a steady diet of obsessive cinema and screenwriting in the dark
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When I'm not hiding in my cave as I am known to do I can be found wandering the streets of Brooklyn mumbling to myself. Read more about William Speruzzi.
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William Anyone have The Machinist screenplay by Scott Kosar in PDF/DOC format?
John Ott, writer, filmmaker and futurist, gives us some very interesting thoughts on why failure is part of the big picture and why indie filmmakers have it all wrong (I agree with him.)
So much will be written. So many will wax poetic but in the end he had the last word. Living in obscurity, eating his frozen peas and keeping a death lock on his privacy he gave no one the right to interpret his world. Producers tried and tried and tried yet failed. It’s good to know that a man who gave us so much kept his talents from being possibly tarnished. It’s also comforting to know that in the world we live in not everyone is for sale.
A quick note about influence. The story A Perfect Day For Bananafish was an indirect influence for my short film The Face of the Earth. It may seem far removed from its inspiration but it really isn’t. It’s still about a tortured soul whose suppressed inner life to the world and to the people closest to him took him to a point of no return. In light of the event, one really wonders what Salinger was keeping from us. Maybe he was just tired of our frivolous ways.
I guess it’s always been my thinking that following trends in the industry is like pushing a rock uphill. Unless you can literally crank out a polished flavor-of-the-month screenplay in two months and ride the current wave it seems really difficult to gauge. Don’t get me wrong, I will probably die a miserable failure at this (my usual sunny outlook) but when I see someone do something that blows my mind it makes me feel like I should always follow my gut and write what turns me on.
If what turns you on is what is selling and will sell for the next ten years then I guess you really don’t have anything to bitch about but until we all get to that point I think creating what you want to not what you need to is always the way to go. I’m dying to write something fast and furious that flows out of me. Not be so precious. Who cares if it sells. Just to free me up. I have folders full of orphaned concepts. Maybe the time is now?
The Whitney has just opened Eggleston’s first New York museum solo show since his MoMA debut. Called “William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008,” the expansive retrospective covers the beginnings of his career some fifty years ago to the present day, and includes more than 150 photographs, some never-before-exhibited, as well as the rarely screened video diary of Eggleston’s “legendary nocturnal wanderings,” Stranded in Canton.
Eggleston’s work has informed such filmmaker’s as David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola and many others. Make a note to attend.
The above video is a gleaming example of what can be done with very little. It is an impressive looking short film called White Red Panic from Ayz Waraich and it shows us we don’t need all the bells and whistles equipment-wise to make something that visually stimulates. This is desktop filmmaking shot with a Canon HV20. A tiny kick around HD camera that goes for under a grand [the new replacement model is the HV30.] Yes, you heard me right. 1080p24 for under $1,000. The film itself is a simple sequence but you can see how far color correction can take you if you do your homework. I own the HV20 myself and I’ve shot a few things around the apartment but I can’t wait to beat this thing into submission and get some serious images. I’m planning on the next short film to be shot with this camera.
I first found out about this film and the camera through Stu Manschwitz’s ProLost site. He’s kind of a digital DIY guru of sorts that has an excellent book that informs and educates and I highly recommend it. He’s also one of the founders of The Orphanage and chief creator of Magic Bullet Looks. The film, the site and the book might be the boost you need to get you to sharpen your skills and get you excited about creating again. Remember what I said, a $1,000 camera.
We are moving into a new phase of independent filmmaking, beyond the crappy looking mini-dv cameras of just five years ago. Don’t get me wrong, use what you have. It’s not about the tools. It’s about the vision and ultimately, the story. HD isn’t everything and not everything needs to be HD but the options are there and at an extremely affordable price and with some ingenuity all things are possible.
Go see Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland this weekend at the IFC Center. It is probably the best representation of the freedom of what was and what is truly missing in the independent film scene now. Relentless and unapologetically pained, its characters and audience are in sync with the same level of discomfort. Frownland has all the makings of a midnight movie – an institution that no longer exists. It’s the antithesis of what typically and theoretically makes a commercial film “work.”
If you believe the film community has lost it’s individual voice for the offbeat, the dangerous or the button-pushing type of filmmaking that some may be hesitant to get behind go to this screening even if just to see what the buzz is all about and while you’re at it, support a true independent vision. It might make you angry, it might give you hope that films this weird and fucked up can still get made with a little persistence. At the least you will take away one simple fact; Juno it ain’t.
