Last week I got to do something that I've always wanted to do: shoot a concert. It was really spur of the moment, I came up with the whole camera setup the night before and then ran in with a Sony GL2 (a.k.a. a nice camera), my little camcorder, and two more camcorders that my friends brought. A four camera set up isn't bad, especially when I get to run around in front of the stage just shooting whomever I like. The concert itself was my friend Tonga's senior thesis for his major in music at Wheaton College. I hope the actual video was as good as the concert. As soon as this is edited I will post it. But for now, I'm sick!
Now that Home is Nowhere is finished there is a lot of projects that I am quite excited about that I am going to be turning out. Before I talk about the future, I quickly want to talk about the feedback regarding Home is Nowhere.
Overall the response to the film has been quite positive and I just wanted to take some time to post some of my favorite comments:
"Well done, I rather enjoyed it. For some reason, I really liked the suitcase full of water bottles. Also, abandoned/rotting locations are beautiful. And I'm now tempted to try my hand at a car chase."
"The driver is the best actor of the lot, methinks; he's like a cross between Lukas Haas and Eric Balfour. Was the guy who ran wearing a wig, or does he just have weird-ass hair?"
"And yes, cool short... I like the scene on the sidewalk. It reminded me of Midnight Cowboy, complete with Ratso Rizzo cough."
"The stories good, it's straightforward, but it also makes me think. You know what I'm talking about?"
Now, I've never seen Midnight Cowboy, but it seems like I should go and pick it up. I think that Home is Nowhere will be the first film that I try to get in some major festivals. But that's enough of that, I want to address the future.
I feel like it's time I graduated to buying myself a new camera, and the approach will be that this will be an investment into Lonely Tree Films. A production company that Timothy Adams and I have started. So far our only two films are The Gym and Home is Nowhere. But this summer we are changing that. We are turning out three different films, two shorts, and one experimental short. Personally I am very excited for the experimental shorts, I recently aquired Adobe After Effects and I am dying to play with this. So, I am thinking that we will set up a green-screen stage in my basement and see how it goes.
Speaking of my basement. A while ago I posted a photo from a film called That Color Red. It was probably one of the biggest productions I ever attempted; we built a soundstage in my basement, we rented equipment, etc. Unfortunately the size of the production was the issue, it was too much for me to take on at the time and the entire thing fell through. We only shot 4 scenes. My next plan is to edit together those 4 scenes and present them on a page dedicated to That Color Red. So look for that in the next month. Until then, I bid you all ado.
There comes a moment in the making of every film, when you are sitting down in front of your computer, final cut pro open, and you insert the final shot of the film. You sit back, pull your eyes away from the screen, take a deep breath, and whisper to yourself: "How the hell is this going to work?"
For those not in the know, after shooting a film, you take a look at the footage and then cut the shots together to make a "rough cut". The rough cut is exactly like it sounds, it is rough. There are sounds that feel awkward, cuts that don't match, and lighting differences that could make you scream. And don't get me wrong, I do scream. Editing a movie is like a collage, it looks terrible until you find the perfect pattern and then everything begins to make sense. I'm trying not to complain however, because I kind of screw myself by shooting on this:
As you might have guessed, this camera does not produce the creme de la creme of sound and image quality, but I seem to have managed so far.
So, now that I have finished the rough cut, successfully panicked, where do I go from here? Well, first I need to correct the color on all the shots, and then edit all the sound so that what you listen to when watching the film sounds somewhat natural (or unnatural...). Thirdly, two students have volunteered to write a score for the film, and finally I need to make sure that everything is polished and up to par with my standards...
So, I had the honor of working with the all male a Capella group at Wheaton College, The Gentlemen Callers, to make their intermission video. The theme of their 'Jam' was Jurassic Park, meaning that they all dressed up as dinosaurs, decorated the entire chapel where they perform, and of course had an intermission video with the theme of Jurassic Park. So, without further ado, the video:
I have to say that I never honestly thought that I would feel comfortable face to face with Dennis Hopper. I thought that his performance in David Lynch's Blue Velvet or, any other role he has played, would scare me away from him. It turns out that Dennis Hopper has to be one of the most comfortable people to be around. He is thoughtful, quiet, and always looking, searching, and seeking for inspiration. For two hours he spoke to my screenwriting class and we listened, talked, and discussed everything from Easy Rider to Danger Mouse.
