|
|
|
February 27th, 2005
08:40 pm - Syndicated site
With unwiredben's help, I've syndicated my new blog over here on livejournal. So now when I update the site, it'll show up over here. All you have to do if you want to see those posts is add "switchfilm" to your list of friends. Try it, buy it, fry it.
|
01:41 pm - Spirit Awards Pictures are up...
... over on my new blog site: www.switchfilm.com/blog/
|
February 25th, 2005
02:39 pm - More photos...
You can check out some photos from last night's Spirit Awards Nominees reception over at this blogs new location: www.switchfilm.com/blog/
|
February 12th, 2005
10:51 am - New Blog
I'm making a switch from Live Journal over to a blog that I've built on our switchfilm website. I'll be posting over there from now on. Take a look, bookmark it if you wish.
http://www.switchfilm.com/blog/
|
February 10th, 2005
07:24 am - San Francisco Pics
Some pics from our trip to San Francisco...
Wendy and Bryan. Wendy is Bryan's friend from high school. She's a musician and an intuitive healer.
Here she's making Bryan drink her tea using her mental powers alone.
We took a trip into Berkeley to catch the vibe in one of the most liberal cities on the West Coast.
"Your needle mends my moth eaten heart."
Before the screening, Bryan gave a phone interview with Variety. They're doing a piece about the nominees in the "Someone to Watch" award category that should come out the week of Feb 22nd.
We had a good crowd at the screening.
Bryan's Uncle William and Aunt Inga came to the screening. This picture was taken before they were scandalized by DP. Actually, they both seemed to really enjoy the movie.
After the screening I watched as the left side of Bryan's body was sucked away by those ghosts in Harry Potter.
The next day we went to an amazing place called the Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception. It's this crazy place where you can play with all sorts of science experiments. On one exhibit I was able to see the veins in the back of my eye. There was a device that made ice without freezing temperatures, a room that made people small, and a cafe with expensive junk food.
Fun!
|
February 8th, 2005
12:26 am - The Seth
Met with Seth tonight. He's going to be a producer on Cassidy Kids, along with Bryan. He can help get the job done. He's great, smart, has lots of ideas and is 100% dedicated. Somebody else who knows Seth told me that he thinks that Seth will be head of major studio some day. I think he's right. Amazing to be working with so many talented people.
Current Music: Lost Cause
|
February 6th, 2005
02:53 pm - iOxygen
While we were in SF we went to an Sushi/Oxygen bar. Apparently you plug a tube in your nose for 10 minutes for $8 (though they recommend that you do it for 25 min, at $15) and you're supposed to feel high on life I guess. We just drank the beer.
We also met the guys who made something called "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation." Basically these three guys did a shot for shot remake of Raiders back when they were 12 years that's accurate down to the last details -- trucks, planes, boulders and arabs. I'm dying to see it because like them, I was (and still am) a Raiders fanatic. I think their film has become some kind of a cult movie... they hinted that it would be picked up by a distributor in the near future, though I'm sure they'll have some clearance issues with Paramount who owns the original.
|
February 3rd, 2005
06:26 pm - Indie Madness
We're in San Francisco where we have a screening at the SF Indie Fest. Last night was the opening night film -- the film was something called "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" and if you love to celebrate all-things-child-abuse then this is your flick. It was a trully offensive film for anyone who has a beating heart. The film follows a seven-year old boy who is, for some unexplained reason, taken away from his foster parents and handed over to his deadbeat, drug-addicted, bowel-churning mother (played by Asia Argento, daughter of Italian gore filmmaker Dario Argento). In the course of the film's musings, the kid is raped twice, made to take drugs, abused by jesus-freak Peter Fonda, and poisoned. No adult in the movie likes this kid -- and neither, apparently, do the filmmakers. There is no hope, no redemption, no entertainment here, just the pure country celebration and mind numbing glamourization of doing bad things to very small children. It's the kind of movie that makes you want to bring back facism if only to impose it upon the filmmakers who dreamed up this assault on the human heart.
iFilm is promoting Dear Pillow on it's site here: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2663930.
|
January 30th, 2005
08:42 pm - Forbidden Gardens
In Katy, Texas of all places there is a scale model replica of the Forbidden City in China. The Berg and I went out there on a very cold day.
