This document provides details about the independent film "Forbidden Power" including the inspiration, production process, and challenges faced by the producer. Some key points: 1) The producer was inspired to make the film based on a novel he wrote and wanted to explore the story of a man who receives a small boost of mental and physical power from a mysterious woman. 2) Production was made possible through advantages of digital filming, partnerships with local studios, and the producer's passion for the story. 3) Casting the lead actress who empowers the main character was extremely challenging but they ultimately found the right actress through online casting calls. 4) The producer took a risk on the ambitious scope of the

1. Producing Forbidden Power
Long Article for Indie Producers

2. See the movie on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dxcitp
"You should not make Forbidden Planet," my mom says.
"My movie is Forbidden Power," I tell her.
"Did you hear what your mother said?" My father adds.
I wake up from the dream knowing that's it's a false dream, because my
parents always supported my movies. I know it's just my subconscious fears
playing out while I sleep. A real fear, true. It's no small thing to risk enough
money to stay at Disney World for a year on a movie story. And that's what
I've learned directing my 7th feature film, Forbidden Power. Meaning, you
don't risk money making a movie, you risk money by gambling on a story.
"Money is not the measure, man. It fetches me a great premium here."
Captain Ahab touches his heart.
The six movies I made before were all action vehicles. All but one were
martial arts action. The last one, Omega Cop was made many years ago. After
that movie, I put all my energy into producing six full-cast audiobooks, based
on my novels and hiring 19 movie stars that I grew up watching at my small-
town movie theater. It was a great time in my creative life. Plus, I produced a
90-minute travel video in the USA for a Japanese actress that had a special
appearance by Pat Morita (The Karate Kid).
What changed to get me back into feature films?
FIVE big things. FIRST: digital cameras now equal the quality of 35mm film.
SECOND: Amazon started letting independent producers upload their movies
and they send 50% of the proceeds directly to the producer's banks monthly.
Amazon also gives daily sales reports. So much better than giving your movie
to a distributor that promises 50% of the profits and then, by contract, keeps
the other 50%, calling it expenses. By the way, nothing has changed. Go on
you-tube to hear new producers talk and they all say: "Do not give your
movie to a distributor."

3. I filmed the travel video in digital, but this would be my first feature film in
digital. That meant; no purchasing film stock, no developing the negative, no
work print, easier to light, cheaper special effects, fast editing, and no
conforming the negative to the work print. (A $2,000 expense.) All these are
major cost cutting things when filming in digital.
The THIRD thing to get me back onto features was the passion I had for the
story. That passion was originally to only write it as a novel and get it on
amazon. But once on Amazon, it didn't feel like it was enough. I had to see it
as a movie. I always loved movies where the hero is empowered; Limitless,
LUCY, Wolf, the Star Trek episode staring Gary Lockwood: Where No Man
Has Gone Before, and many others. But those movies have heroes with
extreme powers. I wanted to follow a young man who gets just a small boast
of mental and physical power. And I was more concerned with how he
received that power.
In Forbidden Power, the hero gets his power via a sexual encounter. (This can
happen to a certain degree in real life.) And if the hero gets his power that
way, what I wanted to explore was: Where did the woman get her power in
the first place? And why did she choose this particular young man to give it to?
The FOURTH thing that got me to take a risk on making the movie was the
fact that a long-time friend, Conrad Denke, has a movie production facility in
Seattle, Washington: Victory Studios. His studio had advanced to a point
where I could make the entire movie, from filming to end credits, 'in-house'.
The FIFTH thing was that Conrad had just acquired a Red Epic 6K digital
camera. The same camera that shot Jurassic World, Gone Girl and Dead Pool.
With those five things in place, I gave myself the mental 'green light' and
figured to film the movie a year later. But right away I knew: If good might
come from this project, then why wait a year for it to happen? And if bad
comes from it, I'll have to handle it no matter what year I spend the money.
So I got on the net, found the time of year in Seattle when there was the
least rain and set the date for a 15 day shoot starting August 21, 2017.

