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Kit Rex
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
294 Posts |
 Posted - 01/27/2007 : 6:44:04 PM
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Okay, so here's the deal...
A few months back I posted about a movie a friend and I were making, a comedy about zombies in sort of a medieval time. An update on that situation is probably long overdue. I'll begin it by saying that I shouldn't have (figuratively) opened my big mouth.
Around late April of last year, things seemed to be kicking into gear. There were setbacks and hiccups, but the mood was optimistic. The deadline for submitting films to the Sundance Film Festival was sometime around mid-October. It would take commitment, elbow grease, and midnight oil, but it could be done.
But as May turned into June and June turned into July without any footage getting shot, it became apparent that we weren't going to make it this year. So my friend, who I will call J, decided to concentrate on making a short film, working on weekends, which could be completed in time for the deadline.
It got made, and sent in just under the wire, but it was a complete piece of crap. (Seriously, it wouldn't even appeal to Jabootuites. There was no script; every thing was improvised. And the camera work also sucked, mainly because there was no time to really consider what we were doing, and because I am not yet comfortable in the role of cameraman.) J freely admits to this, by the way, but laughs about it like it's a big joke to him. My feelings are a little more serious. I don't like being involved with anything that I cannot be proud of. If I had known how the film was going to turn out, depending on when I knew it I would have asked either to have my name removed from the credits or to not be involved with this film at all. Needless to say, we haven't heard back from the Sundance people.
Recently, J has teamed up with a fellow named Burley Hayes, who runs a music club in Greensboro, NC called the Somewhere Else Tavern, to create a series of monthly film and music festivals. All of the films are independent grassroots productions, and all of the bands are local or regional. The organization is called the Tavern Underground Film Fanatics (T.U.F.F.), and the second series of festivals was earlier this week. There is also a major annual film festival in the works, as well as something called Project NC Greenlight. Based on the turnout, this is something that there is a great need for in this area, and I'm glad it's happening. J's ulterior motive is quite logical: he's literally trying to create a climate in this area that will allow him to get his zombie film made. And I wouldn't be surprised if it works.
But my own relationship with J has taken a turn for the worse. Last Monday I had an ugly confrontation with him over, of all things, the programs for the latest festival. (Too much to go into here, but in brief, J doesn't yet seem to realize that he can't afford to treat volunteers the way Hollywood big shots treat lavishly overpaid employees.) I came to the long overdue realization that J and I have no common ground and that his way of doing things is incompatible with mine. I therefore won't be working with him any more.
And while I have no doubt that J does indeed have the stamina and stick-to-it-iveness to get his cinematic magnum opus made, I doubt very seriously that I will have anything to do with it. I still have some problems with the script, notably that 1) there is a plot hole that I'm convinced will be noticed by everyone, and 2) not to blast my own horn or anything, but I've got more acting experience than just about anyone else working on his film, and yet he's got playing the least interesting character in it. Even the zombies are more interesting than my character. And J fights me on just about every issue I try to raise.
So if he does get it made, it'll be his way and damn the torpedoes. But I have my doubts about whether it will be any good. I'd explain my reason for said doubts, but, apart from the fact that I'm aware of how long-winded this rant is getting, to do so would mean betraying something J said to me in confidence once. I will say two things, though:
First, J is a Scientologist. This explains many things about him that I find irksome. (Again, too much to go into here.)
Secondly, I read online movie reviews (LOTS of online movie reviews, from this site as well as Cold Fusion, ...Call Yourself a Scientist, Teleport City, and several others) because as a lover of movies and one who still hasn't given up on actually making some one day, I like to know what's on the minds of people who watch movies. J, on the other hand, does not read online movie reviews and seems to think very little of people who write them.
So at this point I have no idea what the future will hold.
***************
"Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook." |
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twitterpate
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
1026 Posts |
Posted - 01/29/2007 : 08:44:56 AM
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Kit, that must suck, putting a lot of work and soul into a creative endeavor, and not being able to be proud of the result. Sounds like J has, in his own mind, become George Lucas, without, as you say, realizing that you can't ask people to do things for love, not money, if you don't give them something to love.
One comment, though - if you're really the most experienced actor, I can see why you might be given the least interesting character. Those are the hardest to play. |
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Flangepart
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
2329 Posts |
Posted - 01/29/2007 : 09:45:15 AM
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Aw, man, bummer.
