Thu Aug 21, 2008
Coffee Lovers Paradise
I just applied for this incredible job opportunity. I would be blogging for a coffee lovers fund-raising site. I don't know anything more than that but it sounds like a job made in Heaven.
I'm working on some freelance articles right now. It's a lot of fun to be able to write about the things I love and am passionate about. Chris and I have been talking a lot about the new script we're working on and it's spurring other ideas about older script ideas. So now we're trying keep up with all the good ideas.
I'm finding it very helpful and productive not to think about the eventual outcome or result of my efforts beyond doing a great job on the current project in front of me. Meaning, if I'm writing a script, make it the best script it can be and allow it to go where it needs to go. It can be sold out-right or become a project that I direct but I'm not putting any expectations on it. I'm much happier when I allow my work to become what it needs to be instead of dictating it's outcome and trying to control what happens to it.
I still get a bit freaked out when things are going smoothly, but I've talked to many people who feel the same way. They have all told me to just let my anxiety be and it will pass. I guess sometimes I can't tell the difference between anxiety and excitement.
That's probably the hardest part of overcoming difficult life challenges like the illness of a loved one or financial struggles. Of course we can get better and make more money. But we can't control if someone lives or dies beyond the normal diet, sleep, exercise and avoiding walking in front of buses. So life can be scary and unpredictable. I've had to make a conscious effort to retrain myself to enjoy my good luck and trust that it will continue. I've also learned to acknowledge when good things are the result of good choices and hard work. Sometimes good luck is a matter of being prepared and putting in the hard work in order to take advantage of opportunities when they come along.
Maybe part of luck is what we make it.
I'm going to make myself some decaf coffee and hope for more good luck to come my way.
Posted by: eldirector
on Aug 21, 08 | 2:34 am | Profile Wed Aug 20, 2008
Oh so busy
My brother and his wife had their baby over the weekend. Their first child, an adorable little boy named Maddox. Too cute. So things got a little hectic and I just got back to my computer tonight.
I'm working on a few articles right now. I've finished a first draft of my novel and I'm sending it to my editor. Scary stuff. Criticism is always rough but necessary.
I really need to get my new Pick of the Week posted so I must go work on that right now.
Ciao!@)
Posted by: eldirector
on Aug 20, 08 | 4:07 am | Profile Fri Aug 15, 2008
Master Blaster
I'm watching "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" tonight after Olympic coverage and I'm noticing all the zoom in and dolly work. This film influenced countless ones after it.
Working on a new screenplay. Chris, Ian and I are working out the sequence of events. Ian and Chris are debating the time period. I'm leaning towards placing the events at least 10 years from now, maybe even 25. Ian wants to see the events unfold as if it were happening today. We'll see.
Leo, Chris' cousin, sent me an awesome email today. It was all about this new software called StoryMill which helps the writer (me) organize my writing for the novel I'm working on. Very cool stuff. Thanks Leo!
I have a few minutes while the baby watches a movie with Daddy so I better get back to writing.
Posted by: eldirector
on Aug 15, 08 | 12:32 am | Profile Fri Aug 08, 2008
Sometimes it's better to wait
Chris bought the next Gen Blu-Ray player and received two free Blu-Ray discs with his purchase. He chose two gems: "The Hunt For Red October" and "Batman Begins." On the Batman disc, in addition to the totally cool interactive screening of the film called the "immersion experience," is the first 10 minutes of "The Dark Knight." It was released as a promo reel before the film was released. I'm so happy I waited to see the film and did not allow myself to see any spoilers or early release footage. I really felt the terrifying impact of the opening bank sequence in all it's horrific glory when I saw the movie for the first time. This sequence scared me deeply in a way only "The Shining" and "Deep Impact" have done in the past. A feeling of unnerving disquiet. A feeling that this could really happen. Totally disturbing.
And I was saying to Chris today that I see what Nolan saw in Katie Holmes when he originally cast her. Although she was not believable as an assistant DA and her acting was spotty throughout the film, the chemistry between Christian and Katie was exciting and palpable. Maggie is much more believable in Dark Knight but she's holding back towards Christian. That may have been a director and actor choice, showing she is more committed to her job and her new man, Harvey Dent.
Posted by: eldirector
on Aug 08, 08 | 1:11 am | Profile Wed Aug 06, 2008
A New Project
After seeing "The Dark Knight" I've become inspired to work on a new script. My brother pitched my and Chris on a great idea so we're currently developing it. I'll be working on the treatment in the coming weeks. This is a strange and wonderful feeling to be connecting to my writing again after such a long period of feeling stuck. Writing is always a challenge, now more so than ever with time restraints being what they are. Witnessing what Nolan and his brother have been able to accomplish has inspired me to rekindle my love of writing and work through my challenges. I hope to use this diary as a way of holding myself accountable even if it is to report that I am stuck or struggling. Tonight my son is pulling at my shirt. He wants my attention before he can fall back to sleep. So writing will have to wait until he is sleeping.
Posted by: eldirector
on Aug 06, 08 | 2:35 am | Profile Tue Oct 23, 2007
Suspect and Bottle Rocket
I was watching “Suspect” today and realized this movie would never, and I mean never, get made today. First off it was a Hitchcock homage that actually worked. Second it was slow, character based and steeped in a lot of dialog. The homeless man accused of murder, played by Liam Neeson, is a deaf mute so the first scenes of him are done with legal pads and chalk boards. Yeah I can just see the ADD generation sitting still while Cher spells it all out on a black board. Please, most of them couldn’t pay attention to their teachers long enough to graduate.
I enjoyed the shot choices and I thought the seemingly boring was made interesting. The thing I liked most was the twisting of expectations. The bad guy is really a good guy, the real bad guy you don’t see coming. They set you up for one thing and then throw you another. It’s great.
