Turning Point

Turning Point is Now Available

2012-02-15T17:17:00.006-08:00

The fastest way to download 'Turning Point' is to simply click the link below. 'Turning Point' will automatically begin to download.

http://www.idspispopd.net/TurningPoint-HD-1080p.zip

-Ryan.

Boy-Oh-Boy!

2012-02-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

'Turning Point' is gearing up to go out into world as we are gearing up to make a new film.

Seasons Greetings

2011-12-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

Tis the season to be jolly.

And in all honesty it truly is. I've been grateful for many things this past year. Coincidentally most of them do not pertain to 'Turning Point.'

So before I give an update on what's going on with the film, I will list some things that I have been grateful for this year.

1) I started the New Year off with the love of my life. What more can you really ask for in life?

2) I made my deadline and completed my first feature film at the age of 25.

3) Had an amazing Memorial Day Weekend road trip where some of the cast and crew, as well as myself, traveled to Sedona, AZ. We showed the film during the annual student film festival that's held by the school I graduated. It was an amazingly fun trip. Still probably the highlight of this year.

4) I just received news that my sister is officially engaged today. Pretty surreal to imagine my baby sister is doing something that's so "adult." I'm very happy for her and realized we will be extending our family. I'm more than happy to accept her fiance' Brad into our lives because he's a really good guy.

5) Been doing pre-production work for a new short film titled "Little Big Man." My good friend Keaton and I wrote it this past summer. The project has definitely had its ups and downs due to some unnamed actors bailing from the project. But after two months of casting I believe I've found the right actors. So we'll see when it's time to film it. We were going to do it in January but that's way too soon now. Kind of funny how we imagined shooting it in September at one point.

6) In the meantime I've been really busy focusing my efforts on my music project Twilight in Versailles. I'm going to be recording my first ever EP. It's definitely been a long time coming so I'm really excited about that.

7) I'm also very blessed that my love, Lorena, got a job with Aeromexico as a flight attendant in the past year. I'm really proud of her and a bit envious of her globetrotting around while getting paid. And to top it all off, she gets to visit LA for free. So I'm definitely very grateful for that.

So all in all, it's been a very good year. A bit strange because I feel a lot less productive but I assume that feeling is due to my comparison of 2010. Moving back to LA and working on 'Turning Point' was a very, very productive and insane in all good ways kind of year.

As for the update, 'Turning Point' is sadly in limbo. For awhile there, it was always nice to tell people that I won't be hearing for a few months from what festivals have to say. It was a nice safety blanket. Unfortunately, I received my to be accepted rejection from Sundance. They received a little over 4000 feature film submissions this year so I don't feel obligated to take it too personal. I feel I will be receiving my official rejection letter from Slamdance sometime in the upcoming week. I feel that they would have already contacted me by phone if they were inviting me to play the film during their festival. Both of these festivals have very stiff competition so it does not surprise me in the least that 'Turning Point' did not make the cut.

I did receive some sad news from the Sedona International Film Festival this week as well. I received my official rejection letter from them. In all honesty and surprisingly enough to me, this one actually hurt a little. It's not by any means the most recognized or hyped festival in the circuit but it is definitely very credible. They were kind enough to inform me that the film did not make the cut due to the subject matter. I find that to be reasonable enough. They insured me that the filmmaking aspect qualities were top notch. It's still a bit surprising due to the fact that the audience in Sedona seemed to rave about my film when I showed it during the student film festival.

During the festival, I remember walking into the room and there were quite a few older ladies in the audience. My stomach sank because I did not purposefully set out to offend anyone with my film but I felt this was the demographic that would most likely be offended by the subject matter. To my amazement they seemed to be the biggest supporters of the film. After the screening and Q&A many of the women came up to myself, Lore, and other members of the cast and crew and congratulated us on our accomplishments and how much they related to the story. Definitely a touching moment that I would've loved to experience again in Sedona. Oh well.

The only sympathy card I can pull with this festival is, I was surprised they didn't favor the film due to my alumni status with the film school in Sedona. I'm not sure if I am technically the first or second alumnus to make a narrative feature, because another student completed a feature this year as well, but I felt that they would definitely want to show off a graduate's directorial debut. With that being said, this decision of the festival has also made me respect them even more because it shows that they really don't show favorites or pull favors. It's truly democratic, from what it seems. Or maybe 'Turning Point' is really just bad. (That's a joke. Sarcasm doesn't seem to translate all that well via text)

I'm still waiting to hear back from a few other festivals and I'm considering a few other viable options to get the film seen by people. That's truly the most important thing to me. I have said it many times and I'm more than happy to say it again, I did not spend all the time and effort in creating the project in order to watch it on a television set with only friends and family. I would love for the film to get out into the world and find its audience.

We'll see what fate has in store for us in the New Year. Happy Holidays to all the people of the world and especially anybody that follows this blog. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time from your life to read some insight into mine.

-Ryan.

Official Logo

2011-11-15T00:56:00.001-08:00

Recently came up with the official logo of the film. Merchandise will hopefully be made available shortly.

It's Been Awhile...

2011-10-24T15:28:00.001-07:00

Since I put a good quote on the blog. I thought I would share this one with any readers that are out there.

"The structure making a movie imposes on your life when you're doing it again feels like it felt each time before. So there is a kind of wonderful suggestive timelessness about the structure. I'm doing exactly the same as I was doing when I was eighteen and making my first movie. It frees you from any other sense of time." -Stanley Kubrick

I don't think you can describe the filmmaking process much better than that. I'm currently feeling like I'm making my first movie all over again as my team and I begin preproduction on my latest short film.

-Ryan.

The Joys of Filmmaking

2011-10-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

So... It begins.

Filmmaking is in my blood. It has to be, if I'm ready to begin the journey all over again. I'm currently gearing up to do a new short film and I'm getting really excited about it.

Currently we're in the process of casting. It's exciting and I'm happy. But it has not been without its rough patches. There initially wasn't supposed to be any casting but some things fell through but I sincerely believe it's for the best.

Lore is on top of her A-Game and she's helped me choose quite a lot of talent that would make for interesting portrayals of the characters my friend Keaton and I created.

We're hoping to shoot the short sooner than later. My hope and plan for the project is to complete it before "Turning Point's" festival premiere. The festival responses will begin rolling in around December so I'm still expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

I would love to have the film "completely completed" before we hit the road to show "Turning Point" and pass it out to audience members on DVD. I think it's a good way to keep people interested in us as filmmakers and to also make sure people remember us. We'd also like to show we have a range of material we are able to create.

As for this short there's not much else to say. "Turning Point" is currently waiting inside its cocoon. I'm hoping it comes out as a beautiful butterfly. But it just might end up being a moth that few people enjoy as it hides in the dark.

Like I've said before, only time will tell.

-Ryan.

One Year Anniversary

2011-09-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary from when we actually began the production of 'Turning Point.' It's really crazy how fast a year can go by and how much can happen and at the same time so little can change.

One year ago we were packing up and driving down to San Diego. We had a caravan of two cars. I put Bailey, myself, Tyler, Swen and Bingham all in one car so we could hopefully bond a little more on the car ride down. I really wanted the group to be friends and have trust in one another.

Bailey's car happened to be infested with ants at the time because there's an ants nest near our apartment's parking space. I don't remember who exactly came up with the idea at first, I'm guessing it was either Swen or Bailey, but we decided we could bond over the communal sharing of eating ants. Needless to say, it was an event that brought the group together in laughter and silliness, even if one nameless person did not partake.

We arrived to Matt Bailey's parents home in Encinitas where our main location for the weekend was located around 3-4pm. We all scarfed down some Little Caesar's Hot-n-Ready pizzas and we were back on the road to begin shooting our first scenes.

The first shots we did of the film were the San Diego shots of the characters driving on the freeway and through downtown San Diego. It was fun because Swen was driving Bailey's car with Sean and Chase in the car for sound, as well as Blake and Keaton tagging along. Bailey and myself were in the car with Tyler, who is driving Chase's Jeep, and Bingham in the passenger's seat. Tyler was, and just so happens to remain, one of the worst driver's operating a vehicle on the road. I really should have tested this skill during the auditioning process. My mistake.

Anyways, whenever we needed to get footage of Swen driving behind us, in what was supposed to be his character's car, everybody else would have to duck out of view. Quite an amusing and amazing feat hiding Sean, Chase, Keaton and Blake in Bailey's tiny 1980's Honda Civic hatchback.

We made it to San Diego right at golden hour (the time the sun is setting which gives beautiful light for photography purposes). We luckily found the "tent area" of downtown SD where lots of homeless people gather. It was necessary to capture this location for the screenplay and I was happy we found the area before we lost light.

Then it was time to shoot our first scene! We mic up Swen and out we go to drive around. Low and behold Swen is a bit nervous and I'm feeling nervous about the project. Hooray. It was the first scene and he finally loosened up. We got the shot but funny to say, it never ended up in the final cut. It lasted a long time in the rough cut until it was pointed out to me that it was really unnecessary. So boom! Out it went. I think I should always have an unnecessary scene and shoot it first with future projects. Helps wear off the rust and get everybody's gears into motion.

We were supposed to get camera coverage of Ashton and Tyler right after Swen's shot but the sun was already gone. Alright, production rescheduling within the first hour of filming! That's filmmaking.

So we pack up all of our equipment and begin heading to our next location. We're going to shoot a scene in a parking lot and in a bathroom. This production is all being shot guerilla style and we decide it's too busy out to shoot this scene. Okay, reschedule and wait till later. What do we do now?

Boom! Let's shoot Tyler getting upset about his car overheating. Off we go, Tyler, Ashton, Bailey, Sean and I. Five people in a Jeep, trying to film a scene on a freeway going 75mph. Sounds safe enough.

Tyler operating the vehicle. This vehicle belonging to Chase. It's my responsibility if anything bad happens. I'm terrified.

We drove down the freeway a few miles and then turned back. The scene is only about 5-10 seconds on screen but I had Tyler do it countless times. Tyler's too nice of a guy to show anger. So what do I do? I push him to the point of frustration and anger so I can get the performance I need. I succeed. I'm such a good person. Sean later tells me I might have pushed him too hard. I disagree.

We meet up with the rest of the crew. We send Bailey, Tyler, Swen and Ashton into the bathroom. It's a shot of the boys brushing their teeth. Bailey comes back and I love the footage. Man, what a piece of cake. I should always just send everybody away to do as I say and then have them come back with material I approve of. If only it were so easy.

Next we shoot the boys saying goodnight as they prepare to sleep in their cars. We have good old Swensy's meandering around in his underpants and a bunch of young dudes standing around him with a camera. I'll leave this up to your imagination of what I assumed was being assumed of our production.

To make the memory of this mentioned scene all the better, Sean decided it was also a perfect location to urinate.

Car. Parking lot. People around? No big deal.

Sean urinates but obviously doesn't notify any of us of the event. Chase notices moisture under his car. Chase being paranoid as it is, is now terrified his engine is melting down. I have no idea where Sean is to tell anybody what is going on but Blake gets on the ground to inspect this unusual substance.

Blake sticks his hand in pee. Later finds out it's pee. He barely knows any of us. Shrugs it off like no big deal. My man crush on Blakey has instantly formed. That's what you call true friendship.

Okay, next location and last scene of the night. It's close to 11pm and we are scheduled to begin shooting at 6am the next morning. We find the location that Bailey knows of, and it just so happens to be a convenience store where a shot from a Blink 182 music video took place. Neat. This must mean we're a real production.

Tyler completely cheeseballs the first take and I'm ready to shoot myself in the face as my production once again implodes before my eyes.

"Tyler, why? Why would you say your line that way?"

"I dunno."

PFFT!!! The sound of my head exploding.

"How about we do it like this?"

"Okay."

Yay! We did it. Time to go to bed. Drive back to Bailey's house. Everybody passes out as I review footage. Documentation of stated event below.

Off to sleepytown we go. Next morning we wake up to a breakfast Sean has lovingly prepared. Thank you, Sean! I obviously don't eat because my stomach is in knots and the last thought on my mind is food. I wake up Keaton to an amusing spectacle.

"Keaton, wake up."

Keaton rapidly jumps up while twirling in a circle. He's ready to go. Some sort of miraculous Michael Jackson/wizard move.

We eat and away we go. We are all beginning our descent into sleep deprivation on our way to the beach so everything in the world is the funniest thing in the history of the world. We follow Bailey on the way to the beach and their car is packed with people. I don't remember who's in there but Sean is sitting in the back seat with a trucker hat and we find it amusing beyond belief. It appears as if we're following a car of illegal immigrants on their way to work.

Why is that funny? I have no idea. Why is it still funny? I have no idea. But it is. Deal with it.

So we begin shooting our scenes. We were blessed with the most incredible light during the beach location. And fortunately we showed up right at time. Not even moments after we finished this scene, it was already swarming with people. Not exactly the best scenario for a scene that is supposed to take place at a desolate beach. Bing Bang Blao! Time to shoot our next location of a desolate downtown area. Boom! Moving on!

We arrive at another parking lot to shoot a scene and I receive a call from Kesia. She's in San Diego. She has already checked into her hotel room and she's ready. Nice. Early and ready to go.

We finish shooting our scene and head back to Bailey's parents home. Kesia meets with us for a wonderful lunch Sean has prepared. I don't eat, once again. Too busy being occupied with worry.

