The Shield, a plea and a Hustle

I am continually impressed by "The Shield." The writing, the acting and the directing on it is superb and if there's any chance that anyone with any kind of a producing credit on that show is reading this I just want to take a moment here to beg for the chance to direct even 2nd unit. I actually fell in love with this show the first season it aired because it's about characters. In fact it's the only cop show, currently on the air where the plots focuses on characters as opposed to the killing of the week. I'm also extremely impressed with how they've taken a character who is basically a bad dude and made you root for him. The Sopranos did the same thing but the Shield takes it to a whole new level. The Sopranos also kind of fell victim to the occasional episode where you watched it and then said, "what the fuck was that about?" They also let plots drift away - or am I the only who's hoping to see the Russian Christopher and Paulie shot in the woods re-appear this season? Anyway, the Shield - Please, please, please hire me.

Also, I've been on DVD kick. We've watched recently, Crash, March of the Penguins, Sullivan's Travels (1942), Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Hustle and Flow.

It's been a good run. I have great things to say about all these films though some I liked better than others. I think my two favorites were Wedding Crashers and Hustle and Flow, which was a movie I knew virtually nothing about before putting the disc in the machine, but I really related to it.

Reading and the Oscars

The Academy Awards always kill me. I have to watch them yet they're somewhat painful as a reminder of how far I still have to go. I was pretty pleased to see Crash win best picture. Not that I was rooting for it above all the others, but because it's the only one of the bunch that I've actually seen. I intend to see the others, I've just been too busy.

I did like Crash though. It was a powerful film.

Busy doing - readin' and 'riting and 'rithmetic... Quite literally. I've gotten a ton of emails pitching scripts so I'm trying to get through all of those. I'm working on one or two scripts of my own - one that I'm on a re-write of and one that's still in treatment form. AND doing my F******* taxes.

Oh - and I'm trying to prep some spec spots. Anyone know where I can get a 16 mm (preferably Super 16) for free?

A Deluge of Stories

Wow,

So the entry I included below looking for stories hasn't exactly yielded an avalanche of letters, but I posted the same notice at moviebytes.com (a site devoted to writing and writing contests) and the response have been overwhelming. I've gotten so many emails that I can't even keep up with responding to tell them that I'm swamped and it will take me a while to get through them all.

So far I haven't found what I'm looking for, but I've only read through a handful of them.

The First Movie

I took my daughter to see her first movie in a movie theater this weekend. We went to see Curious George. I think she enjoyed it, though I have a feeling I was far more excited about it than she was.

Also, I have to say it was the perfect movie for her tender age and I'm glad it was her introduction to the theater. It was also my first trip back to the cinema in quite some time, though that really has to do more with the cost of babysitters than anything else.

Is it any wonder that studios aren't making movies for people my age? Ah well, I'm sure I griped about it in the past, it just never occured to me that it was a smart move on their part.

Searching for Screenplays

By the way, I should mention here that I'm searching for screenplays. Actually I'm searching for screenplays, stage plays, short stories, un-optioned novels, anything I can turn into a movie. I write myself, but the process is sometimes slow and I'm chomping at the bit to have a script I can run with.

What I'm looking for, or at least what I tell people, is I'm looking for my Pulp Fiction. In other words I'm looking for a good script with great characters and a good story that transcends genre.

That shouldn't be too tough to find. Right?

No, seriously, what I'm looking for is something that's interesting and a little different. Genre doesn't matter, though I've been told by more than one person that the whole Horror wave has gone back out to sea in a fast, sucking rip tide.

One thing I don't want it straight drama. Unless it's twisted.

Twisted is good.

Anyway, if you have something shoot me an email at: director1229@mac.com (that's a different email address than the BLOG email.) Give me a log line and maybe a little description. Budget range should be under $10 million.

Oh and I have no money to actually pay for anything, so I'm looking for something I can option either free or very cheap in order to get it made. I'm more than willing to make up for a stingy option with a decent purchase price, should we get it off the ground.

