Saturday, July 31, 2010

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Three)

During March of 2010 I was reformatting the screenplay after transferring it to a new computer. I had gone back and taken a look at some notes that my friend Keaton had given me, a few months earlier, and I came across one that made perfect sense to me.

"What happens to Lindsay?" he asked. I did not have an answer. Lindsay was a character that one of the boys meets during his journey and falls in love with. After a particular scene in my story the boys had continued on their journey leaving Lindsay behind. There was nothing memorable about her. If he truly loved her, how could he leave her behind so easily?

I knew that an audience would never believe Ricky truly cared about this girl if he let her go so easily, so I knew what needed to happen. She had to guide the boys for a section of their journey, which she now does.

During this time of rewrites I was on a personal road trip with my friend, Zeus, who was visiting from Holland. During a lot of these rewrites I was actually traveling from California, where we met, through Arizona and up to Colorado.

The next pivotal step in driving me to finally produce my film happened while Zeus and I were visiting my parents in Colorado for Easter. My mom has a large collection of movies and every night we would watch a film before going to bed. On one of the evenings my mom suggested a movie for Zeus and I to watch.

My first thoughts of this film were, "I don't really think I want to watch this crap. It's going to be a cheesy Hollywood movie. It's got big stars, it's gonna be fluff." I even second guessed my own mother's judgment. I decided not to verbally say any of my concerns that flashed in my head and I told my mom, "Okay, pop it in." The film I am speaking of is called "Freedom Writers".

The film was really well done. It dealt with the issues of racism in American culture. I personally know a film is good when it stirs up emotions and evokes thoughts within me. At certain points in the film I felt as if I wanted to cry because of the portrayal of how some people in the world behave.

One actress in particular caught my eye during the film. She had some of the most mesmerizing eyes I had ever seen. She would show so much emotion in scenes with just the way she looked at another character. This actress I speak of is Jackie Ngan.

Being the cinephile that I am, I have always had a great interest in young up-and-coming actors. I always fantasize about who I might one day be able work with. About a year prior to watching "Freedom Writers" I had grown a "mancrush" on an actor by the name of Andrew Garfield. I saw him in an incredible film titled "Boy A" and now he's going to be the new "Spiderman".

Take that for what it is, but I did the exact same thing for Jackie as I had done for Andrew. I looked her up on IMDB to see her other work.

To my astonishment "Freedom Writers" was Jackie's first film. And on top of that, it appeared that she had not done many productions since.

I thought that if I tried to contact her I had a 1/100 chance of her responding. On top of my probability of her response I felt I honestly had a 1/1000 chance of her actually being interested in my film if she made the initial response. "Who am I?" I asked myself. But hell, I had nothing to lose.

I contacted her and to my surprise she kindly replied. I was so in shock of her response that I knew I had to calm myself down and play it cool. She told me she would be interested in reading the role of Lindsay.

I nervously emailed her the latest draft of the screenplay. I did not know how to respond if she told me it was complete garbage. To respect somebody's work so much and to have them tell you you're work is not good enough would be soul-crushing.

She positively responded to me two days after sending her the screenplay. I still remember her first sentence saying she found the screenplay "moving". I still kept my guard up waiting for her to say she was going to pass. I thought she was trying to sugarcoat me with politeness. When I read her last sentence that stated that she would like to be on board, I was in shock. I was in complete awe of everything that was taking place.

My 25th birthday was right around the corner and I was planning to move to Los Angeles. I already had my first meeting lined up with Jackie and I was on top of the world.

I arrived in Los Angeles at around 10pm on April 20th, 2010 to celebrate my 25th year of life. I met with my friend Matt Bailey for dinner in Chinatown. I told him my plans and I was going to make this year count. I was a quarter of a century old and I knew it was time to become a man. I became steadfast on producing my first feature film.

I now had two actors on board and the only thing that was going to hold me back from actually making this film was myself.

The other actor that I had casted for this project was an actor by the name of Tyler Vincent. I attended a festival in which a short film of mine by the name of "Sky Train" was playing. This was in the summer of 2009. I saw a short that Tyler was in and I thought he did a fantastic job. He ended up taking home the best actor award at the festival.

I contacted him after the festival and told him I was interested in his work. I mentioned to him my project "Turning Point" and he seemed interested. At the same time I felt a sense of skepticism because he initially thought I was a documentary filmmaker. When he finally saw some of my other work he realized I was more well-rounded than he assumed.

I remember emailing him a copy of the screenplay. I knew I wanted him to play one of the three boys. I had a boy in mind which I thought he would be perfect for. However I thought he would be drawn towards the role of James because that character has the most prominent arc in the story.

To my surprise, when he finally responded he was drawn towards the character of Ricky. The exact character I had in mind for him. He was on board and it wasn't until one year later that we formally met in person and had our first read through together with Jackie.

