On production, and life, and the consequence of media.

Why are you so Crazy? Balance, the loss there of, and the Dynamics of Creation.

April 29th, 2013

Ida - who?

I was reading Michelle Shyman’s blog, and she was discussing Balancing the creative, and making money – always a good question.

You see, creativity, is born of, well who the hell knows where it comes from anyway. When my wife decided our marriage was over,  a friend of mine, who is a writer, said “Use it, Use it, you’ll write from someplace you’ve never been before.” I cried for a month, and didn’t write anything. A long time ago, while suffering through unrequited love, I was really creative, poems, love songs, all manner of things creative. So where does creativity come from? I’m creative when I make up bedtime stories for my children, they are tough critics. However the creation of screenplays and movies and books? What is the secret?

It’s the edge. That thin line between control and out of control. Razor thin, deadly dangerous.

Franz Klammer – 1976, and I saw the run on TV. Exciting to watch, the guy was on the edge, and almost fell so many times during the run. Now downhill today doesn’t really resemble what it did back then, and the whole thing seems to be about technical precision. But Klammer was on the edge, and that was something to watch.

I used to refer to it as Dynamic Balance – you are falling, but while falling, you are doing something, so in a way you are in balance. X-Gamers do that don’t they, flying in the air, while doing tricks on their motorcycles and Snowboards or skis, or whatever? Even on big jumps, when they do very little, watch the Bikers, the wheel is spinning, or spun hard to one side, and then back for the landing. Snow boarders, always doing tricks in mid air? WHY? BECAUSE it is better to be doing something when flying through the air than just trying to “Keep in balance.” You are falling, or flying, don’t just sit back and fall, DO SOMETHING.

I warp back to college, and my last year in college. I took a photography class. it was easy, and I did “A” level work. That is what the instructor said. I missed a few classes, I was working, and making headway with my networking, and I did the work, I just didn’t put my all into it. I did “A” level work. The instructor gave me a “B.” He said these words, “Look you can do A quality work without even trying, so I’m giving you a “B”. It took me years (maybe a decade or two) to figure out what he meant. I phoned it in and did “A” level work. It was good work, but just imagine had I really worked hard, really pushed myself. How much “better” would my images have been? Forget about the grades, because unless you are getting a job in the education field, NO ONE cares about your degree. They care about the work you do. But if I had really put effort into my photos, and printing, just think. I don’t want to, but how I missed that opportunity, oh the works I could have created. Hey pay attention here, especially if you are going to a “Film School”, or “Acting School” or other creative school. You are paying someone (your teachers) to evaluate your work and give you feedback, and give you guidance to get where YOU want. You are not going to get that kind of attention so cheaply again.

Being creative, it is hard, things can get in the way, and while I don’t think you have to go wringing your hands and ripping the hair out of your head with every film, or screenplay, or photo, or moment of a performance. But if everything is just okay, well, just okay. If you are writing a college paper, what’s the value if you aren’t putting out your thoughts, and then supporting it. Agree or disagree, come up with something interesting, I promise you, your teacher will appreciate your ideas, no matter how far out they are, as long as you can back them up. Or even a blog, what’s the point, if you’ve nothing to say? We get enough of that, and no one has time to waste on the middle.

You have to ride that razor edge, and if you aren’t risking, you’re complacent. Ugghhh. Love me, hate me, care one way or the other. If you don’t care, I’ve failed.

Look, I hate it when actors play it safe. When you ask them to do something they are not comfortable with, and they instead play it safe. It isn’t their fault. In the end, as the director it is my fault, or rather my responsibility. It doesn’t mean I have to hire the wrong actors, and be uncomfortable and work hard just to get what I want. Rather it means I have to be find a way to for my actors to push themselves, that’s my job when working with actors. They have to trust me, and go places (emotionally) they may not want to go. Not with every scene, but if you are just “happy” and not feeling it, not risking, not at the edge? YAWN.

I just hate it when I have to move on without getting the performance I need. I think sometimes it is a game actors play, without even meaning to. I’ve never had an actor say to me after the shoot “gee I hate that you made sure I gave a strong performance, I was happier just reading the lines.”

I have had actors be insistent that they want to do something their way, which is fine, go ahead and I love the collaboration and I want you  because of what you bring to the role. After you get to do what you want, I’ll either love it, or we will work on it. I’ve made a few films, I’ve learned a lot, and that’s my thoughts. Right or wrong, this is what I believe. It is a hard thing to achieve, so much easier to sit back and enjoy. I love it when actors throw themselves over the edge, and yes, I’ll reel them in sometimes, but I love when they are just out there, naked so to speak. Very scary, and very wonderful.

We are story tellers, we are the dreamers, and we bring our audience on a journey into a world we dream up. The audience wants it to be a journey worth taking.

 

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Posted by sgladstone in Film Theory | 2 Comments »

Look, your film sucks, so now what are you going to do about it.

April 26th, 2013

Who's There

Artist, craftsman, dad, whatever. You better learn to take criticism. It’s part of the job, comes with the territory, and if you can’t stand it, you just aren’t going to grow and improve. Take criticism, maybe hear and listen to criticism is a better phrase. Oh those frail and fragile egos, let’s instead just bellow some, and insist we are right and everyone else is wrong for not thinking how great the film is.

“Winter Money”, my screenplay. it’s an “Indie Chick Flick”, and it is wonderful. Well, I think so anyway, and I may in fact be the only one who does.

