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| for the full list visit: IndieIntertube.tv |
Once You Leave has been nominated for 11 Indie Intertube Awards
watch the nomination video here
& the trailer for the event here
For Now Productions, Nate Locklear, Kayla Olson and the entire OYL team are honored and extremely excited. Please support and watch all the shows nominated as well as Indie Intertube. Amazing stuff is being created and it's time it all gets recognized.
Once You Leave's nominations (scroll down or click category to go straight to section)
1. Best Transmedia Project
2. Best Sound Design (Sound Editing/Mixing: Nate Locklear, Recordist: Ken Dvorak)
3. Best Original Soundtrack (see links and video below)
4. Best Editing (Nate Locklear)
5. Best Looking Show (Cinematography) (Nate Locklear)
6. Best Additional Content
7. Best Directing in a Drama (Nate Locklear)
8. Best Writing in a Drama (Script: Nate Locklear, Story: Nate Locklear & Kayla Olson)
9. Best Actress in a Drama (Kayla Olson)
10. Best Breakout Performance (Kayla Olson)
11. Best Drama
a detailed breakdown of the work we put into the categories we were nominated for after the jump...
1. TRANSMEDIA PROJECT:
We are now in an age where information and knowledge are not only constantly desired but so easily accessible. A movie or story cannot only be just that anymore. Some say that we as a society get "bored" or what I like to think instead is, we fall in love with a movie, series or story and then want more media and material. We want the soundtrack, the poster, and the stills gallery. We want to know how it was made and laugh at the bloopers. We want backstory and prequels and sequels. And this is where Transmedia comes in. The crossing over of mediums to tell your story. So now you can have a show that continues the story to a comic book and a video game or... Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
We are now in an age where information and knowledge are not only constantly desired but so easily accessible. A movie or story cannot only be just that anymore. Some say that we as a society get "bored" or what I like to think instead is, we fall in love with a movie, series or story and then want more media and material. We want the soundtrack, the poster, and the stills gallery. We want to know how it was made and laugh at the bloopers. We want backstory and prequels and sequels. And this is where Transmedia comes in. The crossing over of mediums to tell your story. So now you can have a show that continues the story to a comic book and a video game or... Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
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| Rachel Perkins Blog |
A journal from the point-of-view of Rachel Perkins, who is a crucial character in the OYL world. The journal details the two years while our main character, Kayla is in the Peace Corp. The entries consist of short passages of Rachel's thoughts and dreams, pictures and video. Some of the video was created specifically for the blog, some of it is from the series, some outtakes and even some behind-the-scenes. The blog (still running) will lead up to the opening shot of episode 1.01 of the series and delivers some insight into who Rachel is and foreshadows some events in the OYL world.
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| OYL comic: Illustrated by Karla Moya |
The comic book story details the events of Kayla's departure from the Peace Corp up until her arrival at her mom's house in episode 1.01 of the series. The story is told in a much more cerebral and symbolic fashion with dream sequences and foreshadowing rather than the more realistic approach the series takes. We did this, well, because it's a comic book and we could. Plus it was fun to tell the OYL story in a slightly different way than we had, which was more experimental. Karla Moya is the illustrator with whom I had long discussions over the look and feel of the book. I wrote out a traditional film-style script and she took it from there after our meetings. What we have ended up with is beautiful. And coming to it after you see what happens in the series, since this story is a prequel, is very sad. See a trailer for the comic in the middle of this video [click here]
Part III: Once You Leave (a 12 part dramatic series)
Lost and alone, Kayla must contemplate her next move. Where do you go when the road has run out? How did she get here? She retraces her steps, haunted by shadows of her past and confronted by demons in her present. On the road she must face the reality of lost, unrequited love, the dark hearts of men and dream-shattering disappointment. Will Kayla find the strength to go on, to find herself, to find her home? They say you can never go home again, once you leave. (this passage was written by my talented sister, Erin Ellis)
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| tagline: without you I am lost |
Part IV: Without You I Am Lost (the making of Once You
Leave)
A multi-part series of behind-the-scenes webisodes (shot mostly by team member Kevin Harris) detailing
the making of the Once You Leave project including the series, blog and comic book
and more. In conjunction with this
series we also have a slew of bts photos by stills photographer L.A. LeJeune
Photography, and this production journal.
