tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1498711743542716382024-03-13T03:51:15.298-04:00Turnip FilmsJim McQuaid's reflections on indie film, writing and how life connects all of these things.Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-69247350488262491272024-02-12T10:07:00.003-05:002024-02-12T10:07:18.288-05:00Local film is a small world.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HffUKMyDZ5imdEqkCAcWOx7kqtXD9Jq6fo85AD1-u02IylQjOOMJqAmBSs1Xb828Ruhq3CzWKCOw0sLDkOIUHSiqzYMZYNxt1ly3JLTMRoQ3pu3WEI5puSCgrxuiKROMdB9aCSYoSdGksQ-0ie3VC9yKYzN-UBcbmv61OoliQffK_k-kWZYGJVgNhv0/s6000/Cast-Crew-end-IMG_3601.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3600" data-original-width="6000" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HffUKMyDZ5imdEqkCAcWOx7kqtXD9Jq6fo85AD1-u02IylQjOOMJqAmBSs1Xb828Ruhq3CzWKCOw0sLDkOIUHSiqzYMZYNxt1ly3JLTMRoQ3pu3WEI5puSCgrxuiKROMdB9aCSYoSdGksQ-0ie3VC9yKYzN-UBcbmv61OoliQffK_k-kWZYGJVgNhv0/w502-h301/Cast-Crew-end-IMG_3601.jpg" width="502" /><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></a></div><p></p><br /><p>
On the 23rd and 24th of September, I co-produced, directed and shot
SWINE, a short horror film. Looking at the photo we grabbed immediately
after we wrapped on Sunday night, I realized what a gift it is to work
together with such a group. I started to reflect on how I got to know
these folks and their amazing abilities.
Left to right then: Wayne, Evelyn, Scarlet, Suzy, Henry, Caroline,
me, Glenn, Brendan, then in front Kellan and Dillon. On the previous day
actors Logan and Heather performed some brief scenes and Violet shot a
lot of great behind the scenes work and took this photo.</p>
<p> Wayne is a 30-year veteran of the Burlington, NC police
department. Wayne served as the Armorer for this film. I can't remember
exactly how I met Wayne the first time, but it was back when the
Internet was more like a bulletin board, and one of those bulletin
boards was called TarHeelFilms. Wayne worked on several films with me in
the miniDV days, including several films where I was using multiple
cameras in a scene. He also did video stuff on the side for the Police
department. He worked a variety of things, shot a feature film for some
folks and gradually did less and less video. But we kept in touch and
since I had a gun scene in my film SCENE a couple years ago, I called
Wayne and that was the perfect solution. He owns some firearms and knows
a lot about handling them safely.
</p>
<p>
Evelyn is pretty well-known in the Triangle for her non-stop makeup
work. I think I first met Evelyn (at least 10 years ago, probably more)
when I was helping on set for Aravind Ragupathi and Rob Underhill. I
think we also worked together on one or two other films in the Triangle.
I knew that she had done everything from glamor to aging to classic
wounds and scars. In my mind, Evelyn was the queen of local makeup
folks, so I called her with the expectation that she would refer me to
someone less experienced who could be persuaded to work on the small
project. To my surprise and delight, Evelyn thought it sounded good and
wanted to do it herself. Mission accomplished.
</p>
<p>
Scarlet is almost the opposite story. I met Scarlet just about four or
five months before. She had volunteered as a PA on Elena Hanae's film
Us In Between. Elena had been a member of the Screenwriters Group which I
moderate, and had brought her script to the group. I had encouraged
Elena to follow her heart and do that film and I loaned camera gear to
the shoot and helped in a couple other ways. But Elena brought together a
great community of folks for that film and Scarlet showed up there. I
quickly got the sense that Scarlet was one of those people who is ready
and willing to help. It was clear that she had a great work ethic so I
asked her to assist on this film in a kind of cross between PA and
Assistant Director and she really helped keep us mindful of the
schedule.
</p>
<p>
Suzy was on Elena's shoot as well, but we didn't really connect
then. Instead, when I was looking for a sound person, I was referred to
her. By the time we talked in depth about sound, I had found someone
else but she expressed an interest in just helping on set. We had lunch
and I thought Suzy might be a good person to assist with camera needs.
She was game and proved to be ready to do whatever from the ordinary ("I
need a new battery"â€") to running camera on some shots so I could
focus more on directing at those moments.
</p>
<p>
Henry wrote Swine and we also met in the screenwriters group. We all
loved his script and Henry was interested in doing it both for the joy
of seeing it completed and for all the hands-on learning. Because it is
such a contained script (3 principal actors, 2 smaller roles and all in a
single house) it was a good candidate for production and we came
together to make it happen. Including Henry in more than the normal
amount of planning and producing tasks ended up being great for both of
us. And our planning really made the shoot go very smoothly.
</p>
<p>
Caroline is a local actor. I met Caroline on Twitter. Yes, you read
that right. I'm moderately active on Twitter and anytime I see a film
person who is local, I follow them. Caroline recruited me to help with a
small scale personal film project and we hit it off nicely. She's very
serious about her craft and her career in acting.
</p>
<p>
That's me, next to Caroline, still holding the camera and wearing my WGA strike shirt.
</p>
<p>
Glenn once owned the coolest camera there was (back in the miniDV
days) the Canon XL2. I worked on two or three of Glenn's films back in
that prehistoric period of digital video. Glenn was the one who
introduced me to Eric Morales and Whitney, who later appeared in several
of my films. Glenn's interests and abilities took him to New York, New
Orleans, and lots of other places until he returned to Durham last year
and we reconnected.
</p>
<p>
Brendan was our sound guy and Tom Hauser, who did sound for a couple
of my projects, referred me to Brendan. I met Tom on the Rusty Buckets
Kids project, a decade or so ago so thanks to John Demers. And just to
keep the small world thing going, the day after Tom recommended Brendan,
my friend and very active local actor, Larry Evans, was on a shoot
Brendan was working and recommended him to me. Brendan was great to work
with.
</p>
<p>
Seated in a bloody police shirt, Kellan actually wore the same shirt
in 2020 for a brief scene in my film Last Words: Mary, where he has the
daunting task of coming to the door to tell a guy that his wife was
killed in an accident. So when we needed to fill this role, I called
Kellan. Turns out he had moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in acting
but he had a family birthday back in the Triangle two days before our
shoot, so he was able to be in town and work on Swine.
</p>
<p>
Dillon, in the other police shirt, had been on set with Caroline in
Charlotte in some production and clearly enjoyed some of the physical /
simple stunts aspect of acting. Dillon had been a zombie on The Walking
Dead as well. So Caroline was the casting link here and we loved
Dillon's audition as well as the dramatic issues he raised about this
character.
</p>
<p>
Logan played a wonderful scene (shot the day before this wrap photo
was taken). Logan was also someone Caroline had worked with. Logan had
some impressive experience and was perfect for the role. Another casting
via Caroline! Logan, it turns out, is in more or less the same program
at UNC that Henry went through.
</p>
<p>
Heather was a key voice on a phone call in the opening moments of this
film. I had admired some of Heather's work on the stage and she played a
supporting role in the same 2020 film of mine that Kellan was in. Then
I recruited Heather as the lead in Fine Lines, another film based on a
script from the screenwriting group, (written by Kristine Scruggs).
(Heather's daughters also appeared in Fine Lines.)
</p>
<p>
And Violet - who did a ton of BTS photos - took this picture. Violet
turns out to be another Caroline casting connection! I only met Violet
on the first day of the shoot. She was great to have on set, got a ton
of moments recorded and lent a hand to various tasks in addition.
</p>
<p>
So, a group of people some of whom I first met more than twenty years
ago to meeting two days ago. This is truly one of the wonderful things
about my experience of the local film community. It's definitely a case
of think global but act local. I've found the local film community is
just a great, fascinating, loosely interconnected group. And, because of
the nature of film production, we each bring a different set of
abilities, experience and desire to the project, which is what we need.
On set and in life.
</p>
<ul><li>
Get on the <a href="http://eepurl.com/beXUor" target="_blank">mailing list</a> for updates three to four times a year, or so.
