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Fantastic Fest Bumpers

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-08-17T13:26:24-07:00

Shot some Fantastic Fest bumpers and could use some votes for them! ...All films had to have a child, a monster and end with the word “Fantastic” ...A Werewolf in My Bedroom ...I could really use the votes, I’m up against some steep competition...

Notes from LAFF Film Financing Conference

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-07-06T08:02:47-07:00

I will give a little bit of background for the keynote though - last year Mark Gill's keynote address entitled, "Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling" made waves as it was spread like wildfire through the internet and around independent production company offices across the world. ...If you look back at Gill's speech, he delivers the negative message and then tries to spin it and show the upside towards the end (sadly after many had stopped listening or reading) - the panels and presentations were structured in a very similar way - we know the independent film world is in an awful place and it's not going to get better for a long, long time BUT we can try to look at the positive aspects of it. ...This wasn't a great panel, but it beat going to see state incentive people explaining that Montana is a good place to shoot because "You can go fishing between takes on some of the world's finest trout streams" - which is actually in Montana's handout they gave us) ...If you've done even the most cursory amount of research in a pitch session you're better than 90% (I think this was more from my frustration listening to the pitches instead of anything that was actually said...)

Claudio Fragasso Challenge Pt. 2: White Apache

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-05-04T05:12:31-07:00

Looking at a bit of Italian film history (Bertolucci was AD to Pasolini, Leone AD'd for De Sica) the title seems to be more of what's referred to in the states as a Second Unit Director - the guy who shoots establishing shots, time-lapse sequences, anything that either needs to be done concurrently or that the primary director doesn't want to bother with. ...If the film was made under more masterful hands, it'd be upheld as a great avant-garde moment in Italian westerns, both in putting the narration in the hands of the Indians whom speaking directly to the audience, and having the Indians call English "our" language... but under Mattei/Fragasso it can only be described as sloppy, it’s a mistake that nobody cared enough to correct. ... If the writers (who weren’t Mattei and Fragasso, but typical Italian film industry workers at the time – they have dozens of credits in a slew of positions) were more clever or playful with the character and this dynamic, it could have been a really interesting experiment in storytelling, instead, it's just simply bad storytelling. ...No, this is Mattei's film through and through, but Fragasso was training under Mattei during this time, so while Fragasso may not be responsible for the whole going into town sequence, it definitely seems like, at the very least, a large part of it rubbed off on him.

The Claudio Fragasso Challenge: Monster Dog

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-04-09T03:19:26-07:00

Mattei's work mostly covers zombie films, Black Emanuelle films (the unauthorized Emmanuelle films starring Laura Gemser, the beauty who would end up doing costume design for Troll 2), and even ended up doing a rip-off film called Terminator 2 (which, of course, had nothing to do with the series we all know and love). ... Now, let's be fair about this video - immediately following it Cooper's character of Vincent Raven (Not a bad rock name for any aspiring rockers out there) comments on the video, saying that it's awful and the reason for their road trip (hence the long drawn out shots of the van) is to make a new video (which they end up shooting, but to a completely different song). ...Sure, he's not a great director by any means - the performances are terrible, technically it's not that well made (The dubbing is bad for even an Italian film of the era), but he's not the complete psycho that we were all hoping for.

From Hired to Fired in two-and-a-half hours.

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-02-01T10:42:29-08:00

I was to knock around for a couple of hours, then go to a hotel in Beverly Hills, pick up a car and drive it 5 miles downtown and then hang out for the rest of the day. ...I went down to the hotel and found a neighborhood that I could park in for free (I wasn't sure if they'd reimburse me for parking, so might as well play it safe) and got to the hotel. ...I even told the person on the phone that I can't and they assured me it was a stick (turns out every other car involved was an automatic, I just got the luck of the draw). ...While Twitter is useful for a lot of things, I haven't seen it being tapped for storytelling besides the fictional MadMen accounts (which was fun until they became too self-indulgent and involved the outside world too much).

Day 31 - A Milestone

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-30T04:24:58-08:00

I've got a script for a short that I'm pretty much in pre on, I've got another one that I'm going to bang out and shoot really fast, working my angles, trying to get ahead. ... ... ...

Submission Fees

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-28T12:04:13-08:00

I would write on it, but, the topic is much better covered in Chris Holland’s book Film Festival Secrets, which you can get for free on the site. ...If you believe in your film, you will put up the money to say its good and to say, “I’ve gone this far - no way I’m turning back now!” If you make a lousy film (Which happens to the best of us), you don’t spend the money, but if your film is worth something, show it. ... If you send Sundance a cheque for $45 then you have every right to dream about your film becoming the next big sensation, selling it to Fox/Searchlight, then nailing whoever is the it girl at moment.

Kim Fowley sums up my career

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-26T17:14:43-08:00

When I first got to California...28 days ago... the first stop my traveling companion and I made was to Rock’n’Roll Legend Kim Fowley’s secret hideout. There, he offered to sum up my career and... more. ... ...

Fights are sometimes lame.

