This week, an indie film success story was completed when Patrick Pierre's new feature "The City Is Mine" was released nationwide by Maverick Entertainment. To those that know and understand the incredibly difficult process of making a truly independent feature, this is a moment for celebration, a rewarding culmination of alot of hard work and effort. It is always wonderful to see an indie filmmaker achieve a major success, which raises the credibility of indie filmmaking and opens up new possibilities for indie filmmakers everywhere.
Writer/Director Patrick Pierre's career has certainly taken a big step forward, and he is already ramping up for his next project. In this interview, we will be going into the story behind the making of "The City Is Mine", including the path that it took from being a locally made indie film in Mercer County, New Jersey to becoming an acquisition by industry heavyweight Maverick Entertainment. There are lessons to be learned, and inspiration to be had.
Indie Filmmakers and those involved in the world of indie film are definitely advised to pick up a copy of "The City is Mine", and share in a great indie success story.
-Stephen Zimmer for Indie Movie Masters, August 21, 2009
SZ: Tell us a little about your personal background prior to the making of “The City Is Mine”
PP: I'm a native of Haiti; I immigrated to the U.S. when I was 8 years old. I lived in Brooklyn NY for many years where I attended school and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1995. Shortly after, I moved to Trenton, NJ where I currently live. I attended community college at Mercer County in 1998, 2001 & 2003 where I took some courses in Theater, Acting and Stage Production. I was a volunteer in a lot of small independent productions where I gain some crew experience working on set. In 2005 I decided to form my own production company, Pierre Films, LLC. After writing and directing several short films, I decided to take the plunge into feature film. In 2007 I started production on "The City Is Mine"SZ: Describe the time line involved in “The City Is Mine”, from pre-production to final cut.
PP: From pre-production to final cut was one year. The script development process started in February of 2007 where my co-writer, Adriana Gittens, worked on the first draft of the script. After several draft, the screenplay was ready in about 2 months. From then, we started planning the actual production, from holding auditions to rehearsals. Finally we were ready to begin production May 2007. Production lasted for 4 months. We filmed on weekends only. Production was wrapped in September 2007. Not wasting time, we went right into the post-production phase, which lasted 4 months. The Film Premiered on February 16, 2008 to a sold out audience in Trenton, NJ.
SZ: Where did you shoot “The City is Mine? How many locations did you end
up using in the movie?
PP: The City Is Mine was filmed throughout Mercer County NJ, mostly in the city of Trenton and some surrounding towns including, Ewing, Hamilton and Lawrence. We did end up going to New York to do one scene in upper Manhattan. A little over 15 locations were used shooting the film. Most of our locations were outdoors so it made things a little easier because working on an independent film is a little tough securing locations. Filming outdoors only required us getting permission from the City, which wasn't difficult. Due to limited budget and time we had to be creative and use certain interior locations multiple times in different shots giving the illusion it was several locations. For example we used one house in the film to be the home of several different characters in the movie. As you watch the film you can’t tell it's the same location.
SZ: What were the biggest challenges in balancing a shooting schedule using
weekends and nights?
PP: The biggest challenges in balancing the shooting schedule was working around all the actors' schedules and making sure everyone was available at the same time. A good example, we may have a scene Saturday with actor A and actor B, but actor A wouldn’t be available on Saturday and actor B wouldn’t be available on Sunday. I would resolve this situation by pushing that particular scene back to a date when both actors were available on the same day. Lucky for us, we didn't have that problem too often because I gave the cast and crew a shooting schedule way ahead of production, but things do come up and as a director, you have to learn to adjust.
SZ: Shooting a staggered schedule (Nights and weekends), were you able to maintain a core crew, or did you have to use/rotate a larger team?
PP: Shooting a staggered schedule was very difficult to maintain a core crew. In the beginning we had problems with people not being able to remain with the production team, because of the time involved on a daily shoot. Long hours were very common shooting The City is Mine. At times we started shooting in the early afternoon and wouldn't wrap till midnight or later. As production went on, the crew shrunk, but luckily the ones who stayed on board were dedicated and I believe things ended up running much smoother with a small dedicated crew.
