Civic Duty
My posting schedule will be a erratic for a little while, as I will be spending my days sitting in judgment of my fellow man. In a totally socially-endorsed way, too! If you’re in the courthouse tomorrow, I’ll be the angriest of the twelve angry men. I’m just not sure which argument I should make […]
Video Killed the Fi-i-ilm Star
I know lots of people who can’t stand HD. I worked for an AC who would say, “I don’t care what the resolution is, it’s still video.” Really, do you know anybody outside the business who can even tell the difference between HD and film, much less cares? More pertinently, I had professors proclaim there […]
Really Writing
I walked into the writers’ office yesterday and saw a ping pong ball and two paddles sitting on the assistant’s desk. I paused, staring at the ping pong ball. This was one of those moments you see in indie movies, where the character is contemplating his life, but you don’t know exactly what he’s thinking […]
Where It’s At
Yesterday, Nathan wrote, “You want to write… write!” This is the best, most important advice any aspiring writer can get. But if you’re sitting at a desk in Nome, Alaska, typing away on an Underwood by candlelight, filing your scripts in a drawer, you’re not going to have a writing career. There’s an old saying […]
There Must Be Some Way Outta Here…
Do you ever have one of those days where you look around and think, “What the fuck am I still doing here?” I’m having a day like that today. People always like to tell you, “You have to pay your dues.” But they never tell you how long you have to pay your dues for. […]
Wanna Know How Sausage is Made?
My freshman year at film school, I knew at least a half dozen people who dropped out of the program, if not college altogether. Even more changed majors in the years following. After picking films apart for class after class, they found that they just couldn’t enjoy going to the movies anymore, which was probably […]
Making Movies for Fun and No Profit
First of all, Ken Levine somehow stole a blog post idea directly from my head. (This fits with my theory that Rupert Murdoch has a chip my brain, and he’s stealing all my good scripts before I even write them.) Ah, well, it’s probably for the best– he’s a better writer than I am, anyway, […]
Set Visits
I was walking a friend from out of state one day, and we saw a line of unmarked, white trucks along the side of the road. My friend said, “It looks like there’s a circus!” Did I mention my friend was from out of town? To an Angelino, those trucks are the surest sign that […]
Job Well Done
Some days, you can be proud of the work you’ve done, knowing that you’ve contributed, in some small way, to the production. Then there are days when you drive two and a half hours to pick up a DVD with a three second vanity card. I don’t understand why it wasn’t just uploaded to a […]
Success
I’ve met Bryan Singer twice. The first time, he came as a guest judge for a student film competition at my school. This was before X-Men had come out, but he must have been in the middle of post, so it was pretty cool that he came by. Of course, at this point, Singer had […]
You’re Fired!
I once worked for a guy who told me that he’s never had a job he wasn’t fired from. This was a point of pride for him, as it “proved” he had an entrepreneurial spirit, and he would never be successful until he started his own business. He seemed to be right. He started his […]
10-1
Anybody who works on set and who is slightly immature, by which I mean grips, just giggled at the title. You see, channel 1 is the main production line on the walkies. Anyone could be listening, so you shouldn’t say anything that you don’t want other people to hear. You’re also supposed to follow certain […]