Wayne Wang: His new movie, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, has just been picked up for domestic distribution by Fox Searchlight for probable fall release. We're so excited because it looks like a beautiful film. His Hollywood studio films like Maid in Manhattan and The Holiday are nice, but we really love his work when he tells stories that are close to his heart. Check out the trailer above. Our sources tell us that Wayne is prepping for his biopix on Albert Einstein. Hummmm...who to cast as Einstein? Young Albert: Giovanni Ribisi. Old Albert: Richard Dreyfuss. Oh, don't like that...suggestions???
Tracey Heggins (Jo') and Wyatt Cenac (Micah) in Medicine for Melancholy.
Barry Jenkins: He joined us for a post screening Q&A at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco. He is one of those rare filmmakers that is as good at promoting a film as making one. His feature film directorial debut, Medicine for Melancholy, is now running on Showtime. I am watching it as I write this fascinating blog post - so enjoyable.
Showtime schedule for Medicine for Melancholy: http://www.sho.com/site/movies/movie.do?seriesid=0&seasonid=0&episodeid=136098
Christopher Nolan (center) shooting on the streets of Pittsburgh.
Christopher Nolan: Christopher is working on Dark Knight Rises, his last installment of the Batman franchise. We wish we had some inside info but........we don't. We do however offer a twitter pic (above) of Christopher (center) and crew shooting in Pittsburgh. Notice the snow blower in the lower right corner - it is reported that the photo depicts him reading the owners manual trying to figure out how to get the snow blower to work. We believe that story is true because it seems consistent with how he was during our interview. You see we were having problems with a coffee maker and...(just kidding).
Sheet of the new Gregory Peck US Postal Service first class stamp.
Remember the US Postal Service? Well, it still exists and sometimes can be pretty cool. On May 13th they issued a Gregory Peck stamp. One of the stamps release events (there were others including in LA at the Academy of Arts and Sciences) took place at the Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. Peck's grandson, 19-year-old Zackary Peck, was on hand as well as family friend Barbara Kopple. Scenes from Kopple's Documentary A Conversation with Gregory Peck was shown while Peck's Oscar performance as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" was re-enacted by S.I. Shakespearean Theatre Co. actor Joseph Daly. The stamp bears Peck's likeness from the movie because as StephenPeck says in These Amazing Shadows - Atticus Finch "was closest to his true character, certainly the character he would want to be."
Sidney Lumet on location in his beloved New York City.
Sidney Lumet, director, screenwriter and producer died on Saturday, April 9th.
We had a conversation recently about who we should invite to be a guest speaker at the April 21st screening of TheseAmazingShadows at the IFC Center Theater, New York. Thom Powers, who will be hosting the screening, suggested it would be great to have a noted New York filmmaker. The first name that came up was Sidney Lumet. Many of his films have the gritty realism that represents to the world the true nature of New York City.
Mr. Lumet has five films on the National Film Registry: Dog Day Afternoon (1975), selected to the Registry in 2009. 12 Angry Men (1957), selected to the Registry in 2007. King: A Filmed Record (1970), selected to the Registry in 1999. Network (1976), selected to the Registry in 2000. The Pawnbroker (1965), selected to the Registry in 2008.
His humanity, love of actors and willingness to unflinchingly examine human emotions will be missed.
All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.
- Sidney Lumet
On Tuesday I read an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Two Animated Dog Sitters," by Ralph Gardner, Jr. that is about two dog sitters, Frank and Caroline Mouris. The reason this article caught my eye is because many years ago Frank Mouris was my White Whale. To explain we must rewind my little life back to when I was a teenager and made my first film, Floods: A National Disgrace, a mocumentary about pants that "flood" (sometimes called "highwaters" it is defined as pants that fall around the ankle. This refers to the fact that you can wear them when there is a flood, or "high waters." At that time pants that were too short were not fashionable.)
