McCracken at the LA Web Fest

So I'm at the La Web Fest and although the festival started off a bit disorganised it has turned out to be quite an informative and worthwhile experience. What amazes me are just how many creatives are using this platform to tell their stories and the amount of web series out there. Some good, many bad. I have attended a fantastic workshop tonight which discussed where the medium is headed. I'm glad to hear that web series is a new frontier and being a part of it made me feel good. Hollywood studios are now funding high quality web series content and giants like YouTube are requesting material wanting to change peoples perception of their brand.

Something that was discussed at length was how we go about monetising web series content. It got my brain ticking, especially when one of the panel speakers mentioned creating an mobile app of your production house and anything you produce is available through the app. Pilots, trailers and teasers are released for free on Youtube (or some free platform) and then die-hard fans can watch whole series by purchasing your app. Of course, you have to establish a pretty solid fan base and reputation if this was to work.

In the meantime, something else that was mentioned was a crowd funding system where fans can follow a link at the end of an episode and contribute to the budget for the next episode if they wish to see more made. If you start making crap they will just stop contributing but if they keep liking what you do, you may just be able to have your web series funded. The company that have pioneered this system is Patreon.

Me Fielding Questions on the Q&A After McCracken Screening

I also did my first post screening Q&A panel which I was quite nervous about although once I got up on the panel my fear dissipated and I relaxed into it. One of the questions I asked was what advice I had to aspiring web series makers who had little or no money.

I explained that the one thing that doesn't cost money in filmmaking is the writing of the script, provided you write it yourself. So my advice was to put as much work into the script writing process as possible, because this is the one thing you can control without the need for money. If you you put the work in and end up with a tight script, you will have a solid foundation to do everything else for cheap by simply telling a quality story. No special effects or multiple locations though!

We didn't win any awards although what I really appreciated were people who watched McCracken and then recognised me at the festival as McCracken. They seemed both stoked and amused to meet me. A couple of British dudes would yell out "Oui McCracken!" whenever they spotted me across the hotel foyer. So people obviously like the character and see the potential there.

Watch below the new trailer for McCracken - The TV Pilot. The whole 24 minute pilot was made for two grand. To be discussed further in the next post.

Five Episodes and Season 1 Complete

With the first season of five episodes complete and having been accepted into the LA Web Series Festival already, myself and Wayne were pretty content. Doing it all ourselves was a tough slog but if you want to make movies for little or no money you have to be prepared to put in the hard yards. Although, in saying that, we decided for the rest of the series we would raise a small budget and preferably shoot the episodes back to back.

Easier said than done. Wayne was working full time and getting married in February followed by the Honeymoon. The LA Web Fest http://lawebfest.com is in late March so so we decided not to shoot until after then. This would leave three months gap between seasons which I don't advise because content is key on the web. But we didn't have much choice. On the plus side it would give me time to figure out how to raise some funding. The problem was, I was struggling to afford the trip to Los Angeles for the festival let alone a budget for the rest of the series.

LA Web Fest's Motto is "Make Your Own Luck" and should be yours too.

I decided to look into what most indie filmmakers are doing these days - Crowdfunding. This is a very viable option, especially if you have already established a fan base. If you are interested in using crowd funding to finance your web series then I suggest you make a pilot out of your own pocket first, get it out there, and crowd fund off the back of that. Your investors need to know what they are backing. I won't go into the details of crowd funding as it would be a massive blog, so instead I'll refer you to an excellent book on the matter, Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: The Way to a Successful Film Campaign
This book is essential if you are planning on crowd funding your film. It's all in the preparation and hard work if you are to have a successful campaign and this book explains it all. The one thing I will stress about crowd funding is that it is a full time job. So if you are already working full time you better be prepared to sacrifice any social life you have and potentially your relationship with your partner.

If I was to make it to LA I had to start earning money quick, which meant finding a normal job… which I hate. I had one freelance screenwriting job but that was not enough to live and get me to LA so I started as a bricklayers labourer. I lasted one and a half days. Not because the work was too hard but because the boss was a prick and the money shit. We had a massive verbal altercation and I walked off site. I felt like going to the pub and getting absolutely shit-faced but I called my sponsor instead who talked me down.

