100 films

the possible potential of that whole web 2.0 thing

2008-04-24T21:08:00.003-04:00

Currently I'm working this temp job where the pace isn't that fast, essentially it's small burst of work surrounded by 10-20 minutes of nothing to do. It's longer than you need to catch a breath, but not long enough to go to lunch or really get into any writing. As a result, I spend a lot of that time either reading about the election, checking my email, or trying to learn what's out there on the internets.

One of the things I've found is IndieGoGo, a website that bills itself "an online social marketplace connecting filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen. The platform provides filmmakers the tools for project funding, recruiting, and promotion, while enabling the audience to discover and connect directly with filmmakers and the causes they support."

What does that mean exactly? Well, I'm not yet sure, but the website's potential seems to be that it would enable filmmakers who have projects to fund and promote an opportunity to connect with the people who are interested in that sort of thing. Think of it as online dating for indie film buffs.

Part of me wonders if this is something that could actually take hold (then again, I initially thought MySpace and Facebook would amount to nothing.

Honestly I haven't spent enough time on it to figure out how valuable it could be, but there's something about it I like. One of the nice features is a widget that you can place on blogs/websites/etc that will allow people to find your project as it needs funding. As an example, I threw one together for gravida. Pretty much it looks like this (to give you an idea):

The widget will take people to a site where they can contribute to whatever fundraising goal the filmmaker has established and the widget updates as the dollar amount goes up. Clearly this could be of great benefit to a filmmaker looking to expand fundraising beyond their parents and friends. Or, maybe nothing will come of it and they'll have to beg Mom and Dad anyway.

The website is really new (and I have no connection to it, by the way), so who knows. Check it out. Play around. See if it's worthwhile. Regardless, I kind of like how they're set up.

If you like the website, be my friend and stuff. Me, I think this stuff is kind of cool.

on hype

2008-04-21T21:47:00.003-04:00

As most of you are aware, I've had something of a busy year (as in, I've actually moved 3 times in the last 15 months) and part of the fallout is that I'm so very, very behind on my film watching. (I am, however, doing much better on my It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia viewing) There's a big stack of uber-indie DVDs I still have to watch and review and one of these days I'll get around to finishing a new script. I'll actually haven't yet watched No Country For Old Men, if that tells you how behind I am.

Anyway, that's all to say that I didn't see Juno this year until Oscar night (on the way to an Oscar party, actually). By that time, I'd heard from everyone alive how much I would love it. I'd even heard some of the backlash from my fellow bloggers. Actually, to be more accurate, I'd heard about it, not wanting to actually know what the backlash entailed before I saw the film.

So I went with my girlfriend to see it, pretty excited as I'm a big fan of Michael Cera and I thought Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking was highly underrated. Also, there was that buzz about the script. Apparently the wittiest, cleverest thing this side of Oscar Wilde.

Five minutes in and I can't get over how horrible the dialogue is, how forced it feels, like what someone is trying to imagine a teenager would say. And even if you concede that teenagers would say things like "honest to blog" (the horror), why do the adults speak the same way?

This is a pet peeve of mine, actually, when all the characters in a film have the same vocabulary. It isn't realistic. It isn't even probable. Tarantino does this all the time and it annoys the hell out of me.

Back to the point: I'm suffering through Juno, trying to figure out how this script got optioned, much less an Oscar nomination, and suddenly it shifts. The film turns serious and before I know it, I'm invested in the characters, but not hers as much as the rest of them. Maybe I can't get over the "honest to blog" bullshit, or maybe I just like those characters more than her, which is strange because the film so clearly wants to push her as the protagonist. I'm supposed to be in her camp.

I didn't really think much of it until recently when my girlfriend was telling me that she has a lot of trouble liking anything that she's heard is really good, as her expectations get built up to levels the films cannot actually reach. There's a ton of films that can easily fall under this heading: Napoleon Dynamite (her first example), The Sixth Sense, Juno, The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, and the list goes on.

