The Kubrickian Phase

For a little over two years I’ve been struggling with how it feels to be liked and hated with such intensity, and usually by strangers. I tried to say I didn’t care, but I obviously did. Looking over blogs of the past few years, since I’ve been blogging a journal for 6 years or so, you can clearly see someone who cared a lot what other people thought of himself. Things have changed though.

I can say in all honesty I don’t care anymore. I’m going to do what I do. I’m not interested in how other people will think about me. I do have an interest in how they feel about the work, as in my film work, but I won’t spend any of my time thinking about how people feel about me. It’s not my job to try to convince anyone to like or not like me or to change their minds about who or what I am.

If someone wants to buy into the mythology and rumors of days long gone or even the wild interpretations of my motives for doing things, I cannot be held responsible, nor do I have any need to change their mind or work to convince them of anything.

I have found a peace that I have not known in my life. I am uninvolved in most of the dramas in my film community. I tend to leave my laptop at work even on weekends just to get away from filmmaking as an all consuming thing. I want to live something more of a life, so I’ve taken up bowling for fun. I love it, even though it is minimalist physical activity; that is still an increase for me. I take little interest in what other people do or don’t do, as it has no affect on me.

All I want to do now is more work. How other people want to perceive me is none of my business quite frankly. I’m not going to go to many MOFA (Mid Ohio Filmmakers Association) meetings anymore. I’m getting plenty of social outlets and I don’t feel my physical presence will do much, as in I see the people I want to see whenever I want to anyways.



I’ve entered what I am calling my “Kubrickian Phase”, which is not to do with comparing myself to the master himself, as it is that I don’t want to be in the public much and I’ve clearly changed my output of work to be more about quality than quantity. No, I do not think everything I’ve made is golden. Some of my movies are quite bad actually, but I’m okay with that. Those are what I made at a certain point in time and with whatever skills I had at that moment. I won’t abandon these pieces as if they didn’t exist, but I intend to improve and make better films. I drew a line in the sand and I want my work to be better than what I made in the past.

In the near future, some of my new projects will start to go public. There are three separate TV series in the works, all with broadcast outlets. The first one, a short film compilation show that I am calling LOOK AT MY SHORTS TV will probably hit first. Already, I have enough material for 6 of my first 13 episodes of one hour shows. Within the first 24 hours of making a call for entries, I got several options of expanding the show from 4 cable markets in Ohio to several more states and several more prestigious copyright holders of short films contacted me about submitting their catalogs.



The other two shows need more gestation before I announce anything, but along with TV, I have come up with another idea that I’m going to move on sooner. I wanted to do something with actors where I can help promote some of the better acting talent we have in Columbus and an anthology idea occurred that came together in no time. I’m still selecting the other directors and working with writers on the scripts, but this seems like another project that will be popular one it gets finished later this summer.

So, in the end, I am busy. I have my nose to the ground and I’m doing work. A lot of my vices are dwindling away and all that is left is a desire to do better work and to live a little outside of movies.

‘S’allright.

- Ross

Rare Film Books

I love books on filmmaking. I devour a few books a month on the topic. Half Price Books and Amazon.com used are my new best friends. I can find rare and hard to find books for next to nothing. This week I’m getting two used books that I’m looking most forward to.



First on deck is ALIENS THE ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY. Talk about rare, this was released in the 1980’s and only in the UK. James Cameron’s opus, often forgotten that it’s his because it’s part of someone else’s SciFi series. Storyboards and concept art along with the shooting script in full color; I can’t want to have this one to my collection. I love illustrated screenplays. There’s a new ALIEN ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY from 2002 from the UK that I’ll try to acquire next, but it’s still a little too high a price for me.



Speaking of which, a rarity I may never be able to afford is THE ILLUSTRATED BLADE RUNNER with a ton of “Ridleygrams”, thumbnail sketches by the director himself. As well as some Syd Mead graphic design essentials and this is a book that sells used in crappy condition for over $300. I still want it for my favorite film of all time, as I have most of the other books regarding this film.