</li></ul>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-49117447938823810432019-09-13T14:42:00.000-04:002019-09-13T14:42:55.338-04:00It’s all about the storyIf you go to my film website <b><a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/story-tee-shirt.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></b> you will see (and, I hope, purchase) a shirt I sell with the slogan “It’s All About The Story” on the front. It's a lesson I learned in my filmmaking. But this is a story about a sweatshirt.<br /><br />Quite a while ago I was working as the Marketing Communications Manager for a semiconductor company. And while I am good with jargon and good at faking it (I was a marketing person after all) my boss suggested that I take a course in Basic Electronics.<br /><br />The course in question was at nearby MIT. It was a summer version of the freshman Basic Electronics course in two weeks. That is, Monday morning at 9AM you heard the first lecture of the “term.” And at 10AM, you heard the second lecture of the term and so on. By lunch, one week of a regular academic calendar had been covered; by dinner, more than two weeks. And there were actual labs as well, also quite condensed. It was a true instance of “drinking from a fire hose.”<br /><br />I survived the course. I still occasionally use words like “impedance” and “capacitance.” And I did have a much better insight, if not actual knowledge, about the process of digital processors and their underlying technologies.<br /><br />As my reward to myself for surviving the course, I purchased an MIT sweatshirt. It had a hood and was warm enough to be very useful in New England weather. It was slightly ironic, given that my graduate degree is in the fine arts. But I wore it proudly and it kept me warm.<br /><br />This is where the story takes over. I continued to wear this sweatshirt from time to time as my career pulled me through a succession of high tech companies. Most of the folks I worked with were not the people who read my resume when I was hired. I knew that the MIT sweatshirt told a story that was mostly fiction. And if someone asked, “Did you go to MIT?” or “When did you graduate?” my first response (part of the story-telling) was usually, “Oh, I never graduated from MIT.” If pressed further, I always admitted the true origin of the sweatshirt and we had a good chuckle over it.<br /><br />But I’m sure I enjoyed a bit of high regard earned primarily by the garment (and my excellence at jargon and faking it). However, as a former artist working in high tech marketing, I was okay with this small boost.<br /><br />It’s all about the story.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-86581129188884738762019-03-25T12:14:00.001-04:002019-09-13T14:43:33.432-04:00Coverage?<br />
<i><b>“Coverage is what you do when you don’t have any real idea about meaning or style.”</b></i><br />
<br />
Okay, a somewhat strong statement. What do I mean by that?<br />
<br />
Of course, it’s useful to understand what standard “coverage” looks like. Two people are seated together and having an important conversation. So convention says to shoot a two-shot (a wide view of the two of them) and then matching OTS shots (over the shoulder of first one, then the other speaker, medium tight on the one facing us). And we mustn’t “cross the line” or our viewer will be confused. And sometimes we push in for a closer close-up on the faces at a critical moment in the conversation.<br />
<br />
Shooting that coverage isn’t a terrible idea, of course, other than the need for all the setups and all the takes. (An actor’s time and energy often being the most critical resource on a set.)<br />
<br />
But conventional coverage isn’t based on any particular insight about the story, about the emotion of the moment, about the relationship of the two speakers to each other and to the topic being discussed or avoided in this conversation. Nor does it imply anything useful about how such a scene is assembled in the editing process, other than the idea that all of these shots might be useful and therefore need to be used.<br />
<br />
Consider this scene. The conversation is between two boys of high school age. They are sitting at a small table in a coffee shop. Aaron is slight and awkward. The second boy, Michael, is older, taller and both self-confident and domineering. In the story, something terrible has happened to Michael’s friend and he’s determined to figure out who was responsible. He normally doesn’t even talk to Aaron, but he happened to see him at the table and decided to quiz Aaron a bit about the whole thing, partially motivated by an unconscious need to be in control. However, unbeknownst to Michael, Aaron was actually a witness to the terrible thing that happened to Michael’s friend and feels he may have been partly responsible. He’s terrified of Michael at this moment and trying desperately not to show it.<br />
<br />
Okay, what kind of “coverage” makes sense here? We could do all the conventional shots and certainly put together something. But – this is just me quickly thinking about the scene – I might want to shoot this:<br />
<br />
First, a two-shot in which Aaron is alone, sees Michael coming to his table, and “welcomes” Michael to sit down. And then slowly push in towards Aaron until we are in a full face close-up, all the while hearing the conversation. Then, just at the end, a somewhat wide but standard OTS on Michael, who gives up the conversation as useless and leaves. And back to the empty two-shot of Aaron, now alone and shaken. My thinking is that I want the audience to see how shaken Aaron is by these moments and how he is trying to conceal it. So we hear the entire conversation, but we don’t need to see much about Michael; the subtext of this scene is all about Aaron.<br />
<br />
A key issue related to coverage is the pace of the final scene. If we use the two standard OTS shots and cut back and forth between the two speakers, it is easy for the pace of that cutting to contradict the emotional tension of the scene.<br />
<br />
Consider a different scene. This is a romantic, comic conversation between Grace and Don. Both are in their thirties and have met briefly before and Grace asks if she can share the (only available) table with Don during a busy lunch hour at this café. Don is a bit strait-laced and Grace is quite the free spirit, so their banter is first a bit perplexing for Don and then, delightful. But Grace is called away by a phone call she takes, leaving the table and Don, who wishes she had stayed.<br />
<br />
Again, free associating a bit on this scene, my thoughts would be these. First, we might want a long shot of the busy restaurant and Grace spotting the place at Don’s table. A version of the standard two-shot seems natural here to show their relative ease or unease as Grace settles in. I would probably also favor a very tight two-shot of the conversation showing both Grace’s wit and Don’s surprise or misunderstanding in the same shot. Finally, I would want the standard OTS on Grace when she gets the phone call that ends their time together, following her up and away from the table. And a single on Don of his reaction as she gets up and leaves him, the café and the frame.<br />
<br />
My point is fundamentally this: doing conventional coverage makes every scene conventional. Style is a question of knowing what you do not need to tell the story. The audience does not feel more strongly or laugh louder because you did “all” the expected coverage. Nor does the production move swiftly through photography (or editing) if you always get the “all coverage you might need.” And while there are always situations in production where it is wise to prepare for problems by shooting a bit more than you need, it is also always wise to conserve time and energy by knowing exactly what you do not need.<br />
<br />
A commonly repeated tale is that Alfred Hitchcock photographed only the parts of the scene he expected to use in editing the film, rendering alternative treatments impossible. True or not, it is the approach we should all be following as well as we are able, shooting what we need to tell our particular, unconventional story.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-42919433051714333382019-03-24T11:44:00.002-04:002019-03-24T11:44:42.914-04:00The future of the Internet?<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not on a film topic, bit since film and the internet ("Internet") seem to be intertwined, it seems pertinent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe that we are passing through a period that amounts to the settling of the "wild west." Very little if anything is secure. Very little if anything is private. Very little can be anonymous. Every few months we hear about millions of credit cards and related info being swiped from this or that big corporation. Add to that all the thefts that are not reported. And what about all the automated calls to our cell phones that masquerade as being local calls?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet we shop and comment and read and react as if this were all working just fine. Luckily, it does work fine most of the time, but only because we are lucky. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is another stage in the development of all of this. There must be. When we reach that stage, things will actually be secure and possibly even private. Of course, there are many commercial forces that mitigate against both of those goals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Privacy and, in particular, anonymity may be at the heart of the future internet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I imagine that there will be two internets in the future. In one internet, there will be no anonymity. Users will be strictly identified and responsible for everything they do, say, purchase. True security becomes possible (assuming all the backend systems grow up and fly right). In the second internet, anonymity is the rule and the sort of gossip and false witness we see everyday can flourish there. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps the identified users of the public internet will be able to see the anonymous internet and the anonymous users will not be able to see into the public internet. Maybe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In any event, security is not here today but it is eventually coming, Its coming may be a crushing blow to freedom or a liberation from fear. Stay tuned.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-47433580605472131062017-12-23T14:11:00.003-05:002017-12-23T14:11:58.847-05:00The Value of Filmmaking?<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I just finished shooting a short film and, as the holidays settle over us, I’ve been thinking more about the value of filmmaking. Not the value of filmmaking to the world or in the culture, but its value for me personally. Why do I bother to make films? What am I actually getting out of this? Where is it all going?<br /><br />Barring any improbable uptick in my public film career (you know, that fantasy where Michelle Williams wants to be in your film) my films are not going to be discussed in film classes or shown in retrospectives anywhere. I’m not bound for either fame or fortune at this point.<br /><br />This post may have the tone of a well-settled academic essay but do not underestimate the many likely holes in my logic. This post is a stab at talking about something important. Please let me know what you think.<br /><br />Extrinsic value is the “exchange” value of a thing. If someone pays you $25 to work for an hour, that’s the extrinsic value of that work. The work may or may not be satisfying. If you find satisfaction in the work, that’s the <u>intrinsic</u> value.<br /><br />When we talk about art of any kind, I think there are some clear levels of intrinsic value; different kinds of satisfaction we get from making anything creative.<br /><br />First, there is the fundamental, childlike satisfaction from simply making anything: a mark on paper for example. This is pretty much something that every filmmaker (and artist) experiences. For your first film, it’s the sheer wonder that you had something to do with creating this luminous wonderful (to you) thing that is a REAL film!<br /><br />This first level has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with just coming into existence. “We did it!” is enough for all to rejoice. For me (and probably for most of you) my first experience with this kind of intrinsic satisfaction probably came with a coloring book at age 3 or 4. And this kind of satisfaction pretty much happens most of the way through grade school. But with your first film project, there is a renewal of wonder and satisfaction simply because the thing exists now.<br /><br />The second level amounts to the beginning of craft. My second (or third or fourth...) film now exhibits some aspect of craft that I recognize as “professional” or perhaps just “cool.” “Look at how I rolled focus from him to her. Cool, hunh?” Perhaps I should describe this as film student satisfaction? We are striving to get beyond the simple “showing up” level of satisfaction by demonstrating the craft that we are able to achieve.<br /><br />The third level, perhaps only slightly different from the second, depending on your background, is consciously imitating some film or TV show that you admire. This can occur at any level of craft but my point is that the intrinsic satisfaction is linked to the recognition that your thing (a freeze frame, go to black & white) is specifically an imitation of some work you find cool (NCIS act breaks, for example).