Monday, January 23, 2006
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Sunday, a day of rest. For me that holds especially true today. Yesterday, while giving my two dogs their baths I had a major incident. Now, my two dogs are both around 80 lbs. I have a lab mix named, Milli and a Golden Retriever, named Smuckers, after the dog on Seinfeld. After giving Smuckers her bath, it was Milli's turn. Both dogs dislike baths which sets the scene for said accident. While attempting to get Milli in the tub she decided it was not going to be a good idea, she pulls away and while grabbing her I slipped on the wet floor flat on my back with this huge dog on top of me. For those not in the know, about 3 years ago I had major surgery on my lower back which required 6 screws, two rods, fusion and removal of bone. Landing on my surgery site was not a good thing or comfortable one. That said, I sit in my office chair, moved from my office to my living room. The same chair I spent 12 weeks in after my surgery. The biggest difference is that I'm not on any pain medication which might make this particular blog much more interesting.
I have some time on my hands and much to ponder, complain and opine about while I sit and recover, thank God for laptops.
One thing I've been borderline obsessing about lately in my upcoming movie, Bone China. There is much going on behind the scenes right now but what's been on my mind is the title of the movie. Many people have asked me where I came up with it and it came about when I thought up the original short story behind the movie. I was traveling back home to Northern Virginia with my family and everyone in the car was sleeping. I'm in the middle of West Virginia in the mountains and I pop in my Mother Love Bone CD. While almost in a trace like state I began to dream up the idea which became the original short film screenplay. After I had worked out everything in my head, my CD was playing Bone China and I thought that it would be a great title for the movie. That's the long and short of it. I tied Bone China into the screenplay after the fact.
Many of you are probably saying, "Who the hell is Mother Love Bone?" I'm sure most of you know who Pearl Jam is but many people don't know is that band was born out of the band MLB. MLB was a pre-grunge band from Seattle before Nirvana made the music mainstream. The band made an EP called "Shine" and then on the eve of the release of their first full fledged album, "Apple," the lead singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose. He should have been the face of what would become the "grunge" sound. MLB is not what I would consider grunge and more importantly, neither did Andrew Wood, he considered their music "love rock."
Members of MLB that went on to become Pearl Jam were Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Wood's death also spawned the group Temple of the Dog, which included so many of the big names in the grunge era, including, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, and Layne Staley (who oddly enough died many years later from a drug O.D. as well.) Wood lyrics were well ahead of their time and so was MLB's music. Had Andrew Wood not died I believe MLB would have set the standard for the 90's music scene. So, lately as I have been pondering and working on how I am going to make Bone China I have been listening to a lot of MLB and before I start shooting I am going to round up a MLB t-shirt that I can wear during much of the production. I know sound weird, but I am a director, I am allowed weird. At Twenty One Productions we have had so many coincidences and "signs" over the last five years that I believe the MLB connection for this film exists and I do believe in it and it's significance to the making of this film. Remember, I'm not on pain meds as I write this! So call me crazy. Filmmaking is a crazy biz and I am going to embrace all the "signs" I can while I am making movies. We at Twenty One, all of us, are being looked over by something much larger than ourselves and to deny or ignore it would be a huge mistake.
Snap back; I would love to get Bone China licensed for the movie and if I could it will be the icing on the cake. So, for those of you who have never heard MLB I suggest grabbing a copy of their CD which was re-released many years ago which combines both "Shine" and "Apple." It's worth a listen. It was my buddy Steve who first brought MLB to my attention and once I heard them I was hooked!
On to new subjects. The other night I was watching Dateline and they did a story on an amateur filmmaking working on his horror movie which was going to turn him into the next big director. Thanks to the Blair Witch Project, which by the way was great marketing, but a suck ass movie. And this news story just went on to prove how that one film made everyone think they could make movies, myself included. Now the difference was that many, and I would dare say all, of the filmmakers who pursue their dream based on the Blair Witch phenomenon thought, "one movie" was all it was going to take to be the next "big" thing. We never did, we hoped but we knew that it would take time to hone our skills, and experience until we made that "one movie" which takes off. Most new filmmakers were, one and done.
Back to the Dateline story. They showed video of castings, and shooting on the set and it reminded me so much of what we were doing 5 years ago. And while I was proud of what I was doing then, I am so glad I have moved so far beyond that point in my career. Looking at the footage on T.V. made me cringe, just remembering what that whole process was like. Now, I don't think I am a "major" director or anything now, but I am amazed at how far we have come. It makes all that simplicity, all the mistakes and all that inexperience seem so long ago, yet worth all the pain and struggle. I'm just glad I'm not there anymore, but I'm glad I had to live through it.
posted by Twenty One Productions @ 8:35 AM 
Over the last week or so I've been catching up on my DVD watching and a few new and not so new movie have come my way. The last few that I have watched have been "Hustle and Flow," "Broken Flowers" and "Havoc."
