a few things to do in 2008

1. visit my family.
2. screen "When Life Was Good" at a film festival.
3. complete 2 feature films (hopefully at least one with a budget).
4. find the money for a decent HD camera.
5. find inner peace (or at least visit it once or twice).
6. rent an office.
7. find more time to read.
8. find more time to walk the dogs and watch movies.
9. launch some webisodic entertainment.
10. shoot the Strawberry Splits pilot.
11. more trips to Tofino with Kelly and the doggies.
12. spend more time hanging out with friends.

notes on JUNO

" David Edelstein at New York finds that "The relentlessly jokey banter of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is taken to a screechy new level. Every character’s wisecracks come from the same place, like in bad Neil Simon." He's also unimpressed by the fact that "The jokes disappear for the end of each segment, when you’re supposed to shed a little tear." Michael Koresky at indieWIRE deems the film "self-satisfied" and writes that "taking a step back from the hype, it's hard not to feel like this aggressively clever, ultimately sentimental high-school comedy is less true seasonal counter-programming than just another Hollywood wolf in indie sheep clothing."

Visit us again, for the first time.

When Life Was Good

The independent motion picture event of this afternoon!

BRAND NEW WEBSITE

New Site

Live blogging, video podcasts on independent filmmaking, the festival experience, making money making lo budget films, webisodic series, and SO MUCH MORE!

Billy Wilder on Producers

Producers make you feel that if they weren't so busy with six enormous projects which are going to revolutionize the cinema, they could write it better, they could direct it better, they could compose, they could possibly act in it. The truth is they can't write it, they can't direct it, they don't know how to write a note of music. It's easy. It's like roulette. You've got twenty chips and you put them on various numbers. One or two of those chips are going to be winners. Then they will talk exhaustingly about the two or three chips that make a lot of money. - Billy Wilder on Producers

Addendum:

Addendum:

Politics in the world of comedic art are a great way of lampooning and drawing attention to those who need that kind of attention.

Politics in drama, still definitely a DON'T.

And now, this:

what's it gonna be.

DO NOT MIX

PLEASE REMEMBER. Art and Politics do not mix.

Plays, films, and novels which deal with the unassailable investigate nothing and express nothing save the desire to investigate nothing. It is incontrovertible that deaf people are people, too; that homosexuals are people, too; that it is unfortunate to be deprived of a full happy life by illness or accident; that it is sobering to grow old.

These events, illness, homosexuality, accident, aging, birth defects, equally befall the Good and the Bad individual. They are not the result of conscious choice and so do not bear on the character of the individual. They are not the fit subject of drama, as they do not deal with the human capacity for choice.

-David Mamet

NEWS

Entry level new contest entry at filmaka.com


New short film here


A few more festival submissions for WLWG next week. Fingers crossed for one great festival. That's all we need. One little film holiday.

NCFOM

you can't resist heading out to the movie theatre for this one.

WES ANDERSON

Wes Anderson on "blocking in the dark"

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/27/arts/20070927_DARJEELING.html

NEW NEWS

FILMAKA.COM news: Moving on to the final round!

Bill Pullman, Deepak Nayar, Paul Schrader, Thomas Augsberger, and Zak Penn voted for the Jury Level of Lost and Found.

The three clips they choose were diverse in subject and shooting style but they all had the same thing in common: great character development, good story sense, and a unique vision.

Bruno by Trevor Hardy is the Jury Level Winner. This is a comedy about the happy exploits of a lost dog.

The Jury Level Runner up is the darkly comedic The Cleaners by Terry Miles about a group of sexy women who clean up murder scenes for undisclosed clients.

Timeby Anne Heeno gets the Special Jury Prize. Shot in black in white, this drama explores the theme of ‘fate’ as a woman gets ready to go on a trip.

Well done to all of our Filmakas. There are two more contests until we go to our final round for this year..

NEW STUFF

When Life Was Good should have a NEW WEBSITE by the time you're reading this.


Andrea Arnold "Red Road" article from GreenCine

A great bit on Red Road which was a great film.

New Teaser

New Teaser on Facebook.

life

Just working out the ending for the film. In editing I discovered a need for a quick scene between Casey and Faith that we're shooting tomorrow (Sunday). Then, it's time to get serious about finishing this film.

Music, sound, ADR, colour correction, and the occasional new shot. I'd love to have the film finished by the end of August, but that probably isn't realistic.

Perhaps a screening version to show to a select group of tastemakers and intelligentsia. That sounds right.

lifers

WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD

Started in May? Wow.

It's hard to keep everything straight...the amount of writing for a film that features 90% improvised dialogue is...pretty crazy. The writing continues, but is now pretty much connecting things that have been left somewhat disconnected. Plot points that are clear to the cast and director are completely lost to the viewer (due to implication or omission on my part).

