Auditions

The casting process is one of extreme satisfaction.  There's this weird balance to finding someone who meshes with you as a filmmaker but also someone who can embody the character. Sometimes the process is daunting, and you think "it's no wonder there's an entire job dedicated to finding the correct person for the role".  What do you say to actors?  How should I conduct myself as anyone who has met me knows i'm not considered the most professional guy around?  What gets them to that place?

We're finalizing actors for the roles for Sick Joke and as the days go on I cannot wait to show everyone this movie.

2017

2016 is ending with lots of celebrity deaths, a tenuous political transition, and once again I'm going back into a workforce after university.  I am proud to share some of the stills from the short "Sick Joke" that I filmed while at Penn State.  It is a passion project for me. I've been looking into expanding this short to a Three-Part-Series.  This is currently seeking funding, and I'll tell you Pre-Production is a maddening effort.  I have not been more excited about anything that I've been working on.  Oddly enough I've collected a group of filmmakers that had little comic book knowledge but now spend their days sharing different stories and talking about how to bring life into adapted characters.   My two year old self would be elated to know that I'm putting together my own fanboy versions of beloved characters.

Touch/Sense of Place

Across the street from an "antique coffee shop" in the ruins of what was a gas station lies an unassuming building.  Two stories tall, it's thin only 40 feet wide, and a the full length of the block. Built in the late 1800s it was a lumber mill owners mansion.  The town was used heavily for the lumber trade in the 1800s, there was a canal that ran through the town to the river.  There was an entrance to the canal right in the building.  The office was a horses stable that was originally the starting point for the lumber to get placed into the canal boats. The downstairs houses a parlor, an office, and an embalming room.  The original design for the horses stall (now the office) was to remain uninsulated. Aesthetically it has the feeling of being an addition to the building.

After the lumber industry moved out of the area, the building became repurposed as a funeral home.  The building then housed 5 generations of funeral directors until its current iteration: the Frederick B Welker Funeral Home. Together with his daughter they run it as a team.  Typically the idea of a funeral home seems the place for a horror film, or the start of jump scares.  This is not the case at all.  The building is welcoming and warm.  Full of comfortable furniture and boisterous people its easy to find oneself spending the evening here without a second glance at the clock.

The idea of this place being repurposed with love has been something on my mind.  I could see a family show orbit this location.  Often places that are associated with death are painted in such a negative light.  This family has created a business centered on caring about passed loved ones. It would be a pleasure to turn the stereotype of a scary funeral home being a place full of laughter and love.

Taste...

The assignment is to pick a film to watch critically, analyze it without bashing. 

Batman VS. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Critically this movie is panned hard, for taking itself too seriously and the tone being off.  The film is both the Birth of a hero and this world's Superman and then the return of a vigilante the Batman. The films core conflict is between two men battling due to the manipulation by this secretive third party.  The reason it does not work for me in this film is that it feels completely forced.  There is so little authenticity and from being so drastically off from the source content's point of view.  "The Dark Knight Returns" offers these two icons reason for their clashing ideology rather than being pawns moved toward and inevitable conflict.

The flaws of the film are in the storyline, visually it is full of both iconic recreation and interesting interpretation. However visually speaking the twin cities in the film Gotham and Metropolis lack distinct character of their own.  They're intended to be foils of one another, light and dark.  In the film there is no distinction between the two.  The tone of the film is dark and has the stylized visuals Snyder cultivated in Watchmen and 300. What appears in the frame is well lit and each character has their own tone.  One of the best things as a fan was to witness a Batman fight sequence that felt like he was in control no matter how many foes.

 There are quite a few points in which the film feels forced.  There are too many dream sequences; 3 for Batman and Superman gets his own all to  foreshadow events to come for no reason at all. It seems as though they're grasping to create a bigger franchise as they are 11 years behind Marvel's cinematic universe.  As for forced easter eggs: the perspective meta-humans to justice league members, all seem like nods for the sake of having them there.  There are points when Superman lets men with heavy artillery to threaten the Batman. When you get to the actual fight the film's title is based upon there's so little to it. Ending anticlimactically and humorously with the "Martha" moment. The team-up immediately following the fight seems illogical as well. 

When comparing this movie to 2008's The Dark Knight the pitfall is in the antagonist. Joker pushes Batman to become different versions of himself, taking him to places he's never thought of.  There are too many antagonists, or rather proposed "villains" for this film to offer the weight it tries to carry.  I could go on forever about the differences in Christopher Nolan's writing than what appeared in this film.  I will always shell out my money for comic book movies, but it is my own hope to be a part of creating them.

Listen...

A Starbucks can be an interesting place... if you listen.  I sat for nearly 40 minutes today, first believing I dodged and ex only to be reminded I am one that stands out even incognito.  I witnessed girls examining their boyfriends snapchats to decipher whether or not he's talking to anyone else.  Simultaneously there is a regular meeting that occurs between an ex Air force and his class buddy to talk about their current engineering project due in the spring.  

The best part of listening to what everyone's doing is the interaction with a man I see every time I visit.  He is a homeless man, white beard down to his belly and long scraggly hair.  He has an odor to him but not overwhelming.  The interactions with people and him are devastating or they're heartwarming.  He often sits quietly at a high table with his life packed neatly on a cart near the door. "ewe don't you think he could go anywhere else?" "let's just let anyone take up all the space, he doesn't even have shoes... I mean cmon." or "why would they let him in here" are often uttered by ignorant kids going about their way to their half caf whatever 8$ coffees.  On the opposite side there are a few people that often offer him food, or to buy him a coffee.  I've been here for 4 years now and he's there day in and out always with the kindness of someone else purchasing him a drink.  Today I initially heard the degrading whisper-talk of the creme de la creme of sorority girls but then it was cut to a stop by an employee "excuse me miss, I understand you are unhappy with certain things in your life but you I would have assumed your parents taught you to keep negative thoughts to yourself?" She then bought him a cinnamon bun on the house.  Furious the sorority girl scanned her app on her phone and stomp walked to wait in line for her drink before the inevitable hair flip to leave.  

Seated by him I could just hear her high heel boot things stomping everywhere throughout the small coffee shop and her huffs of exasperation emanated as a constant reminder of how important she is. 

Penelope in the Treehouse

After using magic fertilizer on her treehouse, Penelope finds herself high amongst the clouds.

This short depicts a newly merged family and a daughters reaction to her moms new family. She is impulsive and quick to anger.  Penelope is afraid her mom is going to forget her.  Nothing in Penelope's life is the same: she isn't part of a 2 parent home, she's no longer the only child with a single parent, and now she's sharing her house with a large family to adjust to.  she is actively is seeking comfort rather than blending into her family. She runs away from the changes to her treehouse and grows high into the clouds to live her life.  As the short progresses Penelope's steadfast mindset of self reliance softens and as she's witnessing her familial response to her running away she makes a big change.  

The film is full of visually imaginative frames, piecing together stop motion effects and real people.  I was reminded of Roald Dahl: The Twits, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, simultaneously I was picturing imagery from Katy Perry's Teenage Dream Album.

Directing Workshop Begins

Beginning my final semester at Penn State in the film program has brought me in contact with a professor that is definitely inspiring, Pearl Gluck.  Initially the class started differently as it was an exercise in reading one another through action rather than content of words.  This is an intimidating situation to be thrown into.  We've been tasked with finding 3 images to assign to the short story "Fatso".    Below is the Author Etgar Keret reading Fatso and some imagery evoked in me by the reading.