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| Director Rusty Nails. Photo: Chuck Przybyl / chuckphoto.com |
Directors of low-budget independent films must often become their own producers — grueling, time-consuming work that involves securing music rights, location scouting, dealing with actors, scheduling re-shoots, and otherwise managing the daily business of bringing a no-budget independent film project together — in order to get their films made.
After years of working as a director of short films and music videos, Chicago-based director Rusty Nails has become an adept businessperson with budget savvy and the showmanship, personality and persistence to pull it all together. His first feature, a B&W sci-fi/new wave/noir/horror film called Acne, was recently acquired by Go Kart Releasing, a subsidiary of Go Kart Records, which plans to release it on June 1; he is completing post-production on a documentary called Highway Robbery, about a family in Rockford, Illinois, whose land was confiscated to make way for a new highway; and he is about to begin production on a film about the independent filmmaking maverick George A. Romero. Nails also organizes a traveling screening series, the MovieSide Film Festival, which intersperses live music with video screenings, and he continues to produce short films and music videos.
Alan Jacobson recently sat down to talk with Rusty Nails about nuts-and-bolts filmmaking specifics, obtaining music from bands, music composition for no-budget features, and the rest of what it takes to legally make and promote a film with little money.
Filmmaker: Acne is symbolic of teen threat, the unpleasantly visible part of adolescence. Why a plague that affects teens only?
Rusty Nails: I’m very interested in the phenomenon of “adolescence to adulthood” — that period when people are becoming who they’re going to be. It’s at that point in time when you become aware of what society’s like. You’re getting into junior high and understanding group and clique dynamics, clubs at school. You also become more aware of politics. You start forming opinions of what is going on in the world. But at the same time, you’re still a kid, still lawless. But at the same time your parents start enforcing a different set of rules — “If you’re going to go out with these people, then you have to be back by 11 p.m. … and don’t drink” — which you hadn’t really even thought of before. So many things change. It can be a really simple time, but for me, at least, it was also a crushing time. Also, with junior high and high school, it’s where you learn of the brutality that other kids have. There’s this rage that some kids have — a very horrifying and bizarre rage. People want to fight you, and it’s a lot more intense than when you fought with kids in grade school; there’s almost this sense of blood lust among some teenagers.
Filmmaker: I loved the music in your film.
Nails: Music is in many ways more inspirational than film for me. Music tends to stir more emotions in me quicker. I can listen to the same song thousands of times where I can’t watch the same film thousands of times. For Acne the music that I used was very specific in each scene for different kinds of mood and often the lyrics in the songs — if the song had lyrics — it had to connect with the scene. I wasn’t just putting a song I like or a popular song on the soundtrack for the sake of putting a song on the soundtrack. At times it was tough not to just tack in music I love because we were given access to many great songs by some of my favorite bands.
Filmmaker: How did you go about choosing and securing the songs?
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| A scene from Rusty Nails's ACNE. |
Nails: We worked on the soundtrack for two years, song after song, scene after scene. For some of the scenes I already had songs in mind — for the scene in which the kids are rubbing butter on their exposed, infected skulls the Devo song popped into my head immediately. Some songs were just right, but there was a lot of hunting and cold calling labels to see if they could send us a particular band’s music to check out; I couldn’t even afford CDs at the time, and every dollar that wasn’t being spent could be used for film.
Fortunately, most of the music came from bands on independent labels like Alternative Tentacles (Dead Kennedys, Alice Donut), Go Kart Records (Lunachicks), Fat Wreck Chords (Tilt), so it was much easier and almost always free or close to free to use.
I sent Jello Biafra and East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys copies of Acne and both of them liked the film and let us use “Moon Over Marin” for a great deal — which is completely unheard of and very kind for such a well-known band. Hollywood studios and some independent film companies pay anywhere between $5,000 to $100,000 for a single song, so we were very appreciative.
Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo went way out of his way to help us get the rights to use “Hardcore Mongoloid.” We sent Devo 50 copies of the finished DVD to give to friends, and Mark mentioned he gave a copy to Wes Anderson, whose films he does the composition for. Devo are the biggest sweethearts ever.
We initially wanted to use a Lunachicks song called “Jan Brady” and were told by both the label and the band that it was fine — we didn’t try to have them sign a synch or master-use contract first; this was a big mistake. We made an answer print of the film with the song on the soundtrack. I called the label to say thanks and to have them sign the synch and master-use contracts and we were told the label didn’t actually own the song and therefore couldn’t sign the contracts or give us the rights to the song. A different label the band had been on called Blast First owned the rights to the record Babysitters on Acid that the song was on. The band had left the previous label, which kept the rights, and no one had told us. This ended up being an expensive mistake that cost $900 dollars to fix. Both the band and the label guy were decent people but we should have done more homework and gotten the rights squared away right from the starting gate. It’s incredibly important to secure both the synch and master-use rights for a song before locking it into your soundtrack.