Sitting down with an impartial audience of one or two trusted viewers is essential. I'm thinking about asking a few really cool watchers, but I'm not sure how that's going to work. I'm hoping for a Canadian acting genius, a hilarious standup comedian and a brilliant Canadian novelist. Along with a few bottles of French red wine and the cast.

A When Life Was Good summit.

I'm going to rent a cool space and do it, next week, after I shoot and edit the next few pickups and the last theatre scene on Tuesday.

If you want to be in our film on Tuesday, check here.

WLWG UPDATED

The greatest cast in the universe.






We're getting close...

New shots from yesterday's marathon shoot.

WLWG - and more

WLWG

We're moving right along. Shot some great stuff today. Shot a short film called "Danny?" yesterday with Tijana, Dan, Kristine, and Casey. It's pretty funny, I think.

Thanks to rob for this link: Wow. I love Zach and Will. Nice.

Kanye done up proper

Back in the saddle

WLWG is back.

We're shooting a bunch of stuff, including some out of sequence...sequences. VERY difficult with this type of improvised film, although, I've written all the scenes, so, in theory...

Paris Je T'aime was a really great film (although the mimes were annoying).

Editing is taking a while...I'm at 98 minutes and we're just over halfway finished (I'm guessing).

Hopefully John Paul McGlynn is going to make his first appearance!

Fingers crossed.

Let's shoot.

The end of Story.

Great article on "Story"

net neutrality

Rob's blog

Check out Rob's blog. He has some kind words about When Life Was Good, but more importantly he talks about his new projects and some other film stuff you need to know about.

Narcissistic Fibrosis

One more note

"Our films have so many imitation emotions that if a real one ever intruded, it would shock us or make us laugh. Mike Leigh tells the story of the time a table collapsed on stage and, as the actors scurried to keep the dishes from tumbling, the sudden honesty of their performance revealed the falsity of the entire preceding play."

-Just one more quick point from Ray Carney.

Some words from Ray Carney

We have a mistaken notion that you make a movie after you've decided what you want to say. It's actually the reverse. You learn what you want to say by making the movie–like conversation, which would not only be more boring, but stupider, if we tried to plan it out in advance. Use film to learn.

* * *

Consciousness cannot precede expression. If you can storyboard your film in advance, if you know what's going to happen, how your characters are going to react and feel at every moment, save yourself a lot of time and trouble, skip the shoot and publish the storyboard. As Robert Frost said: No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.Knowingness is the curse of our art. The director knows what his characters are; the characters know what they themselves are; and the viewer knows what everyone else knows. Watch your mind at moments when you don't know something: when you meet a new person; when you hear a loud sound at night but don't know what it is; when you're running out and looking for your wallet or keys. How does your mind function differently from when it is on autopilot? Most of the important parts of life are lived not in the state of knowing, but of not-knowing. Get that into your work. Let your characters experience it, let your viewer experience it. Look at the scene in Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice in which a loud sound is heard off-screen and a pitcher of milk spills. Why is it more powerful than if the cause of the sound were shown or explained? Don't explain more than life does.

* * *

If you don't change your mind about your characters and their situations several times as you make your movie, you aren't holding yourself open enough. You aren't allowing yourself to learn. Cassavetes re-edited his films over and over again, as his understandings of the things he had filmed changed.
The solution most movies urge is a continuation of the sickness they depict. They give characters problems to solve and then show them going about solving them. Their narratives are an extension of the business ethos that causes most of the problems in our culture in the first place. These movies never question the belief that we are what we do, what we control, what we own. We live in a capitalist culture addicted to the virtues of doing. But life is less about doing anything, than being something. If your film hinges on a figure's doing or accomplishing something, you are part of the sickness. You are making feature-length commercials for IBM.

* * *

Ever notice how much more interesting a movie is when you channel surf into it ten minutes after it has begun? Or how fascinating even a dumb movie is for at least a few minutes before the idiot plot kicks in? It gets boring the minute you figure it out, or as soon as the characters are given a road map to follow. How can you keep that openness in your movie, that state of uncertainty in the viewer (without, of course, relying on Hitchcockian tricks to stoke up fake dramatic interest)?

* * *

Why do we think film should be easier, purer, more idealized than life? Don't spoon-feed the viewer. Don't give him or her predigested bits of knowledge. The experience of a good film should be as demanding and raw and unassimilated as the experience of life.

MORE ESSENTIAL READING HERE

WLWG another day of magic

Terry shooting Dan and Casey and the crazy cute seals.




Brooklyn peeking. We said no peeking.





Here's Casey from WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD pondering the nature of the universal and the unconditional love of the Creatrix.


UPDATE:

Shooting is moving right along (just waiting for the rain to stop so we can shoot this afternoon). Our house is flooded. I finally wrote the ending of the movie (although this is my sixth ending, so we'll see...but it feels pretty good). The Casey and Brooklyn relationship is heading into murky uncharted and interesting territory. Should make for a great sprint to the end.