4. Casting, Locations & Props -
On my last feature film there was no Internet. Now, even though I live in
Japan, I could do most of my pre-production at home on the net. Casting
agencies now show their actors photos and profiles on their web sites. Many
have their demo-reel on them. Most of the agencies you can access directly.
A few of them require you to sign in and get permission, which is easy to do.
Forbidden Power had nine main characters to cast and 24 supporting actors.
We would also end up using 150 extras for various scenes. Including the 12-
person crew, paychecks were given to a total of 184 people. This was an
unusual amount for an independent movie where they usually have four
leads and a couple of supporting actors. Also, for smaller budgeted movies,
locations are kept to a minimum. I was advised by a few that:
"You should not be filming this movie with this many actors and locations.
You'll never finish on a 15-day schedule. You should be filming in one location
with just a few actors."
However, since all my movies had ambitious casts, locations and large action
scenes, I knew that I could get it all done on schedule with the large cast,
providing no one got sick or a storm didn't hit Seattle.
On the Internet, there are many articles that tell you how to film an
independent movie. One producer wrote: If you have so much money you
are 'allowed' this many locations and this many crew members. He wrote
about how various budgets would ‘allow’ you to have a certain number of
locations and crew members.
Those articles are good to make you think, but every movie has a story that
requires a certain number of characters and locations. The question is: Do
you make a plan to film your story as you envision it? Or do you cut down
your story 'just to make a movie'?
And then there are the 'profit talkers'. They'll say:

5. "You must make a movie for under $20,000 so you can get your money back
quickly and go to the next movie. There is a producer that raises $30,000,
keeps $10,000 for himself, makes the movie for $20,000 and then goes on to
the next one."
That is all good and will certainly get a producer a body of work. However,
there is always the idea of going for your personal 'masterpiece'. Something
that you can't wait to show an audience. Something real, that is a part of you.
Both ways are fine, but with the few movies that I get to do, or few audio-
books, I want each one to engage the audience as much as possible.
My Plan for Engaging the Audience -
The novel of Forbidden Power had come first, but in doing the screenplay I
had to expand it greatly. I needed to go beyond the novel's ending. I also
needed to add additional characters and locations.
When I was given the script for Omega Cop, the story had the cop rescuing
one woman and escaping the doomed city. I immediately added two more
women for the cop to rescue. He would meet them one by one during the
story, thus 'refreshing' the audience's interest. Also, three women would give
me more people to cut away to in any given scene to make it more
interesting. And they were three different types of women, so if you didn't
like one, there were two others to watch.
In Forbidden Power, the hero has a girlfriend, but becomes involved with the
mysterious woman that empowers him. At the 'deadly one-hour mark' in the
movie, where many movies lose the audience's interest, I had the hero meet
another beautiful woman to get involved with. She would also have a
surprising shock for the hero later in the story. I was advised to drop the
sequence with this 3rd woman to 'save money' and 'it's not needed for the
story', but I knew she would add to the visuals as well as let the hero go on a
'side adventure' that would pay off well.
When we were filming with the 3rd girl, one crew member said, "Wow, it
really got me when the girl revealed herself." I was glad for his reaction, but