The rest of the day is smooth sailing. We had difficulty with one scene that takes place at the front door due to light reasons, etc. but we figured it out.

Things are always slower than hoped for during production so we run a little later than I hope into the night. I am beyond exhausted and I can't think straight. I make a call to shoot one of our scenes the following night. I'm still happy I made that choice. It would've been a shame to have blown this particular scene and rush it.

There's a scene in the final film where the boys are saying goodnight to Kesia's character. The exhaustion on their faces is perfect. It was the last scene we filmed on this particular night. I'm going to pull the rug underneath the actors feet but it wasn't just amazing acting in that scene. They are all beat. Dead tired. And I love it!

So we go to bed late and wake up early yet again. I wake up before everybody because I'm a bottle of nerves. Terrified that the project is all going to crumble at my feet. It's really hard to have a project in your mind for multiple years and then watch it come to fruition in front of your eyes. The fear of it collapsing is unbearable.

In my fear, I decide to take a shower. Hoping to wash some of it away. I remember sitting in the shower (yes, sitting, I said it, don't judge me, it's comfortable) and I'm having an anxiety attack. I feel like I have the flu. I'm weak and feel like I need to throw up. In retrospect I'm sure that the main cause of this, more than stress, was sleep deprivation and lack of food.

Everybody wakes up and it's time to shoot again. This weekend was really memorable because we were one big team. We had a lot of steam going and nobody was dropping the ball. Unfortunately, later in production we didn't have as much momentum because shooting became much more sporadic due to people's schedules. But for this one glorious weekend we were victorious!

I don't remember much happening on this day. We pretty much knocked out all of the house scenes that day. We were on fire. We shot late into the night. We were exhausted but it was oh-so good.

Our final day in San Diego was scheduled to be a more mellow one. Just pickup shots for any scenes that didn't go as planned.

We started the day shooting a scene at Bailey's former high school. It took place in the theater and the theater class happened to be present. I spoke with the students. They all seemed excited. The teacher is enthusiastic.

We film our actors watching a fictitious movie on a fictitious screen. Talk some more to the students. Class ends. I thank the teacher and she seems pissed. Hmm... Okay, thank you. Goodbye.

After we leave the school Sean says to me, "I can't believe you said that."

"What?"

"When you were explaining the scene you were talking about how the mom character was playing around with her son's friend."

Oops. My bad. I later see the footage and can definitely see how that was interpreted wrong. I also realize that high school kids look a lot younger than what I remember them looking like when I was in high school.

All around, fun times.

We have lunch and the afternoon is pretty slow. We have to reshoot a scene because Tyler and Swen wore the wrong outfits the previous day. The scene turns into pulling teeth. I still have no idea what happened during this event but it was awkward to say the least. Both Swen and Tyler sucked. They can both vouch for the fact that I saved them with editing.

I believe we shot a scene in which I did something like 21 takes of Swen prior to this scene so that may have been what dropped the ball for everybody.

Swen was distraught to say the least. Perfect scenario and mind-frame for his major scene in the film. After two takes and me making Swen feel like shit he nails his performance on the third take.

Off to our six page patio scene. For the love of all that is holy and mighty, I learned so much during the next eight to nine hours. You want a real film school education? Shoot a six page scene and watch what unfolds in front of your eyes and you will learn so much. Maybe it was oh-so much more euphoric and spiritually enlightening because of my sleep deprivation but it was amazing watching this scene unfold and all the directions it could have gone.

We started off shooting Bingham's coverage first. He amazingly nailed it first try. We decide to give him one more take for safety. Boom! We're on fire.

Okay, let's shoot Tyler's coverage. The light's set up for him.

"Hey, Ryan. I need to get back to LA," says Kesia.

I'm not in the right frame of mind and can't comprehend that she's communicating that she can't stay all night but I panic and think she's saying she has to leave immediately.

I'm pretty sure everybody else perceives the same interpretation as I have and it's an instant buzzkill for the set. We get two takes on Kesia and then shoot the other angle of coverage where she is seen and off she goes.

Everybody's spirits seem a bit dampened. What should we do? Keep on going I guess. I decide to sit in Kesia's seat and read her lines. Since everybody is a bit down I start pushing their happiness back into place by reading Kesia's lines very, very peppy. It's time to shoot.

This is one of two moments that I'm more than proud to say that I casted Tyler. Tyler is a bit of an odd fellow to say the least. During this particular moment he was on his A-Game. If he can be like this at all moments in his career he will be a major acting force. Unfortunately Tyler sometimes has a hard time focusing.

Tyler blows my mind in one take. It's so good I don't even want to bother with a second take. Coming from me, this is a miracle. Knowing me, we probably did one more just for 'safety.' But I can't remember for certain.

Next we shoot Swen's big scene. I think we did it two and a half times or something. Can't remember for certain but we got his coverage. We were now running probably 3 hours behind my expected finish time and it's around 3 in the morning.

So this scene has already taken multiple twists and turns in the way it has unfolded. Even though I feel I have some good performances I feel I need an extra push. I sit Blake down and tell him my situation and he comes in and brings it! I'm so proud of him.

For a moment, I did not think we were going to be able to get his coverage. After we finished Swen, one of the most bizarre weather occurrences happened. An incredibly strong and warm wind, from what I remember, rushed in. I think it may have knocked over some of our lights and it was strong enough to knock the next door neighbor's patio umbrella into the pool. We were tired and started to pack up thinking we wouldn't be able to get Blake's coverage. It seemed like a big storm was about to come in.

Fortunately, it was just a fluke and the weather was back to normal. Bingham was tired and cranky, from what I was told, but I did not even notice, as I watched Blake come out take after take and surprise me with his incredible energy and personality. The kid's got charisma. He was really the glue that sealed the scene in the end.

We packed up our hurricane destruction of a mess in Bailey's parents house and within half an hour we were out of there. Back on the road and heading home to LA.

I passed out in the backseat of Chase's Jeep, coincidentally right next to some leaking oil or some sort of gas fumes. A little while later I wake up to world famous LA traffic and I don't remember what was so funny but Chase, Keaton and myself are in tears with laughter. I really don't remember what was so funny. But whatever it was, it was really, really, really funny.

Chase was going to pull a prank that would've been funny beyond belief but we decided against it. Bingham can be a bit uptight at times and Chase was going to pretend to pull off the freeway and we were all going to scream at the top of our lungs. We decided it would be too rude of an awakening for Bingham to handle. At times, I think Ashton thought of me as a mean guy, but there are several moments such as this, where he doesn't realize I was on his side.

We all get home and we are exhausted. It's record breaking heat in LA and it's miserable. I can't sleep. I'm backing up footage on a separate hard drive. Luckily enough my soon to be love reads a book to me over Skype and I pass out. Coincidentally, myself and this mentioned lady are celebrating our nine month anniversary on the 25th of this month.

Celebrate good times.

C'mon.

Like I said, lots has changed in my life and at the same time not much has changed at all. This is one memorable weekend that I will always hold dear in my heart.

There are so many memorable moments from this production. Countless run ins with the police. We even had the Burbank Police helicopter circling over us with its spotlight at one point. We drove out to the desert and camped. We drove all the way to San Francisco and spent the night near Hearst Castle.

I hope everybody cherishes these fond memories in the same way I do.

We are all eagerly waiting to hear back from some of the top festivals in the US, in hopes of our film finding its audience. So currently it's almost as if now of this ever took place. The film has been finished since April but we won't start hearing from festivals until December. Hopefully luck is on our side and we hear some positive things in the near future. Either way, this was an experience that I would not change for the world.

The amount of knowledge, friendships, relationships and memories that were created because of this project are priceless and I will cherish them forever.

The film was a turning point for both it's characters and everybody involved.

Sincerely,

-Ryan Moser.

Official Trailer

2011-08-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

Poster Fun

2011-08-26T16:31:00.001-07:00

Feel free to comment on your favorite design below.

Film Limbo

2011-07-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Turning Point is in a strange place as of now. The film is completed and it's just waiting to premiere somewhere.

So far the film has only been shown to the cast and crew and select friends and family. I've heard nothing but positive things about the film so far, and many people have been impressed, so that's a good sign.

A little over a month ago I received my official rejection letter from Telluride. That was a bit disheartening but nothing to be surprised about. 1 in 50 shot, the odds were not in my favor.

Since then I've submitted the film to Sundance, Sedona and last night Slamdance. Today Keaton and I went to the Slamdance office and personally handed them the submission. Amazingly enough they have already logged the film into their system as received. That was quick! And on a bizarre note Sundance has finally done the same. Swen and I personally dropped off the submission at their Beverly Hills headquarters a month ago. It took them a month to sort through their mail. Walking into their office and watching them place my small DVD into a mail crate filled with submissions was one of the most eye opening moments of my filmmaking "career". I've read about the statistics of these festivals before but it's easy to lie to yourself until you see it in person.

So far I'm feeling good about Sedona and Slamdance. Not because I feel I'm for sure going to get in but just because they've treated me more as a human than a statistic with the brief interactions I've experienced. Sedona logged the film as received the day they received the package in the mail and was also kind enough to send me an email informing me that they received it.

I plan on submitting to SXSW next month. I don't really have any other festivals I personally want to pay to submit to so if I'm not accepted into any of these fests it appears as if I will have to go to the drawing board and figure out a way to find my audience for this film. I surely didn't spend all that time and money to watch it by myself or only show to friends and family of the people involved.

In other news, I am still a filmmaker and I plan to direct a short this summer. You can't not take advantage of the wonderful weather and most importantly the long days. Winter in California sucks! Getting dark at 5pm? How depressing is that?

-Ryan.

Officially a "Real" Movie

2011-07-04T04:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979379

"Is it going to be on IMDB?"

This is what the cast has been asking me about since before shooting began. Their wish has been granted on the Nation's birthday.

-Ryan.

Production Stills

2011-06-23T01:22:00.001-07:00

Production Notes

2011-06-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” -Oscar Wilde

One has to wonder what category Turning Point, the debut film of writer and director Ryan Moser, falls into, under the ‘life imitating art’ or ‘art imitating life’ debate. The answer is elusive in the same way that life itself is hard to comprehend in its entirety, and how art is a difficult concept to accurately define. On one hand Turning Point is a film that deigns to encapsulate what is ‘artful’ about life with all it’s simple complexities, making it appear as though the film is an imitation of the life of any young person who is let loose into the world for the first time. Yet, on the other hand, the film is an example of what it means to drive upon a dreary highway, struggling against the status quo of pursuing a livelihood we resent every day of our lives until our last breath; concepts not only taught to us in what we can observe in society every day, but a process of aging that has been depicted in all forms of art from mankind’s very beginning, a journey both historic in where we’ve come from, and prophetic in where we’re going.

The truth is that life imitates art about as often as art imitates life; the two are coiled so tightly among one another that, like the tangled knots of two ropes, the ends and beginnings of one cannot be easily discerned from the other. If somehow you did manage to pull one length of rope away from the other, you would end up with two lonely looking separate ropes, waiting patiently for you to put them to use again; to allow them to perform their innate function by tying them together once more.

There was a moment during Turning Point where the differences between life and art became blurred beyond recognition. Along the coast of the Pacific ocean, a small two-vehicle caravan filled with a small team of closely knit friends, with dreams and aspirations of finding themselves upon their journey, suddenly had their determination put to the test. One of the cars began to sputter in exasperation. The driver checked the dials anxiously, giving nervous glances into the rear-view mirrors; seeing not only the road upon which he has traveled from, but a partial reflection of himself, and his own uncertain eyes, as well. He looked ahead only to be sure he was safely upon the road he was traveling, but no further; for the destination he was heading toward was at that moment totally forgotten in order to weather this current storm.

He didn’t know with any certainty if he would make it to the end of the journey or not. He had no idea that the test would be met with resilience and, along with every other test that they would be faced with afterward, passed with flying colors. He had no way of knowing that the destination would finally be reached. That he and his friends would not only go the distance, but would come back from it once it was explored, returning home again safely and with gained wisdom.

Not only was this a moment within the film Turning Point, but it was also an event that occurred to the cast and the crew of Turning Point amid the principal photography of the film.

Life. Art. Who is imitating whom?

“The story of the screenplay started to come true in more ways than one while we had been filming,” says Ryan Moser, who not only wrote and directed the film, but oversaw the entire production from beginning to end. “On our trip up the coast, we started to get worried that Chase’s car was going to explode due to high oil pressure.”

Turning Point is the story of three young men beginning their life journey into the uncharted road-map of adulthood, as told by a handful of dedicated filmmakers who were on a journey of their own: to make their very first feature film.

Moser knew then what the making of his first feature film meant for him.

“This was definitely to become an experience of a lifetime.”

And not just for him alone. Throughout the entire production of Turning Point, the film became the experience of a lifetime for everyone who took part in its creation.

Turning Point explores how three young men begin the metamorphosis which turns a child into an adult. When will that path end, and where? Turning Point does not presume to answer, because it knows as well as we do that there is no ultimate ‘end’ to the ‘coming-of-age’ process; only an ongoing series of lessons that life will never hesitate to teach us, during all the days of our lives. More importantly than to show us the moment these boys become men, Turning Point shows us how that journey begins without us ever knowing it. The film allows us to see clearly who these boys were, so that we can guess for ourselves who they will someday become, long after the credits roll. Turning Point gives us the space and the time to remember our own youth, and to meditate upon the road that led us to where we are today.

