Leggo my Ego

The Hollywood Juicer in this recent post inspired me to kick back into this blog with a subject that's weighing heavily lately. As the whole world knows, recently Christian Bale's rants on the set of Terminator Salvation (on which some VFX guys now on 2012 worked), were made public. I wholeheartedly agree with Taylor and his sentiment that Actors are a different breed. They can easily get more fluffed than a peacock in heat because of a rancid cocktail of indispendibility and insecurity. As Taylor says, they really are the only piece of the puzzle that cannot be replaced, the only thing that is undeniably locked into a film once it starts. Everyone treats them like glass because they have massive bargaining power. You, the PA, knocked on their door and woke them up. They can jepoardize the whole shoot if they leave and it may just be your fault. The thought is absolutely terrifying when you're on the bottom.

This is method that Hollywood uses to get you down. Fear. Absolute, gut-churning, psychotherapy-inducing, become-a-chain-smoker fear. Actors are just one part of the psychotic whole. They're divas, but they're just one department. What if you're dealing with the ones in charge? What if the guy you work for runs the show and everyone else's show? What if your boss is an agent, or a producer, or an executive? Life as a low-level (and I'm talking even lower than assistant) assistant is riddled with hazing purposefully intended to break you. I once had a boss who sat across from me and expressed her crushing disappointment at how I ended requests on the phone with a question ("Could you please check if Mr. Jacobs is available?") instead of a statement, ("We need to see Mr. Jacobs tomorrow.") There are very specific things you CAN and CAN'T do. Like Bale says, you don't walk into the shot, and like Tayor reiterates, the DP could not talk back and rightly shut up.

This city, maybe not this industry but at least this city, is built on that kind of social boundary. You CAN'T talk to this person, you CAN'T do this job, you CAN'T walk into this room, it's all can't can't can't. It's like foot binding. Before you know it you can't get anywhere and every step is painful. Most of the time, these "can't"s are absolute bullshit, things like keeping your head down when this person is in the room, or never saying "no" to this other person, or that you have to wipe the dust from his desk because he "can't". Most of the "can't" are absolutely bogus. They're plants by people to make their insecure, mundane lives more livable, as they get a little power from following fake rules and yelling at others for breaking them. Most of them mean nothing but should you question them, you're just looking for a can of whoopass. I was once repeatedly chastised for binding scripts before counting pages, when my boss told me to count the pages before binding the scripts.

I'm really bad at dealing with this kind of crap. I don't see why things have to be the way they are. Most of the time, the limits are there simply because they've always been there. It's true, as Taylor says, when you're in that situation it's very hard to rebel because, well, if everyone is against you how will you keep working? I came from indie production in New York City and on the east coast, there's a special thing called PERSPECTIVE. The coffee runs out, but it's nothing compared to the homeless guy trying to weasel onto the set. The producer may be worth millions, but it's doubtful he'll get his own trailer because he knows there's no space. But here, reality doesn't apply. No matter how low-budget you are, you HAVE to have a minimum of two trailers. End of story. If people found out your Camry was the green room your actor would walk off. Never mind that the money that would've been spent on a trailer would go to people's salaries. People are carried by a very strong tradition of hubris and abuse. The theory is "That's how it is and that's how it'll always be." Those that at first think otherwise start to embrace that theory, and before long they add, "and that's how I like it." and by then they're long gone, never to return.

Once you like the way it is, that's when you're officially a hollywood douchebag.

I have trouble playing this game. I don't want to devalue myself or the people around me. What kind of a life is being surrounded by yes men? I don't want to grant someone that misery. For people that like that delusional way, I don't know how much I can respect that. A good producer would be honored to have someone real beside him, not an empty shell with a bobblehead. My ideal is to treat others, no matter their position, as my equals. They're to be respected for their job and their work; this isn't serfdom here. All of us little people do silly tasks now and again, but if I have to pluck all the green M+M's out of a bowl, it's only for the paycheck. I shouldn't do it to further my career because a career brought on my sifting through M+M's is not one that I want. We shouldn't fear getting fired over post-it note colors, or accept to fill a bathtub with Evian to get a script passed on, and I make coffee as a PA because it's part of the job and coffee makes people (including me) happy. That's a reason to keep the pot full, but if it's so inexplicably important that that pot CAN'T be empty, and following this dumb CAN'T rule just because it's a rule is the way to climb the ladder, I'm very sorry at the quality of work that is waiting on those upper rungs.