Work

Just spent a few days doing a little press-junket style shooting backstage at the Grammys. It was pretty cool. I'm not generally over-awed by meeting celebrities, I've worked with too many to get really crazy over it, but I have to say, it was pretty cool meeting Herbie Hancock.

I also realized, after meeting Fall Out Boy (a few minutes after I first heard of them,) that I need to start hitting iTunes a bit more.

Just a Thought

Am I the only one who wonders if he'll ever make it big enough to be listed in the obituaries in Variety?

The Social Welfare State Hard at Work

Nice.

Positive Development

Well here's a positive development. According to The Independent, a UK newsrag, John Lasseter, the Pixar guru recently named as head of Disney Animation, has axed Toy Story 3. The story is that Disney had put 100 writers and animators on the job in opposition to Pixar which did not what to dillute the franchise with crappy sequels. Though I suspect those 100 writers and animators may have a different opinion, this looks like Pixar is going to stay true to course.

Pixar Crawls into the Mouse Hole

Wow. Steve Jobs on the board of Disney. Pixar employees cashing checks from the mouse.

That can only mean one of two things. Either Disney is going to start putting out remarkably better product or Pixar is going to make The Santa Claus Part 5.

I wonder when Disney will try to renegotiate contracts with Pixar employees.

The Savages are Becoming Cannibals

Well, Soderbergh and IFC have announced that they will release films simultaneously in theaters and on DVD (or in IFC's case on their channel.) Regal Cinemas, which is a major nationwide chain, has said they won't show Soderbergh's film in their theaters. Why would they? I haven't heard if they're going to do the same thing with IFC, which has said it will release it's next 24 films that way, but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

I think that a requirement for running a film studio should be that you have to spend a year running a small business. You should have to actually live in the real world of supply and demand.

Think about this - you bust your ass to get a small business loan and buy a franchise - say KFC and then bust your ass to build up your business so you can make a living. THEN KFC opens it's own store across the street and starts selling it's chicken cheaper.

I mean what do they think is going to happen????? It's called cannibalizing your market.

Producers need theaters- if not for the billions of dollars that are actually made that way each year - then for the publicity value alone. If you CANNIBALIZE your audience something's going to hurt. If Toyota made the Prius and another compact sized hybrid car for around the same price then what would happen? They wouldn't sell twice the number of cars, they'd sell the same number, but half of each. The cost of producing each line would rise (no economies of scale) and the profit margin would SHRINK. Unless they raised the price in which case that hybrid Honda makes might start looking pretty good.

It's funny the way Hollywood/ Entertainment is thought of as a unique business. In the real world if a product doesn't sell, it doesn't get put on the shelves. In Hollywood if a product doesn't sell it must be the audience that's changing and different shelves are looked for. It's really just a shifting of blame in a world where performance has nothing to do with promotion. I mean think about it - everything that's coming out of the major mouths of Hollywood these days relates to: "Ticket sales are down - DVD's leveling off - the AUDIENCE is changing." I mean even detroit EVENTUALLY figured out that no one was buying their cars because they were making crappy cars. But then there were businessmen running the car companies.

Try this one on for size: People want cars that get better gas mileage - Instead - maybe we can get everyone to live closer together so they don't have to drive as far.

Now while I'll admit that I rarely darken the doorstep of my local multi-plex it has more to do with the stage of life I'm at rather than the easy availability of DVDs (made all the more available by Netflix.) I mean home video began years ago and I think I probably watched the same number of movies on VHS as I have on DVD. Sure those DVDs look better but do I really need the 10 minutes of crap they scrape together for most of them? (Do I really NEED (really, really NEED) the director's commentary on "Stealth?") But if I could afford to go to a movie theater (meaning, baby sitter, dinner, theater tickets) I would do it every every weekend.