And I think maybe I don't come across this all that often because I'm usually one of the first people I know to see something, so I have a fresh perspective, but there's gotta be something to the fact that the part of the film that got the most hype I found to be awful and the parts that no one talked about (you know, the non-flashy parts) I found to be so good.

I wonder what that is? Is public opinion that bad or is my reaction to it so severe? I hope not. Maybe it's a combination. I don't really know.

vote "gravida"

2008-04-19T13:02:00.001-04:00

Voting has started for the Now Film Festival. Vote for us. Follow the campaign button.

Last night's radio thingy

2008-03-20T09:28:00.000-04:00

I'm at the 35 minute mark.

2nite

2008-03-12T09:30:00.003-04:00

Just a quick reminder.

Tonight, 12 March, yours truly will be featured on BlogCritics Radio. I'll be discussing gravida, the Now Film Festival, and the state of indie film in general. I'm told my segment will start around 9.40 and you can hear it anywhere in the world. Click on the image below to get there.

EDIT: Turns out they've over-scheduled the hour and I've been bumped to next week, 19 March. Sorry, all.

uber-indie on the radio

2008-03-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

Next Wednesday, 12 March, yours truly will be a guest on the Blogcritics Radio Network, which you can conveniently listen to on your very own computer. I'll be talking about gravida, the Now Film Festival, and "indie filmmaking in general" sometime between 9 and 10 EST. Want more info? Check it out. This week's guest, you may notice, is Debbie Gibson. That sound you just heard? That was Ryan Estes' head exploding. Remember to gather ye olde kids around ye olde internet radio and listen in. Maybe I'll make a fool of myself.

uber-indie: short films by Keith Snyder

2008-03-04T11:50:00.001-05:00

Sell in Hell

starring: Blake Arnold and Daniel McFeeley
cinematography by: Patrick Knisely
written by: Blake Arnold and Keith Snyder
directed by: Keith Snyder
6 min/Hollywood, CA

There's only one job in Hell, and that's telemarketing. So says Keith Snyder's short Sell in Hell, and it's hard to argue with that theory. Done in mostly one shot and starring a heavily made-up Blake Arnold (horns, fake teeth, and all that goes into the classic demon look), the film looks pretty much exactly like a telemarketing instructional video, only with more interesting lighting. It's somewhat humerous and somewhat annoying. Most of all, it's pretty much what you'd expect, given that scenario. I'd write more, but Sell in Hell isn't nearly as interesting as the other two shorts.

Credo

starring: Larry Picard
cinematography by: Andamion Murataj
original music by: Larry Picard and Keith Snyder
written and directed by: Keith Snyder
9 min/Brooklyn, NY

Apparently God is bald.

That seems odd, considering the whole omnipotence thing. I know if I were all-powerful, I'd ensure I at least had a full head of hair, but such are the limitations of working with a small budget. Even God has to cut corners somewhere.

Thankfully for Keith Snyder's Credo, God has more important priorities, such as an operatic bass singing voice that works perfectly for this 9 minute musical. That's right, we've got ourselves a musical. And if you're thinking to yourself that uber-indie musicals are pretty rare, you'd be right. So it takes a few minutes to realize that's what's happening, that the singing isn't just an interesting opening, but the film's overall narrative.

Larry Picard, a classically trained singer, stars as a God looking to distance Himself from the activities of some of His alleged followers. This isn't exactly a new idea, as God has been doing this nearly as long as there's been people invoking His name, but not usually with a trace of sacrilege:

"Blessed art I, the Lord thy God,
King of the Universe. Who loveth thee.
Who desireth to make thee happy.
Who apologizes for His misguided example,
And the lamentable results of His interference.
Who withdraweth His endorsement of murder,
And seeketh thy forgiveness for His terrible mistake."

I include these lyrics not to spark some sort of religious debate, but to give you an idea of the film's tone. This is, after all, a film review and not a discussion of theology and the nature of God.

