xoflow

08:19 pm - Joe Comics - Check it out now!

After graduating from college I was struggling with a career path when some friends and I had the idea of producing and publishing our own comic book. The brother team of Gabe and Chachi Hernandez did the penciling and inking respectively, Monte M. Moore did the coloring, and I did the writing and lettering. The book was originally called Lords of Light until we received a Cease and Desist letter from Roger Zelazny's lawyer due to the perceived similarity in theme and title with his book Lord of Light. (I've no idea where they got that idea from ...) This ended up being a mini-drama which resolved itself fairly quickly when we gave in and changed the title to Lords. We finished and published the first issue which, according to the shipping invoices, went to comic books stores all over the world. Although, apparently, only 1 issue was sent to comic book stores across the world. This ended up being a very not large number. We finished issue #2, but never published it when we couldn't justify the cost of another print run. In a future post I'll go into more detail about the interesting, and short, history of Legend Comics, but for know I wanted to let folks know that Gabe, Chachi and Monte all continue to produce amazing art.

Chachi recently pointed me to an online comic they're working on, and it turned out to be one of the ideas that was tossed around back in the day of Legend Comics. It's really satisfying and cool to see an idea you've known about for years come alive. For all of you that read this journal, here is your chance to help somebody's career. Goto Zuda Comics and checkout their online competition where the winner gets a 1 year contract with DC Comics. Gabe and Chachi's comic is called JOE COMICS and is in the running for the grand prize. It sounds like the scoring system is based on a mixture of number of votes, star rating, number of people who have made your comic a favorite, and number of comments, so if you like it, go and do all of the above. And, if you don't like it (which is highly unlikely), go and comment anyway! Artists love feedback, and these are two of the nicest guys I know.

To repeat -
1. Go to Zuda Comics
2. Select Joe Comics
3. Vote! Fav! Comment!
4. Buy yourselves an ice cream cone for doing something good.

-Mark

PS. For those of you wondering why I'm posting about comic books in my film blog you apparently haven't seen a movie in the last 10 years. Hollywood and the Comic Book industry have been in bed together for quite some time now and have produced some real gems (X-Men, Spiderman, American Splendor, V for Vendetta, Persepolis) and an even larger number of really crappy movies. Comics translate very well to film and I know the trend of turning comic books into films is going to continue. Who knows, maybe one day we'll see Joe Comics the Movie!

10:15 pm - It's Ground Hog Day!

Tradition is a funny thing. In some ways it's annoying because it's another responsibility added to a life of responsibilities - Go to college, Get a job, Pay your bills, Buy Holiday Gifts, etc. Just because it's so and so a date, you have to do this. Next thing you know it's the same date again, and you do the same thing over, and over, and over . . . Yet, at the same time tradition is what grounds me and, a bit surprisingly, has become more comforting as I get older. I've always liked spontaneity, although I'll be honest in saying that I've never allowed myself to be truly spontaneous. I have fantasies about throwing up my hands, packing the car and driving off into the sunset, but I know I'd never actually do it. Too much of a responsibility streak, you know? As I've gotten older, though, I've found myself enjoying traditions more and more. Lately I've taken to walking down to our local Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings, and I look forward to it! Once a week we meet with our film writing/discussion group, and I look forward to that as well! Eh. I guess ultimately tradition is whatever you decide to put the title on. I have a tradition of eating every day (I like food). I have a tradition of showering (my friends don't like me to stink). I have a tradition of seeing my parents over the Holidays (parents are cool!). I have a tradition of growing older each year (Blah!). But, I ramble and I digress. Kind of. Tonight was February 2nd, and february 2nd is another tradition. Tonight we watched Groundhog Day, a movie now going on 15 years old. For those of you that haven't seen it (without spoilers) it's the story of a weather man, Phil, that has been sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the last four years to broadcast the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil popping out of his burrow to predict whether or not we're going to have another 6 weeks of winter. Phil, played by Bill Murray in one of his best roles, is obviously not happy about this 'tradition' and is eager to return to Pittsburgh to get on with his life. He finds himself, however, stuck in Punxsutawney, waking up each day at 6am only to find that it's still Groundhog Day. This tradition happens over, and over, and over. Not matter what happens during the day, each evening he falls asleep and wakes up to find himself once again at 6am in the morning, Groundhog Day. Talk about a bad tradition! Over the last couple of years we've popped this movie in to celebrate Groundhog Day, and this year we continued the tradition. If I had to put together a list of top 20 movies, this one would certainly be included. I don't think it'd get top 10 ranking, but definitely top 20. It includes one of my favorite lines when Bill Murray attempts to explain why he knows so much to Andie MacDowell ...

