We're taking over the world!

A list of the filmmakers will be coming soon.

Read Happy Hour Blues before you see it on the screen!

Low Budget Film Making

As pre-production is in full effect for UNANSWERED I've been thinking about some of my personal favorite low budget films, the films that have inspired me the most over the years as an aspiring filmmaker. So I wanted to take a minute to list them, along with the trailers, to give you all an idea where I'm coming from.

Let's jump right in!

First off is Shane Carruth's Primer, from 2004. Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. With an estimated budget of $7,000 that's quite an accomplishment.

Next is Rian Johnson's 2005 neo-noir  film Brick. Rian wrote the original screenplay in 1997. It took him six years in order to fund the project. Brick's budget was in the ballpark of $475,000. It was Johnson's directorial debut and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film festival.

1997 brought us David Lynch's Eraserhead, a surrealist horror film that was produced by Lynch during his time at The American Film Institute. He received a grant from AFI, but after about 3 years of production, ran out of money.  The film took him five years to complete, with a budget around $20,000. This was one of the first films that made me feel uncomfortable, and left me sitting there wondering what I had just seen.

Stranger Than Paradise is a 1984 absudist comedy from director Jim Jarmusch. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Camera d'Or award for debut films. It's budget fell just under $100, 000.

In 1991 director Richard Linklater gave us a series of linear vignettes involving a group of 20 something year old misfits in his film Slacker. This film was the motivation for Kevin Smith to become a filmmaker and direct Clerks. The film's budget was only $23,000.

Lastly is Kevin Smith's 1994 directorial debut Clerks. The film was shot for just shy of $28,000 at the Quick Stop convenience store where Smith was working at the time. Clerks won the "Award of the Youth" and the "Mercedes-Benz Award" at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. This was also the first film that made me want to pick up a camera, go out and shoot movies with my friends. I remember thinking, 'This guy made a movie with his buddies, having conversations about shit I talk about all the time, why the fuck can't I do it?' Clerks was picked up by Miramax Films and went on to gross $3 million in the US.

There you have it. These are truly the films that made a goofy guy from a small town in southern Indiana, want to chase a dream and never give up hope. I've been lucky enough to have some amazing people in my life who have been so supportive, and others who have shown me that despite what others say you can make things happen as long as you don't give up. Truly I've been blessed by surrounding myself with a plethora of talented individuals whose own accomplishments have urged me on. I am forever in your debt my friends.

Thanks all,
Brandon Bennett

UNANSWERED Casting Call

UNANSWERED a transgressive film directed by Brandon Bennett, is shooting in (or around) Vincennes, Indiana, as soon as everything is in order.
This is a non-union short film.
Director: Brandon Bennett
Producers: Brandon Bennett, J. Travis Grundon
Story/ Screenplay: J. Travis Grundon
Casting: Well Hung Pictures


CASTING
Leads:
Woman - 21-30 year old female, Realistic - Pretty but not fake looking. Must be able to convey serous emotions.
Man - 21-30 year old male, Must be able to play dead well and possibly play happy for flashback scenes.  

STORYLINE 

A woman who gets off work and goes through her routine. While she is doing this she is trying to call a friend/ boyfriend/ ex boyfriend. He won't answer his phone so she goes to his house to find him dead.

Contact Well Hung Pictures at wellhungemail@gmail.com or 812 890-5021

Additional notes:

We are looking a for a woman that can really show heartbreak and emotionally falling apart. The actress selling us on the fact that a man she loved is dead will make the film or break it. We're not looking for over the top, just serious falling a part on screen.

The role does not call for any nude or sex scenes. The only thing close would be where she changes her shirt in the parking lot of her job. In the story the character has a bra on.

This should be a one to two day shoot and it is a nonpaying role. If it is a two day shoot we will buy one meal per day and provide a place to stay.

This is a closed set with a lot of the shooting being done in a car or a tight spot we will not have an interest or the space for extra people standing around. Actors would be welcomed to bring a guest but we can not offer them food or allow them to be there for shooting.

The Happy Hour Blues Project

Courtesy of J. Travis Grundon Dot Com:


JABB Pictures and J. Travis Grundon are joining forces to bring you the Happy Hour Blues Collective!

This collaboration will be a series of short films based on stories from Grundon's book Happy Hour Blues. The films will be directed by the hottest up and coming indie filmmakers and they will be presented in the same style as previous JABB Picture Collective DVDs. J. Travis Grundon and JABB have cross paths before. Darkrider Studios used a story written by Grundon as a part of the very first Collective DVD. Since then JABB has become THE force in anthology movie making.

The Happy Hour Blues Collective promises to deliver the same grit and graphic story telling fans would expect from JABB Pictures and J. Travis Grundon!

http://www.jabbpictures.com/

http://www.facebook.com/JABBpicturesthecollective

@JABBpictures

http://jtravisgrundon.blogspot.com/

@jtravisgrundon

Stay tuned for more details as directors are announced and this project moves forward!

 J. Travis Grundon is the co-founder of Well Hung Pictures and the plan is to make the a JABB Pictures in association with Well Hung Pictures production.This would be the springboard to launch WHP into 2013 and several incredible projects. Only time will tell.

We promise to keep you posted and not leave you Hangin'!


WHP