I was really nervous at first because I was playing cupid to a certain extent. I kept second-guessing myself, "What if they hate each other in real life?" "No, Ryan! They're both really good people. They'll be fine together." "No---No, they won't, stupid. How can you listen to somebody that talks to themselves like this?"

I didn't know what was going to happen.

I put them together and magic happened before my eyes. They were perfect! The looks in both of their eyes in my rehearsal footage still astounds me. The puppy love they portray seems so true and so innocent.

Currently I am in the process of casting the other roles of the film. So until things are confirmed, I don't think I should divulge too much information.

I've finally reached the point in which I can see the horizon in which my film will come to fruition. It's been a long and arduous road at times but it's all been worth it. The experiences and relationships I've created along the way are irreplaceable. I look forward to what the future has to hold and what's going to be around the next bend.

I want to personally and sincerely thank anybody that has read this far into my story. Please leave any and all comments that you may have. I would love to stay motivated while documenting this experience.

(Hopefully this is not truly "The End")

-Ryan Moser.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Two)

About a year after writing the rough draft of "For Better or Worse", I wrote my second feature length screenplay currently titled "Turning Point". I was 20 years old when I decided to pen my ideas onto paper. Technically I typed my thoughts onto a screen but that does not sound nearly as sexy.

It took me five days to write that first draft. If I've learned anything from writing it is that your first draft will inevitably be garbage. You might as well get it out of you in the most painless manner so you can get to the fun part sooner... Rewrites!

Through all the projects that I've done in the past, from writing to directing short films, I kept pushing myself to learn from the mistakes that didn't make me love my work. This sort of mindset inevitably allowed me to create more professional work on my next project.

Recently I looked back at the first film I worked as the cinematographer on. I did the cinematography for my good friend Pattara's thesis film "Curry Cookies". When I look back on it now, I cringe.

He personally hates his film but I still think it was very well done. Especially for a thesis film. However, that being said, I regretted not being able to do a better job on my behalf. This sort of personal disappoint motivated me to become the best I could be.

Three years later, when I worked as the cinematographer on my friend Chase's film 'Cingulate Blue', the results of my new knowledge and skills that I possessed astonished me. In between Chase and Pattara's films I had personally worked as the cinematographer on one short film, that I also directed, but other than that I had not touched any sort of motion picture camera.

Through my knowledge of still photography and lighting I was able to take a drastic leap.

A year after writing my rough draft of 'Turning Point' I took a hard copy of it with me to Hawaii. I bought a one-way ticket and rented a room there with no real plan of what I was going to do next in life. My filmmaking "career" wasn't exactly blossoming at lightning speed and I knew I wanted out of Arizona. So why not flee to paradise?

Within my first week in Hilo, HI I had developed a strong case of island fever and I knew I did not want to live there for the rest of my life either. No matter how beautiful it was, I knew I had bigger things on my horizon. Being stuck out at sea was preventing me from getting my dreams to come true.

Since I was only going to stay for a few months I decided not to get a job. Something that I've personally always hated. I have a very strong work ethic when I'm doing something I love. But when I'm working for simply a paycheck, it's never motivating enough for me. I was fortunate enough to be able to live off of my personal savings.

One of the things that I'm most proud of, in myself, is that I've financially taken care of myself through wise spending. People have always assumed that I leech money off of my parents since I go through spurts of unemployment and have traveled quite a bit. However I have never made my parents financially support me since living on my own.

Anyways, while I was in Hawaii the only things I had to occupy my time was a library card and my skateboard. I would go to the library everyday when I woke up to check my email, since I did not have a computer where I was staying. I also did not have a television so I began checking out books incessantly because I had nothing else to do at night besides read. It got to the point where on average I was reading a book a night. I read anything and everything I could get my hands onto, including lots of filmmaking books.

I lost a lot of weight during this venture because it was my first real time on my own and I did not know how to properly nourish myself. Plus, skateboarding all day in the humidity causes a person to sweat off pounds rapidly.

It may have been this concoction of ingredients that created the perfect recipe for a beautiful insanity. I picked up my hard copy of 'Turning Point' one evening and I began reading through it. I realized that the story had a lot of promise and if I were to rework things, I might actually be capable of creating a quality story. Unfortunately, when I looked at the hard copy of "For Better or Worse" I did not see this potential. The words on those pages will forever be my little secret.

I began coloring the pages of my hard copy of 'Turning Point' blue with ink. Writing and rewriting scenes. Taking notes and rearranging sections of the film. Rewriting dialogue over and over and over and over again.

When I finally came back to the mainland and retyped the screenplay on a computer I had cut out 40 pages of what I considered "fat". From that point on, I had something that was actually readable and I began getting notes from friends.

Over the course of the next few years I began having numerous friends read the screenplay to give me notes. No matter how poor some people's opinions seemed to be, I would almost always find one piece of advice that would really help better my story.