6. it also told me he hadn't read the script, which is fine as long at a crew
member does his job.
Also, to give the movie a bigger look, not only did I keep the needed locations
from the novel, I added a few more. So, even though most of the story takes
place in Seattle, we had scenes in a San Francisco convention center, Las
Vegas, San Jose and Arizona to do. Those were shot quickly.
Back to Casting -
I knew the hardest character to cast would be the Native American woman in
her late 20's named Veronica. She's the one that mysteriously empowers the
hero, so the whole believability of the movie would depend on her. She'd
have to look like a real Native American, have a seductive voice and be willing
to do nude scenes and look outstanding in those scenes. This was necessary
to the story because the hero becomes addicted to her and one of the
reasons is the woman's physicality.
All Internet casting searches in the Seattle area found no one. Nor did
Washington. Nor did Los Angeles. This brings us to the subject of filming the
movie as a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) union project or non-union. First, I
planned to pay the actors SAG scale for a low-budget movie which is $125
per day, whether I filmed union or not. Why?
I know that whenever someone gets a job in a movie; whether it's me, or an
actor or actress or crew member; what's the first thing their relatives, loved-
ones or friends ask: 'How did you get the part? 'What part do you have?'
'What's the story?' 'Where will they film it?' No. The first thing relatives ask is:
"How much are they going to pay you?"
This is especially true for actresses with boyfriends who sooner or later,
usually sooner, get jealous of their girlfriend getting a part in a movie with a
'glamorous and exciting' cast and crew working in close quarters in often
emotional scenes.
You can't blame the guys. It's only natural. But the first thing they attack is, of
course; "How much are they paying you." So, I want the actress, or actor to

7. say, "I'll be getting paid SAG scale." That sounds professional and keeps most
guys from saying "You're getting gypped." But some say it anyway.
Indeed, one of our six lead actresses broke up with her boyfriend a week
before filming. He got jealous, refused to help her memorize lines, and
constantly complained about her being in the movie. Finally, she told him,
“I’m going to do this movie exactly how it says in the script.” That ended the
relationship.
Thus, I recommend all independent producers to consider paying SAG scale
even if you're filming non-union. Actually, the most important aspect of that
is so the actors will respect the project as a 'professional' event to be taken
seriously. The same goes for the crew if you're hiring professional in the
business as I did on this project.
I knew our need for efficient filming would not give me the manpower to
comply with all the demands and paperwork that a SAG shoot would entail,
so I decided to film non-union. After making the movie, some would tell me
'You should have had a name actor in the movie.' I agree, but who would pay
for that name actor and the additional days of filming that we'd end up
needing?
It was costing me around $15,000 per day with cast, crew, extras,
accommodations, food etc. Adding three more days to follow SAG rules,
would add an extra $45,000 to the budget, plus the cost of the name actor.
So, indeed, who would pay? Besides, we had a Las Vegas train crash to film
and money was needed for that. It all comes down to the choice by the guy
who's watching his checkbook being drained daily.
Back to the Lead Actress -
After I exhausted actor casting sites, I went to modeling sites. I saw a few
photos of a Latin-American model, living in Los Angeles, who would be good
for the part. She even had a video of her walking and some bikini shots.
Before contacting the agency, I searched her on Facebook. The first five
photos that she had posted were her surrounded by friends at various bars.

8. In one photo she was making a scrunched-up face while giving the camera
the finger. Was I going to risk all my 'Disney World money' on an actress that
I would most likely lose to the first bar she finds in Seattle? Let me tell you
about 'bars and movies'.
On my first movie, The Tournament, I had a close college friend in a major
part. The first morning of filming I went to his house to pick him up. His
father answered the door and said, "Bill is in the bedroom." I walked in to see
Bill lying in bed with his head completely bandaged. "I was in a bar last
night," he told me in a depressed tone, "And I got into a fight with a guy and
he pulled out a knife and cut my ear." I offered my sincere condolences but I
had to get to the location where people were waiting.
I had to re-cast him with another friend, Joshua Johnson, who went on from
co-starring in The Tournament to also co-star in Death Machines and
Weapons of Death. Would Bill have been in those movies instead of Joshua?
Who knows? Because I had to go back to the Air Force after filming on leave,
I didn't visit Bill again. He disappeared from our college group and was never
heard from again. So, I never contacted the agency about that Latin-
American model. I figured that she might give our project the finger at some
point, and head off to a bar, so I couldn't risk everything on her.
If you're the producer, the money man, you always start a project alone. You
make the decision about when, where, and most important; how much?
Once that decision is made you start bringing in people to help with the
production. The first one was John Wright who had helped edit the novel of
Forbidden Power. I told him my problem with finding an actress to play
Veronica. John is a magazine cameraman and knows about casting models, so
he said, "Let me see what I can do." And that's all he said.
The second person I got help from was David J. Moore, who has written two
giant books on action and science fiction movies that had three of my movies
in it. He promoted the novel version of the movie to many magazine
companies and because he had seen thousands of movies, I asked him to
read the screenplay.