"Maybe God has just been around a long time and knows everything."

Roger Ebert did a very nice job summing up the film here, and I think he nailed it when he says ...

"What amazes me about the movie is that Murray and Ramis get away with it. They never lose their nerve. Phil [Bill Murray] undergoes his transformation but never loses his edge. He becomes a better Phil, not a different Phil. The movie doesn't get all soppy at the end. There is the dark period when he tries to kill himself, the reckless period when he crashes his car because he knows it doesn't matter, the times of despair.

We see that life is like that. Tomorrow will come, and whether or not it is always Feb. 2, all we can do about it is be the best person we know how to be. The good news is that we can learn to be better people. There is a moment when Phil tells Rita, "When you stand in the snow, you look like an angel." The point is not that he has come to love Rita. It is that he has learned to see the angel."

For me, that really sums up my philosophy in life, and is why the movie continues to resonate. Be true to yourself, and try to be the best person you can be. On this February 2nd, 2008 my advice to everybody is to do good, be the best person you can be, and go out and buy Groundhog Day so that you can start a new tradition and watch it next year on February 2nd.

Happy Groundhod Day, everybody!

-Mark

11:32 pm - Homework Comments ...

I received comments back from my teacher regarding my 3 premises -

• A middle age man's suicide plans are derailed when he is forced to flee across the U.S. to protect a teenage runaway from her father, a sadistic Preacher who has sworn to reunite his family. (And then he kills himself? What's the end, how does all this change him?)


• One week away from retiring, a High School Music Teacher rediscovers her passion for singing when she has to outwit an ancient evil unwittingly release by her students during band practice. [Song Title: Mrs. Potters Lullaby] (Just for the sake of being the teacher, here's a rewrite: "One week from retirement, a High School Music Teacher must overcome her [ghost, fear, humiliation] and sing in order to outwit an ancient evil unwittingly released by her students during band practice."


• A rural New England man struggles to maintain his independence when the demands of a failing romance begin to erode the life he had known. (And then he kills himself? What's the end, how does all this change him?)

11:42 pm - Movie Reviews

[Tim]
Belatedly, we saw "No Country For Old Men" and "Persepolis" this past weekend. In a nutshell (or two nutshells, and bearing in mind that for the purposes of this metaphor, a coconut *is* considered to be a nut):

"No Country For Old Men": Have the Coens adapted a Pulitzer-winning author before? Having read "The Road," I wasn't super-impressed with Cormac McCarthy, but I think his style influenced their screenplay. The quirky characters were present in healthy amounts, but muted somewhat. No zany John Goodman one-eyed preacher, no over-the-top Paul Newman executive, no Japanese Minnesotan, no crazy Dallas Cowboys fan (oh wait, that was "Lone Star"). All the acting performances are terrific, but the story itself takes a little while to process. We may need to see it again. Many of my friends have said "it was 2/3 of a great movie," and I can see where the structure leads them to that annoyed conclusion, but Mark and I talked it through Sunday morning and were able to make sense out of it. Once you look at it a certain way, pieces start falling into place. I like it more today than I did yesterday, and more yesterday than the day we saw it.

"Persepolis": The last animated film I saw in French ("Ratatouille" doesn't count) was "The Triplets of Belleville." Persepolis is a very different film, of a much more appealing style to me. The art is gorgeous, the animation fluid and engaging. It's the story of a young woman growing up in Tehran, beginning with the overthrowing of the Shah, which is about as early an event as I remember in Iran (I think it was a newspaper headline I had to read for school). She's sent abroad when her parents think Iran will be too dangerous for her, but Vienna doesn't suit her and she feels lost there. So she returns to Iran many years later to try to find her identity. It seems unusual that in what we think of as a repressive Islamic regime, a young woman would be able to do so, but Marjane does, showing us in the process a side of Iran we don't usually get to see. It's hard not to draw the obvious comparison to our country when you look at a country with progressive aspirations crushed by a more and more oppressive theocracy. Thankfully, we still have elections, and Mike Huckabee hasn't won yet.

