Archive for the ‘Non-work’ Category

“The goal of the future is full unemployment”

July 10th, 2012

I rarely read something and feel like it is directed towards me specifically. However, last week, as I finished up delivery on the documentary (in fact, the day after I delivered) – something in the New York Times caught my eye. I read it once, and walked away. A couple hours later, a few of the sentences in the article kept resonating in my head, and I went back and read it again. I nodded. There were definitely things I could take away from it. But then a couple hours later, it happened again. Now, different sentences from the article were swirling in my head. I guessed that I needed to read it again. So I went back and read it a third time. It was only on this third reading that I felt the whole thing start to sink in.

You see, the entire article was about the idea of being busy. (Read the article here), and how as a society, we have filled our days rather than cleared them. I looked at my schedule. Although I had just finished delivery on a film, my next week was already packed, morning to night, with meetings, calls, and blocks of time carved out to read, do notes, etc. And I thought, is this the way I want to live? After all, in working for myself, isn’t one of the choices I have about my lifestyle? Or at least, shouldn’t that be a choice?

The next evening I went over to a girlfriend’s house for dinner. As her (gorgeous) one year old ran around like the adorable maniac that she is, we sipped wine and talked about how her life had changed. The past month for her had been that kind of busy. The non-stop, constantly obligated kind of busy that my life often is daily. And I could tell how worn out she was by it. All I could think is “is that how worn out I am constantly?”

A year ago I gave up caffeine. I LOVED caffeine. We’re talking double espresso followed by a pot of coffee throughout the day kind of love. I drank it morning until night. And when I stopped, it sucked. Headaches, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get up, grouchy…the whole nine yards. But then, a couple weeks later, I woke up one day feeling so much better. I didn’t need to have a cup to start the day. I didn’t need a pick me up at 2pm. My body had righted itself with the natural way it was supposed to be.

And I think that’s where I am with busy. I have been busy for so long, that my body doesn’t know what to do without it. So as I try to cut out, and cut back, it rebels. My brain tells me I should be working when I pull out a (for fun) book at 9pm, and go out to the patio to read. I get antsy when I look at my calendar and I haven’t filled it 2 or 3 weeks out.

But at the same time, I can feel myself start…just barely start…to be more engaged with the things I am doing.

So, I’m not promising I’m going to be able to do this, but I’m giving it a try. Less busy.

Ten years ago

September 11th, 2011

This isn’t the first post about what happened 10 years ago you’ll read today, and I’m sure it’s not the last. But it’s mine.

The landline rang and I groggily raised my head. Knowing the voice mail would pick up, I tried to stay awake enough to hear what was so important as to wake me up this early in the morning. The caller hung up before leaving a message. A few seconds later, a cell phone rang. Not mine because it was turned off. The Bald Man was crashing at my place for a few weeks before he moved back to Houston, and it was his distinctive ring that was going off in the other room. A few seconds later, the banging on my door began. “D, D, get up. Now.” The door flew open. “We’re being bombed!” All of a sudden I was wide awake. The Bald Man threw me the phone, where Mr. Gazpacho was calling from Spain. “Dude, turn on your tv, call me back later.” I flew out of bed, and the Bald Man and I began to watch the horrific footage.

We sat mostly in stunned silence, as the scene continued to unfold. We talked little, but most of the conversation revolved around being in the center of what, very likely, could be another target. We tried to call everyone we knew was in NY, and those that were traveling, but we weren’t sure where exactly they were. We got through to only a few. My neighbor’s cell phone began to ring, waking him up. He knocked on the door, asking to come in and watch, as he didn’t have a television at the time. We all three sat in silence. I watched the television, and I watched as the two transplanted New Yorkers in my living room watched their home city be under attack.

It was the second day of a 5 day voice-over job. I called the studio, to confirm that production was shut down for the day. The producer giggled nervously. “Did you know anyone in there?” “I…I don’t think so” – it would be almost 24 hours before I learned that I was wrong. The director was from a war torn country in South America. Terrorism was commonplace to him. The voice session was still on.

I drove to the valley, not able to stop my eyes from constantly darting up to the sky. The calls were starting to pour in from everyone in town. Was everyone ok? Were we all meeting up somewhere? The Sound Engineer was out in Calabasas, and wanted me to come out there to be away from the middle of the city, but my job called. I walked into the voice studio, and turned off my phone, realizing that in doing that, I was cutting off my lifeline to hear what was happening not only in New York, but everywhere else in the country.