I want to play the game, but on my terms. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask but... maybe it is.


In other news:

Kims Video has lost. Just like Indie 103.1. What does this future hold? If theaters start shutting down I may just give up on life.

Also, Battlestar Galactica is getting too close to current events for comfort.

Also, I used to be a funny person.

SOCCER MOM!

"Soccer Mom" is complete! After a year in production and two in post, it'll be coming to you soon!

Keep visiting this blog and the "Soccer Mom" site for screenings, updates, and more!

Watch the trailer again:


Soccer Mom - the fight is on! from Vicious Concepts on Vimeo.

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/v/PJ2Jfiab9RA&hl=en&fs=1




PS: I'm back! Did you miss me?

The Fix: Thierry Mugler

Shoot it up! It's Theirry Mugler!

Probably the most fantastical designer of the last thirty years, Thierry Mugler is the godfather of dominatrix high fashion. He turns real-live women into comic book characters on the runway. No smoke and mirrors, no CGI, there's no way to deceive you, watching these models is an invitation to shit your pants in the face of awesome. There is always a way to do it bigger and better. Its all in how much commitment you have to sewing a million bugles on a dress and endure the smell of plastic. Here's some visual stimulation to get your next fantasy script going.

The famous Harley dress, that simultaneously empowers and (controversially) objectifies the woman. (ride her hard) ---------->

All about the man:


At a height in the 90's.
Winter:


Spring: Don't skip the last dress.


His Official Site.

The truth revealed

Romantic Comedies really ARE acts of terrorism on humanity. Or they just ruin your love life by duping dreamers into trying to live out fantasy.

God I hate chick flicks.

Film and the Financial Crisis

We also talked about the inherent opportunity for smaller studios, free of the weight these mega corporations carry, to be nimble and react to the quality products that are sure to change hands as studios try and find buyers. A great example of this that Don gave was Summit Entertainment’s pickup of the “Twilight” book series from Paramount in turnaround.

From a satisfyingly specific interview with Don Starr (CEO of Grosvenor Park (Defiance, P.S. I Love You, Righteous Kill). I want to read Part 2. Thanks to The Screenwriters League for the tipoff.

The Fix: Danny Boyle

(So this is the start of a technique I'm using to blog more consistently. This is The Fix, where I talk about something that inspires me creatively at the moment.)

I started mucking around the interweb about Danny Boyle based off of the interview I posted from Variety, and youtube handed me some fine videos of the man giving some real sincere insight on filmmaking. I love this man. He gets me to go all night! (Writing that is! Your dirty mind, he has like a 20 year old kid or something!)

On Child Actors:

On location shooting:

On casting:

On Science:

On storyboarding and prep:

On shooting Sci-Fi:

Charm School

I just had to record this one question:

When the girls on Charm School go into Sharon Osbourne's "office" what kind of work do they expect us to imagine she's doing? I'm sure she's grading some classy essays like a diligent headmaster.

Is Bigger Better?

I recently finished reading a book called "The Devil's Candy", by Julie Salamon. It chronicles the production of "The Bonfire of the Vanities" directed and produced by Brian De Palma. I'd never seen "Bonfire" before but it has a reputation as the infamous bomb of the 80's. The book does a pretty fantastic job of methodically narrating the evolution of a box-office disaster, mainly by inadvertanly pointing out that nothing at the time ever seemed to be terribly wrong. If I was asked after reading the book why "Bonfire" went off the rails, the answer is totally obfuscated. This was no "Lost in La Mancha". It was no one person's fault, and everyone was either just doing their job or acting with the best of intentions. Because the plot totally focuses on racism between the Black of the Bronx and the White of the WASP, its a totally un-P.C. story. How does the studio handle it? This is an offensive story, but we don't want to offend anyone! So lets switch up some races here and there. Oh did we end up making it MORE offensive by trying to cover up the fact that we were offended in the first place? Oops. We were only trying to make you happy by casting the happy Tom Hanks as a total waste of space banker character. Because that's as believable as having Angelina Jolie play the cheek-pinching grandmother in a Christmas movie. Actually, that would be kinda funny. Somebody do that.