The film follows the shared odyssey of James (Swen Temmel), Ricky (Tyler Vincent) and Cole (Ashton Bingham), three friends who come to the innocuous decision to set out upon their very first post-high school road trip on a mission for adventure, fun, and of course ‘ladies, ladies, ladies’. However, none of these pursuits come easily, or in their expected guises. Upon every stage of their journey, the mettle of their characters are tested by everything ranging from a dehydrated radiator in the middle of the desert, to one very enviable silver bullet not-so-secretly hidden inside a dresser drawer.

They encounter an eclectic string of lives along the way: some upon the road the boys are traveling, some found standing idly off to the curb; but every one of them is on a search for their livelihood. The trio make their way steadily to the doorstep of James’ old friend Matt (Blake Owens), and his captivating mother Victoria (Kesia Elwin), who gladly invite the boys to stay with them as long as they like.

Ricky meets Lindsay (Melanie Manooki) at a beach, and the two depart on what at first is a casual friendship, but quickly turns to tender affection, all while Cole struggles against the choices that will lead him reluctantly to an uncertain future. That is, until Victoria teaches them that uncertainty is not a monopoly among the young, and that it is possible to search your entire life for who you are, or what you are meant to do in this life you’ve been given.

This realization sparks a sense of urgency in James, Ricky and Cole, and each one of them must acknowledge that life itself is the great equalizer among everyone who lives it; despite that they are only a very small part of a bigger picture, whatever direction they want their lives to go is limited only by their own determination to get them there.

The limits of their own determination.

Again, this is a phrase that could be applied with equal measure to the characters in the film as appropriately as it could be said of the filmmakers who crafted it.

Turning Point, as a project and as a film, is the result of years of dreaming, months of effort, weeks of cherished memories, and unfathomable hours of toil in order to turn the screenplay into a reality. It began as a snowball tossed downhill by Moser, and ended as a life-long goal fully realized not just for him, but for the many people whose lives it touched.

“I wrote Turning Point when I was 20 years old,” says Moser. “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 possible so you can get to the fun part sooner: rewrites!”

That rewriting process was an ongoing trial that would take Moser across the borders of four states (including Hawaii), last two trips to Thailand, result in the emptying of hundreds of ball-point ink pens, and continue up until the final day of principal photography; an arduous evolution that Moser estimates totaled more than 1,000 total hours of writing time.

Although Moser admits that writing is inherently a very lonely process, he never hesitated to turn to his friends in order to find valuable advice.

“Over the course of the next few years, I began having numerous friends read the screenplay to give me notes.”

Keaton Ziem, who participated in Turning Point’s production as a gaffer, hasn’t known a time when Moser wasn’t thinking about Turning Point.

“It may have been as far back as 2006 when I first heard about Turning Point,” says Ziem, “In fact, it may have been the first conversation I had with Ryan that was more than five words long. I gathered that he had spent the majority of his time travelling and writing a screenplay. When I first saw it, he carried it to me in a shoebox. The title page was so covered in blue ink notes that finding the title of the script was like searching for Waldo. Then came page one.”

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

“Layers of blue, black and red ink,” says Ziem. “Then pencil. Then the actual word printed on the page could be read, if it hadn’t been crossed out and illegible. Alternate dialogue was written off to the side; words and phrases were taken away and replaced with a better word. And not five minutes after that shoebox was opened and the first pages were turned, Ryan’s questions began; ‘How can I make it better?’”

“Over time, I kept crafting and re-crafting the screenplay into something that would make for quality storytelling on screen,” says Moser. “I realized that the story had promise, and if I were to rework things, I might actually be capable of creating a quality story.”

Quality was the monicker of Turning Point’s production, beginning to end. At every stage of the game, at every bend in the road, quality was paramount.

“There was something invaluably encouraging about the process of reviewing Ryan’s work as a writer,” says Ziem. “It demonstrated that, until the words are filmed, they could always be rewritten; which meant that until the day when this script could be made, it could only be improved.”

The script of Turning Point endured a five year span of merciless rewrites and revisions before Moser took the first step toward pushing the screenplay toward it’s eventual production. That step was the decision that brought him to the one place he was sure to find the talent that is requisite for a film to be made.

“I arrived in Los Angeles around 10:00 PM on April 20, 2010 to celebrate my 25th birthday after I became steadfast on producing my first feature film. The only thing that was going to hold me back from actually making this film was myself.

“Matt Bailey (the film’s Director of Photography), myself and my friend Zeus, visiting from Holland, were eating dinner and I set my goal of producing Turning Point at the age of 25. They asked me when I thought it would be done and I wanted to set a realistic deadline, so I said April 15th of next year; five days before my next birthday, and also my Mom’s birthday, so it was a very memorable date. Almost a year later it was mind-blowing to think that I’d be hitting my exact personal deadline on the dot.”

It wasn’t long before Moser began his search for the actors who would portray the roles he had spent so much time meticulously writing every nuance of dialogue for. After five years of time spent writing the characters of Turning Point, Moser knew exactly what he was looking for in the actors who would come to play the parts.

“I attended a festival in which a short film of mine, ‘Sky Train’, was playing. This was in the summer of 2009. I saw a short that Tyler Vincent 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 afterward and told him I was impressed in his work. I mentioned my project ‘Turning Point’ and he seemed interested.”

Vincent recalls, “Somehow I got Ryan’s attention and from that came a set of long e-mails, phone calls and research.”

“He was drawn toward the character of Ricky, which was the exact character I had in mind for him. He was on board and it wasn’t until one year later that Tyler and I formally met in person and had our first read through together.”

All the while Moser searched for the other talented actors to take the roles of James and Cole. Before long, they were found; embodied in the personalities of Swen Temmel and Ashton Bingham.

“I joined the project sometime around August of 2010, when Ryan decided that I would be playing the role of James.” Says Temmel, “It started with rehearsals and really finding out who our characters were. Ryan was fantastic in helping us with that process. It was also a time for Tyler, Ashton and I to form a real friendship together.”

Bingham remembers the atmosphere of production fondly, saying “The filming process gave me knowledge of not only the many aspects of filmmaking in the technical sense, but also in terms of the sheer magnitude of passion, perseverance, and tenacity that goes into making a film, thanks to Ryan.”

Perseverance. Tenacity. These words are not used to describe a production that was not without a fair share of trials and tribulations. However, it’s these hardships that add fuel to the fire for Moser and pushes him to greater creative heights.

“The emotional swings that come with directing a feature film would be unbearable to most, but my two strongest points as a filmmaker are my instincts and perseverance. I have a hard time taking ‘no’ for an answer. I have a very strong work ethic when I’m doing something that I love. It’s what happens when you truly care about something with all your heart; similar to when you’re in love with somebody.”

The cast included Temmel, Vincent and Bingham as James, Ricky and Cole; the core team that would propel the ripened story of Turning Point along the path of production. Meanwhile, the other roles were filled. The spontaneous Matt was to be performed by Blake Owens, and his beautiful and elegant mother Victoria by Kesia Elwin. Melanie Manooki was selected to play Lindsay, the girl of young Ricky’s dreams, alongside Jacqueline Su-yuo as Matt’s girlfriend Jan.

Moser likewise gathered behind him a crew of determined young filmmakers, ready for the opportunity to put their skills to use. Matt Bailey as the Director of Photography, Sean Marin as Sound Mixer and Assistant Camera along with Chase Winniford as the Boom Operator and Keaton S. Ziem as the Gaffer.

The film was ultimately produced by Moser, Bailey, Marin and Winniford. Four filmmakers all under the age of 30.

Principal photography of Turning Point began on Friday, September 24th, 2010.

For Manooki, the process of the film’s production resonated with the adventures the characters in the story were undertaking, “The Golden Gate Bridge, hippies, a waterfall, a cave, cars breaking down, freezing cold weather, a beautiful coastline, delicious s’mores; it was quite an adventure.”

Moser refers to making a movie as “The Beautiful Insanity”.

“While you’re in the war zone of production, you can’t wait to get home and retreat. But after a few days of R & R, you miss the battlefield and want to get back in it.

“Over the course of three days, one third of the film was shot. Almost all the San Diego scenes were completed. Two days of shooting desert locations. Two days for a San Francisco road trip. Three nights of filming night car driving (which included a reshoot). ‘Odd-and-end’ scenes were shot. A beach location was shot on three separate days due to scheduling and weather conflicts. A night parking lot scene that was shot in a single night. And I was not struck in the face with a lightning bolt.”

“San Diego was an interesting four days as I remember, or don’t remember,” says Temmel, “We worked some pretty long hours but I enjoyed every moment of it.”

Temmel added, “The desert shoot has been a highlight of my life. It was only two days, but it was so much fun. Then traveling up the coast to get to this secret waterfall that Ryan somehow found was beautiful. Then going even further up we hit San Francisco where we filmed our opening scene. Yes, we drove all the way to San Francisco to film a 15 second scene, but it was worth it.”

It’s a serendipitous process to make a film when the production so closely mirrors the events that are captured through the camera’s lens. A film about the discoveries shared between friends that are found while pursuing new experiences. The sensation of bliss at discovering something new not only about the world in which you live, but about yourself as well. Every single member of the cast and crew went through their own personal journey en route to making Turning Point. Sometimes, it was as simple as contributing their efforts and talents to a project that they have been specifically chosen by Moser to help create, and sometimes it was something even more elemental. Sometimes it was about being caught in the eddies and whirlpool of life, and marveling at where those gusts and breezes could potentially take you.

“I remember the night we were looking for a place to stay,” says Manooki, “We stopped by the side of the road and some of us came out to talk. It was freezing cold but when I looked up above us there shined the most beautiful sight of stars I’ve ever seen. I’d never seen so many stars in my life. It might not have been that big a deal for anyone else, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles all my life, where it’s very hard to see any stars at night. I’ve always had a secret fascination with stars and the universe. It was breath-taking.”

It’s real life, happening simultaneously and alongside filming an artistic representation of life.

For Moser, the two are one in the same. Beautiful Insanity.

“The best stories are based around relatable characters. To be entranced by a character that you can remain interested in while watching them simply brushing their teeth. I learned that I needed to have my characters drive the story forward, not force them to do something for the sake of driving the plot in a direction I wanted to take it.”

On Sunday March 6th, 2011, Moser had finished filming the characters he had created five and a half years before, by placing the actors into relatable, real-life scenarios that anyone may find themselves in on any given day, in order to lull his performers into a state of natural behavior, rather than forcing them to play ‘make believe’ in front of a camera.

Now Moser was faced with the task of connecting the dots, and forming the story out of the scenes he and his crew had collected.

“Filmmaking is a bit like a sandwich. Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. The first and last are the two most time consuming aspects, but they make up the bread of your sandwich. You can’t have a high quality sandwich without excellent bread. This is the formula for my film.”

Moser had continually been editing together the rough-cut for the film as principal photography was taking place.

“I enjoyed the editing process immensely. I’ve always been a huge fan of it. In my eyes, it’s where the true magic of cinema takes place, which happened in between shooting days. There were plenty of 15 hour days, there. I started polishing up the rough cut and I saw the potential in the hard work that was put forth.”

As Moser had gathered the production crew and the performers during filming, he then brought together a team of passionate individuals to bring to life the story that existed amid the hours of accumulated footage. For Sound Editing, Moser was introduced to Jason Rudd by a mutual friend Guido Ghedin, who was a member of the notorious band ‘Wang Bang’ in the film.

“I’m proud of having been able to connect Ryan to my good friend Jason from Phoenix; it’s fun to think how our absurd spaghetti-western network provided Ryan with the right person to deal with the sound of Turning Point”, says Ghedin.

“This was Jason’s first time doing sound for a film. He went to recording school and even he didn’t know the amount of work that goes into making a film sound like a film. He began working on the sound in December, and if there was anyone involved with this project that put in close to the amount of hours of work that I have it would be Jason, for which I am eternally grateful.”

Moser couldn’t have been happier with Rudd’s work.

“I’m really happy that Jason was in charge of the sound editing. The work he has done is amazing. For months Jason worked ruthlessly to make the project sound like a movie, and I was so happy to hear such rich and clean dialogue tracks.”

With the picture locked and the sound in place, Moser brought composer Jason Downer’s talents to the project.

“I’ve been writing music for years,” says Downer, “and I’ve been lucky that the film projects I’ve worked on have always required some style or technique I’d never used in a film before. When I was talking to Ryan about his vision for Turning Point’s score, I mentioned that I hoped we could be a little experimental in what went in.” In response to Moser’s reaction, “It wasn’t just a couple new techniques or styles. It was dozens. Ryan had a list of stuff I’d never heard of. A whole new vista of post rock and retro minimalist synth was opened up to me thanks to him.”

Downer admits that creating the score of the film was a wonderful challenge that allowed him to discover new things about music and scoring that he had previously taken for granted.

“I had started writing for this film in the formulaic industry mind-set I’d tried hard to master up to that point: the composer as a proxy for the audience, writing what the story makes you feel. Something happens on screen and a few seconds later, when it has started to sink in emotionally, the music should follow. The first experiment Ryan had for me was to throw that concept out. He told me to let the audience decide what to feel, to find the kind of sound you’d expect to be there in real life, and to be different but honest. The creative process felt so exciting and fresh. Each track seemed like an experiment that you had no idea what the outcome might be.”

Moser’s opinion of Downer’s work, “Jason got to put in his beautiful music. He made the film sound lovely.”