As it stands I still do pine for a darkened room filled with people (as long as they realize they aren't sitting at home in their living room and that pointing lasers at the screen doesn't really mean they're touching Julia Roberts...) So this news of simultaneous release saddens my heart. It will eventually cause the theatrical market to shrink causing studios to raise the price of DVDs so they can make their money and it will eventually make it that much harder for independent films to find an audience because who's going to buy a DVD without Jennifer Aniston's smiling face on the cover?? And I mean, she can only do so many films in a year.

In fact the indies are going to be the first ones that get burned by this. From a practical point of view, if I owned a theater chain, I'd tell IFC to go fuck themselves when they came knocking on my door to show their movies. And a year from now when they realize that they're not making the same money they used to, because HBO has no interest in buying a film that's played 75 times IFC and they come back to me (Mr. Theater owner, desperate for a screening time) I'm probably going to say, "Maybe it's time we sat down and talked about the percentages again..."

Currently Listening To... a Soundtrack in my head.

Sometimes when I direct scenes - or visualize scenes in my head I have a soundtrack running. I do this when I write too. I find that a song will set a mood or a tempo even if it really has nothing to do with the material at hand. It's mostly the music. It probably goes along nicely with my idea that a film is like a Symphony. It's a long an complicated theory about how each musician has his own skill that lends to the overall voice, the way individual technicians, actors etc have their own skills that lend to the overall voice of the film. There's a whole lot more too it, but being as I've had the SAME DAMN COLD for two months now, I really don't know that I can put it together coherently enough.

Oddly, though I frequently have music playing in my head, I'm not really good at writing with music on in reality - though I can tune it out, so to speak - while I'm working at Java Man - the little coffee shop I frequent at the beach. See - no coherency to this at all.

A New One and An Old Superstition

I started a new script, though I'm not going to talk about this one. I have a writing superstition that started while I was a journalism major in college. Thusly: if I talk about a story I'm writing then it's already been told and I am no longer able to write it. I used to think it was really just a cop out for when I got lazy and didn't want to write, but it seems to have a strange reality to it.

Anyway, on to other things.

Revenge of the Sith

I finally watched Revenge of the Sith.

I have to hand it to George Lucas. It takes a man with some real balls to name this film (especially after the last two) with a word that is an anagram for "shit."

And that's all I'm gonna say. As a kid who stared wide-eyed at the original Star Wars (and one who has plunged heavily into the world of Joseph Campbell, Hero With a Thousand Faces...etc...) suffice it to say that I have been VASTLY disappointed by the last three cartoons from Lucasfilm. I have a theory about why they're so bad (when the originals were so great,) but I am going to once again restrain myself from film criticism.

Cel Phone Soap

I heard on the radio this morning, though I've been unable to verify it anywhere else, that one of the networks (either CBS or ABC) is in development on a soap opera they plan to broadcast via cel phone.

Your phone would have to be able to receive video for this. They're planning 2-3 minute episodes and are going to run it like an actual series.

At least that's what I heard. Though this is essentially what I've been talking about I see two problems with this.

One: Not very many people have video capable cel phones at the moment.
Two: 2-3 minutes isn't enough time. But I could be wrong. It's my impression that character development and drama might need a bit more time than two or three minutes per episode, but then again...

Strange Brew

And as a 3rd post (I really should save these up and post them over a period of days. (or at least as one post,))

My sister gave me the DVD of Strange Brew, the Bob and Doug McKenzie film. I guess it's a bit of a guilty pleasure since there's no way in the world to classify it as anything close to the pinacle of cinema. But there are some great lines in it.

"There was nothing to do. All the bowling alleys had been destroyed, so I spent my time looking for beer."


"Fleshy headed mutant, are you friendly?"
"No way, eh! Like, radiation has made me an enemy of civilization!"

"If I didn't have puke breath, I'd kiss you."

Sorry. Please disregard my previous post about Napoleon Dynamite. It's clear I have no taste in film.

Napoleon Dynamite

As a 2nd post...

After months of watching so-called hip people walking around town with "Vote for Pedro" shirts I finally decided to watch Napoleon Dynamite. I'm halfway through and my big question is - - is there any really compelling reason for me to finish watching???

