About Rob Lindner

An actor and IT professional by training and experience, my Characters & Film project ideas come to me in waves; I just get them to slow down enough so that I can get them on paper before they pass! Once there, I direct, act and produce as the best Storyteller I can be.

Short Film Casting Call: Hamartia

April 24, 2016 by Rob Lindner

Greetings Actors!! Auditions for the short Film, “Hamartia”, a personal project written and directed by SFN member, Rob Lindner, will be taking place Saturday, April 30th at 10am at the Planted Roots Productions office in Sandpoint, ID, located at 301 N. 1st Avenue, in suite #207 on the second floor (Across from the Panida Theater, above Finan Mc Donald clothing store).

Please download and read the script, and indicate in your response what character(s) you are willing to audition for. Please also bring your head shot and resume to the audition and be prepared to do cold readings, improve and physical movement as part of the audition process (so comfortable clothes and shoes are a must :-)) Hamartia will he shot in Cocolalla, and around Sandpoint, Idaho later this spring (solid dates to come).

Hamartia: A Covert Agent worn and fragmented from active duty quits and returns home only to find that her mind cannot release her from her former orders and choices. Trying to live peacefully with her family and children is further complicated when she is forced to return to service, leaving her children in the hands of another woman with her own motives.

Download Script

I am seeking actors / ages for the characters:

Sarena: (Already Cast) Choosing career and ideals over motherhood had its consequences, after reality set in. With what’s left of her own self, she is determined to start over, but this time as a mother and purveyor of love, not soul-sucking, disjointed corporate agendas.

Emily: A friend and confidante to Sarena. As a baby-sitter and friend, she is the most loyal and patient. She also has a secret, that she will have to deal with. Age: 20- 35

Little Boy: Living in eastern Europe is not all roses. He wants to escape the trouble that his father is facing and is just old enough to start looking for solutions of his own. Age: 7-13

Boss of Power: This Man or Woman created Sarena in his or her own image – as a fighting, target-oriented soldier. However, he or she never pushed far enough to see her humanity and needs below the toughened exterior. Age: 25-40

KINGPIN: A Man or Woman with a regime and the means and twistedness to bend it’s membership to his/her fanciful and destructive power-trips, he/she sees the world and it’s consumables as a means to his/her own perfect purpose.
Age: 25 and Up.

Guards 1,2 & 3: Members of the KingPin’s militia. No moral compass here. -Just a ride out of poverty or some other roadblock in life and a guaranteed paycheck. No big deal, right? Ages: 17- 35

G-Men: Two guys on the upper echelon of paid guard duty. No emotional baggage, no family, no problem. Ages: 21-35

To confirm your audition spot, please contact Rob via facebook (Rob Doggo) or email me at randomdoggpro@gmail.com

Contact Rob Lindner About Auditioning

Casting Call: Eleventh Man – Filming Spring 2016

February 6, 2016 by Rob Lindner

Casting-Call-01 Hello Sandpoint Filmmaker Actors! I would like to invite you to auditions for the Promo Film for “The Eleventh Man”. Auditions will be held at the Little Panida Theater in Sandpoint Idaho on February 13th at 2:00 PM. The casting call happens to be right after our monthly SFN meeting.

We will have actors read for the roles of Kimberly, Jason, Matty, Giz, Digger and Old Men 1-3. Please take a look at pages 4-9 (The promo scenes) from the script for the auditions and let me know as soon as possible if you will be there and/or if you have any questions. Thanks in advance for your interest in “The Eleventh Man”, and we look forward to seeing you in person on February 13th!

Short summary: After a devastating loss, a paramedic leaves his life in the city for a fresh start in the country. Instincts and morals push him to fight when a new evil puts his life and fledgling happiness into danger.

Full character descriptions are below and here is a LINK TO THE ELEVENTH MAN SCRIPT

Eleventh Man Main Characters

Jason – lead character, male, 25-35 y/o, muscular, handsome (not pretty), withdrawn, quiet, polite: recovering from his wife’s death the previous year, Jason has chosen to live in seclusion, he is from the city but trying to learn how to raise cattle.

