Back to the Future

Today My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I went to see BACK TO THE FUTURE at the Ohio Theatre as part of the CAPA summer movie series today. Last night we saw the 1968 PLANET OF THE APES last night. Any chance to see some classics on a 35mm film print at 2,000+ seat theatre never can be bad. Now on the 40th anniversary of PLANET OF THE APE was bit more of a farce as it has aged poorly, especially in the acting department. The script was still solid, as the social commentary still resonates today. The matinée of BACK TO THE FUTURE however showed that 23 years later, the movie still had legs.



Now I was already sentimental about the film, as Robert Zemeckis’ real masterpiece always appealed to me, even more so as I became a filmmaker. Now BACK TO THE FUTURE represents one of THE most perfect screenplays and also the art direction/continuity are sheer perfection.



There are so many minute details that appear to be innocuous, but layer the movie so rich in the world they created. Here are the trivial tidbits I have picked up on this movie:

1. Eric Stoltz was originally cast and had even filmed for over 2 weeks before being replaced by Michael J. Fox. I can’t even imagine the tone the film would have had with Stoltz.
2. My single most favorite little detail is that the Mall where the test the DeLorean time machine starts off being called “TWIN PINES MALL”, and even has a giant lit marquee, but after Marty McFly goes back in time to “Old Man Peabody’s farmland…had this crazy idea bout breeding pine trees…” and Marty runs over one of the two pine trees. When he returns to 1985, the mall and marquee call the mall “LONE PINE MALL”.
3. The opening shot gives so many minor clues and character/plot details that seeing it on the big screen in 35mm make them all the more visible.



A few other things about the film and specifically the screenplay that stand out for excellence:

The original intent was for the big action scene of sending Marty back to the future with the clock tower was originally going to be an atomic bomb test site. Lack of budget caused them to re-write it for the Universal studio city square set (now burned down). That sequence is one of the most well edited/directed action set pieces ever filmed. The old trick of showing the “plan” the characters set up and how several steps go wrong along the way as it actually “happens” was so brilliantly played out that most audiences can’t help but feel the tension and be into the movie at that point. Brilliant.



A film that is essentially about time travelling incest was acceptable to the audience as a comedy because of the masterful direction and editing, controlling the tone.

Virtually everything that occurs in the movie has a purpose that either furthers the plot or the character development. Things like Marty’s desire to play at the homecoming dance, then being able to in 1955, the brief glimpse of newspaper articles referring to Doc Brown’s estate and selling 154 acres to developers, explaining how he had money. Even for a brief shot as Marty McFly awaits the alarm to go off to start his car, the sign for the Motel is impeccably made as period and relating to the fictional world.

Since I recently watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and FIRST BLOOD, I can’t help but say I wish they hadn’t sequelized a lot of these movies. When I was young, I wanted to see further adventures of the characters I enjoyed seeing. Now, I think they bastardized and devalued the amazing vision and uniqueness of the originals. With BACK TO THE FUTURE, I really didn’t find either sequel that appealing. PART II relied far too much on the moments of the first film for emotion. With PART III, it was the 3rd or 4th time of seeing the exact same storyline with a different setting. Ugh! By then it’s really really boring.

As for PLANET OF THE APES (1968), My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ found it to be very comical. It didn’t hold up well at all, even with the 35mm film print. The Gaudi inspired set designs amazed me, but I did have to point out that there was one way as a filmmaker that I had to point out that they brilliantly accomplished one thing: During Chuck Heston’s big escape from the apes, they got out the exposition of an Ape funeral and their museum. A lot of films I see, they have a flimsy excuse to give exposition, and here it was interwoven so casually and seamlessly into the narrative. Combine that with the amazing contributions of Rod Serling’s, who always had killer cool concepts.

Coming up, I can’t wait to see THE THIRD MAN on a 35mm film print. I’ve only seen it once, but any chance to see a chunky Orson Welles makes me feel better. Tomorrow I’m acting in a piece for Louie Cowan (although I suspect it was more to get use of the studio than for any ability). I am not an actor and I have no real desire to be an actor. 8:00AM on a Sunday will suck.