I knew if I worked a full time job and ran a crowd funding campaign I would probably bust under all the pressure. I had to make a choice. Go to LA for the Fest or raise funding for the rest of the series. After discussing with Wayne we decided that if we had gotten this far with no-budget lets just keep doing what we're doing. Cool. Then I landed a little acting gig in a commercial that would pay for my flights to LA. Sweet. The Gods were on my side again.

When you put in the hard work and take risks out of your comfort zone good things start to happen.

Our Make-Shift Poster We Sent Off To LA Web Fest

My next priority was to get a trailer made up to promote the show at the festival. This required expert editing and mixing so I turned to Kearon De Clouet for help. He advised to think of some trailers that I thought would suit McCracken and he could provide a quote from there. Again, I asked for mates rates, as we always do on no-budget. Turned out I couldn't even afford the mates rates. I asked a new friend of mine, James, who I met at a weekly group I attend. He directs and edits documentary's for SBS and he had watched McCracken after I told him about it which he loved. He had a gap between work projects and being the awesome bloke that he is he agreed to cut a trailer together for me for free. What a legend!

Documentary Filmmaker James Marshall Piecing Together the Trailer

We met up and decided to take a look at some of the other trailers on LA Web Fest site. The first we viewed was a high budget series with a pretty serious looking trailer. It had quotes from critics from various publications such as "Riveting" - The Chicago Times, or something like that. We immediately thought, "wow, are we out of our league here?" Not at all. The fact that no-budget McCracken got into the fest up against these shows was a feat in itself. We just have to get creative. I have to hand it to James who had the idea of having critics quotes as well, but just made up ones from non-existant publications from tiny country towns or suburbs out west. I loved it. It was sort of taking the piss and fit McCracken perfectly. We decided on three quotes overall with the last being from McCracken himself, just to let the audience know we really are taking the piss.

Here is the trailer, see what you think. For the resources we had, I think James did a funny and amazing job.

Episode 5 - The Evolution of McCracken - A Web Series

So after uploading Mc4 live we received some great feedback on the episode. Wayne and myself felt confident once again in that we had achieved our goal of making each episode a step up from the last. Looking back on episode 3 we came to realise it had been more of a filler episode. It was entertaining and had some shock value with the corpse but all it really served was to move the story along - there wasn't any revelations about our characters and what they want. But this is also a massive learning curve for us and that was a big lesson.

That's one of the best things about making making a web series in that it is hands on experience and every little shoot you do you learn something new… or several things!

We learnt that in creating a web series with episodes only 3 - 5 minutes long you have to make the scripts as compelling as possible in only a few pages. This is not easy. But it has to be done if you are to gain and hold an audiences interest.

Now we had to shoot episode 5 and were to bring in our first new character, McJenkins, which meant a lesson in casting. We started in our production office (a room in my half-way house) and stuck up on the wall head shots of potential actors we knew we could get in touch with. Most decent actors will have a showreel up in YouTube or IMDB so we were able to see if they were appropriate and had talent. But more important than these attributes are somebody who's reliable. As McJenkins is an ongoing character we needed to know they could commit to the series for little pay.

First Wayne spoke to an actor he'd met through work and sent him the script never to hear from him again. Next I got in contact with an actor over Facebook through mutual acquaintance. He ran it by his agent (why!?) and also turned it down. Mind you, we could only afford $100 cash on the day so I hold no resentments. But by this time Wayne and myself were starting to stress a little for we had the shoot locked in for less than a week away. We thought we had ran out of options until we remembered an actor we had both worked with on my first short film I made, Sus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5v9SAiekNw. He was older than we had imagined but the more we thought about him in the role the more it made sense. Most importantly, we had worked with him before and knew that he was talented, reliable and easy to work with. So we called up Brendan Clearkin and he was only too happy to do it. We were stoked!

Photo converted into canvas of Brendan Clearkin as McJenkins

Next up was to sort out the props and we soon realised there were a shitload of them. They consisted on:
1. Job Brief (paper)
2. Invoice (more paper)
3. Beer Bottle
4. Porn Mag
5. Fake marijuana
6. Face crystal meth
7. Fireworks
8. More Porn (DVD)
9. Cigarettes
10. Sunglasses
11. Chain
12. Padlock
13. Boltcutters
14. Truck Stop Sign
15. And a truck!