What's most interesting about Credo isn't the message, but how that message is delivered. None of Picard's singing was done in post-production, but instead was performed entirely a cappella on set, with nothing but a small keyboard as assistance. The rest of the score was then recorded later to match Picard's vocals. This is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Synder himself gives an in-depth description of the process in the two articles he wrote for Recording Magazine.

The end result is a compelling little musical, some editing problems aside. Andamion Murataj's cinematography does a nice job of using the church's natural lighting is his design, and gives the film an effectively solemn look, which is a nice thing to have, especially when your main character is a deity.

I Love You, I'm Sorry, and I'll Never Do It Again

starring: Peter Linari, Larry Picard, Paul Romanello, Frances Toliver, and Kathleen Haaversen
cinematography by: David Berliner
written and directed by: Keith Snyder
14 min/New York, NY

A shlub of a man, in hot water with the mob, discovers the payment he hid in a toolbox is missing. He calls his wife, only to realize he's in even more trouble at home. The mobsters, sympathetic to his plight (as all men are), teach him the three steps to placating an angry wife: say simply, "I love you, I'm sorry, and I'll never do it again"[1]. While some might call it an over-simplification, others would call Keith Snyder's I Love You, I'm Sorry, and I'll Never Do It Again a key step in the daily crusade against sleeping on the couch. Personally, I like to think of it as an entertaining little film that works more often than it doesn't. And in the uber-indie world, that's a rarity.

The film is primarily structured around a series of fantasy musical numbers where the two mobsters detail the Biblical applications of their theory. That is, we see where Sampson, Adam, and others apologized right off the bat, rather than risk a fight. Neither of the mobsters seem to have spent much time counting calories, so the sight of them dressed up as Adam and Eve and, later, Sampson and Delilah (complete with a costume to rival a belly dancer), finds that sweet spot of being so over-the-top that it becomes sublime.

It also serves as a nice visual counterpoint to the main story, which is mostly shot with shadows and cigarette smoke and other themes befitting a factory at nice. The musical numbers, however, are bright lights and brighter colors, full of gaiety and whimsy. Much credit goes to cinematographer David Berliner who moves easily between the two styles and is able to accomplish a lot of narrative goals with his compositions. Really, it's a startlingly effective piece of work.

Moreover, Snyder's script and direction is able to be both funny and serious, all the while telling a coherent, logical, and utterly absurd story within the confines of a fourteen minute musical. Think, for a minute, about what that entails. It's one thing to try and do a surreal musical dramedy, but to have it work, and work so well on a small budget....well....that's just crazy.

And I think maybe Snyder is crazy. He'd almost have to be. But, it's the kind of insanity we need more of in indie cinema. In short, we need more filmmakers like Keith Snyder.

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[1] In the weeks between watching this film and writing this review, I've learned that this does not always work. At least, not for me. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

You can check out the thoughts of Keith Snyder at his blog. Or, check out his films here and here. Or, go to his IMDb page.

the Murials and my lack of a ballot

2008-02-25T13:05:00.007-05:00

Last year, I was more than happy to contribute to Paul Clark's inaugural Murial Awards. I'd, as usual, seen most of the necessary films (not all, mind you, because that'd be damned near impossible, but enough). But this year, when I started to fill out my ballot, I came to the realization that I hadn't seen nearly enough films. I've been kind of busy with my own film, it seems. So Paul, in his kindness, let me skip the voting part and just add my own category of 10 films worth seeing that aren't eligible (mostly because they're shorts). Also, I added some comments on some of the "important" film. Note my blurb on last night's big winner:

"I loved Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls. I haven't seen this, but the trailer looks good and my girlfriend liked it a lot."

See? How could I vote in good conscience?

