A bad case of fridays

Serious.

Why haven't I been posting more about my short?

Well... It got a little something I will refer to as revision disease.

What is revision disease, you ask?

It's when you start out with something that has a really good spirit, but isn't quite finished. After you show it to too many people and think about it way too much... you slowly start to chip away at everything you think is bad and... it gets all splotchy and feverish and no longer resembles its former self.

Basically, you suck all of the life out of it. This happened to me... around revision #5 1/2.

By #6... well... my screenplay had Gangrene.

The only thing to do once this happens is to step away for a week or a few, let it sit and recover... and then come back to the first draft and start over with that once you feel like it isn't contagious anymore.

So that's what I've been doing. I've been staying away from it and instead I have been throwing myself into grad school apps.

And right now I have a bad case of Fridays- not focusing on writing anything, not focusing on editing photos, not focusing on editing videos-- but instead, focusing on skipping around the internet at a previously unheard of pace.

In case you're curious... here's what I've been looking at--

Orangette - whose book I am reading (it made me cry at lunch today).

This amazingly rich looking video of HDR video shot with two Canon 5D Mark II cameras.

And a very early review of the Panasonic AF-100.



And... in the spirit of tangents....

 A few pictures of my Grandfather, who turned 91 this year (whew), that I took last week.

Something Sunny on a Gray Day

Inspiration Part 1 -- Concept

It's taken me a very long time to finally come up with a short that I want to make. Desperately. Want.

See-- I've always been of the mind that you need to be in love with something you create for it to be really great [especially if you weren't necessarily going to have the money to make it right away... lets say...]. So I kept writing things and not making them because, frankly-- they weren't stories that I loved and wanted to invest my time in.

Then, finally...

Well, ... like all amazing things in life- I think inspiration comes when you lease expect it. When you aren't trying and just let yourself be open to what's around you in the world. When you sit and try and try and try... well - that never works for me.

So, one day, when I was watching "His Girl Friday" for the second night in a row and trying desperately not to think about life, work and everything-- a spark lit up in my brain that I could not ignore.

And... out of the blue... there was an idea that I loved.

"Why not make this movie about bloggers?"

So I thought about it for a few days... and then stopped. I didn't want to out-right remake "His Girl Friday." That's stupid.

But, after a few more days... it lingered. There seemed to be something there, that was akin to the spirit that I see in young people [myself, maybe?] in blogger/self-employed environments... a similar... I'm not sure... Just... something that I can feel around me on occasion.

So, I plowed forward. My first instinct was to start by inverting the male-female roles, and setting it in cafe culture instead of an office...and see where I went.

The end result is not really His Girl Friday... or anything close. I'm afraid that my general obsessions took over. But-- still--

 

I can not do enough to credit that lovely amazing movie [and all those who made it] with getting me to a place where I'm finally excited to make something. Hopefully - the homage won't be over powering and the idea will still seem fresh. But that will be accomplished in the production...

I hope.

And... apparently, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. How about THAT for progress.


[On a side note. I am not nearly of the mind that every story has been told before and there are no new ideas-- I think there are always new ideas-- but I think they are also always a product of everything that's come before. I think that, especially in film, the way that you tell a story-- the space, the movement, the music, all of the things that color the film are just important as the scene, story, etc. The same story can fit in different place and say complete different things. So don't accuse me of stealing or anything.. yet.]

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3

On a total and completely seperate note:

I love this poem: 

Adapted from Neruda's "Que dispierte el lenador"

by Allen Ginsberg

VI

Peace for all twilights to come,
peace for the bridge, peace for the wine,
peace for the letters that look for me
and pump in my blood tangled
with earth and love's old chant,
peace for the city in the morning
when bread wakes up,
peace for Mississippi, the river of roots,
peace for my brother's shirt,
peace in the book like an airmail stamp,
peace for the great Kolkhoz of Kiev,
peace for the ashes of these dead
and those other dead, peace for the black
iron of Brooklyn, peace for the letter carrier
going from house to house like the day,
peace for the choreographer shrieking
thru a funnel of honeysuckle vines,
peace to my right hand
that only wants to write Rosario,
peace for the Bolivian, secret as a lump of tin,
peace for you to get married, peace
for all the sawmills of Bio-Bio,
peace to Revolutionary Spain's torn heart
peace to the little museum of Wyoming
in which the sweetest thing
was a pillowcase embroidered with a heart,
peace to the baker and his loaves,
and peace to all the flour: peace
for all the wheat still to be born,
peace for all the love that wants to flower
peace for all those who live: peace
to all the lands and waters.

And here I say farewell, I return
to my house, in my dreams
I go back to Patagonia where
the wind beats at barns
and the Ocean spits ice.
I'm nothing more than a poet:
I want love for you all,
I go wander the world I love:
in my country they jail the miners
and soldiers give orders to judges.
But down to its very roots
I love my little cold country.
If i had to die a thousand times
that's where I'd want to die:
if i had to be born a thousand times
that's where I'd want to be born,
near the Araucanian wilds'
sea-whirled south winds,
bells just brought from the bellmaker.
Don't let anybody think about me.
Let's think about the whole world,
banging on the table with love.
I don't want blood to come back
and soak the bread, the beans
the music: I want the miner
to come with me, the little girl
the lawyer, the sailer, the dollmaker,
let's all go to the movies and come
out and drink the reddest wine.

I didn't come here to solve anything.

I came here to sing.
And for you to sing with me.

-----

Movie things to come soon! I promise.

I think this is the beginning...

...of a beautiful friendship. With you, my readers. ... All 2 of you.

See, I've been holding off on a big[ish] announcement (for me, at least)...
I am embarking on the making of a short film, tentatively called "Friday," but hopefully to be renamed.

I'm letting you all know because I am very excited about it [having not made a short since college], and I want to chart the creation of the film for you online- first, here, at drawing the eye-- but hopefully, once I get my crew together, we'll create a space online for others to contribute.

My dear friend, Kishori, will be working with me. (She is awesome and you should read her blog.)

Tomorrow, I'll start my posts about the process -- starting with talking about writing and revising the script.

Things won't get really rolling until the middle to end of September, but you should keep checking back here for updates on where we are... also-- if you know how to find me the next one of her:

That would be helpful. 


Here's a snyposis for your enjoyment:

On the eve of their rehearsal dinner, Rae and Scott are trying to wrap up the loose ends on their soon-to-be-ended News and Gossip blog. But, just as she is finishing her goodbye column, Rae gets an email she can't ignore and convinces Scott to follow one last lead...




Photo from the NYPL Digital Gallery.

Mini Edit Away

This is awesome.



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Limitations...

I like to extol the virtues of digital cameras.

Sometimes I question my own reasoning though.

If someone is "a photographer," in the great all mighty 'artistic' sense... then one should be able to take a great photo with whatever instrument they have available (see these amazing photos taken with iphones).

When I think about this and also about the limitations I feel with my old Canon G9 point and shoot-y type camera, and the results I get... I tend to think that the above is not true about me. A friend told me some of my pictures were 'obvious,' so I've been trying to find some more subtle things. But occasionally there is really low light and my camera gets all grainy regardless of what I do and  I get super frustrated. So I give up.

But I continue to practice. As I did today with a visit to the Cloisters... before I gave up, as described above.

[Also, a benefit of not being preoccupied: when I stopped taking pictures,  and started reading about the art there, I learned about the existence of Lilith... alleged to be Adam's first wife... blew. my. mind.]

Totally beautiful, regardless of my above attempts, which I didn't even really feel like touching up or correcting. These are raw..... But, anyway, you should go and see for yourself.