let me know if you know of one I have missed.  And if there is not one in your neighborhood, maybe you should start it.  I’ll talk you through it.

M