In truth I probably will only because Haylie Duff is in it. HANG ON - given that this is the internet and given that I'll probably get some traffic from some bonehead searching for Haylie Duff for some sick and twisted reason, let me point out that I have actually worked with Haylie (and Hillary) on Lizzie McGuire and had a lot of fun with them. In fact Haylie was an amazing kid because while Hillary (her little sister) was getting all the attention on Lizzie, she was happy to stand in for her and appear on camera occasionally as background. There was ample reason for jealousy and I NEVER saw it. Of course I think their Mom had a lot to do with it. She was a great lady too.

ANYWAY... back to the DVD player.

Synchronicity

I got an email a few days ago from a reader in New York. It seems we're working on similar projects, though what's similar about them is our approach to distribution. We're both thinking of a series of shorts to be broadcast, or narrowcast, on the web.

I can't imagine we're the only two. It's only a matter of time until someone (perhaps one of us) hits with something like this and it takes off. And when it does then things are going to change.

Back to the Movies

Well, back to made-for-TV movies. We spent the holidays with family out of town and during the week spent several nights watching the entire series, Into the West. Overall it's excellent and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the west, particularly the history of the Indian Wars.

The film, all 9 hours, follows an extended family, part white, part Lakota, from 1825 to 1890 ending with the massacre at Wounded Knee. It's a kind of fictionalized version of the book, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," which is an American History book that everyone should read. If you think you know American History, I guarantee you do not. The interesting thing is that it's not alternative history or pseudo history the way some books are, but a slice of history that was not in your high school books.

Anyway, I'm glad that someone like Spielberg got behind this and got it made because it's truly exceptional in it's scope and also gripping and emotional in it's story telling. There are a couple of pretty strong Father/Daughter moments that had me (as the father of a daughter) getting a little misty eyed. It was also very well done in terms of it's historical accuracy and set dressing. Really very good. And, as the owner of tipi (which I've spent a good deal of time camping in) it was a blast to see all the tipis in it.

Hmmm. Interesting. In building the links above, I just read a few reviews of Into the West on Amazon and apparently the DVD version has been edited from the version shown on TNT. Apparently some of the more graphic footage has been cut out of the Wounded Knee part. Considering how brutal it actually is that's saying something. Curious. I wonder what the story is with that. It's certainly out of the norm for DVD versions.

Oh and in case anyone's wondering, this American Indian thing is kind of close to my heart. You can check this out. It's an organization called Futures for Children that my wife and I have been involved with for a number of years that is really great.

Is My Name on the Call Sheet?

Although I'm a little down on my particular union, I've worked enough low budget, non-union stuff to see what Hollywood would be like without the unions and I do think they're a necessary and important part of the equation. The problem, or at least my problem with the union is a difference opinion of what the fundamental duties of a union are.

Film work isn't like other work. It is, by it's nature, transitory. You work for a few weeks and move on to the next job. That next job is part of the problem and ultimately part of what I think is wrong with union.

As a camera assistant, when I worked on a film I got a paycheck from, say, Warner Brothers. But Warner Brothers didn't hire me. In fact, Warner Brothers most likely had no idea who I was. That's because, in a very real sense, I wasn't working for Warner Brothers. Who I was working for was the Director of Photography (or the First Assistant if I was working as a Second.) That's because it was the D.P.(or 1st, etc.) who hired me. That's not necessarily a strange situation in the sense that I could have been hired by a manager at a normal company. The difference is that on a film set a HUGE part of my job is making sure the DP (or 1st) is happy with me so I get hired on the next job, which may be next week, next month or tomorrow. You see to have a career, the people who hire you have to be happy, they have to get along with you and they have to like you. No problems equals continued employment.