So what do you do with your screenplay, your baby, oh it will just make people laugh and cry and and and. Reality check here.I asked my parents to read it. Well educated, well read, and honest. They loved it, said it was like a poem. I can still remember discussing it with them on a short car ride. Really, they said it, and I pushed, what do you think of the characters, do you believe them, do you care about them. Etc. Etc. Finally the damn burst, and the short car ride became very very long.

Now look, you can make films for yourself, that’s great. I can do that too, and they stay in my head, and I enjoy them all I want, but if I want to share them, If I want to affect an audience. I have to write the film, make the movie. You can make films for your friends, that’s cool too. However what if you want to reach people who don’t like all the same things you and your friends like. You know, sitting around the TV, drinking, smoking, watching porn and giggling like a 5 year old on a snow day. Okay, bad example, but I hope you get my drift.

So after my parents finally finished absolutely trashing my screenplay, I had to ask them what was it that they liked? “Well you wrote it dear” was their answer. Listen, you ask for a critique, you ask someone what they think, do not be upset just because you didn’t hear what you were hoping for.  Hey it was draft one, and who could expect perfection? Still I thought the dialog was authentic, they said that “No one talks like that”, like the way I wrote them.

I am not upset about hearing the truth, not at all. It’s a journey, and one you’ve got to take. Now there are rules to this, to giving critique.

Always start with something positive. ALWAYS. Hey, make it a game. When you read or watch absolutely the worst thing ever. Find something positive. “Hey I like the title” “really?” “Yes, the font style was very nice.”

Bad example, but that’s the point. Find something positive, don’t lie, be inventive. If it is a hard subject to write about, then tell them they are brave. Being brave is a good one, because most people think they are baring their soul when creating. Congratulating someone on finishing their script or movie is also a good way to begin. Why do this? It eases the person into being critiqued. The defenses drop, and suddenly they are ready for you to tell them the hard stuff.

And don’t smack anyone around either, someone is asking you for help, it isn’t an invitation to make yourself feel superior – I used to give really poor critiques by the way Classic mistakes, lead with the negative, thinking that finishing with a positive was the way to go. Then one day I read some critiques by this guy named Ben “Slappy” White. I asked him why his were so effective, he suggested the positive comment thing, and then suggested staying away from definitive statements such as good or bad. Stronger and weaker work extremely well without being so judgmental. I even started going to the NY Screenwriter’s Collective to improve my critiques. Okay, I wanted to improve my screenwriting, but part of that is giving and getting and listening to others give critiques. Maybe some people have a gift for it, but for me, it takes practice, and concerted thought, and that is just fine.

Hey no one says you HAVE to implement all the ideas in the critique, after all, it is your baby. Take what you like, and use the rest in the next one.

Why do I bring this up. I was talking with a guy at work. Let’s call him GUY. I mean, he is French, and that is his name (pronounced GEE.) He’s made a few films, and I invited him to watch my film Shades. He said he liked it. Raved over the look of the film (Dear departed Kodachrome). So be it. The next day we discuss it a little bit more. He says he doesn’t understand the story – because it is M.O.S. He found that difficult. You know, the story isn’t all that important, the characters are what’s important. The story is just an opportunity for us to find out about the characters and care about them. Now I think there is enough in Shades, that you can care about the characters, even if it is a tough film to watch without having people tell you what they are feeling. Bad films are filled with people telling you what they are feeling and what they are doing, Good films  are filled with characters who tell you nothing about what they are feeling, but what they do reveals everything about them. Guy doesn’t understand the film, and so even though he admits to being moved by the images and editing, he doesn’t think he should like the film, because he doesn’t understand exactly what is going on. Okay, I get you. I made the film a certain way, and I get the weaknesses, and I appreciate the critique. The film I made after getting all the critiques from Shades – Hellion

Now Guy, doesn’t want a critique of his films. He thinks one is bad, and doesn’t see the reason. Look, I wrote a screenplay with a friend of mine. Joe Randazzo. It is called Resurrection of Blake House. Often when writing together, or helping out on other screenplays, we would toss out the dumbest ideas, “No, No, that sucks, forget it.” and yet, sometimes it was those sucky ideas that would generate something great. If we never looked at them, then the script wouldn’t have turned out as well as it did. Another thing about the screenplay, I got a lot of feedback on that screenplay, especially the title.

The point?

You’ve written your film, or you’ve made the movie. Now what? You got to ask people, you got to get critiqued, learn to take it. I know it is scary, and it can hurt, but don’t let fear stop you, you’ll be amazed at just how good your screenplay really is, just hiding behind a few rewrites.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment or two or three, subscribe if you wish, and share with your friends and enemies.

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Who's There

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The Boner Factor and Wet Panty Effect

April 20th, 2013

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I like movies, different movies for different times, like different foods for different moods. I admit that I like watching crappy movies sometimes. I once watched Gigli twice on cable – I think my wife was out of town and I was feeling all self destructive, forgive me I was weak. I used to teach, digital editing, and my students would rave about Rollerball. Great movie, Rollerball – With James Caan, Maud Adams, John Houseman, commentary on society, where it is (or was back then) and where it was heading – surprise we’re here.

No, no, no, my students meant the newer one, with L.L. Cool J, and some John Cusack lookie like.