Filmmaker: Can you explain the rights that filmmakers need to secure to use music in their films?
Nails: For most bands or solo performers on labels there are two types of rights that need to be acquired for your film/video:
The Synchronization License is the right given to use the musical composition, music and/or lyrics. In some cases the band or the person who wrote the musical composition will retain this right. Typically the music publisher has the right to give this permission — check with the writer/band and ask them whether they have a publishing deal or not. Generally people on indie labels are more likely to own their publishing, whereas bands on major labels more than likely have done a deal with a publishing company. Even if you’re trying to use a cover song (not the original version) or a newly recorded version of a song — then you have to get a synch license for the musical composition as well as master use license from the band covering the song’s label — or whoever owns the band’s masters.
It is possible that the musical composition has been written by someone who is not in the band and the best way to check up on this is to go to: BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC.
The Master Use License is the contract used to gain the right to use the specific recording of the song. This right is most often held by the band’s label — or the label that the band recorded the song for. If you’re dealing with major labels this could end up being extremely costly very quickly. Many labels will give you “free” master use rights for the film festival circuit but then charge you an arm and a leg once the film gets distribution — this is especially tricky because the song is now woven into your soundtrack and once the song is integral to the soundtrack and the label knows it they could squeeze you for everything you’ve got. My advice is to be very careful about this. Try to finalize all rights before you’re married to a song. If you get the song for a good price, try to have them sign a contract stating that you can use the song “in perpetuity” — which means forever.
Lastly, there’s the Composer Release. By and large you want the composer to assign you all rights to the specific music they have composed for your film and you want all these rights “in perpetuity” as well. Be honest and forthright about this from the beginning — otherwise this could lead to sticky situations once the film is finished. At the same time you should be as generous as possible — giving them prominent credit in the credits — and allow them to use the music for their demos, etc….
If anyone would like free sample master use, synch use, or composer release forms, they can go to my Web site, New Eye Films, and download them, then re-format them for your specific needs.
Filmmaker: You worked with two composers to make original music for the film. How did you find them?
Nails: A good portion of the music in the film is composed — written specifically for the film by two great musicians: Lisa Brandt and Scott Lamberty. I listed a free voice mail ad with the Illinois Film Hotline looking for a composer. I specifically mentioned there was no money involved but they would be given credit and copies of the film. One very interesting aspect of the Acne soundtrack is that, like the look of the film, I wanted the music to do the same — there’s a bizarre mixture of stark ’40s, ’50s sensibilities that collides headfirst with a lopsided version of the present. So what we end up with is a soundtrack that is full of rich and beautifully put together orchestra music as well as vibrantly pissed off punk music. Surprisingly, the two work together very well. I sat with both composers for hours on end to create a very specific soundtrack. I’d be like, “I need some tympani here, less rolls here, strains of violins in this area”. When the pieces were finished we’d bring in a DAT machine, lay the tracks to DAT tape, then bring them into the sound studio at Columbia College where the rest of the soundtrack — dialogue, band music, f/x sounds, etc. — was being put together in Pro Tools. The soundtrack was really, really important and moves the film along.
Filmmaker: How did you record and mix the score?
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| ACNE poster art. |
There is a moment in the film where a mother is looking for a cooking baster and can’t find it and she’s attacked by her mutant son. I thought it would be fun to do an Andrews Sisters–type song, and while describing my concept of the song to Lisa I came up with the title “Butter in the Batter,” which fits the scene perfectly. Lisa is a great composer, but her voice is also so beautiful that it could make you cry. She recorded the song with her boyfriend, also a musician, and it sounds dead-on like an Andrews Sisters’ song. Serendipity won that time. Finally, we dumped everything to a DAT machine and input everything from DAT to the main Pro-Tools session.
Filmmaker: There is also an actual live musical number that your character Zooey plays in the film.
Nails: I have to admit, I’m a sucker for musicals. But really, the character of Zooey, this teenage kid who’s transformed into a bit of a mutant and has to wander the countryside going in and out of consciousness with a bunch of zombied out kids — they break into a house and he sees a guitar, and he’s just got to play it! The good thing about that scene is that we rehearsed the scene a few times and filmed it in one single take. The scene is two-minutes long with no inserts. I’m not very good at guitar and really cannot solo; I played my first solo during the single take we did of that scene. It’s not much of a solo but I was blown away — it just came out of nowhere, unrehearsed. Audiences seem to like that scene a lot.
