Requite Golfers & Wiseguys

It has been determined that the shoot for the summer of 2009 will be 'Requite Golfers'

Topher and myself are currently working on the script, and after several revisions we can finally agree that it is moving along well.

A side note: after looking through many areas of the Melberger household, it appears that Chris Melberger has once more recovered the first film we all made with the HD cam... Wiseguys! After being lost for 2 years, I will enjoy watching the movie.

S. Barbella-Landy

A Brief History of TRIF3CTA: Part Deux

Hey all you readers out there, it's Topher-Liam.  When we last left off in my little history lesson, Scott and I were about 15 years old, with not but a few crummy home-made short comedies to our name.

We abandoned much of our movie-making for a long time.  Rather than gaining much hands on experience, yours truly Topher spent his time watching lots of movies and reading about technique in composition, writing and editing.  The best way to learn is through self-teaching...

The closest I myself came back to filmmaking was taking a summer long course of NYFA.  It was a very educational program, yet it showed me I had a long way to go as a moviemaker.  For there I made a three-minute long short film (we were supposed to make 10-minute films) entitled "Guns Don't Kill People".  It was critically panned by my teachers and laughed at by the test audience.

Of course as a fifteen year-old boy, I felt my dreams were crushed, which is why I did not return to actual movie-making for a long time; instead settling for writing books and scripts as my creative outlet.

In retrospect and in seeing where I could fix my errors here were some of the things wrong with my first attempt at a serious drama:

-I cast other directors as actors.  They had no experience.

But of course, any great director, can make any one person, a decent actor.  I gave no directions to my crew.  I offered them no insight into characterization.  I simply said what happened in the scene and expected them to understand.

-All long takes.  For every scene I only did one angle, and usually, only one or two takes.  So as you can imagine the film was very flat; it had no tension, no build-up...it was staged like it was on theater, not a cinema screen.

-No music.

Anyway, the grand re-introduction of myself as film director, was when Scott and I planned a high school history project that we envisioned as a feature-length epic.  The rest of our group simply wanted a good grade, to make a funny little video, and didn't share our enthusiasm.

But for what it was, our look at 1920's Mafia life ("Wiseguys"), was a good chance to learn how to work with a cast, and to use the new camera I had purchased; a $2000 widescreen, HD, JVC.

Next on our hit list, was a documentary I invested in for creative writing.  Entitled "Magic Landy"--you guessed it--it was a project chronicling Scott's short lived career as a magician.  For me, this overlong, a little indulgent, film is important because my style was starting to come to fruition.  I grasped jump cuts and tracking shots better.  I composed more elaborate and aesthetically eye-catching compositions.  And I learned the effectiveness of music via my rock soundtrack.  *The project got an A+*

What came next was what I like to call my first real movie.  At only 8 minutes, the short was "The Duel"; starring Scott Landy and Ed Andrews as medieval combatants engaged in a furious sword fight, intercut with the story of how their fight came to be.  By now I had a sure hand at editing, and the project was slickly scored, shot (some very cool angles if I may say so), choreographed (Scott designed the fight) and acted by my friends.  It became something of a hit to watch at our high school, and spawned Scott and I the notoriety to make our most ambitious project.

Which leads us to the birth of Trif3cta.  Scott and I chose this as the name of our company, shortly after I had finished writing an untitled script about 2 hitmen with a love/hate friendship that would go on to become "A PRICE TO BE PAID".  Trif3cta refers to a three way win.  Scott and I liked the concept of the definition, and had decided we needed a permanent name to produce our films under.

Well readers, very soon I will post the third and final bit of info on Trif3cta's history.  The part that details it's finest hour thus far: the creation of "A PRICE TO BE PAID".

A Brief History of TRIF3CTA

Yo, yo, yo guys...this is Topher-Liam, and for all those who don't know what Trif3cta films is, or don't know the whole story, lemme provide y'all with some some facts.

Before there was Trif3cta, there was just Topher and Scott.  We began making movies when we were fourteen years old.  Back in those times, our audience included ourselves, our other closest friends, and our bemused families.  We like to refer to these first few shorts as 'basement scripts', as they were made at two in the morning during sleepovers and were dreamt up in my basement.  

There was our very fist collaboration, "The Box", in which a man (Scott Landy), receives a package and just can't seem to get the damn thing open.  Our second movie, entitled "The Insomnia" starred Matthew Arnold as a man who could not sleep, despite his obsesisive attempts to fall into slumber.  Then of course there was "The Hunter", in which an inept gunman (Matthew Arnold) pursues the ultimate quarry: an obnoxious human being (played again by Matthew).  We made a fake trailer for a sequel to "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and our final project in those days was a silly little project called "A Grim Life": in which the Grim Reaper tried to live a normal life.  Interestingly, Scott directed this last film, while Topher starred; reversing our usual roles.

After these silly, immature comedies (so bad production wise we edited them as they happened), Scott and I made our first attempt at a feature length film.  A spoof about Hollywood antics, the project was to be called "Filmmaker" starring Ed Andrews as a washed-up film student trying to bring his terrible vision to the big screen with the help of a broke producer, Big Al Banks (Matthew Arnold).  Unfortunately the film was never completed, yet several gags live forever amongst the group.

"Filmmaker" was never completed, yet it was the first step towards something bigger.

This is the end of part I.  I'll bring the remains of Trif3cta's glorious days very soon.

Peace all you fans.

Sup Guys

What up, it's Chris Mel....I'll be working on the website and whatnot for Trif3cta Films, as well as going on the set with Scott and Topher.

My website is www.fattyboy.com

Summer 2009 Shoot - New Feature!

With increasing connections not only from within college but within the business itself, Topher and I are working to get another feature-length film underway for a Summer 2009 shoot!

Details are very hush-hush at this point but we will now have...
A professional crew, complete with sound, lighting, and effects crew with us on the shoot, as well as professional SAG members. Final Cut Pro is now our chief editing system, as well as sound mixers and a studio for an original score.

We are hoping that this film be released for a fall 2009 premier, at the same place.

Keep up to date, this is one you wont want to miss!

S. Barbella-Landy

Trif3cta Films

This is the blog for the joint partnership between filmmakers Topher-Liam Froehlich and Scott Barbella-Landy!

Here is where we will be posting any and all news regaurding the future of Trif3cta Films...

post your own thoughts and opinions as well!

S.Barbella-Landy