Kubrick’s Kinetic Kinescope!

As I trudge throw my stack of books to read, I should not go near a Half Priced Books ™. If my car drives by, the money flies out the window and into a register. I picked up 5 new books, one of which is about the master, Stanley Kubrick. Now I love me some Kubrick movies, but there are all kinds of myths about him as a person. This was a book written by the screenwriter of EYES WIDE SHUT.



This book stirred some controversy because it was hurriedly published right after Stanley’s death in 1999. Kubrick’s family immediately denounced the writings as playing up all of Stanley’s eccentricities while downplaying his normalcy. In the documentary his family put out, they went to great lengths to portray Stanley Kubrick as a normal person, which he was for the most part. He was obsessive-compulsive, perhaps even clinically so, but he was not a freak of nature.



The book paints the screenwriter as more of an ass than it does Kubrick as anything other than a very controlling director…. As if no one could have guessed that before reading the book. I like hearing Kubrick’s voice. I have obtained his screenplay draft of NAPOLEAN, something I still haven’t read yet. I also got FEAR AND DESIRE, his first feature, and some of his early documentary work. Fantastic stuff. Stanley had a great eye. His still photography from LOOK magazine blows away a lot of people’s lifelong pursuits in stills.

One of the things in this book that’s great is reading how much he loved PULP FICTION and Quentin Tarantino. I don’t know if Q ever knew this, but I’m sure he’s heard this. Kubrick was also very competitive with his contemporaries, but by the 1990’s, very few of them were making movies. He never considered someone like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, or George Lucas as “competition” because they were still young upstarts, but they also worshipped Stanley from before they were in Film School; he liked that, obviously.

As a kind of “answer” to this book, I had already read Michael Herr’s book on his experience writing a screenplay with Stanley. It was far kinder than the current book’s view. Still, Michael Herr based FULL METAL JACKET on his own experiences, plus he had already worked as a writer on APOCOLYPSE
NOW.

Anyways, I do like reading anything about Kubrick. It’s interesting to see his world from various people’s points of view.

48 Fastidious Predilictions

For this year’s 48 Hour Film Project in Columbus Ohio, yet again I did not get involved in making a movie, but I did participate in a way. We are doing an episode of FRAMELINES about the project. So I personally followed 3 teams stopping in on the three phases, scriptwriting to production to editing. Scott followed another 3 teams.

What did I see? You’ll have to watch the episode to find out. The greatest thing about documenting is that it doesn’t matter what their movie is like because we’re solely about finding an interesting story about making a movie. The most interesting subjects may not make the most interesting movie. There are many characters in the film community, so we were able to get in on some of their creative processes.

While shooting for the show, Scott actually fully JOINED a team that needed help. Of course, when you know Scott and how inoffensive he is and that he helped Sam and Sean’s team, two of the nicest guys, no one will go “boo” about this. If it had been me however, I’m certain it would have been the controversy of the year, but alas, I do not give a Shiite about such things. If I was a cameraman and I was covering Katrina disasters, I’d drop my damn camera and pull people into the boat. Scott did the right thing.

The 48 Hour Film Project has become something really special here. The friendly competition inspires a lot of razzing, but also support. Shane Howard drove his lights to Sam Javor’s team on Sunday to help a competitor’s team make their deadline. That’s classy.



Coolest thing I saw? An iPad Slate that worked like a real slate, but with digital entries. Kinda cool, I have to admit. Other than that, over 75% of the movies were shot with the new DLSR still cameras that shoot video. This new trend is indicative of the new movement of “digital”, where they are no longer calling it “video” because there is no tape involved.

Facebook is alive with pictures from everyone’s projects. Congrats to all, it looks like another great year of movies.

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Sanctimonious Sweethearts and Scurvy Dogs

I finished them both, and on time. I don’t like waiting until the last minute, but since these are not-for-profit ventures, they took a bit of a backseat. There was a technical glitch with the LOOK AT MY SHORTS TV pilot, which meant my system crashed and I lost 3 hours work. To prevent this again, I kept working at it obsessively until it was complete.

As of my last writing, I was complaining of the lack of idea for the background to my hosts for LOOK AT MY SHORTS TV. I shot these lovely ladies against greenscreen, but had no idea what to put behind them. Leyna came by and in about :15 seconds, she gave me the inspiration to make what I needed. From there, I had 4 different backgrounds designed, created, and rendered in about 2 hours. That eased my mind quite a bit. It also looked pretty kick ass; so many thanks go out to Leyna.

Now I need to immediately shift focus into the short(s) I’m about to do, and also the feature length movie I want to do next. We’re 2 scenes away from having the most solid draft I’ve ever had. Some support is coming from the most unlikely of places, so we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. I’m going to be slowly rolling out more info and plans on how I want to get this done.

Something was brought up to me recently. Someone who has observed me more from the outside over the years, and has just started to be a friend, approached me about how I am perceived versus what I am actually like, at least like now. I’m not interested in how I am perceived. Who cares? I’ll get judged on my actions and my work. People making any other assumptions or assessments don’t really interest me. I’m not trying to win a popularity contest, nor am I running for Prom Queen of Columbus Film. The things I need and want, I can get with or without the consensus of the cool kids in the film scene.

I’m about the work. The dichotomy is that I’m doing a TV show that requires me to know what people are up to and to even help put a spotlight on their activities. I’m prepared to ignore the peanut gallery. I’m certain there will be allegations of favoritism or prejudice. I have no obligation to anyone or anything beyond making a TV shows that I want to see. I will be unaffected by the talk behind my back that inevitably starts. Knowing its coming has won me half the battle.



I picked up a DVD yesterday for the movie BLACK HAWK DOWN, one of the best movies of the last 10 years. I already owned this movie, first from the initial DVD release, then the EXTENDED CUT DVD, then a BLU RAY. I’m not inclined to buy a 4th copy of the same movie, but this was the 3 DVD set and it was only $6 at a Dollar General. I wanted it because the 2nd & 3rd discs include a 2.5 hour documentary on the making of the movie and another feature length documentary on the actual events. I love my BEHIND THE SCENES discs. I have a 255 disc flip folder of various DVD’s that relate to the MAKING OF for movies. This is my 3rd RIDLEY SCOTT set of discs to go along with KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and GLADIATOR. Ridley’s movies are usually very well documented, and I like his style a lot. For a guy in his 70’s, Ridley Scott is still in top form.