The Directors Blog
A couple years ago my wife and I decided it was time to leave LA. After 20 years creating FX on hundreds of film and TV shows I was getting burned out on the Hollywood experience, and LA was no place to raise our two young kids. So in 2002, I left KNB Effects Group, a special make-up effects company which I had co-founded 16 years earlier and moved my family to Ohio.
I had become frustrated with the amount of time, energy and money it took getting a film off the ground in Hollywood. I’d had some success… from my low-budget, comic-book, action film The Demolitionist and From Dusk Till Dawn and then Wishmaster, but I’d also optioned or set up a handful of projects at various studios and independent companies that, like hundreds of other projects, became stalled within the studio system. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to work pushing a project for several years and have it set up at a studio only to collect dust. Why do these companies continue to buy projects if they aren’t going to make them? The other thing was dealing with financiers who would come aboard to finance and then not put their money were there mouths' were when it came time to start production. It really is a minor miracle when a film does get made. It took almost ten years and hundreds of meetings to get From Dusk Till Dawn off the ground and at least five years to get into production My First Mister, a film my wife Anne produced for Paramount Classics. People waste to much time talking about making movies instead of actually making them.
I decided to put together a plan to do my own films outside the Hollywood system without Hollywood financing - so my wife, Anne, and I started Precinct 13 Entertainment, A commercial/film/Visual Effects production company with the idea we would do everything under one roof. We would build our own sets/ Visual effects / Photography / sound / editing / etc. It wasn’t easy… It took a year just to locate a suitable building and then it had to be renovated. We bought an old bowling alley in my hometown of Crestline Ohio… (one I’d actually bowled in when I was a kid!) It was now just a big 13,000 square foot structure with old offices and walls that were falling apart. We had to completely gut building and start from scratch. So I went to work creating the layout to fit all the various departments and offices stage etc. into the building. We needed a concept design room / CGI work stations a workshop / stage space / edit and screening room. The entire building’s electrical and heating services needed a complete overhaul and we needed everything rigged for the state of the art computer systems and internet connections with cat 6 lines etc. It was a massive undertaking.
Once the building was complete and the equipment was set up we began pulling in some VIFX Projects and commercial productions while we started down the long road of putting financing together for our 1st in-house production “The Rage.”
I’d been in New York City visiting the Natural History museum, and I saw a giant vulture hanging in one of the displays. I thought, “Hmmm…, I haven’t seen a film with killer vultures in it before.” So later that night, while hanging out with longtime friend and collaborator, fx artist John Bisson, we came up with “The Rage.” It’s a mix between Resident Evil and Day of the Animals, a real retro-style, drive–in, horror movie - the kind John and I’d really enjoyed growing up - a mad scientist, a mutating virus, hot young 20- somethings-in-peril, and the requisite gory fun.
Our goal was to assemble a veteran film crew, mixed with talented newcomers, and shoot our own project on our own terms. We began pre-production in September, casting our talent, building our sets, and prepping our effects. Shooting began in October, and we’ve begun editing. The great thing about having our own equipment and stage is that we can shoot whenever we want, inserts/greenscreen shots etc. While editing, if we want a little something more – we just walk out and shoot it. It’s a great way to work.
All in all it’s been a great move for us. We have a little community of LA defectors out here. One of them is film and TV veteran director Gary Jones, he moved his family back to Michigan and has joined us in our production. Whenever anyone asked Gary how a shooting day was going his answer was always the same, “It doesn’t matter – we’re shooting a movie in Ohio – it’s all good.”
When I left LA there were quite a few people who thought that I was making a mistake leaving and that I'd never be able to put together a company and work outside of Hollywood. Years ago my wife had given me a little reminder, something I could always look at when the pressure of following my dreams became overwhelming.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who actually strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows the triumph of high achievment: and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
- THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Always follow your dreams!
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the film as we move through the process.
