What do you get when you take four guys with a sick sense of humor who decide they want to make a movie and throw 10 g’s, gallons of coffee, and a semi-twisted degree of ambition into the mix?
Self Helpless, a film by first time indie filmmakers Patrick Simone, Patrick Cassidy, Andrick Deppmeyer, and Adam Jaroszewski who collaboratively wrote, directed, and produced this comedic masterpiece. It would be easy to check out their trailer, blog, merchandise, and categorize it as just another underdog slacker comedy. While it doesn’t fail to deliver its share of fart jokes, cocaine innuendoes, references to “pussy,” and the perfunctory guy-gets-walked-in-on-masturbating scene, all it takes is a little bit of digging or a conversation with one of the easily accessible and unexpectedly quick-witted and intelligent filmmakers to gather that this endeavor was not only immaculately well thought out but that their efforts are making colossal strides for young, independent filmmakers on micro-budgets everywhere.
Not long after meeting Adam Jaroszewski it was clear that he and the rest of the Self Helpless crew are the proprietors of the next generation of independent film. While some areas of the entertainment industry have begun to embrace the tribulations associated with the level of accessibility that the internet provides, think how far the record industry has come since the days of Metallica vs. Napster. The film industry seems to be having the most trouble accepting that one of the largest segments of consumers, essentially Generation Y (those born between 1982-1995), now has access, through legal websites like Hulu.com or more underground ventures like Ninjavideo.net, to practically any and all films that they would like to get their hands on, without having to pay a dime.
This may seem like less of an issue for the baby boomer CEO’s at major studios who are looking at the situation through a key-hole padded with millions of expendable dollars. But for independent filmmakers like the Self Helpless team, who are self-releasing with a significantly smaller budget, the question of how to market, distribute, and then (maybe) make money off of your movie when it is as easy to get as a freshman sorority girl, poses a different set of obstacles. When failure isn’t an option however, obstacles aren’t an issue, and these guys have managed to use their ass-backwards approach to get them to the forefront of the first-timers.
At first glance, their plethora of hare-brained schemes ranging from straight-up ponzi-esque Facebook domination to giving their movie away for free may seem ill-advised and a little bit crazy. That said, pay close attention and you will quickly notice that there is a well-calculated method to their madness. It appears that these guys may have actually smoked themselves smart and the pay-off is sure to prove that they are far from self helpless.
For starters, how much did it cost and how did you manage get the funds? What was the biggest expense and what was the most surprising?
Adam: The total budget for the production of Self Helpless was somewhere in the range of 10G’s. This was, of course, all out of pocket, with each one of the ensemble kicking in $2500. But there are other costs that usually go unmentioned. Like the opportunity cost of four people dedicating two solid years to this project. When we got back from Mexico and quickly realized that to even have a chance at finishing filming, never mind getting it out there, we basically had to adopt a straight-up monastic lifestyle. So we worked the crappiest jobs ever and basically funneled every red cent and every minute we could find into keeping this thing alive. So while the budget is small, which is something we are definitely proud of, there were other significant costs. But these costs kept us pretty hungry, which is why made it this far. So things have a way of balancing themselves, I guess.
The Biggest single expense was probably the trip to Mexico; airfare, bribes, tacos as payment for the cast and crew (literally), and all the “props” (drugs) added up. Oh yeah, we blew up a car down there, too. That whole retard show cost us about 600 bucks. This was the most surprising expense. Not because we doubted that we could pull it off, it being, ya know, Mexico and all–the land of opportunity—we just figured it’d be cheaper, ‘cus, well, it’s Mexico. The dollar is supposed to really stretch down there.
What was the most difficult part about shooting the film?
Adam: The most difficult part of shooting the film was probably having to wear all hats at all times. There were four of us, true, but for the most part, that’s pretty much all there was. So we handled everything. We wrote, directed, produced, shot, and edited the whole thing, not to mention filled the main roles. So sometimes it was difficult to do everything and still have our acting on point or have the energy to improvise. A typical shoot would require that we take care of all logistics, coordinate extras, the location, direct the action, and plan and do the camera work, all while trying to quickly learn lines and deliver them with authenticity, then break everything down and make the cast and crew lunch. At times shit got stressful and we were exhausted, but the crew was rock solid and we had the hydrogen psychosis for the project: the crazy eyes. So we genuinely felt like nothing could stop us. And of course nothing did.
