Ain’t it the Gospel Truth
Life
When things get too busy
Dec 6th
I find value in writing at moments of great stress. At least I can look back at it later and get a sense of where I was.
Right now things are getting extremely busy and I find myself being asked to do small favors for people and clients. I’m tired of doing those favors. My work load feels pretty heavy right now. Between two good paying clients and the gargantuan Pitch Black looming on my shoulders – I really don’t have much time for anything else.
My day is entirely packed. There’s not a minute of idleness – or boredom. My goof off time (because the engine of creativity needs to warm up) is spent busily consuming information and answering correspondence..
Yes I’m complaining about being too busy. Because I forsee a time when I will really have to tell everybody “no”
It’s coming up fast… I think…
Popularity: 4% [?]
My Emily at the AOF festival
Jul 25th
First off let me make a public announcement about the Action on Film Festival in Pasadena. Everyone not directly associated with the festival had nothing but good things about the event and frankly I don’t doubt them. I got a chance to network with some interesting people and as my very first festival acceptance for a film I directed, AOF will always be my first. Would I submit another film to them – absolutely. They seemed nice and they tried their best to help out the filmmakers. And I got a free water bottle!
That said, let’s get into it… shall we?
Last night My Emily enjoyed her festival premiere at Action of Film Festival in Pasadena. The screening was scheduled for 10:30PM. I arrived at 9PM, stuffed full of delicious sushi and sake (films are always enjoyed slightly or significantly inebriated). The 9PM block of movies started about 15 minutes behind schedule. Not terrible as far as film festivals go – I did a festival in West Hollywood that was 3 hours behind schedule.
The room was packed to the gills – probably about 150 at the screening. I could only find a seat in the front row, on the corner. So everything I saw was in keystone mode. 
First up, a short animation about some flying metallic bee things. They fly around the world, through famous landmarks and it ends with the bee having a conversation with a dough mixer (you didn’t believe me when I said it was better to watch movies inebriated).
Okay, that was cute.
Up next, another short about a Jesus character who raises a dead girl. The girl is a spoiled teenager and doesn’t recognize the miracle that occurred. Cute concept but exhibited a terrible habit that I see a lot of writers fall for – bad conflict dialog. It’s like a tennis match that’s been fixed. Instead of each side competing to score points, they’re lobbying the ball and waiting for the other guy to smash it. Straight man/funny man to the extreme if you want a non-sports analogy.
And the sound sucked. I was guilty of doing too much noise reduction in my younger years as well.
Next, a reading of a short scene that was nominated. Boring… I didn’t couldn’t get into it.
Ah finally, the feature in the 9PM block. It was a Mafia comedy and it probably employed every Italian American in LA Central Casting. It even had that guy – you know, that guy – from the Sopranos. The first act was fun and I sat back to enjoy what I thought was going to be in for an entertaining mob farce. Then things got bad. Really bad.
First off, I noticed the DP had an ASC credits. It looked decent (shot on film) but being about 4 feet from the screen, it looked dirty and just unpleasant. Whatever.
But the plot – my god – the plot!
Continuity problem – it was suppose to take place in New York, but the Don has a vineyard. I’m not up on my New York geography, but I do live in “wine country” and there’s no way grapes will survive the frost.
You can’t blame the actors, because there were some funny moments and it seemed like they were trying to have fun with their scenes… but the plot!! The editing! It was atrocious. (yes it’s up for best editing)
The film’s penultimate scene has the protagonist entering a DANCE COMPETITION which has a grand prize of $100,000 – enough to pay off his gambling debts to the mob. Yes, an Italian wise guy pizza shop owner is entering a DANCE COMPETITION with a 6 figure purse and there’s no good dancers in sight.REALLY?
Editing wise – just lots of bizarre scenes – most of it didn’t make any sense. I’m sorry, I can’t keep up with which Vitoloni is trying to rub out which Ceceloni and why is Sammy the Voice singing the Rigoletto? Or is that the Rigatoni? Maybe I got it mixed up with an Olive Garden commercial. Lots of scenes where I was left asking – who are these people? Why are they talking about what they’re talking about? Whazzamatta?
