Fever Dream Hero Taiyoman

It’s crazy not to use this blog to promote the movie I am shooting for my senior film at MSU. They would also like it if I said that it was the MSU School of Film and Photography.

I am so happy to be working on this project for a lot of reasons. I will only talk about one in this post.

So, here it is, my big statement!

I AM SO HAPPY TO BE A PART OF A PRODUCTION WHERE THE HERO DOESN’T WIN!

That is a choice that only independent movies can make. There is always an exception to the rule, but Hollywood isn’t based on investing money into such a “high risk” financial venture. Which is fine by me. Americans want to see the Hero start in the gutter and end up driving a monster truck. Hollywood will give you that over and over again. I want to make movies that are beautiful and honest.

And let’s be honest, the Hero doesn’t always win in real life. Sure, things are sensationalized to make a good story, but the good telling of a not so happy story needs to be told.

I think the fact that Hollywood doesn’t make it their business to tell these types of stories is the perfect motivation to decide to work in the independent industry. Sure, people say, “It’s not easy, you don’t make that much money” Well, I don’t need a lot of things, I’m a pretty happy guy, and I don’t make a lot of money right now so… Matter of fact, making movies is one of the things I would place extremely high on my life list of priorities. I would put it right up there with avoiding compromising artistic integrity.  (I will never actually write out my life’s list of priorities, creepy though)

Sure I am going to struggle, but that hasn’t stopped me before, and I don’t have any plans to let it stop me in the future. I’m not saying that I don’t have great aspirations for my career, but I do know that no suit (sorry if you wear a suit for work) who has a bottom dollar in mind, will ever tell me what the final cut of a movie is going to look like. I’ve read and heard enough stories about that happening to know well enough to avoid it like the Dickens. I’ll let the movie, and the people involved in it and my friends, help figure out what is best for a story.

Aristotle, a guy who was around before Jesus Christ, even talked about how a story teller needs to be a servant to the story no matter what they thought was a good idea. This is a basic concept of being understanding and sympathetic to the plights of human life. Buddhists would call the things that make an interesting story suffering, and desire.

And sure, sometimes the guy who has the biggest heart ends up on top of the world, but sometimes that guy gets hit by a car and ends up in a wheel chair. Those are stories that should be told.

I won’t ever make a horror movie. Not interested in that.

I was going to suggest that people watch the two versions of The Last Kiss, but I changed my mind. I suggest that everyone watch the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. If you don’t draw any personal connection and inspiration from this movie, then have a nice life, and I hope I don’t ever have to work with you.

The Questions You Need to Ask to Make A Good Movie.

1. What kind of movie do we want to make?
2. How do we make it work.

Then you just have to make it.
Be honest and take some risk.

DVDs & Why I Still Own Them

DVDs & Why I Still Own Them

I recently moved into a new place. In my old place my desk was right by my computer, which means Netflix was like white noise you can watch.

My new place, I have an office. I’m calling it a studio because I like the context of the word more, either way I have my computer in a different room and have been choosing to watch DVDs before I go to bed. This is great because I love my DVD collection and Netflix filled the space in my life so I rarely watched my DVDs. Call it a generation gap, call it records vs. MP3s, I don’t care.

Any who… A couple nights ago I popped in Clerks 2 and what a delight that was. I was so surprised when I realized it was a good sequel. Lets face it, a sequel always has an amazing chance of bombing. Everyone gets so hyped on the first one, that leads to someone deciding to strike while the wallets are hot, and then they dump a bunch of money into something and rush it straight into Crapsville, USA.

 

But Kevin Smith didn’t do that!

Instead he wrote a great movie because it finally made sense to him to make one. An artist who can trust is gut can gain the patience to do what is best for his art and not jump through hoops for money. And by the looks of his gut, Kevin Smith has an knowledgeable and experienced gut. (ba-zing!)

 

 

Last night I watched Young Frankenstein. I can’t speak enough about how amazing this film is. Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks seriously made one of the most pure, funny, and classy films of all time.

In a world just recently described as “Post Will Ferrel” (by myself just now), we can all look back at this film and remember that the joke was invented and intended to produce a smile.

Willy Wonka is great and all, but Frankenstein is tops. Plus, he doesn’t have a meme and that makes him more likable to me.

 

That leads us to tonight! I chose Gross Point blank for three reasons:
1. I own it.
2. It is awesome with all of its John Cusacking and such.
3. It was on top of my DVD box pile in my studio…

Black Swan

I watched Black Swan last night. I had purposefully stayed ignorant as to what the movie was really about and how it went about. My film buddies also know when to hold their tongue about plot twists and what not.

This is going to be a short post, for one, I have to go to work soon. second, the movie is really good. This blog has kind of turned into me personally advising people to see a movie or to not see a movie.

So long story shorter, see this movie. Rent it, steal it, watch it through your neighbors window if you must. Just see it, its awesome.

I will most likely write a more appropriate review style post some time, maybe soon, maybe later.

Clerks (original cut)

I recently watched Dumb and Dumber on netflix instant. Man, there is way more stuff in that movie than I remember. Which is great because I like the TNT/FX type edits as is. But the cut thats on netflix is way better. Way funnier. This led me to an uncontrollable urge to watch the 10 year addiction of Clerks.

I remember seeing this movie for the first time. I cant say what year it was, but I remember my friend saying that the movie was some underground sensation that ruled beyond rule. The nostalgia isn’t a big part of the experience, it’s more of a current amount of stoke that gets stronger. MSU, you rule. That includes my classmates.