<br /><br />These “levels” are obviously not as different or clearly distinguished as my analysis implies. Nor are they immature or unsophisticated in any fundamental way. I’m pretty sure that accomplished filmmakers get these satisfactions from their work. And I am convinced that many indie wannabe filmmakers get much of their satisfaction from these kinds of things.<br /><br />But, in my opinion (and experience), to go beyond these “levels” requires finding a personal connection to the work. Often the most accessible kind of personal connection is with documentary of some sort. I am attracted to a person, a place, an organization, a problem on a personal level, so I turn my filmmaking to this subject. I rejoice in the celebration of the subject I care about.<br /><br />If my form of finding a personal connection flows toward a fictional approach, this leads me to the story. And if telling the story is the satisfaction in making my film, then caring about what it means both to me and to a viewer becomes important.<br /><br />The above could be thought of as the “fourth level” in my analysis. Whether documentary or fiction, the filmmaker is now driven by a personal connection to the material and by the desire to share this with a viewer.<br /><br />Which hits the brick wall of filmmaking: finding an audience. Once we care primarily about the impact on a viewer, once we are basing our satisfaction on how successfully our craft supports that impact, we need an audience.<br /><br />But the problem of reaching an audience is a classic and difficult problem. The most common solutions involve relatively large resources, marketing thinking and access to the public square, access which is typically purchased with celebrity. It’s the fame & fortune problem.<br /><br />I think that local communities become critical at this point. My audience will never include millions but it could potentially include a community of local filmmakers and film appreciators. This is what motivated me to create a film series whose work was drawn entirely from local filmmakers. (That film series failed to find its audience for a variety of reasons.) <br /><br />It’s a difficult goal to achieve but one that we all need.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-52616647228671988092017-02-21T12:05:00.002-05:002017-02-21T12:05:53.045-05:00Too Much & Too Little & To Whom?<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I believe that any piece of writing should be "as long as necessary and as short as possible." Discussion in my screenwriters' group has called my attention to some basic issues of length and brevity. <br /><br />The first issue is too much or too little description. The second issue is how the plan for the writer to be the director explains or excuses the amount of description (among other things).<br /><br />The description that clearly feels excessive to me generally is based on these impulses:<br /><br /><b>1) Location geometry</b><br />It rarely actually matters -- in a script -- whether the dresser is to the left or the right of the bed. Yet many writers get a vision in their head and are compelled to record a lot of details about such things. <br /><br />In practice, of course, should the film be produced, the actual room may be quite different but the scenes are likely to be fine. So, the question of where everything is should only be detailed when dramatic action critically relies on <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it</span>. Even then, many things can be described very simply.<br /><br /><b>2) Blocking the actors</b> <br />It’s just not necessary to say that someone opens the car door and gets in. Or that they walk around the car to get in. Unless these details are critical to action, they are unnecessary. “Gets in” is all any reader needs to understand that <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">someone</span> unlocked the car door, opened it, got in, adjusted the mirrors, started the engine, put the car in gear and moved away. If there is a dramatic reason to describe everything (the character suffers from OCD?) then, of course, fine. But otherwise, less is more.<br /><br /><b>3) Directing the actors</b><br />Actors are creative. Describing in detail when they brush the hair out of their face and after which word they pause should be unnecessary and may be considered intrusive. The script must make it very clear what the character is feeling. The character may even have a set of typical behaviors. Fine. Just don't get hung up on a lot of detailed description of ordinary movements and reactions. Save this for when a character does something completely unexpected.<br /><br /> Apart from those common problems, I see the pros and cons of action description this way:<br />
<br /><table>
<tbody>
<tr width="20%">
<td></td>
<td><b>Too Much?</b></td>
<td><b>Too Little?</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PROs: </td>
<td>Might clarify the writer's intention better</td>
<td>Brevity is a good thing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td>CONs: </td>
<td>Current style: keep descriptions brief, e.g. 3-lines</td>
<td>The feeling is opaque or invisible</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>Florid or excessive description is often bad writing</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>A long impassioned description may actually lose some readers</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>"It’s O<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">K</span>, I'm going to direct it myself"</b>
<br />Many struggle with the fact that a script is <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not</span> an end product; it's the beginning of a process. A process that will be completed by a director who, in turn, drives the production.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I would say that erring on the side of too much description is <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">li<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">k</span>ely to be</span> better. I've read scripts where it was impossible to tell what really mattered in a scene and the writer-director simply asserted that they planned to work with actors to bring that out. I'm thinking actors need the script to give them a clue beforehand, perhaps even before they decide to participate.<br /><br />My own script, that I am going to direct, should be no different than the best possible script I would write to sell or have someone else direct. <br /><br />Why should I go through all that “bother?” For the same reason I write in my journey or discuss a plan with colleagues: to understand myself better. Having the discipline to both commit to and to fully express what you (the writer) need in the <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">story</span> is a huge benefit to you the director, producer and cheer-leader.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-82556713726119277332017-01-25T13:13:00.002-05:002017-01-25T13:13:17.107-05:00Success? Obstacles?Robert Hardy, who runs <a href="http://filmmakersprocess.com/">Filmmakersprocess.com</a> recently sent a bunch of folks these questions:<br />
<br />
<i>"Hey friend,</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I have two quick questions for you...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>1. What would being successful as a filmmaker look like to you?</i><br />
<i>2. What's your biggest obstacle right now in pursuing that success?"</i><br />
<br />
I thought these were good to think about and here's my (relatively quickly composed) reply for him.<br />
Decent questions, though life is complicated.<br />
<br />
1. Success as a filmmaker, for me, at this point, starts with the personal feeling of accomplishment. On a broader scale, success would initially be success in film festivals.<br />
<br />
So if my next film were to be picked up by a variety of the top (Oscar-qualifying) festivals, that would be a great step. But there are two parts to this. First of all, there is the simple gratification of being recognized beyond a small circle for some artistic achievement. Second, however, is the possibility that this recognition could open some other doors.<br />
<br />
1A. I’m devoting most of my “film energy” these days in writing scripts that I will likely not ever produce myself. Success here is a bit more concrete in that the definition of success would be to sell a script. I’ve been using the pitch opportunities offered by Stage32.com and this has opened some doors. So I think it’s a matter of time and quality (and a bit of luck) to move forward on this.<br />
<br />
2. Biggest filmmaking obstacle is mostly time, occasionally masquerading as money. In this case, time really means improving my artistic ability, my filmmaking “quality” as much as possible. However, I also accept that the films I find the most rewarding to make may not be the ones that fit with the taste of any festival.<br />
It would be facile to say that money for entry fees was the obstacle. Theoretically, it would be great to pitch any film into 250 festivals, but that doesn’t really attract me that much. I’m more interested in the best festivals.<br />
<br />
2A. There are two simple steps in the screenwriting success equation. Many worry at great length about step #2. I’m still thinking I have a lot of work to do to develop my craft. The rules are these:<br />
#1. Write a great script.<br />
#2. Get it in front of some folks who might be interested.<br />
<br />
If you can’t do step #1, the next step is unimportant. So the biggest obstacle is "simply" writing a great script.<br />
<br />
Love to hear your thoughts about all this stuff.<br />
<br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-58273030340376812152016-09-21T11:09:00.000-04:002016-09-21T11:10:19.323-04:00Eight of Fifteen Things<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I ran across a lovely post that many filmmakers have seen titled, <a href="https://www.shortoftheweek.com/news/15-things-wrong-short-film/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Fifteen Things Wrong With Your Short Film."</a> It's pretty telling and honest and we have all committed these sins at one time or another, I think.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll admit, my favorite is #3, "your film has opening credits." They explain that, in addition to adding to the running time for no dramatic reason, no one knows or cares about your actors or crew (unless you have corralled someone well known for the right reasons) (and then, it's not necessary).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I spent a few moments looking at this article and the list of fifteen things and made a judgement of how many of the fifteen things are fundamentally script / story problems. I came up with eight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the list, with the eight items I attribute to script in red.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your film is too long</span>.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your film starts too
slow</span>.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Your film has opening credits</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Your film has bad sound</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Your film has bad acting</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="color: red; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your film lacks
originality</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Your film is in Black & White for no reason</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="color: red; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your characters are
boring</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your film has
interesting characters but they don’t do anything</span>.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: red;">Your was more satisfying to make than watch</span>.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Your
film is good considering...</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>You
made your film in 48 hours</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="color: red; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: red;">You didn’t watch other
short films</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>You