Robert Kurtzman
I had become frustrated with the amount of time, energy and money it took getting a film off the ground in Hollywood. I’d had some success… from my low-budget, comic-book, action film The Demolitionist and From Dusk Till Dawn and then Wishmaster, but I’d also optioned or set up a handful of projects at various studios and independent companies that, like hundreds of other projects, became stalled within the studio system. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to work pushing a project for several years and have it set up at a studio only to collect dust. Why do these companies continue to buy projects if they aren’t going to make them? The other thing was dealing with financiers who would come aboard to finance and then not put their money were there mouths' were when it came time to start production. It really is a minor miracle when a film does get made. It took almost ten years and hundreds of meetings to get From Dusk Till Dawn off the ground and at least five years to get into production My First Mister, a film my wife Anne produced for Paramount Classics. People waste to much time talking about making movies instead of actually making them.
I decided to put together a plan to do my own films outside the Hollywood system without Hollywood financing - so my wife, Anne, and I started Precinct 13 Entertainment, A commercial/film/Visual Effects production company with the idea we would do everything under one roof. We would build our own sets/ Visual effects / Photography / sound / editing / etc. It wasn’t easy… It took a year just to locate a suitable building and then it had to be renovated. We bought an old bowling alley in my hometown of Crestline Ohio… (one I’d actually bowled in when I was a kid!) It was now just a big 13,000 square foot structure with old offices and walls that were falling apart. We had to completely gut building and start from scratch. So I went to work creating the layout to fit all the various departments and offices stage etc. into the building. We needed a concept design room / CGI work stations a workshop / stage space / edit and screening room. The entire building’s electrical and heating services needed a complete overhaul and we needed everything rigged for the state of the art computer systems and internet connections with cat 6 lines etc. It was a massive undertaking.
Once the building was complete and the equipment was set up we began pulling in some VIFX Projects and commercial productions while we started down the long road of putting financing together for our 1st in-house production “The Rage.”
I’d been in New York City visiting the Natural History museum, and I saw a giant vulture hanging in one of the displays. I thought, “Hmmm…, I haven’t seen a film with killer vultures in it before.” So later that night, while hanging out with longtime friend and collaborator, fx artist John Bisson, we came up with “The Rage.” It’s a mix between Resident Evil and Day of the Animals, a real retro-style, drive–in, horror movie - the kind John and I’d really enjoyed growing up - a mad scientist, a mutating virus, hot young 20- somethings-in-peril, and the requisite gory fun.
Our goal was to assemble a veteran film crew, mixed with talented newcomers, and shoot our own project on our own terms. We began pre-production in September, casting our talent, building our sets, and prepping our effects. Shooting began in October, and we’ve begun editing. The great thing about having our own equipment and stage is that we can shoot whenever we want, inserts/greenscreen shots etc. While editing, if we want a little something more – we just walk out and shoot it. It’s a great way to work.
All in all it’s been a great move for us. We have a little community of LA defectors out here. One of them is film and TV veteran director Gary Jones, he moved his family back to Michigan and has joined us in our production. Whenever anyone asked Gary how a shooting day was going his answer was always the same, “It doesn’t matter – we’re shooting a movie in Ohio – it’s all good.”
When I left LA there were quite a few people who thought that I was making a mistake leaving and that I'd never be able to put together a company and work outside of Hollywood. Years ago my wife had given me a little reminder, something I could always look at when the pressure of following my dreams became overwhelming.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who actually strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows the triumph of high achievment: and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
- THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Always follow your dreams!
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the film as we move through the process.
Robert Kurtzman
posted by Precinct 13 Entertainment at 5:41 PM
1 Comments:
The movie looks great!
I know your FX work very well, and I have seen all the films you have directed so far. Can't wait for this one. The images of the eagles(?) flying past the camera in the teaser, phew, amazing!
The style of the cinamatography and the set pieces looks good too. Good luck with the project!
Kim
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