The project was “The Color of War” The copy I was doing v.o. for was to go along with some of the first color and colorized footage of a war retrospective. The copy consisted only of letters. Letter written from wives to husbands telling of their fears. From daughters to fathers, telling how much they missed them. From mothers to sons; old friends to old friends. And I wept. Sixteen different letters and nine accents later I was wrapped for the day. My heart was broken, as were the capillaries in my eyes from crying. The emotion in my voice was real as I read letter after letter bemoaning the tragedy of war, and the terror that comes along with it.

I walked out of the studio, and knew I wasn’t ready to go home. I needed to be anonymous in my grief that was so mixed up between what had happened that morning, and what has always happened. I walked across the street and into a small english pub and sat without taking my sunglasses off. There were four screens on. Three of them were tuned to the footage and commentary. One was still tuned to a replay of a soccer match. The englishmen at the bar started going seamlessly between watching the constant coverage, and watching a game. It was the first inkling I had that things might eventually go back to feeling normal.

New Year – get it together!

January 6th, 2011

2010 – where to start? Last year was a time of big change for me. Personally, professionally, emotionally, and intellectually. To say it was a difficult year would be an understatement. I buried one friend, and one acquaintance. I broke off a 3 year relationship. My business was sued and went all the way to trial. I fell in love and promptly had my trust horribly betrayed. I voluntarily moved out of the home I had lived in the longest in my entire life. I gave up my dogs. I spent half the year in the depressing wasteland known as suburban Detroit. I produced a film which was a constant battle on set and off every day. I watched as close friends went through divorces, lost parents, and lost jobs. I left 2010 feeling buffeted about by life in general.

Now this isn’t a feeling I’m comfortable with. I am not a victim of circumstance. I created a magical life which I (in general) love from a place of nothing. I take pride in the fact that my life is how I’ve decided to make it. So I was left wondering what I am supposed to be learning from the past year. I mean, for the love of God, people don’t have years like that for nothing…right?

But as I look back, I realize I also let the year affect me in ways I shouldn’t have. I practically stopped writing. I almost entirely stopped shooting pictures. I fell out of touch with some people who are very important to me. I stopped trying to grow my business, and just maintained. I can’t come up with a single new challenge I gave myself and took on. For the love of God, I didn’t even leave the country once last year. And none of that is “me”.

So, my 2011 is going to be about a year of rebuilding. Of putting my life back together in a new, better form than it has ever been. Because THAT, my friends, is what I do and who I am. I figure out solutions. I live with a smile on my face, embracing challenges and asking life “what else ya got for me?” That is the person I see in the mirror, not a person who just drifts through, taking what is handed. I self-identify as a risk taker, challenge seeker, problem solver, and joyful, joyful person. New home, new relationship, new ways of doing business. By the end of 2011, I expect my life will look nearly unrecognizable from where it is now.

good night, Gracie

September 1st, 2010

now I have a very specific “problem” with travel. The minute a planes engines fire up, a car’s key turns over, or a train pulls out of the station…I’m asleep before we are up to full speed. I have no idea if this “car-colepsy” comes from my childhood or from the year I spent commuting between San Francisco and Asia. All I know is that the minute that rumble of transportation starts, I’m asleep. I can’t remember the last time I felt a plane take off.

Now, in the actual travel part, it’s not a problem. There’s nothing more pleasant than going to sleep on one coast, and waking up on the other. It’s kinda like I’ve figured out teleportation.

The problem comes in when I need to stay awake during some part of travel. If I have work to do, something to read, or have to prep for whatever is going on on the other side of the travel. I find it nearly impossible to stay awake long enough to get anything done. So, I have to plan around my “disability” when traveling for work. Which means I’m often showing up at the airport exhausted. Which means I fall asleep faster.

Vicious cycle.

Do you believe in the universe?

January 16th, 2010

I certainly do. I was raised by crazy hippies…so I am the sort of person that believes that the universe provides…and I have lived my entire life by that mantra…and yet it always shocks me when I am part of that happening for someone else.