list meaningless laurels</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: red;">You made a bland profile documentary</span>.</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, #1 (too long) is an editing decision as well, though many will claim that editing is the final rewrite of the script. Starting too slow may not be story-related but I think it typically will be. Items 6, 8, and 9 should be obvious.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I thought about #10 for a while. At the end of the day, I think we may enjoy making a film of any kind (good or bad) but the story quality is the determinant for the audience. Number 11 is a special case of #10, I think. Their discussion of #11 amounts to saying that the constraints and problems you faced are (unfortunately) irrelevant to the film. You succeeded in making a film with a wind-up Bolex limiting you to only two takes, each no longer than 75 seconds - no one cares. It's all about the story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One could argue that #13 is not a script or story problem, but I think it is the upstream problem. If you haven't seen a really well-crafted, clever story done in eight minutes, you may not realize what is possible. On the other hand, I admire some TV commercials for the amount of story-telling they manage in 15 or 30 seconds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think #15 is a bit unfair in the original list, although it makes sense. In the original article, their point was not that such docs are inherently bad, just that they don't generally rise about the clutter of similar projects. But the main knock on them is lack of dramatic arc, i.e. story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I understand that, for a short film, a good script doesn't always have to be a classically written document. But it needs to be a good script / story no matter how it is conceived.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-16539011300025943512016-08-06T13:36:00.000-04:002016-08-06T13:36:06.350-04:00A Picture of High Tech LIfe....I've been looking at this photo I took of my office at NetQos in Austin.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0rNrw7r1yrIjJb0dxuxt58LRtthYaYwafFEUTtolLENxr0usG1ZpxpPZea3x46D7o_vDyi6TIdL58TxpnaSwyLZEQRpRBsu_cDN5IHU0Sn7f_wTelTA0iu4T_BMI8Hsd4MtnBKPXuC8/s1600/my_hightech_office.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img align="middle" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0rNrw7r1yrIjJb0dxuxt58LRtthYaYwafFEUTtolLENxr0usG1ZpxpPZea3x46D7o_vDyi6TIdL58TxpnaSwyLZEQRpRBsu_cDN5IHU0Sn7f_wTelTA0iu4T_BMI8Hsd4MtnBKPXuC8/s400/my_hightech_office.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
The picture is from 2007, so it's the beginning of my last year in high tech. (Although digital video offers plenty of "high tech" to mess with too.)<br />
<br />
It's not a beautifully crafted, elegant kind of thing, although it is sort of lean and simple. It was taken with a cheap still camera (a Canon Powershot of some ilk).<br />
<br />
Here's what I'm seeing in this image.<br />
<br />
First, there are the two cans of Diet Coke. Anyone who has worked with me on set will recognize those.<br />
<br />
Second, there is the vintage laptop. It's an IBM laptop from the era when IBM made laptops. It even has that cute and clever little joystick in the middle of the keyboard. My friend David Fair went from being the product manager for the Digital Equipment Corporation Alpha chip (the most powerful processor at that moment) to being the product manager for the 4-bit controller that ran the joystick. (Or maybe it was the in the other direction; either way a large change.)<br />
<br />
Third, the image on the computer screen is iconic for my time with NetQos: an American Airlines boarding pass. I still lived in Durham but I spent approximately one week out of three in this office in Austin.<br />
<br />
Fourth, if the computer didn't date the photo, the flip phone on the desk ought to. The iPhone had been announced about three months before this photo was taken and my flip phone would be replaced by the iPhone within the year.<br />
<br />
Fifth, the small amount of books in the bookcase suggest that this was, indeed, my "away" office, not my "home" office. I do tend accumulate reading material in my travels.<br />
<br />
Sixth, the lovely view out the window, not very well rendered in this photo, suggests a little bit of the terrain of Austin: hills, greenery, bright skies.<br />
<br />
Those are some of the elements <u>visible</u> in the photograph. When I taught photography, I often used the expression, "invisible jackrabbit" to talk about the difference between what is actually in a picture (for example, bushes) and the remembered experience that is not in the picture but which is evoked by the picture ("there was this big jackrabbit behind the bush").<br />
<br />
As a "snapshot" -- that is as a personal reminder of things only alluded to by the image -- it's a rich set. I can remember the amazingly sane policy of NetQos that everyone got a real office. Of course, there are my many former coworkers. There is a memory of being in this office at 7AM in the morning when it was quiet and the stillness helped me think.<br />
<br />
There is the memory of a small company better run than virtually any other company I ever worked for (large or small). And one of the roots of the script I'm writing about a man who loses his job and has to find the work that really suits him. I had a great time in high tech, but some did not and as NetQos was savvy enough to understand, people are good at different things. My story is fundamentally about a guy who really isn't that good at the job he's been doing and unemployment forces him to figure out what he can be good at.<br />
<br />
And there's the memory of my exit row, window seat on the flights from RDU to Austin and back. A good look at a swath of America. Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-50712565278499961952016-07-12T13:33:00.001-04:002016-07-12T13:33:35.472-04:00Fixing It in PlanningAfter helping a bunch of local indie filmmakers as AD on their films, I accumulated a lot of insight I hadn't exactly wanted about production problems. Finally I wrote it all down and I was delighted that Scott Macaulay, the editor of <i>Filmmaker Magazine</i>, was interested in publishing it on their web site.<br />
<br />
The original article is here on the <a href="http://filmmakermagazine.com/98820-fix-it-in-production-1st-a-d-tells-you-what-mistakes-to-avoid-when-shooting-an-independent-film/" target="_blank">Filmmaker Magazine web site</a>. If you would like a more readable PDF version of the advice, I've put the file up on <a href="http://turnipfilms.com/f1_pdf_fixitinplanning.html" target="_blank">my web site here</a>.<br />
<br />
Please share any additional questions, war stories or thoughts about the topic with me. And, of course, if you're doing a production in North Carolina, maybe I can help? <a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/f1_contact.html" target="_blank">Click here to get in touch.</a><br />
<br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-65138970804470249052016-05-15T21:11:00.000-04:002016-05-15T21:12:27.412-04:00Learning More About Distribution<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been daydreaming about doing a feature film lately. Nope, no immediate plans. But in the spirit of planning ahead, lots of things touching on finance and distribution are catching my eye. In case I suddenly move something into production, you'll want to be getting my <a href="http://eepurl.com/beXUor" target="_blank">four times a year newsletter</a>.<br /><br />On May 14th, as part of the <a href="http://www.longleaffilmfestival.com/" target="_blank">Longleaf Film Festival </a>at the NC Museum of History, there was a session on the subject of film distribution. I found it enlightening and fundamental. I needed to share my learning with a couple of different folks and as I started to write up my notes, it seemed like a blog post was the best way to do that.<br /><br />The session consisted of <a href="http://www.brookspierce.com/our-people/attorneys/thomas-g-varnum" target="_blank">Thomas Varnum</a>, an entertainment lawyer with the firm of Brooks Pierce based in Wilmington, NC and Vernon Rudolph, a filmmaker/cinematographer based in Raleigh and operating as <a href="http://skygrassmedia.com/" target="_blank">Sky Grass Media</a>. The two presenters alternated with Rudolph presenting his experience, good and bad, and Varnum commenting on some of the issues raised, and pitfalls to be avoided (or to be fallen into).<br /><br />Rudolph has worked on several features. He produced and shot <a href="http://www.phinthemovie.com/" target="_blank">Phin (2013)</a>, directed</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> by his friend Patrick Chapman</span>. Phin was their first feature film. Two years later, Rudolph shot <a href="http://www.toythemovie.com/" target="_blank">ToY</a>, written and directed by Chapman. Rudolph based most of his remarks on this experience with these two films.<br /><br />Phin was a labor of love feature, shot in six days for a budget of about $30K. After modest festival success, the filmmakers hit the street and contacted every distribution entity they could. They got a lot of rejection! Eventually they signed a deal with a Canadian distributor. The deal, Rudolph lamented, was for twelve years, exclusive and worldwide for all rights. Essentially the film sat on the distributor's shelf and added to the credibility of the distributor's catalog but did nothing else. In hindsight, even though the deal was a bad deal on the face of it, it still represented a step forward for the filmmakers.<br /><br />Having gotten the first film out of their system, ToY was calculated to be a moneymaking film. The budget was $110K (but ballooning to nearly $200K to complete all the deliverables in post) and they had two name actors (Briana Evigan and Kerry Norton from Battlestar Galactica) which made a big difference. Eventually, they were able to pick among several distribution offers, signing with Taylor & Dodge, an international sales agent. This deal was a much better deal than with Phin, with a duration of only five years. So far the film has been sold in South Korea and Germany and appeared on iTunes through Gravitas on May 13th!<br /><br />Varnum talked about the general issues around the development part of the process. Memorably, he said, "Every film is a startup company, just like high tech. You must have a financing plan, a revenue plan and an exit strategy." First, he emphasized the need to get all agreements for locations, talent, music, use of products, and so on, signed and sealed during production. You will not be able to get the essential <a href="https://www.filmemporium.com/errors--omissions-insurance" target="_blank">E&O insurance</a> without all that paperwork. In effect, the end goal of production is to be able to get E&O insurance. Varnum suggested that the cost typically ranges from $3K to $6K but can be higher. If the film contains a lot of elements claimed as "fair use" for copyright purposes, you will need a written opinion from a lawyer versed in fair use to substantiate the claim for E&O insurance and the cost will go up accordingly.<br /><br />Varnum also stressed the need for early stage publicity. Rudolph emphatically agreed, citing the moment when they were able to sign known talent to the project. That moment is the only real opportunity to get PR benefit from signing the talent. Luckily, they had a publicist working on that kind of stuff for their second film. Rudolph was pleasantly surprised to see a short mention in The Hollywood Reporter about their signing.<br /><br />Once a film is complete, there are, of course, several possible ways to try to commercialize the film. You can go the film festival route but they cautioned that this is both unpredictable and potentially expensive. The <a href="http://americanfilmmarket.com/" target="_blank">American Film Market (AFM)</a> and similar film markets are another major avenue. Emerging in today's Internet environment, both presenters were optimistic about Distribber and Tugg as distribution alternatives.<br /><br />Varnum made a couple of very valuable specific points about distribution agreements. First, he talked about separate rights. This means separating the various possible distribution modes. For example, selling worldwide theatrical rights but retaining rights to sell DVDs or retaining domestic theatrical and selling rights for the rest of the world, etc. In today's environment, many different combinations are possible and few sales agents or distributors are good at everything.<br /><br />Second, he recommended a "reversion" clause, meaning that if the distributor or sales agent does nothing for eighteen months or two years, all the rights revert to the filmmaker. Or, all the rights become non-exclusive, allowing the filmmaker to do whatever might be possible.<br /><br />Third, he recommended an emerging practice, having a "meaningful consultation" clause in any contract. This essentially means that the distributor or sales agent must consult with the filmmaker, must hear the filmmaker's thoughts (or objections) to any substantive commercial proposal. The decision-making authority remains with the sales agent, but at least the filmmaker must be consulted. Essentially it provides the incentive for a collaborative relationship.<br /><br />Rudolph stressed the need to conduct due diligence about any organization, especially one making an offer. IMDB Pro is a great resource for networking to folks who have dealt with any sales agent or distributor and most filmmakers are quite willing to share their experience confidentially.<br /><br />If you like insights in much much smaller pieces, please follow me on twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/turnipvideo" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/turnipvideo</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-9805997104484069812016-01-25T10:45:00.000-05:002016-01-25T10:45:23.144-05:00High Tech & Filmmaking?<h3>
About that High Tech Thing!</h3>
Turns out that my years toiling in high tech are extremely helpful in <a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/" target="_blank">my filmmaking journey</a>. Surprise!<br />