I try not to slam other people’s work. It’s a smallish industry, everyone knows each other, getting a script written is hard enough, but getting it made into a movie, and making the movie. That’s hard work. They can’t all be winners, but what the hell, Once at some film group meetup, I was discussing the problems I had with the Dark Knight and the film The Watchmen, apparently he was an executive producer on those films. Gee, no reason to wonder why he ain’t calling to hire me. Still, if you’re going to open your mouth, you better have something to say.

So screw it, let’s go to town.

Let me write this again to be clear, sometimes I like crappy films. I like chocolate, Ring Dings, ice cream, popcorn, etc. Can’t live off that stuff, but once in a while, that’s okay. Look I don’t need everything to be Brazil, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, La Jetée or 12 Fricking Monkeys, I love Crazy Stupid Love, silly and funny and so entertaining. So even from the crappy films I do watch, I just want them to be worth my time, Don’t loose me in the first 5 minutes, be well thought out, instead of some dumb ass cookie cutter approach, like oh, we need a piece of drama here, some Tits and Ass there, betrayal over here, the hero’s friend sacrifices themselves there, Hero wins, and oh look the friend survived, we are all happy ever after.

Rollerball, I’m watching this movie and I’m not even 3 minutes in, and I’m lost, and it isn’t that I don’t care yet, I don’t want to care because I don’t understand any of it. Then the Black guy shows up driving the Porsche delivering exposition. ??????????????
Look, why is the nice black man there? No I don’t mean why is he in the movie, we know why, L.L.Cool J. is a box office draw, expands the marketing of the movie, although I do think he is a talented actor (he must be, look he managed to be in this and keep a straight face.) But our Dumb ass goofy looking White Boy hero (who at this point doesn’t have a name, but is only called “Kid”) doesn’t even wonder why his friend shows up. The hero of the movie is evading cops on his Street Luge board, trying not to get killed, and his friend, that he has not seen in years, just happens to show up to save him??? Did they plan it? We find out later LL Cool J was sent to get him to join the Rollerball league (I wonder who was sent to get LL Cool J in this movie – maybe they aren’t friends anymore?), but seriously. How dumb is the audience expected to be.

You got me, for another 15 maybe 20 seconds as they great each other and then cut to some location so they can have a heart to heart and we hear how they planned it, or how LL Cool J heard about this stunt, and just wanted to be there to pull his dumb as farm boy looking friend’s ass out of the fire AGAIN. BUT No, we don’t get that.

Wait REWIND.

Why is Captain Stupid (well we find out he’s named Jonathon, but I like Captain Stupid), street racing through San Francisco? To get to the Golden Gate Bridge? I don’t think you can get to the bridge from within San Fran, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to San Francisco, (she was very cool, it was great – but that was a lifetime ago), and besides I hate that kind of crap, like putting the toll booths from the Battery Tunnel at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge in Hudson Hawk – another winner of a movie. So forget the stupid explainer of where the race is going, What the hell is Captain Stupid doing there?

He starts off in a van, and we hear that it pays photographers $250, he thought it paid $400. But he’s in anyway. Then the race starts – Is he a photographer? Everyone else is shooting pics of the other guy, the guy in the racing gear, not Captain Stupid in his uniform of the slacker generation (what is with that haircut anyway? A Face Frame Hair Do is for Girls.) So I don’t get the point, I’m confused as to the purpose of this race and I don’t know who this guy is and WHY I AM SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT HIM. How about some shots of him growing up, maybe losing his family, maybe failing at sports try outs, turning down the good jobs because he’s an UN-focussed moron and this movie will be about him getting his act together? No, No, SOMETHING, ANYTHING?

No,instead he’s told photographers are getting paid less than he thought they were and now he is street lugeing with a pro, maybe he is a photographer getting that really neat angle???? Oh wait, he’s not carrying a camera? WHAT the hell is going on. 1 minute in, I’m lost and all the stunt work in the world doesn’t get my heart pounding about someone I haven’t even had the chance to care about.

Lets call it the Boner Factor shall we, or the Wet Panty Effect. When I’m with a woman, and we are interested in each other – these things happen seemingly by themselves. Sure sure, we can just get to the physical kissing and touching and things happen, but when the Boner Factor, or the Wet Panty Effect are there without any physical stimulation, just the concept of talking with that someone special well then, Sky Rockets in Flight for the sex. Same with movies. IF I have an opportunity to care about the characters, Been giving something that attracts me to them, or at least intrigues me, you got me, I’m in for the ride. I don’t know, something as stupid as making fists with my bare feet in a carpet to get over my fear of flying. Something, anything. Hey Angelina, that’s great that you are showering in Tomb Raider, but watching you shower isn’t connecting you to my emotional side, really it is doing the opposite – objectifying you, which makes it even more difficult to get emotionally involved. I’d like to avoid the whole question of which is more complicated the Male or Female sex drive by saying that the topic deserves more study.

So we are at 6 minutes in to this movie, we don’t care about the Captain Stupid, know next to nothing about him except that he is waiting on NHL tryouts (however all we know is that he takes pictures without using a camera, and likes to street luge, but doesn’t even wear the jersey of his favorite hockey team), we also find out that the cops somehow know where he lives because they are outside the building where he lives. I guess they are looking for him because nobody else lives in that huge building. Next we are in Central Asia and at minute 24 of the movie and we have reached the climax of the movie. We see Captain Stupid is reckless, and are told he isn’t a team player, and see that he just cares about himself. Then the BIG dumb white guy gets hurt, and NOW Captain Stupid (the smaller dumb white guy) gets serious. He signals the band to start playing some theme music, and now his teammates follow him. 5 minutes or less to wrap up the details, ride out the resolution of the plot/theme and enjoy the afterglow.  The next 70 minutes are unnecessary, the movie is over.