I didn't mean for there to be so many props, it was just written that way. So in preparation for a shoot ALWAYS go through the script and highlight all props needed and tick them off the box. Nothing more frustrating that turning up on set only to realise you are missing a crucial prop.

We managed to gather up all props bar the fireworks as they are now strictly illegal in Australia for good reason I guess. For the marijuana I just went to the Happy High Herbs shop in Kings Cross and bought some kind of herb that looked almost identical to the real thing. For the crystal meth I asked a guy in my half-way house who used to be addicted to the stuff. He straight out Himalayan Rock Salt from Woolworths will do the trick. Fair enough. My cousin Figgo lent me his landscape truck and we were sorted.

The most expensive prop was the Truck Stop sign which cost around $100 to get made up by Singorama. But it was a neccessary cost as we needed the audience to know that when Truck Stop is mentioned we are referring to delivery company that McCracken and Boss work for.

Important Prop - The Truck Stop Sign

So we had three separate scenes to shoot on Part 5 - one interior plus two exteriors. We decided to shoot Brendan's scene first so we could release him early. But when Cousin Figgo was late turning up with the truck we didn't waste any time and shoot the interior scene first. These are the kind of changes and decisions you will have to make on set, adapting to whatever unexpected situations that arise. Murphy's Law is more present on a film set than any other environment I know.

Figgo turned up just as we finished the first scene so we went straight into the truck scene. Brendan and my own acting just started firing straight away in our scene, it was great. We listened and bounced off each other well and got through the scene pretty smoothly. Wayne's directing was great and soon enough we were finished. He released Brenda and Figgo and his truck and all we had left was to shoot the bolt cutters chopping through chain and padlock.

Again the whole thing was wrapped in under five hours and brought in under budget - around $300. Another great shoot! As of writing this McCracken Part 5 is still in post production and therefore I haven't seen the finished product BUT I have a sneaking suspicion that it's going to be a step up from Part 4… here's hoping anyway!

McCracken: Truck Stop - The Making of a Micro-Budget Web Series

After spending the most on budget for McCracken 3 we had to cut costs on McCracken 4. After discussing we decided to go back to Wayne directing and thus regrettably had to leave Laurence out for this Ep, which was a shame after he really had brought something different and lifted the game with Ep's 2 and 3. He was still kind enough for giving me notes on the script for Ep 4 which was fantastic feedback and helped make Ep 4 arguably the best Ep yet. His feedback was that he "didn't really know what the characters want". "What does McCracken actually want from Boss? "

This is so important in creating your web series, or any form of story telling for that matter. What do your characters want? It's easy to just piece together funny or entertaining episodic events/episodes but if there is no through line, ultimate character motivation or underlying themes being explored then it doesn't really mean anything. It will be an empty story. So it reminded Wayne and myself to put the hard yards into the script, because if you make the script tight as can be, then that sets the precedent for the rest of the production.

The most important part of filmmaking is the script!

Wayne's Directors Notes on McCracken Script

And this is one area where it won't cost you any money, just hard work, so do it!

Once Wayne and myself what McCracken really wants it elevated the script enormously and as you can see from watching Ep 4 there is plenty more going on than the previous episodes.

Anyway, on top of having to direct it ourselves we also had to find a cheaper cameraman, as we could not afford Kearon for this one. Wayne had someone in mind that he had worked with who made wedding video's. He was keen to do something creative and Wayne negotiated a small fee suited to our micro-budget. His name is Steve Favaloro and has done some grew work for us. Like Kearon, Steve could take care of good sound also.

Another important note; When hiring a cameraman on no-budget find one that can do sound also. These days there are plenty who can do both and many advantages to finding them. Not only will you get more bang for your buck but you will have one less thing to worry about, not to mention a smaller and less complicated crew on set which I personally am a fan of.

Steve Favaloro, Wayne Bradley and Tim  Roberts on location up back of ANL for the McCracken 4 shoot.

This was another exterior location set at ANL. The episode consists of burying the body so we found a quiet bit of bush up the back of the landscape yard away from the constant noise of the trucks. It was the smoothest, quickest and cheapest episode we've shot… and probably one of the best! Win win all around! Shoots like this are great, especially after you've been through some difficult and expensive ones.

