The Books
I’m always writing. I can't help it. There are always new stories to tell.
New Work
I'm concentrating on short stories and interconnected stories with an over arching theme.
I have two books in progress.
5040 Used Cars is a group of interconnected stories set at a used car lot in a shitty part of town. The stories start in the early sixties and follow a group of guys who survived either World War Two or Korea and their lives intersect at various times at the car lot.
This book takes place in Portland, Oregon at the intersection of sensibilities of the people who grew up during the depression and those that come of age in the sixties, seventies and beyond.
Burn Up At Re-Entry and Other Stories is the second book. A group of stories I've collected over the years. Titles include: To Helen Back - A Love Story, Joe Dance, Our Next President, That Night In Mexico, Armed-In-Laws, The Fireball, The Expatriate, Circus Travels, The Old Neighborhood, ChettheCat, and others.
I am hoping to bring both of these books out before the end of 2023. We shall see.
Additionally I'm writing a Behind-The-Scenes Book about my Kay Boyle film. Why has it taken so long to finish this film. There were a lot of struggles and bullshit politics (getting screwed by a couple of very large organizations) that went on behind the scenes as well as some really funny stuff, none of which belongs in the film but should make for interesting reading to those that are interested.
Check back in often and see what else I have going on and coming up in the near future.
Dennis Barton is a Bastard
and Other Stories
The characters have traveled with me for a long time. Dennis Barton knows what he's doing is wrong; it's just that the sex is so good. A writer watches a personal hero age and become a cranky shadow of his former self. Three drunk college students stumble upon a broken parking meter and decide to take it home, until the cops show up. Two climbers have no control over their lives; the mountain made their decision. And what happens when your local car club decides to raise its dues after twenty-five years?
Like a thief in the night, Kelley's stories sneak up on you. His characters are real. With one foot in the past, many stumble towards an uncertain future. The right decisions aren't always made. In fact some don't make any decisions at all, whether by choice or by force.
Regular Price $14.95
From Arrah Wanna to Mule Shoe
Misfit Stories from Misspent Lives
Kelley Baker and Mark A. Nobles are a couple of misfits who’ve misspent their lives knocking around the film business, pissing people off, alienating friends, family, and ex-wives, all the while collecting stories and emotional scars.
They finally got around to putting those stories to paper and decided to combine their efforts in this collection of prose. Fair warning, these stories are as misfit as their authors.
From the joys of youth helping your dad at a used car lot, to standing up a young woman so you’ll always be a fond memory and not the loser you know you are or working in a trophy factory for a demented hoarder to being pummeled by a chain smoking, four-foot-tall bar owner who loves professional wrestling. Watching a beautiful sunrise as your father walks out of your life forever, to being rushed into emergency heart surgery and wondering if this is the end. From Arrah Wanna to Mule Shoe wanders, ambles, and stumbles through a literary landscape littered with half-truths, bone truths, and magical realities.
Regular Price $14.95
Road Dog
When Moses and I hit the road, it was scary, demanding, and a shit ton of fun. Fierce storms, terrifying fog, icy roads, uncontrollable laughter, and oftentimes far too much alcohol. Without that big old dog I’m not sure how I would’ve survived.
– Kelley Baker
With no distributor interested in his independent films, Kelley Baker, the Angry Filmmaker, ripped a page out of the punk rock handbook and went looking for his audience in a used minivan with his faithful 120 pound Chocolate Lab, Moses. Every fall and spring they traveled the country showing his films at art house theaters, film festivals, colleges, and biker bars.
Logging over two hundred thousand miles, they encountered a collection of Fellini-esque characters including two hyper-intellectual pro wrestlers in West Virginia, a lying Chicago hotel desk clerk who cost Kelley his home, civil rights workers knocking back rum at Hank Williams’ grave, and a way overzealous drug sniffing border patrol dog outside El Paso, Texas.
Kelley gave an audio workshop for employees of a porn channel, got yelled at in a haunted bar in Memphis, was asked to leave the Prayer Tower at Oral Roberts University, and drove twenty-four hundred miles in three days so he wouldn’t miss his daughter’s choir recital.
Moses swam in two oceans, fifteen lakes, and enthusiastically marked thousands of spots from sea to shining sea.
At the end of it all they found a lot more than an audience.
As Eat, Pray, Love is to love and spirituality, Road Dog is to the raucous, independent, and contented life.
— William M. Akers, author,
Your Screenplay Sucks!, Mrs. Ravenbach's WayRegular Price $14.95
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One: Making The Extreme No Budget Film
2nd Edition - Audio Book
Yes you heard that right.
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One finally has a Second Edition
And I wrote the Second Edition with more attitude, more anger, and more swearing! Oh yeah and more advice. (I figured I had to throw that in.)