What was shooting in Mexico like?
Adam: Shooting in Mexico was a fucking adventure in every sense of the word, and I feel like I could write a novel about this experience. From striking back alley deals with old Mexican women pedaling “explosive powder” so we could then blow up a ‘78 VW bug in a vacant lot next to a paper factory (see: flammable), to forging filming permits and somehow evading arrest by the federales when they found our “props”, to sleeping three dudes to a double mattress turned horizontally on the floor of some godforsaken apartment floor in the bowels of Mexico city for two weeks. And the tacos. Yo, the tacos in Mexico are legit! This might seem self evident, but yeah, take it from me, it’s true.
What other locations did you shoot in?
Adam: So Besides Mexico (which accounts for 1/3 of the movie), we shot in Southern Vermont, Burlington, Hartford, Ct, and Washington D.C. D.C. is where we shot the Devin the Dude scene.
How was it cast?
Adam: The cast was money. Besides us, we pretty much just used friends, friends of friends, and family to fill all the parts. Everyone was real gracious and pretty down with the project. So we had a lot of fun with it. We got some pretty tight performances out of them, too. Especially in Mexico. Those dudes rule. They worked their asses off for tacos and the promise that we would actually finish the project.
What equipment did you use?
Adam: We used a Sony Z1U, some pretty cheap, used lighting and audio equipment we got off eBay, and The Drake’s computer (a graduation gift from his lovely parents) to edit the footage with Adobe Premier 3. It was a bit rag-tag at times and cumbersome, but certainly adequate.
How long did it take to write the script?
Adam: The script took about 3 months to write. This is kind of an interesting subject, so let me expand a little bit. The script was written in a very…unique (ass-backwards) way. More like a TV show than a movie, I guess. So we knew who was going to play the main parts–the four of us–so that really helped frame things. We also knew we had some unbelievable contacts in Mexico and that we’d be fools if we didn’t write that in somehow. So we first discussed the characters in depth and came up with a skeleton script consisting of the general plot movements of the story. From there we wrote a more detailed outline. Then we assigned the writing of each scene and imposed pretty strict deadlines to have shit done by.
So we’d go home, work independently, then come back together each weekend over the summer of ‘08, meeting as a group, sitting around a big table with our computers in front of us, playing chess, drinking gallons of coffee and eating pistachios while we tossed around ideas and wrote. Slowly we pieced things together into one coherent narrative. Maybe because we didn’t really know what the hell we were doing, or maybe because there was some real genius in this method, we came away with a script that was pretty original. One voice, four distinct characters, many shades and styles of comedy, some subtle, some way over the top, but all of it uniquely us. I guess we knew it was ready when we couldn’t give it a read through without repeatedly stopping because we were laughing so hard we were crying.
What was the motivation for making the movie and why the DIY approach?
Adam: The motivation for making the movie was pretty simple: We wanted to do something creative, entrepreneurial in nature, ridiculously ambitions, and way cooler than all of our other friends. We really wanted to do this as a group of best friends, and we knew our time was limited. We went DIY with it because we wanted to actually do something; I mean this is the fucking point. So not only if you want something done do you have to do it yourself–it’s not like we’re famous, we have no industry contacts or agents. So to think we’d write this and somehow the Hollywood gods would come down from the sky and magically make this movie was a fantasy. In reality, the only option was DIY, which is cool because that’s exactly what we were after.
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An autopsy report issued August 7th lists cocaine as a contributing factor in the death of beloved TV pitchman Billy Mays. Mays, who died in June at age 50, was best known for his energetic infomercials for products like OxyClean, OrangeGlo, and the Awesome Auger. Mays’ popularity recent took off with the success of his Discovery Channel reality show Pitchmen, which chronicled how Mays’ and his business partner, Anthony Sullivan, chose which products they were going to make famous. The untimely death of the self-deprecating Mays shocked his fans, a reaction that was eye-opening itself. In a world were someone’s 50″ plasma is as much a part of the family as a 50-year-old uncle, crazy screaming Uncle Billy had been taken too soon. 
