The Brave and the Kind: A film by John W. Yost

So I’m going to try and start something here that will hopefully take off a bit and be a cool experiment in keeping a conversation going. In the last few years I have had the pleasure of not only making films, but talking to others outside of my upstate new york bubble about indie filmmaking and the state of DIY art making. One of these souls is Donnacha Coffey, an Irish filmmaker and lover of all things indie. Donnacha saw my first film and tried to get in touch with me…but I never got the email. (which is the total truth…scouts honor.) He tried again…and thank goodness…we have now been in constant contact about film and life. Read more >>

So the film is finally all complete, mixed, packaged, ready to go, and we want to celebrate by bringing it to the people. In spirit of DIY and micro budget filmmaking we are putting together a mini tour of the film in early summer and we need your help finding the venues. We’re hoping to find galleries, small theaters, film series, college campuses, etc…to have small screenings with you and your friends. (or complete strangers who like film.:-)

Shoot me an email (name5026@yahoo.com) or comment to this blog with a place you think would be perfect for a small, quiet, indie film about family. We will also use this tour as an opportunity to launch VOD and DVD releases…so sharing this to friends and family via the interwebs will only help the cause!

Thanks to all of those who have sent me ideas so far…I am looking into all possibilities!

Cheers and thanks in advance!
John

As post production winds down, and a new year approaches, I felt it would be good to take a moment and reflect on where this project was a year ago. It was just an outline and a fake trailer. One weekend while writing the script, I got the idea to make a fake trailer for the film to give IndiePix an idea of the mood and feel I wanted the film to have. Read more >>

The one film that started it all, is now posted up everywhere and on this site. “Fog” was a short film I shot in 2004 right out of college. We shot it in one weekend with all my friends from the Maine Workshops. (I worked there for 8 months right out of school.) It was shot with the Panasonic SDX-900 and was my first real experience with video as a possible substitute for film. Read more >>

Here I am sitting in Pete’s living room waiting for him and Rob to come record and I realized a few things. My current job is not a typical job. It doesn’t have the normal 9-5 day attached to it. It can be done from most anywhere including a café, which is where I am actually doing most of my work. It also makes me realize that soon I will have to find that 9-5 job or something like it, as well as a place to live. Hopefully I’ll be lucky again in both regards.

The recording has had its ups and downs with several technical glitches. Security cameras were set up as soon as we arrived. Unfortunately, I only had a short time with them as the laptop was needed for recording. For some reason John’s computer did not allow us to do anything to the music after it had been recorded. Thankfully we had the laptop to fall back on.

I’m putting up a song that I captured through the security cameras on Vimeo . Due to technical difficulties however, it was not recorded for the soundtrack. I will also be posting a 5×5 video. 5×5 videos are five, five-second clips, sort of a video haiku. So be on the lookout for the videos and maybe you can catch a sneak peak at the music that will be in the film.

After visiting the Thousand Islands I came to a realization, about change. I thought it would come to me later when I was 80 cursing the neighbor kids because they were playing in my yard or bothering me with some new technology. Little did I know that at the ripe old age of 22 I’d be confronted with the stark differences between my memory and the current condition of those people and places.

Read more >>

I wanted to tell everyone just how much I loved spending time with them and getting to play and work together. Of course as usual the time went quickly and not every world solving conversation got finished and not everybody’s life stories got to be told but one thing for sure is we all work hard and play hard. The nocturnal youth are impossible for me to keep up with but they were so enjoyable I did not want to miss any moments with them. Their youthful energy was appreciated at clean up and I really want to thank everyone for cleaning up their space and helping for the whole group. Mr. John Edward Yost gets a big thank you for his vacuuming skills and refrigerator cleaning. Mrs. Rodino was voted the hippest mom and Mrs. Albertson the most loving. I feel like I met people that I have known my whole life and friendships were born. Such good hard working new adults of our future on this planet, the ones we need to hear about more working with humor and kindness.

So that’s a wrap on principle photography. The shoot couldn’t have gone better and the experience more jam-packed full of good times. The footage looks great and I’m ACTUALLY excited to be editing. (I’m usually not the biggest fan.) We have one more weekend of pickups, but that doesn’t come till after the twelve day recording session in August for the soundtrack. Stay tuned to the site and all its relative pages for updates, new videos, and Behind-The-Scenes of the experience that is soundtrack recording with Rob and Pete. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped make this happen, not just this past weekend, but the entire film.

Read more >>

Or, should I say, Ethan’s? If you’ve been a recurring visitor to The Brave and the Kind’s official site, you may have noticed, after only a few months online, we’ve updated our look. With production nearly complete, a hard drive full of gorgeous footage, and a slew of beautiful photography from still photographer Meghan Petersen, we knew it was time to take out the fine china. Read more >>

I’m starting to understand the idea of greed…in life…in general. As we near the end of shooting, I have to remember to let editing, soundtrack recording, and sound mixing take it’s course. To rush these things would be greedy. Read more >>