Thursday, July 13, 2006
'Bout time!
All right, OK. Unlike most bloggers I won’t apologize for making my entries monthly instead of daily. I’d like to say that I’ve been bust but, in reality I’ve been apathetic.
Not toward you, my gentle reader (all two of you), but to everything in general. I think I was “in country” too long. I spent the first two weeks wandering the streets of my home town looking for familiar landmarks and people. The nice thing is that I didn’t need to really tell anyone where I was. Either they read the blog, knew someone who read the blog or didn’t give a crap. But I'm much better now!
Now I find myself engaged in the Film Festival again. Why? You ask. I don’t know. I guess I like doing stuff. I like movies but have no great love of going to the movies. There isn’t a lot to that, that’s just the way things have worked out over the past so many years.
My function this year is to supervise all of the little trailers that we show before the films. In case you don’t know, the trailers (inspite of their name) are short films that run before the movies. Last year I thought it would be make something that would promote the festival and get some laughs. It was a cross between a cartoon short and an advertisement. We stood some funny people up in front of a camera and had them say some wacky stuff about Traverse City and the movie viewing experience in general. It was a success! Most people thought they were a nice surprise and we got some laughs.
So this year, by popular demand, I’m asked to do it again. I can’t refuse. I have two major concerns: 1) I have no time. And 2) There has to be three times more this year because we have three times as many movies.
*Thinks* What the heck can we make them about? What’s the theme? I can’t do the same thing we did last year because I never look back, baby! And I ain’t going to do the whole thing myself!
Maybe we could parody the films we showed last year. This is easy. Parody, for me is like falling off a bike in a barrel.
So, I type up one script involving Timothy Treadwell and a guy in a bear suit. (Grizzly man) funny! I found a group of exuberant young filmmakers and emailed the script to them. Less than two weeks later they sent back six very funny trailers (Grizzly boy).
Two of the actors from last year stepped up with about fifteen ideas. The ideas flowed from them like flowing stuff flows out of a flow stuff holder with a rather large hole in it. The big challenge there was consolidating their ideas and getting a crew together. We rounded up some bodies, some cameras and sound equipment and started shooting. I encouraged them to focus on one idea and make a series out of it like we did with the Grizzly Boy thing. One has been produced so far and it’s pretty funny. The rest are going to be shot in various locations tomorrow. Should be good. Here's a shot from the dentist shoot:
Another person approached me with some ideas he had. Now this guy is a real commercial director and his approach to filmmaking is a little more intense that the kids in the field with the bear suit. He shoots today in a couple hours.
I also wanted to take a jab at the way we ran the festival last year. Last year, we pulled it off. We had some stumbling points but, nothing really tragic or life altering. It was a surprisingly polished event. I don’t think any of us thought we would be such a success. So as a thank you for that, I wrote a bit that has J warning the patrons that things might be as polished as they look. It has a sort of psychotic “TCM host” feel to it, and it’s very strange. I know that the people who were involved in the fest last year will think it’s funny. And our out-of-town guests will get a kick out of it, because we are letting everyone know that this isn’t park City and this will never be Sundance. This one turned out so good that I feel there’s a good chance it won’t show at the fest. I’ve heard that the volunteers might be touchy about the way things are going this year. And this, like most of the stuff I do, is a big poke at a sore spot.
But, it’s funny!
This is a big point with me. Very early on last year, as we were laying out the manifesto for this film fest we all decided that the decision to show or not show anything should be based on our own personal opinion, and not the probable views of other people. If we like it, it’s in! Don’t try to guess what might offend people. You can’t worry about offending someone you don’t know. Fuck them! Personally, I feel that if you don’t offend at least 12% of your audience your joke probably wasn’t funny.
OK so there are a couple other things J and I are putting together, one is a pretty specific jab at Traverse City (Which will probably be vetoed) another is a salute to Stanley Kubrick. There's also a special thank you to the volunteers, featuring a visit by Traver's own Princess Laura.
Anyway, whatever happens, whatever shows, whatever gets pulled, I’m going to try to be big about it. I know these things are funny and if they get pulled, I’ll just put them up on the web for posterity and move on.
Q: Will I do this next year?