Next on our list: Atonement and There Will Be Blood.
[/Tim]

11:42 pm

My first homework assignment is to write 3 premises, each with its own theme (controlling idea). Ideally I should identify the genre (comedy, drama, action, etc.), location, period, main character and main opponent.

• One of these can be something you're already working on.


• Create one from a song title.


• Create one from an incident in your life where you had a conflict with someone. Write this premise using your opponent as the main character.

• The Godfather: The youngest son of a Mafia family take revenge on the men who shot his father and becomes the new Godfather.


• Monstruck: While her fiancé visits his mother in Italy, a woman falls in love with the man's brother.


• Casablanca: A tough American expatriate rediscovers an old flame only to give her up so that he can fight Nazis.

• A middle age man's suicide plans are derailed when he is forced to flee across the U.S. to protect a teenage runaway from her father, a sadistic Preacher who has sworn to reunite his family.


• One week away from retiring, a High School Music Teacher rediscovers her passion for singing when she has to outwit an ancient evil unwittingly release by her students during band practice. [Song Title: Mrs. Potters Lullaby]


• A rural New England man struggles to maintain his independence when the demands of a failing romance begin to erode the life he had known.

12:42 am - Persepolis

We went to see Persepolis which we enjoyed and recommend it. It's an animated adaptation of a coming-of-age story of a young woman during the Iranian revolution. The very intimate story follows a young Marjane from Iran to Austria and back again as she struggles to find her place in the world. It also does a nice job capturing the repressive atmosphere of Iran after the fall of the Shah without being heavy handed. Interestingly, like No Country for Old Men which we say the night before, we had a difficult time identifying some of the more traditional story structures in this film. In the case of Persepolis I'm left wondering if this is because it's an autobiography that very closely based on a comic book of the same name. I think between Persepolis and No Country for Old Men we'll have some good discussion at our weekly gathering.

-Mark

11:39 pm - No Country for Cloverleaf

Tim and I saw No Country for Old Men tonight and we both enjoyed it a great deal, but it definitely takes liberties with the traditional structure. I think it will take another viewing before we can start to put the pieces together, so no spoilers or analysis for now.

Our friends went to see Cloverleaf tonight and they seemed to enjoy it. I like J.J. Abrams and the work he's done, but I probably won't be seeing Cloverleaf anytime soon. Our one roommates, Crocodile, is a huge fan of the horror/gore genre and often recommends films of that ilk to Tim and I. I rarely take him up on the offer. It's not that I actively dislike horror movies, it's just that there are so many other things usually playing that I'd rather see that I'd prefer not to waste our time on them. And, let's be honest, there are a lot of really bad *cough* Final Destination *cough* horror movies out there. If I do have to see a horror movie I gravitate towards those with a comedic bent, like Shawn of the Dead, which I loved. Ironically, I would actually love to make a horror movie. I've always been intrigued by the idea of the haunted house, and I think it's been awhile since there was a really good one. I really liked the first Poltergeist movie, and I want to believe there are other good haunted house story ideas out there.

Does anybody have a favorite haunted house short story or novel they'd recommend?

-Mark

11:28 am - Food!

I'm a huge fan of food. Love the stuff! I try to eat it every day. I'm actually a bit mistrusting of folks that don't eat food, which is why I always make it a point to have plenty of food and drink available during our film projects. At the level we play at we rely on our friends as cast and crew, so we always make it a point to provide plenty of refreshing beverages (specially since we keep picking some of the hottest days of the year to film), as well as timely, tasty and (generally) healthy food. For Raccoon Daze we actually had one of our friends that enjoys cooking volunteer to whip up some of his very tasty signature dishes for both cast and crew. Tim and I are always very appreciative of the time and effort our friends, and making sure they are well feed and properly taken care of during filming is one of the bedrocks of Xoflow. (At least I like to think it is. For those folks that read this journal and have been part of our productions, have we done a good job or a bad job in this area?) I understand it can also be a double-edged sword. I remember reading a story about some of Francis Ford Coppola's earlier films where he would treat the whole cast and crew to midday meals of amazing Italian food. Everybody would fill up on pasta and wine and, not surprisingly, the rest of the day productivity drastically decreased. So, for those of you shooting your own film projects, don't neglect this important part of the ritual, but maybe avoid the big pasta dishes.

Cheers,
Mark

11:30 pm - So I hear you do film . . .