"Hustle and Flow" was without a doubt the best of the bunch. What that movie achieved was giving the audience sympathy for a guy who is a pimp, thug (although not a very good one), and pretty much all the stereotypes of a hustler from the ghetto. The thing that they did right was the give the guy a heart and passion for what he liked to call his, "mode." For once I cared if this guy could make it, and although there are some parts that you have to give in your sense of disbelief it still worked very well. The main thing was that I cared about all these people. Terrance Howard also helps make the role come alive being such a fantastic actor and without a doubt one of the best of the last year. But one thing that has surprised me, or I found myself being surprised about was the acting ability of Ludicris. Now I will be the first to admit that when rappers get movie roles simply because they are rappers, gets under my skin. There are thousands of people who have worked all their life to be actors and when rappers, and not just rappers, but musicians, rap, pop, rock or otherwise, in general want to step into the movie field and take potential work away from "actors'" just seems a bit self serving.
That said, I have seen several hip-hop stars turn into and continue to be really good actors, Queen Latifah being the best of the bunch. I mean she, quite simply is a star. Ice Cube, Ice-T and LL Cool J to a lesser extent but still not bad, but the newest of the bunch that have impressed me a lot is Ludacris. He wasn't doing much of a stretch in "Hustle and Flow" but he was very good. Where I thought he shined and changed my opinion of him drastically was in "Crash." He was great in that movie, and to me great with a capital G. Once again not much of a stretch but he gave his character, a guy I should have disliked, a heart and the end scene with him was the icing on the cake in an overall great movie like "Crash." I mean "Crash" made all the characters likable and dislikable throughout the movie but you need great actors to pull that off and Ludacris fit right in with the rest of a stellar cast. So, while I still think people like Mariah Carey, Usher, DMX, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and the like should stick to music, the rule does have it's exceptions. And from what I've seen Ludacris is one of those people.
On to "Broken Flowers." This movie got critical raves, pretty much across the board and I think Bill Murray, who plays "Don Johnston," with a "t," which is one of the best touches of the film, is fantastic, although I didn't think this movie was. Now, I like Jim Jarmusch, but this movie did nothing for me, overall. It had it's moments. The character of "Winston," played by Jeffery Wright, Murray's next door neighbor was the best part of the movie. Funny and endearing, he stole every scene he was in. But as for the rest of the film, for me, it just fell flat. I know that the movie was all about underlying and unspoken subtext with an ambiguous ending, and maybe I have become the type of moviegoer that needs things explained and tidied up in a nice neat bow. God I hope not and I don't think I have, but maybe on this one I did, which I am not proud to admit, it would have played better for me. I hope that Bill Murray doesn't become the actor who only plays theses types of roles. Lost in Broken Flowers, if you will. The movie is okay and you really artsy-fartsy one's will probably dig it much more than I did.
Now on to the crap of the bunch "Havoc" and much like "Brokeback Mountain" has been dubbed "the gay cowboy movie, "Havoc" should be dubbed the "naked Anne Hathaway" movie, because that's all it has going for it. I should have known better being that it went straight to DVD but I heard reviews and read reviews that this was a pretty good film, so I gave it a shot, and not just to see "The Princess Diaries" boobs. That's already been on the web for a while now. And while there is plenty of that in the movie, there isn't much else. Let me set the scene for those who don't know. A bunch of rich, white "wannabe gangsters" find their way right into the heart of "real" gang territory, east L.A., Anne and her merry bunch, keep heading back looking to regain the thrill of being with the "real deal" instead of their own rich, privileged, boring, dysfunctional life. When the "16th Street gang" takes on these snotty ass brats as "one of their own" things start to get out of control for the girls.
Now, suspended disbelief #1: Gangsters are WAY to nice to these girls. They take them to parties, and when things get out of control all the girls have to say is "stop" and these gang bangers back off. What? Now I'm no L.A. gang expert but if you are going to play the "stereotype" card in this movie go all the way.
Suspended disbelief #2: These guys should have just did whatever the hell they wanted and the fact no one got killed, including the "wannabe white guys" who go to exact revenge on the "16th street" is just dumbfounding to me. This movie wasn't "Crash," which is what I assume the filmmaker was going for, but there is no way that it worked. Sympathize with all sides. No I wanted these wannabe's to be slapped around and beat down like the punks that they were. And in the end they learned nothing! Maybe they weren't supposed to, but I felt someone needed a bullet in the head somewhere, or at the very least get their face fucked up like Jared Leto's character "Angel face" in "Fight Club."
