The Power to Bibble or Recording the DVD Director's Audio Commentary

Ben Bernstein, sound engineer, at the sound board and Paul Mariano, co-director of These Amazing Shadows at the mic.

Our executive producer, Suzanne Chapot, introduced me to the word, "bibble." The Urban Dictionary defines bibble in many ways, but Suzanne uses it to describe a conversation or person who talks/continues on and on without any purpose or direction. Bibble is in most cases a pejorative. However, when you are two directors recording a DVD Director's Audio Commentary - the power to bibble becomes a positive. Last Wednesday Paul and I ventured over to see Ben Bernstein at Spliggityfidge Studios in Emeryville, CA to record the audio commentary for These Amazing Shadows. Essentially, we watched the documentary and in real time told interesting/funny stories about the production or shared insights into our story. We quickly concluded that there were many moments that we had nothing interesting to say. Our inclination to bibble and fill up dead air with whatever came into our minds revealed itself to be something we should not subject our DVD audience to. We decided to take a non-traditional approach to doing an audio commentary by not using the entire 88-minute show. We will edit down to only those segments that we reasonably believe we have something interesting/funny/revealing to say. Which means it will be a 2-minute audio commentary. Just kidding - we expect to cut it down to 30-minutes or so. We will be adding "Easter eggs" to our commentary video by including shots and photos never before seen.

Looks like Paul is softly singing one of his trademark soulful love songs.

For those of you that are not familiar with what a director's audio commentary is - here is a Wikipedia definition: an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.

Ben Bernstein sets up the microphones.

The audio commentary will be part of the These Amazing Shadows DVD bonus features. Our DVD will be available sometime in November 2011 and will make a great holiday gift (let the merchandising begin!!).

"I Heart New York "and Other Idiomatic Expressions

Thom Powers, Kurt Norton and Paul Mariano at the "These Amazing Shadows" post screening Q&A - IFC Center Theater, New York. (photo by Justin Paine)

Paul and I have spent a lot of time together over the past two years working on These Amazing Shadows. I mean a lot of time. It is to the point that when we go to a special event or important appointment we will often wear almost the same clothes. It's kinda freaky and disturbing. Paul has taken to wearing one of our popular "I Heart Movies" buttons (see below) in order to make sure people can tell us apart.

TAS is not on the marquee but shared the theater with all those great films at the IFC Center Theater, NY.

On April 21st we screened TAS at the IFC Center Theater in New York. Our appreciation goes out to Thom Powers, the director of the Stranger than Fiction documentary series that sponsored our screening. He was a great host and is so knowledgeable about documentaries. Thanks, Thom.

You can tell Paul and Kurt apart by the "I Heart Movies" button Paul wears daily.

The IFC Center Theater, New York screening of These Amazing Shadows was really fun. We expected the typical crowd and experience but got something much different. What we got was quality over quantity. Our audience was not as big as we would have liked but it was a very sophisticated NY industry crowd. Every audience is a bit different but we are used to getting the predictable laughs, oooos and ahhhhs at certain points in our show. This audience was not like any other. No big laughs. No real emotional ooooos and ahhhs. I was rather crushed. But, after the screening we found an audience full of life, opinions, intensity like no other. We simple Californians were not prepared for the full New York experience. Thanks so much to Barbara Kopple, Dan Strible, Bob Hawk, Nina Paley, John Magery, Myna Joseph, Jill Bauer, Peter Golub's mother, Brian and (the lovely) Hanna Oakes, and many others.

Paul mugs with Kurt's niece, Tessa Rexroat at the IFC Center Theater in New York. (photo by Justin Paine)

Kurt tries to convince his niece, Tessa, to take his place at the TAS post screening Q&A. (photo by Justin Paine)

Our "I Heart Movies" buttons are very popular. We thought about all kinds of giveaways, but due to our limited budget landed on buttons. Here are some of our buttons designed by our graphics guru Brian Oakes. Ignore the square...think round.

Stranger than Fiction documentary series facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6016344979

IFC Center Theater

Thom Powers

My White Whale - "Frank Film"

Frank Film, Frank MOURIS, 1973 by shortanimatedworld

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.