Smoking Lens Films

 

SMOKING LENS FILMS
 THE COMPANY

 

In our case “Necessity was the Mother  #&%!  Of Invention”.  Smoking Lens Films was started by two friends, myself (Dan Thomas) and Terry Chambers.   We’ve worked in the film industry for 35 years as actors, writers, stuntmen and editors.  We even picked up a couple of Emmys along the way. We recruited my son Justin as a 3rd partner because he’s been helping us do all these various jobs since he was a kid.  Next we snagged Jeff Clark as partner # 4.  He’s a whiz at Post and knows military procedures; the only difference between a “Search and Destroy Mission” and our brand of filmmaking is the use of cameras instead of guns. Since the rest of us can’t even draw an acceptable crooked line, we just badgered Gilbert Sandoval ‘til he gave up and said “yes” to becoming our storyboard artist.
Terry and I came up during the 60’s and 70’s (the “Easy Rider” to “Raging Bull” period of Hollywood’s history).  So we felt very fortunate indeed to find that we had enough brain cells left to accurately assess our situation.

OUR SITUATION:

  1. We made a lot of money
  2. We blew it all
  3. We got nothing left for retirement

 

Our pensions and residuals won’t cover beer and cigarettes.  The only alternative to living in low end trailer parks in our old age is to do what we’ve done for other people all these years:  MAKE MOVIES.

At present we have:

  1. An Investor
  2. Scripts
  3. Equipment
  4. A Formula  (we’re not big on formulas but this one seems to work)

THE FORMULA:

Good Script + Talent + The LEAST   Amount Of Money To Do The Job ==

A Shot At Making A Good Low Budget Movie.

I say  least because when you’ve got to create something from nothing, you’re in a constant state of creative flow….or confusion.  You can’t always tell the difference.

Examples of successful “no money” films:                                

  1)  El Mariachi    -  no money  -  pretty good movie
  2)  The Blair Witch Project -  no money  -  pretty good movie
  3)  Clerks -  no money  -  pretty good movie
  4)  Open Water -  no money  -  pretty good movie

Example of a successful low budget film in which we were personally involved:

Breaker!  Breaker!  (1977 – Chuck Norris’ first starring role)

Terry and I were involved in the film from pre thru post- production.  Chambers wrote the script and one of the songs.  I, as Dan Vandegrift, had a featured role, ran props, did stunts, was assistant picture editor, and we both cut the sound.

The movie featured:

  1. The destruction of an entire town with 18 wheelers.
  2. Car chases.
  3. A helicopter / big rig crash & explosion (we’re darn good at integrating stock footage).
  4. A huge amount of fight scenes (naturally).

 

AND

   5. Developed relationships between characters.

 

This was all done for $200,000.00 – on the nose.  Breaker! Breaker!  was listed as a mini-giant of the box office. It grossed 12 million in it’s 1st run.

None of the other ultra low budget films mentioned above had full feature coverage or more than simple action.  El Mariachi was basically edited in the camera (Rodriguez only shot what he needed to make a scene work).  Open Water had the most coverage, but it also had 41 minutes of two people splashing around in the ocean.

Our goal was to shoot ULB Action Films with full coverage.  This meant shooting as close to a 1:1 ratio as possible:  BIG PROBLEM.  The answer to that problem started to reveal itself a few years ago.

**Disclaimer**
Clint Howard, Rance Howard and Barry Kearson are not affiliated with Smoking Lens Films.

We were helping Clint and Barry with “The Clint Howard Variety Show”, which they produced for POP.com.  At one point Rance was listening to the rest of us discuss low budget digital filmmaking.  He asked me if we could shoot his play “Look Down On The Hudson”  with an ultra low budget and make it look like a real movie, not a filmed play.  Well, it took us awhile, but we finally came up with a technique that would allow us (with our knowledge of theatre, reality TV, Gorilla film making, and a well rehearsed cast) to complete principle photography …are you ready?…in one day.   (Yeah, I know that’s impossible, but with the help of witchcraft, voodoo and the Blessed Virgin, it can be done.  The tests we shot proved it.)
Although prior commitments have made it necessary to put off tackling the “Hudson” project for awhile, it got us thinking about applying the same shooting technique to action films.  After a series of additional tests we saw that it was definitely possible.

We started setting up Smoking Lens Films at the end of 2005.  Principal photography for our first feature “Thunderstruck” is due to begin next year.

Whether the gods smile down on us or not, we will try to: 

  1. Make a couple of half decent movies.
  2. Save our financially irresponsible butts.

 

Bottom Line:  What happens, happens.  I hear trailer parks are a lot nicer than they used to be.

We’ll eventually use this web site to promote our films, but until then we’ll just try to have some fun. We’ll start with a “Glory Days” page and a blog.

Future updates will include:

  1. The (slightly embellished) true story that inspired the script for “Thunderstruck”.
  2. Our own version of a condensed film school (which has a different slant than Tarrentino’s or Rodriguez’s).
  3. Maybe a members only Story Page – not on the scale of Trigger Street or Zoetrope – just another outlet for your stories.
  4. We even plan on giving away free stuff.  (I still can’t believe our money guy went for that one).

 

Until next time:

            READ SOMETHING !

            WRITE SOMETHING !

            WATCH A MOVIE !

            GET SOME EXERCISE !

            LEARN TO “BOB AND WEAVE” !