The thing was born on a mushroom trip, May of last year. She has been a relentless mistress every since. Currently we have completed our 4th instalment of filming, and though it has been slow going at times, there are many things we are discovering along the way. There lies an inherent beauty about the film-making process, one that is painful but yet very satisfying at the end of the day. I realize I’m being vague here with my explanation, but trust me, there is nothing else that makes me happier than to make a film, except for maybe having a wild foursome and I’m the only dude, but even then, I’d rather be making a fucking movie.

What we have here is a compilation of ‘Behind the scenes’ of ‘Catharsis’. ‘Catharsis’ is the fourth film coming out Last Rockstar Productions, and it will mark our first feature length film. It’s a science-fiction thriller, a time-travel adventure where two brothers are at odds, where one is saving the life of a woman and the other is saving the world from her.

The first clip is from November 2008 after reading one of the drafts to the screen writing class I was part of.

The second clip is a meeting with our Director…although as CEO of LRP I have ALL the power!

The third clip is another reading with part of the cast and crew, we were still waiting to hold auditions.

The fourth clip is location scouting and if you wait for it…FIGHT training!

And the last clip is, some behind the scenes stuff and the Redneck biker dude.

LRP HQ out!

P.S. Find Last Rockstar Productions on Facebook and friend us!

Open Casting Call

Saturday, May 2nd From 1pm to 6pm
Petaluma’s Theatre District

For the address or additional information, please email : marco@lastrockstarproductions.com or kimoj@lastrockstarproductions.com, or call Marco @ 707-975-7984

Movie Summary:

Two brothers have impatiently awaited the creative destruction of Catharsis, which would give birth to their civilization. But the brink of man’s new dawn is dark with death, and the winds of change set the brothers against each other in a battle for the way of the future.

Eve

25 to 35 years of age, she is a very caring and thoughtful woman. She comes from a successful business family, but has chosen to focus her life on experiences and happiness rather than establishing a career. She is joyful and curious and values good company and food. She is open and accepting of people’s differences often trying to compromise to diffuse conflicts.

Eve is the girlfriend of Dillon, and she, with her charm and joy for life, has unknowingly helped change his perspective on the world, and the coming Catharsis.

Virginia

25 to 35 years old, she is a strong independent woman with a confident yet casual attitude. She is a successful professional, but cherishes her private time, which she fills reading, crafts, hiking and camping.

Virginia is Benito’s neighbor, and she has taken an interest in him. She can feel the mutual attraction, and keeps up her advances, though Benito has been meekly defusing her.

We are independent film-makers from Northern California. Estimated length of the film will be an hour, once the film is completed we are planning on submitting the film to multiple film festivals. This is a non-paying and non-union film.
Head shots and prepared monologue are welcomed, but not necessary.
Previous acting experience a plus.

It has been a while since the first full draft of Catharsis, called draft 3, was finished and opened for feedback. Since then we have worked and reworked ways of dealing with the script’s problems. The main feedback problems we got was that the story relied too heavily on mystery and lacked character depth, which lead to the ending not carrying sufficient weight.

We spend a lot of time discussing the issues internally in the core production group, and especially how to address them without stepping on the story. James and Jim gave valuable input for Marco and I to work with in the rewriting process. Though we were not always in agreement about the tools to use and direction to take, suggestions got worked into compromises that benefited the overall script. When the fourth draft was finished, we had a read through at a production meeting, and identified a few last additions and edits. If you want to see a few clips from inside the production meetings, take a look over at our facebook page.

Now we have the finished script as will be used in the production of Catharsis. In my humble opinion it is vastly superior to the third draft. A lot of the mystery has been taken out and replaced with character development and suspense. Subplots have been added which make the story richer and gives it a better flow.

“Two brothers have impatiently awaited the creative destruction of Catharsis, which would give birth to their civilization. But the brink of man’s new dawn is dark with death, and the winds of change set the brothers against each other in a battle for the way of the future.”

A few months ago I found my self standing alone in the rain with a small video camera thinking about "The Five Obstructions". I was doing a 48 hour video marathon, and I felt like someone up above was pissing on my already low value production. The game went like this; Friday at noon they released the topic of the film, it was "surveillance". Then every participant or group of participants had 24 hours to shoot and 24 hours to edit a three to five minute film. Sunday at noon the film was due.

I recalled from the film "The Five Obstructions", that Lars von Trier was trying to force Jørgen Leth to make a bad film by giving him obstructions. Apparently Trier thought there was a kind of Cathartic value to producing shit. As a fan of much of Trier’s work, it was a consolation to think that my piece of shit film might in some way enrich me for future work. It least it was enough of an excuse to keep going with an acceptance of the inevitable result. I had my obstructions without needing Trier to invent new ones for me. There was the time constraint, which had not become easier when they announced the topic, which nullified most of the ideas I had hoped I would be able to use. On top of that I was alone thousands of miles from my usual production crew.

Now I am back in California working on a thirty minute plus short film, we just postponed our shooting schedule by one month to allow for more thorough script work. Though I am no longer standing alone in the rain, there are still limitations to work around. How do you make the story work when you cannot afford to block off a city block for filming, or get a helicopter for that perfect aerial panorama shot? You have to write fitting your resources, which at times strains the imagination. I am glad I am not back in the rain. It was a fun game, and I brought lessons from it, the most useful probably being identifying resources and limitations. I finished my film in the alloted time, something I know will not be the case with the next one. There are still story nuts to crack and cracks to mend. I added subtitles to the film, and you can check it out below. I would also encourage you to check out "The Five Obstructions".

Quality Control Systems from Kim OJ on Vimeo.

Here is a little video update on what is going on with Catharsis.

This is a little game deviced over on Blog Cabins and round about The Movie Whore, I got tagged to play along. The object should be self evident.

Alien
Babette’s Feast
Chinatown
Dancer in the Dark
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Fog of War, the
Godfather, the
Hoffa
Illusionist, the
Joy luck club, the
Kiss kiss bang bang
L.A. Confidential
Matrix
Night of the Living Dead
Once Upon a Time in the West
Pi
Queen, the
Rain Man
Sword of Doom
This is Spinal Tap
Unforgiven
Vertigo
X-files, the
Yes men, the
Zentropa

That should make for a good mix.
I found this site helpful.

Kim OJ