When I have the opportunity, I like to write blog posts about people in Nebraska doing creative things.
One such individual is Ryan Olsen. Olsen is a local filmmaker (based in Lincoln, NE) who is putting the final touches on his short film “Say Goodbye, Grace.” The film, according to the description on IMDB, is about a “tough-as-nails detective investigating the murder of an old friend. But can she accept the chilling, life-changing truth at the end?"
The reason I’m familiar with the project is because Bridget’s brother Sean (who died in 2017) will appear in the film (you can watch the embedded version of the film — that is on Olsen’s YouTube channel — at the end of this post).
NIFP (Nebraska Independent Film Projects) recently hosted Olsen at their June meeting at Turbine Flats In Lincoln (building pictured below). The filmmaker discussed the “Say Goodbye, Grace” project — from the film’s early inspiration to the complexities of production.
As a kid, Olsen loved “spectacle” in film. “Star Wars” and “Godzilla” were early influences (he still collects Godzilla movies — especially on VHS cassette).
(Side note: I remember seeing some of those old Godzilla movies on Saturday mornings in the early 1980s at the now-defunct Park 4 in La Vista, NE.)
Olsen is drawn to movies that have movement. He likes action and color. He recalled drawing a re-creation of the “Return of the Jedi’s” climactic space battle on large sheets of newsprint (his parents bought him the paper on large rolls that he could tear off, instead of more traditional copier paper).
The first film Olsen watched that “put him in his place” was Tim Burton’s quirky goth comedy “Beetlejuice.” He was enamored with the opening title sequence — something he mentioned that he watches time and again. The vivid imagery and movement in “Beetlejuice” was fun and exciting.
The idea of movies that take place "in a community, in a city, in a state, in a world" appeals to the filmmaker. Olsen said he mimicked that feeling a bit in “Say Goodbye, Grace” — the world is not just a handful of people... it’s so much more.
Creativity has been a constant in Olsen’s life. The Kearney native used to do a comic strip in his hometown paper called “Humor.” He shared with us a Godzilla film he made as a child featuring Play-Doh creatures and Party Poppers for effect.
When Olsen saw the movie “American Beauty” before college, he was drawn to the notion that film didn’t have to be “extravagant or crazy.” He decided to go into film studies in college because he wanted to learn how good film was constructed — as opposed to just focusing on the mechanics of using film cameras, lighting, sound, etc.
One of his earliest “pro gigs” was as a production assistant on the low-budget movie “Pirates of the Great Salt Lake” in 2004 — he made $200 for three weeks' work. In the intervening years, he has crafted a whole slew of promotional videos for small businesses and organizations in the Lincoln area — including this 2016 ad for a bar called “The Hot Mess”:
He showed us a YouTube clip of director James Cameron from a 2010 SBIFF panel discussion. Something Cameron said was particularly enlightening for Olsen: “Don’t waste a lot of time studying the problem by looking at how other directors did it. You’ve got to get out there and get busy. It’s that simple... you’re trying to inject yourself into a process that is ongoing — with or without you. So, grab a camera... make some stuff, make a film. Make a film, cut it together. The tools are here, readily available... put your name on it — now you’re a director, everything after that, you’re just negotiating price.”
This sentiment has inspired Olsen’s attitude regarding filmmaking.
Olsen funded “Say Goodbye Grace” with a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter:
He was fortunate enough to find a man in Lincoln who had conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign for $40,000 to fund a board game. The man shared his secrets with Olsen — and instilled the notion that you had to present information on your Kickstarter page "as if it’s already in progress."
One-sheet poster artwork was commissioned early on to give his project a sense of legitimacy. Olsen created all the supporting graphics for Kickstarter and social media, created crew profiles, and sketched out storyboards.
On the campaign page, he broke down how the money raised would be spent — including detailed pie charts and graphs. Olsen ended up raising more than $9,000 total from 124 “backers.” (Full disclosure: Bridget pledged $34 for “The Missing Citizen” level and will have her photo on a “Missing Person's” photo that appears somewhere in the film.)
One pro-tip from Olsen about Kickstarter: Try to raise 1/5 to 1/4 of your overall goal in first 24 hours — it shows prospective backers there are other people interested.
The board game creator also advised setting up appropriate “reward tiers” on Kickstarter — with emphasis on digital rewards over physical rewards (digital rewards are more cost-effective to fulfill).
Olsen did five months of promotion before the Kickstarter campaign was launched.
He put up ads everywhere, posted on social media, and made “Kick Cards” with information about the Kickstarter campaign.
At this point, he says he was doing 90 percent of everything — location scouting, cast, crew, Kickstarter, rewards, and writing. He says, “I was 100 percent committed and slowly losing my mind.”
On April 2-3, 2016, Olsen held cast auditions at the Hilton in Downtown Omaha. My brother-in-law Sean was one of those who auditioned. Sean worked in various media capacities during his adult life, so acting was a new interest for him.
Sean showed up at the auditions posing as a homeless man (he rolled around in some trash — illustrating a nascent “method actor” strategy for landing acting gigs). Someone escorted Sean on set — where he talked with Olsen about ideas to promote the film.
Olsen said my brother-in-law was always there to help.
“Say Goodbye, Grace” was primarily shot in the Lincoln area and at a container field in Omaha. Olsen also hired out people to film drone shots in the Pacific Northwest (where the film is set).
The film was shot over nine nights in 2016.
Olsen said he’s very excited for the film to be all said and done.
“Whenever I make a film, I’m all about the subtlety,” he says. “The sounds in the background — I am all about environment and atmosphere. I learned that from [director] David Lynch.”
He has infused his early love of color into the film. “I’m a big color guy,” he says. “Color needs to speak volumes.”
He also tried to add in different symbolic elements to “Say Goodbye, Grace.” Olsen analyzed a number of patterns and styles he saw in different films. He says, “a city during the day and a city at night are different things. In [the movie] ‘Alien,’ daytime is always rainy and nighttime is always windy. In Black Bay [the fictional location of ‘Say Goodbye, Grace’], it’s always foggy during the day and clear at night.”
As is the case with productions such as Olsen’s, everything didn’t go according to plan. He wasn’t able to film as many of the 23-page script’s pages per day as he had initially planned (despite a talented cast and crew). He ran out of money because of how meticulous his vision was — so he saved up money for his two reshoots.
He had a “scene premiere” at the 2017 Prairie Lights Film Festival (and hopes to enter the completed film this fall).
Olsen likes to do his own editing. “I have to edit my own stuff,” he says. “There is something about taking it and putting it all together.”
(He noted that he and his editor, Drake Tucker, have gotten to know each other really well over the past two years.)
Olsen and the crew have been working on the sound engineering in recent weeks. Music will be recorded at the end of July, and the film will go out for color corrrection that month as well.
“Sound and color are two more weapons you can used to assault your audience,” he says.
Olsen told NIFP he’d be willing to make a repeat visit to a monthly meeting — once the film is complete — for a screening and discussion of “Say Goodbye, Grace.”
He told Bridget and I after the presentation that he was still working on setting up a screening in Omaha.
Ryan Olsen’s company is called POW! Productions. You can learn more about his business — and the film “Say Goodbye, Grace” — at his website at http://www.powproductionsllc.com.
Watch “Say Goodbye, Grace” on Olsen's YouTube channel here:
Previous post: Movie Review: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"
