This Savage Art

I think I’m a pretty smart guy. Not a Mensa member by any stretch but I have commons sense, can change a flat tire, know how to order a bottle of wine, can talk my way out of a traffic ticket and can count to ten in four languages. So I put this question to you fine readers, what is an MFA worth out there in the film industry with the state of things as they are?

I have been wrestling with the thought of going back to school and getting a Masters in Fine Arts. There are only two schools I’m applying to and I couldn’t have picked a better time. The deadline for both is December 1st. There’s the NYU Graduate Program — Tisch School of the Arts. World renowned. The film world elite have been students or have taught there — Spike, Marty, Jim and Oliver.  It’s a big program and the price tag is just as big. The other obvious New York City choice is Columbia, a school that has always been know for a solid screenwriting program and beyond. When I was taking some Continuing Education courses at NYU way back when, the general consensus was that if you wanted to direct you went to NYU and if you wanted to write you went to Columbia. Not sure how true that was then and how true it is now.

There are a few concerns here, money being one of them. There’s no way I could afford NYU on my own without any financial assistance and that doesn’t include making films, that’s out of pocket. Going through the bursars website I found out that a three year program, at about $20,000 a term, comes to approximately $150,000. That is including a modest budget for student films. Very modest.

The Columbia University MFA cost is slightly less. The first two years are all coursework, no film production at all, and it’s approximately $50,000 followed by thesis years which are about $3,000 a semester for a Screenwriting concentration. Big difference from the Tisch program but I know that NYU has invested a lot into their film department. I’m not sure how the Columbia Directing Program really stacks up.

I guess a big reason why I’m applying is maybe because I’m craving the need to be immersed in something I deeply care about and still want to improve at. I’ve spent the last year and a half caring for my son while Linda toils away in the coal mines. I feel out of loop and this could be a way to get back in. Besides, the film industry is in a complete state of panic and flux. Maybe now would be the time to do this.

I’m definitely applying to both. The decision of whether I go or not will be made when the time comes. The decision might be made for me for all I know. I would appreciate anyone who wants to leave a comment about their MFA/Film Program experience at either one of these two schools or any film school for that matter.

Popularity: 2% [?]

So I’ve been gone for a while. Get over it and stop your blubbering.

Lately the balance between life and art has been a cross between not getting pulverized by oncoming traffic and screaming into an empty canyon. Yeah, that’s what’s it has been. Life life has been a constant assessment/reassessment of everything I thought I knew and proved to be wrong about. Pushing myself everyday and testing every nerve just to keep my boy happy and healthy. That’s a good thing.

The career, not so much. In order: no word from that producer I told you about. Project is cold and stiff as far as I’m concerned unless someone wants to tell me otherwise. Nicholl, dead. No surprise there. Sundance Lab, they told me to fuck off too. Austin is still up in the air. The funny thing about all of it is, I don’t think I’ve even skipped a beat. Maybe it’s age or just a thicker skin. I read the e-mails and I moved on which is what everyone should do.

All I want to do is watch Mad Men. I just watched the second season and was truly inspired. It goes without saying that it is one of the best shows on now or ever imho. Very rich in theme and character. My cup of coffee. That brought me to a fine little gem of a site after I Googled “Mad Men Scripts.” It’s called Writing The TV Spec Script run by “Colm” from Galway I gather. It gives some great insight into doing just that. I’ve played around with the idea of writing for TV. Chops need to be strong, really strong. Something to think about. It might be worth investigating. There’s a link to seven Mad Men scripts including the pilot available as PDFs for download. Check ‘em out.

So this is what’s on the agenda for this month. Continue working on the second draft of a previous screenplay I started a while ago. Then maybe spec out a Mad Men script. From there? Stay alive long enough to maybe see some of this come to fruition.

Oh yeah, what do you think of the sites new look? I added a Television section of links on the sidebar.

Popularity: 4% [?]

You may or may not have noticed, depending on if all three of my readers are present and accounted for, that the posting on This Savage Art has been a little thin. Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve had some things in the works. Life doesn’t slow down when you want it to and when you add a child into the mix, well, it’s just a free-for-all.

Since I spoke of my brush with producer X I have gotten a full rewrite of Dyre Avenue out to his agent at CAA. It actually went out to that producer and a production company that is the shingle of a pretty well established and admired director. With that new draft I also got my screenplay into the Nicholl Fellowship, The Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Austin Screenplay Competition. Crap shoots, all of ‘em but ya gotta be in it to win it, right?

So now we wait. Not really. We write and make stuff. That’s what I’m trying to do. As far as the site goes I don’t anticipate much unless there’s some incredible, mind-blowing news that I think you all need to know about. The spare time I have just isn’t what it used to be so I need to figure out where that leaves us, you and I. Until then the site will sit right where it is and might actually shut down for a period of time until I figure out what exactly I want to do with it. I’m thinking of updating it and making it some sort of hub. Until then, read the archives, go nuts. And thanks for hanging in there.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Not much to read here lately, I know, but hear me out.

Regardless of what my uncle says about the recession just being “media hype” we have been hit. Hard. My better half lost her job about a month ago and we’ve been scrambling to assemble a plan to vacate our absurdly overpriced Manhattan apartment and get her a new job asap. The move we planned after the holidays will be happening a lot sooner than we expected. Like, now. We’ve been driving brokers crazy in Brooklyn and thought we might just get lucky with this one place we liked. No luck. Found out that after dicking us around for two weeks the landlord didn’t want to rent to us after all. All this and taking care of an eight month old.

