Archive Fifteen
May 7, 2006 - Unfilm
News -
History, culture, food, sports and fun in Beantown ...
Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Took some
time off from the filmmaking world and spent all of last week in
Boston (or Bahston, as they call it). Went with my wife, who
works for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, to their annual
national convention there, where they also celebrated their 100th
anniversary. They are an amazing organization that has been
helping at risk children for a long time (and still is), and has
grown into a large national movement. Anyway, I'd never been there
and decided to tag along, and play while she worked ...
The week
started with bad weather but opened up later to the sunshine us
SoCal residents are so used to. Saw some cool stuff at the
Fine Arts Museum; Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir and
on and on. Went to the Boston Symphony one night with my
wife. Got to see a Red Sox game at Fenway another night.
In fact, that night there was special recognition to the Boys &
Girls Club, plus a player on the team and Club Alum hit the
winning run. Quite a coincidence. Lots of well-known
people spoke at the conference; Colin Powell, Wesley Clark, and
Bud Selig to name a few. Spent one full day marching on the
Freedom Trail, a several miles long path around the city that
takes you around lots of historic sites, Paul Revere's house,
burial site of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, the original USS
Constitution, Bunker Hill, etc. Needless to saw, I had my
digital still camera and my HD video camera in tow, shooting
whatever I had time for ...
I actually
spent one day doing a little film business. I took in an
Apple seminar on storage and archiving problems and solutions.
Yeah, it seems us digital film people are going to have to learn
IT stuff, if we're going to keep up with the huge file
requirements of HD footage, for editing, storage and long term
archiving. Seems the best overall long term solution is disk
to disk to tape. Jeez, and I thought we were getting away
from tape. Anyway, it's all more complicated than I ever
realized ...
And a few
more film tidbits while I was there: Saw the Wilbur Theater,
where in 1947 a completely unknown Marlon Brando debuted as that
Kowalski dude in that Streetcar Desire thang. Ben Affleck
made a surprise appearance one night at the conference,
congratulating the organization for all the great work it does.
And of course, the national spokesperson for them, Denzel
Washington, made an appearance on the last night's grand finale.
He credits the organization for saving his life when he was a
young ruffian, and presented an award to the person at his local
club who was his mentor. All in all, an enjoyable week.
But glad to be back, so I can rest up from so much vacationing,
and get back to my normal work (and play) ...
J-Alden
Comments --
IFC Films Advance Screening of TWELVE AND HOLDING -- 5/11
Thursday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Clearview Chelsea 9
260 West 23rd Street (at 8th Street)
New York
Thursday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Laemmle Sunset 5
8000 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood
"Twelve and Holding" explores the complexities of children losing
their innocence and adults struggling to guide them. In the
suburbs of America, three close knit 12-year-olds - introverted
Jacob (Conor Donovan), precocious Malee (Zoë Weizenbaum) and
vulnerable Leonard (Jesse Camacho) -- start down the path of
self-discovery and begin to distinguish their own voices from
those of their parents. Sparked by the tragic death of Jacob's
twin brother, the trio band together as they grapple with feelings
of revenge, the burden of grief and the indelible experiences of
growing up.
Theatre is overbooked to ensure capacity and we strongly recommend
that you arrive early. At the theatre, seating is on a first come,
first served basis. Passes and RSVP's do not guarantee seating. No
one will be admitted after the screening begins.
May 13, 2006 -
The Writing Zone -
A subtle, collective unconscious, left/right brain battle,
meditative trance ...
Huh, you
may say? For those of us who write, especially fiction, searching for, fighting for and finally
reaching that above-it-all state where we can really write what
we're trying to communicate, can be a daunting task. The
pre-write stage, as I call it, is just as important creatively to
me as the actual writing itself ...
This
'Zone', sometimes referred to as tapping into the 'collective
unconscious' (Carl Jung), operating in the right brain (the
left/right brain paradigm), finding your gestalt, or reaching a
calm objective state of nirvana (Buddhist)-(yeah I'm stretching
that a bit). To me, it's The Zone, and I'm either in
it or I'm not. Trying to write when I'm not in it is a
burdensome chore, but when I'm there, writing is an absolute joy.
There are two tricks to The Zone. First, getting there and
second, staying there. Obvious? Not completely ...
I learned
years ago that the easiest way (for me) to get into The Zone
was to sit down and meditate. Now probably right there I may
have lost some of you, because I know among some crowds that seems
like a flaky, roll-your-eyes type of proposition. Well, you
need to let that go, come into the 21st century and realize people
have been engaging that activity for centuries (even though there
are quite various types of techniques). For me it's
just a technical process to access a part of myself that isn't
always easy to reach. And actually, the hard part for me
isn't getting there, it's staying there ...
Once I
come out of meditation and am in this 'other' state, then I have
to contend with down-to-earth tasks, like turning on my computer,
hitting keyboards and such. These tend to take me back to
the 'normal' world, which is what I'm trying to avoid, as this
state makes it easier to access the imaginary worlds.
Having to deal with this world becomes a real killjoy for the
muse. One thing I do sometimes is have a writing pad next
to me when I meditate so I can scribble down notes periodically
that I can then transcribe into my script. To stay in this
state is the real battle for me, and to be successful at it takes
some practice. Mainly though, it helps if there's no one else
around bugging you. And ignore telephones and doorbells, and
no TV's, although mild music doesn't seem to be a problem (I
usually go with classical). Whenever I'm in a bad mood or
grouchy, it's usually because I've been forced back into this
normal world kicking and screaming ...
The reason
I'm writing this now is I was at a screenwriting event
Wednesday night in L.A. put on by
Viki King and
Alan Watt, and
they mentioned accessing the 'collective unconscious' in their
'Writing from the Heart' workshop. And
since I do it on such a regular basis I was a bit surprised by
some who didn't quite understand what they were talking about.
