Apologies for the long absence! I’m sad to say that my laptop still hasn’t been fixed. T_____T Some of my more techy friends will take a look at it over the weekend, and hopefully I’ll be up and running soon (and posting more regularly). Much thanks for your continued patience and love!
As promised, here’s my latest step in my Kaki King guitar project process. I lost a lot of process photos when my hard drive died, but imagine if you will layers and layers of paint built up into an awful mess, uneven eyebrows, and off-center lips. The (gasp) puffy cheeks and washed out skin tone stage can be seen below.
I have the bad habit of overthinking/overworking a painting, hating it, sanding it all off, and starting fresh. It’s a crazy and nerve-wrecking part that has insidiously crept into my process.
After a bit of sanding and sighing, it became this (above). The guitar is so close to being finished. Just a few more sleepless nights of tweaks and installing hanging hardware, and it’ll be show-ready.
As always, thanks for stopping by and checking in!
Star Wars: Uncut is a collaborative film project. They took Star Wars: A New Hope, cut it into 473, 15 second clips and letting the internet reshoot them. At the end, they’re going to piece them back together for a final film.
Brilliant!
I can’t way to see the final. It’ll be atrocious and awesome all at the same time.
The Intern Project has quickly moved through pre-production. We spent a short afternoon location scouting and taking reference pictures which I had intended to use for storyboarding. But with this quick time table, I haven’t really been able to do that. Instead, I’ve moved straight into making my shot list.
I’ve been watching Hollywood Camera Works and I wish I took notes. There’s so many things with blocking, shot composition, and camera placement that I know I learned, but just can’t recall. One of the lessons I learned was to think in terms of camera placement and not necessarily in shots, per se. I’m also trying to stay away from “artistic” angles. Since we’re doing something along the lines of “The Office”, we’re going to be shooting a lot of handheld. That’s going to be interesting.
We did have a scare last week where one of our leads dropped out of the project. Her schedule just didn’t allow her to make our shoots. So we scrambled to find someone to take her place. Her character was too important to just cut out completely. Luckily, we secured another actress and was able to get back on track.
From this point on, all the phases of production are going to get mashed together.
We have first drafts for episodes 6 and 7, but they need to be edited and rewritten. I still have episodes 4 and 5 to edit too. Then preproduction on all those. And once we have some scenes in the can, we’re going to start editing them.
From January through May 2008, four studio films grossed more than $100 million dollars. This year, that number is eleven. Almost triple.
Meanwhile, in the same period, the number of indies that grossed over $1 million dollars went from 16 to six. Less than half.
Make Smarter Movies
What I mean is crafting a disciplined process that results in a smarter product. Smarter process means designing movie projects with really clear target audiences in mind from the very beginning. Doing that takes coordination among all parties involved, from finance to creative to production to marketing to distribution. Having a clear target in mind determines the process and the range of budget that needs to be financed.
[...]
Patrick Goldstein of The LA Times describes the difference between “making better movies” and “making smarter movies” this way:
“The real problem with the indie business isn’t quality, but discipline. We have a generation of filmmakers who feel entitled to make personal films… and a generation of executives who’ve been willing to essentially use specialty films as a loss-leader to launch their division or win awards. If people in the indie world want to start making money again, they have to start treating their investment like a truly precious natural resource, not like Monopoly money. Discipline is not antithetical to art.”
Respect the Money
The point is, talent and money have to be on the same page. If you as a producer buy a giraffe and the director brings you a giraffe, it’s your fault if you decide you now want a zebra because market conditions have changed and zebras are in.
[...]
a good movie losing money – is the one unpardonable sin in our business. Everyone’s going to make mistakes and occasionally make bad films. But if a movie really works – but then people don’t get their money back – financiersdon’t understand. We have to make sure that, especially when we get it right, everybody gets paid.
Think Markets
Most businesses have a complete plan from the start of a project, which includes the whole chain from manufacturing through distribution.
[...]
I was blown away when I found out that the # 32 film on the all-time documentary box-office list is a little 2005 film I’d never heard of, called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. (It’s about wild parrots living on Telegraph Hill, by the way.) Can you imagine how tiny the market sliver is of people willing to take a night out to go see this peculiar-sounding film?
Well, the filmmaker did imagine them. Rather thoughtfully, in fact. And then proceeded to use viral marketing to rally those people into the theater, by making the film an event for every bird-lover on God’s green Earth.
[...]
You can target market segments as long as you’ve created something appealing to them.
It’s a great speech. Take the time to read or listen to the entirety.
After seeing Geppetto die at the hands of vampires, Pinocchio swears revenge in this darkly funny graphic novel. As the vampires plot the enslavement of mankind, only a one-puppet army stands in their way. But will a wooden boy and his endless supply of stakes—courtesy of plenty of lies and his elongating nose—be enough to save the day?
First, let me start off with a small apology. I won’t be able to post as regularly on the interwebs because my Powerbook is ill once more. While trying to shut down, it made 3 piercing screams while the pinwheel of death spun wildly. And today, it just wasn’t having it at all. I turned it on and nothing. Penguin suspects that it may have suffered a head crash.
But my lack of technological comforts has made for some good painting progress. Oh dear, it took me 6 hours to get from here:
to there:
I added more warm tones (to make the shadows richer) and fly-away strands of hair (hair that is too perfect looks fake).
Her lips are looking a little too done up, so I will revert to a paler shade in the next round.
Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary is a collection of videos of documentary filmmakers who talk about the craft, ethics, and other things related to making documentaries.
Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and over 30 of today’s top documentary filmmakers provide an in-depth look at non-fiction filmmaking and the steps to making a documentary. These masters of the craft reflect upon the nature of documentary as a form of storytelling and offer insight into their approach to the ‘truth.’
Dina Goldstein is best known for her photograph series—The Gaza Strip, The Trackrecord Project, and David Series. Her most recent photograph series, Fallen Princesses, takes a look Disney fairy tales striped of their happy endings.
These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.
As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original brothers Grimm’s stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction, and self-image issues.
–Dina Goldstein
Belle from The Beauty and the Beast under the knife
Rapunzel in chemo
Snow White and her new brood
A still slumbering Sleeping Beauty has been moved into Prince Charming’s senior’s home
