Movie Set Location - Disaster Films Studio

You can shoot an airport film without spending a lot of money

Internet Video Magazine News and Press Releases

Feb 13, 2009

Affordable Airport Movie Set

Full press release   PARTS 1 - 2 - 3

Contact: David McQueen
Phone 206-330-6240                                                Disaster Films Studio
www.disasterfilmsstudios.com



PART 1

Tight Airport Security Caused Airport Permits For Movie
Productions To Become A Thing Of The Past Until Now.

SEATTLE - PORTLAND


After 9/11, airports across the country ended the practice of allowing film crews on their property, citing new security regulations. As of
2009, the Barack Obama administration is holding steady with tight airport security regulations to control international terrorism, disaster
threats, and terrorist travel.

TIMES ONLINE
Barack Obama is being given ominous advice from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to brace himself for an early assault from terrorists.

With this kind of climate, airports will stay under lock and key, says David McQueen, owner of Disaster Films Studio. As another example a
US airport was shut down because a passenger left a bag unattended and a bomb squad was called in. Movie productions have a
tendency to carry a lot of unidentifiable black bags and no doubt somebody is going to forget and walk away from the bag at some point in
time, says David. Movies and airports are a bad mix these days. It is not good for the airport or the production company because they
create a great discomfort for each other by each of them simply trying to do their job.

In response to homeland security regulations, Disaster Films Studios, an African American owned VFX company builds the largest virtual
airport of its kind complete with everything down to the gift shops and retails stores and with the ability to accommodate requests that
require total repeated destructions on a massive scale. Owner, David McQueen says it's ready for continuous use for many premier motion
picture companies and independent films. It can only be booked to shoot an entire feature film. This advanced virtual facility has every
location in a national airport including underground subway tunnels, control tower, check-in counters, retail stores and restaurants,
baggage claim, security gates, car rental section, waiting area, exterior passenger pick-up and arrival, and of course the commercial airline
jet interior, and the command post with floor to ceiling walls of ultra high tech computer surveillance monitoring devices.

David says that running the operation from the Seattle - Portland area was the wisest choice because of the substantially lower production
prices in Seattle, and because Portland is in a tax free state which allows a substantial amount of money to go on the screen where it's
needed most. Our Online HD technology for viewing dailies and the straight through piping into the Universal Studios preview screening
room allows us to provide producers with an unprecedented flexibility of overseeing the progress without being tied up in Seattle for long
periods of time.

The airport sets up inside a large Seattle studio and can be fully functional with the physical set extensions on short notice. The key is in
what David calls the “Golden Hour” which is an 8 week preliminary tech set-up period to accommodate each specific story so that the
technology does not get in the way when production starts. From there, scheduling the production logistics for the  production shoots each
day would be a breeze because it’s all in just one place making it easier to stay on schedule and squeeze in re-shoots without losing
momentum. Set extensions mixed with computer generated compositing is a process that is the main element that makes everything look
real. You have a place where parts of it are real and parts of it are not. The computer blends all the parts together so that when it’s seen
on the movie screen all of it looks real. This is a common practice in films costing from 80 to 100 million dollars and up. The technology
behind the airport functions is a technological marvel but directors will not be burdened with it because 80 percent of the time, where the
talent performs is in areas that are real.

The airport is ready to be booked now and can only be booked to productions that need to shoot an entire feature film in a national airport.

David realized that an unprecedented number of different types of story lines could be told inside an airport such as escapist, big heist, people trying to survive, spies, counterspies and political secrets, battles with monsters from another world, the path of true love, detectives detecting, the supernatural, narcotics and gangsters, natural disasters, mystery and much more. By the airport being computer based, it would have no constraints because it could be programmed to meet any imaginative request reaching far beyond what any real airport had to offer and therefore would be a writer/director’s dream. If you need an airport drama written follow the link www.writesight.com. There are
thousands of  writers there just waiting for a job.


GUARANTEE OF PERFORMANCE
Disaster Films Studio provides the completion bond for the producer as we have special pre-visualization tools and techniques for explaining complex film making to insurance companies.



PART 2

BALL PARK COST

Here is an idea of what kind of money we were talking about:

$10,000 per day for the airport. This includes all the special computers and hardware, a full VFX team as well as footage logger, stunt
coordinator, camera crew, lighting crew, sound person, assistant compositing editor, set extension handlers, and script supervisor for about
60 days.

$3,000 per day for the Sony f950. We analyzed all the latest cameras to date and found that 95 percent of them presented false claims and
marketing pixels. Using the Sony f950 when shooting your production at the airport will provide the best results. We found this out the hard
way,


Logistics between buying or renting the right camera works like this:

You have to buy or rent the camera because we are not the kind of company that owns that type of gear as we are not the traditional
camera ready production house. We invest in supercomputers, one-of-a-kind, and custom design systems and software that enable us to
make virtual worlds and things of that nature such as the airport. We will need to have the camera for about 60 days prior to the start of
production to get all the set extensions and compositing lined up before production begins. Then you will likely need the camera for another
60 days to shoot the movie. With rental fees at $3,000 per day, you will pay out about $330,000 after discount. That’s insane when all you
have to do is buy the camera for $150,000 and use it to do our shoot and still have it available for any re-shoots. Then when the
production is over you can sell it and get at least 80 percent of that $150,000 back.

$5,000 per day for an ultra high grade cinema DLP projector

The logistics for the projector are the same argument as with the camera which is to just buy it and resell it instead of
renting it.