A bit of good news is we did [I think we saw something like 25 apartments in three days] secure a place in Brooklyn. I couldn’t believe how difficult that was. The last apartment I had on my own in Brooklyn I handed my landlord Dante an envelope with first and last month’s rent in cash to secure myself a lower monthly rent. Done deal. We jumped through hoops on this place. Yeah, the economy is non-existent.

This Sisyphusian journey has been hard on us and hard on the work. That new outline I started has taken a backseat until things get settled. I’ll work on it whenever I can but it’s hard to concentrate when you don’t know where your underwear are so I’ll just have to steal moments here and there in between the chaos. Imagine what it would be like if I had a producer breathing down my neck? Thank god I don’t have to deal with that kind of pressure. Who needs that?

I have to add one thing. It’s times like this that you really find out the character of the person you are with. If I was with a petty, small person this would be tough. No, actually, it would be impossible. The daily demands are too great when you bring a child into the mix. I’m not saying we don’t have our days. I’m just saying that our worst days are no where near what they could be if we weren’t on the same page. Much love baby.

So I’ll leave you with this saying I heard from the first broker we met while he was showing us an apartment we passed on. He got this from his father, a jeweler, who I’m sure saw both great times and tough times;

When times are good live like your broke so when times are bad you can live normal.

More to come.

Popularity: 23% [?]

This Savage Art has been quiet for a little while now and will remain to be until I get my bearings. I’m in the process of moving the TSA headquarters to the county of Kings so I’ll be incommunicado for a while but when I do return I’ll explain the absence and the drama surrounding it. Stay tuned…

Popularity: 18% [?]

Just a little post-Thanksgiving moment. [Hat-tip G.K.]

Popularity: 24% [?]

It’s 4:12 am, Tuesday morning and I just fed the boy so this is a rapid fire, stream of consciousness post because I need some sleep for tomorrow, I mean today. I’m still trying to get a grip on this whole new life, scheduling everything around my son’s schedule thing. It ain’t easy but you knew that already. I didn’t I guess. I mean, I knew in the abstract that I would be busier and time would be tighter but I never knew I would be flexing these organizational muscles that not only I didn’t know I had but found out I’m really a mess in the this department. One answer: iCal. Learn it, know it, live it.

iCal is a calendar app that comes with all Macs including this new MacBook that I saved up for and purchased recently. New Macs are cool. They just run and run their little Intel processors in a way that your old beaten up iBook couldn’t. Anyway, iCal rules my life now. It is my life. Boy needs to go to the pediatrician. Set-up an iCal reminder. Bresson double-feature at the Film Forum that I probably won’t get to see. Set it up in iCal. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the appointments you need to keep. iCal…you get it.

Hey, this is the best I could come up with at 4:12 am. Did you want to look at Walter Matthau’s face below for another two weeks?

Popularity: 13% [?]

So I made it. I’m on the other side. I got dropped into the jungle for the past three months and I’m here to talk about it. My son, Nico was born April 3rd this year and it has been like no experience that any book, DVD or relative can prepare you for. Your system is shocked to its core. You lose all sense of identity. IQ drops. Memory takes a hit. Sentences cannot be formed. The worry. The joy. The pain. The excitement. It’s not pretty but it is rewarding. I kept thinking “You in the jungle, baby. You gonna die.”

Well, I didn’t die even though some days I woke up (woke up, that’s funny – that would imply actual sleep was involved) feeling like a creaky 65 year old man who was taped, on his knees with a ball gag in his mouth and on the verge of tears at the mercy of my little man Nico and his wanton baby hunger and development.

So here I sit preparing for a day of writing. I have the whole day to myself. The boy is in daycare for a couple of days a week. This is a short term plan until the end of the year when we will need to come up with a new plan because my beautiful baby momma’s job will only provide 40 days of on-site daycare. He seems to like it and we feel confident with the organization involved.

So here I sit writing about how I’m going to write today. Yeah, that’s how it’s been. I haven’t written anything substantial in a while except for yesterday when I wrote a spec :30 second spot that will probably go into the filing cabinet. I’m trying to break the two days a week I have to write into shorts and assorted projects one day and feature screenplays the next or any combination of that. Shorts because I’m well overdue to shoot another one and I feel I need to stay sharp – keep the cinematic eye stimulated. The features because I have a lot of rewriting and developing to do. Today is the screenplay day.

It definitely hasn’t been easy. My mind feels like murky black water. My body aches but it is getting better. Honing in a project is the issue. Do I rewrite Dyre Avenue, the screenplay I put so much time and effort into already or do I pick up where I left off with the first draft of the new screenplay I finished before the boy arrived? Both. Just have to make the time I have productive because it is limited and it goes fast. Time management is everything.

Let me just end with this; fatherhood is one of the most humbling experiences that you can participate in. It’s a combination of great power and vulnerability. You need to sustain someone’s life who can’t do it on their own and at the same time you need to shed your former self and become a different version of you. That’s not an easy task in the world we live in. Things start to happen though. You let go of the trivial and start to squeegee off the refuse that life has to offer. It’s a sense of cleaning out the garage. Fatherhood forces this upon you, to make room for what is important. Making room for the boy and my new family.

This is my new life. I guess I’m not the only one. I better go write now.

Popularity: 21% [?]