One of the interesting, and unexpected, side affects of having done some shorts films is that folks start to approach you to do other video projects. Since Tim and I started Xoflow in 2004 we've been asked to film a wedding, shot a commercial, orchestrate a viral video internet campaign, and film a conference in multiple cities on the East coast. Now, I'd like to think we get these offers because we're just that darn good, but in reality it's just because we've promoted Xolfow and our short films to our friends and colleagues, and they remembered. When somebody learns that we make short films they seem to assume that 1) creating short films translates into all possible video production endeavors, and that 2) we like doing film projects for free and have copious amounts of spare time. I get shivers at the thought of actually filming some body's wedding, only to find out I hadn't white balanced properly, or had shot it out of focus. I can just imagine telling them, "Excuse me, soon to be ex-friend, but can we actually go back to that unique and expensive place you rented for your wedding and re-shoot everything after the priest said, 'You may now kiss the bride'? Because, you know, I just didn't feel it, and you guy were also both out-of-focus. Oh, and I'll be done with the post production work in 3 months." I don't think so. It's actually very flattering when folks ask us if we'd be interested in their video projects, and we have actually entertained the idea (especially when there was real money involved), but we ultimately end up forging those projects so that we can stay focused on the projects we really wanted work on. I imagine this is the same dilemma many creative folks go through when they are faced with the decision to take commission work, or just do the art they want to do. Tim and I are both fortunate enough to have adequately paying jobs that allow us to focus on our personal projects, but for those of you looking for extra work or opportunities my advice (and a common theme so far) would be to talk about your projects, and let your friends, colleagues and family know that what you do. Eventually, people will approach you with some interesting filming opportunities which might end up piquing your curiosity.

-Mark

11:30 pm - Community

Tim and I just got back from dinner at Gordon Biersch with many of the folks from our Screen Writing course. This was a tradition started a couple years ago by our friend and class mate who took the initiative to invite folks out to socialize after class. It was a brilliant idea, and I always have a great time talking film and getting to know my classmates which is really very, very important to film. One of the things I truly enjoy about film and, more on topic, film making, is that it is such a collaborative art-form. There is the writer, the director, the directory of photography, the editor, wardrobe/customer, makeup, set design ... the list goes on. All of these people bring their talent and passion to a project which might take upwards to hundreds of millions of dollars to make - and when it all comes together it is magical. I've worked with a couple technology start-ups in my time and I've had the fortune of seeing and working with CEOs, CIOs and all of those other great C titles, and seeing much of the 'behind the scenes' stuff that goes on in running a business, and it's hard work. Film is the same - it's hard on on both the creative and project management level, and requires skills and talent from many, many different backgrounds. You end up needing a team to pull it all together. I often hear stories about Directors and Producers continually working with the same team of people from project to project because they've grown to trust and value each others impute. The place you start building those teams is by reaching out to your friends and by networking with people in your community that share the same passion that you do. So, go out and talk about film! Join a film group, or take a class at a local community college, and then take the time to meet and get to know the people in the class. Who knows, you might just end up putting together the team that makes the next great Indie film.

-Mark

11:10 pm - Juno

Tim and I are part of a local screen writing group (Webster Street Screenwriters) that meets a couple of times a month. We get together, munch foods from Palo Alto (or Costco, who's pizza is surprisingly good), talk about upcoming projects, share works in progress, and discuss film. Tonight was our first meeting of 2008 and we ended up spending time discussing Scarey Cow Productions, some of our groups upcoming projects as well as our thoughts on movies we had recently seen. Tim and I tried to steer the discussion away from No Country for Old Men as we had not seen it yet, so we ended up spending a lot of time discussing Juno which almost all of us had seen. Without spoiling the movie, Juno is the story of a 16 year old girl dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Everybody in the group that had seen the movie enjoyed it a great deal, and I had a lot of fun analyzing the film's structure. We concluded that one of the reasons it was such an enjoyable movie is that it did a very good job of adhering to the traditional film structure, yet it was able to do it with a very fresh voice. Major elements included:

• Inciting Incident - When Juno decides to keep the baby and not have an abortion.


• Juno's Desire - To give up the baby for adoption.


• Juno's Need - To believe that relationships can work and that people can fall in love and stay in love.


• Juno's Ghost - Her mother abandoned her and her father when she was very young.