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| about to shoot: photo by L.A. LeJeune |
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| Nate checking sound on set |
2. SOUND DESIGN:
I see so many content creators recording the sound, dialog etc with their camera mics.
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| Ken Dvorak: sound recordist |
Content creators, please use microphones not just your
camera mic!!!
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| shooting a scene with sound |
3. ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK:
We were very lucky to get to use the music we did. And the artists donated them to us for free as long as we gave due credit. Music is a crucial part to any story and I'm glad we had the chance to work with these artists in the various ways we did. Laura Johnson and Kayla Olson (plus a few others) put in a lot of work getting these artists and it's made all the difference. I knew there were going to be many quiet moments in the series without music but I also love writing scenes while I'm listening to music so I had to find a balance. I also love how the music can go from a simple and minimal tune on a guitar to a rocking full piece band. Below see some of the artists from episodes 1-6 perform.
We were very lucky to get to use the music we did. And the artists donated them to us for free as long as we gave due credit. Music is a crucial part to any story and I'm glad we had the chance to work with these artists in the various ways we did. Laura Johnson and Kayla Olson (plus a few others) put in a lot of work getting these artists and it's made all the difference. I knew there were going to be many quiet moments in the series without music but I also love writing scenes while I'm listening to music so I had to find a balance. I also love how the music can go from a simple and minimal tune on a guitar to a rocking full piece band. Below see some of the artists from episodes 1-6 perform.
Curt Locklear (featured in episodes 1.01, 1.02, 1.07)
MVP (featured in episodes 1.01, 1.05 & Various Trailers and bts)
Smoke and Feathers (courtesy of Frenchie Smith Records)
(featured in episodes 1.03)
Idgy Vaughn (featured in episodes 101 of BTS webisodes)
James Jackson Leach (featured in episode 1.04)
Please support these artists that donated their amazing music for "free" to Once You Leave.
4. EDITING:
I have a love-hate relationship with editing. Part of me hates logging all the footage and capturing all the footage and making sure it's in the right bin and folder. Then going through the footage again to place together in an assembly edit. It's time consuming and the furthest point you are away from creating "art." But it's crucial! You have to know your footage to create your story and create your pacing and rhythm. You have to be organized so you don't waste time and energy (and in most cases, money) later. And you need to see all the usable footage placed in order, from beginning to end of your story so you can get a feeling as to how the beats will play out and where the heart is located.
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| final sequence episode 1.01 |
The things I love about editing all revolve around the times when I get to live with the footage for awhile. I get to experiment with placing shots together. I see the sometimes minuscule subtleties in the delivery of a line or at other times, the completely different takes captured while experimenting on set. I get to tell a story. Editing is tough. And it's all about being decisive, making cuts based on what your gut tells you to do. One important technique I keep in mind, especially when cutting dialog between two characters is to use their eyes and glances as a guide to how I cut. I love to have the characters make eye-contact. I feel this creates a connection between the characters and brings out the chemistry that the audience is looking for.
I can listen to criticism, sometimes... If it's coming from a center of knowledge then I always consider other's opinions. Anyone can be a critic and say horrible things about a piece of work, but people who understand filmmaking, editing and even art give constructive criticism and that creates a sense of partnership between critic and creator.