Floods was a eight minute Super 8 mm film with a magnetic stripe for sync sound - made a long time before the miracle of the Interwebs and digital filmmaking. I entered the film in the Brooklyn Film Festival. From my vantage point in California that festival sounded very exotic. The film was appreciated for its humor and was selected to be part of a group of films from the festival that toured the country screening in libraries, schools and community theaters. The film that won the festival Grand Prize was an experimental piece called, Frank Film, directed by Frank Mouris.
Click to enlarge - program from the Brooklyn Film Festival
In those pre-Internet days it was hard to see short films. I had no idea what Frank Film was about or looked like. All I knew was that it kept winning festivals and eventually that years Oscar for best short film. My film was always coming up short because everyone loved the alleged super fantastic Frank Film. To be honest my film was no where as good as Frank Mouris' film but in my crazy teenage mind I thought, "what's Frank Film got that my film don't got!" It bugged me for a long time. Fast forward years later to 2009 and we are in pre-production on These Amazing Shadows. Co-director Paul Mariano and I are reviewing the list of 550 films on the National Film Registry and I come across a very familiar title - Frank Film! Once again Frank Film is one step ahead of me! (It was selected to the Registry in 1996.) I quickly did a web search, found a link to the film and watched it for the first time. I liked it.
Frank Film did not make it into These Amazing Shadows. I want to make it clear that my youthful bitterness and jealousy had nothing to do with that decision.
With Frank Film's selection to the NFR it was designated for preservation. Fate has not been as kind to Floods: A National Disgrace. I stored the film badly and it can no longer be projected. Its now only exists in my own distorted memory - perhaps that is fitting.
The mini marquee for theater number five at the Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City.
Another day...whew! They all have blended into each other. We shall begin with last night...Friday night in Salt Lake City. Most films at Sundance have a Salt Lake City screening. It requires leaving the protection of the Sundance bubble with it's festival friendly audiences and driving 45 minutes to the real world. It is conventional wisdom that the audience you get in SLC is a "real" audience and will give you a much better idea of what the public really thinks of your film. As you can see from the above photo of the mini marquee above the entrance to theater 5 we had a lot to live up to. It turns out the full house thought our doc was "Amazing." Once again, whew! Even though it was a late showing and the theater was rather warm - most of the audience stayed for the Q&A. Great questions and many pigeonholed us after for private questions. Really passionate people who love film. Great audience. Thank you SLC!
Composer Peter Golub talking with score mixer Mike Roskelley and his wife Kelly.
We were lucky to be joined last night by our composer Peter Golub and score mixer Mike Roskelley who was with his wife, Kelly. Mike and Kelly live in Salt Lake City. Kelly is a psychiatrist who practices at the local VA hospital. They are such a nice people. Several members of the team that Peter assembled to create his score are from SLC. Prior to the screening we had dinner with Peter who is a wonderful dinner companion because he can speak on such a wide range of subjects. He is one of those rare people who has strong opinions but is not preachy or over bearing. He is just very smart and personable - an unusual combination and a great person to hang with.
Co-editor Alex Calleros does some business on the web at the Sundance House HP computer center.
Our co-editor, Alex Calleros, has seen 124 films over the past ten days. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but he has seen a ton of films and reports to us daily on his favorites (The Details, Circumstance among others). He is the master at getting around town on the confusing free shuttle system. Not only is Alex out in force supporting These Amazing Shadows, attending parties, seeing films - he and two friends have launched a site called Finite Films (see link below). They propose to produce one short film every month over the next year following "constraints" that are submitted by the public to their site. They have a very clever pitch video that you must see that will explain the idea of "constraints." And, yes, they are asking for money and their pitch is really seductive. But, more importantly they are asking for your participation. You can actually collaborate with them. Simply said...these guys are talented so don't miss this opportunity.
Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Mariano discuss These Amazing Shadows distribution strategies.