9. Because my novel was written with many flashbacks, I had the script in that
form, too. After reading it, David gave me some good insight, the most
important being: "Don't use the flashback form. Have the narrative in a
straight time-line." Thank God for that advice which I instantly knew was
right. So I put the script into a straight time line and it read much clearer and
more exciting.
The next two people I informed about the project were Jan Van Tassell and
Bruce Dowling. They'd been with me for most of my movies and audiobooks,
both on production and post-production. They are what Jerry Lewis called
'total film-makers'. They will do whatever needs to be done at the moment to
get any project done. The two also distinguished themselves by investing
money in my past projects.
On a movie, some will wish you well, many will ask for jobs, but very few will
invest money on a project. Jan and Bruce said they were both ready to go to
Seattle in August and work in any capacity. The last job they did for me was
producing and directing my audio-book Wicked Players. Because of their hard
work on this movie, they ended up with the top producing credits. They
greatly impressed Victory Studios with getting scenes ready to film with just
two weeks of actual pre-production.
A week after we talked, John Wright called to say that he had put an ad in a
New York casting magazine searching for an actress to fit the Native
American Veronica character. He was surprised to get a lot of photos from
blond actresses in the mail, but there was one, Nasanin Nuri, that looked
promising. John Emailed me her photo and she looked perfect.
I figured that to get an actress that was visually right and that would have a
seductive sounding voice as well would be too much to hope for. So, I
thought I could always have another actress dub in her voice like they did
with many of the James Bond girls, especially the ones in the first two Bond
movies and the Japanese girls in You Only Live Twice. However, when I talked
with Nasanin via Skype, her voice was beyond perfect. We had our Veronica.

10. Because the entire movie hinged on her character and some of the 'special
requirements', I offered to pay her seven times what the SAG scale pay was. I
couldn't lose her. She accepted, and arrangements were made for her flight
and accommodations. I didn't know it at the time, but Nasanin had taken
some serious acting classes, so she was a natural in front of the camera and
needed no direction from me, except for staging.
With the lead actress set, I could give the green light to Conrad at Victory
Studios. "Jan, Bruce and I will arrive two weeks before August 21 and film for
15 days, so get the crew ready and interview the cast members in person
that I choose by Internet photos." Conrad told me about the Red Epic camera
that he had just purchased, and it had functioned great on a just completed
project, so I knew I didn't have to worry about the technical part of the
production.
Casting Harry Mok –
My plan for the movie was to keep the audience engaged by the new
characters introduced and the new and hopefully intriguing situations. Being
often referred to as a 'martial arts movie director', and I loved staging fight
scenes, I decided to add a karate teacher named Chang to the story. I wrote a
fight scene with him at night in the fog to give variety to the story. After
reading the script, Conrad told me, the character of Chang really fits in
naturally into the story.
For the character of Chang, I enlisted the aid of actor/producer Harry Mok,
fresh off of his producing chores on the animated feature Animal Crackers
that has the voices of Sylvester Stallone, Danny De Vito, Emily Blunt and
Gilbert Gottfried.
I met Harry when he brought his stunt team to work on Ninja Busters many
years ago. Since then, he worked with Sylvester Stallone on Rambo 2 and
directed many top music videos. Harry was excited to play the part and had
ideas for some special casting in the movie, so he became an Executive
Producer of Forbidden Power along with Conrad.