In addition to Jason Downer’s musical input, the film also features the musical talents of Moser himself, Moser’s younger brother, Jason Moser, sound editor Jason Rudd, as well as the music of Andrew Pollitt’s one-man band, Madison County.

The stages of creating Turning Point were nearing completion, the final steps fast approaching. Nearly all of Moser’s adult life has been focused upon the completion of this film which he single-handedly willed to the finish line. Once the editing, the sound and the music began to coalesce in mutual harmony, the realization that the film would at last be a thing that he could call ‘completed’ was sinking in.

“You have a dream. You begin creating the dream. Then the dream kind of creates itself. You begin editing and you’re unsure if your dream will work. You edit some more and then, magically, the film begins creating itself and takes on a new life. It had been a wild, wild ride. When I came toward the final line of completion, in a strange way I was a bit sad. Even more bizarrely, I felt a little scared,” says Moser.

His sentiments were shared by everyone who took part in the film; from everyone whose participation ranged between minute and tremendous, all the cast and crew couldn’t believe that a finished product was within reach. Across the board, for everyone who participated, their reactions to their involvement testify to the themes the film explores; that the combination of friendship and vision can combine to create a magical bond between those who dare to partake in the journey.

“There’s a unique transformation on the road,” reflects Winniford on the entire production of Turning Point, “When your existence changes for a moment and there’s more freedom in your car than in all the world. Between the points of A and B, there’s a bond that can’t be broken, where individuals mold into one and there’s a shock treatment of the soul. You remember what it’s like to be at liberty with your thoughts and not with the worries of the world. The road means freedom and innocence, you’re either running away from or running towards something. It allows us to be more human, to shed our obligations and test our boundaries. Those precious moments we’re allowed our insanity and to be at ease with the worry of not knowing what to do in life. In these moments our souls emerge. They don’t have to hide away, buried by obligations and society’s curses. To witness others simply being human, and that it was an experience. I’ll forever enjoy the vacation from reality and the memories made while filming Turning Point.”

Says Temmel, “It was the greatest experience of my life so far. I grew so much. Not only as an actor, but as a person as well.”

Manooki adds, “They’re my friends, not just the cast and crew. It was a learning experience, and it will always be a part of me. We all still keep in contact, much like the family seen in the film, and I doubt we will ever really lose touch, so in reality the movie may be done, but it’s never truly going to be the end.”

“It’s the value of friendship, of hard work and dedication that is necessary to give the world a product of quality. The amazing power that well coordinated teamwork can give to every project, used in the business of magic, the industry of entertainment,” says Ghedin.

“Ryan has done a great job putting together his project, which has now become our project. I hope the desire to tell this story will lead to telling many more” says Marin.

Then, one day, Moser was able to say “I have now officially completed my goal of finishing my first feature film at the age of 25, the same as Orson Welles.”

“I’ve pushed all my actors and every other member of the crew close to their breaking points in order to get their work to the level that it needed to be. Everybody involved with this project is relatively young and inexperienced, so it has been a great learning experience for all of us. No matter how uncomfortable it can be to push people to their breaking points, I feel proud that I got the very best out of my team. I’m sure I’ve driven almost every person involved with this film, myself included, to insanity at some point during this project. But if it were not for that push, the film would not have ended up with the quality that is present in the final version.”

Note; ‘to’ the breaking point. Not past it.

It is important to mention that the film is called ‘Turning Point’, rather than ‘Breaking Point’. A lesser filmmaker might have thought that an interesting road trip movie would explore not the point at which the characters in the film make a ‘turning’, but rather, where the characters become ‘broken’. But as an audience, we have already seen that movie; it’s been done to death. Still, all the reoccurring staples of mainstream films: sex, violence and action, continually and inaccurately trump other more virtuous truisms, such as faith, friendship and sincerity, all of which are qualities that Moser has made his tools since day one of Turning Point’s long ago impetus, buried some six years now in the past. We lovers of film know where the breaking point of the human spirit lies, we know the tragedy the hero of a film must tread when the filmmakers push them to it. But we lovers of film also know that just before the breaking point, there exists a place where the hero can find redemption; a place where the hero can find solace in their past, and peace in pursuing a future for themselves. Before the breaking point, there is an opportunity for the hero, and for us, to heal what hurts, to learn from mistakes, and allow those lessons to inform their decisions long after the credits have rolled.

Before the breaking point, there exists a Turning Point.

Jerry Capener

2011-06-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

The wedding scene was done very professionally. The time Ryan put in filming the scene shows the perfection he desires for the product he is creating. His treatment of the actors was with patience, calmness and understanding. I would not turn down a chance to work for Ryan again.

Thank you Ryan,

Jerry Capener

The Turning Point Experience:)

2011-05-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ok Ryan, I have finally got the chance to post my thoughts on the most incredible filming experience to date:) And that's no B.S.:)
Well I have to say that if all auditions were like the one I had with Mr. Moser, I would be landing more roles/parts:) Right off the bat I felt comfortable with Ryan talking about the film and other films of our liking. Then we started to talk about music, since I am avid music lover as well as Ryan, I knew that this was going to be a fun film to be a part of. I believe in this film, because of the exceptional material Ryan has assembled to bring this story together.
I had a great experience on the set as well. The Cast & Crew were too much fun, everyone was just laid back and relaxed, except for the Director:) I mean with all the planes and noises going on during the shoot.
I just want to thank you Ryan from the bottom of my heart, for including me for the role of Cole in the film. Sherry and I are looking forward to seeing the finished results.

Rick Padilla

Good Quote

2011-05-02T17:08:00.001-07:00

"Making a film is difficult, but making a great film is an almost impossible task."
-Steven Spielberg

True words.

-Ryan.

Quotes by Me via Skype

2011-04-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

[08/09/2010 21:50:26] Twilight In Versailles: my movie is punk as fuck, baby

-I still believe this is true. I made one of the most "indie" movies of all time. Complete DIY (do-it-yourself).

[08/09/2010 21:51:00] Twilight In Versailles: I don't need money or people to make my movie good
[08/09/2010 21:51:11] Twilight In Versailles: I need me and my creativity and intelligence
[08/09/2010 21:51:18] Twilight In Versailles: Money doesn't make good art or tell a good story
[08/09/2010 21:51:27] Twilight In Versailles: I am going to make a good film.

-I still believe this is true. I did not and I do not mean that I could make a movie all by myself. When it comes down to it, I'm the person in charge of making the movie the best it can be. Money buys time and luxury, not talent.

[08/09/2010 21:51:49] Twilight In Versailles: I will thank you in my credits

-In regards to Lorena's help throughout the process of casting. Her credit was supposed to be a surprise so I can't believe I told her that I'd put her in the credits before we even began production.

[08/09/2010 21:52:05] lore creamer: ooow so cute i luv youuu
[08/09/2010 21:52:06] lore creamer: :D
[08/09/2010 21:52:07] Twilight In Versailles: I want to hold you to that

-Crazy times.

-Ryan.

Amusing Joke and a Reassuring Quote

2011-04-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

-"Your stupid"
-My stupid what?

This has to be one of the greatest written jokes I've ever seen. It's a travesty that the American education system makes it incomprehensible to a large percentage of the country.

"The only reason you make a movie is not to make or set out to do a good or a bad movie, it's just to see what you learn for the next one." -Alfonso Cuarón

-Ryan.

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

2011-04-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

I have to say filming the ending in Malibu was so much fun! The weather and scenery was beautiful! (I still can't find my camera)

I still remember talking to you on the phone about meeting with you at your apartment. "OK" the word creeper did come to mind...lol. Here I am new to Hollywood and a producer wants to meet me at his apartment...."yeah right"!! You sounded pretty normal but, I've been told watch out for stuff like that. So I almost didn't go. My roommate said that producers do that a lot and just go with my gut. "Well my gut said check it out. But just in case my gut was wrong. I had my trusty teaser gun in my boot. I feel its safe to tell you that now :)

After seeing the beautiful work you had done with the movie thus far. I was just amazed! I wanted to be apart of this movie. You made me send my reels and wait a month. But then you emailed me the good news!

I feel very honored that you had chosen me to be Elizabeth. Everyone was wonderful to work with and it was my pleasure to be apart of Turning point.

Lori Nore

Milestones

2011-04-21T13:24:00.001-07:00

Props to you Ryan on finishing the film! I am so excited to see it! I feel very honored that I was able to be a part of it, even though it was a very tiny part. As I told you when we first met, I was truly touched and moved by the trailer and although yor said it was a non-speaking part, I wanted to be involved in your artistic process. Being a mom, and having both a son and a daughter may have predisposed me to liking a coming of age film; but as I also told you, I felt that just the human story would reach anyone. Also, it seemed like you captured some of the challenges of growing up male in this society at this time...obviously I can't know that; but raising a son, and watching that trailer gave me a sense of that. Anyway, I can't wait to see the entire film. I know that it will be amazing, not only because of your artistic vision, but because of the wonderful cast and crew you assembled. My time on set was brief but I felt totally at home w/an awesome group of people. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you...my first film...therefore a milestone for us both :) I know you will have a long, successful career and I hope we will be able to work together down the road!

xox,

Susan

Touching Up The Paintings

2011-04-21T11:41:00.001-07:00

"The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, the work is done."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

What does it mean to 'finish', 'complete' or to finally 'end' a piece of art? When is it finished? When is it completed? When is the process of creation officially ended? Moreover, where does the journey begin? At what point do we step back, take a breath, and consider the item in question as a whole; something that's separate from other works, something that stands alone by itself, speaks for itself? When does a piece of art take on a life of it's own, separate from the people who made it?

The (in)famous painter Georgia O'Keefe was known to wander around the gallery before the opening of a show demonstrating her work. She would be caught by the gallery's entrepreneur with a paintbrush and palate, touching up the paintings where they were hanged, sometimes only minutes before the public was allowed to view them for the first time. When asked what she was doing, she replied plainly, matter-of-factly, that they simply were not finished.

I don't mention the story of Georgia O'Keefe to suggest that Ryan's film Turning Point could use more work. I mention it because it suggests that the painting, the writing, the music, the film as a finished product is only viewed as 'art' by the individual who had no part in the creating of it. The creator, the artist, views the 'work' itself as the real art. This is why they refer to it as a work of art. To the artist; the work itself, the process of creation, is the real thing of beauty.

The 'work', however, is held at a disadvantage to the art. The art can be hung on a wall, it can be projected on a screen. It can be published in a book or listened to through speakers, where it can be considered by the individual; shown in it's entirety in a convenient, single-sitting serving. The work cannot be demonstrated in this way. The work requires the voyeur to sit with the artist through all the many hours of weighing options and careful thought; not very marketable mediums. The work requires the voyeur to watch the artist try, to fail, to adjust, and to begin again--to develop, slowly, a technique that works, over time. The process of 'working' as art is a piece that can only be truly appreciated by the people who take part in that process. Everyone else only gets the painting to look at.

However, work has one advantage over art. It's virtue is that the joy of creating has no total and complete end, the way an individual piece of art may be completed, or how someone can be 'finished' looking at it. The work, however, is never done. The process was not about finishing the one item so that it can finally be done; it's about finishing the item so that the entire process of it's creation can be considered, as it unfolded from beginning to end, so that something can be learned about the process and applied to make the work on the next piece of art better. But what does 'better' mean, anyway?

Turning Point is not just an hour and a half of movie. Ryan has contributed (x) amount of hours of life into it, and I have contributed my own (x) amount of hours, and so has the actors, and the crew, and so on; until the film is a piece of art that totals all of those countless hours of life experience, and can now be seen anytime you wish. But the movie will now be seen by countless other people, who had no hand in the making of it. They will each contribute their own hours of life in order to watch it, and hopefully they watch it more than once. Ryan is the only person who can honestly guess how many hours of life Turning Point has accumulated. After it's released and given out to for the world to enjoy, no one will ever honestly be able to say how many total hours of life have been invested into the movie, ever again.

Maybe that's when the art takes on a life of it's own; when it no longer belongs the artist(s). When it can belong to anybody. When anyone can contribute their own lives to it, invest their thoughts and their emotions into it. Then, perhaps, it stands a chance of becoming 'finished'. Georgia O'Keefe may have known this. Perhaps her wandering through the gallery, touching-up her paintings one-by-one, was her own way of saying goodbye to old friends, who would no longer belong to her alone.

-K.S.Z.

It's Finally..... Done? Not quite :)

2011-04-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

True, Ryan may be done with his first feature film "Turning Point", but I don't believe it's done. Not really. We all still keep in contact, much like the family seen in the film, and I doubt we will ever really lose touch, so in reality.. the movie may be "done", but it's never truly gonna be the end of it.

The road-trip to San Francisco was a blast. I remember the night we were looking for a place to stay, I was freaking out a little because it was really late and we were still driving by the coast- it looked really creepy. We stopped by the side of the road and some of us came out to talk and see what was gonna happen. It was freezing cold, and I had to pee- REALLY badly, but then I looked up. I can't remember if Ryan pointed it out, or if I just looked up just because. Above us all shined the most beautiful sight of stars I've ever seen. I'd never seen so many stars in my life. It was breath-taking- for me anyway. It might not have been that big a deal for anyone else, but I've lived in LA all my life, true in the valley, but still it's very hard to see any stars at night, and I've always had a secret fascination with stars and the universe. I'd been to Big Bear before, and seen stars but.. I was 11 years old and it wasn't nearly as beautiful as what I've seen that night by the coast.