My 2nd purchase this week came via discovering it even existed by seeing it on Phil’s shelf in his office, as our filmmaking book library is very similar with a lot of the same titles. I fell in love with the Wachowski’s V FOR VENDETTA adaptation of the graphic novel. I had no idea there was even a book covering “from script to screen” for this. Since I watch this movie at least twice a year, I figured I would thoroughly enjoy a book on the making of the movie.



Another hard to find essential reading is another UK only publication. I love my 2 copies of Robert Rodriguez’s REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, but in less than 2 years after its publication, he wrote another book about the making of his 2nd, even harder to find film, ROADRACERS, a Showtime original feature for cable. His book “ROADRACERS : THE MAKING OF A DEGENERATE HOT ROD FLICK” sells also north of the $300 mark and is well sought after being that it was only published in the UK. I know I’ve wanted to read it just to see more about the process of someone’s SECOND feature after having done the first on indie, with a then unknown Salma Hayek. In theory, it should be a fascinating read, but I might never know as the price is extremely high.



And my final rare book mention is the non-fiction book FAST TIMES AT RIDGMONT HIGH by Cameron Crowe. Yes, he is a filmmaker and he wrote the screenplay to the movie, but this book is an expansion of an undercover article he wrote for Rolling Stone that the film and book are based on. Cameron Crowe, at 29 years old, could still easily pass for a high school student and he did research for this article and eventual book for several months. This one goes for $50 on paperback or so because it never got reprinted. I saw a physical copy for sale at a rare book store and that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to reading it.



I love my MAKING OF STAR WARS coffee table book. Some reviewer sold their copy here in Ohio on Amazon and I snagged it for only a few dollars and it was a $75 hard cover. This fall the comprehensive MAKING OF EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is due out to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of that film. Hopefully I can get this new book on another bargain hunt.

A Sedulous Artifice

My long dormancy will soon end. I’m about to embark on several projects and all of them have their individual challenges. I hate that word “challenges”, at least the way it has replaced the word “problems”. Regardless, your faithful narrator has a full plate and none too soon.

First on deck, finishing a TV show pilot I’ve been working on just nigh of two years. Scott Spears and I have been tinkering with this show and idea for so long, and we’ve already shot a bunch of segments, but we have no edited a single one. I was unmotivated because the anchor to the show could not be shot whilst we had a giant kitchen set in our studio. Now that this monstrosity has finally been removed; it wasn’t even 30 minutes later I started booking crew for the shoot. We’re going to do a 4 camera studio shoot and I’ll do the camera switching in post because software allows a great multicam edit function.



Simultaneously, I will be putting together two separate TV shows for a different network and I will need to shoot some intros and start to gather up content. If you have a short film, or preferably several short films, that you want to show on TV, by all means drop me a line and let me know. These will have to be broadcast TV friendly, so no bad words, no nudity, and nothing that sucks. Given that there are many good shorts over 20 minutes; I’ll even be seeking those too. Exposure is always a good thing. So if you’re interested in getting your movie seen, let me know. I’m going to ask several of the more attractive actresses to host this show in my stead.

Similarly, I want to finish out the CREW JOB DESCRIPTION videos I started. I have several more to shoot. Again, I’m going to find some pretty girls to be on camera instead of me. That tends to make more people watch them. I don’t really care if technicians get upset, as they aren’t trained to say lines and no one actually wants to see them on screen. The target is people who have never made a movie before, so why people with experience care is beyond me.

Then there is an outlet for feature films too. I’m going to be editing some features I have access too for broadcast. Again, no money, but with proper work, an ambitious filmmaker could make the opportunity something more. Print press and something to use to entice a buyer that is what people who want to work their projects can do. I’ll be on-camera talent for this show, which I don’t particularly like, but I’m cheap and available.



