How to Make a Film

How to Make a Film is a feature length documentary by Seumas Next and Stephan Kern. Filmed over 6 years (2006-2012) Seumas and Stephan, who are now credited as Executive Producers, fell out half-way through production over the film's Artistic Direction.
Unable to agree on the film's Narrative as they attempted to produce "a definitive and comprehensive film school in 83 minutes" (the maximum length of a DV Tape) that tried to cover the entire film-making process and featuring only those who teach film-making, Seumas and Stephan created Alan Smithee “a West Coast Woody Allen” as Director to wrap up their film Masterclass
"Don Siegel, as the original Smithee, was the inspiration to produce a “Cinéma vérité” masterpiece that paid homage to Bruce Nauman" said Seumas Next
(Alan Smithee is the official pseudonym used by the Directors Guild of America who wish to disown a project, coined for when a Director is dissatisfied with the final product and unable to exercise creative control over a film)
Following the Guild rules and, even though Seumas and Stephan are now back on speaking terms, they are not permitted to discuss the circumstances leading to the move or even to acknowledge being the actual Directors.
billion in Box Office receipts, thousands of Film Festival awards and even a Nobel Peace Prize"]] For this reason alone, the film is of great interest to film-makers, enthusiasts and the wider society. The film however has further significance in that it is a chimera of documentary and artistic exploration, which pays homage to one of America's great contemporary artists, Bruce Nauman.
See also Filmmaking
Plot
Inspired by Bruce Nauman's 1968 performance piece "Walking in An Exaggerated Manner" (chosen specifically because it was the same year as Alan Smithee, Seumas Next and Stephan Kern were all born) Smithee delivers the principals of their masterclass through a short form film entitled "Taped Square".
"One location" is the central recurring theme of the film and, within "Taped Square", Smithee introduces essential film-making techniques, teaches film history and reveals the secrets behind Hollywood's greatest successes with an ensemble class brought together for the first time in cinema history.
"Taped Square represents a microcosm of the fundamental themes rooted in Alan Smithee’s colourful aesthetic: circularity, repetition, minimalism, body awareness and post-structural linguistic theory. These themes are ingrained into what is essentially a ten- minute performance of epic banality; : Smithee deliberately traipsing foot over foot along the perimeter of a makeshift gaffer taped square several times, alternating between forward and backward movements. It’s anti-film in a sense, the camera reductively operating only as a simple auto-focus recording device, stripped of its power to manipulate the image and pared down to it's base function as a dispassionate observer" Seumas Next
How to Make a Film is told backwards and uses Elliot Grove's 99 Minute Film School as it's backbone. Smithee opens the film by delivering his Oscar Award winning speech para phrasing Jack Nicholson's 1976 speech when he collected his first Oscar for ""
"I guess this proves that the Academy is as nuts as Bruce Nauman" Alan Smithee
Smithee's experiences within "Taped Square" are analogous to Seumas and Stephan's own battles with their film career, which began when they met at Adelaide High School, Australia in 1984 and decided to write and produce films together.
Smithee, in a good versus evil homage to Star Wars, and mirroring Seumas and Stephan's own real-life experiences, is usurped mid-way through production by his alter ego Smithee 2, who binds him up "like a Christo" artwork; Smithee 2 takes over production and ultimately completes the film.
The film ends when Smithee discovers a script for his Masterpiece in an Alfred Hitchcock "MacGuffin"; he is surrounded by a peaceful Green-light and, in homage to "possibly cinema's greatest mystery", Smithee is charged with discovering the secret behind Orson Welles' whispered "Rosebud". A secret he believes only Harvey Weinstein can answer. The "Wilhelm Scream" is also used.
Cast
Featuring a who's who of film gurus:Elliot Grove, Syd Field, Dov S S Simens, John Truby, Mike Figgis, Chris Jones , Jan Harlan, Irvine Welsh, Alki David, Lord David Puttnam, Pat Ferns, Peter Goers, Chris Adams, Sandra Hebron, Leofric Kingsford-Smith, Alan Smithee and John Landis
Of all the people they asked to be in the film only Robert McKee declined to be interviewed.
"Demonstrating our philosophy of generosity and hospitality we will allow Bob to apologise personally in the sequel" Stephan Kern
Production
How to Make a Film was filmed on location at Ealing Studios London, The Royal Institution of Australia, , University of Westminster and the Apollo Cinema Picadilly Circus, London on a variety of formats (mini-DV, HDV, Super 8 , iPhone).
"Taped Square" was filmed on Seumas' prized possession, a Eumig Nautica, the first and only underwater Super 8mm camera.
Soundtrack
Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s use of use of György Ligeti's Musica Ricercata in Eyes Wide Shut and continuing their homage to Bruce Nauman, Australian composer Rob McDade produced an original musical Score using the 3 notes from Nauman’s violin masterpiece D. E. A. D. (a coincidental anagram of McDade's name and the chorus used extensively by Led Zepplin)
McDade, an Award- winning “guitar wizard” who has played with one-eighth of Pink Floyd composed an eerie and compelling original Score that he described as “dealing in textures, abstract sonic art and leitmotifs”
“Perhaps the greatest sound effect I produced was the heartbeat. The heartbeat is the basis of all music, but in conflict with the sounds, shifted slightly out of time, thus creating tension, created by striking 3 deadened strings of a guitar - only once! Which 3 strings? The bottom three; E, A and D!” Rob McDade
External links
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1562863/
http://www.howtomakeafilm.org/

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