Moving On!!

There is no better time to officially close off the blog than this... its 3:00am, Sunday night and I should have definitely been asleep by now... but that's not happening so, I decide to do this instead. Of course I am not in LA anymore so though its fun to write this blog, its kind of irrelevant right now. If you need information, head off to Blasko's blog (link is on the Park School website). I am moving on to the next blog, which basically charts the development of my next film... this is my Senior Thesis at the Park School and I am sure the ride will be rough, fun and bumpy... its going to be fun to track that... if this is something that interests you, come on over to seniorthesisfilm.blogspot.com ... the party will be bumpin!

O YEAH!

O Yeah Reason 1: Our blog hit a 1000 hits sometime this weekend. Lots of readers, but not as many responses. Buh!
O Yeah Reason 2: The Bernie Mac Show has been picked up for another season by Fox. Here's to a fantastic Season 5!
O Yeah Reason 3: The teaser trailer for AKEELAH AND THE BEE is out! You can go to www.apple.com, click on Quicktime, and then Movie Trailers and see the Akeelah trailer there. Its really a funky feeling to see all the familiar spaces and moments on a giant screen (It's attached to the film CRASH too). More than anything, its extremely satisfying to be able to decode lighting set-ups by looking at the screenshot. It just demystifies the process so much!
Anyway, feedback welcome. Questions welcome.

Tata ~Suds

Crash

I just saw it for the second time. A friend I was with said it best when he said, "I'd rather the film trigger a response, whether positive or negative, than not." I agree. Here's to thought-provoking, debatable films!

Think Contribute Enjoy

Still Truckin'

Something I have been thinking about since I have been in LA = how will we get our movies made. There are obviously a hundred ways to do this. And one of the easy ways to research the subject is to read filmmaking books. There are so many of these: one for every one of us, to suit our level of comfort with the topic. One of the things I was thinking of was starting a discussion on what different people think. I just don't want to be the one talking. Also, I realize its summer vacation and people want to recuperate: so based on the response, I will either keep this post up or take it down and pretend it never happened :) But this is a chance to start a discussion, so here goes. If people submit responses to iamsuds@gmail.com. I can do a little anthology deal and we can publish it for all to share and comment on. If there are other questions we want to start discussions on, throw them in

Book I'm reading: Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind [History of Indy Film from 1989 on] + The Movie Business Book, edited by Jason Squire. Biskind recommended, 2nd one I don't know for sure yet. Also on the anvil: Quicktime for Filmmakers by Richard Ferncase [plenty of info on the technical-how-tos for QT = self distributing on the web].

Peace Out or Go On?

Im sitting at a friend's apartment, watching The Village, just recuperating from this fantastic semester here in LA. I know it's been a while since I last posted and I've learnt more that I wanted to write about in these last few days.

We had the wrap party for Bernie Mac yesterday night at The White Lotus: excellent place. It was a happy and sad night for me, saying bye to all these people who have shared so much with me: their knowledge, time and energies: PLUS they were humble enough to never make me feel naive or stupid. I must say, I am a changed person from four months ago. Four months ago, I was DREADING this. I did NOT want to come to Los Angeles. From my conversations with previous ICLA students, it seemed like this was a semester of relaxation, fun and games and just chilling out. Internships = getting coffee because stapling paper is too complicated for that new intern. And I thought the place was simply too expensive for a hot-tub, some beaches and cups of coffee. And, like I said, I am a changed man. LA is what you make of it and, like I've said before, for every ten bad internships, there is ONE good one. So, everyone has to just find the right internship for them and trust me, its out here.

Everyone: people at STRAND RELEASING, AKEELAH AND THE BEE, BERNIE MAC, SCRUBS, SURREAL LIFE, WATERFALL FILMS, all these places I worked at were just fantastic. Now, does that sound unreal? Well, it kind of is. OF COURSE, every place had its' share of warts and dicks, but you can get through to everyone. Some people are just harder to crack. Some just don't want to, and you need to realize that and move on. I will also say this: At EVERY single one of these internships, I found as many people who were against me, didn't like the idea of me taking initiative and doing more than interns traditionally did. Lots of these places have never even had interns so didn't know how to slot me, but each one of them came around and as I was saying bye to people, I was thinking of how different they were towards me before. All's well that ends well and so far, everything has ended really well in LA.

Thank you guys for all your questions and comments. I know I didn't answer them or post them all. If you still have more, send em off to iamsuds@gmail.com. And I don't think I'm going to kill this blog. I will post summer updates here. Any internship opportunities or other things I hear of. I have a packed summer ahead with lots of work on different films. One of the things I wanted to reach out to you for was a CALL: If any of you are interested in collaborating, I'm going to be doing a pretty ambitious project next year. Give me a call at 323-333-9235 if you would like to discuss this. Communities are why we came to film school. The point is to find your gang by the time you graduate. So, reach out.

That's all I got. I will try and update soon, Suds

The Bernie Mac Musical

Something Interesting:

I honestly don't have the energy for a big-size post but here is a tidbit I just came across last week. The Producer of Bernie Mac gave me a copy of their Season One DVD when I was saying bye to him ( I know, isnt that awesome) and we got into a conversation about what a DVD producer does. Turns out the music (and there is a lot of it on the show) on the DVD is different from what it was when the episode aired. The reason being when the show gets rights to the music for the air, the contract does not include DVD rights (because most shows don't make it to DVD). When these guys renegotiated rights, some artists want royalty or points on DVD sales as payments where as some artists accept flat fees and grant rights in perpetuity. Fox only wants perpetuity rights because who knows how many units it will sell over the next ba-jillion years. So they had to change some of the songs, which of-course, changes the edits. Hmm...