We all piled out of the IFC/K-Swiss party at Jean Louis Restaurant and everyone (except me!) was handed a K-Swiss logo striped winter cap. After donning the caps Paul and Frazer transformed before our eyes into rowdy ruffians bent on besmirching the well crafted TAS public image (which was already damaged by my poor showing in the IFC/K-Swiss ping pong tournament...sorry everyone). After they realized that nobody was scared, intimidated or disturbed (well, maybe disturbed) by their gangster behavior we all retreated to our various cushy condos for some hot coco. What does it take to get the Park City police to take notice that some scary dudes are wearing stripy cozy winter caps.
Frazer Bradshaw, director of photography and co-director Paul Mariano.
George Willeman displays how a fashionable man wears a stripy cozy winter cap.
St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) plays at the ASCAP Music Cafe in Park City.
Kind of crazy day - so I think it proper not to describe it in chronological order. Though I will start with weather - it was perfect. In the afternoon Doug Blush (co-editor) and I caught St. Vincent at the Music Cafe on Main Street in Park City. My word, she was great. At times she was a soft voiced pixie, then she was down on the floor ripping it up on her guitar like she was in the NYC punk scene in the 1980s. She appears to have these crazy long fingers that allows her to have a very unique guitar style. Please, please catch her as she tours around.
Paul Mariano and Doug Blush make their way to the
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.
Our first stop of the day was a special high school screening of These Amazing Shadows at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City. There were about 450 kids from various high schools. Rather daunting audience. We were a bit skeptical they would get into TAS because so many of the films we focus on were created and released before they were born. How wrong we were. They were the most incredible audience. They clapped through the entire closing credits. During the show they would break out into applause when they saw a movie clip the liked, they asked great questions at the Q&A and one girl told us that our doc has changed her life because now she knows she wants to make movies as her life work. Crazy heavy stuff.
Director Jennifer Phang at the HP Print Center in Park City.
Park City is such a small town and that means you run into people you know all the time. I stopped by the HP Print Center late in the day to pick-up some beautifully printed TAS posters. I was organizing the materials when I heard someone call my name and to my delight it was Jennifer Phang. She is a director who had her first feature screen at Sundance two years ago and she also appears in our doc. She told me about her next feature and how she is trying to figure out if it makes sense to shoot in Norway. Her story needs startling beautiful locations. She may, for budget considerations, opt to shoot in Canada.
What to say about the above photo? Stopped by the New Frontier art/media installations. Lots of great stuff but I must go right to the most unusual and cool multi-media installation. The actor James Franco has done something that on the surface sounds quite strange but is wonderfully funny and wonderfully bizarre. Can I describe it and do it justice...probably not but here goes...you go into a room that has a old couch, a rug and some plastic plants. Projected on one wall is the first episode of the 1970s comedy Three's Company. James, with help from somebody, voices all the roles and even sings the opening credits theme song. He reads the script as written but in a deadpan voice - then sometimes in an emotionally exaggerated way that is out of place for the scene. He also throws in lines like, "Meanwhile, back at the Regal Beagle." The above shot shows the moment that Mrs. Roper (wife of the landlord who thinks Jack is gay - making it okay for him to share an apartment with Janet and Chrissy) figures out that Jack is not really gay because he gawks at the barmaids breasts. Hilarity ensues. The whole thing makes no sense but is quite fantastic.
We have only been here for 24 hours and I am already for a long, long, long nap. It's been really fun so far and the weather is spectacular. We are less than 24 hours till our first screening, but we haven't had a moment to really think about it. A lot of meetings and talking and walking and more talking...then more meetings. A few celebrity sightings (Terrance Howard, Melissa Leo) and encounters (Morgan Spurlock, Michael Rapaport). Everyone is very nice. We are going to hit a few parties tonight if we can stay awake. In the morning Paul and I will head out to the Sundance Institute to have brunch with Robert Redford. (Sorry, you're going to have to put up with a lot of name dropping.)
The Brian Oakes designed one-sheet for These Amazing Shadows.