Yesterday, we were trying to finish up our plan for the sales posters for A Little Help. I have had someone in mind for quite some time to shoot them. However, today was the day we were finally locking down what we want to do. So, I called the photographer I wanted to shoot the poster and started talking to him.

We started out with the basics, me telling him what I wanted, and him giving me his availability, but I could hear a bit of strangeness in his voice. Now, keep in mind, he is someone that I am friends with socially , so I could talk to him in a way that you can’t with just simply business contacts. So I asked him why there was a hitch in his voice.

It turns out that just that day, while on the treadmill, he had sent out “a voice” (his words…) into the universe. He and his wife are about to have a baby, and he said “today, I need to find a way to $XXXX” Well, strangely, that was the base amount I was able to talk about for shooting.

Or, is it strange? I have repeatedly found that when I put something into concrete terms, it occurs. It’s the concept behind the highly successful “Best Year Yet” book and groups. Be specific, and put your effort behind it, and it will happen.

He had spent the day knocking down other doors trying to make that amount happen. And I happened to be the universe’s messenger that could tell him that was exactly how to operate.

LA Weirdo

January 12th, 2010

Interestingly, with all the strange crap I do, there is one thing I do that repeatedly gets baffled looks from all those around me. They are horrified when I say it, and there is often a low whisper of “…why?”

I commute by bike.

Now, after you have picked your chin up off the floor, let me make a couple things clear. I have a car, and do drive. In fact, I like taking the top down, and heading to Santa Barbara on a beautiful Saturday. But on a regular day, I hop on my bike to make the trek to my office and back.

I know that in some ways I’m in a position that allows me to do this. First off, I own my company. So, when I show up at the office in biking clothes, and immediately head in to change and get ready for the day, my employees get to just chalk it up on their “things my eccentric boss does” list. I also live under 2 miles from my office, and have a parking lot at the office where I can leave my car. This way I have it to get to all my meetings during the day. And lastly, facilitating this commuting style is the fact that The Giant has both a motorcycle and a car, so after I ride my bike home at night, if I need a vehicle for some reason, one is there.

But what I’ve found is that Los Angeles is surprisingly bikeable. If you take the time to look for the streets which are wide, or have good sidewalks, you can get nearly anywhere in about the time it takes to drive. I ride from my office (West Hollywood) to Venice sometimes after work to visit friends. Turns out, the actual distance is only 11 miles. Doing a “fast casual” biking (~13-14 mph), with traffic stops included, it takes me about an hour. That’s about 10 minutes longer than it would take in my car at that time of day.

But the best part is the routine commute. 2 miles each way from my house to the office and back. 10-15 minutes in the morning and in the evening when I’m not available to the world. No rolling calls, no answering emails, no making appointments, no contact. For that short period of time to start my day, I can be alone with my thoughts and my body, just enjoying the morning air. I arrive at the office far more focused, and far more calm.

No all of us bikers are crazy, anti-car, environmentalist, hippie, self-righteous wackos. Some of us just enjoy it.

This Is Not a Review

December 23rd, 2009

So, I’m not terribly interested in reviewing films, overall. There are plenty of people out there, and y’all can figure out whose opinions you trust, and who will lead you into or out of the theater. I’m not interested in doing that. However, this is about Avatar. And as such, I feel like I first need to give my overall opinion of it.

Meh *shrug*

There we go. Now, with that out of the way, I want to progress into the real reason for this blog, which is that there are a TON of reasons to actually be interested in Avatar as a movie. And as a studio movie. I’m only going to touch on my top two, but there are so many…

Interesting thing #1:
Fox isn’t banking on this as an opening weekend hit. I get “the lowdown” on what is going on in the marketing department there, and they are far more concerned with what the drop-off is going to be between weekends, and what the online chatter is (92% positive after seeing the movie, FYI) They are looking at this as being a longevity hit in the theater, rather than opening and making huge numbers.
Why it’s interesting #1:
In the independent world, this is something that we constantly struggle against with our distributors. How do you build a word of mouth that translates into a return in the box office? Because of what Avatar is, Fox is willing to bank against what we always tell distributors about a film…if people like it, your box office will follow. So, if a big budget justifies that strategy, how do we convince them that on smaller budgets, the same leap of faith is a good bet on small movies.