The problem lies in the fact that that goes all the way up the line. The D.P. has to keep the director and the producers happy and they have to keep the studio happy, etc. Unhappiness leads to unemployment. But what happens if the studio (or producer) is screwing you? To whom do you complain? You can't complain to the DP, because it's not his problem, nor can he do anything about it, nor does he want to do anything about it. You can complain to the producers, but that may not get you anywhere as they may be the problem. Or, you can complain to the union, which may solve your problem, but may, in the end, cause you far greater problems. Let me give you two examples to illustrate what I'm talking about.

Example One: Complaining to the producer: I was working on a union commercial and they were killing us. We were on location working long hours in crazy conditions. Our meal breaks kept getting later and later and craft service was minimal. Finally a few of us started talking about meal penalties (which are not automatic - you actually have to put on your time card.) Of course the producer was upset about this as it would affect his bottom line and "talked" to the D.P. We're not entirely sure what was said, but the result was the D.P. came to us and asked us what the problem was. He was concerned. What wasn't said, but was implied was, this was a big account for him, we all got a lot of work out of it, stop rocking the boat. Now we understood all that and we understood that was part of the business so we had waited until the problem was pretty bad. Now, mind you, we were talking about putting in for something for which we had a contractual RIGHT.

But the seed had been sown. WE were trouble makers. The DP was "concerned." Suddenly the next gig was in jeopardy. Should we call the union? What do you think?

Here's another example.

Example Two: Complaining to the Union: I was working on a show where the producers were nickel and diming us at every turn. We were on a weekly salary. You make less per day this way, but if there's a day off, you're supposed to get paid, so it evens out, right? Not if the producers change the deal and put you on a daily rate for the week there's a day off. Mind you, this is a CONTRACTUAL VIOLATION.

What happens? A phone call or two is made to the union. Reps come down, talks happen. Everything is settled. Then, a week or so later rumors start to come out of production. It seems the producers have put the word out, they're looking for reels. They're thinking about replacing the DP next season.

Nerves tighten.

Perhaps it isn't connected.

Perhaps that's not really what's going on. Maybe it really isn't a quid pro quo. Maybe.

Then it happens again. Two more times. The lesson has been learned. The fourth time no one calls the union.

I could go on, but lets leave it at two examples.

The problem here again is that next job, in the case of a commercial, it's truly the next job, in the case of a series it was the next season. In the case of all jobs, it's tomorrow's call sheet.

In the film business, in the UNION business, your job security is only as good as your name appearing on the call sheet.

What does the union do about that? Generally nothing. You can be fired by not really being fired at all. The union should represent it's workers because in this business we put ourselves in jeopardy when we represent ourselves. There needs to be some kind of mediation, some kind of way for things like this to work out. The problem is that the union represents itself a protector of worker's right, but really, fundamentally, all it is someone to provide a framework of rates, health insurance and a pension that any of us may or may not see.

I don't know what the solution is. I wish I had one. On the other hand what these examples point out is that even with the union in place, even with a contract and rules and possible penalties the employers will do whatever they can get away with. Even with the union, you can get screwed, without the union you can get really screwed. You can get screwed because the truth of it is the only true solution to the problem is to find another job.

I always laugh my ass off when I hear people in other parts of the universe talk about how hard it is to fire a union employee.

Microsoft bails Out on Apple

Well, not entirely. But they've announced officially that they're abandoning any further development of Explorer for the Mac. Now, since I haven't really used Explorer for the last two years (being far more partial to Safari and now, that's it's improving, Firefox (on which I write this blog, mostly because a some of the functionality doesn't work in Safari (like linking)) I really don't care much. But I think it's interesting. It also gives me one more reason to sell those useless shares of Microsoft that I bought a few years ago (right in time for an extended period of ZERO growth.)

The next big part of the space race between MS and Google is apparently on a whole different front and from what I hear Google is in the lead on this (as with everything else.) Check this out. Apparently the internet now functions at sufficient speed to use MS Word online. Meaning, that instead of booting up your Mac or PC and opening up the copy of MS Word that you bought (which by the way, you do not technically own) you will now log into MS Word which will be stored on a mainframe up in the pacific northwest. Eventually the goal is to have your computer's entire operating system on someone else's computers.