11. Harry supplied familiar names in the martial arts and health world, including
Gina Su a recent 'Miss Global Asia' & Jannie Avanti, who holds the speed
record for water-skiing round trip to Catalina Island and back. Every time
Harry recommended an actor to me, I would expand their parts and give
them some special bits to do which made their scenes better and thus the
movie better.
For Gina Su, who played Harry's wife, I added a completely new scene where
she says good-bye to him. I filmed and edited it in a special way and is one of
my favorite scenes in the movie. All because I wanted Harry's people to have
a little more to do in their scenes.
Harry arranged to get martial arts fight champion, Todd Dunphy, the part of
the Winslow Arizona bartender. As written, he was merely to deliver some
dialogue concerning the back story about Veronica. But since he was Harry's
contact I came up with a gag where he throws a club at the hero who catches
it because of his new power. A great gag without our actor getting hurt
during the six takes it took for him to catch it.
Harry continued his involvement with the movie once it was finished by
suggesting we compete with 600 movies at the 2018 International Action on
Film MegaFest held in Las Vegas. "It's just a thought," Harry said to me.
Harry's 'thought' got us six nominations, including Best Science Fiction
Feature Film and two wins: Best Special Effects and Best Young Performer for
8-year-old Kaiya Gray who played young Veronica. Harry and Nasanin were
both nominated for Male and Female Rising Action Stars, with Harry the
Runner Up in his category. Later, Harry would win 'Best Supporting Actor' at
an Italy Film Festival.
That happened ten months after filming. Before that, the risky filming
awaited. Would we finish on budget and schedule? Would anyone get hurt
during the production? Would Nasanin arrive from New York on time? Would
the fog machines work? And on and on. When you're risking a lot of money,
the mind can see all the ways you can lose it. I had confidence in the story

12. and technical, but unexpected challenges always come up on a movie. And if
those challenges were not overcome, would I ever see Disney World again?
Producing on a Short Schedule -
When I arrived in Seattle, Conrad had interviewed all the actors that I had
chosen, and he said they'd work out fine, but we still didn't have the male
lead to our story. That part was just as important as Nasanin's part, but I
figured since the lead could be any nationality and there were lots of young
men looking to be in the movie, it would be easier to cast him then it did our
leading woman.
Before arriving in Seattle, I had found a perfect leading man, only 23, but we
could have him act older. I contacted him via email and Skype and he was
excited to do the part. It was his dream. He also wanted to get into
production. He had already bought movie equipment to pursue his dream.
Not only would he be the star of the movie, but he'd meet producers like
Conrad, Harry and more. He was excited to do it.
I emailed him the script which I figured he'd devourer in an hour. But no
word came back from him. After two days, I emailed him about it and he
answered that he had only read half. HALF? What's going on? Finally, the
next day he wrote: "How do you plan on handling the kissing scenes?" I
replied, "Just like it says in the script."
Allow me to digress a minute about kissing and nude scenes. There would be
no nude scenes for the hero, but there would be kissing. After all, this is a
story about sexually transmitted power. At one time or another during the
story, the hero would be kissing each girl, a couple of times each. And one
time, during a delusion scene, he would kiss all three girls, one after another.
The camera would move to certain places with each actress lined up to kiss
the hero when the camera was at a certain position. So, yes there would be
kissing.
The young guy said he was newly married, and his conservative wife might
have trouble with him kissing other actresses. Now before you laugh or judge

13. his throwing away an opportunity because of this, think back to age 22 and
new love. I understood it completely, but I was incredulous over his missed
opportunity.
So, I thanked him for his honestly (Thank goodness he didn't take the part
and then cause problems on the set or even leave the movie.) and told him
that maybe there will be another chance in the future to work together. Now
that I think on it, I never called him for a small part. I think he was too striking
to be in a supporting part or maybe I just got busy searching for our lead and
forgot about him.
On the subject of intimate scenes or nudity, I wrote those scenes out very
clearly in the script, with exactly how many seconds a kiss would be, what the
person would be wearing and more. This is important so that every actor,
and especially actresses, know what will happen in each scene so they can
make a decision whether to take the part or not.
Getting back to casting the male lead, I had a couple of actors on my list that I
had seen on various casting websites in Seattle. One of them, Lincoln Bevers,
looked great, but the only acting scene he had for his demo reel, didn't show
his true image, so I just had him on the 'maybe list'.
When Conrad and I Skyped him, Conrad said, "He's the best one so far." So,
we met Lincoln and indeed he was leading man material, serious about his
career and ready to do the job. On the karate training scenes Lincoln did with
Harry Mok, and three other scenes that day, Lincoln had a fever, but never
told me about it until the premiere. That’s how much of a professional he is.
So now the actors were set.
The Director of Photography, Lionel Flynn, had been in touch with me from
the start via the internet. He scouted locations that I had found via the net
and took photos of each place. I gave him my plans for the shots at each
location, so he and his crew were well prepared. And what a great crew. I
instantly become friendly with them. They were all professionals, excited to
work on a feature film.

14. At our first and only meeting, I promised them that every day of filming
would have at least one, but usually two 'wild and exciting' scenes to enjoy
working on such as a biker in a bar grabbing a beer tap, ripping it off with
beer shooting up five feet in the air.
An exciting part for me was working with guys I had gone to film school with,
who had worked on my other movies and became professionals on their own.
William C. Martell, a writer with 19 of his scripts turned into completed
movies, arrived as a producer to work with Bruce and Jan. Mark Krigbaum,
who edited my first two movies, arrived on the first day of filming to start
editing the scenes as they came in daily. In total there were six of us from
film school meeting up in Seattle to work on the project. A real fun miracle
for me.
The great thing about the entire crew is that they all came up with some
great bits for the movie; dialogue, action, camera moves and editing tricks
that were beyond my imagination. The daily filming was sometimes tough,
sometimes not fun for me because of trying to get the best out of scenes on
a limited schedule, but I always went to sleep satisfied and grateful because
of the crew's input on all the scenes making the movie bigger than I had
hoped.
With 63 scenes (not shots, but full scenes) to complete in 15 days, that was
an average of four scenes to complete a day. I had completed Omega Cop in
21 days straight, Ninja Busters in 12 days, so I was confident getting this done
in 15 days. The trick is keeping your eye on your watch and getting your
scenes in a good, designed master shots, then getting what close-up shots
you can during the time allotted for that scene. And when it comes time to
move on to the next scene, you must have the discipline to let the last scene
go and move onto the next.
The second day of filming I called 'hell day' because we had to complete six
scenes in one day to get full use of Harry Mok flying up to Seattle. He would
come back at the end of the shoot for a few more days, but I had to have him
with the shots of Nasanin finished and then do his karate fight in the fog.

15. We started that day at 8pm and I planned for the fog fight to start at 10pm
and finish at midnight. The alley was right next to Victory Studios, so I had the
crew roll out the big 20-foot camera-boom to get some production value
shots and then, once finished, it would be easy to roll back into the studio
with the rest of the equipment.
The other scenes that day took a little longer each to finish. A little longer on
each of five scenes added up to where we didn't get to the fog fight till
midnight. This was not good as we had to film the next day and the crew
needed to get their sleep and come in later for that day's work. I had Harry
and 12 stunt men for that scene, and little time to film it. I didn't want to take
a chance on the fog machine breaking, so I ordered three of them which Jan
and Bruce kept cranking out fog for the full two hours of that fight.
I bought knee and elbow pads for the stunt men that Harry would be
knocking down onto the cement. I also bought a foam cushion for falls that
would be off camera. I didn't want anyone to get hurt, but if they did, I
wanted to say that we had all the safety requirements.
However, the macho stunt men didn't want the elbow pads and the foam
mat was useless because the entire fight would be two continuous designed
shots which would show the ground. When I was working with the
cameraman to set up the shot, I saw Harry rehearsing the men who were
falling to the hard pavement. I ran over and said, "Don't fall on the rehearsal.
I don't want any of you hurt." But some of them still did. I loved their
commitment, but still worried.
We got the needed four shots, two with the boom, two with the Ronin
'steady-cam', and we were thankfully done at 2am. While everyone was
happy watching the video playback. I walked over to Harry, shook his hand,
pointed to the ground and said, "On this rock we will build our church," as a
way of saying, 'let's make more movies together'. Driving Harry back to his
hotel, he said, "You're really in your element out there on location."
'Hell Day' was successfully finished, but more challenges awaited. I planned
to film all of Nasanin's scenes in the first week. Once I got that done, I knew I