I have enjoyed working with everyone involved with the film- cast, crew, and friends. You all have made this project very special , and all the hard work put into this work will be paid off, I'm sure of it.

Ryan, you're insane, out there, and a bit scary sometimes(in a funny/strange way), but you are a great artist.

Happy Birthday and thank you for giving this "Youngin" a chance to be in your film.
Best Wishes to you and your "baby".

Let us all shine like the stars seen that one cold night.. always,
Melanie Manooki
(Lindsay)

Swen's long awaited blog entry

2011-04-20T11:53:00.001-07:00

Hello to the many followers of this blog :),
It is finally my turn to write on the blog. I have procrastinated way to long to write something and it’s made Ryan pretty sad, so I thought what better day to make him happy than on his special day.
Where to even began with this amazing journey. I joined this project sometime around August of last year, when Ryan decided that I would be playing the roll of James. At first it started out with it started out with doing rehearsals and really finding out who our characters are through out the story and our fantastic director helped us with this process. There were a few times that we had to walk places, like Good Will to get our wardrobe for the movie were someone complained about a 4 block walk, I don’t want to mention any names ;). It was also a time for Tyler, Ashton and I to form a real friendship since that’s what we played in the movie.
We now pack our bags, fill up the car, peepee before we leavy(rule number 1 of road trips) and head down to San Diego to start shooting the first parts of the film. We didn’t need snacks along the way down because there was an ant farm that had taken over Bailey’s car, which supplied us with the right amount of nutrition to get there. His parents were also kind enough to let us use their house. San diego was an interesting 4 days as I remember or don’t remember. We worked some pretty long hours but I enjoyed every moment of it. From everyone being so delusional they couldn’t stop laughing to our own Ashton (Gay King) being a little mouse with the food. We had a few downs like Tyler and I having the wrong cloths on for one of the most dreaded scenes haha. Now it’s time to head back home for a couple of days to gain back our energy.
Next it’s time to drive to the wonderful desert, which has probably been a highlight of my life. I don’t think I have ever in my entire life camped next to the 10 freeway. We must have cut down half the tree next to us to use for firewood. What I also figured out that night is that if you pee on a campfire it smelled so god-awful I learned my lesson haha. I also learned from Bailey that a good way to stabilizing the camera on the hood of a car is by not to strap it down but to lay yourself on the car while holding the camera. We only stayed two days in the desert but it was so much fun.
Traveling up the coast to get to this secret waterfall that Ryan somehow found was beautiful. Then going even further up we hit San Francisco. Where we filmed our opening scene. If you are wondering yes we drove all the way to San Francisco to film a 15 sec scene but it was worth it. When we came back to the car we found out that baileys car had a flat tire but we managed to kind of fix it until it popped about 2 hours from home. While they were changing the tire I thought it would be a smart idea to run across the 101 in the fog, not one of my proudest moments. We did make it home in one piece even though we drove 65 mph on a donut.
After hundreds of miles and hours of filming behind us most of the project was complete. We filmed some more stuff around town were we managed to get pulled over by the police for no reason at all. In total I think we had a police encounter about 6 or 7 times but the best ones was when I was sitting in a car at the top of the hill in Burbank when a helicopter started circling around with a spotlight on. I thought they were looking for a robber or murder, nope it was just ryan, bailey, tyler and ashton.
There are sooooo many more great memories that I have of being a part of this project that I could write a book about it. Well maybe not me but Ryan could.
It was the greatest experience of my life so far. I grew so much not only as an actor but as a person as well.
I want to thank you Ryan for giving me the opportunity to be in your project and for having faith in me. You are great filmmaker and know what you are doing. It was such honor to meet you. Then of course there is Matt Bailey who can make anyone laugh and works magic with his camera. Our very own Chase who I can’t explain because it’s Chase, he’s probably one of the goofiest people I’ve yet to meet but he still gets his work done and knows how to do it while making people laugh. And of course there is Sean. There is no place he can’t go to get the best audio for the shot we are doing weather its on a ladder or under a car he gets it done. Jason you work miracles and without you this movie wouldn’t be what it is today. Guido the Italian that was a part of this project too thanks for being there and helping with the project. And I cant forget the special K Keton(sorry if I killed ur name) I’ve never seen a person make himself laugh more than you do. You are a great person and it was great to meet you. You held thoughs lights in San Diego like there was no tomorrow.
To my fellow actors Tyler, Ashton, Blake, Melanie, Kesia and Jacqueline it was such a pleasure to work with you guys on this project. You guys were a great group of people to work with and I hope that we all shall work together again.
After writing this it makes me sad that it’s all over but I’m sure knowing you guys I’ll have plenty more great memories.

That’s the end of my novel. Happy birthday Ryan I hope that this makes it so much better. If I think of anything else to add I will. At first it was just me in the wolf pack and now there’s a lot more hhaha.

Sincerely,
Swen Temmel (James)

A Day in LA, a turning point.

2011-04-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

So I get a call.....".you want to be in my movie? Uh, ya, sure. Where, when, what do I wear?" I jump in my truck and drive to LA. A big truck in LA, not a good idea. (Parking you know.) A place to accommodate the vehicle was found and after a small hike, I meet "the guys". We walk. drive to a location and the shooting begins. Everyone is so nice. Really, so nice. I just did not know what to expect. I am new to this, well not so much now, I have done a few things since, but still pretty new to the "business". Ryan gave me direction and off I went in my "over acting" mode.....theatre, damn theatre. Soon that was fixed and other than almost getting run over by the vehicle a few times, things went smoothly....again and again! Had a great day with everyone. I am really looking forward to seeing the final cut and I think Ryan and all those working so hard behind the scenes will have a top rate movie to show for all their work! Happy Birthday Ryan, you young man, from your older "mom". Laurie (sorry, I did not know my picture would be so big.)

The Deed is Done!

2011-04-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

It's been an exciting adventure for my brother and fellow man. From what I've gathered from my sources, the movie is now complete. I believe that this is only the beginning of the journey. When one is faced with expectations that few would understand it's difficult to understand. I'm glad that only the brave have to face such hardships. Once in a great while a film of such magnitude will come along and the people will give back as much as it gave. I hope only the best for the future of everyone involved with the making and watching of this masterpiece. Good night and good luck!

Sincerely,
Jason Moser

Perfection of Means

2011-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

When I was little my uncle once told me: "If you are going to do something, do it right". I pretty much think that phrase applies to Ryan. Over the course of the year that I've known him, this has been a constant in the Turning Point project. And as cheesy as it is going to sound, at the end it was all worth it; the sound, the acting, the footage, everything came in harmony and developed this remarkable/special/olympian/grand/bonzer film.

It's been a pleasure being part of this project, and a delight meeting you all.

I'm so proud of you Ryan, you're a man of your word and you should win an award.

Lore C.

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!

Boom Goes the Dynamite

2011-04-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

That was all she wrote. The filmmaking process of "Turning Point" is now officially complete. I just got back from the post office and the film is on its way to the submissions offices of the Telluride Film Festival. What does fate have in store? I suppose only time will tell.

I truly hope this is not the end of the story and there will be plenty more to document on "Turning Point's" journey of finding its audience.

I have now officially completed my goal of finishing my first feature film at the age of 25. Tomorrow I will be birthday boy but today I am still 25 years old. I can also proudly say that I have accomplished falling into the same category as Orson Welles. If all goes well, I can plan on having my first film be my masterpiece, lose my looks, gain weight and lose my mind in the process. Come to think of it, I may have already accomplished all of those things during the course of making this film.

The first ever Turning Point DVD.

Baby Bear Feels Left Out

2011-04-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

So the sound is close to completion. The dialogue track is clean. Now it's time for the final mix with the music and maybe sprinkling in a few more sound effects if needed.

I was informed today that a very special someone has been feeling left out. She's been the special scene behind the scenes operator. If it weren't for her I would not have had the patience to wait for the final cast that I finally arrived upon. Little Miss Lore working her magic touch as I would audition actor upon actor and she would review them and give me her honest opinion. Any time I wanted to go against my gut, her gut feeling was the same as mine and reinforced the fact that I needed to be true to my instincts.

She kept me motivated to continue during the tough times and she kept me patient during the stressful times.

Not much else to say besides the fact that if it were not for this very special person in my life the quality of my first feature film would not be at the level that it is at.

-Ryan.

Mr. Tough Guy

2011-04-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

Close to finished!

I just got back from my friend Jason Rudd's (or as I like to refer to him "Father Rudd") house and we are currently finishing up the final touches on the sound of the film. We have more work to do but we're so close.

It was a bit heartbreaking when I left tonight and said "I'll see you tomorrow, buddy" and Jason responded with a discouraged "Yeah." This is his first time doing sound for a film and I'm sure he had no idea what he signed himself up for. I'm sure he's kicked himself many times for his interest in doing it. He went to recording school and even he didn't seem to know the amount of work that goes into making a film sound like a film instead of a YouTube or porno video. He's been working on the sound since December. If there was anybody involved with this project that's put in close to the amount of hours of work that I have it would be Jason, for which I am eternally grateful.

Just like my other friend Jason (Downer), I've pushed Father Rudd as well as all my actors and every other member of the crew close to their breaking points in order to get their work to the level that I needed it to be. Everybody involved with the project is relatively young and inexperienced so it has been a great learning experience for all.

There's the old adage that "if you're not going to do something the best that you can than there's really no point in doing it at all." This is such a true statement and no matter how uncomfortable it can be to push people to their breaking points I feel proud that I am getting the very best out of my team.

I'm pretty sure I've driven almost every person involved with the film to a point of insanity (myself included) at some point during this project. If it were not for that push the film would not and will not end up with the quality that will be present in the final version.

I feel confident that everybody involved with the project will not be disappointed and will be incredibly proud and feel rewarded for all of their work and efforts contributed to this film.

I'm anxious to see what the world thinks of what we created!

-Ryan.

Another Turning Point Blog

2011-04-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

I've been writing music for years, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say, I still have no idea where it comes from. Some days it flows, on others it's like, well something that doesn't flow at all, or does but in a disgusting manner, like mayonnaise or that odd stuff old milk turns into.

I've been lucky that the film projects I've worked on have always required some style or technique I'd never used in a film before. When I was talking to Ryan about his vision of Turning Point's sound, I mentioned that I hoped we could be a little experimental in what went into the score.

I have since wanted to kick myself repeatedly for that.

He had a list of stuff I'd never heard of. A whole new vista of post rock, retro minimalist synth and shoegazing opened up to me thanks to him. It wasn't just a couple new techniques or styles, it was dozens. I had hoped I might finally get some use out of my ebow. Man, I was naive; I used that sucker almost every day.

A lot of random demo pieces were written, with none of them really similar, but the creation of which felt so... exciting and fresh. Each one seemed like an experiment that you had no idea what the outcome might be. Thankfully Ryan was there evaluating each one as they came, where they might fit, what needed to be changed, what kind of vibe he needed for a specific shot. Between lavish praise and brutal honesty, the starting from scratch, and sometimes fruitless rewrites, the cues began to take form.

I had started writing for this film in the formulaic industry mindset I'd tried to hard to master: the composer as a proxy for the audience writing what the story makes him feel. When something happens on screen, a few seconds after, when it has started to sink in emotionally, the music should follow.

The first experiment Ryan had for me was to throw that concept out. It was after repeated viewings of the rough cut that I began to get a flickering understanding of his Dogme-like vision:

* Let the audience decide what it feels, don't tell them.

* Set the mood with something cool yet appropriate for the scene, the kind of sound you'd expect to be there in real life.

* Be different but honest.

Watching the film again and again, I found that I was entertained each time. I knew how the story went, how the clean but simple plot flowed. What gets you is that each character is real. They're not there as a plot device or to deliver an important snippet of dialog. Rather the story exists to let you see different sides of them, that these are ordinary but still individually unique people. You're not waiting for a big chase, explosion or sex scene; you're sharing the experience, documentary like, of a bunch of kids' first road trip. I remember being 17, driving with friends, being young and stupid, and it was AWESOME.

"Nostalgia," Ryan kept saying.

We simulated battered FM radio, tape compression and hiss, the unstable pitch of analog synths. There's even some horrible 70s and 80s homage source music.

A lot of different people and memories went into making this flick happen. I'm glad I was able to contribute. I'm glad I was able to finally "get it", and maybe help others to remember the feeling of our first long tired drives, the jokes made funny by exhaustion, and the weird noises you never noticed your car made before.

See this movie, it's beautiful and fun.

Jason Downer

It's April

2011-04-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

Crazy to think that I moved to LA for the second time last year on my 25th birthday. Time sure flies. On April 20th it will be a year when Matt Bailey, myself and my friend Zeus, visiting from Holland, were sitting in Won Kok in Chinatown eating dinner and me setting my goal of producing my first feature film at the age of 25.

I knew it was not going to be an easy feat so I wanted to set a realistic deadline. I remember them asking me when I thought it would be done, I said April 15th. It was five days before my birthday. It is my mom's birthday. And it is the first day the Telluride Film Festival begins accepting submissions. So it was a very memorable date.

Now it's almost a year later and it's mindblowing to think that I might be hitting my exact personal deadline on the dot. All that is left is some final sound polishes and then the final mix.