• Juno's Opponent - The general consensus was that Bleeker is her opponent because he is the one person that can keep Juno from having what she Needs - a loving and happy relationship with him. At its heart, Juno is a love story and I think one could argue that the pregnancy is actually a MacGuffin, helping to hide the fact that it is a love story (her last name is MacGuff, after all).

01:47 pm - As Good As It Gets

[Tim] The movie, that is.

(Image from infoplease.)
As Good As It Gets is one of my favorite movies--top 50, at least, and maybe top 20. I popped it in again recently and realized just how much I'd forgotten about it.

Though everyone remembers Jack Nicholson's performance, the real star of this movie is Helen Hunt. Until I saw this, I only knew her from "Mad About You," which is to say, with a good measure of (unfounded) disdain. She is amazing in this movie. If you love good characters and good acting, and you haven't seen this movie, shame on you. Also, you shouldn't read any further, because I talk about stuff that happens in the movie (in other words, SPOILERS--though not big ones). Everyone from Nicholson and Hunt to Cuba Gooding and Greg Kinnear and the woman in the agent's office and Harold Ramis (in a terrific cameo as a doctor) does a wonderful job. But it's Helen Hunt's movie.

Her character and character issues are more subtle, but just as damaging as Nicholson's. In fact, the reason they are so suited for each other is that their issues are completely opposite. Nicholson has created a world in which he doesn't have to listen or be accountable to anyone else, which saves him from having to think about the effect his obsessive-compulsive behavior has on other people. Hunt, by virtue of having a sick child, is nearly as obsessed with other people. Time and again, she puts herself second to someone else's needs. Early in the movie, when her date is interrupted by her son having a mild episode, you get the sense that she's almost relieved by it: here is a situation she knows how to deal with, where she doesn't have to worry about what she's feeling.

Part of the genius of this film is the other ways in which the filmmakers show you this difference. Hunt is a waitress, but not just any waitress: she's Nicholson's waitress. When you meet her character, that's her relationship to him. She's there to fulfill his wishes, which suits them both perfectly. It's the disruption of that equilibrium that sets the film in motion (that and the parallel story of Kinnear's misfortunes--which, fittingly, come from his tendency to open his life too much and trust other people too much).

Aside: Our screenwriting teacher tells us that the main problem the character faces is often spoken right out loud in the script at some point in the movie, and it happens here in the first five minutes. Confronting Nicholson over the little dog who will play a pivotal role, Greg Kinnear says, "You don't love anyone, Mr. Udall." And there it is, right there: his problem. The funny thing is, it seems so obvious when taken out of context, but in the course of the film, you barely notice it because it flows so well.

The final scene in the movie really works well because of that dynamic. When Nicholson shows up to make amends, he asks Hunt if she wants to go for a walk. She says, "See, it's four in the morning. That seems kinda creepy." She's just worried about what other people will think--but now she's asking Nicholson for an excuse to do it, not looking for an excuse to get out of it. He, in turn, has to think that his actions might need some justification to other people. So he comes up with an excuse. They both realize it's an excuse and not a real reason, but the pretext is all they need. So they go for a walk, and voila: the excuse becomes real.

It's a great image for their relationship, and just one of a thousand wonderful touches that I love about this movie.

Current Mood: contemplative

02:41 pm - Location Sound

I'll admit that I've not been to a public library in upwards to 10 years, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance as to the offerings of the modern library. As I mentioned in my last post we had identified the exterior of the Mountain View Public Library as being visually interesting and thought it would make a nice backdrop for the walking scene we had planned. We had done our due-diligence and taken some location photos for story boarding, confirmed with the city that it'd be okay to film there, and scheduled the filming early on a Sunday morning - a time which we thought would be relatively free of pedestrians and car traffic. We had it all covered. Tim and I arrived on set early, unloaded the supplies and performed a couple walkthroughs with the cast. We eventually ended up running a bit later then I would have liked, but everything was progressing fairly well and, after all, it was Sunday so that should give us a couple more hours of flexibility before we'd have to start worrying about significant pedestrian and car traffic. Or, so I thought.

As we started filming we noticed a car pull up along side of the library and stop. The driver then jumped out of the car and rushed up to the library to drop something off. We called cut since he ended up being in the shot and the sound of his car was messing up our audio. The guy finished what he was doing, jumped back in his car and took off, and all of this was at 8am in the morning. I was appreciative of the fact that somebody wanted to return their library books promptly, but returning them at 8am on a Sunday morning seemed rather extreme. I thought it a fluke until it happened 2 or 3 more times in the next 15 minutes. Each time it happened we had to stop filming due to the disruption of the cars and people in the scene as well as the vehicle noise. At this point I was rather stunned at the outpouring of civic responsibility, not to mention a bit frustrated at the disruptions this was causing. They were just library books, people! Eventually, though, when the 4th or 5th car stopped I managed to see what they were returning, and it was not books, it was DVDs.