The main reasons for this was:

1. Minimal props - just a shovel and cigarettes
2. Private, almost quiet location.
3. Small crew who just got on and did their jobs.
4. Wayne and myself settling into our roles and subsequent confidence/efficiency

Mike Kotsohilis was on set again to assist Steve and basically help things run smoothly. By the end of it all we'd spent was around $250 bucks on the whole shoot. And that included paying and feeding the our two man crew. And we finished under schedule, with the whole shoot wrapped after three hours!

So the moral of this story is filmmaking doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Plenty of preparation and keeping it simple can result it a smooth shoot… and you get to have fun while doing it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ze0AbHiic

Film Shoot - McCracken: Truck Stop - Episode 3 "The Body"

So we had created and uploaded the first two episodes and were receiving hundreds of hits which was fine with us. Before we got into really marketing and getting the series out there, we felt we had to establish it as an ongoing series first, and it didn't feel like a series until we had at least three episodes up . We had set the goal of one episode a month for the rest of the year, so it was time for the next shoot.

So for Ep 3 we decided to move it outside of the office and the basic two hander we had shot so far. For beginning filmmakers on a no-budget, I highly advise starting off with simple two hander scenes (two actors talking to each other) as it allows you to learn the filmmaking basics plus it's cheap. (Except if it's set in a space shuttle, so just stick to a regular room)

This episode involved McCracken showing Boss the dead body in the back of the truck. So first off we needed a location, a cheap one. Our DOP just so happened to have the perfect one next door to his house. An old empty piece of land that had been on the market for years and was now fenced off. It was just the industrial shitty look we were after. And, most importantly, it was free.

Next was the truck. Wayne took charge of this and set about finding us a truck. It turned out a friend of ours from drama school, Mikey Kotsolhilis, had access to his uncles truck and would bring it on set for the day. Mikey ended up becoming an integral part of our production team and is slated to play a main character further on in the series.


The biggest challenge for this episode was a certain prop - a dead body minus a head - that needed to look realistic. I called special effects and animatronics houses but was quoted in the thousands. Expensive business coming up with a corpse. Wayne suggested we kill Abe, our first cameraman, as he is being charged with murder anyway. This would have been a cheeper solution but unfortunately we couldn't get to him as he's behind bars. I ended up turning to a mate who was in my half-way house that  I new loved horror films. He was a horror film fanatic and way he'd at least two a night. So I told him what I was doing and his face lit up with delight. He asked if he could make this his personal assignment - to come up with a corpse minus a head. I said sure. I'd never seen such enthusiasm and excitement before in my life. It was like he was getting a hard-on over it.

So Kearon went to work. His ideas were both genius and a little worrying. First he said I needed to buy the torso of a mannequin, some fake hands, chicken wire and old clothes that I didn't want. Then he said we needed to go out to the abattoir… "What?"
"The abattoir", he repeated.  
"What for?"
"To get the blood."
"Can't we make fake blood."
"Na, it's too light. Cows blood. Looks like the real thing."
"I don't know how Wayne will like handling cows blood… or me, for that matter."
"As long as you get none in your mouth, it'll be fine."

So off to the abattoir we went. For those who have never been to an abattoir they're not for the faint opt heart.

Keiran in his element

Keiran was right into it. Telling the meat men exactly what he wanted to achieve and asking what they would recommend… for a headless corpse with a neck stub. By the end of it we walked away with one lambs neck, some rabbit skin and ten litres of cows blood! And I still hadn't told Wayne we would be using real blood.

As of writing this I just found out McCracken: Truck Stop has been accepted into the LA Web Fest and I am absolutely stoked! Not bad for a little web series with no budget!

Anyway, back to episode 3 "The Body". Keiran used chicken wire to to make a mould out of his arms and legs which he then attached to the mannequin torso. We attached shoes and socks to the bottom of the legs and a great pair of fake hands (ordered from a store in Adelaide) to the arms, with a long sleeve shirt covering the chicken wire.