The project was such a roller coaster of emotion. Pretty much the same process I've had with any film. Have a dream. Begin creating the dream. Dream kind of creates itself. You begin editing and you're unsure if your dream will work. You edit some more and then magically the film begins creating itself and takes on a new life. It sounds like new-age/metaphysical bullshit but it's kind of what happens.

In retrospect I had a really good time making this film and it was definitely an experience. I look forward to the new experiences it leads me to.

Below is one of my favorite pictures from the production. It was the first night and you can see me reviewing the footage, scared shitless about whether or not this will all work out and come together.

Amazingly enough it has come together better than I could've ever imagined. I'm happy to say that I did not commit suicide because of this project. I have survived and I look forward to showing my creation to the world.

-Ryan.

A Guido's version

2011-03-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

I met Ryan in my former apartment in Westwood, also known as "The Cave", in the spring of 2010. Due to the obscure and depressing sadness of that house - a dusty hole that never saw the vital light of California sun - we suddenly became friends, when we realized that we had a lot in common.

Maybe it was our sheer passion for good music. Maybe it was our strong will to become, someday, creative and successful professionals in our fields. More likely, it was our shared desire of killing ourselves sometimes, if things don't go right.

I met him when he was still planning that masterpiece that will be remembered by future generations as "Turning Point". It was just a script, no actors, no budget, nothing. A script and a quite peculiar wannabe-director, at that time compulsively obsessed with online poker and insanely addicted to a stupid song called "Rub it on my titties".

Ryan and I met Tyler the day we went to see a live show of Mono, an astonishing instrumental-rock band from Japan (although some think they don't create music in Japan). Tyler was a little boy, fresh-off-the-car from Vegas. Also, I was there the first time Ryan auditioned Melanie, in a sunny afternoon in downtown Burbank. I was there when the three main characters got to meet for the very first time, in Hollywood. I saw dozens of changes in the script, I saw it growing, turning from a piece of paper into a real project. I saw Ryan freaking out multiple times, sometimes due to legitimate reasons and incidents along the way, sometimes just cos he's a f*****g weirdo.

And over the time I got to meet the rest of the crüe: Matt, the stoner-not-stoner-anymore; the mysterious yet cute Sean (which now is lost in the middle of America); and one of the most complex organisms Mother Nature ever designed: Chase Winniford. Other than that, I'm proud of having been able to connect Ryan to my good friend Jason from Phoenix; fun to think how our absurd spaghetti-western network provided Ryan the right person to deal with the sound for Turning Point.

I've been holding mics, and managed the slate board several times, with an outstanding expertise. I also acted, in the middle of the California desert, in one of the most (if not the most) important and crucial scene in the movie, as a member of Wang Bang, delivering my line with an enchanting performance. That performance will give me the opportunity to be on IMDB, quickly becoming a worldwide known Hollywood superstar.

This experience taught me a lot: the true value of friendship, the hard work and dedication necessary to give the world a product of quality, the amazing power that well coordinated teamwork can give to every project. But more than everything else, I've learned about "apple boxes", and how and when they are used in the business of magic, a.k.a. the entertainment industry.

-guido-

Turning Point

2011-03-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Concerning the production:

There's a unique transformation on the road.

When your existence changes for a moment and there's more freedom in your car than in all the world.

Between the points of A and B, there's a bond that can't be broken, where individuals mold into one and there's a shock treatment of the soul.

You remember what it's like to be at liberty with your thoughts and not with the worries of the world.

The road means freedom and innocence, you're either running away from or running towards.

It allows us to be more human, shed our obligations and test our boundaries.

Those precious moments we're allowed our insanity and to be at ease with the worry of not knowing what to do in life.

Laughter is less a reservation when you can run across the highway at 3 am and piss on fires miles away from nowhere.

In these moments our souls emerge.

They don't have to hide away, buried by obligations and society's curses.

I'm grateful I got to witness others simply being human and that it was an experience we all got to have together.

Thank you to everyone, I'll forever enjoy the vacation from reality and the memories made while filming this movie.

~Chase

Sean

2011-03-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

The sun is trying to come out. The few inches of snow from last night are starting to melt off. And I am definitely not in California. It would have been great to be apart of Turning Point till the end but I'm glad I was a part of what bit I was. Ryan asked me to get all sentimental. He's a very sensitive chap that puts on a "F.U. if you don't agree with me mentality". This isn't meant to be a jab at him. I'm simply saying. He's not that hard, actually very soft and mooshy.

Being a part of the pre-production process and shooting was a good challenge and fun. There were many hours of work put into it and many hours of standing at attention on set. My boom Op, Chase takes the cake on that, besides his little nap on the ground in San Francisco. Bailey did a great job D.P.-ing. He took it seriously and listened well to Ry-jans direction. The cast I did get to work with were great. I may have formed a few man crushes over the course of the shoot....(to Chase's aunt if you're reading. That doesn't make you gay...too gay) Now Guido. Where would we be without our sexy ethnic friend? His absurd comments that would make Ry-jan blush were wonderful. It was good having him around so I could feel less hated by the rest of America for being Mexican.

Now the Grand Finale (BUM BOOM BUM BOOM!) Ryan J. Moser. Some may refer to him as nuts. Some may consider him out spoken and loud. Some creative. Some whimsical. I would say I agree with all of those statements. He has done a great job putting together his project, which has now become our project. I hope the desire to tell this story will lead to telling many more. I hope our love for the arts will develop, mature and grow so that a good storyteller will become a great storyteller. Most of all I hope that everyone attached to this film will come to love the craft, work, people that this life will bring before them.

Sean

Haters Gotta Hate

2011-03-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

So this is going to be a double edged sword. I'm basically hating on haters so does that make me one of them? And if so, does it make me better than them? Hmm...

I'm basically prepping myself for the haters that will be attached to my project in the not too distant future. I quoted Chuck Palahniuk in a past post and I think I'll put it down again for emphasis. "Until you can create something that captivates people, I'd invite you to just shut up. It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one."

I really enjoy/hate reading reviews on Netflix. I find it amusing that the Internet is an open forum where everybody is anonymous so the true trolls of the world always seem to creep out. My one observation and real question of the trolling haters is why do they always seem incapable of basic grammar and spelling? How critical can you really be in life when you can't even communicate properly?

I'm going to make a Netflix quote and just presume it to be one of my first reviews for my film. So all you readers can feel enlightened to what I am unleashing to the world. Be afraid! Be very afraid!

"What an total wast of time, just about the worst movie ever. Nothing happens, nothing. No story, no connection to the characters, just nothing."

So there you have it. Quoting a troll on another movie and I assume they will assess my film with ever such pizazz as well. If my film is ever lucky enough to see the light of day.

I would love to see the film this guy/gal would pen onto paper. Must be a true savant.

-Ryan.

Neutral

2011-03-10T11:39:00.001-08:00

My emotions have neutralized from last night. Sleep probably helps.

I also made my repair which only cost me 10 hours of my life instead of 80. It was definitely needed and very important so it was worth it.

Now it's time to move on to the next problem. I'm not exactly sure what it is but there is always one waiting around the corner.

-Ryan.

Logan

2011-03-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Great to be a part of the film. It was really neat to witness the organization for the shooting of this film first hand. This was the first time I have experienced something like this as big as it was and was very intrigued by the whole process. Hope it was as satisfying to everyone else who was involved as it was to me. I applaud Ryan for putting up with all the stress that he endured through out all the film as it looked almost painful at times. Great job for putting it all together Ryan

-Logan

Swings

2011-03-09T21:50:00.001-08:00

Right now I'm on a downswing with emotions. It's what always happens when you get up and are happy. Now I'm a heartbeat away from spontaneous combustion.

Why might you ask? Because I have 80 or so hours of work I have to put into fixing one shot in the film. The amount of expletives I want to write down right now is incomprehensible.

My brother sent me a new song so that's at least a bit of happiness. Sounds great so I get to have the pleasure of figuring out a place to put it in the film.

Really no point in this post besides documenting my current depression. I used to be such a happy person. I really need to go back to a lifestyle of not caring about anything really soon. This project is killing me. I have seriously developed a frown line from it.

I'll shut up now.

-Ryan.

Final Day of Shooting (3/6/2011)

2011-03-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

Turning Point Experience

2011-03-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Ryan brought me in for an audition for the role of James' mom. We met for coffee and discussed the role and the characters. We had great conversation and felt that this would be a great match. My role would consist of just a few lines to my "son" before he left on an adventure of a life time. We shot in a Malibu home in a matter of about 30 minutes. Ryan was a delight to work with and the scene happened seamlessly. The environment was very professional and enjoyable. Thanks Ryan for including me in your film. I hope to work with you again. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Katie Melcer
Jame's Mom

Turning Point Filming Experience

2011-03-07T01:21:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that I experienced close to every emotion known to man during the course of my 5-6 week filming period, from murderous rage, to side-splitting hilarity (thanks Chase), to fear of one's own life and well-being (thanks to Tyler and his magnificent driving), I have to say in retrospect that I highly enjoyed this filming experience. My acting background is rather narrow but quickly expanding. This filming process gave me knowledge of not only many aspects of filmmaking in the technical sense (thanks Matt Bailey), but also the magnitude of passion, perseverance, and tenacity that goes into making a film (thanks Ryan). Is Ryan crazy? That's an understatement. Certifiably insane? I'm looking into it...but Ryan unmistakably demonstrates courage, devotion, dedication, and many other characteristics that represent a true film-maker at heart. I hope my presence in this film brings a unique and admirable element to it, satisfies the artists with their casting decisions, and ultimately offers Ryan a slice of art so he can get even just a little closer to the film that he has dreamed of. I thank you all for including me in this project, and I am so thrilled to see the final result.

Ashton

Welcome to Hollywood

2011-03-07T00:19:00.000-08:00

Turning Point.....

This Movie was one hell of an experience. I got lucky in finding great people to work with on a feature film I care a lot about. Years ago I finally started going out and auditioning, trying to get as much experience in film as possible. I drove all the way to LA and Arizona while living in Las Vegas. I got a role in a Student film called Imprint. It was my first project outside of the Indie Horror films I was used to doing. I played a young guy addicted to pain killers. Somehow I got Ryan's attention and as of that came a set of long emails, phone calls, and research... lol

Months passed and finally it seemed like the project was going to be made. I was set to play the role of Ricky. This made me motivated to move out to the big city of LA. I learned so much and had all great experiences while filming. We experienced a lot of ups and downs, but I mostly had a blast. It's always great being the actor and working on a project with a great close crew and people who actually care about what they're doing. Nonetheless, I made friends and an amazing film.

Tyler Vincent

Testing.....

2011-03-07T00:18:00.001-08:00

This is Tyler Vincent Testing.....

That's a wrap! (really?)

2011-03-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

"That's a wrap!"

Does not seem like a statement that I would have ever said in relation to this project. I just pulled off shooting my final scene which is a wedding scene. I managed to organize 25 people getting together at the same time at the same place. I even managed to make it home safely. I managed to transfer all the footage and audio to my harddrives without corrupting any files or losing anything. I was not struck in the face with a lightning bolt.

Filming was an absolute delight today. Gorgeous view at a gorgeous location with beautiful people. How did I get so lucky? Happy to see that all my hard work is paying off. I really look forward to inviting the new members of the family to this blog and seeing all the wonderful photos of such a great day and hopefully get them and the other actors and crew members to chime in here a bit. I enjoy talking to myself and all but it'd be nice to hear what others think of this crazy voyage.

-Ryan.

Brother

2011-03-02T03:28:00.000-08:00

My brother makes pretty music with his pretty toys so I thought I should share it with the pretty people of the world.

It won my heart over so much that it has found a spot in the final cut of the film.

-Ryan.

It was a Time with New Friends-Not Simply a Shoot

2011-02-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that Ryan is coming to a close with the movie. I haven't seen any of the movie hoping to get really surprised when I do. This experience has truly helped me grow as a person; the roadtrip up to San Francisco was (sadly) my first roadtrip with friends; and yes I said friends, not cast and crew. It was a learning experience, it is a distant memory, and it will always be a part of me.

Turning Point has caused a turning point in my life. Ryan, Matt, Sean, Chase, Tyler, Swen, Ashton, Blake, Jackie and the rest of the cast that I unfortunately didn't get to work with.. We did it. Without either of us, ESPECIALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY Ryan, this would not be possible.

Your friend always,
Melanie Manooki (Lindsay)

Keaton 2.0

2011-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

I felt that it needs to be stated that during Keaton's three year fast forward (in his post) that countless hours were shared between him and I polishing up the 'Turning Point' screenplay in Denny's. It would truly not be the film it is becoming today without all the help and kindness of Keaton S. Ziem.

Our late night antics during this time in our lives is a whole other blog in and of itself.

-Ryan.

Computer

2011-02-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Little do I know about film making even less about full-length movies, but for some weird reason Ryan seemed to be interested in my thoughts.

Pre-production

I first knew about Turning Point in March 2010, after a mutual friend introduced us. That first draft Ryan sent me was the most cool looking script I’ve ever seen (I’m in the health business so I don’t get to see those very often), not only I read it once but twice in that same hour. While I was reading it, I could almost see/smell/feel the story, as it was so true to emotions and situations.

After a few days cast selection began and so did the questions:

- Does he look too Disney?

- Do they look like a couple?

- Isn’t she gorgeous?

