Timothy Hines Blog

Seattle Sneak and Tour of WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY

2011-07-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY previewed on the big screen at the King Cat Theater, a venue normally catering to the rock music scene, in Seattle on July 23, 2011. There were three showings and all three played to pleased audiences, though the sound, run through the King Cats mixing board, played a bit hot for most. That was only one of the problems of the rock music venue as host to our movie. All said and done, it cost nearly twice what it would have cost had we played the 3,000 seat McCaw Hall, (the hall was unavailable as the opera, Porgy and Bess, was being mounted). I think as the tour progresses, we will shy away from rock concert venues and lean toward opera concert halls and movie theaters for a variety of reasons.

The event almost didn’t happen. Around 50 hours prior to the screening we had a massive hard drive failure, taking some of our master materials into the netherworlds of digital oblivion. We engaged in hard drive recovery and reconstruction up to 3PM the day of the show. Anyone who has had to recover lost data knows how slow and frustrating the process can be. With 95% or so of the data recovered, the horror of the lost directory set in. Around 20,000 files were recovered and renamed from their original labels to something like 00001 through 20000. Somehow, we were able to get a viewable print to the screen, with sound holes, where, during an action scene it would occasionally go absolutely silent. The music mix settings were lost so there were a half a dozen places where the music ate the dialogue. And the final ten minutes had to be rebuilt from scratch and human memory 24 hours before the show.

In spite of these digital obstacles, the audiences liked the movie. There is no better way to know what people feel about your movie for a filmmaker than to sit in the center of an audience and watch it with them. What works, what doesn’t work, three times over that night. Now, the picture had been screened to individuals or small groups of two or three at a time, but not a full blown audience until that night. When three different audiences laugh at the wrong spot in all three screenings, that’s a pretty good indicator that something needs to be changed. And there were a couple of moments like that. But for most of the screen time you could here a pin drop as people were glued to the action. I have sat through multiple screenings of around seven of my movies, and I have not had such a positive passionate response to my work.

But, I was left feeling that there were still tweaks needed to bring it from 80-90% percent of what it can be, to that last 95-100% of what it can be. If we had opened in 4,000 theaters we would be in no position to do what we are doing. And that is to rearrange the tour to give us a few more weeks to polish the picture and solidify our campaign. Also our message to the public was a bit convoluted as we were not as organized as we would like to have been. Some publicists were calling our screening a premiere, some a sneak preview, some a special event, and it was our fault.

So we will spend the next three weeks bringing the movie the final polish it deserves, based on audience reactions through observation and deep questioning of a sample of the audience. We are doing this because we can and should. It has been more than a decade since I have run pictures in theaters and the landscape has changed deeply in the last many years, let alone the last six months. I read yesterday that Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez are going on a multiple week bus tour to support their new movie. You know, Martin Sheen, of APOCALYPSE NOW, WEST WING, on a bus tour. Kevin Smith just successfully ran his movie RED STATE around the country on a “rock star tour”. The internet has changed the movie landscape forever.

That’s why, before WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY plays on television, we are doing what is essentially a live music style tour, or old style vaudevillian tour to allow those who wish to see Earth fight Mars and 100 foot tall fighting machines on the big screen. And we deliver. More than one viewer approached me after the screening and said that was the first time in a version of WAR OF THE WORLDS, that the Earth forces really fight back. I was happy for that. Wells'es writings are often interpreted that we didn’t put up much of a struggle. The truth is he describes that we fought with all that we have and then some, but it simply wasn’t enough…

So if you want to see our revised tour schedule, go to the WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY TOUR PAGE to check it out.

Thank you to all who attended last Saturday’s screenings. It was a truly magical and enlightening experience. We’ll keep you posted…

-Later~

ROSWELL UFO NEWS - RELEASED FROM THE FBI VAULT.

2011-04-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Articles relating to newly released documents from the FBI concerning the Roswell incident have been going around the news for a few days, but I thought the news worth posting. Here is a quote from one of the FBI documents:

“An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.

According to Mr. (name blacked out) informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers.

No further evaluation was attempted by SA (blacked out) concerning the above.”

Here is a link to the actual document newly made public.
Interesting. I intend to do a series of blogs on UFOs in the near future, including my conversations with a CNN producer who reported on UFOs and the Airforce's interest in his investigation, conversations with the Washington Director of MUFON, and conversations with the head of a top UFO site that reports on UFOs from a scientific perspective.
~Later-

ELIZABETH TAYLOR - THE QUINTESSENTIAL MOVIE STAR PASSES AWAY.

2011-03-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

Deep in the final stages of post production of WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY. Haven't blogged for some time, but I had to stop and acknowledge the career and contributions to the world of Elizabeth Taylor, two-time Academy Award-winning beauty and mega-star, who passed away today. Ms. Taylor makes a brief appearance in my documentary retelling of the H.G. Wells seminal alien invasion UFO story, WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY. She kept her beauty and grace to the end.

Debbie Reynolds reflected on Taylor's "long productive career," in a statement earlier Wednesday. "She was the most glamorous and sexual star of our generation," Reynolds, 78, said in the statement. "No one else could equal Elizabeth's beauty and sexuality. Women liked her and men adored her, and her love for her children is enduring." Added Reynolds: "She was a symbol of stardom. Her legacy will last."

Thank you Ms. Taylor for your brilliant movie career and strong contributions to AIDS awareness as well as a host of charities, you gave meaning to the term,"Star."

~Later-

STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY, JACK CLAY, CIVILITY and WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY

2010-12-16T02:20:00.000-08:00

There was a time before the internet, before bloggers and Facebook, that the average human being tried to live up to an ideal of what a person should be. The collection of human society as a whole, was trying to be good, honest and compassionate. Even if, as was the case, most failed at it, the ideal was still there in the back of people’s minds. It was, perhaps, an unattainable state where one was trying to make the right choices for oneself and one’s family, but also to help their fellow human being, or at the very least, not hinder their fellow humans that were not in their direct circle of loved ones, friends and associates. The idea being that we were all “in it together,” to borrow from the New Yorker motto. If we peed in one part of the soup that we swim in, sooner or later, we, also, would be swimming in it.

I say that this was a time before the internet, because the internet changed the game. But before I talk about that I would like to address who the human beings were that had such a live and let live mentality and why. Again, people who at the very least shared the mentality expressed by Moe, The Simpsons bartender, who in one episode from many years ago, when The Simpsons was still fresh, said, “I’m a well wisher, in that I don’t wish you any specific harm.” Good enough. Maybe barely. But it was, “Live and let live.” Where and how did such thinking/ belief arise in society? For the answer we have to go back a couple of generations.

The generations I’m talking about are the older generations now evaporating before our eyes. Leslie Nielsen’s generation and older. The ones that said “please” and “thank you”. These generations were not weak. By no means. Those that built our cities and communities for us endured the tests of time. They fought against tyranny in world wars, displaying epic bravery. When they returned from the wars, it was their choice to be basically courteous to one another. When the world was fascinated with the movie Jaws, myself included, my father, who was decorated for his service at sea in World War II, refused to watch the movie. He said, “I’ve seen men die from shark attacks when ships went were sunk in real life. I don’t want to see it again.” Not that I’m putting “Jaws” down. I was a boy when it came out and I saw it in the theater something like 20 times.

This world that these generations carved out was a world where all the people on a bus would overtly put pressure on a young healthy man for not giving up his seat to an elderly lady. There were many things bad about the “good old days”, don’t get me wrong. A lot of “what was” should have been discarded along with the belief that cats were the familiars of the devil because they had pointy ears and were kept by suspect earthy herbal healers. But some of the good has been thrown out with the bath water and some of that good is basic common courtesy to your fellow stranger. I’m talking about small courtesies as obvious as opening doors for someone who is carrying a load of boxes just because you are able. As I said, the distancing effect of the internet has had a great deal to do with the decay of these gentle social conventions. People say things to and about others that they would never say if they were face to face with those individuals. There’s something about the non reality of information and people coming through a glowing box that messes with our basic sense of empathy. All nature of deceptions and falsities come through the same box that delivers our contact to the world. Recently it was reported that more people than ever are getting their news from major media online sources, but fewer than ever trust that information.

It’s sad really. I read a review of a preview performance of the Julie Taymor/Bono Spider-man Musical on Broadway and the reviewer actually said he was “shtting” himself. What has happened? Though such freedom of raw thought might make us giggle or feel safe that we can say what we want, should we? Should we just do what we feel or is there more to the human experience that only the discipline of basic respect of others can bring?

As I look around, I see a lot of people plugged into their ipods or mobile devices, mostly unaware of each other as made of up of the same basic stuff that they are. This new layer of isolation from one another is in part due to the increasing draw to sit in front of glowing boxes of information. To not feel anything we don’t want to. The Matrix is not being built by some dark force artificial intelligence. We are constructing our own prison of the mind. Our friends are becoming “Facebook friends” and our social groups and gatherings of friends and loved ones are becoming, “online social networks”. So that one can switch from “the real world” of Facebook to the fantasy world of a video game where one is blowing onrushing faceless attackers to bits. Where instead of farming, we pay money to “virtually farm.” And many in the upcoming generations are clearly blurring the lines of what is real and what is make believe. It seams that people are becoming increasingly less social in the real world as they transfer that energy to the glowing box and the “world” of the digital information. A world where teenagers can be tormented to death by cyberbullies. A world where people that would be outcast as irrational or with selfish intent can masquerade as, well, whatever they want.