Sure, sure – there is more stuff, expansion on how the sport is all about money and that the athletes are really slaves, and oh guess the veil of ignorance being pulled away, but movie is over at minute 24, because the guy we don’t care about has suddenly had to grow up, and he does, and avenges his fallen friend. All the rest is just like sex without the the Boner Factor or Wet Panty Effect. Yes, yes, yes. It is sweaty, and tiring, and we’ve done this before, so just get it over with.

Finally, I can only suggest to the Writer and to the Director of this version of Rollerball, that they go watch a couple of well written and well made movies – such as Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October.

Okay, so thanks for reading, and please feel free to keep reading, share this with others, subscribe to the blog. Comments are welcome.


 

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Posted by sgladstone in Critique, Musings on media, The business Side of Things | 1 Comment »

I’ve never seen one standing

April 17th, 2013

Ida

So you probably know the first part of that joke, and I don’t need to repeat it. To be truthful, I’m guilty of it, it is just so prevalent in the business. Indoctrinated into you from a young age. Everyone picks on the sound recordist.

I once said to a recordists I know (Antonio Arroyo – he’s very talented, works hard, and has excellent on set qualities) that Pictures without sound are still movies, but sound without pictures is radio. His response – When was the last time you saw a silent film? Maybe once every ten or so years would be the answer I guess – and films were never silent, there has always been music.

Why though, why does it have to be like this? Look, I’ve swung boom, I admit it, and not when shooting as a one man band, but as a boom op – long time ago. Yeah, I’ve even slung a Nagra around Australia, Indonesia, Western Africa, one of my first gigs, barely out of college. Beat a friend from college out for the gig too (I later shot a feature for him, Watch the trailer HERE) I’ve recorded sound, great sound, clean sound, beautiful, nuanced. The sound of wind across grass in the Philippines. Of course that was on a documentary, and the director and cameraman talked over everything. Argghhh, so frustrating. Such a long time ago. Quite the experience. The G-d dammed Cameraman and director talking over everything. I vowed then and there, that would be the last time I would be a sound recordist.

You know, it’s okay, I know a few sound recordists, and you have to respect them, but sometimes it isn’t easy. I was shooting a film, Two Way Crossing (Note grown up language on the You Tube clip), long time ago. We shot on film, recorded audio to tape, yes tape. Tape is dead, really it is, film outlived it, but then again digital killed everything. Back to the recounting. Now the audio guy, he was recording on a time code Nagra, very important for editing electronically. The funny thing was well, low budget, long days, not enough gear or crew. The sound man is burning through batteries. A new set of batteries every day an a half. Now look, I’m not sound recordist, I’m shooting the movie, but I did sling a Nagra for 6 weeks and I went through 2 sets of batteries. Sure, sure Time code Nagra uses more power, but still? So one day during lunch I notice the Nagra is on and running. Come on guy. Your bleeding batteries, and you leave the Nagra running during lunch. That wasn’t really his big crime. I’m working, and we are lighting, now look sound is half your movie, it really is. You have to work as a team, so the sound man is upset because he can’t get the mic where he wants it. No problem, I can help you out. I set a flag so he can hide the boom shadow. I’m a nice guy, and it worked with the lighting scheme. We are a team right, simple.

So why, got to know, why is it a few days later night shoot on a roof, and we rehearse, all looks good, but wait no. During the take suddenly something isn’t right. Stop the shot, check it. Looks fine, lets roll again, and its back. Stop, go through it again, again and again. Finally, I catch it. As I bring the camera to my eye – It’s an ACL, 16 mm, and the viewfinder was fine in its day, but it’s day was the early 1970′s and this in 1996. So I bring the camera to my eye, and there it is. The fricking boom op decides to put the boom in shot. Hey DUDE, what the hell. Look, we’ve done tons of rehearsals and why didn’t you boom any of them? Rehearsals, that’s when we figure out what works, what doesn’t and what adjustments to make. That tore it, right then and there.

You shoot a scene, you block it, you rough it in and camera seems to take precedence over everything. That’s not really how it is. You’re about to shoot, when suddenly we have to wait for a plane, or a bus, or a siren. Damn sound recordist. Yeah, yeah yeah. They’re doing their job. But it’s the fact that you can’t really do anything about it that becomes so frustrating. If there is a lighting issue, or something in front of the camera, you can fix it, call make up, whatever. so at least you aren’t just waiting and waiting for the person with the headphones to say it’s okay (and then say stop again) – hey someone go catch that fridge – its running.

You block, you begin to rehearse for camera, art department works, hair make-up everyone works. I get waiting a few rehearsals before finding the boom position, because the camera position has to be established, but there are a few more rehearsals after that before we are ready to roll. And yes, sometimes I have boned the sound recordist, and made booming the shot the way they want to boom it impossible, I’m sorry, wouldn’t do it if there was any other way, and I’ve set plenty of flags to give booms ops some shadows to hide in (and still sometimes they refuse, even if if it gets the mic just out of frame), so this happens, but waiting until we are ready to roll, and stopping everything because you want your own rehearsal, when the past few run throughs have been for all departments. . .