It turns out the modern library allows you to checkout DVDs now, so of course everybody that had checked out movies on Friday or Saturday were now dropping them back off at the library on Sunday morning. Argh! This we had not foreseen. We did eventually complete the filming of the walking scene, but not until after a lot of interruptions. Unfortunately, I think the audio on the street walking scene is probably the worst audio in the whole film, and that was in no small part due to the unforeseen traffic of folks returning their DVDs. My lessons from this scene are; 1) When scouting a location never make assumptions. We should have scouted the location one early Sunday morning. We would have quickly noticed the issue of folks returning their DVDs, 2) Always pay attention to the ambient sound of your location, and 3) Always have a backup location planned.

-Mark

11:14 pm - ... and take pictures!

You should always be on the lookout for locations, or location ideas, where you can place your stories. Parks, bus stops, convenience store, alleyways, a friends house, or a local restaurant are all potential places you can film. When you find an interesting location take a photo and some quick notes on where it's located, the date and time of day, and the feel of the location. Eventually, you'll build up a good reference book that can be used when it comes time to find your perfect location. Living in an urban area (San Francisco Bay Area) there is a ton of very interesting public space which can be used cheaply (or freely if you go the guerrilla filming route). Keep an eye out for them!

When we have time before our films we'll actually go out to the places we've identify and bring back pictures that get used during the story-boarding process. For Raccoon Daze we wanted to film outside the Mountain View Public Library due to its interesting architecture which we thought would be a nice background for our walking scene. I wanted to film Raccoon Daze legitimately so I contacted the Mountain View city government and described to them the scene I wanted to shoot. Because the scene would not obstruct traffic or pedestrians, we did not require a police presence, hence we didn't need any special permits or were charged any special fees. I'm sure if we had been a much bigger production the city of Mountain View would have looked for some kind of compensation, but for now we're just small studio and they let us pass with nothing more then an e-mail describing the scene, and the time/location where we wanted to film. It ended up working out very well, and I think some of our footage of the walk turned out to be my favorite in the film. Not to say everything went perfect, there were some unforeseen challenges with using the Library, but I'll talk about those tomorrow night.


Cheers!
Mark

( Some Raccoon Daze Location Scouting Images )

11:27 pm - Look around . . .

Tonight we went to a restaurant in San Francisco called Canteen, a 20 person 'dinner' which served some very tasty dishes. (Highly recommended - go there now!) We actually had the pleasure of sitting at the counter and watching the chef/owner prepare our appetizer, main course and dessert. Overall, a very nice evening.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with film? Everything. Stories take place in places. For any of you that have seen either THX 1138s or The Matrix you might recall the scenes where the main characters find themselves in a white void. Now, imagine an entire film like that where you only have the characters talking and interacting against nothing but . . . emptiness. Pretty boring, huh? If you have a story to tell it might take place in a house, or a park, or at a bar, or in a plane, or on the side of a mountain, or in a restaurant - but it takes place somewhere! Look around you and at the world you live in and the spaces you spend your time. As we sat at the counter of Canteen's I could imagine characters from our stories sitting at the same counter and knew it woudl be a great place to eventually film one day.

Both 'Raccoon Daze and The Kiss had parts of their stories filmed at a local restaurant called The Tied House. I got in touch with them after I had sent an e-mail to the film liaison for the city of Mountain Views which she then forwarded to the folks enrolled in the downtown association. The Tied House, a place that we were already familiar with, expressed interest. We meet with their manager, I told him about Xoflow Films, we worked through a couple concerns around liability, and bingo - we developed a really nice relationship with then which allowed us to film two short stories at their restaurant. A wonderful opportunity that adds a great deal to the richness of a film and allows you to put your characters and stories in real places.

So, look around you and take note of the places you go. Make an effort to meet the people at those places and develop a relationship with them. Who knows, they might just end up in your next film.

Cheers,
Mark

11:36 pm - Story Structure, Pt. 2

As promised, I took a look at 5 movies tonight and I think I was able to identify the Inciting Incident in 4 of them.