So it is of no small consequence that a man like Stephen Tobolowsky should come along in these times. Nearly everyone who goes to the movies has seen Mr. Tobolowsky’s extensive work. Most recently, the youth will know him from the TV series, GLEE. I believe he rather refers to himself as the man in the scenes with the movie stars. Mr. Tobolowsky has often occupied the wonderfully crafted jeweled performance pieces that enwrap a movie and make the stars shine. A constantly working actor, Mr. Tobolowsky is famous for, among many fresh performances, Ned Ryerson, the persistent insurance salesman in the sublime and profound comedy, GROUNDHOG DAY.

Mr. Tobolowsky is a breath of fresh air from the moment he bursts on the screen at seeing Bill Murray’s character Phil Conners, a high school alumni. Tobolowsky goes at Murray with a gentle ferocity as he attempts to make a personal reconnection in order to sell insurance. The movie itself is profound. I have read that prominent members from virtually every religion lay claim to the picture and its beautifully honest and true unfolding message, all cleverly woven in a broad comedy. Mr. Tobolowsky pulls off showing the annoying character, without actually being annoying. In fact, a joy to watch. Mr. Tobolowsky’s character Ryerson is a major lynchpin in helping us to discover that which irritates us about life is actually not the nagging insurance salesman, but something from within that we personally bring to life. The “nagging” part is in our heads. William Shakespeare once wrote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”, At every given moment, there is a galaxy being violently pulled into a black hole, there are storms, tragedies and death. At the exact same moment, there is joy, weddings and a bunny rabbit sitting in a sunny field near a perfect pond, munching greens and enjoying the calm. Perspective, what one chooses to focus on, makes it good or bad. The movie GROUNDHOG DAY illustrates this, and that we must relive our mistakes until we get it right, beyond articulation. And I’m not just saying this because I was born on Groundhog Day.

GROUNDHOG DAY is a brilliant movie, directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Presented simply and comically, with each added piece of information, the movie lays out the way to live. That is to say the way Jesus, The Buddha and Mohamed and Moses would teach you to live: Live present, respect yourself and the world around you, and treat others as you would have others treat you.

So I am listening to National Public Radio many weeks back and I stumble across Stephen Tobolowsky’s radio show, The Tobolowsky Files. A compilation of spoken essays by Mr. Tobolowsky about his experiences in life and the movie business. His fresh and kind honesty is sublime and brilliant. I was at once riveted to the radio as Mr. Tobolowsky seemed to be speaking directly to me, the mark of a great entertainer. He seemed to be addressing the issues I was dealing with at the moment. Now I know that this isn’t true. The man on the radio is speaking to masses of people and no one individual, though an actor will often pick one specific person to play to in their mind. This muse is usually very private and known only to the actor. I remember a chilling scene in a documentary where John Lennon was talking to homeless man who believed that Lennon was writing songs directly for him and Lennon gently explained that it was just coincidence. Just personal words that the man happen to relate to.

Anyway, as I heard Mr. Tobolowsky speak of his travails at scaling the Hollywood walls, I heard my own story, my own voice, the best part of my own humanity. I have since learned I am not alone in this. Many of his fans feel a deep connection to Mr. Tobolowsky and his ability to remind us of where our humanity is. Mr. Tobolowsky tells the truth. The universal truth that we all really know, but sometimes turn our back on in the false pursuit of personal gain or the myth that we are creating a place of safety and certainty for ourselves.

Tobolowsky has this way of expressing common, mundane, everyday things that display their truth and meaning to us. He naturally and inherently reminds us of our humanity and our compassion and demonstrates in a myriad of ways how such traits of respecting one another are not only of no harm to us, but crucial to our existence and ultimate survival.

I am now a huge fan of Mr. Tobolowsky’s work. So I was pleasantly surprised when Steven Tobolowsky talked a couple of weeks back about one of his three heroes, Actor Jack Clay. I had directed Jack Clay in my artistic failure, (though it earned $7 million in DVD sales), of a motion picture, H.G. WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, in 2005, also recut as THE CLASSIC WAR OF THE WORLDS.

I must digress a moment on this point. None of the movie’s failure was due to the cast or any of the hardworking actors and artists that I shot the picture with. The movie’s failure was due to my level as an artist at the time, far too short of a post production schedule, and the tricks of a distributor who mass released my unfinished rough cut. I knew there was a good movie in the mess that went public. But unfortunately the picture went out with temporary special effects, unbalanced and wrong sound effects and a host of rough edges that had yet to be sanded.

I was so dissatisfied with my own film, that I have done something rather unprecedented. I’ve taken the raw performances of the original production, chosen new takes, recreated the special effects, filmed and recorded new performances and reconstructed and re-envisioned the movie entirely from the ground up. The new version is a reboot, WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY, read more about it here and here.

WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY, now in post production, is a mock documentary, like the famous 1938 Orson Welles CBS radio broadcas t that terrified America. The new motion picture deliberately blurs the lines between reality and fiction.

The premise is that in 1965 a film crew captured the memories of the last living survivor of the war between Earth and Mars that took place at the end of the 19th Century. The footage was discovered in a basement vault of a condemned house in 2006. Also found in the vault was previously unknown footage of the actual Martian invaders and their war machines. This motion picture is a presentation of that eyewitness account.

I had originally planned to have WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY ready for release by October, but that date has come and gone. Not because we are in any production trouble. Quite the opposite. To get it right has taken longer than originally planned. Post is going so well that I will not rush it for any reason. The fanboys can scream, critics can critique, mountains can fall and I will not put the movie out until it is right. At present, I am close to announcing a realistic release date.

But back to Stephen Tobolowsy’s radio broadcast of Jack Clay. Jack Clay headed the Professional Actors Training Program, known as the PATP Program at Southern Methodist University, and the University of Washington, the first professional actors training program at University in the United States. He is a distinguished member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He was the champion and teacher of Academy Award winning actress Kathy Bates, star of Misery, amongst many others of great fame and accomplishment. Jack is one of the most kind and gracious people I have had the privilege to work with. Jack Clay was also one of Stephen Tobolowsky’s acting instructors. Steven Tobolowsky tells a wonderful story of his acting training under Mr. Clay.

In my upcoming movie, Jack Clay portrays the astronomer Ogilvy, a pivotal character in H.G. Wells' book, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Working with Jack, I found him to be an open and generous actor. His sense of humor on the production was refreshing. In one scene, Bertie Wells, portrayed by Anthony Piana, joins Ogilvy (Jack Clay) at the bottom of the massive pit created by a cylinder that skidded in from the sky, landing on Horsell Common, in England. At one point Wells asks Ogilvy from where does he believe the cylinder has come. Jack Clay, in his late seventies at the time of the filming, says, “Mars,” and then goes to great lengths to explain why he believes the cylinder has been shot from the planet Mars. Now it was about 105 degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom of the dried up lake in the middle of a sand quarry where we were filming.

The reflected heat, combined with the air temperature was unbearable so the cast and crew were a bit punchy. The crew wore ice rolled in a towels around their necks. The cast also did this between takes.

After Jack Clay delivered a perfect take of his elaborate explanation as to the Cylinder origins, Anthony became confused in the heat and asked the same question as to from where does he believe the cylinder had come. The look on Jack’s face was priceless and without missing a beat, or losing character, Jack blurted out “Mars, you imbecile, what do you think I have been babbling about for the last forty five seconds.” Anthony turned beat red and burst into laughter as did the film crew. Jack winked.

I learned much from working with the legend that is Jack Clay. More than I can share in a single blog or many blogs. Generations of acting students whom he has taught, are sharing that wisdom through their performances on screen and stage around the world today. Like Jack Clay, Mr. Tobolowsky reminds us of some of the humanity that the internet has ebbed away. I recommend everyone track down Mr. Tobolowsky’s radio show and give a listen. The piece I heard concerning Jack Clay, was entitled, CONFERENCE ROOM. You will become enriched in the way a well cooked meal enriches one.

Back to post production. Also, a personal note to Ultrakarl, great work on the alien. You were right to push for the creature to be full scale, though at points during filming with the small sea of technicians having to work in precise coordination, it was a bit nerve wracking. In the end, the fans will love you for it.

~later-

BRITISH X-FILES - RELEASE OF UFO ENCOUNTERS - CHURCHILL ORDERED UFO COVER=UP

2010-08-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a blog for quite some time as I've been deep in post production of WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY. You can read about it at Space Daily, with some background here.

I actually just visited my own blog as a friend pointed out that I had misspelled Jon Stewart's name in my quote at the top. I had used the more common spelling, "John."

I saw this in the news today and it stood out amongst the sea of UFO news lately. The British Ministry of Defense has released more previously secret UFO files, detailing encounters between UFOs and the RAF. The disclosure also states that Winston Churchill had ordered a 50-year cover-up of a wartime encounter between an unidentified flying object and military pilot.

This is of particular interest to me for other than the obvious that I am making a movie about alien invasion. In 2008, I was contacted by the BBC and asked if they could include my previous version of WAR OF THE WORLDS in their BBC broadcast announcing that the Ministry of Defense was releasing most of its UFO documents. Now, after they let that sink in for a couple of years, the British government has released new documents that are even more revealing.

Here's an article at MSNBC on the latest British release of previously classified documents detailing some pretty eye raising encounters with UFOs.