Frustrating, and everyone just tolerates the sound crew. . . Which is not the best attitude. But like I said, it is prevalent. Maybe it is left over from the really early days, when sound was introduced, and the camera forced into a fixed box. I’ll tell you though, it doesn’t work when the sound recordist is separated and at odds with the rest of the crew. Sound is half the movie, really it is, and all jokes aside, sound is half the movie. But we are just stuck, stuck in this mindset where the sound team is somehow secondary, an after thought. I’ve worked with good and bad recordists, and the bad ones always seem to stick in your mind. The really good recordists, practically invisible, just as with any of the crafts. Get in, get your job done, don’t make a fuss -it’s about the actors performance after all, and get out. Yeah, there are always problems that arise – many of them beyond the sound recordists control, but they get the blame. Life isn’t fair, deal with it, and if you want to blame someone for that – go see William Goldman.

When I’m directing, sound is important, and I trust my sound recordist, they’ve the power to call cut if it is no good. Very few people can call cut on my shoots. Me, the sound person, me, maybe the cam op if the camera breaks, me. So I trust the sound recordist, but I see it all too often. We are all to blame, even the sound recordist. I don’t want to blame them, and probably there is some secret gathering room of sound recordists, where they all get together and rip us all for judging them unfairly. Because when everyone is ready to go, and then sound insists on a rehearsal for sound. It is too late, the downward spiral has begun again and the cycle continues, and you know what? It Hz.

 

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Ida

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Shoot or Die

April 6th, 2013

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I have been a dreamer most of my life. The adventures I’ve dreamed, the drama, the battles fought between good and evil, fueled by books, comic books and movies, all at the expense of my homework. Remember Star Wars, I was eleven in 1977, life was simpler then. My sisters and I went to see “Star Wars” at the Lowe’s Astor Plaza in Manhattan. It must have been open 6 months already and still the theater was packed. Do you remember the promo, – “May the force be with you” button, but they were out. I’ll give it to my sister Alisa, she wrote to George Lucas, and he sent her 4 buttons, I wonder sometimes where they have all gone to now.
I remember watching Star Wars, and just being crazy for it, 10 times I watched in the movie theaters, And when it was re released about a decade ago, I brought my oldest Nephew. I figured it out though. Vader being Luke’s father, well that was an easy one, and no one was surprised. Luke and Leia brother and sister, that too. Although when she kissed him, well that was probably a bit disturbing – no wait, Sisters don’t kiss their brothers like that, no, no, no.
Was it obvious to everyone or only me, that Obi Wan and Vader fought near a volcano, and Vader got burned? Granted who knew it would take an operatic 3 hour long fight (normal people of course would have died of exhaustion after an hour or so, or succommed to toxic fumes, but still Vader gets burned by volcanic activity.
College was fun once I found the film department at Brooklyn College. Oh the fun you could have making movies, this is when you shot film and it made a difference. Video, that’s easy. Leads to sloppy, laziness. Too much is too easy, and you don’t think, dream and imagine. Oh, I’ll just do a dissolve. Can’t really do that in film. You can of course, but back in the day fades and dissolves could only be done in multiples of 8 frames. you really had to think about it. Now, throw it on the timeline, oh it doesn’t quite cut, you know what, do a one or two frame dissolve instead of a cut. Makes the non-working cuts less jarring.

ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Instead of doing that, why don’t you just make better edits, and you don’t have to compromise. Spend the extra time, put in the effort.

But you can only fight so long, I haven’t shot film in over five years, but it was beautiful, the last film I shot on film. Super 16 on Kodak double X neg, my personal favorite – I know others prefer different black and white stocks, but I just loved Double XX – Nice little film by Lisa Tuvalo called The Triangle Fire.

So here I am, directing a short film in a few hours, and all I find is that I gravitate more and more to writing and directing. I love shooting, but more and it became just so unsatisfying, not enough crew, not enough gear, and people just don’t care about what it takes to get the images that move the story, and support the characters and mood. Oh, they want to shoot Sky Captain, or Eye candy videos, but gee why can’t it be done with a consumer camcorder – “Lucas shot the new Star Wars on an HD Consumer camcorder”, yeah I heard that a bunch of times – but besides the fact that it isn’t true (the cameras were $100,000 each) ,- there was also lots of crew and money behind the effects.

I went a few years without dreaming, it was a bad time. A time of spirit crushing work and disappointment. A year and a half videotaping Holocaust survivors for the Survivors of the Shoah project. A bad break up, and then I got a job teaching. Now teaching is rewarding, but then again, there is the lure of video, and although my students were talented, so hard for them to resist, and learn technique. Dreams, dashed and broken and lost.

SO it is years later, married, now separated, with two beautiful children – Sadie and Abigail. The production world is in what I think of as a race to the bottom, No dreams left in that. So I’ll still shoot for the right people, but now, I have this thing called a full time job (It is necessary when you have kids – they need stability) so it’s hard to organize times for a shoot. Perhaps an exercise video coming up, maybe an interview with Carole Kane (who is tremendous, and in one of my favorite films – briefly as a prostitute I believe – The Last Detail.

So writing and directing, my way to go now.

And maybe finally, I can dream again.

 

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Quick, Cheap and Easy. One week to a short film.

March 31st, 2013

Ida

No, no, and not easy. I’m directing a short film, and had a great rehearsal with the main cast, but there is so much to do.

The thing is this, Alfred Hitchcock – what was it he said. He had the whole movie in his head, and putting it on film, that was the least exciting part. Something like that. I adore the work of Stanley Kubrick, I think that he is probably the best director, but although I have a lot of technical knowledge, I find that I am drawn more and more to the word, the screenplay, and working with actors. When I’m shooting for someone, it’s the image, crafting a moving image,  one that move the audience, supports the story, the emotional needs of the story and the actors. I just love working with actors.

