November 26, 2008

tuned_ (53 of 73)
Originally uploaded by bobby7881

I’m like a little kid at Christmas right now – and it’s only Thanksgiving.

I have a new Baz Luhrmann movie to see in theatres tonight. I don’t care if it’s good, I don’t care if it’s bad; I just want to spend almost three hours of escapist glory staring at what I know will at least be beautiful images and a sweeping story. If it’s not that great I’ll forgive it because I’ve been Baz-less sinceMoulin Rouge! in 2002. Too bad his Alexander the Great story was killed by Alexander because I’m sure that would have been fun.

On top of this giddiness for Australia I have a four day weekend ahead of me! Four whole days to watch movies, read books and decorate for Christmas of course. Plus I am going to have to put up my newly framed graduation present.

The fall semester of my senior year at CSULB we held our 10th Widescreen Film Festival and Wes Craven was our Artist in Residence; because of this I have these great quarter sheet posters and booklet written by Wes from the event. I wanted them framed for graduation and we finally got around to it. That was the semester I fell even more in love with the work of Wes Craven than I already was. I can’t wait to get the frames up. However, I pulled the booklet apart and framed the pages, so that one is huge.

I’m also all dorky because it’s raining. I like the rain. What can I say – I’m southern California born and bred – we don’t get rain often.

October 5, 2008

I saw a preview screening of Baz Lurhmann’s new film Australia tonight. I think it’s an amazing movie, but more than anything as I sat there watching half finished special effects and the visuals that can only be attributed to someone like Baz I just kept thinking “God I have to do this with my life.” I cannot wait until I get to be the one that tells the stories that enthrall people in a way that takes them completely out of the world for two hours and makes them see a whole different kind of beauty in the world.

I was in a room with Baz tonight and I just about died. As we exited the theatre I realized that Baz was on my left talking to someone. I freaked to Christopher but was too shell shocked to say anything, so being the brave one Christopher went up to Baz and shook his hand.

I love being reminded that my idols are actually flesh and blood individuals. It reminds me that what I want to do with my life is doable; these people do it and if I try hard enough so can I.

God please let me achieve this.

November 24, 2008

Film Nerd Buttons from Buttonhead
Originally uploaded by Orwellsvision

So I realized today that by the time November is done I will probably have watched in the ballpark of 20 movies. That is a new record for me. I probably watched about that many or more when I was in film school, but when you can guarantee you’re going to watch 2-4 movies a day in classes that’s not hard; I haven’t done that since I graduated.

I do have the philosophy that the more movies I watch the more it increases my film vocabulary. I think that I have to see what others do in order to really learn what the medium can do.

I saw one of the most unique films I’ve ever seen this weekend; I watched Brand Upon the Brain by Guy Maddin. I really can’t tell you what it was about, or how exactly it was semi-autobiographical, but it was fascinating. Not only was it unique because he does things like place himself in the films, and use silent film technique, but I found the way he edits so dang fascinating I considered sharing the film with my editor but since I don’t want End edited that way I decided against it. I really can’t make up my mind about that movie though. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that’s thrown me like that. I can’t say it was bad, but I can’t say it was enjoyable either.

I had the fun of telling people my Christmas wish was to get a picture lock for Christmas and having everyone besides my geek friends be all confused. They kept asking me what that was and someone even wanted to know where they could buy that.

I do sometimes get a secret joy out of my geek vocabulary.

November 6, 2008

I had my first official-style writer’s meeting on Sunday thanks to Caryn.

We’ll be shooting her web series The Adventures of Cory & Sid in January and Caryn made the progressive move to try and have a team of writers just like she would have if it were a full length sitcom instead of a 5 minute per episode web series. I am thankful that she didn’t decide to have a team of directors. That would have made me sad. While Sid & Cory is not my baby it is a fun series, and I get to work with people I adore while flexing my director muscles.

What was best about the writer’s meeting was getting to sit in the room with the three writers (Caryn, Samantha & Seth) and getting to hear them go through their scripts out loud and give each other ideas or laugh at each other’s jokes. There was no stress of actors or worrying about blocking, or anything else that could stop a typical rehearsal or read through. This was just the three creative’s checking to make sure their stories still worked and even to get some of my input on them. I was able to put my two cents in saying what problems we might encounter or not to worry about certain things because we can shoot it a certain way so the audience will get that even though it’s not in the stage directions, etc.

I also liked being in LA on a Sunday morning. Watching the traffic from the sky scrapers, and feeling the buzz of the city. While I go back and forth on moving to LA I really think that I need to some day. I love being there and I want more of the cities within LA to unfold to me.

But I guess I should concentrate on finishing my movie before I worry about moving into the city.

I also had the stressful director moment this weekend when my editor called me with a problem on End. I’m crossing my fingers to hope that it’s nothing big and I know that post is always problematic, but I still stress. However, I think it’s part of my job not to pass that stress on to other people but as a director try to take their stress away (and put it on me) so that they can continue to do their jobs effectively. It just makes me nervous because unlike a studio film where if something goes wrong we can reshoot we cannot. Not just because of budget but because the location has changed, the actors schedules, etc. We have what we shot and we have to love it and live with it.

I just continue to pray that God does His will with End and allows the film to take us where it will. God’s like that and I know He’s there, even for my typical director psychosis.