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.

I’ve been quietly following director Nicolas Winding Refn‘s career trajectory take him to this place. Bronson is currently screening at Sundance and it is supposedly all the rage. The trailer speaks for itself.

At first glance director Lance Hammer’s debut film Ballast can easily be dismissed as a poverty level dirge of depression and bad luck for a lonely group of people who live on the Mississippi Delta. That would be a mistake. It’s more like a slow burn meditation on what it takes to survive when all life has given you is nothing in return for a life of suffering. It is the story of a fragmented family of three who try to figure out what will happen next after another member commits suicide. Immediate and pulsing with a Southern Gothic bloodline, the film deliberately ramps up into the desperate but dignified circumstances of this small collection of characters. The flat tone resembles the flat landscape but is never dull. Post-screening Hammer described his editing technique for this film as “using the moments in between” but he could have easily been speaking about his characters lives who seem to all too easily slip through the cracks.

Recent film news reveals that Hammer will look to go it alone when it comes to distribution and film rights.

Hammer says conventional distribution advances for a small film like “Ballast” range between $25,000-$50,000. “If you made a $50,000 project, that makes sense,” Hammer said. “If you happen to spend more money than that, it becomes difficult to justify giving up creative control.

After reading the news of the coming apocalypse for independent films it’s good to see an example of a filmmaker controlling his own destiny.

Related: For more inspiration read the interview with Lance Hammer at The Filmlot.

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Ballast screened Sunday, March 30th at the 2008 New Directors/New Films series for the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

This post can also be seen at Big Screen Little Screen where I’m guest blogging.