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-25T23:54:04-08:00

Slashfilm posted a video of the culmination of the feud - a somewhat drunken bitchfest between the two (I'll save you some time and tell you not to click it, but if you're bored [which shouldn't be an excuse] scroll down all the way). ...In the fight involving Dowd and Anderson, the dispute was centered around a film at the festival and it brings up all sorts of interesting debates like the place of criticism at a festival and the power that it can hold and whether it's too much, etc. ...So, there you go - a post on the internet complaining about people posting on the internet, and, a lot of words and focus on something that I say should be ignored. ...Follow Up: The video in question was deleted as I was putting this up, which does add a nice dimension to all of this - when something like this does catch on, when it does pick up steam, and it becomes a distraction, the site can easily remove the video.

Fights are exciting.

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-22T06:16:08-08:00

Just look at all the elements: you have the man who is the basis for one of the more beloved characters in recent film history, you have a film critic - which brings in people's feelings of criticism and judgement, you have somebody standing up for himself, and you have random elements attached (Jackie the Joke Man). ... ...First of all, I don't believe that it's necessarily independent film's responsibility to be edgy, second, on the screen in the past few years you've had movies ranging from Joe Swanberg's Kissing on the Mouth, to Todd Solondz's Palindromes - two films that pushed boundaries that mainstream film wouldn't. ...Those who are pushing boundaries in interviews are the same people from a decade ago - Korine is still telling his outlandish stories to where you're not sure what you're going to get, Larry Clark is still hanging out with some very young kids, Crispin Glover is still nuts, etc.

To all the people...

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-21T05:12:55-08:00

To all the people who said that LA would chew me up and spit me out... I now sleep in a bed, mother fuckers.

Reboot

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-08T21:12:44-08:00

Things seem to be happening all around me here - I just need a find my way into the thick of it. ... They’re never going to be ideal for anybody looking to strike out and make their way in this world until somebody that person makes things ideal for themselves. ...It’s not just going to be me justifying whatever I did that day as progress in my career. It’ll be about whatever is on my mind... which, yes, mostly is justifying whatever I did that day as progress in my career, but I’m going to open things up again.

A Sign of the Times

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-18T03:19:59-08:00

If you turn on the TV or open a newspaper you're inundated with tales of woe and gloom and doom regarding everything economic. ..."Oh, you know, I'd really like to make this movie, but y'know, with the economy and all..." "I'd really like to write this movie, but with things the way they are, you know, I doubt I can get it sold." ...

Weird happenings in the 'hood

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-15T23:52:26-08:00

I'm not a religious guy, so I don't really go, and their church bells aren't waking me up on Sunday or anything, so, it's just pretty much like any other building. ... Their parade route only went around the block, so it didn't seem like it was that big of a thing. ...

The Name on the Marquee.

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-13T03:31:41-08:00

Naturally, as anybody in film does, his inclination was to imagine the biggest, brightest, best-case scenario he could and then work his way down the ladder, working his way to more reasonable and more achievable goals (but, of course, still tossing the money towards the largest festivals - which, if you ask me, the submission fees to those are worth it just to dream about getting in). ...While it's far from the only reason that Sundance is a part of America's film-related consciousness, the annual mentions in US Weekly do help a lot to establish a sense of importance for the festival in the minds of the people - even people who would never ever be interested in going. ...The marquee position is reserved for a movie that's friendly to the festival's audience from a distro that will put up a decent amount of money (Of course, the mental image of George Lucas burning off a DVD of Episode 3, eagerly filling out the submission forms and writing the check, sending it all off and praying to get in is amusing). Now, while that may upset some that there are positions up for sale (at some, not all festivals), it's important to remember that the slots are very limited (mostly to prevent that amount of anger, and to focus on the other films) and it's pretty much always been this way (which, admittedly, in and of itself is not a justification, but a reminder that the pristine image of a completely free-of-outside-influence festival is an image of a festival that pretty much never existed).

The Golden Globe that almost wasn't: Slumdog Millionaire

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-11T23:48:30-08:00

I'm not one for the award shows really, but, every once in a while do I get behind a film and really root for it. Like everyone else on the planet, one of my favorite films of the year is Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire - which took home the Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director Golden Globes I first got exposed to the film by working a press day with Danny himself at Austin Film Festival. ...That films that went on to make a gajillion dollars at the box office and DVD and racked up the awards by the bushel almost didn't make it to American audiences. ...While it doesn't mean that these arguments are dead - it does mean that a surprising segment of the moviegoing audience will shed their inhibitions every once in a while for a film that really reaches out and touches people.

Viral Videos: From the other side.

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-09T17:41:49-08:00

Don't get me wrong, it's really funny to see somebody make a complete idiot out of themselves or a crazy commercial from Japan, but since the advent of YouTube and the whole coining of the term, we're in a complete sea of these sorts of videos. ...The irony of the situation is that the video that we always felt had the most potential to go viral, to spread, to be a joy in people's lives - Beastmaster, Jr - has never caught on. Powder 2: Powder 2 The People had a limited scope and took off to a limited degree - people got it or they didn't, I Love You, Jean Claude (which, funnily enough, is a title that none of the websites featuring it has used) has the sort of pop-culture baiting that people love, so I can see it's spreading around. ...If I was trying to sell a product, I could understand a "No Free Advertising" policy, but I'm just trying to get people to watch a kid shoot fireballs that set a man's jacket on fire.

First Disappointment

nickrob@gmail.com — 2009-01-09T16:03:23-08:00

Well, it's been almost 24 hours since an earthquake hit the area, but I still haven't felt a damn thing. ... I had to learn about the thing via text message. Oh well, I’m sure another will come along soon enough.