Let me take a brief moment to apologize if I’ve offended any Italian Americans. I didn’t mean to infer that Olive Garden was actual Italian food. Italians are very sensitive to this.
So after 99 minutes of this, they get a nice applause. I’m sure it wasn’t an emperor’s new clothes deal – the gal sitting next to me ducked out during the credits and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one who rolled up the welcome matte at the 50 minute mark. After the lights come up they ask all the filmmakers and cast up to the front. By this time its 10:45. I know I’m next so I’m just watching the clock.
The bee guy gives a speech longer than his movie about how anybody who can dream it can do it now. Thanks. Then there’s about 10 people from the Mafia movie who want to congratulate each other. They thank the producers – one of which was wearing a bow tie – I notice that kind of thing – he looked like a nice guy – bow ties do that.
11PM – they finally say goodnight and ask people to continue their conversation outside. 11:15PM the theater is finally cleared. I walk outside thinking I need to show the usher my wristband to get into my screening. No one’s around. I better go to the bathroom.
The majority of the sake out of my system, I returned to the theater.
My film had already started…
And there was no one in the theater.
Well… I exaggerate that…
The usher was cleaning up empty popcorn boxes. But he left. And there I was alone, watching my film.
It looked pretty good (the DVD projector didn’t fill the screen) but it sounded amazing. All those hours I spent crafting the sound and music really paid off.
But there I am… sitting alone in the theater watching my film. If I were to distill the theme of “My Emily” into a few choice words – they would be “loneliness”, “alienation”, and “loneliness”.
Irony.
How sweet is that?
As sad and pathetic as my life and career at that very moment, I didn’t feel like jumping off the 8th story balcony I had back at the Hilton. I was still proud that I got where I did – even if I was the only one in the attending audience to see the film. It was still an accomplishment. To go from script to screen… it felt good.
Then I saw the feature that they paired with me. Or should I say… “feature”…
I knew this was coming… a quick IMDB search of the movie revealed the trailer and a sneak peak of what I was in for. And for anybody in the cast and crew reading this – I didn’t specifically invite people to this screening because of this movie. I didn’t want you guys spending money and having to sit through this film. And luckily, since I was the only one in the audience, neither did I.
I watched about 10 minutes of the film. The first 2 minutes were a posting of the three robot protocols using text that had so much spacing that my monkey brain couldn’t read them. Then the film was shot in 60i… having worked in 24p for a few years now, I’ve grown to love it. There is an elegance to that cadence and frankly everything else looks terrible (in a narrative).
Next, the sound was terrible. It was boomy and noisy – recorded off the camera no doubt. There was a scene that ended with the noise from a party getting louder and louder until you wanted to take a claw hammer and beat out your ear drums – then it cuts to silence. Way to go hot shot!
Nice to know that all that time I spent on the sound could have easily been spent searching for strange monkey porn online.
Next, they used a classical music track for running scene of the protagonist trying to get to the class on time. I’m not a classical music wizard – I don’t know Dvořák from a DeLorean. But I know the Nutcracker when I hear it (Russian Trepak to be exact though I did have to look it up). Nutcracker is NOT chase music. Just because it sounds classical, doesn’t you can ignore the century of ballet that has been associated with a track like that. Not to mention that every Christmas we’re reminded of how closely those Tchaikovsky tunes are associated with the Yule Log. Tis sloppy music work.
But what really broke my proverbial camel’s back was the scene where the protagonist gets to the class – the teacher hands him a test and walks to the white board and replaces the number “10″ in 10 minutes left, with a “5″. The problem with the scene? The “5″ was written with a dried out pen and barely visible on screen.
They couldn’t be bothered with getting a dry erase pen that worked.
Allow me to repeat that.
THEY COULDN’T BE BOTHERED WITH GETTING A DRY ERASE PEN THAT WORKED!!!