Suspended disbelief #3: These gang bangers let them off scot free! If these were L.A. gang bangers they sure did let 2 rich white girls from the burbs push their asses around like a bunch of bitches. And although there is a scene where a couple of the gang members go seek revenge, they get lost in a rich neighborhood and told to go home by the cops!?!?!?! What the fuck? This movie had no mood, no passion and Anne Hathaway's boobs weren't even worth the rental fee.
posted by Twenty One Productions @ 8:34 AM
Friday, January 13, 2006
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I had quite the experience yesterday and last night. At Macworld I went to a feature presentation from Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps. Now he too worked at Lucasfilm and he worked on Episode I and did pre-viz and final CG shots for the movie. Most specifically many shots of Queen Amadala's ship in space. He was giving a talk on the anatomy of a CG shot and showed some very cool digital mattes, 3D and green screen compositing. As a director very eye opening just to watch how it is all put together and it even made more clear to me how to achieve one of my opening shots in Bone China. My only regret while here is that I did not get out much due to the fact I was so busy at Macworld. But I got so much out of this event. It's always cool to watch the featurettes on the Star Wars DVD's but there's something about sitting in a room with some of the guys who actually worked there and hearing some of their stories.
So, after Macworld, day 4, I was on the town after dinner walking the streets of San Francisco and stop in a local watering hole called the Gold Rush. Very small bar, so small, the band sits down behind a secondary bar where people sit, drink and hopefully tip much like at a piano bar. There 3 guys in the band and they play just about anything requested. Anyway, it's getting late and these 2 gentlemen stroll into the bar and sit right down next to me. We strike up a conversation seeing that we are all in town for Macworld. The first question is always what do you do and who do you work for? When I asked it of them, they just so happen to be in from L.A. and work for Warner Bros! I won't reveal their names for privacy purposes and I don't want to potentially burn a connecting I just made.
The long and short of it was the bar ended up closing and I went with them to the mighty Starbucks where a coffee was purchased for me. We sat and talked and surprisingly, they listened to what, a Kentucky boy making indie films in the midwest, had to say and answered many of the questions I posed to them. Very cool guys indeed and what a way to make a Hollywood connection! Only out west baby!
Random movie review: HOSTEL
Went to the mighty Metreon, the Sony megaplex, mall, entertainment super center about a block from my hotel. First off the movie would have been so much better for me had I not had the teenager providing a running commentary in my right ear all night long. She was so absurd that I had to laugh at some point at the utter lack of grey matter that was able to process what she was witnessing on the screen without repeating back to herself out loud. She did not make a strong case the future of our youth. But I digress. The movie Hostel was quite lame in my opinion. It had plenty of gore, sex and nudity. Not a bad thing in and of itself. However, there's only so far that kind of exploitation is going to carry me. There was a solid and intriguing story just sitting there and nothing was really done with it. Instead of exploring the need for people to pay to torture and kill another human being to achieve a rush, went nowhere. The solution was always to throw in another ass shot or splash of gore. In many cases a lot of gore. Like I say not bad to see in and of itself but you can't tell a story on shock value alone. But there is one thing you can do with it though. You can make a shitload of money!
See, so what the hell do I know anyway?
posted by Twenty One Productions @ 6:06 PM
Thursday, January 12, 2006
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Daily, I run the homeless gauntlet here in San Francisco, which by the way, was just ranked #11 in the country in terms of being "mean" to the homeless. Laws against vagrancy and all. It all seems very at odds with what I see each day as I walk the downtown streets. Because if they have have laws against vagrancy they are just on paper. So, I think that's a very flawed statistic. Anyway, what I find amusing is the fact if I don't give any money to someone who asks then I get yelled at, if I do they don't seem very appreciative. Although, one night getting back late to my hotel I was asked ever so kindly by a man if I had a buck. Well, I was feeling pretty warm and fuzzy at the moment, bourbon and water tend to have that effect on me, and I gladly gave the man a dollar and walked away. He was very appreciative, so much so, that he continued to follow me ask and for another, so I did. $3.50 later, he finally was content, but like I said very appreciative. So, it's really a crap shoot when it comes to giving or ignoring panhandlers.
Wow, that's not really what was on my mind but after 4 days here and being stuck in seminars most of that time you get a bit loopy. That's when you order your first bourbon and water before dinner.
I had some free time yesterday and I snuck off into a presentation from a guy named Michael Rubin. He has a book out called "Droidmaker" and it's about George Lucas and and the digital revolution. Mr. Rubin, used to work for Lucasfilm, Droidworks, specially and he was intrigued by Lucas and the fact that the man who is credited for much of the digital and computer generated effects, editing and sound of movies today is not much a what he called a gadget guy. He doesn't surf the web, he doesn't use a word processor or script software to generate his scripts, doesn't play video games for fun and so on. So, what's the deal?