Kimberly – lead female, 25-35 y/o, trim, attractive, single, businesslike, runs a cattle ranch with common border to Jason’s small ranch, her initial sympathy for Jason turns to attraction.

Bob – male, 25-35 y/o, big, heavy-set, county sheriff, bully-type, arrogant; assumes he and Kimberly are a couple, becomes jealous of Jason and Kimberly’s budding friendship.

Giz – male, 55-65 y/o, sedate body type, runs the local hardware store and has a following of local men his age that congregate in the hardware store to gossip, an unofficial mayor-type, well-meaning, full of information and self-assured his opinions are fact.

Matty – female, 55-60 y/o, lively, wise, wife of Giz, helps run the store

Morgan – male, 70’s, weather-beaten, feisty, old-school, tough, no-nonsense type.

Eleventh Man secondary characters
Digger – male, 60’s, thin, backward-ignorant type, runs garage across from hardware store

Akram – male, 50’s, middle-eastern, leader of terrorists, methodical, driven

Conally – male, 20’s, big, black, football player, cocky, but then thankful after Jason saves his life

Dr. Webb – male, 50-60 y/o, arrogant psychiatrist, pompous, progressive, paunchy, goatee, half-rim glasses,

Van Dyke – male, 50-60 y/o, FBI agent in charge, Tommy Lee Jones type, sympathetic to Jason’s delima

Bishop – male, 30’s, FBI agent assisting Van Dyke, takes orders well

Eleventh Man tertiary characters
Najeeb – male, 20’s, middle-eastern

Kaseem – male, 20’s, middle-eastern

Rahib – male, 20’s, middle-eastern

Waitress – female, gum-chewing truck stop type

And again, here is a LINK TO THE ELEVENTH MAN SCRIPT (PDF)

Casting Call: Hamartia – Filming Spring 2016

January 21, 2016 by Rob Lindner

Hello, My fellow story-tellers! I am seeking actors, a grip and 1st AC (preferably) familiar with magic lantern on the Canon 60d for the following project ::: Filming will occur in early spring (when mornings and nights are still cold enough to see your breath) in Cocolalla, Id.

Auditions for a short Film, “Hamartia”, a personal project written and directed by SFN / FAN member, Rob Lindner, will be taking place soon. I am looking for the following actors for this project =======>

Hamartia: A Covert Agent worn from active duty quits and returns home only to find that her mind cannot release her former life and choices. Trying to live peaceably with her family and children is further complicated when she is forced to return to service, leaving her children in the hands of another woman with her own motives.

Emily: A friend and confidante to Sarena. As a baby-sitter and friend, she is the most loyal and patient. She also has a secret, that she will have to deal with. Age: 20- 35

Little Boy: Living in eastern Europe is not all roses. He wants to escape the trouble that his father is facing and is just old enough to start looking for solutions of his own. Age: 7-13

Boss of Power: This Man or Woman created Sarena in his or her own image – as a fighting, target oriented soldier. However, he or she never pushed far enough to see Sarena’s humanity and needs below the toughened exterior. Age: 25-40

KINGPIN: A Man or Woman with a regime and the means and character to bend it’s membership to his/her fanciful and destructive power-trips, he/she sees the world and it’s contents as a means to his/her own perfect purpose. Age: 25 and Up.

Guards 1,2 & 3: Members of the KingPin’s militia. No moral compass here. -Just a ride out of poverty or some other roadblock in life to a guaranteed paycheck. No big deal, right? Ages: 17- 35

G-Men: Two guys on the upper echelon of paid guard duty. No emotional baggage, no family, no problem. Ages: 21-35

If interested, please contact Rob at freecirc@netscape.net

Yes, The sound in your project is important!