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Of course, there’s the obvious stuff. Like knowing what an actual “backup” is. Like knowing that it’s kind of critical to actually make a “backup.” And generally being able to navigate the murky waters of personal computing.<br />
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At the other end of the spectrum, I can thank high tech for being able to actually understand what a <a href="http://www.analog.com/en/products/landing-pages/001/adsp-manuals.html#processor-manuals" target="_blank">codec</a> is, and some of the possible reasons why one codec is better than another.<br />
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But the key stuff is the “soft stuff” in between. Learning from <a href="http://www.khorus.com/joel-trammell" target="_blank">some great leaders</a> about dealing with people. People who may be really smart about some things and not so smart about other stuff (no particular software engineer in mind here!). Understanding that you can learn to make decisions without perfect information; this is often called “marketing” and sometimes called “guessing.” Learning that telling stories about stuff is one of the core experiences of humans. Much more to say about this some time.<br />
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2015: Reflections</h3>
Well, the strange thing about 2015 was that I did not actually shoot a film. I finished TWO films. One [<a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/film-firstkiss/film_main.html" target="_blank">Memory of a Kiss</a>, based on a play by Robert Wallace] is a sweet, sad look at how dementia stresses adult children, sometimes forcing difficult choices. The other [<a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/film-scene/film_main.html" target="_blank">“Scene”</a>] is an off-the-wall glimpse into an actress who – in the course of four recorded auditions – is losing her grip on life. Each of these films found a bit of a home at two different festivals. Both were written and shot in 2014.<br />
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What I did do, that was fun and filmmaking, was to help some other filmmakers. I was on set, mostly as AD for one or more days (or nights) helping these filmmakers:<br />
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- Rob Underhill & Aravind Ragupathi (<i>Legerdemain</i>)<br />
- Michael Howard (feature: <i>Where We’re Meant to Be</i>)<br />
- Kevin Richmond (additional scenes, DP: <i>One Last Sunset Redux</i>)<br />
- Todd Tinkham (<i>Right Here, Right Now</i>)<br />
- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2346307/" target="_blank">Dexter Goad</a> (feature: <i>The Art of Confession</i>)<br />
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Which was absolutely great! But not me making a film, alas. However, I did write my first real feature script, a couple of short scripts and generally put most of my energy into writing. Much more to say about that and the chance to read and give me feedback later this year.<br />
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Much more to say about that and the chance to read some of these scripts and give me feedback later this year. Let me know if you'd like to read one.<br />
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Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-37029866919778103832015-11-30T17:29:00.000-05:002015-11-30T17:29:39.204-05:00Great Short Films from the Austin Film Festival<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were a lot of cool shorts at the recent Austin Film Festival. I recently blogged about <i>Life On Juniper</i>. Here’s a brief reflection on three others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />My favorite short in the whole festival was <i>Red Rover</i> by Australian, Brooke Goldfinch. You can see the trailer here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> <a href="http://brookegoldfinch.com/films/red-rover/">http://brookegoldfinch.com/films/red-rover/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Why did I love this film? Not just because it was beautifully crafted, but it touched me emotionally. It touched me because it has a core of yearning for life, a yearning which isn’t realized within the film but which resonates in the life of the teenage couple the film is centered on. It’s a film about an apocalypse without a single frame of violence. It’s the heart of the apocalypse: the great loss of our future.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95Ueyxj8oQub-_vczVadQkkkr46TE3kMa0-IUIsL5Nx3jnzYWubck56JeCHxWeJcI3gwi8Q1DjoNYfdCiqQ3AzuknZejxpyjoiFT5v4QSGvYMMSjsS2AKnASQZl_JNtdxs5S14imjlUo/s1600/RR_two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95Ueyxj8oQub-_vczVadQkkkr46TE3kMa0-IUIsL5Nx3jnzYWubck56JeCHxWeJcI3gwi8Q1DjoNYfdCiqQ3AzuknZejxpyjoiFT5v4QSGvYMMSjsS2AKnASQZl_JNtdxs5S14imjlUo/s320/RR_two.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several families have gathered for a last supper. We gather that a large meteor is expected to strike the Earth the next day and these families have decided to have a last meal that is poisoned to spare themselves the agony of the disaster. But the daughter of one family and her boyfriend, the son of another family, don’t accept this. They hide the food and when everyone has fallen silent, they flee in search of shelter. But as they search a virtually empty world for this shelter, they forget their trouble and begin to image the world that might be theirs, a world of love and springtimes. But the world shakes and all becomes a blinding white.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Kendall McCrory’s film <i>Ruby Woo</i> was another film I loved at the Festival. It’s a gritty world where an eleven-year-old sister wants to enter her older sister’s sad world without realizing what she might be getting into. In fact, the older sister is working as a prostitute, assisted by the boyfriend. The boyfriend and younger sister are waiting outside the town’s primary motel when another call comes in and the younger sister impulsively answers it. With the boyfriend’s encouragement, she goes to the caller’s room. But the older sister emerges from her client, screams at the boyfriend and rescues the younger sister.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />The triangle of the sisters and the older sister’s manipulative boyfriend was artfully drawn. This film has real heart in its misery. The film was the filmmaker’s MFA thesis film at Florida State University.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />More from: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4064940/combined">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4064940/combined</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />At every festival I attend, I learn more about myself than anything else. The films that are primarily cute jokes, or clever genre parodies, or fascination resolutions of ridiculous situations do not hold my interest. I can appreciate them, mostly intellectually, but the films, like these two, that show me a journey of the heart are the ones that matter to me. This, of course, is exactly what I hope to do in my own work.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-9569371639964706732015-11-16T12:36:00.001-05:002015-11-16T12:40:39.306-05:00Seen at the Austin Film Festival: Life on Juniper<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the best short films I saw at the <a href="https://austinfilmfestival.com/" target="_blank">Austin Film Festival</a> was a Canadian film titled, "<i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LIFE-ON-JUNIPER-1533253293560687/" target="_blank">Life on Juniper</a></i>."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's one of images they use to promote the film.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipruHkeYYRGquk1V_C4-aABe9XWTuqYTtuAX7Qy_Fo7V0G5IruTLklSIFJT5jFav4QP4wIO4JRhsak2p5VBb-ZQTn7FrsjBOHEG977Qubk04f6fSXxJrfpwQEBqtXuUYzxnItCk58obkA/s1600/life_on_juniper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipruHkeYYRGquk1V_C4-aABe9XWTuqYTtuAX7Qy_Fo7V0G5IruTLklSIFJT5jFav4QP4wIO4JRhsak2p5VBb-ZQTn7FrsjBOHEG977Qubk04f6fSXxJrfpwQEBqtXuUYzxnItCk58obkA/s320/life_on_juniper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the image suggests, there is a little green man in the film. But I want to tell you why this is an amazing human film, despite the little green man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But first a warning. This is going to be a spoiler. If you're about to see the film somewhere, don't read any further.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The film focuses on an older couple. They have lived for years on a piece of property (on Juniper Lane) that might be a bit out in the country; big enough to have a large shed with years of junk stashed in it. One night the husband wakes up and follows a sound, some ligh,t and sees that the back door is open and someone is - maybe - just shutting the door to the shed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next day, his wife nags him to clean out the shed and he pretends to do that in order to investigate. Amid snatches of background TV news referencing various news that might be related to UFOs, etc., he goes into the shed. And, he discovers the little green man. Not exactly ET, but apparently friendly. They have some limited interaction in which the little green man indicates that he comes from a galaxy far, far away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The husband sees a man in a suit knocking a their door. He sees the man looking around the property and taking pictures. He attempts to hide the little green man from prying eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this point, I am sort of enjoying the ride but I'm about to think, jeez, another lame low-budget sci-fi flick. Then everything changes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The husband comes in and the wife is asking once again about cleaning out the shed so they can move. The husband admits to being confused about the move -- there are boxes stacked here and there in the living room. The wife reminds him that they are selling the house and moving into assisted living since she can't manage it all by herself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Suddenly the story turns inside out. It's a story about dementia. It's a story about how dementia looks from inside the husband's experience. The man with the camera was a real estate agent. I was amazed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've done two films in which dementia was portrayed. But I found the experience in <i>Life On Juniper</i> to be a brillant way to treat the problem; creative, imaginative, fun before being sad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I applaud filmmaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2272196/" target="_blank">Mark Ratlazz</a>.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-31319767049855645712015-10-12T11:36:00.001-04:002015-10-12T11:36:03.369-04:004K VERSUS FILM?<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Okay, Twitter is just not the forum to really consider the issues. So I'm compelled to write this (longer than 140 characters) blog post. I’d love to hear from anyone with interesting counter arguments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I don't think the real issue is 4K versus Film, or digital versus film, but that is one issue. So some thoughts on that subject first.</span><br />
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Cost</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For us lowly indie wannabe filmmakers, digital is cheaper in several ways.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1) film stock and developing</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The most obvious thing -- if we tend to ignore the capital cost of memory cards -- is that it costs a significant amount of money to process an hour’s worth of film and nothing for digital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2) time costs</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The time cost is equally significant, but a two-edged sword. First, the fact that digital is easy to shoot (no storage problem, like refrigerators for film) and more obvious, easy to view immediately. These factors make it easier to start and easier to understand how things are going.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The other “edge” of this sword, which I don’t totally subscribe to, has to do with the idea that shooting on film makes everyone more careful, more ready to do their best because you aren’t going to do a large number of takes. (Except that this rule doesn’t apply to truly big-budget, big name folks anyway, e.g. David Fincher.) I think the time value of seeing footage as you work is a significant plus for film. “Video assist” is common for this reason, I realize. I think the issue of everyone doing their best is a challenge for the director, not for the medium used to record the performance. Then there is the occasional processing lab mistake which is one of the nightmares of shooting on film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3) capital</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Clearly, it is possible to acquire or rent acceptably decent cameras & lenses far cheaper than the equivalent 35mm or 16mm packages. The film Tangerine is the fashionable example, of course, and -- for the subject / story / environment -- iPhone was a reasonable choice. And good for marketing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Presumably, cost of gear is one reason that something like half of the features shown at Sundance in recent years (I think the data was from 2013) were shot on some form of DSLR.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> I also find it ironic that many of folks who argue most passionately about the superiority of film do not own (or in some cases, have never even rented) a film camera, though they own at least one great digital camera.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4) for the big boys: distribution</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Finally, for a film that sees wide distribution, the cost of film prints is / was a very significant expense item. It was certainly one of the incentives for major studios to go digital and even help theaters go digital. It’s a problem I would like to have. A good DCP probably costs less than 1 - 3 film prints these days.</span><br />