Lucas is a man who when he started in filmmaking out of USC was a editor and a good one at that. His experience on THX 1138 and American Graffiti and working within the confines of the studio system drove him crazy, as matter of fact he hated the system and Hollywood in general, but he wanted to make movies.
Going in I'm thinking this is all about Star Wars, but what Michael Rubin was writing about was the fact that the dream of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola was to use technology to free them from the constraints of Hollywood. They wanted to make movies, control their end product, and make it so ANYONE could buy a camera, edited and distribute their work. George is an artist and he wanted to use technology and give other artist and future artist the opportunity to create and not be told how to do it. This was back in the 70's!
I got kind of the condensed version of Mr. Rubin's book, and while interesting, I found it to be eye opening. I have always said Star Wars changed my life but little did I know how profound that would be in the big picture. Star Wars was NOT a technological marvel, but as Michael Rubin said, 'It was the pain of making Star Wars," which led to all the cool toys we have today to make films and put whatever we can think of on screen. That's when I thought about how we make movies at Twenty One. We do it EXACTLY as George Lucas intended for us to do it when he dreamed of it way back in 1970.
We can do what he, Coppola, Zoetrope and Lucasfilm have worked so hard for all of us to be able to buy a camera, shoot, edit, and distribute our movie without even the slightest help from a studio or corporate system. That was the goal and that was the dream. And now I have even more to that George Lucas for.
To get more insight on the entire digital filmmaking revolution in great detail and pick-up a copy of "Droidworks," from Michael Rubin.
posted by Twenty One Productions @ 7:44 PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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Well, I'm on way to the left coast this week, San Francisco, specifically. Right now it's 8:21 a.m. and I have been up since 4. My flight out of here isn't until 10:30. That is such a suck ass lay-over but what are you going to do? Blog, apparently.
Before I get into the whole film thing I must express my distress over my Bucs losing to a crap ass Redskins team. My buddy Steve is thrilled but right now I hope he savors the moment since next week Seattle is going to embarrass the shit out of them. Maybe they were the better team last night, or a lucky one. If they didn't get one of those early turnovers they would have only scored 3 points offensively. Oh, well we had the opportunities and we couldn't capitalize so I guess we suck even worse. A gusty performance by my boys and the Redskins were just lucky to escape last night.
So, onto the movies. Bone China is slow going but that's what happens when you are waiting for money. We do have some good leads with our buddy Jared out in L.A. and hopefully he can help get the script to the "people who know people." We've been hashing out the script a bit more with a few spirited debates all of which has brought us to a tighter more precise script. We've got some scouting locations finished and we'll be doing some conference calls with our actors soon. Schedules are going to be a bitch since the movie centers on 5 main characters and getting all the actors in at the same time will be a cluster F! No one said this would be easy.
Crap, just found out that the flight is packed! I hate that. You can't move and it's a 5 1/2 hour flight! Thank God for the iPod I got for my birthday. I've been listening to a podcast about David Fincher and the history of his career. It's cool because I got an idea for a change in the BC script. It's minor stuff but it makes the movie more intense. Hopefully, I'll get a few more ideas for shots and that will help me culminate the right style for this movie. This is also my shot at establishing my style as a director.
Well, I just finished 2 podcasts from The Hollywood Saloon. You should realyy check these guys out, especially if you are or are aspiring to be one. Lots of good and useful information. If you are a David Fincher fan, which I am, then I suggest you check out episode #14. It's fairly long 2 hours plus but great stuff. You can pick up a lot of the comments you hear from Fincher himself by watching any one of the commentaries on his DVD's but you'll also get some good insight on how he started and how he became The Man, as it were. Lots of stuff I never knew, but I'll be watching my Seven DVD commentary again soon!
Still a good 2 hours outside of San Francisco and this flight is TIGHT! And I mean that in not the "hip kids" lingo either. This sucks! Now on top of that it seems everyone has to piss all at the same time, so it's very tricky writing this in my confined quarters. I can at least look forward to a good meal tonight down by the warf, fresh seafood reminds me of being back in my east coast home! Back once I get out of this sardine can and into the hotel.
After listening to some pretty decent filmmaking podcasts, The Hollywood Saloon and 2B Pictures, it gets me thinking that we should be doing a podcast of our own. Which we may end up doing. God knows I can yap better than I type. But check out these guys for some cool info on filmmaking, lots of good tips and links.
posted by Twenty One Productions @ 7:13 PM
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© 2007 TWENTY ONE PRODUCTIONS, All Rights Reserved
STAR WARS and all associated characters, logos and other elements are the property of LucasFilm Ltd.
This production is a "Fan Film", and as such no profit can be made from the presentation or distribution of this film.
This film is not for sale.
STAR WARS is a Registered Trademark of LucasFilm Ltd.
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