You can read my entire sidebar here. Or, here's the 10 films worth seeing:

(in no particular order)

1. "Avec la Moustache" (Demitri Andrikopolous)
2. "Confusions of an Unmarried Couple" (The Butler Brothers)
3. "A Catalog of Anticipations" (David Lowery)
4. "I Love You, I'm Sorry, and I'll Never Do It Again" (Keith Snyder)
5. "Maine Story" (Nina Chernik)
6. "Cabbie" (Donlee Brussel)
7. "Partially True Tales of High Adventure!" (Murphy Gilson)
8. "Adam Taylor's Dracula" (Adam Taylor)
9. "Crooked Features" (Mike Peter Reed)
10. "Frownland" (Ronald Bronstein)

You'd have to ask Paul, but I see no reason why these films can't call themselves "Murial Award Winners".

gravida on MySpace

2008-02-16T22:43:00.011-05:00

If you have a MySpace account, show it some love.

3rd Annual Now Film Festival -Week 18 Finalist - Gravida

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Also, if you really feel like getting some good karma, you can embed this video on your blog. Let me know and I'll send you the code.

EDIT: Who's helping us out?

Thom Ryan, Film of the Year
The Moviezzz Blog
Adam Ross, DVD Panache
Paul Clark
The Screengrab
GreenCine Daily
Dennis Cozzalio, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
Jonathan Lapper, Cinema Styles
Lazy Eye Theatre
The Film Experience

Hey look, we're in the paper...and on MySpace...and elsewhere...

2008-02-15T14:51:00.000-05:00

As promised, the promotional stuff for the Now Film Festival continues. gravida is on the festival webpage for your viewing pleasure, on YouTube, where people are arguing about a pregnant woman drinking wine, and later today on MySpace Film, where we'll be the featured selection for a week.

Today brings a little bit more for your reading pleasure.

First, those of you in Pittsburgh can pick up a copy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and find us on the back page of the Mag&Movies section. Or, you can read it online here.

Also, there's an interview with yours truly about gravida in Actor's Ink, which is some sort of newsletter/publication with a circulation of roughly 70k. The interview starts with a short review that contains the note that, "With a shoestring budget and a few friends, Lucas McNelly tells a story of loneliness and uncertainty better than most of the filmmakers in Hollywood can imagine." You can read the entire interview here, including the parts where I do some name-dropping of fellow filmmakers.

Speaking of name-dropping our fellow filmmakers, our friend David Lowery has made the cut of South by Southwest, no small feat.

gravida on YouTube

2008-02-13T20:01:00.001-05:00

Here, as part of the Now Film Festival

Coming up Friday, MySpace.

Now Film Festival

2008-02-07T09:56:00.001-05:00

gravida has been added to the lineup of this year's Now Film Festival, which runs primarily on MySpace Film.

We're one of 25 semi-finalists, with the grand prize being a new camera package (oohh, aahh). Also, there's a screening in Hollywood for the finalists.

Which is where you, the reader/viewer comes in. At the end of the 25 weeks of semi-finalists, there's voting and the voting will determine what happens from there. So go check out the festival and then vote for gravida.

It'll be fun. I promise.

EDIT: We'll be the featured short on MySpace for a week starting on 15 Feb.

festival 3.0

2008-02-01T16:02:00.000-05:00

gravida has been selected to appear in the 4th(?) Annual Mid-Valley Video Festival in Salem, OR. We will screen Thursday, 21 February at 9pm with James Spooner's White Lies Black Sheep at the Northern Lights Theatre Pub.

Also appearing in the festival is David Lowery's A Catalog of Anticipations and the Butler Brother's Confusions of an Unmarried Couple, both films by friends of this blog.

Notes from Festivus

2008-01-15T13:47:00.000-05:00

You know you've been at a festival a long time when on day 3 you say to someone, "You know, I vaguely remember watching a zombie movie, like, a week ago." Such is life in the festival world where you routinely watch films from noon until nearly midnight, drink alcoholic beverages, and talk to fellow festival goers about what films they saw that you completely should have seen. Depending on your level of cinephilia, it's either completely awesome or a bit much.