The fake hands

Keiran kept the lambs neck, rabbit skin and cows blood stored in my fridge (somehow my flatmate didn't notice) to be kept fresh for the shoot. On the day the finished product was pretty impressive. He attached the lambs next to the torso and stretched the rabbit skin over onto the shoulders whilst pouring the cows blood over the neck stub.

Keiran was extremely proud of his creation as was I of his work. At the end of the shoot it was hard for him to let the corpse go and he got quite emotional… I worry about him.

Budget:

Chicken Wire  -  $10
Mannequin      -  $15
Lambs Neck, Rabbit Skin, Cows blood - $15
Camera/Sound - $150
Director           -  $150
Production Assist - $50
Food/Beverage   - $40

Total  -  $430

This turned out to be our most expensive shoot so far. Lucky we got the location and truck for free because it would've ended up being more. Not to mention Keiran's genius work on the corpse for free. I would never forget the favour though.

On set Kearon (cameraman) and Laurence (director) didn't seem to be seeing eye to eye on everything and the shoot was slightly stalled and went unnecessarily overtime. This is no ones fault, it's just creative or technical differences and happens on a set. The problem was, however, Wayne and myself let it affect it us and we found it hard to solely concentrate on our performances. Laurence actually said to us it will serve us well if we take our producers hats off and just be actors whilst on set. This was good advice. Wearing a lot of hats on set, which us no-budget filmmakers are forced to do, can get overwhelming at times. Try to just focus on the one job at a time. Towards the end we were too conscious of time and rushed the last few shots. We later regretted not getting a close up of the body. This was because we were trying to do too many things at once.

It was about an hour/half overtime and all in all I was pretty happy for our first exterior shoot. We packed up and not knowing what to do with the body, Keiran and I threw it in a garbage bin at a local park… I hate to imagine the persons reaction who first opened the bin and found what looked like a pretty real corpse inside… I'm sure the cops were called.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0VNNKuS9Q

McCracken Part 2 "The First Delivery" - The Making Of Micro-Budget Storytelling

So I'm out of rehab and hungry to create more McCracken. Wayne has returned from a trip to Europe and he is also raring to go. We have had over 1000 hits on our original McCracken skit, which was soon to be renamed Part 1. I had the script ready to go - It was about McCracken reporting about his first delivery went on the road… not too well.

So we needed a new cameraman as our original guy, Abe, was in jail on murder charges and didn't look like being released anytime soon. I managed to find one on twitter of all places. He made corporate video's for a living and was keen to do something creative, even if it was for little or no money. His name is Kearon De Klouet @kearondc and he turned out to be the best money ever spent- $200. Not only was he a gun behind the camera, but he could to great sound, colour grading and sound mixing.

I managed to get my make-up artist friend, Natalie, to help with make-up. I had written a screenplay for Natalie at a cheap rate so she was more than happy to provide free make-up. I also had a mate, Phil, who I had helped out with a short film as a production assistant, so he was happy to return the favour.
What this illustrates is the importance of helping out other budding filmmakers in the hope that they will return the favour when it comes time for you to need their help. If they don't… fuck 'em!

On top of this I asked an old acting teacher of Wayne and mine from drama school, Laurence Coy - he was now a successful television director. I sent him the script, which he loved, and he agreed to direct it for $100. This was a massive boost for us.

So now we had camera/sound man, make-up artist and production assistant. As both the actors/producers/directors/writers Wayne and myself. Compared to the first shoot it now felt like the set of a high budget blockbuster… Okay, not quite, more like the back of an old, shitty landscape yard. My girlfriend (who works at the site) had cleared another shoot with her boss. All he required was a case of beer - $40.

So the budget so far:
Camera/Sound - $200
Director            - $100
Location           - $40
Food/drink        - $20

Total Budget    - $360

Now when you hear about preparing yourself for things to go wrong on a set, it's true. We were all on time and ready to go and I was getting make-up done by Natalie when Wayne and Laurence came to discuss the script. As they were talking to me I noticed their expressions changing to a concerned/disturbed look. I soon found out why - this is what they saw:

Haha I looked like mime artist! Wayne hastily dragged me into a back office out of site from natalie so as not to offend her and he rubbed all the make-up off with the sleeve of his shirt. By the time we were ready for the first shot we were already half an hour behind. Natalie is a usually good make-up artist, I just think she had a brain fart that morning.