This is the main entrance to the Museum area. It's full size.
This is where they shot Hero.
These are the hundreds of small terra cotta soldiers that were found in one of the king's tombs. These replicas are fiber glass.
Some soldiers trying to hitch a ride back to China.
|
08:28 pm - New Years Projections
Spencer at PJ's party on New Years
|
January 29th, 2005
11:12 am - Wavy Amsterdam
A pic from when we were in Amsterdam last August. They say the buildings sway over time.
Current Music: One Night
|
January 22nd, 2005
08:54 am - More travel
Fly to Austin today. Get a crown on my tooth on Monday and have meetings with BOP. The flights look good, should be no problems. Will probably see The Big Red One - The Reconstruction on Monday night (yea!).
|
January 20th, 2005
09:57 am - Murch Delayed
So it looks like Walter Murch is completely wrapped up in editing JARHEAD and won't be able to come to Austin this Spring. However, he does sound excited by the invitation and leaves open the possibility of coming in the Fall. Unfortunately this news comes on the heels of a mass email that was sent out yesterday (by the department) announcing that Murch will be conducting a master class this semester. The announcement was very premature and my concern is that someone who knows Murch will read the announcement and relay it back to him. Oh well, it's probably not that big a deal.
This weekend I'll be traveling to Austin so that my dentist can give me a crown. I've got a temporary crown on now. It's kind of kreepy to think of how it could pop off -- my dentist said in that case I should just put it back in place and bite down hard to make it stick. This hasn't happened yet but that doesn't prevent me from thinking about it a lot.
Gonna try to have a meeting with BOP while in town, to see where Cassidy is on the timeline.
Another project that I might be working on soon is the Hollywood Heritage Oral History Archive. I'll be shooting interviews with members of Hollywood's golden era -- that is we're collecting the stories of the older folks in Hollywood (i.e. actors, producers, writers from years past). These people have amazing stories to tell but nobody's recording them. Anyway, it's a paid gig and that's a good thing.
|
08:46 am - Anti-Social
I've been reading Scott Rosenberg's Blog recently -- he writes for Salon.com -- and have come to learn more about the facts behind the Social Security debate. If you're interested at all in how the facts relate to the propaganda being transmitted, take a look at this.
Current Music: cpr.ogg
|
January 13th, 2005
11:20 am - Billy Bob's Bears
Yesterday I visited Paul Sanchez on the set of the Bad News Bears remake. Paul is the 'B' camera operator on BNB and has camera operated on a ton of other films (Walk the Line, The Matrix movies, Sideways, "Carnivale"). He's also a Director of Photography on smaller indie films. I met him and his wife Mary Trunk last year at Slamdance where they screened their documentary The Watershed -- a stirring documentary about Mary's life growing up in a family of nine -- and have kept in touch with them over the past year.
Also said hi to Richard Linklater, the director, who seemed relaxed yet busy on the set. From what Paul has told me about the production, it is running smoothly, without any yelling whatsoever. Everyone just seems real laid back. Gotta admire that. And it's just so exciting to see so many people so focused on one goal. That day they were shooting inside of an empty warehouse that was dressed to look like a swap meet or a flea market type of place. They were shooting a scene between Billy Bob Thornton and one of the kids. There was a sense of calm, deliberate patience in getting the right line reading from the kid. Rick told me that Billy Bob was real good with kids, so it sounds like it'll be a strong film. Only problem lately, and it didn't seem that big a deal to Rick, is the recent torrential rainstorms we've been having here in LA. There's another storm coming, from what I understand, so hopefully that doesn't put them over schedule.
It's great to see movies being made, and if they're made with efficiency and grace then it's a real delight.
|
January 11th, 2005
11:16 pm - Philosopher Editor
Walter Murch, the editing legend who cut The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, the Talented Mr. Ripley, The English Patient, and many others, spoke tonight to a small crowd gathered at Book Soup on the Sunset Strip. He was there with Charles Koppelman who wrote a documentary-book about how Murch edited Cold Mountain. They were there to for a book signing but also to talk about editing. Murch is one of the most articulate and inspiring thinkers in cinema today. He not only can talk about editing and the challenges that one encounters making a film "work", but he also brings in a fair amount of philosophy and history to his ideas. Hearing him talk about how he thinks we're in a pre-notation period of cinema was just a little bit mind-blowing.