It helps, certainly, when you've got a film in competition and the badge of honor to prove it. Everyone makes a point of telling you they liked your film (even when they didn't), or how they wish they could have seen it. It's no wonder filmmakers love going.

For the inaugural Festivus Film Festival, we hit Denver around 10am Mountain Time and promptly hit a local micro brew house that featured a beer dedicated to the late, great Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. From there, we hit the festival, housed (for our purposes), at the historic Oriental Theater.

The festival kicked off with Wasting Away, a zombie movie about from the zombie's point of view (they see themselves as "super soldiers" and everyone else is infected) and Kill Kill Faster Faster, which looked really cool, but I came in half-way through and was too tired from the jet lag to follow it.

Saturday, we screen bright and early at noon as part of the "Popcorn Matinees" with Maine Story, Taken, In Times of War: The Ray Parker Story (winner for best documentary short), Simulacra, PK-Granny, and Revolver. The screening went well. Maine Story is clearly the best film of the set (or maybe I'm biased because it's set in Maine and the accents aren't all screwed up), but the important thing is that gravida isn't the worst. No one walks out. No one boos. Well, except for these guys:

Then, a Q&A (that's yours truly on the left wearing a "Debs '08" shirt, even if you can't see it):

There were basic questions about budgets and cameras and whatnot, and we got a few questions asked specifically about our film (such as, "Where did you find a pregnant actress?"). And that was it. A number of people came up to me over the course of the day to say how much they enjoyed the film and we were able to make a number of contacts with other filmmakers and pick their brains about the whole festival sequence. Part of the value of going to this festival was to see what other companies do to support their films, and I think we've picked up a number of good ideas we can use for next time.

But there were 2 more whole days of films. Notable films were Avec la Moustache (the best film in the entire festival, I thought), Cabbie, Partially True Tales of High Adventure! (the narrative short winner), Hope Springs Eternal (animated winner), Beauty 24 (a bad documentary about a fantastically interesting photography project, also the documentary feature winner...go figure), Indestructible (a heart-breaking doc about ALS), and Life With Fiona (I didn't see it, but the filmmakers were really nice and helpful).

And that is about it. Don't forget to purchase a DVD or a tshirt. Be one of the cool kids.

lo-fi, part II

2008-01-01T16:24:00.000-05:00

Jerome Wincek--saint beautiful

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a lo-fi music video

2007-12-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

Recently, I made a trek up to Franklin, PA to shoot some raw footage of Jerome Wincek (you may remember his song "Careless Love" from the end credits of gravida). Well, after some time in the editing suite, I came up with this footage of his song "waiting". Enjoy.

Jerome Wincek--waiting

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a festival

2007-12-13T09:39:00.001-05:00

Word in my email box this morning is that "gravida" is an Official Selection in the inaugural Festivus Film Festival, which runs from 11 January until 13 January in Denver, CO. This is obviously cool for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Festivus episode of "Seinfeld" is one the favorites of the McNelly household. It's another Festivus miracle!

If you're scoring at home, that makes "gravida" 2 for 3 in the festival circuit, with the one negative being Sundance, which was a long shot anyway.

And if for some strange reason you haven't yet seen "gravida", don't forget that we're having a Christmas, etc. sale at the store where you can get FREE Shipping on the DVD and the "un filme" shirt. The sale runs until 22 December and both items would make excellent presents for everyone you know (including yourself)

A Christmas Sale

2007-11-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

Just in time for the holidays and all those warm, fuzzy feelings everyone has, there's a sale over at my production company, d press Productions. From now until 22 December, you can get FREE SHIPPING on everything you purchase from the store. (We don't, however, guarantee that an order before 22 December will get there by Christmas, but we'll sure try)

What can you get? Well, you can get this tshirt for a mere $16:

And for $8 you can get the DVD of gravida, which just happens to be one of the best reviewed short films of 2007 (and should soon be coming to a festival near you).