As much as I really am a tech-nut, and I’ve done a bunch of tech stuff. I used to have a notebook with Kodak data sheets, and I love building things. I built a few video taps, and camera accessories. I love it, and that’s the easy stuff, there is going to be a solution that works, so the technical end, I love it, I eat it, I’m good at it and I’m bored with it.

What I love – directing actors, working with actors. It’s like the moment of creation, over and over, fresh, new and if you were wondering actors are not cattle, what they are is vital and important. What do I look for in an actor? Primarily I want someone I can direct. This doesn’t mean ordering them around, or treating them as if they are a moveable mannequin. I want to talk in broad swaths and let the actor develop the character. Then you just tweak the performance, a little more here a little less there, It helps I think, when the character is in the script, but as a director I love the process of discovering and honing the character. I imagine that must be the driving force for choosing to be an actor, plus the prerequisite of being at least slightly crazy.

If you think about it, you never really understand what drives you, oh sure if you think about it, you might figure out why you did this or that. When I was 21, I lost 30 pounds and exercised like a nut, because I hoped that might make a woman I was in love with become more interested in me. Now I jog because I have two daughters and I want to be around for them. However why I fall in love with someone, or don’t, or react one way or the other. Don’t know, can’t tell you. But Actors, well they have to know why their character does X or Y, what drives their character, what the character is feeling at this moment or that moment. It is all this technical knowledge, and then they have to take this info and perform as a person who is driven by this, but doesn’t know it. Because if you ask a Centipede how it coordinates its 100 legs, well they lose the ability to walk. So I love actors, although I think they are crazy – I will never date one again -, but what they put themselves through for their art and craft. Well. . .

So now I have my cast, except a bartender,  I am going Sag-Aftra (although I think after the merger they should have used either the name SAFTRA or AFTRAG – can’t you just hear the duck now.) On a side note (it wouldn’t be a blog post from me if there weren’t several side notes) – On a side note, Now when dealing with SAG for the short film contract, the paperwork can be started on line, and so far the process has been really helpful, Web support has been good, and the contract is moving along nicely.

I have still to worry about food, a food stylist, makeup, hair (note to self, next time write a film where all the characters are bald), and I’m trying to avoid panicking about all that has to get done. I have actors a script and a location. I also have my co-producer who is asking where my story boards are. Storyboards, look all I really want is to be on set. Yes the boards are necessary, important, but I’m not Hitchcock, or Kubrick and I really don’t work that way. I’m told Mike Leigh spends a lot  of time rehearsing with his actors, and finding the film – yeah, I like that. By the way, if you haven’t seen Naked, well it is hard to recommend a film with two rape scenes, but it is a fabulous film.

You see, in the end, for me, making a “film” isn’t about getting only what I see, it is about sharing a vision (ugghhhhhh sharing a Vision, sharing a vision – I’m watching too much West Wing.) Making a film isn’t about capturing the film you see in your mind, as if you were just making a copy or a print. It’s about that moment of creation, when you’ve assembled the elements, of something that only lived in your imagining, but required the collaboration of so many others to explode into reality.

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Ida

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Of Character and Depth, part 1

March 29th, 2013

Knock Knock

I watch an amazing amount of “Kids” movies of late. Friday night is movie night for me and my kids. We did the three Star Wars movies (the good ones), My daughter Sadie kept replaying the kiss from The Empire Strikes Back, Abigail has no interest there, so for her, it is Secret of the Wings, over and over and over.
We also watch “Tangled” and “Brave”, and I like them both. Really, enjoyable, fun, and you’d think really similar. Kids movies, but they deal with some grown up issues – kidnapping, death, magic, mother versus daughter conflict, free choice, growth . . .

It’s the last one to think about.

You see movies are about redemption. We go to a movie to see in the characters something about ourselves. Something we can connect with, because if that character in the movie can change, can grow, can overcome their tragic flaw, then we can too. This is why we root for the underdog, Rocky, Rudy, Luke Skywalker, and so on. Now not every movie is about redemption, but by and large . . .

So we come to characters in the movie, this is how the audience gets involved in the movie. If you look at feature length films, you will notice that it is very rare to have more than one fully developed character. There is a lot to do, there’s character introduction, conflict, growth and change. If you don’t think this is important, let’s quickly look at the two Tomb Raider movies. The first one, a girl in a woman’s body in search of her father. Lots of stunts, special effects, and Angelina Jolie in tight fitting outfits. So we get character introduction, and conflict, but where was the real conflict? Chasing the magic time stopping thing, that ought to have been a McGuffin, which drives the action, but during the chasing of the McGuffin the character must face their flaw, and overcoming their flaw, exhibiting growth and change. That is what fills us, absent that, well let’s just say the first tomb Raider pulled in $131,168,070 domestic but the second one only brought in $65,660,196 domestic. So the first one, didn’t satisfy enough for many people to go back for seconds.

When we connect with the character, and the character overcomes the external conflict, achieves their goal by overcoming their internal conflict , that is when we are satisfied. When we, the audience, are satisfied, that makes a difference.

Tangled- essentially a a re-imagining of Rapunzel. Or from IMDB: The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.

Brave – from IMDB: Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.