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| opening shot, this was decided in editing |
I admit, I do sometimes have trouble with pacing and knowing when to end a shot. I love quick paced stuff but with this series I was trying to slow down. Everything now-a-days is geared for an ADHD audience. And to feed that speed will only perpetuate that speed. We will consume something without really ingesting and then throw it away to move onto the next "big" thing. Part of me realizes this is just how much of society has become, especially youth (with the amount of technology available). Everyone craves information. But are we really learning from this mass consumption of information? Are we really taking it all in at break-neck speeds? A rapid pace can be good but is it what the story needs? Not everything needs to or can follow this current fad of bam! bam! bam! Is it a fad? Will we ever go back to meticulously crafted stories with a deliberate leisurely pacing? Will that ever become "popular" amidst a 15-second attention span saturated market?
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| handheld, telephoto |
5. CINEMATOGRAPHY:
I practically destroyed myself shooting Once You Leave. I knew I wanted a hand-held style (see entry: "Shaky Camera") with as much natural light or simulated natural light as possible. I wanted a shallow depth of field but needed to be portable and as light as possible but we also needed a rugged camera that could withstand the elements of nature. And I wasn't completely sold on the DSLR shooters at the time because the workflow still wasn't there with a highly compressed shooting format that (again at the time) many editing applications had trouble handling the native codec, DSLRs tend to overheat (especially in the Texas heat) and there are issues with having sound separate. Plus the amount of record time per card wasn't very long. And as you know we have some long dialog scenes. We did multiple takes (the crew at one point was calling me "10-take Nate") so we needed cards with high capacity and a lot of them. So I opted for the same camera I used while shooting The Daytripper because I knew its strengths and weaknesses. The camera was the Sony HD PMWEX1.
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| shooting on The Daytripper, 14' gator few feet away |
Now the difference between shooting Once You Leave vs. shooting The Daytripper was that with Daytripper we could just run and gun, shoot full wide angle, use gain if it was too dark and have a documentary feel because it was an informational travel show. With OYL I was trying to create a deeper meaning with my photography. I wanted the viewers to be in Kayla's world with selective focus, vibrant colors and close intimate framing. To achieve the shallow depth of field I could have used adapters but we needed to be portable (and we would've lost some stops of light) so instead for every shot and as much as we possibly could I distanced myself from the action or characters and zoomed in to frame my shot (medium to full telephoto lens, 81.2 mm in full, equivalent to 439 mm on 35 mm lenses). In this way it was sometimes like working with prime lenses, like I did when I used to shoot 16 mm film. I moved my body more than I adjusted the lens zoom function. This also removed the camera from the actors. They didn't constantly have it in their face distracting them from the scenes and emotions. I truly feel they could lose themselves a bit more without me and my "drifting" camera up in their space. In addition, I tried to shoot with f-stops ranging from 1.9 to 2.8 because I knew that would also give me the shallow depth of field I wanted. This was great, at times because it allowed me to shoot with more natural light and a less amount of light. I also used different shutter angle settings so I could control the amount of motion blur. By giving it less blur and making the action more "crisp" it created some chaos which is symbolic for Kayla's world. This setting did cause some loss in stops of light and I had to adjust accordingly. I always found the equal balance of exposure versus angle versus distance and created something that of which I am very proud.
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| Cody Johnson: camera op |
But with the handheld style and long takes I wore myself out very quickly. Not to mention I got bicep tendonitis and either a pinched nerve or carpal tunnel in my hand. With Daytripper we used the tripod as much as handheld or where in the car driving to a location or I had some assistants to hold the camera for awhile. OYL just wasn't the same type shoot. I struggled on though with a hand brace and constantly stretching. I also had an episode where I acted so I handed over the camera operation to my gaffer/grip and asst. camera, Cody Johnson. Cody did a great job taking over for episode 1.07 and we found ways to create the drift that wasn't technically handheld.
