InDigEnt's cost-effective, digital philosophy: Peter Hedges' Pieces of April takes advantage of this film studio's progressive business model - Independents Say

Post, Oct, 2003 by Daniel Restuccio

NEW YORK -- Okay, so that $6 million film you were set to work on has been downsized to a $150,000 digital movie. Under what conditions would you work for 100 bucks a day and still think that's a really good deal?

Just ask Peter Hedges, writer of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and About A Boy, about his directorial debut--the United Artists release Pieces of April, starring Katie Holmes. "The movie was set for production and fell apart three times," says Hedges, philosophically. Finally, at the last moment, he and producer John Lyons look the project to New York-based InDigEnt (www.indigent.net), the digital production arm of the Independent Film Channel.

"John Lyons, who is a friend of mine, called me and said, "I have a cast, financing fell through, would you consider making it?'" says former InDigEnt partner Alexis Alexanian, who now heads her own indie production company Elixir Films (www.elixirfilms.com).

"It was a no-brainer for us in terms of the script and the talent that Peter had put together," says InDigEnt producer and co-founder Gary Winick.

What did Lake some adjustment was adapting to InDigEnt's streamlined approach to filmmaking. Alexanian says that the first thing they do when someone brings a project to InDigEnt is make them understand that "the whole production philosophy changes."

A NEW WAY OF WORKING

InDigEnt's pictures have short prep periods, and they are shot with miniDV cameras. Production departments are only one or two people deep. The approach is less about decorating and propping, she says, and more about finding what's organic to telling the story.

Hedges, it turned out, had no problem buying into this model. "I had written Pieces of April so that if no one would pay for it, I could pay for it myself."

Winick founded InDigEnt in 1999 with partners John Sloss and Alexis Alexanian in order to make powerfully voiced, independent digital features. Winick says he was inspired by Thomas Vinterberg's Dogme-style film Celebration, as well as the spirit of director/producer/actor John Cassavetes. Cassavetes, a pioneer of independent filmmaking, favored an improvisational, performance-driven approach to moviemaking. With the use of low-cost digital cameras and a lean production crew, Winick realized his idea could really work.

However the business model that makes his company click big time is Winick's insistence that everyone involved with a project owns a piece of the film. All the production personnel from director to actors to grips get paid points off the gross of whatever the film makes from the time it's sold.

Winick first approached his lawyer John Sloss, who liked the idea. They became partners and took the concept and sold it to Independent Film Channel president Jonathan Sehring.

"We wanted to do 10 films a year, but realistically we can do five," continues Winick. InDigEnt wanted the entire per-picture budget to be $100,000, but that wasn't feasable. Now they shoot it for $150,000 and after it's sold the buyer picks up the post production costs.

Pieces of April is InDigEnt's ninth production. Their resume includes Campbell Scott's Final, Ethan Hawke's Chelsea Walls, Bruce Wagner's Women in Film, Richard Linklater's Tape, Rodrigo Garcia's Ten Tiny Love Stories, Gary Winick's Tadpole, Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity and Alan Taylor's Kill the Poor.

PIECES OF APRIL

For Hedges, directing his first feature for a very modest budget was like coming home. "I come from the theater where you make everything with no money and a lot of love."

Hedges says he got most of his education as a director from watching Lasse Hallstrom direct Gilbert Grape. "I would look at dailies, and if the scene wasn't played exceptionally I thought it was useless. But Lasse would say, 'Well, no, there's plenty here.' So I learned that there are scenes that don't play perfectly when you shoot, but that are going to work when you cut everything together."

Hedges and cinematographer Tami Reiker (HBO's Carnivale) were handed two Sony PAL PD-150s and a lot of Sony tape to lens the October release, Pieces of April, which is her first digital feature.

"You use digital for what it's good for," she says. "You have small cameras that can get in tight places, they're cheap so you can shoot scenes with two cameras, and the tape, particularly with miniDV, is really cheap so you can shoot as much footage as you want.

Pieces of April only had 16 shooting days instead of the original 30 when the project was a big-budget film. "The movie is about running out of time, so the shorter production schedule fit the spirit of the film," Hedges says wryly.

Conceptualizing the look for digital video, Reiker worked closely with production designer Rick Butler and costume designer Laura Bauer. "One or the few tools you have with DV is the color palette. You know you can't shoot in bright sun and that there are certain colors that look bad," says Reiker.

"We picked locations that worked," she continues." April's apartment had huge windows that gave a lot of available light. We painted the walls dark colors so they would absorb the light and make the image feel richer." And for lighting gear, she says, it was mostly Chinese lanterns, KinoFlos and white cards.