Both movies are about discovery of self, growing into who you can be, but lets look at what works and what doesn’t. Remember I really enjoy both of these movies, I think they are successful, but for me, Brave is a bit more satisfying than Tangled and here’s why.

In Tangled – At the moment of truth, Rapunzel is willing to sacrifice her freedom to save Finn, the man she loves. In the end Finn sacrifices himself for her. He cuts off her magic hair, and she can’t heal him so he dies. Then there is the moment, she cries and a tear falls on his face and suddenly there is magic blossoming everywhere and he is healed and comes back to life. Beautiful wonderful, hooray, except. Well look the movie is about Rapunzel getting out from under the thumb of her oppressive “mother”, and seeing the world. She doesn’t really look to grow up, and certainly she doesn’t have a problem showing her emotions. Yet that’s the key, when she cries, her tears bring Finn back to life. All the big pretty pictures don’t make up for the fact that nowhere are we set up that she can’t show emotion, that she doesn’t experience sadness, or is distant from others. This poor guy comes to save her, and he sacrifices his life for her. If only the filmmakers had managed to somehow seed the notion that she couldn’t cry. That Rapunzel never learned to feel for another. Then when she cried, she would have grown, faced and defeated her flaw, her inability to connect with another person. Something the audience could identify with. Hey, this isn’t easy stuff. Making a movie is hard, and writing interesting characters, who can share what makes them human with us. This is tough stuff, so much as I appreciate and like “Tangled”, at the end, I am not moved as much as I could have been.

Brave – this is a bit different. The girl (Merida) wants to lead her own life, she fights with her mother, and seeks to escape. In the end, at the moment of truth, it is when she accepts responsibility for her actions, that she overcomes her flaw, and saves her mother. The whole movie is about Merida fighting against her situation and wanting to just live her own life. She finally faces the the consequences of her actions. Instead of running away or blaming others to justifying her outrageous behavior, she grows up. She reaches out to her mom (who is now a bear) and in that moment of reaching out, she invites her mom in, instead of rebelling against her. Throughout the whole movie, she is convinced that life is unfair and she is unduly burdened and insists everyone else is wrong, but when she realizes that she is also wrong, well that’s something we can all identify with.

Same sort of ending – the girl loses someone she loves at the end of the movie, and then they each do something that they haven’t done before, and everything is is fixed. In Brave the change is set up and fulfilled, difficult to pull off, making a child likable, who’s willful and angry. However in Tangled no, we never get directly exposed to the thing that she must overcome, so when she overcomes her flaw, we are not moved. Yeah we are happy, but not satisfied.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment.


 

Knock Knock

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And then Life as we know it ended

February 23rd, 2013

Ida - who?

I’d heard that 90 percent of married people who worked in the film business ended up divorced, that was never going to be.

Well, I’m now a statistic, or will be as some point. My wife and I are separated as of last October.

It’s been one heck of an adjustment. Freelancing is over, and full time work now secured. Most important, scheduling my life around and with my daughters. Well I am settling in at least, and it’s odd. I have way less time than before, but I’m able to get more done these days. Most ways finished reading Princess Bride to Sadie (Great book, never been a fan of the movie), and Abigail is schooling me on My Little Pony.
I just wanted to touch base, and let you know what’s been with the long time between posts.

Stay tuned more posts on the way.

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Ida - who?

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Slayin it down at Willifest

September 22nd, 2012

Ida - who?

I’m a Willifest this weekend. Watching the films, hitting the panels, – got to run, Picking up an award (or more I hope) on Sunday.

Who have I met you say? There is Polina Grinberg – an animation film maker from Virginia (wait, I know, not from Virginia – just living there), had a great time critiquing the films with her. Caught some cool films – Hitting the Cycle – J. Richey Nash – nice performance and direction too – and best of all, he knew when to end the film, instead of dragging it on to its death. Way to go. That said – I got to tell you the D.P. must have been IN LOVE with Courtney Henggeler – she was just stunning in EVERY shot (I didn’t see her at the festival though.) The interesting thing to come up in discussions with J. Richey is that asking about budget doesn’t really tell you everything – # of shooting days is a pretty good barometer of the budget and constraints the filmmaker is under.

Another fun one was Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship. The nice thing about festivals is that sometimes there are little gems that you just are NEVER going to hear about otherwise. Then you are caught between watching more screenings or meeting the filmmakers. Anyway:

Finally Hellion played in the midnight to 2 am block – The Midnight Treats. leading off was Handyman a music video from Australia (I believe) by Crazy Mama Music. Really cool and funny – just a bit raucous and/or raunchy. I enjoyed “Romance of the Dead”, which started off strong, but then got lost, and went too long, ending badly. Also playing was Kent Kitzman’s, Predator Prey – which won best screenplay at Terror Film Fest last year.Oh I forgot for a bit – Dave versus Death – really good – slick fun, and a nice twist, Kept you interested all the way through. Then at the end of a long day – at last Hellion – yay Hellion, really great response. Really great. Lots of fun. Laura Gilreath – showed for the screening. Great little question and answer session with the die hards in the audience who stayed til 3 in the morning. Got some really nice questions and compliments from Joe Friend and Aaron Mahoney who wrote Pudgeon – Pudgeon by the way has come in 2nd place at Willifest for Outstanding achievement in Screenwriting. Just barely beating out Resurrection of Blake House by a comma or two. Great Festival.

Got to run now, back to the fest.


 

Ida - who?