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4K is too much, unnecessary</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One argument against 4K is that the human eye can’t really see it. Another is that since most video is either seen on televisions or via the Internet, that 4K is vast overkill, to the point of silliness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the first point, I am not an authority but I believe that viewing any image that is derived from the highest quality master has the potential to add quality to the image. My prints made from my 4x5 negatives look better in many ways compared to my prints made from my 35mm negatives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And, as far as web video goes, I believe we will eventually figure out the public policy / corporate greed equation to permit very high bandwidth to the home, at which point 4K television (not broadcast) becomes feasible. Again, we are at the very beginning of these developments and we should not mistake today’s limitations as fundamental problems. I can remember accessing the Internet via dial-up from home and it seemed great at the time. But twenty years later, Internet connectivity is more than an order of magnitude better. Technically it could be vastly better, but the real problem is not technical, but political, social, economic.</span><br />
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Art, Look, Nature of the Medium</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Most of the folks arguing in favor of film are doing so because of their belief and perception that film is fundamentally different and more to their liking in important ways.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There is no question that a projected 35mm film print and a projected 2K theater experience are different. However, I think a basic fact (or perhaps a sad truth) is that many folks simply don’t see the difference. Perhaps side-by-side many would see something. But watching a digital projection today and trying to compare it to the 35mm film projection I saw last year is beyond most of us. Digital is clearly good enough for the mainstream, even in its present form.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Film is an amazing substance. Billions of one micron bits of silver halides, distributed in a nearly transparent emulsion of gelatin form an image that is unique in the history of technology. The word “pixel” simply has no meaning in discussions of film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think the future will resemble the past here. Let’s look at the history of photography.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Daguerreotype was a miraculous image; the first practical photographic process. Each daguerreotype is a unique, precious object. That uniqueness was an artistic asset and a commercial liability. The daguerreotype appeared in 1839 and was obsolete by 1860.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The tintype was a very cheap, widely popular form of photography in the 1850s. Many Civil War images were made on this unique process; each image was made on a sheet of thin iron. It died out in about twenty years, although it enjoyed some afterlife as a novelty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The platinum print was an exquisite paper print medium. It became commercially available in 1880 and become so popular that even Eastman Kodak brought out a version of this printing paper. Many art photographers, e.g. Edward Weston, produced some of their finest work on this paper. But the cost of platinum rose dramatically (compared to silver) and by the 1930s, commercial platinum papers began to disappear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So, when was the last daguerreotype or platinum print actually made? The answer is: last week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each of these technologies disappeared from the mass market but eventually were exploited for their unique artistic qualities by artists painstakingly duplicating these technologies. This is what I think will happen to film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Quentin Tarantino can pay 100 theaters to show his film from film prints. But digital cinema has already become the mainstream in theaters in developed countries. I believe that the idea of an “arthouse” cinema will grow to include the idea of projecting from film prints (as well as digital for business reasons). Film will not die in any total sense, but could become the basis for a limited form of film art, fulfilling the vision Spielberg and Lucas mentioned of film theatrical experiences more like our current stage theatrical experiences; limited runs, expensive tickets, unique art forms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Of course, the major problem with this vision is that the manufacture of film stock -- unlike a printing paper -- is difficult to duplicate without the commitment of a major industrial process controlled facility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The future of digital, of course, cannot be judged on the basis of the technology we see today. Digital cinema is a very new development. As the electronic and computing aspects of digital cinema advance, the possibility of emulation the look of film -- really I mean -- becomes likely. I’m reminded of the development of a printing process (in the 1970s) called “stonetone” in which the grain of a lithographic film was forced in such a way that it could be used instead of the classical halftone dots, resulting in a printed black and white image that had no visible halftone pattern at all. In that respect, it strongly resembled an actual gelatin-silver print.</span><br />
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Epilogue</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For me, one of the clear benefits of higher resolution today is very simple: A 2K image fits perfectly into the lowest rung of the DCP ladder. I’m not aware of any digital cinema camera that shoots 2K but not 4K at this point. And we all know that it is occasionally necessary to enlarge a frame to emphasize something that hindsight calls for; a mission that 4K enables nicely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-3571897806647366432015-04-24T15:20:00.001-04:002015-04-24T15:27:45.075-04:00Feature This: a completed feature film script<style>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I just completed a feature-length script. This blog post is about two things. First, what does the word “completed” mean here? Second, why did I do this?<br /><br />“Completed” is a funny word for any work of art. We’ve all heard the adage that films are not finished, only “abandoned.” And most of us know the feeling. Writing is no exception.<br /><br />What completed means for me, for this script, has to do with fundamental story structure. I find story structure the most challenging aspect of writing any film, but especially a feature-length one. So the first reason I call this draft completed is that I think it has all the story structure needed. I think that characters react to things, do things, create consequences, suffer the consequences and then try to fix their world in ways that hang together. (Notice that I did not say, “in ways that make sense.”)<br /><br />I seen too many short films that simply duck these issues and few wonderful ones that manage to embrace them. If there is something fundamentally important about who a character is, I want the film to show me that. Not just tell me. And then, if the story hinges on the consequences of that aspect of that character, I’ll understand it and I’ll be ready to move forward with the story. So story structure is partly about not cheating and no loose ends.<br /><br />I have arrived at what I think is that fundamental structure. Except that I’m so far into the whole thing that I probably can’t judge this as well as it needs to be judged. So that’s where my first round of readers come in.<br /><br />This draft is clearly unfinished in many other ways. My initial character descriptions are probably insufficient; my excuse is that scenes have moved around as I wrote. (Oops, excuses don’t matter!) My characters are different people but it’s possible that they all sound kind of the same right now, so that’s the subject of a major rewrite pass at some point soon. My characters reaction to bad things that happen to them might be uneven; too small in one place, too big in another. That’s a challenge that will need addressing most likely. Some things probably need to become more important and the reactions more significant; others will need to get toned down.<br /><br />Another, less problematic piece of unfinished work concerns boxing. The working title of this script is <i>Boxing Lessons</i> and my main character takes up boxing as a form of exercise. I don’t yet know enough about boxing to populate that world with as much texture as I believe it will need, but I’m okay with the knowledge that this is a known work item. I may end up taking up boxing myself for this research; we’ll see. The important thing is that I’m not pretending that I can just fake it based on having watched <i>Million Dollar Baby</i>.<br /><br />Why did I do it? One simple reason was to see if I could. I’ve completed fifteen or twenty short films as writer-director (-editor-producer-casting-craft service-marketing-webmaster). I’ve always said I would only become foolish enough to attempt to create a feature film if I wrote (or came into some intimate relationship to) a script that I felt passionate about. Step one has to be actually writing such a script. I am now moving, however slowly, down that road.<br /><br />But, honestly, even if I actually write a <b>great</b> script, the idea that I would also produce and / or direct such a film seems even more foolish. The idea that - if it really were great - someone else might want to do those things is fantasy enough for now. And a much better test of the real value of my script.<br /><br />Okay. When the script is truly done, when all the readers have read and commented and all the snags have been ironed out and if what’s left still has juice and fun and a personal point of view, then it will really be completed. Then and only then will I need Michelle Williams’ email address.</span></span><br />
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</span></span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-10065035957335431612015-03-28T10:35:00.001-04:002015-03-28T10:35:21.396-04:00Learning From Festivals<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Last November, I attended the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. The festival is now 20 years old and is famous for its love of the quirky. The festival has grown to five separate venues, each screening films in parallel for four days. It's a lot of films!<br /><br />In 2013 I decided that I needed to get out of town and attend a major festival at least once a year; kind of a business vacation. So I attended the DC Shorts Festival in Washington. At Cucalorus, I tried to see every shorts program I could, since making shorts is my primary focus.<br /><br />This year, at Cucalorus, I discovered something about how to learn from a festival. This will sound obvious and basic and it is fundamental, but it changed my whole view of attending festivals.<br /><br />Essentially what happened, when I reviewed all the shorts I had seen and reflected on my reactions to them, was that my own awareness of my own aesthetic came into clear relief. There were good films that did not click with me and good films that did. The differences between these films highlighted my own predilections in filmmaking.<br /><br />Greatly simplified, it amounts to this. Films that feel like real life, films whose moments seem like moments experienced by a living, breathing person, films that are comfortable telling a universal story with very specific elements - these are the films that were alive for me. Films that treated their material like a fable, with 'symbolic' but caricatured moments, people and actions, did not engage me the same way. Films that are content to portray only the obvious tropes did not engage me.<br /><br />I think all filmmakers yearn for some kind of transcendance. It's tempting to try to make things universal or symbolic in various ways. But my personal path lies along the line of using the most specific, most true scenes and people to aspire to that goal. I may do it badly, of course, which is probably the subject of a couple future blog posts.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-50140097600723941352014-10-09T14:32:00.001-04:002014-10-09T14:32:08.490-04:00Wonderful Quote About Story<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is quite a lovely quotation about stories. It's from <i>The Faraway Nearby</i> by Rebecca Solnit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Stories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions."</span><br />