I must have seen almost half of the actors in LA; screenshot after screenshot, reel after reel, auditions, auditions, auditions. At the end the cast was selected and the air felt like "fuego helado" from F. Quevedo¹, what do I mean? You could feel a calm but soon to be an odyssey.

Production

I can’t say much about it, since I’m 2,497Km away (1,548 miles). All I can do is quote a text message:

"Awesome! We finished shooting." December 13^th 2010, 04:28pm

Post-production

O M G. I think that pretty much describes this part. So much work, so many hours of looking at shared screen for colors, a second look at the same scene for different colors, and maybe a third one just to be sure they don’t look Cheetos or sick green zombies. This is where I noticed how hard it is to make a movie feel like one, all I ever thought was that, after you shoot a scene all you do is fix some sounds, then credits and taram! To a film festival we go… WELCOME TO REALITY, this is the beautiful insanity Ryan talks about.

I feel honored to be part of Turning Point, even if I'm just a small piece of a crusty cheese pie. And I thank you Ryan for sharing this with me.

Lore S.C.

A.K.A. Amiga

¹ “Es hielo abrazador, es fuego helado”, Francisco de Quevedo. Antithesis, baroque poetry.

Keaton

2011-02-19T06:49:00.000-08:00

As the official "That guy who was here for a while that one time" member of the Turning Point crew, I felt it would not be out of place for me to offer a few insights from my point of view on watching this production unfold. My part has been atypical of how I initially envisioned my involvement in the film's manifestation simply because of how ultimately detached I was from it for the greater part of pre-production and shooting. However, I felt it was an even greater adventure for me once I finally arrived.

It may have been as far back as 2006 when I first heard about Turning Point. In fact, it may have been the first conversation I had with Ryan that was more than five words long. Ryan and I worked together at the oldest, most historically-burned-down-by-drunken-cowboys saloon in Arizona (a.k.a. The Palace). It was there that I first seriously began my involvement in film-making by talking with and getting to know Ryan. The first things he told me about himself was a mish-mash of different pieces of his personal history. I gathered that he had spent time in Hawaii, that he had done practically nothing but write a screenplay while he was there, that he was saving up money to go to Thailand, and that nothing is worse than being "donked by a mother-fucking donkey" in poker, whatever that meant.

Time passed. Ryan left The Palace and went to Thailand, but I heard from him shortly after he returned. At this point I had enrolled in film school along with another partner-in-crime, Mr. Winniford, and within 8 months time found myself a stones-throw away from a gen-u-ine Zeedonk, playing croquet at midnight on a tiki-torch lit lawn and learning more about the screenplay Ryan had written during his time in Hawaii.

It was carried out into the living room in a shoebox. The title page was so covered in blue ink notes and hand-drawn charts displaying the rise of tension by page-count that finding the actual title of the script was like searching for Waldo. Alright. Turn that page and here we are; page one.

You know how archaeologists digging for dinosaur bones examine the age of the fossil depending on what layer of earth they're buried in? That was how it was like looking at my first draft of Turning Point. Layers of blue, black and red ink. Then pencil. Then the actual word printed on the page, if it hadn't been crossed out and illegible, could be read. Alternate dialogue was written in a box off to the side, words and phrases were taken away and replaced with a better word.

If Ryan had continued to keep that first draft up-to-date with all the revisions I would read after that night, the pages be as brittle and yellowed as papyrus toilet paper by now. It seemed to me that most of the work had already been done, from the written word's perspective. But it didn't take long. Not five minutes after that shoebox was opened and the first pages were turned, the questions began.

"What would be a better way to say this?"

"Does this make sense?"

"Is it funny?"

"Is it good?"

I hadn't written a thing at that point. Arguably, I still haven't. However tattered and scribbled those pages were, there was something invaluably encouraging about the process of reviewing Ryan's work as a writer. It demonstrated to me that, until the words are actually filmed, the words could always be rewritten, which meant that it could always always always improve.

Fast forward three years.

Ryan lives in L.A. Finally the film is starting to come together. He's shown me audition tapes, sent me draft after draft of rewrites, test footage has been shot, locations being secured, and most important, plans to get the movie shot are being made. The transition from the page to the screen is being made. It's exciting, it's fun, it's scary. Ryan has made many films at this point, but never one on a feature-length scale.

As my luck would have it, it seems that it would be helpful to have me come to L.A. and lend a hand.

I'm not sure if this was more a favor for me or a necessity that I be there for the first week of shooting in San Diego, but it was one of the best times I had ever had doing anything. I'm not going to lie, airplane rides are still as fun as they were when I was a little kid, going someplace new is always great, and seeing old friends after a long absence even more so. The break from work doesn't hurt either. But the best part of it, by far, was doing something I love doing, and the validity of contributing to a project that I had watched grow bigger than the shoebox it was in when I first saw it.

I met a lot of new people, cast and crew, during my involvement on the set for Turning Point. I watched actors taking the words I had originally read three or four years prior and say them out loud, figuring them out and making discoveries with them that I hadn't realized. There were a lot of laughs, and a fair share of 3:00 AM shot 27 misery (as I knew first hand, as I tried in vain to keep up writing the shot number on the Sean-Marin-style slate-board). Although I blame Mr. Winniford for a lot of over-worked, under-slept laughing fits, my intention was to be present and participate as much as possible that week. Firstly because after I was done and got to go home, everyone else had to stick around for another indeterminate amount of weeks to keep shooting. But also, because these opportunities come so seldom after all, and you never know when it's going to come again.

By the time I was finished on-set, it was only an hour or two away from dawn, every single piece of equipment still needing to be wrangled, packed up and loaded, every inch of Mr. Bailey's parents house cleaned, and Mr. Winniford kept awake at the wheel for the 73 hour drive home. Everyone else still had a months worth of production left to weather, and I was too bombed out and depleted to savor the moment. I slept-walked through the cleanup and eventually we were on the road, driving back to L.A., watching the sunrise on the road.

I stayed awake as long as I could, and just before my eyes were literally shutting themselves,

Chase, "Hey are you awake back there?!"

"Yeah."

"Well, say somethin."

Forty minutes later we were a car stuffed full of deliriously high giggling baboons.

And then there was a record breaking heat wave to sleep through that day in Los Angeles.

And then I woke up to Spanish girls laughing at me on webcam.

And then there was egg rolls in China town.

And then there was a few hours sleep.

And then there was a car ride to the airport.

And then a fat, bearded lady had me take off my belt and my shoes and felt me up.

And then I was walking myself two miles home from the shuttle drop off at Super 8 in Sedona, Arizona.

And that was it.

It wasn't long before Ryan was sending me further updates on rewritten scenes that hadn't been shot yet. Head shots of actors auditioning for older versions of the principles followed. I got a few peeks at some of the new footage being shot at waterfalls and swing sets. I was allowed to take a look at a rough cut over Skype. It was great being kept in the loop, but not without a sense of melancholy that I wasn't there to see the rest of it happen.

Until finally I get an e-mail from Ryan about the Turning Point blog. Things are starting to wrap up. Loose ends are being tied, final touches are being made, the final day of shooting is fast approaching. Turning Point is now slowly going (nearly) full-circle from a pipe dream, to a project, to a happening, to a reality, to a memory. Amazing, really. Once the film is finished, it will officially be something that "happened", no longer something that will one day happen, or something that is in the process of happening. Past-tense. The film's own turning point. The turning point for the people who helped make it happen.

It's been a pleasure to be a part of it. More. I had always hoped that the film would get made, one way or another, but I never remember daring to hope that the film would ever be finished. It always felt like there were too many other things that needed to happen first. I didn't have my hand in the pie nearly as much as anyone else who took part. A lot of sleep has been lost, a lot of hours volunteered, a lot of frustration and exhaustion. I know this has been a journey for everyone in many different ways, but knowing something about the length of time Ryan has spent with these characters, with the drafts, with each word of the script, it's good to know that the whole Turning Point adventure was an eventuality from the beginning.

-K.S.Z.

Nostalgia

2011-02-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

Feeling a sense of nostalgia due to me looking back towards the beginning of this production. There's a strange feeling that it was a life time ago when we were actually filming this project.

For anybody that knows little to nothing about the process of filmmaking here is the basic premise of how it works. It's a bit like a sandwich.

PRE-PRODUCTION
Production
POST-PRODUCTION

Why are pre and post capitalized? Because those are the two most time consuming aspects. But they also make up the bread of our sandwich. You can't have a high quality sandwich or hamburger without excellent bread or buns. I can prove this to you by having you purchase dirt cheap hot dogs but buying excellent buns. It's a great hot dog. Flip that procedure around, cheap buns and expensive sausage. Not so great.

This is my formula for my film.

Pre-Production:
-5 years until final draft of screenplay (this was not full-time work but probably over 1000 hours of accumulated work)
-5 months of prep time for film production including casting.

Production:
-Over the course of 3 days 1/3 of the film was shot. Almost all San Diego scenes were completed.
-2 days of shooting desert locations.
-2 days for San Francisco road trip.
-3 nights of filming night car driving (including reshoot)
-Other than this odd and end scenes were shot. Beach location was shot on 3 separate days due to scheduling and weather conflicts. A night parking lot scene was shot in this fashion in a single night.

Post-Production:
-Countless hours.
-Editing was taking place in between shooting. Documented in this blog are 15 hour editing days. There were plenty of them.
-Jason Rudd has been working ruthlessly on sound for over a month and a half now.
-Jason Downer was becoming soul crushed due to music burnout.
-Color timing took well over 200 hours of work including the render out.

So I guess the train of thought in this whole post was filmmaking is brutal. But if you want a great sandwich you need great bread and a delicious middle. It's just strange that the meat takes so little time compared to making the bread.

So many hours of my life have been slaved into this project. Sad to know that some people for one reason or another will simply not like the film. But hey, you can't please everyone. And on a side note, anybody that would make such a simple statement as "that movie sucked" has never made, and will more likely than not ever make, a feature length film in their entire lives. So they're opinions are almost obsolete.

I also wanted to note in this entry that it has been a wild, wild, wild ride making this. I'm coming towards the final line of completion and in a strange way I'm a bit sad of this fact. Even more bizarrely, I'm even a little scared. It's strange to have something with you for so long and to finally just say "Yep. All done." Seems surreal to me.

I want to welcome my new actors to this project but I'm going to keep them secret and not reveal their identities until I finish shooting the opening and closing scene of my film. We're scheduled to shoot the brief but critical scene on March 6th. Still waiting to see about weather and other logistical concerns.

Filmmaking's a drug. Through all the ups and downs (thrilled/joyous/suicidal/homicidal) I can honestly say that I have the desire and the burn to make another film. During the stress of the production I was certain I was going to call it quits, (almost always feel that way during any production I've done) but as the film begins to take its true form and make it's own little world the joy of playing God is overwhelming.

I hope each and everyone of you reading this enjoy the world I created with this film.

Much love,

-Ryan.

8 Months of Blog Action

2011-02-18T06:19:00.000-08:00

8 Months of Blog Action
1.5 Years since Casting Began
3 Months since Principle Photography was Finished
5.5 Years since Rough Draft of Screenplay was Completed
3 Weeks until Opening and Closing Scene will be Shot
Final Color Time Finished Today for Main Portion of the Film
Sound Design Begins

Closing in on completion. Lots more dates to be listed but it's time for bed at 6:23AM on Friday February, 18th. Hopefully I'll be a smart brother and call my sister to wish her a Happy Birthday. If I happen to wake up absent minded at least it's been documented that I do remember when her birthday is.

-Ryan.

Sound and Color

2011-02-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

Things are slowly but surely coming along. Jason Rudd is working magic and making the project sound like a "movie". So happy to hear such rich and clean dialogue tracks.

I recently got back from my month long trip to Mexico and I've begun continuing color work. I'm really pumped because it's looking gorgeous.

Other than that my diary has kind of died. I feel like I'm talking to myself on here since nobody reads it and I haven't had much energy to entertain myself.

I've begun writing with my friend Keaton S. Ziem so that's a good thing. We have 99 pages of scenes. Is there a real story in it yet? Nope. But it's great! We've been sending scenes back and forth with the plan of getting as much good material possible and sculpting a screenplay from that. Writing is usually a lonesome journey so this has been quite fun. It's also been quite liberating not constricting our creativity to a plot or any other structure details at this point.

So all in all it's a great start to the New Year.

-Ryan.

Criticism

2010-12-19T03:41:00.000-08:00

I figured I should put this out there to the world (1 or 2 readers of this blog and anybody that may read it in the future).

This is a quote I'm stealing from my favorite author Chuck Palahniuk. He's been very influential in my perspective of the world and I wore a necklace he personally made for me during my entire shoot. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is the author of my favorite book which would later move on to become my favorite film "Fight Club".

Anyways, this is a quote in regards to the hopes of my film ever being seen and the inevitable trolls that will come forth.

"Until you can create something that captivates people, I'd invite you to just shut up. It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one."

-Ryan.

I Color...

2010-12-07T01:51:00.000-08:00

It's what I like to do.

I'd rather sit here and listen to music and play with colors than socialize and interact with human beings.

Some call it pathetic. I call it bliss.

-Ryan.

Alive

2010-12-01T01:35:00.001-08:00

So the project is still continuing and I am still alive. I decided to go for the homeless look so I stopped shaving and I never combed my hair to begin with so hooray for that!