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Product – Can someone PLEASE shut the floodgates of “Digital”

September 19th, 2012

No - not Ida - who. Idaho - that's a state

Let’s please bury the age of “digital” production, and walk away and start anew. This is NOT a “Film vs Digital” argument, that has been argued more often, and for more stupid reasons than religion or politics. This is a post on where we go from here – not just in movies, but outside the movie theater as well. Or more importantly how it affects us in life.

As far as “digital” film making tools go – the decreased cost has allowed people to make more “product”, and get it seen by more people than ever before.

PRODUCT:

Product – what a stupid word to use when discussing anything. I hate it when I hear people use that word. “We put a good product out on the field” – that’s often the word general managers use when describing the sports teams they manage. I hate that. I don’t root for a product – I root for a team. Build me a team I can root for – it isn’t about putting out a good “product” that wins championships – it is about building a team filled with players that the fans can follow, live and die with, one that the fans can connect to. That provides for lasting memories, emotional content, all the things of Sports storied past.

Building a product you can sell as winning, and that’s it. Changing players in and out. Yeah, you can go charge crazy prices because corporate sponsors will pay to have their clients go to “Events”, but what happens when that is taken to an extreme – hey isn’t that Marshal McLuhan over there and his Laws of Media- here is what happens the FANS stop going and the stadiums empty, then the big pocket guys who don’t really care, will also stop going, because they never really cared, it was just a perk, an event, a diversion.

It isn’t just sports, you can see it happening in other fields. I watch “Top Chef”, I can’t stand it when a chef uses the term “Product” to describe their food. Use the terms – ingredients, finished dishes – don’t tell me that you put a good product out on the plate. My body produces a good product every few hours, I don’t want it served to me on a plate to eat.

So let’s just dispense with this idea of delivering “product” as a good thing, because really once you lump everything together as “product” the value of it all plummets. Product is there to fill a pipeline, do you really care about the quality of the gas you put in your car beyond its octane rating?

UPSIDE – DOWNSIDE:

Either you make a film or you won’t. If you really want to make films, you make films, there is always a way. What cheaper gear and post do is allow for an increase in “Product”, not polished, finished, adhering to technical standards, providing good “Production Value” or compelling story telling – all the things you need for a”Movie” to be good. You just get more “Product” – which means you now need more outlets for that product to be delivered.

What is wrong with all this you say – right or wrong aren’t necessarily the terms to apply here. Look more “Product” does not equate to more “Good Movies” that is the down side. The upside is that it is easier to discover/invent new story telling techniques – financially easier to experiment. The down side of that – well, there is so much out there it is harder to find the cream rising to the top so to speak. Reviewers actually become more important – even as a profession that has disappeared – to helping you find gems to invest your time in watching. Another downside – eh it becomes cheaper so we can experiment, but the investment becomes so minimal, that ideas and thoughts are far more easily committed to and then abandoned.

Downsides a plenty – but look there are upsides. I can shoot, edit, release my films, and not have to rely on a distributor to believe in my film and support it. That cuts out the middle man fee, but it does cut out all the other things the distributor brings. Still changing markets, so put your film on Netflix, or Amazon, or self distribute DVDs. The Cost of the DVD is maybe cheaper if you do it that way, but not hugely cheaper (unless you are ripping the DVD of someone else’s work, then that’s cheap – AND illegal so don’t do it.)

There are upsides as well of course- Here are a few people I know really working the angle of making films cheaply, and just doing it, and doing it. Mike O’Mahony’s Sloppy the Psychotic,     PJ Woodside and Steve Hudgins of Big Biting Pig Productions,      Dave Campfield and Joe Randazzo of Caesar and Otto’s Deadly Xmas.
Now look, you could always make films on the cheap, cost hasn’t been that much of an obstacle, distribution has been the obstacle. If you could get distribution, could you make money off of it? I spoke to someone who wrote text books (before the whole e-publishing thing), they said until you were writing your third or fourth text book, you weren’t going to be seeing any money for the first two. So can you really make money on distribution? My friend Joe – Co-Producer on Deadly X-mas tells me you can upload to Amazon, and get whatever you want for the download – Amazon takes half. Still can’t get rid of that middle man.Also with so much being uploaded and available, what do you set the download price at? Remember I can “rent” a great many Hollywood films at a $1.99 Great, so price your movie cheap, and if your movie cost twenty bucks to produce, shoot, edit, post, etc. Great if you have a runaway download thing happen, or all your friends and family download the film.  Of course there are a lot of those $1.99 movies out there, a lot of competition for that meager download price, so make sure you got a lot of friends and family to download.

As far as the idea of “Democratizing” Film making as a plus – “Ohh Look digital has democratized film making.” People used to travel several days to hear political candidates speak. The candidates could really hold their own and debate, for hours at a time. Now there is so much coverage of political candidates, available everywhere – they don’t have be able to debate, and think on their feet, just repeat some memorized phrases. We accept this because we aren’t investing much effort in hearing our “politicians” speak. Its the same with our media – yes there are some wonderful examples of writing and film making, sadly very few and far between. It’s a pity when you think of it, to make this “Product” it has gotten so much easier and cheaper, and with all that, it hasn’t really gotten better. As if the difficulty in making the film, the investment in time and thought and effort just to be able to get the project in the can, edited and delivered is what makes the film worth making, and watching. It’s the wild west out there, every dude has got a pistol and a fancy gunslinger outfit, and the street is littered with corpses.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment and share.


 

No - not Ida - who. Idaho - that's a state

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