Search This Blog

Monday, February 11, 2008

Trailers: Medicine for Melancholy @ SXSW

I've talked in this blog a little about indie film and DIY film making. Mostly in regards to the small film several of my friends were making in San Francisco last fall. Well, now they have a trailer and their film will be premiering at the South By Southwest Film Festival this spring. I'm excited for them and proud and I just wanted to share the news here.



Check out the trailer. And if you want to know more about SXSW, check out their website here: SXSW

Friday, February 08, 2008

Review: The Messengers



It looked promising: A creepy old house, an unsuspecting family, something disturbing in the walls. There were whispers of real life phenomena, there was speculation about what a small child is able to perceive.

And then… there was mediocrity.

The marketing campaign for The Messengers had me. I have to admit it. I love ghost stories, I love being creeped out, and when I heard that the Pang brother’s were directing a new film set in a dilapidated farmhouse in the middle of America’s heartland, I was a little excited. I loved, still love, their enormously effective The Eye (the unfortunate remake starring Jessica Alba is currently in theaters). The Eye is great; it’s well directed, well acted, and genuinely scary. Beyond all that though, it has a good story. A good story in a ghost flick? Go figure.

The website and trailer for The Messengers had me going and when it was released, I saw it in the theater, by myself. I was completely prepared to be freaked out. Was I? Well, I guess a little bit at moments but for the most part, not really.

The Messengers is about Roy and Denise and their two children Jess and Ben. After an act of rebellion has nearly fatal consequences for Jess and her little brother, Roy decides to move the family away from urban life. The idea is to take Jess away from the bad influences and to give their family a fresh start. This fresh start is to happen on a run down farm in the middle of South Dakota.

Bright yellow sunflowers clash with dark rotting wood. Peace is interrupted by mayhem. There is something not right in the old house. Jess is the first to suspect but it’s the story of the boy who cried wolf. After everything that’s happened, Jess has no credibility and her parent’s think she is merely seeking attention.

Take a dysfunctional family and throw a couple of mysterious strangers, a few ghosts, and some pissed off crows into the mix… and you get a bit of a mess.

The characters aren’t bad, the acting is okay, the movie looks good, there are a few suspenseful moments, but things just never come together. The cast is not bad with Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, and John Corbett all featured. William B. Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files) even has a cameo.

I do wonder what it is about Asian horror that just does not work in American films. I hate the idea of remakes but after watching so many of them I’ve come to the conclusion that the remake part is not what makes them bad. I think it’s possibly cultural but I certainly don’t know enough to draw any more conclusions than that.

Whatever the reason is, aesthetics that work so well in The Eye fail to enthrall in The Messengers. What we get in the end is a mediocre ghost story with a couple of scares, mildly likeable characters, and an overly complex ending that really does not work. It’s disappointing but hey, at least it wasn’t another remake. At least the Pang brothers attempted to do something original. They should get credit for trying.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Thoughts: Is the end in sight?


At this point we're all just watching and waiting. Some people are optimistic. I think for most of us, we'll believe it when we see it. I'm not going to hold my breath but it would be nice if the rumors were true.

Indicative of the general mood I think:

Portrait From The Strike

PORTRAIT FROM THE STRIKE
Devastating trickle-down effect to the writers strike
Stagehands decry the disregard studio and union leaders have for those further down the entertainment food chain.
By Paul Brownfield, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 1, 2008
"Peace at Last?" said the headline in Variety.

Michael O'Donnell, a leadman and set dresser, had brought a copy of the Hollywood trade paper for his friend, Joe Sabella, a foley artist. On this day in mid-January, the news was that the Directors Guild of America had reached a new contract agreement with the Assn. of Motion Picture and Television Producers -- a deal, it was now hoped, that augured movement toward a settlement between striking writers and the AMPTP.

But for O'Donnell and Sabella -- who are part of that vast and largely forgotten below-the-line class of skilled entertainment industry labor -- the "peace at last?" question was not greeted just by hope but also a fair measure of cynicism and disillusionment. FOR THE RECORD:
Writers strike: An article in Friday's Calendar section about how the Writers Guild of America strike is affecting two members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees identified Charlie O'Donnell as the longtime announcer on "Jeopardy." He is the announcer on "Wheel of Fortune." —


"Both of them are failing their membership horribly," was O'Donnell's assessment of the WGA and AMPTP leaders.

