Frog Island Films: Making a Big Movie on a Small Budget

When most people think of independently-produced Michigan films, they might think of bad horror flicks or 20-minute short, experimental films shot with a small cast, an even smaller number of locations, and shooting that lasts over a period of several days. I was fortunate enough to come across a couple Ann Arbor filmmakers who did just the opposite of the status quo. They shot a feature (90 min.) film, used over 100 actors and a large number of locations (mainly in Ann Arbor), and took 5 months to film it with 6 weeks of rehearsals and 3 months of pre-production. And the upshot? This was their first produced film. The film is a dramedy and is called, “The Friends Guide to Beer & Sex.” The writers and filmmakers are Tonua Brown and Paul Stacy.

They are not your normal indie filmmakers. They are not scrambling around the edges waiting tables or driving cabs in order to work on their writing during the small hours of the night. Instead, they are savvy with technology. They are great planners. They are professional marketers. And they have leveraged their marketing and networking skills to create their companies, Frog Island Films and Frog Island Creative Services. I attended a pre-screening of their film designed for feedback purposes and was very impressed with the unedited rough cut. The project has been in the works since 2003, when they began collaborating on the script. It started with an idea Paul had based on a couple characters he had been developing from previous short screenplays he had written. They had a trial run of casting themselves in the film before they set out on the ambitious project of re-casting, producing, directing, filming, editing and marketing the project. I wanted to know more about them, their business, and the new film release, so I asked them for an interview which they graciously accepted.

MK: Frog Island Films and Frog Island Creative Services: what is the key distinction?

TB: One side is corporate the other side is entertainment.

MK: Now, the creative services for businesses… would that be advertising their website?

TB: It’s about promoting their company. There are a lot of different levels to marketing. How can we help brand the company? What is their messaging? How do they want their customers to perceive the company? It goes from that level to the design level where we execute it through web site design, brochures (or any printed material), signs for trade shows, etc.

PS: Some small companies don’t have a marketing department at all. What Frog Island Creative Services offers—under one roof—is all the marketing services you might need. From everything that Tonua just mentioned to even video production. Our tagline is “We are the marketing department for small businesses.”

MK: Were you mainly interested in the marketing company and then producing films came into it later on?

PS: In a way, marketing came first because that’s what we did professionally together, and filmmaking came later. At the time, I was doing an experimental project on digital video with a remake of the Maltese Falcon…complete garbage…but it wasn’t meant for anything other than to check out the medium of digital video and to take a project from beginning to end and see how it could be done. Tonua had told me she had acted in the past, and I knew that she could write. I came to her (not long afterwards) with an idea based on some characters I was developing. I said, “Look, I think I need some help with this.” I wanted it to be both from the male and female perspectives. And the script…it’s definitely been a 50-50…it’s about the purest form of collaboration that I can think of.

TB: Our first connection, even though we were working together in a marketing department at the time, was with film. Then, when went through a reorganization of the department where we were working more collaboratively, we found that as a writing team—and as a marketing team—we work really well together.

MK: How long did it take to shoot? And what were some of the locations used?

TB: We started pre-production in January of 2006, held auditions in March, and by May we were turning on cameras. The bulk of the film was shot between May and September. Most of the locations are in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas. In Ann Arbor, we shot at “The Produce Station,” “Goodnight Gracie,” “The Ann Arbor Brewing Company,” the “Arbortext” building, and “Mark’s Midtown Coney Island,” along with some residences in the area. We found consistently everywhere we went people were really excited to help us out and provide us with locations at a very reasonable cost. Our way of giving back was not only to credit them in the film, but to include establishing shots.

MK: A lot of local filmmakers don’t take the time to pre-screen the film a couple times in order to get feedback before making changes. What do think made you open to that?

PS: I think our profession. I think if you’re marketers and designers you have to have thick skins, and you realize “my” tastes don’t necessarily reflect the tastes of the masses. You learn to be able to change the way you look at things.

TB: Part of good marketing is to keep testing your message…is this effective? Is this resonating with the audience I am trying to reach?

PS: I really think that egos can negatively affect the final product of a lot of filmmakers or anybody in the creative industry. If you believe “I always know what’s best,” I think you’re hurting yourself creatively. I think you’re not giving yourself a chance to put the best product out there.

MK: I think the public will be impressed with the quality of this film being your first collaborating feature film project.

PS: We cut our teeth a little bit doing some of the corporate videos we’ve done in the past, and we had a trial and error learning experience on the first shooting of “Friends Guide…” which made us confident in shooting it this time.

MK: What did you learn doing this project and what would you do differently?

TB: We want to continue to be more aggressive at keeping a definite distinction between us as directors and the actors through the course of making the film. The difficulty in working with friends is taking an authoritarian stance that they’ll respond to.