If you can't fill, like, your entire Christmas list there, well then you just aren't trying and/or stretching the limits of what your family wants for Christmas.

EDIT: for reasons I haven't yet figured out, it's still charging shipping. So, if you get charged shipping, I'll send it back with the item.

IMOW

2007-11-19T18:14:00.000-05:00

A little while ago, I mentioned that the International Museum of Women was hosting a online film festival.

Well, as a quick reminder, their Imagining Ourselves exhibit is coming to an end. Check it out.

uber-indie: Never Say Macbeth

2007-11-13T19:55:00.000-05:00

starring: Joe Tyler Gold, Ilana Kira, Gregory G. Giles, Tammy Caplan, Tania Getty, and Scott Conte
cinematography by: Michael Millikan
written by: Joe Tyler Gold
directed by: C.J. Prouty
86 min/Los Angeles, CA

I'm pretty active in Pittsburgh's theatre community. Occasionally I'll be in a play, or just help out behind the scenes, and every summer I contribute in some way to the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. What, might you ask, does that have to do with the uber-indie project? Nothing, except that today we're reviewing C.J. Prouty's Never Say Macbeth, a comedy about a theatre group's production of William Shakespeare's cursed[1] play.

The story is simple enough: Danny (Joe Tyler Gold), a science teacher from Ohio, follows his actress girlfriend (Ilana Kira) to Los Angeles in an attempt to win her back. Of course, he accidentally ends up getting cast in the paroduction of the Scottish play, triggers the curse, and comedy ensues. At least until the ghosts of past productions show up.

Along the way we hit all the greatest hits of the uber-indie broad comedy: the forced Star Wars reference, the slapstick moments, the one-note supporting characters, the Kevin Smith influences, and the fish out of water motif. Add a formulaic romantic comedy storyline and some green screen effects, and there's your movie.

An aside: what exactly is the obsession with the Star Wars jokes and references? I understand the films were influential and hugely popular during the formative years of a lot of aspiring filmmakers, but enough already. It was wearing thin five years ago. Move on. I'm starting to think it serves more as a hindrance than a help, as everyone seems reliant on it as a convenient source of humor, rather than taking the time to fill that space on screen with something original.

One of the difficulties of watching Never Say Macbeth critically is figuring out where the line exists between the inept and the jokes at the expensive of the inept. Take, for example, the play's director. He's over-the-top and full of himself, to be sure, and sports a ridiculous, clearly fake gotee. As I see it, there's two explainations for this: either the fake gotee is a joke or it's just a terrible makeup job. If it's a joke, I see no reasoning behind it. But, considering that the character's second scene takes place with him standing in front of an old poster where he sports a shorter, real one, I think we're supposed to think the facial hair is real.

The cast, while generally bad (one gets the idea that some of the actors are giving stage performances on film...or is that part of the joke?), has some impressive moments, such as the ones involving theatre ghosts possessing the cast, but they're too few. It's a problem that exists film-wide. Never Say Macbeth is by no means a good film, as currently constructed, but there's enough good parts, enough inspired moments, to make me think a good film is possible, given the right circumstances. Worth noting is some spiffy special effects, considering the budget, and Michael Millikan's cinematography, which effectively mixes stage and film lights to add cinematic credibility to the end product.

Tim Labor's score, on the other hand, is the film's Achilles' heel. It is forced and omnipresent and cloying. The score is annoying in a vacuum, but to make things worse, it is too loud. The purpose of a film score is to enhance the proceedings on film, not to distract from them. Here, the music overpowers the dialogue, the actors, the images, everything. Moments that might work on their own fail simply because the score is dictating how we should feel about them. As you might imagine, that gets annoying quickly.

[1] According to Wikipedia: "said to be because Shakespeare used the spells of real witches in his text, so witches got angry and are said to have cursed the play...A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth (or by actors who had uttered the name)." So there you go.

**********************
Check out Never Say Macbeth for yourself at the Official Webpage, where you can watch the trailer and see how the cast and crew suffered from the curse. Or, check them out on IMDB and MySpace.

