heathervescent

Suicide Girls Radio

I'm spending a little studio time with the Suicide Girls Radio team tonight and joining them on their show about Social Media and the Internet Premier of We Live In Public (you might remember this as one of the films I was obsessed with last year).

I'm bringing some of my favorite mash-ups to play along with my radio wit and social media delight.

Be sure to tune in on Indie 103 Internet Radio! And if you missed it, grab the podcast here!

A Letter from Francis Coppola

It is a dream come true to be able to make personal films and have them shown in great theatres such as Landmark's. Tetro is the kind of film I might have been making 35 years ago, had my career not taken an abrupt and sudden turn as it did with The Godfather. Sure, it was exhilarating to find myself an important Hollywood director, with all that came with it. But as the years went on, I found myself trying to avoid becoming a gangster film director, with all that came with that: stabbings, shootings, car crashes and strangulations. It became pretty clear that even if well-paid, a Hollywood director is expected to do what the company who employs him wants. And most times it is a genre film of some type, if not a gangster film, then take your choice between a thriller, a caper film, a romantic comedy (nothing wrong with that) or sci-fi epic (nor that). I found myself dissatisfied, and frustrated over the fact that even though I had made successful films and won plenty of awards, I still would have to go, hat in hand, and beg permission to make something really new.

With Apocalypse Now, I ultimately found I had to finance it myself. Financing movies is a perilous activity, especially when the films are as unusual as I wanted to make. At first Apocalypse Now seemed as if it would bury me—the initial reaction wasn't good, despite some acknowledged spectacular scenes, but it was deemed too philosophical or worse, 'arty'—which is the ultimate damning word that can be used on a film. Well, I thought, weren't most of Ingmar Bergman' or Michelangelo Antonioni's films 'arty but good'? As were the many films of Federico Fellini or Akira Kurosawa? Maybe those films weren't financial powerhouses, but they stayed with you and were inspirational. And also, they were all different from any other films being made. That in the end is my main criteria for enjoying a film: that I never saw it before or anything quite like it.

Many years went by.

Then, taking inspiration from my daughter who had learned the very same tricks from me, I decided to return to my youth, and realizing that the smaller the budget of a film the greater the ideas of that film could be, began to self-finance the very kinds of films I had hoped to make at the beginning. It was like trying to find my place, after being away a long time. I took a story from Mircea Eliade, Youth Without Youth. When it was done, I found the film audience had ventured even further away from anything other than the pre-made, pre-measured genre films that I had tried to escape from, and now wanted even their independent films to be mini-Hollywood ventures. No matter, I thought, the idea was to find myself and I had done that. Now, the next step was to pick up where I had left off, and write an original story and screenplay, something I hadn't done for 30 years since The Conversation.

The result is Tetro, which you are about to see soon at a Landmark theatre near you. I hope you will find it moving, as it is drawn from real emotions related to my experiences and life—though not in any way autobiographical. I hope you wish me well on this new career of mine. It was the one I always wanted from the beginning, to be an independent filmmaker, writing stories and making personal films. God knows what will come next!

Sincerely,
Francis Coppola

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This is the kind of director I want to be. These are the kind of films I want to make. Apocalypse Now is one of my all time favorite movies, along with another by Mr Fellini.

SXSW 2009 in review

SXSW interactive was a disappointing clique fest this year, but luckily I opted for the Gold pass which gave me access to the film side of the festival. Instead of focusing on the same old social media stories and speakers - let's talk movies.

My SXSW adventure started before I reached Austin.  I was done with air travel and packed up my convertable for a multi-day roadtrip to Texas. I made it to Phoenix, and then my story became one challenge and plot twist after another. The best Hollywood writers couldn't come close to what I experienced and surmounted. But your humble narrator did surmount each and every challenge culimnating in her arrival in Austin. The universe had gave me the best gift I didn't ask for - the inspiration for my first film.

Cleaned up from several days without sleep and covered in road grime, I picked up my badge to hit the panels. Fresh with the inspiration of my adventure, I hit up the Script to Screen Panel - which delivered on it's promise: explain what a script goes through from inception through writing, getting actors, producers, directors involved, shooting, production and finally the premier. I was impressed with Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight, who I knew from her independent film Thirteen. The top five things I learned from here are

1. You have to have a passion for the issue. The script was written as a project between Catherine and Nikki as a way to focus Nikki's teenage energy in a positive way (instead of becoming like the character in the movie).
2. "It wasn't something we _wanted_ to do, we _had_ to do this. You have to feel this about your movie. You have to be willing to to do anything to make your movie."
3. Catherine created a mood book, that had pictures and colors to express the mood of the movie. She had a 5 minute teaser that included music. She said you have to make your project as solid as possible. You don't want it to be just a screenplay.
4. She practiced giving her pitch until it was perfect. "You only get one shot. Don't take it out before you are ready."
5. Hardwicke said it's important to listen to your actors and as a writer be willing to rewrite or add scenes for the character. She told about her experiences working and listening to Holly Hunter who suggested some modifications that gave depth to her characters.

Suzanne Weinert, producer of ExTerminators (which I later caught at the festival) had the best story about finding financers. She originally planned to have her film set in NYC, but when her funding came from Texas, changed the location to the Lone Star State. "Texas businessmen are some of the most comfortable people about risk. Their attitude is, if you drill a dry hole - just drill another one."

I indulged my inner scifi geek by joining Robert Rodriguez and Henry Selick's conversation from the Third Dimension. When I think of 3D neither of those names come to mind, but the one I do think of was mentioned - Ray Harryhausen. I was fascinated to learn that Rodriguez wanted to do several of his films in 3D - but it was prohibitively expensive. With new 3D technology, a film shot in 2D can be converted to 3D in post-production, so there may be some Rodriguez 3D versions eventually made. Henry Selick, director of Coraline, talked about his challenges shooting it in 3D. "Since we are shooting puppets, they can stay in one position for as long as we need them. So we used one camera, did a shot for the left eye, moved the camera over to the right and then took the shot for the right eye."

I was primed for some SciFi, so I popped over to the Alamo Lamar for some lunch and to catch SXSWs Official Selection Winner, Monsters from the Id, a documentary about SciFi Films and the architype of the College Professor in the 50s. Science Fiction usually tells us more about the writer's time, than the time in which the story is set. Monsters from the Id, tells just this story: the American romance with science. These movies inspired an entire generation of young scientists who discovered the answers to hard questions which advanced math, physics, biology and chemisty. This same inspiration is needed today. Beautifully told with color interviews and black and white movie clips, Monsters from the Id is a call to arms as well as homage to the future of the 50s.

Stay tuned for more SXSW coverage about Mushrooms, Remixing and Living in Public.

sexy bitches

Wow. Wow. Wow! This link is just to remind myself of this site.

eternal sunshine synchronicities

Charlie Kaufman is a new Fellini. This is an utterly amazing film. The story and the way it unfolds is great. It's unique, fresh and completely emotional. I continue to be amazed at how synchronous my life is. Things that should have no relation to what is going on in my life somehow find themselves delivering a final blow to an increasingly fragile ego. There were just too many things about this movie and the characters in the movie that are similar to me, Clint, my life and my relationship with Clint. Which is at a transitioning point and has been for a while now. Seeing a movie like eternal sunshine is the knife twisting. It comes on the heels of the last post (I'm the same damn person) like a final blow to my reality. Which, is what it is.

I could say I'm stuck in a place, but I'm not. I know exactly where I am. Taking the next steps seem like some of the hardest. But oh well, I'll take them. And I do.