My personal exposure is about to go up. I was not looking to get more in the public eye much. In fact, I wanted the opposite. I’ve entered my self-imposed Kubrickian phase. I want to focus on quality, not quantity. I’ve already done a lot of shorts and even worked a few features. My desire at this point is to make things that I am proud of and that exceed what I have done in the past, at least in my own opinion. These projects are more side projects.

I felt I needed to warm back up. I shot ACCIDENTAL ART in late August and have not shot anything since. As a director, I need to stay in shape. Before I embark on another big shoot, I want to scrimmage a little. I have come up with a mini-web project that suits this need. I am deciding how to put it together as a whole, but I think I can show off some of our local acting talent in a short form that is simple to make, but elegant in its execution.

After these enormous targets, I have to decide if I want to make an ambitious short film or proceed with my next feature film. There are benefits and downsides to either choice, but so far, there is no clear path. At least I can be distracted by many weeks of hard work and organization with these other projects before I have t make a decision…

Peace and goodwill towards men and women and cats.

R.I.P. Hollywood Video

The home video store chain HOLLYWOOD VIDEO just went under. The death toll must be ringing for BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO soon. This is not good news for the independent filmmaker. The business model of the video store has been decimated by the mail order DVD service like NETFLIX and video on demand services, also NETFLIX and AMAZON.COM. What that means to the indie filmmaker is that one of our biggest revenue sources has just faded away into dust.



In the late 1970’s VHS (and the Sony Betamax format) started to bloom. It was close to $1,000 for a player (not even recorder) and to buy a tape of a Hollywood movie title was $79-$100. Within a few years, a crop of home video rental stores opened on every street corner, especially in small towns.

As years went on, VHS decks dropped in price to under $30 each. VHS saturated the market until 98% of the homes in the U.S. had a VHS deck and more than 75% had more than one.

The studios and the home video market had a great deal for almost 20 years. A movie gets released initially for $100-$120 per tape, but it’s not made available to retailers just yet; only to home video stores for rental for about 6 months exclusively. After that, the tapes are released to retailers for $15-$20 and also to cable TV.

There were thousands of video rental stores in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Because of the $100 per tape cost of the Hollywood big titles, they would need to fill their shelves, so they also needed more new content on shelves when the big movies were rented out. This created the DIRECT TO VIDEO business. Movie that were made, never intended for movie theaters, just filling shelves at video stores and also might wind up on Cinemax at 1:00AM.

In the early 1990’s the “indie film” boom started to happen. With SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, RESERVOIR DOGS, EL MARIACHI, CLERKS, SLACKER, BROTHERS MCMULLEN, and all the movies that created this new market for finding unknown talent, there was a new influx of material on the market. A whole new aisle appeared with a new type of movie that was floated by the need for content at stores and press to hype these movies. It was making so much money for these small businesses; it was doomed to be incorporated.



Companies like BLOCKBUSTER, WEST COAST VIDEO, and HOLLYWOOD VIDEO started to gobble up the profitability of the mom & pop independent companies. Similarly, megastores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy started to specialize in movies.

Then DVD entered the scene. In order to crack the VHS nut, DVD’s started the day and date release and pricing. When the movie was first released on VHS, there was no exclusivity for DVD, so the lower priced retail DVD was put out at the same time as the rental. Mathematically, if you watched the movie more than twice, it was the same price to rent it twice as it was to buy the movie. Rental costs went up, retail prices went down. This started the demise of the home video market.

Enter NETFLIX and the mail order movie rentals. You have one small hub covering a large area, with one bulk price for the rentals. Also, AMAZON.COM is the retail version of this. They don’t need to have a lot of copies in stock of no-name movies, and because there is less demand for those titles, they need even less copies than the retail rental stores.