PS: Rewriting is critical. After our failed first attempt at shooting the film, in which we cast ourselves, we went back to the screenplay and discovered there was a lot of fat we could trim. In rewriting, we gave our audience more credit for figuring things out and didn’t feel the need to explain every single plot development. That’s advice we would give any screenwriter: edit, edit, edit. Never settle for your first draft.

TB: Paul mentioned that we cast ourselves in the first version. We both have backgrounds in acting and wanted to cast ourselves in the film. But, it is very, very difficult to have the objectivity to direct a scene when you’re in it. So, the second time around, we made the decision to stay behind the camera and cast really talented actors. The other thing is the next film won’t be such a big project.

PS: When we look at the amount of extras and locations we used…

MK: How many extras? And how many are in the cast?

TB: We used over 100 extras in the film. There are 7 in the main ensemble cast, and about 20 supporting actors.

MK: Wow, did you have a lot of rehearsals?

TB: I was responsible for rehearsing with the actors. We had close to two months of rehearsals, starting one or two times a week from the beginning of April. We turned on the camera the last weekend of May.

MK: What was the budget of the film?

TB: We spent about $3,000. It didn’t go toward equipment because that was something we already had. Most of the funding went towards location costs (including renting out places for auditions), and some went towards props. Locations can be very expensive, especially if you’re buying food and drinks as props in the restaurant and bar scenes. Fortunately, the locations we used were very cooperative at providing us with their locations at a reasonable cost.

MK: What was the film shot on and what editing software did you use?

PS: It was shot on mini-DV at film speed, 24 frames, to give it that “film look.” Electronic filters have been added to post-production. I think that most people will think that it looks no different from film. There are video qualities about it, but our goal was to give it a film look for the sake of being accepted since that’s the way most people are used to seeing “movies.” It’s in widescreen and digital stereo…broadcast quality. And the editing software we used was Sony Vegas.

MK: When will the film have a public screening?

TB: We are nearing the end of post-production. For the focus groups, we filled the soundtrack with pop music to give it the feel we want but, of course, it requires a lot of money to license that music so we are working with a music supervisor to help us find local musicians to populate the film with a similar feel. Once we get the music dropped in, we’ll hand it off to a sound editor who will even out the sound throughout the entire film, and then we’ll hand it off to somebody that will do some final polish on video editing. Our goal is to get it done this fall so we can get start getting it into some film festivals.

MK: Are you going to screen it at the Ann Arbor Cinema Slam held at the Michigan Theatre.

PS and TB: Definitely, we’d love to showcase it there!

MK: Tonua, you were fighting breast cancer during the making of “Friends Guide…” You said you were documenting the recovery process as well?

TB: I captured a lot of my chemo sessions on film. I contacted St. Joseph’s Hospital about filming my treatments and assured them that I wouldn’t use this against them in any negative way; if anything, I would use this to promote them. My experience was actually positive throughout the whole experience, and I wanted to share that with other people. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on March 30, 2006, so we were already in pre-production on “Friend’s Guide…” During my first rehearsal with the cast, I told them that they would see me go through cancer treatment.

I’d have chemo treatments on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and I’d show up on set on Saturday or Sunday and feel…kinda off. But by the end of the day I forgot about the chemo…I forgot about the cancer…I forgot about everything else, because I had so much passion and enjoyed so much in what we were doing on set. My documentary is really going to say…yes, cancer is scary, but you can make a difference in how you recover.

MK: Are you open to outside submission of film scripts?

PS: We would love to have Frog Island Films grow to the point where we could provide a resource for others to focus on the creative side of their movie and partner up with us for those resources and whatever else they need to make their film. Because the other things—administratively and logistically that goes along with the company side of things—it’s a distraction and it’s hard. People shouldn’t have to form a production company just to make an independent film. We knew that was something that we wanted to grow as a business all along. It was never about just making one movie.

TB: My favorite thing about this business is it’s something that not only helps Paul and me, but it helps our creative friends, and it helps others get work.

PS: I think we are both local patriots. It’s hard to go out there and be an actor, writer or director in this area without dropping everything you’re doing and moving towards the coast. You’ve got a family…you’ve got a full-time job…should you really give up on those things? Why can’t you just stay here and do some really quality stuff? And there are some great quality projects going on around here…we just want to add to it.

MK: I’m sure the readers would be interested in checking you out further. What are the Frog Island websites?

TB: Our corporate site is: www.frogislandcreative.com. Our entertainment site is: www.frogislandfilms.com. And the film website is at www.thefriendsguide.com. Keep an eye out for the trailer, which should be posted in the next few weeks.

Mike Kelly
Ann Arbor writer