Hype, hype, hype. Did you know that movies have what is called a "poster release?" The idea is to find reasons to keep your project in the news - so publicists send out a big press release announcing, "Hey, look at our poster!" Violating this time honored tradition we present to all you Sundance Blog readers a sneak peek. Yes, that's right - before the official Poster Release! Hope you feel very special. But, seriously, we are very proud of this Brian Oakes designed poster. Brian is one of the top graphic designers in the country. His work on the documentary, I.O.U.S.A., has been hailed/studied by designers across the country as an example of brilliant design that conveys dense information in an entertaining and digestible fashion. In addition to the poster design, Brian did all the graphics for our documentary. He is known on our team as the "Zen Master" for his calm approach to problem solving. Appropriately, he is the only member of the team that is not on the West Coast. I say that because to remain Zen one must separate themself from the chaos and noise of the world - or at least from the rest of your production team. The main way we communicate with Brian is via video chat. It is so much fun to watch Brian's face change as he goes inward to that private creative space inside his head to puzzle out a problem. Then he resurfaces with a grin and the simple phrase, "How about this..."
Time for another quiz. Can you identify the movies used in our poster? Click on the poster to increase its size. Please send your list of the 11 movies by 5:00 pm Wednesday, January 19th to knorton@gravitasdocufilms.com
The first five correct entries will win a poster! Now we realize that this is a low resolution version and it may not be possible to identify the image at the center of the poster, therefore we will consider identifying 9 out of the 11 images as a correct entry. Good luck!
Del Reisman, a wonderful person, former President of the Writer's Guild of America/West and one of our interview subjects died last Saturday. Del was a very gentle man who lived the kind of life of which movies are made. He grew up in Hollywood, was a bombardier in World War II (saw a lot of action over Europe), and a writer and story editor in the formative stages of television including working with Rod Serling on TheTwilight Zone. His writing credits include episodes for Magnum, p.i., Six Million Dollar Man, Little House on the Prairie, Charles Angels, Kung Fu and many others. He was a thoughtful person who helped a great many people through his work with the Writer's Guild and the American Film Institute. He was a long time member of the Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board.
Del was gracious enough to consent to an interview for our documentary. He arrived early, very prepared and was generous with his time. Though we were of different eras we found a connection through discovering we were both graduates of the University of California at Berkeley. Paul and I liked him very and will miss him.
We're really pleased to announce that our documentary was picked up by IFC under their new banner, "Sundance Selects." They picked out five feature films from the 2011 Sundance line-up to kick-off this new brand (ours is the only documentary!). IFC will make These Amazing Shadows available via VOD beginning January 22 (the date of our World Premiere) for 30 days. It will be available in approximately 40 million homes on most major cable systems including Bright House, Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, and Time Warner Cable. After the 30 day VOD run our doc will be pulled to allow us a festival and theatrical window. After this "window" is over there will be a television broadcast, VOD and DVD release.
We've worked on this project for two years and often wondered if anyone would care about the story we were trying to tell. So, as you can imagine this IFC sale is kind of encouraging.
It's been quite the adventure to get all our paper work ducks in a row to satisfy the IFC delivery requirements. It is a totally accelerated process. Issues that normally take 60 days to complete are being done in 10. Paul and I tend to be a little cavalier about business type things so thank goodness our producer, Christine O'Malley, and the rest of the production team (much love to Alex Calleros, Larry Ellis, Matt Radecki, Scott Johnson) are serious minded-detailed oriented-deadline prone people.
Maybe the coolest thing to come out of the IFC deal is that they are about to complete a trailer for our show. It a total gas to see the take a trailer editor from NYC has on our story. The trailer will be available next week so keep tuned to this blog.
We live in a world of specialization. In the movie business if you want a trailer, you don't just go out and get any old editor - you get a trailer editor. There are entire businesses dedicated to this specialized art. Take a look at the house that is cutting our trailer: http://kinetictrailers.com/