SZ: As indie filmmakers end up performing multiple functions on most productions, how many “hats” did you end up having to wear to get this project completed?
PP: I had to wear several hats in completing "The City Is Mine." I was the director, set designer, Cinematographer, Sound, Editor, Music Composer and a few others, though I did wear many hats, I did not do this alone. Every member of the production crew contributed to the production of the film, whether it was the PA who was holding the boom mic or the actor who volunteered to do the slate board in between takes.
SZ: One gear question: What kind of cameras/format did you use for “The City is Mine”, and what were the main software elements used in post-production?
PP: The camera that was use for "The City Is Mine" was the Panasonic DVX100a, which is DV(Digital Video) format. In post-production, Sony Vegas 6d was used to edit the film. Magic Bullet was also used for color correction. Sony Acid to create the score and sound FX. Our visual effects artist used Adobe After Effects to create some of the gun and other visual effects in the film.
SZ: How would you describe your style as a director?
I would describe my style as very visual. Before every scene, I make sure I do a thorough storyboard. I like to visualize a scene before I begin any kind of blocking. Visualizing the scene in my mind gives me a big advantage when it's time to yell action. In turn, being so visual, the end results is a stunning visual scene composition with every shot well thought out, every frame analyzed. I personally believe the story is the most important aspect in any film, without a good story, you will lose your audience, so having that knowledge, coupled with my visual style and love for cinematography, I feel the audience is not only enjoying a beautiful story being told, their eyes are also being treated to something amazing, whether they realize it or not.
SZ: Tell us a little about the principle cast and your experience with them, from your perspective as the director.
PP: The principle cast was amazing. As a director the biggest gift you can have on a film production is a wonderful dedicated and talented cast. Each one had something special about them. A majority of them had prior film and stage experience which helped tremendously in the day to day shooting because of the long hours involved, they knew how to deal with that. Our lead actor, Kirk Ponton had never acted before, this was his first major production. He surprised himself, me and everyone who saw the film. He hit the part out the park. All members of the principle cast were easy to work with, but not all were easy to direct. I took the challenge as a director to push them to the limit in terms of their performance and what I expected to get out of them. At times, some would get annoyed from the many takes that were involved in a particular scene but it was my job to explain the scene to them and try to get the best performance out of a take, whether it took 2 or 20. To the less experienced principle cast members, they learned a lot working on The City Is Mine, I have to say I also learned many things from them which I plan to utilize in my next production.
SZ: Once completed, what was the path you took regarding festivals and other exhibitions?
PP: Once the film completed it was our goal to have the biggest Premier/screening we could. I started researching several venues and ultimately went with "The Contemporary Auditorium" which seats 400+. In February 16, 2008 we screened at The Contemporary to a sold out audience. Due to the success of the first screening, 2 others followed at the same place. Then shortly after, I went right into the festival circuit. I researched several film festivals and created a plan to give "The City Is Mine" the best opportunity to screen at film festivals. I started looking at festivals which catered to the type of genre The City Is Mine was and started submitting to them. We were selected to screen at many film festivals which included: 2008 American Black Film Festival, 2008 San Diego Black Film Festival and 2008 Twin Cities Black Film Festival. We received a total of 4 nominations in the 2008 American Black Film Festival for the Jury Prize Best Actor, Innovational Film and Inspirational Film.
SZ: How did your distribution deal with Maverick Entertainment come about When did they become aware of your project and show interest?
PP: The Distribution deal with Maverick came about right after we were an Official Selection at the 2008 American Black Film Festival. Maverick became interested in acquiring the film once news hit that we were nominated for the awards. They contacted me and the negotiation process began.
SZ: What’s up next for Patrick Pierre? And how can people continue to follow you and your filmmaking career (main website and/or social networking links)
PP: What's next for Patrick Pierre is a wonderful film that I am especially excited about called "Visions of Yvette". The synopsis is: during our economic downturn, a single mother is forced into prostitution and drug addiction causing internal turmoil in her attempt to maintain custody of her son. I hope to begin shooting Visions of Yvette late this year. You can visit www.thecityisminemovie.com to get up to date information with that production or follow me on facebook.
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