Actors schedules continue to inform the plot, especially supporting cast. It's been a very liberating and challenging process to shoot a film at the whim of whatever's going on at the time. Whatever happens, happens for the good of the film. That's how we do.

YUMI IN LOVE screens on Tuesday. Terrifying.

Thanks to Mona and Kristine for the photos! Thanks to Kristine, Casey, Dan, Rob, Mona, and the seals for a great day!

There Will be Blood.

http://www.cigarettesandredvines.com/main.php?id=N01

Life goes on

WLWG

For a film that's mostly improvised, this project has been harder and more time consuming as far as writing goes. I've done more writing on When Life Was Good then on any of the 9 feature film scripts I've written.

I know. Crazy.

I believe I may have completed the story...now, to see if that's true, I'll have to shoot it.

We did some "reshoots" (Rob cut his hair, so we'll have something to talk about on the commentary track) on Casey's roof. Just some points of information that needed to be clarified. I'm impressed by the actors more and more each day. I can't wait to finish this film and move onto the next one.

I'd like to shoot one more feature film before September rolls around, but I'm torn between three projects. HAMLET, CINEMANOVEL, and ZOE.

They are SO different. How to choose...

Brand New Teaser for When Life Was Good

JUNE 14, 2007

Brand New Teaser for WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD is up.

Shots

Some photos by Mona:

You can see the huge crew, the script for the scene, the food. The magic. The life.




WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD

Shot two scenes yesterday. Things went pretty well. Tijana was fantastic as the Energy Healer...Michelle was our amazing Chloe. Casey and Kristine extend their genius.

Nothing for today, but tomorrow should be huge. As soon as the Mcdonald's breakfast is digested...it's time to write the scenes for tomorrow. No rain.

Also, the teaser is back up.

WhenLifeWasGood.com

Casey & Mischa

Great stuff today with Casey and Rob (Casey & Mischa). Casey let us shoot up on the roof of his house. It looks pretty great (the actors were great as always), but the sound in this city...loud.

Every shot in this film is handheld, and I think that's the only way to do this. It feels right.

We have some other days scheduled. This also feels right. Sitting around waiting for a movie to happen isn't making a movie happen.

I'm tired and rambling and going to bed. I ordered a second wireless mic setup on ebay. Sorry credit card, but the movie comes first.

WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD - Teaser

WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD

Teaser

When Life Was Good - teaser

THE WEBSITE "Portal" styles. EVERYTHING under one "roof."

www.cinemanovel.com


WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD - Website

www.whenlifewasgood.com

All the best,

Terry

PS: When Life Was Good could certainly use an investor or two. Please visit one of our websites and email for more details. Thanks!

DOGME #196

Breakthrough...

WLWG

Shot some great stuff and then sat down with the cast and watched a cobbled together 57 minutes (probably the first 20-25 minutes of the film).

It was really great to sit there and watch the footage with other people. It really gave me perspective on where and when the main characters get lost, where to breath, where to chop.

I've combined the film and the web series in this first section...now I just have to "pull out" the film sections...

The stuff we shot the night before last looks really great. Once I add that stuff (and the stuff from last night), I think I'll have an entirely different film.

I'd better stop typing and start editing, because I'd like to watch the new film before bed.

WLWG

Talking, Tea-bagging, and lounging. Casey, Mishca, Faith & Brooklyn (Casey, Rob, Keri, Kristine) When Life Was Good


when life was good


DAY SOMETHING of an INDETERMINATE NUMBER OF DAYS.

THINGS I LEARNED DURING LAST NIGHT'S SHOOT:

immolate \IM-uh-layt\, transitive verb:
1. To sacrifice; to offer in sacrifice; to kill as a sacrificial victim.
2. To kill or destroy, often by fire.

the on camera boom is not automatically out of the shot.

Relish is cool.

Wine is fine but Jägermeister's quicker.

There are faeries.

there seems to be no possible way for us to shoot less than 3 tapes (3 hours) no matter how short the scene.

my dogs don't know that when daddy goes to bed at 3:30 in the morning their usual 7:30 wake-up mauling is not quite the same wonderful gift.

Life is good

Kristine Cofsky is BROOKLYN in WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD.









When Life Was Good shoots tonight at Relish (thanks Kristine!)

Things are moving right along. Dan and Rob (both Robs), Tijana, Kristen, Adam, Shauna, and Michelle (tonight) have contributed some really great stuff.

The website is new and improved and now features TWO distinct project sections, THE WEB SERIES and THE FEATURE FILM. This will be updated and improved constantly.


WhenLifeWasGood


Spread the word. Life is Good.

When Life Was Good

Here we go peeps.

WLWG is online and on the case.

http://www.whenlifewasgood.com

Here's the site. Will be back with the first podcast detailing our launch plans. This is gonna matter.

Stay tuned...

T

http://www.ashleypark.net