Why does this matter in a film blog? Well, mostly because Apple has been one of the major players in changing the future of film. Final Cut was a revolutionary piece of software that put film production into the hands of children (and I use that word in the sense that on set we, the crew, would sometimes refer to above the line people as the grown-ups) the way nothing else has before. Sure there are PC based non-linear editors but FCP lead the way.

By the way - I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the spell check in blogger pings the words, "blog" which is a bit like questioning your own existence, and "Google" which is I guess it's nod toward atheism as Blogger was created and is run by Google.

Forgive me. I just took a look here - and discovered that Google didn't create Blogger, but did buy it from the guys who did and now runs it. Pardon.

UPDATE on this one. I've been doing a little reading and apparently this has more to do with Mac's migration to Intel. I guess the process of Intelizing the Mac OS is kind of complicated and since no one is really using IE on Mac anyway, MS decided to blow it off. On the other hand, I'd prefer a good conspiracy story.

The Union

I posted a comment over at Totally Unauthorized regarding an experience I had on set and a few commented on my comment basically saying, well if it's a rule, they have to follow it and if it's Union thing they have to follow it.

I could get all snarky here and say something like, I guess those people haven't been in the business that long, but I won't. (though I do find it a little hard to believe that anyone could actually, seriously say that if it's a rule, the producers have to follow it, and keep a straight face.) But they may be in a different Local and in different Locals things work differently (in the film business, all the grips are in one local (80) the Camera Assistants in another (600) and so on with each job classification having their own locals and their own rules but all operating under the banner of IATSE.) The truth is - and I'm not trying to hide it - I'm bitter about the union. Or, at least, I'm bitter about my union (600.) Actually that's not true, while I'm kind of bitter over all the money I paid them over the years, really I'm disappointed. But since I'm no longer in it I guess I really shouldn't complain. Though I could. I could complain on and on and on and on for page after page talking about all the things the union did for me (or failed to do.) But I won't. I won't talk about how in my experience being a member of the union was like paying AAA for roadside assistance for 10 years and the one time you need your car jump-started no one ever shows up. But I won't. I posted a great example over at the other blog and that's where I'll leave it.

All right, you talked me into it. One story. But this'll be a mild one.

I was starting a film and we were in prep. It was a fairly low budget film, under $10 million, so the Union had cut one of it's low budget contracts with the producers to cover it. Let me pause here to point out an absurdity in the film business and a great example of free-market economy. A few years ago to combat the flight of production jobs to Canada the union started cutting special deals with production companies that essentially resulted in lower and lower pay for it's members. Now the reasoning was that it was better to work than not and we were keeping the jobs here, damnit! Besides it was only supposed to be for the small companies that couldn't afford the big union contracts. But guess what? Pretty soon those big companies (like DISNEY) started saying, hey - why can't we have that deal - I guess we'd better go to Canada.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I was starting a job with a new contract and of course every time we asked for something or asked about something production would say, "It's in the contract." But we had never seen the contract so we would call our local and they would say, "Well that must be what the contract says." But after a while it started getting ridiculous so we asked our union to fax us the contract (at Panavision H'wood) so we could see it. So they said,

Sure, we'll call the IATSE and see if we can get it.

and I said,

Aren't YOU the IATSE.

But I guess they meant the main office.

And ---- it never came. I called back and left a few messages but it never came (not to mention the fact that no one ever called me back.)

AND THEN - five days later, while we're out on set, I call Panavision to get a few extra pieces of gear and they say, "hey, you know a fax came in for you guys today, should we toss it in a case and send it with the gear?"

Of course I say yes.

And then it comes. Our fax from the union.

It was the crew list.

No contract.



**By the way I changed the setting on comments so anyone can comment now. Sorry about that - didn't know it was set that way.

These Two Cowboys Walk into a bar...

Two cowboys head up into the mountains with a herd of sheep...