A: Will there BE a next year?
Q: Don't answer a question with a question!
A: Why not?
Q: Bugger!
Not toward you, my gentle reader (all two of you), but to everything in general. I think I was “in country” too long. I spent the first two weeks wandering the streets of my home town looking for familiar landmarks and people. The nice thing is that I didn’t need to really tell anyone where I was. Either they read the blog, knew someone who read the blog or didn’t give a crap. But I'm much better now!Now I find myself engaged in the Film Festival again. Why? You ask. I don’t know. I guess I like doing stuff. I like movies but have no great love of going to the movies. There isn’t a lot to that, that’s just the way things have worked out over the past so many years.
My function this year is to supervise all of the little trailers that we show before the films. In case you don’t know, the trailers (inspite of their name) are short films that run before the movies. Last year I thought it would be make something that would promote the festival and get some laughs. It was a cross between a cartoon short and an advertisement. We stood some funny people up in front of a camera and had them say some wacky stuff about Traverse City and the movie viewing experience in general. It was a success! Most people thought they were a nice surprise and we got some laughs.
So this year, by popular demand, I’m asked to do it again. I can’t refuse. I have two major concerns: 1) I have no time. And 2) There has to be three times more this year because we have three times as many movies.
*Thinks* What the heck can we make them about? What’s the theme? I can’t do the same thing we did last year because I never look back, baby! And I ain’t going to do the whole thing myself!
Maybe we could parody the films we showed last year. This is easy. Parody, for me is like falling off a bike in a barrel.
So, I type up one script involving Timothy Treadwell and a guy in a bear suit. (Grizzly man) funny! I found a group of exuberant young filmmakers and emailed the script to them. Less than two weeks later they sent back six very funny trailers (Grizzly boy).
Two of the actors from last year stepped up with about fifteen ideas. The ideas flowed from them like flowing stuff flows out of a flow stuff holder with a rather large hole in it. The big challenge there was consolidating their ideas and getting a crew together. We rounded up some bodies, some cameras and sound equipment and started shooting. I encouraged them to focus on one idea and make a series out of it like we did with the Grizzly Boy thing. One has been produced so far and it’s pretty funny. The rest are going to be shot in various locations tomorrow. Should be good. Here's a shot from the dentist shoot:
Another person approached me with some ideas he had. Now this guy is a real commercial director and his approach to filmmaking is a little more intense that the kids in the field with the bear suit. He shoots today in a couple hours.
I also wanted to take a jab at the way we ran the festival last year. Last year, we pulled it off. We had some stumbling points but, nothing really tragic or life altering. It was a surprisingly polished event. I don’t think any of us thought we would be such a success. So as a thank you for that, I wrote a bit that has J warning the patrons that things might be as polished as they look. It has a sort of psychotic “TCM host” feel to it, and it’s very strange. I know that the people who were involved in the fest last year will think it’s funny. And our out-of-town guests will get a kick out of it, because we are letting everyone know that this isn’t park City and this will never be Sundance. This one turned out so good that I feel there’s a good chance it won’t show at the fest. I’ve heard that the volunteers might be touchy about the way things are going this year. And this, like most of the stuff I do, is a big poke at a sore spot.
But, it’s funny!
This is a big point with me. Very early on last year, as we were laying out the manifesto for this film fest we all decided that the decision to show or not show anything should be based on our own personal opinion, and not the probable views of other people. If we like it, it’s in! Don’t try to guess what might offend people. You can’t worry about offending someone you don’t know. Fuck them! Personally, I feel that if you don’t offend at least 12% of your audience your joke probably wasn’t funny.
OK so there are a couple other things J and I are putting together, one is a pretty specific jab at Traverse City (Which will probably be vetoed) another is a salute to Stanley Kubrick. There's also a special thank you to the volunteers, featuring a visit by Traver's own Princess Laura.
Anyway, whatever happens, whatever shows, whatever gets pulled, I’m going to try to be big about it. I know these things are funny and if they get pulled, I’ll just put them up on the web for posterity and move on.
Q: Will I do this next year?
A: Will there BE a next year?
Q: Don't answer a question with a question!
A: Why not?
Q: Bugger!
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