I just love it when you’re watching a film like Vincent Minelli’s Bandwagon and people just start singing in the middle of a scene. I’ve always thought that was pretty wonderful. Also, the Marx Brothers had a million great moments in their films where characters would break into song and dance — I love that tradition and would love to do more of that in the future. I just love those 1930’s “showcase” films where, in the middle of the film, an announcer will walk into frame and inform the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, here is the wonderful Yma Sumac,” and Yma would perform a song, then the movie returns to narrative.
For me, one of the greatest things about film is creating this new world, a fantastic new place. With Acne I wanted to go for broke, to give it as much complexity, as many layers, as much loving care and reckless abandon as possible. I figured, since I’m producing it and there’s no one telling me what I can or can’t do, well then I should put everything I want in it and not worry about it — just go full out and put as much craziness, love and insanity into it. Basically, I just wanted total freedom. In making this little $18,000 film I had just that: total freedom. But, then again, it took four years to produce; I put every penny I had into it outside of paying my rent, bills and food.
Filmmaker: You’ve made well-regarded videos for prominent punk bands such as The Locust, Erase Errata, Tilt, Scream Club, Arab on Radar, and The Goblins, and you’ve even done a short documentary, The Ramones and I, about your passion for the Ramones, which has won numerous awards at festivals. Do you plan to continue making music videos?
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| A scene from Rusty Nails's THE RAMONES AND I. |
Nails: I really like doing music videos. First of all they tend to be easy to write because I only work with bands whose music I like and who inspire me — and with inspiration comes material. Writing tends to be the hardest part of any project for me, and since all of the videos I’ve done so far have come from songs with lyrics it’s like I’m writing with the band as my writing partner. I use the lyrics or at least the idea of the lyrics as a springboard for my own creative plan. I’ll come up with some ideas and discuss them with the band. So far, the bands have liked all the concepts I’ve come up with, which is good, because if they don’t like my ideas and they want me to do a video for an idea that they have and I don’t like it, I won’t do the video. This isn’t a money making venture for me, so I have to hold the creative reigns. That doesn’t mean that I don’t collaborate with the band but I won’t make a video if I don’t like the idea. Secondly, most of the songs I’ve done videos for have been within the 2- to 3-minute range, so I know that I have a specific amount of time to put my narrative or experimental efforts into that frame.
Videos are great because they lend themselves to experimentation. People love to see new and interesting concepts in music videos — actually, I would say they demand it, which is great. This gives filmmakers another chance to push themselves and try new, fun and interesting things out.
So far, I’ve been lucky enough to shoot all of my videos on film, with the exception of the Scream Club video (which was shot on miniDV), for between $80 and $300. My most expensive video, to date, was Tilt’s Animated Corpse, which cost $2,100; the budget came from the band and the band’s label, Fat Wreck Chords. But we still got a lot of deals on that. We shot 70 scenes in two days and had a crew of 17 people — none of who were paid, including me. We paid for film, some of which we bought re-canned from a film and tape house, and we got a good deal on processing and color correcting from a post-house by saying I was a reverend for a local church and we were making a promotional item for the church.
Often times, a number of friends who work on commercial stuff have leftover, re-canned film that the production let them have, and they’ve given it to me. I also have some friends at labs who push my stuff through at night when no one is around so all the processing and color correcting is free. I supply them with two DigiBeta tapes to lay the raw footage onto; the second tape is to use for backup and as a safety.
The lesson to be learned here is to be nice to people and make friends: you never know whom you’re going to meet who can help you.
With The Ramones and I, which is a non-fiction film about my falling in love with the Ramones, I used Super-8 footage that I shot from the ages of 14 to 18 with a camera that my mom got me for my birthday — and I added this amazing ’77-era live Ramones footage that my teacher/mentor Dan Dinello had shot of the Forest Hills Four in their golden age. I stole all the Super-8 film from a store and paid for the processing, and I had a rental that I worked at transfer my footage and Dan’s to Mini DV tape. I gave my editor Ricky Cozzolino a DAT taped voice-over of a monologue that I wrote along with the footage and a basic idea of what I wanted and he cut it on Final Cut. He’d bring rough cuts to my house on VHS and take notes on the changes I wanted, then work on the piece. Altogether The Ramones and I cost about $80 to $100 to make.
Filmmaker: How do you contact the bands you work with?