Like I promised, here are my notes from the IFP Conference. I’ve attended the Conference in the past and I have to say this was one of the better ones. I’m still not sure if it’s because I’m a little older, a little wiser or the IFP just started tuning in and listening to the attendees more. Some things can improve, they always can. One thought that kept rolling through my mind is here you have a room full of writers, directors and producers with projects in the works or looking for someone to help them get from A to B. It would be a great feature of the Conference if the IFP could arrange some sort of matchmaking scenario for these participants in the future. Another observation was that the average age of attendees seemed to be older where I remember a few years back the age was about twenty-something.
Overall I felt that there is one consistent feeling for the filmmaker attending the Conference — you’re always walking the line of optimism/pessimism. Being wrapped in the climate of this independent world feels empowering. Hearing people speak about projects, running into colleagues. It’s an energy boost for the individual who feels tapped out, disconnected or just temporarily lacking in creative drive. Its a place for intelligent swapping of ideas and an open dialogue.
The downside, we’re all broke. We’re all in the same boat, pushing our projects, saving our pennies and jonesing to make the next or first film. Now with more product, choice and options for exhibition the real estate for new films is harder and harder to attain. Fighting through the clutter has become more of a challenge. It’s a long haul. The obvious thought on everyone’s mind is the validity of internet and how is it going to serve us.
So these are some fast and loose notes regarding the panels I attended. You can refer to the Conference link above for more information on each panel. The panelists listed on the site aren’t all accurate, some speakers were subbed out for others. Like the title says Filmmaker Conference, the following information deals with the world of producing films independently. That word has many different meanings but I think one theme that everyone who attended this Conference agrees upon is we are the driving force, the inertia that will get our films made. Do It Yourself.
There’s a lot of information here and I encourage those who are reading this post and/or attended the Conference to leave comments about what these speakers had to say and/or how it reflects your own experience as a filmmaker. Also, go to the Filmmaker Magazine Blog and CinemaTech and search for more coverage of this event. Continue Reading →
When a lot of independent [for lack of a better word] filmmakers that are getting recognized now for their brilliance were making there bones back in the 90′s there was a charge in the air. It was real. You know, all the Spikes, Mikes, Slackers and Dykes. Sayles, Jarmusch, Spike, Haynes and many more. There was no agenda other than making the most creatively compelling film you could make with what little you had – by any means necessary. Time has passed and the climate has changed but it’s good to see the spirit of that style of filmmaking is still alive and kicking with Frownland.
In Ronnie Bronstein’s valentine to the immediacy of 16mm independent filmmaking, Frownland takes a look at a small circle of socially retarded individuals living on the fringes of white urban twenty-something life. At the center is Keith, an inarticulate brain aneurysm waiting to happen. As he performs his reverse commute out of the city, feebly attempting to sell coupons door-to-door, Keith is challenged by the simple minutia of life. There is so little this character can actually handle but when he attempts to it is pure heartbreak.
To keep in time with the fractured nature of the film let me quickly segue into the quote that sums it up beautifully from heir director:
More succinctly, Frownland is my own small contribution to the sinking barge of the 16mm indie model; both an overripe tomato lobbed with spazmo inaccuracy at the spotless surface of the silver screen and a mad valentine to the craggy tradition of unadulterated cheap-o-independent expression. Its inelegance is its spirit. – Ronald Bronstein
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the way you sell a film. I’m sorry I can’t describe it better than that but I look at this as a good thing. Films that I have had trouble articulating immediately after seeing them are the ones that have never left me like some chip that’s been embedded under my skin. Bad Lieutenant, Lost Highway and now, Frownland. Props to all involved in making this film, selling out the IFC Center screening last Wednesday night and reminding us what it’s really all about.
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by William Speruzzi
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.] Yes, you heard me right. 1080p24 for under $1,000. The film itself is a simple sequence but you can see how far color correction can take you if you do your homework. I own the HV20 myself and I’ve shot a few things around the apartment but I can’t wait to beat this thing into submission and get some serious images. I’m planning on the next short film to be shot with this camera.
When a lot of independent [for lack of a better word] filmmakers that are getting recognized now for their brilliance were making there bones back in the 90′s there was a charge in the air. It was real. You know, all the 