This Savage Art

I haven’t been posting too much this week due to a full schedule. Today I mailed out my screenplay to the Nicholl people. This being the first year they put up an online application proved to be a challenge. After numerous tries I finally got myself in the system. It’s all okay because there is something so satisfying about binding up your script. Physically putting it together with a cover and brads. Feeling the paper in your hands. I mean sure you could stack up a pile of 108 blank pages but it doesn’t have the same “weight”.

This week is also the beginning of the Tribeca Film Festival. I’ve been living downtown for a couple of years now and I have to admit it is pretty nice walking out your door and there is a major film event going on in your neighborhood. Last night I went to the screening of Civic Duty and just got back now from seeing Kettle of Fish. I’ll try to do one big recap of the festival at the end. Maybe I’ll actually be able to enjoy some of it now that the weekend is coming up. I have to say it’s an interesting week when you are in the same proximity of Norman Mailer, Peter Krause and Gina Gershon, oh yeah, how can I forget seeing Mandy “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die” Patinkin sitting outside of Odeon after getting a haircut.

On the work front, I got a call from a production company looking to get some new blood into there place. So I have make a new editor reel for 2006 which is probably good anyway. I had to do it this just gave me a reason to. I’ve acually been juggling it all. I even found the time to start building a new site for this savage art…. I’ll be switching over to WordPress in the next week or two. Right now I’m building and tweaking. I think it’s coming along nicely. I’ll post the new address here when it’s fully up and running.

What’s next? A new screenplay. After I cut the new reel I’ll start to work on breaking a new story. Figuring out what you want to spend the next six months and beyond writing about is a challenge. You have to give yourself enough time to get the story and the beats in your head and live with it for a while otherwise you are setting yourself up for a nightmare later on.

Ever feel like you have homework for the rest of your life?

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Why do it? It started with some issues I was having with my original host. Problems. Ones they couldn’t fix. Clumsy interface. Uploading was a hassle. Who needs it? So I looked around, made the switch and thought while I’m at it, let’s go with WordPress. Nice clean look. The issue, learning it . CSS, XHTML, PHP. Whoooaaaa. Still getting the hang of it all. I’m going to keep this one simple. Bringing the posts of this savage art… on Blogger to WordPress is a whole other issue. Do it or don’t do it? Start fresh or bring it all up to date? I’m still weighing out the options. All I know is the best way to approach this is one step at a time.

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Who thought using American Express would be this cool?

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You almost killed me. You drove me to drink but I got you. You are done!

I just completed my screenplay. I feel spent and I should because I put a lot into it. Flesh and blood. Just numb right now like I’ve been sleeping on my arm all day. It gets a spelling/grammar polish tomorrow then off to the printer to be sent out to Nicholl.

Yes, I am already thinking about the next one.

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Just busy. Hammering the script out for the May 1 deadline and playing with a new website for all my junk. I consolidated, moved things around and got a new host, Dreamhost. So far pretty happy with it. I’ll be blogging with WordPress. It’s great. Real clean look. Dig it. I “might” attempt to transfer all the Blogger posts over to the new WordPress blog. There is a tool that allows you to do just that but who knows if it makes a clean transfer. If anyone has had experience doing this please let me know how smooth it went or didn’t. Like I said, I “might”.

Here is a little preview [update:replaced with the newest, latest] of the main index page I designed. Nothing is linked, just a background for now. It will be the launching pad for the blog and other works. Thoughts?

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I got my tickets. This morning The Tribeca Film Festival allowed poor slobs like me to buy individual tickets instead of the all access Hudson pass which goes for $1,000. I tried to mix them up and get an ecclectic choice of films like I’ve done in the past. The box office got slammed, took me over an hour to order online. These are my picks (descriptions are from the site):

Civic Duty – A seemingly well-adjusted American accountant loses his job and becomes obsessed with terrorist plots and cable news propaganda. When an Islamic student moves in next door, the accountant’s suspicions lead to shocking conclusions in this post-September 11 thriller starring Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause.

Kettle of Fish – The human species is a strange one, especially when it comes to mating rituals. It seems so much simpler and more organic with goldfish or frogs. Writer/director Claudia Myers’ winsome romantic comedy Kettle of Fish features a lifelong bachelor, Mel (Matthew Modine), and a British biologist, Ginger (Gina Gershon), that might just learn a few things from our aquatic friends.

American Cannibal: The Road To Reality – In this unflinching, behind-the-scenes look at a doomed reality show, a pair of novice TV writers team up with the distributor of the Paris Hilton sex tapes to create a reality show in which contestants are starved on a desert island. More than just gripping entertainment, this documentary poses important questions about how far people will go in pursuit of fame and fortune

First Snow – When destiny bullies us, do we fight back? Fergus never stoops to psychological-thriller film cliché in his chilling debut feature, in which salesman Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce) is gripped by panic after a psychic warns him of his impending death.

Colour Me Kubrick – John Malkovich gives a hilarious tour-de-force as Alan Conway, a conman who successfully passed himself off as the famed and notoriously reclusive director for the last decade or so of the filmmaker’s life.

Animated New York – Welcome to the wonderfully warped world of New York City independent animation. To the surprise of many, New York is the center of one of the largest and most acclaimed groups of independent animators in the world. While L.A. is the center of corporate animation, New York has spawned a colony of maverick animators that create films that they want to make and thrive in the exploding indie film culture despite eschewing public funding.

The Treatment – Jake Singer is a frustrated, confused, and recently dumped New York schoolteacher who enters into therapy in an attempt to find guidance in his life. The treatment appears to be working, but when he suddenly falls in love with a beautiful widow, Jake is forced to battle his therapist’s alarmingly strong influence. Starring Chris Eigeman, Ian Holm, and Famke Janssen.

West Side Highway – This year our NY, NY shorts program travels from downtown to uptown, with a couple of emotional stops in between.

Brothers of the Head – London, 1975. Conjoined twins with a creepy, crypto-erotic bond take the burgeoning glam/punk scene by storm in this wrenching adaptation of Brian Aldiss’ novel. Luke and Harry Treadway deliver searing performances as two very different parts of one fatally compromised whole, and the film and its music will stick with you for days.

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April is the month when all the cool stuff happens. The funk of winter ends. The Tribeca Film Festival starts which is like the circus coming to town for me. NAB unleashes all the new gear that I can’t afford but drool over.

So what are you doing from April 25th to May 7th? If you read this savage art…, consider yourself a writer/director/producer or any other hyphenate (or not) involved with the film world and will be in NYC during the Tribeca Film Festival let’s schmooze. Send me an e-mail with “TFF” as the subject and if there are enough participants I’ll set a date, pick a place and we can all burn our business cards, talk shop and drink some liquor.

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I’m cross-pollinating here. Check out The Artful Writer for screenwriter Craig Mazin’s take on the new Panavision Genesis HD System that was used on Scary Movie 4.

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