november motion

path

71 days until we shoot and I can feel glacial, subterranean things moving around to make space for other things. was home sick monday and cleaned my office, which sounds like the most anodyne non-filmic undertaking possible but in fact it was the most directly related activity to making Sister/Brother that I’ve done of late (minus doing 2 full schedules and script breakdowns and rewriting screenplay that is). Making space by subtracting everything that isn’t necessary. (This has external and internal components of course.) There has been such liberation in stepping into the limitations of this project b/c it means I am turning off the aspirational (read: whining) interior part of me, which doesn’t take action b/c it’s always waiting, reliant on outside forces. This instead is action by virtue of ownership. I don’t have the luxury of aspiration and so certain doors click shut with regard to casting, locations, shooting ratios and so forth. This is the hand you’re dealt, move forward. More to come.

film and death

found this on twitter, attributed to Herzog but can’t confirm. regardless, it needs to be implanted in my brain, tattooed on my eyelids, put in my daily coffee, baked into breads and nut-loafs, muddled into cocktails, breathed in and out on repeat ad nauseum ad infinitum.

it arose last night over a pre pre production meeting w/ Sister/Brother co-producer and cinematographer Scott Ballard (interviewed on previous post) at the Lutz Tavern. topics covered: guerilla feature-making vs non-guerilla short film making, importance of casting, winter v spring, Carnal Knowledge, The Celebration, super 8 v super 16 v hd, the long endless hustle of this ride, skeleton crew vs appropriate crew, camera mount v camera car v neither, a standing still v death on a rock, making the movie for career v making the movie b/c it’s the right movie to make, and so on.

view from Lutz Tavern

a few words on Microaggressions

My latest project is a 6 part web-series called Microaggressions. We’re having a screening here in Portland and then releasing the project online in mid-July. Also hoping to play a festival or two. I am thrilled and very proud of all the great work by my collaborators on this project: amazing actors, compelling score, strong images, ace editing. (Additionally, it’s been 4 years since The Black Sea came out so there is a component of quivering joy just to have a project completed).

The origin of the project was due to me being desperate to direct again but being realistic about the funding timeline for my next feature and knowing I should aim at something shorter until the feature money rolled in. I considered making a short film but because I wanted to tell it from multiple viewpoints it became more tenable to split it up and make each viewpoint an episode, even though I didn’t know what it was going to be yet. I had been thinking of locations I could get as this faint idea was gelling and somewhere along the way the concept of a dispute - filtered through the deliberate (read: slow as hell) process and language of city government - felt right. I wrote the script and applied for a project grant from the Regional Arts + Culture Council and was fortunate to receive one, though the amount I was awarded was half of what I requested and needed to make the project. We’ll just have to do more with less I sighed, which is a defining conceit of all sorts of governments (and film projects), even when it defies logic, reason or practicality.

Two of the actors I had worked with before (Todd Tschida, Michael Draper), one I had in mind when I wrote the piece, not that she knew I was writing it for her (Kate Gray) and two were new to me (Pisay Pao, Chike Nwankwo). I know all directors say this but this is a special group of performers, whose collective talents not only enliven what I had in mind but transcend it. I feel extremely fortunate to have these 5 on this show.

I probably will keep saying things about this project in the days to come (b/c there’s also lots to say about the bad-ass crew, the score by Scott Unrein, the images by Scott Ballard and team, the editing by Evonne Moritz, the song selections and how I made them etc) but for now I’ll say:

We’re playing at the 5th Avenue Cinema on 7/13 8 pm. Free popcorn. You should come.

uncollected thoughts on directing

NOTE: this was originally posted on 9.14.18 at bags of wind

was on set again directing this past week for 5 straight days for my upcoming web-series Micgroaggressions, about 5 individuals and how they intersect with a City mediation one Saturday morning (more to say about that in the coming weeks) and learned and/or was reminded about multiple things that I am going to put here for my future self:

- just ignore that pulsing imposter alarm that keeps going off in your head throughout the shoot.
- get good sleep where possible
- if you think you got it move on. don't do another one just because or for safety. corollary: ask the actor/s if they want another one and give it if so.
- let the PA or someone other than you handle the particulars of craft and lunch
- your relationship w/ 1st AD is key to days going well.
- every day is a sort of marathon w/ ambitions, difficulties, highs/lows, varying energies, occasional heartbreak - don't get snagged by any of it. move on to next setup.
- while it's good to be flexible and in-the-moment about what to shoot, it's better to have an ordered set of shots in your head that you can speak to and deviate from.
- you will be asked an endless river of questions so don't let yourself feel annoyed when they keep coming.
- don't be afraid to say I don't know or I haven't thought about it.
- if low/no $ you may be tempted to have no hair/makeup person and ask actors to do their own. don't do this.
- though your head may be elsewhere, pondering specific details, missed opportunities, happy accidents, shortcomings, budget etc, remember that you are working with people so come up for air and talk to them. in some ways genuine conversation at lunch can be just as important as the screenplay
- the importance of deeply trusting your cinematographer cannot be overstated.
- something will go wrong.
- something will go very wrong.
- If something going wrong is an actor dropping out 4 days before you're supposed to shoot w/ actor, don't panic, just recast.
- If something going very wrong is replacement actor dropping out at 1:36 AM the night before you're supposed to shoot w/ replacement actor, don't panic, just rewrite scene for 3 people and make it a scene for 2 people even if it means you're late to set. Then when you remember 1 of those people is not an actor per se and not honed at new lines on the fly and how you were counting on 2 other actors in the scene to bolster him don't panic. Adjust shot/s w/ DP, get wild lines where needed. Maybe it's a happy accident b/c you didn't location scout this location in the first place and you'll realize that the space wouldn't work great w/ 3 people in scene anyway.
- always have a scripty.