Fascinating.

-Later~

DOROTHY HEIGHT, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST DIES AT 98

2010-04-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

"Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.
-Dr. Dorothy Height

My blog today is an excerpt from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — Dorothy Irene Height, a pioneering voice of the civil rights movement whose activism stretched from the New Deal to the election of President Barack Obama, died Tuesday. She was 98.

Height, who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, was known for her determination and grace — as well as her wry humor. She remained active and outspoken well into her 90s and often received rousing ovations at events around Washington, where she was easily recognizable in the bright, colorful hats she almost always wore.

When Obama won the presidential election in November 2008, Height told Washington TV station WTTG that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

"People ask me, did I ever dream it would happen, and I said, `If you didn't have the dream, you couldn't have worked on it," she said.

Height dedicated most of her adult life to the National Council of Negro Women, where she first worked under her mentor, Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded the group. Height took over in 1957 and led it until 1997, fighting for women's rights on issues such as equal pay and education. She developed programs such as "pig banks" to help poor rural families raise their own livestock, and "Wednesdays in Mississippi," in which black and white women from the north traveled to Mississippi to meet with their Southern counterparts in an effort to ease racial tensions and bridge differences.

To celebrate Height's 90th birthday in March 2002, friends and supporters raised $5 million to enable her organization to pay off the mortgage on its Washington headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, just a few blocks from the White House. Herman said Height "believed very strongly that we as black women deserved to be on this corridor of power."

Rest in peace, Dorothy. You helped open the eyes of the ingnorant and changed the world for the better.

~Later-

AUTHOR OF GREEN SCREEN HANDBOOK WINS TELLY AWARD

2010-04-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Jeff Foster, who wrote The Green Screen Handbook, which devotes ten pages to the special effects of my period version of War of the Worlds, just won a Telly Award for one of his “Documercials”.

Jeff just returned from a very successful NAB to here the news of his winning the Telly.

"Visions Of America" - Joseph Sohm
Here's the link to the video.

Jeff was the producer/director/editor on the project and with the help of videographer, Michael Anderson (Extra Mile Films) they shot several hours of interviewing the book's author, Joe Sohm. Jeff spent about 2 weeks in editing to pare it down to under 10 minutes for the online video production. The award is a Bronze Telly (second placing) in the "Professional Infomercial" category.

Panasonic provided the P2 HD cameras and Reflecmedia provided the green screen setup. Editing was done in Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Music by Roger Kellaway, Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman

Good work Jeff!

Also check out the press release for our new Mock-Documentary version of H.G. Wells' seminal novel, War of the Worlds - The True Story. The new War of the Worlds - The True Story has a projected release date of October, 2010.

~Later-

A NEWSPAPER HOAX - TOWN BELIEVED ALIENS INVADED

2010-04-09T00:50:00.000-07:00

This is a little late as it happened on April 1st as part of an elaborate April fools joke. This url was sent to me by friend, FX man Karl Cottle. The basics of it are this:

AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian newspaper's April Fool's Day report chronicling a late-night visit by 10-foot-tall aliens in flying saucers sparked public panic and almost led to the town's emergency evacuation, officials said Monday.

There was much more to people’s confusion as you will see if you read on here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/06/ufo-april-fools-prank-spa_n_525834.html

Now I am thinking about the nature of hoaxes every day I’m constructing a movie that is a hoax documentary that says the War of the Worlds really happened a hundred and ten years ago. You can read the entire premise and how I came to mount this picture here at Space Daily and a little back-story at the Mukilteo Beacon.

The premise of War of the Worlds - The True Story is that in 1965 a documentary film crew captured the memories of the last living survivor of the war between Earth and the planet Mars that took place at the turn of the 20th Century. Nothing was done with the footage until, in 2006, it was discovered in the basement vault of a condemned house. Found in the vault with the interviews, was previously unknown footage of the actual Martian invaders and their machines of war.

I find it interesting how quickly a conspiracy can spread. A young producer working on War of the Worlds – The True Story was at a social gathering and telling a few acquaintances about the project. He explained how our story is a fictitious documentary and that it’s really a dramatic movie that is kind of a forgery of a documentary where an actual Martian invasion occurred and is part of our history. The funny thing was that more than one person only half heard what he said and later asked question like, “Did Mars really invade the Earth a hundred years ago?”

So it caused me to take pause and reflect on Orson Wells back in the 1930s, how he did scant announcement that the War of the Worlds radio play broadcast was fictitious. And how many were frightened and worried that the world was actually being invaded.

That it happened again on April 1st to another group of people should be of no surprise. It is interesting that the people of Wells' War of the Worlds were completely unsuspecting of what was to befall them. The Salem Witch trials can show us what happens if we imagine too much danger in the shadows. Conspiracy – what is really out to eat us and what is just a shadow? It’s a question each generation has to wrestle with so that they don’t over or under protect.

I’m thinking of such things as we forge a documentary in a world where a War between Earth and Mars actually occurred a hundred and ten years ago.

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/news/2010/War-of-the-Worlds-gets-a-mock-umentary-film--14696.php

~Later-

Mortality

2010-04-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

Through the holidays I have found myself missing loved ones who have passed on.

I thought I'd share a few quotes on mortality.

"That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust That measures all our
time; which also shall Be crumbled into dust."
-George Herbert
"All the molecules in your body were formed inside stars. We are the future
of ancient stars."
-The 1997 Nobel Conference

"People and stars are made of the same stuff."
-Bill Nye the Science Guy

"There are no 'facts'-- there is only the fact that man, every man
everywhere in the world, is on his way to ordination. Some men take the long
route and some take the short route. Every man is working out his own way and
nobody can be of help except by being kind, generous, and patient."
-Henry Miller, _Tropic of Capricorn_

"Death ends a life, not a relationship."
-Morrie Schwartz, quoted in Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie"

~Later-

PASSOVER AND EASTER

2010-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a few thought for Easter and Passover. I’ve begun with Passover.

"Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of
bondage, how Adonai freed you from it with a mighty hand...."
-Exodus 13:3

"Passover affirms the great truth that liberty is the
inalienable
right of every human being."
-Morris Joseph

"Passover has a message for the conscience and the heart of all mankind.
For what does it commemorate? It commemorates the deliverance of a people from
degrading slavery, from most foul and cruel tyranny. And so, it is Israel's -
nay,
God's protest against unrighteousness, whether individual or national."
-Morris Joseph

A combination of Easter and Passover:

"Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you
really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
-1 Corinthians 5:7

Thoughts for Easter:

The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary
world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact
of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline,
and make the sacrifice.
~Henry Knox Sherrill

Could life so end, half told; its school so fail? Soul, soul, there is a sequel to thy tale!
~Robert Mowry Bell

Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.
~Charles M. Crowe

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger;Stronger than the dark, the light;Stronger than the wrong, the right...
~Phillips Brooks, "An Easter Carol"

~Later-

SIGNED COPIES OF JEFF FOSTER'S "THE GREEN SCREEN HANDBOOK" ARRIVED

2010-03-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Jeff Foster’s signed copies of the Green Screen Handbook arrived yesterday. He sent two copies. One was signed to Susan Goforth and me. The other was dedicated to Anne Gallo, the mother of my co-producer, John Gallo, who passed away on Thanksgiving. One of the last things John worked on was to supply and help shape materials from Pendragon Pictures to Jeff Foster, who was compiling The Green Screen Handbook.

I will send it out to you, Anne.

Jeff Foster has toured and lectured on special effects and special effects software. He was the guest speaker at the 2010 Macworld Expo in San Francisco in February. Jeff Foster included ten pages of behind the scenes green screen work we did for the 2005 War of the Worlds in The Green Screen Handbook. He acknowledged our film’s shortcomings, but also shows some of the more successful moments and how they were created. The book is exactly what it says it is. The handbook of how to do everything and anything with green screens. The book is filled with effects shots and explanations from some the best effects guys currently working in the industry. It comes with a tutorial CD. The book is a must for any professional working with green screen effects today.

Good work, Jeff.

~Later-

RANDY ROGEL'S "THE GYPSY KING" OPENS!

2010-03-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

A good friend, Randy Rogel, invited me, producer Susan Goforth and actor/producer Donovan Le to the final dress rehearsal of his comedy music spectacle, The Gypsy King at the Village Theater, where he has been developing the show.

The show opens tonight. It was hysterical and a continual delight. But before I share about that, I need to take a moment and speak of Randy.

Randy is a rare and amazing talent. As a performer, actor, dancer, singer, his talents draw comparison to the late comic genius, Donald O’Conner. His sense of comic timing and quick wit drew the attention of Steven Spielberg. He helped create TV shows, such as Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Batman, Histeria! and at Disney he wrote on Tarzan, House of Mouse, The Three Caballeros, Cinderella, Peter Pan – Return to Neverland, 101 Dalmatians II, The Three Musketeers and Winnie the Pooh.

Randy Rogel is a ten time Emmy Awards nominee, three time Emmy Awards winner, as well as the winner of a Peabody Award, and two Annie Awards for his work as a television writer, composer, and producer. He won a daytime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in animation. Randy composed most of the original songs for Animaniacs and his crazed twists with words will forever be immortalized in characters such as Dot. Randy’s abilities as a writer and as music composer shine in Batman Sub Zero and Two-Face (Batman: The Animated Series). Randy spent nine years on staff at Warner Bros. before moving to the Disney studios.