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| Nate discusses set-up with Eric & Kevin |
Speaking of Cody, the cinematography is only as good as the project's gaffer. Cody has been working with me and For Now Productions as gaffer for many years and many projects. I feel we understand each other quite well. Cody is a super relaxed guy on set and lights with the minimal amount of set-ups, which I love. I've worked with other gaffers in the past that felt they had to use every light and every stand, flag and gobo just so they have something to brag about when you could've achieved the same thing with a scoop lamp from home depot and an inbetweenie light as a kicker. Cody's style has perfected over the years and I couldn't imagine doing a shoot without him. He also had help from our behind-the-scenes producer, Kevin Harris who is great at lighting in his own right and our grip (and actor, Tim) Eric Anschutz. They all did an amazing job at lighting every scene. I was always sad in the edit room when I had to cut a beautifully lit scene due to pacing. They all deserve as much credit as I get.
The biggest compliments I've received came from colleagues and friends comparing my work to that of some master filmmakers. One of my favs and someone I draw inspirations from is also a resident of Austin, TX, the great auteur, Terrence Malick
Another film my work on Once You Leave has been compared to is the must see film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), directed by Julian Schnabel and shot by Janusz Kaminski
To be compared to these greats is an honor and to me, unbelievable- I can only hope to live up to the amazing talent these filmmakers have. I'll keep trying... One note I wanted to discuss, dealing with what I mentioned earlier about "10-take Nate": I sometimes can do 20 takes and other times just one. There is never a set amount. I'm searching for something. What? Well if I could answer that then I guess I wouldn't have to do so many takes. It deals with the technical- is it in focus, did I hit my focus marks, did the actor, did I move right with panning and titling and "drifting"... then also with emotional: did the actor/actress hit the marks physically, emotionally... Did I miss anything... Did I stray... Did I want more, less... And I always know it when I see it. Often times we do a safety after we get the "one" but it is never as good as the take that hits that emotion in my gut. I love shooting, I just hope my body can keep up with me.
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| Kayla records some footage for episode 1.07 |
In addition, we also shot select scenes (primarily Kayla's vlog entries) with a Flip- Mino. Most times Kayla would hold the camera on herself and I would help guide the framing or at other times be shooting on the EX1 as an alternate angle and to get better sound. It's a great little camera and it shoots in HD (not full 1080 but it still looks nice after color correction).
6. ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
Well, most of this topic is covered in the Transmedia section. But I can add onto what I was mentioning above about our quick-paced media consumption: this is one of the reasons I wanted "additional content" and made it a transmedia project. Once the audience "ate" up the series I wanted to make sure they had more to satiate their hunger. Sure our series is the main selling point but if you love it and then become sad when it's over because you're not ready to leave the OYL world then read the comic and Rachel's blog, watch how it was made, it will all just enhance your enjoyment of the series.
Back in 2004 I realized that I hadn't made any substantial work for many years. I had graduated from the University of Texas a couple years back and was just working part-time for the film department at Austin Community College. I realized, wow! I'm not in school anymore. There is no one "making" me shoot films anymore. No more grades, no more school projects. I am on my own now. I can't say I'm a student filmmaker anymore. Can I say I'm just a filmmaker though? So I decided to shoot a short. I got a crew together (many ACC students), got some equipment and went into production. And we had a blast! We ended up creating a short I titled, She's Not My Sister. It was a comedy about 2 sets of sisters having to be step-sisters and getting a little cabin fever. But what stayed with me was that this was the first project I hired a behind-the-scenes videographer. And an official stills photographer. The reasoning was that I had realized many of my friends and family knew I was a filmmaker but had never really seen me in action. I wanted documentation of the craziness that it is to be on set. Ever since then I make it a priority to have additional content in at least behind-the-scenes material.
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| Nate, Rae & Kayla rehearsing |
7. DIRECTING:
When people ask what I do in filmmaking, my first answer is usually, I'm a director. One of my favorite parts of the filmmaking process is the rehearsal with the actors. I don't have to operate camera or worry about lighting and the time crunch isn't the same. Just working with actresses/actors and experimenting... And that's a blast! We didn't get a bunch of traditional rehearsal time for OYL. But we did get to do it before we shot episode 1.01 and that got Kayla and I ready. (Other times we would practice on set before shooting and sometimes we would just shoot the rehearsal and see if we captured some magic). I like it so much because it's a time when everyone, myself included does not have any pre-conceived notions of how it has to be performed. We try multiple things and find the best fit. I've always wanted to do a more improv based shoot but in the end I always feel compelled to script it out. So the rehearsal becomes the improv and we find how the script works best.