And let’s all give John Mahoney the attention and praise he deserves. I loved him in “Say Anything.” Who didn’t right? And he is completely amazing on Frasier. Then I see him in Suspect and he’s amazing again.
The thing that really blows my mind is that he played such bad guys for so long in films and then all of a sudden he takes on the role of the loving, funny Dad on Frasier. It’s very refreshing to see such range in an actor. Oh and get this, he was born in England. I don’t know what year he came to America but talk about a transition. So many talented actors come from England there must be something in the water.
LATER THAT SAME DAY…
Now I’m watching “Bottle Rocket” and it’s all about Wes Anderson’s style running through my head. I’m watching what will become his classic moves, shot choices, symmetrical framing, quirky hood mounted car shots looking directly into the front windshield at the characters as they travel at a high rate of speed in yet another cool convertible. The character in the proper suit, the quirky drawings, the ultra-close-ups, the 70’s flavor to everything yet feeling modern at the same time. Brilliant.
It’s all too beautiful to watch an artist evolve. Like when I watched “Sydney” known to the public as “Hard Eight” and then seeing the subsequent films of Paul Thomas Anderson. You can see the visual style become more and more sophisticated. His new film is being called a Masterpiece the likes of which the world has not seen since “Citizen Kane.” Now that’s some pressure and expectation to live up to. Lucky for Paul he’s peaking later in his career than Orson Wells did. He might be able to make more great films after this one. We’ll see.
Posted by: eldirector
on Oct 23, 07 | 4:57 am | Profile Thu Oct 18, 2007
Tech Noir
I was watching “The Terminator” tonight in HD and loving it all over again. The scene in the techno club came up and there’s Sara Connor saying to the police, “It’s a club called Tech Noir.”
There were rumblings of a new genre after “Blade Runner.” A new look into a collective future where technology was an enemy and a friend, a necessary evil of the 21st Century, but this new film, “The Terminator,” solidified not only the term – “tech-noir” but an entirely new genre.
After this scene nothing would ever be the same in film theory. A new definition of film was invented. A dark and brooding look at the society, the city and the world we live in.
The poetic irony of course was that Cameron put this term in neon blinking lights in the middle of a major scene within “The Terminator.” This slow-motion tour-de-force of camera angles, shot choices, editing, pacing, acting and tension. This perfect moment in film where all the elements align and become one beautiful tension-filled moment that holds up to a thousand viewings or more.
The relentless, pursuing, robotic, evil presence, which plagues our heroine. The Alpha-male pursuing the Beta-female. The female becomes an Alpha by the end of the film and destroys the evil that she has been running from. She turns and fights and wins.
Perhaps we can conclude that the world will only be saved by women who choose to turn and fight. Perhaps we are the saving grace of the technology driven present we find ourselves living in. Maybe only a woman can overcome the techno-beast so brilliantly displayed in Cameron’s living nightmare.
Only time will tell.
Posted by: eldirector
on Oct 18, 07 | 1:57 am | Profile Wed Nov 09, 2005
The Spielberg Effect
Chris was telling me that Spielberg is getting all kinds of shit for his new film “Munich.” It seems critics and industry insiders are charging that Spielberg cannot possibly make another quality successful film in the same year he already had one come out. They don’t believe he can make his deadline. They think it’s unreasonable for him to make two films in one year and try to make a Christmas deadline. They think, they talk, they criticize but they do not make movies. They do not act on their words.
They lack conviction.
They are liars because they have never done it themselves so they do not believe someone else should be allowed to do it at all. They sit on the sidelines complaining but never participating.
None of them could do what Spielberg is doing. None of them dare even try. None of them will experience victory or failure. None of them will see their hard work and effort light up a screen in a movie theater.
More...
Posted by: eldirector
on Nov 09, 05 | 5:27 am | Profile Sun Nov 06, 2005
Stream of Consciousness on a Saturday Night
We went to see “Chicken Little” in 3D tonight and it was amazing! What an incredibly wonderful experience. It was like we were all kids again. An entire audience of adults ooohing and aaahhing as if we’d never seen this marvel of invention the mooovie theater before. What is this new fangled contraption called a 3D film? Everyone was reacting to the images coming off the screen and giggling. It was fantastic!
The movie itself was not half bad either. It was funny. It was entertaining. It was not entirely classical but it was good. Zach Braff is cute even as a cartoon chicken.
It was really just nice to get that sense of awe back that we’ve been talking about. Everyone was totally sucked up into the experience of the 3D. We sort of went along for the ride of the movie due to the feeling of awe the 3D inspired in us.
More...
Posted by: eldirector
on Nov 06, 05 | 3:42 am | Profile Fri Nov 04, 2005
The Art of Self Respect
Like I said before Chris and I are obsessively watching the Episode III documentaries and fleshing out for ourselves what kind of filmmaking styles and techniques we’re going to employ in the future.
I’ve been thinking a great deal about the mistakes I’ve made in the past on other projects and what I can do differently in the future.
I keep thinking about one of my early film mentors, Nicole Holofcener, and what she told me about being a female filmmaker. We don’t like calling ourselves female filmmakers and calling attention to our gender but it’s necessary in this industry. Sometimes you can’t fight city hall.
Nicole told me that her crew didn’t respect her and set up a shot without her knowledge. She arrived on set to see a shot set up that crew members thought would be better than what she wanted. She had to stop everything and make her crew break down the shot and set up her shot instead. She lost a half a day and put herself behind schedule but she gained something more important than anything else, respect.
More...
Posted by: eldirector
on Nov 04, 05 | 5:38 am | Profile
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