A Little R&R
It's been a while since my last update. I'm back from the beach, which was super fun. Chilling out for seven days with three of my best friends in a beach-front house ... it's hard to beat that. Good food, good beer, good times, and good people. There's really only one thing I can think of to make that sort of trip perfect, and if you can't think of what's missing that's your problem. Topsail Island is not exactly a swinging singles type of beach, but hey (our catch phrase for the week) "... you're at the beach!" Most of all it was HOT, and I was there, right in the thick of it, walking 6 miles straight in 95 degree heat and 80% humidity. It was slightly annoying, but the double digit winds and water took care of most of the cooling down. Unless you were running a marathon, you'd have been okay. Definitely the highlight of the summer.
When I got back my order from Amazon was on my bed. I purchased
Rebel Without A Crew by
Robert Rodriguez, and I'm looking forward to reading it. It seems to be his personal diary of filming and promoting his first feature film,
El Mariachi (a direct-to video movie shot for $7,000 in 1992 and prequel to Desperado), and a couple of appendices one of which is titled "10-Minute Film School" the other is the original El Mariachi script. I'm pretty much finished with
$30 Film School until I actually shoot something and have to start editing, so I'll cover that material as needed. I found the book a good place to start, although I still haven't received the CD-ROM for it which is kind of a pisser because I sent for that a week before my Amazon order. I'll e-mail the company again and if they're not responsive, I'll drop by Walden's and see what they can do. As deep as I am into it, the book really isn't as helpful without one. I also picked up
a book on basic shot set ups, movements and storyboarding. I'm anxious to read all of them. I haven't paid much attention to my story since before I left. I didn't get much reading or work done down there, but then I never intended on it.
Verbal Diarrhea
It's amazing that for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm making progress. For better or for worse, I'm going to try and make a career in film or TV work out for me. Over the past few weeks, I've sort of devoted myself to expanding my knowledge of film, and it's working. I'm starting to make some connections both from standpoint as a writer and storyteller, but also as a student of film. I'm starting to see patterns in the types of films I like to watch: Tarantino, Ritchie, Hitchcock, Leone, Romero, Carpenter ... even Lucas were all inspired stylistically with the pulp novels and comics - the serials of the early 20th century.
Lovecraft and Hammet, Black Mask and Weird Tales, all of the pulp writers of this era draw influence from other writers, particularly Twain, Poe, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. The former two popularized and legitimized American short stories, the latter were the pinnacle of style of that time span. Kurosawa, and Leone both adapted a Dashiel Hammet novel,
Red Harvest, into the respective films:
Yojimbo, and
A Fistful of Dollars. In 1996, Walter Hill also adapted the same story for his ultraviolent, bullet-riddled
Last Man Standing. George Romero and Sam Raimi draw heavy influence from horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft, in fact Raimi borrows directly from Lovecraft's literary invention, the Necronomicon, in his first two films:
Evil Dead I and II.
My point to all of this is that I'm seeing the connections in my head. I'm seeing where all of the people who have inspired me are drawing their influences from, and where they drew theirs from. So now, the path almost seems laid out in front of me. For me, I treat learning about film and writing like some people treat learning to play the guitar: you have your influences, and that directly influences you, but it's also very good to be familiar with who influenced the people that influenced them. To put it into a philosophical context, "If you want to know where you're going, you have to know where you've been." It seems to add more depth to your style, and I feel that it gives you a foundation to build on as an artist.
That's the reason why I like History, it gives you reference points. It lets you know (usually in an indirect manner) how you got to be where you are and why the world is like it is today. As opposed to human history, sociology and political science, it's much easier to track down the history of motion picture because it's only been in existence for a little over a century. Not only that, but the progression of motion pictures is extremely well documented. As of now, I'm trying to track down my roots in motion picture history. I'm tracing through the lineage of my favorite directors, and hopefully discovering new ones, adding to my knowledge and understanding.
Now this may sound like a modern cliche, but I really have Tarantino to thank for this recent surge of creativity and desire. The boat loads of extras on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction scream to me, "Here, this is where I started. I hope this helps." Well it does ... for me, anyhow. At this point I'm trying to prepare myself to do what I have to do to make it a part of my life. I'll be happy even if I never make a penny off of my work.
That's a lot of crap, but I needed to get that out. Sometimes just thinking about it isn't enough.
In other news I recently found out that on of my friends from high school is an extra and grip on a zombie movie that's being filmed in Orlando. Apparently, there's a good chance of Lions Gate Films distributing the flick because I think they were planning on going straight to video. I hope that the film gets distributed, that would be a good thing for Andy.