Ratatouille - This one was easy. At almost exactly 25 minutes into the movie Remy makes the choice to go back and fix the soup instead of going out the window. Once he goes back to fix the soup he's made a choice which takes him down a path of change.

The Bourne Identity - Again, at around exactly the 26 minute marker Jason Bourne makes the decision to approach Marie and offer her 10K to drive him away from Paris. Approaching her initiates a chain of events that eventually causes his character to grow.

Fargo - This one was trickier and I had to watch the beginning a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure that the inciting incident happens around 25 minutes into the movie when William H. Macey's character calls his father-in-law to let him know that his wife has been kidnapped. At first I thought it was when he made the choice to contact Buscemi's character to have his wife kidnapped in the first place, but that actually happens about 3-4 minutes into the movie. Way too soon. The more I thought about it, though, the more the phone call to the father-in-law really set into motion the chain of events for the rest of the movie. It's at that point he could have tried to contact the kidnappers and call it all off, or he can call his wife's father and play out the lie. He elects to call her father-in-law.

L. A. Confidential - This one was also tricky because the movie really tracks three main characters played by Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey. I think, though, that the main character is Guy Pearce since he's the one with the most complete character arc. If Guy Pearce is the main character, then I think the inciting incident is the scene roughly 18 minutes into the movie when he opts to take a stand for the truth (and in no small part his ambition and career) and rats out his fellow officers.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix - Okay, I'll admit this one stumped me. I wasn't able to identify a clear inciting incident in this film. A friend had a good suggestion in that perhaps the scene where Harry first stands up against Umbridge in class, but that seems to come rather late in the movie (roughly 37 minutes). I'll have to watch the other Harry Potter movies again to see if I can identify the inciting incident in each of them as I'm wondering if the very nature of the Harry Potter movies subverts the traditional film structure. Not only are they based on books, but they are really a continuing story arc over multiple films in which we see Harry change multiple times at multiple points.

-Mark

11:38 pm - Story Structure, pt. 1

In week 1 of DRA106 Carl gave a high level introduction to the Classic Story structure in film. The structure is probably best described in graphics so I'll attempt to ascii something intelligent. The grandaddy of the structure theory is Syd Field who wrote about the 3 act structure (which I'm sure most folks are familiar with) ...

Syd   |   Setup: Act 1    |      Confrontation: Act II    |  Resolution: Act III
Field |     pp. 1-30      |            pp. 30-90          |      pp. 90-120
      |___________________|_______________________________|_____________________

                          |    Progressive Complications    | 
                          |            pp. 30-90            |
Robert  |      Setup      |                                 |      Climax      Resolution
McKee   |   pp. 1-30      |           mid-act climax        |   pp. 95-100     pp. 100-120
        |_________________|_______________|_________________|______|_______________________
                          |                                 |
                    Inciting Incident                     Crisis
                     pp. 27-30                           pp. 90-95

11:45 pm - First Assignment

My first assignment for the new class starting tomorrow night is to read the first 38 pages of John Truby's book, "The Anatomy of Story". The first time I had taken the course the instructor had taught completely from his personal experience, through class interaction/example, and his only handout was a couple stapled together photo copies he prepared for each class. I found the fact that we were using a box this time interesting, considering his teaching style. A quick Google on John Truby revealed that he is quiet the franchise and I was curious as to what he'd have to say.

Four paragraphs into the first chapter I read, "As a storyteller in training, the first thing you probably did was read Aristotle's Poetics." Uh oh. The first thing I did this evening was pour a glass of wine, eat my dinner (pulled pork BBQ sandwich and peas!) and watch an episode of Extras (I like to think of it as research). I wasn't ready for a heavy philosophical discussion on story structure. Reading further, in the very the next sentence he holds Aristotle up as the greatest philosopher in history, and then promptly declares his ideas as powerful, but surprisingly narrow and extremely theoretical and difficult to put into actual practice. Hum. I guess we won't be discussing Aristotle in class after all. Glad he cleared that up for me. :-)

Once we got past Truby's name dropping of ancient Greek philosopher's he found his grove and ended up delivering a couple very nice, succinct ideas. I'll one I really liked -

"In dramatic code, change is fueled by desire. The "story world" doesn't boil down to "I think, therefore I am" but rather "I want, therefore I am." Desire in all of its facets is what makes the world go around. It is what propels all conscious, living things and gives them direction. A story tracks what a person wants, what he'll do to get it, and what costs he'll have to pay along the way."