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<br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-5376072789139298922014-06-26T13:45:00.004-04:002014-06-26T13:45:57.039-04:007 Reasons to Make a Short (?)<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I just read one of those Raindance posts that are often insightful. This one was <a href="http://www.raindance.org/7-short-reasons-to-make-a-short/" target="_blank">"Seven Reasons to Make a Short."</a> Since I (so far) only make shorts, I thought I'd ruminate on their reasons.<br /><br /><b>Reason #1: Artistic Freedom. </b> <br />I can't talk about reason #1 without referencing Reason #2, because they are kind of the same. . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason # 2: Practice Doing Riskier, Unique Work</b>.<br />I think #1 and #2 are essentially the same thing. True, you could exercise artistic freedom to try to totally imitate your favorite TV series. But unless there is a personal element, which often leads to some unique aspect of the film's style and shape, why are we here?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason #3: Post-production Ease</b><br />There point is that you can focus more intensively on 10 minutes than you can on a running time of 90 minutes, which is certainly true. On the other hand, I am typically the only work resource for post work while in a longer piece you might have some help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason #4: Budget.</b><br />Yes, it's cheaper (or should be) to make a shorter film. Of course, you still spend a lot of money, too much, but you are not required to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason #5: Online Marketing</b>, by which they mean that it's easier to get a short online and seen, compared to a feature. Alas, "online" has many more hurdles to jump over in order to really get seen by more than friends & family. You can build a web site, but getting people to be aware of it, come to it, click through the important stuff, tell their friends and then come back – that's hard to do in our crazy mass culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason # 6: The Untapped Market</b>, by which they mean to wax lyrical about how you can go viral and shorts are easier to digest, can be grouped together (oh, by Raindance!) and seen in theaters. My take: sorta kinda, but there's no magic here; see previous paragraph.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reason #7</b> was bogus really, pointing out that if you win a major festival you can get qualified to be considered for the <b>Oscars</b>. Not exactly a reason to decide to do a short, but true.<br /><br /><u>Conclusion? </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think there are really only these reasons to make a short.<br />- You can do a <a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/film-endings/film_main.html" target="_blank">personal, idiosyncratic film</a><br />- You can afford to do it without selling to some existing market<br />- You can expose it to the world easily (but getting the world to notice is still hard)<br /><br /></span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-45152270389258568442014-04-10T20:18:00.001-04:002014-04-10T20:18:32.401-04:00Blank Pages<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Recently someone I follow on Twitter quoted the writer <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0731465/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm" target="_blank">Nora Roberts</a> saying something I found fascinating:<br /><br /> "I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page."<br /><br />I feel the same way about putting a film together. Or maybe it's my rationalization. Either way, I'm having a hard time (okay, plenty of normal life excuses too) getting through the first rough cut of my recent film project, working title, <a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/film-firstkiss/film_main.html" target="_blank">First Kiss</a>.<br /><br />I feel like once I get the rough cut completely, I can make a list of major problems and begin to work on them. But getting through the "blank page" stage is proving challenging.<br /><br />My life in high tech was similar. I was not necessarily going to be the next Steve Jobs, seeing something totally unique. However, I was good at taking a product and understanding how it had to evolve to become better and better. I view editing as a similar process. Originality happens first in writing, then in producing and directing (shooting) the film. But for editing, I have to do the first rough assembly before I can even really begin to see the film, to try to discover the film hiding in the rough cut.<br /><br />Some days I wish I had the editing speed and facility of some filmmakers I know, like <a href="http://beerymedia.com/about/" target="_blank">Nic Beery</a> for one (he's fast) but that's just not the way it works for me. On the positive side, taking time gives me more distance, better detachment from the original material and enables me to be a bit more objective in editing decisions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I can fix a bad cut of the film.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-28716250173264302192014-03-06T16:57:00.001-05:002014-03-06T16:57:55.386-05:00"Going deeper, not wider."I used this expression in a <a href="http://www.turnipfilms.com/newsletters/march2014-newsletter.html" target="_blank">recent newsletter</a> and it made sense to me when I wrote it. But, I think there's a lot to figure out about this expression. Not just what was I thinking, but what are some of the possible meanings of this quest for filmmakers, especially small, self-funded filmmakers. This is my first attempt to unpack that expression.<br /><br />As folks who know me and my work are aware, I am primarily interested in stories of human connection. How we find self-worth, how we find love, how we lose them - these are topics that interest me greatly. While I have had a gun in one film (okay, that was a docudrama) I've never done films about crime / criminals, space ships, zombies or insanely rich crazy businessmen. There are great films (and bad ones) about all of those subjects. I've helped to create a <a href="http://peepintomproductions.com/portfolio/one-last-sunset-redux/" target="_blank">zombie film</a> and it was a great and fun effort (as DP). But, at the end of the day, it's ordinary people, making their way through the trials and rewards of everyday life that I find the most satisfying.<br /><br />So going "deeper" to me means primarily exploring the kinds of feelings and actions that make up our lives at this level. Going deeper means finding a way to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8246605/Blue-Valentine-Michelle-Williams-interview.html" target="_blank">enable performances </a>that are rich in the realism of their conflict and nuance.<br /><br />Okay, so what is "wider" and is that a bad thing?<br /><br />In this context, I guess wider means encompassing a larger scope of possible "things" or life but therefore not necessarily revealing as much about the meaning and interior of these things. I'm not convinced, as I write, that it's the best or only way of thinking about these things, but here's my thoughts.<br /><br />Wider - for the average indie wannabe filmmaker at my level - [that's the lowest level, btw] often means trying to tell stories about things that you don't really know. I could write a story about being in prison and trying to make it as an ex-convict. <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=brooke+house+massachusetts+halfway+houses%2C+inc" target="_blank">I've actually worked with ex-convicts</a> but I've never been in prison and my idea of what that's really like has been formed primarily by other movies, e.g. not real experience. I can imagine some things about it, but it's not based on personal experience.<br /><br />Am I saying that you can only write based on personal experience? That you shouldn't write a story about climbing Mt. Everest or running from the Mob? Well, yes, in the sense that most of us have no real idea what is involved, what matters, what's important in those worlds. But, of course, you can create a story about climbing a mountain without being a mountain climber yourself. It may or may not be realistic but it can be a clever construct, full of twists and turns that will entertain folks. That's kind of what I mean by "wider." But if the film is going to feel personal, going to resonate with an audience deeply (there's that word again) I believe you have to find a way to connect to the issues personally. So, even in the mountain climbing story, it's possible to connect genuinely and deeply with surviving in a hostile place, struggling to maintain your focus, overcoming physical exhaustion. Reinforced with some careful research, you can write this story with personal energy. <br /><br />Of course Hollywood, when things really work unusually well, manage to marry a massive amount of research and resources with personal insights – that can produce a film like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/fullcredits" target="_blank"><i>Gravity</i></a>. But that's just not a realistic option for me or filmmakers at my level of resources.<br /><br />In other words, to the extent that I can connect with something personal, even a bit metaphorically, I can go deeper into the story. To the extent that I am only trying to reel in elements I find cool or popular but have no real connection to, I'm going wider. And going wide of the mark of personal filmmaking. And personal films are the only films I can make that will have unique value.<br /><br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-65815977184424409672013-10-23T14:51:00.001-04:002013-10-23T14:51:08.582-04:00CollaborationI’m adapting a play by Durham author Robert Wallace for a short film. The play is a set piece in a kitchen between a 68-year-old Mother, returning from her 50th high school reunion, and her Son, who has stayed home to babysit his Father (her Husband) who is in the early stages of dementia.<br />
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In the play, the “backstory” of the Son is implied but not developed. I felt the need to create more layers for the character of the Son. Added is a brief moment when the Son talks to the Father (who is really incapable of understanding) about the possibility of leaving town to follow a woman in his life, before the Mother comes home.<br />
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With that planted in the back of the audience’s mind, the Son’s reactions to the Mother’s thoughts about her life, her husband and the future, take on a slightly more interesting aspect. So far so good.<br />
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Last night we had a read-through of the play with the cast and - to put it simply - they pointed out another place where we need to allude to the Son’s situation. It made total sense and it’s being added to the rewrite.<br />
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I try not to be too proud to accept a good idea from someone, and this was a clear case of a good idea. It also underscores, for me, the range of the contribution that actors can make if they are allowed to. We are all trying to breath life into this story and any change that enhances that for the film is welcome, regardless of the source. I love the collaborative nature of this work.Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-76507386964802670452013-09-21T10:20:00.000-04:002013-09-21T10:20:00.398-04:00The Grave - March 2013 (not about film exactly)<div style="text-align: left;">
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--></style><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I was a sophomore at Cranbrook School when my brother
died. He had some form of kidney
disease that is probably curable or transplantable today, but was fatal in
1962.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He had had difficulties in his journey. First, as a bookworm and budding
intellectual, he was a total misfit in the public high school. When my parents sent him to Cranbrook,
I think that was a great step forward for him. But he dropped out of Michigan and maybe dropped out of
Wayne State (or simply took a few classes). He seemed melancholy, I think, but had started to find his
way a bit in 1961. He was the
assistant manager of what was then Doubleday Books on Pierce Street in
Birmingham. Working in a book
store was a perfect occupation for him and I think it seemed like his troubles
were behind him when he became ill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I don’t remember much about his illness. Six years older than me, we didn’t have
a lot of things in common at that age (he was 21, I was 15). But he was in the
hospital for several weeks; six maybe?