“If you want to see what the future of storytelling looks like then check out Kelley Baker.” - - Brian David Johnson, Futurist, Author, Filmmaker
I’m going to release the second edition both as a paperback and an eBook, they’re just not quite done yet.
The audio version has been uploaded to Audible and it’s just sitting there waiting for you to purchase it.
Why a Second Edition you ask?
I looked at the book recently and really felt that a lot of the information in it needed to be updated so I re-wrote the book.
"There really are no comparable books to The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide. There are plenty of books written by independent filmmakers but none of them have the combination of honesty and motivation that Baker's book provides. Other books prepare you to enter an industry. This books prepares you to express yourself with practical guidelines." - John Rangel, Filmmaker
Did I mention the audio version has been uploaded to Audible.
The audio version is 6 hours and 46 minutes in length and that was a lot of damn reading and speaking! But it was worth it. I’m very happy with this 2nd Edition. I hope to get the print and eBook versions out soon.
Down below is a sample of the book. Take a listen and then head over to Audible to purchase it. Thanks.
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part Two: Sound Conversations With (un)Sound People
Sound is not the enemy! - - Lee Haxall, Editor, Crazy Stupid Love, Meet The Fockers (Emmy Award Winner)
Sound is an excellent carrier of emotion. And film is about emotion. - Gary Rydstrom, Sound Designer – Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park (winner 7 Academy Awards)
Motion picture audio is one of the least understood parts of filmmaking. It is often neglected by film students and filmmakers alike. It is boring, scary, too technical and not considered important by most filmmakers. Until they get in to the editing room and realize that by not paying attention to audio earlier they are screwed.
This book is intended to shatter the myths and mysteries around film audio and give both students and experienced filmmakers the knowledge and tools so that their films will sound like they have come from the Hollywood studios without huge Hollywood budgets.
For the book, I have assembled a lineup of Film Industry Heavyweights in all areas of audio production for film and television. This group consists of location recordists, sound designers, picture editors, sound editors, re-recording mixers, and post-production supervisors.
This all-star cast has won Oscars and Emmys in addition to awards from various film industries worldwide. Interviews include, Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Jim LeBrecht, Ron Eng, Harry B Miller III, Peter Kurland, Lee Haxall, Ken Karman, David A. Cohen and a host of others discuss their methods and secrets. (Click on the names to go to their IMDB page.)
“If you read only one book on sound, this is the one, and, after you've read it, you'll never, ever, ever say, "We’ll fix it in post."
— William M. Akers, author of Your Screenplay Sucks!
Sound Conversations With (un)Sound People - 440 pages
Regular Price $21.95
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One: Making The Extreme No Budget Film – First Edition
Kelley Baker is the Angry Filmmaker. But his independent films are not angry, they’re honest. He’s angry at the state of independent film. For Baker, it’s about telling the story, not what actors are starring in it.
Kelley Baker worked in Hollywood for 20 years. He’s well known for being the sound designer on six of Gus Van Sant's feature films, including My Own Private Idaho, Goodwill Hunting and Finding Forrester. He’s also made numerous award winning short films and three of his own independent feature films, Birddog, The Gas Cafe, and Kicking Bird. The most recent, Kicking Bird, was made with a budget of $6000 and has played to international audiences.
His films have aired on PBS, Canadian and Australian television, and have been shown at Film Festivals including London, Sydney, Annecy, Sao Paulo, Sundance, Chicago, Aspen, Mill Valley and Edinburgh.
Here, with all his attitude, is the wisdom of an Angry Filmmaker, gained the hard way, through experience.
“Finally, a film resource that tells it like it is! - - Jon Gann, Founder DC Shorts Film Festival
“This is a great book, written by an impassioned filmmaker who also happens to be a teacher of the first magnitude. — William M. Akers, author of Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 Ways To Make It Great
“Baker is on fire about making films. You will be too after reading this brutally honest compilation of personal stories and practical advice from the front lines of independent filmmaking." — Morrie Warshawski, Consultant and Author (Shaking the Money Tree: The Art of Getting Grants and Donations for Film and Video - 3rd Edition)
“One of the best books on making your way through the independent filmmaking jungle with justifiably-angry filmmaker Kelley Baker as your top-notch guide: Funny, profane and committed to telling the unblemished truth. Don’t make your next movie until you’ve read this terrific book.” — John Gaspard, Author “Digital Filmmaking 101,” and “Fast, Cheap and Under Control”.
This is an old version of this book and parts of it are terribly out of date (chapters about shooting on film) which is why it’s so cheap. I have about 20 copies left and I’m trying to sell them out. I am currently working on a 3rd Edition which I hope to complete soon. - Kelley Baker
Regular Price $14.95