But back to the point. The crux of the production is that it went about $20 million over budget and hit an all-time high cost for its time at $50 million. With that much money at stake, everyone was doing double-takes, looking over their shoulder, forgetting the unity and concept of the movie because it had to be painstakingly separated into financial details: could this set be removed, could this actor be replaced, could this line be changed. And while that's all rice and beans in film production, the higher the budget the higher the stakes, and the more the fear. And when there's fear in a production, the film disappears. Movies are incredible in that while being these canvases of smoke and mirrors, these imperceptible illusions, they still reveal an incredible amount. The camera still, among all the lies, finds a way to tell the truth.

If you see the movie "Bonfire of the Vanities" it's so evident. This stamp of fear is practically everywhere. After 500 pages of reading about the making, you kind of forget the movie actually exists, so it's very strange to see it and recognize that everything on the page is seemingly true. The star-mongering, the excessive, stereotypical set dressing, the blatant camera choices, a De Palma staple, but clearly trying to add depth where the foundation of the movie crumbled away. Nothing fits, the movie's shallow and confusing and above all else, is more afraid of its material than anything I've seen in recent memory (for the full plot click here). It is so afraid in fact, that its twist of real issues into Hollywood ones really IS offensive. By trying to appease everyone, it appeased no one, and grossed about $10 million at the BO.

The book does not end happily, predicting a scary road ahead. "Bonfire" tanked due to its excessive spending and at the moment it was a lesson to the studios to keep their money in their pockets. But memories are fleeting and the afterward makes a point that the average budget jumped to $54.8 million in 2000 when in 1980 it was $9.5 million. A mere couple years later or so and Spiderman 3 smashed records by costing $300 million. And I feel like part of the system, part of the problem, because the movie I'm working on now is very big as well. Now that the economy is pretty much imploding on itself like a leaky stress ball, this budget inflation is a goddamn issue. Movies will ALWAYS exist for Americans, but if we're to make any money doing this anymore hopefully there's some change on the way, maybe similar to what happened in the early 70's, when the giants fell to let the little guys show their guns for a bit.

Hopefully slow ticket prices will remind executives to watch their material. Hopefully large chains will be forced to lower their ticket prices, movies shouldn't be and never were a luxury for the public. Hopefully there will be much needed reform in distribution. Film festivals have got to survive somehow. And hopefully the star's asking prices will finally go down to allow all of this to happen. Hopefully I'll still be able to work here.

Working at a studio, passing by big productions every day, I have to say it is amazing how quality becomes subjective when there is a lot of cash to spare. The more I hang around all of this, the more appealing Danny Boyle's words become:

The more money I take that is not restricted, which technically gives you freedom, equipment and more days, the more the spirit of the film dies, falls flat... These instincts you have when filming sometimes are often indulgent bullshit. You feel like a spoiled prince with a hundred people asking you what you want.

Well, clearly, I need to make a movie already. And stop philosophizing on one.

, a

Late Night Review #2

I have something to admit (other than turning to Paris Hilton's show every week, not helping at all): I'm a big Sarah Brightman fan. I've always been. I grew up in a house that played Opera and Classical music during lazy afternoons. I played classical piano for eleven years. I guess I naturally gravitated to the pop-opera that Brightman produced when I was a lass in the 90's without much musical background other than the local classic rock station.

Sarah Brightman is a funny sort of thing. She stopped being cool to me once I grew up and realized the rest of the world doesn't really recognize her (plus she does all these Christmas recordings... shudder). She's not really what all the kids listen to in the pop culture sinkhole that is high school.

But Darren Lynn Bousman saw hope in what I had given up on. He cast the original Christine in his gothic wonderland "Repo: The Genetic Opera." I didn't know until recently seeing the trailer, and I pretty much flipped my shit. She's singing her usual rock-opera but now around grisly gore and legal murder. Her corsets are not sky blue but black, on her head is velvet hood instead of a crown of crystals, and her eyes glimmer with digital machinery.

Here's my former favorite star, stepping into my world. I'm not much of a goth (can't afford the accessories), but I have always been by far more comfortable in black. It is undeniably satisfying to see proof that this faded star, pushed to the back of musical culture by her own obsession for traditionalism, is now willing to step into a new era. Sarah Brightman is cool again. She loves horror just like I do. And I'm for the first time in a long time proud to say that, yes, I am a fan of Sarah Brightman. I actually have all her albums back to when she first sang with Andrea Bocelli. I'm a total dork. I've even seen her in concert. Yes, I went with my mom and was surrounded by old women. I admit it. 