16. had a movie. Except for Harry and his five actors, the rest were from Seattle
and I knew I could easily get them back if needed.
On Nasanin's last day, I had a long, climatic scene to film with her and Lincoln.
It had 12 pages of dialogue that was to take place in a living room and then
the bedroom. It was slow going with the camera set-ups. It was getting on to
10pm with another scene to film as well. What to do?
I told the cameraman that the entire scene would end in the living room, so
we didn't have to use set-up time to film in the bedroom. Then I sat down
with the actors and, in two minutes, cut the 12 pages down to four with the
actors noting the cuts in their scripts. We shot it with five camera set-ups and
finished.
Then we went to the last scene, which was a one-shot set-up, and finished at
11:30pm. Actually, the living room scene benefited from being shortened.
This, thinking on my feet to get the scene done, was my best decision under
pressure with the actors fully concentrated and delivering on a deadline.
On the next to last day, I had all the lead actors, including Harry together on a
boat at sea. Any director will tell you that boats at sea are the most difficult
to do, but I had that scene planned as well as a gunfight to film on the pier
once we returned with the boat.
At the pier, Conrad had actors, cars, more crew and four policemen for
crowd-control were waiting for our return. We were an hour late getting
back, so I had to be sure to get this next scene finished before we lost the sun.
When we headed for the boat ramp we were to use, the boatman said,
"That's too shallow today. We can't dock here." Conrad and I looked at each
other. I start looking around for another pier that the actors could run on
that might be deep enough for the boat, because one way or another those
actors are going to get on that boat, even if they had to swim out to it.
Conrad made a call to a boat owner he knew who had some pull with the pier
manager and found a pier next to our original pier that was deep enough to
dock the boat. So, we got started on the scene.

17. A car pulls up with three heroes, followed by another car with four villains;
gunfire, bodies down, a mad dash to the boat and more we’re filmed with
various camera set-ups. It's over, except for four easy scenes the next day at
a hotel, park, men's store and train station. Easy I had hoped. But we had to
work fast to get it done. And then it was done.
Post Production -
Once everything was filmed and the actors back home (and off salary), I could
enjoy the editing process with Mark as we had done on my first two features.
I had two special effects men working on the 100-plus shots that needed
special work. They were the two men who got the awards for special effects.
As mentioned, all the services I needed were all at Victory Studios, just like
the old days of Hollywood studios. That made it fun and convenient for me to
go from room to room checking the progress and seeing the results of the
special effects. For the Las Vegas train crash, I figured I'd have to 'hide' the
crash with many quick cuts, but it came out so well, that the crash is mostly
one shot that we could hold on for a long time. That's what won us the
special effects award at MegaFest.
We had the premieres in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And then
Forbidden Power was uploaded on Amazon for USA and UK views. After that,
it was uploaded to the Vimeo movie site where it can be rented and viewed
world-wide. And where I would get daily reports and 90% of the sales directly
to my bank. No more calling a lying distributor asking, "Where is our
money?" with the answer coming back, "Oh, the guy that sold the video
rights was robbed in the airport, so we can't send you anything." That's an
actual, exact quote from our Weapons of Death distributor.
This new technology for movies is great. And one more thing, in the old days,
my movie would play in theaters for two weeks only and then move on. Now
movies play, and make money, forever. It's a great time for independent
producers.
See Forbidden Power on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dxcitp