(also, I hate doing this, but I just got done seeing THE TERMINAL and I really have a BAD headache, It goes on my worsestest films list - an instant fix. Doc. Trope, on the other hand, showed us some amazing flicks in his class. His picks from the complete works of spike jonze, gondry are esp good. The Purple Rose of Cairo goes on my best films list. He rocks. Definitely take Fiction Film Theory here).

aLL oVEr ThE pLAcE

Hmm, so yesterday was a day intense at the Griffith Park location. We made the day (=shot everything we planned for, had a successful shoot day), had fun and laughed a lot. The best way to shoot. Why? Well, now, thats a different story altogether. I don't know if I am going to be able to spit it all out in one entry, let's try. It's going to be haphazard, difficult to understand and very modernism-jumping-time-and-space, if you know what I mean.

Update first: BMac is going great. I'm shooting on stage, editing when I can, and attending post-production sessions with sound, colorist, etc. Classes are getting tougher because papers and finals and internship logs and evaluations and all that fun stuff is due: all at the same time. I'll get through it. Don't feel sorry, I know you guys have LOTS more going on. Good luck.

Continue: So, the first thing I wanted to talk about is a result of my chat with one of the Exec. Producers, lets call him Bill. First, who is the EP on a show? EP is basically the king, the GOD, the shit. If you like story-telling on TV, developing long, nice character arcs over tons of episodes, seeing your ideas come to life, experiment every week, and just be on an endless film shoot, AND you want to have all the control over EVERY department, EP is the job you want. So Bill is the lucky schmo who is the EP on The BM Show.

I talked with Bill while we were shooting at Griffith Park and our discussion was a result of all the discussions I had had with people lower down the totem pole who keep comparing BMac Season 2 v/s Season 3 v/s Season 4, what happened, and all that jazz. They all look to the EP because these are the guys who keep the whole show together. They know where they want each character to go, where they want the season to end, to start, etc. So, they supervise each episode. They approve every story, write a lot of them, polish every script, come to stage often, approve and hire the directors, peep over their shoulders often, review dailies, lock the cuts and the final episodes. Directors in episodic television are less auteurs and more material-gatherers. EPs like and rehire directors that interpret their written material well, give them plenty of choices in post-production, bring something fresh to the table and elevate the script to a new level WITHOUT putting too much of a stamp on the episode. You don't want a Fellini ER and then a Scorcese ER, you want ER, ER, ER. This is one of the conclusions I've drawn after speaking with the directors who've done episodes of Bernie Mac this season.

One of these directors is Victor Nelli, who is also the DP on the show. Fantastic Guy. Also a guy who is going to go places. Why that? Because he totally understands his role in the process, the role I just described in the previous paragraph. He couples his STRONG HOLD on cinematography (=every episode looks spectacular) with intense pre-production (=innovative shots, answers for every department on every subject) with a stellar, agreeable personality. He regularly gets input from the EPs when they are on set, makes them feel part of the process and so they hire him back. He laughs a lot, and makes sure the actors and the crew are having a good time, so when it comes time to re-hire, they ask him back. Very important. Something he told me: Have a Goal BUT BUT BUT keep it at the center of your WIDE SHOT (I'm paraphrasing). So, you can't get attached to your goal, you need to move towards it, but understand that its just a job. VERY different from the way I function. To me, delivering the episode I want is much more important than getting hired back, so I go ruthless, offend everybody and fight for my stuff, and then never get re-hired (probably). I need to blend the two approaches. It's up-to-everyone to decide their own approach but understanding your role in the process helps you determine your approach so there you go.

Anyway, so jumping right back to the Executive Producer talk. So Bill, in his hour long convo with me, completely defied everything I thought about and had been told about the Executive Producer (EP) because he introduced me, or rather, told me more about this thing called THE NETWORK.

I know we all know of the cliche that NETWORK interferes but what does this really mean? Well, Bill kind of led me there. Once these guys buy your pilot and order the show, they think they RULE it. They will give you directives and season advice, what they would like to see in the episode, where they want the show to go. Well, there's no harm in this if these guys were all AMAZING, TALENTED people and they can be, I'm not going to discount them. Except, its amazing to consider that these guys can be THE NETWORK EXECs on more than 1 show at the same time, 3 shows in fact. So, its a little tough to imagine how the same people can know everything about a black, family comedy that's "turns the sitcom on its head" (NYTimes Review of Bernie Mac Show), a family comedy about a disfunctional family of boys (Malcolm), Arrested Development (which they just cancelled), Family Guy, and so on and so on. To me, these guys should be looking for the talented people. When you buy a pilot, aren't you telling the EP that "Hey, I like what you do. do it for me, help me make money!" or are you telling the EP, "Hey, I like what you do, so let me buy you and then tell you what to do..." !! That makes no sense. But they do.

They fire you if you don't listen to them. Ideally, Bill tells me, what you want is a show that has (1) Critical Acclaim (2) Ratings and (3) Awards. If you have these three, you can tell the NETWORK to shove it because they can't back up their criticism of "The Show could be funnier" or "It isn't as funny as it could be". (Well, what can you say to that argument!?). Malcolm or The West Wing or Friends have EPs that run a tight set, no Network allowed there. Bernie Mac was headed in that direction. End of Season Two, they had all the Emmys, 18million audience and lots of Critical Acclaim, what happened!? The EP got fired. What happened? Who knows....

It's discouraging to me. I don't know, you can draw your own conclusions. So, what the humble EP basically told me was that he has his limitations too. And I totally understood. Every time I see him on the floor now, I see him in a different light. Everybody has a story. The editor told me his today, but that at some other time...

Good luck on finals people. Don't be like me, solidify your summer plans.