I was still a boarding student at Cranbrook, so I didn’t visit the
hospital regularly. I came on the
weekends, I guess. My Mother went
every day, making a point to look nice and smile despite what she knew about
his condition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For reasons which I was unaware of, I was at home on the
morning of February 26th. I had
been at home for the weekend; the 26th was a Monday and I guess I thought I was
going back to school late that day for some reason. (That would have been very unusual.) Friends of my parents, Grace and Don
Sass, came early in the morning and took my sister off on some play date (she
was about 3 and 1/2 at the time.)
Then my parents told me - we were seated in the living room - that Jack
had died the night before. My face
turned hotter than I had ever experienced and we sat together and cried. I had never expected to hear that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I don’t remember much about the following days. His funeral was on Wednesday, which was
“Headmaster’s Holiday” at Cranbrook - a kind of cabin fever break in the
winter. At the funeral, the family
sat to the side, somewhat out of sight of the “audience” which included many of
his friends from Cranbrook, who were, I think, pall-bearers also. My only concrete memory was my Mother
wincing visibly when my Grandmother McQuaid kissed Jack before the coffin was
closed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We drove to the cemetery and there was, I guess another
piece of ceremony there. I do
remember seeing Harry Hoey, the headmaster, looking quite forlorn. Nevertheless, we were able to joke that
Jack would have enjoyed ruining the Headmaster’s holiday, as he had no great
love for him or the school.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That was February 28, 1962.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Then I had a wonderful girlfriend, finished Cranbrook,
college, graduate school. I
taught, l moved around, I had a cat, I got married and had two daughters, moved
to North Carolina, had a career in high tech and made some short films. I observed my sixty-sixth birthday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On March 21, 2013, I drove from Cleveland, where I was
visiting my elderly Aunt Ethel, to Detroit. I came up Southfield, retracing my Father’s commute from the
Ford Motor Company. I crossed the
city on Fenkell, past empty stores and trashy neighborhoods. Getting to the better kept
neighborhoods of Redford Township, I drove past the site of my old elementary
school (a vacant lot) and past the location of a barber shop, now gone, where I
cried when they asked how my brother was doing. I toured Dow Road, the street we lived on in 1962, and
glimpsed the country club where I swam many summers. I headed up Telegraph Road - a bit gentrified by time, but
clearly a highway with a lot of small industrial concerns. Detroit is a factory town.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grand Lawn Cemetery nestles into Telegraph and Grand River,
which meet at an angle. I’d spoken
to the office before coming and they had a map for me. The greyness of the late winter day and
the sights of old familiar places, some cared for, some not, had already
created a melancholic pre-disposition, I guess.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It took only a few moments to get to “section W” and then to
locate “lot 173, grave 3.” There
is no headstone, only a simple marker in the ground with the name and life
dates. Time had pushed the dirt
and grass in from all sides a bit.
I began to clear that away to read the entire marker. I got an ice & snow scraper from
the car and chipped away at the soil, exposing the whole marker and I shot
photographs as I worked. At one
point, I made a photograph of the trees behind, thinking that, in an odd way,
this has been his view of the world.
I also partially cleared off the markers for my maternal grandparents,
buried a few graves away.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVm4PHSmcNFq5DQW7aYSuUZUwuZSxRSLCzn-srnsxHKThDspg0Mipikf_wk4jUY9RHuO2dajwewDJXXNGMyW98tZzn-_KhcsxcFkM0caGEEAm8IW0W4Xr-SwQaesKXUlRZ7ckR-AOXxA/s1600/marker-B-march13-207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVm4PHSmcNFq5DQW7aYSuUZUwuZSxRSLCzn-srnsxHKThDspg0Mipikf_wk4jUY9RHuO2dajwewDJXXNGMyW98tZzn-_KhcsxcFkM0caGEEAm8IW0W4Xr-SwQaesKXUlRZ7ckR-AOXxA/s320/marker-B-march13-207.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Perhaps it was the sense that there was nothing more I could
do. And it has to be also the
memory of loss but I simply began to cry and then sob, finally just sitting in
my car to cry. I texted my sister,
“thinking of you.” She happened to
be free at that moment and we exchanged some words. Then I took a photo of the marker with my phone and sent it
to her. She was a great comfort in
that moment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It’s curious how little there really is to say. I had a brother and then I did not have
a brother. I have lived three-fourths
of my life with no brother, though always remembering February 25th each
year. (In the early days, when
people at work still wore ties, I had a black tie I wore only on that day.) </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is impossible to know what my life would have been like
had he lived and impossible not to wonder.</span></span><br />
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Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-10480593215037906512013-09-04T09:56:00.000-04:002013-09-04T09:57:16.453-04:00Art films: "art of the moving image" screening at Duke<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Last night I spent 90 minutes attending a screening of a dozen or so short films produced by students in the “Art of the Moving Image” program at Duke. Please understand that I don’t know much about this program or how it relates to other film stuff at Duke, although it’s clearly not part of the documentary work going on in and around the University.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Quick summary: a lot of self-indulgent, semi-meaningless images thrown together. There were several films that had coherence and meaning, mostly critiques based on showing advertising footage and contrasting that with reality (one on fast food, one on women’s images). And one film wanted to be a documentary about folks trying to break into professional video gaming, but it suffered from the general artiness of the evening.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />One film, a meditation on water - very very short - used what I am calling “artiness” to its advantage. It put together a group of images that had some relationship both visually and content-wise. It was kind of fun too. But most of the rest of the films were - to me - sadly lacking in anything like emotion or engagement. Many momentarily arresting images but simply thrown in or repeated endlessly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Many of the filmmakers clearly have an eye, but I’m old-fashioned perhaps in believing that having an eye is not, by itself, enough. There may be a refined, high culture place for films like this, perhaps a gallery in Soho or Dumbo. But it’s a symptom of the disintegration of culture to me. At one end are the Michael Bay films - hugely entertaining, hugely expensive - and at the other end are these montages of disconnected images. Both fail (in varying degrees) to connect with the heart and soul. One is certainly corporate, not personal and the other is (perhaps) personal to the degree that it is hermetic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />I want to make films in the middle of this.</span><br />
<br />Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149871174354271638.post-16553878084004822252013-07-15T20:16:00.001-04:002013-07-15T20:18:31.120-04:00A brief rant about IndieGoGo mistakes filmmakers make<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Okay, it’s nice to see folks who are trying to pursue their goal of making a film. And IndieGoGo seems like a potentially good way to help that process along.<br /><br />But I’m stunned at how bad some of the filmmakers’ pages are. One in particular set off this short rant. <br /><br />Misspellings? I would think that anything you are posting, especially in a solicitation of support like this, should at least be free of words not correctly spelled. And free of words that are correctly spelled, like “turn” when you obviously meant the bird, “tern.” Instantly, I suspect that the filmmaker lacks the intellectual and organizational skills to complete a quality film. The suspicion could easily be wrong, but why give rise to it?<br /><br />Much worse, fatal actually in my book, is the nature of the text and the video on the page. It is hard to do one of these videos well, no question. This one was basically the filmmaker / writer talking to the camera. But what was my problem?<br /><br />Mostly that there was very little real information about the project or the film. The title suggests a horror film and the text supports that but with no proof points at all. Both the text and the filmmaker (in the video) are <b>saying</b> that the film will be visually amazing, that the story is stunning and that great actors have been signed on to the project.<br /><br />But, the video shows us exactly <b>one</b> still image suggestive of the look of the film. The video starts with a long production company screen card / animation, the title of the film, one image and than just a talking head. This is <b>not</b> a video that makes me confident the film will be visually attractive.<br /><br />No team is mentioned or named either, and the filmmaker gives me no clue about his or her background, credentials, experience etc.<br /><br />In other words, we are asked to believe a smiling face and a few assertions. That’s not the way to sell anything of value, at least not to me.</span>Jim McQhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12842975606487708200noreply@blogger.com0