Keeping Up with Jones
Produced by Jonathan Slon
Keeping Up With Jones is about a homeless man who is approached by a filmmaker. As the filming begins the filmmaker and Jones argue over how to make a movie. Jones is troubled by the fact that they are filming things that he does not do in real life. He plays along up to a point, even attempting to suggest a better dramatic ending, explaining 'I go out to the movies alot, especially when it's cold and wet out'. To no avail, the filmmaker won't listen. Enter the young beautiful journalist who needs a project to finish her degree at Columbia University. Jones is easy to engage, especially since he hangs out begging from rich students at the main gate.
Unfortunately, a preview is not available at this time. Please visit the film's official website for more information.
Following is an interview with the film's producer Jonathan Slon.
Q: Was the original idea to produce the film for Internet as the main medium of distribution? Why did you choose Internet distribution?
Jonathan: We started to write the script back in 2000, before Apple had brought out the G5 model. Coincidentally, I had been asked by an editor friend at The Wall Street Journal to test the capabilities of the new Sony VX2000 camera for a piece she was writing for the WSJs marketplace page on "pro-sumer cameras".
We tried to sell the script at first. Then we tried to get IFC to fund us so that we could shoot it. Both attempts failed after a long waiting process. We were told that our script was liked, the IFC people after reviewing it in New York sent it out to Los Angeles where it was ultimately turned down. An agent in Los Angeles told us it was too much like a Woody Allen story?! Anyway, we decided to shoot it using the same model of Sony camera I had used for the WSJ piece. Actually, the editor of the Journal had gone out and bought herself the camera after her article ran, and it was she who then loaned us her camera.
Q: Did a decision to distribute via Internet change the way you produced the film, for example did it influence length of the film or storytelling style?
Jonathan: While shooting, we did not have a clear idea how we would show the film or how it might gain distribution. As I said, the G5 wasn't on the market yet and we did not know who would edit it. I had a vague notion about hiring an editor with an AVID, but it wasn't any clear idea. We finished shooting and by chance I earned several thousand dollars as a second party broker on the sale of some real estate. The G5 was introduced and I bought one.
At the same time I met the Croatian musician Davorin Tomsic (listen2sun.com) who moonlights as a video editor. I had been syncing up my sound and picture and had done a rough cut edit having taught myself Final Cut Pro. He sort of patted me on the back (he was about 25 back then and visiting NY) and told me I had done a pretty good job, for a beginner. He then sat down and showed me how one really goes about editing. I was impressed, more than impressed really. I came to see that I should focus on the things I do well and allow others to do the things they do well.
I raced out and bought a 400 GIG hard drive and we loaded everything onto it. Davorin took the hard drive back to Croatia and would notify me to download sections from his site as he finished them. In that new and amazing way, I watched from New York as my film slowly came to life in Zagreb. In 2006, Davorin came to New York with his Bass player and lived up in our country house where he recorded the songs on the site I've listed above. The film was done but for a few little things that required my direct attention. We created the three-minute "Freak Out" section that appears towards the end of the film. The length of the film, the way in which it was shot, the colouring or lack of, where all done with only one consideration; that being what was best for the film.
The length, for example, 48 minutes, makes it difficult for Internet screening as most suppliers, like Shortsinternational who market to iTunes, or many Internet film festival outlets, can not at this time support anything longer than 35 minutes.
I do think that the film is very well suited for the Internet. We created an amazing sound track which plays very well on iPods, and the picture, when compressed to something the size of a man's wallet looks very sharp and clean. I must confess that I did not intentionally shoot specially for small screen delivery, but none the less, I shoot close up and even extreme close ups most of the time so it looks as if I did. I liked the way the Sony lens could focus so close to the subject, and I wanted to be right up in the face of the subject, which by the way, is very New York, i.e. being in one's face.
Q: What was your experience in using Internet for distribution? Are you pleased with the results, hopeful for the future?
Jonathan: I did not really chose Internet distribution, it more or less choose me. The experience has been a bit mixed. As I said, the film is 48 minutes long which most platforms, as far as I know, can't support or won't support that length. I do think that this will change if it hasn't done so all ready. I can see a time where people who commute via bus or train will seek out films that suit their travel times to and from work. Thursdays might be their watch a movie day, and whereas the train takes 51 minutes from point to point, they download "keeping Up with Jones" to watch.
I do think that the movie really hasn't been "discovered" yet and I'm not at all clear as how I can help that happen. I do think that like the early days of MTV, there is a lot of mixed quality of product out there, some very good, some very bad. Like the early days of MTV where kids (teenagers plus) watched everything that came along, the same is true for Internet based showcases. I know we spent a long time working on the film and brought it along slowly so that we could tell the story we wanted to tell and do it with a bag of tricks gathered from years of watching the masters of filmmaking. There is a lot going on, there are loops and references that may not be so obvious to a casual viewer. We hope that people will want to watch the film more than once to see new things in it each time, like going back to your favorite painting to see something new in it.