There are signs that the strike might be approaching settlement, now that negotiators for both sides have resumed talks. But over lunch at an un-crowded Twain's coffee shop not far from the CBS-Radford lot, O'Donnell and Sabella conveyed mostly frustration.

From their vantage point, this three-month-old writers strike amounts to an esoteric dispute between fat cats, less a face-off based in principle than in ego and grandstanding. Put another way, O'Donnell and Sabella don't see a Democrat debating a Republican onstage; they just see two guys in suits, and out of touch with the people hit the hardest.

"This is a factory town," O'Donnell said, later adding, "If we were in Detroit we'd be making Thunderbirds."

Given their union affiliation -- Sabella and O'Donnell belong to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE -- you'd think they'd naturally ally themselves with the WGA picketers.

But in fact, over a 90-minute discussion, their ire was directed more at their union brethren, particularly the political leadership at the top: WGA President Patric Verrone and chief negotiator David Young.

"Non-concern" was the term Sabella would later use, struggling to find a word that captured the disregard from above for people like him, put out of work.

Joining them for lunch were Sabella's wife, Alexandra, and O'Donnell's ex-wife, Gail. Gail O'Donnell has phoned everyone from NBC-Universal chief Jeff Zucker to President Bush, alarmed that higher political powers have remained silent as the local economy suffers.

If the men conveyed resignation, the women wore their fear more readily. Alexandra Sabella brought out a copy of a letter written in November by IATSE International President Thomas C. Short to Verrone, criticizing WGA chief negotiator David Young for public comments in which Young seems to revel in "the havoc I've wreaked." (Young subsequently has claimed that he was misquoted.)

A comment like that trickled down to the table at Twain's as indicative of the "non-concern."

Sabella, 54, has a daughter in school in Thousand Oaks and a monthly nut of around $8,000, he said. To fill up his time and bring in some cash, he's been waxing motorcycles and cars, a longtime vocation.

As a foley artist, it is Sabella's job to provide much of the ambient, naturalistic sound audiences take for granted. When the strike hit, Sabella was working on all the "CSI" procedurals on CBS.

For instance, if characters are doing an autopsy, "we do the cutting into the flesh, the opening of the flesh," he said.

O'Donnell, 52, the leadman/set dresser, says he normally has to "hump a 90-hour week to take on two grand." He knows the business all too well; his father, Charlie O'Donnell, is the longtime announcer on "Jeopardy."

As a leadman on movies, he works closely with the set decorator, building up worlds and breaking them down; on "Terminator 3," for instance, that involved turning a vacant lot into a veterinary clinic and back again into a vacant lot.

With a mortgage to pay on his Toluca Lake condo, he's been working on an idea for a children's TV show and is playing more guitar, jamming with other set dressers.

On the one hand, O'Donnell and Sabella understand the principle behind the WGA strike, the need to fight for a fair share of whatever revenue streams emerge from new media.

"The sons and daughters of the idle rich," was what O'Donnell called the people who run the studios.

Mostly, though, they just want to get back to work -- even if these past three months have been a painful reminder that, to the creative community and the studio executives, guys like them are pretty much just needed when they're needed.

Sabella would later compare himself to a tool in a drawer. "If we get tarnished and worn, they'll just throw us away and get new ones," he said. "We're a tool, and we'll be there when they open the drawer. Ready to work again."

About This Thing

This blog is about film and life in the wonderful world of LA. I'm a filmmaker just getting started; I'm navigating my way through the industry, trying to find work, and sometimes even managing to make a living.

I've worked across the country on projects big and small. Everything from an indie in PA shot during the dead of winter to one of the bigger reality shows involving Models and the things they do.

I also just love doing things*. I'm a writer, aspiring director, wannabe photographer and cook. I waste too much time on the internet and sometimes all I want to do is hang out with my dog.

Stick around and chances are you'll catch me writing about it all.

*I use the word "thing" a lot. An inappropriate amount. I can't help it. There are just so many different things to talk about. And I just kind of like it.