While continuing to juggle writing and producing for television, this gifted dynamo has written and mounted a comedy spectacle being shaped for Broadway. As I said above, Randy invited me, Susan Goforth and Donovan Le to the final dress rehearsal of his new show at the Village Theatre. Randy was simultaneously bouncy and cool when we met him at the theatre. And true to Randy’s sense of whimsy, he was wearing a new jacket with the tag still on his sleeve. He was aware it was there and planning to remove it. Randy just makes you smile. His air is one of immediate calm and the safety of someone who sees things as they are and can show you the humor and joy in things. The show started with an announcement that as it is a dress rehearsal, things may go wrong. If they did, it was well concealed.

Randy Rogel’s The Gypsy King, is nothing less than a visual, audio and full sensory delight from its opening moments. Set in a mythical fairytale time, the magical production shows off the many talents and facets of randy’s fertile mind. The show is filled with word-twisty-wit and fractured plot deviations, not to mention swirling double entendres, bending this way and that, flying out of the mouth of a range of characters that are like the best of zany animation brought to life. The music and lyrics are always spot on and a joy.

But much more is at work in randy’s show than hysterical comedy. Painless, but profound messages of the heart and the choices we make that we think others want us to make, slip up around us as we enjoy the well timed pratfalls, sword fights and identity switches. Just when you think you are ahead of the plot, you discover Randy has set you up and the actual twists are hysterical as well as sublime. This show is perfect for these hard times. You never, for a moment, think of the outside world while you are within the cloak of randy’s magic world.

Thank you Randy, for the peak into your amazing, complicated and joyous mind. You are the true alchemist and poet. Talk with you soon.

See Randy’s show if you want an experience that will stay with you and lighten your world.

~Later-

NEW PRESS RELEASE: WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY

2010-03-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

A press release has gone out about my new movie in post production, WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE TRUE STORY. We tried to touch all the bases to let fans get a clear picture of what we are up to. You can read about it in Space Daily amongst other news sources. When we shot the scenes with actor Floyd Reichman in Mukilteo, at the Hogland House, Paul Archiplay from the local Beacon hung around the set one day and did this nice little story on us in his paper.

The new movie is done as a mock documentary that blends fiction and reality, much as Orson Wells did with his famous 1938 radio broadcast. The plot of War of the Worlds - The True Story is that in 1965, a film crew captured the memories of the last living survivor of the war between Earth and Mars that took place at the turn of the twentieth century.

Nothing was done with the footage until, in 2006, it was discovered in the basement vault of a condemned house. Also found in the vault with the interviews, was previously unknown footage of the actual Martian invaders and their machines of war.

The documentary is a motion picture presentation of that eyewitness account.

It's late. That's all for now.

~Later-

HANDSOME GIFTED PEOPLE

2010-03-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

From Robert Downey Jr. on the Academy Awards:

"It's a collaboration between handsome gifted people and sickly little mole people."

-Later~

THE CHILE QUAKE CHANGED EARTH'S AXIS 33 FEET (10 meters) AND SHORTENED OUR DAY.

2010-03-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

As we grow wiser, with each new discovery, our cradle seems ever so slightly more precariously balanced. Check out this article on National Geographic.

BEYOND THE WILHELM SCREAM - RECYCLED SOUND EFFECTS IN HOLLYWOOD!

2010-03-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a blog since the untimely passing of our co-producer John J. Gallo in November. But today I was moved to write a blog about an email that was forwarded to me by a friend. The email shared a video and website that demonstrates, amongst other things related to sound, how Hollywood recycles sound effects. The casual viewer/listener will be surprised and maybe even shocked to hear the same scream, known as the "WILHELM SCREAM," in movies ranging back from the 1950's through to modern times, including GEORGE LUCAS and STEVEN SPIELBERG movies amongst the big time Hollywood movies of many other heavyweights.

Here's the first Youtube video, part one. Part two, which includes the scream in STAR WARS movies is here.

The website filmsound.org/cliche goes deeper and provides eye opening, or should I say ear opening demonstrations of the "flesh" side of Hollywood's two sides, "flesh" and "fantasy". The "flesh" side being the nuts and bolts of the movies. The organized chaos and secrets of the restaurant's kitchen, so to speak. The 'fantasy" side is the illusion of the story the audience sees on the screen. The world of AVATAR as opposed to the actors in Lycra suits on an empty sound stages with tracking and information recording cameras.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. At a certain point through the video I burst out laughing from the joy of hearing the same scream coming out of different mouths in different movies, many of which are moments that are considered classic cinema film moments. It's great for a laugh and a little enlightenment.

Enjoy!

~Later

JOHN J. GALLO 1970-2009

2009-11-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

I haven’t blogged in about six months. I had planned to return to the blog soon as I had recently gotten over the swine flu. An event has occurred that has brought me back to my blog a little sooner than I had planned.

On the night of Thanksgiving, in the middle of the night, my good friend and co-producer at Pendragon Pictures, John J. Gallo passed away from a sudden bacterial infection that had gone to his heart and lungs. John was 39. No words can truly express the grief John’s shocking departure has left his myriad loved ones, though I will attempt to express some feelings for this extraordinary man. John was a rare soul on this Earth. The kind of man you could ALWAYS depend on. His loyalty to all people was a lesson for the rest of us as to how to treat one another. His balance, advice and compassion were inspiring.

John leaves a deep hole in many lives. He was the one of the raison d'etre for myself and many others. He was giving and loving toward others in a way that was true and without hidden motive. His creativity was bottemless, as was his sense of humor. His jokes were kind, but he had a way of hitting the mark. Always ready to smile, always ready to see the positive, John helped many as they attempted to find perspective in difficult times. Always ready to help someone in need, John changed and progressed the lives of most everyone he met. John had a deep and solid laugh that would easily flow.

John, I cannot believe you are gone. John, I will miss our several times a week calls about everything from the life problems at hand to aliens, the super collider and movies. I will miss your special and kind spirit. I will miss your honesty and loyalty and fellowship to all you met. I will miss you at our premieres and at the island celebration we were all planning. I will miss you at all the major life events I expected you to be at. I will miss sharing news with you and getting or giving advice on how to get past a hard life moment. I will miss you in my old age and for all the time I have left. You were the best of friend anyone could have asked for and the most loyal human being I have ever encountered. As a producer, you held it together. You were the glue and the strength that our productions ran with.

You were ripped away from us far too soon and yours is one passing I will never fully accept. And you were wise as well as educated, but you never held your intelligence over anyone. Amongst the many things you brought to your close friend Ezra Hamill, one of them was a love of reading. Ezra said you were the only friend who actually read books he gave you to read and shared discussions of their tales with him. You always tried to bolster one’s enthusiasm and help one find the highest level of perspective. You saw the vulnerability in people and could express your compassion for their plights. You were a kinder, more giving and wiser man than I have ever met.

I will carry you in my soul to my own end, John. I am and always will be your loyal ally. Though the hearts of many are shattered at your loss, on behalf of a world that you leave behind, a world that is a better place that you walked with us in it, I say goodbye old friend. Adieu until we meet again beyond this world. Silence the drums and take down the stars for a time. It is a time for deep grief and reflection.

I have linked to a production photo. John Gallo is the smiling gentleman with glasses in the upper left corner of the photo.

John J. Gallo. 1970-2009. Producer, friend to all, humanist.

MEMORIAL DAY

2009-05-26T00:32:00.000-07:00

It's after midnight here, still Monday for me. Went to see my mom and dad at the national cemetery for Memorial Day today. There were children running around. My mom and dad would have loved that. I am one of ten brothers and sisters. In World War II, one of the wars my father served in, his ship was attacked 96 times in 23 days by Kamikaze raids. Ate a sandwich, cried and sprayed my mom's favorite perfume on her stone before I left. Lots of flags and flowers out. Very many people there. Comforting to share the grief.

-Later~

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

2009-05-23T08:51:00.001-07:00

Still down with the flu. But here is an important article in the New York Times about how our lives are shaped through randomness and our responses to it.

-Later~

EARTHDAY

2009-04-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today is EARTHDAY. Picked up litter in a park for an hour. If you missed your chance to do something for the Earth today, the Earth will still be here tomorrow. So think about giving back to the planet that gave us and gives us life.

-Later~

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

2009-04-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

TIME FOR BLOGGING AND SPACE WEATHER

2009-04-19T23:37:00.001-07:00

I have just not had the few minutes needed to write my blog about my conversations with Sasha Harari, producer of the THE DOORS. This week things are looking better for me to have the time to rap out a few blogs. So instead I thought, just for fun, I would point people to a website that measures the daily solar radiation and tells us when we are going to be engulfed in the next solar storm that affects computers and cell phones. The site also counts how many Near-Earth Asteroids are shooting by us as any given moment. It's called Spaceweather.com.

-Later~

SHORT BLOG - FILMED MINIATURE PICKUPS FOR CHROME

2009-04-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Filmed miniature 1/6 scale pickups for CHROME today. For a shot where CHROME bursts through a plate glass window, we filmed a window with the Sony HD camera pointing upward. The glass was pre-scored and additional tiny bits of broken glass and wood debris were placed atop the scored glass. The background (which was above) was a green screen and a sharpened dowel painted with Ultimatte green paint was used to burst the glass. Arriflex HMI Fresnels with diffusion were used as side lighting and caught the glass fall away nicely. A sturdy piece of mounted 15mm thick plate glass protected the camera as the debris rained down.