Got a film you'd like to submit for the uber-indie project? Go here for details. You can also read these reviews at TalkingMoviezzz.com.

a self-imposed deadline

2007-11-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

If there's one thing I've learned in all my years of writing (especially in school, where I set world records for procrastination), it's that given the opportunity, I will wait until the absolute last minute to do anything. Even now, when I'm much more motivated to get my own projects done, I'll still delay things as long as possible. It's a terrible curse.

So, I've found that the best solution is to set deadlines for myself (I'd still be editing gravida, had I not given myself a deadline) and treat them as absolute. Also, it helps if I tell other people, since I hate to let people down.

22 November, 2007. Thanksgiving Day. I'm giving myself until then to finish the next draft of the feature script I'm working on. Will it be the final draft? Probably not. Will it be pretty damned close? I think so.

By my estimate, I have roughly 20-25 pages to write (to replace the 20 pages I've cut in the past couple weeks), and I have to re-configure one of the film's key relationships (they were previously friends, but I've decided the film works better if they're dating). Also, there's endless tweaking that I'll end up doing.

Anyway, there's the date. Cross your fingers for me.

cleaning out the inbox

2007-10-18T10:25:00.000-04:00

Lately there's been a trend of people sending me emails about their various projects, announcing to me (and I assume others) of their existence. Press releases, if you will. Since a lot of them aren't addressed to me, I'm never totally sure what I should do with them (note: if you're looking for a specific action from me, put that at the top of the email), so they just sit in my inbox.

But, recently I had two that were directed to me, so I'm gonna reach back and let you know about some of the other ones as well.

** There's a new movie community on the internets over at Spill.com. Alex tells me that, "the site’s built around animated reviews we put together on the latest movie releases. We launched originally at the beginning of the year, but it’s only within the last few weeks (and after more than a few sleepless nights…) we’ve added the community features in. The movies we review may be a little mainstream for your taste, but thought you might be interested to check the site out."

** The International Museum of Women is holding an online film festival throughout October, debuting a film a day for 31 days, all directed by women. Should be cool. Go here for more.

** The first DVD from tank.tv is now available for your purchasing pleasure. From the email: "This collection contains 24 film and video pieces by 24 UK based artists, each around three minutes long, and reflects the creativity, innovation and wide variety of subject matter for which tank.tv has become known and respected. It also includes five new, specially commissioned interviews pieces between feted curators and artists." There also seems to be a book.

** Jimmy Traynor's got a new film, Jimmy Traynor's The Ticket, which was filmed in 32 hours. Beyond that, Traynor's a big fan of the collaborative power of the indie filmmaker. Check it out.

That's all for now, as I seem to have deleted some. Enjoy.

uber-indie: Aesop's Diner

2007-10-13T12:32:00.000-04:00

starring: Royce Peterson, Wilder Selzer, and Mary Micari
cinematography by: Eric Giovon
written by: Peter Kohl and Cara Maria O'Shea
directed by: Cara Maria O'Shea
26 min/New York, NY

The Family Johnson was once New York City's "coolest band", but sex, drugs, and rock and roll don't always mesh as well as you'd hope. A year and a half later, lead singer Bugs (Royce Peterson) is a broke addict with nothing but fond memories of his time in the spotlight. As part of his recovery program, he meets former bandmate Shelly (Wilder Selzer) at a diner to apologize for his sins.

The bulk of Aesop's Diner happens in the diner, with various flashbacks to headier days that play like footage from a poor man's Velvet Goldmine (1998). This gives cinematographer Eric Giovon a chance to shine. He composes a number of nice images over the course of the film and really gives Aesop's Diner a professional look that's often lacking in these types of films.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the script and direction, which lack a strong sense of purpose and focus. Tonally, the film is uneven, so while it works in short bits and spurts, there are equally long stretches that don't at all. Most of these occur in the diner, where the film tends to drag, especially in the interactions between the musicians and the waitress (Mary Micari).