Damn right! I don't want to watch a movie with characters that sit around waiting for the world to act on them, I want to see characters doing things, and by doing things, they are changed. Truby's says, "The basic action should be the one action best able to force the character to deal with his weakness and change."

Overall, I've enjoyed the first two chapters in which he discusses story structure and attempts to distill them to their very core principals by using examples from movies that we've all seen. For example, can you guess the following movie?

Premise: When a princess falls into mortal danger, a young man uses his skills as a fighter to save her and defeat the evil forces of a galactic empire.
W - Weakness at the beginning: naive, impetuous, paralyzed, unfocused, lacking confidence.
A - Basic Action: uses his skills as a fighter
C - Changed Person: self-esteem, a place among the chosen few, a fighter for good.

I have a feeling our first class exercise will be for us to write a similar Premise and analysis of our story ideas. Stay tuned!

-Mark

09:24 pm - Music

Music is the glue that holds film together. This was a realization that came to use pretty quickly when we started working on our first film Octopuppy. As we edited the film we ended up with a bunch of cuts that, when watched together, were very jumpy and disjointed. When we laid down the same music track across them, though, it pulled everything together. It was actually very startling. The audio continuity overlaid atop the edited scenes helped to bring the video into visual continuity. Once we realized this we started to make an effort to research and identify musical resources to use in our films. For some of the films, like Here I Am!, we ended up using the built in functionality of Soundtrack for our music, but for other films we looked for resources within the local music scene. For example, a couple of years earlier we had happened into a Borders where a musician by the name of Emily Lord was playing. At the time we chatted briefly her (she seemed very nice) and ended up buying her CD (which was very good). Fast forward a couple of years to the 2006 48 Hour Film Project where we were allowed to sign-up our musical resources ahead of time in preparation for the weekend. We contact Emily and she ended up agreeing to let us use her music the the film. The music that went over the final credits of The Kiss is from Emily Lord and it ended up being perfect for the mood and feel of the short. We were all very happy with how well it worked, including Emily herself. Lesson to be learned - don't underestimate the power of music when it comes to your films, and always keep an eye and ear out for musical resources in your area. It's a great opportunity for you to get some very good music (with low to no royalty charges), and at the same time help promote the work of somebody local. It really is a win-win.

-Mark

10:34 pm - Hard to Do

In the late summer of 2004 we shot a little film called Hard to Do which never made it out of the editing room (much to the great frustration of many of the fine folks that volunteered their time on the project - Sorry!!). It was our first project after Here I Am! and was our first attempt to focus on character and story. We spent a couple of months before filming working on the script and performing rehearsals with the two lead actors Jeff and Tony. The rehearsals where a luxury we never had with the 48 Hour Film projects, and we were looking forward to seeing how it would pay off. The day of filming turned out to be the hottest day of the year, and since we were filming in an Eichler there was absolutely no relief from the heat. (Eichler's are interesting houses, with very cool floor designs, but when it comes to insulation they suck.) Between shots we would turn off the production lights and hold up big fans to help cool down the actors and the sets. We managed to get all of our filming done in one day and called wrap sometime in late afternoon, much to the cast and crews relief. Besides the heat, the filming went pretty smoothly and we had finished the day feeling optimistic about the footage. The problems started when we actually began to import and watch what we had shot. It was not very good. We did the basics okay, white balance, focus, etc., but all of the scenes ended up being very ... boring. We were so focused on the acting and people saying their lines that we completely forgot framing, staging and pacing. Tim and I managed to cut a rough draft (which I'll post later once I find it), but when we were done we were both left very unsatisfied. Everything was just very . . . blah, and we felt the only way to save the project would be a complete re-shoot - and that never happened. Perhaps one day we'll revisit Hard to Do as the fundamental conflict between two friends struggling with the changes in their relationship is fertile ground. For now, though, we're posting the Hard To Do script (RTF format) and a couple behind the scenes pictures taken during the day of filming. Enjoy!

-Mark

PS. As I go through the old photos I see that on at least some of the scenes I was the DP. D'oh! I guess I can't blame anybody else for the crappy footage. :-P


It's full of pictures!


Talk to the Hand!


Focus . . focus . . .


Images within images. We had staged the dinning room table to look like one of them was moving.