Nails: Usually, if the band is still together there are a few ways to contact them: I try find to out if the band is on tour and approach them before or after the show. Or I try to check up on their tour schedule on the Internet or ask someone at their label what their schedule is like. This of course is easier with the smaller independent labels that I’ve dealt with. Bands will do a sound check a few hours before the show; often times if you call the club, someone can tell you when the band is doing their sound check. If you get to the club and wait outside half an hour before they’re sound checking to see if they’re going into the venue or wait until they’re done with their sound check, they might pop outside for a minute to leave the club. If you go to the show you can also approach the band’s merchandise area and ask to talk to the manager and explain that you’d like to talk to anyone in the band. You can familiarize yourself with what everyone in the band looks like – from CD covers, magazine articles, the Internet — so if you see a band member walking around you can approach, get a quick e-mail address or phone number, and be on your way.
I also have tried to set up interviews with bands for a magazine. Interviewing people is a great way of meeting someone you want to get in contact with and it offers the band something in return. You’ll end up developing a little relationship with the band members by the end of the interview and at that point mentioning you’re a filmmaker and you’re interested in seeing if you can use one of their songs feels like a natural part of the conversation. You might even get paid for writing the interview. If you can’t find an interested magazine there are millions of Web sites looking for content (these usually do not pay). You can set up interviews by calling the label a month or two before the band comes to town. You can also set up interviews through a publicist and do a phone interview.
If you call up a band’s label and tell them that you’re interested in using some of their music for a film, they will probably want you to send a script of the film or a rough cut of the project so they can decide if it’s something they want to be involved in.
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| A scene from Rusty Nails's HIGHWAY ROBBERY. |
Even though many of the bands that I used for the Acne soundtrack were rock/punk bands – my new documentary feature Highway Robbery will be featuring some prominent alternative country and indie bands as Tortoise (Drag City), Sally Timms (Touch & Go Records), John Doe, and recently I met Billy Corrigan from the Smashing Pumpkins who promised us one of his solo songs — it’s important to remember that there are thousands of great bands on alternative and independent labels. Why go to the majors and get ripped off when you can support bands that are your independent peers? Most every genre of music is represented by independent labels. This way you can support underground bands, get good deals and make a great soundtrack.
I usually try to stay away from major labels and artists on major labels… it just seems like it will lead to more headaches, frustrations, and the label asking for money I don’t have. If there is a song on a big label that I really want to use I will approach the label, but I’d rather not; and more often than not I’d rather look for music on independent labels.
Filmmaker: Do you have any suggestions, as far as independent labels that people should check into for soundtrack possibilities?
Nails: Definitely. Here’s a small list with a variety of different genres of music:
Rap: Rhymesayers, Definitive Jux, Chocolate Industries
Funk: Numero Group
Rock: Touch and Go Records, Frenchkiss Records, Dischord Records
Country: Bloodshot Records, Yep Roc Records
Surf & Rockabilly: Estrus Records
Metal: Hydra Head, Ipecac, Metal Blade Records
Blues: Fat Possum
Punk: No Idea, Alternative Tentacles, Go Kart Records, Lumberjack Distribution
Ska: Choke Distribution
Indie Rock: Saddle Creek, Drag City Records
Jazz: Delmark, Knitting Factory
Electronic: Tigerbeat6, FatCat
If people are interested in finding about other labels and independent bands they should check out small records stores in their area.
Filmmaker: For your newest project, DEAD ON: The Cinema of George A. Romero, I hear you’ll be composing some of the music on the soundtrack?
Nails: Yeah. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at music for film. I won’t be doing a lot, mainly playing guitar with other musicians. I’m excited about the prospect and hopefully it will be fun.
Filmmaker: Besides music, Acne includes a lot of other subtle things — such as the faux New Jersey Post with a headline declaring a ban on candy sales to teens — that really add to the film’s production value. Was it difficult to keep up with details like these on such a small budget?
Nails: Things like these — art props, costumes, locations, production design —even on a budget of $18,000, I had to make sure to make things look as good as possible, otherwise the film would suffer. A lot of people were willing to help; I know a lot of painters and other artists and we put some of their art in the film as part of the set decorations. We used a gangster painting by Tom Palazzolo, Chicago’s greatest filmmaker, for a scene where the chocolate factory owner and the general discuss how they’re going to destroy people; the painting is a small background item that adds detail to the mood of the scene. I was lucky to find over 275 people who, when they realized I was dead serious about making this film, were willing to help. I lived with a painter named Patrick Rullier, who did the painting that became Acne’s poster; he’s an amazing artist – he also drew the mug shot sketches, office signs and later went on to create other props and art for my short films Grethel and Hansel and Animated Corpse. When I could afford it, I offered him money for the supplies; he’s always turned me down. It was his way of giving to the film. I went to these painstaking lengths to make sure the film would be the best it could be.