I'd like to somehow bring him and Charles to Austin to have not only a book signing but maybe some kind of workshop or moderated discussion. Have to work on this.
Current Music: A Foggy Day
|
01:18 am - New Beginnings
I haven't written on this jorunal in a few months time. Now is the time to begin again.
It's pouring down rain in LA. First time in 40 years it's rained this hard. If we fall into the ocean it's not because of some damn earhquake. It's because the water is so eff'in heavy it pulled us into the ocean. First time in 40 years the weatherman had a job to do. No more 70s and Sunny, What's new in sports? Just rain for the next month. Amazing weather.
Lots of meetings this week. An attempt to reconnect with familiar acquaintences, and make new ones. LA is all about relationships -- meet n' greet, press the flesh. I don't care, I like it. So many interesting people. Doin' the thing you're doin'. Turn the volume up.
Walter Murch is speaking tomorrow night at Duck Soup on the Sunset Strip across from Tower Records, 7 pm. Go if you can -- it's guarunteeeeeeeed to be worth your time. A renaisance (sp?) man who edits film. He's amazing.
I can't wait to be making another film.
Current Music: National Anthem
|
November 14th, 2004
08:15 am - A week for weak knees
I haven't updated this journal in about a month so I figure now is the time. I just got back from a trip to NY and Austin -- where in NY we had two screenings of Dear Pillow (one at SwissAm, the other at a Best of Slamdance screening) and in Austin we had a meeting with Burnt Orange Productions. The week as a whole was one of those weeks where something significant happens everyday. And it all comes out of left field. The two biggest things can't be mentioned here but soon we'll be able to make them public. Suffice to say that lots of good stuff is happening.
The screenings were a lot of fun and NY was crazy as usual. In no particular order we: stayed up all night singing karaoke; bought stolen coats on a street corner; introduced ourselves to chala bread at a kosher diner; saw Jay Duplass's new short film "The Intervention"; and walked past Julianne Moore on the street.
Very happy to be back home.
|
October 5th, 2004
10:11 am - Close Quarters
I've been so so busy over the last week that I haven't been able to post any thoughts about living in LA. One thing I can say though is that the area that I live in right now, Los Feliz, is a super cool neighborhood. I can walk to breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and to the bookstore. There's a three screen theater one block from me, the post office is two blocks, and the hills are half a mile to the north. Trees line the street I'm on. Most importantly, the friends I have in LA all live within 5 min walk or a 10 min drive from me. The only downside is that it is a pain to try to find quarters for laundry during rush-hour.
On Sunday I had dinner on the beach while watching the sun set and the odd mix of people pass by on the boardwalk.
I've been editing the Hollywood Heritage documentary lately, trying to meet a deadline. We're outputing a rough cut today and so the next few days I'm going to devote to helping Brian McGuire recut his actor demo reel, and to doing some Dear Pillow business.
|
September 30th, 2004
09:51 am - Repositioning
Well I made it out to LA in one piece even though my tire blew out in the middle of Nowhere, New Mexico. It was a mild distraction compared to the glories of driving through Gila National Forest, seeing the Grand Canyon, almost falling into the Meteor Crater that is west of Flagstaff, and driving historic Route 66 through desolate parts of Arizona.
For those who don't know yet, I'm shifting my base of operations to LA because there's more rent-paying type work for me there right now. But I really don't feel like I'm leaving Austin either because I'll be spending at least a week a month back there. In fact, I'll be back in Austin Oct 10-17 to do some work, hang out, and sit on a panel at the Austin Film Festival. So in a lot of ways I'll be keeping one foot in each town (though i'm too short to do an accurate impression of the Colossus of Rhodes).
Being in LA three weeks out of the month will help us keep Dear Pillow in the minds of those people who pull da' strings, and will allow us to build awareness about our next project. LA is a huge town, so it's a little overwhelming, but I'm trying to stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Current Music: KCRW World News
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
senorjacob's journal