Hopper started off the class with a question: "So you guys are screenwriters?". To which our response was silence. I guess none of us had ever thought of ourselves as screenwriters. But then again, we might ask ourselves what we have been doing for the past three months. The class started off talking about his directorial debut: Easy Rider. We had screened easy rider 5 days before and had time to dwell on it. We talked about situations to deal with on location, inspiration for the film, and improvisation versus a script. Most of easy rider was structured improv, with Jack Nicholson's scenes being the only few actually scripted.
From there the conversation's took off into other grounds, everything from being on the legendary set of Apocalypse Now, to his involvement in True Romance. We talked about Tony Scott and I eventually had the nerve to ask him why Tony Scott's work has gone downhill. Hopper talked a bit about how both Ridley Scott and Tony Scott have a lot of trouble keeping up with work and still keeping artistic merit (it was at this time that I realized that they were brothers).
As the conversation continued the class became more comfortable with Dennis Hopper. Until it became more of a conversation and less of a class. It got particularly exciting when, at the end, we started discussing Banksy, the Gorillaz, and his involvement with Danger Mouse.
My personal response wasn't as strong as it was to Werner Herzog, but it was still amazing to meet Dennis Hopper. I never thought that I would meet either of these two filmmaking legends and talking with them as only solidified my confidence that I am a filmmaker. It's dinner time right now. I've got some more sketches coming up and hopefully a new series of Films in the next couple of weeks.
I am very excited to see this article and I am very excited about the film society. So far we have had two screenings and while small, the idea is growing and I am slowly getting people interested. My eventual dream is just to be making movies as often as possible at Wheaton. More later. Very Tired.
The Gym is going to be featured in the Takoma Park Film Festival in Takoma Park, Maryland at the Takoma Park Community Center! (7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park MD 20912) It will be part of a screening on November 17th at 5pm entitled "Moving Through Space and Time". If you are in the area, please come and support!
This week seems to be the week for meeting artists, what with both Werner Herzog and Talib Kweli coming to Wheaton. For those who don't know Werner Herzog he is one of those filmmakers that is a living legend, his name being up there with Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and Igmar Bergman. His films include: Aguirre: Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, and (more recently) Rescue Dawn. So, when I was told that I was going to spend approximately five and a half hours with him: I found my legs shaking uncontrollably.
Herzog is a director that, when you first meet him tells you that you must learn how to steal a car, forge a document, fake a permit, and pick a lock. "These are the essential tools that you don't learn in film school." he told our class of twelve people. Our response was laughter, but he was dead serious. One example that he kept coming back to was that a group in 'Film Production I' was filming a scene in the middle of a field, when the owner of the property came out and shouted at them for disturbing the cows. What was so humorous about the situation was that there were no cows at all. Herzog talked about how this is one of the many situations you have to deal with. How, as a filmmaker, you won't always have a permit to film on land and you often have to work around it. One time, he faked a permit from the president of a small Central American country, and after presenting the permit to the army, was saluted and allowed to continue on his way.
Above is what Herzog signed in my sketchbook. A statement reading "Every man for himself and God against all!". Herzog is full of these statements, in the beginning of a screenplay he wrote: "Incandescent in their wrath, insects sting glowing stones." This, he said, sums up the entire film. The man has clear confidence: he believes that his films are good, but he is not at all egotistical. He just simply believes in what he does: "I have no profession, I only have life." But out of all the statements that I have recorded in my sketchbook, the most profound has to be: "You have to watch Anna-Nicole. I love Anna Nicole-Smith." Now, before writing off the man as insane (either that or a fucking genius), let me put the statement in context. He finds it incredibly hard to watch good movies, there's no way to look at how the director has perfected the pacing, there's not one thing that ties it together. If you can figure it out, you are not watching a good movie. By watching bad movies, you learn what not to do. "There's a reason America's culture is so confused, just take a look at Anna-Nicole, you have to watch Anna-Nicole."
The second artist that came to Wheaton, is none other than Talib Kweli. While, I wasn't able to speak to Kweli, I was able to enjoy an absolutely amazing concert. For those who don't know Kweli, he is among one of the best hip-hop artists working. He has worked with Kanye West, Common, Mos Def, and Danger Mouse. During the performance he sang most of his singles, from the most well known ("Get by", "Definition", "Hot Thing") to the lesser known ("More or Less", "Beautiful Struggle", and "Old School"). I highly recommend his music to those interested in learning about real hip-hop and not most of the crap that is on the radio. His most recent album is Eardrum.