Filmmaker: You film also relied on a lot of extras. Are people anxious to be in your films? Do you need to stay on top of them?
Nails: Yeah, for sure. The lead actress and myself definitely had a lot of squabbles and one of the camera guys, we had a good amount of arguments. Fortunately, the film is episodic — it spans a portion of the Northeast, even though it was shot in the Midwest. So the thing about it being episodic is that people are around for a day or two. They’re not going to get too annoyed. I also worked with a lot of teenagers and younger people. It’s their first film, so they don’t realize how boring a film set can get, but at the same time, there’s a lot of energy — budding romances, stuff like that. The film included a mixture of professionals, semiprofessionals, and people who hadn’t acted before, and I think everyone was really great — except for maybe two people. So I rehearsed them on-set 20 times, which was good for everyone, and the film, especially.
Filmmaker: The camerawork in Acne is quite good — the beautiful, low-angle shots of afflicted kids tromping through the woods. Does it take an incredible amount of time and patience to coax these images, or just working with good people you trust?
Nails: I’m very specific with the framing and composition of all of the shots. I’m a very visual oriented person. But I don’t do storyboards; I don’t find them to be very helpful. I prefer to scout locations and bring a cameraperson with me. I tell them what I’m thinking, we’ll talk about film stocks, lenses, lighting, the possibilities of the shots in a given location, placement of actors if there are actors in the scene, and I will act as a stand-in for the actors and show the d.p. how I might position people.
A director should know as much, technically, about each department of the film as possible. If you don’t have the aptitude to understand lighting or sound or camera, at least you should try. Something like 90 percent of the time, I know exactly what I want; if the cameraperson has an idea and we have enough film and enough time and it seems it works in the context of the piece, I might try it out. There have been moments where a cameraman has told me, “Well, I don’t know about that. The traditional narrative way to film this moment is this way.” My response is to that is, “I understand, but this is what needs to be done for this particular film.”
Many independent film directors will let the cameraperson take the reigns of their film visually, which doesn’t work for me; the shots should emphasize the meaning and character of what the film is about. There are many directors who are happy to tell their camera people, “I need a wide shot.” And the cinematographer will put it together and the director won’t even look at the shot if the d.p. has okayed it. I’m very precise: “I need the wide shot to include these details and I need to see these things in the shot.” Camera people who have dealt with a lot of hands-off directors will then try to dictate the look of the film — and there’s a decent possibility that the cameraperson’s vision of the film will work against the whole nature of how the story/concept should be visually represented. Some directors of photography will be concerned with getting cool shots for their reel if the director doesn’t know what they want — and cool shots are not necessarily what the film needs.
Filmmaker:How is Chicago different from L.A. and New York as far as the film scene goes?
Nails: In some ways it’s hard to make films in Chicago because people don’t really understand the idea of movies being made here and don’t really take you seriously when you say you’re making a film; people think you’re making some kind of school project that will only be seen at your friends’ houses. On the other hand it’s this naïve train of thought that allows local filmmakers to film almost anywhere without permits or permissions — and once people get to know that you’re making films with the intent to have people see them and have them screen at film festivals and potentially get distributed, they’re very supportive. I think people in New York and L.A. are pretty used to people making films and they feel like, “Here comes another film crew to get in the way of my finding a parking space tonight.”
Before I moved from Boston to Chicago I never even thought of Chicago as a real, functioning city — New York and Los Angeles, on the other hand, had a lot going on. But Chicago is interesting because there are a million actors in the city, Chicago is known as the theater capital of the world, and many stage actors are dying to work in film and don’t have the chance or the opportunities. That’s where independent filmmakers can come in and swoop up great talent — often times for price of dinner, a handshake, video copies, and their name in the credits. The same thing goes with editors and camera people; there are a lot of talented people in Chicago who work at high paying jobs in post houses, or on Hollywood features, or commercials — and as good as the money is, these jobs are just to pay the bills. Many of these people still think about how they started working on films to make art and fulfill their creative desires. So I have had the extreme pleasure of working with a lot of people who are more than happy to work on my films for no pay, because they are gratifying their need to be artists and work on projects that we will all, hopefully, be proud of.
Alan Jacobson is a film and music columnist and educator in Chicago, and magna cum laude graduate from the film school at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Special thanks must go to Timothy S. Kelly, who ensured everything was legally accurate.
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