We've Moved For Now...

For our current project we are crowd-funding over at www.theindependentcollective.com Head over there to check it out! We'll be back over here soon...

Red River Winter

Many of you who attended our amazing staged reading of Red River last summer starring the wonderful Michael Easton, Norman Reedus, Miriam Shore, Joelle Carter, E.J. Carroll, and Lynn Cohen may be wondering what is going on with the movie?!  Well...aside from explaining how film financing has been crushed in the recent downturn, I will tell you that we have been spending the last year trying to attach a major movie star to help us raise our budget.  I don't want to name drop so I will just say we spent a good chunk of last year chasing:  Bethan Chalk, Gosh Wucas, and Matrick Jilson.  'nuff said....
So here we are in the fall of 2010, winter approaching fast, with some potentially exciting news.  We have gotten the interest of an amazing actor and are trying to get this project to the next step.  I know you all are wondering..."who????" But I can't tell you.  Hopefully, all will be revealed soon.  We have been working on the script, ideas for the look of the film, and scouting snowy locals, and we hope to be shooting the film this winter.  I can't exactly remember when I started the script - maybe summer 2007 - so we are officially in year 3 of this crazy journey.  Hang on, we will get there.

From our offices in Brooklyn NY.

Read, Retweet, Repost, Repeat .... Please?

As you know, there are two projects that need to get out there. Red River is coming along, getting attachments built into a package slowly (ever so slowly) but surely. Our other project, Tiny Dancer fell by the wayside a little. We had a reading with Elizabeth Berkley, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Josh Hamilton, but our funding hasn't been able to come together for the production of the film (imagine that.)

In the meantime, we came together with our dear friend Bryan deCastro and inspired by the success of kickstarter.com we decided to take matters into our own hands and raise the money through donations. We formed a group called The Independent Collective and we are currently applying for fiscal sponsorship through NYFA. Once we gain fiscal sponsorship, we will reach out for memberships. Paid memberships will be tax deductible because of the fiscal sponsorship and will be tiered. Members will gain access to project benefits and their fee will go to the production of various projects. The current project is Tiny Dancer.

How can you help?

CONNECT TO TIC

then REPOST, RETWEET, REBLOG

just with something simple like "Help us to build a community for funding artistic projects"...

The numbers that we build right now will help us to gain fiscal sponsorship and keep you updated. Right now, everything is FREE- so get in on the ground floor! Please help us to be successful with this experiment. We want this to work so we can do it again and again with all kinds of projects and so we can build a community that supports each others' artistic endeavors!

Thanks everyone!

Alberts I-V

Last week, we had the amazing opportunity to create a video project for Aaron Meicht and Scott Blumenthal's OZET saga.  What is the OZET saga, you might ask?  In the words of the OZET masterminds - "Ten years before the historic launch of the Collective Sphere OZET, five men endure eight grueling months of astronautical training in a secret facility three miles west of Zhytomyr.  Two pioneers make the cut."

The OZET saga is a truly original theatrical experience I had the good fortune of witnessing earlier this year at St Mark's Church which struck me as a cross between absurdist Soviet era inspired theater and a folk rock sing along concert for Karl Marx, all fueled by Vodka and potatoes.  The next chapter in the OZET saga will featuring live acoustic and electronic music, dialogue, film, scientific exposition, boxing, duct tape, pickles and vodka August 5th - 8th, details at http://ozet.us  

Our video project will be screened (shot by the uber-talented DP Andres Karu), and I can't wait for you all to see it.  I haven't had this much fun in ages exploring non-narrative art film the likes of which I grew up with watching my mom document her pioneering Skyworks drops over the desert.  Here are a few stills from the shoot. See you there!

 

To Mr. Mamet

By now, I'm sure all of you have read David Mamet's amazing ALL CAPS letter/rant to the poor, unimaginative, exposition-bound writers of the now canceled TV series The Unit.  I was so inspired by this amazing education in the art of writing, that I decided to leave you all with a few nuggets.

TV execs shall heretofore be known as penguins -
"OUR FRIENDS. THE PENGUINS, THINK THAT WE, THEREFORE, ARE EMPLOYED TO COMMUNICATE *INFORMATION* — AND, SO, AT TIMES, IT SEEMS TO US."