Also various miniature debris piles were exploded with black powder, miniature money, books, silverware, etc., to add as layers for specific explosion shots.

-Later~

PASSOVER, EASTER AND THE STAGE OF LIFE

2009-04-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

For all of those celebrating Passover, I wish joy, and that you find your sense of freedom and rediscover your foundation of faith. I am not affiliated with the sites connected to this link to learn about Passover, but these pages seemed pretty informational for those who want to learn more about this celebration.

Happy Easter to the Christian world.

I haven’t blogged in almost a week and this one is going to be short. There I was dancing across the stage of life, talking in my blog about a health crisis as if it had passed. I was a bit premature with that so this time I will say I am doing much better. My core strength and energy are returning and life and workflow can once again continue.

As an original original STAR TREK fan, I really wanted to blog about the sneak Star Trek movie premiere. It was a very theatrical introduction. The fans believed they were going to see a print of, STAR TREK II, THE WRATH OF KAHN, by one of the most gifted writer -directors out there, Nicholas Meyer. But the film burned away and Leonard Nimoy walked out on stage and announced that the crowd would instead be watching the new STAR TREK movie, 3 hours ahead of the world premiere in Australia. The article is here and wonderfully titled, "GEEKS GONE WILD."

Soon I will share pursuing Leonard Nimoy for the movie CHROME and thoughtful insights about interactions I had with Mr. Nimoy's representative, legendary agent, Phil Gersh, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 92.

In my last blog I talked pretty extensively about how trying to get CHROME made created the little campy sci-fi soon to be a TROMA release film, BUG WARS. I had the trailer put up on Youtube. Though the film exists in both an R rated version and a PG version, the only trailer I had in HD was the R rated trailer.

I put it up with all kinds of warnings and, doh, I couldn’t find a box to check that would make people have to do automatic age verification. So I uploaded the clip and flagged it myself, thinking Youtube would put the appropriate warning up. Nope. They axed it without a glance. I should have realized this would happen as they have to take down hundreds of thousands of videos a day. Rather than kvetch about it I had little black boxes pop on over the nude bits and CSI level gore. This fixit version has been re-uploaded for all ages.

Tomorrow I will reflect on conversations and meetings I had with Sasha Harari about WAR OF THE WORLDS and CHROME back in 2001-2003. Sasha Harari was producer of Oliver Stone’s THE DOORS, and a close friend and associate of Paula Wagner, Tom Cruise’s long time partner.

Additionally, I plan to share some calming thoughts on Tom Cruise, Scientology and some inside interactions our two respective camps had concerning our versions of WAR OF THE WORLDS.

One last private note to a new found friend: Please do a video of your Neil Young impression and put it up on Youtube. I have awoken from my sleep laughing. The world could use more humor right now and Neil Young, I’m sure, would find it hysterical as well.

-Later~

HOW HAWKING CHROME GOT BUG WARS MADE

2009-04-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

In the late 1990s, I shopped my screenplay for CHROME to virtually every studio and producer in Hollywood and New York. Everyone liked the script. Several producers wanted to make it or tried to get it made. For instance, I worked with John Bertolli for some time at Destination Films. Things were looking good for a while. Bertolli produced RETURN TO ME with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny. He was in production with GANG RELATED, starring rapper Tupac Shakur and CHROME was looking promising. Then Tupac was shot and, as they say, things changed.

Anyone working in Hollywood knows how many times a deal almost happens and then doesn’t. In fact, if you were an alien looking at the activities of Hollywood, you wouldn’t think they were in the "movie making" business, but the "putting together of movies for no reason" business. People have no idea how much effort goes into turning an idea into a script and then actually getting it made into a move, even a bad one. The number of movies that producers or directors labor over that never see the light of day far outnumber the pictures that actually get made.

As was the case with CHROME for a number of years. As I said, many in Hollywood and New York wanted to make or get the picture CHROME made but I kept running into a major snag. The script was set approximately a 130 years in the future and was populated by a world of robots in settings that don’t exist today. Action in every scene with a near-decadent scale. The fast pacing of CHROME is the antithesis of my WAR OF THE WORLDS. So the thing I heard again and again in various forms was something like, "It’s a great script but only about five people in the world could afford to make it and they probably won’t because they’ve got their own epic scale projects.

Jumping ahead for a moment, when my planned large scale modern day version of WAR OF THE WORLDS fell apart on September 11th, and I was left sitting with a studio that I had set up south of Seattle converted from a former school where the gymnasium became our soundstage and the classrooms became our art department, props department, woodshop, materials casting rooms, costume and wardrobe, actor’s dressing rooms, etc, I convinced the money interests that were left, to roll it over into CHROME. I’ll talk in detail on that production at a later time.

But this story, surprisingly, is not about CHROME, but about BUG WARS (Reviewed in CFQ, issue 165 - Vol 33). The way BUG WARS came to be was that I had exhausted my leads and myself temporarily in my quest to get CHROME made. Two years and countless meetings and trips to Los Angeles or New York, only to come back to Seattle, wiser but empty handed.

It was on one last trip to New York, that I stopped by TROMA to see if Lloyd Kaufman might want to get involved either as a producer or in some financial capacity. Lloyd was distributing my movies, HOUSE OF THE RISING and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at the time, though I believe only MIDSUMMER is still available. That may change soon. Incidentally, Lloyd mentions my movie A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in his book, ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FILMMAKING I LEARNED FROM THE TOXIC AVENGER, where he laments that my movie didn’t have nudity in it.

Now before I go on, I want to clarify, I wasn’t coming to Lloyd for CHROME to be a TROMA movie, but to Lloyd as a producer. Now not many people know that before Lloyd Kaufman made the TOXIC AVENGER and was rocketed forever into camp-sexy-fantasy movies, Lloyd was a straight arrow production manager and producer. In fact, Lloyd was the production manager for Sylvester Stallone’s ROCKY and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, starring John Travolta. He also produced THE FINAL COUNTDOWN starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen and Katherine Ross.

When I met up with him, Lloyd had read my script and thought it was great. Impossible to shoot, but great. I pitched my idea about him coming on board and he, without missing a beat, counter pitched that if I could make a much much, did I say much, smaller sci-fi film in the hundred to two hundred thousand dollar range, with TROMA putting up $17,000 dollars of it, he would distribute it. At that point, it struck my funny bone. The business is crazy and I was practically jumping out of my skin with exhaustion from the business end and wanted to do something creative. I think many of Lloyd’s films are funny and watchable…like a train wreck. His sense of the macabre blended with a joyous, don’t-care-tongue-in-cheek approach is often very entertaining. I will never forget when the TOXIC AVENGER yells, "Yo, villain, into the blender!"

Also JAMES GUNN, writer director of SLITHER, and writer of SCOOBY DOO, cut his teeth at TROMA.

So I agreed and we made a deal. I went back to Seattle and wrote BUG WARS in about two weeks, smiling to myself the entire time. I sent it to Lloyd. He asked for some changes that were not surprising. "More gore! More nudity!" I gleefully obliged, understanding the comedic way in which he intended I use these devices. My story, BUG WARS, was quite simple. The last two women on Earth after a quantum war battle invading intelligent bug creatures. With a Twilight Zone ending, BUG WARS was wall to wall fun. Oh, did I mention, the world of BUG WARS is hot, very hot. Requiring little clothing. Oh and the women were scientists turned warriors. I am grinning still as I write this.

Having TROMA as a distributor, having a couple of films with them and having seen money from TROMA for those, plus a letter of intent from Lloyd, I was able to raise a hundred and fifty thousand dollars pretty easily.

So BUG WARS was shot in soundstages that were actually underneath the street level in Pioneer Square in old underground Seattle. More specifically we were beneath the old Buttnick Brassiere Manufacturing Plant. Yes, we had much fun with that. In the lead role is Darlene Renee Sellers, whom some may remember as the trembling Mrs. Elphinstone, in WAR OF THE WORLDS. The actor’s dressing rooms were actually under the sidewalk and at one time, the main stage had been part of the Underground Tour years before we got hold of it.

This space later was converted into a multi level nightclub called THE FENIX UNDERGROUND. You should check out the link. It has great panaramas of what they did. I went down there to see for myself and it was weird to see the soundstages we had filmed our movie in converted to dance floors. The owner asked me if he could play BUG WARS at a sci-fi themed party he threw at the club's opening. It was very cool how they had my movie running on a loop on screens throughout the club on several floors.

Anyway, to make the movie, we built future sets, a couple of collapsed stores and the collapsed lobby of a hotel. It was a kick. Producer Shefskie Paba hand sculpted life-sized skeletons to be strewn throughout the movie. We really enjoyed the production. Much of it difficult to figure out and visualize, but everyone laughed a lot all the way through. When the time comes, the bloopers reel will bare this out.

The movie was shot in 16MM film with Angenieux lenses and posted on MAC computers. The special effects were created with cgi on a toy program by today’s standards called Specular Infini-d. This was before MetaCreations bought it. The comps were done on an early version of After Effects using things like Puffin Composite Wizard to pull the mattes.

The movie turned out pretty darn good for what it was meant to be. It was fun and funny often and there is a spirit of irreverence to it that was infectious. So much so that it was at a BUG WARS screening in a community theater that some of the first employees of Microsoft showed up on an invite. They had been drinking and had a great time and it was that night that the first deals for my now abandoned large budget modern version of WAR OF THE WORLDS were struck. I was quickly introduced to many people with real money and a range of financial advisors. I will recount the collapse of that version of WAR OF THE WORLDS in another blog.