Working with other people, success depends on how well you can work out differances. Not easy, thats for sure. Hope you find a more workable outlet for your creativity, campadre.
Marvin the Paranoid Android to Buzz Lightyear "Too infinity and beyond-i've been there, its rubbish!"
"Hoody Hoo, i waste 'em with my cross bow!" Bob Herzog- KDOT
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Kit Rex
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
294 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2007 : 4:02:17 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by twitterpate
Kit, that must suck, putting a lot of work and soul into a creative endeavor, and not being able to be proud of the result. Sounds like J has, in his own mind, become George Lucas, without, as you say, realizing that you can't ask people to do things for love, not money, if you don't give them something to love.
Hit nail on head. Right down, in fact, to the kind of dialogue he writes (ie. juvenile and not too well thought out). Aside from the plot hole and my character, that's my main problem with the script. I wrote a couple of scenes for the script, and when I did, J rewrote me and wound up obliterating everything I thought made the scene work. I also think Lucas shows more restraint in his creative choices than J ever will. There's also that one problem J has that Lucas clearly doesn't, but again that's not something I can give away without violating his confidence.
The biggest, most crippling difference between J and myself is that he's not into old movies and I'm not into recent movies. Anyone who's observed the two of us for long enough would get that impression, but let's consider what that means. A movie only has to be about twenty or thirty years old to be "old". My interest in movies spans the entire history of the art form and includes footage more than a century old now. The only reason most recent ones don't do much for me is that they've gotten ridiculously loud, stupid, busy and overblown in the past fifteen years or so, compared to anything that had come in the 90 years before. J, meanwhile, apart from the occasional Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla or Teenagers From Outer Space (both of which he thought were hilarious), seems not to be interested in anything more than a couple of years old. I don't know why, but it's not like I haven't heard people diss old movies for being comparitively quiet and stagey. But I've never heard J express any fondness or nostalgia for anything that was around when he was a kid. That just isn't natural.
quote:
One comment, though - if you're really the most experienced actor, I can see why you might be given the least interesting character. Those are the hardest to play.
The reason he is uninteresting is because he is a cartoon character. No interpretation of that character by an actor would be the least bit layered, because there is no room for layers or subtlety of any kind. Low-key I can do. Enigmatic I can do. One-dimensional is a bit beneath me. Imagine Strong Mad as one of the jurors in 12 Angry Men. That's what this character is like. The zombies, meanwhile, are played for laughs much the same way Lucas plays robots for laughs.
I suspect the character may have been based directly on me. It wouldn't be the first time J has done that. Once, many years ago, he wrote this fantasy story wherein one of the vignettes had the hero besting this evil wizard character in a duel of wits not dissimilar to the one between Bilbo and Gollum in The Hobbit. His description of the wizard Sean Christoph (my name is Shawn Christopher Pepper) fit me to a T, and SC's line to the hero, "I really don't feel like dealing with people today," is apparently something I actually said to J on the phone once. So. During the duel, SC gives a wrong answer to a riddle and, livid with rage, cuts loose at the top of his lungs with a pungent scatological epithet. Which would not be out of character for the real me IF that were the latest in a series of riddles I'd gotten wrong, to my frustration. But in the story it was the FIRST riddle, which in the real world would have earned at worst a sigh and an eye-roll. So basically, while J gets the superficial details right, he totally misses the essence. Forest and trees.
Thanks for letting me rant. It's been theraputic.
***************
"Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook." |
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Kit Rex
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
294 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2007 : 4:21:31 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Flangepart
Aw, man, bummer.
Working with other people, success depends on how well you can work out differances. Not easy, thats for sure. Hope you find a more workable outlet for your creativity, campadre.
It's possible I haven't tried hard enough. J just has a really forceful personality, and the thing I've learned about him is that it's best to just stay out of his way. You can challenge him, but you'll never sway him, and he'll cut you to pieces if you try. He is very well-versed in the art of conversational warfare. I'm convinced that if I go on working with him it will cost me my health an possibly my sanity. But fortunately, the T.U.F.F. project has amateur filmmakers coming out of the woodwork, and I'm sure I can find opportunities to realize my vision if I want it badly enough.
Right now, I've got this cover band going with my father and brother, and it is absolutely the most important thing in my life. I need it like J needs his movie. My soul needs it. I've always wanted to play music, and I'm treating this as music school. That's my creative outlet for right now.
***************
"Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook." |
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