But, if Aesop's Diner is a first film for director Cara Maria O'Shea (as the festival selections seem to indicate), then this isn't so much of a problem, as there isn't anything here that isn't easily fixable with experience and an emphasis on viewing your own work with a more critical eye. These things come with time, as does the confidence required for a director to impose their will and make a series of strong, cohesive decisions.

One of the film's most interesting decisions is the casting decision of Wilder Selzer as Shelly, the still successful member of the group. Shelly's a big star now and rather full of himself, using inane pickup lines to flirt with the waitress (the film never bothers to explain why such a big star would flirt with a waitress so ordinary). Selzer's performance can kindly be described as existing in an entirely different universe than, well, everything else. It's all kinds of weird and the type of performance that's either brilliant or terrible with no chance of a middle ground. Problem is, Selzer isn't Johnny Depp. He isn't even Jon Heder. He's all kinds of bad. None of the performances are good, but Selzer's is easily the worst. There isn't the modicum of acting ability on display that you'd require to believe the character is a human being. In addition, Shelly is supposedly the "next singing sensation" but the film doesn't give us any indication that he's anything but an inept musician.

Of course, that doesn't mean he couldn't be a big star, but that's a discussion for another time.

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You can check out Aesop's Diner at the official webpage, the MySpace page, and on IMDB.

Got a film you'd like to submit for the uber-indie project? Go here for details. You can also read these reviews at TalkingMoviezzz.com.

an email

2007-10-05T01:30:00.000-04:00

Dear Lucas,

Congratulations! Your film, Gravida, has been selected to screen at the 26th annual Three Rivers Film Festival. The festival will be held from November 2nd through the 15th. Our Shorts Program will be presented in two parts with one screening each night, Sunday, November 11and Wednesday, November 14, at the Melwood Screening Room at 477 Melwood Avenue in Pittsburgh. For more information please visit the festival’s official website, www.3rff.com.

festivals

2007-10-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

So I didn't get any writing done yesterday, more banging of my head against the wall, etc. I did, however, get gravida entered in 6 new festivals, bringing the total up to 9.

The thing that annoys me about this festival circuit (and maybe someone like Matt Riviera or David Lowery can chime in here and tell me what I'm doing wrong) is that for a film shot on a tiny budget essentially out of pocket, the $20-$40 entry fees can add up pretty quickly. And that wouldn't be so bad if you could, say, enter 3 festivals and then a month later know if you got into any of them, but most of these festivals have a turnaround time of several months, meaning I probably won't know how many of these I've gotten into until something like February. So you front-load all these fees and such for a project that may get completely shut out. And that's ok, but it just takes so damn long that by the time you know, how much incentive is there really to re-evaluate how you're approaching it? By February, I may be on a different project entirely.

This isn't so bad for a large project, but if your entire film cost, say, $500, then it seems pretty stupid to spend $300 on submitting to festivals.

What I have noticed is that a lot of festivals like to portray themselves as champions of the true indie filmmaker, yet they have entry fees of $30+. The DIY Festival is $35, for example. There's a great disconnect there, I think. I wonder if it would benefit some of these festivals to go find some micro budget films and invite them to the festival for no fee. Maybe they could team with, I dunno, the uber-indie project to ensure they don't get stuck programming something truly awful. Because there has to be a more efficient, cost-effective way for these films to find a festival audience.

Anyway, in the interest of full disclosure, here's the 6 (oh, and if you happen to work for any of these festivals, feel free to just plug me into the program, hint, hint[1])

San Francisco Independent Film Festival
Lake Forest Film Festival
Bare Bones International Film Festival
Hoboken International Film Festival
Festivus Film Festival
Oxford International Film Festival

Add those to these previous 3:

Omaha Film Festival
Three Rivers Film Festival
Sundance

No, I don't expect to get into Sundance, but what the hell.

[1] Joking, but only a little bit.