Sounds like the start of a joke to me.

Anyway, I keep hearing a lot about Brokeback Mountain, the gay cowboy movie. I've heard it's good, but reviews that say things like "Deeply flawed" and "Beautifully shot, tediously paced" don't exactly inspire me. Plus Ang Lee has a tendency to take movies with interesting subjects and flog the life out of them turning them into movies that are deeply flawed and tediously paced though beautifully shot. Hmmm.

I am curious with the way the media has jumped all over this and how the Golden Globes (which is a corrupt and laughable organization) is publicly erect over it. I even heard commentary on NPR about how, yes, this is the first gay cowboy movie, but since most cowboy films took place in settings where there were no women there was a lot of "situational homosexuality." I mean, what can you say?

"John Wayne was a fag."
"The hell he was!"
"He was too, you boys, I installed two-way mirrors at his pad in Brentwood and he come to the door in a dress."
-miller, repo man.

-

Why You Can't Tell People What You Do

Getting back to the reason for this blog I thought I'd offer a bit of advice to those who might be reading herein. I may have written about this already, but to be honest, I don't remember. I guess I could look back over the blog but since I'm already writing this to avoid writing the script I'm supposed to be working on I shouldn't make it worse.

Back when I made my first film, Learning to Surf, I was still busting my ass on a regular basis as a camera assistant. I was still clawing my way up rocky hills with Panavision cases on my back and picking ticks from my crotch and wondering if I'd come down with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. (I was working on a commercial in Wyoming and we were standing in weeds for a good part of the day. I didn't actually notice the little fucker until I was back at the hotel showering.) Anyway, I was a poor, factory-floor, Union-dues-paying hump working from job to job and NOT telling anyone I had just directed a film. Why, you ask, would I not tell anyone? Well, for one, I still needed to work. I needed the paycheck and what happens in film land is that when you tell people you're doing something else, they stop hiring you to do what you're doing. The rational, if there really is one, is that if you've begun to move up there's no way you can be serious about your current job and why would I want to hire you. It sucks because everyone goes through it.

Here's a great story. Way back when I decided I wanted to learn camera as a profession, I befriended a camera man (whose name I will change to protect myself to) Joe. Now Joe was a good guy, creative, friendly and willing to give me a break. I soon wound up as a regular on his crew and stuffed many a mag for him. We became friends and I consider him one today. But I didn't tell him I had directed a film. Now, right about the time of my directorial debut I started to 1st (as opposed to 2nd) A.C. and my friend Joe had begun hiring me to pull focus for him. I wasn't his first call, but he was giving me the chance to fill in when his main dudes were not available on a fairly regular basis. So one day, I'm working on a commercial with him and he asks me why I didn't tell him about the film I'd made. Knowing I'm fucked, I explain to him that I'd made it a rule not to tell ANYONE because I still needed to work. He could not have agreed more and commiserated with me about how the business sucked that way. He even told me a heart-felt story about moving up himself and how someone he worked for wouldn't hire him after that. It was all love and tears between us - a pinnacle of understanding and emotional bonding.

He never called me again.

I'm speaking about this, of course, from a crew perspective, but it happens everywhere. Directors are often pigeon-holed as horror directors, or drama or comedy or whatever happened to be the genre of the first film they hit with. I grapple with this all the time now as I try to write and meet with agents (who constantly ask me what kind of director I see myself as,) knowing that what I say now may define my career the rest of my life (assuming I have a career, that is.) it's frustrating, but it's the way it is.

Sin City

I totally forgot to include Sin City in my last post, though I haven't finished watching it yet. I think I'm about 3/4 of the way through and so far I LOVE it (events around the house have prevented me from watching it in it's entirety.) There's a ballsyness to it, the way it's shot, the subject matter. It's not that it's edgy, it just kind of goes where you want it to go. It's a film that seems to respect it's primal urges. Does that make sense? Maybe I should wait until after I finish watching it before I start getting philosophical.