The projector is needed to check the work quality, theater quality screenings of the dailies, and accurate color correction. The projector
also relates to not having to be hampered with scheduling a theater at random times to look at the dailies. All work must be viewed on a
large screen before it's approved so you can see hidden flaws that the human eye cannot see on a small computer screen. The idea here
is that if the movie is for theatrical release then you want to make all your adjustments on something that is going to let you see what the
audience is going to be seeing while watching the movie in a theater. You certainly can't make adjustments while you're in the theater  
because you need a special system like the one we use, installed in the theater. With all that going on, the theater owner cannot run the
theater each day so you're going to have to drive back in traffic from the studio to the theater taking notes. Thats insane!  

These projectors rent for about $5,000 per day. You need it for 60 days of prep, so after discounts, you are looking at about $280,000 for
60 days in rental fees. You will need it for another 60 days of production which is another $280,000, and you will need it for another 18
months of post-production at $140,000 per month. It certainly makes much better financial sense to purchase the projector for about
$150,000 and resell it for about 75 percent of your purchase price.

Note that both items that we suggest you buy, the camera and projector have been fully embraced and used by George Lucas. From our
standpoint, he is the best confirmation anywhere in the country.

Going the purchase route also insures a smooth production because the time needed to set the production up properly during the 'golden
hour' is not running up a tab. Plus after the initial run through we will be able to cut costs on many items that we won't need but were not
able to tell by looking at the script. After the 'golden hour' is over, we load the entire movie into VFX NEXUS and we are ready to start  a
smooth running production.

Please see VFX NEXUS  at  www.vfxnexus.com then return here for the rest of parts 2 and 3



We charge $30,000 up front set-up charge (the golden hour) which is non-refundable in the event you are not able to move forward with
your production.

We don’t cover the following production costs:

Sound stage about $2,000 per day

Hotels and accommodations, legal fees, cast, wardrobe, hair and makeup, story rights, HD to film transfer, air fares to and from Seattle or
Portland, insurance, medical, and expendables.

Post production

Post production is about $5,000 per day, 5 day weeks for about 18 months which would be exhaustive work in multiple shifts by a dedicated
team of compositors. This includes original music scores which you own and full surround sound mix and color correction. So post will run
you about $1,800,000, or $100,000 per month for 18 months. The total cost for a production like this would be about 60 million dollars in
Hollywood.


We suggest the following involving getting Investors and a Distributor.

Although many stories can be told in an airport, we recommend heist films. Heist films with name talent have a good track record at the box
office and can be helpful in arranging financing, and attracting distributors for your film project.

A heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Typically, there are many plot
twists, and film focuses on the characters' attempts to formulate a plan, carry it out, and escape with the goods. There is often a nemesis
who must be thwarted: either a figure of authority or a former partner who turned on the group or one of its members.

The archetypical plot:
Usually a heist film will contain a three-act plot. The first act usually consists of the preparations for the heist: gathering conspirators,
learning about the layout of the location to be robbed, learning about the alarm system, revealing innovative technologies to be used, and
most importantly, setting up the plot twists in the final act.

The second act is the heist itself. With rare exception, the heist will be successful, though some number of unexpected events will occur.

The third act is the unraveling of the plot. The characters involved in the heist will be turned against one another or one of the characters
will have made arrangements with some outside party, who will interfere. Normally, most or all the characters involved in the heist will end
up dead, captured by the law, or without any of the loot; however, it is becoming increasingly common for the conspirators to be successful,
particularly if the target is portrayed as being of low moral standing, such as casinos, corrupt organizations, or individuals or fellow criminals.

Variations on the plot:
As an established archetype, it became common starting in the fifties, to excise one or two of the acts in the story, relying on the viewers'
familiarity with the archetype to fill in the missing elements. Touchez pas au grisbi and Reservoir Dogs, for example, both take place largely
after the heist has occurred.

Some heist films take place non-linearly: The Killing, Reservoir Dogs.

One last big job:
One of the common forms of the heist is the one last big job. In it, a team of criminals are gathered together for a final caper that will make
their fortunes and take them away from a life of crime forever. Usually, the added risk combined with the promise of an ideal life once the
job is done provide for a natural element of suspense. The story then follows the execution of the job, or, if in the beginning the job goes
horribly wrong, with the actions of the survivor(s).

Examples of "One Last Big Job" films: Sexy Beast, Heat, The Score.

Related film archetypes
The "heist film" is the most well-known of a number of closely related archetypal story lines all involving collaborative efforts that require
elaborate preparation and dramatic fallout, there is also: the prison-break film, the assassination film, and the hostage film (usually shown
from the opposite perspective: that of the hostages and the rescuers). A number of spy films also have heist-like plots.

These are the finance numbers that you can add to your investment package:
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/Heist.php



PART 3


Just as a courtesy to us, please look at the videos below before you contact us so that we are on the same page.

http://aimediaserver.com/studiodaily/videoplayer/?src=virtual/virtual.swf&width=480&height=310

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlmVdvudHLA


ABOUT DAVID
David McQueen is certified by Adobe Corporation as a media expert. He's a 30 year veteran in the movie business.

Shooting a full scale airport drama in Seattle - Portland is a one stop destination by contacting:
David McQueen 206-330-6240
Email: david@disasterfilmsstudios.com
Web: www.disasterfilmsstudios.com