Over this time I kept crafting and re-crafting the screenplay into something that would make for quality storytelling on screen.

(To Be Continued)

-Ryan Moser.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Ryan Moser's Story (Part One)

My name is Ryan Moser, I am 25 years old, and this is part of my story.

I was born in Denver, CO on April 20th, 1985 to the parents of Robb and Vicki Moser. I am the oldest of three children. I have a younger brother and sister named Vanessa and Jason.

I lived a fantastic childhood that initially started in Highlands Ranch, CO. My family and I lived happily in Colorado until I was nine years old. In 1994 my family decided to move to Prescott, AZ. I lived there up through high school and I graduated from Prescott High School in 2003.

My passion for filmmaking began on a Friday night during my sophomore year of high school. My friend Jesse was spending the night when my brother and I picked up our parents camcorder and made a spoof on "Rocky". We titled our mini-boxing epic "The Ring". We shot the entire film sequentially and planned before each shot what we would say. We did every shot of the movie chronologically with only one take. Once we finished filming our credits, which were handwritten on a piece of paper, we put the tape into the VCR. We had just completed our very first film. No need for editing. It was already put together. As we watched we laughed to the point of tears and we may have even peed ourselves a little.

The next morning we woke up and made a new film. By Sunday we were on to special effects and we made a film titled "A Day in the Life of Twins". In this film each character had a twin that they would interact with on their way to a "twin party."

It took us approximately four to six hours to shoot our twin epic, which ended up having a screen time of about three to four minutes, but I loved every single minute of creating it. Time went by so fast.

After dropping off my friend Jesse at his house on Sunday evening, my mom and I began discussing how people actually make a living creating films. At that point I knew exactly what I wanted to do for a career.

During my senior year of high school I began researching film schools. I had fallen in love with editing so I figured I should be formally trained and get a more professional and solid background. I was interested in a film school in San Francisco but the tuition was quite expensive. During "Career Day" at my high school I heard about 'The Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking'. It was located in Sedona, AZ which was only an hour from where I lived.

I remember I applied to the school immediately. I sent in my application in November of 2002 because they only accepted 20 students a year and I wanted to be sure I had the best chance possible of being selected. To my enthusiasm I was accepted in June of 2003.

The school was a year long intensive program that I began in August 2003. I learned a lot from attending the school but I also learned that filmmaking is something that cannot entirely be taught. Since it is an art form, you cannot teach the intuition aspect of filmmaking to students that I believe true filmmakers possess. I personally believe I possess this intuition.

I believe my two strongest points as a filmmaker are my instinct and my perseverance. I have a hard time taking 'no' for an answer and my drive has gotten me to where I am today. I think many people would have given up on my dream and taken a simpler route of finding a more "solid" career. I cannot argue with my heart or my passion. I am proud and happy to be where I am at and I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

I graduated from film school in May of 2004. It's funny to think that I learned more the year following school than I did while attending. School was a stepping stone that gave me the concepts and ideas. It was after I graduated that I really began to delve deeper into what I was taught and try to really explore everything for myself.

Around this time my brother was studying photography in high school. I would purchase rolls of 35mm film and take his camera out and learn how to properly shoot stills. Metering light and making a single frame interesting helped me realize there is much more to cinematography than pointing a camera at actors. I really began learning the craft of composition.

I began reading anything and everything I could about filmmaking. I knew I didn't want to create "amateur hour" work so I studied everything I could to make my projects have a more professional edge. I studied everything from photography to music theory. I eventually took classes at a Small Business Development Center so I could learn how to properly run my own production company.

I also wrote my first feature length screenplay. The story was called "For Better or Worse." It was a story about the ups and downs of relationships. I doubt that I will ever let the screenplay see the light of day but I am glad that I wrote it. I learned a lot in the process of writing it. I mainly learned what not to do when writing a feature length screenplay.

During this time of my life I feared having to write so much. I had never written so many words before and I didn't know if I could possibly do it. Ever since I began taking writing seriously, I no longer suffer from this problem, obviously.

"For Better or Worse" was mainly a plot driven screenplay. I learned from that moment on that I would hate anything more focused on plot than character development. I think the personal distaste of my first writings has caused a lot of my bitterness towards many mainstream movies.

I was sick to my stomach when I was reading the rough draft of my story. I had my characters doing actions just for the sake of driving the plot forward. This happens, so this can happen, so this can happen, etc. etc. If my characters were real life human beings there is no way they would rationally behave in the manner that I was forcing them to.

I realized at this moment that the best stories in my opinion are based around relatable characters. If you are so entranced by a character, you can even be interested in them simply brushing their teeth. I learned that I needed to have my characters drive my story forward. Not force them to do something for the sake of driving my plot in a direction I wanted to take it.

(To Be Continued)

-Ryan Moser.