Just keep making it real kids,
Peter John Ross
Your friend indeed

the Legalities of Pummeling Futility

Yup. I'm still working a lot. I'm not even getting weekends off at all either. Not a lot of break in the routines. Last night I could have stopped working when I got home from the studio or I could finish the oft ignored ETERNAL teaser trailer for the Derek . I chose to work through it. I got 'er done. I just screened the full 1080 file to the Derek and he was pleased. It's just a teaser trailer, but I enjoyed the graphics work and some of the new FX work I put into it.



I purchased some software and tutorials from VideoCopilot.net and it has greatly modernized my After Effects work. I have not gone flare crazy with some of the specific elements, but I definitely got into the style of these because there are some graphics and animation styles I greatly admire and it's easier to do now. I highly recommend VideoCopilot.net for anyone doing animation or titles (or any basic after effects/compositing) work.

Well, each day my prediction for the economy starts to move eerily closer to being reality. With $5 a gallon gas being predicted by July and the job market puckering up like a buttocks holding roll of quarters in a fraternity pledge initiation – we can expect things have not yet bottomed out.



Yesterday I shot the behind the scenes interviews with George for UNCLE PETE . By some fluke I asked him during the questioning if he wanted to do more and he said yes. I'm the one that wants to retire UNCLE PETE and not do anymore, but one thing I wanted in the originals that we never did was a sidekick character. I really wanted a puppet co-host and there just wasn't the time to make that a reality. Now… that may be more possible than I thought, and in a way that will shake the foundations of the online movie world.

I stumbled on an idea that would take the UNCLE PETE series into a very very dark, scary place where most comedians won't tread. Maybe we'll do it, maybe we won't but I ordered a puppet online today, so maybe we will. This idea might get national attention, not all of it good, but what the hell. Why not? I'm deeply inspired by Family Guy and South Park, so going in the direction of those fearless steps; I just might go for it. Stay tuned and maybe you'll get wind of the new idea. Then again, I might not do it at all if something else enters my depth of field.

I have these two friends, Bret and Linda, who have always been on the cutting edge of discovering the new trends and obscure comedy, especially from the British Isles. One of the things they showed me from 2-3 years ago was GARTH MARENGHI's DARKPLACE. I stumbled on some YouTube vids of this and it got me through a long day of mundane editing this past weekend. I've GOT to get the DVD's of the whole series. It's the most perfect spoof of 1980's television I've ever seen. Classic, great humor. In the late 1990's and the last few years, UK television has been more accessible to US audiences, whereas in the 1980's and before that, it always seemed to be very niche and specific to colloquialisms and internal. With SPACED, THE OFFICE, SMOKING ROOM, and a few others, the universal humor has been cutting edge and very relatable.

The documentary looks to be finishing ahead of schedule in some areas, and a lot more work in others. I think we'll be shooting "dramatic re-enactments" for some of the holes created by the edit and to make the story more visual. TJ's animated stills in 3D are breathtaking. Even with over a hundred stills, it won't be nearly enough. I'm hoping to have a 3-4 minute version to demo for the author in the next month or so. We've already got music from Arya of Chopin and with the first few animated stills, I feel confident that we'll knock her socks off. I can feel the Emmy ™ in my hands within a year or so. Won't that be a hoot? So I'll be able to change my post script to Emmy™ Award Winning Filmmaker. I'm not a Cylon, but I still have a plan….I want an Emmy™ and I think I can get one for this project. I've already got a few thousand dollars invested in My Fiancé's project and I am producing it with her.



I worked in a viewing of the original RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I wish they had never made any sequels to this. The first one was perfection. So many real locations, and when they were on a sound stage, Norman Reynolds added so much realism to the production design (nonetheless Dougie Slocombe's lighting of said stages). I have seen this movie hundreds of times (literally) and I only got "out" of the movie on one occasion where I realized how much they were cutting a scene months apart on 2 continents back and forth. It was seamless and perfect. I wish Hollywood would go more towards the "realism" of this first film and divert away from the overly fantastical elements like LARA CROFT or NATIONAL TREASURE crapfests.