The world she builds around her is really quite funny. Her persona is swelled into something of a goddess. She performs wearing tiaras and dresses with a train the length of the stage. It has to be theatrically moved by twenty plainclothed dancers. She's always got those dancers... bowing. She's lifted on wires 90% if the time, 30 feet above the stage, as if her body along with her voice can defy gravity (she's lifted on wires in "Repo" too and I started laughing). She's also a fan of the giant swing thing as well. Basically, going to a concert of hers is equivalent to going to see the Dali Lama or something. You might as well walk up to her and kiss her feet and ask for a blessing. It's kind of hysterical how grandiose she tries to make herself. What's amazing is that in "Repo", she's the same star she always was. She's just a dark princess instead of an angel. Actually, in "Repo", the dark princess fantasia does everything to bolster her charm through the roof: she is, along with Anthony Stewart Head (who I could watch for fifteen hours and not get tired of) the saving grace of the movie. 

It's too bad she's not onscreen often and is mostly just an image plastered on walls advertising "Blind Mag in concert". She only uses her awesome mechanical eyes once, which are totally sweet and an element that can only be achieved in film rather than onstage. That's where "Repo" kind of misses out. I liked it a lot, but it was rather weak. It really improved in the last half hour, where the songs became much more memorable and the theater actors had more screen time, and the drama finally cranked to eleven. Other than that the movie's budget was showing, it felt kind of small and underperformed. A lot of blame is to be put on the original story and music: I haven't seen the original opera but it often sounded clunky and vulgar, and english opera sounds bad enough, they didn't try so hard to make english sound any better to the ears with well placed wording. It felt like many numbers were underfilmed. They needed more blocking and choreography to make them seem grandiose rather than lots of intercutting steadicam shots (an entire musical number took place in the backseat of a towncar. The best I can say about it is that it sucked). 

And about story, the film medium simply asks for a different one than is required on stage. I know nothing can be done about it, but when I heard the movie's fantastic backdrop, a dystopian future where the Corporation can legalize murder, I knew there's a much more social story here than the personal one the stage has to focus on. I found myself asking big questions: isn't there more than one Repo Man? What about underground resistance groups? Where's the government? If this movie is about a world where organs are reposessed, can we focus on that rather than this father/daughter overdue love triangle thing because this is the director of SAW movies and I wanna see my main character in that predicament? To be fair, Blind Mag IS in this predicament but you know, she's unfortunately a minor character, which kinda sucks. Its hard to change original source material, but I'm sorry, this felt kinda diluted all across the board. There were opportunities to make the film as bold as the Blind Mag's eyeshadow makeup but those were missed for the most part, as the movie was saddled with backstory about this love affair for a chick we only see in grainy holograms.

It sounds like I didn't enjoy myself at all, but in fact it was still a good time and I encourage everyone to go because there's plenty of fun to be had. Also, I encourage all support for this kind of alternative movie-making. It's definitely something new and different and I'm all for that. The songs do get quite catchy and the costume and set dec are awesome. As stated earlier, Anthony Stewart Head is positively kickass and when he and Sarah Brightman are actually together for the five seconds that they are it's like Robert Deniro and Al Pacino in "Heat". When you see that electricity you kind of realize what the rest of the movie is missing.

Plus, Paris Hilton's face falls off. That's something I won't see on MTV.

The song above, "Chromaggia" is the only opera-like song in "Repo", but it is also the best.

2012 teaser

The 2012 teaser was internationally released today ahead of "Quantum of Solace", the myriad of posters for which I pass by every single day* (Sony owns the Bond license) ...

(big HD versions available here)

It was neat to see these few shots develop from basic blue blocks into what you see today, the inner workings of which are absolutely imperceptible to untrained eyes.

By the way, before the release of the trailer the top search for "2012" turned up Sarah Palin.

*No seriously there are three 007 posters in front of the elevators and 20 posters lining the Sony store and 3 giant towering billboards on the lot all advertising the same thing.

Omlettes!

This new video from my good friend from NYU, Stephen Neary, forced me to break my blogging silence. And good thing too! The guilt was getting kind of old. As Burbanked put it, a week is like four months in the blogging world.


come have an omelette with me from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

Visit his blog to see his daily incarnations.

More about that entitlement thing

“The sooner we have these conversations in the family and as a society,” said Dr. Manning, the economist, “the sooner we can focus on core values, and have a more realistic dialogue about the meaning of happiness and money.” The New York Times discusses it.