Cronenburg's List

Interesting insight from Davey Cronenberg. Haven't seen Eastern Promises yet, but it promises to be entertaining.

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Submission Formats

While many of us have Final Draft, or possibly enjoy Apple’s new “Pages” program, which kicks “Word’s” ass by the way. We are suggesting to upload your submissions as a PDF file format. This way no one will have any trouble reading your idea. Also if you create boards or something more visual based than text it will work out as well.

Marble and Clay presents “THE QUARRY”

Friends, Artists and Filmmakers,

I’m writing to you today in hopes of sparking your collective minds into action. Marble and Clay is launching a new cinematic adventure called, “The Quarry”. In order to free ourselves from the rut, the grind, the familiar patterns we’ve all fallen into, we propose a call to action, or more succinctly, a call to production.

The objective is to form a core group of writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, motion graphic artists and designers interested in producing 1-3 minute shorts on a consistent basis.

THE DETAILS:
Every two weeks, everyone involved will pitch an idea. It can be anything from a simple treatement in paragraph form, a 2 or 3 page script or a series of storyboards.

There are a couple parameters we should try and stick to:
- 2 or 3 locations max
- 2 or 3 actors max
- 1 day shoot
- Locations have to be available and practical
- Has to be in or within earshot of New York
- Obviously, low budget

The pitches will then be distributed among the group and voted upon. The pitch with the most votes will be picked and produced. And no, you can’t vote for your own script!

WHY?
“It’s the economy, stupid” - James Carville advising the Bill Clinton campaign

While we all ultimately want to make the perfect feature, the ultimate HBO series or the next mindblowing summer blockbuster, short-form content is the easiest way to get noticed these days. We’ve all worked on those laborious shorts that cost a bunch of money and took weeks to produce and shoot. This is the antithesis of those. One day shoots, a couple crew members, a couple actors, a couple bucks and we’re done.

Creativity is king here. Rather than high-end production value, we’re going for the laugh, the punchline, the characters, the dialogue, the ingenuity. These shorts should be quick, dirty and brilliant. The great thing is - even if they’re just great, and not brilliant, we won’t have quit our day jobs and blown our bank accounts. We will just pick up and make it better, faster and harder next time.

HOW?
Once we all decide on the project for that week, Marble and Clay will help produce it.
We have camera equipment, lighting, sound and edit suites. We have production insurance and can permit city streets, sidewalks and parks. We’re also not afraid to throw a few dollars in there if we need a prop, a costume, a canary wrangler, etc…

Hopefully, a couple of us will be able to crew up and participate in the actual shoots and the post. If not, we understand. Just contributing your brilliant minds is a great start.

WHEN?
Let’s plan on having the first batch of pitches done by October 8th. We’ll then set up a voting system and pick the first project. Production will commence by the end of the month. We’ll be setting up a website shortly to facilitate everything.

WHOSE?
Some of you might ask: “Well, who gets to own these little gems?”

The answer is: No one

The truth is, short films don’t make much money. But in case they do, we propose that all proceeds be donated to a charitable foundation. Who gets to pick the charity? The writer, of course.

IN SUMMARY:
Ok, you probably have questions, ideas, raves, rants, etc… Please post them in an appropriate category here on this blog, so we don’t have to address it over and over, and so others can add their two cents.

Also, if you know any other people that might be interested in contributing, please forward their names and emails to us.

Thanks for your time.

Gil Seltzer | Noah Todd