That said, shooting the material between Kayla and Rachel was by far the most fun I had. Because I finally did do some actual improv. We shot it all with a super light-weight camera, the Flip- Mino and we just ran from a few sketch ideas. And to top it off Rachel aka Jacki Brinker is not a professional actress. In fact she doesn't even want to be an actress. She works within the community and is a retired Roller Girl. But she was very happy to participate. I had a few chats with her, a few emails and notes and then she took it and flew. She was adding things into her dialog that I had only mentioned once before. She would elaborate and experiment and she was never afraid to try something, even if she felt silly. And this attitude was what I realized was going to make the audience fall in love with Rachel and sympathize with Kayla's feelings over her best friend. And to watch Jacki and Kayla play off each other was so much fun. They just took it and ran. We didn't have to stop and light it or worry about special mic problems. We just recorded with the flip because that's what they were doing in the story. I could always tell when Jacki would run out of ideas- she would keep improvising until either I said cut or when she ran out she would slowly look up at me or the camera with a devilish grin. It was very comical.
Every good director has an even better assistant director.
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| spread this picture around |
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| Jason makes sure Nate is on schedule |
Mine was Jason Massey and he kept me sane. Jason was new to the AD job but he performed like a seasoned vet. He always knew what was next on the schedule, he always got people focused, he stopped traffic for shots, he helped lug equipment up and down the stairs, he always stayed late and he even gave his own money to the production (which also moved him into an executive producer slot). Through all of the drama and late nights and re-scheduling and pimento cheese sandwiches I don't think I ever heard him complain. He was a trooper. Make sure to also thank him because he's the reason we have the website we do. He designed it and did a great job.
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| Nate directing |
With directing the main thing I keep in mind is to try and give the actors playable direction instead of result direction. So instead of saying I want you to be sad in this scene I could say something like I want to you to play this scene as if your beloved childhood dog has just died. Because everyone is going to have different interpretations of sad but practically everyone knows how it feels to lose a pet. Giving direction in verbs and actions is also ideal. Instead of, you are mad at him I would say you want to kill him. Do I ask my actors questions? Yes, I do. How would you play this? What do you feel? What would you say instead? Are you going to yell at him? Should you want to kiss her? This puts it in the actors hands but with a passive guidance. But every actor is different and every situation and scene is different. It's hard work directing this way, it would be so easy to just say be happy, be mad etc but then you are going to get stereotypical performances. Besides, if it wasn't difficult then what would be the point in doing it?
8. Writing:
They say write what you know, write what scares you and write from the heart. I find myself always drifting towards dramatic material. Regret, unrequited love, searching on how to fit in, coping with death, what it is to be alive, feeling a loss of self, of culture and of happiness: these are some of the things I know and some of the things that scare me as well. When creating stories I often refer back to an interesting article MovieMaker magazine (Vol. 7, issue 36) published back in Fall '99 titled, "The Path of the Artist" in which film professor and theorist Ray Carney writes about cinema. In it he disregards many of my favorite films but that's not the part I like. What I like is that he breaks down cinema and filmmakers and asks some serious questions about why we make films and why are so many stories stereotypical. It's very inspiring. But one thing I kept with me was that many filmmakers don't create from that inner feeling of fear and doubt. That they only work within the realms of what is "safe". It's like when you drop your keys at night while walking to your car, you keep looking for them in the light. It's scary in the dark but that's where they probably are. And I try to apply this to my stories. I ask some questions even if subtle and I try to explore themes that I haven't figured out or ones that make me feel uneasy.
ROGER
Do you remember when you were young
and we would go to the beach?
Kayla nods.