It wasn’t played as a joke… it just looked like sloppy filmmaking. That was enough. I got up and walked out. They put my efforts with the likes of this. Thanks guys. I sweat over the stupid tiny shit, I iron out sound issues – normalize, colorize, equalize… and I’m next to a movie that couldn’t be bothered to find a new Expo marker!
I walked over to after party and ordered a beer. I scan the room, which extremely noisy, for some body that looked open to conversation. I knew it was going to be hard, because my voice is exactly the same frequency as ambient noise. I finally take up a place at the bar next to a couple women, but there’s no luck. Used to be back in the day, that it wasn’t too hard to talk to someone sitting alone at the bar. But now, when a woman is alone, she’s usually texting someone on her phone or trading her Farmville stocks on the FBSE.
That gives me an idea – the iCockBlocker – want to avoid casual conversation in a bar? There’s an app for that.
I have another beer – and walk the mile back to the hotel at 1AM on Colorado Blvd. The city is quiet at that hour, the concrete still radiating warmth from the day, the night a uncaring musky mixture of left over traffic fumes and air conditioner exhaust.
Nice… lets see the best writing award nominees write shitty poetic lines like that.
On the way back,I saw a fight break out at a club – the streets were quickly populated with youngsters and the sound of smashed beer bottles. It piqued my interest for about 10 minutes but once the police were in the vicinity I just as rather go back to the room and marinade in self pity.
It’s luck of the draw sometimes at film festivals – I get that. Short films aren’t the main attraction. Had Emily been up with the Mafia comedy I would have had a packed house. But instead I’m put with a piece of crap at the end of the night.
Alone – that’s how I started, and that’s how I ended watching the premiere. Perhaps that’s the best way it could have been, let me suffer the disgrace of being paired with that stinkin’ turd next to my movie. Maybe I’m just going into defensive mode, I tend to put a good face on these things.
It’s not their fault that their movie was a turd. No one starts off wanting to make a stinker (though that whole concept of skipping the step of making a good short before you tackle a feature plays in it). I’m NOT blaming their movie for my movie not having an audience. Please don’t think that. I needed to supply my own audience. I get that. That’s something I’m woefully bad at.
It wasn’t until the Sunday brunch that I got to meet other filmmakers – Embarrassed, I held off on sharing my experience until later in the day… fellow filmmakers felt my “pain”. If it wasn’t for that opportunity to meet other serious people in the business, I would have brushed this off as a waste. I talked to them and hopefully we can do some interesting features with a few of them in the future.
So that’s my story. Marketing is key – it’s the single most important thing separating the studios from the independents. Everyone touting the death of Hollywood doesn’t understand that fact.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Situational Awareness – the key to great teamwork and leadership (in music and anything else)
May 14th
As clinical and dry as the title reads, I promise not to write a treatise on something new-agey and boring. I’m not trying to sell you a book or convince you to hire me as a consultant to help motivate your team. I’m just jotting down some thoughts that have come to me from my years of working all sorts of bands.
I’m going to draw my experience from my music background – music in a large group situation requires just as much if not more teamwork as team sports. As a trumpet player, I’ve been in all the seats, I’ve led a section and I’ve played the last chair. I’ve had a taste of everything and I’ve played in enough groups to know what works and what doesn’t.
Here’s the secret to it all… Situational Awareness.
Lets look at it from the team player perspective. Let’s use the music example: let’s say you have a player on the 4th chair. At the very basic level of teamwork, this player will perform the music exactly as written with no regard for anything that occurs around him. If performed competently (which many players still struggle to reach this), there will be nothing particular bad or particular good about this performance. In this situation it is a pure 1+1=2 situation – the player adds himself to the equation but nothing else.
This is sort of where my ideas break down. There are few players who are technically competent AND show no sense of situational awareness… but I digress…
When playing in a band, situation awareness means you must be aware of what your section leader is doing, what the other sections of the band are doing, and what the conductor is doing. I put the conductor last because he/she is the first person most players look to when performing with a group but in reality the conductor is really the only one in a musical group who is NOT creating music. Educators will love to disagree with me on this – that’s their job – to drill into less accomplished players that there is only one source of musical guidance. It’s centralization of power, they don’t want to loose that.
