How We Made a Movie for $200 and Sold It to HBO

The story of two San Diego filmmakers hitting pay dirt

I grew up on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that had two single-screen movie theaters to choose from. I watched my first memorable flick there when I was nine: Inner Space, starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. I was instantly in love ... with Meg and with movies. I’ve labeled myself a “filmmaker” for about six years, ever since teaming up with Lowell Frank, who grew up in Arizona. Since 2001, we’ve been writing, producing, directing (and funding) our own films the only way we know how: cheap and unconventionally.

In the fall of 2004, we did a short documentary for a school project (we’re both graduate students in the film department at San Diego State University). The short was a profile of a group here in San Diego known as The Kingdom of Terre Nueve. It’s a medieval-reenactment society whose members spend much of their free time dressing up in armor and renaissance garb and speaking to each other in Old English. During the shoot, we met Colin Taylor: fourteen years old, quick-witted, a bit nerdy (in an extremely positive way) and incredibly endearing. When “in-game,” Colin was Drakmar, a vassal who was trying to become a man-at-arms. If this wasn’t intriguing enough, we soon found out his biological father wasn’t around and that he looked to his in-game knight as a father figure. Immediately, our little film turned into something larger.

We spent about five months with Colin, filming him at home, school and fighter practice. And over the course of our time with him, we were honored to discover so many more “whys” than we’d bargained for: Why does he feel a need to escape to video games and role-play? Why is he so attached to his in-game knight? Why is his real father never around? The feature-length documentary, Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journey, which we officially completed in 2006, answers all of those questions.

The film was shot with prosumer Sony digital cameras and edited on our Mac at home. We spent $200 on tape stock and gas. In crafting the story, we tried to stay true to the voyage we took as filmmakers: a voyage of discovery and involvement as we watched the stereotypes we had placed on our subjects dissolve, replaced by a much more interesting and multidimensional reality. We began shooting a film about “strange” people who love knights and dragons and role-play, and ended making a film about real people, with real struggles and triumphs just like every human being on the planet.

The rest of the story is pretty simple. We entered the film into a bunch of film festivals and, in return for our entry fees, were sent back a bunch of rejection letters. It did play in Trenton and Kansas and at Comic-Con 2006 here in San Diego, where we won an award for Best Documentary. But then things just kind of died. We knew it was a good film. We knew it was a story that touched people. But we didn’t really know what else to do with it. Then we met Bennett.

“It’s not what you do, it’s who you meet.” Well, maybe a little of both. Lowell and I met Bennett Miller at a luncheon for the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, where he was receiving a Best Director award for Capote. I handed him a DVD and asked if he would watch it and tell me what he thought. I knew he wouldn’t. But two months later, he called me. He said he really liked it. He asked what we were doing with it. I said nothing. So, he made two phone calls and got it in the hands of HBO. And they called us and we cut a small deal, and now the kid from Maui who was gawking at Meg Ryan in 1987 has a feature film premiering on Father’s Day on HBO Family.

Over the course of our relatively short time making movies, Lowell and I have learned the secret to certain success as an independent filmmaker: Make something you’re passionate about, then get it into the hands of Bennett Miller. It’s worked for us every time so far.

Lowell and I are hoping to shoot our first feature narrative film right here in San Diego sometime in the next year (or two). We’re currently looking for people to partner with us. Please contact us if you’re interested (destindaniel@flagpop.com).

BROADCAST SCHEDULE

(Taken from hbofamily.com)
Drakmar: A Vassal’s Journal, TVG, 73 minutes, Family

6/17 5:45 PM	HBO FAMILY - EAST (Father’s Day Premiere)
6/17 8:45 PM	HBO FAMILY – WEST (Father’s Day Premiere)
6/22 1:15 PM	HBO FAMILY - EAST
6/22 4:15 PM	HBO FAMILY - WEST
6/22 8:45 PM	HBO FAMILY - EAST
6/22 11:45 PM	HBO FAMILY - WEST
6/27 4:25 PM	HBO FAMILY - EAST
6/27 7:25 PM	HBO FAMILY - WEST
6/30 11:30 PM	HBO FAMILY - EAST
7/1 2:30 AM	HBO FAMILY - WEST

See more at flagpop.com/drakmar

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