I've been busy casting actors for my final scenes that I need to film. I have also completed locked picture for many of the scenes in the film. So I'm happy to say that the fun times of sound editing have begun! I'm really happy my good friend Jason Rudd is in charge of that department. I've heard some of the work he's done already and it is sounding amazing.

Once I finish the rest of my small scenes I get to send off the almost completed film to my other buddy Jason Downer who will get to put in beautiful music and make the film sound lovely. Can't wait to hear what he comes up with.

I've also finally learned the ins and outs of a software program so I can begin color timing the project soon. Multiple actors that I've met mention how beautiful the cinematography looks from my little temp trailers and teasers. I can't wait to hear what people think when the footage has actually been treated. Hooray and good luck for Matt Bailey getting future jobs! He's going to have a nice stable career as a cinematographer while I'm scrounging through garbage looking for something to eat. Please still be my friend Matthew Raymond Bailey.

Well at least I can say I wrote, directed and produced a feature film. Not many can say that. Good game.

-Ryan.

Teaser and Trailer

2010-11-17T00:32:00.001-08:00

Celebrity

2010-11-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the idea of celebrity in a previous post and also Andrew Garfield in another so I figured I shall make a post mentioning them both in one.

I saw Andrew Garfield tonight during a discussion panel at the 2010 AFI Film Festival. It was a cool event that featured him as well as Jesse Eisenberg and Carey Mulligan.

I really would have loved to have taken a picture with him but unfortunately since he's about to be the new Spiderman he was getting swarmed.

If anybody is unfamiliar with him, I have had a "mancrush" on him ever since I saw his performance in "Boy A". I think he is an amazingly talented actor and I would've been just as eager to get a photo a few years ago as I was tonight, if not more so. When I saw him get swarmed by photographers I felt a bit sad.

I personally would not enjoy the feeling of "celebrity". Most people assume that people make movies because they want to become rich and famous. I think the most successful of all filmmakers and actors that make it in the long haul are the ones that do it with true passion and conviction. It was very clear that the three actors I saw tonight have those traits.

It's strange that just because they are now famous everybody wants to be associated with them. It was apparent during their discussion panel that it is overwhelming for them to figure it all out themselves. I would hate the thought of not knowing who you can trust and who actually cares about you for "who you are" not "what you are". If that even makes sense.

I'm sure these three actors will have a long successful career because they have the passion in their hearts to pursue this roller coaster of a career.

Hopefully my film will be a success and put this sort of a burden upon my actors and actresses. I'm pretty sure that it's a burden none of them wouldn't mind bearing.

-Ryan.

Rough Cut Complete?

2010-10-25T00:18:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I can technically say that since I still have the opening act of the film to shoot but for the most part I have a pretty solid rough cut now complete.

The current total running time is 57 minutes and 23 seconds. Pretty damn good if you ask me. This should be putting me on track for my 1 hour 20 minute total running time I'm planning after total completion.

It's hard to judge your own work. I've heard positive things so far so I believe I'm on the right track. I need to get my head back on straight again so I can shoot the final scenes of this thing.

I've enjoyed the editing process immensely. I've always been a huge fan of it. In my eyes, it's where the true magic of cinema takes place. Production can be enjoyable but I'm usually too stressed to enjoy it while it's taking place. Filmmaking is quite an addiction. While you're in the warzone of production you can't wait to get home and retreat. But after a few days of R&R you miss the battlefield and want to get back in it.

I'm coming to a crossroads in my life. I should feel proud when this project is all said and done. Producing your first feature film at 25 years old is no easy feat. In the end it will all be worth it, no matter what happens, but I am sure hoping it will lead to a much brighter future. I'm not saying my present is dim, I'm just hoping my future is so bright that I'm going to have to wear shades.

I sure hope I don't come across as a pompous douche. If my humor seems pretentious you have to give me a little bit of delusional slack, this entry has been written at 12:28AM after a long day of editing.

-Ryan.

Wow

2010-10-22T18:31:00.001-07:00

That pretty much sums up the experience of cutting my most recent scene. I have plowed through this editing process. But my longest scene in the film took me two full days to cut. I had to look through over two hours worth of footage!

Sure hope it was worth it.

-Ryan.

Testing... Testing...

2010-10-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

I had a thought last night about "What if my film were to become successful?"

I've always wondered what it would be like to become successful and then all of the small-time acquaintances from your past would overnight want to become your bestfriend. It's strange how success can change people's perceptions of you.

I know there are a few people out in this world that actually read this blog and our adamantly following it. I understand that it's mostly cast and crew but no big deal. I'm still really curious who actually reads this. If you're reading this right now (yes, right now) please leave your name in the comment area. If you feel uncomfortable leaving your full name just leave your name as Ryan M. etc.

Anyways, this is just my own personal test to see who actually cares about what I'm doing. I've spread the word enough that people that know me know that I have this blog and what it's about. I'm curious about who actually takes the time to read what I write.

Thanks for your time and off to the cutting room I go! 15 hour day? Only time will tell. Oops... First I need to go return my rented lens and light meter. Phew!

-Ryan.

Work Ethic

2010-10-16T23:49:00.001-07:00

You can't call me lazy when I put my dedication into something. I'm currently on a 15 hour editing session that began at 9am today. I still have not stopped. I have edited a solid 23 minute rough cut. The editing continues until my eyes bleed.

-Ryan.

Health

2010-10-13T15:44:00.001-07:00

The emotional swings that come with directing a feature film would be unbearable to most. The only thing that has gotten me this far is my insanity and addictive personality.

The highs and lows are quite extreme. One moment I'm on top of the world, content as can be, then the next moment I'm curled up on the floor in the fetal position wishing I never had a dream at all.

When it comes down to it, this is what happens when you truly care about something with all your heart. Similar swings happen when you're in love with somebody. Probably one of the reasons why I'm afraid of ever falling in love again.

I suppose I'm a bit of a sadist and a masochist but I would much rather hurt myself willingly than let somebody else hurt me unknowingly.

Why have I written this post? Because I'm obviously insane. But I actually feel good. I've started polishing up a rough cut of quite a few scenes and I see the potential that's in the hard work that I've put forth. My vision will come to fruition.

-Ryan.

THE Roadtrip- LA to San Francisco through Lindsay's Lenses

2010-10-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

From LA to San Fran , from the end to the beginning ...

Golden Gate Bridge, hippies, a waterfall, a cave, cars breaking down, freezing cold weather, beautiful coastline, some other bridges, cold delicious s'mores, it's been quite an adventure so far...

And this is where we all were scared for his life ^

One of my fav. pictures ^

Hello Morro Bay!! We're here

yay for being little! :D ^
Take while I was being filmed

Andersen's famous Split-Pea soup

69 accidentally scratched on his face- nice Sean hah

Herro!
They are both looking at absolutely nothing
yay for oil changes
Tyler stop trying to be so cool haha leaning against the car right when you notice the camera

Oh to know what goes through his mind

haha same face
AHHH the joys of filmaking

The Tower Swen ^

This was taken during filming ^ haha

Chase's Car - the beginning of the trip

-Melanie Manooki (Lindsay)

More Desert Pictures...

2010-10-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

Dreams?

2010-10-10T15:03:00.001-07:00

Why have a dream to make films for a living when you can sit in your underpants in complete content playing Pwong2?

http://www.addictinggames.com/pwong2.html

-Ryan.

Happy Birthday to Matthew Raymond Bailey!

2010-10-09T16:59:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Matt Bailey for making it 22 years into life thus far. I am honored to call him my friend and I was happy to share the moment of his birth last night on our trip home from San Francisco. We left SF at 10PM and arrived home this morning in LA around 6-7AM.

The entire cast and crew did an amazing job and we just got back from a huge portion of principal photography. All of my road trip locations have been filmed and it has been quite the adventure.

The story in the screenplay has started to come true in more ways than one while we have been filming. On our trip up the coast we started to get worried that Chase's car was going to explode due to high oil pressure. On the trip home last night we had the honor of receiving a flat tire due to a nail in Bailey's tire.

Nothing quite says "Happy Birthday" like driving 65 miles per hour in a 1991 Honda Civic Hatchback at 4AM with a spare tire.

Pictures of the extravaganza will be posted soon for everybody's viewing pleasure. Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, this has definitely become an experience of a lifetime. (I'm grateful I'm still alive thus far)

-Ryan.

Beach and Desert Cellphone Production Photos

2010-10-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

The desert

2010-10-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

On the open road

Um...... Guys?

Headquarter

Chase really locked his doors because he thought

there would be a murderer in the middle of nowhere

Successful Sunday, and more to come :)

2010-10-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

This is Melanie Manooki- I play the role of Lindsay. I am the youngest person involved with this project- BUT I'm ok with it because they don't tease me about it much hah. We had a successful day of filming yesterday and even though a few things didn't go as planned, in the end everything worked out. The cast/crew is so much fun, and we all get along really well. This is my first feature film and I'm very grateful to have the role that I have. I'm excited to see the finished product of this movie, as is everyone else. Right now the boys are probably in the desert setting up for filming, and in a couple days I'll be joining them to head towards San Francisco for more filming. It is going to be simply amazing. I really feel like we're all just friends hanging out and not working, but really a lot of great footage is being created right as I type.

So as an update- yesterday we shot some beach scenes in Malibu and a more intimate scene, which I thought was dealt with very professionally. I officially met the actor who plays James (Swen Temmel) and was happy to see everyone else again. All in all, very enjoyable and productive day.

Looking forward to the roadtrip!- <3 Melanie Manooki

(I'm a little out of breath in the video from walking in the sand in my shoes.. I guess I'm a BIT out of shape haha) We're following Ryan here, leading us to the filming spot.

Cellphone Production Stills

2010-10-02T00:18:00.001-07:00

Production Stills

2010-10-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

On Set

2010-09-27T12:31:00.001-07:00

Day three on our San Diego shooting section and it has been a crazy schedule. Movie magic has been happening as well as our actors learning magic. Boys are being "boys" and the beauty on set stands alone with the name Kesia.

So far there has been only one little mess up with wardrobe but other than that everything has been pretty smooth and relaxing.

Okay, there'll be more of this to come.

Oh, p.s. be careful what you say in High School settings.

Sean- (sound)

Roller Coaster

2010-09-20T02:05:00.000-07:00

The ups and downs and ever exciting turns of filmmaking. It's been awhile since my last entry and quite a lot has happened.

I have finally finalized my cast. Well, kind of, sort of.

My previous star of my project had to leave due to SAG related issues. It's an unfortunate situation but I wish her all the best.

I had to recast the part for Lindsay and I was fortunate enough to find the right actress in just the knick of time.

I screentested two actresses with Tyler and they both did an amazing job. They have already been informed that I am casting them a part in the project. However, I still have not informed them of which role. Unfortunately one of the girls may have their heart slightly broken due to the fact that the role of Lindsay's friend is comparably smaller. All a boy can ask for is a little love though.

This is my official cast as listed below.

Tyler Vincent: Ricky
Swen Temmel: James
Ashton Bingham: Cole
Kesia Elwin: Victoria
Blake Owens: Matt
Melanie Manooki and Jacqueline Su-yuo for the roles of Lindsay and Jan. Still a surprise for them to find out which part they've been casted for.

Official Crew
Writer Director Producer: Ryan Moser
DP Producer: Matt Bailey
AC Sound Mixer Producer: Sean Marin
Production Designer Boom Operator Producer: Chase Winniford
Grip: Keaton S. Ziem

We begin principal photography on Friday September, 24th. Wish us all the best of luck! This will certainly be an experience of a lifetime.

-Ryan.

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Three)

2010-07-31T15:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Two)

2010-07-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Ryan Moser's Story (Part One)

2010-07-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Turning Point

More Poster Fun

Turning Point is Now Available

Boy-Oh-Boy!

Seasons Greetings

Official Logo

It's Been Awhile...

More Poster Fun

The Joys of Filmmaking

One Year Anniversary

Official Trailer

Poster Fun

Film Limbo

Officially a "Real" Movie

Production Stills

Production Notes

Jerry Capener

The Turning Point Experience:)

Good Quote

Quotes by Me via Skype

Amusing Joke and a Reassuring Quote

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

Milestones

Touching Up The Paintings

It's Finally..... Done? Not quite :)

Swen's long awaited blog entry

A Day in LA, a turning point.

The Deed is Done!

Perfection of Means

Boom Goes the Dynamite

Baby Bear Feels Left Out

Mr. Tough Guy

Another Turning Point Blog

It's April

A Guido's version

Turning Point

Sean

Haters Gotta Hate

Neutral

Logan

Swings

Final Day of Shooting (3/6/2011)

Turning Point Experience

Turning Point Filming Experience

Welcome to Hollywood

Testing.....

That's a wrap! (really?)

Brother

It was a Time with New Friends-Not Simply a Shoot

Keaton 2.0

Computer

Keaton

Nostalgia

8 Months of Blog Action

Sound and Color

Criticism

I Color...

Alive

Teaser and Trailer

Celebrity

Rough Cut Complete?

Wow

Testing... Testing...

Work Ethic

Health

THE Roadtrip- LA to San Francisco through Lindsay's Lenses

More Desert Pictures...

Dreams?

Happy Birthday to Matthew Raymond Bailey!

Beach and Desert Cellphone Production Photos

The desert

Successful Sunday, and more to come :)

Cellphone Production Stills

Production Stills

On Set

Roller Coaster

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Three)

Ryan Moser's Story (Part Two)

Ryan Moser's Story (Part One)