Besides that the shoot went pretty smoothly, around four hours. On set at 9am and finished by 1pm. My only concern was the DOP and director working together for the first time, but except for a few artistic differences it was all good.

Now we still couldn't afford a proper editor so Wayne was got to work again in post. Kearon, however, said he was happy to do a colour grade for us. A main rule Wayne and myself had set for ourself was that every episode must be a step up in terms of overall quality than the previous one. I highly recommend you take on this rule as it works in lifting your game, constantly learning and improving.

I was now living in a Halfway House and met another fellow in recovery who was an ex-sheep shearer from the bush and now studying music at Tafe. He is extremely talented and had really had that acoustic guitar country music thing down-pat which I thought could suit McCracken perfectly. I showed him what we were doing and what kind of jingle we were after and a few days later he had put together the McCracken theme song. For free!

When making micro budget film or series it is SO IMPORTANT to be aware of the potential resources you have around you. All the time. My jingle creator did this for me for free and I have since returned the favour. Remember, what goes around comes around.

The end result of McCracken Part 2 "The First Delivery" turned out well. With the colour grade, theme song and overall higher production value it was definitely a step up and although we weren't the Coen Brothers just yet, we had stuck to our goal and delivered on it.

https://www.facebook.com/McCrackenTruckstop?ref=hl

McCracken Episode 1 - The Unplanned Shoot

McCracken wasn't initially intended to be a web series, but only a one off skit for Wayne Bradley's online sketch comedy series. I had approached him with the character, McCracken, which he was willing to give it a shot as long as I organized the shoot. I needed a location that resembled a trucking companies office. My girlfriend works for a landscape sales company and she said their old office had been abandoned up the back of their site and I could use it. Perfect. I scoped it out and it was full of dust, falling apart and just basically shit. It would have to do.

Now I had to find my crew. Seeing as though I only had a couple of days until we shot and no money, I called upon a colleague called Abe who owed me a favour from a film course I did. I was happy to do it as long as I fed him. He would take care of sound too. Sweet! I had my crew - Abe.
So we all met up at this crappy office abandoned at the back of a landscape yard and set up inside the office. Wayne (who plays Boss), Abe and myself (who plays McCracken. None of us really knew what we were doing. Wayne decided to direct and set up a basic two shot of us sitting down doing the scene. It was a while since I had done any proper acting so it took me a while to get into it, and Abe talked too much but besides that it went pretty smoothly. There was no power up there so we had to rely on natural light through the windows. We only had one mic so we had to alternate depending who the shot was on. After four hours we were done. I ordered subway sandwiches for lunch which cost around $20 and ended up being our entire budget.

Wayne's normal editor had moved overseas and I couldn't afford a proper one so Wayne was good enough to teach himself final cut pro whilst editing the sketch. What a legend!
He put a rough cut together and after getting some feedback from a real editor he polished it up pretty good - for a first time editor I'd say damn good actually.

Then the complications came. First Wayne's collaborating partner didn't think the production value was high enough to be part of their sketch comedy series. Of course, myself having created this character, took it personally thinking it was "me" that was shit and not the "production value". Subsequently I went on a bender. I had completely returned to my own pattern of behaviour and had to go to rehab. On top of that I found out Abe was in jail detained over an alleged murder charge… next time I will research my crew a little more thoroughly.

So here I was - in rehab, my sketch and character having failed, and I still had to break the news to Wayne that our cinematography was a potential murderer. Thankfully Wayne took that news quite well. He also lifted my spirits back up expressing that he liked and believed in McCracken. He said he wanted to post it on his own Youtube channel and possibly make a little series out of them.  

While this both excited and frightened me at the same time, I set about writing several more episodes whilst in rehab.

Episode 1 still remains one of my favorites, purely because of the rawness of it and the fact it kick started the whole journey. It currently sits at about 30,000 hits on YouTube since September... Not bad for a cast and crew of three and budget of twenty bucks! You can view Episode 1 here:

McCracken: Truck Stop - Part 1 "The Job Interview"

 The only photo of the original McCracken played by Tim Roberts from Episode 1

 The abandoned office up the back of the landscape yard