Waiting For McGuffin
Well in spite of some slacking in other areas of my life, a story idea popped into my head yesterday. It's a genre piece, I suppose. It would be along the lines of a crime, noir, pulp, heist films, and in my head right now it's also a period piece. I don't know how I'd film it - the costumes, the exteriors, etc. - that's all way out of my league at this point. It all depends on how much I write for it. This could be the best thing we could film, or it could be something I hold off on for a while until our operation gets more professional. Really, there's no sense in worrying about it until we decide to do it. I'm just happy that I've got an idea, and I'm writing.
As stories go for the genre, it's nothing spectacular, but it doesn't suck either at least so far, so good. I've got the premise, now I just need to flesh out a plot and some twists and turns that happen in the meantime. Really what I need is an object to start, a McGuffin of sorts. Something to get the ball rolling, maybe it turns out to be what the movie's about, maybe it isn't. Perhaps I could pull a
Maltese Falcon and make the entire plot and the happenings inconsequential because they never find what they're looking for.
I'm going to try to not get ahead of myself, because out-clevering myself is probably the worst thing I can do. That will make everything absurd and melodramatic ... it'd be like the ending of Murder By Death, only purposefully funny. Well, in the meantime, if anyone reading this (Maybe I should rephrase that as "If there is anyone that reads this.") has an idea, feel free to let me know, the worst thing I can say is, "No, I'm not going to use that! That's a fucking horrible idea, you mindless twat!!!"
Goings On
So, since I've last posted I have made a few purchases. First, and probably most notably, I have sent some money to a fellow amateur filmmaker, Hank Braxtan. Hank has a small production company (BraxtanFILM) that make stupid, funny shorts and fan films. I ran onto their work about a year ago on TFNfanfilms.net. They had recently made and released a fanfilm called
Freddy vs. The Ghostbusters, which is a very funny fan film involving Freddy Krueger of
Nightmare on Elm Street fame and a new set of ghostbusters that is based using the rules of both universes. It's nothing ground breaking, or super artistic, but it's entertaining and decently funny.
Anyway, back to my point, I donated 25 dollars for the budget of their new project
Return of the Ghostbusters, set to start shooting in the fall. This donation will get me listed as an executive producer in the credits, and if it's half as successful as its predecessor the flick should make onto IMDb.com, meaning that my name will be on IMDb (a meaningless bit, but a feather in my cap at least). So this is my first break into the small-time, and believe it or not, I am excited about their new project and being even loosely associated with it.
The second purchase that I have recently made is a book called
$30 Film School, which is a beginner's guide on how to make cheap movies on mini-DV. It goes through the very basics of lighting, shooting, cameras, producing, editing video and sound, etc. Everything the starting filmmaker needs to know. The book is written by Michael Dean, who is a former west coast punk musician turned documentary filmmaker (
D.I.Y. OR DIE: How to Survive as an Independent Artist). The book also comes with a CD-ROM full of supplementals and step-by-step how-to stuff covered in the book, but some dipshit stole the CD out of the back of it, so I had to e-mail the publishing company and wait a couple weeks before it arrives. No biggie really, but a pain in the ass that could and would have been avoided if I had noticed it before bought it. The book has some very useful information for any aspiring directors out there, plus it's an easy read (I'm in the mid 100s and I consider myself a slow reader). Right now I'm on the section about editing software and screenwriting programs that format your scripts for you.
The next purchase on my list is a book called
Rebel Without A Crew by Robert Rodriguez, writer/director/editor of
El Mariachi, Desperado and
Sin City. I really enjoy most of Rodriguez's work, I've never seen any of his
Spy Kids series, his student work, or his most recent digital escapade,
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D, but I have seen the rest of his resume including
From Dusk 'Til Dawn, and
Once Upon A Time In Mexico, which are least favorite, but I'd say that that has more to do with the script than anything else.
I've been talking with my friends and I'm trying to figure out something we could do over a weekend or two. Time and logistics are the least of my concerns., it's the fact that we don't have anything to shoot like a short story or something of the kind that is holding me back, and writing hasn't been the easiest thing for me to do over the past few months. We'll figure something out though. Actually I've got a pretty good idea, I just need to flesh it out a bit. I'm gonna get on that.
Until next time, go check out Hank Braxtan's wares. You can find Hank and his buddies at
www.braxtanfilm.com
Back on the 7s
So I think I might have figured out what I'm going to use this journal for, and that's discuss my love of cinema and what I continue to learn about films, acting and film making. For those of you that don't know, I'm quite the film-nut. While my chops at understanding it as an artform are, shall we say, a bit underdeveloped, I have had a great passion for movies since I can remember.