This is how independent filmmakers got boned. In the old business model, we could sell 1 single copy of our movie to tens of thousands of stores and make a profit. Now with Netflix, Amazon.com, and even Best Buy and Wal-Mart going to online retailing, they only buy literally tens of copies of a movie without name stars or a theatrical release. They have made the system more efficient and put a lot of people out of jobs and films without an audience.

The current home video market as it stands in 2010 is simply an extension of big business Hollywood movies. Why spare the shelf space with 10 alternate titles when you could have 10 more copies of the latest Hannah Montana movie? The reality is, they make more money this new way. It’s no different than the megaplex theaters. They have 30 screens, all the more to show the latest comic book adaptation on more screens, not offer more choices. It makes them more money, so why change it?

Sure, we can sell our own movies on AMAZON.COM or stream them as pay per view on YOUTUBE now, but without the big corporate marketing machine, unless the girls are very pretty and wearing very little, the profit numbers are still no where near the industry as it was in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

This is all going to spin the popular culture cycle back to 1994 again when the public gets sick of regurgitated swill and TV show remakes. Everything is cyclical and the desire to see something alternative and the profitability of the independent film will return. But when?

It gives me hope to see something like THE RAVEN. A posh, amazing looking movie that I found more entertaining (and technically better in many ways) than the last 3 seasons of HEROES on NBC, with better effects work too. Done for under $5,000 to boot. What the studios and networks are churning out and what an indie can create has narrowed.



I have no idea what the next big independent surge will be. I don’t know what the new business model will be. All I know is that the old ones are dead in the water and have no chance at survival.

Film Score and Dedication

One of the most simple, yet effective ideas in a score was exemplified in the LETHAL WEAPON scores, primarily by Michael Kamen with Eric Clapton on guitar and David Sanborn on saxophone. What made the themes and melodies ingenious was not the brilliant musicians, but the concept of having the guitar and melody represent RIGGS (Mel Gibson’s character) and the saxophone represent ROGER (Danny Glover’s character). Each had a distinctive melody and instrumentation for their differing characters, and when they come together in the story, the melodies and instruments complement each other perfectly.



This continued on into the other 3 sequels to the movie with similar degrees of success. For LETHAL WEAPON 2, a more jazzy form of the melody worked because the character of RIGGS was taken in by the family. In LETHAL WEAPON 3 a more acoustic approach, both because of Eric Clapton’s affectation with the acoustic sound at that time, as well as a softer, more romantic RIGGS in the story worked in favor of the film. I don’t recall anything about LETHAL WEAPON 4 except Jet Li played a bad guy and not one note of music is in my head from that one. Sorry.



The composer, Michael Kamen, was never one of my favorites, even though he was the composer for such films as DIE HARD (1-3), ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES, X-MEN, THREE MUSKETEERS, and more. The only original score of his that stood out to me was to DON JUAN DEMARCO. It was his most unique and original score to me, with depths of emotion resonating. I initially hated the Bryan Adams song “Have you ever loved a woman”, but upon hearing it in context with the movie, I loved it and the score.



Michael Kamen was considered the “Rock-N-Roll” orchestrator. He started with the album PINK FLOYD’S THE WALL and went on to work with Aerosmith, Queensryche, Queen (for soundtracks to FLASH GORDON and HIGHLANDER), David Bowie, Rush, Def Leppard, Metallica and of course Sting. To me he was great at arranging, but his weakness was melodies, but when a rock star provided him with a great melody, he found endless ways to reinvent that and orchestrate it.

The Lethal Weapon soundtracks re-iterate this theory. Eric Clapton and David Sanborn provided Michael Kamen with amazing melodies that he created a wonderful series of film scores to; they supported the film, the characters, and made something good into something great. That’s what an original score should do.

Michael Kamen died in 2003.

I started off as a musician. All I wanted to do from the time I was 5 years old was write music for movies. Now, the idea of working on music does not appeal to me in the slightest. In my efforts though, I do get to work with composers and musicians on the soundtracks to my own movies.