Today on UStream, a programming manager for the Sundance Film Festival stepped up to answer some commonly-asked questions. (I did not get his name, as the program began somewhat jarringly just as he started talking; will update as I get it).
I took notes during the proceedings, which I’m posting here. Nothing should be construed as a direct quote, and everything provided should be independently confirmed, legalese legalese. Read at your own discretion. Continue Reading…
Posted 19 hours, 47 minutes ago at 5:03 pm. Add a comment
Saw “The American” tonight with photographer Trude Ellingsen (my new headshot above is Trude’s work).
Be prepared when you see this film: it’s an art-house spy thriller, not the normal shaky-action-cam Bond movie you might be used to. I can take or leave art films, depending on my mood, but I think I was especially prepared to enjoy this, when I saw the trailer for the watered-down and dumbed-down remake of Let the Right One In. The new title is proof enough of the remake’s lack of depth, called simply: “Let Me In”. “Don’t worry, American audiences, we won’t ask you to figure out which one The Right One is. Just let me in and we can start with the choppy editing and shaky-cam. Isn’t that scary and unpredictable? Wait, let’s throw in some screeching and pale, wide-eyed children. BRILLIANT.”
I don’t know how this became about Let the Right One In, but it is: the original had depth, feeling, and mystery. The trailer for Let Me In reveals more in two minutes than the entire original film did.
I say all that to say this: if you thought the trailer for Let Me In looked good, you will hate The American. But if you’re ready to cleanse your palette with a slower-moving, but nonetheless fully-felt film, The American may just be for you.
Now, after all of that pompous art-housing, I’m going to go watch a popcorn flick.
Considering the recent development of the Google / Verizon deal that could possibly destroy net neutrality, it’s worth re-reading this post, and consider how Google’s persistent attempts to stake claims into the world’s knowledge and knowledge-accessing utilities might fall under their “Don’t Be Evil” policy.
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago at 11:32 am. Add a comment
Three days ago, Matt Wallace and I each set out to write a feature film screenplay in three days. Just to see if we could.
I agreed to do it because I felt like I hadn’t been generating enough material in the daily grind of L.A. survival.
Matt agreed because he had a chance to write a quickie screenplay for some cash, and pitch it to a low-budget production company in the area.
POST-MORTEM
Matt ended up with 53 pages of a screenplay he’s firmly convinced is too good to send to this production company, and will be finishing in the next week, giving him two very strong feature scripts he’s going to market with.
I ended up with 25 pages of a quirky mindtrip indie flick, and a 17-page treatment for a horror film, which I sent to a production company on Thursday. It’s looking like, if things go well, I could be writing and directing that treatment by the end of the year.
I’m calling Script-A-Thon a win.
Posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago at 3:17 pm. Add a comment
Between 1909 and 1912…Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii…used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images.
Click the link to see a full collection of these images. This is Russia, over a hundred years ago. This is the distant past, as we have never seen it: in crisp, vibrant color.
It’s startling to look at the picture above and realize it’s over a hundred years old. There’s some kind of time travel involved: the man above is from his own time, but he’s posing in MY world. My trees and grass and rocks.
Absolutely breathtaking. See the full collection here.
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago at 6:16 pm. Add a comment
As part of the Script-A-Thon between Matt Wallace and myself, I am going dark in the next two hours.
Come Friday, I will have a new feature screenplay ready to read. We’re accepting a limited number of unbiased readers, email here if you want to be one of them.
Actually, I’m going dark right now because I still have a feature synopsis due to ANOTHER production company before I start on this one.