As I've wandered my way through these last three years of college working for a degree that I seriously doubt and ultimately don't care if I ever use specifically, I have done a great deal of soul-searching trying to figure out what it is that I love to do that I could in some way make a living at. If you would have asked me four years ago, my creative passions were merely hobbies. I enjoyed the performing arts, but never seriously considered making a go of them career-wise. My mind was set with one question as I entered college: What can I do that I will earn a decent living? My initial answers were attorney or politician, seeing as I thought I would either follow the family trade or pursue my interest in political affairs.
Fast forward four years and one presidential election later, I've discovered that my passion for politics is merely a passing interest. Sure, I enjoy discussing politics, history and war, but after having such a headache dealing with school and the election, I have decided that it's time for a break. It has been during this time, that I have began flirting more and more with the idea of working in the film industry be it as an actor/director in C features and industrial films or as a production assistant on a multimillion dollar studio blockbuster.
ultimately, I would love to be an actor, writer, director and an editor. I really want to be the driving creative force behind a movie. But I suppose people in hell want ice water, too. I know what my odds are of ever making it big: slim to none, and slim is bleeding to death on my white carpet. I don't want to be a critic, because although I have very strong opinions, most of them are based on intuition rather than knowledge. I think it's easier to be a better than average director than it is to be a critic of similar caliber. Don't ask me why, it's just another one of my conclusions that I may have haphazardly jumped to.
Right now I'm focusing on writing and directing. Why? Because, right now I have to be self-reliant. I can't afford a professional crew, actors ... well anything at all really. Everything would have to be filmed on location, and what little crew I had would mostly be volunteers. With whom whatever profit would be made would be shared to a certain point.
Another reason why now is as good a time as any to become a filmmaker is technology. Before, even shooting on 16mm and Super-8 was costly. Film is expensive, and getting the film processed is even MORE expensive. Now we have readily available, hi-definition digital cameras. A $4,000 camera, with the right lighting and post-production editing can looks as professional as you want it to be, and with the advent of digital and Hi-Def cameras, blowing the aspect ratio from digital to scope distorts little, and costs even less. Digital cameras record pictures at a 1.78:1 (16x9) aspect ratio. Standard aspect ratio for feature films is in the realm of 2.35:1, so when stretched to scope the hi-def picture is only stretched by roughly 7.5% of it's normal aspect ratio. Now while that's nothing earthshattering or even new, what makes these different can be summed up in one word: Dailies.
Dailies are the raw footage right out of the can, processed and reviewed by the director on a daily basis. However, getting film processed (developed) requires a good bit of money if you can't develop the footage in-house. However, with digital footage and the right video card and software, your computer can be used to view dailies, not to mention edit and render video and effects. Basically the digital age cuts down on how many people it takes to make a movie. Now it is relatively easy for a small crew to make feature-length films with a fraction of the cost normally incurred by shooting on film. The only down-side being digital and film don't exactly do the same thing. It is nearly impossible to get a quality film look out of digital footage. Fortunately, this is changing rapidly.
If you've seen Star Wars Episodes II or III, Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Spy Kids 3D or The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D, then you've seen a movie entirely shot on a digital format. These movies prove that digital is a viable format for feature films. This should NOT to be confused with shooting completely CGI worlds with a green screen. All of the aforementioned films might have led you to believe that's what I meant, and they were intended to. The one film I left out that might surprise you that it was shot on a digital format is 28 Days Later, a cultish Zombie horror film straight out of the UK. I mention this because I know when I watched it I thought it had been shot on film. Nothing led me to believe otherwise until I had a conversation with a few friends and one mentioned that the entire thing had been filmed on the DV platform.
Now, it should be acknowledged that the cameras used to film said movies were much more expensive than any aspiring film maker such as myself is willing or able to shell out to buy. They were made with professional equipment, just simply not on film.
The current generation of "prosumer"
(a low grade professional style product sold through consumer outlets) cameras include the Panasonic DVX100a, the Canon XL2 and the Sony HDV-FX1. These are the top of the line consumer models for the aspiring filmmaker, or low-end commercial or industrial film producer. Of the three mentioned, only the FX1 is able to shoot in hi-definition, a feature which at this time may be overrated. I'll admit that even I'm attracted by the words "HIGH DEFINITION" but what it really boils down to is, "Does the camera do what you want it to do?" The answer: No, not really. What I want, what I really want is a good alternative to Super8, and 16mm, that I can get dailies without having to develop. Because, let's face it, it'd be a lot easier and faster to make a movie when you can see what you get in the can.
As you can probably tell, I've done a decent amount of research into this. The fact is that I have an obsession with cinema, and I want to be a part of something that I love so dearly. What was a hobby has grown into a monster, and to tell you the truth, I don't want to turn out to be the next movie geek on "Beat the Geeks" Like I said, I don't care if I make industrial films, I just want to make movies.
