{"id":9932,"date":"2011-06-27T05:06:57","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T10:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=9932"},"modified":"2011-06-28T15:04:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:04:40","slug":"indie-filmmaker-playing-a-part-in-local-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/06\/27\/indie-filmmaker-playing-a-part-in-local-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie filmmaker to speak in Van Wert"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Former Fort Wayne, Ind., resident and English professor Glenn Berggoetz was a scriptwriter wannabe who couldn\u2019t get anyone to read his screenplays. But then he got what he thought was good advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to a man who used to work for Disney and he said, ‘if you want to break in as a scriptwriter, you need to make your own films,’\u201d said Berggoetz (pronounced ber-gets), who now lives in the Denver, Colo., area.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what he did. He banged out the script for a movie called To Die is Hard<\/em> — obviously a spoof of the Die Hard<\/em> action film franchise — and advertised for actors on Craigslist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how many people want to be in films,\u201d Berggoetz said. \u201cI was inundated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also read a book on directing and at least part of the Guerrilla Filmmakers\u2019 Handbook<\/em>, the indie filmmakers\u2019 bible.<\/p>\n

Making fun of action films was a no-brainer for Berggoetz, who said he\u2019s constantly laughing while watching movies of that genre. \u201cI\u2019ll watch them and say: \u2018Gosh, if I just tweak that scene it would be really funny,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Approximately six months after starting To Die is Hard<\/em>, Berggoetz had his first film in the can and he\u2019s been making movies ever since: actually, five of them in the past four years.<\/p>\n

As a filmmaker who still doesn\u2019t have much in the way of financial backing, Berggoetz\u2019 films not only are low budget, they could define the term.<\/p>\n

To Die is Hard<\/em> cost $1,100 to make, including paying the actors and all his other expenses, while the expertise he\u2019s gained in making films led him to write his own book on filmmaking called, The Independent Filmmakers\u2019 Handbook: Make Your Film for $2,000<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Berggoetz is a director, writer and often acts in his films (that’s him in the poster at right for To Die is Hard<\/em>). Although he has a production deal with Trillion Productions in Las Vegas, Nev., he said he still spends a lot of time as a producer trying to put together distribution deals for his films.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found that as a filmmaker, I have to be my film\u2019s biggest champion,\u201d Berggoetz said. \u201cI just have to plug it everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s in Van Wert to speak at the Van Wert Independent Film Festival, which will be held July 8-10, and his film, The Worst Movie EVER!<\/em> will be shown at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center during the festival, the indie filmmaker will also be heading to Toronto, Canada, to try to put together a television deal to show The Worst Movie EVER!<\/em> in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my least favorite part of filmmaking \u2026 producing \u2026 but for now I have to do it,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Berggoetz said two of his movies have been shown in Canada and were well received there. \u201cI don\u2019t know if my sense of comedy resonates a little more in Canada, but I\u2019ve gotten a fantastic response there,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

One big disappointment, Berggoetz noted, was a deal he put together with AMG Television Productions to have To Die is Hard<\/em> syndicated for television. He felt the deal was a good one, but Trillion Productions, which owns the syndication rights to that film, didn\u2019t feel AMG was offering enough and quashed the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand where they were coming from,\u201d Berggoetz said. \u201cTrillion is looking for really big deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The indie filmmaker is still talking to AMG, though, about syndicating The Worst Movie EVER!<\/em>, since he owns the distribution rights to that film. \u201cI\u2019m mildly excited,\u201d he noted, but said he\u2019s been burned in the past, so he won\u2019t get too upbeat until the deal is finalized, which could be sometime next year.<\/p>\n

He did note that Van Wert Cinemas is planning to air the film, as is a theater in Washington, D.C. He also commended \u00a0Van Wert Independent Film Festival organizer Len Archibald for the work he has put into the upcoming event in Van Wert. “He has really worked hard,” Berggoetz said, adding that he thinks the event will be a success.<\/p>\n

The indie filmmaker and writing professor has a number of future projects in the works, including working on a deal to shoot a movie of a script he finished sometime back, as well as possibly shooting a documentary about a CD the two-member band he is in, Norwegian Soft Kitten, plans to record.<\/p>\n

If he can get a production deal together for the movie script, Berggoetz said he would like to shoot it here in Van Wert. \u201cIt\u2019s set in a rural Midwest town,\u201d he noted, adding that the screenplay details the relationship between an elderly African-American man and a young white boy.<\/p>\n

One of the few filmmaking jobs Berggoetz doesn\u2019t do is edit his films, and he\u2019s quick to admit that, while the people who do edit his films are good, they aren\u2019t always as speedy as he\u2019d like them to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is kind of a sticky wicket,\u201d he said, noting that the person editing a television comedy he wants to sell hasn\u2019t completed that job, although shooting was finished six months ago.<\/p>\n

Berggoetz also still doesn\u2019t have a trailer for The Worst Movie EVER!,<\/em> although it\u2019s been months since the movie edit was completed.<\/p>\n

“I do \u00a0understand, though, since I’m definitely not their priority,” he noted.<\/p>\n

While he will be speaking during the local film festival, Berggoetz does have some advice for budding filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep it simple and have fun,\u201d Berggoetz said. \u201cKeep your casts small and number of locations small.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a writing professor at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Berggoetz said he\u2019s always getting students who think you have to take a year to write a script and four years to make a film.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mathematics,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have a much better chance if you do five films in four years, instead of just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having fun is something Berggoetz definitely has when he\u2019s making films, usually with the same few actors and crew members. \u201cEven when we shot Evil Intent<\/em>, an intense drama, we were giggling all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that a scene in Evil Intent<\/em> set in a church might have been the most fun. Berggoetz said he went to a church and asked if they could use a portion of it to shoot some scenes. Church officials wanted to charge him $225 an hour for the rental fee, an amount he thought was a little steep for the little they were going to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018forget that, we\u2019ll just sneak in,\u2019\u201d Berggoetz said, and that\u2019s just what he and his small crew did, laughing about it all the time they weren\u2019t shooting.<\/p>\n

If those who come to hear Berggoetz speak get anything out of it, it is likely it will be his love for what he does and the fun he has doing it.<\/p>\n

Like many filmmakers, Berggoetz said he does have a couple of elements he tries to put into most of his films. \u201cI try to put the word \u2018cripe\u2019 in somewhere, since it\u2019s my grandfather\u2019s worst cuss word,\u201d the indie filmmaker said with a laugh. \u201cI also always like to put in the phrase, \u2018believe you me\u2019 because I just think it\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Former Fort Wayne, Ind., resident and English professor Glenn Berggoetz was a scriptwriter wannabe who couldn\u2019t get anyone to read his screenplays. But then he got what he thought was good advice. \u201cI was talking to a man who used to work for Disney and he said, ‘if you want to break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 10:23:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}