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Movie Maker

Casting For Cash

 

By John Ketzenberger
IBJ Managing Editor

Ubiquitous dot-com investment opportunities tend to meld one into another during Venture Club of Indiana meetings. But a shaggy-haired Brebeuf graduate now shooting movies in L.A. turned heads recently when he talked about "Pathos Bill," a self-described romantic post-modern buddy road comedy he wants to film in Indianapolis next year.

Local attorney Mark Gray has seen his share of business opportunities. He was impressed by the movie-maker's presentation.

"He had five or six guys come up and ask for his card and a copy of his business plan," Gray said.

Gray and his wife, the project's first investors, are committing $75,000 for a share of the $1.5 million movie. They might have made the investment even if their son weren't the would-be filmmaker.

"I think it has good business prospects and it's a saleable story," the elder Gray said.

"The project sounds like it's very commercial," added Jane Rulon, director of the Indiana Film Commission, who has met with the filmmaker, Mark W. Gray, 33. "I think his L.A. experience will stand him in good stead. We'd love to see [the movie] happen."

That's like two-thumbs-up praise in the eyes of Gray, who also wrote "Pathos Bill." He's rounded up a lot of his University of Southern California film school buddies--including one who led second-unit filming for "Titanic"--formed a limited liability corporation, and gone about selling his idea.

People are receptive to the business plan, Gray said. It's a formal document that alternately hypes the story and its potential payback while reminding readers it's a risky play.
Then he started to talk about Cosmo and Bill, a pair of 30-something buddies from high school about to get their kicks--and kicked--along Route 66. And he started to describe Maja, a stripper with a golden heart, and Linda, Bill's old flame who suddenly bolted and now waits tables in a Las Vegas casino.

And then there's the car--a 1961 Cadillac convertible, very much a star of this cross-country road trip.

"People just light up," Gray said. "They really seem to get excited about the story."

Gray polished off the screenplay in late July, nearly two years after committing the first character details to paper. Now he's alternately selling the filmmaking fantasy and the cold, hard facts.

There's a little gun-play in the story, for example, and a little sex, but it's no guy-flick version of "Thelma and Louise."

Those who read the business plan learn guns and sex sell especially well overseas, a key distribution route to recouping any investment.

On page 13 of the script, Cosmo quotes Father Donovan reminding students to "sin bravely" while a friend gets a lap dance at the Route 421 Gentleman's Showclub.

On page 13 of his business plan, Gray recounts his writer/director/producer role with "Pathos Bill." It details the highlights of 10 years shooting films, music videos and other work.

"Instead of pursuing a directing career right out of film school, as so many of his peers did, it was Mark's intention to wait until he had gained enough real-life experience to add depth and maturity to his work," the business plan reads. 'Pathos Bill' represents the next logical step in Mark's career, the transition from director of photography to director."

The business plan doesn't recount the prizes Gray won as a youthful filmmaker who, more than 20 years ago, wowed his father with his enthusiasm and ability.

"He's been headed for making movies since he was 10 years old," the elder Gray said.

In the course of explaining independent film economics, the business plan notes a number of success stories like "Chasing Amy," which cost $220,000 and grossed $12 million domestically. And then there's "The Blair Witch Project," which has grossed more than $107 million and counting.

 

"Filmmaking is a vital and important part of our culture," he concludes. "And if we can all make a buck out of it, all the better."

-Mark W. Gray, Filmmaker

 

It also charts profit-potentials, which can be handsome outside the declining studio system since the filmmakers control their product's rights and have so many outlets, including theaters, video, cable and overseas markets.

And then, in the story, there's Duke, the aging Zen-master Hell's Angel who befriends Bill on a Greyhound from Tucumcari, N.M., to Vegas. He recounts a walk through California's redwood forest he took while working through the grief of his "ol' lady's" death from a heroin overdose:

"I find this one that's just called 'The Fallen Tree' 'cause it fell over in like 1926 before they got a chance to think up what Civil War [person] to name it after," Duke says in his soliloquy.

"Anyway, this tree musta come down like a ton o' bricks 'cause the thing is just shattered on this huge granite boulder stickin' out of the hill. So I'm standing there and I'm thinkin,' 'This f------ tree is 3,000 years old! It just stood on this spot through the pyramids, birth of Christ, wars, peace, George Washington, everything.

"Man, it was here before the f------ Indians," he continues. "Then suddenly, whoops, it just falls over. This ancient tree, witness to almost all of human history, falls over and smashes into this f------ rock.

"And you know what?" he asks. "The rock just laughs."

Bill marvels, "Talk about perspective," and Duke replies, "Yeah, that's why I don't get hung up on s--- anymore."

Without getting hung up on the details, Gray's business plan explains the process of filmmaking and recounts why he thinks he can make a quality movie in Indianapolis for $1.5 million.

Many scenes take place inside or at night so locations aren't a problem. A money-saving example: Gray could rent a house in Indianapolis for a month at one-fifth the cost of Los Angeles and use it for many of the scenes involving Bill's residence. The crew also could use parts of the house as an office and, since shooting is expected to take about a month, they would be in and out in a single payment's time.

There also are fewer restrictions and costs associated with making a film in Indiana compared with Los Angeles, he said. At the same time, Indiana is among the states that have fostered fledgling film communities that have experience, equipment and a desire to work, he said.

Filmmaking is much more accessible for people not only outside the studio system but outside the [Southern California] area, too," noted Rulon of the Indiana Film Commission.

Last year, she was among a group that decided to form a filmmaker's network in the state, and the running joke was maybe five people will show up to the first meeting. "Over 30 people came," she said. "There are now over 200 names on the mailing list."
"Pathos Bill" will begin shooting next summer if Gray can raise the first $1 million, which represents the cost of actually shooting the movie. The other $500,000 is needed to finish the movie. Several prominent businesspeople are among those who have asked Gray for a business plan. While none has actually ponied up, he's confident some will and that will lead to further investment and eventually sell out the partnership.

Gray reminds investors in the business plan, "Your involvement is not just support for a movie, but for a group of talented, hard-working and enthusiastic filmmakers who have promising futures in their industry.

"Filmmaking is a vital and important part of our culture," he concludes. "And if we can all make a buck out of it, all the better."