Now, it is to absolute naiveté on my part and not trusting my own inner feelings that I let some of these new money people talk me into going with another distributor with BUG WARS. The reasoning was all about prestige and it was stupid stupid stupid. I chose a new distributor offering cash up-front that was composed of a group people who had all worked in distribution on some level, but were woefully under-financed. Lloyd said, generously about them later, "Good people. They just shouldn’t have been in the distribution business." You see they had worked for Lloyd.

BUG WARS played at CANNES and got on the front page of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER for a promo stunt involving girls in wet t-shirts with tricked out super-soaker squirt guns. A few deals were made but they fell apart as the film had been shopped wrongly. So, on better advice, I shelved it for a few years to let that pass by. I recently talked with Lloyd and BUG WARS is indeed going to be a TROMA movie soon, after all said and done.

So today I’m posting the trailer for BUG WARS. You can see by it that we all had fun making this movie. Also notable is that the music is by THE CRYSTAL METHOD. We made the deal just before they broke and now I hear their music in a range of movie promos and global advertising campaigns. But we were of the first. And the way it came about was proximity. My producer on that picture, LORA OLIVER, had grown up with the band members in Las Vegas. So I hope you enjoy. Don’t expect SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. BUG WARS lives in the TOXIC AVENGER vein. And we are all quiet proud if it, in its kitchy way. When it is released, I hope you have as much fun with it as we did making it. BUG WARS contains some nudity. Thank you Lloyd! The trailer is censored for youtube.

-Later~

SHORTER FUNNIER

2009-03-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all, very short post today. I added two new pieces of my 1989 comedy, SUNRISE ON ALPHABET CITY. It was suggested that I post pieces of this movie in small portions, which I have done here. Thank you for the constructive advice! Shorter, funnier. See yesterday's post to learn more about this movie. Hope you enjoy!

-Later~

NEW YORK FILM INDUSTRY IN THE LATE 1970s AND ALPHABET CITY

2009-03-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

I got a call from AlphaCine lab in Seattle, that after many decades in the same location, the economy and development of that part of town, they are moving to new digs. The reason they contacted me was that my negative originals for my first feature film, SUNRISE ON ALPHABET CITY had to be picked up, having been stored there since the late 1980s. I went down there myself as I had virtually grown up having my movies processed or posted at AlphaCine lab and I wanted to see it one last time.

When I got the negatives, I paused for a moment to take in the film cans, larger around than the largest extra large pizza and stacked three feet deep. A digital feature, by comparison, depending on the format of its elements, could take up the space of a couple of hefty dictionaries. Film is an era fading away. One day it will go the way of the hatters and the buggy whip makers and it will be missed and sometimes cursed by all those who have worked extensively in the medium.

My first digital feature, CHROME, brought the freedom of Francis Ford Copolla take ratios and was so freeing as to be able to get exactly what we wanted as opposed to "just getting it" sometimes with the enormous cost of film. On a side note, with WAR OF THE WORLDS, I sure learned that affording a proper take ratio in the face of impossible scheduling could not save a movie.

I thought it would be fun to put up a few clips of this "first" feature film, SUNRISE ON ALPHABET CITY. In reality it is my second feature. The first, about a machine Thomas Edison invented to talk to the dead, should rightfully remain forever locked in a trunk in the cellar with a sign posted on the box that reads, "BEWARE THE TIGER." One for Douglas Adams fans.

I looked around to find my film transfer of SUNRISE and to my horror, they had become consumed in mould. All I had was the 3/4" film chain transfer. So, for now, I had that digitized anyway. Unfortunately, this transfer which was done using a film chain onto 3/4" tape, is not representative of the quality of the original image or sound. It will be a while before I go back to an editing suite to give SUNRISE a proper laser transfer so I thought I'd put it up, warts and all.

I think of SUNRISE ON ALPHABET CITY as my first feature film because it was shot on film, it was a feature and it had a run in several theaters. And by, "had a run," I mean I individually made deals with independent theaters such as the Grand Illusion in Seattle, The Red Vic in San Fransisco and the Millennium and the Film Forum in New York, etc. Sadly today, there is only a handful of indie theaters left. But back then, they were everywhere.

I would make the deal and ship the film myself along with the advertising or schlep it there myself and hide in the back of the theater and watch the audience. In one case in a small town, the projectionist was too drunk on whiskey to run the projector and I had to do it myself. There were about 60 or so people in the audience and they had no idea the director of the movie they were watching was sitting up in the sweaty little projection room, changing over the reels, next to a passed out drunken projectionist/enthusiast of serial killer trading cards. Don't ever let it be said that the movies are not glamorous.

SUNRISE is about my early days as a very struggling filmmaker coming to New York and Manhattan's East Village area known as Alphabet City. It was at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s. My beginnings in New York was to plunge into a series of jobs as bike messenger, waiting tables and eventually run-you-ragged entry level film jobs.

New York at this time was brimming with movie companies called mini-majors with strange names like SPECTRAFILM, GREYCAT, AVENUE, ISLAND PICTURES and SKOURAS PICTURES. I remember that MIRAMAX ran their film acquisitions out of the second story apartment of their acquisitions director, Mark Tusk. I was always trying to get him to buy my movies. I would tell him that great new things were coming out of Seattle. And he would joke, "Yeah, fresh young fellas," and laugh hysterically at his own joke. There was a band from Seattle, FRESH YOUNG FELLOWS, that had a hit at the time.

The movie is partly my story and partly the stories of filmmakers I met along the way who had similar shared experiences. I most assuredly shot myself in the foot by making fun of film distributors and poking comic holes in their thinking. Needless to say, that even though audiences found it light and laughed a lot and what critical reviews I got were positive, the distributors thought it was somewhat dark in its nature. Hmm. What I did was sort of like insulting the waiter that is going to serve you food. It was a hard lesson. I'm very slow sometimes.

The movie was shot on 16MM film and edited on a Movieola Upright which a century earlier were based on the sewing machine. Incidentally, this is no coincidence, as in the dawn of movie making, editing, or "stitching together film," was the same as stitching together clothes in their minds, so the jobs were handed to seamstresses. The role of the editor was not considered a "creative" job at all, but more like a position in a sweatshop making blue jeans. Indeed the first editing facilities set up for mass production were modeled after sweatshops. I cut the sound for the film on a 16MM flatbed editing table that appears as itself in the actual movie.

The lead actor, Tom Sunderland, told me later that he based his character on watching me, which didn't compute at the time. I couldn't be that nervous and shaky and wide eyed at everything like that, could I? Doh!

Alyce LaTourelle went on to act in several indie movies and has a fun major role in a Troma movie called TERROR FIRMER. I found this out when I was visiting Lloyd Kaufman, the president of TROMA. After Lloyd took me to lunch we stopped by one of his editing suites to look at some scenes from his latest gore fest and there was Alyce on the screen. I was pretty blown away. The universe never fails to surprise me. And Ms. LaTourelle is not missing an eye as she is seen in my movie. I came up with the eye patch having seen a beautiful model wearing one at a restaurant in Little Italy.

Wait a minute! Didn't Angelina Jolie have an eye patch in SKY CAPTAINS AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW? They copied that from me! It seems I have no choice but to sue and put up a website comparing the eye patch on Angelina Jolie in SKY CAPTAINS to Alyce LaTourelle's eye patch in SUNRISE, shot by shot. And then I'll start a site countering my own arguments called the Angelina Wars. On second thought...

Also of note, the set dresser on the film, Regan Haines later worked on the sci-fi THE CLASS OF 1999, which starred Malcolm McDowell and was Rose McGowan's first movie as a frightened teen. Regan's dad directed a classic version of STEPPENWOLF back in the late sixties or early seventies. I'm actually in the movie as the cab driver with my voice dubbed, (you can tell). I have the hat and dark sunglasses and am 20 years younger.

We took over a 3 story abandoned hotel where we shot most of the film. The owner allowed us to do what we wanted as the building was due to be demolished soon. Our rent was to haul away two tons of garbage left there, some of it for decades. More movie glam. It was a dicey part of town and our wardrobe supervisor actually fought off a would-be-mugger outside our main entrance until he fled. You would never know that she was that tough, but everyone looked at her in a new light after that.

I’m posting the opening bit of SUNRISE ON ALPHABET CITY. I’ll post bits and pieces of the film over time. So I hope you can get past the scratchy bumpy film quality because I think it is worth the nostalgic chuckle. Goodbye AlphaCine Lab in your old incarnation. Times, they are a changin’.

-Later~

OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT READING

2009-03-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

I attended a fascinating book reading in Seattle last night where three co-authors read from their book, OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT, Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Christian and Jewish Sources.

The three authors are Jamal Rahman, a renown Muslim Sufi Minister, Kathleen Schmitt Elias, a former Roman Catholic Nun who is now a Sufi Jew and Ann Holmes Redding a Muslim and a Christian with a doctorate in Christian scripture. Ms. Redding is also an Episcopalian Priest.

It was an experience to hear them read and share the many crossover points and similarities of the major world religions. At one point Mr. Rahman, in talking about interfaith thinking said, "If one is flexible, one can never be bent out of shape." After the reading we were able to mingle with the authors and have one on one questions and answers.

Here’s what Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa has to say about the book:

"The writers of this thoughtful and wise book take us gently by the hand and show us, `Here is the one God, the God of us all, right here in the Quran.' This message is actually quite good news, although it challenges the assumption that God is wholly owned by Christianity, or any one religion. I hope that Out of Darkness Into Light is read widely and taken to heart so that we all can widen our circles of embrace and recognize the God of love and compassion in more people and places."

If you have questions about the validity of keeping Kosher in a modern age, or how your particular faith may fit with the world religions or if you are an agnostic with questions of the various faiths, this book is an excellent guide map.

-Later~

GOT A COPY OF THE PILOT I PHOTOGRAPHED STARRING LAUREN SINCLAIR AND LOU FERRIGNO

2009-03-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

I promised, for amusement, that I would, from time to time, link or post works that I have made contribution to in the past. So today is the first.

I set up a page on Youtube to collect some of these. This is a pilot I was one of two cinematographers on. Due to running time it is posted in two parts. It’s called 555 Expose and was shot with a Sony HD camera. It stars Lauren Sinclair (Face-Off) and Lou Ferrigno, who will forever be THE INCREADIBLE HULK to my generation. Mr. Ferrigno is currently in a new comedy with Jason Segel, I LOVE YOU, MAN.

The pilot was directed by Peter A. Dowling, a writer/director whose credits include, Flightplan starring Jodie Foster, which was a number one box office hit in the U.S. and grossed over $223,000,000 worldwide. The piece was produced by John O’Melveny Woods, Mary Keefe and Ricco Distefano.

I had a creatively positive experience on this production. Also a fun time touring around with Peter Dowling and friends and wisecracking at the end of the shoot.

All I have time for today.

-Later~

THANKS TO RANDY FOR GYPSY KING, BATMAN SUB-ZERO, ANIMANIACS

2009-03-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today’s blog is a quick thanks to good friend Randy Rogel for the tickets to his show in progress, GYPSY KING. It was very funny and entertaining. Great musical theater writing. This show is developing for Broadway. It’s just the kind of show we need in these hard times.

Randy Rogel is the Producer/Writer of the Batman animated movie BATMAN, SUBZERO. I’ve heard a lot of people say they really like this Batman movie. Randy also co-created the animated series, PINKY AND THE BRAIN and written many ANIMANIACS episodes for Steven Spielberg. A several time Emmy winner and winner of the Peabody Award, Randy is also developing a new animated series with Howard Kazanjian, STAR WARS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK producer. His show GYPSY KING is testing in a few cities. If you get a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it.

Also, one of the producers of the Lou Ferrigno pilot I co-photographed contacted me and is giving me another copy of the screener. (See yesterday's blog.) I’ll put it up as soon as I have it.

-Later~

CAN SOMEONE HELP ME FIND A LINK TO A FOX PILOT?

2009-03-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

Just for kicks, I plan to occasionally link to commercial productions I’ve worked on over the years. Commercials, features, industrials, etc. I have worked in nearly every position in film production in the last 30 odd years. And some might be interested and/or amused by my roles in these. Lou Ferrigno will forever be THE INCREADIBLE HULK to my generation. Mr. Ferrigno is currently in a new comedy with Jason Segel, I LOVE YOU, MAN.

So, today, I was going to put up a link to a pilot for a FOX television series called 555 EXPOSE, starring Lou Ferrigno and Lauren Sinclair (Face-Off). I was one of two cinematographers on the production.

However I couldn’t find a link to it on the internet, and for the life of me I couldn’t locate my copy of the screener and I ran out of time. So I thought somebody reading this might know where a link is to a clip or the actual pilot, (if its legal), so I could link to it for amusement. If I don’t get a quick response on this from someone out there, I’ll contact the producers to get another screener.

Ms. Lauren Sinclair, some may remember, in FACE OFF, was the FBI agent that Nicholas Cage forces to eat a peach with before he throws her out of the cargo hold of a plane. Ms. Sinclair had the palest blue eyes that were just vivid on the high def camera it was shot with. I see why John Woo cast her in his film. On the 555 EXPOSE project, I actually came on as an alternate. The prime Director of Photography fell ill and had to bow out, so I was called in for the second half. I lost track of the production and I’m not sure if it got picked up, though I do not believe so.

But in any case, it was a very good experience and I loved the state of the art studios at Microsoft where the project was posted for some reason.

If you find the link I'm looking for and want to share, write to with it here. Thanks.

-Later~

SHORT POST - THE BATTLESTAR ENDING

2009-03-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

A short post today. Surprised to be on the phone for hours, but extremely pleasant and positive talk. Very good things. Tonight is CHROME, CHROME, CHROME posting. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was very satisfying last night. Don't want to give it away for those who haven't seen it yet. The massive space battle scenes were top notch. Bittersweet and right conclusion.

-Later~

THE END OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA AND THE UNIVERSE RESEMBLES A BRAIN

2009-03-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

As tonight the final episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (see related post on March 16th.) are going to air, I thought I’d post this interesting link to the measured known Universe. The discovery of the position of stars and planets in relation to one another has left the scientific world with many questions. Who would have imagined that the universe clumps together in a pattern the deeply resembles the physical structure of a human brain? There is certainly more going on in known existence than we can begin to comprehend.

-Later~

DC'S WATCHMEN, STAN LEE, SPIDER-MAN, AND DARK HORSE COMICS

2009-03-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

I saw WATCHMEN.

But, before I talk about WATCHMEN I want to say that, concerning my legal actions with DARK HORSE COMICS, nobody knows what was said between myself, the top executives at DARK HORSE and our respective attorneys. And none of the parties involved are talking.

Anybody who says otherwise, or implies that they are privy to private legal conversations my company had with DARK HORSE, is lying. Outright. I was not FORCED, by any imagination, to apologize. The apology came out of a complex series of conversations between my company and DARK HORSE, who is the third largest comic publisher in the world. Through these talks, I became convinced that the people at DARK HORSE did nothing wrong and they did not plagiarize my film. People may want to keep this matter alive, but it is over. Water under the bridge.

DARK HORSE is a fine publication and one of the few outlets for the creative flow of today and tomorrow’s great comics and graphic novels. HELLBOY, for example is entirely unique and fascinating.

People should check out the DARK HORSE website.

Back in the late sixties, a time some now call the silver age of comics, when I was a boy, I had collected 8,000 comic books. My favorite comic series was THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. I had SPIDER-MAN issues 1-120 without a break in the sequence. Lots of number ones. DAREDEVIL, IRON MAN (in TALES OF SUSPENSE), etc. I used to love the old paper smell of the comics. I would study the staples and reread the comics constantly, finding new subtle nuances each read through. I still have a modest collection of some of my favorites to this day. Like so many kids from that era, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Johnny Romita, and Jack Kirby helped keep my soul intact during a time of tremendous unrest in the country. Kennedy had recently been killed.

The Vietnam War was raging and the civil rights movement was refusing to back down in the face of tyranny. It is only how the grace of god seems to protect many children from their own idiocy, that I survived dressing up in a painted sweat shirt and black mask and sneaking out at 3AM to meet up with my boyhood friend, who was also masked, to go fight crime. We basically crawled around rooftops and fire escapes looking for villains to thwart. Our weapons were nothing as mundane as a knife or gun, not that we had access to a gun, but screwdrivers and plastic medicine bottles of actual red pepper. Oh dear god, I think how absolutely horrible for us it would have been had we ever encountered a REAL criminal or police officer who might have seen us, with our masks and lurking around on rooftops, as something other than super-heroes.

But what Stan Lee was to many in our youth, was a secret second father. Stan Lee is a man who not only wanted to sell comic books, but knew absolutely that he had the minds and spirits of impressionable youth in his hands. Me and my fellow comics collector friends lived, absolutely lived by the codes Lee expounded through, SPIDER-MAN, THE FANTASTIC FOUR, IRON MAN, DAREDEVIL and others. The most important of all was, "With great power comes great responsibility." It was saying you just can’t do whatever you want. You have to consider others. And the stronger you are, the less bully-like you should be.

I had a particular obsession with what they called GOLDEN AGE COMICS. In 1971, Rod Dyke, became the greatest comic seller in Seattle, (still is), when he started Dyke’s Books and Records in a store deep in the Pike Place Market, later changed the name of his business to honor the classic period, GOLDEN AGE COLLECTIBLES. I’ve often wondered if the comic seller in the SIMPSONS was based on him. Rod mellowed over the years, but back then he ruled us kids with an iron fist in his store. I remember how he used to stop ringing us up while he ate his lunch. We mulled around until he was finished. That gave us time to look around a bit more and created more business for him. I have nothing but love for the man, Rod Dyke, to whom I’m sure I’m just one of the many faces of child fans that flowed through his world.

But the GOLDEN AGE COMICS, these were long lost super heroes mostly from the 1940’s. There were many costume crusaders that eventually fell by the wayside and are today largely forgotten.

That’s why WATCHMEN immediately resonated for me. The mix of sixties music and the way in which the back story was presented, somehow perfectly captures the excitement about comics that I never quite seem to have been able to recapture in adulthood. Most absolutely, the movie CHROME that I’m working on is my humble attempt at recreating the excitement I once felt about the super heroes of my childhood.

THE WATCHMAN, in spite of that it is a movie that makes you have to use your little gray cells and not just have it roll over you like a great wash of, as Shakespeare said, "thunder and furry signifying nothing." The ending to WATCHMEN will be difficult for some. The melancholy undercurrents will detach or bore others. But if you are a true fan of superheroes you will be moved by this movie. The action is top rate and, in a stylistic way, far more violent than the director’s previous work, 300. My hat is off to the creators of WATCHMEN and DC Comics. I thank you for reawakening something I thought lost in me. Thank you for redefining something that had become cloudy. That is that comics were about something to kids. For some of us, they were our life’s blood to surviving the perils of our adolescence.

One of the coming attractions before WATCHMEN was the new STAR TREK trailer. Likewise, I was a huge fan of the original STAR TREK with William Shatner as Kirk. I remember waiting with excitement as a promised poster of Spock next to some glass lab beakers was to come out in the newspaper, The Seattle Post Intelligencer. When the poster arrived, it was a full page spread. I had that thing on my wall until it disintegrated.

So when the new ad began, I could barely contain my excitement. Paramount has really outdone itself this time in reconstructing STAR TREK for ALL the fans…Us from-the-first-series original STAR TREK fans, the Next Generation fans and all those fans that followed. THIS was the movie I was hoping for when the first STAR TREK movie was announced. OMG. To see the Enterprise on the ground. Ahhhhh OMG! I used to have dreams about seeing the Enterprise launch from the ground. I can’t wait. People can talk all the crap they want debating whether or not the new cast looks enough like the originals or whether they honor the NEXT GENERATION too much or not enough, I cannot wait to see this movie!

Gooooo STAR TREK! Gooooo!

THE MUSIC OF WAR OF THE WORLDS

2009-03-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Jamie Hall’s score in my movie H.G. WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, aka, THE CLASSIC WAR OF THE WORLDS, is spectacular in its own right and is apples and oranges to Mr. Wayne’s labor of love. Haunting and immensely stirring, Jamie Hall’s score invokes a range of emotions. I’ve heard many say it’s the best aspect of the movie.

When Jamie and I sat down to plan the music, direction and themes, one of the things we wanted to achieve was music befitting the end of the world. The bringing of humanity to its knees required a full and powerful war sound, but also had to invoke deep tragedy. I knew from Jamie’s earlier works that Jamie had it in him.

A major concern was that we just didn’t have it in the budget for a live orchestra. We explored recording in Eastern Europe where you can obtain a full symphony on a budget and get great sound. THE RED VIOLIN was recorded in Eastern Europe on a budget.

But alas, budget AND logistics of the tight timeline pointed us toward synthesized orchestra. Jamie had many examples of where synth orchestras fail and where they succeed. He worked hard on not letting the format punch through and take you away from the score. What he produced was nothing short of instant classic. His music for WOTW makes the hairs on your arms stand on end at points. Here’s a review of Jamie’s score:

Film Score Monthly
Review of
H.G. Wells'
The WAR of the WORLDS
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
3 1/2 stars (out of 4)

Out of necessity, this is a low-budget score that makes use of high quality orchestral samples. If you accept the score on those terms, there is much to enjoy here. The opening "March of the Martians" features an excellent syncopated rhythmic drive and strong thematic writing. Hall is capable of writing memorable, lyric themes, and his love theme in particular is gorgeous. Some of the score's more horrific moments feature effective aleatoric clusters, and in "The Martians Come Out" Hall briefly throws in the effect of a large wordless chorus. In all, this is a diverse and rewarding listen despite the limitations of the score's electronic realization.

Jamie Hall is a good man. His soul shines through everything he does. Especially his music. Jamie’s now scoring a couple of other films and Jamie will continue his collaboration with Pendragon Pictures with a fresh wonderfu score for the upcoming robot pic, CHROME. This time live orchestra. I’ll talk more about CHROME soon. The music score for H.G. WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS is now out at Amazon.com as well as Itunes. It is a definite compliment to your classical music and film scores collection.

Also keep an eye out on this blog for recounts of my many hilarious mistakes and uber-blunders in Hollywood.

-Later~

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA IS AT ITS END

2009-03-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

This was published yesterday in the New York Times:

Arts, Briefly
‘Battlestar Galactica’: The Worldview

By PATRICK
HEALY; Compiled by JULIE BLOOM
Published: March 15, 2009

The United
Nations and the Sci Fi Channel will present a panel discussion Tuesday evening on the social and political issues raised by the Sci Fi series "Battlestar Galactica," which concludes on Friday night. Moderated by Whoopi Goldberg (a frequent guest on "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), the topics include human rights, terrorism, and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faiths. Among those participating are "Battlestar" actors Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, above, as well as the show’s executive producers, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. The event is invitation-only.

The article can be found
here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/arts/television/16arts-THEWORLDVIEW_BRF.html?ref=arts

Since the beginning, I've been a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica. Sadly, its coming to its conclusion Friday. The series is led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. McDonnell was the first lady in INDEPENDENCE DAY. I’ve often felt that Battlestar Galactica is one of the most intelligent shows on the air.

Kudos to Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, Ray Cannella and the Sci-Fi Channel, and all the great talent that brought the show to life and kept it there. Based on a 1970s series that was a virtual copy of Star Wars. So similar that Lucas sued over it and lost. But by a hair's bredth.

One would never have guessed that such an in depth and well produced show would arise from such humble ashes. But it did rise. The show deals realistically with death, survival, government, religion and living with villains. And the cgi is very nice. The space battles are quite breathtaking. The effects are very carefully laid out and the Cylon Centurions have improved from season to season.

I’m taking time out from post-production on CHROME tonight to watch a one hour behind the scenes special on the making of Battlestar. When the show ends the show will leave a void.

-Later~

MY FIRST BLOG

2009-03-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

This is my blog. It’s not a WAR OF THE WORLDS or CHROME blog, though I’ll probably talk about those pictures occasionally. Like today, for instance.

Also, I am not going to respond to obnoxious crack-addled letters from the demented minds of worked up cyberstalkers, some of whom have been at it for 9 years now. You know who you are. But I jest. Does that qualify them as career cyberstalkers? A lot of ball players have a shorter professional run than that. But I will wax on poetic about the internet cyber-crazies at some other time. For now, see Tina Fey’s acceptance speech at this year’s Emmy Awards.

I’ve always made movies. Or it feels like always. I have spent the majority of my time on this Earth creating/manipulating images and sound. I do not believe I’m entitled to make movies. I don’t have a childish impetuousness or sense of divine right about being in the movie biz. Movies are what I do. It’s what I am. How I express.

I’ve been making movies since I was eight years old. I came from a large family, the last of ten brothers and sisters. I have dozens of nephews and nieces, aunts uncles, cousins. My parents were depression era people, both born in 1917. I was a great surprise addition to a brood that started in the 1930’s. I grew up around a massive breakfast table, not unlike that in the book and movie CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. I was always fascinated with the swirling energy of so much family and so many voices. My family spoke all at once. In this maelstrom I found expression through stories, art and film.

And as anyone who knows me knows I have always wanted to make THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. I have sketches and screenplay drafts dating back 35 years. I have worked hard to get WAR OF THE WORLDS made. Harder than most could comprehend, the time spent on getting this production to screen. So what went wrong? Why isn’t it the smashing gem of a masterpiece I envisioned and it started out as? Let me be clear on my thoughts about the film. It is flawed. Some parts or moments are so flawed that they undoubtedly deserve the label Ed Wood and Mystery Science Theater. But the film sold 600,000 DVDs and it is entertaining. And some of the film actually rises to the levels we intended, as thousands of viewers have written to tell me so. Nearly as many have told me to throw myself into an active volcano rather than inflict my movie making on them again.

So how did the film turn out the way it did? Well, for starters, if there was a mistake to be made, I probably made it…twice. It wasn’t as if the many talented artists weren’t aware that flaws were slipping into, or not being sanded out of the film. It wasn’t the artistry. It was how much time we had to perform that artistry. Mistakes I made on agreeing to impossible time limitations with distributors and mistakes I made with where to apply the budget affected what we were able to do. I’ve often thought I should have cut scenes, let those chips fall where they may, so to speak, and concentrate the production’s resources on the remaining scenes. I’ll go more in depth on this later.

But should I have not tried? Some have said that I shouldn’t have. Well, the universe was here arguably about 13 billion years, then the current generations were born. We’ll be here for such an infinitesimally small period of time that taken into account the life span of the universe, we don’t register. Not at all. In fact, looking at the life span of the Earth, our planet will have spent more time existing in a gaseous state than will be spent as solid matter. Life is fleeting. Like the Buddhist sand paintings. Blip, here and gone. The moment is too precious to let slip by. For better or worse, we must take risks. We must be brave and face our mistakes, our enemies and those we have wronged along with the successes and joys that life may grace us with. So, I have definitely made mistakes. Would I do things differently? Oh yes. But would I do it again? In a New York minute.

Over the years, I have encountered many people who have wanted to remake or make a version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Along with some praise and appreciation, I’ve received much public flogging as the director of the period version of WAR OF THE WORLDS. But I have something in common with Steven Spielberg, George Pal, Orson Welles, Jeff Wayne, David Michael Latt, C. Thomas Howell and Roland Emmerich. We all tried to bring the magnificent fantasy of H.G. Wells’ novel, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, to life. At the heart of it, there it is. I will learn better business and people relation skills. As I go forward, I will grow my strengths and work to reduce my flaws and vanities. One cannot have too much humility. But I will always take the leap. I will always take the risk to live out this life at its fullest.

– Later ~