Clerks hold up. Clever banter goes a long way with me in my life. It was the way me and my friends talked and once I saw a movie that talked the same way, I was smitten.

The story line follows Dante Hicks, who gets called in to work on his day off. He works at a convenience store that is frequented by a number of characters and patrons that can only look oddly normal in a place that sells cigarettes. The convenience store is located next door to a VHS style movie store that employs his best friend Randal.

Anyone who has worked in the food service industry can appreciate this movie. The colorful variety of friends and customers allows more than enough material to keep you occupied while you realize the scenes are all super long takes.

That doesn’t work for every film. It works here though. At least for me it does. I recently heard Kevin Smith talk about how he wanted the recognition that Judd Apatow gets from the media and critiques. The fact of the mater is Judd Apatow wouldn’t be able to get that recognition if Kevin Smith hadn’t found success with Clerks.

Watch this movie. Realize that good dialogue can be stronger than bad acting. Than maybe get so excited that years later you decide to make movies yourself.

Holy Hell

I have been on a crazy ride of movies. Some real good one’s and some movies that are so bad that they are kind of amazing in their own way.

The bad part of this tale is that I have been so busy with school and work and a beautiful woman and some other stuff, that I haven’t had time to write about any of them. I wont make any promises, but there is a good chance that my top 25 and a bunch of other posts will be coming along in about a month. Be excited, I know I am.

Cheers.

Epicly Later’d: John Cardiel

John Cardiel on Netflix Instant? Yeah, I can get stoked on that. Epicly Later’d is rad too.

The general public has no idea what this movie even means to every skateboarder growing up watching John Cardiel, hearing the stories from place to place from people saying he did this gap or that he skated so fast. The main idea comes through for a general Jim Joe, so it’s not exclusive in nature. But the fact remains, I know what John Cardiel means to me and the general population does know who he is…

So here is the skinny, John Cardiel is a skateboarder in the purest form. He pushed himself for every reason right in skateboarding. He stayed true to himself and never ran for the money, which I’m sure he could have and probably still could. While the world was watching the X-Games and waiting for the 900 to blow skateboarding right into the mainstream, Cardiel was doing exactly what he wanted to do. He hung out with his friends and felt the good vibes.

John suffered a car accident that left him in a wheel chair for life. Or so the doctors said. You can’t hold this man down. Watch it, watch it again and then be super happy that you can watch it again. If this story doesn’t make you feel like you can do more in your life and inspire you to actually do more, you suck.

On the other side of this disgusting thing called reality, we have the John Comer documentary called “Never Been Done“. The dude has a story, but the doc is really campy. Campy in a way that would give a film nerd a tummy ache.

I’ll make a list of all the bad things in this movie.
1. Staged archival footage
2. Bad “effects” used on non archival footage. Just because you ‘can’ use an effect in a program, doesn’t mean you ‘should’ use an effect. That’s todays lesson.
3. Bad music and many different kinds of bad music (jazz, techno, some other stuff)
4. Interviews of doctors using a fish eye lens. Well, actually that’s kind of sweet.
5. The money.
6. The fame.
7. Mike Vallely
8. No body fucking swears.

Boring, but watch it anyways because people complain too much and this is the type of movie that will make people shut up.

Oh god, there’s bonus footage…

Do Yourself a Favor

Listen to better music. Here, I’ll help you.

It Must Be Said Out Loud

Charlie Sheen is awesome!

I don’t care what anyone says. I heard that man say something about taking Chuck Norris’s power away. If someone can “take” Chuck Norris’s fucking power, they should grab that shit and run with it!

New Hero, Charlie Sheen.

(Yes, I used his picture from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on purpose. That sort of shitty John Hughes documentary should have been totally about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off because it’s amazing.)

Classy Things Are Good Things

You know who isn’t classy? Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell is not classy. Yet, Bill Murray is classy. I don’t really understand why, but I know it to be true. What I am getting at is that I enjoy classy things.

I don’t watch too many skate videos anymore, I used to watch them all day. I don’t much care for most things Tye Evans in skate videos either. The dude is doing his job and pretty well, but I’m not one for ramping speeds or slowly drifting the camera away after a neat stunt. (and kids, it does mater what you drift the camera off to, use your surroundings please.) So every once in a while I see videos that I really enjoy. I really like Krooked videos  (for their editing) and Emerica videos (for everything). Is it odd that they are both normal words that just have the first letter messed about? Huh. I never put that together before. MOVING ON!

One of my favorite videos is Dan Wolf’s Easter Exposure 3: Under Achievers. It’s one of the first videos that I ever saw where I noticed style in the video as much as the skating. Being born in Wisconsin, I was between coasts and that video made me realize I sided with the East on the mater of videos.

With youtube being the Funniest Home Video’s of the inter web, I see a lot of random stuff now. Most of it is crap. It’s crap either because of inexperience or stupidity, it doesn’t really mater. Every once in a while you see a really good video. Like this. I watch that video all the time. It’s just amazing to me.

Well one of my friends posted a link at a super secret amazingly hard to find corner of the inter web where real people stop bullshitting and start tell people how things really are. You will never find it because you are not cool enough. This buddy linked a skate video that I really enjoyed. I hope you enjoy it too.

http://www.skatevideosonline.net/video/1119/feel-skateboarding/monotema/