“How do you want your name in the credits?”

I got to do something REALLY cool this week: I worked on the crew of a video shoot that would play as a 3-minute comedy sketch during ESPN’s ESPY Awards show next Wednesday. The best part was that it was a huge production, so I could see every single part of a professional shoot operate independently. Gaffers, cameramen, art directors, prop guys, cord wranglers, food caterers… literally it all. I was able to see a new style of directing, and the challenges of keeping an entire crew energized for 7 hours. I was able to learn so much, from how to assemble a giant diffusion curtain meant for diffusing sunlight to the importance of being flexible and working together with many, many people. And it didn’t hurt that the talent for the skit was made up of Emmy-winners Seth Myers (SNL), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock). Too cool.

By participation in the production consisted of three basic tasks: throwing the golf balls when they needed a shot of a ball flying into the woods, acting as Jon Hamm’s stand-in, and holding props. So at the end of the shoot, when they asked me, “How do you want your name in the credits?”, I asked for either “Jon Hamm’s stand-in” or simply “Crew.” It seemed better than “Ball grabber.”

So watch the ESPY Awards next Wednesday, July 14. You’ll see the video and me throwing golf balls around a course. Hopefully they spell my name right.

My first short film

This is my first short film, titled Pavlov. It is an adaptation of the scientific experiments conducted by Ivan Pavlov in the late 1890s. I produced every bit of this video from scratch; I wrote the screenplay, did all the pre-production work, designed the lighting/set/props, and edited it together. This process was invaluable to my development in cinema and I am really proud of the way it turned out. Enjoy!

Editing with stuff you didn’t shoot

Editing with stuff you didn’t shoot

This week’s assignment was interesting because the video we created had to be edited entirely from footage we did not shoot. That means no prior knowledge of what was included in the footage, no idea of where the good shots were, and no transcriptions of any audio that might be important. We were working blind, laboriously going through every minute of the footage to find clips that worked in our story.

This wasn’t too, too difficult because, fortunately, I didn’t have that much footage to go through. All of the videos I used were no more than nine or ten minutes in length. I can imagine how hard this process would be if I had to scour hours upon hours of footage instead. Thank God that wasn’t the case.

I started by just watching tons of videos in the archives we were allowed to use, looking for any possible themes I could craft into a story. I eventually landed on a video called Modern New Orleans, a video from the early 1930’s about the futuristic technology (for the time) and strength of the city’s infrastructure. A certain text slide caught my eye, referencing the fact that, at the time, the levees keeping New Orleans from becoming a lake had not failed in over 100 years. That’s when the idea came to me: I would do a mini-documentary on Hurricane Katrina using only footage from before 1950.

This proved to be easier than I expected. I was able to find footage of floods and hurricanes in Pittsburgh, Reno, New England and other places to use as b-roll over a nice voice over talking about the destructive forces of hurricanes and the great task of rebuilding afterward. I spliced the images and audio together to create what appears to be a single hurricane. Hopefully you agree.

ADR Exercise

This week we had do experiment with ADR, or Automated Dialogue Replacement. We were to take a scene from a movie we liked (for us, it was my favorite movie of all time, Gladiator), and recreate EVERY bit of audio in the scene. We couldn’t use any stock sound effects, either, we had to recreate everything ourselves. For us, that meant a HUGE degree of difficulty. We had a fight scene, so we needed to recreate grunting, panting, swordfighting, punching and kicking. You should’ve heard us down in the editing bays, grunting and growling and shouting; it was definitely awkward.

But while the awkwardness of recording grunt noises was probably the most difficult part of the exercise, the part that demanded the most of our creativity was creating a slicing/stabbing noise. We obviously couldn’t actually stab or slice something with a sword, so instead we used a key to cut and tear through a piece of paper. The sound wasn’t quite perfect, but it definitely got the job done. A close second was the swordfighting itself, simply because we don’t own swords. We used two metal bars we found through numberous phone calls to friends and tried banging them together, but the sound was too muffled. In the end, we had to balance the bars upright on the ground and throw them together, allowing more of a vibration.

AMIT-Trailer

This is a trailer we did for Chris’ screenplay titled “Amit.” It tells the story of a young basketball recruit who is contantly facing pressure from those around him. Fans, coaches, recruiters and even people around the town are constantly looking for him to become a superstar, creating uneasiness and insecurity in the young player. Eventually, he must make a choice between the game he loves and the person he wants to be.

Almost Famous

The cover of Almost Famous will tell you it won two Golden Globes – one for best picture and the other for best supporting actress. The cover will not, however, tell you that this movie was made great by something much more abstract and powerful than acting talent or direction. It goes beyond the woven storyline in the script or the star-studded cast.

What made this film great was the timelessness of its message, emotion and story. It is the tangible creation of one of the greatest euphoria in existence: being caught up in the buzz of fame, golden years of rock and roll, friendship, youth and love. All balled up into 120 minutes of film stock.

I stopped watching Almost Famous about 15 minutes ago, and I still feel at peace. I feel at peace with the turmoil of daily life; the busy schedules, yearning for acceptance and fear of the future. That’s the beauty of movies, isn’t it? To take us out of the “real world” and plop us into a story of fame and fortune and an undying hunger for love.