Anyway, keep fighting to reach The Zone. Your muse
(and your audience) will be glad you did ...
J-Alden
Comments --
The Journal of
Short Film named on BEST MAGAZINES OF 2005 list --
5/16
The Journal of Short Film
has become the first DVD publication to make the Top 10
list of BEST MAGAZINES for 2005. The May 1st issue of
The Library Journal—a
leading trade magazine for libraries and
publishers—listed the JSF alongside such popular new
titles as Knitscene
and Dell Extreme Sudoku.
(Read article at
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6328044.html.)
The staff of the JSF considers the listing a
confirmation of short film’s commercial appeal and a
validation of DVD serials, in general. The listing
counts as a coup especially for the independent and
experimental kinds of film the JSF publishes. “Not
only are we happy to publish a new group of independent
filmmakers every three months,” says publisher Karl
Mechem, “but proving short film’s popular appeal is a
major step in the democratization of film that motivated
us from the beginning.”
The listing coincides with the release of
The Journal of Short
Film, Volume 3 (Spring 2006). As always, the
volume contains a dynamic mix of narrative, documentary,
and experimental film and video. Film lovers that are
too busy going to knitting retreats and Sudoku
tournaments to make it to Sundance or Tribeca or Toronto
are in luck—most of the films in
Volume 3
appeared at these festivals. Films in
Volume 3 include
“The Tribe” by Tiffany Shlain, “Hello, Thanks” by recent
Rockefeller Fellowship winner Andy Blubaugh, and the
experimental films “High Plains Winter” by Cindy
Stillwell and “Food of the Brave” by Andrew Bucksbarg
and Michele Darling. More humorous films include “Bob
Log III’s Electric Fence Story” by Stock’n’Wolf.
-On the day of the release, the JSF will launch its blog.
Mechem says a blog was inevitable. With the release of
Volume 3, the
JSF has published thirty filmmakers, and
The JSF Blog will
chronicle their world. “These filmmakers are the
vanguard of the film world, so tracking and conversing
with this group will be a great resource for other
filmmakers and for the film-curious.”
Karl Mechem, publisher, The Journal of Short Film
www.theJSF.org
May 21, 2006 -
The Damah Way? -
Struggling between spiritual and religious cinema ...
This
weekend I went to the 5th annual
Damah Film Festival (damah is an ancient Hebrew word meaning
"a metaphor that transforms"), which bills itself as a spiritual
film festival, and saw a few films, as well as went to some of the
panels. Unfortunately, right away I got the feeling this
festival was more about religious film than spiritual film.
Granted, in some people's eyes there's very little if any
difference. But to some of us there is a huge difference.
In my humble view, proselytizing a particular religious agenda is
a non-starter and a total turnoff. It became very obvious
not everyone at the festival shared my opinion on this, which is
fine, but I don't go to see a film as if I'm going to church ...
However, I
have less problem if a film has a more generic 'spiritual' theme.
For example, to name a few; Always (remake of A Guy
Named Joe), What Dreams May Come, Field of Dreams,
Ghost, Jacob's Ladder, The Razor's Edge (made
twice), Heaven Can Wait (remake of Here Comes Mr.
Jordan), What the Bleep Do We Know?, and plenty of
others. In addition, usually these films don't have obvious
spiritual agendas, and are classed in some other genre outside the
concept of any class of spiritual cinema. And if they don't
stand on their own merits of good storytelling, then who cares
about any of this anyway? Right? ...
Listening
to the panels I found it a bit odd that most of the studios have
now developed Christian divisions, mainly because of the success
of The Passion. Well, maybe not so odd as the tail
usually wags the dog at the studios. Anyway, they all agreed
that market was a broad, varied and fragmented market they were
still all trying to figure out. Most had mixed responses to
The Da Vinci Code now playing. I also happened to see
that and had some problems with it myself, although I eventually
got into it about halfway in. However, I don't believe it
was the finest hours of the main people involved with the project
...
In the end
it's quite obvious that anyone wanting to do a spiritually themed
film needs to make sure their agenda is not obvious. What?
Filmmaker's with agendas, you say? Sure, in this media world
of ego and vanity it's all about competing agendas. But one
of the more inspiring things I heard this weekend by a panelist
was essentially this; learn to put all this built-in B.S. industry
vanity aside and be humble to your higher inner ideals and you'll
get all kinds of help in getting your film made, distributed and
seen. Which in turn reminded what an old friend of mine told
me years ago; 'All experience is spiritual'. If that's so,
then why worry about all this. Just tell a great story.
And if you want all this other stuff, just make it serve the story
and not your ego ...
J-Alden
May 26, 2006 -
Shasta Time -
Drinking in the nourishment and freshness of crisp mountain
environments ...
No, I'm
not drinking a soft drink, just heading up to the northland of Mt.
Shasta today, to partake of all her treasures (if she'll share
them, that is). I'll be spending the next three weeks
traipsing around the mountain, searching out locations for the
shoot, with my still camera, HD camera, compass, watch altimeter
and GPS unit all in tow (plus plenty of H20). At least
half of the production will be shot up on the mountain, some of it
even above tree line. Hopefully the actors and crew will be
in good enough shape to handle it. Hell, them? What
about me? ...
Also, I'll
be pounding away at the fourth script draft, hopefully inspired by
the grand panoramic vistas Shasta offers. This time of year
is a great time to be up there. I may also be taking a
flight and aerial shots around the mountain. I found a pilot
who loves flying around the mountain and I can't wait to do it.
Onward and Upward! ...
J-Alden
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