The truth is, the conductor is simply a means for the musicians to have a common adjudicator. Yes, he/she is the only thing you need to be aware of, is silly. To even say he/she is the most important thing is really far too much simplification (jazz bands rarely need conductors). The conductor is like a traffic director, the musicians are the ones driving the car. Imagine if you were at an intersection, if you stared at the traffic director the entire time, you could still end up the ramming the car in front of you.
The answer is “Situational Awareness” – be aware of what you’re doing and how it fits into the big picture. Back to the 4th trumpet player- if he has a G on the 3rd beat – the question now is what’s the point of that note? Is that G octave doubling the lead? Is the lead playing it short or long? Is the rhythm swinging it or playing it straight? Is that G a third in a major chord (in that case you’ll want to play it a bit flat). Is that note part of a melody section or are the trumpets doing hits at that point. Are the drums setting you up there? Is the passage leading to a melodic section? Are you going sharp or flat? All these factors are important in how you play that note – and you make those decisions by being AWARE of your surroundings and anticipating what’s coming next. If you do that, we get a situation where 1+1>2.
Notice I didn’t mention what dynamic or what’s written on the music. Sheet music is just a suggestion – a darn good one though. Sheet music is NOT music, it gets interpreted into music. I’m so EFFING sick of people asking me what dynamic is written or what the tempo marking is. I don’t play piano (soft) because the music says to play piano. I play soft because that’s what would sound good. Of course, dynamic markings are all relative anyways. My rant on tempo markings will be saved for another night….
Now in terms of leadership, it should be pretty obvious how situational awareness plays in. A section leader needs to know precisely what’s happening and respond correctly. The further you go up the command chain, the more aware of what’s going on and how to communicate to the different individuals in the group. A good leader needs to be aware of what those under him/her are dealing with as well in order to adjust and alter the plan of attack.
That’s about a gist of some of the things running through my head. Leave a comment if anything makes sense or you totally disagree!
Popularity: 15% [?]
More Adventures in Auto Repair
Apr 21st
Well the folks at Edison decided that today was a good day to mess around with the power which left me without electricity for about 6 hours. Luckily I had planed some minor DIY Auto repair things to do.
First was replacing the battery terminals. I asked my pal Joseph to come over and help me out. We had this trouble on the way up to Vegas – the terminal connections were so corroded that they easily got moved out of position. I purchased a box of terminals yesterday to only realize today that the box of terminals only had one terminal. Fantastic…
The second thing on my repair list was the blinking right turn light. The light had be blinking at twice the rate for the last year or so. It never died so I just lived with it. Not anymore… add new signal light to the shopping list.
And finally the pet peeve of mine – the second accessory cigarette lighter on my car had been out for over 2 years now. So for the longest time I’ve been using only one lighter to power all my accessories (GPS, phone charger, earpiece charger…). After prying apart the driver side interior (something I’m sure the engineers at Toyota didn’t want me to do because the made it so bloody hard) I was able to yank out that cigarette lighter.
Upon a cursory examination I found nothing wrong with it… so I might as well just get a new one at the store.
At Pep Boys I bought a second terminal, the yellow blinker light bulbs but no cigarette lighter that would match the one that came out of the car. We found no compatible item at Auto Zone as well.
Back at home I was determined to find out what was wrong with the cigarette lighter that I took out. It took a while but I discovered a broken wire. I yanked out the last bits of broken wire and soldered in a new wire connector.
And it worked!!!
I was so amazed I even vacuumed my car!
Feels so good to have those three things fixed up. Like driving a new car….
…almost…
Popularity: 5% [?]
Bye Bye Old Web, Welcome New Digital World
Dec 4th
So as an odd twist of fate would have it, the day after I post a reflection on the new web, I get an email to the following video. A clip that so perfect describes what I meant to say:
Popularity: 6% [?]