That is what this film is all about. Hunger for love. Hunger for love of music, of life, of friends, of people. Whether it is Russell and Penny’s unyielding love for each other; William’s love for music, acceptance, friends and Penny; Elaine’s love for her son and rebellious daughter; Stillwater’s love for true rock and roll; or even the entire generation of the 70’s’ love for feeling the high of life (and quite a few narcotics), the unerring theme of this movie revolves around love.

So that is why I, like so many others who have watched Almost Famous, feel this way. It is because we have witnessed the birth, life, and glory of love; and, as the Beatles said in a way perfectly befitting of this film, love is all you need.

Inglorious Basterds

They always say war is hell. Saving Private Ryan and Meat Locker sure made it look that way. Most of Quentin Tarantino’s movies look like hell too, so if you combine Tarantino and war, you should get hell squared right? 

Wrong. You get art. And comedy. In Basterds, this artsy, funny feel comes from the acting, script, imagery, and even text used to tell the story of a band of bloodthirsty Jewish-Americans seeking revenge on the Nazi Party.

Let’s start with the acting. Brad Pitt was genius in his portrayal of a backwoods general from Appalachia, merciless and brash. Much of the film’s comedy comes from his character. Then there is every single actor in the Jewish squadron, who, whether they are actually Jewish or not in real life, perfectly captured the crazed rage of revenge of their characters. The casting of Hitler was nothing short of hilarious. Bust most impressive was the character Shoshanna, played by Melanie Laurent. Here was a woman who had everything taken from her by the Nazis, and for the rest of her life battled between quiet anonymity and deep-rooted hatred. No one else could have so beautifully juxtaposed both emotions as Laurent did.

The script and imagery also contributed to the tone of the film. It took a gravely serious topic (The Holocaust/War/Death), and turned it into comedy. It wasn’t the mainstream version of comedy, however. Not like Tropic Thunder. No, this was real, smart, dark comedy that gave the film its artistic look. Like brutally beating Nazis with baseball bats and shouting about baseball, or shooting Hitler 10331357987 times only to die themselves.

But possibly the most artistic (and almost out of place) part of the film was the text and soundtrack. The text was colorful, jazzy, and loud and the soundtrack was an eclectic mix of rock and roll. Like I said, almost out of place, but perfect.

Shawshank Redemption

What a powerful film. Engaging, beautifully crafted, powerful.

I use words like this because of the immense challenge Frank Darabont must have faced when presented with the script for Shawshank. If we break down the storyline, here were his instructions: Make a feature-length film about a guy who has nothing overtly extraordinairy about him, cooped up in a single location for 19 years before he escapes in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Yikes.

Yet the finished product was nothing short of spectacular. Literally every element of the film was flawless. The acting by both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freemen, the camera movements (most notably the epic helicopter long-shot showing Andy’s [Robbins] arrival to Shawshank), the intimate character development of both Red (Freeman) and Andy, and the mystery and suspense of the final escape.

What stuck with me most, however, is the eventual redemption (I know, it’s in the title) of both Red and Andy by the end of the film. Both characters are ultimately flawed, have been convicted of horrible crimes, and are smuggling goods into a high-security prison. If we made a checklist, these two characters would appear to be antagonists. But the beautiful writing, twisting plot and brave actions of the characters help to shape them into heroes in their own way.

I loved this movie because I was able to feel the emotions of it so clearly. The hopelessness of a life sentence in prison, the pain of unfair oppression by a corrupt warden and prison guards, the trust of great friends, and the glory of escape to happiness. I felt every bit of it, and I will always love the film because of it.

Goodfellas

As if I needed to see another film about sterotypical Italian-American gangsters.

This was my thought as I sat down to watch Goodfellas, which, I admit, isn’t really valid. The movie came out long before any other mafia movie I had seen, so in reality I guess I should have seen this a long time ago. Like when I watched The Godfather. Definitely before I watched Be Cool. Yikes.

But past impressions and present assumptions don’t matter. What matters is that Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta delivered a remarkable performance in a film that perfectly captured the glory, glamour and grit of what it meant to “be somebody” in the Italian-American mafia. I was in a trance the whole movie (which, I realized after, was a respectably long 146 minutes).

The first half of the movie is entirely dedicated to making the viewer fall in love with this lovable kid who had a good heart in a bad system. Though you didn’t agree with everything he did, you always agreed with his heart; his love for his family, humble willingness to work and passion for the spotlight. Then, as he grew up, you began to love his youthful charm and romantic courting of his future wife, Karen. Life was perfect for the young mafia superstar, and we were all on his team.

The second half of the movie tore all those warm fuzzy feelings apart. Liotta’s character gets involved in affairs, senseless murder, illegal narcotics, abuse, deceit and betrayal. Every once in a while, his heart will get the best of him and he cracks, begging his wife and family for forgiveness. The rest of the time, he submits to peer pressure of his volatile and gunslinging friend Jimmy (De Niro). It isn’t until the end that he finally wisens up and turns in the people who turned his life into a living hell. ‘Atta boy Ray.

Overall, it was the fantastic script and story that made this film a success. The camera work and visuals were nothing crazy, but the acting and twists of the plot keep you coming back for more.