Audiences won't watch information -
"BUT NOTE:THE AUDIENCE WILL NOT TUNE IN TO WATCH INFORMATION. YOU WOULDN’T, I WOULDN’T. NO ONE WOULD OR WILL. THE AUDIENCE WILL ONLY TUNE IN AND STAY TUNED TO WATCH DRAMA."
 
What the freak is drama?
"DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME THOSE THINGS WHICH PREVENT HIM FROM ACHIEVING A SPECIFIC, *ACUTE* GOAL."

What should any writer ask of themselves when writing a scene?
"THESE THREE QUESTIONS.
1) WHO WANTS WHAT?
2) WHAT HAPPENS IF HER DON’T GET IT?
3) WHY NOW?"
"EVERY SCENE MUST BE DRAMATIC. THAT MEANS: THE MAIN CHARACTER MUST HAVE A SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD, PRESSING NEED WHICH IMPELS HIM OR HER TO SHOW UP IN THE SCENE."
"ANY SCENE, THUS, WHICH DOES NOT BOTH ADVANCE THE PLOT, AND STANDALONE (THAT IS, DRAMATICALLY, BY ITSELF, ON ITS OWN MERITS) IS EITHER SUPERFLUOUS, OR INCORRECTLY WRITTEN."

Should I write a scene that is boring and filled with exposition? 
"DO *NOT* WRITE A CROCK OF SHIT. WRITE A RIPPING THREE, FOUR, SEVEN MINUTE SCENE WHICH MOVES THE STORY ALONG, AND YOU CAN, VERY SOON, BUY A HOUSE IN BEL AIR *AND* HIRE SOMEONE TO LIVE THERE FOR YOU."
"IF THE SCENE BORES YOU WHEN YOU READ IT, REST ASSURED IT *WILL* BORE THE ACTORS, AND WILL, THEN, BORE THE AUDIENCE, AND WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE BACK IN THE BREADLINE."

What should i do if I get stumped?
"QUESTIONS, CALL ME UP.
LOVE, DAVE MAMET
SANTA MONICA 19 OCTO 05"

And my personal fav - "(IT IS *NOT* YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KNOW THE ANSWERS, BUT IT IS YOUR, AND MY, RESPONSIBILITY TO KNOW AND TO *ASK THE RIGHT Questions* OVER AND OVER. UNTIL IT BECOMES SECOND NATURE. I BELIEVE THEY ARE LISTED ABOVE.)"

Thanks Dave (if I can call you Dave)....


Read the full letter here.

Breathless

So we finally got around to watching the amazing Criterion Collection DVD of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, a personal favorite and inspiration for our music video we shot this past fall for the band Eva. Watching the special features on the transcendent Jean Seberg, I was struck by her tragic life and the overall rebellious revolutionary spirit of that era. Which leads me to this past Sunday's Oscars. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier that films like Precious and The Hurt Locker were nominated and when they won their various prizes, was heartily affirmed in the power of the "little" film and it's journey from film festival to Oscar ceremony. I was happy to see last year's Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler get honored after struggling to find distribution after premieres at major film festivals. It gives a filmmaker hope that the great and new will find a way out.
But I can't help but think back to that image of Jean Seberg hawking New York Herald Tribunes on the Champs-Elysees and the era of filmmaking that unleashed after Breathless - the likes of 8 1/2, Bonnie and Clyde, Blow Up, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Rosemary's Baby, Midnight Cowboy, and the the great decade of 70's cinema to follow.

I have this dim memory of an era of great craft, great politics, and great shock value that infiltrated the Oscars, when Brando refused his Oscar for The Godfather and George C. Scott 2 years earlier for Patton. A time when every actor, writer, director wasn't so eager to spew out the name of the designer of their tux or evening gown, but when it seemed like the whole roof might fall in on the evenings proceedings. I guess it was a different time, and all we can hope for now is the occasional mumbling of Sean Penn or Michael Moore's rants when he manages to get nominated. More than Oscar interrupting politico speeches, I guess I miss the kinds of films that made you want to go out and pick up a movie camera.

Bolt Out of the Twilight Blue

Critics can be mean and destroy you for absolutely no reason. They can stunt a fledgling theater company's growth, cause a young NYU graduate filmmaker to find himself being talked down from a ledge by his unconditionally loving girlfriend... or they can make your day. After receiving lots of notices that were gratefully fine, and a few that kept us under the covers, this one from Movieline surfaced this week.