I need some time off soon. If for nothing else than to relax and let my mind ease off the "work mode" of editing for other people. I'm not doing enough to keep my creativity alive. I have to start feeding the muse or she might starve. I have so much to write and prep, but I'm so convinced the economy is going to drop, that I keep putting it all off. Combine that with financially supporting my Sexy Fiancé, and that makes one hard workin' narrator. At least money isn't as much an issue as it once had been.

I'm still working and digitizing. I happened to have a break where one machine was burning DVD's and the other was capturing a 79 minute tape. So I was able to jot these thoughts and ideas down for a bloggy blog.

Peace my friends. And may the good news be yours!

Peter John Ross
Sweating in the heat

POSTULATING THE PENULTIMATE AXIOM

I forgot to mention that at the Johnny Wu premiere part for THE RAPTURE, someone approached me and asked if it was true that I had been investigated by the FBI during Horrors of War for making death threats…. After a belly laugh, I had to dispel this myth. I have not been investigated by the FBI for making death threats or anything else. Aside from the lunacy of such rumors, all I can say is that I am really amused by how nutso some people can get.



Well, I predict the U.S. economy will bottom out this coming July-August. Based on what I have seen of the market and the real estate/mortgage world -> we can expect a fallow time, quite possibly as bad as the Great Depression. I’m saving up to stave off bad economic times. Also, I’m stocking up on movies to rent in my Netflix queue so that when my unplanned summer vacation begins, I’ll have plenty of visual stimuli.

I’m way behind on watching movies. I did work in a Blu-Ray viewing of Francis Ford Coppola’s YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. It was not as arty as I thought it would be and much more comic book-y. It was shot HD and also film.

Now I’ve been working a lot. I serve basically three masters. I have my regular workload of editing, and then I have two freelance gigs that I dedicate a lot of time to as an editor. I generally work 75+ hours a week now. As mentioned, I’m saving up for the crashing economy. When it hits, I may be able to survive without working at McDonald’s. If it never hits, I’ll have a nest egg for when I start the next feature.

Having to work this much wreaks havoc with my little buddy, the cat named “V”. He acts out when I’m home because he wants my undivided attention, and a tired, worn out Boo apparently is unacceptable to him. So this past Friday, I decided I would take him to work with me. As anyone who has a cat must know, this is the start of a terrible story…

I put his body brace and leash on and took my boy out to the car. He was fine until we got in the door. He got very unhappy very fast. He climbed under the passenger seat and let it be known for the entire 10 minute drive that he hated travel. He cried and moaned a bit. I think it’s a combination of negative association – his only two previous car rides ended in visits to the vets, once for shots, and the 2nd to be snipped. Either that or cats just hate travel.

I have been a dog guy my entire life. These past few years I’m getting to know how felines are. Cats and dogs really are different. Dogs have the “pack” mentality, whereas if the people/family are there – everything is cool no matter where they are. Cats have terrible short term memory and they “rub” their oils all over the furniture and people to mark them as both theirs and also to be able to remember where they are going. Move a chair or wash things and the cats look at you like you are killing their friends.



Taking “V” out of his familiar territory and putting him in my edit suite at work was a mistake. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ told me this was a bad idea and she was right. He not only hated the drive, he just sat beside the leather couch and would not move. He didn’t cry, but he was unhappy. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ came up to pick him up within the hour. We took him for a walk outside in the grass and that seemed to calm him a lot. Then he had another car ride.

I’m told by My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ that it took over 45 minutes to get him out from under her passenger seat when she got home. She had to squirt him with a water bottle until he finally came out. He was a Velcro ™ kitty clawing into the floor of the car.

By the time I got in late on Friday night, “V” seemed fine. He doesn’t beg to go outside as much now, nor does he complain as much when I get in late since he experienced the alternative.

Since George is in town, we’re going to tape the BEHIND THE SCENES for the UNCLE PETE videos. It will be short, but I think something cool to go on the DVD’s. There are plenty of outtakes and the full length theme song might get me investigated by the FBI….

Sorry I have nothing more interesting to discuss. Not a lot going on whilst I work to the bone. Maybe next month…

Peace,
PJR, your faithful narrator