December 23, 2014 by Rob Lindner Leave a Comment

tascam-DR-100-ii Good Day, fellow reader. My name is Rob, and I have a thing for sound…

<RANT ON>

With all the you-tubed, homemade, and student-films made today, with shaky visuals, wind-blown dialogue, and crunchy or imperceptible foley, don’t you think YOUR project deserves the recognition it deserves? Now, tell the truth, come on… if you are reading this you already know that there really is no substitute for a good sound.

Remember that song that played at the High School Prom that you danced to with all your friends, and you just cut loose? …or how about that orchestral piece that makes you think of magenta and fuscia sunsets over the lake on a warm summer’s day… Perhaps you are thinking of that hard hitting industro-rock that you work out to, to shut out the world and focus… what ever it is, music is composed of sound, and sound affects our lives, and indeed our mood and perception of events.

Because we are always using our eyes, and because our temporal cortex seems to take up so much of our attention, we forget about the sounds that slyly enter our ears unchecked. We forget that we really do operate by sound. We LIVE by sound. You know the exact sound that your husband’s car makes as he pulls in at the end of the day, and your pulse quickens because he will soon be in your arms. You know by the sound of a Baby’s cry whether it is hungry, cold, or wet. You know that if you hear that drip again, you are going to have to go down to the hardware store and replace that toilet tank seal for sure this time.

Ok, maybe your not that much into sound, but you have to be, trust me! If you want your piece to be believable, to be realistic, then this level of nuance is needed. Now, with that said, rules are meant to be broken, right? So, take this all with a grain of salt, but for heaven’s sake, if you are recording any kind of sound at all for your project, make it good! Use the best you can get (borrow, steal, beg for, etc) if you’re not recording it, and by all means, pay licensing fees to that artist who’s music you absolutely must have in you piece!

<RANT OFF>

So, how can you get good sound? I know that I am preaching to the proverbial choir here for most of you, but consider the options below. Bare in mind that I am only offering suggestions to those of us that are only operating on shoe-string, or ultra low-low budgets. But cinema as an art form cannot be constrained by budgets. If it is, then we lose voices in that artistic community, and perhaps even a void is left. What fills that void? In this day and age, I shudder to think…

So, if you are going to record dialogue, foley or any sound whatsoever, make sure you have the proper equipment:

A decent digital sound recorder like the Zoom or Tascam recorders are a great place to start. They record and capture to SD cards, easily editable WAV or MP3 files that are accessible on any video editing platform. Click for a great comparison on three of the standards here. As an aside, The H1 from zoom is quite a bit cheaper than the H4, but has no XLR outputs.
Use a Boom! Yeah, its basically a big stick that has grips on one end and a mic attachment the other end so that you can position your external Mic where it needs to be. You can make this, you don’t need to buy one necessarily.
Use nice microphones. Being that there are those that have a better knowledge here about mics, I will give a few general suggestions; just don’t go to radio shack for your mic, it’s not a good gamble. Instead try a Shure 57 or 58 for wide vocal capture, or a Rode M3 cartoid Condenser mic as a shotgun. There are also wireless Sennheiser and Shure Lavaliere microphone systems that work great for on-person capturing.
Choose your music and pre-recorded sound effects carefully. At the recent SFN meeting we all started talking about reasonable music licensing costs (the current financial battle for my project, “Give Up the Ghost”) and the best places to get said music. Unless you are dead set for specific music sound or foley, and money is no object, check out these great sound resources.

http://ccmixter.org
http://www.jewelbeat.com
http://www.premiumbeat.com
https://www.marmosetmusic.com/
https://www.musicbed.com/
http://www.audionetwork.com/
http://www.pond5.com/

Ultimately, my fellow story-tellers, it is about your art, and the best art that you can create. The Sandpoint FilmMakers Network exists to bring our collaborative best to the table so that our stories can be told in the best way possible as a thriving and supportive film-making community here in Sandpoint. Don’t let the complexities of the human psyche get you down; go out and make that art with your friends, and make it a good one!

About Rob Lindner

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