ROGER (CONT'D)
And you and I would spend hours
building sand castles. You would bring
the buckets of sand over and dump them
on top then I would smooth them and shape them.
You used to get such a kick out of that.
But as the tide started to come in,
I never quite...
KAYLA
(taking over)
You never quite built the moat deep
enough. You never spent much time on
that even though you
knew at some point
the water would come in and destroy the
bottom of the castle
causing the entire
thing to crumble.
ROGER
And you would cry and try to dig the
moat deeper while it was all falling
apart. But then by the
next time we
were building another castle neither
of us remembered to dig that
moat any deeper.
Kayla licks her finger and dabs some of the sugar grains
too. Then smiles.
ROGER (CONT'D)
You know, you turned out pretty good,
seems.
KAYLA
Rachel...
ROGER
Yeah, she was a good gal.
Kayla
Rachel's dead.
While writing I just try to imagine realistic dialog. I try to shy away from anything too poetic but I love poetry. So what do you do? Well for OYL I added people reading actual poems to cover that poetic need and used personal journaling via the vlogging technique to get across the more intimate feelings but then tried to keep interactions as down-to-earth as possible. I was really getting a lot of my feelings out with this project but I didn't realize it until after we shot it all and I've been re-watching in the edit room. Who are we? Where are we going? Who will love us? How do we fit in? What do we do when we've gotten to where we are supposed to be but still are unhappy? And I think April and Amanda, hosts at Indie Intertube said it best- that OYL has a message but it's not beating that message over your head. That's what I intended. I want subtleties in the story, the performances and in the messages. I want the audience to do a little of the work and find the meanings and relate or to figure out what a sentence or word someone said means. I even hid some meaning in character names and locations. It's like a puzzle that once you get the pieces you see the whole picture. But of course the blog and the comic and even the bts are also parts of that puzzle.
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| Kayla gets into character |
9. ACTRESS:
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| waiting for a scene |
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| Nate and Kayla going over the script |
10. BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE:
This category of course covers Kayla's entire performance, coming almost out of nowhere and completely blowing the audience away. Scenes in which Kayla completely "broke out" in my opinion are:
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| ep 1.02 Kayla gets the news |
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| ep 1.02 Kayla gets the news |
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| ep 1.02 returning to the creek |
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| ep 1.02 Kayla in pain |
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| ep 1.03 the breakdown in the car |
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| ep 1.03 a new journey begins |
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| ep 1.04 Now what? |
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| ep 1.04 Now what? |
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| ep 1.05 Africa |
And to be honest her acting just gets better as the series progresses. We have some moments coming up that will tear at your heart strings. And some of the final moments in episode 1.12 are the finest I've ever seen from an actress in any one of my projects. I think you'll agree.
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| Kayla breaks: still from ep 1.12 |
11. DRAMA:
"Best Drama", wow! To be in this category is a tremendous honor. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love creating dramas, I love watching good drama, it's so... rich and fulfilling. It makes you think afterward and ask questions about life, love and society. This must be a hard category to judge. I would have a hard time selecting just one project that was the best drama because I think it would depend on the mood I was in on a particular day. I guess that's why there are multiple people judging and comparing notes etc but still...
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| Kayla's realization: photo by L.A. LeJeune |
"The most dramatic conflicts are perhaps, those that take place not between men [women] but between a man [woman] and himself [herself]- where the arena of conflict is a solitary mind."
~Clark Moustakas
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All the above mentioned material would not have been possible without my amazing crew: Kayla Olson, Jason Massey, Kevin Harris, Cody Johnson, Ken Dvorak, Eric Anschutz, Lyndsey LeJeune, Laura Johnson and Karla Moya. And our extended crew Samantha Ireland and Anita Garza. Plus our amazing cast and additonal producers and of course our fans! THANK YOU
Well, regardless if we win or not we are just happy to be nominated. And even more, we are just glad to have gotten the chance to create and share it with deserving people.
Please tune into Indie Intertube March 11th for the Awards Show.
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