Interesting thing #2:
Avatar is at 84% on rotten tomatoes. Out of those, most of them talk about the spectacle, and put the story at (as best) pedestrian and previously done.
Why its interesting #2:
The split between independent and studio movies is becoming wider and wider. Studios can absolutely do things that independents can’t. The technology invented to film Avatar is certainly one of them. However, independent film has to find where the holes are in the studio system, and create product to fill those holes. and that should begin with story. Independents need to raise their own bar in regard to telling stories that are new, compelling, driven, and told creatively. We need to become more vigilant in only producing movies which have a script behind them which is flawless, and demand performances that illuminate those ideas. I have heard repeatedly from independent producers “well,the script is better than XXX XXX, which made $YYY YYY” That doesn’t matter! The script has to be better than good. It has to be amazing! We are plugging a hole here. You don’t do it with putty, you do it with cement.

I think with any movie that studios put out, we, as independent producers need to look at it with an eye towards what it says about the business and the audiences. Just enjoying it as a film is not enough.

So…what now???

November 2nd, 2009

So, after finishing shooting, we went directly into edit. I had some traveling to do, so it’s been a few months of out of town…

Aspen, CO —–>Central Colombia—–>Vegas, NV—–>Paso Robles, CA—–>back to NY—–>VT——> finally home for about 6 weeks!

So for the next six weeks, I will be catching up on everything, including the blog. After all, since I blogged last we have:

1. started the festival submission cycle with A Little Help

2. sold off a project to get it into production

3. gained a reality television agent

4. brought on a small budget film with Pierce Brosnan attached which we are putting the finance together for

5. begun to regroup and plan out our next few projects

Much has happened, and much is happening in the time coming up, so I need to get caught up. Finishing a film is always a time to reassess and come up with the best attack plan for the next year or so. Onward!

Hey You! Lady in the Back!

August 3rd, 2009

A couple days ago, I went to the “Not a Premiere Because You Can’t Call It a Premiere If You’re Sending It To Festivals, So Let’s All Dress Up And Call It a Cast, Crew and Industry Screening” of a film which two of my friends have been working on for quite a bit of time. It’s her first foray into producing, and his directing debut. The setting was pretty standard. Everyone showed up at the appointed time at the fabulous Rialto Theater, milled about the lobby making small talk, filed into the theater, watched, and then afterwards the cast and crew went up on stage for a short Q&A.

Things were going along nicely, with them discussing how they had to run and gun a lot of scenes (this was an ultra low budget, so luxuries like permits weren’t used), how they did the research for the bio-pic part of it, etc. Then some lady in the back stands up.

“Uhm, I just had a comment about the scene in the park. There are some modern cars driving behind you.”

Oh, yeah, did I mention that the filmmakers made a period piece? A no budget period piece? A no budget period piece set in the 1920s? Where the producer and director were also acting as m/u, hair, wardrobe, and countless other hats?

So, were did a couple of modern cars drive through the way background in one scene? Yes. But the point, I think, is much bigger than that.

Shut the f&*k up.

I have heard people make statements like this, and ask loaded questions to try to throw filmmakers at every level of screening. Why is it, that in a Q&A situation, people lose simple human kindness? It’s as if the schadenfreude of person asking the question can’t stand the fact that the people on stage completed a project, and has to find a way to tear them down. Up on the stage were six people who had put countless hours, their own money, and a ton of creative energy into a project that, overall, looked good. But, even if it HADN’T looked good, the time and place to bring up errors isn’t here. This was to celebrate their work.

Look, was the film perfect? no. Do the filmmakers think it’s perfect? no. But what good does pointing out that car do? The budget isn’t there to digitally take it out. It’s there, it’s in the background, it’s going to stay.

So, how about we all agree that if you need to tear someone down just to tear someone down, you stay out of the artistic community? We’re all fighting every day to create work we’re proud of, and that’s just not helping anyone.

By the way, rude lady, I don’t see you having a “Not a Premiere Because You Can’t Call It a Premiere If You’re Sending It To Festivals, So Let’s All Dress Up And Call It a Cast, Crew and Industry Screening” today. So enjoy this one.

Wow!

June 30th, 2009

Had two more photos picked up in the schmap guides…this time for Washington DC:

Capitol City Brewing Company

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden